bradl’s weight training

I have a work trip coming up, so I have been thinking about the protein bars I’ll need to take along. This time it’s "tropical", so they are probably going to melt. In previous years, I have taken PowerBars, which are like tootsie rolls. They get soft in the heat and stick to the wrapper, but they are energy bars, so have a lot of carbs. Before the last trip, to the Arctic, I was looking for ones with a higher ratio of protein to carbs and took some of those with. They are chocolate covered and the chocolate is going to melt. Oh well.

That started me thinking about homemade ones, not to take with on travel, but to take to the office. Can’t travel with them because no way to keep them cold. Of the recipes I have looked at, they are variations on oats, peanut butter, protein powder, and milk to get the oats and powder dissolved. It’s been a while since I made some. This time added too much milk, so the "bars" are more like glop. Stiffer than peanut butter, but not a "solid" bar.

Read some more of "Dinosaur Training" last night. The author is very sure that this method works, not that it’s the only one. So far it seems similar to Stuart McRobert’s books. McRobert’s books are geared for bodybuilding and Kubik’s is for strength. They both stress hard work using the basic, compound exercises in abbreviated workouts with grip work. Kubik adds work with awkward objects, like barrels and sandbags, for "functional" strength.

Back when I was attempting to follow McRobert’s method, I was an absolute beginner. I think I have learned more about working harder since then, but don’t know what that means with regard to repeating his method.

By the date of the new trip, it will be eight weeks using DrJoe’s cycling-exercises method. There is no gym where we are going, so the trip will be a rest break before starting a new DrJoe cycle or something else. Something else could be x-reps or a McRobert- and Kubik-inspired program.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is nutrition and getting protein without the carbs. People seem to eat a slab of some sort of meat with a vegetable and maybe a salad along with those. Vegetarian cooking doesn’t seem to work like that. The protein source, e.g., tofu, beans, eggs, cheese, is mixed in with something else like a casserole or pasta. That may make it a complex carb meal, but its still a lot of carbs. Yesterday, I asked our daughter what she might like for dinner and she said pasta. I don’t want pasta. I heated up a can of vegetable minestrone and added fake-chicken strips to it to make "chicken" minestrone, which we three had with salad.

A pile of those "chicken" strips could work as a "slab of meat". Veggie meatballs would work, as long as we forgo the pasta and have some sort of sauce for them. We need to work on that idea some more because I want to get away from the pasta dinner thing.

For I don’t know how long (since I’ve been lifting), I’ve been adding more to what I’ve been eating. During the week, that means packing more for lunch. Recently I posted a summary of my protein-intake estimate. Since then I’ve added more. Today was an additional container, this time a small one of cottage cheese. My lunch bag keeping getting bigger and bigger. I think I need a fat caliper to see where all that lunch and snacks are going.

Another article in the Apr 2009 issue of "Ironman", "Mastering Muscle Growth", was about "masters" athletes and hypertrophy. It summarized research that showed that aging muscles/people "need a higher
protein-to-carbohydrate ratio. That shifts the reliance away from insulin to stimulate muscle growth." "… lowering it to 1.5 grams of carb results in improved insulin sensitivity, fat loss and greater increases in muscle during training."

The carbs should come from "oatmeal, sweet potatoes, leafy green vegetables and other foods high in fiber".

Essential fatty acids should be included too to increase testosterone production and go without breaking down amino acids / protein.

Recently I posted that I started taking GNC’s Mass XXX, which is rich in carbs. Maybe that’s why my pants are tighter and my abs are disappearing under a layer of fat. Hmmm. So much for taking in more protein and less carbs.

[I kept wanting to put commas in those lists. Argh.]