2015R1 – The Cut

shrek-and-hulk1I have to admit this is the worst phase for me. I assume it is for most people I mean who likes to be eating in deficit and having to work out just as hard? Anyway, it’s the price to pay for dirty bulking and achieving those strength goals. So to start I need to make sure I am doing all the things that are important before adding the extra cardio. Here is a list of what I need to be doing on a per week  basis this phase.

Deadlifts
Bench
Squat
Clean / Power Clean
Seated OHP
Pullups 100-300 per week
KB Swings
I would also like to not lose grip with
Barbell snatch
Overhead Squat
Front squat
Toes to bar
Add to this 2 days of Cardio and HIIT then you have a full program.

It will probably look something like this:

Bench, Dips, Pulllups
DL and swings
Cardio or HIIT / WOD
Squat and pullups
Cleans and OHP
Cardio or HIIT / WOD

As usual I will take days off when I require them, maintaining a 78% workout ratio.

I am looking to do high volume, lower weights HIIT training as much as possible. The cardio days will include doing Insanity since I now have access to some of the workouts through the XBOX which is great. Most days I will be doing some sort of 10 minute cardio portion but nothing that is worth recording here. If the mood takes me I can do bootcamp on the days that I have cardio since these workouts should not preclude me from doing partial same bodyparts on consecutive days. This is especially true since the bootcamps will be bodyweight only.

I do not expect that I will enjoy this. I do expect to enjoy losing some of the bodyfat I gained during the Millennium.

I actually started on Jan 1 with Insanity Plyo Cardio Circuit. I wanted to see what it was like with the xbox fitness element added. It was just as painful if not worse however I smoked men in my age category so there’s that… I did realize that bulk without cardio is not such a good idea. I should probably have stuck to my plan of doing one cardio workout a week. I am in so much pain right now from hamstrings and mid back ski abs pain…

R14 – It’s COW Time

belgian blueCardio, Oly Lifting and WODs. That is the nature of the next 3 months or so. I also have to take into consideration that there is winter weather on the way and I will not be able to stay in the garage much longer. My program will be mostly what I outilened a few days ago which looks a little like this…

I have been conscious of keeping a heavy bench day in there and also room for some specific bicep work that I can incorporate into the WOD. The light Oly / WOD days can also be bootcamp days since they are not too heavy on weights but provide enough muscular work to not be considered just cardio. The only issue I have is that I really want to increase my pullups again and as my weight falls (4lbs off this week! woohoo!) they will get easier but only with practice. I have already done day 1 and 2 of the program with Heavy DL work on Monday and Heavy bench for reps on Tuesday.

That’s a Belgian Blue BTW, not a steroid or GMO bull…

1. Heavy Oly DL Clean
2. WOD Reg WOD jumps and pullups or bench
3. Cardio DVD Insanity
4. WOD / Light Day Bodyweight WOD
5. Off
6. Heavy Oly Clean Squat
7. WOD oddball WOD stuff pullups wqllball rope
8. Cardio Insanity or MMA
9. Light Oly / WOD Snatch c&P biceps
10 Off

 

Monday in fact was the first time in ages that I have worked DL reps with 185. I am not sure when the last time was but this day was a full 75 rep workout which I am pretty sure is unheard of. Tuesday I did a similar thing with bench, using 225 as the working weight and managing just over 75 reps in sets of 10. That means today is cardio day and with a buffet of choices from P90X Plyo to P90X3 Accelerator to Insanity Pure Cardio and Insanity Asylum or T25 Alpah, Beta, Gamma. The worst thing is that I just can’t remember what they are all like so I can’t really make an informed choice. I will have to document them and try to make a chart of the differences. Since I have George St Pierre Rushfit (which I recall being awful) and TapoutXT and some kettlebell workouts a handy reference sheet would be good. If you already have one, please let me know.

 

Unrelated – Bell Canada Sucks.

This is the actual conversation I had with the “Chatbot” today.

You: I have my 2 recent payments showing as returned payment on my bill

Pauline: Hi, Simon!

You: its supposed to be prepaid on visa, why has it been billed then returned?

You: Now my bill is $1100 which I obviously can’t pay

Pauline: My sincerest apologies about that, Simon. Allow me to check it for you.

Pauline: May I please have the email address associated with the account for validation?

You: p90x@iamcanadian.org

Pauline: Perfect! Thank you!

Pauline: As I can see here, the status of the payments is “backout”. My higher support advised that you’ll need to contact your bank and since the account is already delinquent, you’ll need to contact our Account Receivables Team via 1-800-477-9205 and make payment arrangements.

You: you can’t tell me what backout means or why your company returned the payment????

You: What’s the point in having my phone number if nobody calls me to tell me the payment didn’t go through???

You: You provide my phone, no phone call, you provide my internet but no email. That is just ridiculous.

You: August One Bill $1,109.55 Please pay by August 26, 2014 Info Payment received CR $500.55

You: I will be cancelling my services as soon as this is cleard up you are the worst company I have ever dealt with.

Pauline: I am currently reviewing the account, may I know if you changed the credit card expiry recently or changed it to a new credit card?

You: It was changed online in June and the details are correct because I just made a payment. This is just a joke.

Pauline: As I can see here, there are some calls made from our collections team.

You: ZERO Messags on my home phone. Zero calls to my cell phone, ZERO emails. That’s what I call not trying hard enough.

Pauline: My sincerest apologies if you feel that way, I can see here that there are some notes from our collections team, it seems that the problem started when you updated the credit card information. Our system still recognizes the old credit card information, but moving forward, if the credit card information is correct, there wouldn’t be any problem.

You: It won’t matter, I have had it, I’m getting rid of the services this kind of thng happens way too much.

You: Thanks for nothing. Put that on the account…

Pauline: My sincerest apologies, Simon. I will leave a note on the account.

Pauline: Thank you for chatting with me. Please feel free to chat with us anytime. We are open 24/7. Is there anything else that I can help you?

You: Give me the phone number for Rogers…

Pauline: My apologies, we don’t have the phone number for Rogers.

30WOD Time – R12 REMIX

7e65aa0bdc2bc94c2724cac776e54ddbI gave up my Crossfit membership, mostly by default I suppose I just hadn’t been there to make use of it. That said, I think I am going to shake things up a bit with my workouts and try to do 30 days of WODs. Actually, I should call the gym and make sure they didn’t auto renew me…

I think it’s about time that I did something that I can actually track on here. It’s been a long time since I actually followed a prescribed workout system and that didn’t even go so well because I was so used to being off plan so to speak. In fact, R12 lasted exactly 2 days and if that’s not a massive failure then I don’t know what is.

R12, as you will recall, was supposed to look like this:

Bench and ring dips (HEAVY)
Deadlifts and sprints / laps (LIGHT)
Cleans and Squats (HEAVY)
Press and KB swings (LIGHT)
Pullups and 95lb Deadlifts / cleans / clean and press
Cardio / Yoga / MMA workout
Off

However I was blinded by my quasi-resolution to work out with the girls at gym and that simple thought completely derailed me. What I really need is to commit to something. Anything. Because like I always tell my kids…

somethingnothingNow I have to admit I like the look of R12, so much so that instead of choosing between the Crossfit Ark WOD and the typically significantly harder Crossfit.com WOD I think I will make my choice based on R12 or Crossfit Ark WOD. I know there will be WODs that I just won’t want to do or may not be able to do effectively and that’s when the R12 can come to the rescue. The problem I have with WODs typically is that they are not a complete system of workouts when done as a daily routine. I have gone over it before so I don’t need to rehash it but basically as a daily workout, the WODs can be woefully insufficient as a balanced system. That is where having a structured, balanced system in place can help out. When the WODs for the week don’t add up to a single movement of chest press or curling movement, the traditional system can fill that gap. If you think that I am inaccurate in my assessment, just check out the follow up I did with an example of that week’s WODS. 

So, just like day 1 of when this all began back in June of 2009 I am jumping in on a whim and I am going to stick it out and see how I feel. My plan is to do the WOD that is posted for the affiliate I was a member at here in Aurora, Crossfit Ark, but I may make it easier on myself and make a choice between that and whatever they post over at Crossfit.com. The Crossfit.com workouts are  however so I will probably just stick to the Ark.

Day 1 of 30WOD

Metcon (AMRAP – Reps)
5 Rounds of

1 min of DU
1 min rest
Metcon (AMRAP – Rounds and Reps)
RX’D

14 min AMRAP

20 Box Jumps @ 24″/20″
15 Wallballs @ 20#/14#
10 T2B

 

Since I can’t actually do double unders it will be 15 minutes of DU practice.

R11D489 – What is an HIIT schedule

don't kid yourselfI should start by saying it’s not strictly HIIT at all, in fact calling it Crossfit would be more accurate and while there are people who would call Crossfit HIIT it only occasionally fills the description. You can google Crossfit and HIIT and see what I mean.

HIIT is short for High Intensity Interval Training. The fact that it is in interval based system should indicate that it will only occasionally cross paths with Crossfit. In fact, the Tabata system of training is the very definition of HIIT and it’s rarely used in Crossfit. However, it would be easy to convert any Crossfit workout into an HIIT workout, instead of doing AMRAP for 16 minutes let’s say, you would simply break it down into X rounds with Y break in between.

For my purposes I like the HIIT method because it brings the short break that I have been accustomed to from my gym days and it causes a variation in heart rate that is said to be the most beneficial. Before we can jump into the timing we first need to see what ingredients we have to work with for our schedule. This will include any movements you like, any equipment you can use and of course both full body involvement and cardio and abs and yoga during the cycle which is typically 5-8 days. The traditional weight training would have you believe that a full body 4 day split is what you need, giving you a day off for rest so that you work the same body part once every 5 days. If you are doing compound movements with multiple pivot points and cross training specific body parts with others (pullups and pushups for example) then this notion is not much use to you. Instead, you should be looking for something that will keep you interested but be varied enough and predictable enough that you can get used to it but not bored with it. You can dress a skeleton in a lot of ways, just look around you, and we will do the same with a framework in which to work and the ability to switch exercises if necessary (injury or otherwise).

Keep in mind that you will also be progressing, the following is a good example of an HIIT progressive schedule:

  • Week 1 — 10/20 x6 (10s work, 20s rest, 6 sets)
  • Week 2 — 15/15 x4
  • Week 3 — 10/20 x8
  • Week 4 — 15/15 x6
  • Week 5 — 20/10 x4
  • Week 6 — 15/15 x8
  • Week 7 — 20/10 x6
  • Week 8 — 20/10 x8

I know it doesn’t look like much but with a ten minute warm up and the adherence to the HIGH part of HIIT then you will find this plenty. Now you don’t have to stick to these timing lengths, you can go longer as long as you rest and can repeat.

So what do I want do to with this schedule of mine? Well there are things I want to include and I think a 5 day split is plenty.

Pullups
Deadlifts
Squats
Clean (Power or squat or hang in a pinch)
Push Press (or clean and press)
Kettlebell swings (KBs are great for warmups BTW)
Bench Press
Wallball / Heavy Ball / Heavy Log
Snatches
Block Jumps
Weighted lunges / lunge walk

Also, I want to make sure that I cover off the basic types of movement, that is to say:
Push
Pull
Press
Carry
Run

That’s all for now, I am actually working on the final schedule as you read this, I should have it up in a couple of days. Until then it’s the last of the DB Isolations with The Beast.

 

R11D80-86 – Squats Tried To Kill Me Plus The June Goals

im not big at allI got called 2 weird things lately.

A cross between Chef Ramsey and Simon Cowell and from another person a mix of Shrek and The Hulk. Really? Really?? I’m not that big. Seriously.

So I haven’t posted in a few days because I have been in so much pain I can’t even explain myself. I did Body Beast Bulk Legs the other day and added some deep squats to the routine, something that I would have done in the garage last summer every week. For some reason, doing deadlifts and cleans does not extend the squat as fully as I had thought and after doing the full squats I developed massive knots in the top of my quads on both legs. I am mystified as to why this would happen I mean it’s not like I don’t do legs, but the reaction my body had was like “what the hell are you doing?”.

My past few workouts have looked like this:

79 Tuesday, 03/25/2014 63  Body Beast Bulk Arms 80%
80 Wednesday, 03/26/2014  off 0%
81 Thursday, 03/27/2014 64  Body Beast Bulk Shoulders 79%
82 Friday, 03/28/2014 65  Body Beast Bulk Legs – Squats killed leg 79%
83 Saturday, 03/29/2014  Off very sore leg 0%
84 Sunday, 03/30/2014 66  Body Beast Bulk chest 135-235 79%
85 Monday, 03/31/2014 67  Body Beast Bulk Back – Pullups and Deadlifts 50 per 79%
86 Tuesday, 04/01/2014 68  Body Beast Bulk Shoulders with press 79%

and I am happy to note that I am still almost at 80% even after 86 days. I will be officially finishing the R11 this week then but I will continue the Body Beast for probably another 30 days or so to get a good idea of what a full 90 would be like. Also you may notice that on back day I did pullups that means it was warm enough on Monday to get outside. It was in fact 14 degrees and doing pullups outside again was both exhilirating and worrisome since I became aware very quickly that my ability to knock out 20 pullups in a row was very far in the past. As soon as the weather is better I will have to modify y goals to add 20 in a row. In fact, now that the weather is improving a little I think I need to put down what I expect from myself by June 1.

Deadlift – 200lbs
Shoulder Press – Standing 185lbs
Clean – 185lbs
Clean and Press – 185lbs
Pullups – 20 unbroken with kip 10 without kip
Squat – 185lbs since I don’t have a squat rack and have to C&P the weight first
Ring Dips – 20 unbroken or 10 strict
I would also like to have my bar muscle up by the summer, I don’t think that’s too crazy. Or maybe ring MU.

R11D45 – Half Way Turnaround

Turn-Around-SignI think things have to change, I am coming to the conclusion that these 25 or 30 minute workouts are just not HIIT enough for me to get a great workout. It may be that they are sporadically sprinkled throughout the last 45 days and as such I haven’t really got the full effect. Well if that is the case then the next 13 days I am going to attempt to finish the T25 and P90X3 workouts that remain:

P90X3
The Challenge
Incinerator
The Warrior
Eccentric Upper
Eccentric Lower
Triometrics

T25
Rip T circuit
Dynamic core
Upper focus
Speed 3.0
Rip’T Up
Extreme circuit
The Pyramid

Tomorrow is my birthday and it’s as good a time as any to make some changes. I know I am only half way through the 90 days, but I didn’t really commit to one methodology for the duration. I think what I am going to try is to finish the above and then move into some Body Beast with Insanity. I feel like I need to get my strength back in line and I know that my weight isn’t really moving like it should be. So starting tomorrow I will be documenting more, working out more and setting my sights on getting my 230 lb body back by the end of the 90 days, that’s 45 days or 6 weeks which should be plenty of time. Of course, that is dependant on my not being 258 like the scale said this morning. I have a feeling I may be up at 252 which means dropping 20 lbs in about 6 weeks. I am shooting for a bit of a re-composition so I will be trying to track my fat% etc with my fancy scale at home and posting the results.

I am not sure about the exact workout schedule yet but for the next 2 days I will be visiting my Crossfit box for my workouts, after that I will try to pick and choose from the following:

Build section of Body Beast

Chest / Tris
Back / Bis
Legs
Shoulders

Insanity Favourites

Plyometric Cardio
Pure Cardio
Core Cardio and balance

I think it’s also about time that I listed some of my favourite workouts because if I am honest I can’t really tell the difference between them unless I really think back. So I will post some of my favourites with the content so I can keep track.

 

R11D25-28 – Weekend Away

westernI took Friday off, which seems to be a pattern for me nowadays, something about making it through the week and knowing I should be able to do big lifts on the weekend. We were out of town this weekend in London, Ontario visiting my alma mater The University of Western Ontario and going to a Raffi concert on Sunday. That meant the usual obstacles to my workouts including an incredibly stressful 3 hour drive in the snowstorm to get there, a hotel full of idiot hockey parents and their equally annoying offspring running around the halls. So I locked myself in my room and did 500 squats, something that even now, 2 days later I am regretting. Once home, I was faced with a fot of snow so I shovelled what I needed to in order to get out the snowblower. It was still a good 20 minute workout getting everything lined up. After that, I decided I would see if I could do 500 pushups but after 250 I gave up since I was in danger of landing on my face. Not the greatest improvisation in the world, I really should have taken my kettlebell and swung it around down by the pool smashing as many ugly hockey faces as I could.

So I have decided to do a short 2 week assessment of my eating habits, I have a sneaking suspicion that my <100g of carbs a day is a little out of whack and I need to get back in line if I am to drop the 10 lbs I have remaining after my surgery. And since it’s coming up on a year, I really have no excuse. All I can say is that I had better be back below 235 before my anniversary kicks in on April 24th. That’s still about 80 days from now or…

80 days can be converted to one of these units:
6,912,000 seconds
115,200 minutes
1920 hours
80 days
11 weeks (rounded down)

Plenty of time, right? I know from past experience that being accountable to Fitday is a great place to start as long as you are honest with yourself. 80 days at an average of 30 minutes per workout and an 80% hit rate is only 32 hours of working out. That seems easy enough!

R11D9 – Best Laid Plans

osmin diet The return of the ice war.

This time it was the driveway, a double wide strip of 5 inch thick ice just waiting to be carved apart with the ice breaker and hauled BY HAND out of the way. The ice pieces were too heavy to lift with my snow shovel so as I broke apart the sheets I had to carry or throw the massive chunks off to the side. It took about 50 minutes and each time I checked my heart rate (since I knew it was going to be a workout) I was up above 140. It is strange that I am happy to prove myself in the real world now, whereas during my gym days I would only consider actual weight lifting as exercise and everything else was just a waste of time. Oh how my life has changed since then. One phrase that always goes through my head is hearing Osmin Hernandez shouting THE WORLD IS YOUR GYM and although he is a little crazy at times I completely agree with his philosophy. Anyone who says they can’t work out because they can’t get to the gym needs a good smack to the forehead. Yesterday’s workout equipment was an ice breaking blade and a snow shovel. It takes a lot to get out of the gym mindset and even more difficult than getting out of the gym is the notion that you can actually get fit at home with or without a DVD set to motivate you. Coming from a gym rat mindset makes you think that you need “proper” equipment to work out with and the idea that you can get a great full body workout without ANY equipment is insane. Truth is that you don’t need anything to get in shape except a positive attitude and a little creativity. Every neighbourhood in Canada now has access to 2 or 3 parks with monkey bars, climbing frames etc all of which are great for workouts. Just make sure you are alone or people will get the wrong idea.

osmin friend

The other problem is a very common one among people who already have the right attitude, they have the knowledge and they may even have some kettlebells, bumper plates and an Olympic bar at home but their problem is that they can’t train themselves. It’s the toughest thing in the world to be your own trainer and for the most part it is not possible. However, there is a way to overcome this and that is to write your plan for yourself as if you were writing it for a client or friend and then follow it to the letter. Make it up during your off hours when you can think clearly about body part rotation, time allotment, rest etc. and that way you don’t end up standing in your basement at workout time thinking “hmm… what should I do today…”.

I know this because I have coached many sports, from rugby to gymnastics and I have been a certified personal trainer for 20 years now, since before everyone thought they could do it and I am smart enough and humble enough to know that I cannot coach myself. That is part of the reason that I keep this blog, not only to record my progress but also to give me the chance to think about where I am and what I need to do next. I won’t go home at the end of the day not knowing what I SHOULD do. The only thing that will derail my achieving what I have planned is if there is something else there to take it’s place like last night. There is also a rest day window that I have. Once I have worked out 4 days straight the window is open and if I get into a situation where I can’t get a workout in due to time constraints or other reasons then I can take a day without guilt and move the planned workout to the next day. I have things in place that mean whatever happens I am able to adapt and make the day a success. That is what it takes to at least have some degree of success in coaching yourself, but believe me, it’s not a walk in the park. The biggest problem is that you will always let yourself off with doing less than you would if you were training someone else. You have to learn to drive yourself as hard as you can while you are in pain and that’s the problem, it takes almost superhuman dedication not to quit when you are hurting but believe me, the one thing that the truly successful people will do is ignore the voice in their head and get the work done.

R11D3 – Inevitable Glitch

I forgot my DVDs at work.

That meant that rather than doing the Speed 1.0 with Shaun T I was forced into doing Agility X with Tony. I have to say, I don’t know what Speed 1.o is like but I can bet that Agility X is a full step above if not an entire league ahead. Agility X was everything I used to love about the Plyo workout from the original P90X. It’s fast, you are moving, jumping, squatting and lunging and it’s actually quite a fun workout if you are not trying to recover from pneumonia. About half way through I started coughing like an asthmatic Walrus so much so that my wife on her treadmill lodged a complaint… However, since I have not been too active lately when I woke up this morning my butt was screaming from all the lunges. Not only that, but I did coach 3 hours after doing Agility X which I am sure didn’t help matters much. Anyway, no loss, I did another workout, make that 3 in a row and I also managed to get the workouts in the order in which they appear in the schedule so I can now determine exactly what I will be doing.

Schedules in Order:

T25:

Alpha
Cardio
Speed 1.0
Total body circuit
Ab intervals
Lower body focus

Beta
Core cardio
Speed 2.0
Rip T circuit
Dynamic core
Upper focus

Gamma
Speed 3.0
Rip’T Up
Extreme circuit
The Pyramid
P90X3

Month 1

Total Synergistics
Agility X
X3 Yoga
The Challenge
Cardio Vascular Extreme (CVX)
The Warrior
Dynamix
Isometrix
Accelerator
Pilates X

Month 2

Eccentric Upper
Triometrics
Eccentric Lower
Incinerator
Mark Briggs Inspired MMA Workouts (MMX)

Month 3

Decelerator