a_welch503 WORKOUT JOURNAL

[doydoy]

So your daily intake of protein would be higher than 236g? How are you determining how much protein you want to take in each day? 1.5x rule? overall calories? planned exercise?

[.V.]

When I decided to start bulking, I used the calculator from AST, then started trying to get the amounts of nutrients they reccomended. It seemed to be a bit excessive, but so far strength is going in the right direction and I'm not getting fat yet. My wife said I'm looking bigger and fuller though. My actual protein goal is 370g a day. Calorie goal is around 3000. Some days I can get it, some I can't.

Keeping up with it is pretty easy with a very boring diet though. Cereal, milk, protien shake to start off. Pre/Post workout protein shakes. Post workout dextrose. 4-5 other whole food meals a day consisting of chicken or fish, brown rice, green veggies. Works out to 8 pieces of chicken or fish. 4 cups of rice and 4 cups of veggies each day.

The hard part is actually getting it all in.

[Klinger]

You've found a good system, monitoring your body and basing exertion on how it's responding. Doesn't matter how much or how little you lift, so long as you do it.

[.V.]

12-15-2005

Chest
Flat Bench............160x3x4
Incline Bench.........140x3x4
Decline Bench.........155x3x4

Abs
Decline Crunch.......115x3x10
Terrorist Crunch.....115x3x10

Nutrition
Cal-3015, Pro-392g, Carb-267g, Fat-41g.
Wow, that was a lot of eating. I don't think I can keep this up for long, but I'm going to try.

Comments
In spite of the worst periphrial nerualgia I've ever had in my life today was a really good workout.
The best, most brutal workout I've ever had. Everything was perfect today. I struggled with 150 for 8 workouts. Went through 155 in 3 workouts. Today I did 160 on the flat bench 3x4 easily. I shouldn't really say easily because every rep was total pain and torture. But they went up with absolute control...I owned the weight for this one on the first time out. I'll be going for more reps next time. Before things went bad, 165 for reps was my best using a PL setup on the bench. Now it's 160 with a pure BB setup - all chest. Today was the same for every other lift. After my workout, since this is my last day in the gym for a week, I checked my maxes too - they've improved slightly too - not as much as hoped for though, doesn't really matter since I'm not worrying so much about numbers or quantity anymore - just quality. I've finally got it right I think.

If they read this journal, I want to thank everyone who has given me support and encouragement for this "recovery cycle". I want to thank Dave for introducing me to Max OT - although he is a backslider now. Special thanks to Brat for pointing out the weakness of my chest so I could move it in the right direction. Even more special thanks to Todd for the pointers on how to adapt this stuff to my body and the nutrition help he has given me.

Now I'm going to rest up and eat like a healthy hog for a week.

[tim_mcf]

What's a "terrorist crunch"? It's always good to try new ab exercises and break up the crushing boredom of it...

[.V.]

It's just a cable crunch with enough weight to make me afraid done very slowly and painfully. Done for all the planned reps and when my forhead touches the bench, I hold it there for a slow count of 5 - then back up slow. In the down position, it looks like the kneeling muslims at prayer...and the sounds of pain that come involuntarily out of me sound similar to the calls to friday prayer that one hears through the loudspeakers in baghdad or ryadh or wherever. Each rep is 15 seconds of pure terror - because you just know something you need is going to fall out of your body at any second.

[rangers97]

I've gotta hand it to you for the vivid imagery you instill in your posts :

[.V.]

Day one off. I'm at work so it's not a problem. My chest and abs are pretty sore today. Keeping diet big and clean though.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow - I've already given my wife the key to my gym and she's only letting me in for her workout.

[.V.]

These days out of the gym really stink. I had a cheat breakfast this morning to eat with my family. Buttermilk biscuits, sausage, eggs with yolks, tomato slices. I did skip the gravy though. The rest of the day, back to the normal dietary dicipline.

I actually feel rested and ready to get at it again after 2 days off. But I'm sticking with the plan. Off the next 3 days then back at it. My legs are still doing the same thing - that's no fun. Hopefully in the next few days they'll improve because my first day back is going to be leg day.

[ajarvis]

Just keep telling yourself you deserve the time off! Plus you picked the perfect time of the year to take some time off.

Good cheat breakfast

[Firehawk]

I woudlnt' agree that this is the best time of the year to take off. It's not good to be cheating on all those meals during the holidays while not working out. In fact that's a deadly combination. It's better to be working out so you can at least off set some of the calorie consumption.

[.V.]

I won't be cheating for too many of them. Tomorrow morning, the break is over. Back to lifting AND cardio. Leg day in the am. They are still bad, I had hoped the time off would help them, but the left one has gotten worse. Hopefully it's just sensations and not actual weakness. The right one feels like it weighs 600 pounds but I'm able to get around pretty good. Just with the diminished sensation coupled with neurogenic pain, I have to pay attention to how I walk.

I'll find out how things really are when squatting tomorrow morning.

[Firehawk]

Yeha im' sure you need the time off, was just eluding to how this isn't the best time of the year to take time off simply because it's the holidays. If anything, it's the worst time. I know if i take time off and take in alot of cheat meals, especially sugar, i get fat real fast. I'm sure you know how that is too.

IT JUST ISNT FAIR! I gotta fight this all my life, and so do you. Damn fat.

[.V.]

Right you are Dave. One thing about it though, and you haven't realized it just yet...although I do believe it will happen for you like it did me. The eating right becomes second nature. The cheat meals eventually become a chore that has to be done. I feel pretty bad after one. It's kind of a fat/carb refeed...really makes the body appreciate healthy things next time I give them to it. Another advantage that will come is once the fat is gone and more muscle is there (you've already got the muscle part taken care of) there is more leeway in what you can get by with. The metabolism is fired up and able to handle the bad stuff better. But you are right, we do have to make a lifelong commitment to doing it right because if we don't, that metabolism will slow right down and there we go again, right back where we started at.

To me, there is not a good time or bad time of year to take off. Just lessons learned from past mistakes. I'd rather take my week now instead of having to take a month or two later on. Now if these damn legs will just agree with me tomorrow morning.

Even my wife is ready for me to get back in the gym. I've had to go with her for her training and not getting mine and she said I'm getting pretty hard to live with as I come to the end of the week. She's even agreed to back spot me when I squat tomorrow.

[.V.]

12-21-2005

Legs
Squat...........215x3x6
Calf Raise.....285x3x10
SLDL............215x3x6

Very happy with today's work. I was worried about it because of the last couple of weeks with my legs. They feel the worst they ever have right now. Thankfully the feeling of weakness is just that - a sensation only - no real weakness. I was very careful with my footing since I can't feel any external sensation - only the stinging from the CNS. And got my increase on each thing just like nothing was wrong. Next week, I'll be increasing the weight on squats and sldl. Increasing to 12 reps on the calf raise. One interesting thing happened, I couldn't get my right foot to cooperate with sliding into exactly the right position after the walk out with the 285 bar on my shoulders for calf raises so I picked it up and carefully placed it where I wanted it...I realized that I was standing there balanced on one leg with a loaded bar on my shoulders - 285, one leg, loaded bar - I'm happy.

Cardio - Legs too darn sore. Tomorrow starts my 2-3 days of each 4 cardio. No choice but to do it. Planning to do some running...sprint 100 yards, walk 100 yards repeat for 4 miles.

Nutrition
Cal-2210, P-284g (54%), C-193g (33%), F-31g (13%)
The calories are down. I've been adjusting my diet over the last week. I've cut my servings of brown rice from 1 cup each to 0.5 cup each. I was getting tired about an hour after eating it and was feeling hungry 30 minutes after that. I think my carbs were too high and causing too much insulin to be released when I don't want it to be. I'll see if this is enough to grow on...if not, I'll adjust accordingly. Today's calories are lighter than intended though because I missed one whey shake and the post cardio dextrose since I didn't do cardio tonight.

Here is my new daily food intake goal: Cal-2649, P-323g, C-254g, F-36g. This is a bit short of the 370g of protien needed to get 2g/lb of bodyweight but is only 1g short of 2/lb of lbm. I think basing it on LBM is better than including FBM in the plan.