Takin’ Hits to the BodyBlog

Well, crud! It’s back to the drawing board. As I always say, life happens. Lately, it’s been happening all at the same time. So many things have been going on in the last 3 months that my fitness has REAAAALLLYYY been lacking and I have been doing well just to get more than 5 hours sleep on any night. Weight is up, motivation is down, comfort food has been consumed. Here’s the skinny… all things have built to this in the last three weeks; We have purchased a house, cleaned / renovated said house, moved from our rental, cleaned the rental, prepped a legal case against our landlord, spoken with lawyers, purchased appliances, prepped and taken a martial arts test followed by a 2.5 hour combat Judo seminar, taught two classes, help facillitate 2 research studies, injured my left knee, left bicep, right toe, lower back, upper neck, and worked regular (sometimes long) hours and attend a statistics class with homework. I am tired! Needless to say, the thing that has suffered most is my workout. So, on a daily basis, I try to get back on the horse. To make things worse, I think I need to drop the gym due to expense and new mortgage payments. Hopefully I will be able to do things at home, but motivation is in short supply right now.

As you can probably see, I haven’t written in a long time. (2months) Now why would I do such a thing you ask?? Simply put… Life Happens. Anyone who has read my previous blogs, knows the ills of my job. It got worse. It actually got to a point where I had taken everything home from my cube so that if I needed to walk out the door, I could. It was effecting me that much. My sleep, weight and workouts were all fluctuating. Everything was hosed. But I am happy to report that I started a new job and a rival company a week ago. So at least that stress has been diminished greatly. Some other things have happened to make working out more difficult. Within the last month, I have successively Injured my lower back (Ju-jitsu), my left shoulder (lifting and Aikido), and now bruised the bone around my left elbow (Laid the motorcycle down on pavement). All of which negatively affect working out. Thus, at the physicians request (orders) I am resting, lifting lightly, and doing cardio…. wheee. My weight is up, motivation is down, food intake is up (comfort eating) and endurance is lacking. I am resetting my weight and BFP goals and starting over. Back to the struggle. Wish me luck on the hard road back. Stay tuned.

so far so good with the new plan. I am not exhausted like I was and the weight is dropping. The weight loss is MUUuuuuuuuuch slower, but it does seem to be steady and regular. Only about 1 to 1.5 pounds a week in the last two weeks with the new 4 day split. (slowly but surely right)

Last night was my first Ju-jitsu test. I won’t know if I passed until next week, but I hear from the upper belts in the class that I looked very strong and focused. I was pleased with my own performance, so that’s the main thing I guess. Work is going on as usual which doesn’t leave time for much else, but I still keep going.

Next week will be the true test of the new schedule as I am starting a new study that has 124 implant subjects with 3 per subject. So we’re probably talking about 12 hour days again for several weeks. That will be the serious test of the new split. If I can make it through that without collapsing, I will know I have the right mix.  Now if I could just get my damn eating under control…….

In my last post I made reference to overtraining http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/shane10.htm and some of the problems that manifested because of it. Well, after taking that 7 days off I needed to start fresh with a new plan of attack.

I made the decision that I would need to cut / combine my lifiting schedule to accomplish a 4 day split. The reason for this is that 3 days of the week I have martial arts training and having more than that would be suicide. (again)

So the new split is Sun. (Chest / Bi’s), Mon. (Aikido), Tues. (Back / Tri’s), Wed. (Ju-jitsu / Judo), Thurs. (Shoulders / Forearms), Fri. (Legs), Sat. (Aiki-Ju-jitsu 2-3 hours). I know… I know… that isn’t really resting to most people, but the martial arts classes are mainly cardio, not resistance. Plus, at the end of 2 cycles (every 8-9 weeks) I will take a week off and do nothing but rest. I figure, this will give me the recovery time I need without compromising my gains.

Thus far it seems to be going well at one week out. I wasn’t as tired last week and my weight has started to drop again. I reset both my weight and B.F. goals for October of this year and have a 1 week vacation scheduled to coincide with my time off from lifting to rest and not have to worry. Hopefully this will propel me forward to my goals…. of course everything is always a work in progress.

Ok… so I haven’t written in 2 months… naughty. But here’s the current event scoop. In the last month, I’ve been completely burnt. Work sucks and has been more exhausting than normal. Overtime, special projects, ass kissing, new technology, training, etc. All part of the norm for a 2% raise. Anyway, so I thought that was the reason for my sleepless nights and irritability. (It was probably a contributing factor) Then there’s the trouble with my SO (significant Other) I love her to death and probably always will, but while she is brilliant in her own right, she is not atheletic or healthy at all. For those who are dedicated to improving themselves, especially physically, being with someone who isn’t that way and doesn’t fully understand can be brutal. Without the home support it makes motivation that much harder. It also really puts a strain on the physical aspect of the relationship when the other person is gaining weight and fat and losing their shape and having less energy. Attraction begins to fade fast! Probably also a contributing factor to my loss of sleep.  When things like (life) happen, it is common for people like myself to bury themselves even deeper in their workouts. Pushing themselves harder and farther than normal. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Working out, driving myself forward at a rediculous pace. 7 days a week, more weight, more cardio, different exercises…. then one day as I was feeling like I was going to freak out… a lifting buddy says "dude what’s up…. you look like shit and you’ve been pissy for weeks?" My lifting buds are sensitive like that.  Well, I told him that my weight was going up no matter what I did, I felt stressed all the time, losing sleep, craving comfort food, bipolar, etc. He then asked me one question… How long has it been since you took a day off from working out?

After looking back at my schedule, I realized that I hadn’t taken time out since my cutting cycle began… you know last November 2006?!? Ooops! Can you say overtraining? I knew you could boys and girls. Great! Now I have to do what every lifter hates…. take a forced break from the thing that helps me cope with everything else. Dang. So I did just that… I forced myself to take a 7 day respite to recoup….. I researched and talked to people during that time and developed a game plan to prevent this from happening again. <see my next post>

Hello all. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but it has been a really bipolar couple weeks. A couple posts ago I was saying that we finished that huge project at work so I should be getting back to normal with my workout… Oopps! Boy did I speak too soon. I was denied a day off after that project due to a lack of coverage at work. Well, like clockwork, by wednesday of that week, I felt like crapola and thursday was a sick day. I told them I needed rest. To top things off I had a class coming that weekend (5 hours per day) and had to double up on the workout 1 day to get everything in. BAD Idea when you’re maxing out. I tweaked my back doing squats. GREAT! That’s what I needed. So I spent the next two days nursing that and sounding like an old person every time I moved. But I kept the routine on sunday anyway.

I am still hurtin now, but the workout continues as this is the last heavy week before a month of strict cutting again. Man cardio is the pits. I am also trying a new preload mix… Product is HorsePower. Holy Crap. That stuff makes me feel like my skin is on fire, but it seems to work. My strength continues to increase weekly, by larger increments now that I’m getting sleep. (Funny how that works huh). Now we have to see how things go next week during the endurance / cutting phase.

For those who know me… I also picked up my birthday present this week (a month early) and I can’t stop smiling.

Well, yesterday we finished the project at work with our 6th 12 hour day in a row. Everyone was crispy around the edges. It’s amazing how people say ‘I’m tired! I just went home last night and fell right to sleep." Then they either look at you like a crazy person or just have no concept when you say; "Me too, right after my 2 hour work-out." I don’t know why people just don’t get what it means to be dedicated to being a healthier person. Today I actually had to convince someone to leave work and go to the ER when she was having chest pain and throbbing down the left arm. (For those in non-cardiac fields, those can be signs of a heart attack) What is that? Why am I considered a slacker when I don’t want to sacrifice the rest of my life for a job that I don’t really like but just do, because it supports me financially. (Not even that well….)

Anyway, to the topic at hand…. as most know (who follow my progress) I hit my weight goal last friday and then ate like a hoss over the weekend. Now I am changing over to try and add more functional muscle. Part of that change was to add Creatine to my supplement mix in the hopes of being able to increase strength, endurance and recovery.  I am a minimalist at heart, wanting to train as naturally as possible, so I do not follow the recommended preload for creatine, but go straight into the normal dosing guidelines and on the light end for my weight at that.  My current mix is now:

Glucosamine, Ginko, and NO2 in the morning on empty stomach.

Glucosaming, Ginko, and Glutamine at mid-day.

NoX-Plod and VasoCREE (Muscle Fortress Creatine) as pre-load

Glutamine and multi-vitamin just before bed to reduce excretion.

This has only started within the last 4 days (remember after minimal sleep or recovery for a week straight) and so far I’ve noticed about a 5-10% gain in strength and less soreness. This could be attributed to the natural strength curve, but I don’t think so with my current level of physical exhaustion. We’ll see soon.

As the title describes, work is once again getting in the way of life. This week we are working 12 hour days trying to finish the current "important project". In reality, someone elses problem has become our emergency. I haven’t let it stop me, but it has slowed me down noticably. I have to lift after work which means I get home about 9:30pm and have to be back at work by 6:45am. As many people can tell you, working out that close to bed will affect your sleep if you can’t turn off the endorphins. In my case, my mind starts to dwell on the anxiety of work and certain individuals that are causing me stress, and the next thing I know, the clock says 12:00am and I have 5 1/2 hours until it’s screaming at me. CRAP! I have to relax. Yeah, like that works. Then it becomes a viscious day to day cycle that turns you into a physical /emotional puddle by friday. I began to wonder if other lifters experience this and if we are more succeptable to mental stress because of changing body chemicals, supplements, and the normal stressors that everyone faces? I wish there were answers to all the question of my mind. But then I would be an all knowing diety. No help there.

No I am not talking about vampirism. Although, how cool would that be? Supernatural powers, sleep all day, up all night, no aging or sickness, regenerative powers. Sure there is the blood drinking, but is that really any worse than some of the protein shakes I’ve had in the past? I think not.

Anyway, the Hunger to which I refer is the constant craving for food of all kinds when I have not slept and have switched to my heavy lifting cycle. Today ends the 5th day of 11 or more hours of work per day. I have tried to stick to the diet, but I have a constant nagging hunger all the hours of the day. Especially carbs of course. I have been attempting to increase protein for muscle regeneration and growth but when you only sleep 5 or less hours a night, added food of any type just makes you feel FFS. (For those who don’t know, FFS is an acronym my friends came up with for Fat, Flat, and Slow) I have still kept the lifting routine, even if it meant sacrificing more sleep but I wonder at what point does it not do any good because your body can’t recoup. I am still trying to lose weight and am down to the last 5 pounds and less than 2 weeks to go. (The fluctuations are killing me.) Since I missed my Aikido class on monday (damn job) I am going to Ju-jitsu tonight. I will lift for the next two nights in the hopes of making a difference to finish out the week. Even metabolics aren’t helping at this point. I am so tired. I just hope this isn’t severely affecting my progress.

In this case, the "Pain" refers to the Pain in the Ass that is my job. Last week I started a new piece to my routine by starting Ju-jitsu classes in addition to my normal Aikido class. This also meant that I would be working out in some form or another 7 days a week, risking over training, but possibly speeding up the transformation. Now, 1 week into it, I am at work for 13 hours. I have long missed the class tonight and by the time I get out of here and to the gym, I wont get home until around 10pm. Having of course to be up at 5:30 and in by 6:45 to start surgery again. My lift is going to suck. My sleep and recovery are going to be sheisty at best, and worst of all, tomorrow I will be the crabbiest biotch on this or any other planet. The pangs of hypoglycemia are not helping either. The real problem is that I have to go tonight because I can’t this weekend and I have a goal that has to be met. Now that I think about it, I will also have to suck down some protein before bed…. damnit! Which means my weight will be off when I wake up in 6hours. AAAAAARRRRHRHRHHHHH!