2-board Press, 12 singles/205 <-- getting ridiculously easy, and not a sign of shoulder pains. Up 10 lbs next week.
Back Squat (close-stance, high-bar, full depth), 25 singles/225 <-- too easy, up 20 lbs next week
Face pulls, 4x10
DB rows, 4x6/100 lbs
Hammer curls, 50x6
Weight-wise, I'm hanging around 198 or so, which is the goal for this particular cycle. There's another 2-week PSMF phase in my future after this is done, but for now I don't really want the weight to do much but inch down, which it's doing.
Carb-up today will hit 600-700g assuming I eat everything planned. I've already had two servings of apple-cinnamon oatmeal with honey, some cherry-cranberries, and one big-ass can of Chef Boyardee ravioli (4.5 servings my ass), giving me around 240g or so. There's still alfredo pasta and a pizza to eat, along with a few low-fat ice cream sammiches.
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I picked up Lyle's new Stubborn Fat Solution book last night. I mostly know what's in it already, but since that whole "contest lean" thing is something that applies directly to me and to my target clientele, I figure it'll be useful to have on hand as a reference point.
It details a lot of those tips and tricks to get that last "stubborn" body fat off, including the SFP cardio protocol I did yesterday which combines hard intervals with longer-duration steady-state work to specifically target that fat that doesn't like to budge (including some new stuff that the guys that "borrow" this approach don't know about yet).
It'd be worth checking out for anybody that's interested in that kind of thing.
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Mmmmmmm....Chef Boyardee Ravioli sounds so GOOD! Enjoy your carb up.
I have Lyle's Guide to Flexible Dieting. I really like his pragmatic and no-nonsense (aka no-bullshit) approach to things. Is his Stubborn Fat Solution good stuff?
Oh, that's a lotta goddamn squats you did there mister. nice work.
I won't know what all he's got in it until I read it, but I've got a fair idea. It's really targeted to bodybuilding/figure competitors and those that want to get similarly lean, which is a whole different animal from just having healthy to low levels of body fat.
I've used the ideas w/ my wife and other girls I've trained for that purpose, so I expect there's going to be quite a few gems in here just like there were with the Protein Book.
The squats aren't as bad as they look. If anything it just gets repetitive and boring, so you start to move faster to get it done. It's doing a number on conditioning, while being a pretty damn good workout. The total volume is equivalent to 5 sets of 5, just with less fatigue generated over the workout, so I imagine it's doing Good Things for strength as well; I'll know when I test maxes in a few weeks.
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It's kinda starting to get harder, but more from a running out of gas standpoint. By around the 15th or 16th I noticed I was starting to tank a bit and rest longer between each one. Still got a ways to go in terms of weight before this becomes a challenge though.
Diet wise, this is what today's going to end up as most likely:
Breakfast
1 tbsp Honey
2 packets Oatmeal
1/3 cup cranberries
2 scoops protein
Walgreen's had the caramel and regular creme eggs on sale for 50 cents a pop so I couldn't resist. They had some other flavors like orange that I'd never seen before, but they were gone.
Surprising amount of stuff in the little things, though. 24g of carbs and 17g of fat or something like that.
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Okay, I'll just come clean. I not only had a Cadbury Caramel Egg on Sunday, I compared and contrasted it with the traditional Cream Egg. I like the Cream egg best. If I had known that there was an orange flavored one, I would have eaten one of those too. Those suckers are 150 calories each! Talk about nutritionally dense.
Matt, have you taken any of the Z-health courses? I heard about them recently from someone's blog, I can't remember who ... checked out the website. Looks interesting. Is there a resource you recommend? Since I only really deal with folks with bad joints and stuff, I am always looking for more info on that.
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I picked up their R-Phase package on a recommendation from a friend, and so far I'm using it almost exclusively for scap/thoracic and shoulder mobility, which are my huge trouble spots (and why my bench is so relatively weak compared to everything else).
I haven't taken any of the classes, and from the cost of it I doubt I will, hahaha
Dropping 80 something bucks for this package was one thing, but truly, I haven't played with it enough to know if even that is worth it, and for someone that works with movement/injury rehab, I'd really be the last one to ask....that's a huge gap in my knowledge that I've only started to fix a year or so ago. I'm far from the expert on that subject matter, so I don't think I can really give you any insight there.
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I thought I would also throw my thoughts in on the Z-Health stuff. I just bought the same R-Phase package that Matt has. I thought it was ok, but wasn't too impressed for the price.
I say that with the aside that I haven't gone through all the info yet or used the full routine. I might change my mind if after using it for a while I see some big results. I would say that I don't think I will continue buying more Z-Health products or pay for the cert. Too much money for the info. Especially because you can find a lot of it elsewhere for cheaper.
Danny
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I don't mean to hi-jack, but I recently saw an older show on FitTV with NFLers Junior Seau and John Lynch performing a variety of exercises as part of a program with a strange foreign name. Anyone have any idea what I am talking about?
Interesting ... that's disappointing because it did appear that all of their packages were expensive ... and yes, the training seems outrageously priced. I/O and MM got me thinking outside the box a little even though none of the exercises were particularly new to me. I guess I had hoped that this Z-Health stuff would do the same thing ...
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I'm not sure I'd rule it out necessarily, just that I'm not convinced it's magic.
His big selling point seems to be that doing these mobility drills for the joints can have a net effect on the nervous system, giving you an overall warmup and potentiation effect, sorta like you'd expect from dynamic flexibility work in general.
Problem is, while I definitely do feel better in my trouble spots, I'm just not convinced it's doing the "magic", you know?
There's been several guys over on BR that have brought up criticisms, nothing major mind you, but mostly that it's just re-hash and not the supposed potentiation magic of the stretch receptors blah blah blah.
For my purposes it's good, but if you've got a battery of these exercises and what not, it may well not be worth the purchase. I'd shop around more for reviews on it, sadly I just don't have the info to make that kind of judgment call on it.
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Julie - After I bought the Z-Health package I found this: Strength And Conditioning - Encyclopedia Of Joint Mobility I have seen a bit of the Steve Maxwell stuff and its almost exactly what Z-Health is but cheaper. I would start here.
Danny
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So I've decided to slam the carbs today, and do a proper refeed this weekend. I'm getting to that point where the starvation is starting to affect gym motivation, which means it's time for a break. This will make 5 weeks of continuous dieting and a ton of weight lost, so I'm due.
Gonna slam carbs today, do depletion eating/training tomorrow, carb up on Friday, and then just be lax on the diet the next 7 days or so.
This is my last weekend in Fort Lauderdale, so I might as well enjoy that too.
I've already had 155g of carbs (1/4 cup of cranberries, 2 packets oatmeal + 1tbsp honey, and 2 Smores pop-tarts), and I've still got ravioli and pasta waiting for me postWO.
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Julie - After I bought the Z-Health package I found this: Strength And Conditioning - Encyclopedia Of Joint Mobility I have seen a bit of the Steve Maxwell stuff and its almost exactly what Z-Health is but cheaper. I would start here.
Danny
Thanks Danny!
Edited to add: Holy crap! 3 DVDs for $50! Seems like a steal!!!
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2-board Press, 12 singles/215
Full Back Squat, 25 singles/245
face pulls, 3x10
DB row, 2x6/110
Glad I decided on the carb-up, because I think the workouts + lowered calories are really starting to take a toll on me. I'm getting the beginnings of that burn-out feeling, which I knew was coming, and I can tell it's from excessive volume. I wish I could quantify it more than that, but it's like you just feel each progressive set wearing on you more as fatigue builds up.
I'm up to around 240g of carbs so far, with ravioli up on deck to push it up around 400g.
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Nice squatting.
How are you liking the 25 single rep sets, and have you ever tried a 10x3? I would be interested in hearing how the 2 compare. I have found 10x3's using around 80-85% of my max to be very effective.
Seems like a steal!!!
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