aj_rock

Whelp, you're officially further along than me now...

Gah. They gave some pretty open-ended work out info at the end of the session. They said *now* might be a good time to start hitting the weight room. Then they just said heavy compounds, olympic lifts, and HIIT. ... So basically what I've been doing. But the average guy there probably has no idea how to structure their workout program, nor what weak areas need the most work. Doesn't help that most of the guys there seemed to just be genetically gifted *grumbles* Not sure if I'll get to the gym today. Two major assignments due, one at midnight. If I'm not pretty much done by nine, I ain't going. Got frustrated and banged out 20 consec pull-ups in a row though. SHAZAM

Negative MUs would help the same way negative cleans help. Sorry. /end sarcasm

Good point! Maybe I can use it as motivation so that even WITH kg numbers you're like... woah. My mental gymnastics are kinda funny though... I have to push myself to get to the gym, but once I'm there it's like... motivation, ya know? It's one of the few things I still have total control over in my life, and so my brain switches into high gear. Check my post from the 24th. First tryout was last Sunday. I do suppose I skimped on details quite a bit though. Mostly because I don't know how to interpret a lot of it. Probably about 30-35 guys there, all in great shape, most with a helluva lot more experience than me. But at the same time, they told everyone to keep coming out to the bi-weekly meets, so at the least, I can learn a lot from these sessions, so I have something to bring to the table for club. Thanks for the encouragement though! Moving up to a high level in this sport means a lot to me... hopefully the decisions I make are all good ones, because sometimes, especially day-to-day, it's hard to see whether I'm truly moving in the right direction or not. Hindsight's always 20/20, but track records for people who design their own programs is not particularly great. You might get an update after this weekend though, need a pre-photo for the upcoming cut!

Did some deadlifts today, but couldn't run because of a track meet in the field house. I'm gonna start tracking them using kilograms. Doing the conversions is just too much of a pain in the arse. DL: 4 X 160, 4 x 163

There's interlap between the systems for sure. First 3-4 seconds is pure ATP conversion, then creatine starts kicking in while the glycogen system revs up. So you're right, you'll feel some burning as you get to the 30 seconds, but AFTER the 30 seconds the rate of increasing burnination starts to ramp up significantly. The standard recommendation is 3 seconds up, 2 seconds down, so giving a bit of play for rest-pause can bring it up to 30 seconds total. Sets of 10 should last around 45 seconds, and 15 should go for a minute (I'm going off the top of my head, my textbook is back at my parents' place). Re: Mrs. Waldo. It's almost universal that women will experience more water weight issues than men. You simply see a lot more variance in day to day weight, especially when you consider it as a %ile function of total weight (guys fluctuate about 5%, women can get like 7-8%). Assuming she's not on an extreme end of actual weight, I agree that the scale should have far less priority.

I actually did some research on this kinda stuff last semester. My subject was thyme. Has something to the tune of 49 organic and non-organic chemicals in it. Also, different chemicals interact differently. Beta-carotene? Awesome for you to reduce cancer risk. Unless you smoke. Then it increases it. Point being, our knowledge of chemical interactions within the body is highly incomplete, and so basing decisions on numbers of chemicals doesn't actually make much sense. Whitelist method should still serve you well. But we have NO idea what the isolated/compounded effects of chemical mixtures are, for the most part.

Last night's workout: Squats: 4 X 12 X 135 (just kept it light, nice n slow. Legs were still mega-sore from Sunday training.) HS BP: 2 X 288, 3 X 268, 6 X 248 (Top end dropped a little bit, but I also certainly didn't eat enough yesterday >.>) Pull-ups: 12 (like, wide grip too! Didn't expect to do that well) Incline DB BP: 75 X 5, 60 X 8 (Felt like I shattered my chest endurance after going for six on my last HS set. ) Shoulder Press: 2 X 45 X 10 (left side was HELLA weak. Felt confused) Chin-ups: 15 In/ex rots: 15 X 45, 15 X 35 Le sigh. I'm not gonna lie, my life has felt like a real mess the last couple weeks. Broke up with my girlfriend of about 20 months three weeks ago, got rejection letters from MIT and UCal, then the back problems hit, and the full weight of my last year in undergrad has been hammering down. All this leads to a major lack of motivation. I feel like I have to force myself to head to the gym, and my weekly goals and plans for workout has gone all helter skelter. So. I'm gonna take some time to lay down my plan for the rest of this week. Then we head into cut season. I need to get my focus back. Tonight's gonna be some HIIT, but deadlifts come first. On Thursday, we have some sevens training, so we'll count that as cardio. Club training on Saturday, but since the crunch for this week will be done by then, I'm gonna try to do some circuits Saturday as well. That leaves tomorrow for the real back workout, and I'll tryyyy to get squats and a short cardio workout on Friday. We have our Iron Ring ceremony on Friday, so it'll be nice to unwind a bit after that. Ok, so next week I wanted to start the spring cut. I haven't gained any more appreciable weight, but then again my diet tracking has fallen a bit and I'm definitely not eating enough every day. Need to pick that up for the rest of the week before the cut. Anyway, initial ideas for the cut: - reduce the weight room volume I had from last time. 3X full-body was too much on restricted calories. For upper body, I want one push, one pull, and one split day. Lower body, I'm going to aim for one day squats, one day deads, one day cleans. At least a day of rest in between each of them and hopefully I don't fatigue my back again. - Cardio training MUST increase. Cardinal rule of rugby; one cannot have too much fitness. I think what I might start doing is doing my leg workouts same day as cardio, and keep some light cardio to the upper body days. - Regardless of my best laid plans for a given week, actual rugby training comes and goes. OB is bi-weekly, and school teams seem to haphazardly train (might explain their fixture results somewhat...) - Because of the volume, the cut can't be as aggressive as last time. I'm gonna start with 2400 a day for intake, and adjust as per how each week goes. Chances are that my calorie intakes will undulate on a weekly basis somewhat as I over-reach some weeks and recover on others

Damn, maybe I should finally get around to my pictures too... Let's get crackin' kids!

I assure you my good aussie, we have Mr. Men in Canada and the states as well. The key I've found to studying is literally sitting down, no computer, textbook in front of you. Pick up the pencil, and before you know it, a couple hours are gone!

Is nao three days later since topic opened. OP MUST DELIVER

You certain of this? Creatine driven energy system starts running out after about 30 seconds of continuous exercise, which is the most common set time for 5 reps. Mind, I'm not certain of how to translate from static holds to con/ecc phases. But the general population is also notorious for performing exercises far too fast, especially at light weights and high volumes.

Inner Serb? Having known many Serbs, I think I can see where you're coming from I'm not sure how bad your relationship with food is, but when I'm being strict, I try to make it 1.5/7 days where I let it go a little. For some strange reason, this always seems to go from Thursday night to Saturday morning. Honestly, this is where exacting food measurement in my past has helped me cope. Being able to eyeball calories and macro-nutrients for a serving of food can go a long way. And keep the basic rules in mind, what's high protein, what's calorie sparse... yadda yadda yadda You KNOW this. Let's get to work!

I like that better than how we played co-ed. All touch, and a girl MUST touch the ball every other play, as QB, WR, whatever. It also counted for like double points if a girl scored. Didn't really work; as soon as you made a play from guy to guy, the other team would just not guard the guys because you had to throw to a girl >.>

Sounds like you guys play touch the same way we do...

Took Friday night off, and a little 30' jog last night. Cue OB practice. It was... fast. But not as fast as I thought it would be. Some rust and inexperience for sure on my part, but not even close to being out of my league. Next practice is in two weeks. Think this week is the time to start stepping cardio fitness up. Will post sometime tomorrow to detail my change of pace.

Back n squats yesterday: Squats: 275 X 6, 285 X 4. Got one more week to push the numbers up a lil DB Rows: 2 X 100 X 6 Lat Pulldowns: 220 X 5, 210 X 6, BW X 8

It's very sad! And deadlifts are one of the areas I thought I could push hard during this offseason, but I've only added maybe 20 lbs... 400 will probably have to wait for next year Yesterday: a bite o' running. 1 1/2 mile: 10:04, with 6:47 mile split. Choppa choppa 30 seconds! But I was able to pace myself muchhhh better. Blues tryouts in three days.

I'll hold ya to it! Although I'm always looking for an excuse to head down under as well.. Yesterday's workout: Deadlifts: back felt well so I decided to give it a shot. 6 X 331, 4 X 342 felt pretty good actually HS BP: 3 X 388, 3 X 368, 5 X 348 Incline DB press: 5 X 75, 7 X 70 Seated overhead DB press: 2 X 10 X 50

Whatever happened to our original leangains support thread anyway? :/

Sounds solid! Can't wait to see what this translates into on the rugby field!

As always with Waldo, the numbers speak for themselves.

Hey man, looks more like you had a bad case of goals changed; priorities shifted during this challenge. Don't sweat it, because you got a lot done that you wanted to.

Haha right you are. Squeaky wheel gets the grease after all...

Gold level circuit again today. Goal time: 37:00 actual: 38:45. Time difference from last run: -0:16 That despite eating far too soon before starting. And also on very little sleep. Ah well, seems to be a mistake I'll commonly make. Hmmm maybe I should lay out how tuff these things actually are Three sets of: - 10 track laps (one lap = 1/7 of a km) - 25 push-ups - 18 squat-thrusts - 12 stair runs - 25 sit-ups - 30 box steps - 15 dips - 15 chin-ups Rinse and repeat. Bronze and silver level is the same, just less reps of each set. You get less time for them though.