Sunday 5/18
Bikram Yoga (90 Minutes)
Monday 5/19: Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes)
thus concluding a four-day weekend at home.
Tuesday 5/20 (AM): Bike To Work (15 Minutes)
Planning on longer ride this afternoon, then lifting tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 5/20 (PM): 15-Mile Bike Ride (1:02)
Wednesday 5/21:
DB Lat Raises 2x10
DB Fromt Raises 2x10
Rear Delt Raises 2x10
Press
5x95
5x95
3x135
3x145
3x155
3x165
3x155
5x135
Pull-ups
5xBW
3xBW+5
3xBW+10
3xBW+15
5xBW
Incline Bench
5x135
5x155
3x185
3x205
3x225
DB Press
5x50s
5x55s
5x50s
12x35s
Thursday 5/22 (AM): Bike To Work (15 Minutes)
Thursday 5/22 (PM): 33-Mile Bike Ride (2:08)
Friday 5/23:
DB Lateral Raises: 2x10
DB Front Raises: 2x10
Rear Delt Raises: 2x10
Press
5x95
5x95
5x115
5x115
3x135
3x145
3x155
Pull-ups
5xBW
3xBW+5
3xBW+10
3xBW+15
3xBW+20
5xBW
EZ Bar Curl
5x5x95
DB Curls
5x8x25s
DB Shoulder Press
12x40s
8x45s
5x55s
Saturday 5/24:
Bike To Yoga & Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes) & Bike Home
Sunday 5/25:
Bike To Yoga & Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes) & Bike Home
Monday 5/26:
Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes)
Tuesday 5/27:
Press
5x95
5x95
5x115
5x115
3x135
3x145
3x155
3x165
3x135
Pull-ups
5xBW
3xBW 5
3xBW 10
3xBW 15
3xBW 20
5xBW
EZ Bar Curl
5x5x95
DB Press
5x45
5x50
5x55
5x60
12x45
Wednesday 5/28 (AM)
Bike To Work (15 Minutes)
NEW COOL IDEA ALERT
I continue to live up to my name of ActivitiesGuy by doing, well, a host of different activities. If you follow my log, you know that I bike to work 1-3 times a week (basically any day that I’m not going to the gym or to a 6 AM yoga class). On my bike commute (about 4 miles and 15 minutes), I ride past my undergraduate alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, which has two freestanding pull-up bars next to the athletic fields. It has occurred to me that I could stop and knock out a few sets of pull-ups each time that I ride to work, sort of a low-volume, high-frequency approach in the vein of Waterbury’s programs to improve pull-up performance.
I’ve decided to start out by setting a stopwatch for 10 minutes and going for as many as I can get “comfortably” (basically, starting with sets of 5 or 6 reps, resting until I feel fully recovered, and going again until time runs out; by the end, I’m down to sets of 3 or 4 reps, but hopefully my work capacity will improve with some practice here).
For the next few weeks, I’ll do this each time I ride to work (as I’ve said, generally 1-3 days per week). It seems like a nice supplement to my 2 heavy lifting days per week and hopefully will result in improved pull-up capacity and maybe even a little aesthetic improvement 
Wednesday 5/28 (PM):
Bike to CMU, 10-Minute Pull-up Workout (37 Reps), Bike Home
Thursday 5/29 (AM):
Bike To CMU, 10-Minute Pull-up Workout (39 Reps), Bike To Office
You’re leaving me hanging here, dude!
[quote]kgildner wrote:
You’re leaving me hanging here, dude! :-)[/quote]
LOL. My first attempt to post that got cut off somehow. Now it’s there in full
That sounds awesome. I love strength training in everyday settings.
Germany has a huge deficiency of calisthenics parks and easily accessible chin-up-bar-like objects, otherwise I’d use your plan as inspiration and bust out some public pull-ups, too.
Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but what is your diet like? What exactly did you eat yesterday?
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[quote]theBird wrote:
Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but what is your diet like? What exactly did you eat yesterday?
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I’m a Paleo diet believer. I know that can be a bad word in these parts, but I think that “Paleo” has acquired a bad rap because of a few zealots (not unlike BBing/steroids, etc) and is a bit misunderstood. It doesn’t have to be a low-carb diet. It doesn’t require eating bacon at every meal.
Heck, it doesn’t even really require “giving up” nearly as much food as people think, and it allows you to eat a lot more than people realize. I laugh when someone asks “Aren’t you afraid of missing out on healthy whole grains?” and I say “Yeah, gee, my diet of bison, beef, lamb, pork, duck, eggs, bacon, grass-fed butter, carrots, celery, kale, spinach, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, squash, cauliflower, tomatoes, parsnips, and beets is really coming up short nutritionally. I’d better start eating my Wheaties.”
I like the Paleo diet’s general principles of eating mostly meat, fruit, and vegetables. I’m not 100 percent strict, but I try to base most of my meals around these constructs, allowing exceptions for an occasional glass of wine or a really good dessert (i.e. no boxed cake mixes, but if my lady and I are out to dinner and there’s a delicious-sounding flourless chocolate cake or something of that nature on the menu, we’re having one).
I figure that if I eat about 21 meals in a week, I’d like 18-19 of them to be “strict” Paleo, so I can have a dessert here or a slice of pizza there. I also do consume full-fat dairy, which some strict Paleo folks would avoid. The occasional glass of whole milk or full-fat Greek yogurt are fine with me, although I do notice a bit of bloating if I have too much. I also cook with Kerrygold butter quite frequently.
I order most of my meat online from Tendergrass Farms (beef, chicken, and pork) or Tropical Traditions (lamb and bison). I like their commitment to good farming practices and grass-fed/pastured animals. Their products have always been excellent and I’ve never had an issue with prompt delivery or any products arriving damaged or thawed. I buy in bulk (place one really big order every month or two) so I usually get free shipping.
Apologies to Biotest for discussing a non-Biotest product here, but I also regularly consume Epic bars, which are basically dried meat (jerky-like) formed into a bar with bits of dried fruit (example flavor: Bison Bacon Cranberry) for a little sweetness to them. They use grass-fed beef, bison, and lamb in their bars. Those are my favorite on-the-go protein bar, easy to take to the office since I often ride my bike & bringing a cooked/packed lunch is not always practical.
Yesterday:
6:00 AM - cup of coffee
7:00 AM - rode my bike to work (prefer to do so on an empty stomach)
8:00 AM - 2 Epic bars (Lamb Currant Mint) and 1 pound of baby carrots
12:00 PM - 8 ounces of frozen cherries with 1 cup of full-fat Greek yogurt
6:00 PM - bike to CMU, pull-up workout, bike ride home
7:00 PM - 1 pound of pork bratwurst over 2 cups of baby kale
9:00 PM - 2 eggs cooked in a hunk of Kerrygold butter
That’s a typical weekday’s intake. Since I bike to work, a solid cooked breakfast is not really practical; however, I do love my bacon and eggs, so on the weekend, I’ll usually go to yoga class early in the morning, come home, and have a breakfast of 2-3 eggs cooked in coconut oil, 4-6 strips of bacon, and a hefty pile of greens tossed in the bacon grease.
Some other staple meals/sides/thoughts:
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Root Vegetable Puree (this can be made with any root vegetable; I make it with carrots and/or parsnips most frequently) - boil about a pound of your favorite root vegetable(s) with a generous pat of butter for 10-15 minutes, then dump into the food processor & pulverize to desired smoothness. This is a wonderful side dish to go with any well-cooked meat entree
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I love, love, love duck and cook duck legs/breasts for dinner frequently.
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I also really love lamb and cook lamb dishes for dinner quite frequently.
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Greens are a staple. I always keep a tub of cooking greens (collards or kale) in my fridge and usually, after cooking whatever meat I’m eating for dinner, I toss a handful of greens into the skillet with any leftover meat juices/grease and let them wilt for just a minute or two while the meat rests. Wham, instant vegetable goodness on the side with my meat.
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Sweet potatoes are a regular thing when I’m training at a high enough volume to warrant more carbs. Right now, my training is pretty low volume so frankly I don’t feel like I “need” any extra carbs; thus, sweet potatoes are a once-or-twice-a-week thing. However, I do love a simple baked sweet potatoe with a generous slathering of coconut oil and cinnamon.
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I know that I’m not using any peri-workout nutrition. Again, for the time being, I don’t think I’m training at a level that merits it. However, I may start with a peri-workout drink for my 2 heavy lifting days. No real point in it during my yoga classes or my little bike-and-pullup sessions, IMO.
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Forgot to mention earlier, but I love coconut water and drink a big can of it after hot yoga classes or endurance workouts.
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In general, I’m very well hydrated. I drink a cup of coffee every morning, then lots-and-lots-and-lots of water (and occasionally coconut water, for a treat) during the day, and often a cup of tea with a little honey in the evenings.
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I don’t REALLY count, but I do at least “pay attention” to know what ballpark of total calories and macros I’m at for most days. I average somewhere around 3000 calories per day, with ROUGHLY 200 grams of protein per day (I eat at least a pound of meat every day at dinner, about a dozen eggs per week, and usually have an Epic bar or two while on the go), 150-175 grams of fat (mostly from butter, coconut oil, meat, and nuts, plus the occasional avocado) and 100-150 grams of carbs (from coconut water or any fruits, and the occasional sauce on meat), varying somewhat depending on the day.
Another example, here’s what I have eaten & will be eating today:
6:00 AM - cup of coffee
7:00 AM - bike to CMU, 10-minute pullup workout, bike to work
8:00 AM - 2 Epic bars, 1 pound watermelon chunks, 16 oz coconut water
11:30 AM - large handful of macadamia nuts and 16 oz coconut water
6:00 PM - bike to CMU, 10-minute pullup workout, bike home
7:00 PM - 1 pound seared duck breast with fig-balsamic reduction, roasted asparagus, and a carrot puree
Were you following paleo principles when you lost your weight after football?
Paleo has me intrigued, and I’ve seen a few people have some good success with it first-hand. It also is not a huge stretch from my current diet. I already choose sweet potatoes over regular potatoes more often than not. Rice (which I can live without) and beer (which I am learning to live without, as previously discussed) remain my two biggest paleo no-no’s. I’m not sure where dairy falls into paleo, which could be another significant change.
[quote]twojarslave wrote:
Were you following paleo principles when you lost your weight after football?
[/quote]
Actually, no, lol. I did some stupid shit that I would not advise. I was a second-semester college senior with basically unlimited time to work out and very, very strong motivation to lose weight, so I just did a ton of exercise (I’d go for a run in the morning, go to the gym and play basketball around noon, lift around 5 PM, and maybe get on an exercise bike after dinner; that’s not an exaggeration, I exercised for 2-3 hours every single day that semester) and generally “ate less” of everything - which is proof that IIFYM can work strictly for weight loss.
I don’t think my approach at the time was sustainable, nor is it advisable for long-term health, but it did help me do the crash-diet “lose 50 pounds in six months” thing and got me down to 205…and since then I’ve been able to stay around that weight (lowest ever about 190, highest since weight loss about 210-212).
With that said, I have noticed a couple of pleasant benefits since adopting a Paleo “framework” - less noticable bloating, better GI health, generally feeling good overall. I don’t think it’s a miracle and like anything, it must be applied sensibly and with perspective. But it works for me.
[quote]twojarslave wrote:
Paleo has me intrigued, and I’ve seen a few people have some good success with it first-hand. It also is not a huge stretch from my current diet. I already choose sweet potatoes over regular potatoes more often than not. Rice (which I can live without) and beer (which I am learning to live without, as previously discussed) remain my two biggest paleo no-no’s. I’m not sure where dairy falls into paleo, which could be another significant change.
[/quote]
If you’re basing most of your meals around meat, vegetables, and some fruit, you’re already close to the basic framework. Most people talk about Paleo in terms of what it “eliminates” (cereal, bread, pasta, etc) but I prefer to think about all the great stuff it includes. Like I said, tonight I’ll be cooking a large duck breast with a balsamic-vinegar reduction, some roasted asparagus, and a carrot puree. It’ll take me 20 minutes, tops, to cook. I could serve that in a gourmet restaurant and it would look right where it belongs. If that’s a “sacrifice” I will make that sacrifice 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.
Dairy does not fall into the most strict definitions of the Paleo diet; however, many of the more moderate voices in the Paleo community now encourage consumption of dairy provided that you’re having stuff that 1) has no added sugar (i.e. Yoplait low-fat yogurts with 20 grams of sugar added), 2) is full-fat, and 3) is grass-fed. Kerrygold butter is a staple of mine (often cook eggs, meat, vegetables in butter). Full-fat Greek yogurt and grass-fed whole milk fall into the “occasional” category. Coffee creamer, too, although I generally take my coffee black, occasionally I will have some cream.
Been reading yours for a while, now formally in!
(Enjoyed greatly your last few posts on your diet too).
Thanks for the info. You don’t eat much for lunch. I would starve.
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Catching up on the past few days…
@raven78, glad to have you in! I’ll check out your log if you’ve got one.
@theBird, that is true - I do eat pretty light for lunch. I will say, quite honestly, that since adopting Paleo it’s very easy for me to just “eat when hungry” - and that often falls around my planned workouts. I have a nice big breakfast after my morning workout (whether that’s a lifting session, yoga class, or riding my bike to work), eat light throughout the day, then eat a large dinner with about a pound of meat and a pound of vegetables. Works well enough for me
Friday 5/30 (AM);
Kettlebell Shoulder Press 6x6x45 (each hand)
EZ-Bar Curl 10x10x75
Lat Pulldowns 10x110, 10x120, 10x130, 10x140, 10x150
Improvised a workout at home in my apartment’s exercise room. GF wanted to run on the treadmill before having breakfast and heading out of town, so I decided to lift using the toys available to me at home. Not a bed session, really.
Friday 5/30 (PM):
Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes)
Friend asked if I wanted to go after work, and I decided the extra yoga class would do me some good. Glad I went. Felt really great afterwards. I do love my hot yoga
Saturday 5/31:
Biked to the yoga studio (~15 minutes)
Bikram Yoga Class (90 Minutes)
Biked to my office (~15 minutes)