Maverick+

[maverick]

No bells, no whistles, just hard work in hard exercises. I want to run faster and longer, lift more and functionally, have more muscular and cardiovascular endurance, gain muscle, maintain fat levels, NOT diet like an obsessed person, and I want to do them all at once successfully. Once I achieve that, I want to achieve again, and so on, and so on. No one ever got anywhere without setting their sights high.

I figured my first journal on here about 2 years ago started at the beginning of the year, so why not start another. As a reference, I'm currently sitting at a lean 185 and am very pleased with my appearance. So that won't be my focus. Let's just say that this will not look much like my workouts in the past. More weight is the name of the game, isolation has been almost entirely eliminated, and there will be many exercises outside the scope of normal gym work. As for diet, it will be good, but loose. I'm finally going to embrace my ecto-ism and eat what I want more often. No more being stingy with carbs or fearing what a cheat meal will do to me. I'm probably on a 80/20 split of good/bad food, which seems to be more than adequate to keep my appearance sharp. Should be fun.

Here's a sample of what's been going on the last month or 2:

1/2/07 - Lower Body/Core/Grip

Deadlift
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135x3, 225x2, 315x1, 385x1,
445x1 (Most ever at my current weight, hit 450 a long time ago in the 190s)

Front Squat (Clean Grip)
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135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 195x5, 210x5

Hammer Curl (Towel wrapped around handle, can't close grip)
------------
25x5, 30x5, 35x5, 40x4

Sandbag Shoulder & Walk (In the gym's stoney parking lot, ~40 yards)
--------------------------
100 for 5 laps each shoulder
125 for 2 laps each shoulder
150 for 1 lap each shoulder
Notes: Shouldering the 150 sucked! The god damn thing moves everywhere! I had to do it kinda like a strongman hoisting atlas stones. I deadlifted it, squated down low and rested the bag across my thighs. From here I used hip drive and legs to drive it to about chest height and then used my arms and back to take it the rest of the way. Walking was like vertigo. Every step I took, it seemed like the target got 2 steps further away.

All in all, no failures so a fantastic workout. Especially cause that 445 deadlift beat me a week and a half ago. Tomorrow will be 3 miles of intervals on the treadmill. Hopefully working to a time in the high 23's, with an eventual goal of a sub 20:00 time by the summer. If pierini is listening, I;ve taken a lot of your advice and stuck with it for once. Got new shoes tailored for me about 2 months ago and have been slowly and carefully chipping away at my time over intervals since. I've gone from 30:00 to 23:56 on my 3 mile time. Hopefully the success continues.

[tim_mcf]

Fantastic! I'm very pleased to see you back to journaling.

A 150 lb sandbag is BIG. Nice work.

[.V.]

Looking forward to watching how it goes. I suspect it will be impressive, as usual.

Pierini is listening, welcome back Mav. Many here looked forward to your return. Your posts pack alot of energy and are very instructional. Newbies here stand to gain alot from them, and oldies too, like me.

I'm grabbing a chair in the front row to catch the action. Happy New Year!

[MostMuscle]

Great set of goals and great first workout.....go for it man...we will be watching.

[Bearbait]

Great job on the deadlift. The sandbags sound killer.

[gcs118]

I think the first workout of the journal and the new year can definitely be called a success. Glad to see you keeping a journal here again.

[JDR3]

Great job, look forward to reading your journal!

[CF-OC_gal]

Wow ! It will be great to have you journalling again. Have fun eating! Are you going to start a Fitday journal so we can see how you eat big?

[maverick]

Thanks everyone, sounds like I have a lot to live up to!

Originally Posted by Brat

Wow ! It will be great to have you journalling again. Have fun eating! Are you going to start a Fitday journal so we can see how you eat big?

No Fitday for me, but thats kinda the point. I tracked EVERYTHING I ate a long time ago for about half a year. I did great fitness-wise, but was not nearly as happy as I am now. It got to be a job, and it interferred with my normal life ("can't drink tonight", "can't go there to eat"). If I had to ballpark my diet now, it would be like this on an average weight training day (I drop the shake and eat an extra solid meal on cardio days):

8:30 - 2 scoops of whey, banana, glass of skim milk
11:15 - 1 1/2 turkey burgers, 1 cup of oatmeal
(PWO) 2 scoops of whey, ~300 cals of dex/malto
3:30 - Piece of lean steak (6-8 oz.), 1 cup of oatmeal
7:00 - Either chicken breast, potato, veggies, OR go out to eat
10:00 - 1 scoop of casein protein, bowl of Fiber One cereal w/ skim milk

[gcs118]

I'd say you keep a pretty strict diet. I wish I could, I also don't think I could afford it lol. By the way, I like the title with the "plus" haha

[maverick]

Originally Posted by gcs118

I'd say you keep a pretty strict diet. I wish I could, I also don't think I could afford it lol. By the way, I like the title with the "plus" haha

Its definitely a good diet by most people's standards, just a little looser than I used to play it. That "go out to eat" usually entails an obscenely large steak, some sort of less-than-healthy version of potatoes, some veggies, and sometimes even some tasty appetizers. Lucky for me, I'm not much into dessert at least.

Yeah, the "plus" is just a little reminder that you're never at your peak. There's always room for improvement, be it physical or mental.

[CF-OC_gal]

Once again wow on the current nutrition plan! it seems that most of the visibly lean people here on DF take in a substantial amount of whey calories considering the total caloric intake over the course of a day. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just would expect a larger volume of food to be taken in. What would you estimate your daily calorie range to be? 2200-2700 cals?

[maverick]

Dinner is bigger than you think, its usually pretty substantial. I would imagine not less than 700 calories on any given night. I would guess my average calorie intake for the day is around 3000-3100. With cheats, I'll bet my average comes out to more like 3200-3500 a day. Given my metabolism and activity level, this is enough to actually make me get leaner, so I tend to eat BIG when I go out to restaraunts. Not the ideal bodybuilder-esque way to do it, but I'd rather live life and eat what I like rather than worry about perfect macronutrient timing anymore.

Just in case anyone cares, cardio days are more like this:

8:30 - 2 scoops of whey, banana, glass of skim milk
11:15 - salmon and nuts
CARDIO
2:15 - Piece of lean steak (6-8 oz.), 1 cup of oatmeal
4:15 - turkey sandwich on whole grain bread
7:00 - Either chicken breast, potato, veggies, OR go out to eat
10:00 - 1 scoop of casein protein, bowl of Fiber One cereal w/ skim milk

The whey/casein choices are purely out of convenience for breakfast and nighttime. For breakfast, its quick and easy so I can get out the door in the morning. At night, I hate cottage cheese and don't feel like cooking something so a scoop of casein turns out to be a good, cheap alternative. The way I see it, I'm taking in OTHER whole foods with most of my powder protein sources, so its no big deal. But I encourage anyone new out there reading this to try and get in as much whole food as possible.

Oh and I'm fairly certain I will never "bulk" again. To be blunt, too much stomach cramps, farting, and misery.

[CF-OC_gal]

I agree on the eating restriction thing although 200-300 calories cheats are pretty insignificant! That's like an extra coffee and cream or a couple of pats of butter per day. You couldn't even eat a slice of pizza I bet that fits into that kind of splurge!

Obviously by your results you know what you are doing. I always felt that working hard in the gym gives you the most dietary freedoms of you are not predisposed or conditioned to higher bodyfat levels.

Welcome to the big eating club!