FatPixel's Training Log

Training Training Logs
21

Today was the halfway point of the Waterbury Summer Project. I just completed week 4 day 5 and as usual it was a doosie.

For the 3rd straight Thursday night I had stomach pains. I can’t help but wonder if this is somatization. Perhaps I’m dreading the Friday workouts so much that my stomach problem surfaces, getting me out of doing it Friday mornings. I think it sucks just as much on Friday night, and I also am wary of the amount of carbs in one serving of Surge at night. Certainly morning would be ideal for 49g of carbs-- a lousy 196 calories, I know, but, I’m too fat to trust myself to handle carbs well.

I find myself drifting towards bodybuilder-style squats, mostly because I crave the slant towards quad development. I feel like the hamstrings get plenty of work on deadlifts and their variations, so this should be fine. However, I’m sure as soon as I squat heavy again I’ll go with the wider stance and become glute and ham-dominant once again. Frankly, mixing stances is the only way to make back squat workouts cool.

I just have no wind for squatting. These 100+ rep sessions are helping though. Even if I did body weight squats I’m not sure if I could get to that 50 reps. Today I tried to visualize it as sets of 5 and took two good breaths before moving to the next mini-set. I put the weight down for the prescribed 15 seconds after 35 reps though, well short of where I should.

DB shoulder press- went down 5 lbs to 20 lb DB’s and it was still too heavy. Lactic acid buildup was intense. Was stopping short of failure every set, not because I was out of wind.

I think the Romanian DL’s are the perfect intersection between handling the weight, lactic tolerance, and aerobic capacity. I seem to be able to stick to the WSP protocol best on this one.

The rows I’m stuck; 5-pin is too light, 6 is too heavy. I just break this up into 3 large sets.

My legs quiver after squats. After that I think my body is in shock and I’m just going through the workout like a huffing and puffing zombie.

I really need to break through the 210 barrier this weekend or I’m not going to be happy. Need to be 208 to lose 2 lbs per week-- I thought low carb should have been faster than this!!

22

Last day of HIIT sprints, so I decided to go them outside.

Like Colonel Jesup said: I couldn’t handle the truth.

The truth is, running on pavement is MUCH HARDER. Without the give of the treadmill, my lower legs were feeling the pounding much more. And without the speed meter on the treadmill, I just went all out, and gassed pretty quickly. By the end I was “sprinting” at a nice jogging pace.

I bet it’s so much different that I could run outside and not yet be adapted to it. But since the next phase of the program calls for cycling, that’s what I will do.

Today’s waking temp: 97.0. Shitty thermometer that I bought 5 days ago crapped out on me. Don’t buy supermarket thermometers!!

Tomorrow is the weigh in, pictures, and measurements. Let’s hope I can handle the truth by then.

23

This is just SO goddamned frustrating.

210 again as of this morning. I have not lost an ounce since 5.1.08.

It’s possible that ingesting 5g creatine for the first time yesterday is making me retain water. But I’ve read that if you don’t take it post-workout, it’s hard to retain it anyway.

I’m going to start my food log again even though I thought I was in the “eating instinctively” phase.

Training is changing drastically on week 5 (10x3=yay!) and hopefully that will be the kick in the pants my body needs.

24

So we begin the second half of the WSP.

I like 10x3. A lot. Reminds me of powerlifting days. And I’m never that winded through this workout (until the end).

Again I had the hard time of guessing weights. Started with 185 on the deadlift and ended with 205. Probably should have used 205 the whole time.

Decline BB bench was starting with 155, made my way up to 185. Probably should have used that the whole time too.

Pull ups, I did on the assisted machine. I find that getting assistance with 3 pullups is humiliating. But at least I didn’t pussy out and go on the lat pulldown machine. i was going to take my humiliation like a man, and maybe get just a little better at pullups in the meantime.

10 minutes of jumping jacks? What a joke…or I mean HOLY SHIT THIS IS TOUGH. For real, if you do them full ROM they will kick your ass. I switched between them and jumping rope, mostly because I want to get really good at jumping rope. It’s hard, but I like the rhythm of it.

Diet today:
One low-carb Monster energy (nice change from coffee)
1/2 Surge during workout 160c
1/2 Surge after workout 160c
1 small tub cottage cheese 360c
6oz salmon with mixed greens 350c
handfuls mixed nuts (1/3 cup) 270c
8oz cube steak 320c
w/mixed greens
1tbsp EVOO 120c

Total of 1740 plus whatever calories the mixed greens had. 6 leaves of Romaine lettuce has 20 calories, so I’m going to say about 60 calories of that. So 1800 calories today. Add two scoops of Grow with BeneFiber (to slow it down) in a few minutes and we have about 1920. The wild card is the mixed nuts, I didn’t measure them but 1/3 seems right.

25

In addition to higher calories, I’m going to cut the fish oil. Trying to eliminate one variable at a time to determine why I’m not losing weight. Besides, been doing high doses of fish oil for almost 4 weeks now and I should be ok with insulin levels (based on what I read Thibs write in the PC for novagreg).

Still, I noticed that I haven’t lose weight ever since I first starting taking Surge. Hmmm…

If I don’t lose weight this week, I’m cutting the Surge and going back to milk and protein powder shakes for post workout.

26

Another week gone by with no fat loss.

Let’s recap:

Monday’s workout was good.

Wednesday’s workout…not good. I weighed myself beforehand and nothing changed.

So my whole workout, the devil on my shoulder was yelling, “You’re putting in all this effort for NO RESULTS!!”

I tried really hard to make it through, but my resolve was waning. Finally I discovered that I did 3 circuits, not 4, and I just said to hell with it. One more circuit isn’t going to blast those pounds off.

Looking back over these 5 weeks, I know my body comp has changed slightly for the better. However, it’s not enough. My diet has been spot-on, save, I think, for the calories. I don’t think it’s high enough, and it’s my fault for not following the recommendations of the program.

I am going on a beach vacation in exactly one month. Tomorrow I am starting the Velocity diet because I need results FAST. I will continue with the WSP because I want to try it again someday and the experience/history is quite valuable.

Next time I try T-Dawg (right after V-diet) I will be getting many more calories from the start. And fish oil is BACK (taking it out did nothing for me).

Also, I’m taking out the HIIT for the duration of the V-diet. I don’t think HIIT is effective with very low calories. How are you gonna put the pedal to the metal with no gas in the tank? Better off coasting.

Friday’s workout was easier than the usual Friday workout on WSP.

Overhead squats : 45x15 This is just hard. Totally new movement for me. Needs technique work.
Bent rows: 115x15 Love the underhand grip. Am I the only person who doesn’t yank the weight a little?
Step ups: 30lb DB’s. Tried the Poliquin method of keeping the opposite toes curled up. Kind of works.
Decline bench: 135x15. Not enough weight.
Hack squats: 135x15. Weight just about right…I like these! Like a deadlift for the legs.
Reverse crunches: 12.5x15 I don’t know why I had no power for these at all.
One arm DB snatch: 40x15. Can move up weight now that I have technique down ok.
Clap pushups: It’s hard to find the right bench for these. Can’t do them off floor for 15 yet.
Forward lunges My left hip muscle must be tight; I always feel it on these more than the quad.

27

Waking temp: 98.0
Waking HR: 54

VELOCITY DIET DAY 1

I’m not particularly happy that I gave up on WSP and the T-Dawg. But since I book a trip to the islands one month from now, I need results. My goal is to lose 13.5 lbs and come in at 198 on the day I leave.

That’s a bit more than 3 lbs per week; a tall order given how stagnant things have been for 5 weeks. But I think I need a shock to the system. Plus, I think I’m prepared to do well on the V-Diet given that my cravings are nearly nonexistent.

So I’m using Waterbury’s intermediate program for the V-diet. Day 1 had deadlifts, so I was happy :slight_smile:

All sets for three reps. “5-pin” means slot 5 on the assistance stack for the dip and pulldown machine.

Wide Grip Pullups (assisted): 8pinx3x2, 7-pinx3x5
Deadlifts: 210x3x7
Dips: 5pinx3, 4pinx3x2, no assist x 3x4
Side plank holds: 2 sets of 45 seconds each side

Side planks are hard. I was shaking like a leaf!

Deadlifts: Need to move that weight UP. Only slowing down last few sets. The problem is that 30 seconds rest isn’t enough to change the weight, so it’s best to keep moving and just use one weight the whole workout.

Dips: These stress the hell out of my shoulders. But they don’t hurt. I think I’ll try all non-assisted next time around, then break out the hip belt!

Wide chins: Really felt my lats stretching-- felt good.

I was TOTALLY PSYCHED for this workout. I feel like making a change to the V-Diet and new training is going to help me break through the plateau. Had my coffee and Surge, turned up the tunes, and was ripping through it. Gym was packed but I managed to maintain even though guys were all over the dip/chin station.

I can see compared to the WSP, the workload is lower…but so are the calories. Yet again, this demonstrates that I needed way more calories to make the WSP work for me, and I still believe that’s why I plateaued.

28

Waking temp: 97.5
Waking HR: 56

Things I learned on my first day of V-Diet:

  1. Had my first cravings for real food in a long time while reading guys’ posts in the Anabolic Diet thread. Suddenly, the cheeseburgers I was having just a few days ago seem heavenly. Their carb-up stories were good too.

  2. Flax meal is awesome. Similar taste and texture of wheat germ. It kills the artificial flavoring of the shakes. The problem is that is doesn’t mix well even in a blender, it just floats to the bottom. I might try putting it on top before each sip, like sprinkles.

  3. Fiber Choice tablets are now my dessert. Those things are excellent but expensive.

  4. I didn’t expect this diet to be quite so low-fat.

  5. Seeing my carb content go above 100g yesterday was a little unsettling. But that’s what Surge does.

Today I went for a walk around the neighborhood, just 30 minutes. Want to increase that to 40 as the week goes on. Will have to walk at night since lifting will be in the morning.

Yesterday the gym was packed, and I remembered why I like to lift in the morning-- no one there! This is practically required for any Waterbury workout, where he requires you to monopolize 2 or 3 stations for ten minutes at a time. Even with two chin/dip stations at my gym it was a problem.

29

I really do like these workouts!

All sets for 4 reps:
Alt. DB Shoulder press: 45, 50, 55, 55
Lunges: 40, 45, 50, 50
DB row: 75, 80, 80, 80

Overhead DB tricep ext: 65, 70, 70, 75
Hammer curl: 40x4x4
Front squat: 95, 95, 105, 115

2 sets 60 sec plank holds.

Looking at this, I can see it’s quite ridiculous that I shoulder press more than I lunge. But I just started doing lunges and by the feel of today, that won’t last too long.

I think DB rows will be the first thing I can use the 100lb DB’s on. That’s like the ticket to the Big Boys club-- huge honkin’ lats and thick upper back. Do I hear 85 next time?

Wow, arm exercises! Didn’t expect to be doing much in the way of isolation, but it was a nice change of pace. Hell once a week won’t kill anyone.

I think I need to use a heat wrap or something on heavy tricep work. I just can’t get comfy without ridiculous amount of warm-up and I can’t spend 10 minutes just warming the tri’s.

I think I got one step closer to top notch form on my front squats today. Was using the elbows out (Oly) grip-- this allows you to adjust the weight distribution as you go up and down to compensate for angle of the back. I am starting to like these a lot.

Plank holds are a test of will. They are very hard, and I’m only doing them on the elbow, not the palm.

Tomorrow is long and boring NEPA walking. I will walk 30 minutes to Walmart, buy some shorts, and walk back. Gotta give myself a reward for this mind-numbing crap.

Outer pecs are still sore…I love dips!

Speaking of sore-- not much of it since I started with these T-mag programs and started taking Surge…and not going to failure every set. And yet when I looked in the mirror today post workout, I looked super-pumped.

I really have an easy time envisioning success these days. In my mind, it’s merely a matter of time.

30

Waking temp: 97.1
Waking HR: 63

Temp is down and HR is up…huh?

Well weight is down also to 208.5. And half inch off the belly.

Went for a morning NEPA walk about 45 mins.

Glad it’s working, but an eye is going to be kept on that waking temp.

Ordered 4 tubs of Metabolic Drive today. One thing I’ve learned is that you need a big variety of flavors on this diet! 5 or six shakes a day, every day, man that gets old fast. Hell, I just ate a pickle spear for variety. So I got the Neopolitan mix: Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry. Hell, Biotest should market the Neopolitan Protein Pack!

Going to try HOT-ROX Extreme soon. Kind of afraid to try it during workdays without knowing how it affects me. Will try it Saturday afternoon or maybe on HSM day, one pill along with the HSM.

Well at this rate I’m going to lose the 12 pounds I had hoped for, maybe more. 15 would be nice. Need to step on that beach in the best shape I’ve been in for the past 10 years!

31

Friday stats:

Waking temp: 96.8 (uh-oh)
Waking HR: 55 (same as usual)

Based on something I read while cruising Thibs’ articles, I’ve decided to knock my total Surge intake to 1/2 serving on training days. With one full serving, my carb intake for the day was well over 100g (including fiber), so I wasn’t too comfortable with that.

Friday’s workout was pretty damn hard. I cruised through the A-section no problem. Caffeine and Surge and creatine (or, as I call them, my Superfriends) pushed me through, hard. I was training with rabid intensity.

Romanian deads: 85x8x4 was no problem. Grip was wavering at the end. Will move up weight and hope I don’t have to use straps.

BB Bench: 155x8x4. This felt more like a Westside-style speed workout. Weight up next week.

Chins: 12-pinx8x4 This was just about right.

B section got jiggy for sure:
Lateral raise: 15x8x2, 25x8x2. WIll use 20 next time.

BB Row: 95x8x2, 115x8x2. I never think I’m doing these right. Torso angle, grip width, using the legs…it’s a mess. Chest supported rows might be good.

Reverse crunches: 10x8x4. Does anyone else think that dumbell is gunning to drop right on their balls? Yeah, me too.

Reverse lunges: 35x8x4. I was fried after the first set, then gutted it out. Again, leg strength was there, cardio was not. I think I prefer split squats.

Thank god no side planks! I was roasted after this. But later that day, I rewarded myself with a Healthy Solid Meal of grilled salmon and mixed greens. Incredibly, I was hungry not long after I ate this. By my estimate it was about 6 oz. of salmon and 110 cals of mixed greens. Not much there.

Today is Saturday and the first day I’m using HOT-ROX. I just took one pill with my morning shake to test it out. Since I’ve never done it before, I ignored the instructions to take on an empty stomach, and instead loaded up my shake with 1T of peanut butter, flax meal, and benefiber. That should slow absorption nicely.

If all goes well (hmm, I realized my legs are twitching as I’m typing this) then I’ll do another like that later today. Tomorrow I’ll do HOT-ROX just before the shake, then work my way up to two pills on an empty stomch. However, since I lift in the mornings, my stomach won’t be empty for long before I need my pre-gym Surge. That’s ok; can’t have everything perfect.

32

DAY 7 WEIGH IN AND STATS:

Weight: 207.5 (down 4 lbs from last week)
Waking temp: 97.7
Waking HR: 55

MEASUREMENTS (using Myotape)
Neck: 15.5 (down 1/8)
Upper arm: 14 1/8 (up 1/8)
Shoulders: 48 7/8 (down 1/8)
Upper abs: 36 (down 1/4)
Chest: 41 (no change)
Belly: 40 1/4 (down 3/4)
Thigh: 24 1/4 (down 3/4)
Calf: 15 3/4 (down 1/4)

TOTAL INCHES LOST: 2 and 3/8 inches

33

REFLECTIONS ON WEEK ONE

I should be happy about 4 lbs. That does put me on pace to reach or exceed my goal of 13.5 lbs lost by the end of the 28 days.

However, 3 of those lbs were lost after I weighed in on Thursday. So all my effort Thursday, Friday, and Saturday resulted in only 1 lb lost. That is a pace of merely 2 lbs per week-- not acceptable on the V-Diet.

I think, maybe, I did gain some muscle. Also, unlikely that weight lost was water weight since I’ve been T-Dawggin’ low carb for 5 weeks prior.

So I’ve started taking a full dose of HOT-ROX. Thus far, not feeling the huge surge of energy I thought it would be. This is a far cry from the feeling I got from ephedrine + caffeine years ago. Still, I understand that a base level must be built up in the body. We shall see what happens.

More Metabolic Drive coming in tomorrow, plus more HOT-ROX. I will have enough to get me through the rest of the program plus the transition period.

This week I will hopefully reach at least 3 lbs lost. The HOT-ROX and increasing NEPA walking should help this. Plus I may add a bike ride at night sometimes. Walking on training days has been a challenge but I have to do it.

As for the measurements: I guess that’s pretty good. My loosest pants are getting looser and soon I’ll be able to pull them down without unbuttoning. I’ll then drop down to a 34 waist, the smallest I’ve ever been as an adult. Tried on a pair of 34-waist workout shorts yesterday and they were snug but not ridiculous. My pair of 36 waist cargo pants are fitting normally; two months ago I barely fit in them.

I’m just really scared of plateauing again while putting in this much effort. And most of all, I’m scared that I fucked myself last summer when doing the lemonade fast/starvation diet. Fuck.

If I can’t get to where I want to be on my own, I’m just going to hire a trainer. But finding one that knows what I want him to know is going to be hard. We shall see.

34

I am experiencing post-exercise euphoria for the first time in years!!!

Every one in a while you have a workout so great, so perfect, that you just have that slightly buzzed feeling in your head, and you laugh out loud for no apparent reason? Well that’s happening right now, and it’s AWESOME!!!

I laugh, but sometimes instead I quote the Ronnie COleman videos I saw for the first time yesterday: Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder…don’t nobody wanna lift this heavy-ass weight!" LOVE THAT!!!

Awesome workout too. One of the best ever, hall of fame.

This was my first weight workout using HOT-ROX Extreme. Wow! I don’t know what the deal was, but there was no need for caffeine even though I was in the gym 45 min earlier! Used that and 8 grams of BCAA plus half serving of Surge. All BCAA’s consumed before the first weight went up based on advice from David Barr…reasoning that if you ingest during the workout, they won’t be available until after the workout. Shit, seems like it worked and it certainly didn’t hold me back!!

Workout:
Chins: 7-pin x3x8 Wow! Need to move weight up.
Deads: 225x3x8 Heavy, but good. Up 5 lbs. Used wrist wraps on some sets, mixed grip on some sets.
Dips: 4-pin x3x8. Shoulder didn’t hurt quite as bad. Can use no weight now.

Side planks: 55 sec each side twice. Hard.

Gotta go !

Edit to add: Mountain biking for about an hour or so tonight. Not exactly NEPA-- hit 180 HR going up that last hill! But hell, can’t stop life just because it might be hard exercise. Hell it was a good leg workout.

35

Waking temp: 97.3
Waking HR: 57

NEPA today: About 45 mins broken down as:

Walk to gym (10)
Stationary cycle with ass-killing, ball-busting seat: 2
Elliptical: 13
Heavy bag: 10
Walk home: 10

I like potpourri stle cardio. But I like the heavy bag better! Note to self: Don’t do the heavy bag with your iPod strapped to the arm. Makes jabs difficult.

Ok so again, HOT-ROX doesn’t pack quite the punch I thought it would. I find it interesting that with any supplement, the instructions are not based on weight. I mean, I require more protein, more BCAA’s, more creatine, than, say, a 100 lb girl. But our HOT-ROX dose should be the same too?

I’m not going to mess with the recommendations (because I once did that with the ECA stack that was a perfect storm of “oh my god I’m going to have a heart attack right here” kind of situation) but I do wonder if people out there are taking more.

Then again maybe the dose is based on people that are exercising-- definitely don’t want to go overboard on that.

36

waking temp 97.7
waking HR 55

Wow, looks like waking temp is edging back up? That’s a nice change.

Once again an excellent workout. All loads either moved up or needed to move up. Energy was excellent. I was a little bit jittery once I started moving around, but I think this is just bad associations with the ECA stack from back in the day.

Alt. Shoulder press: 55x4x4…move up!
Lunges: 50lb DB x4x4 Move up. Balance good
Rows: 85x4x4 with straps on one set. Heavy but move up!

Tricep DB behind neck 70x4x3, 70x8x1. 75 next week. Warm tris first.
DB hammer curl: 45x4, 45xFAIL, 40x4x2
Front Squat: 105x4x4, move it up. Done with curl bar, easier.

Squatting is deeeeep lately. Just feels better. I figure if my weights are down anyway from not max squatting I might as well take them deep and keep them that way when the weight goes back up.

Very hard today. Thinking about food all the time. Real food. May do Sunday as HSM day over at friend’s house. Yum. I need it badly.

37

Shitty workout Friday.

I made the mistake of doing a mid-week weigh in the day before, and I’m only 207.5. So that means I only lost one pound so far, and 4 lbs overall.

I guess on any other diet that would be decent. But that sure ain’t Velocity.

Also, measured my belly circumference Friday morning before working out. I don’t know WTF is going on, but it’s basically the same as when I began this friggin’ diet.

So the workout sucked ass. I had energy in the beginning, but started to lag quickly. I was dogging the rest periods a bit too in the beginning and it got worse as time went on.

90 lb DB’s are too much for me to use for 9-rep sets of Romanian Deads. So I tried wrist wraps, they worked until the end. Used straps too but put them on wrong. What a huge pain in the ass they are. I may switch to BB from now on.

By the time I got to the end of the workout, I wanted to quit. Again, all this effort for NO FAT LOSS?!?! But I gutted it out, even though I threw rest periods out the window. I just didn’t want to quit even though it took slowing things down to do it.

So, I’m not going to quit the diet, but raise the calories 250 per day. That won’t make me fat, but I certainly can’t lower them. That’s fucking insane, I’m always hungry despite all the HOT-ROX. So instead of 1500/1800 on off/training days, I’m doing 1750/2050. That’s a lot of fucking protein shakes.

Note to self:
Romanian deads: 90x9x4…need straps or use BB.
Bench 165x9x4 Just barely got it.
Chins 12pin 9x4 don’t move weight,

Lateral raises 20x9x4 move weight up
Rows 115x9x1 too heavy; 105x9x3 ok
Reverse crunch 10x9x4 ok
Reverse lunges 40x9x4 weight is ok but I hate these and might try split squats instead

38

waking temp: 97.8
Waking HR i dont know but typing this it’s 65, so waking was probably 65 as usual

I’m going to walk NEPA today, increasing cals to 1750 and 2050 on training days. We’ll see what happens. Weight is 207.5 and it would be nice to be at 200 in two weeks when I’m on a plane to the islands!

39

Inaccurate bioimpedance BF% Measurement Tool says:

Weight: 207.5
BF%: 18.8%
Fat mass: 39 lb
Lean mass: 168.5 lbs

40

WEEK 2 WEIGH IN AND STATS

Weight: 207
WEIGHT LOST THIS WEEK: ONE HALF GODDAMN POUND

Stats:
Neck: 15 1/2 (no change)
Upper Arm: 14 1/4 (no change)
Shoulders: 50 1/2 (up 3/4 inch…WTF?)
Upper abs: 36 3/4 (up 3/4 inch)
Chest: 41 1/2 (up half inch)
Belly: 41 1/8 (up almost one inch)
Thigh: 24 1/4 (no change)
Calf: 16 (up 1/4 inch)

Ok, WTF? I mean, WTF?

So let me see here…
-Belly is getting fatter
-Chest is fatter (store a lot of fat here)
-Umm, shoulders? 3/4 of an inch bigger? What?

I swear to Arnold I have no idea what the fuck is going on here.