I probably eat about a pound of meat per day. Pretty standard day for me is a scoop of collagen in my morning coffee with a 5oz full fat yogurt for breakfast, packed lunch (common choices being chili, beef stew, leftover pork) and 16 ounces of whole milk, dinner of meat and vegetables (my wife and I use this cookbook a lot called “Cook Once, Eat All Week” where you do a bunch of prep on the weekend and then have 3 meals that can be assembled in a few minutes; most all of the meals involve a big piece of meat prepped on the weekend and then prepared different ways, for example, tonight we’re having shredded-beef-stuffed sweet potatoes with a kale-mango salsa). I track my macros very roughly with MyFitnessPal and I’m usually around 160-180 grams protein & around 2800 total calories per day, but I’m pretty sedentary outside my gym time and obviously train at a pretty low volume so I don’t have the caloric needs that some might have to grow).
CrossFit/Bodybuilder Trial Run
Upper
PRECOR AMT WARM UP
5 min, L1, 0.52 miles
Superset 1
SA DB BENCH (subbed for bench)
55 x 10 x 3 sets
DB ROW (subbed for barbell row)
75 x 10 x 3
REHAB STUFF
Superset 2
SA DEC DB BENCH (subbed for dips)
55 x 10 x 3
Too steep and too light.
SA CABLE ROW
80 x 10 x 3
REHAB STUFF
8 Minute AMRAP
SA DB SNATCH (subbed for power clean)
50 x 5
SA PULL DOWN (subbed for pull ups)
90 x 5
8 rounds. Not the same as the original exercises. Those single arm substitutes are not very demanding. I didn’t even get out of breath.
Superset 3
DB CURL
30 x 10, 10, 7 + 3 hammer curls
SA PRESS DOWN
40 x 10, 10
50 x 10
The gun show was supposed to be done before the AMRAP but I forgot. The session took about 42 minutes. It would be a lot better with two arms.
Looking like a good approach J.
Obvious it would be better, being able to use both arms.
About the protein talk, I’m still trying to get my gram pr pound, but I don’t care if I’m under that to be honest. I’m at the same line with you J, I don’t think I’m able to build muscles at the speed some peeps does.
I have to say, I take my hat off to anyone who can gain muscle without eating so much it’s a chore and without getting fluffy as a good quilt.
Both J and I ate like crazy last year I gained about 12 kg, I’ve lost 13 kg by now and I can’t see I’ve build as much as a single muscle.
There is (at least) two things to this I think number 1 is a bit about genetics and the second for me is age. Then there’s the aspect of not training the “right” way, and many many others.
I’ll bet that if any 20 - 30 year old had trained and strained the exact same way I’ve done over the last 2 - 3 years, I’m absolutely certain they would have build both strength and muscles in a much larger scale than I’ve done.
Age definitely factors in. I try very hard not to berate myself for what I didn’t know and didn’t do when I was 15 to 25. Still doing ok now, but man that extra decade might have made some interesting differences.
One of many things that stuck out to me in Paul’s recent thread was whenhe said most people will achieve the bulk of their genetic potential after a few years of solid training.
I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, but if I go back to my early training days then I can kind of see it. I started training half assed in my high school weight lifting classes. I fully committed in the spring of 2002 when I was 17. Six days a week without missing a session while eating tons including two 950 calorie shakes a day. I played tons of baseball and worked eight hours a day doing manual labor for my dad’s landscaping company.
I gained 20 lbs that summer which took me from 200 to 220 at 6’5" (by the way, I was 6’5" again at the doctor yesterday). That’s a pretty big high school senior. I didn’t have abs but I haven’t changed a whole lot since then.
I got up to 240 a year later and maintained that through most of college. I’ve spent the last 13 years going from 220 to 230 or even 235. Hell, I pushed it to 250 last year.
One could say that I achieved most of my potential in those first years. I feel and move better when my weight is below 230 so I suspect my body prefers that and really doesn’t want to add any muscle.
I’m not going to say that I can’t add muscle. I’m just not sure if it’s possible without changing my priorities drastically.
7.23.19
Woke at 214.4 lbs. I’m going to look at the program I shared yesterday and dissect it a bit more. I’ll also look at HIIB more. Call me crazy, but it appears a hybrid program is a strength program with a MetCon at the end. There are a lot of things I can’t do right now so I might as well customize something.
CF/BB Trial Run Day 2
5 MIN AIRDYNE WARM UP
Superset 1
WALKING LUNGE
50 x 10 ea x 3 sets
SL RDL
75 x 10 ea x 3 sets
Part 2
2 MINUTE LEG PRESS
368 x 86
First wave of nausea…
Superset 3
45* BACK EXTENSION
25 x 15 x 3
DEC DB CRUNCH
45 x 10 x 3
MetCon
15 DB Snatches w/ 35 lbs
AirDyne 30 sec
5 Rounds, 8:44. Second wave of nausea.
Now I remember why my CrossFit experiment didn’t last - I suck at picking the appropriate MetCons for my conditioning level and bury myself. This wasn’t even that hard; it just maxed out my heart rate. I’m pretty sure the nausea was due to poor nutrition. I ate lunch and was hungry again by the time I made it to the gym.
I still have some sorting out to do. Not sure if I like upper/lower. I’ve always preferred push/pull. I’m also not sure about the split. To be honest, today sucked for legs. It’s way more volume than I’ve been doing. I also don’t really care if my legs grow. I’m not going to neglect them but I don’t need to hammer them. If I continue with this program then I’ll do more fun leg stuff on Friday. I’m not sure if I need/want that. There will definitely be some tweaking; I’m just not sure what yet.
7.24.19 (Seven Weeks Post-Op)
Woke at 214.4 lbs.
A couple of updates…
-
I think I’m going to go with HIIB training for this CrossFit Bodybuilding trial. The split will be M/T/Th/F and its upper/lower push/shoulders/lower pull. I still haven’t figured out the strength side of things. I’d like to have a progression of some way to gauge progress instead of just wearing myself out every session.
-
My shoulder has been hurting more now that I’m out of the sling. Sleep has been illusive. Standing abduction seems to be the biggest contributor. That movement hurts. I’ve started taking hydrocodone 5s at night so I can sleep and I’m dropping the abduction movement. I’ll be doing isometric holds at different angles for awhile.
-
I’m sore AF this morning. Yesterday’s leg session was too much and I’m going to be hurting for the rest of the week. My left trap is also toast from 115 DB snatches done over the last two days. Lastly, my lower back is torched from the extensions I did yesterday. It’s going to be a painful week. I’ll just be doing a bit of light cardio today to get the blood flowing.
Everyone loves a good quilt.
Although not now, it’s hot as balls here now
Not everyone has the relatively stress free life that a 20 year old has.
I also find it (relatively) difficult to make noticeable progress, but I have to realise I haven’t done everything I could to achieve what I want. When I start thinking about the choices I made, I’m usually much happier about it. That cheese on toast was a mistake though
Cardio
30 minutes on the Precor Adaptive Motion Trainer. It’s not quite an elliptical. It’s not a stepper. It’s whatever you make it. The foot pedals will move however you want. Covered 2.52 miles in 30 minutes.
From memory though last year your primary focus was strength. I dont remember you training much like a bodybuilder ?
Nah not really I was doing SGSS which was a bit of both, and before that was Brians Darkhorse with a lot of amraps.
But you’re right I was probably focused more on strength.
@Frank_C how about a push/pull/leg split that is what Paul Carter recommends.
You are hammering it quite hard, given your rehab situation. Inspiring man.
Tuesday reminded me how much I dislike doing all of my leg training at once 
.
7.25.19
Woke at 211.8.
I have PT at 8 and my follow up appointments with my shoulder surgeon at 9:30.
I’ll be trying to do a shoulder session from HIIB later today.
@isdatnutty, this popped up on Facebook yesterday.
It says I need between 160 - 200g of protein per day. That’s more feasible than the usual bro science recommendation.
Uhmm…Eighty Six! 86 of anything is too much, doing this on leg press sounds like death.
The DOMS is great! I have a good amount of soreness all throughout my legs (maybe a bit more than I’d like). Glutes, quads, and hams are all tender.
The leg press sucks. I did 50-10-5-5-5-5-3-3. I’m considering swapping that for Tabata leg press. 20 sec on, 10 off x 8 sounds better than doing 50 reps in a minute.