Rodja's PAL Sponsored Transformation

so you are about halfway thru now right on the contest? how are you doing in terms of your self set goals?
 
EasyEJL said:
so you are about halfway thru now right on the contest? how are you doing in terms of your self set goals?
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The fights have kinda messed up my goals a little (e.g. no weight training for 3 weeks), but my cardio is solid. I have basically primed my body to have the fat melt off of me the 2nd month. It is a little upsetting because I was having some crazy strength gains.
 
This has nothing to do with the log, but I just bought some new fight shorts. I am excited because they are Sprawl and Throwdown...what can I say, Title MMA had a sale.
 
Did some conditioning today and the phlegm in my lungs had a huge negative impact.

I did 8 sprints at 11 MPH on a 5% grade for 30 seconds with 30 seconds of rest. After that I was only able to do 2-5 minute rounds instead of my usual 5. Hopefully, this crap clears out over the weekend so I can train my ass of next week.
 
This has been a rough week of training for me. I have battling a cold and now I have a sprained ankle to go with it. It is on the lateral malleolus/fibula that I got by over-supinating while I was doing some cardio on Friday. Lateral movement is difficult ATM, but I should be good to go by Tuesday.


On the plus side, I can go back to lifting next week and I am going to be dieting down to the LW class (155) over the next 8 weeks or so. I have about 10-12 lbs to lose to be within cutting range. Obviously, I am worried about losing too much strength, but I am going to be very cognizant of my strength levels throughout the cut.
 
Today was my first day of actual MMA training in about 10 days now. My cardio felt great, which was surprising, and my weight is slightly lower than last time. The weight cutting process has begun, again, with the hyper-hydration phase for the next few days. My nose is still very tender and I am pretty sure that it is broken, but I can work around that.
 
I should also add that the cissus has had a huge effect on how quickly I have recovered. After my last fight, it took well over two weeks for the bruises to heal, but this time, they were healed within 7 days and there was no inflammation after 2 days.
 
Today was my last sparring session and tomorrow will be my last BJJ session. I am feeling really good and my cardio is feeling great. My weight is ~183, so I have 13 lbs to lose by 4 PM on Friday...not a problem. Tomorrow is normal H2O consumption, but with limited sodium and increased potassium. It will be a long 30 hours, but I will get through it.
 
Rodja said:
Today was my last sparring session and tomorrow will be my last BJJ session. I am feeling really good and my cardio is feeling great. My weight is ~183, so I have 13 lbs to lose by 4 PM on Friday...not a problem. Tomorrow is normal H2O consumption, but with limited sodium and increased potassium. It will be a long 30 hours, but I will get through it.
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Good luck Rodja! Have fun in the sauna! :twisted:

Kick some butt and keep us updated! :bruce2:
 
asianbabe said:
How do you lose 13lbs in two days?? :eek:

Good luck, Sounds rough!
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By not eating or drinking water for ~24 hours and sitting in a sauna for a while. It is by no means permanent weight loss. In fact, when I did this a couple of weeks ago, I went from 182 to 169 in 36 hours, but by the next night (and after carbing and rehydrating), I was at 187.
 
thewilman said:
Good luck Rodja! Have fun in the sauna! :twisted:

Kick some butt and keep us updated! :bruce2:
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Luckily, I am only 9 lbs over as of this morning. I kept a much tighter diet this time than I did last time, which is already helping out.
 
I am starting to feel the effects of doing low carbs today. I am feeling very drained and tomorrow is going to suck bollocks. Luckily, I will be able to weigh-in ~4.5 hours earlier than last time, so I will have more time to replenish.
 
My opponent didn't show and I can go back to lifting tomorrow. I can honestly say that I miss lifting more than anything else.
 
It was great to be back in the weight room today. I was expecting my strength to be low, but my numbers were almost where I left off.

Dips-BW+25x8, BW+45x6
BB Rows-275x8x3
Incline DB Press-70x10, 75x8, 75x6
DB Row-105x10+6+4 (DC style)
Rear Flys w/ Hammer Curls-35x12x3/50x6x3

I had a great pump and I had to pull back on the intensity because my HR was getting too high and I started to get dizzy. This last 3 weeks will be an all out cut to get to 155.
 
Alright AM'ers, my move to 155 is now official. I am competing on November 3 in Austin, TX at 155. I got the call and agreed to the terms, so I will be fighting in my backyard instead of having to travel. Cutting and rehydrating will be much easier and I can fight in front of my friends for the first time.
 
Here is the diet that I have devised to help me cut down over the next month

Breakfast
1 whole egg w/ 2 whites
4 pieces of turkey bacon
3/4 C of oats w/ 1/2 scoop of whey
1 banana

Between meals/pre-WO
10g of BCAAs

Lift

Post-WO
1.5 scoops EvoPro
1/2 C of oats
1/4 C of raisins

10g of BCAAs

Lunch
1 can of tuna
1/2 can of green beans

10g of BCAAs

Cardio or MMA

Post-Training
6-8 oz of chicken
1C of wild rice w/ mushrooms
1/2 can of green beans

Pre-bed
2 whole eggs w/ 1 white
Mushrooms
2 oz of ground beef


Basically, my philosophy for this diet is if it isn't in nature, then I won't eat it. Outside of protein powder, everything is whole foods and the BCAAs will help to reduce any strength/LBM loss. Every 3 days or so, i will add in a sweet potato to avoid getting overly flattened or fatigued.
 
Rodja said:
Alright AM'ers, my move to 155 is now official. I am competing on November 3 in Austin, TX at 155. I got the call and agreed to the terms, so I will be fighting in my backyard instead of having to travel. Cutting and rehydrating will be much easier and I can fight in front of my friends for the first time.
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Nice!!! :bruce1: You are gonna be huge by fight time!
 
MMA training+dieting=:sick:

My glucagon and insulin levels are all jacked up ATM and it is killing me. I know that I will adjust at some point, but I am so drained that training is not fun right now.
 
BJJ today wasn't bad, but I feel like my game is not progressing. My technique is tighter, but there has not been a correlation between better technique and more success. After class, I did 25 minutes of cardio outside (TX weather is good for some things) and if I had to guess distance, then I would say it was between 3.5-4.0 miles. My gas tank was surprisingly high despite my very low kcals. Tomorrow will be a refeed along with my usual lifting and conditioning.
 
I had a great WO today. My shoulders were a little cranky, but my numbers were solid.

Flat BP-135x15, 11, 7 (60 seconds rest)
Pull-Ups-BWx5x3
Pressdowns-150x12x3
Side Laterals-35x12, 40x10x2
Unilateral Overhead Extension-30x8x2
DB Snatch-35x8, 40x10x2

I also ran after I lifted for about 3.5 miles or so. I got a great pump in my triceps, but not really anywhere else. My BW is dropping quite quickly for now and I am doing my refeed today by adding in 500 extra kcals.
 
Rodja said:
Alright AM'ers, my move to 155 is now official. I am competing on November 3 in Austin, TX at 155. I got the call and agreed to the terms, so I will be fighting in my backyard instead of having to travel. Cutting and rehydrating will be much easier and I can fight in front of my friends for the first time.
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Good luck mang.
 
I took today off to allow my body some extra time to adapt to the reduced kcals an increased training. My joints feel fine, but my quads, chest, and triceps are very fatigued.
 
rod!

what up man...sorry I havn't posted more than I have in your log...I have been watching and wanna say great job with everything..

And Kick some ASS in your match!
 
bLacKjAck. said:
rod!

what up man...sorry I havn't posted more than I have in your log...I have been watching and wanna say great job with everything..

And Kick some ASS in your match!
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You just expect me to take you back...

I don't know if I am ready.
 
I had a fantastic day of training today; both lifting and sparring went extremely well and I am making great strides in both areas

Lifts
Flat BP-185x3
DB Rows-110x10x3(PR)
Incline DB-75x6, 75x5
BB Rows-295x8x4x3(PR)
Rear Flys w/ Hammer Curls-35x12/50x6, 40x12/50x5, 40x12/50x6+4

MMA class today was about 30 minutes of conditioning and then we went into sparring. We did 2 rounds of just jabs to warm-up and focus on head movement, then 2 rounds of all lead punches (jabs, crosses, and uppercuts). After that, we went into all punches for 4 rounds at about 70%. I am finally getting into a groove in my stand-up game and I changed my stance to give my jab a little more explosion. (This is going to be a shock) My stance is now very similar to Wanderlei Silva's except my hands are closer to my chin.
 
I also want to note a change in my diet. My BJJ instructor, who is quite knowledgeable in nutrition, has been harping on me to take oats out of my diet because he said that most of my allergies are probably because of my oat consumption. I didn't believe him, but the Poliquin article has me starting to believe him, so for the next week or so, I am taking oats out of my diet and replacing them with either wild rice, red potatoes, or sweet potatoes.

I am sore as hell this morning and am going to add in conditioning drills instead of my usual BJJ today. My weight this morning was 175.5 after breakfast, so I should be able to make my goal of 170 before cutting.
 
Sweet potatoes make me want to puke....

so man, can you give us just kind of a quick summary as to how you have felt the PAL supps have benefitted you in achieving your goals?
 
bLacKjAck. said:
Sweet potatoes make me want to puke....

so man, can you give us just kind of a quick summary as to how you have felt the PAL supps have benefitted you in achieving your goals?
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First and foremost, I have noticed a huge decrease in shoulder and elbow pain. Between lifting and MMA, these were always a little cranky, but the pain has virtually subsided. I can't say how it has effected my strength since I had to time a 3 week break in lifting, but it has voided any strength loss despite being in a heavy kcal deficit. The Leviathan has helped a lot with my lower ab fat and I am almost to single digits (my reading was 10.4% this morning). I did have to lower the dose to 1 cap, 2x/day since the full dose was having a negative impact on my VO2. The beta alanine has helped me to push a lot harder in the later rounds of practice and also during my distance runs.
 
Today was a mega-cardio day. I just felt like running today, so I did two sessions-the first at 2 PM and the second at 7:30. My first run was 4 miles in distance and the weather was quite humid today, but I pushed past my exhaustion and completed the run in 26 minutes for an average of 6:30 per mile. My second run was only 2.5 miles and the weather had cooled quite a bit, but I was feeling the effects of low carbs at night. It took me about 2 minutes to really get going, but after that moment, I took off. I finished the run in 16 minutes for an average of 6:24 per mile. I guess losing this extra weight is really helping me to increase my VO2, but I know that the BA is helping me to keep my pace at a high speed, even when I am running hills.
 
Ok, so I am paying for my mega-cardio days from Tuesday and my conditioning drills from Wednesday. I woke up today with horrible tendinitis in my Achilles and had to take today off to recover. My back and bis are also still sore from Monday, so that was not a good sign. I know that overtraining is a very real possibility for me and I am going to be very careful that it does not happen.
 
I have had to take it easy the past couple of days because of my various injuries, but I returned to the gym today.

Dips-BW+25x8, BW+45x6, BW+55x6, BW+70X5 (PR)
BB Rows w/ Rear Flys-(275x8/40x8)x3
HS Press-2 platesx6x2
DB Row-110x8+4+3
Hammer Curls w/ Facepulls-50x6/70x15, 50x6/80x12, 50x6+4+4/80x15

My weight today was 171, so I am about 3 lbs away from cutting range and I have 18 days until weigh-ins. It has been a long time since I did a "diet" and I forgot how much I hated it. I guess this is one of the reasons I never had the desire to compete in BBing. I have MMA practice tonight and, even though I am a little lethargic, I am looking forward to sparring tonight.
 
I should also note that I will be done with my Incarnate next week and I will post pictures after that, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday. I have not done nearly as well as I would have liked, but I still have seen some solid results so far.
 
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