a_welch503 WORKOUT JOURNAL

[.V.]

Cause I like 'em.

My mil press is done in the front from the chest to the full upright position. My DB shoulder press is done from plates touching the top of the shoulders, slightly behind center, palms in to fully extended straight over the head, palms forward - dumbells touching. Totally different feel, hits the delts in a different way.

Must be working because of all my body parts that look like crap - my delts actually look the best.

[gcs118]

I used to do MP and such from my chest but I heard you pretty much take off all the stress of the delts when you go below your nose and chin area. Once you go lower than that it becomes bad for some joints or something...I dunno Firehawk I think you mentioned this to me, you have anything to add? I've noticed lots of strength and mass gains since I changed my way.

[.V.]

Yeah, I've heard that too. I try to remember not to take it lower than my chin...I just keep forgetting.

[.V.]

11-17-2005

Chest
Flat Bench........150x3x6
Incline Bench.....130x3x6
Decline Bench.....140x3x6

Abs
Cable Crunch.....105x3x10
Crunch...........105x3x10

Cardio
Splitting wood.....1 hour
Cardioglide....15 minutes

Diet
Nine feedings
P-205g, C-73.5g, F-32g, Cal-1402
Water 1.5 gallons

Comments
So far the plan is working better than expected. Going to be increasing weight ahead of schedule on all chest and all ab exercises next time. Instead of pushing for increases before I'm ready then getting to a sticking poing, I'm making sure I'm ready. I'm supposed to repeat today's reps, but they were totally easy getting 3x6 on chest and I couldn't get past 5 on the last set last time. Perhaps my body responds better to every 4 days/body part instead of every 8. Seems like I had good results doing body part q 4 days before in the max ot set/rep range. Also increasing weight on ab work next time too.

Planning my diet for the bulk now. I'm still keeping my carbs somewhat controlled, but sneaking them up a little to get my GI system ready for them.

So far it looks like this:
M1.....40g whey, bowl of total (or oatmeal), skim milk
GABA
M2.....40g whey preworkout (possibly a dextrose spike and creatine here)
M3.....40g whey between workouts (depending on energy levels)
M4.....40g whey postworkout + dextrose/creatine + glutamine
M5.....Chicken, green veggie, either brown rice ,potato, or whole wheat pasta (30 minutes postworkout)
M6.....Chicken or Fish with green vegetable (possible whole wheat bread here depends on results)
M7.....40g whey preworkout (cardio)
M8.....40g whey postworkout + creatine/dextrose + glutamine (cardio)
M9.....Chicken or Fish with green veggie, and one of the starches. (30 min post workout
GABA 30 minutes before bed
M10...Will most likely be another protein shake before bed.

I haven't totalled up yet - I think this should put me in the 2600-3000 calorie a day range. Last bulk, I went with 60g protien shakes and stored a bit more fat than I wanted. I've got all winter to do this so there isn't any rush.

[gcs118]

Why on earth are you planning to have 7 protein shakes a day?! That's ridiculous. Whey is only beneficial right before/after the workout, you could find better proteins besides whey for throughout the day, hopefully from real food.

On another note, EXCELLENT JOB on your chest exercises : It's about time that stuff is easy for ya, I'm looking forward to see how you do next week

[.V.]

Convenience. I'm just tired of cooking and since my carbs are going to go up quite a bit, I'm cutting the fat back - protein shakes are an easy whey to get lowfat protein. Notice I'm going to eat cereal too. 5 of them are totally centered around workouts. The between workout one may come or go - depends on energy levels. I'm not sure on the 40 grams either. I may stick with 20 on those - agian depends on the results. This is just a rough draft I'm reviewing - you know how I overplan everything.

Looks like you think more whole food at breakfast and bedtime would be better? I'm probably going to end up back on chicken breast and eggwhites for breakfast though - I'm just giving the whey a shot and see how it does me. 10 meals a day - that's a lot of eating.

[gcs118]

10 meals is a lot...normally. But you just had 9 meals and 1400 calories only! THAT isn't much eating. I would think your diet would be much more enjoyable and generally healthier if you had more real foods like eggs, cheeses, meats, fish, nuts, and so on instead of so many shakes. A lot of the things I just mentioned don't take long to prepare. I was also hinting towards the fact that maybe throughout the day if you wanted to keep the shakes, take an egg protein or casein shake instead of whey. They are each better than the others at different times. Make sense?

[.V.]

Yep it does. Four or five of the shakes have got to stay - becuase of the timing of them. The breakfast and bedtime ones can be traded easily for whole food. I didn't make note of it because this is my working plan for my basic diet, but I'm even going to have a cheat day every 2nd thursday night I'll be having low fat icecream - after a mexican resturaunt cheat meal. Right now I get to have mexican - I get the grilled chicken taco salad without the beans or shell but with sour cream and all the hot sauce i want. Now I can have it with the beans, and the baked tortillas, no sour cream. But for cheat meal, I'll have a burrito, a tamale, and an enchalada (small ones from the child menu). Hey guys, I'm trying here.

[gcs118]

lol when you're bulking you gotta eat more than the children's portions. Are you still worried about gaining the fat back that you lost a long time ago?

[.V.]

Yeah, got to be careful not to slip into bad old habits. I'm going to have good sized servings of my bulking foods. Just the cheats will be child sized. Except for one time I'll likely go have a monster burger - late at night - before leg day.

[KaiserSose]

I'm impressed with your determination to stick to such a tasteless diet. I'm personally eating whatever I can right now to try and bulk up, which is a change for me, albeit a positive one. I couldn't imagine doing the opposite and having to substitute meals with shakes such as you've done. But, that being said, it has clearly paid off for you. Great work man, your story has definetly been one of the more inspiring ones for me.

[.V.]

Thanks K, glad it could be encouraging to someone. It IS a pretty boring diet. The shakes are OK, except when I have vanilla. I'm pretty sure it tastes like pig vomit. I'm still eating 3-4 whole food meals each day and when I start bulking I will be adding more. Since I generally don't like high protein, low fat, healthy foods - I might as well take the ones I'll get the most benefit from and season them up the best way I can. Basically, I'll do whatever it takes to not get fat again and have enough muscle and strength to stay out of that chair for as long as possible - except for anabolics. And if it ever gets to the point that they are medically necessary (and I actually agree with the doc when she says they are - so far I haven't), I'll do that too.

[tim_mcf]

Oh, yeah, the vanilla is nasty - although I think it tastes more like a rat's ass, personally.

[gcs118]

Vanilla tastes great in milk....like a milkshake. Other than that it's pretty disgusting.

[.V.]

11-19-2005

Legs
Squat................210x3x5
Calf Raise..........270x3x10
SLDL.................210x3x5

Arms
BB Curls.............100x3x6
Skull Crushers.....warmed up

Cardio.....got cheated out of it.

Diet
Didn't get to eat much today - too busy. It really sucked. Then tonight, I over ate, 4 eggs, hamburger steak, and a salad.

Comments
Busy shift, then ended up getting called in over and over. Finally made it home to the gym after 3pm. Then had to go back in and go to a fire. After the fire had to work a really bad wreck. Now I'm home - only got to eat twice today. Darn it, the arm workout was going great - the 100lb BB curls were so easy. I'll add the rest of my arm work to tomorrow's workouts - I'm off call at 08:00 and they can't get to me after that.