What up Canada, how many times a year do you cut down?
I am in that in between phase to a serious diet, I am strict now but not to the strict of weighing food.
I think I plan that for April and May.
WELL I am 25 and have lived in edmonton since I was 19 (before that I was in lame-wad sherwood park)
I train at Kinsmen religiously. Where did you workout when you were here?? Sometimes I think I’d like to try out a different gym once in a while to stir things up.
OH i am a chick, sometimes it’s hard to tell that through font, haha
Just popping in to see how things are going.
+1 on the Berardi e-book. There’s a lot of ways to crack the fat-loss nut isn’t there?
james
Keeping up a log takes a lotta time! I like the back-and-forth, and the conversation, but lately I’m low on the energy to have a meaningful post count.
So, by way of random updates…
My coach has prescribed the obligatory daily steady-state cardio. To this point I’ve been walking hard at lunch. This has become increasingly challenging as winter suddenly arrived over-night and the temperature dropped to -25 (Celcius, Farenheidt, who gives a #%$*). So I walk in my monster Sorel boots (which have such thick rubber soles I look like I’m wearing Lady Gaga shoes), thermal undies, snow pants, heavy jacket, face mask, toque, and ski goggles. The goal is NO EXPOSED SKIN.
And then my coach (the masochistic motherf###er) has prescribed 5x10 burpees to precede my walking. So I can no longer do it at lunch hour because it I do 50 burpees I’ll sweat through my work clothes. Now I have to claw back even more family time to squeeze it in.
And my plans with my posing coach appear to have fallen through. The #$%@&* has stopped answering e-mails, so I have to make alternate arrangements. Not the end of the world, there’s other coaches out there, but a distraction I didn’t want.
AND…
… yes there’s more…
… the provincial promoters for the natural bodybuilding show I was going to compete in had a falling out with the federation and have jumped ship to a NEW federation taking most of the athletes with them. So the NEW show is now two weeks later. Which again is not a problem, I get 2 more weeks of prep, but now this puts the whole works into doubt as I wonder if ANY of these shows will have legs come May.
On the positive side, my Sunday meal prep was AWESOME, and every meal, pill and powder for the week is prepped and bottled and ready to go. Today’s workout was also AWESOME, although most of you would giggle yourself silly if you saw all the funny exercises I was doing.
SO I guess, more or less, all is good. Confusing, but good.
This is a shit ton of work, On top of worlds colliding (i.e. family, work and kids). Has the family been supportive?
Im curious about the coaching situation, is it a strictly on line thing? Is this the new method of training people, shit If thats the case I would look into getting a trainer myself.
Keep it up man, your hard work is not going unnoticed.
CanadaK,if you wouldn’t mind could you post one (or more) of your workouts. I’m just curious what someone who is really bodybuilding with a coach does. And what kind of strength loss have you experienced during this? If you already posted this stuff and I missed it I apologize.
It’s been a while since i slipped the ol’ banana hammock on but I’m a BB’er too Frenchy.
Sucks about the posing coach.
The BB industry seems to be a little finicky that way in terms of ‘reliability’. Hope you find another one soon. The sooner you start to practice, the better you’ll do.
Q: Does ‘Coach’ have you doing any kind of fascia stretching during your lifting sessions? I’ve been having some side bar conversations with a few BB friends who are very big (pun intended) into fascia stretching during a session to allow the muscle to “grow”. I know this is part of the DC protocol (I think they do it at the end) and I know MountainDog emphasizes fascia stretching for lats (at a minimum). Thoughts?
Todd - Fascia stretching may be the only thing my coach DOESN’T have me doing. I’ve read about it, and certainly you can’t argue with the theory. I just don’t think it’s backed up by anything. Plus the fact that the guys who get massive on DC are also usually users, so i don’t know if they always correlate.
Demo - Can we PLEASE call them “trunks”?!?!?!?!?!
Eco - I don’t think I’ve lost any strength at all. My Monday quad workout is below for your interest. I asked my coach why all the heavy lifting went by the wayside with this month’s training block andhe said that with the high workload (6 days a week lifting, lotsa sets, high reps) it’s really easy to hit CNS fatigue. In order to keep the workload high to fire up the metabolism, and maintain the muscle as you start slashing calories, machine work helps spare your CNS.
Matty - The home situation is actually not bad. Wife is being pretty cool about everything, and even occasionally supportive. The biggest problem is the intense guilt I feel when I’m NOT with my kids. The cardio is atrting to erode some of that, and the demand is only going to increase. I’m going to have trouble with this as it amps up in coming months.
My coach is strictly on-line. I don’t really need someone to show me how to do any of these exercises, so I just need an advanced planner who knows how to prep bodybuilders and can lay out the road map. he gives me my workouts, my nutrition plan, and for wonky exercises he provides links to on-line resources and videos. If e-mail him questions, and if I need him tocheck my form on an exercise I send videos back.
Monday’s Quad dominant workout
1a. Walking lunges - 4 sets x 5 reps x 70 lb dumbells
1b. Alternating rear lunge into step-up on high bench - 4 sets x 5 reps x 95 lb bar
1c. Bodyweight sissy squat (back to heels) - 10, 8, 6, 6
2a. Leg press - 3 sets x 16 reps x 360 lb
2b. 4 position ski-squat (wall squats that go lower and lower) - 3 sets x 10s hold at each depth
2c. calf raise in leg press machine - 12 reps x 360, 8 reps x 450, 15 reps x 270 lb
3a. planted lateral squat - 2 sets x 8 reps x bar
3b. bodyweight natural leg extensions - 2 sets x 5 reps
- BB Back squat with 1 sec pause at rock bottom (butt to heels) - 1 set x 14 reps x 135 lb
This was surprisingly brutal.
Im not sure anything with glitter and is purple can be called trunks
that is allot of lunges.
it is still intriguing to read and see the transformation
and crazy diet.
the guilt thing with kids and gym is a pain - with just one.
I can imagine with three.
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
Monday’s Quad dominant workout
1a. Walking lunges - 4 sets x 5 reps x 70 lb dumbells
1b. Alternating rear lunge into step-up on high bench - 4 sets x 5 reps x 95 lb bar
1c. Bodyweight sissy squat (back to heels) - 10, 8, 6, 6
2a. Leg press - 3 sets x 16 reps x 360 lb
2b. 4 position ski-squat (wall squats that go lower and lower) - 3 sets x 10s hold at each depth
2c. calf raise in leg press machine - 12 reps x 360, 8 reps x 450, 15 reps x 270 lb
3a. planted lateral squat - 2 sets x 8 reps x bar
3b. bodyweight natural leg extensions - 2 sets x 5 reps
- BB Back squat with 1 sec pause at rock bottom (butt to heels) - 1 set x 14 reps x 135 lb
This was surprisingly brutal.[/quote]
Thanks CanadaK. This looks brutal. I bet your legs were on fire.
Man that sucks about your coach and show. That training looks fun and hard at the same time. Kick some ass CK.
Absolutely ZERO desire to train today. None. Zip. Zilch.
Trained anyway. Deficit deadlift supersets. They sucked. I rocked.
Tomorrow… repeat.
THIS, folks, is The Grind.
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
Absolutely ZERO desire to train today. None. Zip. Zilch.
Trained anyway. Deficit deadlift supersets. They sucked. I rocked.
Tomorrow… repeat.
THIS, folks, is The Grind.[/quote]
Love it! Sometimes it is just a matter of putting your head down and barreling through!
Just wanted you to know that I’m following along 
Incredible discipline!
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
Absolutely ZERO desire to train today. None. Zip. Zilch.
Trained anyway. Deficit deadlift supersets. They sucked. I rocked.
Tomorrow… repeat.
THIS, folks, is The Grind.[/quote]
This is why you stand out above the rest…
HIGH REP SQUATS STINK… LITERALLY
Well this is interesting. At the very end of my quad workout, I’m supposed to do one set of 15 reps of paused squats. This is, drop my butt as close to the floor as physically possible without going ass-over-teakettle, pause for a second and then explode up. It is, of course, brutal. But today, by the end of the set I started to smell/taste AMMONIA in my sinuses.
What the hell is this? Clearly I was tapping into to some funky pathway of the anaerobic energy cycle, but this is new to me. Any geeks with an explanation?
[quote]Canada_K wrote:
HIGH REP SQUATS STINK… LITERALLY
Well this is interesting. At the very end of my quad workout, I’m supposed to do one set of 15 reps of paused squats. This is, drop my butt as close to the floor as physically possible without going ass-over-teakettle, pause for a second and then explode up. It is, of course, brutal. But today, by the end of the set I started to smell/taste AMMONIA in my sinuses.
What the hell is this? Clearly I was tapping into to some funky pathway of the anaerobic energy cycle, but this is new to me. Any geeks with an explanation?[/quote]
Well you are a machine, you popped a gasket.
Or you need to change your shorts.
Matty - Thanks for the shout out. Really, I’m just stubborn.
Null - You’re alive! We can call it discipline, but like I said above I’m just being pigheaded.
Patch - Welcome. Thanks for the compliment, I always like those.