R11D107 – Going Sideways

gomadI am maintaining my bulk workouts at the moment, waiting for the right time to switch into HIIT. Basically once the weather cooperates a little and I actually get to 90 days of workouts (I’m at 84 right now) I will transition. But at the moment I am still happy putting on the size and strength that will help with the weight loss that is inevitable with HIIT. My back has been a little sore of late, I think it’s something to do with sitting at work which I have been forced to do for a while now but also that I am not doing a lot of legs work and I think it’s affecting my back via my hips. I have a tendency to get tight and inflexible around the hips when I don’t do much squatting (bodyweight squatting) and lunges and I have not been very disciplined with my legs workout of late. I also am finding that after giving up dairy for lent I don’t have an intolerance for it however drinking a big glass of milk makes me a big wiggy, like eating sugar used to. I hadn’t really noticed it before but I drank a glass of milk the other day after lent ended and it was amazing how much energy I got from it. I love milk, and there are others who share my enthusiasm including the GOMAD group which stands for Gallon Of Milk A Day. It’s a big staple for me and recently I have made the switch from skim back to 2% due to the rise in research that says skim milk is actually worse for  you than 2% or whole 3.25% milk. It’s kind of like the diet pop of the milk world, it will cause you to gain weight in the long run. Either way, I am glad I am not intolerant to it, at least lent is good for something!

R11D66-70 Body Beast Bulk

Shrek hulkI have made it through half of my 10 day bulk phase, and I think that I may extend it a little further. The workouts are further divided so as to give special attention to the major body parts but here is what I have interpreted for myself.

Bulk Chest
Bulk Arms
Bulk Shoulders
Cardio
Bulk Legs and Back – Squats and Deadlifts

Since I already have all the legs I require (with the exception of the mass that I lost after surgery) leg day for me is not a priority, add that to the fact that back day is also not an opportunity for all out aggression and I don’t have access to my outdoor chinup bar (why would I, it’s the middle of March in Canada) and you have a chance to do legs and back appropriately on the same day. FYI it looked a little like this:

3×5 deadlifts
2×10 deadlifts
5×10 squats
3×5 sumo deadlifts
3×5 sumo squats

I think I could do a few weeks of this kind of rotation, 5 days on one off and it would serve to increase my percentage also which currently is teetering around the 79-80% mark. Since I am around the 70 day mark that means I will be on Bulk phase until day 90 rolls in, which reminds me that I should be doing photos and weights this week some time. I think my re-composition is working, but I will need some proof of the fact.
For my cardio workout on Friday I did Insanity Plyometric Cardio and  as I recalled just moments before pushing play it’s been so long since I have done a real Insanity workout that I was worried I was not going to be able to get through the warmup. I wasn’t far wrong, so what I did was turn on the treadmill so that the times when I couldn’t keep up with Shaun T’s happy little bunch of miscreants I would be able to jog lightly and swear profusely. It wasn’t quite as bad as I had imagined however I was well and truly beaten by it in the end.

That’s what I get for trying to do Insanity while bulking.

R11D60-66 – Anaerobic Hell

R11D60-66

It’s strange how you forget your experience with certain types of exercise when you are away for a while. It’s been a while since I have done any TRUE weight lifting, and by that I mean real anaerobic, no cardio, hard weight pushing, heavy mechanical exertion. You forget about the searing pain of lactic acid that flows and persists long after you drop the weight. You forget the kind of pump that makes you feel like your muscles are going to explode and prevents you from moving certain directions. It’s been a very long time since I have not been able to wash my shaved head because my arms mysteriously won’t reach because my biceps and shoulders are in the way. I have to admit, I kind of like it. I like it but I don’t like the extra poundage it brings. I am happy being 235 lbs, but I am still uncomfortable being 255lbs even if I know my body fat is falling. That said, I think it’s part of a healthy lifestyle circuit that at times you switch your training methodology from HIIT to Bodybuilding to Power Lifting to Cross Training. My recent days have included a mini-break from the Body Beast workouts to do a whole body bootcamp and a cardio day as a rest. For the bootcamp workout I did 10 movements for 100 reps each giving me 1000 rep total. It was not as hard as it sounds, some of the items were kinda easy.

Crunches
Heavy Bag Knees
Pushups
Standing knee lifts
Heavy bag kicks
Jumping Jacks
Side knee strikes
Military Pushups
Plank runs
Air squats

Once I felt like I was ready to get back to the lifting I started on the Bulk phase. This will be 2 weeks and then I will move along to either the build phase again or suck it up and go into Beast Phase although I am not really convinced it’s going to fit into what I am trying to do. I may have to back out and replace some of the “cardio” Body Beast with real cardio from Insanity.

So how is the second half of R11? I said at the Half Way Point that I was dissatisfied with the T25 and P90X3 system and I think I have managed to get over that feeling of frustration. The Body Beast workouts have me working a bit longer, a lot heavier and have me feeling like I am working hard once again. I am almost tempted to get back into a round of Pure P90X once this is done just to bring my cardio and bodyweight work back into line but we will see. I may enjoy being huge so much that Body Beast will get an extension into a round of it’s own.

FYI the BULK section is divided up further than the BUILD section was so I am committed to doing all 5 of the workouts twice in a 11 day period if I can manage it.