workoutSD’s BodyBlog

I’m really excited that this week-end is the triathlon, I’m really nervous and excited!  Yikes!  I’ll write on monday and let everyone know how it goes, hopefully I’ll have some pictures too!

On monday (9/24) I was lifting my chest and Bi’s because I was super-setting opposing muscle groups so one could rest while the other was working, hence make the entire work out really effective and also an efficient use of my time.

Anyway… I had left my lifting straps on and I was doing a wide grip decline bench.  I wasn’t using them for that exercise because I was pushing rather than pulling so I just left them hanging around my wrists.  After my last rep I set down the weight and I couldn’t move my hands. I was like, "what’s going on?"  Then I tried to wiggle out of them, no luck.  After about 30 seconds I looked over at a random person next to me and said, "excuse me, ummmm…. I’m stuck can you help me?"  So the guy stepped over and lifted off one side of the bar at a time and I pulled my arms down and broke free.  Fortunately, there wasn’t much weight on the bar and we had a little laugh about it.  But that was obviously my last set of the day

Keep lifting, and be sure to work out around other people in case you get stuck!  Although, I don’t think very many people are as air-headed as me, LOL

OK, I felt really crappy yesterday because I broke my 2 1/2 year streak of not being sick.  I caught a cold and took the afternoon off work, went home took a nap and felt great afterwards.  So I said, "awesome, I’ll hit up the gym" and I did have a great chest/bicep workout but alas, I had a relapse and the cold came back worse afterwards.

Anyway, I had a great lift with the increased weights for bi’s and chest.  I didn’t to abs and I haven’t really done cardio since Saturday.  However, I’m not going to start tonight because I don’t want to make the same mistake and have ANOTHER relapse.  As much as I hate taking days off from working out, I have to or else I will be stuck in this miserable cycle of feeling crappy.   So tomorrow, I will hopefully be able to get back into it.  This really worries me because the Triathlon is in 10 days!

I hope I have some better news tomorrow.

Keep training hard!  -Jeff

Hello hello!

Wow, yesterday I had an amazing workout.  Every once in awhile you just are completely focused, in a great mood, have tons of energy and lots of time to get it done.  Yesterday was one of those days.  Anyway I was really sweaty and I did a ton of Abs and although I just did the normal legs, I did it with a passion where I will be moving up in weight for the next workout.

Here’s what I did yesterday:

• Leg Press (increasing next time)
• Squats (i’m very scared to increase weight on these because my form isn’t 100% perfect yet and it one can easily hurt themselves on this)
• Swiss-ball hamstring curls
• Calf-Raises (increasing next time)
• Abdominals were super-sets in between “rest” from the legs

1. Weighted decline sit-ups
2. leg “pulse ups” (where you move your hips up)
3. Bridges
4. leg raises
5. weighted swiss-ball crunches
6. cable crunches (form was questionable on this)

I also bought some Universal Torrent for post w/o nutrition.  I hope it tastes good and doesn’t make me gain weight.  I decided to buy this based on the recommendation of some other friends from the site.  I am almost out of Cell Mass Creatine and this supplement combines the esterfied creatine and protein to (theoretically) provide the complete post-w/o nutrition with one supplement.

Unfortunatley, I’m not feeling very well today.  I woke up with a sore throat and took a pack of emergen-C.  But it didn’t help much, I think I will use today as my rest day.  This works out perfect because Monday’s are the best rest days for the following reason(s):

1. I usually have a case of the Mondays and I’m re-cooping/adjusting from the week-end
2. The gym is unbelievably busy on mondays!  I am friendly with the Front Desk girls and the confirmed that Monday is a great day to take off because it is indeed the most crowded.

Ok, I guess that’s only 2 reasons but that’s good enough for me.

Someone tell me what they think the Torrent will make me fat!  I hope not..

Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow and able to workout again, I’m sure I’ll update you unless I’m too busy at work doing actual work.

Keepin’ it real -

-Jeff

OK, so… I got some good ideas from the man known on the internet as only "Kilmer" LOL, he gave me some good ideas and encouragement on working out the abs.  So, yesterday I did it up right with the working out and lifting and eating.

There is only one huge caveat to the eating, I was absolutely jones-in’ for some pizza more than a stoned teenager yesterday.  So I was at Costco and I caved and bought 2 slices of cheese, but hey at least I burned it off and at it could have been way worse, I think they had pepperoni and sausage & pepperoni.  I know that adding only those toppings adds an additional 150-250 calories per slice, so it was the lesser of 2 evils I suppose.  So, I’m sure it won’t be the end of the world.

Yesterday’s workout:

AM Cardio: 30 minutes of swimming focusing on increasing lung capacity by alternating breathing from every 2 strokes to every 4 strokes.  It was pretty tiring, but it needs to be done to improve swimming for the triathlon, which is coming in 2 weeks!!!

PM Weight Training:  Super-setting biceps and chest, i moved up in weight for most of the exercises which is encouraging.  I also stepped-up the Abs to the following:

• Weighted Decline sit-ups with  25lb plate 3 sets x 20
• Leg Raises 3 sets x 20 (increased from 3 x 15)
• Cable Crunches 3 sets x 20 (45lb, 60lb, 80lb)
• Bridges 2 sets (1 min, 1/2 min)

Keep lifting!

-jeff

haha, good thing i’m not a real writer, huh?

yesterday I had a great leg workout, I also had a great ab workout.  I was definatley in the zone last night, which was awesome.  I am taking a day off today, although I wanted to swim this morning I had trouble getting up.

I also added dead lifts into the routine last night.  They are tough, but I wanted to start doing them because they are such a great full body pump.  I’m pretty grouchy today, so I guess it’s good that i’m taking a day off, this way I can be sure not to have any caffeine late in the day and hopefully get a good night of rest. A good night’s sleep is amazing, nothing beats it, LOL

Anyway, keep lifting strong!

-js

Yesterday I worked out the back and tri’s and I’m excited that most of the workout seemed too light, so I am moving almost everything up in weight by a minimum of 10 pounds.  So that’s exciting to see progress like that.  Based on some opinions I got about my routine, I am planning on making the following changes to my routine:

• decrease the amount of milk in protein shakes by 1/2 to reduce the carb intake, this will decrease my total daily caloric intake by 180 just doing this.
• Changing to White flood pre-w/o and Universal Torrent as post-w/o

well…ok… I guess there’s only 2 changes, LOL.  BUT… I’m ALWAYS open to any suggestions or advice.

oh yeah, and yesterday for one of my tricep exercises I did 10 reps of 100 pound dumbbell in a behind the head skull-crusher.  RAWR!!!

I decided I want to change up my supplements and when I’m taking them.  Based on the advice of others I found some new ones I want to try.

Here is everything I’m doing for training and nutrition except for the actual workouts themselves:

• 6:00 AM - wake up and eat 1 banana, 1 tablespoon of organic peanut butter, 1 cup of coffee with splenda and 2 oz of milk (sometimes I have 2 cups of coffee if I’m really tired, LOL)

• 6:45 AM - start cardio as one of the following: 15K of Biking, 5K of Running, or 700 meters of swimming.  Each one is around 30 minutes.
• 7:45 AM - drink a protein shake (8oz. milk, 1 scoop of whey, 32g protein total)
• 10:30 AM - meal 2: 1/2 cup oatmeal sprinkled with 2 tbsp of flax meal, protein shake
• 1:00 PM - meal 3: actual food, LOL.  usually a turkey sandwich (7-grain bread, 6 oz. of turkey, 1 oz cheddar, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion) or chix and broccolli
• 3:30 PM - meal 4: protein shake, apple or other fruit, 1 oz. of almonds
• 6:00 PM - meal 5: PBJ on whole wheat bread (organic PB and organic spreadable fruit) and cottage cheese flavored with pineapple.  Sugar-free popsicles or no-sugar-added, low fat ice cream for desert.
• 7:00 PM - creatine serving
• 7:15 PM - pre-w/o energy.  I’m on SuperPump 250 but I’m not enamored with it, I think I will be switching to White Flood.
• 7:30 PM - weight training at gym, almost always superset with abdominals
• 9:00 PM - post workout creatine serving  ***I’m thinking I want to switch to Universal Torrent because it contains both protein and creatine together so I can just take this right away after weight training and make life a little simpler.
  
• 9:30 PM - MEAL 6: protein shake, but this one has more umph to it.  8 oz. of milk and 1/2 scoops of whey so about 44g of protein and 15g of carbs.
• 10:30 PM - BED, but sometimes I’m too amped up from the pre-w/o drink I take melatonin to help sleep.

So this is what I have been doing.  Please give me your honest feedback and if you think I’m doing something glaringly wrong and give me any suggestions.

Thank you!

The weather has cooled off quite nicely in Sunny San Diego, so sleep is much easier to come by and consequently I was able to get up and do some swimming this morning before work.  I only swam for about 20 minutes before my shoulder started to bother me, so I switched to freestyle only for 5 minutes and it seemed to be fine.  I’m not really sure what’s wrong with it if anything, it probably just needs more rest, but that’s not really acceptable to me.  So I am just doing stuff that doesn’t aggravate it at all.

Yesterday I got in my supplement order and it took a long time to receive because i didn’t order it from BB.com.  This place was cheaper, but it took a week to receive where BB.com usually gets it to me in 2 business days.   I got some SuperPump 250 Fruit Punch, Cookies n’ Creme ON Whey, and some lifting hooks.

I hope the SuperPump Fruit Punch flavor tastes better than the orange I bought previously.  I think the orange tastes like a punch of vitamin C tablets, it’s gross!  I’ve tried 4 flavors of ON Whey: Vanilla, Chocolate Mint, Strawberry, and Cookies ‘n’ Creme and Chocolate Mint is easily the best tasting (in my opinion).  I thought the cookies n creme would be more choclatey tasting.

Anyway, the lifting hooks came just in time.  They are supposed to be the same as the traditional lifting straps but more convenient to put on and remove from the bars.  I’m looking forward to my back workout tonight because I needed these straps for quite some time, I was having trouble with my grip last time i worked out my back, I hope these help.

Has anyone else had any experience with the lifting hooks versus the straps?  Does anyone else have an opinion about the supplement flavors I spoke of above?

Here is what I did yesterday:

• Took SuperPump, Cell Mass, and Protein shake mixed with mostly water.
• Worked out the shoulders
• 2nd serving of Cell Mass
• Biked for 30 minutes (I did the distance of the tri in 28 minutes)
• Protein Shake (40g pro, 20g carbs from milk)
• Stretching legs

Happy Lifting!

Aight… yesterday and today I’ve been a little lazy with A.M. cardio.

I know it’s a poor excuse but it has been really hot in San Diego for the past week or so and sleep has not been easy due to profuse sweating.  Don’t you hate that when you wake up in the middle of the night and your pillow is soaking wet with sweat, then you have to flip it over because you can’t possibly jam your face back into that mess.  But wait, you already flipped it before so both sides are wet!  Gross!!

Anyway, it’s cooling off and hopefully I can get in there tomorrow morning.   So, last night I combined my cardio and weight training.

This was my routine last night:

• Drank a serving of super-pump and cell-mass (Creatine ester) before I left my house for the gym
• Lift chest and bi’s with super-setting during opposing muscle 2-minute rest periods
• Drank 2nd cell-mass serving
• Ran for 33 minutes (including 2 min warm up and 2 min cool down)
• Drank Whey Protein shake (40g protein, 18g carbs)
• stretched legs, with special attention to hamstrings and calves!

I should have foam-rolled my IT band as well, but I got impatient.  I will do this tonight because my left knee felt a little funky today.

If you wanted to see a sweaty *******, after last nights run would have been an opportune time to see me.  I ran 3.25 miles  in the 33 minutes.  So fortunatley there wasn’t much left for my pillow last night, LOL

Thanks for reading…