How I Train, Eat, and Think About Stuff

Training
121

@Lonnie123: Bodybuilding is all trial and error. Of course, there are great coaches around and it’s worth following their recommendations. But in the end, you’ll have to find out what works best for you!

Just enjoy your bulk and try to apply the new knoweledge in your next cut! Don’t worry, there will be many more cuts to come! After 16 contests and some additional cutting phases I am still learning and trying to do it better every time. That’s what makes bodybuilding such a great way of living: it’s about the road we are traveling, man :slight_smile:

Cheers, PA

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GREAT EARLY MORNING PERI-WORKOUT COMBO

I have been experimenting lately with different peri-workout protocols for my morning workouts. I get up at 4:45 am and my peri-workout protocol basically is my fist “meal” of the day.

Here is what it boiled down to:

  1. I don’t seem to optimally “stomach” Anaconda/MAG-10 when I have it first thing in the morning. Maybe it’s just too heavily loaded with hydrolized proteins and leucine to take on an empty stomach.
    That’s true for me. Many others have no problems at all.
    It doesn’t matter anyway for me, because I have so many workouts every week, several every day, that having the full Anaconda protocol wouldn’t be affordable for me, anyway. So I save that for heavy specialization sessions in the afternoon.

  2. Coffee on an empty stomach makes me sick. I’m fine when I stir a scoop of whey in my morning coffee, though.

  3. All the popular stimulant-ladden pre-workout supps make me sick when I consume them on an empty stomach.

  4. I do like to use caffein though. Seems to be great for my morning energy mobilization and I the effects don’t decrease, I don’t seem to get used to it.
    I do not drink caffeinated drinks during the day, so I always get a nice boost from some morning caffeine.

  5. My current absolute favourite early morning combo is this one:

Workout -60 minutes: 2 scoops PowerDrive and 1 Spike
Workout -40 minutes: 2 FINiBARS
Workout -15 minutes: start sipping on Surge Workout Fuel (I mix 3 scoops with 5g of creatine and 24g of BCAA powder)
Workout +15 minutes: 2 scoops Grow!

I love it. PowerDrive has really become one of my favorite supplements. Gives me so much focus. I switched to PD from aGPC and plan to stick to this protocol for some time.
I used to take PD after my workouts for neural recovery, but its effects when taken on an empty stomach are just fantastic.

Cheers, PA

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Breakfast for champions…

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This one I must share as well: today’s dinner:

A warm salad I made from:

  • a handful of spinach baby leaves
  • 8oz small potatoes (cooked)
  • 4oz asparagus
  • half a red and half a yellow bell pepper (put them in the oven until sweet and soft)
  • 1 tbs macadamia nut oil, 1 tbs olive oil
  • a little bit honey
  • juice of a lime
  • salt and pepper
  • some coriander leaves

Stir-fried sirloin

  • 8oz sirloin, cut into pieces
  • marinated 30 minutes in 2 tbs soy sauce, some grated ginger and galic, pepper and red chillies.

Delicious :slight_smile:

125

Paragon, whatever you do in life for work that allows you live the life you want out of it is impressive. No way I could afford all the food/supps (I get by but man it’d be nice to have access to what you’ve got!). I’ve got to say that you are an inspiration as someone who seems to do exactly what makes them happy and to the fullest of your potential. Thanks for all the updates and keep at it!

126

[quote]ParagonA wrote:
This one I must share as well: today’s dinner:

A warm salad I made from:

  • a handful of spinach baby leaves
  • 8oz small potatoes (cooked)
  • 4oz asparagus
  • half a red and half a yellow bell pepper (put them in the oven until sweet and soft)
  • 1 tbs macadamia nut oil, 1 tbs olive oil
  • a little bit honey
  • juice of a lime
  • salt and pepper
  • some coriander leaves

Stir-fried sirloin

  • 8oz sirloin, cut into pieces
  • marinated 30 minutes in 2 tbs soy sauce, some grated ginger and galic, pepper and red chillies.

Delicious :slight_smile:
[/quote]

that looks pretty good and all but i think i would need about 4 of those… 5 if it were a leg day

127

Thank you very much for your kind words. I really feel blessed I can live the life I’m living and that I can afford all this. Well, I do have to save my money so I can spend it on my food and supps, it’s not that I earn that much.

But I’m happy with what I’ve got (and don’t feel pissed about what I haven’t got) and where I am. It’s been a very tough road and still is some times. My childhood was all but funny and cosy, highly abusive and with parents in deep debt. I was an outsider and got beat up more than times than you could ever imagine.

I remember many, many days when we had nothing to eat at all, many times I found my mother crying in the bathroom. Until I was 22 I had never celebrated Christmas - we couldn’t afford the food and presents. Until I was 29, after I had completed my PhD, I had practically nothing. I had 3 jobs and worked 40 hours a week in addition to 40 lab work, and only took one single Sunday off per month. One day of rest per 30 days. I knew from very early on that the only way out of the misery was to do it myself. It was at the age of 15 I realized that I could either fight my way out my life back then, or to either be severely depressed and poor or dead by the age of 40. I decided to fight. So I left the village I lived in and the social environment that literally almost killed me. I put every bit of energy into school (my colleague years) and my work at the university. I had to work a lot so I could afford to rent a room and buy me books and food. I knew that the only way out would be to educate myself, to study and get some well-recognized grades. Slowly, slowly built the live I wanted.

Still today, my past sometimes comes back to haunt me all of a sudden. But today I know that there is a solution for every problem and that one always has a choice. I chose to become a good person; someone who tries to surprise others, to pay things forward, to be kind to other people, to treat other with respect. I could have become the same desperate bastard like the guys beating me up and torturing me every single day when I was a boy day. But I knew that being cruel and mean to others would never, ever lead to happiness.

I couldn’t be happier now. I am healthy, earn good money, live in Zurich, Switzerland, which to me really is the most beautiful city in the world, I live with the most beautiful girl in the world and I can afford to travel the world, by expensive supps and just enjoy life! Still work 50 hours a week, but that feels easy in the context of all the positive things surrounding me.

But I digress… What I wanted to say, is, that life is so overwhelmingly precious, that we have to live - every single day - like we really meant it. And if one keeps holding on to ones dreams, if one refuses to give up, if one refuses to get knocked out no matter how hard one has been hit, if one works and lives and loves the way it is really meant, in full awareness of our mortality and that we most probably will only live once, then we can achieve everything we want.

Well, I’m not exactly old enough to tell other people how to live, and I do not intend to pretend being an old and wise man. But I am a bit older than many fellow bodybuilders and T-men here on T-Nation, and I can tell you: I’ve been to hell and back in my live - and that more than once. But I never gave in and intend to stand tall until my very last day.

You have a choice: If you want to earn twice as much as you are earning today, make a plan and go for it. If you want to gain 40 pounds of muscle, set up a plan and go for it. If you want to become a famous author, athlete, scientist: go for it. And live like you mean it.

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Wow, great post! I just gotta say congrats on all of the hard work that you’ve put it. It sounds like it has definitely paid off. Very inspirational.

129

Everyone should have to read this. This is one of the best examples of what hard work and determination can do. Amazing job. Thanks for sharing. Inspiring.

130

@ryanbCXG + ashylarryku: Thank you very much. If you think about it: what empowers you the most in life, what gives us strength and drive and confidence and hope? It’t other people! It’s our friends and wives or girlfriends, sometimes a teacher, a coach, or just anybody you meet in a bar, start talking to and end up having a great and inspirational conversation over a cup of coffee.
I hope I can give a little bit back of what some, few indeed, people have done for me in my life.

131

Great posts in general, but especially your most recent one. Much gratitude for taking the time and effort to share.

If you don’t mind me asking what did you get your PhD in?

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[quote]AquaCruzer wrote:
Great posts in general, but especially your most recent one. Much gratitude for taking the time and effort to share.

If you don’t mind me asking what did you get your PhD in?[/quote]

Thank you very much.

Molecular biology :slight_smile:

133

I love this thread. That last post is now printed and sticked to my wall.

134

I love seeing PhD’s that love to lift weights. I just graduated with a cell/molecular biology degree with a chemistry minor. I am taking a year off and then applying to medical school.

135

[quote]ryanbCXG wrote:
I love seeing PhD’s that love to lift weights. I just graduated with a cell/molecular biology degree with a chemistry minor. I am taking a year off and then applying to medical school.[/quote]

Well done, bro! Congratulations! I believe the effort is really worth it and what you’ll “put in” over the naxt years will more than pay off later in your life.

You know what’s the beauty in bodybuilding? In the gym, everybody is equal. It doesn’t help you if you are a cocky waöö street banker who makes 5 million a year; the weights will crash you if you don’t train hard for years, and years, and years. It doesn’t count if you have a PhD, the only thing that counts is your dedication and committment for our sport - if one could even call it a “sport”.

By the way: a PhD is nothing special. Just shows that you put some effort into something. I come from a familiy of metal workers, my best friends work in the IT sector, as meachanics, fitness instructors and electricians, and none of them is better or worse than another because of a title or acquired wealth. In my opinion it’s not so much about what you do, but how you do it.

I really appreciate your desicion to go to medical school. It’s always a good thing to learn something you can help others with - or literally save lives with. Being good, helping others and serving a purpose is - in my opinion - the very essence of being a T-man!

Cheers, PA

136

CONTEST PREP

I will start my next contest prep on Monday, May 23rd 2011. That means a full 20 weeks of contest preperation. No kidding.

The original plan was to start some 13 or 14 weeks before the contest. After talking to Chris Shugart yesterday (which means I will get my first supply of Indigo-3G very soon smile) I got a little excited and decided to try something new this time.

I mean, this is what bodybuilding is all about: trial and error, learining by doing, enjoying the journey.
No, what are the rationals behind such an extensive prep? Those are my thoughts:

  1. Since I will be using Indigo-3G as well as Receptormax for the first time in a prep, I want those supplements to have enough time to work and their effects to really manifest in my body. I imagine that just being on Receptormax / I-3G for a couple of weeks will not dramatically change my shape, but being on those supps for several month most probaly will.

  2. I know how to get in contest shape. So, if the approach (which will be different than my tried-and-true approach to get in shape, as I will explain later in this post) will not work the way I thought it would, there will be enough time to make some adjustments along the way and, in the worst case, I could actually switch to my standard prep diet after 4, 6 or even 8 weeks in the prep.

  3. I hope that having more time will alow me to come in harder and heavier compared to a 10 to 12 weeks blitz-diet.

  4. If Indigo-3G really allows me to eat more carbs during the prep, this should allow me to train heavier up to very close to the contest. It should also help me to keep more muscle mass, which in turn would lead to higher energy turnover throughout the prep and eventually a harder, fuller and denser look on stage.

  5. The original plan was to clean bulk to around 240 or 245 and then start the prep. I realzed that this will not be possible within the next month or 6 weeks. Well, I could go up to 245, but it would not be very clean anymore and I would have to lose more fat in lesser time. I weighted 228 this morning. I plan to step on stage with 210 to 212. This is not very much, but being an all natural bodybuilder I would be happy with that weight, as long as I manage to be super shredded by contest day, of course.

I will make some significant changes in my diet, especially in terms of

a) carb consumption
b) carb cycling approach

I normally cycle carbs during a prep and have 4 very low carb days a week (only trace carbs. Daily total below 30g). 2 moderate carb days (around 70-100g) and one higher carb day (300-400g).

Now that I have the privilege to incorporate I-3G into my prep from the very beginning, I will NOT explicitly cycle carbs. I will have relatively much carbs on all training days and low carbs only on the 2 days each I will not lift weights. This will be my weekly schedule:

Monday: workout 1, 3000 to 3200 calories, 320g protein, 200g carbs, 100g fat
Tuesday: workout 2, same
Wednesday: cardio, 2200 to 2400 claories, 280g protein, 40g carbs (or less), 100g fat
Thursday: workout 3, same as Monday
Friday: workout 4, same as Monday
Saturday: workout 5, same as Monday
Sunday: cardio, same as Wednesday

My weekly carb total will amount to around 1100 grams, which will be almost twice as much as my normal prep diet would alow me to eat. As I said, it is an experiment and I really hope that I-3G will help with the higher carbs.

I will start with those numbers and take it from there, depending on how my body reacts (I can also imagine going even HIGHER with the carbs).

Since I do my heavy weight lifting workouts in the morning, my peri-workout nutrition will basically be my first meal of the day. This is how I will eat on a workout day:

Meal 1: peri-workout nutrition
2 FINiBARS
2 scoops Surge Workout Fuel
1 scoop Anaconda
12g additional BCAA
1 scoop Grow!

Meal 2: mid-morning
1 scoop Grow!
100g oatmeal
20g raisins

Meal 3: lunch
200g to 250g chicken breast
200g veggies
30g peanut butter

Meal 4: snack
1 scoop Metabolic Drive (low carb)
1 scoop Grow!
30g nuts and almonds

Meal 5: supper
200g to 250g red meat
200g veggies
5g olive oil
5g macadamia oil

Meal 6: before sleep
50g true protein custom blend (35% micellar casein, 35% CFM whey, 30% milk protein isolate)
5g fish oil

On non-training days I will do some semi-fasted morning cardio. I just have 20g of whey protein isolate 15 to 20 minutes before I start my morning cardio and sip on a BCAA drink during the session. Meals 4, 5 and 6 will be the same as on the training days, the other meals will look like this:

Meal 1: breakfast
3 to 5 big-size omega-3 eggs
200g veggies
1 scoop Grow!

Meal 2: snack
300g probiotic yoghurt
1 scoop Metabolic Drive (low carb)

Meal 3: lunch
200g to 250g chicken breast
200g veggies
30g peanut butter

I know that total calories look a bit low. Two things:
Firstly, my metabolism somehow got slower over the years and I have to start diets lower in calories than, say, 15 years ago.

Secondly, I do ADD calories when I feel I need it. I know my body very well and the above sample diet is just that: a sample. I often incorporate days higher in calories when I feel that my body starts to become too catabolic. Especially in the beginning of a diet, I might have 1 or 2 days with 500 to 600 more caolories (which I would add in form of mainly protein sources and some carbs. A favourite way to add some clean calories is an additional whey protein isoltae shake with the main meals.).

This means that my average daily caloric intake will be roughly 3000 to 3200 calories in the beginning of the prep. I will take it from there.

Other Supplements:

In addition to the protein powders and the peri-workout supps mentioned above (Anaconda, Grow!, FINiBARS, Surge Workout Fuel, Metabolic Drive and BCAA), I will use the following supplements:

  1. Indigo-3G; I do not exactly know yet when and how much I am going to use. Hope to get some valuable advice from Shelby, Chris and Thibs as soon as it has arrived.

  2. Receptormax; as directed.

  3. Powerdrive and Spike; my favourite combo to help me stay sane during a prep

  4. Z-12; when needed

  5. Zinc and Vitamin D; staples. 30mg zinc chelate and 2000 IU vitamin D

  6. HOT-ROX Extreme; I pan to take it for 8 weeks, then have a 4 week break from it and then reincorporate it for the rest of the prep.

I am, of course, very eager on keeping you updated on my experience on I-3G and on how the prep goes.

Cheers, PA

137

I’m excited to follow along for your prep, especially since you’re trying out I-3G. Are you going to be posting daily workouts, with weights used and whatnot? I’m always curious to see how guys like you and Synergy go about tour workouts when it comes to ramping, and wave loading to get more work in.

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The more I read up the more I like the idea of an “extended” prep period (16-20 weeks): It lets you start things much more reasonably, and progress much more methodically and have more time to make tweaks and improvements.

The first 4-8 weeks can really just be a “ramp up” or sorts, still eating plenty of food but having a few days a week where you keep carbs/cal low to get the fat loss ball rolling.

I cant really see any downsides to giving yourself 8 extra weeks to dial it in. Hell, you might even be able to get away with less cardio that way (which is my least favorite part of getting shredded), which is huge.

I will be watching this thread very closely and rooting for you Paragon, you and a few other guys have kept me inspired during my “virtual contest” prep (not stepping on stage, but trying to get into stage condition by June 31st).

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do you have a pic of your current condition?

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[quote]ParagonA wrote:
This one I must share as well: today’s dinner:

A warm salad I made from:

  • a handful of spinach baby leaves
  • 8oz small potatoes (cooked)
  • 4oz asparagus
  • half a red and half a yellow bell pepper (put them in the oven until sweet and soft)
  • 1 tbs macadamia nut oil, 1 tbs olive oil
  • a little bit honey
  • juice of a lime
  • salt and pepper
  • some coriander leaves

Stir-fried sirloin

  • 8oz sirloin, cut into pieces
  • marinated 30 minutes in 2 tbs soy sauce, some grated ginger and galic, pepper and red chillies.

Delicious :slight_smile:
[/quote]
Great thread mate, I have been reading along.

No one commented on this post but I really apreciate this kind of post. I don’t mind cooking and I love to eat. That looks like a really nice little feed. You use a lot of similar ingredients to what I like.

I dont understand why some people continue to eat such bland food when there are so many herbs spices ect which will add hardly any calories and not only make your food taste better but vastly increase the nutrient value.

I really like to have variety in the food I eat and I like to use a lot of fresh ingredients, however some things I dont use very regularly and i hate to waste food. How do you buy/keep fresh ingredients that you dont use very often? for example corriander, there are really only two dishes that I cook that use it but I can only buy a very large bunch.

Do you plan all your meals for the week to make sure you use all your produce?