Just completed the 6 weeks Metcon for Muscle. Loved @Christian_Thibaudeau programming, so I went to his site. Took the neurotype test and was typed 51% 1B, So I bought into the diet and workout planning. Started Phase 1 today, and initial thoughts:
Felt like I was moving in mud compared to Metcons. Not in a bad way, but my HR recovered so fast between sets, the rest periods felt like forever.
Love the focus on the highest quality possible reps.
I’ll probably make some big jumps in weight next week. I was hesitant to slam cyclist squats too fast, as that had previously been a struggle lift for me in prior attempts, but it fel really smooth today and my old man knees barely cracked/popped, even without sleeves.
For the diet, I’m not going to measure and count initially. I’m mentally worn out from doing daily weights, using a food scale, counting macros, adding ingredients or feedings jus to it macro goals. I need a break. I’m going to be focusing on a couple things:
Food quality. Build each meal with whole foods first most of the time
Meal construction: High Quality Protein (grassfed beef, eggs, chicken, shrimp, fish etc) paired with a vegetable and a carb. Only ingredients I’ll measure are if any oils or dressings are added. Just keep meals simple & whole, 3-5 ingredients. Try to shift heaviest carb meal to evening.
If I get hungry/postworkout, I drink a scoop of Metabolic Drive, I add in a scoop of superbeets and supergreens I get for a good price at Sams Club also.
Supplements on this phase: 1 scoop of Surge preworkout, Rez-V, Carbolin 19, EltePro Minerals. Reading through ThibArmy articles, and he mentioned using Dandelion Root and Curcumin as well, so I found those on Amazon and will ad it in.
Looking forward to this training phase. I will be adding in the recommended Cardio sessions and Ab work in the evenings/on non-lifting days as well. I feel like a less crushing start to the day, with more frequent work will be a welcome change for me.
I think I’m just going to shoot for performance goals, and let the physique figure itself out. I would guess that at ~18-20%BF I’ll lean out over the long term doing all this work, and keeping my portions in control, so if that happens, great! Just shifting my focus away from measuring and obsessive macro counting, to overall satisfation and performance at least for awhile. I think for me, I can stay more focused and motivated doing that. I’ve been counting macros and measuring food for far too long, and just spinning my wheels. I get too far into it and make too many tweaks/changes and it creates some obsession/anxiety about it all for me. Going to try to be the “most athletic me” and see what happens. I know my younger self did that and was about 15-20# lighter lol. Even when I was competing in CrossFit about 3 yrs ago, I was just leaner from focusing solely on performance. Just going to focus on my weights/workouts, eat 3 square meals a day, veggies at every meal, and added protein as needed for hunger.
Morning Cardio done: 10 minutes on the Rower, 10 Minutes on the Echo Bike. Kept HR 110-130 for the duration. Nothing intense or fancy, but wore the sweatsuit and got a nice morning lather in. Finished with EMOM abs, focused on 5 intense/slowly controlled reps of each exercise: Hanging knees to chest, Ab Wheel, Med Ball Crunches, Hollow Holds (20s). Really trying to focus on mor direct use of my abdominals, it’s been a lagging area for me. Slow and controlled brings a whole new level of difficulty to these exercises, rather than just cranking out momentm filled reps as fast as possible.
Ok, so turns out, 10sec isometric holds are REALLY hard lol. I’ll probably make some big jumps next week due to neuromuscular adaptations, but that was a new one for me.
Also, Frankenstein squats were scary (pun intended). Not having any hands on the bar was unnerving, but the biggest demand I felt was from nuts to nipples trying to stay perfectly upright.
Got 10 minutes on the rower to warmup, and 10 minutes on the echo Bike to cool down.
Workout was basic, but man did I have to drop the weights down. Even with basic movements, a slow eccentrics paired with a rest-pause is BRUTAL. Especially tough on a Friday after 2 other heavy training days this week.
Was able to increase weights 10%, but holy shit, 7 second negatives are BRUTAL. Lots of time under tension. I’ll be feeling the pump for 3 more days lol.
