tenaciousglee goes to eleven

[tenaciousglee]

Challenge Number 11 starts on 11/11!

 

[Librarian of Doom]

[Maledictus]

Why not just make 10 louder?

[tenaciousglee]

Why not just make 10 louder?

 

 

... these go to 11 ...

[tenaciousglee]

Challenge write-up coming soon updated:

 

My long term goal is to drop body fat and add muscle to my mostly skinny frame.  I've always been tall and lanky, but in the last few years, I've gotten a little bit of a belly, so I'm taking steps to work on that.  My current phase is to drop a few inches from my belly before I switch to 'bulking'.  I'm keeping this challenge's missions pretty straightforward.

 

Mission 1: Lift - I'll be following Anthony Mychal's 242 method (PDF), where I'll have 4 "marriage" lifts that I never stray from: Deadlift, Overhead Press, Front Squat, and Incline Bench Press.  I'll do 2 on Monday and 2 on Friday.  Wednesday's will be my wildcard day when I can "flirt" with any other programs I've been wanting to try out.  I'm not sure yet if I'll try something new every week or just rotate through 2 or 3 programs.  Because I lift with sandbags, I won't follow a standard progressive overload method on my Big Four.  Once I get to a certain weight limit, I have trouble fitting more sand into a bag or more trouble gripping the bag to do the lift with good form.  So, I'll be following the progression shown here.

 

My goal will be to get to 4 sets of 9 for Deadlift and 4 sets of 12 for the other 3 lifts at a set weight.  Not sure how I'll grade it yet.

 

Mission 2: Eat - Ever since I started this leveling up adventure, I've been trying to bulk up or slim down, but I don't think I've ever tried to eat right at maintenance.  I'm starting over in a sense.  My goal is to eat at maintenance while hitting my macros for 3 weeks and then re-assess.  In theory, if I'm eating at maintenance and lifting right, my weight won't change, but I'll burn a little fat around my waist.  If I get my maintenance numbers right on, I may try out early morning fasted training with BCAA's (LeanGains style) for the remainder of the challenge.

 

Mission 3: Sleep - Of course, if I want to see some changes in my body, I need to make sure I'm getting adequate sleep in addition to eating right and lifting heavy.  I get up between 5 and 5:30 AM for my workouts, so I need to really stay focused to get good sleep in.  My goal is 300 hours of sleep over the 6 weeks, which works out to a little more than 7 hours a night.

 

Life Mission: Track - I'm planning to track my lifting, eating, and sleeping as I go and I have a bunch of data strewn across several platforms/spreadsheets/apps.  This mission is consolidate some of it.  Not only will I track this challenge, but I want to go back and compile data from previous challenges into one spreadsheet so I can more easily assess my progress and see what things worked and what did not.  I downloaded Waldo's body fat and weight spreadsheet last challenge, but I haven't filled it out yet with my historical measurements.

 

Side goal - Retake the Marine Corps Fitness Test by the end of the challenge.  I took it last year on my 36th birthday and I want to see how much I've improved in a year.

 

So there you have my challenge missions.  I'll be back to figure out grading and update starting measurements before 11/11!

[Maledictus]

Wow, they grow up so quick these days.

[Donar]

Training legs using heavy resistance will cause the release of growth hormone....

 

 

Ditch the cardio.

 

 

That is all.

[tenaciousglee]

Training legs using heavy resistance will cause the release of growth hormone....

 

 

Ditch the cardio.

 

 

That is all.

 

You make it sound so simple, Donar... 

 

Definitely planning to train the legs heavy with squats and DL and I may throw in some lunges for good measure.  The running has been ditched since about August, though my side goal is to take the USMC fitness test, which includes a 3-mile run, so I may toss in a short run here or there on the weekends if the weather is nice.

[tenaciousglee]

Some additional thoughts on my Eat goal:

 

-I'll be following IIFYM, starting out at 2450 cals/day, regardless of training day or not.

-My initial macro split will be 25P/35F/40C, which translates to 153 g PRO, 95 g FAT, and 245 g CARB.

-I'll be tracking my daily eating in MyFitnessPal, but will track my weekly totals in a spreadsheet for this challenge. (Logic explained here, total coincidence that the example case is also someone named Greg who eats almost the same calories as me.)  This will allow me to have some flexibility, i.e. over/under days.

-I'm going to try and cut out liquid calories from juice, soda, and beer, with some allowances considering this challenge overlaps with Thanksgiving.

-While I'm going to try my best to accurately track all my food intake, I plan to have one 'cheat' meal a week on Wednesday nights.  I have a group dinner with some neighbors every Wednesday and have little influence about what is prepared and I'm usually not sure about the exact recipes.  It's usually pretty healthy, I just won't be able to pinpoint the exact macros.

-I had my testosterone levels checked recently and they fall within an acceptable range, but were still lower than what I'd like for a healthy muscle-building guy in his mid-thirties.  That's one of the reasons my fat macro is a little higher than some might recommend.  I picked up that tip from Art Of Manliness.

-I'll stick with some basic food repetition, like protein shakes, chicken and rice, or PB&J, but I also plan to make use of Eat This Much.  It's a great tool and once you create an account, you can add in some helpful customizations.

 

I've been using this week to ramp-up and try out some of my methods for achieving my goals.  Last night I had to eat 2 tbsp of almond butter and half a scoop of protein powder to hit my macros.  Looking forward to the start of the challenge!

[Donar]

You make it sound so simple, Donar... 

 

Definitely planning to train the legs heavy with squats and DL and I may throw in some lunges for good measure.  The running has been ditched since about August, though my side goal is to take the USMC fitness test, which includes a 3-mile run, so I may toss in a short run here or there on the weekends if the weather is nice.

 

Eh....its anything but simple.....but I know some of the things you are looking to do....so I want to throw in some tidbits here and there.

Not trying to be a nuisance...

 

 

Lunges are *awesome*....and they kill me.

[Eilyd]

Hey Good luck with your goals. Are you going to stick with one thing long enough this time?

[tenaciousglee]

Hey Good luck with your goals. Are you going to stick with one thing long enough this time?

 

Depends on what you mean by "thing" and "long enough".  I'm trying to think back to previous challenges with regard to what I have abandoned.  It's either been my lifting/workout routine or my diet.  I do have a tendency to program hop when I'm not seeing results (or seeing results I don't like).

 

This time, I have some variation built into my lifting routine with the 242 method, so I should be able to stick to that for 6 weeks.  I only have to eat at maintenance for 3 weeks before I get to decide if I should make adjustments.  And with sleep and tracking, I should have no problem sticking to those.

[Eilyd]

Mostly just a general commentary on hopping  (my workout buddy used to do the same, though his was more severe--p90x to crossfit to x to y etc)

 

That's good that you built the variation in, then. I hope these work for you!

[DirtyLittleSecrets]

HOW CAN SO MUCH ADORABLE FIT IN ONE .GIF!?!?!

.....oh yeah, I also like your goals and stuff. When's your birthday? We can try to track our Marines progress together :-)

[tenaciousglee]

.....oh yeah, I also like your goals and stuff. When's your birthday? We can try to track our Marines progress together :-)

12/25 - I figured the last weekend of the challenge is close enough.

[Eilyd]

You poor bastard, having everyone ignore your birthday in favor of the holiday when they all get presents It's a good benchmark though

[Librarian of Doom]

You poor bastard, having everyone ignore your birthday in favor of the holiday when they all get presents It's a good benchmark though

 

This! My BFF's birthday is the 29th. I get her separate bday and Xmas presents, because I know that's her biggest pet peeve. Having an actual Christmas birthday has to be the worst!

[tenaciousglee]

You poor bastard, having everyone ignore your birthday in favor of the holiday when they all get presents It's a good benchmark though

 

 

This! My BFF's birthday is the 29th. I get her separate bday and Xmas presents, because I know that's her biggest pet peeve. Having an actual Christmas birthday has to be the worst!

 

There are good points and bad.  I like to focus on the fact that I never have to work on my birthday.  Also, I sometimes get bigger presents as a combo.  A couple of years ago, my wife got my family to all chip in to get me my upright bass.  That was pretty awesome.

[tenaciousglee]

Week 1, Day 1

 

Sleep

7.5 hours

 

Deadlift

5x180# warm-up

3x5x200#

 

Overhead Press

3x8x80#

 

Crunches

45

 

Also about to put a pork tenderloin in the crockpot for dinner.  Off to a good start!

[Librarian of Doom]

Definitely a good start!!!!

[direrael]

Behold, Stonehenge!!!

 

[tenaciousglee]

Behold, Stonehenge!!!

 

 

I was tempted to do a Spinal Tap themed challenge, but I couldn't fit my goals in to that template.  I did have fun going back over some of the ridiculous quotes, though.

[tenaciousglee]

Week 1, Day 3

 

Sleep

6.5 hours, 23 hours total

 

Lift

Did the Men's Health Kellan Lutz Built for the Beach workout.

Who's Kellan Lutz?  Some ripped actor I hadn't heard of until I was watching Sesame Street with my son:

 

 

My wife saw him, stopped what she was doing and came over to ask "Who is THAT?".

 

And that was before seeing him with his shirt off.

 

 

So, looks like I need to start working on my abs. And pecs. And arms.

 

I did 1.5 circuits of:

Reverse Crunch x20

V-up x20

Front Squat to Press 12x50#

Push-ups x12

Incline Bench Press 12x50#

Explosive Push-ups x12

Lunge 12x50# per leg

Goblet Squat 12x25#

 

For the half circuit, I did half the number of reps at the same weight. Working my way up to 3 full circuits and then I should look exactly like him...

[DirtyLittleSecrets]

Looking good Tenacious!

[Librarian of Doom]

It's amazing how many people I see for the first time on Sesame Street. Plus, how they've gotten every single cast member from SVU on there. 

 

Once you can do 3 rounds of the circuit, you will totally look just like him