Planning – Something Beats Nothing Every Time

2015R1D26 – Update. Changes Are Coming.

So I am thinking about switching the weights up a bit for the time being.
I feel like my rep count is sufficiently high that I can split a 1 day deadlift program into 3 separate movements and still hit around the same rep count (90-150 most days). The point would be to work some accessory movements knowing that I am not going to be producing a 1 or 3 RM performance at all at the moment. What I would aim for is 50-70% max output on the main lift and then probably 5×5 at 80% on the accessory movements. It 2would break down something like this with some changes to the accessory movements over time.

Deadlift day becomes 7×5 DL, Good Mornings, bent rows
Cardio
Chest day becomes 7×5 Bench, flys, triceps
Cardio
Squat day becomes 7×5 Squat, leg extensions, hamstring curls
Cardio
OLY day becomes 7×5 cleans, snatch, OHP or cleans, front squat, DB OHP

That gives me a 4 day weight program and a 3 day cardio program which is fine for cutting. I will need to change the accessory movements, these are off the top of my head. 35 movements on each item for a total of 105 movements total.

Which brings me to my cut. It’s been not too painful but the results are also not too impressive. I am down about 4lbs in 2 weeks but the recomp is much better that it sounds.

There are 2 additional factors here, I gave up the CE stack I was using due to joint dryness which I think was the cause of my pain and also I started creatine which should add around 3-5lbs of water weight.

I also want to note here that I am having some pain since stopping the heavy Millennium cycle. I have found that cardio is aggravating my back and hips and is a great source of pain for me. So I am back with the daily stretching but to be honest I feel a lot more delicate since I started cardio again. My knees are painful when coming downstairs, even when I sit for a few minutes they hurt. I am hoping that in another week or so they will be getting used to it otherwise it’s out with the cardio and back to the HIIT instead. I have been doing a lot of dancing and bootcamp cardio type Xbox workouts including Insanity and P90X, whatever is free basically.
The numbers are far from impressive but here you go. Today was a little off, I think I have some hydration issues. If the creatine has added 3-5lbs then it’s possible I am down up to 9lbs which would be fine.
Weight-Fat-Water-Muscle-Rating-BMR-Age-Bone Mass-Visceral Fat

January-01-15 261 25.5 52 184.8 3 2649 48 9.4 13
January-05-15 257 25.5 51.5 182.2 3 2605 47 9.4 13
January-18-15 257 24.8 51.8 183.6 3 2614 45 9.4 13
January-23-15 258 24.5 52 185.6 3 2654 43 9.4 13
January-26-15 257 25.7 51.4 181.2 3 2690 48 9.2 14

Still a way to go but getting the hang of the workouts and keeping reminding myself to cut the calories a bit means a slow road. But then again slow is how you keep it off #fatlogic…

In reality, I need to focus more and eat less. Next week should show more of an improvement.

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

I 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.

Ending On A High Note

Over the break I have so far managed to keep things on track, I did a deadlift workout at home and also did X2 Core which I have to admit I really enjoyed if only for the fact that it’s 18 non-repeating exercises. I haven’t really thought about what I will do for the New Year, if anything, since I think things are going OK. However, I think I may dial back on the HFULC approach since not having any carbs at all makes my snacks and meals very high calorie and I think that is going to push me in the wrong direction. I am going to start documenting my weight and stats more closely, maybe including photos since that seems to be the greatest motivation for me.

Which brings me to my ever present New Year’s Resolution. I said last year that it would be the first time in years that I hadn’t included “lose weight” as the number one on my NYR list. Well, this year is the same, I think my weight is manageable at 230 – 235 lbs but I think this year I will concentrate on something more difficult, and that is to lower my bodyfat. I have been skating around 18% for a while now, and I would really like to try and get down to 15% if possible in the next few months. I am not entirely sure what changes I am going to have to make to get this to happen but I will keep logging it here to let you know what I figure out.

Happy New Year everyone, I hope your 2013 will bring you everything you deserve!

10.1 – The Last 10 Pounds

I have decided that this “round” should be concentrated on getting rid of my last 10 lbs of bodyfat to get me around the 220lb mark. This would signify meeting my ultimate goal weight which is a big deal among the gravitationally challenged. As mentioned yesterday I have very little in the way of actual choices, except for the bootcamp and WOD for gymnastics over which I have complete control. Having said that, I think the biggest difference is going to be frequency. For round 9 I took 175 days to do 90 workouts which averaged only 51% workout ratio. Compare that to Round 8 which was a whopping 70% ratio and a 64% ratio from back in my P90X/Insanity Hybrid days. Yes, it appears as though I am slacking off. I wanted to make it to 5 days a week which works out to 71% and for this round I think it’s critical that I try to maintain a higher work rate. I am not sure what the reason was behind the drop for round 9 other than it was the start of bootcamp which in the beginning made sure I took at least 2 days a week off to recover. Add that to occasional days off during the weekend and you are already down to 4 days a week, or 57%. Now that I have the hang of bootcamp and I am also able to train the girls again with tougher conditioning that they can do with me I am hoping upping the frequency will be a cinch.

My weeks are going to look something like this (at least until July 1st):

Monday, 06/04/2012 1 Bootcamp 3 Cardio and Abs
Tuesday, 06/05/2012 2 OFF
Wednesday, 06/06/2012 3 Bootcamp 3 Bodyweight
Thursday, 06/07/2012 4 RKC Thursday
Friday, 06/08/2012 5 WOD Friday
Saturday, 06/09/2012 6 WORKOUT CHOICE
Sunday, 06/10/2012 7 OFF
Monday, 06/11/2012 8 Bootcamp 3 Weights
Tuesday, 06/12/2012 9 OFF
Wednesday, 06/13/2012 10 Bootcamp 3 Cardio and Abs
Thursday, 06/14/2012 11 RKC Thursday
Friday, 06/15/2012 12 WOD Friday
Saturday, 06/16/2012 13 WORKOUT CHOICE
Sunday, 06/17/2012 14 OFF
Monday, 06/18/2012 15 Bootcamp 3 Bodyweight
Tuesday, 06/19/2012 16 OFF
Wednesday, 06/20/2012 17 Bootcamp 3 Weights
Thursday, 06/21/2012 18 RKC Thursday
Friday, 06/22/2012 19 Cardio Friday
Saturday, 06/23/2012 20 WORKOUT CHOICE
Sunday, 06/24/2012 21 OFF
Monday, 06/25/2012 22 Bootcamp 3 Cardio and Abs
Tuesday, 06/26/2012 23 OFF
Wednesday, 06/27/2012 24 Bootcamp 3 Bodyweight
Thursday, 06/28/2012 25 RKC Thursday
Friday, 06/29/2012 26 WOD Friday
Saturday, 06/30/2012 27 WORKOUT CHOICE

That’s 74%!!

November Planning – The Road Ahead For Fall

I’m pretty happy with the way things are going. I am loving having an olympic bar in the garage so I can do some light O-lifts when I feel like it. My affair with the Kettlebell is still going strong and with the bootcamp class I am teaching I have plenty to do even without P90X and Insanity. But that is a bit of a problem, fitting it all in is getting tougher and with P90X2 on the horizon it’s going to be tougher still. However, I am thinking that P90X2 won’t be like Insanity or Insanity:Asylum, I think I will try to do the full program just like I did for my first round of P90X all those years ago.

For now though I am resolving to make a couple of changes for November and hit a couple of goals.

I am cutting down my nuts intake, for some time now I have been snacking on nuts during the day and it has become mindless. It’s not a great habit to have and I think I will go back to my half cup once a day.

I am still around 233 or so and would like to hit 228 by month end if possible. That would leave 8 lbs to lose for December. It is getting incrementally harder to cut weight as I get closer to my goal, whether that is 220 or 200, either way, it’s hard!

I am going to do one P90X workout and one Insanity workout every week. With bootcamp making 3, RKC makes 4 and O lift makes 5 I think that’s a reasonable goal.

I’d like to take some more pictures at the end of the month too, I have been at a place where I wanted to take some shots but didn’t, if I stick to the plan for the month, I should be back there and ready to change the picture on the main site. I like the one there, but I am leaner than that now and seeing that every day isn’t motivating me any more.

Also, finally I am going to try and get more sleep. I suck at this to be honest and I don’t really know how to fix it without rebelling against myself. Maybe an extra half hour will be enough, maybe it will take an extra hour of shuteye, but unless I start I will never know.

Round 8 – The Shakeup

It’s time to address the changes.

I am going to move to a 5 day a week rotation with 1 RKC workout, 2 P90X and 2 Cardio workouts. If I need an additional day I will do FOY Yoga with Tony. The reason is coaching and bootcamp which I am going to count as one of my cardio days. If I follow this schedule I get Monday and Friday off which suits me fine, since I do like a light Friday! I may switch the Kettlebell day to Saturday, after my day off and go heavy, that way if I am off somewhere for the weekend I know the KB workout I take with me will be the scheduled day. We’ll see.

This is the beauty of these workouts and also a necessary part of self-coaching. You have to keep measuring your progress and adjusting what you do in order to stay fresh, engaged and to fit your fitness into your life in a symbiotic way. Your fitness regime shouldn’t prevent you from living your life, it’s supposed to make things better, not worse.

So here goes, the next 4 weeks or 20 workouts:

34543 C&P plus 5 TGU plus 123 C&P+Snatch
Chest, Shoulders & Tris, Ab Ripper X
Speed and Agility
Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
Plyometric Cardio Circuit
34543 C&P plus 5 TGU plus 123 C&P+Snatch
Chest, Shoulders & Tris, Ab Ripper X
Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs
Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
Vertical Plyo
55555 C&P
Chest, Shoulders & Tris, Ab Ripper X
Speed and Agility
Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
Pure Cardio
34543 C&P plus 5 TGU plus 123 C&P+Snatch
Core Synergistics
Cardio Recovery
Core Synergistics
Cardio Core and Balance

Round 7 – Conclusions

I found this round to be as entertaining as you can really make home fitness. There is a lot of variety, a great deal of flexibility and the ability to navigate away from certain workouts and exercises should you need to. However, since I scheduled on a day to day basis and was consistently unable to make Monday and Wednesday’s KB workouts I was a little frustrated. I have 2 options to combat this. I can set a total number of workouts for the round and just do each one on every available day, never skipping a workout. That way I can guarantee I will do every workout I have on the rotation. Second, I can schedule 5 workouts for a week and pick and choose which ones go where. This option is a little more flexible but also less likely to produce predictable results. The problem with choices is that everyone, myself included will go for the easy way out 9 times out of 10. At least having a set schedule but no set time I will guarantee that I know what I will be doing ahead of time.

I think for me that is key.

Also, I wanted to stop with the round numbers but I am not sure what else to do so for now, R8 it is!

Since I don’t need to take it slow for the first month, I can jump in with 34543 and 55555 on the RKC without a problem. The rest I think I am going to do on a daily basis rather than schedule them for week days.

So here is the plan for the first 28 workouts which I will try to execute within 35 days.
1-34543 C&P plus 5 TGU plus 123 C&P+Snatch
2-Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
3-55555 C&P
4-Plyometric Cardio Circuit
5-Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
6-Pure Cardio
7 FOY Yoga With Tony
8-34543 C&P plus 5 TGU plus 123 C&P+Snatch
9-Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
10-55555 C&P
11-Vertical Plyo
12-Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
13-Pure Cardio
14-FOY Yoga With Tony
15-34543 C&P plus 5 TGU plus 123 C&P+Snatch
16-Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
17-55555 C&P
18-Plyometric Cardio Circuit
19-Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
20-Pure Cardio
21-FOY Yoga With Tony
22-34543 C&P plus 5 TGU plus 123 C&P+Snatch
23-Core Synergistics
24-55555 C&P
25-Cardio Recovery
26-Core Synergistics
27-Core, Cardio and Balance
28-Yoga X

R7D74/7 – Summer’s Over, Time To Get Schooled

This weekend I managed to do a 100 pullup / 100 35lb curl session in place of back and biceps and a run through of Insanity Max Interval Circuit. I worked out in the cool late summer rain and was invigorated by the winds of change…

This time of year is a great time to start fresh, we are so well trained by the time we leave school that the cooling of the air, the fall breezes of September and the fresh cold mornings all bring thoughts of rebirth. As youngsters we get to go back to school with all our friends, trade summer vacations stories and catch up with all the summertime gossip. As we get older, September means new academic challenges, an end of monotonous summer jobs and the start of new athletic seasons. For me, fall and the start of school will always bring back memories of Western and the start of the rugby season, the chance to help influence a whole new batch of young students coming into residence and a chance to escape the chains of work and once again dive back into the pool of academia. Of course, that is just a euphemism for what used to be drinking my face off and partying with the new kids until someone passed out and got attacked with permanent marker. After 2 years of that, I quit drinking and started to take my health and my life a little more seriously. I got involved with aerobics, step class and rollerblading, had friends who were into fitness and health and started taking note of my issues with food. Each year that passed, I was more aware of the changes I could make with sheer volume of activity and I fell in love with September cardio classes. For someone whose background was strength this was pretty weird, I was doing step classes, playing basketball and was in the best shape of my life. However I was unaware of the weakness I was building into my physique. I continued to play rugby for Western and was faster, fitter and a better player than I had ever been but as my cardio increased, my weight decreased and by the following summer I paid the price. I was flattened by a Samoan with an attitude and separated my shoulder. That was a painful but predictable end to my career as a rugby player. But it sent a damaging message to me that I carried for years: Size beats speed.

Since it is difficult and time consuming for us to create new habits, especially as we get older, it’s of great benefit to take advantage of the habits we already have and although you may not know it, the end of summer brings thoughts of renewal to almost everyone. So it’s a perfect time to kick start your journey, whatever it may be, with some back to school spice! I am lucky right now that I am at the end of Round 7 and it looks like I am going to repeat this round since I seem to have missed out on almost every Insanity:Asylum workout and been a little lazy on the yoga side of things. With a little tweaking I think I can make it work, with RKC not just being a filler in case I get a few minutes before coaching.

So school is in. If you have kids, you will spend lots of time encouraging them to look forward to school, to make new friends and try new things. If you are going back to school yourself you may find that the challenges and changes you face are almost overwhelming, but guess what, that’s what life is like, and you should prove yourself by shaking up your fitness and health regimen also.

So what are you going to do about you? I propose you try something new. Buy a kettlebell, try a crossfit class, make some goals for once! Put yourself back into health school and change your diet, make a resolution for now until Christmas that you won’t fall prey to the muffin, the french fries or the chicken wings. We are about to embark on a wonderful time of year when everything in our lives seems new and exciting. Why let your old routines and habits weigh you down. If you have always wanted to move up in the activity class then get to it. Treat this September like you are going back to school, teach yourself some new tricks, see how much you can change your habits and activities and do something different for once!

But do something, because something beats nothing every time!!

Clarity Of Planning – My Future With Russian Kettlebell Challenge

Old Plan:

Day 1 – Monday – P90X Plyo or Insanity Cardio Plyo
Day 2 – Tuesday – RKC 50 Swings
Day 3 – Wednesday – RKC TGU plus Clean, C&P, Snatch practice
Day 4 – Thursday – P90X Kenpo or Insanity Pure Cardio
Day5 – Friday – RKC 50
Day 6 – Saturday – Same as Wednesday
Day 7 – Sunday – Fountain Of Youth Yoga or Yoga X

New Plan for rest week:

Day 1 – Monday – P90X Plyo or Insanity Cardio Plyo – DONE
Day 2 – Tuesday – RKC 50 Swings – DONE
Day 3 – Wednesday – RKC TGU plus Clean, C&P, Snatch practice
Day 4 – Thursday – P90X Kenpo or Insanity Pure Cardio
Day5 – Friday – RKC Man Maker ROP Practice (Presses and Pullups)
Day 6 – Saturday – Same as Wednesday
Day 7 – Sunday – Fountain Of Youth Yoga or Yoga X

After rest week start the Rite Of Passage:

Monday — Light presses, pull ups
Tuesday — Variety Day – WOD
Wednesday — Medium presses, pull ups
Thursday — Variety Day – Bench Day
Friday — Off
Saturday — Heavy presses, pull ups
Sunday — Off

R5D22 – TGU And Revisiting My Plan

So I had originally outlined Round 5 as the following 8 day rotation:

Day 1 – RKC Minimum Swings (The RKC Minimum is 4 weeks, then transition into Rite Of Passage)
Day 2 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 3 – Bench and dips (Chest, shoulder, tri)
Day 4 – Cardio or stretch or Yoga

Day 5 – RKC Minimum Swings
Day 6 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 7 – Deadlifts and Squat (Legs and Back)
Day 8 – Cardio or stretch or Yoga

Somewhere along the line I declined to do the cardio and set about making 2 x 3 day rotations looking like this:

Day 1 – RKC Minimum Swings (The RKC Minimum is 4 weeks, then transition into Rite Of Passage)
Day 2 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 3 – Bench and dips (Chest, shoulder, tri)

Day 4 – RKC Minimum Swings
Day 5 – RKC TGU and WOD
Day 6 – Deadlifts and Squat (Legs and Back)

I am, however, not convinced that skipping cardio all together is the greatest idea. You see, I am sore much of the time which is not really a problem per se, however, I find that I am skipping days when I am not up to the grind where I could definitely do a cardio workout instead. So since I have been at this Round 5 lark for coming up to a month now I think maybe I will inject a little cardio back into my weeks and see how I feel.