sugapablo’s BodyBlog

Watching the Layne Norton videos, he mentioned he does a 6 week bulk, followed by a two week cut.  I’ve been bulking for over a year now, gaining 28 pounds (138-166), but I’ve noticed I’m getting a bit of a Buddha belly.

So I figured I’d go an a two week "mini cut".  Basically lower my cals a bit, and lower my carb intake.  I figured I just want to see what happens.  Hopefully I can get the body fat down a bit, then I can go back to bulking and getting huge. 

Well I’ve been spending the past week here at the beach at Ocean City, MD (no sign of SeaSiren anywhere), and needless to say, my diet has been less than optimal.  I don’t have a scale, myotape, or calipers here, so I’ll have to wait until I get home here tomorrow night to see what kind of damage I’ve done.  I don’t think it’s too bad actually, but I just can’t wait to get back to my own kitchen and gym (my gym is my basement).

I’m at a hotel here, so I don’t have a kitchen.  I’m craving a nice vanilla protein shake!  I’m surviving on all the crap one finds on the boardwalk.  I have some Green’s & Whey bars, but still……I don’t see how people live on this heavy, fried crap (although I used to as a kid).

Gotta get back on the horse here.  Re-double (if not triple) my efforts and make sure the next time I come back here, I’ve got some new definition to show off on the beach! 

Well, it’s July first, so I woke the wife up early and had her snap some pics and measure me.

Measurements showed about a half inch increase on everything, except for chest (which went down *grrrr*) and waist (which went down).  Body fat held at around 17.5%.

In general, I think I’ve plateaued in terms of weight, so I need to go back to FitDay.com and add probably around 500 more calories a day.  I hope I can do it.  It’s hard eating this many clean calories per day.  But I’m obviously using them all.

Photos up in the progress area.

Well, I’m recouping this week.  Left shoulder and arm are a bit off and I have an annoying cold, so this is probably a rest week.

On the plus side though, I weighed in at 159 lbs this morning and my body fat remained 17.5%.  So I’m guessing I gained some muscle mass since last weigh-in, so that’s always nice. 

I’m projecting I probably will have to take the whole week off to get back into 100% shape, so hopefully I’ll get back in the game on Monday.

I HATE not lifting!

Ok, it’s a minor injury, but it’s there.  My teres minor (part of the rear delts/rotator cuff) is sore and a bit inflamed.

Unfortunately for me, my stomach does not handle anti-inflammatories.  Doc gave me a prescription for Mobic, which is supposedly easier on the stomach than ibuprofen, but I was ridin’ the thunderbucket pretty hard last night. 

I’m taking today off completely and hoping to get everything healed up with alternating hot and cold packs by Monday.

For this doesn’t really hurt too badly.  I could  lift, but I don’t want to do any more damage.  I just want it to heal up so I can get back into the groove.  I HATE being sidelined!

Well, today I set another personal best.  A 255 lb. Deadlift.  It felt great!  I’m definitely getting stronger, I’m setting personal bests in almost every compound exercise I do.

I wish the Myotape and calipers would agree.  My muscle growth does not seem to be proportionate to my strengh.  My diet seems good, so I suppose I’ll just have to give it some more time.  Everyone thinks I do look bigger though.  I think I do too.  I guess perhaps my wife’s measurements of me could be off month to month.

And perhaps the greatest benefit to all this bodybuilding is that I feel good.  You have to understand that I haven’t felt good in years.  Always sick.  Always tired.  On top of that, suffering from some psychological challenges.  But with the clean diet, the lifting, pushing myself (and yes, with the help of some happy meds), I’ve been feeling better than I have in years!

Three colds came into this house over the past couple months (brought in by my wife and daughter).  I didn’t catch one of them!  I don’t think I’ve ever been able to do that.  Maybe skipping one, but never three!

I’ve learned a lot here.  Still learning more.  I don’t know what else to say, except to just smile and click "Save and Exit>>"  

Broke my personal best yet again this morning, pulling a 240 pound deadlift.  Felt great!  And yet, again today, I couldn’t do one complete wide-grip pull-up.

Is that normal?  How come I can pull that much weight off the ground, I can bench and squat more than my bodyweight, but I can’t do a single wide-grip pull-up?

Anyways, still stoked about the deadlift, so I won’t let it bug me too much today. 

Another mini-milestone in the odyssey I’ve undertaken here.  For the first time in my life, I’ve bench pressed more than my weight.

I weigh around 152-155 lbs.  Today I got over my plateau and got one rep of 160 lbs.

Again, this won’t break touch many of the other BodySpace members personal bests, but considering I started last year benching 65 lbs., I’m thrilled!  Tangible, quantifiable results!  Henry Rollins was right, the iron is a great friend.  She never lies to you.  When you do good, she lets you know it.  And she makes you earn it!

P.S.  I weighed my bars, and after adding their weight to my deadlifts, and adding a little bit more, I was able to get my deadlift up to 225 lbs.

Ok, for everyone else here, a 200 pound deadlift isn’t impressive, but for my skinny ass, pullin’ a 200 pounder today for the first time was a big accomplishment for me.  I’m stoked!
A journey of a thousand miles, ya know…

P.S.  Anyone know what a 6′ standard bar weighs?  Because it was 200 pounds in plates.  I never count the bar since I don’t know how much it weighs.

I just got back from Dick’s in Homestead and they had dumbbell racks, two tier, nice sized, that they were trying to get rid of.

Normally, $99, they had them for $4.93. I wasn’t planning on getting hex dumbbells today, but I bought the rack at that price. (I was pricing them because I want to get a set of hex dumbbells.)

They have one left, floor model, but it’s in good shape. They we’re just "two years old" the guy said and they were clearing it our for new inventory.