kinkoshinkai’s BodyBlog

Starting the 3rd week of the RIPPED program.  I’m up to 2 gallons of water per day.  Calories are about the same.  The workouts will be the same.  I have new photos showing a tiny bit of progress.  Including I’ve tanned up a bit.

This week will end on the diuretics to dry out. 

OK, sometimes having 5 kids and a wife who are not on board with the whole competition preparation regimen can be a real pain.  My wife made chicken enchiladas, loaded with fatty sour cream for a school function, and brought them home for the family meal, along with a store-bought lemon cake.  I’m on the Foreman grill with my chicken breast, surrounded by kids clammering for the fatty and sugar foods.  Then, tommorrow, I have a 14 hour drive for my daughter’s scholarship audition at Utah State Univ.  That’s gonna really cramp the workout and cardio.  This makes calorie decisions even more vital.  Not to mention that I’m trying to get in my gallon and a half of water.  (Can you say "potty stops"?  On a 14 hour round trip?)

So, I’ve grilled 25 ounces of chicken, cut in strips with some low sodium 0 calorie mustard and hot sauce for dipping.  I’m taking whole grain bread and a few protein bars for variety, and carrot sticks for drive munching.  (Drive munching used to mean potato chips and jerky.  The jerky would be OK still except for the sodium at this point)  So, Monday’s weigh in and fat check will be tough. 

In summary, instead of 2800-3000 calories, I’m going to drop to about 2500-2600 for tomorrow, in the absence of my cardio.  I still need to keep the protein up to 300+ grams, but drop the carbs for tomorrow, as I won’t need a lot of caloric energy while sitting in my bucket seat. 

Other than that, I’ve been tanning gradually and seeing some progress there.  Overall, the workouts I’m doing have maintained the muscle and burned fat, which is exactly what I want - no visible or significant size loss.  This RIPPED program and supplements will end in one week, at which point I’ll evaluate the prep for the last 3 week sprint to the show.

OK, I said 5 weeks last week, but it turns out it was really 6.  As I said, the whole contest just snuck up sooner than I expected.

Cardio is still 1/2 hour pre-breakfast, and 1/2 hour post workout on training days.  Low intensity, about 60-65% max heart rate, which for me, at age 47 is in the 110 bpm range.  I power walk in good weather, or eliptical in inclement weather.  On non-training days, it’s interval training.  Sprint 30 seconds- fast walk 2 minutes for the 30 min once in the morning.  As an alternative to sprints, if my knee is hating me, I do my walk up and down an extreme hill by my house.  Target heart is now about 120-130 bpm.

Weights are still the same split for the next two weeks. 

I’ve dropped 6 pounds in the last 2 weeks.  Abs are coming in more pronounced, as are arms and legs.  Cut’s seem to go from the extremities first then inward to the middle (hips) last.  The Bowflex doesn’t really have enough weight to challenge on most leg exercises (squat, calf raises, dead lift, and leg press in particular), so there is some fudging with rep quantity.  But mainly if I just go super slow, it’s plenty challenging.

I’ve been tanning in small doses to lay a foundation, but this week will increase the time in thetanning bed.  Fortunately, with my friend owning her own, it saves me loads of money.  But not being a commercial bed, it’s not as intense either.  I’m really going to rely on the Pro-tan for contest color.

The 5 week sprint to competition started.  Got in my 35 mins. of cardio with a nice 5:30 am walk.  Today is heavy, 6 sets by 4 reps, upper body.  Chest superset with back, biceps superset with tricep.  60 second rest between sets. There will be a second cardio session after the workout.  I plan to continue the creatine and glutamine pre- and post- workout.   

I also started the RIPPED supplements today.  Optimum Whey and GNC Whey are the protein drinks.  Workout day meals will be higher fat and protein with lower carbs.  This frist week will also require a minimum of 1 gallon a day of water (which I’ve been doing anyway for several months).  Tanning also starts this week, so for those seeing my white body on my BodySpace, that will improve.  Fortunately, I have a friend with her own tanning bed, which will save me many dollars.

It’s also time to get my posing routine together, but I haven’t even picked my music yet.  Since it’s my first show, I plan to keep the posing faily basic, sticking to mandatory poses with maybe only slight variations, and focus on my transitions.  I’ll be practicing mandatory poses, and then walking through the entire quarter turn and posing sequence on non-training days, as well, using the video clips I’ve downloaded from BodyBuilding.com (thanks especially to John Berry’s BritShow) as a substitute for a live judging panel calling out poses.  That should really help my comfort level when I get to the actual show.

More later.  And I’ll be putting up some transformation photos this week, hopefully, to map progress.

I’m going to use 3 weeks of the RIPPED System from NxCare, which includes its own supplements, workout, and meal plan.  The workout is pretty much as I described in the last post.  Supplement wise, the Methyl Ripped fat burner (Clenadrine), Methyl Lean overnight fat burner (Clenadrine PM), and Methyl Dry (a diuretic).  I’m using the 3 week program, which will leave me an additional 3 weeks before contest to tweak as needed.

The diet program is laid out with precise menus, but it doesn’t give me a gram by gram nutrient breakdown the way I like.  I set up my own spread sheet that I’ve used for the last couple years, where I enter the grams per nutrient, and it automatically calculates the calorie total and ratios.  As I said, I’ve been using a 3200-3400 calorie diet to put on the extra muscle I was working on, and was successful.  So I’ve been trying to breakdown the menu’s provided in the same way, so that if I need to substitute foods according to availability, I can. 

One major adjustment, I have been doing 7 or 8 meals, including a middle of the night protein shake.  I’ll have to cut that down to 6 meals without the night-time snack shake. 

More to come. 

This last week was the beginning of the change-up to my routine in prep for cutting and competing.

I start each day with 30 minutes of cardio, either walking or on my eliptical.  Other than water, I have nothing before cardio.  I had been trying to gain weight, thinking I had until May or June before contests came around, but the March date cut my gain cycle short, so I’m going with what I’ve got for now.  On the building, I was doing 3 days a week workout, leaving time for my 47 year-old body to heal.  The split was Chest/Bicep, Back/Tricep, Legs/Shoulders.  I’d change little things, angles, rate, sequence, each week or every 3rd week, depending on how I felt.

Now I’m doing 4 day a week.  Mon - Upper body, 6 set-4 rep, heavy, every exercise supersetted.  Tues - Lower body 6 X 4, also heavy in supersets.  Thurs - Upper body, 3 X 12 moderate weight, supersets. Sat - Lower body 3 X 12 moderate weight supersets.  In addition, the daily cardio.

Diet wise, I was doing 3400-3500 calories on non-work-out days, and 3200 on work-out days.  I put on 12 quality pounds in a little under 3 months.  I wish I’d had the extra 2 or 3 months I was planning on, but….  Protein, 40 %, Carbs 40%, Fat 20% generally.  Always at least 350 grams of protein for my 205-210 lbs of bdy weight.

This last week I cut back to 3200 calories a day, keeping the 350 grams of protein, but lowering the fats, primarily.  Next week, a little more cut back on fats, reduce carbs slightly, to about a total of 3000 calories per day,increase water to 1 gallon and a half.  Cardio will be the same.