Turnup

Sunday, January 10, 2016: Treadmill: Max Incline, 2.5mph - 10min No Incline, 2.5mph - 5min Max Incline, 2.5mph - 5min No Incline, 2.5mph - 10min Bench Press: 45 WU 135x20 185x6 225x4 225x5 225x5 225x5 225x4 225x3 225x4 225x3 Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 20x15 20x15 20x12 20x10 Just a quick workout to get some cardio in, drill bench form some more, and show my biceps some love. Feeling healthy and rebooted to start proper programming again this coming week.

5 grams a day from the start, taken post workout - that's all you need to do. The "preloading" phase is marketing pseudoscience BS to get you to use up more product quickly. I didn't notice any significant water retention, but after a few weeks, I did notice more stamina and less recovery time between sets. The stuff works.

Saturday, January 9, 2016: Took the apartment complex gym for a spin. It's nothing spectacular, but it'll do for cardio and accessory stuff. The dumbbells don't go past 50lbs. It's a very liability conscious fitness center. All of the cable machines seem to come at me at weird angles too. I had to bow my head down in an odd fashion to prevent the lat pull-down bar from smacking me in the back of the neck. Here's what I did: Treadmill: Max Incline, 2.5mph - 15 minutes No Incline, 2.5mph - 5 minutes Lat Pull-Down: 100x12 100x12 100x10 100x10 Triceps Extension w/ Straight Bar: 60x15 80x20 80x20 80x20 Seated Row: 85x15 85x15 85x15 Incline Dumbbell Press: 50x15 50x15 50x15 Broke a sweat and got a good pump. Not bad for an apartment fitness center training sesh, even if the equipment is kind of wonky and the free weights are light.

Keeping everything here now. I will probably venture to the warrior board for February, because I really like this new format. The actual workouts and meal plans, should I decide to include them, will be here and both battle log and challenge will be in my sig. This month got off to a rocky start and I'd rather start a challenge off from the beginning when I can have some specific short term goals. Right now it just "stop feeling crappy and get into the groove" lol.

Haha! I do love me some vegetable puns! Raditz approves as well. Going to try out the on site gym in my apartment complex for some accessory back and arm work today!

Friday, January 9, 2016 Took another sick day and the last of my antibiotics and napped A LOT. It was glorious. The sleep was so healing. I have to thank my roommate and other training partner for getting me into the gym. I wasn't feeling 100%, but I was feeling good enough. I decided the best course of action would be to acclimate my body to training by giving it a taste of everything. After a decent dose of preworkout, I did the following: Treadmill: Max Incline, 2.5mph, 10min w/ 2 min cool down Bench Press: 95 warm up 135x15 185x8 205x8 225x6 205x10 - last one spotted Significantly weaker here, but happy to be under the bar again. Deadlift: 135x15 225x10 315x8 5x5x365 Quite satisfied with my performance here. Squat: 135x10 225x10 3x3x315 Was pretty tired from deadlifting, so I didn't push it. I wanted to get a feel for the movement again with some weight on the bar. During the workout my mother texted me that she had an extra plate of tomato pesto baked chicken, broccoli, and baked potato for me, so I enjoyed the first real meal in a few days after the lift. I took my supplements and a nice warm shower and haven't coughed or sneezed for at least two hours. Now to get a nice long sleep in to banish this cold for good.

Happy New Year to you as well! I'm enjoying the undisturbed freedom. Unfortunately on Wednesday I came down with a severe head cold. I suffered through that work day, but have taken Thursday and Friday off from both work and the gym. Fortunately, I was able to secure the antibiotics that I needed and am on the upswing as of this early Friday afternoon. I had to do abs he day before getting sick... it hurts like hell to cough . I didn't calorie count yesterday and won't be today. I eat meals when I can, snack on lots of fruit, and drink lots of fluids. I'm planning to get back into the gym tomorrow and Sunday to get my body acclimated to lifting again. This hasn't been the ideal start to the year, but one crappy week won't define my January. This weekend will be about getting everything dialed in as much as I can at the apt this month. There's still stuff I need to buy to furnish and optimize it, but it's more than functional in it's current state. God willing that I'm healthy by Monday, next week will be about establishing a routine: Work/Shopping/Nutrition/Training/Sleep.

I'm back for 2016 and I'm liking the look of the new challenge format. I already have two days of calorie counting, 1 gym session, and 1 at home ab roller session under my belt. I finally have my own apartment!!! Work is going well. I finally have everything in place to conquer my fitness and life goals.

Sunday: 12/20/2015 Saw Star Wars last night post Korean BBQ with friends. Not even going to bother to weigh-in. My buddy has my gym notebook, so I don't have my numbers to report, though I do remember slamming out a 225lb x 4 Incline Press PR. Going to take it easy next week as I have a really tight shoulder that was giving me problems on flat bench yesterderday and my back is overall pretty worn out.

Weigh-In, Sunday, December 13, 2015: 221lbs I'm not sure by what voodoo I lost 6lbs in a week, but I'll take it. It's probably a little fat and a lot of water. If my numbers from yesterday are any indication, my strength levels are currently unaffected. I feel and look better, so that's cool. My face is less full and my gut doesn't stick out as far. I didn't even do any cardio and ate a 1000 calorie burger after last night's training session. I'm going to try to stick to what I did this past week and see what happens next weigh-in.

My routine deviated significantly from what I posted above, but I still got 3 solid days in, hitting the big three and OHP. I didn't do the T Nation routine, besides some paused squats. I discovered that leading off the week with deadlift isn't the best idea. Work was tiresome and that contributed to one less day than I had planned. Monday 12/7/15 Deadlift: 15x135 10x225 8x315 6x365 5x405 3x425 - Rep PR Fail-455 Fail-455 1x425 1x405 5x365 5x365 5x365 Paused Squats - 3s: 5x275 5x275 5x275 5x275 5x275 Tuesday 12/8/15 Bench Press: 45lb Warm Up 135lb Warm Up 10x185 10x185 5x225 5x245 5x245 5x245 - Last 2 spotter assist 8x225 15x185 24x135 - Wasn't using collars and the weight started to slip off around the 20th rep Overhead Press: 45lb Warm Up 10x95 5x135 3x155 FAIL-175 3x155 3x155 4x155 4x155 3x155 6x135 Machine Reverse Flies - Didn't even bother writing down the weight. My training partner called it active fat guy resting lol. Incline Press: 45lb Warm Up 10x135 8x155 - spotter corrected bar path a bit 8x155 - spotter assist on last rep 7x155 7x155 135x20 - spotter assists began at 15 Saturday 12/12/15 45lb Warm Up 135lb Warm Up 8x185 6x225 5x245 3x255 2x265 2x265 2x265 - last rep spotter assist 2x265 - last rep spotter assist 3x255 3x245 3x245 3x245 8x225 - last three spotter assist 30x135 Incline Bench: 45lb Warm Up 10x135 6x185 2x225 2x225 2x225 3x225 - Rep PR 3x225 - last rep spotter assist 18x135 Squat: 45lb Warm Up 12x135 10x225 6x315 3x365 2x385 1x405 1x385 3x365 5x335 5x335 5x335 5x275 - 3s paused 5x275 - 3s paused 13x225 20x135 Looking forward to weigh-in tomorrow, feeling leaner!

Any knowledge that you can find, I will read! Right now I've used IIFYM.com to come up with the numbers and put myself in a minor caloric deficit. Been at it since Monday. Hope all is well

I'm back and after being frustrated with my 227 weigh-in this morning, I'm shifting my focus to fat loss. I'm scaling back my workouts to 4x/week, each day focusing on one of the big three and a fourth day for OHP. I'm not going to spend the time recording several old workouts. It's time to look forward. First, to keep things simple, I am just going to give a brief outline for how the training will work: Monday: Deadlift I will be following a routine I found on T-Nation specifically designed to help people with short limbs and long torsos compensate for having the worst possible build for deadlifting. I'll go into details tomorrow or Tuesday when I write up the training session. Wednesday: Bench Press Flat Bench/Incline Bench/Close Grip Bench I'm going back to 5x5 linear progression with Bench. Bench has frustrated the hell out of me for months. I need to get some volume in at a heavier weight to perfect my form and maintain my muscles during this fat loss phase. The bench variants will be done in bridges, building from low weight at high volume to near maximum 1 rep and back down again. Friday: Squat Squat Bridge Saturday: OHP OHP Bridge Arms and Back Accessory Work The beginning of my Pull Up Training Each day I will be doing 20 minutes of cardio and will try to get cardio in on the off days as well. Gonna work on my diet plan next. I'm experiencing a shift in my priorities as I'm feeling and looking fat. I want to be look good in addition to being strong, so it's time to make a course correction.

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you! I'll give it a spin.

Haha not for the faint of heart. Monday 11/23/2015 Got talked into another bro workout. Never again. This felt better than the last. Bench Press - 3 Second Pause: 45lb Warmup 8x135 3x225 2x245 3x245 - light spot on last rep 3x245 - light spot on last rep 3x245 - light spot on last rep 4-Inch Invisible Board Press (Or as I like to call it... Half reps): 8x195 10x195 10x195 10x195 Feet Up Wide Bench: 10x165 10x165 10x165 Three Second Pause Lat Pull-Downs: 12x85 12x85 12x85 Tricep Pull-Down: 15x60 15x60 Dumbell Bicep Curls: 15x20 15x25 Tomorrow I'm getting in a personal sesh. Deadlift, Bench Press, Squat, Overhead Press. No bullshit, just heavy iron and then it's turkey time!