Am I Still Fat?

[PowerManDL]

Also, for those interested I did time the sets today to get an idea of how long this took.

The 12 singles w/ 215 took the length of Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills and about half of Jag Panzer's cover of Sabbath's Children of the Sea.

The 25 singles w/ 245 took Meshuggah's Bleed, Ministry's Let's Go, Metallica's version of Am I Evil? and I'm Broken by Pantera.

You can do the math on that.

[PowerManDL]

Originally Posted by pjb923

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.

I've used similar, something like 6-8 sets of triples, but usually I don't like it. The triples even end up being too much per set once the weight gets heavy enough. If I'm gonna do high-volume work like this I prefer singles.

[I. Kay]

You better be careful... with all that metal playing and the heavy lifting, I might start to not hate you.

Curious, since it appears we both have iffy shoulders and are doing 2board presses... are you getting a lift-off on the 12 singles? If not, how are your shoulders taking the lift-off?

[PowerManDL]

They lift off doesn't bother them at all, actually.

In looking at it, my problems probably came from one area: I have long arms relative to my body size, and even with a big arch my elbows still go a ways behind my body during a full ROM bench.

While I did a ton of rowing and upper back work, it just wasn't enough to make sure that the scap was positioned and moving right. Over the years, that led to tight internal rotators and a lot of stress being put on the shoulder any time I benched.

I talked to Eric Cressey about it awhile back, and he pretty much pinpointed the issue for me, which was a big help because up to that point I had assumed it was something to do with the pectoral tendon tie in, as that's where my pain was, but it was most likely a tear of the subscap. The only real corrective type work I'd done up til then was external rotator stuff, but that only made the pain worse.

This has been a problem that's gone on for one way or another since 2000, mind you, so it's an old recurring injury, and looking back I can blame it for my overall sub-par bench numbers. Every time I get it up to a decent weight, this injury kicks in and I have to start right back over.

I took most of last year away from most benching, only very limited amounts of it with lower weights, and started doing a ton of upper back work combined with stretching the internal/external rotators.

It's made a night and day difference, and I don't seem to have nearly the tightness or chronic clicking that was going on for many years. I'm sticking to boards because it seems that my piss-poor leverages played a role in it just as much as the poor scap mobility, and I'd just assume not risk it. I can progress as well as I want on boards, with maybe some occasional and limited test work in the full range.

That also is a big part in why I'm relying more on high volumes and moderately heavy weights, instead of the old standby of trying to knock off high-intensity work week after week.

This time I'm hoping to make some real progress on it, and keep it up there, instead of continuing the old cycle.

[I. Kay]

Gotcha. My issues have been a simple case of thoracic dysfunction, so while I'm playing it safe for now, I can/will be going to chest again at some point. Getting a lift-off has been helpful for my own issues (obviously locking in can be easier with a lift-off).

[PowerManDL]

Yeah, I've got some of that too, pinching a nerve in the neck from time to time. That's working itself out too. Amazing how an unrelated area can affect so much around it.

Diet for today:

1/4 cup dried cranberries
2 packets oatmeal + 1 tbsp honey
2 pop-tarts
2 pcs brown sugar cinnamon bread

2 scoops isolate pre/during WO

1 big-ass can of ravioli PWO
2 pcs brown sugar cinnamon bread
6g fish oil

3 scoops of WPC/MPI blend to be consumed shortly.

Running total so far is 410g carbs and around 145g of protein. Fat's coming up last around 50g, which is about right.

Dinner tonight after work will be enough 93% lean beef to get another 60g or so of protein, to make the 1g/lb cutoff, and a couple of hamburger buns. Dieting is fun.

[MAXX]

Originally Posted by PowerManDL

Javorek complex, by any chance?

That's the only thing off the top of my head with a blatantly foreign sounding name

Did a lot of Googling and finally found it--Egoscue Method. Here's a brief Wiki description:

The "Egoscue Method" is an approach to physical therapy that claims to alleviate joint pain and arthritis by correcting skeletal misalignments via muscle rebalancing. It has been endorsed by Jack Nicklaus in the forward of one of Peter Egoscue's published books. A review of the website egoscue.com BE PAIN FREE and a reading of Mr. Egoscue's books reveals a very common sense approach to body pain often associated with aging. The downside of the program is a fairly big commitment required in terms of daily time spent doing the Egoscue Method exercises.

[Natalia]

Originally Posted by PowerManDL

I spent two weeks doing Lyle McDonald's PSMF diet, which got me down to a hair under 200 lbs.

That's who I've been reading lately! Thus my low-carb life since Monday Definitely will be watching your progress, and hopefully cheering you on.

Originally Posted by PowerManDL

I picked up Lyle's new Stubborn Fat Solution book last night.
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.

will have to pick it up!

Originally Posted by L'ilJ

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.

I beat you, Jill. This past Sunday I had a whole bag of milk chocolate M&M's -- around 800 cals with 107g of carbs and 31.5g fat !!! Add some duds on top of that. Hate going to the movies with kids.

Originally Posted by stroutman81

z-health, is that as in Zdorovye?

Amazed to see that folks here know about this Russian Zdorovye mag .. way too cool

[PowerManDL]

ha, half the complex exercise science and S&C research stuff is Russian. Lots of good stuff there if you can dig out the gems. And read Russian.

Which I can't.

So today was interesting. I'm wrapping up everything in Florida, getting ready to go. I know that yesterday's carbup was a good idea, because despite eating 450g of carbs and around/over 3200 calories, I weighed in at 196 lbs, which is down from yesterday's 197.

Nice how that works out. Dieting break starts tomorrow, partly because I'll be moving/traveling, partly because I want to have fun before I leave, and partly because of nutritional/hormonal/systemic reasons. If you know the signals, you can definitely tell when your body starts to fight back against the calorie restriction and weight loss, and I can feel it coming on for sure.

I went in just a minute ago and had some glycogen-burning fun with upper body depletion work and 20 minutes of moderately-intense cycling (HR around 130-135bpm), along with my usual quasi-fasting eating for today.

[L'ilJ]

Making good progress. Your carb ups always sound delicious. I'm more of a frosted cinnamon pop tart kinda gal, but S'mores will do in a pinch. Good luck with the move (how lucky are you to be moving to Australia).

[Lost Dog]

Originally Posted by L'ilJ

(how lucky are you to be moving to Australia).

Sad day for the world. The average strength of both continents goes down tomorrow.

[kuri]

Originally Posted by UConnJulie

Thanks Danny!

Edited to add: Holy crap! 3 DVDs for $50! Seems like a steal!!!

Sorry for the hijack but Maxwell has had a blog back up and going. Interesting guy.

Matt, are you gonna be training people full-time in Oz?

[PowerManDL]

That's the goal, one way or another. I want to balance things between writing stuff (since that's a goal I've let fall behind WAY too much) and training people.

I've been talking with the NT Institute of Sport up in Darwin, and they're very short staffed, so they're interested in talking with me. Even if it's volunteer type stuff I'm wanting to go get some time in there.

The good thing is the CSCS is still considered valid there, but I'm going to see about getting the ASCA cert, which is actually graded on three levels. The CSCS is equivalent to level 1, with levels 2 and 3 requiring more in-depth study and testing along with extensive working experience.

Long story short, yes, that's what I'm going to be doing.

[stroutman81]

Australia made that much of an impression on you that you're moving there for good..... that's nuts. And awesome. I've never been there, but it's definitely on my list of 'must hit destinations.'

Are you nervous about the move at all? I mean that's a huge change! I wish to god I could leave shitty PA. Too many damn fam and friends to even consider though... it would be tough.

Best of luck in the move and you best get that damn book done soon!

[fitzy21]

good luck with the move down under man

[PowerManDL]

Originally Posted by stroutman81

Best of luck in the move and you best get that damn book done soon!

Thanks.

First draft is done, I'm in the middle of the first round of editing right now.
Mostly I have to fix my really awkward style. I tend to put things down on paper in a really stilted way, because I'm writing so fast. Then I have to go back and fix it to make it more understandable.

I'd like to say it'll be a working manuscript inside a month, but we'll have to see.