OVER 40 MUSCLE

I don’t know how many have picked up the current issue of Muscle & Fitness. This month’s issue has a huge section devoted to nutrition (don’t they all?). This one was a little different that the others.

Beginning on page 144, the magazine lists the basics of bodybuilding nutrition. This is an excellent tool for any beginner or seasoned lifter. They take all the basic bodybuilding foods and tell you what they do (whether they are good for building mass, loosing body fat, eat pre or post workout and so on). All the foods are broken down by category and even have a breakdown of carbs, protein and fat content.

Here is what I liked. It not only covers the basic foods but covers best beverages, best foods out of a can, best breads, pasta and rice, best breakfast foods, best deli meats, best snacks, best flavor enhancers and even best fast foods. Even better, when applicable, they give their choice as the best brand to buy. This is the first time I have seen anyone specifically name a brand as “best. I can really see this helping me next time I go to the grocery store. I hate reading food labels but in this lifestyle it is a necessity. I easily get confused trying do decide which is better. This will help take some of the guesswork out of it. I was glad to see that some of the brand name items I have been eating made the list. Not bad for a newbie, huh?

Speaking of fast foods (a no-no in certain bodybuilding circles), I was surprised to see what made the list. I know they would be a last resort for some people but I am going to make them part of my cheat day. Now I can cheat and still eat somewhat healthy. Check out some of their fast food suggestions.

Burger King: Tendergrill Chicken Garden Salad, Tendergrill Chicken Sandwich (no sauce)

McDonalds: Asian Salad with Grilled Chicken, Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich.

KFC: Tender Roast Chicken Sandwich (no sauce), mashed potatoes (no gravy).

Subway: Club Sandwich and Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich

Taco Bell: “Fresco Style Spicy Chicken soft taco. Taco Bell has 14 other “Fresco Style items are less than 10g fat.

Wendy’s: Plain baked potato (skip the butter and sour cream), chili (boasts a whopping 35g carbs and 25g protein with only 9g fat)

I just thought this was worth mentioning. If you get a chance, check out the full issue.

Here is my new recipe for making noodles. Take any leg press machine. Add 610 pounds of weight. Tighten up your belt and sit down. Then do 4 sets of 6 reps till your eyes cross, bells ring and you are shaking all over. Instant noodles.

Today was leg day and with it being power week I stretched the limits. After 2 warm-up sets I knocked out the above exercise. It felt so good. Next week I will be working on my rep range so it might be a few weeks before I see this weight again but I can say that I did it. Yeah me!

Here is the day’s routine:

LEGS (3 sets of 6 unless noted otherwise)
Leg Press … 610 pounds
Leg Extensions … 160 pounds
Hamstring Curls … 125 pounds
Calf Raises … 301 pounds

DELTS (3 sets of 6 unless noted otherwise)
Seated DB press … 3 sets of 6 @ 35, 1 set of 6 @ 40
DB rear flyes
Rear Delts (Machine)
Side Lateral Raises (Cables)
Upright BB Rows (close grip, Smith Machine)
DB Shrugs

At the end of this workout I had an awesome shoulder and trap pump going, possibly the best one to date. I am really starting to see some muscle development in my shoulders, upper back and my delts. My chest is lagging a little behind the rest of my upper body. I can definately see development there. The manboobs are on their way out the door. I guess I am a little impatient. I am thinking of tweaking Monday’s a little to see if I can get it to catch up with the rest of me.

Here is the meal plan so far today:

Wake: 1 Centrum Multi-vitamin, 3- Y3 fat burner
Breakfast: 1 egg (whole), 3 egg whites scrambled, 1-cup Raisin Bran with 1-cup Skim milk, 1 orange (sound familiar bwestgat?)
Preworkout … 1 serving of NO-Shotgun
Workout … 2 hours
PWO protein shake Protein and L-Glutamine combo until my RecoverX comes in.
PWO meal: Lemon pepper tilapia fillet with garlic potatoes
Lunch : large steak, baked sweet potato and grilled veggies

Have a great Valentine’s Day.

Today was to be the day I stepped up my cardio. Let me explain what I am currently doing. My treadmill program is simple. It is all based on my maximum sustained controllable speed. Right now, for me, that is 4.0 mph. The intervals range from 90% (3.6 mph) to 125% (5.0 mph).

Well, I got the bright idea to up the maximum sustained controllable speed to 4.5 mph. I had been doing so well at 4.0 @ 0 incline that I also decided to up that to 2.0. It all sounds logical, right? Wrong! I think I adjusted too much. Maybe one or the other but not both. I made it to 30 minutes before telling myself I needed to get off the machine while I still had a choice. So I did. Only 30 minutes, 2.16 miles and 215 calories burned. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I did break a gigantic sweat, if that counts for anything.

Some will call this an excuse but I did feel a little sluggish this morning. My oldest son has had a bug he caught @ school and I think I am now the new host body for the germ. I have been feeling cruddy all day. Maybe it won’t get too bad.

Tomorrow will be legs and delts.

NUTRITION NUGGET: Americans get only half the recommended 25-38 grams of fiber daily. To boost your intake, choose whole fruits over juices. A six-ounce serving of apple juice contains 90 calories and only .2g fiber; an apple contains 72 calories and 2.5g of fiber. - Position of the American Diatetic Association: helath implications of dietary fiber," Journal of the American Dietetic Association, v.102, July 2002, pp.993-1000.

I had a great workout this morning. This week is power week on all my lifting exercises (3-4 sets of 4-6 reps each with heavy weights). My cardio workouts will also be taken up a notch. I will be increasing to 45 minutes on the treadmill and 40 minutes on the elliptical.

Today actually went a little better than planned. The weight felt good and no pain anywhere (thank God). I am looking forward to getting to the point in my transformation that today’s weights are warm-up weights.

Here is what I did today after a 5 minute warm-up on the elliptical:

CHEST
Flat Bench Press (2 warm-up sets of 12) 3 working sets of 6/5/6
Incline DB Press (2 warm-up sets of 12) 3 working sets of 6
Hammer Press- 3 sets of 6
Dumbbell Pullovers … 3 sets of 6

TRICEPS
Cable Pushdowns (1 warm-up set) 3 working sets of 6
Dumbbell Extensions (1 warm-up set) 3 working sets 6
DB Kickbacks … 3 working sets of 6

“Laugh at your foibles, celebrate every step of your progress, and measure your success by how much fun you are having, not by how many medals you win. Jayne Williams, author, Slow Fat Triathlete.

This is my weekend off so I took advantage of it and hit some cardio this afternoon. Also knocked out an ab workout while I was there. The back is feeling a little better so I look forward to Monday and the weights. Here are the numbers for cardio today:

Time: 30 minutes
Strides: 4735
Calories Burned: 337.7

Weekly Recap:
CARDIO: I think it is time to up the numbers a little for cardio. Had a good week this week being able to get in 3 sessions. Hey, any time you can burn an extra 330 or so calories it helps.

STRENGTH: This coming week I will go through a Power Week in my lifting. I will concentrate on doing straight sets (3-4) with 4-6 reps in each set.

PERSONAL GOAL REACHED: I was able to knock out 2, count them 2, unassisted pull-ups this week. That might not be big news to a lot of you but for me it is, not only a physical accomplishment, but a psychological one as well. I hope to be able to do several sets of these, unassisted of course, in the very near future.

I was looking forward to a better Friday than I had last week. Last week I just could not put it together. “Today will be different, I kept telling myself and it was. Here is the good, the bad and a question?

The Good … I added straight-arm pushdowns to my back routine today. After 3 sets of those babies I could literally see the pump in my lats. This is the first time I have been able to do that during the workout. I will be doing this one every week for a while.

The Bad … While doing T-Bars (on the first working set actually) I felt a pull in one of my back muscles. I knew it was not good. I finished about 3more reps then walked around a little to see if I could shake it off. Not this time. Thankfully the T-Bar rows were the last back exercise for the day. I left it at that and went on to biceps. I am keeping heat on it over the weekend and hope it will be better by Monday.

A Question … Regarding the straight-arm pushdowns mentioned above: In the last few reps of each set I began to feel the weight in my front delts. Since this is the first time I have worked this movement, is this common? If not, is it my form? Too much weight, maybe? Some of you seasoned vets help me out here.

Here are the numbers for today:

BACK
Wide-Grip Pulldowns … 4 sets 12/12/10/10
Superset #1
Seated Cable Rows … 4 sets 12/10/8/6
Straight-Arm pushdowns … 4 sets12/12/10/10

BICEPS
Barbell Curls … 4 sets of 6
Dumbell Curls … 4 sets 10/10/8/8
Cable Curls (triple drop set) 8/7/12

Not much going on today. Hit the elliptical for 30 minutes of intervals. Today I was wedged between an older gentleman who was “pumping out a whopping 60 strides a minute and a snooty lady who read an entire magazine while on the machine. At least now I know what one looks like.

I started out with the usual ab routine, 2 sets to failure of regular and reverse crunches. Here are the cardio numbers from today:

Time: 30 minutes
Strides: 4380
Calories Burned: 314.1

I have been reading some interesting things about interval cardio workouts here lately. Seems like the way to go. I will share some thoughts and idea in coming posts regarding intervals. I am starting to see some improvement in my endurance and in the waistline so why would I stop now?

Tomorrow I get back to the weights with a back and bicep workout.

Well, last night I survived the basketball game. I had a blast and really enjoyed getting in some good exercise. In a nutshell, I was the oldest player there (older than any two others on the court combined almost). But, the “old man showed them a thing or two. About half way through the third quarter I caught myself saying, “You idiot, you got to work legs tomorrow. What were you thinking?

I got up this morning and went to the gym and worked legs. I thought I would take it easy but once I got started I just could not hold back. I decided to go for a personal best in the leg press and I got it. In fact, the last two sets were more than I had been doing. Time got away from me so I skipped leg curls until next week. Here is the breakdown:

Leg Press … 4 sets (2 warm-up sets of 12 @ 180, working sets of 12×270, 10×360, 8×450 and 6×500)
Leg Extensions … 3 sets 12/10/8
Calf raises … 3 sets 12/10/8

Tomorrow is cardio … again, what was I thinking?

Yesterday I checked out the current edition of The Fit Show that featured Jason Pelletier. It featured a very basic, no thrills, work the muscle not the ego shoulder workout. As I was watching the show I decided to do this workout today for shoulders. I had gotten so caught up with the weights and reps that I had drifted away from the basics. Today I totally forgot about the number on the side of the dumbell and worked on form and getting in quality reps. At the end of the day I had a huge pump in my delts and felt like I had really accomplished something. Sometimes you just have to get back to basics.

If you don’t have time to watch the video, here is the routine. I might just stick with this one for a while.

Standing shoulder dumbell press (3 x 10+)*
Side lateral raises  (3 x 10+)*
Reverse DB Flyes (incline bench) for rear delts (3 x 10+)
Superset #1
-Rear delt flyes (machine) (3 x 10+)
-Seated side lateral raises (3 x 10+)
Superset #2
-Upright rows (I used Smith Machine today) (3 x 10+)*
-DB shrugs (3 x 10+)

*Started with 2 warm-up sets of 10. On the upright rows I just used the bar for the warm-up.

The main point of this routine is to stimulate the muscles. I was not going for some type of record for weight or reps. I went above ten on all the exercises but was not counting past ten. I did not go to muscle failure. I stopped when I felt I had 1 or 2 more left. Man what a burn!

Tonight is the big ballgame (MY GOD what am I doing?). Tomorrow will be leg day. It might have to be a light leg day but I’ll be there.

Later,

Ready in less than 20 minutes.

1 8oz. fresh or frozen salmon fillet, cut 1" thick
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel or orange peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice or orange juice
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sliced green onion
1 medium orange, peeled and sliced crosswise

1. Thaw the fish (if frozen). Rinse the fish; pat dry with paper towels. In a small bowl stir together lemon peel, lemon juice, pepper and garlic.

2. Preheat broiler. Place fish on a greased broiler pan (PAM or the like). Brush with half the lemon juice mixture. Broil 4" from the heat for 5 minutes. Using a wide spatula, carefully turn fish. Brush with the remaining lemon juice mixture. Broil for 3-7 minutes mre or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

3. Cut the fish into 2 portions. Sprinkle with the green onion and serve with orange slices.

Nutrition Facts per Serving: 226 calories, 10g total fat (2g sat. fat), 70mg chol, 54mg sodium, 9g carbs, 2g fiber, 25g protein.

Taken from Better Homes and Gardens, "Easy Everyday Low Carb Cookbook", page 188.