xenon2000’s BodyBlog

This week was much more successful than last week. I didn’t get a headache on my resting cardio day. I narrowed down my exercises to about 3-4 per group which helped me focus more on the workout and less on walking around trying to decide what to do.

I don’t know if the DOMS I got this week matter, but my quads got really bad DOMS that lasted about 4 days which slowed me down on my cardio day which is 48hours after Leg day. I feel 100% recovered now and will be ready for Leg day tomorrow. But I don’t know if I will work out my Quads as much tomorrow to try to not get that bad of DOMS again.

I am starting to feel pretty confident on the exercises I am doing for each muscle group. Not I have other things I want to figure out.

1. The Gas! Since switching to a high calorie high protein diet, I have become so gassy. It is driving me nuts and I am sure others around me don’t like it either. At first I thought it was the Muscle Milk by CytoSport. But I have been done with that for 4 days now. I am now only using Optimum Nutrition’s 100% Whey Protein which also contains lactase to help digest the latose. Yet I still have so much gas. Just not sure what to do here.
2. Body fat % tracking. I now have calipers to measure body fat. Since this is my first time being on a high calorie, high protein diet, I want to track this to make sure I am not just getting fat. Finding that as long as I pinch the same exact spot, I get consistent measurements. But having issues making sure I am pinching the correct spot in the first place.
3. Suppliment to food ratio. Other than the multi-Vitamin and Kre-Alkalyn Creatine,  I am only using a 100% Whey Protein powder to suppliment real food. But I use it 3-4 scoops a day, throughout the day. I am trying to hit 3500 cals a day, while keeping my fat below 100g a day. Preferably 50-70g. And because of that, I tend to only get to about 80-100g of protein and about 300-400g of carbs. So I use the Whey powder to get my Protein up to 180-200g. So I am still trying to figure out my diet.

So 2 weeks into this first attempt at body building and I feel pretty good. Since I felt pretty fat to start with at 22% body fat and I am still that way while bulking up, it’s difficult to fight the feelings of wanting to reduce calories and do more cardio to cut the fat. But I really think it’s time to really mulk up the muscle mass so that when I try cutting fat again, I will be much more effective and have better final results.

This is the end of my first official week of trying version 1 of my workout plan.

My perception of week 1:
Pros:

• Was able to comfortably follow and track my diet/calories.
• Noticeable improvements in my appearance, feeling, and strength.
• Leg day was successful and got nice and sore in many areas of my legs.

Cons:

• Wasted a lot of time walking around to different exercises.
• Feel I am doing too many exercises per group, wasting time walking around.
• Did not feel sore after working muscle groups other than my Legs and Chest.

Version 1: 2 on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off with ~3500 cals ON days, and ~2700-3000 cals OFF days. Though I use my 1-off WED as a cardio day, about 30-45mins of jogging.
Mondays: Quads (Legs)  - success
Tuesday: Shoulders & Traps - felt like I worked biceps more.
Wednesday: Rest (Cardio) got a headache which cut jogging short.
Thursday: Upper/lower back, hamstrings, biceps
Friday: Chest & Triceps - fairly successful workout.
I have gained about 4 Lbs in 7 days. I would like to buy calipers to track my BF % on a weekly basis to practice, but likely will only record it once a month.

A personal trainer used calipers and measured my BF % at 22% at 180Lbs 6′0" age 31. Not great. So now that I have started a plan to gain muscle, I am fairly confident that my BF% will stay about the same. But I would rather lose some fat while gaining muscle. Mixed forum searches say that it is possible, but gains may be slow and it’s difficult to do the right diet tracking, cardio and weight training.

I am willing to try anything for my diet changes, cardio, and weight lifting plans. So I will make changes as I keep learning more. Searching the forums can be a big challenge on deciding what to do. Feel free to write comments if you read my blog. I will post some pics soon so that people can see how fat I am. LOL.

My legs are dead. Trying to stand from sitting is difficult. Is this something I should expect after most workouts?

I have been counting calories for about 14 weeks, jogging and walking 4+ miles 2-4 times a week for 12 weeks. Losing about 1 Lbs a week. After reaching 175Lbs, I decided to add strength building to the list. Today I did my first workout. After my 10min warmup, I started with Squats. I am not sure how much the bar weighed. I think 25Lbs. So I only did 45Lbs total. 20 full squats. Really slowly, focusing on form for my first time.

I then did some bench presses, dumb bell stuff, etc. I need to track and figure out what to do during the week for my 3 strength days and 2 cardio days.

But is this much dead soreness common so quickly after the workout? I felt it immediately, within 40 mins of doing the squats. Is this just because I am starting out? Too much weight? Or will this happen every time to some extent?