Warrior Dash Training - Take 1

I got up super early this morning to attempt my first official (by my standards) Warrior Dash training. Since the race is on July 30th, I figured I better get my butt into gear and get out and train. So I did. 45 minutes later, I came back to the house dripping in sweat, exhausted, but feeling fulfilled. Here is what I did.

• 2 mile warm up run


• 3 - 50 yard sprints


• 4 times "walking"  from one end of a soccer goal to another while hanging from hands


• 2 - 25 picnic table bench jumps


• 1 mile run home

There you have it.  My first official Warrior Dash training is in the books. What did you think?

Video-Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business

I know its been awhile since I have posted. Truth is I have not been up to much. Still going to the gym. Still enjoying life with my new infant son and daughters.  Love life with my wife.  This post probably would not have happened had it not been for the extraordinary video that I watched yesterday.  In a very high level overview, it talks about how the government is trying to prevent the release of cancer curing medicine in the name of corporate profit.  That is what I got out of it at least. Take a look and see for yourself.

 

Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business from BurzynskiMovie on Vimeo.

Staying Strong

I often get questions about my workouts and nutrition choices. Why do I workout? Why do I keep myself so healthy? What's the point?  This weekend an event happened that will hopefully shed some light on those questions and whatever else someone might have.

Saturday night my wife received a phone call from her Mom letting us know that we were in a tornado warning. For those that don't know, a warning means that a tornado has been sited and everyone should take cover. So that was what we started to do. My wife grabbed our 3 month old son out of his crib and I ran into the girl's room to wake them up and get them downstairs.  Both my girls can be very sound sleepers and trying to get them up and going was not an easy task. I worked on my oldest (9) first.  After some coaxing, she finally woke up and headed downstairs where my wife was waiting.  My youngest daughter (7) was a different story. I could not wake her for anything so I finally reached over the guard rail on their bunk-bed and proceeded to lift her up and over and carry her downstairs.

It's times like this, that make working out worth it. I hate to think what might have happened if I was not able to lift her up and get her downstairs.

To wrap up the story, we huddled in our half bath downstairs until we received the all clear.  No tornado's went through our area but surrounding areas got hit pretty hard that night and again yesterday.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected.

HIT Progress Pictures - May 2011

I took some progress photo's yesterday. Nothing special but I can see an increase in size in both my arms and shoulders. My waist still appears to be the same size. I have not measured it but my clothes are still fitting good (if not a little loose).  My weight has stayed the same from last week but I attribute that to the intense workout I put in yesterday.

Today I am going low-carb and low calorie. The weekend is coming up and we are traveling. I hope that I can maintain some sort of dignity in eating.

Reverse Pyramid HIT

On Friday I decided to switch up my usual (one set to failure) HIT workout with a technique called Reverse Pyramid's that I had been reading about on leangains.com.  I headed to the gym with the same exercises planned that I was going to do before,  but now I was going to do them Reverse Pyramid style.

What is Reverse Pyramid?

One of the most conventional types of lifting is the pyramid. Most of the guys you see at the gym are going to be doing this. You start out with a light weight and lift it for about 12 reps. You then add weight to the stack and pump out 10 reps. Add a little bit more weight and do 8 reps. The last set is usually the hardest and peaks out around 6 reps.

The reverse pyramid is the complete opposite. Your first set should be your hardest and you should complete somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 reps to failure. From there you would actually decrease weight by about 10% and pump out 10 reps. Decrease the weight by another 10% and pump out 12 reps.  That's it. You are done and you can move onto the next exercise. The idea is that you should be lifting the hardest weight in the beginning while your muscles are still fresh. Not at the end where you are already fatigued.

So I set out to the gym to do just that. Reverse Pyramid. My intent was to do Chest and Back. Same exercises I have done the last few weeks but with a little bit different of an approach.

Chest

• Incline Press


• Fly's


• Push-Ups

Back

• Dumbbell pullover with one arm


• Bent Over Rows


• Pull-Ups

It was a little hard at first to try to pick a weight that I knew I could only lift 6-8 times. After a bit of trial and error I got it though. I went through my usual routine and felt fantastic afterwards. And by fantastic I mean that I was shaking and felt like I was going to vomit. I left the gym and headed back to the office completely worn out but thrilled with this new type of workout.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. I wake up with the intent that I am going to go do some sprints at the park. It didn't happen. My chest and back where so sore from the workout that I could barely move.  Sprints postponed.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. I wake up with the intent that I am going to go do some sprints at the park. It again didn't happen. Although not as sore as I was on Saturday, I was still feeling the effects of Friday's workout. The sprints will have to wait until tomorrow.

I am going to play around with this technique a bit more in the coming weeks and see if there is anything to it or it my soreness was a fluke. I figure if it works for Martin at leangains along with all of his clients, it might work for me as well.

 

Dairy Hates Me

I have a love/hate relationship with dairy.

I love it but it hates me.

At least I think it does.

It seems that every time I eat cheese or protein powder, I get really bloated and gassy. (TMI I know). A few months ago I did a Whole30 challenge and gave up dairy completely and felt great. No pressure. No gas. After the challenge was over I slowly started to add the protein powder and cheese back and slowly the bloating returned. I know its the dairy but its just too hard to give up!

For awhile I bought some low lactose protein powder and it seemed to help. I have also thought about getting egg protein instead but like the low lactose version, its a bit pricey. Some might say to give up the protein powder but when you need that quick fix of protein, nothing fits the bill quite like a protein shake. Plus I make the best smoothies with my protein powder!

This post is random and has no true direction. It's Friday and I don't care. Have a great weekend everyone! I will try and stay away from the dairy this weekend!

 

Issues With the Scale

I really hate the scale. Actually let me rephrase that. I really hate what the scales shows me.  I have never been a big fan of scales (as noticeable in this post) but I have been involved in a couple of fitness competitions at work and with friends so weighing in has been a requirement.

Why I Hate Scales

I hate scales because my weight can fluctuate so much from week to week that I don't really believe it can be an accurate representation of my weight loss. I have always felt that how my clothes fit and how I look in the mirror better represents my journey.

Current Issues

Currently, though, my weight has been increasing. In fact, the scale says I am up 15lbs since this time last year. 15lbs!  I have gained 5lbs in the last 2 weeks alone. What is really perplexing to me, however, is that my pants still fit like they always have and my appearance in the mirror doesn't look like it should for a 15lb weight gain. But I am pretty sure that I have not put on 15lbs of muscle either so I am really confused.

This Week

The scale said I gained 2.5lbs this last week. Here is the breakdown of what I did and the macronutrients that I consumed. Maybe someone else can see where I might have gone wrong.

Friday - Weighed in at 182. HIT with weights

• 2300 calories


• 23g/fat


• 180g/protein


• 338g/carb

Saturday - P90x Plyo
Sunday - Off

• 3000 calories


• 182g/fat


• 177g/protein


• 168g/carb

Monday - 24 hour fast along with a 3 mile walk while in a fasted state.
End of fast meal

• 790 calories


• 28g/fat


• 78g/protein


• 67g/carb

Tuesday - HIT with weights

• 2663 calories


• 110g/fat


• 218g/protein


• 203g/carb

Wednesday - 1 hour intense racquetball play

• 2600 calories


• 157g/fat


• 200g/protein


• 100g/carb

Thursday - Off

• 1600 calories


• 75g/fat


• 120g/protein


• 128g/carb

Friday - weighed in at 184.4

There you have it. I have been trying to keep my carbs a little higher on my weight training days but overall I don't think my diet was worth of a 2.4lb weight gain. Do you?