I also switched my training tempo, and greatly slowed down my reps (something like 203 or 304) to increase the time under tension. I lowered the poundage too, but I added some pyramidal schemes in order to still lift heavy for a few sets. So far so good, DOMS hurts ouch! ouch! And hopefully it’s enough shock therapy to accelerate my progress. We’ll see.

As for the diet: eat clean, eat regularly. I increased red meat a little, while still going for lean cuts and meats. Horse meat is less tasty than beef, but a lot less fatty too.

Keep your chin up and your nose clean. Cheers,

T

As for the training, I’ve been limiting myself to calisthenics (pullups, chinups, tricep dips, and various pushup styles), abs and smooth cardio (4×60s intervals of skip ropping, smooth rollerblading, smooth elliptical). I can’t wait to go back to the gym and lift some heavy stuff. Yet, I found calisthenics a lot more challenging than I initially expected, but I’ve made great endurance improvements that I’ll put to use with barbells.

Later,

T

After 24 hours of my last carbed meal, I’m not yet in ketosis. It’s probably normal, I figure that out over a few weeks I suppose. I’ll check back tomorrow morning. Energy is great, and my cardio+calisthenics workout went well. I’m gonna try some burpees tomorrow.

The next 2 days are going to be rough, as they’re mostly out of office meeting (15 hours in a row on wednesday). I’ll have to plan my meals wisely.

T

Meanwhile, I’ve been giving a shot at CKD. A little by accident at first, as I didn’t have much time to do the groceries, so I’ve been eating eggs, steaks, sausages, chicken breast and broccoli+cauliflower that I had frozen. My last carbed meal was on monday morning, and it was a protein shake with about a cup of oatmeal. Less than 10g of carbs per day since then. I’m feeling fine so far, and managed to drop by BF% by 0.7% since last friday.

I also bought myself a bottle of Ketostix today. I did two tests, and it turns out that I’m in the "trace" zone, lower than I expected, but not the end of the world apparently.

I can’t wait for my carb up. I’ve never had big craves in my life, and I’m not the fast-food type. But I’ve been dreaming about a greasy pizza slice and a juicy burger since I woke up this morning. If I wasn’t a guy, I’d probably do a pregnancy test.

Gotta get back to work now, finish this micro-site and get some rest.

Cheers,

T

I’ve also made minor tweaks to my diet 5-6 days ago. I introduced coconut oil for cooking two meals in my deal (thus about 2 tbsp). I also added 4 doses of 2000mg CLA throughout the day. Finally, I did almost totally cut carbs of my 2 last meals of the day (the last one is cottage cheese, and it contains about 6g of carbs).

With these changes, and despite the off days, I’ve been able to lower my BF% to 14.7% (always according to my impedance scale). Still 2.7% to go, but I’m on the right track.

My body’s adapting fast: my heart rate is dropping back to normal much faster than 2 weeks ago after the end of an interval.

However, I decided to split my shoulder and chest/triceps day, as I’m tired when I get the the shoulder part and don’t feel I’m giving my 110%.

My actual split is 1.Back/Biceps, 2.HIIT, 3.Legs, 4.Steady State Cardio, 5. Chest/Shoulder/Triceps (I add rest days here and there when I need them, or when I can’t make it to the gym).

I’m going to change that for: 1.Back/Biceps, 2.HIIT, 3.Chest/Triceps, 4.SSC, 5. Legs, 6.SSC, 7.Shoulders.

Saturday was chest/shoulder/triceps training  :
Incline DB Press : 1 warmup set (12×35) then 4 work sets (8×60, 6×60, 8×50, 8×50)
Smith Incline press : 4 work sets (10×60), drop set on the last set (10×60+5×40+5×20)
Machine flies : 4 work sets (10×75,10×75,8×75+4×60,8×75+4×60)
Clean&Press : 1 warmup set (15×45) then 4 work sets (10×75,10×75,8×75,10×65)
Upright row : 4 work sets (12×45)
Lat raise : 4 work sets (8×20)
Bent-over lat raise : 4 work sets (8×15)

Sunday was SS cardio training :
75 minutes of elliptical marcher at 130-140 BPM while watching the last 2 episodes of The Shield.
Then 3×20x25lbs weighted crunches, 2×30 seconds side plank, and 1×60 seconds plank

Today was back/biceps :
Deadlift : 1 warmup set + 4 work sets (10×225,3×275,10×225,10×225)
Pullups : 2 work sets (5xBW[170]+3 cheated)
Lat pulldown : 4 work sets (6×135, 8×120, 10×105, 10×105+drop@5×75)
Single-arm Lat Pulldown : 2 work sets (8×45, 8×45+drop 4×30)
Cable rows : 4 work sets (8×120, 10×105, 10×105, 10×105+drop 6×90)
Lat pushdown : 4 work sets (8×60, 8×60, 10×50, 10×50+drop 8×40)
Standing DB Alternating Curl : 4 work sets (7×25, 6×25+drop 4×20, then twice rest/pause 3×5x20)

Thats all folks!

Monday was back/biceps training:
Deadlift : 2 warmup sets (10×135 + 10×185) then 4 work sets (10×225), 2/0/2 tempo
Lat pulldown : 1 warmup set (10×90) then 4 work sets (10×105), 2/0/2 tempo
Pullups : 2 work sets (5xBW[170]), 1/0/2 tempo
Barbell rows : 4 work sets (10×115), 2/0/2 tempo
Standing DB Alternating Curl : 3 pyramid sets (6×30, 8×25, 10×20), 2/0/2 tempo

Tuesday was interval training:
6 cycles of: 60 seconds jump rope at ~75jpm, 30 seconds break, 25 crunches, 15 seconds break
Then 2 x 60 seconds plank

Wednesday was leg day:
Squat: 2 warmup sets (10×45 + 10×135), 4 work sets (20×185), 2/0/2 tempo
Hack squat: 4 work sets (20×180), 2/0/2 tempo
Single-Leg Leg Extension: 2 work sets (10×75), 1/0/2 tempo
SLDL: 1 warmup set (10×45), 4 work sets (18×115), 2/0/2 tempo
Standing leg curl: 2 work sets (12×60), 1/0/2 tempo
Donkey calf raise: 4 work sets (20×225), 2/0/2 tempo
Standing calf raise: 4 work sets (20×305), 1/0/2 tempo

Thursday was SS cardio day:
30 minutes of elliptical marcher, at an HR of 150-160 BPM, then 2 sets of 60 seconds side plank on each side.

As for eating, I fixed the morning part lately…
Breakfast: 30g of Whey, 1 cup of 1% milk, 1 cup of OJ, 1 cup of green tea, 1 whole wheat bread toast.
Mid-morning snack: 1 cup of oatmeal, 30g of soy protein, 2 packets of Splenda, 1 rounded teaspoon of cinnamon.

Other than that, I’m trying to eat more fish and lean chicken, and less red meat. I’m also focusing into getting 5-10 portions of vedgies and fruits daily, mainly apple, broccoli, cauliflower,banana and OJ (once in the morning).

That it for now. Gotta get back to work, and after it’s chest/shoulder/triceps day.

Not too much damage, hopefully. I’ve lost a little strength (back to 70lbs DB on bench press rather than 80lbs, and down on pretty much all lifts), but I guess this is mostly due to my nervous system being on the slow.

After 2 days with a reentry full body routine, and not having time to put up a new one, I decided to give a shot at the 4 weeks routine of Jan 09 M&F. Basically, it’s 4 exercises for chest/back/shoulder, 3 for arms, 2 for abs, with 3×7 and 1×25 (except for abs, 2×20). Pretty intense I must say. I’ll complete week one tomorrow, and I’m still really sore from my training 60 hours ago. Week 2 is pretty much the same thing, but with 4×8 for all, and a drop set at the end. Week 3 involves super sets, and week 4 involves rest-pause. If I’m still alive on week 5, it’ll go for light 3×10.

Dieting is going well, I’m trying to stick to 55C/20P/25F as for the macros. Thanks to mommy, I’ve got a good supply of roasted turkey breast in the fridge, of veal meat balls in the freezer, and I packed a copious amount of oats that was on sale. Sleep is going well too, which is incredible considering that there’s a new girlfriend around. That’s all folks!

First, what I understood between the lines of what’s presented in the documentary is that there is no way to achieve anything close to a BB physique without juicing. Sure, you can get a 6pack, and bigger muscles. But you won’t get any close to any pro or amateur BB (and the movie implies that they’re all on juice).Not that it’s a surprise to me. I mean, I never expected to get an Arnold, Coleman or Cutler-like physique. Nevertheless, I feel rather desillusioned, and that the limits of my "natural" body are closer than I thought they was.
Sure, you’ll tell me that there are many "natural" bodybuilders out there with a strong and decent physique. I agree, but to be a natural BB, you need not to never have juiced, you need not to be taking illegal stuff at the moment. Would Arnold be as big as he is today if he hadn’t juiced when he was 16-17? Probably not.

Second, you all probably know this, but the whole steroids debate appears to be a big masquerade. There’s apparently no real evidence on the risks, and there’s no political will to test to scientifically identify these risks. So we’ve got to believe what is unscientifically known: it’s bad for you.
Now, you probably figured, I’m no steroid user. Never tried. Maybe never will. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m totally for it. I’d rather have "steroids for everyone" than "steroids for nobody+a bunch of cheaters-a few caught". But I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon, especially with our Canadian government trying to stop the sale of all natural supplements in favor of meds with bill C-51.
Indeed, this movie really depressed me. But still, I recommend it to you all (or ya’ll, as my VB friends would say!)

Cheers,

T