thorra’s BodyBlog

-I was in the low carb zone all day today.  Not even a kitchen full of pizza, french fries, and grilled pineapple could tempt me.

Well, alright, the pineapple almost got me, but by the time I went to grab one, the kids had already devoured them (little meanies!  And after all the hard work I went through bringing them into this world-er, with a little help from my wife, of course!!)

-"I don’t know why it is we are in such a hurry to get up when we fall down.  You might think we would lie there and rest for awhile."

Max Eastman

-Chest tomorrow.

Oy Vey!

Today’s a low carb day and it’s going better than my last low carb day. 

It could have something to do with the fact that I have the house to myself, but I’ll keep that theory to myself.

No cravings.

No snacking (Really!)

My carb source so far has been 1/2 of a sweet potato.  I was planning on finishing the other half with dinner (steak) but might just try to go without it.

We’ll see.

It was not my night for sleeping, but I still found myself up before the buttcrack of dawn with too much energy.

After I got myself caffeinated, I spent my time getting the kids ready to go, then it was time for me to go.

Weighted Hyperextensions

+10 (14,12,12,12,12,12)

Kept the weight light and held a 2 SCOOBY-DOOBY-DOO count pause at the top of the movement.

V-UPS

(20,20,18,16,16,16)

Finished off the abs with three sets of planks and then hit the elliptical (64 minutes, 9 miles, 2150 cals burned)

For some reason, nothing looked good for music today.  After half-heartedly searching through my options, I narrowed my choices down to Metallica or Nirvana, eventually settling with Nirvana. 

On a completely irrelevant side note, it kind of sucks having all the kids gone.  I like getting rid of them in two’s, but all at once makes the house a little too quiet.

That, and I don’t have anyone to be a bad influence to.

FIN

-Ow!  Ow, Ow, and one more OW!!  And in between the ow’s, I’m thanking my lucky stars that it’s so darn easy to get my quads to the point where I say-OW!! 

-When I’m not saying OW or thanking my lucky stars, I’m thinking about this darn twinge in my knee.  I think I’ve finally found my excuse to pass up on squats.  I’ll have to wait and see.

-A wise man can sometimes learn from a fool- as soon as it can be determined which is which.

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-Cardio tomorrow.  Maybe some ab work.  Maybe. 

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Strayed from the usual blah-blah-blah’s today and went with a chicken sandwich for dinner. 

Decided I wanted it on a bagel, but my choices were limited (Whole wheat or cinnamon raisin).

Surprisingly, chicken and melted cheese on a cinnamon raisin bagel is not half bad.

Pre Workout/Breakfast: Water, oats, yogurt, apple, whey, cinnamon, glutamine.

Workout: Water, whey, dextrose, cinnamon.

Post Workout: Burritos, greens.

Meal 4: Cardboard pellets in a water/whey/cinnamon mix.

Snack: Apple Cheesecake Bar.

Meal 4: Chicken Sandwich.

Meal 5: Boiled eggs and almonds.

Meal 6/Good Night Shake: Water, cottage cheese, peanut butter, whey, glutamine.

Good times!

I took my time getting out of bed this morning, trying to get myself motivated for squats.

Oh hell.  Who am I kidding?  I was trying to think up an excuse to skip today’s workout:

-I don’t have my lucky Underoos

-I have children that need annoying

-I heard squats make your head look big

-Boy Meets World is on

-WHAAAAAA! I JUST DON’T WANNAAA!

Sadly, the idea of going down to the basement and torturing myself for an hour and a half was just too good to pass up.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I expected.  Not as much strength as during my bulking days, but much better than last week.

ATG Squat

Bar (20)

135 (10)

185 (8)

205 (5)

215 (5,4)

205 (5)

200 (5)

185 (5,5)

135 (15,12)

I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get past five reps as I began decreasing the weight, but my knee started bugging me all the way back down to 135.

*SUPERSET * SUPERSET*

Bench Press (Close Grip)

185 (8,6)

165 (7,6)

Cable Press Downs

45 (12,10,10,10)

*END SUPERSET *  END SUPERSET*

Cable Press Downs (Reverse Grip)

40 (12,12,12,12)

Cardio was 25 minutes of levels 12-16 elliptical (3.3 miles, 1350 cals burned).

Some stretching.  Some tripping on the way up the stairs.  VOILA! 

FIN

-For a minute there, I didn’t think I was going to make it through the enitre day.  My energy levels just dropped after supper, right around the time I was thinking about dropping all caffeinated teas for a couple of weeks.

(Message received.  Loud and clear.)

Might have to re-think that brilliant idea.

-On a happier note, my shoulders, biceps and traps are all aching right now.

-If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again — to get somebody else to do it

Every day I get more and more inspirational!

-Quads and triceps tomorrow.

Just going with the flow.

Pre Workout/Breakfast: Water,oats, yogurt, apple, whey, glutamine, cinnamon.

Workout: Water, dextrose, whey, cinnamon.

Post Workout: Burritos, leafy greens of collard variety.

Meal 4: Wabbit food in water/whey/cinnamon mix.

Snack: Root Beer Licorice Twists.

Meal 5: Grilled chicken, sweet potato. Apple pie perhaps.

Meal 6: Boiled eggs and almonds.

Meal 7/Good Night Shake: Water, cottage cheese, peanut butter, whey, glutamine, cinnamon.

Finished meal 4 and snack about an hour ago.  I’m still debating about the after dinner pie (no, really, I am.)  Guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

I had another decent night of sleeping and was tempted to extend it well into this lazy Sunday afternoon, but luckily I remembered what happened the last time I tried that (children and water guns can be so cruel!)

So, inspired by the fact that I could return in 15 hours, I twisted, turned, flapped, flailed and finally managed to extricate myself from the covers and drag my sorry butt out of bed (I’m an occasional tosser and turner).

Nice workout today.  Not much strength (except with shrugs) and scraping the bar across my chin more than once on presses kind of sucked (just a little bit!?!), but at least I walked away sore, tired, and pumped up in my shoulders, biceps and traps.

Standing Barbell Presses

Bar (20)

95 (12)

105 (10)

115 (9)

125 (5,4)

115 (10)

95 (10,10)

Bar (15)

Upright Rows

95 (10,10,9)

75 (12,10,10)

Lots of holding at the top of the movement once I dropped down to 75

Side Laterals

15 (12,12,10)

10 (14,12,12,10,10)

After a few sets of doing these standing upright, I did a few sets leaning out and a few sets leaning in.

Barbell Curls (Wide Grip)

75 (12,10,10,8)

Ow.  I can never get comfortable doing wide grip, which explains why I rarely do them.

Dumbbell Curls (Drop Sets)

25 (8,8,7,7,7)

10 (10,10,10,9,9)

5 (12,12,12,11,10)

Sadly, I had no pink dumbbells lying around to complete the humiliation.

Barbell Shrugs

275 (10)

325 (8)

375 (6,5,3)

325 (8,8,8)

275 (16,14,12)

Dumbbell Shrugs

90 (12,12,12,10,10)

No cardio today.  I want my legs to be well rested so they could suck with enthusiasm at squats tomorrow.

FIN

-Nice and relaxing cardio day today. 

-I weighed in at 206.  Cold measurements upon waking, are consistent still, which I’m very happy about.  My measurements when pumped are down from the height of my bulk, but not as much as previous years.

Various methods of calculating bodyfat range from 8.4 (Jackson/Pollock 7) to 12.9 (Durnin/Womersley).  I’m comfortable going with an 11 or lower, but will err on the upside and go with 12.  Better safe than sorry.

-Ow!  Little metal slivers suck.

-He who laughs last thinks slowest.

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-Shoulders, biceps and traps tomorrow.