a_welch503 WORKOUT JOURNAL

Andy,

Don't be too hard on yourself. A 4 mile walk is a decent effort. If you engage your entire upper body in the walking motion and ramp up the speed, a 4-miler is a bona-fide cardio workout.

5 years ago when I tore my ACL, I could not run in the annual July 4th 5-miler that I normally enter, so I walked it - as fast as I could. I caught up with some woman who was racewalking the course, and her and I duked it out for the remainder of the race. I won by a sliver, with a time of 55 minutes and some seconds - an 11 minute mile pace. I was more exhausted at the end than what I was the year before when I ran it. And, different muscles were very sore.

Racewalking is great cardio.

[gcs118]

pierini...you should always let the ladies win. tsk tsk *shakes finger*

[threenorns]

did you at least let her keep her walker? <giggling>

[.V.]

Yeah, I always try to set a fast walking pace. I start out with about 10 minute miles (6mph), by the end it is considerably less (about 4mph). I can actually walk faster than I can run because I can't run far then the walking is so slow after trying to run.

[.V.]

07-28-2005

Chest
Flat Bench Singles........180x5
Flat Bench..........155x6,4,6,5
Incline Bench.........150x6,5,5
Decline Bench.........150x6,5,5

Abs
Crunch.................105x4x10
Cable Crunch........115x8,8,8,7

Grip
Farmers Walk.....70 each hand x 100 yards

Diet remained on track today. Planning a big time cheat tomorrow though. I almost never allow myself a cheat meal, let alone a cheat day. Because I'm going to start cutting Aug 1 I want to get it out of my system. I plan to have a hotdog (kosher/all beef) tomorrow for lunch. And then for dinner I'm going to the mexican resturaunt and ordering Pancho's Special - burrito, tamale, enchalada, rice, beans, salad. I'm even going to have the chips and salsa with extra hot sauce (the kind they eat there). After that, two more days of moving carbs around for effective cutting and getting acclimated for some real cardio. No time for cardio yet today, it looks like I'll be doing something about 10 or 11 tonight. Probably a swim or some time on the cardioglide.

I'm pleased with today's workout today. Improvements (tiny ones) on each lift. Had to do an extra punishment set because I gripped wrong and came up short on the flat bench press. I added 5 lb to BP singles for the 2nd week in a row. It's not happening next week though, I could only get 5 of them. It WILL happen though.

[gcs118]

As always, very nice singles at 180. Hopefully you'll have 185 under control soon, for reps. How come you wanna cut for the winter anyway? And that "cheat day" doesn't sound like a cheat day at all lol. Be more adventurous

[.V.]

Just getting rid of some extra fat. Will likely take my vacation in late august and don't want to be too fat for it. It was cancelled last year by a hurricaine at the resort we had planned to go to. Maybe this year it will get to happen.

[.V.]

07-30-2005

Another day of pounding an unwilling body into submission.

Legs
Squat Singles......240x4
Squat............215x3x4
SLDL.............250x3x4
Calf Raise.......352x3x6

Cardio
Swim............1/2 mile
Cardioglide.......15 min

Diet
M1.....4 egg whites, 3 oz sausage
M2.....PWO shakes, 64g protein, 68.5g carbs, 5g fat
M3.....Tuna, lettuce, tomato, mayo
M4.....Tuna, lettuce, tomato, mayo
M5.....PWO shakes
M6.....Tuna, lettuce, tomato, mayo
M7.....Will be a bedtime protein shake (same as PWO shakes without the 40g dextrose)

Totals: P-322.5g, C-171g, F-96.5g, Cal-2842.5
Water - 1 gallon


Comments
My cheat yesterday was tasty. I skipped the hot dog, it was raining and the guy didn't have his cart out. I really didn't want to go anywhere else and get one made from pig snout. The mexican was great - but not to be repeated for a long time. Way too many carbs at one sitting, along with all the fat - bad abdominal pain for the rest of the day and night. The rest of my meals were pretty healthy.

Lifting was pretty good today. I woke up last night with my legs twitching and they felt shaky and weak this morning. After my morning feeding, I got out there in the gym and lifted anyway - I actually made improvements on every lift. I'm very happy with that.

I'm posting my diet again for a while to make sure I keep it on track for my cut, my abs are barely visible now and the striations in my deltoids are almost gone. The veins across the chest - hard to see. Time to start removing a bit of fat from the body. It doesn't look like it will actually take that much because although I'm not actually trying to cut until Aug 1, moving my carbs around, adding the extra fat to the diet, and getting some cardio seems to be burning the fat somewhat already. The bulk is almost over - I guess considering that I lost all my strength in May and some more in June and spent most of my time just trying to catch back up it's a miracle that I gained any muscle at all. I have managed to improve slightly though. Got to go buy a couple of more plates in the morning. I am completely out of weight. I'll buy 2 25's. I'd like to get 4, but can't afford it right now.

New Stats for July:
Weight.....190
BF%...........9
LBM.........175

That means I'm carrying 15 lb of fat. If I can manage to burn 5 or 6 of it without losing any muscle, I'll be in good shape. I'm going to just drop the carbs a bit more. My PWO dextrose is just 40g for now. I'll cut the milk out of the shakes which will reduce the protein by 48g and the carbs by 72g. That should be enough, I probably won't have to resort to the hardcore ketogenic cut that I had to use when I was so fat. I guess this will be a TKD type of cut.

[maverick]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

New Stats for July:
Weight.....190
BF%...........9
LBM.........175

That means I'm carrying 15 lb of fat. If I can manage to burn 5 or 6 of it without losing any muscle, I'll be in good shape.

I think you're already in good shape, shaving another 5 or 6 pounds of fat would officially be GREAT shape! :

[.V.]

07-31-2005

Arms
BB Curls.................125x3x4
Skull Crushers.........110x6,5,5
Alternating DB Curls......50x3x6
Tricep Cable Press.......110x3x4
Concentration Curl........50x3x4
Lying One Arm Tri Ext.....30x3x4

Cardio - skipped it - took family to see charlie and the chocolate factory instead.

Diet
M1.....4 egg whites, 1 yolk, 3 oz sausage.
M2.....PWO Shakes 60g pro, 24g dextrose, 24g carbs from milk, creatine
M3.....Tuna, lettuce, tomato, mayo
M4.....Steak, zucchini, cauliflower, carrots, lima beans
M5.....Another little cheat 10pc chicken McNuggets

Totals: P-185.5g, C-74g, F-101.5g, Cal-2053
Water - >1 gallon

Comments
Missed two feedings this time. Just got too busy. Since one of the planned meals is a post cardio PWO meal and I skipped cardio it's OK I guess. A bit more fat than planned, the steak wasn't the lean steak I usually have but it sure was a good one.

I am happy with my work in the gym though. Improved some on everything - either in weight or reps. OK, just one rep on skull crushers, so I'll be spending an extra week on this weight. I tried them a bit differently - I usually bring the bar to touch the top of my head (not the forehead), this time I brought it past my head all the way down below the bench and up. Good stretch, but took every ounce of everything I had to do them - even my toes were digging at the floor to get the reps up. If I'm using that much of my body, I'm not using enough tricep. Concentration curls were a real struggle with the new weight, but felt pretty good - nice clean reps. One arm lying tricep extensions were a bit too easy. Next weeks extra reps on them should remedy that though.

EDIT: Took a new fat pic today. Somewhat encouraging and dissapointing at the same time. The tape measure says I'm 9% - but when I look at the pic, I see 15-20%. The abs on the left side are still visible, but that leftover skin from when I was 300lb looks kind of like fat rolls. The scars and the leftover skin pretty much ruin the look of the abdomen - I'll never be able to develop it properly. But I can get it strong though. Chest has grown slightly, shoulders are a bit better than before. Arms are just pitiful. My legs still make me look like I'm riding on a chicken instead of walking. Lats are starting to peek out a little bit, but I'm about 20 years away from being able to fly. My wife took the pic and she cut off the only part I like - there are no traps in the pic. I think she was having islamic fantasies about my head and when she cut it off, she just took off the traps too.

[Xhale]

Hey Welch, glad to see that you're improving.

Try some interval running to get rid of that last fat.

[.V.]

08-01-2005

Shoulders
Rear Shrugs...............275x3x4
Front Shrugs..............275x2x4 (total grip failure)
Mil Press.................110x3x5
Upright Row...............125x3x4
DB Mil Press.....50x1x3, 45x7,6,5

Cardio
Ran the weedeater for 4 hours - the big husqvarna. No energy left for anything else.

Diet
M1.....Breakfast shake (P-40g , F-5g, C-10g)
M2.....PWO shake, (P-40g, F-5g, C42g)
M3.....Chicken, lettuce, tomato, mayo
M4.....Steak, salad (lettuce,tomato)
M5.....Tuna, lettuce, tomato, mayo, creatine/dextrose shake
M6.....probably will be a bedtime shake (same as breakfast)

Totals: P-202g, C-109g, F-75g, Cal-1919
Water - >1 gallon

Comments
Cut day one going well. Sustained energy all day. Strength good, made improvements on all lifts today. Messed up on shrugs - I was supposed to put 265 on the bar and accidentally put 275 on. Didn't realize it until my grip failed completely when I tried to do that last set. My shoulders could pull the weight, but my hands just couldn't hold it. Apparently more grip work is needed. Got those 50's up on the DB mil press, but could only get 3 reps, so dropped back to 45 and kept working on it.

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Xhale

Hey Welch, glad to see that you're improving.

Try some interval running to get rid of that last fat.

Thanks, I'm slowly getting there. There is a lot of work to be done still. I've not done very well with the running before. I'm trying to do more cardio to get built up for it - then I'll give it another go.

[gcs118]

Andy your numbers are improving all around I've noticed. Your strength is coming back strong for arms and even surpassed previous strength on shoulders if I'm not mistaken. Way to go! :

[.V.]

08-02-2005

At work - day off from lifting.

Diet
M1.....4 egg whites, 2oz sausage
M2.....Protein shake
M3.....Chicken with salad (lettuce, tomato, mayo)
M4.....Chicken with salad (lettuce, tomato, cheese, jabenero, jalapeno, cilantro, chili peppers ground up into hot sauce) Chicken taco salad minus the shell, chips, beans, guacamole, sour cream.

Water - almost 1 gallon

Everyone thougt it would be entertaining to try to tempt me. Everyone eating hot dogs, burritos, doughnuts, all trying to get me to try some. Even the mexicans at the resturaunt were trying to get me to eat the chips and salsa or at least have a shell with my not taco salad. Them with their bad english and me with my worse spanish - it's very hard to explain my dietary needs to them.