Adam's Physique Clinic

Training Training Logs
141

After taking a step back and calming down, I have realized that I am better off than I thought.

I read “The Last 10 Pounds” and realized I was in this EXACT situation. I am 10-12% bodyfat, my abs definitely aren’t showing at all, and I have about 8-10 lbs to lose to get them to show.

If I cut down to 180, that’s 6.5 lbs fat lost (assuming the same 78-80% lbs lost is fat), and it brings my body fat down to ~7.5%. And I should be able to do it in about 3 weeks, or November 7th…

175 15% in June to 180 7.5% in November? Fuck the mirror, THAT’s fucking progress. And if I bulk up the same way I did in the summer, assuming the same weight gain and body fat % gain, I’m looking at 210 @ ~10% body fat by Feb 1st…my ultimate goal!

Things aren’t so bad after all…

Tonight’s workout is therefore based off of the “last 10 lbs” workout, which is only different from my other lactic acid workouts in that it includes 15min of EDT in the beginning. So here was my night

in 15 minutes, I got 12 sets of the following done:

deadlift TO rdl TO bent row TO high pull TO clean TO front squat TO push press TO back squat

8 sets were at 115, that seemed easy so I went up to 125 for the last 4 sets. I will probably do 135 for the next workout like this

then the next 15 min were bike sprints, 60sec on 120 sec rest, did that 5 times w/ my resistance at 7 slow, 13 high (I did whatever resistance I could pedal at 90 rpm for, the cycling ideal rpm).

finally, concluded w/ 15 min on the elliptical @ 75% MHR, then walked home.

NEPA is still around 30-40min a day, which is right on track. hopefully I’ll be at the good 184-186 lbs by next week on this more kick-ass lactic acid workout.

142

The gym is pissing me off.

I am taking a week off – which I don’t think I’ve done since I started.

Last night I went in, did a set of bench, felt incredibly unmotivated, and left.

I sleep all of the time and have no motivation to workout. I think I need a break for a week so I can miss her beautifulness.

I’m not counting meals or doing shit – this is my “don’t care” week.

See ya next Monday, hopefully re-motivated.

143

[quote]acelement wrote:
The gym is pissing me off.

I am taking a week off – which I don’t think I’ve done since I started.

Last night I went in, did a set of bench, felt incredibly unmotivated, and left.

I sleep all of the time and have no motivation to workout. I think I need a break for a week so I can miss her beautifulness.

I’m not counting meals or doing shit – this is my “don’t care” week.

See ya next Monday, hopefully re-motivated.[/quote]

When I get the feeling you’re talking about I take a max of 4 days off. I find I don’t have excessive DOMS with such a short break and the mind is refreshed. I’ve never bought into the week or more that other people feel they need. It’s not written in stone that 7 days is the optimum. When you’ve been regularly training, as you have, I’d say you’ll be chomping at the bit to get back after 5 days of no gym. If not you’ll still have learnt something about yourself and your mind/body.

144

I felt like going to the gym today haha, so that is indeed 4 days later…but something mentally about a week is that whole completing an entire round of the body – it would feel weird to do legs and an EDT workout and NOT do my upper body workout, ya know?

I appreciate checking in on me, its REALLY hard to maintain motivation and success when your girlfriend doesn’t want you to get “too big,” no lifting partner to drag your ass to the gym, and a bunch of idiots who have no idea what they’re doing in said gym.

I checked my body fat yesterday just for the hell of it, which I knew was super accurate because I triple-checked all of my tests and my body was totally cold so there was no chance of a false tightness from working out.

3 point = 10%
7 point = 11.3%

So I always go with the middle, which is about 10.5%. I’m close! Everyone is right – you certainly feel flat and small when dieting down, and I can’t wait to break the sub 10% barrier. As soon as my 7-point is sub-10%, I am bulking the fuck back up.

I read Berardi’s G-Flux article from this week and I always kind of ignored it, but this time I really read it word-by-word and I was stunned.

Floored.

It just slapped me in the face with the reality I’ve been viewing all along

EAT BIG + LIFT BIG = GET BIG

If I can workout for 45 min and eat 3500, which is 500 kcal over maintenance, OR I can lift for 90 min and eat 5000 calories…which one should I choose? Which one would I WANT to choose? I learned from this summer that I LOVE to eat, so if I can eat even MORE and lift more? Then I’m gonna grow even BIGGER than last summer, AND gain less fat!

BRILLIANT!

I am SO ready for my next bulking round…it’s going ot incorporate GFlux, 2-a-days, LOTS more lifting than this summer and LOTS more eating.

SOOO PUMPED, GOTTA DROP THAT FAT NOW!!!

145

Monday - DAY 141

After taking a week off, I feel better and ready to handle this damn thing. Introducing some GFlux, I have upped my workout hours to about 6 this week, and this should bring down that body fat in the next 2 weeks. I’m back up to 11%, I just need to drop just over 1 percent and I’ll be ready to bulk.

I’m hoping to get that down by either Nov 3rd (next week) or the week after at the latest (Nov 10th)…either way I’m ready to lift big and eat big!

Today was 20 min of EDT, 135x13 reps of DL->RDL->Bent Row->high pull->power clean->x2 front squat->push press…I’ll go for 14 later on in the week

followed by 15 min of sprints (60sec on, 105sec off)

followed by 20 min of steady-state, 70% mhr cardio (@ 145bpm).

tomorrow is legs, wed is steady state cardio only, thurs is the same as monday, fri is chest, sat is sprints and sun is more steady state cardio

146

Wednesday - DAY 143

Yesterday’s workout was ok, but I’ve had this nagging knee injury that made me nervous, so I only did 3 sets yesterday instead of the usual 4

A1) Front squat
225x4, 6, 6
A2) Leg press
330x10, 10, 11

B1) RDL
225x10, 315x4, 315x3
B2) Glute-ham raise
50x10, 10, 13

Certainly not as good as 2 weeks ago, but with that knee I wasn’t willing to take too many risks.

Steady state cardio today…need to buy more food

147

can never be too careful with injuries… it’ll get better man.

148

MONDAY - Day 148

Current body fat: almost exactly 11%, with less than .5% variance between 3 and 7 point skin fold tests, so I find this to be my most accurate measurement thus far, and I’m more certain than ever as to where I stand.

RECAP
Did my upper body workout on Thursday, and although I dropped down to 3 sets, I used more weight and stricter reps for all sets. With Halloween and my best friend staying for the weekend, I couldn’t get all of my workouts in, but I am DETERMINED to this week.

NOW
All I need to do to get to my goal is to simply drop 2.5 lbs this week, and I will have reached sub 10%. Once I do that, I will have done a 9 week cut, dropped 25 lbs and lost 7% body fat. :slight_smile:

AND THEN BEGINS ANOTHER 30 LB BULK, hopefully putting me at ~12% bf and ~215 lbs.

Tonight,

  1. 20 min EDT session w/ 140 lbs, did it for 13 reps. Did more reps w/ more weight this week than last week. CHECK

  2. 15 min of sprints, 60sec on 60sec off. Less rest this week by 15 sec a sprint each time. CHECK
  3. 25 min on the steady state cardio @ 150bpm (70+% MHR). 5 more min than last week. CHECK.

Stronger Monday night than last week. CHECK.

TOMORROW: Legs, gotta go back for 4 sets!

Also noticed that I ate just under an hour before I worked out, which was a HUGE help. I felt like I had SO MUCH more energy to win it this week. Clearly food/energy is my biggest factor for working out. Days I don’t eat enough, my workouts suck. Days I eat too close to a workout, I feel lazy still – eating just under an hour before the workout is the DEFINITE sign of success for me. It’s always good to learn about this and know yourself better!

(Also, barbell bench is overrated. If I want to do chest, it’s got to be DB and cable crossovers and flies, NOT barbells…I know that my arms and shoulders will take over if I use BB).

149

You’ve mentioned your gf not wanting you to get “too big”. Just a word of advice, which you seem to understand… don’t like a b* hold you down. She shouldn’t have “goals” for you… only you can have goals for you. If success for you is ripped 225lbs then get there.

BB vs DB bench: DB at heavy weights will do wonders especiallly with your stabilizing muscle groups.

150

Adam, are you getting a peak of your abs?

At 10 bodyfat I would say the abs should be visible.

Also, what is your plan once you are down with the cut? Are you going to add calories per week or are you going to jump right into a surplus?

151

Hey guys, first to responses (btw, thanks for reading, I always appreciate feedback!)

@mpenix

Yeah man, she won’t hold me down. She’s hypocritical, she said she wanted to lose weight for herself and she’s fallen off the wagon. If she doesn’t expect to look good for me, then why should I expect to look good for her, in the sense of appealing to her? I always said she should exercise for HER and not for me, and she should expect the same out of me. So out of spite almost, I no longer have an ounce of reservation to get big :), but she did make a point that my body fat had grown pretty high (17% at my max weight). And yes, I do love the DB bench, plus I don’t need a spotter anymore.

@ronaldo7

Heh - in the right light I can see 4 pretty easily, though in most light I can see the top two and just overall higher tone. After reading “The Last 10 Pounds” its quite clear to me that to truly see abs popping out all of the time, you need to be closer to 7-8%. Plus, according to my body fat measurements, nearly all of my measurements have gone down EXCEPT for the abdominal region. The subscapular, for instance, has gone down a few millimeters in the past few weeks, same with the suprailiac. Also my waist has shrunk nearly 2 inches since I have initially cut. But in this ENTIRE time, my abdominal fat measurements have dropped only 2mm TOTAL. It’s quite clear to me that the abs will be the very last thing for me to show…not to mention I don’t have a great deal of bulk now, so you simply need more mass to make that a reality.

Strange though, I weighed in at a staggering 189 yesterday. I dunno if it was from a really large breakfast I had or whatnot, but I dunno how my weight went up and my body fat has stagnated…perhaps G Flux in action?

Anyway, here’s the leg workout from yesterday:

A1) Front squat
225x6x4
A2) Leg press
330x10x4

Since the gym was ultra crowded, I couldn’t capitalize on moving to the next set of exercises, so I had to do this superset first, which was definitely brutal, but I got through it, then onto…

B1) RDL
315x6x4
B2) Glute-ham raise
60x10x4

My biggest problem here was that my grip strength has miraculously vanished. I could have sworn a month ago I was pulling 315 neutral grip no problem. Now I can’t even complete 4 reps w/ a mixed grip without dropping the bar. Fucking insane!

So although this isn’t a great deal of progress overall, it’s better than last week. Each exercise had 1 more set than last week, and even the glute-ham raise had a higher weight. So this workout has also been a good one.

TODAY
50 min on elliptical @ 70% MHR (+5 min from last week)

TOMORROW
Going for 14 reps for my complex, same duration for the sprints, and another 25 min of cardio :slight_smile:

152

Got my chest workout in today because of lack of time and clothing to do a sweatier workout, but I made it.

Too tired to post results, they were mediocre.

153

Friday - DAY 152

Off today. Yesterday’s chest workout was sub par because I was strapped for time so I had to rush through sets, making my recovery time shorter and my sets harder, so I kind of screwed up.

Tomorrow I do my EDT workout w/ an hour of cardio as opposed to 25 min…because I gotta combine my 25 min EDT cardio w/ my 45 min usual day off of cardio. Then Sunday probably do some sprints or something fun…maybe more EDT.

154

How is the Fat-Loss going kiddo?

155

I haven’t checked – this past week was just a mess from the start. I’m just around 11%, and I think I’ll just start bulking again. It took too long, and a 10 week cut is pretty extensive, so any more deprivation will most likely be counter productive (not to mention my loss is stalling). I’m gonna try and bulk up to 225, and it should be more muscle this time around now that I have less fat on the body.

156

DAY 162 - Back to the beginning (a 5 month rumination in 1 part)

This time 5 months ago I was 15% bf (or higher) at a measly 175lb.

Today I weight in just under 190 at around 11% bf. My total net gain is -6 lbs bodyfat and 20 lb lean mass gained. I started by bulking up from 175 to 207.5 for 3 months, adding on 2% bodyfat and obviously tons of muscle, then cutting back from 207.5 to 186 since September. Despite increased efforts, I have since plateaued in the fat loss battle, and I just know its not worth it to keep cutting for extended periods of time, my body just does not want to lose that much fat that fast, plus I’m feeling small again.

If I were to repeat this experiment again and get the same results, I would hope to be at 210 @ 7% bodyfat…basically me reaching my ideal goal by April of 2009.

Thoughts and improvements for Round 2:

-I know my body much better now. I know what exercises work, what body parts they target, and how I respond to this. I’ve also learned that I really need to step up my game in terms of volume if I want to eat bigger and not gain back all of that fat, GFlux and exercise selection will be a huge factor in my 2nd mass phase.

-I MUST go back to workout logs and diet logs. At least making sure I eat all of my required meals. Now that I am on my own, PLANNING AHEAD will be ESSENTIAL. It’s been a fact that when I am not keeping track, both my motivation AND my stats suffer.

So, I am starting another mass building phase. Mass phase part 2 is another 3 month attempt to gain another 30 lbs, bringing me up to hopefully 220 lbs, at gaining no more than 2-3% body fat like last time. Also, I want to NOW be able to reach the 1000 lb club for reps, meaning I want to be doing 250 bench for reps, hit 400 on the deadlift and 360 squat for reps. Ambitious goals, but I’ve been able to handle ambition so far, so I will do it again.

To make gains even more efficient, I have decided to go for a 2-a-day workout, each workout probably lasting no more than 45 min. I have the time, and they’re the best for adding size and mass, totally including that whole GFlux/high volume paradigm, which will also minimize fat gain. It’s 2-a-day because I’d rather do two high energy workouts than 1 long, draining workout. Like I said, all about efficiency and great workouts. This time around, I should be gaining more muscle and less fat thanks to this protocol.

Also, exercise selection will basically be the same for the whole 3 months, because I really know how my body works now effectively.

Finally, initially the reps will be lower, because my goal this time around is ULTRA STRICT FORM. No more cheating, except for the ancillary exercises that actually benefit from a little cheating. The ego is going away in favor of kicking ass and seeing sizable, measureable gains.

Here is what I’ll be eating, later you’ll get more reports as to what I did:

Wake-up, make smoothie consisting of water, heavy whipping cream, 1/4 cup egg whites, 2 scoops chocolate protein powder and a monstrous gob of peanut butter

(Pre-workout): 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup berries, 20g whey, 2g beta alanine, 10g maltodextrin, 10g BCAA/creatine, 100mg vitamin C, 300mg caffeine
(Mid-workout): 1 scoop Surge, 10g maltodextrin, 10g BCAA/creatine, 100mg vitamin C, 300mg caffeine
(Post-workout): 1 scoop Surge, 35g Whey Isolate, 1 scoops of a 60/40 mix of Waxy Maize Starch and Dextrose/Malto

sometime after workout: Baby spinach salad with diced chicken, broccoli, walnuts and almonds, and raspberry walnut dressing

even later: chocolate peanutbutterscotch shake (from gourmet nutrition), 1 serving beta

dinner: Diced chicken stir fry w/ cheese

another round of working out using the same peri workout nutrition as outlined above

after this workout: homemade high-protein chili

(Pre-Bed) Almond + Flax shake (another Berardi shake)

More whole milk and water throughout the day.

It’s not worth it to count calories or macros because it’s really not worth it as I’ve found out from experience. Basically just eat and meet your goals, and see how much fat you gain in 2 weeks. If it’s a lot, then back off the calories, otherwise keep eating because despite literature, I have managed to gain more than 1 lb muscle/week with minimal bodyfat gain, so fuck studies because your own potential != the potential of others. RESULTS MAY VARY.

Anyway, I’ll post later as to how the new workouts will be going.

157

MONDAY WORKOUT #1

-2 warmup squat sets
-Front squat 225x4, 185x8, 185x8, 185x8
-RDL 275x10, 275x10, 275x10, 275x7 (12 sec rest) then 275x3

DO NOT TAKE CAFFEINE BEFORE A LEG WORKOUT. Normally energy pre-workout supps like Spike or Power Drive or whatever give me a nice boost in energy, but this was counterproductive.

First, I’m anxious as fuck on leg days. I always get nervous because I pull a great deal of weight and I don’t want to cheat/suck. So adding in caffeine already makes me jumpy as hell because I NEVER have caffeine. EVER.

Second, it’s supposed to increase my work capacity, but my body is tiring itself by working at 120bpm RESTING. JESUS CHRIST. I felt like my heart was going to explode after a set of 8 front squats!

Third, it doesn’t increase my work capacity DURING a set, just that I feel like I could have done more sets. Like 8 reps felt like hell every single time, but the 4th set felt basically as brutal as the first, and I felt like I could have done more sets if it wasn’t for the exploding heart feeling + anxiety.

So I’m thinking that maybe next week I’ll try 1 long workout as opposed ot 2 to see if I calm down by the end of the workout. I didn’t DARE touch my peri-workout drink because it has more of my pre-workout supp in it, and I was already energized as hell. The other problem is that if I split this workout, then that means I’m taking this crazy supplement twice in one day, and I dunno if I like the idea of doubling the amount of powdered protein and sugar. I dunno, it’s day 1 jitters, maybe I just won’t use this supplement on leg days, which are already taxing on the heart.

I just never do well working out if I’m not calm and focused – rathre I feel jumpy, my brain is moving at 10000000 mph and its like I’ve pulled an all-nighter studying for a test. See you guys in 8 hrs for workout part 2!

158

Nice summary Adam. When you say you’re on your own have you split with your gf? I must have missed this somewhere.

On your new training regime I think it looks good. You’ve got down to a manageable bf and with consistent application I think the 1000 club is within your reach. Best thing I can see from this is that you’re thinking clearly and realistically, but most importantly, getting to know your body and what works for you.

Keep up the great work

159

Hahah no, when I meant on my own, I meant without a workout partner.

I actually think after today I might just do 1 long workout. It’s been 50 min since any physical activity and I still feel “hopped up on the Q” as Dane Cook would say. I can’t fathom taking a pre-workout supp twice in one day, I think it would be counterproductive to my health, and if my workout is going to last 80-90 min anyway, then it will still be effective, especially once I start sipping my peri-workout drink.

Plus, I don’t wanna be jolted on caffeine all day, and it would cut my commute time in 1/2. I do however need to find a replacement for that time where I would be eating all of that workout nutrition for another form of food, totaling about 60g of protein and 100g of carbs, though I might just add in another quick and dirty food option like cottage cheese or something…I dunno I don’t have a great deal of money for food.

160

Workout #2

-Leg press 325x10,325x10,325x7 (right knee didnt like extra glute activatoin), 325x10

-Hack squat - bailed after 1 set…scrapped up my calves too bad

-Bulgarian squat - 45lb DBs x 12/leg, 45x12, 45x12 (except right leg was 8, then dropped down to 50 to get the last 4 reps, need to lead off w/ right leg next time)

-glute ham raise SS leg curl - 60x12 AND 130x10, 60x12 AND 130x10, 60x12 AND 130x10…I should have done 1 more set but the gym closed.

VERDICT ON 2-A-DAY WORKOUTS:

Full of crap. I thought the point of 2-a-days was to help you recover so that you can do more sets at a higher volume/intensity, but honestly I felt more tired than if I had done the whole thing straight through. I feel like the soreness only worsened because my muscles had time to start rebuilding 8 hours later. I didn’t have the jitters this evening thanks to the lack of a jittery superdrink, but actually I felt less energized and already sore from part 1.

Plus, it’s a fuckin pain to go BACK to the gym, get dressed again…and since the whole thing took me like 75 minutes, it’s not THAT bad to do it all at once…hell, I think I would have had more energy and propelled myself if I just did this whole workout at once!

HUZZAH!