[quote]skidmark wrote:
Ironically, I should have total control over when I eat. I work at home, don’t go anywhere in off work hours and have a freezer full of meat in my garage and a copious vegetable supply.
I simply haven’t put together a meal plan to execute on. Sheer lack of discipline is what it amounts to. Beast in the gym, wussy in the kitchen, that’s me.[/quote]
I find meal plans hard to put together as well. I’ve been living off yogurt and protein powder any time I can’t think of what to eat. I need to get more disciplined as well.
I’m figuring four complete meals a day plus 2 protein shakes will do it. I just have to premake all the stuff ahead of time (ceptin’ the shakes) and then eat by the clock.
Man - I’m so lazy though. I hate chewing.
Today’s shake:
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1`teaspoon apricot jam
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 tablespoon fish oil
1 banana
8 ounces rice milk
2 scoops green powder
2 scoops whey protein
1/2 cup water
800 calories of goodness. Goes down easy, tastes great.
Eating by the clock is a strange concept, but it really does help those of us who are on the thinner side. It really is as much work as getting in the gym, but it is the only way to get results. Shakes do make things much easier and healthier.
Workout looks great. Three workouts in a week is a lot of volume. You have to expect the numbers to drop a little. Give yourself a rest and the numbers will come back up.
3 workouts per week is the norm, but I’m putting too much in the lower days. My coach called me on it and he’s right. I made a decision to suspend my own opinions on the matter and then went ahead and did what I thought I needed to.
My problem comes from trying to cover all the bases and being used to doing a lot of work in my sessions, whether it makes sense or not. But as a lighter lifter trying to gain weight, I need only to do enough to stimulate the muscles and then focus on recovering. I have a tendency to annihilate myself instead. And it’s why I’ve stalled at this point repeatedly.
Paused pin Presses (pin 3.5 - about a 2 board)
135x5
185x5
225x5
255x3
275x0
265x1
270x0
Incline DB press
75’s 2x12 (PR)
High Close grip Bench
185x4,5,5,5
Well - there you have it. 10% drop in everything due to overwork. All of it was hard, no energy or enthusiasm for it, which is always a good indicator of being overcooked. Did okay in the incline DB’s but it’s a baseline PR so it doesn’t count for much.
I’m going to stick with Chris’s advice and not panic that I’m not doing enough. The above is a clear result of doing too much. Over the next week, if I do as I’m supposed to, I will recover and the lifts will come back up.
Don’t sweat it, Skidmark. You have indeed been putting in a lot of work, with great results.
It is fascinating how being overcooked, as you say, expresses itself in loss of enthusiasm. What I have to fight is not compounding the situation by allowing that loss of enthusiasm to confound the physiological/mechanical (overthinking leading to more overcooking).
The kitchen metaphor might also be a good reminder just to let it go and get some calories!
[quote]1Geech wrote:
Don’t sweat it, Skidmark. You have indeed been putting in a lot of work, with great results.
It is fascinating how being overcooked, as you say, expresses itself in loss of enthusiasm. What I have to fight is not compounding the situation by allowing that loss of enthusiasm to confound the physiological/mechanical (overthinking leading to more overcooking).
The kitchen metaphor might also be a good reminder just to let it go and get some calories!
[/quote]
It’s no problem - just recognizing what’s going on. I’ve been doing double and almost triple the work I ought to over the last week and a half. There were bound to be repercussions. Physically I feel pretty good. Well-knit. I simply can’t deliver the strength I know I have right now.
You are absolutely correct. Food and low-stress/rest is the ticket.
I have a lot of confidence in this routine - even though I didn’t hit the weights I wanted, I think the weekly maxes plus the high rep work and fairly low volume will result in long term, consistent gains without injury. The high rep work “fills in the holes” insofar as strength through range of motion is concerned and the singles are CNS trainers for learning to recruit more motor units.
In other words, build more fibers for the motor units to work with and then train the rate-coding of those motor units for maximum output.
Although the trigger mechanism is still unknown, the theory goes that it’s an increase in the ratio of the amino acid tryptophan to other neurotransmitter substrates in the synapses of the brain leading to an increase in serotonin and that revealing itself as fatigue.
I haven’t found an explanation of why intense exercise/stress would lead to a change in this ratio such that fatigue manifests, but I can describe it experientially:
It’s like being hit with a pillow, but on the inside of your head. Every time I have gotten that feeling on a lift - Usually a max lift - I’ve had a drop in performance the following session. It happened today on bench for 275 and at 270. There’s some threshold my CNS can’t cross at the moment.
I’ll need to back off a bit, or I’ll just continue the deficit. Early to bed tonight, no training tomorrow and see what Wednesday has for me.
Just keep thinking that as you are sitting there eating your almonds and drinking your protein drink that your muscles are getting bigger and healthier.
Heck, go crazy, watch some TV, eat some peanut butter and dark chocolate, maybe even take a nap.
I would hate to see an “exercise intervention” in your future. Step away from the squat rack…
It looks like you are on the cusp of a new stage on your way to that 300/400/500. But that grass will not grow any faster if you pull on it. Go get 'em on Wednesday.
Just keep thinking that as you are sitting there eating your almonds and drinking your protein drink that your muscles are getting bigger and healthier.
Heck, go crazy, watch some TV, eat some peanut butter and dark chocolate, maybe even take a nap.
I would hate to see an “exercise intervention” in your future. Step away from the squat rack…
mday[/quote]
Now you went and made me waste some good protein mix. That stuff is nasty coming through the nose, man.
[quote]1Geech wrote:
It looks like you are on the cusp of a new stage on your way to that 300/400/500. But that grass will not grow any faster if you pull on it. Go get 'em on Wednesday.[/quote]
[quote]skidmark wrote:
1Geech wrote:
It looks like you are on the cusp of a new stage on your way to that 300/400/500. But that grass will not grow any faster if you pull on it. Go get 'em on Wednesday.
Great to hear that the body is feeling better. It is hard for some of us to back off at points in order to achieve long-term gains (you know all this already…)
2008-6-4
Assistance Day
OH Pin Press (top of head)
Bar x enough
95x10
115x8
135x5
155x5
175x5
195x5
215x3
225x1 235x1 (baseline PR)
Seated DB press
60’s x 15
Pendlay Rows (Bench width grip)
135x10
205x 3x10
Wide grip Pullups
BW+30 x12
Seated DB Cleans
35’s 1x8, 2x10
BB Curls
105 2x8
Pretty surprised by OHP. Higher than my incline bench…so far. Ended up taking a bench grip on 'em. I usually OH press with my hands closer than that. I could have gone one step more, but my shoulder was feeling dodgy so I stopped.
Kept to medium weights and trying to get more reps on the non-ohp stuff. Volume counts for more here than intensity. It felt really good.
Decided that every vertical pull gets a finishing set of higher rep horizontal pull and vice versa, alternating week to week - just to keep everyone in the game. If it gets to be too much, I can drop the finisher. Pendlay rows using bench grip forced a drop in weight, but it feels really good across the shoulder blade and it’s still as much weight as I can handle with decent form so to heck with worrying about it.
Congratulations on the overhead PR, Skidmark, especially after all you did working up to it. Why the bench-width grip? I would have thought that it might stress the shoulder in a way rather to avoid. Back looks strong, too.
