Jettisoned Ponderings

So after evaluating things a little bit, I’ve pretty well laid out my routine for the next few weeks. Had a rude awakening this morning doing chest/back of just what I’m in for! Most routines I’ve seen say to try and use 60% of your 1 rep max to perform all five sets. Then there are a couple methods such as only doing one exercise or you could try super setting compound and isolation exercises. I tried the latter, and quite frankly it felt too easy. Sure, I got a good pump from the slow tempo of the last 5 reps, but that’s about it. Today I tried sticking to just the compound exercises only. Flat bench, incline bench, front lat pulldowns, and I would’ve done bent rows, but time didn’t allow. I’ve done plenty of isolation work in the past, so I feel that I really need to set that aside for a while and focus on the basics and compound motions more. As alluded to before, this was brought to my attention quite promptly during this morning’s workout. To date, my one rep max on flat bench is 275lbs. This puts me at doing 165lbs for 60%. One principle I am adapting is doing my first five reps on a faster count (1-0-2), and my last five reps on a slower count (6-0-2). I got through the first set…. barely. The slower tempo and eccentric contraction totally shot my arms and made stability a slight challenge. So I dropped the weight to 155 for the next set, which finished out a bit more difficult than the first. Drop the weight down to 135. At this point I basically hit failure by the 9th rep for my next 3 sets and had to rest-pause after about the seventh rep each time. The first five reps aren’t the problem. The problem is the moment I try and bring the weight down so slowly! I finished my five sets and my elbows were a bit sore, primarily where bracialis attaches. For the remaining exercises I dropped my weight down closer to 50% of my 1 rep maxes. Fatigue really sets in by the end of the fifth set when you’re only taking <60 seconds to rest between sets. Tomorrow should be quite interesting for legs…

I can tell this training is going to be very good for me, and hopefully produce some decent gains, too. I’m changing up my diet more along the lines of a moderately clean bulk. I can shed the extra no problem once I finish up the next five or six weeks, but right now I need to just focus on eating more and getting the calories up. Fortunately the carbs I like most are actually good ones, so looks like a lot more Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese are gonna be on the menu soon! Then when all else fails, more red meat and potatoes!

I’m gonna try to bulk up a little more over the next month or so, and debating how to lay out my diet. I can lean out no problem, it’s putting on the weight that’s hard. Now, of course I know there are good and poor sources of carbs, but I’m not certain which ones are the best to try and get while bulking in particular. I’m thinking I’ll be going for a lot of pasta, oats, brown rice, and yams, but I could very well be overlooking something else. Back when I was bulking previously and counting my calories, I was consistently having to shoot for at least 3700 calories a day to make mild to moderate gains, and that wasn’t doing the cleanest bulk either. Most days I was getting around 3900-4100. I guess, I’m looking for the overall best bang for the buck here. Things like, I’d have to eat way more baby spinach than I’d like to in one sitting to equal the same number of carbs as a medium sized yam. Things like that. With my work schedule, I’m also probably going to have to pack at least two meals to take with me, so something that’s quick and easy to reheat and slam down in a 15 minute break is also a consideration. I’ve got the protein side covered fine, it’s just getting the carbs back up now that’s the issue… Any suggestions?

I’ve only made it to the gym once this week. Normally I’d be up and at it in the morning, but the past few days I’ve been very fatigued and slept horribly (yay pierced ears and body not being able to get into REM sleep long since I can’t turn my head to either side and sleep horribly on my back). Tuesday I was off work and just didn’t have any momentum. The last two mornings I’ve been woken up by my alarm but been so sore and poorly rested that I knew a trip to the gym would make the workday all the worse. I’m falling asleep a couple hours earlier than normal and still waking up at the same time, yet feel like I’ve only gotten half the rest that I actually did. Not fun. I’m also getting to where I’m very leaned out. My hypothesis is good ‘ol carb depletion. I’m just out of fuel and it’s finally catching up to me. Over the weekend I’m going to not worry so much about diet and start working back up the caloric intake so that I can go back on a bulking diet starting monday. Good ‘ol red meat and yams!