Adventures with Afterburn

[tkinsley]

Another bleccchhh day in a string of them.... methinks this vacation is truly necessary. I did manage to take the ENTIRE day off yesterday, no cardio, either, but feel very tired and overall crap-o-la seems to be my recurring theme.

Chest/triceps:

A incline db bench press: 35(ea)x8,8,40x6,6,4

--I had a helluva time getting that last set of 4 actually UP for the first rep... whooooooaaaaaa doggie, that crap was tough.

TRIPLE SET: done sequentially with no rest until after B3

B1 steep incline db fly 15(ea)x10x3
B2 medium incline db fly 15(ea)x8,12,10
B3 flat db fly 15x10,10,10

--Was supposed to do four sets of these but nope. I would like my pecs and arms to function when I am waving farewell from the deck.

SUPERSET: no rest between exercises

C1: db preacher bench curl 15x10x4
C2: db reverse curl 15x10,5,12x10,10

--Holy biceps tendons. Those reverse curls HURT. I haven't done 'em in a looong time... had to drop the weight after flopping on the second superset

Ran this morning appx 3 miles/26 mins (a little short but close enough for govt work)
Rode the bike to nowhere x 3 miles/13 mins after lifting

Done.

So I'm going to try to not be a gym nazi on this cruise and do stuff I normally wouldn't do... perhaps one day of a full body routine and some treadmill runs but other than that, hiking and wall rock climbing are sounding good.... maybe some yoga too, just to relax.

I leave tomorrow evening; I have this sneaking suspicion I will be relegated to page 3 or 4 by the time I get back !

[sona]

Have a wonderful time!!!

[tkinsley]

Well hell, I expected to be on page 3 at least. APPARENTLY I am not the only one with a winter vacation.

ALright, so the cruise went as follows:

Run/lift 4 of the 6 days onboard. I did SOMETHING every day, including a truly rugged hike through almost knee high water in Cozumel.... it was supposed to be a "moderate" activity thing but had to use walking sticks and such due to heavy rains and flooded areas. I think we hiked for like 2 hours that day, it was awesome. I ran on the treadmill 4 days.. and let me tell you, the rocking of the ship hurt my muscles in entirely new ways. I was sore all over... leg workout just about killed me--ever tried bulgarian hell squats in an unstable starting position? AY yi yi! We also climbed the rock wall a couple of times on the ONE day it was open--it pretty much rained every day.

Let's see... well, there was also this food thing there--a lot of it, some of it good, some just very average. We ate 3x/day with dinner at 6 pm--I ate larger meals and had a sugar free dessert usually at lunch and dinner. Not sure what I weigh right now but will be checking this weekend.

I plan to start afterburn tomorrow. If I can figure out how to change my title on this thing, I will, but otherwise... subject change

Tina

[Marykaa]

I love hikes

(I think you have to just ask Jean-Paul to change it for you, if you want to change to title)

[galya]

Looking forward to your progress on afterburn
Are you going to take before and after pics?
Good luck!

[sona]

Welcome back!!

Sounds like you had a thoroughly enjoyable, robust and active time! I will be very interested to read in here how you like Afterburn.

Good luck with it!

[cappuccino]

Hey TK, just now catching up on your log.

When you list your macros, are they 40p/40c/20f?

I was thinking about going back to a higher carb/low fat option as that was when I was leanest too, but I also ran back then. And, I really enjoy the full cal fat stuff that's allowed in a lower carb plan.

Looking forward to watching your Afterburn progress too!

[tkinsley]

Thanks, Marykaa.... JP changed the title, just like you suggested! And hiking is vastly underrated... unfortunately, I live in Texas right now and there just isn't a lot of beautiful outdoors here to play in. Que sera, sera...

Yup, Cappy, my macros are p/c/f... I just don't do as well on higher fat for some reason; I think it's because I need volume and that comes from veggies and fruit for me, so that blows the low carb stuff out the window!

Galya, I have some "befores" from my postural analysis pics that I will post when I have some midways. I also have some rock climbing pics from the ship that are shot from below so my legs look hyooooooge; but at least in a muscular way, I guess.

Let me tell you, Sona, when I was surrounded by people that were (conservative estimate, here) at least 50 lbs overweight, I really WANTED to run and lift. Man, do I have a fat phobia....

OK, so Afterburn started today:

Week one/Day one

A1 Squat Bar x 20, 65x20
A2 T push up 8/side x 2
superset with 60 sec rest between exercises. The squats were surprisingly difficult; haven't done 20 rep sets for a looooong time. Ouch. Also, I am feeling the ART aftereffects today, and things were contracting differently in my legs.

B1 Step up (12 inch step) 20/leg x 2
B2 Seated row to neck (rope) 40x20x2
superset with 60 sec rest between exercises. The rows were pitiful, but the row to the neck really feels a lot harder than standard seated rows, so I adjusted accordingly.

C1 SHELC 20x2
C2 Swiss ball crunch 20x2
superset with no rest (supposed to be 60 secs, but come on...). The SHELCs felt entirely different today; hamstrings very odd after yesterday's ART, burning and such by the tenth rep. Not sure if this was because I am stiff from the ART or if my muscles were firing slightly differently? At any rate, they hurt

some rotator cuff stuff and pec stretching
done.

I had the OPTION of doing two or three sets today; again, as I am a bit cautious with day one of anything, I opted for the former. Still on cruise time as far as meals are going; it is difficult to eat at my normal intervals still, just not hungry. Yesterday I ate oatmeal twice... dang, do I love that stuff. Today was more normal with lotsa meat, veggies, some cheese.

Oh yeah, and ran three miles this morning--straight to starbucks for an americano. Oh, sweet caffeine, how I love thee.

Snack time. G'night, all!

Tina

[cappuccino]

Interesting that you feel the SHELC after ART. I was wondering if you weren't feeling them due to your imbalances and not recruiting the affected muscles. They really are killer....

I'm hoooked on americanos now too.

Good point on volume...I'm that way too. Might be something for me to ponder.

[tkinsley]

Today was just energy system work:

5 min warmup @ 6.3 mph
1 min work @7.4-8.0 mph with 2 minute recovery @ 6.3-6.4 mph
5 min cooldown @ 6.3 mph
5 min true cooldown walking on incline

did some rotator cuff stuff, scapular protraction pushups, pec stretching as well.

So I was supposed to hit 9-10/10 on the work portion but I think at best I was at 7-8. I will have to turn it up a notch next time. It felt good to run a little faster for once.

Starting weight as of this morning: 145.3
Given that my food intake on the cruise was probably in the realm of 2500 kcals/day (oh, and I am surely underestimating here), this bodes well for a true reset of the good ole metabolism

Now, per Alwyn/Rachel and Afterburn, I am supposed to do a 50/30/20 split (carb/prot/fat) with a 20% deficit. That is a bit more carb than I'm used to, but works out to appx 125 g protein, 200 g carbs, and 35 g of fat/day. Speaking of food, I'm starving! Off to lunch.... tomorrow is 20 rep deadlift sets--oh shit, ALSO 20 rep bulgarians per leg OMG!!!!

[tkinsley]

Just wanted to add in nutritional stuff to round out the day:

Cals 1670
Fat 28g
Pro 154g
CHO 199g

Damn, it is HARD to keep protein down.... I will have to eat 3 oz burgers, LOL... but the carbs were mmm, mmmm good.

I was reviewing old food logs (back when I weighed a buck twenty and had *only* 110 lbs of lbm) and it appears that I ate more in general, more carbs, plenty of dairy, etc... I also ran 20-25 miles/week at the time AND lifted 5 days/week for like 45-60 mins per. I am going to try and wrap my noodle around it, but perhaps I just need to suck it up and add another few miles/week to my running? Arrrrrgh! Mid to late thirties suck.

[Bill2380]

Mid to late thirties suck.

Beats the hell out of mid to late 40's...and beyond.

[sona]

Originally Posted by Bill2380

Beats the hell out of mid to late 40's...and beyond.

Damn straight.

Tina, 145 is pretty damn good, isn't it? What are you, 5'9" (your original 'tar had you with legs for days--you must be tall!)? What is your goal at this point?

Good luck with the change in macros! I know how hard it is to switch things around once you're used to a certain amount of protein/carbs/fat!

[tkinsley]

Originally Posted by sona

Damn straight.

Tina, 145 is pretty damn good, isn't it? What are you, 5'9" (your original 'tar had you with legs for days--you must be tall!)? What is your goal at this point?

Good luck with the change in macros! I know how hard it is to switch things around once you're used to a certain amount of protein/carbs/fat!

Ahhh.... the magic of platform heels, LOL! I am 5 ft 5 inches... but have 119 lbs of LBM, so no lardass but not where I like to be which is, in general, upper 120s to very low 130s (yes, I know this is very low bodyfat, but the hormones still work here and my bone density is O-tay so I worry not).

So I have been reviewing my food logs (slightly obsessive, but I have them all the way back to first truly leanout in 2002) and DEFINITELY did better with a 50/30/20 macro profile (C/P/F), so this is going to be interesting.

Yesterday:
Ran 3.2 miles/30 mins friggin Texas.... it was 65 damned degrees and muggy at FOUR AM.

Food macros:

Cals 1475
Carb 160
Pro 135
Fat 33

Pretty perfect, although slightly lower in calories than I was shooting for. I had to force myself to eat that last bowl of oatmeal last night... blecch.

Today is the dreaded 20 rep DL and 20 rep/leg bulgarian sadist squats... if you don't hear an update by tomorrow, it killed me

Great day to all!

Tina

[tkinsley]

AM: Energy system work: 5 min warm up, 1 min work/2 min recovery x 3, 5 min cooldown on elliptical (L18 or L19 for work--ehhh... but better than the recumbent cycle which was the other option). Only got HR up to 150, but good sweat nonetheless.

PM: the Dread Afterburn

Superset 1:
A1 Deadlift 60x20, 70x20
A2 DB military press 20(ea)x20x2


Could have gone heavier on the DLs but hey, 6 pm at the gym and nothing is available but the preloaded bars. I will try for quarters on a set next week and see how it goes. The DB military presses were surprisingly tough from about rep 15 or 16 on. Burn, baby, burn!

Superset 2:
B1 Bulgarian hell squats 20/leg x 2
B2 DB pullover 15(ea)x20x2

OUCH. No weight for evil Bulgarians.... 20 reps I thought was torture enough. When I can do the third set of 20/leg without crying, I will add a pink dumbbell

Superset 3:
C1 prone jackknife (on stab ball) 10x2
C2 single leg hip extension 20/sidex2

Butt cramps. That's a first. Punked out on the additional jackknives I was gonna do... starving by now.

D1 prone cobra 60 sec x 1

Rotator cuff work, pec stretching.
See ya, Gold's!

****************************** ****************************** ****************************** ****************************** ***
So, only two sets of each again, and too conservative on the DLs. I am SUPPOSED to do nonconsecutive days but we'll see.... I'm running in the morning and I may get a wild hair and lift tomorrow afternoon. Hmmm....

Food OK today, had to eat canned tuna salad for a snack because I got waylaid before I could escape and had to go to a stupid mandatory formation at 4 pm. Bastards. Macros lovely thus far but tummy already growling WTF??? Guess oatmeal is in order, LOL! I will post stats later.

[cappuccino]

I did well on 50/30/20 too, but I don't want to go back there!

enjoy that oatmeal!

[sona]

I love the WO! And it says something that you got those butt cramps--you're working the area hard! :p And 20-rep Bulgarians???!!! Damn, lady!

Hope the new macros are working for you--oh! and yes about spike heels, Tina. No way can you be 5'5"! I vote for 5'7" at the minimum~

I'm back to regular NROL FAtLoss III WOs tomorrow. Am I gonna get creamed!

Take care, T.