Update time!
Sorry for being a bit spotty on the updates. Work has been busy and nights are being spent running alongside my daughter teaching her to ride her bike. Tonight we take of the training wheels! Poor girls schedule has been so crazy all her life we are just now teaching her to ride her bike.
Okay so the last 3 cardio sessions have been 481 cals, 500 cals and 480 cals this morning. All were 45 minutes on treadmill 3 miles per hour on pretty high incline. I start it on an escalating interval setting at level 6.5 and the higher interval is about 10.5 then I raise the incline periodically as I go ending with the low around 10.5 and the high about 14.
I have also done some walking, and walk/run interval work at lunch pretty much every day but today and one day last week. Normally it is just walking but sometimes I jog the whole time or do the intervals.
Here are the last 2 weight workouts.
Pull 3/12/11 Tempo about 2-1-2
Lat Pull Down - 90x15, 105x15, 120x15, 105x11 - my lats just gave out to the point I could not safely do another rep without out cheating.
Hammer Strength Row - 45ps x15, 60ps x15 - Nice contraction and burn from this. However I am going to start to alternate my rows and my chin/pulldown movements in different phases of my training. That way I can concentrate on thickness or width at one time.
Incline DB Shrug - 60x15, 50x15 - Man now this is my new favorite shrug! As you can see I even had to drop weight from the 60, I was barely able to get all 15 out on that first set. The contraction on this one is so intense and so focused that just the feel of it made me visualize the the muscle in my back firing. I was not trying to visualize anything the mind muscle connection was just so intense I automatically saw the visualized contraction of my traps and lower lats. This will be the main form of shrugging that I do from now on. Everything else felt inferior. I know strength will come on quickly in this move but for now it is training the traps in a way they have NEVER been trained before.
Oly Bar Curl - 65x15, 65x12 nice burn here, the tempo really made me work hard with this weight.
Rear Delt Fly machine - 70x15, 80x15, this one I was leery of because I wasn't sure if it might hurt the shoulder or not. It didn't and again the tempo made the lighter weight kick my arse.
Push 3/15/11 Tempo 2-1-2
BB Flat bench - 95x15, 135x15, 155x15, 160x14 - This was great, the pump was insane and I was feeling good. I am being very careful to make sure I stop the set before I lose form in order not to injure myself. That is also why I am limiting the explosiveness of my workouts from here on out. Explosiveness will be trained with body weight exercises now more than weights.
Incline HS Chest Press - 90ps x10, 80ps x8 chest was pretty tore up by this point. Weight felt so heavy, and I can't really strain too hard for worry of form breaking down and re-injuring myself since so soon after surgery.
HS Front Shoulder press - 70ps x15, 70ps x14 the wife was toast and could not press the barbell since this was her first Push workout her triceps were just gone already. Instead we used the Hammer Strength machine. Definitely safer on a tired shoulder.
Dips - Body weight 15, 14 - the slower cadence and pauses really killed me here. Normally including last week I could hop on and pop out 25 rep sets, but not at this tempo. My triceps felt as if they were so full they might pop of the back of my arm from the pump.
I did Legs on Wednesday but do not have the numbers for my lifts written down here at work. I can't honestly remember what they were but I did 5 sets of Squats 2 warm up 3 work, 4 sets of Romanian DL 1 Warm up 3 work sets, and 2 sets of Calve Raises 250x15
Composition changes -
I went from 194 and flat looking to about 202 immediately upon starting Lean Gains. My muscles just filled right back up with glycogen. Since then while remaining very full I have dropped back down to 198, lost a belt loop and a half in that time as well. The fat pockets under my chest no longer protrude out beyond the lower pec. The nipples are normally a little pointy and stick out but now you can barely even see them through a shirt since they are only under the chest but not protruding. Now they basically just slope down blurring the cuts most people at my body fat have under there chest. I have not done my actual body fat test since the last one that was over 13% however if I were to guess I am closer to 12% now. Muscularity wise my arms are WAY more defined, my pecs are getting the signs of striations in the center when flexed, and the shelf and separation of my upper pecs are now easily visible through a loose t-shirt. I am really loving the way my V-Neck T's are fitting, just the top of my chest showing hard cleavage, and then the rest of the shirt hanging so that it makes my chest look really thick and wide. I may have to get a few more of those. ;0)
Diet - I have been working with the Lean Gains IF ideology the last 2 weeks, and it is working well for me. It has been so much more enjoyable than regular dieting and so far easily as effective at dropping fat as any regular diet I have used, and very good at keeping my muscles glycogen loaded while dropping the fat. Which is something I do not typically experience when dieting.
As far as foods consumed in the time frame; I have eaten sirloin steak for lunch the past 2 days not including today. I am not talking about a little bit, we are talking 14-16 oz of steak, at least one bagel each day with 2 tbls strawberry jam so that is about 90 grams of carbs in one sitting at my first meal of the day between 12:30-1:00PM. Can you say insulin surge kids??? Great... I knew you could. On weight days it is 2 of said bagels and then some other choice carbs. I am eating about 2 0z of almonds a day and taking fish oil as well. My last meal of the day is normally lower on carbs between 25 and 50 grams on weight training days and very limited on cardio day. I have eaten hamburgers, french fries and even a piece of pizza with a protein shake for meals. So as long as this keeps working I am in hog heaven. I finish eating about 8:00PM and try to start eating around 12:30 PM so I get 7.5 hours of eating and 16.5 hours of fasting daily instead of the recommended 8/16 ratio he recommends. It is just my schedule for right now and it is working like a charm.
As I figure the diet out more and more I know I will see better and better results, but I am seeing awesome results now for the leniency in food choices this diet affords me. I finally got my consultation email responded to after 6 months. He said I could sign up for a 1 week consultation and get the information for either cutting or bulking to make adjustments to the diet as needed. However that was $450 dollars so I will wait for the book to be released although with a 6 month waiting list at those prices he may never actually see the need to publish the book. He may just keep this info to himself and only sell if for consulting. He has a vow of silence clause in his consulting agreement stating no one will post his info anywhere or they get sued. So I don't think to many people are gonna be spreading around the info.
