I'd hit a plateau with TNT. I didn't know why and I couldn't break through. I needed help.
Special thanks to Lisa~ for directing me to Tom Venuto who's teachings have opened my eyes wide where they may as well have been wide shut before. As I read the articles (linked above) I couldn't help but think to myself how this sounded just like me. I decided I should look more into Venuto since I had never really heard of him before.
Upon searching I found Burn the fat, Feed the muscle. I read over and over this advertising page for days. He certainly seemed to be legit. After days of debating with myself I decided to give it a shot and I bought his manual.
I found that most of the items in the manual I already knew. However, there was a new spin on a few things, a few things I didn't know and lo and behold.... the grail that made this $40 worth the price: a whole section on the mind games we play with ourselves and how to bust through them.
It seemed so easy, the answers to why I hadn't been reaching my goal were right there in front of me the whole time. I just hadn't been looking hard enough. The sad part is that as much as I'd like to think I had done everything I could to get to my training goals I realized I had only scratched the surface. As I dug deeper, the answer almost slapped me in the face. Now, I'm ready to get to the next level of my training, to the next level of my leanness.
There is, of course, a few chapters dedicated to nutrition and surprisingly things that I "knew" but didn't reallyknow. I'm putting those to work right NOW. I'm going to start carb/calorie cycling to make the most of my fat burning; in fact over the past two days, I've spent just over 5 hours getting my diet straight. My macros in line and making sure that I'm prepared for this.
I'm going to up my cardio; I'd been doing the same 20 mins of HIIT three times a week for a number of years and had never taken my physique to the next level. I kept doing the same thing over and over that wasn't working and hoping that suddenly it would...... that's the pure definition of insanity!
Lastly, I'm leaving behind Volek and Campbell's TNT workout. Not that it wasn't good, I liked it, but this is the start of something new and I'm going to start a new routine as well.
Enter Chad Waterbury. Anyone that has followed me over the years knows that I really respect Chad and his routines. I decided to follow Total Body Training (TBT) which is much like Volek and Campbell's TNT routine but I get to choose the exercises and I really like that idea.
I'm going to be tracking my body fat and lean body mass on a weekly basis and adjust the following week as needed.
Everyone ready to follow along? Great! Let's get going burning this fat and feeding the muscle!!
To start, I've been off any resemblence of a good eating plan for the past four days and anyone who frequents this site will understand why.
Excuses aside, here is how my numbers turn out for the beginning of this next 12 weeks:
8/2/08
Weight = 173
My digital calipers assign three sites for bf checking: (all on the right side of the body)
vertical pinch outside of pectoral = 5 mm
vertical pinch abdominal 3/4" to the side of the belly button (fattest part) = 22 mm
vertical pinch top of thigh = 5 mm
Total SKF = 32
Body fat % = 10.1
lbs of fat = 17.47
Lean body mass(lbm) = 155.5
Goal over next 12 weeks: get to 7% body fat, increase (even if just slightly) LBM.
Pictures taken just moments ago. Ugh, didn't realize how much work I have to do in the stomach area until I saw these pics.
Thanks Jane! I'm happy with what I've got so far, but I've always (and I mean always) wanted to get down to real low bf and I've never been able to do it before. I'm going to this time.
The premise of this day is to choose a weigh that forces you to near failure for the last rep of the last set. As you can see I was trying to find my right spot.
Way to go for it Terry! BFFM is a great book and I'm glad you found a connection with Tom Venuto. I've read his stuff for years. Mind games is right! The diet will be the big challenge at this point, but you know that. I really enjoyed TBT when I did it, too. It's important to have a workout that you're looking forward to when dieting is getting strict. I'll be watching the progress!
Both Leigh and Berardi have sections in their stuff about the crap you "know" ("I know, I know, I should, I know") and how quite obviously we DON'T know, because if we did, we wouldn't be looking for someone to tell us what we "know."
dips - bw+45 all sets
t-bar rows - 175 al sets
db shoulder press - 50's; 60's; 60's
deads - 225 all sets
squats - 135; 225; 225
bb curls - 65; 75; 75
pressdowns - 50; 70; 75
9 mins. 54 secs. stretching and cooldown.
Notes:
This day's goal was size based vs. strength based on w.o. 1. Strangely enough I found myself using some of the same weights. I obviously didn't push myself hard enough in w.o. 1. I need to work more on my deads. I know I can do more.
Your workouts are looking good Terry! I'd like to suggest an improved warm-up (hope you don't mind!).
Band BTN pulldowns
Spiderman climbs
Squat-to-stand (wide stance, slow, focus on opening hips at bottom and hamstring stretch at top)
T-push-ups
You probably won't need the jumping jacks after that, but you can do them too if you don't feel like your heart rate is up enough to begin lifting. Those moves are very similar to what you were doing, just a little bit better at warming up the joints involved.
That's where you alternate high-intensity conditioning work with pre-determined rest intervals where--oh, wait, you mean the other exercises. Nevermind.
__________________ No Magic Pill (the log)
My Movember page (yes, I'm slacking on pictures)
It comes from Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat. Feed the Muscle e-book. I wish I could like you to it but I can't. Let me just say the guy is amazing and the e-book is well worth the $40 I paid. It's basically carb cycling with a low carb/calorie day for 3 days at most then a high calorie/carb refeed day.
Okay, so here's been the deal this week. Yesterday was Monica's birthday and we started celebrating Wednesday night. I ate like shit the second half of this week. I was real concerned to see my numbers this morning. I even missed the third workout of week 1. Ugh. But you know what? I don't really care... I'm happy that Monica is healthy and since it's her birthday...... I don't care.
So I took my stats this morning as if I'd kept on my routine and plan. I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm definitely ok with it.
8/9/08
Weight = 176 (+3)
My digital calipers assign three sites for bf checking: (all on the right side of the body)
vertical pinch outside of pectoral = 4 mm (-1)
vertical pinch abdominal 3/4" to the side of the belly button (fattest part) = 23 mm (+1)
vertical pinch top of thigh = 4 mm (-1)
Total SKF = 31 (-1)
Body fat % = 9.8 (-.3)
lbs of fat = 17.24 (-.23)
Lean body mass(lbm) = 158.76 (+3.26)
I'm sure it had to do with my body's water levels but that's fine by me. I lost mm on 2 of my 3 measurement sites but on the one down side my abdominal fold went up by 1mm which could easily be from water.
In any case, I'm very happy that things didn't take a huge slide due to my horrid eating the second half of this week.
Notes: I had to change up some things. I had originally been doing traditional deads but that's not gonna work when I'm doing antagonistic sets so I changed up and am going to do stiff leg deads which will work my hams more anyway to be complimented by squats.
Just goes to show that the 90% rule is truly effective. B'days are a great reason for that 10% time, and especially this one for you guys. So good on ya!
Terry, here are the mobility drills you pm'd me about. I wanted to put them here where others could see them, too. And you're right that I usually have the links at my fingertips, and if I don't, I enjoy hunting them up. I'm also picky about which video someone goes by, you know? So I love it when people ask for this stuff!
Spiderman climbs (also called Spiderman lunge)
Craig Ballantyne video that includes Spiderman push-up and Spiderman climb: YouTube - Spiderman Exercises
T-push-ups
This girl is doing them slow-mo, but it’s a good teaching video: Push-Up Variation: T Push-Up | exercise video, how to, push-up | FitSugar - Fitness, Health & Well-Being.
Here’s Craig Ballantyne doing a bunch of push-up variations. He only does ½ of one quick T-push-up. YouTube - Pushup Variations
This guy’s got a good T-push-up (and other push-up variations), just turn the sound off and don’t listen to the stupid guy with the camera. YouTube - Push up
And finally, here’s a CrossFit type group doing T-push-ups and it’s instructive because none of them are strict with technique. The first guy doesn’t keep his arms straight, but otherwise looks good. Down the line you can see guys who lead with their hips instead of their shoulders. YouTube - "T" push-up drill 07-03-2008
Shrinkwrapping my muscles
Linear Mode
