It's been awhile and spring break was a great stress relief. It was also a good time to take a break.

Ive started HST this week since I used spring break as a SD. It's hard trying to get 15 reps when your use to training at low reps (5). I think this will help my endurance though.

I really hope this program will be good. I have faith but if not I figure I'll just drop back to a 5x5 for strength. I'm just using this as an inbetween anyways.

I'll keep yall updated and tell yall how break went when I can.

Laters,

Red

Boy, I need a break.

College is getting to me and I haven't seen the beach in a long time.

I hope the waves are up.

I can't wait to see my friends too. I've been up here in College Station, Texas for about 2 months straight. It isn't that bad really, I only live about 2 hours away but still. I keep to myself for the most part on the weekdays and it's definetly not like it was in high school.

I'm trying to become a more outgoing person. I use to go out all the time but of course wasn't even an 1/8th as healthy as I am now. I'm just trying to break my "have to eat every 3 hour" eating habits so I can enjoy life a little more. Preparing meals is good and all but it's time consuming and drains the brain in my opinion.

I figure over spring break I'll try to break my timed eating habits. Doesn't mean I still can't be healthy but just that I don't need to eat all the time. I'm also gonna try to drop a pound or 2 so I can try to add on a little mass when I come back.

Anyways, for all you high school and college kids, have a safe spring break! I'll see you in South Padre!

Red

Well I finally finished up with the Rippetoe Program. It was a good run and I liked it alot. I feel like I definitely made some strength gains though maybe not as pronounced as I thought they'd be. I checked a comparison chart for experience level, body weight, and the average weights lifted in those ranges. I seem to pretty much match up to all the averages which is good I suppose.

I definitely think it helped me with form and the understanding that basics are the best for right now. It also taught me that I don't need to hit every body part individualy or go to failure on everything. Restraint is a beautiful thing.

I'm planning on doing a 5x5 as my next phase in gaining strength but to mix it up a little bit I've decided to try HST before the 5x5. I've figured out the excercise I want to do (all compound, strength lifts. No surprise there). I have some rough 15 RM 10 RM and exact 5 RM from Rippetoe.

I think this program is gonna be good. I feel real excited about it. It's about time for me to improve my muscular endurance a little bit along with my cardovascular fitness (it has been declining since I started bulking and got on Rippetoe's).

I've planned my SD for spring break and am starting the program as soon as I get back. I'll keep yall updating (for whoever actually reads this stuff. Keeps me honest anyways).

Peace out for now.

Red

I started smoking on the weekends again. It was really bad this last weekend.

I smoked 6 black and milds. I use to smoke 2 packs or more a week all through high school and quit when I came to college. After I went back home for Christmas break, I started smoking when I went out with my friends.

I can stop during the week, but its something about the weekend that makes me wanna smoke. Not just if I go out drinking but when I'm just sitting around too. I guess it's idleness.

I'm gonna try to stop smoking altogether this weekend though it'll be hard. Considering I'm going back home for spring break, this might be a bad time to set a goal like that but I'm gonna try. I'm also taking a break from working out so it's really gonna take some mental fortitude. Wish me luck.

Yeah, so I feel fat.

Somehow I gained like a 1lb over one day and it didn't go away.

Now I'm not stupid. I understand it takes 3500 calories over what a person normaly eats to add a pound and that water weight can come and go over time. This was on saturday though and its Wednesday now. I've actually gone up more since then. I'm kinda thinking my digestive system is backed up (if you know what I mean). I'm waiting for it to empty out sometime this week. This has happened before, but still. . .

I've really made progress in accepting weight fluctiations and not caring about it so much but this is kinda getting to me. I guess I'm gonna have to start carb cycling.

I've done it before and it seemed to work well. I figure what I'll do is just keep my diet the same except on days I don't work out I'll cut carbs out of everything but my breakfast. I leave one day with no carbs and on workout days I'll cut em off after lunch. I figure this way I won't have to adjust portions since the carbs being taken out should lower my calories to a little below maintenance.

I guess I have to start adding some cardio too. Damn, I hate cardio now. I'm just gonna start light with some walking and see how it goes.

Wish me luck.

Red

I feel like I started for different reasons than most people although I do share a lot of similarities.

When I was younger, from 3rd to 7th grade, I was pretty hefty. ****ght, I was fat but I did grow into it eventually. This didn't prevent the trauma from when I was younger. I dealt with it pretty well though. I took on the funny guy persona to help shield me and get people to like me.

In high school I was kinda anti-establishment. Not like goth or revolutionist or anything, just a druggy that didn't like going to school that much. I didn't like everyone gearing me towards the future, I just wanted to be a kid. Luckily I'm very smart so I didn't have to try hard at all to keep good grades.

I look back now and can see I was never really fat in high school but I definitely wasn't in shape. I'm a pretty good looking guy (if I do say so myself) but when I went from small, country town to a big, college town I started to get really insecure with myself. Everyone in college was jacked and it made me feel inferior. My dormmate worked out and was really cut (he had chicken legs though) and he got me into working out. I ran with it.

I started running every morning, around 4 or 5 am and was eating very little. Of course I yo-yo'ed real bad and couldn't understand why. I started learning more about nutrition and really enjoyed that aspect of training. Eventually I decide I was looking to stick and bones and wanted to look more musclar. I started working out and took it to extremes. I quit going out and partying, starting going to bed early, counted calories, and ate so clean it was ridiculous. I transformed into someone that wasn't even close to the person I had been, and it wasn't an upgrade. I ended up pushing what I though would be my friend for life (dormmate) and overtrained for 6 months. It was a bad time.

I had no motivation to do anything I loved (surfing, going out with friends, etc) and everything revolved around eating and working out. I became a hardcore, anal, perfectionist. When I returned the next year to college, I discovered I had no friends. I wanted to kill myself just about every weekend, literally. Eventually I started to learn what I was doing wrong and why I always felt depressed. I realized I was overtraining (working out to failure 6 days a week) and cut my workout back to 3 full-body workouts. I made some new friends and eased up on my diet a little bit.

I still eat really heatlhy and frequently ( every 3 or so hours) but now it's not so critical. I go out on some weekends and party but stay in on the weekdays. I keep to myself and this still gets to me every now and then but it helps that I'm not severly depressed from overtraining anymore. I'm starting to accpet myself and definitely look alot more muscular than I ever have. I just hope I can keep this up for most of my life.

My major problem now is trying to break my routines and get use to the fact that I won't always be able to workout at the same time. Sometimes I'll just have to go when I can go.

I've come along way in a year and a half and I've only been doing it right for about 4 or 5 months. I've still got along way to go and a lot to learn. I think I can handle it though, and won't give up for awhile if all goes well.

That's all I can think of right now. Like I said, I think I'm kinda unique in my reasons but not really I guess. A lot of people start training because of insecurities I guess but usually they are hefty or skinny. I was really neither but perceived myself as hefty. I still got that hope too that maybe if I keep training that women will end up throwing themselves at me and I won't have to try.

Here's to hoping.

Well, it's early again and here I am waiting to go workout. I feel pretty good today considering I didn't do much over the weekend. It feels better when I'm not idle.

I'm one of those people who has gotten use to routines. I know exactly how my day will unwind during the week. I've got it all planned out and thats not a good thing. I lack spontaneity which makes me not that interesting of a person during the week. I'm waiting for to meet someone who might change me back to the way I use to be. Until then I guess I'll just keep trying to better myself and my body. 

Today's an A day on Rippetoe. I'm probably going to do HST after this since spring break is coming up and I can do the SD then. I think its going to be a good workout and I'll let you know how it goes afterward.

Talk to yalls later

Well, I've decided to start my blog. First time trying something like this so we'll see how it goes. I think it will me help me stay focused and get through any rough patches. Plus it helps to have some encouragement and knowing people might be watching me.

Right now I'm about to finish up Rippetoe's. It went pretty well and I spent a good 3 months on it. I've hit my limits and reset alot without much improvement in weight but I can really see a difference in form. I like that.

I'm trying to figure out what I want to do next. I think I'd like to try HST but I don't feel like deconditioning for a week. I'll probably end up going with the 5x5 for some more strength.

I've only been working out the right way since a little bit before I started Rippetoe though I had been working out for 9 months before that. I was really naive in my knowledge though and did too much iso at to high of a frequency. I ended up overtraing for a long time.

This is just a little bit about me and I'll let yall in on some more background later. Right now I'm getting ready to go to the gym. Just finishing up on my lifts making sure I've hit the wall. I'll post how it went later.

Red

Well, I felt pretty crappy towards the beginning.

I work out early in the morning, so I usually take 300-400 mg of caffeine before I work out but even this couldn't get me amped.

I think I'm beginning to overtrain. I've becomed very sensitive to my mood after working out. If I start to get moody or depressed, I know I've hit the wall. I'm not feeling all that great mentally right now.

It did get better towards the end though. I'm on Rippetoe and it was a B day so was squat, military, and pendlay. I've also thrown in the accesory workouts (chins and dips) and added some of my own (curls and skulls on opposing days). Did this so I could have some higher reps with more focus. Seriously my arms don't grow.

Anyways, thats how my workout went. Oh yeah, the protein shake with oats and the 2 banana's I had afterwards were the sh** as always.