elmanuel challenge

[elmanuel]

First of all the English sentences might look a little weird because it's my second language(from the Netherlands)

A bit of medical history. I tore(not completely) the tendon of one of my right hamstring muscles( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitendinosus_muscle) twice in 2009, in januari and again in may. It's a big challenge to get back to the shape I was in and I'm not close to getting there but I'm making steps. I don't have a direct hamstring excercises related goal since I'm being really really ridiculously carefull with them. But I've come to the point in my revalidation(do you use that term?) where exercises that work the quads are pretty safe and don't cause much trouble anymore.

Today in the gym I did 3x 12 bodyweight squats. I'm hoping to keep the trend going up. that's why I'm going to start doing weighted squats again.

Goal 1:

Squat the olympic bar. Preferably 6 times. But at least once.

I'm 5'7 and I'm 123 pounds. I'm skinny. Just like Steve I'm hoping to gain 5 pounds. I;ll be eating mostly paleo and I'll also consume quite a bit of dairy. I'l try to eat big meals with plenty of protein and fat and I have to keep this up all the time especially when I'm busy at college when I'll have little time.

Goal 2:

Gain 5 pounds.

My back needs to become stronger. Today at the gym I struggled doing 4 pull ups. So I hope to double this number in 28 days.

Goal 3:

Do 8 pull ups while maintaining propper form.

*edit*

After reading the other threads decided to add some info:

I'll be working out at the gym on Monday and Thursday and I'll do bodyweight exercises on Saturday.

Week 1 day 1:

Went to the gym and did:

12x 3 bodyweight squats

3 x 4 pull ups

Also did some hamstring related exercises and benching.

Hamstring feels stiff and the pull ups killed my arms. I will probably ache and walk funny tomorrow.

The next two days will be about recovery. I have some good foods I hope to be eating the next two days. These include: lots of nuts, sweet potatoes, bacon, chicken, eggs, dairy, various fruits and veggies, etc.

Also if you're reading this, good luck with your goals!

[elmanuel]

Day 2:

I am really sore from yesterday. Guess my workout yesterday was really good and I have to keep this up.

Eating went pretty well. Had a big omelette with bacon and veggies. I Ate a lot of nuts. I drank some tea with butter in it(this tastes awesome). Drank milk. Dinner was beef sausages, cabbage and white rice. I'll end the day with some dairy and fruit.

Hopefully I'll be somewhat less sore tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to keep the eating up on a busy college day...

[Suse]

Tea with butter???? different!

[elmanuel]

Tea with butter???? different!

If you like butter you should try it some time!

Day 3:

Today I was a lot less sore so I'll be able to train tomorrow which is good.

Diet was difficult today because the day was really busy so my dinner was a little smaller than I would have hoped. But I hope my meals in the morning and late evening compensated that.

I'm hoping to have a good workout day at the gym tomorrow with some different exercises than Monday. I will probably focus most on my back. And as always I'll try to get a few big meals in tomorrow.

[elmanuel]

day 4:

Had a good workout today for the back as planned. I did slightly injured my right shoulder so I'll see how I wake up tomorrow. I don't think it's severe and I'll just take it easy with my shoulder the next few days.

Diet went really well today so I'm happy about that!

Started with a big shake: Milk, orange juice, whey, banana, pineapple, cinamon

After that I had an omelet with bacon and spinach

After workout I had chocolate milk, banana and protein bar

Few hours after that I had a meal with sweet potato, chicken and radish and some nuts too.

When I came home I had some leftovers: potato, green cabagge and beef.

Before bed I had some yogurt and milk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e29x9Qhi ... re=related

[Steve]

Hahahaha Beefcake!

-Steve

[elmanuel]

Today was a mixed day.

I got all the calories I needed but some sources weren't exactly great. After compiling my list it doesn't look that bad but still 100 gram white chocolate is never really good for you.

Good stuff I ate:

Eggs

Bacon

Spinach

Broccoli

Fish

Avocado

Yogurt

Nuts

Bad stuff:

White chocolate(whole bar)

potato chips

Will try to eat cleaner tomorrow!

[elmanuel]

Well I didn't eat cleaner today. Kind of the same as yesterday. I'll just blame it on the weekend I guess. And will try better tomorrow. I also ate a lot of good stuff today so it's not horrible and it won't kill me.

I Did some light training today because I was still a litlle tired and sore today. The plan is to shine on Monday.

[elmanuel]

Sore throat, dry mouth, muscle ache, running nose, lack of focus.. I'm Feeling sickly

Today was an okay day. Ate a little less because I wasn't feeling great. But relativly clean and paleo.

Lots of avocado, chicken and spinach today.

I was planning on having an all out workout tomorrow. i'll just have to see how I wake up. I really wanted to have a good lifting session tomorrow so I hope that sickness doesn't spoil it for me. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow so I'm hoping for the best here.

Motivational underdog going against all odds videos is all that can save me now!

[elmanuel]

Today was bad. I was sick and I've got some sort of stomach flu.

Didn't workout.

Ate way too litlle.

Positieve note was the spinach and the chicken

Lots of probiotic yogurt

Hoping tomorrow will be a better day for my goals.

[jacobmovingfwd]

If you start to get a fever, make sure and get the fruit juices back in. I know some people say to limit them on paleo, but while you're sick, I think you need the simple calories/glycogen to help fuel the fight.

Dayquil. It's all I took when I got sick in college.

[elmanuel]

If you start to get a fever, make sure and get the fruit juices back in. I know some people say to limit them on paleo, but while you're sick, I think you need the simple calories/glycogen to help fuel the fight.

Dayquil. It's all I took when I got sick in college.

I agree with needing all the fuel I can get, I got some nice blueberry/raspberry juice

[elmanuel]

Well I had some stomach problems today so my diet was food that was nice for my stomach

Bananas

White rice + kefir(yogurt)

Applesauce

And in the evening I felt a little better so I had some

Cabbage

Beef

Blueberries

Didn't get nearly the calories I wanted and I won't do any real training for the next days. Maybe Friday?

But despite some of the setbacks I feel I'm keeping the spirit up.

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/03 ... h-happens/

Posts like that make you put stuff in perspective I guess. I'll just have to struggle along the next few days and use the rest of the remaining 28 days to achieve my goals. That's life. I'll just have to see where I end up at the end of the challenge..

[elmanuel]

Today I felt litttle better despite the long college day

I'm not ready to hit the gym yet but I did some stuff just to stay busy:

Specific exercises for my hamstring

Some push ups

Diet was better than yesterday but not great. I needs more calories! I hope to return to normal eating tomorrow if my stomach allows it. Hopefully I can return to trainng friday or saturday.

[elmanuel]

Well finally it's weekend so I can finally relax a little. Those busy college days combined with being sick really took the energy out of me. If I feel up to it I'll do some light stuff tomorrow. If I'm not recovered I'll just have a laid back weekend with some walks in the forest and some light shadowboxing.

I hope to gain back the weight I lost during the weekend. And I finally have the time to make some kick ass big clean meals.

Still time to achieve those goals. Ad Victoriam! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eBHxQDiT0A

[elmanuel]

Recovering slowly and steady. Did some light stuff today and will be lifting again on Monday if all goes well.

Did my very best to gain some of the weight I lost being sick:

Big shake for breakfast

Omellete with bacon, spinach and tomatoes

Lots of meat

Thaifood for dinner! Lots of rice, veggies, seafood and beef.

Some yogurt before bed.

Looking forward to Monday already. Hopefully I'm all game. The plan for tomorrow is to eat some more and recover/take it easy some more.

[elmanuel]

Good day today! feeling pumped for tomorrow and looking forward to working out again.

Had a nice beefcake day today!

Started with a big shake with fruit, whey and milk

Had lots of meat the whole day: beef, pig, chicken, lamb and even horse. Yes horse. No seriously horse. It doesn't get more manly than that.

Veggies like alfalfa, avocado, carrots, etc.

Potatoes

Milk

Ending with some yogurt with some fruit.

I'm uber stuffed. Today was good.

[elmanuel]

Had a pretty good day

Worked out again which was hard and will make me feel very sore tomorrow when I get up a 6

Bw squats 3 x 15

Leg press

Bent over rows

Bench press

Pull ups first one then three then four this killed me.

Diet was good too although my breakfast could've been bigger

Guacamole with some yogurt

Banana, figs, nuts

Tuna, sweet patato, cucumber

Hamburgers, mixed veggies, some patatoes

Yogurt with pear and shake.

[elmanuel]

I was sore and tired today. Actually had to lay in bed for half an hour when I got home because I was just exhausted. Hopefully I'm fully recovered for my Thursday workout.

Foods:

Started of with a shake

Dades, banana and nuts

Spinach omelette with onions

Potato's, beef, rice, brocolli, chicken, yogurt, pear, some chocolat, just lots of stuff

Didn't eat too clean today. But getting calories is easier this way. I do really want that extra weight. I'll have to try my best to eat clean tomorrow and Thursday because they will be very long and busy days. Will elmanuel succeed? Stay tuned!

[elmanuel]

Tired.

Didn't eat that much today. Had a good start with a shake and a nice spinach omellette. After that not that great unfortunatly.

Tomorrow will be a challenge once again. Hope I'll be able to workout...

[elmanuel]

Ghee. What to say about today. Didn't go as planned. My dinner was a packet of crisps and a protein bar. I guess that says it all. It was just a really long, stressfull day. No workout. No clean eating. Not enough eating. Just not a lot of positivity I can look back on.

What really saved my day was some intense shadow boxing and some hamstring excersises. That really took a lot of stress and tension that built up during the day out of me. Hamstrings are feeling good. But I'm just exhausted. Let's see how I wake up tomorrow.

[elmanuel]

I totally made up for yesterday today! Exhausted now, but I feel good.

Did some:

BW squats

Lunges

Cleans

Neck bridges

Feel good and tired now. Also ate clean and good stuffs.

Tomorrow will be a rest day with hopefully lots and lots of eating

[topherfangio]

Glad you got back into it Emanuel! Keep it up :-)

[elmanuel]

topherfangio thanks for the encouragemant!

Saturday was a great day I rested and ate some huge meals and they were very clean.

Sunday was a bit of a mix. Didn't eat as clean and as much as I wanted.

Very busy with school because I have a big test on Friday. Should've posted Saturday and Sunday but today being Monday that's a little late.

Well today is Monday my extra rest day because I was very tired. Didn't go well. I was late and spend much of the day rushing didn't eat a lot of great stuff. (except some most excellent lamb meat at dinner) Ate mostly carbs in the morning and afternoon and had a real 'energy crash' around 4. That was a real bummer.

Hope to have a good workout tomorrow despite rising very early.

I'll go to bed real early today and hopefully some ZMA(zink/magnesium) will give me some kick ass quality sleep.

Also measured how my goals were going this Saturday:

- Gained 2 pounds. Probably won't make 5 pounds but every pound is welcomed with great joy on this body so jay.

- Can do 5 pull ups. Might make this one if I go berserk during a sesion otherwise it's gonna be difficult.

- Haven't squated with the bar yet but I'm pretty confident in this one. I did a lot of work on my legs and they feel a lot stronger then before.

[elmanuel]

Well today was something else.

Gym was packed and I mean crammed with some kind of class that was learning stuff so I could't go there.

Went home and did a lot of studying. Then I had to blow of some steam so I ran. Was kinda limping afterwards because it's real heavy on my hamstring but it felt good. My condition isn't what it once was:( Guess today wasn't very goal related but it felt good anyway. Gotta have those days too.

Ate fairly clean btw.