Rev’s Gym

First things should come first. Great workout yesterday. I ended up with a 300×4 for my final bench set, which I’m pretty happy with. We finished the rest of the workout with the exception of dumbell rows, which I am again pretty happy with. The reason that we didn’t finish is the balance of things.

    I have a standing rule in the gym: done by 6pm. Why is this? Well, for starters, I always hated not knowing when practices would end. Being at the whim of the coach or my workout/training partner was always disconcerting for me. So, this way everybody here knows when the "job" will be done by and can gauge themselves accordingly. Secondly, and most importantly, 6:15-6:30 is supper at the table with my family. I have a very hectic schedule that includes ALOT of late night meetings, afternoon housecalls, morning office hours, and early morning research. My family (and I) need a sacred time that is ours. A time when we all sit down together and spend time on us. Now this is not the only time we do this at all! But, when it comes down to it Family comes first. Other things have to come into view as well  (I’m not saying blow off every workout or meeting to sit home and watch tv with the family): I must work, I like to workout, I need sleep, etc.  But, my wife, kids, and God come first in my thoughts, my life, and my planning.

Why this rant? One of my "boys" (the kids I train) sheepishly came to me yesterday and, with a touch of fear in his voice, told me that he might not be able to workout on Thursday because he was going to go and check on his Grandparents/spend time on them. The other guys in the room became silent at these words, and I realized that they’re expecting me to yell at him! So, we stopped the workout for a minute and I explained to them the above. I then told the fearfull boy to give my best to his grandparents and that I was proud of his choices. I honestly think that made him work all the  harder yesterday too.

What I ate:

Meal 1: 40 g rolled oats, 1 t cinnamin, 1T brown sugar, 2 egg whites, 34 oz water, vitamins, creatine

meal 2: 1.5 C lettuce, 1/4 tomato, 1/2 C onion, 1/3 C green pepper, 1 can tuna, 1 C cucumbers in cidar vinegar, 34 oz water

Meal 3: creatine and applejuice, 34 oz water

meal 4: 2 chicken breasts, 1/2 C parmasean cheese, 1 can green beans, 34 oz water, creatine,

meal 5: 1 slice whole wheat bread, 1 chicken breast, 2 T parmasean, 3T chedder, 1 slice bacon, 34 oz water

It’s a good week for new equipment. A dumbell bench that I ordered last week came yesterday afternoon…right in the middle of our leg and bicep workout (lol). The workout screeched to a halt as everybody descended on the big box with the intent of helping to assemble it. Good news is that between the four of us we had it out of the box, laid out, assembled, and ready to go in less than 8 minutes. Still got my squats in and most of my hip sled.

What I ate:

Meal 1: 40 g rolled oats, 1 t cinnamon, 1 T brown sugar, 2 egg whites, 34 oz water, vitamin, creatine

Meal 2: protein shake with creatine (post workout), 34 oz water

Meal 3: 1 can tuna, 3 T salsa, 2 C cucumber (soaked overnight in apple cidar vinegar and pepper), 16 oz water

Meal 4: Beef Stroganauf (12 oz lean ground beef, 4 t sour cream, 1/2 can cream-of-chicken soup, 1/2 packet onion soup mix, pepper, 1 T worchester, 2 C no yolks egg noodles) 1 giant zucchini w/garlic and 2 T parmesean, 34 oz water

Finally went out tonight and found 3 decent sized stones for husafell stones, atlas stones, and the like. I went to the local county compost site (yup, we have one for the county) to get them. Free drop off or pick up of anything you want organic or stone. It was all sorted and the 3 I picked up were even cut stone at some time.

There were a few of these huge foundation stones that must have weighed upwards of 400 lbs. There was one there that I might go back for that looked to be about 250-300, but I just didn’t have any more room in the car. The three I picked up for myself and the kids weighed in at 125, 100, and 81 pounds. We’ll work them in to the rotation on thursdays with deadlifts, tireflips, and sled pulls.

What I ate today:

meal 1: 40 grams rolled oats, 2 egg whites, 34 oz water, vitamins, creatine, etc.

meal 2: 2 chicken breasts, one head broccoli, 4 oz. steak, one medium onion, 1 cup steamed greenbeans with mushrooms, 12 oz iced tea, 12 oz water

meal 3: 2 C shredded chicken in low sugar bbq sauce, 34 oz water

meal 4: 2 chicken breasts (I like chicken), 32 oz iced tea.

Ok, I’m not a big zucchini fan, but this rocked! So easy too. I had a congregant give me 2 giant zucchini this week, so I needed a receipe for them that didn’t involve baked goods and chocolate chips (although that sounded REALLY good). So here’s what I found, and man, it was awesome.

quarter and slice 1 giant zucchini. Steam the zucchini with 2 cloves of garlic for 10 minutes. remove and toss with 1 tsp of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. top with a few Tablespoons of parmesean cheese.

The garlic was light, the veges were smack dab between crisp and soft.

Did 15 minutes of elliptical yesterday as well.

Here’s what I ate:

meal 1: 40 g (dry weight) rolled oats, 2 egg whites, 34 oz water, vitamin, niacin, etc.

meal 2: 2 egg whites

meal 3: 1 can tuna, 2 C three-bean salad, 34 oz water

meal 4: 2 chicken breasts, slow cooked and shredded with low sugar bbq sauce, 2 oz. shredded chedder, 1 giant zucchini, 2 cloves garlic, 34 oz water, 1 whole grain dinner roll

Tied my PR today for full squats! 405 for 5 @ 220lbs bdy weight.

It didn’t feel bad either. I was running the boys through their squat routine and mine (thanks to a fortunate misload) began ten pounds heavier than it should have. Soooo…I just kept going. I was supposed to top out at 390 for my fifth set today, but 405 was right there and I felt great going in, so I went for it!

It feels great. I havn’t done 405×5 that clean since training for nationals in ‘05. I’m really excited.

Also, Introduced the "fat bar" to the kids today for the barbell curl. Lol, the guys were hating life by the fourth set  . It’s amazing what an extra inch of diameter on the grip can do.

Ate pretty clean today.

meal 1: 1.5 Cups oatmeal, 1 T Brown sugar, 1 Tsp cinnamon. 34 oz water. Creatine, multi vitamin, niacine, fish oil, potassium

meal 2: 2 egg whites, 16 oz water

meal 3: 1 whole grain bun, 6 oz turkey breast, lettuce, tomato, stone ground mustard, onion, 2 cups of 3 bean salad (chick peas, kidney beans, green beans, wax beans, onions, celery, cider vinegar, water. 34 oz water

meal 4: 1 Cup fat free strawberry custard,

meal 5: creatine, sugar free rip-it (energy drink, 0 cal), 24 oz water

meal 6: beans and rice: 2 Cups kidney beans, 6 0z lean keilbasa, 1.5 cups white rice, water and spices. 32 oz water

NEED MORE CALORIES

Man oh man do my forearms feel good! Thursday I introduced tire flips to the guys at the gym. I just got a 400 lb loader tire . We did 4 sets of 8 flips alternated with 100lb reverse sled pulls for 25 yrds or so. Then, 2 sets of light husafeld (sp?) stone carries. Then my neighbor, who is building this sweet 20×20 "shed" asked if we could help put up the walls, sooo… 3 walls later we’re back down in the basement for 5×5 deadlifts. I stopped at 375 because of time (didn’t even try the 405 or 425). All in all a GREAT Thursday workout.

Funny thing. Last night at the church for ‘family game nite’ all of the guys were there. Let’s just say I wasn’t the only one who was a bit sore

Next week, fishing trip in WV

Wow! I awoke this morning feeling pretty good! Both of the boys slept through the night (with 1 brief exception at 4 am, which is morning in my book anyway   )  so I got a solid 7 hrs!!!!

My wrist felt a bit funky yesterday from Tuesdays bench work, but it seems to be benefiting from the rest too. Good thing as today is deadlifts, tire flips, and sled pulls!

     Also, when I got home yesterday I discovered that someone mowed my lawn for me. Not a bad day. (Hope they were doing it to be nice and not passive/aggressive)

Wow. I’ve been training for a good solid few months now. I’ve started training a few guys from my congregation and have found myself getting back into the habit. Sleep has been better now that my youngest is cutting teeth (or has cut a few) and my eldest is a sound sleeper again. My schedule has even relaxed a bit now that it’s summer time. All in all, I’ve been enjoying lifting and have fallen back into it being a "habit". Even had a congregant come up to me after worship and say, "Pastor, you’re getting really big again. I noticed when you were up there today…you’re getting bigger again."

Since my bf% is going down, I’ll take that as a good thing and motivation!