Cardinal_22

Week 3, Day 4: As bad as it makes me feel physically, this bulking cycle seems to be going spectacularly well. The results to date have been far beyond my expectations. Maybe this is because I'm not breaking any new ground, but instead just returning to where I was? It could also be that I'm putting on water weight. At any rate, I'm pretty happy with the results so far (spoiler: I've already weighed in for Day 5... I always do this in the morning before eating anything). If things continue at this rate, I might be done bulking by the end of the challenge. I had a long 2.5 hour seminar during the day today, and that caused me to miss one of my meals. But I partially made up for it by going out for dinner. I had pasta with meatballs in what was supposed to be a Bolognese (meat) sauce. But there was far too much cream and cheese in the sauce to be pure Bolognese. That being said, when I hear "cream" and "cheese" I think "calories up". And it certainly didn't disappoint in that regard. I'll guess that I hit about 3500 for the day. Today's workout was utterly brutal. I had my 30 minute stretch session followed by a particularly hard rings class. We worked on handstand pushups (on the rings!) as well as a number of other exercises for volume including ring dips and inverted pull ups. To say I feel shot after that workout is an understatement. On another positive note, I almost got (kipping) ring muscle ups back. I was close enough that a tiny push from my coach sent me flying over the top. I'm really hoping to have these back on Monday. Today's Weight: 165.8 lbs, 10.7% bodyfat. Change: +1.1 lbs, -0.1% bodyfat.

Week 3, Day 3: Not sure how long I can stick with this bulking cycle. It really hurts. That being said, I'm pretty sure I was close to 4000 today. Maybe ~3800 cals. Unlike yesterday, I didn't miss any meals. Snacking after dinner was lighter than usual, but we had steaks in the evening and that probably made up for it. I went to CrossFit today. I spent the first hour trying to hit ring muscle ups. Sadly I couldn't get any, kipping or otherwise. I can easily pull the rings to my chest, but the transition to the dip is going very badly. It makes me think my triceps are still a bit weak (maybe from the push-ups in the Murph and bench press on Monday?). To address this, I spent some time before the metcon doing weighted dips and skull crushers to work out all of the kinks. Interestingly, my right elbow feels very stiff when doing tricep work. I will try to stretch it out tomorrow. The metcon today was in two parts, the second of which was all legs. The biggest focus was pistol squats and they went quite well, so there was a bright spot in all of this. Workout and weigh-in is listed below. Workout: A. Skull Crushers 5 x 55 lbs, 3 sets 5 x 65 lbs, 1 set 5 x 75 lbs, 1 set B. Weighted Dips 5 x bodyweight, 18 lbs, 26 lbs, 35 lbs C. (Crossfit) 2 Rounds of each of the following at 5 min on / 2 min rest (total of 20 min work) C1: bike calories (2 min) thrusters at 45 lbs (2 min) kipping pull ups (1 min) C2: double unders (1 min) wall balls at 10 lbs (2 min) KB swings at 35 lbs (2 min) D: Metcon 12 min AMRAP 4 wall walks 8 burpee box jumps 12 / leg pistol squats I got 1 + 16, Rx. Today's Weight: 164.7 lbs, 10.8% bodyfat. Change: +0.9 lbs, -0.1%.

Week 3, Day 2: Still eating lots of food. Still feel awful. I'm guessing I was a bit closer to 3400 calories today. I had a bad computer crash at work and somehow managed to get the blue screen of death on a Windows 10 machine... something that hasn't happened to me in over a decade. It took a while for the IT guys and I to sort out the mess, and in the process I missed my afternoon snack. I tried to make up for it in the evening, but the volume was just too much. Anyhoo, weigh is slowly going up (and surprisingly, bodyfat is not... yet...), so things seem to be going quite well. I showed up at the gym an hour early today. I did strict handstand pushup sets, which didn't go well (probably because I benched yesterday and my shoulders were shot). After that, I moved to strict pull-ups. I managed to hit a set of 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, which is a marginal improvement over last Saturday. I followed this up with my usual Tuesday night handstand class. I talked to the coach after the workout - he's the one who has been working on a supplement plan for me. Given that I'm tolerating the pre-workout pretty well, we decided to try adding a post-workout recovery drink. It's this one. Unlike the pre-workout, the mango flavor is actually pretty good. But then things got interesting. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I was wide awake after taking it, and it lasted for hours. I just read the ingredients again this morning, and it turns out that there's powered black tea leaves in there... I probably got a jolt of caffeine. Interesting. Today's Weight: 163.8 lbs. 10.9% bodyfat. Change: +0.8 lbs. No bodyfat change*. * It is important to point out that electronic bodyfat measurements are notoriously inaccurate, and can depend heavily on your hydration state. Don't read too much into this.

Thank you both for your encouragement. I really appreciate the comments. =)

Week 3, Day 1: First official day of my bulk, and quite predictably, I feel awful. But if I didn't hit 4000 calories, I came pretty damn close. I'm using a food scale to make sure that I'm being honest. The issue is that I got my last few calories from a homemade peanut butter cookie (ingredients: peanut butter, sugar, eggs), and I'm not confident about exactly how much that adds. I'm guessing 150. The bottom line is, it's really just water under the bridge since the most important thing is the end result. I have started weighing in every morning, and I'll post the results at the bottom along with my workouts. I went to CrossFit today and had a deceptively difficult workout. The deadlifts at 185 lbs in the metcon don't sound like much, but the volume adds up really quickly. After the metcon, I decided to try (kipping) bar muscle ups. It's like my body forgot how to do them. After about 5 minutes of attempts, I managed to hit one, so I just kept on going and accumulated 8 singles on a 1 minute interval. This is definitely a big improvement from last week, when I couldn't even do chest-to-bar pullups. I'm still not at 100%, but now I'm getting close. I plan to try strict pull ups again tomorrow and (kipping) ring muscle ups on Wednesday. I'm not going to bother listing out all of the food I ate today. Mostly because I don't want to think about it. =S Workout and body weight are below. Workout: A. Power Snatch (based on 125 lb max) 2 x 90 (110 lbs), 2 sets 1 x 93% (115 lbs), 2 sets 1 x 95% (120 lbs), 2 sets 1 x 98% (122.5 lbs), 2 sets B. For Time 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 Deadlift 185 lbs/ 135 lbs Bike Cals (Or Row 35-30-25-20-15-10-5) I got 14:21, Rx. Rowed because all bikes taken. C. Kipping bar MU Singles 8 reps on 1 min interval. (All were good reps) Last 2 reps weren't as good, last one was chicken wing. D. Bench press 5 x 5 at 135 lbs E. Back Squat (no belt) 5 x 135, 155, 175 lbs 5 x 185 lbs, 2 sets Today's Weight: 163.0 lbs, 10.9% bodyfat* *Note: electronic bodyfat measurements are notoriously bad. I'm well aware that this is not an an accurate absolute number. However, it may be a good relative number, assuming that I'm not dehydrated. That is, I'm probably not sitting at 11% bodyfat, but if the number hits 13% next week, it's pretty safe to say that my actual bodyfat percentage changed by 2.0%. For anyone interested in getting an absolute number, I'd recommend either a DEXA scan or look in the mirror and compare to a list of reference pictures or sketches.

Update: So I was almost done adding a huge update here and I accidentally hovered over a hyperlink in the text and hit backspace. My browser followed the link and I lost the whole damn post. I don't have another hour to hunt down all of my links and numbers and re-create the data. So here's the short version. I'm not happy with my current weight. It's far too low compared to the 170 lbs that I normally compete at. So I have decided to start a bulking cycle. This isn't a decision that I make lightly. I haven't done one of these in about two years. The last time I tried bulking I was utterly miserable. I was full to bursting every day, and I had terrible heartburn at night. From experience, I have found that in order for me to gain weight (slowly), I need to eat AT LEAST 4000+ calories a day, and I need to lift HARD while I'm doing it. This is a difficult number for me to hit, especially because I can't do it by eating donuts and fries. That being said, I have learned some tricks. I can add a lot of calories by adding juice to dinner at night (~400 cals), protein shakes during the day (~160 cals), and real butter (100 cals per tbsp). I have a plan that I will start following on Monday. I had everything all typed out with links to verify the numbers before I lost the original post. The short version is here, without the links. I can add them later, by request. For now, you'll have to trust that I looked this stuff up and the numbers are real. Breakfast: 1 frozen breakfast burrito (300+ cals, depending on which one), 2 Chobani yogurts (240 cals), and a protein shake (160 cals) = 700+ cals. Lunch: Varies. Example is 6" sub roll (190 cals), 6 oz chicken (275 cals), 2 slices cheese (200 cals), lettuce, tomato, mustard (free), 1 orange (70 cals) = 735 cals. Snack: 2 scrambled eggs (160 cals), 2 slices of whole wheat toast (140 cals), cheese (100 cals), 2 tbsp butter (200 cals) = 600 cals Dinner: Varies. Example is 8 oz grilled salmon (475 cals), 8 asparagus spears (25 cals), half package of rice & quinoa mix (240 cals), half bottle of juice (385 cals) = 1125 cals Snack: Varies. Example is half a box of low salt triscuit crackers (540 calories), 4 oz almonds (500 cals) = 1040 calories. (I also sometimes eat walnuts (175 cals per oz) or dried fruit (100 cals per oz) Some notes: I haven't included any cooking oil I might use, or the fact that I drink several cups of coffee each day with half-and-half in them (20 cals per tsp), or that my workout supplement has 45 calories in it. Sometimes I substitute other fruit for the orange at lunch, or I might have a salad instead where most of the calories come from dressing and the avocado I put in there. Assuming an average of 1000 calories for dinner and for my last snack, I get these totals: Totals: 700 + 735 + 600 + 1000 + 1000 = 4035 cals. Ugh. Wish me luck. =P

Week 2, Day 6: I had a core and flexibility class today, followed by a stretch session. I started off with some low lat pulls, just to warm everything up. I think they went OK - I haven't done this lift for about 4+ years. I was able to hit 120 lbs for three sets of 8, 135 lbs for three sets of 5, and 150 lbs for three sets of 3. During the breaks, I did strict pull ups. I hit two sets of 4, one set of 5, and one set of 6. Definitely getting better. After getting back from the gym, my gf and I went for a bike ride. This is the first time I've ridden a bike in almost 12 years. It was magical. I really missed it. Will need to do this more often.

Week 2, Day 5: Still getting stronger. I did the CrossFit metcon today, which was mostly shoulder work. That part went fine. After CrossFit, I went back to pull-ups. I found that I can hit kipping pull-ups without too much problem. In regards to strict, I hit 5 sets of 3 strict pull-ups, followed by 5 sets of 3 strict chin-ups. It's certainly better than yesterday and a huge improvement over Wednesday, but it's still very low. In the evaluation process, I noticed that I can't hit a single chest-to-bar, kipping or otherwise, nor can I hit a kipping ring muscle up. Will need to watch this over the next week. Also - I started taking the workout drink today. For the record, it tastes terrible. =( Dinner tonight was date night: we went out for a hot pot variant called Shabu Shabu. I think it's a Japanese thing. After getting back, I looked in the mirror and noticed that my lats are less than half their normal size. That's frightening. Then I stepped on the scale. I'm down to 162 lbs. That means I lost between 6-8 lbs after finishing the Murph. Ouch. It's quite possible that the combination of the workout and a week of rest did this. (Keep in mind: I am the person who LOST WEIGHT over Thanksgiving break, even though all I did was sit on my butt and eat everything in sight). Will need to keep an eye on the scale for the next few weeks. Workout: A. Push Jerk (loosely based on 175 lbs max) 2 x 88% (150 lbs) 2 x 90% (155 lbs) 1 x 92% (160 lbs), 2 sets 1 x 95% (165 lbs), 3 sets B. AMRAP 20 (max based on 165 lbs) 1 T2B 2 Push Press 70% (115 lbs) 2 T2B 4 Push Press Etc... Every 4 min, run 400m. Start with run. I got 6 + 15, Rx. C. Strict Pull Ups 3 reps, 5 sets D. Strict Chin Ups 3 reps, 5 sets

Week 2, Day 4: I had an extremely busy day at work and couldn't find any time to run over the lunch hour. I did make it to my stretch session and rings class, though. I'm still really weak, but getting a bit stronger. Before stretching, I managed to do a few strict pull-ups: 3 sets of 2. That's all I could hit. My coach was a bit worried, so we toned down the workout. It still didn't go very well. Obviously, I can't hit a single ring muscle up in this condition, much less any of the false grip chin-ups. It was a pretty depressing day. My coach suggested that I might be old enough that workout recovery is becoming a problem. I think he might be right (to wit: I'm 44 years old). Other than a multivitamin and the occasional Rx (protein) bar, I don't take supplements. He suggested that maybe I need to start. He referred me to another guy, who talked to me about a lot of different options. I'm absolutely not interested in stimulants (herbal or otherwise), NO-explode type stuff, or any other bro-style bodybuilding products. We agreed that the best way to go about this is to add things slowly. I am going to start with two products: fish oil (to prevent inflammation), and a recovery drink to sip on during workouts that contains mostly aminos and some B-vitamins. Dinner tonight was homemade fish tacos, with salad and rice. Snacked on crackers and dried fruit after that.

Week 2, Day 3: As of this morning, I'm officially completely pain free. Finally. 8 days of severe DOMS really sucked. But now I have a new problem: I'm weak. I can't do a single strict pull-up. As in, zero. I hang from the bar, pull up, and nothing happens. This is a bit frightening because normally I can hit about 15 unbroken. What makes this especially strange is that nothing else seems to be affected by very much. Yes, my front squats are low by 10-15 lbs (we lifted today at 95% in the metcon), but that's not a big deal. I'm going to stay calm and assume that this is part of the normal recovery process. Yikes. We had another legs day at CrossFit, which is fine with me given my upper body condition. After the workout, my gf and I went out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Crossfit: A. Front Squat (numbers based on 210 lb max) 3 x bar, 95, 135 lbs warmup. Then 2 x 88% (185 lbs) 1 x 92% (195 lbs), 2 sets 1 x 95% (200 lbs), 3 sets. Failed all 3. =( B. AMRAP 20 min 12 DB front squats (30% total) (30 lbs DBs) 12 weighted step ups 12 alt OH lunges I got 6 + 27, Rx

Week 2, Day 2: Soreness is almost completely gone. There's just a little tweak now when I hang from a pull up bar, but it's minor. I ran over the noon hour (in my weighted vest! - I guess old habits die hard), but only went about 2 miles. Handstand class was tonight. Before class, I tried doing my usual strict handstand pushup progression with a stack of furniture pads. I got doubles down to 5 pads. Then I switched to singles. I hit a rep at one pad, but couldn't hit a rep to the floor - I think I was too tired. Next week I should be back up to full strength. Dinner tonight was homemade chicken marsala, with salad and rice. I snacked on fresh blueberries and crackers.

Week 2, Day 1: I'm feeling a lot better today, but I'm still sore. My legs are fine now, and so are my arms. But it still hurts to hang from a pull up bar. I decided to try a CrossFit workout... mostly because it was legs day. I was a bit weak, but the workout was fine. Based on my performance I figure I'll need a week to get back into things. Dinner was grilled salmon, served with asparagus and rice. I snacked on dried fruit and crackers. My gf and I discovered a Netflix series called the Umbrella Academy, so we started watching it tonight. If you haven't seen it and like comic book stuff, I highly recommend it. It's based on a Dark Horse Comics series. Very good. For the record, the workout is here: A. Snatch grip DL 2 x 105% (145 lbs), 2 sets 2 x 115% (160 lbs), 2 sets 1 x 120% (170 lbs) 1 x 130% (185 lbs), 3 sets B. AMRAP 5 rounds of 2 min work / 2 min rest 12 cal bike 8 back squat from rack at 50% (145 lbs) 4 box push I got 5 + 2, Rx

Week 1 Summary: Wow, sorry for disappearing like that. We had a large group of summer students start at work on Tuesday. I've been completely swamped. Luckily, there's not too much to report, so I'll just do a quick summary. In regards to gym stuff, I've been so sore that I can hardly move. On a scale of 1 to 10, where a 1 is a minor twinge and a 10 is "my entire upper body has seized up", I'm sitting around 9. I can't lift my arms over my shoulders without help. And I can't lift them straight over my head even with help. It's that bad. It hurts to straighten my elbows all the way, although I can do it with some effort. And I'm walking funny. Lol. At least on Monday & Tuesday, Advil was my best friend. I mentioned earlier that it was 85 degrees during the Murph at 100% humidity and I did the workout in full sunlight. What I didn't mention was that I sweat so much, my sunscreen gave out. You should see my neck - it's bright red. In summary, I can say with confidence that I'm a hurting unit. Murph was punishing. In response to all of this I decided to take an easy week. I did handstand class on Tuesday and a stretch session plus rings class on Thursday (both of them were more like recovery sessions than workouts). Neither day went well. Other than that, all I did was rest. Food was good but not great, mostly because I've barely had time to eat lunch during the day with all the summer students around. By the time Saturday rolled around, I was starting to feel a little better. Hoping for the best for next week.

Week 1, Day 2: Soreness from Murph is starting to set in. Its getting worse as the day goes by. I've been walking around at work as much as posdible to try to stay loose. I went to handstand class tonight, although I didn't do very well. My shoulders are feeling pretty weak. Dinner tonight was pizza, followed by a lot of snacking on blueberries, crackers, and dried fruit. Tomorrow I am getting a lead water service pipe in my front yard replaced. The job will take all day, so I will probably miss my gym time. Honestly, I think its for the best. I could use a break.

Thanks guys!!! The soreness is definitely kicking in.

Nice job!!! Murph is no joke. Sounds like you really killed it. =)

How was the Murph??

Week 1, Day 1: This is it. Memorial day. My gym did an amazing setup for the Murph. First, they hosted all of the scaled athletes back at the gym starting at 9 AM. There were about 80 of them. Those athletes did the entire workout as written, except that the last 1 mile run was a different course than the first 1 mile run. It put them past the ballpark and over to the Yards, where a BBQ, beers, and a cheering crowd were waiting for them. Really amazing. The best part is that they hauled a rig out of the gym on Sunday and set it up in front of Lululemon in the Yards for the 16 Rx athletes (I was one of them). It was set up right at the finish line in the Yards. The Rx athletes started at 11 AM, after the scaled portion of the event was over. There were eight heats of 2 athletes, with each heat leaving on an 8 minute interval. The race was utterly amazing. There were tons of people there watching, cheering, and clapping. It felt like a professional event. There were only two masters athletes there (meaning over 35), myself and one of my long time competition partners, Eric. The two of us were put together in heat 5. Eric always does the Murph un-partitioned, so I decided to give it a try. Un-partitioned means that you don't break up any of the sets in part 2. You do all 100 pull ups before starting any of the push ups. You do all 200 push ups before starting any of the air squats. It was hell. But somehow I finished. For the record, Murph is: Part 1: Run 1 mile Part 2: Accumulate the following, partitioned any way you like: 100 pull ups 200 push ups 300 air squats Part 3: Run 1 mile There are no breaks between the different parts. And Rx means that the entire event is performed in a 20 lb weighted vest, including the pull ups, push ups, and air squats. As I mentioned earlier, I did the whole thing Rx, un-partitioned. My finishing time was 62:15. (That's 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 15 seconds). Sadly, I had not recovered from Thursday. Everything went great until I hit the air squats. It was over 85 degrees outside, close to 100% humidity, and we did the workout in direct sunlight. My quads were on fire. I couldn't cool down. Quite honestly, I finished on pure will power alone. I think I would have had a much better time, maybe by 10 minutes or more, if I had rested on Thursday instead. I guess there's always next year, but I'm still really happy with the result. I'm happy to report that I didn't do any other workout today. Instead, I went home, drank about a gallon of water, took a cold shower, and then had a nice nap. My gf and I went out for dinner that night to a pretty nice restaurant in the suburbs. They had these tuna tartare nachos that were amazingly good. All in all, it was an amazing day. Update: For next year, I should probably consider replacing the 20 lbs of cast iron weights in my vest with 20 lbs of freezer gel packs. You know, the ones that stay flexible when they are cold. Not sure if this is legal or not according to competition rules, but it would REALLY help.

Week 0, Day 5: Not much to report today. I got stuck at work troubleshooting electronics, so I missed my afternoon workout. It's probably for the best; I really should taper off for the Murph. Tonight was date night. We had dinner at a Salvadoran restaurant at the corner of my gf's street. It wasn't half bad either. On Saturday I did a quick core & flexibility class, followed by a stretch session on my legs. I"m getting a bit worried... my legs are still ridiculously sore from Thursday.

Thanks! My finger is getting better, but I'm still all bandaged up.

It all depends on how you do it. Typical Murph times range from 35 min to well over an hour. Its faster if you don't wear a vest and/or partition part 2.

Week 0, Day 4: I'm back on schedule, but only training legs. Ran further than ever in my vest over the noon hour. I'm a bit over 4 miles now. After work, I hit the CrossFit box and did a volume squat workout. No bleeding from my finger. We had a pretty crazy thunderstorm during the afternoon; when I finally got home I found that the power was out due to fallen trees. Of course, I did my best to take lemons and made lemonade. I fired up the grill. My gf and I had a nice, romantic candlelight dinner. Bone-in pork chops and a salad with, quite literally, everything (we didn't want it to go bad in the fridge). And I even got to leave the dishes in the sink, since the dishwasher was full and obviously couldn't run. To top it off, I ate an entire box of Outshine bars for dessert so that they wouldn't melt. Maybe roughing it isn't quite so bad, eh? =) For the record, the power did come back around 11 PM. Perfect timing too, because I was worried I wouldn't be able to sleep without the A/C, or at least a fan. It's 100% humidity and pretty warm in the city right now. Workout: A. Back squats with vest (no belt) Note: weights below do not include 20 lbs for vest. 5 x 95, 115, 135, 155 lbs. Then 5 x 165 lbs, 6 sets B. For time: Accumulate 300 air squats, with 20 lb vest I got 12:50.

I've been using the II-Band wrist wraps from Bear Grips for years. They REALLY help. They cost about $20 (or less, depending on where you get them). If you are interested, I suggest the 12" length. Headed out to Quantico? I've visited a few times. It's not too bad out there, if you don't mind the traffic on I-95. It's a bit of a hike to the city (DC), but you can still enjoy the night life every now and again.

Week 0, Day 3: Busy day at work that involved some time in meetings off-site. I decided to drive back into the city and try CrossFit in the early evening to see if I could still lift. I had a fresh band-aid and two layers of athletic tape wrapped over my fingertip. I did a (programmed) 7 minute snatch warmup with an empty barbell. By the end of the warmup, there was a significant amount of blood leaking out from the tape. Everything underneath was completely soaked. The coach took one look at the injury and told me to just take the day off, which I did. I need to be healed up for the Murph on Monday, but I can't just stop working out. I think the best course of action is to switch to legs for now. I can still run and squat, and maybe even sneak in some push-ups. But no rings class tomorrow, no pull-ups, and definitely no olympic lifting. Dinner was leftovers from last night - and we're still not done with them. Ugh.

Definitely need some time to heal up. I'll probably switch over to mostly legs for a few days.