Time to ReCommit to Being Primal

Let me be honest for a moment. Even though I still "consider" myself Primal, it's been a long time since I have fully committed to it.  Heck, its been a long time since I have even been committed to the 80/20 rule of being Primal.  I have the usual excuses as everyone who falls off of the healthy bandwagon:

• Time


• Convenience


• Holiday's


• Party's


• Chocolate


• etc

Lately, though, I have started to really feel like crap. My body aches, I am bloated and gassy, and my energy levels are seriously lacking. Caffeine has had to become an all day staple in my diet.  I have also learned that gluten and dairy can seriously mess me up.

For these reasons, I need to commit back to the Primal lifestyle. I need to be a good example for my family and friends. I need to be the healthy person they all think I am. But most importantly  I just need and want to feel better.

In the past,  I have tried all of these eating styles that have allowed me to eat dirty foods

• leangains


• IIFYM


• Carb Night


• Carb Back Loading

Although all are solid and effective ways to eat while losing fat and gaining muscle, I have found that if given the option to eat cheat foods, I will eat them and much more! I am better off restricting myself to clean and healthy foods. Most of these programs can be done using healthy foods and I think that is what I need to learn to do. No more dirty foods!

It's time to take action!

 

I Am Sensitive

After completing the Adonis 12 week challenge, I went on a pretty good feeding frenzy. The fact that Thanksgiving happened to coincide with the end of the challenge didn't hurt either. One thing I noticed during my feeding frenzy was that I have two major triggers for my I.B.S (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).  The first one I knew already but the feeds just confirmed it: dairy or lactose to be more specific. The second trigger was one I actually took out of my diet a few years back but put back in after a endoscope confirmed I wasn't intolerant. That trigger is gluten.

Lucky for me, gluten isn't a major trigger and I seem to tolerate small amounts of it OK but during times of high consumption, (like sandwiches or carb refeeds) it really seems to effect me.  Both triggers leave me with a severe pain in my left side that almost feels like an ulcer. I also get very bloated.

For these reasons, I am going to start limiting my intake of both dairy and gluten. I wouldn't call it Primal Revival but I definitely am going to head back in that general direction. Time will tell if find other triggers but I think its a safe bet that these two are my major players.

Adonis Index Transformation

It's over. The last 12 weeks went by fast. Too fast. I started and finished strong but had way to many "off" days in between. Such is life I guess. My fault and I realize that. On the bright side of things, no one has to worry about me taking a spot in the top 10. 

All kidding aside, I realize what my downfalls were this last 12 weeks. My workouts were strong but my diet was weak. That has always been my downfall. Lifting weights is not an excuse to eat like crap. I can do 6 days of clean eating but all it takes is one day to derail it all. I had too many of those "one days".

I am going to take this learning opportunity to come back stronger, bigger, and leaner. You just wait and see! 

I have two different sets of pictures. My official photo shoot, which was my wife taking pics with our SLR, didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. Blame it on the carb-load, water cut, poor lighting, oil, whatever. I didn't like most of the pictures. The second set of photo's I actually had my wife take with her iphone right before bed. I had a good pump going from a full day of activities and I actually like the photo's more.

My starting stats were:
Waist - 34"
Shoulders - 48"
Weight - 180 lbs

And my final stats were:
Waist - 32.5
Shoulders - 48.5
Weight - 175.2

So in summary, I lost an 1.5" on my waist, gained a 1/2" on my shoulders and lost almost 5lbs. So it wasn't a total loss and my diet didn't suck that bad. It just wasn't good enough to show my abs more.



 

 

My New Favorite Coffee Concoction

I have a love/hate relationship with coffee. I love to hate it and hate to love it. Many times I have tried to quit and once even got to the point where I packed up our coffee maker and put it into storage. A few months later it called back out to me and I started drinking it again.

My biggest issue with coffee is what I put in it. I can't stand black coffee.  Call me a wuss if you must. I don't care. I like my coffee sweet and full of flavor.  My typical flavoring consists of 1 teaspoon of sugar free vanilla Coffee Mate creamer along with 1-3 teaspoons of Spenda.  Nothing too damaging as far as calories or sugar and even though I drink this during my fast, I don't really consider the calories enough to break my fast.

After reading a new fitness book (to be reviewed soon) there was a recommendation in there to add coconut oil and whey isolate to my morning coffee to drink during my fast with no ill effect on my metabolism.

This sounded eerily familiar to me so I set out to see if this was in fact true. I remember reading on the leangains.com site that if someone chose not to consume BCAA's during their fast, they could substitute with a small amount of whey protein.

I won't go into the details on why this is a good thing because you need to buy the book for that stuff but after doing some further research on my own, I discovered this to be a solid recommendation.

It's believed that coconut oil can boost energy and is known to stimulate metabolism, improve digestion, and release fat cells. The bonus is that you don't need to count calories in coconut oil because it is used for energy and not stored as fat!

So now this is the site of my counter top every morning.

[caption id="attachment_2858" align="aligncenter" width="208"] Morning Coffee Mix[/caption]

Fitness Photo Shoot Prep - Update 1

I am now officially on Day 7 of my 10 day water cut and carb depletion so I thought I would give a bit of an update on how things are going.

Before I get into details though, I want to clear the air on something. I am not doing an official Carb Nite Solution. I got lambasted last time I said I was doing this protocol without actually reading the book. I still don't have the Carb Nite Solution book but what I do have is the Carb Back Loading book (or CBL for short). In that book, there is talk about a 10 day preparation phase that prepares you for the CBL phase. I am following that (mostly) but from what I can tell, its similar to Carb Nite Solution.  And as stated before, I did some further research on water cutting. Everything that I am finding is pretty much the same and that is what I outlined in my last post.

Carbs are hard to give up

So far the prep phase has been rough. Trying to only consume 30 grams of carbs or less has been tough. There have been lots of things I have had to avoid that I normally wouldn't on my 100-150gram days. My energy level is very low and my muscle recovery is pretty much non-existent at this point.  I would normally recover in a day from a hard workout and now it seems like it takes 2-3 days.  By the end of the day I am worn out and find myself falling asleep on the couch around 7pm.

My calories have been around 1750 with almost equal amounts of fat and protein. That was a point I missed last time around as well.

2 gallons is a lot

Drinking 2 gallons of water a day has gotten old really fast. Yesterday I volunteered at my kid's school for the day and the constant drink/pee got really tiring for me and for anyone that saw me head from the bathroom to the break room 10 times that day. I am also really tired of waking up 4 times a night to use the bathroom. I can barely choke down water anymore.

Sodium is awesome

My sodium intake has fluctuated a ton. Like carbs, there is sodium in everything. Even my eggs!  I might be forced to eat nothing but chicken breast the next two days just to avoid it.  Now that is going to be boring.

Light at the end of the tunnel

But tomorrow is day 8 and on day 8 I start reducing my water intake to either 1 gallon or .5 gallon depending on what program I choose to listen too.  The day I am looking forward to the most is Friday though. Friday is my carb day.  I have been looking forward to this day since day 1. It's going to be epic. There may or may not be some smores in my future for that day.

One thing I am still unsure on though is my carb refeed start time and length. CBL states that I should start the refeed sometime late afternoon and run it for about 4-6 hours. Most photo/contest prep programs I have found state the carb refeed should start somewhere 1-2 days before the event and go all day. I am also not sure if I should workout on Friday or take the day off to refeed.  I guess I need to figure this out soon.

Fitness Photo Shoot Prep

I am now 9 days away from the end of the Adonis Index Transformation contest. This was a 12 week contest that is meant to showcase the hard work and dedication of those that decided to participate. I am one of those people. The 12 weeks has been a bit of a mixed bag for me. There were days I didn't eat (fasting), days I ate on target, days I ate a bit higher than maintenance, and days I don't ever want to think about again. I took carb loading to a new level a few times. I really need to do a better job on avoiding those days.

My weight has fluctuated almost daily and I finally got to the point where I stopped weighing myself. My clothes continued to loosen and I do notice a difference when looking in the mirror. At last check, I have lost an inch off of my waist and added an inch to my shoulders.  This morning my weight is 176lbs which is about where I have been sitting for the last 12 weeks.

Now that I am a mere 9 days away from taking pictures and sending them in for all to see, I figured I needed to get really serious. So I did some more research on cutting water weight and now I am drinking roughly 2 gallons of water a day. No easy task mind you!

I am also cutting my carb intake down to 30 grams a day. This will deplete my glycogen reserves and help me to get even leaner and meaner. It's a bit of the Carb Nite Protocol that I attempted here. As you can read in that post, that attempt at cutting saw a 9lb weight loss. I was heavier then and didnt see much difference in body composition though. I am hoping this time will be better. I now have clearly defined upper abs and hopefully this cut will help to show the lower half.

I am still contemplating a spray tan.  I know that getting one will help to show off the definition that I have but I don't know if I want to go through the hassle of getting one and everyone knowing that I got one. It would be different if I was doing an actual fitness competition on stage but most people don't understand the whole 12 week transformation contest.

Below is a simple calendar that I came up with to track what I should be drinking and eating as I prepare for the photo shoot.

Make it Paleo Cookbook Review

Just one of the many perks of being a fitness blogger is that I get to review new and exciting products. Recently I had the pleasure of receiving a new cookbook entitled Make it Paleo courtesy of the fine folks over at Primal Palate.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I first received this cookbook. After all, I have quite a few Paleo cookbooks in my library already and it seems like everyone and their daughter is putting together their own cookbooks  How could this one possibly compare to the others?

Overall I am very pleased with this book. One of the first things I noticed when I opened the package was the quality of the book. It felt very sturdy in my hands and I could tell that it was a book that was meant to last in the kitchen.  Each page was printed on glossy paper and it had a large "format" feel to it with each recipe taking up two pages; one for the recipe and one for a picture of what you were to make. For me personally, pictures are important. I want to see with great detail, what it is I am going to be preparing and how it is "suppose" to look.

The second thing I liked about Make it Paleo was the actual recipes. The recipes are simple and easy to make. For the most part, there are no "fancy" ingredients that I need to go out and purchase in order to make something. Most of the stuff I already have on hand. No arrow root or rice flour here!

The book is arranged very well with over 400 pages of categories like entrees, salads, appetizers, desserts, etc. There are also subcategories within some of the main categories for further breakdown and ease of use. With a book of this size, having such organization is a must.

Now lets talk about the recipes themselves. I have already made quite a few items from within the pages of Make it Paleo and so far I have not found one that has disappointed. One recipe in particular has become a household favorite. I won't say it by name but let's just say it includes pineapple, chicken, and skewers. :)

If you are looking for a solid and well planned Paleo cookbook, you definitely cannot go wrong with Make it Paleo. I highly recommend it.

Here is a pic of a dish that I have made recently.

[caption id="attachment_2838" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Chicken Pineapple Skewers with a side of carrots[/caption]

Sunbutter Pumpkin Cupcakes

[caption id="attachment_2823" align="aligncenter" width="289"] Not So Primal Brownies[/caption]

Last night I had a huge hankering for some of my "famous" primal brownies but since we have a tree nut allergy in the house I knew that wasn't going to happen. 

Or was it. :)

I decided to do a little bit of experimentation and substituted out the almond butter with sunbutter. I also poured the batter into cupcake tins instead of a brownie pan. So really these are more cupcake like than brownies.

Sue me.

The end result was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup SunButter (I used the Omega-3 version which has small bits of flax seed in it. I won't buy that one again for this purpose)


• 1 cup mashed pumpkin


• 1 egg


• 1/3 cup honey


• 1 tsp baking soda


• 2 scoops protein powder (completely optional and I only added it because I need some more protein in my diet for the day. I used Body Fortress Cookies and Cream)


• dash of all spice (not sure why I used this but it worked)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Mix well.  Pour into a greased cupcake pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Serves 12.

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

It's been along time since I have done a recipe. That all changes today!

Below is a "breakfast" casserole that I made for dinner. It was quick, easy to put together and yielded a great taste. Enjoy.

[caption id="attachment_2802" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Crockpot Breakfast Casserole[/caption]

Startbeingfit.com: Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients

5 cups of frozen hash-browns
1lb of ground beef
1/2 yellow onion
1 red pepper
1 cup shredded cheese
2T Worcestershire sauce
6 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Beat the eggs and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and then set aside.

Next up, brown the beef in a pan

Add chopped onion and red pepper

In the crockpot:
start with a layer of hashbrowns
followed by the beef mixture
then the cheese
then repeat the layers
Top it off with egg and Worcestershire combo

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 8 hour(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

4 out of 5 stars:  ★★★★☆ 1 review(s)

Copyright © startbeingfit.com
Recipe by startbeingfit.com.

 

Another 5k in the Books

This last Saturday, I did something that I have not done in years: I ran a 5k. To add a twist to it, I did it pushing my 18 month old son! I did not have a huge desire to run but the proceeds of the race go towards a really good cause - The Kade Meyer Celebration Run . I also wanted to show my kids that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. My kids have never seen me run a race and knowing that my entire family would be waiting for me at the finish line cheering made me feel pretty good.

I woke up that morning suffering from some severe seasonal allergies. My legs and lower back hurt but I committed to run this thing no matter what and run it I did! I finished the entire race in 29:06 and that includes some walking time in the beginning while I shuffled for room to run! My wife and kids were so proud and my youngest son had a blast in the stroller! I can now see me doing another race and I cannot wait for the chance to bring my wife and daughters along for the run as well.

 

Back to Higher Reps

After a year or so of heavy lifting via Reverse Pyramids (squats, deadlifts, bench, etc) I have transitioned back to a higher rep lower weight routine. Diversity and change are good and I needed it. I was getting bored doing the same routine with little variation and I wasnt putting in the effort needed to obtain the change that I desired. I am in week 2 of this new routine and so far I am loving it. I feel utterly exhausted after every workout and I love and have missed that feeling. The workouts are intense enough to challenge me and each week is a bit different from the previous. It sort of reminds me of the days I did P90x. I got great results from P90x and I anticipate getting the same great results with this routine. I am already noticing a difference in my shoulders and chest area.

One thing that has been tough with this new routine is watching some of the bigger guys doing the workouts that I used to do. Bench press, deadlifts, squats, etc. I used to laugh at the guys not doing those exercises and now I am one of the guys not doing them and I feel like people are laughing at me. Don't get me wrong. I still enjoy them and I do miss them from time to time, I just needed to do something different for a while. I was getting bored. My muscles were getting bored and I felt like I was getting injured more often. My elbow is still really sore and inflamed and I feel this was a direct result of doing really have deadlifts.

If anything, this change has taught me an important lesson. Everybody is different and has different ways to get into shape. Who cares if your ideal exercise is to do curls on a bosu ball. Who I am to criticize someone who wants to squat and nothing more?  I am so tired of these blogs that critique people on their exercise of choice or snap pictures of someone doing something they consider to be a worthless move. I have started to unsubscribe from those blogs. They were wasting my time.

If I have ever offended anyone on here or twitter regarding your exercise of choice, I am sorry. I now applaud you for at least getting into the gym and doing a workout.  Do what you want, just practice good form and go as heavy as you can.

Tennis Elbow

My right elbow continues to give me problems. I have done everything from taking a break from working out, to hot/cold compresses, to icy hot. At this point I am really not sure what to do next. I think it may be time to start lifting for reps for awhile rather than try and set PR's on everything I do. It's not ideal and not what I really want to do but I am getting really tired of this feeling and it's effecting the amount of weight I can lift anyway.

Does anyone else have any ideas on what I can do to get rid of the pain? I am pretty sure its tennis elbow.

Pushing a Car vs Lifting a Car

There is a guy at the gym that will stack every available 45lb plate onto the hip sled machine and then proceed to do multiple reps with but a few inches of travel. His leg day and mine usually land on the same day and he is typically doing his workout while I am doing my squats.

When he is done, he always comes over and asks me why I don't try my hand at the hip sled like him.  I often tell him its not really my thing. I really dont want to get into a debate on lifting techniques with him.  I just want to get in, lift, and get out.

Today while I was standing around waiting for the squat rack to open up, I thought of a great analogy of the sled vs the squat rack.

Many people can push a car. It really doesn't take much to push a car into motion and then continue that motion.  But let's see that same person try and actually lift that car. If they could, that would be impressive and would really show the strength of that individual.

I personally would rather be able to lift a car than push it. Which person would you rather be?

Update Week Ending 05-11-2012

It's been a little while since I have thrown an update out here. My wife and I recently purchased a home and we have been pretty busy painting, cleaning, and doing all of the little things that come with moving. Because of the move, I took about 2 weeks off from the gym and my diet took a dive. I found it hard to prepare good and healthy meals while moving between two houses. I know some people will say where there is a will there is a way but I just didnt have the will to do that. :)

To make up for the bad eating I continued to do my daily 16 hour fasts. I also tried to make sure that the first meal I ate was very low carb.  Then for dinner, I pretty much ate whatever I wanted to (pizza, hot dogs, etc). The next day I started over with the 16 hour fast and "reset" my body. The first week of doing this saw my body weight go down a few pounds. The second week, I feel like my night time "cheats" increased a bit more and my weight stayed the same.

Now that this week is just about over and we are getting settled into our new home, I will be able to get back to the way things should be. I am going to continue to experiment with carb back loading though. I really like the freedom it has given me with the ability to eat the wonderful things my wife prepares. Going really low carb at lunch allow me some wiggle room with dinner and as long as I don't go over my allotted carbs for the day, I see nothing wrong with this approach.  If it fits your macros, eat it!

Like I stated earlier, this is an experiment and time will tell how my body reacts. So far so good though. I challenge you to find what works for you and then let me know in the comments!

I Dont Always Eat Food

Don't Be One of These Guys

This video had me rolling on the floor. I see at least one of these guys everyday when I go to the gym.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-91_iXATY8

Program Switch

It's been exactly a month since I have posted. Time sure flies when you are busy doesn't it and boy I have been busy!  My wife and I are in the process of buying a house and packing up our townhouse.  In addition to that, we are looking for renters, attended my brother's wedding, enjoying my daughter's first communion and waited on my sister to have her first baby!  All that in the last month and coming up in the next few weeks.  Phew, that makes me exhausted all over again just thinking about it.

My workouts and diet have suffered a bit over the last few weeks. I can't say with any certainty that my weight has changed because I have not weighed myself but I do know that my clothes still fit like always so that is good. My progress in the gym has come to a bit of a halt though. I seem to have plateaued and my eagerness to go to the gym is started to wane. Looking back, I have been doing reverse pyramid for close a year now and have had really good progress doing it.  But now I need a change for a few weeks. Something simple. Something that I have already done in the past and that I have all the notes on. No, its not P90x. It's Visual Impact and more specifically, Visual Impact Phase II and III. In fact, I started with it today and the change is exactly what my body needed. My excitement is starting to increase and I am getting eager to hit the new few days to see if my enthusiasm returns.  Heck, I might even take a few progress pics. :)

My diet has waned a bit the last few weeks but overall its still pretty good. I have had a few too many cheat days and although they have not caused my waistline to increase, I often think about how great I "could" look if I just had a little bit of self control. I always say this but I am going to try and really reign my diet in over the new 30 days along with the Visual Impact and some HIIT and see what kind of results I can get.

Weekly Wrap Up 3.17.12

Personal Records

Another really good week of lifting. It's sort of funny when I think back to my actual workouts. I didnt start any of my workouts actually "feeling it" but yet I put up new personal bests every time.

Deadlift - 365.0x3 - At the end of January I was deadlifting 325.0x4 so I have increased by about 40lbs.
Bench - Benched 230.0x5 back in January. This week it was 240.0x4. Not a huge increase but I will take it.
Chin-up - 65.0x4 - With my current body weight of roughly 185 this puts my chin-up weight at 250lbs. At the end of January I was at 235lbs
Squat - 275.0x4 - I was doing 235lbs at 3 reps at the end of January.

As you can see my strength continues to go up week after week. I couldn't be happier.

Scale

I hopped onto the scale yesterday and weighed in at 183.8lbs. This is about a 9lb decrease from my highest weight of 193 which I recorded right after the holidays. It's always nice to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time.

Workout Changes

My tweak to the Reverse Pyramid routine is going good. As last reported, I increased my reps on shoulder presses to allow for more muscle growth. I have also gone to a 12-10-8-6, 12-15 set on curls to, again, allow for more growth.

Diet

My diet has been consistent this week. 100 grams of carbs on lifting days and less than 50 on rest days. Yesterday I played racquetball with a guy from work so I actually increased my carbs to 100 to account for the large deficit playing caused. Friday's are always hard for me because they are my cheat day. I always go into them thinking I will go high carb but still try to stay under my calorie maintenance level. Well that never happens. I tend to really binge on Fridays. On the plus side my weight continues to drop so I must be doing something right.

Injuries

Obviously my toe was feeling good enough to play racquetball this week so that was good. I am suffering from some sort of pain in my elbow though. It's almost like a tendonitis type feeling. Hurt's to the point where it's hard for me to lift any amount of significant weight with it. I am hoping its just the effect of playing racquetball yesterday and not being used to the movement of the racquet.

Wrap-Up

That wraps up this week. It's now been 4 week since my last deload week and I am seriously considering taking next week off from the usual routine. Who knows, I might do some crossfit type stuff. We shall see.

Peace out.

Weekly Wrap Up 3.02.12

Personal Records

Overall this week was pretty successful for me in the gym and on the scale. I am down another 2.5 lbs this week for a grand total of 5lbs lost since I went back to doing a low carb leangains cycle. I know last week I had mentioned that I thought my strength was going down since I switched to low carb but this week pretty much shot that theory to dust when I exceeded all of my PR's in almost all major lifts! I set new PR's in deadlift, squat, bench, and pullups/chinups!

Scale

Someone hit me up on twitter this week commenting on the fact that I am weighing myself again. He found it funny since I have been against not getting on a scale for awhile now. I am doing it for two reasons. Reason number one is for the contest that I got talked into doing at work. I really don't want to be the guy that gains weight so I am doing the best I can to not. The second reason is this bodybuilding show coming up in May. I really want to enter and the deadline is approaching fast. I felt that if I can get my weight down a little bit, I might actually have a chance at getting on stage. I am currently at 185 and I feel I need to be at 175 in order to make a run at it.

Workout Changes

I am tweaking my Reverse Pyramid routine a bit to allow for some muscle growth in areas I feel that I could use it. For now that means my shoulders and arms. I am still doing RPT but with high reps/lower weight and taking it to failure on those body parts. I should know in a few weeks if I was a good idea to make that change.

Diet

My diet has remained pretty constant the last 2 weeks. I did have a pretty big cheat day last Sunday caused by some friends pushing a 2 lb bag of M&M's on me. I cannot resist those stupid candies and ended up having quite a few handfuls. My body didn't seem to mind too much and I still was able to drop that aforementioned 2.5lbs this week.  I seem to do pretty well if I can go low carb all week followed by a 4 hour high carb feeding window.

Injuries

I have been fighting a sore neck and back for a week now. It hasn't really affected my workouts too much but does make it a pain to turn my head to the left. My toe is also recovering (slowly) from its run in with the wall during racquetball 4 weeks ago. I feel that I am finally at a point with it that I can start playing again.

Wrap-Up

That about wraps up my week. I am looking forward to another 2 weeks of hard lifting followed by a week of casual cardio and maybe some disc golf.

Weekly Wrap Up 2.25.12

I am late getting this out and therefore it will be an abbreviated post of my week. I had family in town for the week for my son's 1st birthday. My diet took a break for the occasion and I actually put on a few pounds because of it.  As of Friday morning, I was back down to my starting weight pre-party so that was nice.

I have lowered my carb intake significantly in order to speed up my fat loss. In doing so, I feel that my strength has also taken a bit of a hit. I will discuss this in a future post along with what I plan on doing to rectify the situation.

I had a moment last week were I thought about transitioning to a 5x5 program for a few weeks in order to overcome some personal plateaus that I have been stuck at. Instead though I am going to make some modifications to my pyramid routine with some additional emphasis put on the body parts that I want to increase size on vs just strength. I will discuss this in a future post as well.

I hope everyone else's week was productive. Peace out.

Weekly Wrap Up 2.17.12

I had a pretty awesome week so far and I thought I would share. Monday's gym time didn't happen because of the weather. I ended up working from home and as much as I would love it, I don't have the weight needed to really pull off a good workout. So I skipped it and instead worked out on Tuesday.

Since it's been roughly 6 weeks since I got back from the holidays, I decided I needed a break from the RPT setup that I have been doing. I, instead, made this week a deload week and went with the P90x lifting schedule (minus the moves that I feel no human being should ever do).  Needless to say, the high reps/low weight routines were a good change up from my usual low rep/high weight routine and I felt pretty spent after all three days of lifting.  Next cycle will have me doing a load workout for 4 weeks with the 5th week being a deload. If you don't currently do a deload and you feel like you have hit a plateue with your routine or if you just want a quick change of pace, I highly suggest doing one. It doesnt have to be time spent in the gym. It can be anything from a new routine to no workouts at all.  I enjoy the gym so I opted for a new routine for the week.

This last week also found me altering my eating habits a bit.  I am still doing my modified leangains approach but I have reduced my carb intake quite a bit.  I am now doing less than 50/grams on non-workout days and around 100/grams on lifting days.  This weekend will find me doing a "slight" carb load while I enjoy my son's first birthday along with my family being in from out of town.  I hope to restrict this load to health(ier) type foods and on Saturday only. Sunday I should be back to my 50/grams a day schedule.

I decided to go back to restricted low carb because I know it works for me. I think I happen to be one of those people that suffers from extreme insulin sensitivity and low carb seems to be the only way that I have been able to achieve leanness.  I have tried other things but LC seems to be tried and true for me. I am sticking to the Primal eating plan as close as I can but I find myself a bit more lenient with dairy. that is something I am working on reducing though.

This week I was invited by a co-worker to join his team on our work sponsored weight loss challenge. I hesitated because I haven't been on a scale in months and I really don't care to know what I weigh but I eventually caved and signed up.  Yesterday found me on an official proctored weigh in scale sitting at 190.5lbs.  That is 21lbs heavier than I was here while sponsoring my own P90x Primal challenge. All my clothes still fit the same (if not better) so I can only assume that most of it is muscle.  Since my p90x challenge ended, I have started back on training my legs which before were pretty skinny. My wife has also commented that my "guns" are huge.  Still, 21lbs isnt exactly where I want to be and I know in my mind, that it wasnt a 21lb muscle gain. That is part of the reason why I am back to LC Primal.  That and May 1st is the Kansas City WBFF deadline should I choose to compete this year. That gives me roughly 8 weeks to shed the excess fat.  It's going to be tough.

Not a lot of new gym antics to report this week. I did see a guy doing tricep extensions and shoulder presses while riding the recumbent bike.  Saw another guy trying as hard as he could to do the same Crossfit workouts that he must see on the website.  Try as he might, doing Crossfit in a 24 Hour Fitness just doesn't seem to be the same!

So there you have it. This has been my week in review. I am looking forward to getting back to some heavy RPT next week and to see if I cannot drop a few pounds by then. My weight at the home scale is 187 and that is the scale that I will be using to report my weekly weigh in for my blog.

Peace out and have a great weekend.

Tyson

Inconsiderate Trainer

While working out at the gym yesterday, I came so close to going off on one of the "personal trainers". For anyone that knows me well, I don't often get upset by the little things that happen in the gym but this had me mad.  Here is what happened.

There I was... on my second set of bench presses ... right in the middle of lowering the weight...when suddently at the top of my vision I see a red shirt snagging weights from right above my head! It startled me so much that I lifted the weight back to the starting point and had to reset my focus. To make matters even worse, he grabbed two 2.5lb plates and then walked half way across the gym (past 4 empty benches with weights) to an incline bench and proceeded to have his trainee do some sort of swimming motion with the weights while laying down on her stomach.  I am not really sure what that exercise was going to do for that woman or why he felt he needed MY weights from MY rack instead of from the weight tree that was 5 feet from where he was now stationed.  On a good note,  I was able to bottle that anger and use it for the remaining workouts that I had.

On a side note, I thought I would share another "awesome" exercise I saw being done by my new favorite trainers. It sets up in the walk in squat rack. The weight is grabbed off of the bar and it looks like its going to be a clean and press. That would have been impressive as heck if that was what they were actually going to do! But instead the weight stays in the pressed position and the shoulders begin to do some sort of reverse shoulder shrug???? That's right. They were shrugging the weight higher!  You know the look someone gets when they are about to throw up?  Their head goes down a bit and their shoulders sort of heave higher? Now put an Olympic bar with 25lb plates on each side.  That is what these guys looked like

As painful as it looked, I think throwing up might be more enjoyable.  Second, what happens when they have fatigued themselves and drop the entire setup on their head? Or lower the weight with such poor form that they pull a muscle in that heaving shoulder?  I am also curious as to why they just didn't grab some dumbbells and do some standard shrugs? I guess it's just not as impressive as doing a clean and press with shrugs. *shrugs shoulders* Don't know.

Today’s Amusing Gym Antics - Take 2

Is it the goal of a personal trainer to make their trainee do the most ridiculous excerises imaginable as justification for charging high prices? Maybe it's a way to convince the trainee that they are getting their moneys worth? After all, who would pay for a trainer to show them how to do the major compound exercises (squat, bench, deadlift, etc) when they can do fun and exciting things with a Bosu ball!

As an example, today I saw a trainer that was having his client do bicep curls....laying on her back....on the cable row machine....while he assisted by pulling the cable down. I am not sure how this was more effective than grabbing some dumbbells and going to town with those. What made it worse was that she didn't even struggle with the weight, even before his assistance.

The only thing I could think of was that this was for a "Wow" factor for the client. She must have thinking to herself "Wow! I would have never thought of doing this on my own! I am definitely going to be signing up for another 6 week training course at the affordable rate of $199!"

I have to admit that I, too, have done a lot of dumb exercises in my lifetime (P90x Crouching Cohen Curl anyone?). It's my goal to try and educate people that going to the gym doesn't have to be about using the fanciest of equipment or coming up with the most interesting exercise to use with a ball.  Working out also doesn't have to be hours in the gym.  Most of my workouts consist of 4-5 exercises and I always incorporate a compound movement into the mix and I am usually in and out in 45 minutes.

What crazy exercises have you seen in the gym lately?

Manly Lifting Stats - Update 1

I hit some new personal records at the gym today. That got me thinking about where I stood on reaching my ultimate goals outlined here. After all, its been 3 months since I originally posted it. So here goes.

I am guessing my current weight is hopefully still around 190. I dont think I have hopped on a scale at all in the last 3 months. I hate scales. I really do. They depress me and make me think dark thoughts about myself. Ok, maybe that is a bit too far but I really do dislike them. They never make me feel good about what I am trying to accomplish.

Bench Press
Back in October I was benching 205lbs eight times. Today I benched 230lbs five times with my ultimate goal being 285 at a 1RM. My calculated 1RM currently sits at 280lbs but that is unproven at this time. Bench pressing has always been my weakness and I used to forgo it all together. It feels good to be doing it now and I am hoping that my strength will only increase as time goes on.

Pull-Ups
In October I was able to do six pull-ups with a combined weight (including body) of 235lbs. Last Friday I did four pull-ups at 245. Not a huge increase but I do know for a fact that last month I was pulling more. I switched gyms and for some reason, my pull-up weight went down a bit. It's starting to go back up but I am still a bit disappointed in both pull-ups and chin-ups.

Chin-Ups
My chin-up weight/rep is the same as my pull-up. Calculated 1RM for both is 254 and the goal that I am hoping to reach by year end is 285.

Squat
In high school the squat was my exercise. I could push 400lbs like it was nothing. Now I really cant say the same thing. Last Friday I squatted 235 at three reps. That is actually a 50lb decrease over last October but since then I have altered my form and started doing them correctly. I am now breaking plane and doing them correctly. I will take the 50lb loss knowing that I can look in the mirror at night and know that I am not cheating myself. My goal is 360lbs and my calculated 1RM is 374lbs.

Deadlift
On Monday I deadlifted 325lbs four times with a calculated 1RM of 368lbs (again, untested). Back in October I was only able to deadlift 225lbs six times. So in the last 3 months I was able to increase my deadlift by 100lbs! Now that is some exciting news! I am still 150lbs away from my 475 goal though. I will get there by year end unless my gym kicks me out for making too much noise!

I am a little disappointed in my progress but at least I am making some. The goals set forth were for advanced lifters so any progress towards them is a positive in my book.

What goals have you set and achieved recently?

5 Types of Spotters

All weight lifters at some time or another have used a spotter. I, for one, will only use when if I know the person. I am not one to just ask some random dude if he can assist me with a lift. My lifts and my body parts are just too important to me to put them in the hands of a complete stranger that probably doesnt know what they are doing anyway. You know what I am talking about. We have all been there. We have all had certain types of spotters that just give the assistant a bad name. Here are my top 5 spotters as I see it.

1. Grabby Hands - This is the guy that at the first sign of a struggle with the weight, he immediately grabs the weight and lifts it back onto the rack. I hate this. Only grab the weight if and when I tell you too. And when you do grab it, just offer light assistance until I yell the words "TAKE IT!".


2. Drippy - Nothing like getting ready to do a PR in bench only to have the guy spotting you drip his own sweat onto your face. Been there. Trust me. It's gross.


3. Gazer -  Gazer is too busy either watching himself in the mirror or watching every body else. Once he finally puts his focus back on your, the weight is already crushing your bones into little pieces.


4. Over Enthusiastic - The over enthusiastic spotter is the guy that is yelling at you from the moment you lift the weight to several minutes after completion.  His face is right next to yours and he is yelling things like "YOU GOT THIS!" and "THIS IS ALL YOUR BRO".  Upon completion, he is offering up a knuckle punch or doing an ass slap while telling you how easy that appeared.


5. Junker - Junker feels that the only way that he could possibly assist with the lift is if he has nearly straddled your head with his legs and that any upward gaze would be an unwelcoming site.

A proper spotter should ask the lifter if they need any assistance with the weight and how many reps they plan to achieve.  Hands should be at the ready but not touching the weights and if and when the lifter says they need assistance, only lightly touch the weight. Sometimes that is all a lifter needs to complete the rep. If at any point, the weight begins reversing direction, only then should you engage more assistance with the lift.

So there you have it.  That is my top 5 list of spotters. I am sure there are more out there and I would love to hear other user's accounts of spotting gone wrong.

Today’s Amusing Gym Antics

 

I was quite surprised today to see three guys doing bench presses in the walk in  squat rack.  They had the bar on the dead-lift mounts and they were lying on the ground on a mat. Six things really bothered me about these guys.

1. There are 4 bench press benches in this gym. 2 were not being used.


2. Two of the guys were personal trainers at the gym.


3. The weight they were using was very light and I didnt see anything special about the movement that warranted using this particular piece of equipment.


4. In between sets, they walked over the cable machine were they did incline cable flies. All three would go at the same time. This left the squat rack alone with their weight on it for about 4 minutes each time.


5. Two of the guys were wearing skin tight Under Armour shirts. I am a huge fan of Under Armour and wear quite a few of their products and even own a skin tight one. But I only wear it under other shirts and only when I really needs its moisture wicking ability. Skin tight Under Armour shirts should never be worn by themselves in my opinion.


6. One of the guys proceeded to ask me, immediately following my first set of dead-lifts, if I was almost done. I guess the two pieces of equipment they were already hogging weren't enough. When I did finish, he proceeded to put on 135lbs for squats and then screamed so loud while doing them, that the entire gym took notice. 135lbs.

Back to 24

Feels so good to be back at the gym that started my weight loss journey 6 years ago. I saw a lot of familiar faces that are still there from trainers to lifters. Time to get really serious if I want to compete in 5 months!