cjk302’s BodyBlog

"i can’t believe I ate the WHOLE thing." …Holiday food is officially over.  I’ve given away the leftovers and stocked up on tupperware.  The second week of January will start the measuring of all portions and the packing of the infamous lunchbox.  I didn’t do too bad for holiday eating.  I had some of everything (greens, dirty rice with shrimp, rolls, ham, mac and cheese and desserts) but I had half of my normal portion sizes with everything since I know they were not prepared with "health or weight control" in mind.  I haven’t done a real workout since last thursday (4 days ago) but i’ve done some callisthenics.  I’ll step back on the track and the weight room tommorrow.  Also, I’m trying to come up with a good theme for my routine next year along with some new moves.  I’m open to suggestions.

 I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays but still sticking to their training. 

I’ve been reading all these articles on bodybuilding.com about training in the off season so I’ve been hitting the weights and the track hard!!

Dec 15 - Friday

4×300m (55, 56, 56, 61 sec)

Clean: 5 @ 90lbs. 2×5 @ 110lbs

Lunges: 5 each leg x 3 @ 90lbs

Bench: 10-8-5 @ 105-115-130lbs

Calf raises: 3 x 30

Sit ups: 3 x 25

push-ups: 10-8

Dec 18 - Monday

8 x half approach jumps (pain in right hamstring)

2×500m and 4×100m

clean: 2 x 5 @ 90lbs

Dec 19 - Tuesday

5x standing long jump

5×3 box jumps (each leg)

10×3 box jumps hop-step (each leg)

10×1 box jump last phase (short approach)

10×100m FAST (high knees)

Our word for today is "OUCH"!! plyometrics followed by sprinting really hurts.  Hopefully it will help my anaerobic endurance for my 2 minute routine at Team U.  For right now, all I can say is ouch…. I am excited that my bench press is improving again.  Friday’s set of 5 @ 130lbs was pretty easy.  I skipped out on most of my lifting yesterday courtesy of those 500m runs that almost killed me.  I’ll hit it tommorrow.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get 145lbs for 5 reps.  Also, friday i did lunges instead of squats because my lower back had been bothering me.  But it seems to be feeling better now so I think I’ll try squats again tommorrow. 

Finals are over!!! In case you wanted to know I made a B in organic chemistry (I don’t know who’s grades he averaged to come up with that but i’m happy) and a B in biochemistry so life is good.  Now I can focus on training. 

Wednesday (Dec 13)

Warm up, stretch, sprint drills

4×200m sprints

Snatch: 5 @ 90lbs, 2 @90lbs (it got heavy )

Clean: 3×5 @ 110lbs

Squat: 10-8-5 @ 225lbs (it wasn’t to heavy for my legs, but my back started hurting)

Bench: 10 @ 95lbs, 8 @ 115lbs, 5 @ 125lbs (definately need more weight)

Pull ups: 8-5

Calf raises: 4×30

Sit-ups: 4×25

Today (Dec 14)

Warm up, stretch, sprint drills

Triple jump work

3×10 hurdle hops

10×100m sprints FAST

 I started my juice fast today.  so far just vegetables every 3 hours.  I had a protein shake with strawberries and bananas before practice.  I’ll have a salad in a minute then another shake before bed.  Then tomorrow I’ll go to just plain salads and just fruit shakes (no protein).  Trying to ease into the 2 days of juice only.  My mom is doing it with me.  So we help each other stay on track.  I’ll let you know how its going. 

As you know if you’ve been following along, its finals time.  I spent 90% of the weekend in my apartment studying.  If I have to look at one more amino acid, nucleotide, or membrane transport system I think I’m going to scream!!!  But its all over (for this semester) tomorrow.  Moving on….

Today it was a lovely 70+ degrees so I was more than happy to go to the track:

10 minute jog/10 minute stretching/Sprint drills

Sprints: 500m, 400m, 4×100m

Weights: 

Cleans: 3×5 @ 90lbs

Snatch: 3×5 @ 75lbs

Squats: 10 @ 225lbs

              8 @ 225lbs

              5 @ 235lbs

Bench press: 10 @ 95lbs

                    8 @ 115lbs

                    5 @ 125lbs

situps: 4 x 25

Calf raises 3 x 30

Didn’t feel to bad.  Although I could tell that I hadn’t done a complete workout (meaning the running part) in over a week.  Will try to stick to it for the week but its hard to do by myself.  Most of my teammates are gone for christmas break and there are no coaches so i can just as easily not practice at all.  Luckily I can see that pro card in my hand next year so its keeping me motivated.

Team Universe is 6 months away so its time to make a game plan.  We’ve all read countless articles on emotional eating (i.e. to relieve stress, family gatherings, celebrations, etc).  Since I don’t have a competition in the immediate future I have fallen victim to the "one more" syndrome.  I might be out with friends and I’ve finished eating my portion and requested a "to go box" (I’m a college student, we don’t throw food away , as I’m waiting for the to go box I’ll have just one more bite of mashed potatoes, or just one more chicken wing.  Before I know it, I have had 2 or 3 times the serving I intended on having.  This plus the stress and unpredictability of studying for finals has been detrimental to my training.  My last final is Tuesday December 12 so i’m going to jumpstart my change in eating habits with a juice fast.  I’ve been reading article’s on bodybuilding.com (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/randy13.htm and http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/shanay4.htm) and elsewhere on the internet and I think this will give me the boost I need.  I will clean the junk out of my system and rev up my metabolism.

 My workout is still going as planned (with the exception of slight modifications for the weather).  So hopefully that won’t be hampered by the juicing fast.  If you’ve done this before, please let me know how it went for you.

Its been almost a month since my last competition so rest time is over.   Okay, so I could never rest completely, I’d go stir crazy but I did cut back a lot on my training. Here are my workouts for the last two days:

Wednesday:

20 minute jog (I’m so out of shape.  This was not a pleasant experience.)

Squats: 185×10. 195×8. 205×5

Snatch: 65×2. 90×2. 90×2

Clean: 90×2. 90×2. 90×2

Bench Press: 95×10. 105×8. 110×5

Sit ups: 4×25

Thursday:

10 minutes bleachers

2x 3sets of lunges up bleachers

10 minutes bleachers

20 minutes flexibility work

3×25 ab exercises

I’m a little sore but I still don’t feel like I’ve done anything.  Maybe after a week or 2 of consistency I’ll feel better.  But its still friggin cold!!

If you read my post yesterday then you know I was taking the easy way out by not working out due to the cold weather.  Well I "made up for it" today by putting a little extra in my workout.  I did pushups and ab exercises this morning then I went to the track this afternoon to do plyometrics, triple jump drills and 6×150 meter sprints.  I also did a little flexibility training.  I still haven’t lifted a weight since last Wednesday so I’ll prob try to hurt myself tomorrow.

 Is it better to just continue with my regurlarly scheduled workout if I miss a day or is it beneficial to add more to the next workout?

The word for today is motivation.  I’m not a fan of cold weather, so when it dips below 60 I’m not a happy camper.  Today it stayed around 40 so needless to say I didn’t make it to the track.  I justified not going by saying that I have over 6 months before the competition but I know there are competitors out there training right now.  Its 8pm and I’m beating myself up for not working out today.  If I want my pro-card I know I’m going to have to get over slumps like this. 

Anyone have any cold weather workouts (i.e. indoor) they can share?  I mean I do ab exercises and pushups but thats about it…