My Jettisoned Ponderings

I’m always game for trying new supplements, but I’ve really got mixed opinions on this one. First, give yourself plenty of time to let it sit in the water and dissolve. This is just something you need to do for the different types of aminos, especially Leucine. Eventually it’ll all blend, but don’t try to shake it up for 10 seconds and hope it’ll be smooth, as I found out the first time I tried it. The flavor is also terrible, in my opinion. Even using 10+ ounces of water per scoop yields a flavor like that of chewable kid’s tylenol. Today I mixed two scoops in 20oz of water for my workout. By the time I was an hour into it and had sipped on a little more than half the bottle I’d had enough and my stomach was letting me know it, too. I think I’ll have to see about finding some other grape flavored beverage to mix this into, be that grape juice, sugar free kool-aid, I don’t know. Just in water it’s no good unless you liked poppin those tylenols like candy as a kid and wish to revisit that flavorful experience in liquid form. Now as for performance, it works great. I’m a fan of beta-alanine and definitely all up for as many aminos as I can get. It’s a decent blend and I do like the way my body responds to it. Just have to figure out some way to get past that flavor and have it not tear up my stomach since I do not like to lift with much food in me… "Juicy Grape", eh? Yeah, I beg to differ.

It’s a bittersweet thing. Back day was Saturday and I really pushed it a bit on a few sets. Bumped up the pulldowns, bent dumbell rows, etc. and held a lot more reps for a second or two. Last night doing some shoulders by the end I was feeling my traps start to tighten a bit from the agonistic use. This morning I’m really feeling it in the medial/lower heads and abit at the origin points of my lats. I haven’t felt this sore for a good while, so hopefully I can take it as a sign that my body is responding and trying to grow. This morning I woke up to my alarm in the exact same place I fell asleep last night. Gonna rest up a little before this evening and enjoy going out for a nice cheat meal at Cheesecake Factory with my fiance for our anniversary!

Didn’t really plan on it, but after my first three sets a friend mentioned he’d failed miserably to bench 275. I’d already done 3 sets, so I figured I may as well see if I could do it. Previous sets were 135×10, 185×8, and 205×6. Normally I’d go 225 and shoot for 4 reps, but I was feeling pretty good so I went ahead and put the 275 on, cranked up the music, and managed to push out 1 good rep (almost got stuck half way up) without arching my back off the bench. Getting it up was slow but I needed very very minimal help just keeping the bar straight. Felt really good… It’s nice to have an idea where my max is now instead of just going off of projections. I’ll be quite curious to try going in and shooting for my 1 rep after a couple warmups sometime. I’ll be very excited the day I get 300 up!

Courtney’s been having these "power pancakes" for a couple meals a day in her diet. Actually, it’s extremely simple… 5 egg whites and some quick oats, then some flavor be it sugar free syrup, cinnamon, whatever works. Conveniently, 1 packet of oatmeal is the perfect amount so alas I’ve become quite addicted to them. Yes, I’m getting a bit more sugars from using flavored packets, but my nutritional needs are still well above hers. I haven’t even cut back that much on the carbs, but it’s been enough to be gradually leaning out the last month or so. So this afternoon I made up a few of ‘em, ate one, and sliced up the others to keep in the fridge for later. Since the variety pack of oatmeal I get has a few unflavored packets, I’m tempted to see if mixing in a scoop of whey in it will work for flavoring and not mess up the consistency much. Might need an extra egg white or two, I dunno… That time will come soon enough. For now at least, it’s nice to be able to spend just a little time in the kitchen and have some snacks taken care of for a little while. I still need to meet up with Doneker sometime and get a better handle on my diet overall, get some measurements taken and calipered, etc. to benchmark and better track and changes from here on.

I’m really getting fed up with having to be at work at 6am. This is the seventh week now that I’ve had to do this, and as far as I know this week will thankfully be my last. I don’t mind being up at that hour, but what I don’t like is having to go to work, get burned out more or less sitting all day, then have less drive for the gym by the time both my fiance and I are available. The training has been inconsistent, and even just day to day the energy levels are about as predictable as the stock market. I’ve still been able to make progress, which is good, but I don’t feel like it’s been adequite. I’m just counting down days until this week is over. Next week I’ll be able to hit the gym first thing in the morning, then maybe get a little cardio or some extra time in later in the evenings if I feel up to it, but at least I can hit the gym refreshed. I need to refine my diet a little more and get it more consistent. An easy way to do this would be to have more time in the mornings to prepare my meals for the day. Again, not practical now, but should be so next week. I have a mental goal of where I want my physique to be by the end of summer and am very much looking forward to having a schedule that will permit this to be accomplished a little easier.

So technically I’ve been on this lifting routine for about three weeks now. The only change was taking a two day split and making it into a three day since the workouts were getting long and work schedules weren’t really allowing for that much time. The last three days I’ve really had mixed thoughts on how my body is responding. I know that I tend to not respond well to low rep heavy training. So this time around I’ve been shooting for only one set heavy, but the rest in the 8-12 range for the most part. Chest days are really irritating me now. What I was able to lift controlled and for more reps three weeks ago I’m now unable to do. I’ve had to back off the weight a bit, but I’m trying to make up for it now with slower reps and longer tension time. This seems to be a problem only for chest as the rest of the routine seems to be making some small but steady gains. I don’t know if it’s just a chest thing or what… This happened before when I did mostly 4-8 rep sets and I lost size and strength. I might just need to change my reps for it or something if this keeps up because I’m feeling a little bit weaker each chest day. Arms, legs, back, all the rest is fine, just the pecs that aren’t liking it. Perhaps I need to go back and review my past start/finish lifting stats from my other routines and take a closer look at what seemed to really yield the best gains. I dunno… I just know that I’m frustrated. Sure, body composition changes and we’re constantly learning about our bodies and what works best, but still…

Yesterday was no good. I woke up a little late, but had a chance to get down my usual shake and oatmeal before heading off to work (since I have to be there at 6am with my current schedule). I’d gotten a voice mail on Sunday from my bank from the fraud department. It was late when I got the message, so I figured I’d call Monday since it would be a business day. On my first break at work I ran to the cafeteria to snag my new favorite addiction, a yogurt partait. Usually about 1 cup strawberry yogurt with about 1/2 cup fresh fruit (usually strawberries and blueberries) and 1/2 cup granola. It’s the perfect amount of food to last me until I can get a good lunch. Went to the register and my card is declined. Lovely. Thankfully I had other means of payment and still got to eat, but I didn’t have enough time to call the bank. Lunch came and I ended up being on the phone for about 20 minutes of my 30 given minutes. Got the issue figured out and a new card on the way, but at the expense of a good meal. I had some whey in my shaker and only had enough time left to go mix it up and head back to work. More or less, that’s all the food I had in me until I got off work at 2:30 and ran for some asian food to get some rice, chicken, broccoli, etc. in me. It was too late though, I had been crashing on energy for a couple hours already. I didn’t feel hungry anymore, but found myself tired and needing a nap most of the afternoon. My fiance got home and I had a brief surge of energy from the nap only to totally crash again about an hour later. Ended up passing out around 8pm and pretty much slept straight through until my alarm woke me up again this morning. It doesn’t help that generally speaking I’m dieting with leaning out in mind, but ugh… There’s that fine line where you have just the right amount of fuel to run on, but I dropped under that yesterday. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen too often since it also resulted in absolutely no energy to go to the gym. Today I’m feeling much more revived and nourished, so I’m looking forward to the gym later to make up for it a little bit and get back on track. I’m really liking the results I’m seeing in definition and want to keep it up through the rest of the season!

Ok, it’s official. Half my wardrobe no longer fits right, especially shirts and boxers. My shoulder and upper torso are now filling my shirts that they’re either cramped in the sleves, or if I raise my arm the shirt itself is now too short at the waist. Ugh. It’s a good thing, but kinda sucks ’cause I have a number of shirts with graphics or logos that I really like that I’m not gonna be able to wear anymore! I guess it all comes with growth… Funny thing is that I’m ending up handing them down to my fiance since they seem to fit her perfectly now! As for the boxers, eh, I’m having problems with my thighs filling the legs, and I’ve had two pairs tear. Again, sucky but for good reason. I guess I need to go shopping this weekend. Mental note: Get more stretchy attire! (Uh, no spandex though)

If you’re like me and really need some uptempo techno to drive you through your workout, one of my favorite DJs has released a mix that is perfect! The mix titled "Unbalanced Release" end is available here: http://www.djkristoff.com/mixes.html

Last night was the first day of changing up my routine just a bit. Basically, taking a routine that was a 2 day program and tweaking it to make it a 3 day. I really liked how it felt, and I haven’t had a full stiff back pump like I did last night for quite some time. When it came to bent dumbell rows, I really liked that I was seeing more striations in my delts and arms. I know it’s the first place that I lean out, but I still have a long way to go before I’m where I want to be, for now at least. I’m still experimenting with the diet and not doing any cardio. I obviously want to retain as much muscle as possible, but I really need to figure out my food intake and what’s going to get me results as a more direct result of it. I’m not going full on minimal carbs, but I have cut back on them significantly. The timing of when I eat them is also an issue. Yeah, I know that at breakfast and pre/post workout are the most ideal times because they’re more likely to be burned off or used for recovery instead of being stored. However, I really don’t like to eat many carbs that late in the day (like on days I’m not leaving the gym until 9 or 10 at night). I dunno… I try to get the majority of them in early in the day before noon. They’re generally minimal, too. I get very little refined sugars, and try to go for things like oatmeal, granola, yogurt, fruit, etc. I guess the biggest thing is that I really need to find the time and resources to get more familiar with the nutritional value of other foods on more of a per volume basis. The bb.com food database is great, but unfortunately I don’t have the option of taking a food scale everywhere and calculating the nutritional value of everything on my plate. In a way, I don’t want to either. I’d like to be able to guestimate. Back last season of Biggest Loser, I always liked the simple challenges of having to guess the calories of various meals just by looking at them. I want to get better at that and in turn be better at gauging when to eat what so that I get the best out of my workouts and don’t end up running low on fuel throughut the day or overnight. I guess bottom line is that I love the results I’m seeing, but I’m about at the end of my present knowledge and need to really refine things more in order to be able to take things to the next level.