guild leader In which I learn to eat and train like "The Rock"

[Hazard]

Welcome to my challenge thread.  I'm not new to Nerd Fitness.  If you're a Level 1, then I'm your Guild Leader.  My 4-week challenge thread is posted in this Level 1 subforum as an example, in the hope that you seeing how I format and organize my challenge might help give you ideas for your own.

 

 

About Me

 

My Muggle name is Chris.  I'm a 41 yr old semi-retired guy happily at home being the primary caregiver for my almost-3 yrs old daughter.  Which is the Best. Job. Ever.  The pay is non-existent, but the benefit package is fantastic and calls me "Daddy." 

 

For the past few months my main fitness drive has been weightloss.  I dropped 19+ lbs in January's challenge.  I dropped another 7+ lbs in the February-March challenge.  Then illness struck during the March-April challenge.  After it passed, I ended up kind of spinning my wheels.   I'm not the type of person who likes getting stuck.  I recognized that I simply don't feel like being hungry right now.  So dieting down via low calories is out the window for the time being.  Instead, I'm going to shift gears and spend some time eating well and working hard.

 

 

 

My Main Quest presently is to...

• Eat and Train like "The Rock"

 

 

My Support Quests for this challenge are to...

1. Cardio like The Rock.  45 minutes to 1 hour a day on my treadmill and/or exercise bike.
2. Lift like The Rock.  Info for his typical workout routines is all over the internet.  I'll post my daily training anyway, for public accountability, so you'll see the exercises in my daily updates.
3. Eat like The Rock.

 

A couple of provisos here. 

 

DJ is 6'5" and 260 lbs.  I'm significantly smaller at 5'9" and under 200.   I'll be eating like the Rock, but not identical to him.  I'll have big meals like he does, but I won't eat after a meal until I'm hungry again.  I'm not going to force-feed myself if I'm not hungry.  That would just lead to me being uncomfortable and pukey.  So while my meals may be big, I'll probably eat fewer meals per day than he does.   I'm not setting a number on that.  I'll be listening to my body.  When it's hungry, I'll eat.  When it isn't, I won't.

 

Secondly, I'm not rich.  I'm substituting a few things in the Rock's diet to bring the cost of his food down into my affordability range.  Instead of pricey fish, I'll be relying on good ol' cheap chicken breast.   And when I have steak, I'll be using cheaper cuts like Eye of Round.

 

With regard to exercise, I don't have access to all the equipment that he has.  But I want to keep the overall work volume in the gym the same as he does.  So when he's got exercises that require equipment that I don't have, I'll be doing my best to sub in similar exercises.

 

 

 

If you got this far, thank you very much for reading.  I'd be delighted if you continued to visit my challenge thread, and kept me company throughout this month as I continue along my journey.   If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to post them.  Your comments are appreciated, and your questions are welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hazard]

DAY 1

 

Exercise Bike

       17 min. at tension setting #3

       33 min. at tension setting #4

 

Break-Fast

• 2 scrambled eggs
• 10 oz (cooked weight) chicken breast
• 5 oz (dry weight) Irish oatmeal
• 3 grams (capsules) of fish oil

Strength Training

          Incline bench press  x12,x10,x8,x6

          Paused bench press  4x12

          Incline hammer grip DB press (alt. arms) 4x12

          DB flys (alt. arms)  4x12

          Cable crossovers (alt. arms)  3x15

          Dips - pyramid to fatigue

          Wide arm pushups - sets of 10 to fatigue

 

Lunch

• 8 oz (cooked weight) chicken breast
• 1 cup california blend vegetables
• 1.5 cups white rice
• a banana
• a mandarin orange

Dinner

• 10 oz (cooked weight) eye of round steak
• 1 cup california blend vegetables
• a telera roll
• 4 blocks of hershey bar

Supper

• 10 egg white omelette mixed with 1 cup of bell peppers & onion

Bedtime

• 30 grams protein powder

 

 

 

 

[Arkania]

Uh, this sounds really cool!

Will you also participate in the TItan Games?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Where is the dishonor on your cow gif?

Dishonor on your cow sir, dishonor on your cow.

[WhiteGhost]

Time to get pretty  

[Hazard]

14 hours ago, Arkania said:

Uh, this sounds really cool!

Will you also participate in the Titan Games?

 

I've never actually seen that show.  I remember seeing promos for it, but I didn't get around to watching it.  Is it good?

 

 

 

 

11 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Where is the dishonor on your cow gif?

Dishonor on your cow sir, dishonor on your cow.

 

Dishonor on m-... my cow? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Time to get pretty  

 

The Tooth Fairy was the movie an airline decided to show us on a trans-atlantic flight.  My first reaction was, "Whhhhyyyyy are you torturing uuuuusssss?!?"   Then at some point during the movie, somehow, someway, I actually started to like it.  To this day I'm still not sure if it's secretly a good movie in disguise, or if there's just something wrong with me.

 

 

 

 

 

[CJL]

Looks like a great challenge.  Good luck!

 

[Hazard]

15 minutes ago, CJL said:

Looks like a great challenge.  Good luck!

 

Thank you.

 

[Hazard]

DAY 2

 

Exercise Bike

       7 min. at tension #3

       16 min. at tension #4

       22 min. at tension #5

 

Break-Fast

• 4 egg whites
• 10 oz ham
• 4 oz cream of wheat
• 2 g fish oil

 

Strength Training

•  natural leg extensions 4x10
•  paused box squats 4x16
•  romanian deadlifts 4x12
•  standing barbell calf raises 5x30    <---- This was supposed to be 5x75, but my calves were on fire by 30 reps.  I'll have to build up to it.
•  weighted walking lunges 3x24 

 

Lunch

• 10 oz chicken breast
• 1 cup mixed vegetables (brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, brussel sprouts, bell peppers, onion)
• 9.5 oz potatoes
• a banana
• a mandarin orange

Dinner

• Breads, peanut butter, fruits, and chocolates.  I didn't bother writing any of it down.  There was no meat or veggies involved.  This meal was off-plan, and a mess of just grabbing whatever I felt like eating.  Not a wise choice.  I'll do better tomorrow.

Bedtime

• 30 grams protein powder  

 

 

 

 

[Arkania]

8 hours ago, Hazard said:

 

I've never actually seen that show.  I remember seeing promos for it, but I didn't get around to watching it.  Is it good?

 

 

I like it. It's a bit dramatic but not that much (like other competition shows).

[Hazard]

DAY 3

 

Exercise Bike

       4 min. at tension #3

       31 min. at tension #4

       25 min. at tension #5

 

Break-Fast

• 6.5 oz steak
• 4.5 oz ham
• 4 egg whites
• 5 oz Irish oatmeal
• 2 g fish oil

 

Strength Training

•  super set of
  • EZ bar preacher curl 4x12
  • EZ bar standing curl 4x12
  • DB curl (alt. arm) 4x12
• super set of
  • Rope pushdown 4x12
  • Rope overhead tricep extension 4x12

 

Lunch

• 8 oz chicken breast
• 1 cup mixed vegetables
• 2 cups white rice
• a can of vanilla coke

Dinner

• 8 oz chicken breast
• 2 mandarin oranges
• a pear

Bedtime

• 50 grams protein powder  

 

 

 

[StillStar]

omg that's a lot of protein! I knew that you have to eat a lot to build muscle, but to see it all written down like that... phew! good luck!

[Hazard]

17 hours ago, StillStar said:

omg that's a lot of protein! I knew that you have to eat a lot to build muscle, but to see it all written down like that... phew! good luck!

 

Thanks!  Yeah I'm eating near 300g of protein every day. 

 

 

[Hazard]

I'm crawling into bed and the computer's off anyway.  Posting this as a reminder to myself that I need to post today's (Wednesday, Day 4) update sometime tomorrow.

 

 

[Arkania]

11 hours ago, Hazard said:

 

Thanks!  Yeah I'm eating near 300g of protein every day. 

 

 

 

That really IS a lot

[Hazard]

3 hours ago, Arkania said:

That really IS a lot

 

The protein hasn't actually been the hard part.  I snapped a shot of my breakfast back on Day 2.   It took me only a few minutes to eat the eggs and ham.   That bowl of cream of wheat, however, was a chore.  Took me something like 20 minutes to eat through that.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hazard]

DAY 4

Near the end of the last NF challenge, my treadmill broke.

 

 

The part I needed arrived, and I got my treadmill working.  I'm happy to be running again.   

 

 

 

Cardio

• 15 minutes on the bike
• 45 minutes on the treadmill

 

Break-Fast

• 10 oz chicken breast
• 2 whole eggs scrambled
• 3.5 oz cream of wheat mixed w/ cane sugar
• a banana
• 2 mandarin oranges
• 2 g fish oil

 

Strength Training

• wide grip lat pulldowns - 4x18
• DB rows (alt. arms) - 4x10
• rope lat pulldowns - 4x12
• cable rows - 4x16
• bodyweight wide grip horizontal rows - 5 sets to fatigue
• deadlifts - 3x10
• DB shrugs (15 sec hold on last rep of each set) - 4x12

 

Lunch

• 3.5 oz sliced turkey
• 3.5 oz sliced ham
• a bagel (made a sandwich with the turkey & ham)
• 4 oz chicken breast
• 1.5 cups mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, brussel sprouts, bell peppers, onion)
• 4 blocks hershey bar 

Dinner

• 7 oz steak

Pretend Bedtime (I was up another couple of hours after this)

• 52 g protein powder

Actual Bedtime

• 50 g more protein powder, because why the heck not. 

 

 

 

 

[Hazard]

DAY 5

 

Cardio

• 52 minutes on treadmill

Break-Fast

• 8 oz steak
• 4 egg whites
• 5 oz Irish oatmeal
• 2 g fish oil

((That meal’s not entirely accurate.  A certain someone used her Too-Cute-to-Deny-Me  superpower to get bites of Daddy’s breakfast.))

 

 

Strength Training

• barbell OH press  - 4x12
• seated DB press - 3x10
• standing DB side laterals  - 4x12 
• cable side laterals - 3x10
• cable reverse flys - 4x16
• headstand pushups - 5 sets to fatigue

 

Second Breakfast

• 8 oz chicken breast
• 1 cup mixed vegetables
• 1 cups white rice
• a banana

Lunch

• 8 oz chicken breast
• 3 mandarin oranges
• can of vanilla coke

Afternoon Tea

• bagel with slice of cheese
• 6 pieces of pepperoni
• can of vanilla coke

Dinner

• 5 oz chicken breast

Supper

• 11 eggwhite omelette

Bedtime

• 90 g protein powder

 

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

Glad you got your dreadmill working again.  

[Hazard]

10 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Glad you got your dreadmill working again.  

 

Come now, you know the drill, let's stay chill with that swill and only bring goodwill for my treadmill cause it's the real deal that gives cheap thrills and pays the bill to refill my body's landfill with the next meal.

 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Good job fixing The-Machine-That-Must-Not-Be-Named.

[Hazard]

4 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Good job fixing The-Machine-That-Must-Not-Be-Named.

 

"I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me.  I can make them hurt, if I want."   ~~ Treademort

 

[Hazard]

DAY 6

 

Cardio

• 60 minutes on treadmill

Break-Fast

• 6 oz chicken breast
• 2 whole eggs scrambled
• 4 oz cream of wheat
• 2 g fish oil

 

Strength Training

• romanian deadlifts - 5x12
• standing barbell calf raises - 7x40
• exercise bike -- 10x30 sec around 100 rpms at tension #7.  ((There's still a spot at the top of my thighs that hasn't recovered from Monday's leg day.  I attempted natural leg extensions, front squats, lunges, and back squats.  All were a no-go.  Since the rest of my thigh muscles were fine though, and I wanted to work them, I resorted to using the exercise bike as a strength exercise -- by doing "sprints" on it at a relatively high tension setting.))

 

Second Breakfast

• 60 g protein powder

Lunch

• 2 chicken sandwiches at Chik Fil A

Dinner

• 6 oz chicken breast
• 1 cup mixed vegetables
• bit of chocolate

Supper

• 10 eggwhite omelette

Bedtime

• 70 g protein powder

 

 

 

[Guzzi]

[Hazard]

DAY 7

 

No exercise or fussing over food today.   Our family had a dangerous medical emergency.  I wasn't the patient, but I was at the hospital E.D. all day.  Things are okay now.  We're back home.