thael’s BodyBlog

Wooo hoo vascularity!

Ok so last night I just went and did some cardio. 1 minute fast walk, 10 minute jog, 1 minute fast walk, 10 minute bike, 1 minute fast walk, 10 minute jog, 1 minute fast walk.

Total of 30 minutes of good low intensity cardio with 4 minutes of warm-up/cooldown periods.

However, the best part of yesterday happened at the mirror. It was either in the bathroom beforehand, or at the gym, but either way I saw my first abdominal vein. It’s small and actually underneath my abs. The increasing visibility of the vein that runs from my hand through my forearm, up my bicep and into my shoulder, along with this new vein gives me hope about my future vascularity. Especially the ab one because the most cut looking guys I see have incredible vascularity, the best ones I’ve seen are vascular in their abs too.
Maybe I’ve got decent genetics for it after all?

It’s been a few days eh? I’ve had to take a few days off from the gym due to sickness. But I went back in tonight and it felt great to move some weight around again.

I’m still having trouble getting my appetite back. I’m not sure what it is or if I should just start forcing myself to eat more. I’m losing bodyfat but for all I know the Animal Cuts are suppressing my diet. I definitely feel like I’m (slightly) more pumped without the crashing that NO Xplode gave me. I’m pretty sure the Stak pisses off my stomach though because I tend to tear ass for the bathroom so that I can tear some more ass on the porcelain goddess.

As soon as I can get my phone fixed I’ll post some progress photos. I’m definitely looking leaner and more cut, but like I said, it’s difficult to tell what’s causing what. Is it the lack of incoming calories due to my own mental worry? Are the cuts suppressing my appetite? Are they actually causing my body to burn fat?

I know my strength has dropped the last two weeks in a row. I couldn’t finish my third set last week. (Not even halfway, despite usually completing the set and a little extra.) This week I dropped the weight 5 pounds, added two reps to every set, and then added a fourth set. (Made it to 7/10 reps.) I’m sleeping fine. I honestly think it’s my appetite.

I tried to go really hard on my lats and chest today. Not so much in weight as in focusing on muscle contraction.

We’ll see.

Sigh.

I can’t seem to get my appetite back so I’m not eating enough, which means I’m not growing much. I’m still cutting but I want to keep building muscle and it seems difficult to do. Everything does seem more solid now.

This week I haven’t been sleeping much so I find myself weaker and more easily fatigued in the gym. Most of the fat is gone off my abs and chest but there are still a few more pounds to lose.  Maybe I’m just feeling small because the illusion of size (fat) is dissipating.

I need to eat more and rest more.

Today I did notice some vascularity in my legs. My forearms have been becoming more and more vascular over the last couple months, but this is the first time I’ve noticed the large rippling veins running up the fronts of my ankles and shins.

My weight jumped up 3 pounds after the concert and partying this past weekend. Hopefully it’s just an excess of water weight/food from the Chili binge. I pushed my week back from my Bi’s N Tri’s day on. Normally today I’d do my legs and core, but I’m going to do them tomorrow and catch up on sleep tonight instead.

Better Late than Never…

Didn’t really feel a whole lotta pump in my arms while I was lifting Tuesday. Actually it felt like my right bicep wasn’t engaging on many of the lifts, but they’re both sore two days later and soreness is something I never/rarely feel in my arms. I guess that’s either good or I’m not eating enough protein.

I look like I’m losing a little water weight n such but other than that I need to hit the scale. I always weigh myself in shorts, t-shirt, boxers, socks, running shoes, and often times with my Ipod. It’s almost always the same gear though so I figure just 3-5lbs less than what the scale says. Last two times were like 164.8 and 163 even.

Tonight’s my legs/core night. I’m gonna see if my stomach acts up again. The first two nights I ended up getting a mild case of the shits about 2 hours after my workout. I think it’s from the Stak but I’m not sure. I’ll see if it happens again tonight. Could just be my body getting used to it.

Other than that - typical yellow urine, strong Sulfurous scent once in a while when I go to the bathroom or drop a bomb on my unsuspecting coworkers, but otherwise nothing spectacular to report.

I’m probably going back to Natty (save for Whey, Fish oil, and a multivitamin) after this cut unless I see some drastic changes to warrant sticking with the Animal line.

It’s late and I’m tired so I’ll keep this short.

Lot of large pills to swallow. Sucks at 4:30 in the morning. Doesn’t really get better at 11:30 or later. Wish they were smaller pills with more taken if necessary.

I ****ed up my scheduling and only took one Cuts today when I woke up. Tomorrow I’ll take one before I leave work. I’m also cutting out the second lunch. I’ll replace it if I start losing mass.
Neon color and strong mineral smell that I’ve read about are accurate from the Animal Pak. I drank roughly 100 ounces of water today and my urine was only clear once or twice. Normally after a multivitamin it’s neon once or twice and then clear the rest of the day. Either pretty strong vitamins or pretty shitty kidneys.

Biceps and Triceps got oddly pumped at the gym despite me focusing on Incline Chest movements (press, flys, cable crossovers, dips) and my Lats (width today - assisted pull-ups, lat pull-downs, rowing).

A couple hours after my workout (and preworkout Stak) I got really really cold for no reason. Uncontrollably cold. I had to pull a pair of sweats and a hoodie on over my shorts/t-shirt to keep from shivering. Not sure if it was a crash from the Stak or not. I’ll see if it happens again tomorrow.

Starting my new log/cycle tomorrow so I figured I’d blog it! WHOO! Ok, enough excitement. On with the wall-o-text.

I’ve never tried the Animal products, but after a friend recommended them to me I read several reviews and logs on the forums. I’m going to be using Animal Pak, Animal Stak, and Animal Cuts. I’d prefer Nitro to the Stak, or Test because I’ve heard they help retain muscle while cutting, but I couldn’t find them at any of the 4 GNC’s I went to between my house and work. Hopefully the two won’t be self-defeating.

Ah well, should be interesting:
1000mg Fish Body Oils - 1 pills
1x Animal Pak multivitamin - 11 pills
2x Animal Cuts metabolizer - 18 pills
1x Animal Stak mass gainer - 7 pills
4x Optimun Nutrition 100% Whey shakes per day
25g Creatine Monohydrate daily for the first 7 days, then 10-15g daily for maintenance.

I’m going to be on a 4 day split routine. It’s just been picked at and adjusted over the last few months as I’ve been re-entering the world of weightlifting. If something works better for you, that’s perfectly fine. This is what I do.

Also, I do one warm-up set of 12-20 reps with a low weight. Usually 50% of what I did for my weighted sets the week before. I just do the reps as if I were using my normal weight to get the stiffness out of my joints.

—

Monday - Chest / Upper Back
Dbell Incline Press 1×12-15 (warm-up), 3×8
V-bar Machine Rows 1×12, 3×8
Dbell Flyes 3×8
Lat Pulldowns 3×10
Pec Flys 3×10
Stiff arm Press downs 3×10
Tuesday - Biceps / Triceps
Barbell 21’s x3
Overhead Tricep Raises 3×8
Supinating Curls 3×10
Skullcrushers 3×10
Drag Curls 3×8
Split Rope Press downs 3×10
Wednesday - 1 Hour of Low Intensity Cardio
Thursday - Legs and Core (Abs/Lower Back)
Squats - 3×8
Seated Wrist Curls - 3×8-10
Dead Lift - 3×5-8
Standing Wrist Curls - 3×8-10
Leg Extensions - 3×10
Lying Leg Curls - 3×8
Cable Crunches - 3×10
Standing Calf Raises - 3×10
Crunches - 3xfailure
Seated Calf Raises - 3xfailure
Leg Raises - 3xfailure
Friday - Shoulders / Upper Back
Dbell or Military Press - 3×8
Shoulder grip pull ups - 3xfailure
Dbell Fly workout - 3×10 front, side, and rear
Lat Pull downs - 3×8
Bbell Shrugs - 3×10-12
Assisted Chins - 3xfailure
Dbell Shrugs - 3×10-12
Saturday - 1 Hour of Low Intensity Cardio

Sunday - 1 Hour of Low Intensity Cardio

—

Now note, though I have workouts listed on certain days this is not concrete. If something comes up on Monday, for instance, I’ll shift the whole week back one day. If I’m feeling particularly beat after a Legs / Core day, which is not uncommon (because I try to break myself), I’ll push Shoulders / Upper Back to Saturday and just do my cardio on Friday instead. Just listen to your body.

I tend to alternate from week to week. So if I do dbells one week, say incline dbell press, the next week I’ll probably do incline bbell bench instead.

Daily Meal Plan
This won’t be an exact meal-to-meal listing, more or less the times of my dosages.

4:30am Breakfast - 1x Animal Cuts, 1x Fish Body Oils, 2 scoops ON Shake w/ water, 10g Creatine
9am Break - 1 scoop ON Shake w/ skim
11:30am Lunch - 1x Animal Pak, Lunch
2pm Lunch - Sandwich + Apple/Orange
3:30pm Preworkout - 1 scoop ON Shake w/ water, 5g Creatine, 1x Animal Cuts
4pm Preworkout - 1x Animal Stak
5:30-6pm Postworkout - 2 scoops ON Shake w/ water, 10g Creatine
6:30-7pm Dinner, Casein (Cottage cheese, skim milk, etc)

Welcome to the Bodybuilding.com BodyBlogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!