xtrell’s BodyBlog: France

I found an American Football team who is always looking for players, and the best part of it all is they have a small gym to work out in! Squat/Dead rack, Flat/Incline Bench, Pull-up Bar… I’m very happy. 160euros (~$210 right now) for participation until June. I can use the gym two, possibly three times per week before practices. I’m making some changes to my split because of the good news, and for the first time I will be working out the same bodyparts multiple times in the week depending on if a barbell will be available to me or not. I just ordered my supplements from BB.com and they’ll be arriving soon. Hello bulking season! I’m not quite sure what’s better- that I get to lift seriously or that I get to play football again.

Did shoulders on Tuesday and went to plan; took Wednesday off because I was doing this funky gameshow thing (I think I mentioned it) on Tuesday night and I knew I’d be tired afterwards. Long story short I’m glad I did because I didn’t get a lot of sleep Tuesday night and I used my lats and arms a ton during this gameshow thing. I ate some bread for dinner Tuesday because I knew I’d be exerting myself, but I’m not going to kill myself over it, it was burned off anyway.

Had a great chest workout today. Only had 20kg (44 lbs?) to work with, but maybe because it’s been a month since I’ve used weights it felt really good. Did dumbell bench one side at a time (used three chairs as the bench) supersetted with push-ups, did flies, and my buddy held my legs up at an angle while I did push-ups to take care of some incline. Not the best workout, obviously, but just staying in shape is the goal for now. Damn French people and their lack of caring about this stuff. (joke)

I have to eat pizza tonight because of some get together with my academic advisor, and I’d rather not be rude to her and tell her "je suis en régime, désolé" so I’m just going to eat a slice or two. I’m taking off on a few mile run in a little bit to do some pre-damage control. Not having any carbs and little caloric intake during the day should help optimizing that pizza as well. I’m blessed to have a body type that can handle intaking shitty food and not being obvious right away.

My goals have changed a little bit. I’ve seen how difficult it will be to go strictly no carb or even on a strict diet this year… It just isn’t going to happen in this country. Sad, yes, but as they say out here "c’est la vie…" Gotta stand by my decisions. I’ll obviously still be lifting routinely, that will not change and this blog will stay up being read by no one, but I’m going to skip out on the supplements and go almost completely natural (except for the ECA stack materials I brought with me for emergencies, hehe) besides vitamins and if I decide to keep buying protein powder.

Anyway, back tomorrow. Gonna do some "lawnmowers" then head over to the dorms to do some pull-ups and whatever else I can, maybe some core. I’m hoping I’ll definitely feel my chest tomorrow, I definitely overloaded it. Then a nice weekend to recover, maybe take another run. That’s all for now!

First "true" workout in France: Bis and Tris. Went pretty well for only having two dumbells: curls, isolation curls, and hammers; overhead extensions (using both dumbells and then loading all the weight onto one), bench dips, and close grip push-ups. My biceps are definitely feeling it now on the next day; however, my triceps seem not to be. I’ll have to remedy that somehow. Today will be shoulders; shouldn’t be too difficult, in fact I’m looking forward to having dead shoulders on the morrow.

Diet went fantastic;1g of carbohydrates all day, unless you count the amounts that add up in eggs, then you have maybe 3g. I ate about 6 or 7 eggs, two ground beef patties, a thick juicy steak cooked in butter, and a protein shake consisting of a fantastic brand of whey I found here with only 1g of fat and 1g of carbs per 25g of protein, a raw egg, and some olive oil. Definitely consumed a good amount of calories. I leave today on somewhat of a trip to be part of the American team in a goofy gameshow called Intervilles. Quite a few countries compete in it, unfortunately the USA will probably never see it. Supposedly they feed us dinner so I’m packing 7 hardboiled eggs and 2 ground beef patties. Maybe the dinner will have some meat I can pick off.

My name is Jordan. I’m 19 years old from the Los Angeles area, and I am living in the South of France to study French until May. I’ve been bodybuilding/training seriously approximately two years now; been lifting for six. I feel that I know much about training in the bodybuilding sense and much about nutrition and health. I’ve been in great shape for a long time now and have been very proud of what I’ve worked for. I’ve kept strict diets and strict training schedules and have always loved having a routine to live by.

But then I came here, one month ago.

I arrived at approximately 10% bodyfat, 190 lbs. I was in the best shape of my life and I loved it (don’t we all?). I knew I wouldn’t be able to train for a month or so until I got situated, so I decided to let loose and live life: eating the bread and desserts the country has to offer me, and living it up. Tomorrow I end all that and go back onto a diet régime and training as serious as I am able to.

The gym memberships here are approximately no less than $50/month, some quite a bit more than that. The problem with these gyms, however, is that if compared to most gyms in the states, you’re getting about a third (maybe less) of what you’d be paying for in a standard gym for $30-40/month. Now, I know that many great bodybuilders have come out of France; but I doubt that they came from Aix-en-Provence.

Anywho, this will be a blog about an American whose life in the States was weight training and nutrition, and what he deals with trying to keep up as best he can in a land of delicious breads, chocolates, wines, and many more enemies of the standard bodybuilder, competitive or not. I will be ordering supplements off of bodybuilding.com still: I’ll always be faithful! Shipping will be be horrible, however, another American friend of mine is going in on what we order together, so instead of paying $130, I’ll be paying $65 for shipping (Great!). I’ll be ordering 10lbs of ON 100% Whey, 15 lbs dextrose (per two people), standard creatine monohydrate, BCAAs, and EAAs. These are meant to last me until May: I will definitely be minimizing usage to strictly PWO; should I decide to go through a bulking session, in the morning as well.

Getting back to the issue of gyms here: I won’t be training at a gym. Big problem, I know. My buddy and I bought two 10kg (22lbs) dumbbells, a sit-up bar to go under a door, a pull-up bar, and will probably be buying two more within a few weeks. The problem with the pull-up bar is that my landlord won’t let me drill two holes in the doorway; so that eliminates some convenience there… I have found ONE bar suitable for a good pull-up session here in Aix-en-Provence; and this is out approximately a mile from where I am living, at some dorms. We’ll be taking a nice jog that way once a week to do back and then jog back to do some dumbbell rows (lawn mowers?) with our dumbells. Haven’t quite figured out hyperextensions or deadlift equivalents, yet.

One can do quite a bit with dumbbells: a bicep workout is the easiest, a decent shoulder workout can be done with dumbbells, triceps will also require some close-grip push-ups or dips on a bar (again, near those dorms is a great place), chest will be somewhat of a problem. I need to find a solid coffee table or somehow a bench that a body can fit on to do some chest presses. This will also help with tricep excercises. If all else fails, my chest workout will be push-ups with some weights on my back. I have genetically monstrous legs and I don’t workout my legs with weights anyway, so that isn’t bothering me. I will be running quite a bit; once a week will do some sprint workouts uphill.

Dietwise, I am a keto man. The best way to control cravings is a keto diet. Say otherwise and I’ll tell you that you must have never tried a keto diet. Tomorrow will begin my purely eggs, ground beef, cheese, and steak diet. Some peanuts once in a while. Everyday I’ll consume between 5 and 8 eggs, about 200g of ground beef (they use grams over here in France), and a decently sized steak. Calories aren’t a huge issue the first few weeks getting your body adjusted to fat; in fact, it’s a wonderful way to “culk,” especially when you shock your body into lifting again after a month off. The first few days are always tough when throwing out carbs, and I’m sure with 75 cent baguettes down the street it won’t be any easier; but it will still be done! I consume 1.5 multivitamins per day, 2 calcium tablets, 4g of fish oil, and since I’ll be carbless, about 12 tablets of fiber per day. Fiber is always a fantastic idea, one will find.

So this is the background of where I am and what this BodyBlog will include; I love all sorts of feedback and communication and if you choose to read it on a daily/weekly basis, I’d love to hear from you and what you think. I’ll be updating minimum three times per week. I will be training either Sunday-Thursday or Monday-Friday to leave the weekends free for carb refeeds and the partying a college student studying abroad must take advantage of if he does not want to look back in a bit of remorse. You’ll be reading of my workouts, the foods I’ve been eating, and hopefully I can be accountable should some cheating occur (I don’t think so..). And to any readers, if you could recommend something that works great having only dumbbells that I do not seem to be doing, I’m aching to hear about it. Thanks, and will have my first real update up by Wednesday!