Jettisoned Ponderings

Pretty much the majority of my meals overall are asian food. I know I need to get more carbs, so this is an easier way to do it by getting more of the carbs from rice or rice noodles. I’ve re-discovered the joy of Tokyo Joe’s a couple months ago and found an item that really hits the spot every time and nutritionally is where I want it to be. The majority of the carbs and sugars are from the sauces, with the exception of one: Oyako. It’s actually a broth, not really a sauce. The Oyako bowl is described on the menu as follows:
"Grilled dark chicken simmered with eggs and sweet ontions in a light Oyako Sauce served over rice and garnished with green onions"

Of course, I substitute brown rice (more good fat, fiber, etc. than white) and the regular size goes for $6.85, add $2 more to "Big Size". Here are the nutrition facts for both sizes (From www.dietfacts.com)

Give it a try sometime if you’ve got one around!

One of my favorite bands from the Netherlands is going to be in town tonight, so Heavy Legs is on hold for tonight so GeminiJedi and I can go to that. Should be good times!

If you like Gothic Rock, or things like Evanescense, check the links out:

http://www.within-temptation.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/wtofficial

A couple months ago at my job I applied for a "special project" for coaching to work with new hires, so I see new agents every few weeks. With every group there’s been at least one or more people who have made some sort of comment or question about how often I workout, do I take supplements, where any good gyms in the are are, etc. Then last week I saw a guy from a previous team I was on who said, "You just look bigger every time I see you" and I gotta say that it’s really been a significant self-confidence booster. I always grew up the skinny kid. One of those who got the "Oh, you’ll never have to worry about weight" or "You’re so lucky to have a high metabolism". I was naive to the fact that size wasn’t all that mattered, it was about body composition. I never liked my physique, but I didn’t do anything about it. Today I got asked, "How long have you been working out for?" and I really thought about it. I had my ups and downs, but really it’s been the better part of about sixteen months since I really began lifting consistently (and with any sort of idea or knowledge of what I was actually doing). I look back at my progress pictures a lot to remind myself of just where I’ve come from. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m so much further along than I’ve ever been before. I’m in the best shape of my life and while I’m not normally one to ever have an ego or outspoken pride about things, I have to admit that in this case it feels good to actually have some. Ya know what? It’s ok, too. I don’t like the character trait of outspoken ego/pride at all. Much like when you apply for a job or something and hit the "So, tell me about yourself" point. I hate that, because I don’t like to brag at all. I’m normal just like anyone else. Though today, for the first time I really realized, "You know, I earned this. I do have a right to be proud of myself" and it feels great. Bottom line, it’s been my own responsibility to myself to get up and go to the gym for each workout. To push myself through plateaus and frustrations when the results weren’t coming and I felt like I was going in circles. Until I met GeminiJedi I really had no one to hold me accountable, so I could miss a day or just plain not want to go and make some excuse to myself why it was ok. These days, I have more support and better reasons for why I push myself, but it still goes back to me. It’s something I wanted, finally got up enough frustration to slap some good sense into myself, and actually went for it. Now it’s coming easier, my body is growing faster than before, and every day I wake up a little more content with myself. I feel like I’m accomplishing something for once, and it’s not just fleeting for the week, day, hour, or moment. I’m building the best habits of my life and conditioning the one body I get in this life to be the fittest it can be. Inside that body is a mind and heart that has also become stronger than ever, which is something I never bothered to consider a possibility.

For the first time in a very long while, I’m finally proud of and happy with myself.

Last night I finally caught up on a much tardy workout that was supposed to have been done on Thursday; negative chest. Prior to this, the only negatives I’d done were as the latter half of the sets. I’d usually done 5 sets this way, so since I was going to be doing every rep slower I decided to shoot for 4 sets. This worked ok for the first exercise and by the end of the second exercise’s sets I was getting pretty tired. Then I realized just how long the tension time was for each set… nearly a minute. So I know I need to change something, either a couple less reps per set or one set less. Since I know that 8-12 reps is my ideal range where I experience the best growth, I’d rather shoot for the middle of that range than the lower end. So for all my negative days, I’ll be doing 3 sets instead of 4 keeping the reps at 10 per set. On that note, here was the Chest workout:

Peck Deck Flies: 4×10 @ 110

Bench Press: 4×10 @135

DB Incline Chest Press: 3×10 @ 40

DB Decline Press: 3×10 @ 50

Then there’s tonight’s workout; Light Back. Probably the best back pump I’ve had in a long time and actually a very hard bicep pump. I heard it said once that the only way to truly have great biceps is by doing rows in addition to arm work. After tonight I’m all the more inclined to believe it. Now I really can’t wait to see what kind of gains I can get during the next 11 weeks! Tonight’s numbers:

Reverse Grip Lat Pulldowns: 4×15 @ 120

Cross Cable Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns: 15×45, 45, 50
Barbell Rows: 15x 135, 155, 145 (little bit of guess work here)

Close Grip Seated Rows: 3×15 @ 100

Heavy Shoulders was this morning. Workout last night didn’t happen yet again, so today will turn into a split AM/PM routine to catch up. Rather than do it this morning (which would be negatives and induce more fatigue), it was opted to do the heavy lifting and save negatives for tonight. This morning’s was:

Barbell Front/Overhead Presses: 135×7, 145×6

Barbell High Rows: 80×7, 90×7

Supine Low Cable Front Raises: 55×7, 65×7

Pec Deck Rear Delt Flies: 90×7, 90×6

Last night was no good. Went and got dinner, still felt blah. Within an hour after I was passed out. Overall, got a good 8.5 hours of sleep, versus the 6 I’d usually get at best. It was very needed though and I’m feeling a lot better this morning. Tonight is supposed to be some cardio only, but instead last night’s chest workout will be done along with it. For future cardio workouts, I’m thinking I want to get back into swimming. I severely am out of shape when it comes to endurance and I miss being able to swim a couple miles in 15 minutes. Those were the good ‘ol days… I might see about getting a pull buoy and some cheap flippers to work just upper/lower body when I want to, or go full body high intensity and do butterfly sprints. I know the flippers make it easier, but really I’ve always gotten a lot more out of the workouts making the work itself a bit less, but going for longer time. Should help me keep leaner, too. Plus, being at the pool there’s always the sauna and hot tub to unwind after it’s all done.

You think your system is pretty well clean, right until you work a major muscle group and hit a bunch of fibers that have never been worked like that for a long time and release all it’s toxins into your system again… Late yesterday afternoon I started to really feel ill and my legs started to ache. I know it’s from the walking lunges on top of the rest of the workout from Tuesday. Thought some food would help, which turned out to very much not be the case. By the time I got to bed that evening I was light headed, my balance was a little off, and my whole body was fatigued. Rest didn’t help. I woke up to my alarm clock and still felt terrible and opted to fast for breakfast and stay in bed an extra half hour, which was much needed. My whole body still ached and walking was a bit uncomfortable. Being a coach for new hires at work I really feel responsible for my assigned agents, so I went ahead and went in to work. After I’d been up and around for about 3 hours I knew I had to eat something and was able to keep down some yogurt/granola and some fruit along with a packet of Vibe. (I always keep a few with me in case I ever start getting a headache, rundown, etc. since it always helps). Kept the water intake up to try and flush the toxins and eventually I started to feel better. Got some soup for lunch and kept at the water some more. I know my calorie intake is way low today, but I really loaded up on carbs yesterday so I’m gonna use that as my excuse to justify it. Since yesterday was an off day, I’m still gonna try to lift tonight. It’s negatives and higher volume, but I want to keep working this crap out of my body overall. Gonna go get some Pho for dinner to make sure my stomach is gonna be ok before I workout. Bottom line… I need to make a mental note to be sure Leg days fall before a weekend off next time! >.<

I forgot how much walking lunges work! Tonight was light legs (2-1-2 tempo). For a long time I hadn’t had space and had done stationary lunges stepping forward and back. Tonight, it wasn’t crowded so I was able to get the dumbells and walk around the room. The forward motion puts a whole additional degree of difficulty into it and really hit a lot of muscles I haven’t felt for a while. Had to go lighter on the hacks since I was very tired and starting to feel ill. I only got 1 set of calves in since I was right on the threshold of losing all stomach contents, of which I did not feel like losing my pre-workout supps. Overall, a very good workout. Got rid of a lot of toxins tonight.

Power Squats: 95×15, 115×15, 115×15

Walking Lunges: 3 sets of 70×15 (L+R=1 rep)

Close Stance Hack Squats: 20×15, 25×15, 30×15

DB Calf Raises: 70×15

Went to pick up some new lifting straps and found some Valeo weight belts on sale for $2.97! They’re only 4", but still big enough to get the job done and actually fit me pretty well and besides, ones with larger back pads are just uncomfortable to me. So this’ll help out a lot come heavy leg/squat days.

Heavy Back was last night. Really, I haven’t trained like this in a long time. I understand the theory and physiology behind it, and admit that previous attempts at heavy programs often ended up in over training. After about six warm up sets getting a little heavier and lowering the reps each time, I cranked up the iPod and went to work. I didn’t like taking 2+ minutes between each set, but I know it was needed. This whole "Heavy" thing is kinda a leap of faith because I’ve never done it like this before and it feels like something is missing without that burn and hard pump from higher volume sets. None the less, the full effort was put out, 1-3 count pauses between reps as I got more tired, so now I guess time will tell for whether it’ll work. Last night’s numbers:

Behind-Head Lat Pulldowns: 200×6, 200×6

Straight-Arm Lat Pulldowns: 100×7, 110×5

Wide-Bar Seated Rows: 140×7, 160×6

Close-Grip Front Lat Pulldowns: 210×6, 210×5