Monday PM training was not glamourus and unmoving anything. I did another hour on the Stepmill before training started to get out of the way. We started out with some raw work as I faded in and out all night. I watched Brant make Spud Inc Tshirts and read some of Lyle Mcdonald's Stubborn Fat Book because that is where I am right now.
_raw 2 board 315x6 to chest, 365x5/2 board, 405x5/2b, 455x3/2b. Nothing left so I cashed out adn did some incline dumebells for reps and helped the rest of the crew out.65sx20,85sx20, 100sx15
-green band pushdowns 3 sets mixed with single arm hammers while screaming Mr. Olympia at the top of my lungs for fun.
-side front rear laterals 8 reps each x 3 rounds
-Went home and got about 3 hours sleep maybe.
Tues 315 am
-Sled dragging 2 plates for a hour, then went in took a break for a hour and then did a hour on the Staiemaster. I continued to read the Stubborn Fat book because I just like to know things and this one was recommened to me. It was written for that last little bit of fat(guys under 10% adn girls under 15% I think) that won't seem to budge no matter how mcuh cardio, low carb days adn chicken you can eat. I had reached the end where I can't add any more cardio no matter how ways I change it to make it tolerable. Most of the day, I was shitty and not fun to be around as the boiling point continued to creshindo. The day drug on forever and finally ended. As usual, the old lady called adn I did my best not to explode. Had a ton of other chores at the house and hammered away at those. All I wanted to do was sit in the chair, relax for a minute and eat my salads. That was what I got. I then sat there usually content to zone out but the desire to understand this fat loss thing kept at me until I grabbed the book and read for about a hour and got my fill. Upon finishing, I was much calmer and relaxed like a fever had just broke. For the past months, I had been hammering and hammering away, hating the cardio, ready to eat 30 or 40,000 calories at one time.Now it was okay and I realized the job ahead and it was allright. I think I finally got it and the uncertainty of the whole thing just went away.
Wed am cardio
I slept great and woke up at 430am ready to go and do my cardio. Not for the hour and half plus the hour I started doing for 2 weeks but only a hour. I started with a warm up lap, 5 interval spints of 15 seconds followed by 50 seconds rest each one and the 5 or 6 more laps of med intestiy work. Sweated just as much only no stress about doing a zillion laps. Will do a hour tonight in the same format on the stepmill ir stairmaster.
The Spud
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday Training/ Sunday Insanity
Saturday was great because there was no cardio to do. I was drained from the week and it took about 2 hours to get going. Usually, I do a light upperbody and then a dynamic speed pull day. Since, I could not get it going I did some reverse band pullsthinking that would be easy then regular. We used a green band with about 100 off at the bottom and completely off at the top. Started with the the 100s on each side for 5 conventional the added 50 to 300x5, 425x5, 515x2. I then decideed to put briefs on that did not fit or give me anything adn pulled 600x1 ugly so I tapped the briefs out and wnet back to raw for 515x3x4 sets.
-back raises and pullup 3 rounds x8 per set supersetted
-Floor press rev bands. 325x5x4, 375x3x3
-Fat bar curls supered with pushdowns 4 rounds x 8 per round
- Front, side and rear delt raise with purple bands 3 rounds each x10 per set.
Done for the day.
Sunday Cardio Insanity
-I had been telling everyone that I was going to try 20 laps with the sled and Sunday was as good as day as any. Started out with 2 plates and it stuck to the pavement on a nice muggy 745 am start in SC. The usual happened, two laps in i started hallucinating and that continued for the next 3 laps. The next five weren't awful but I could not get a rhythm and by lap 10 Iwas hating life. Then a gym member and his wife came out and started pulling sled and that charged me up adn I hammer off 5 more laps but they disappeared after the first two laps before I realized they were gone. THe last five laps were hell. I had to stop 2 times a lap and take off 20lbs.
I finished about 1030am. I sat in my rocking chair at the gym and just dazed off for 20 minutes. I really could not move. I had a lot of things to do and move in teh gym and Dale was ready to help me but I just could not move. I told him it would be a hour before I could do anything. Sure enough, at 1130 after alittle food and some more rocking chair I was better. to top it off, it was a zero carb day so my energy was already dying after the ridiculous cardio sled.
We loaded up a few pieces of equipment that I was taking out of the gym because i still have way too equipment in one place and headed off to the storage unit. Unfortunatley we got there and I requested a dwonstairs unit and somehow got a upstairs unit. Now my storage place is a old cotton warehouse. THe bottom units are great and stay 70 degrees all year but the upstairs are whatever the temp is for the day. Yesterday, it was about 95 or so. I backed down the lower ramp leading to the bottom unit thinking it was going to be a easy deal. I got out and started checking the locks on each door. My key would not fit any of them.
At this point, I am thinking it's a upstairs unit but I try each door again hoping I screwed up and a jiggle of each lock might out the magic door. No luck, so i go upstairs and start on those locks and of course it's the last one. Bythis time, the no carb, stupid cardio and heat are getting to me and I get pissed. I call the old lady and yell at her becasue she got the unit and I asked her alot of times to make sure we get a lower unit. There was no point in that either but it just went that way.
Now, I have to make a decision. Keep the unit adn suck it up because these unit are hard to get and at 40 bucks for a 8x20 a good deal. Usually, you pay a 100 or so for a uinit that big inmost places. The only way to get stuff to the second floor is a ramp built to the second floor, so I go ahead adn back up the trailer. Now, you should never back up a ramp when you are pissed. It took me a couple of minutes on the lower ramp and like 30 on the upstairs ramp after I ran it off the sides 10 or 15 times, cussed at the top of my lungs each time it ran off or went the wrong direction. Finally, I get it up thereafter mcuh scraping and nearly blowing my truck up in reverse.
Now, the upstairs is old wood that is about 4 inches thick adn about 100 years old so it is not a smooth path. I walk all the way to the end to get the cart to move stuff with. On the path, is a old sofa that is sitting in themiddle of the path. I get the cart and on the way back , I stop to move the sofa becsue there is no way we will get equipment by it. As I am pushing the sofa off to the side, the cart starts mving towrads the rail but there is no rail where I have stopped and I zone out and watch the cart go over the edge like a waterfall. The cart hits the ground with a band but does no damage to it. I stare over the edge for a moment and decide that is enough for the day and pack it up adn take the equipment back to the gym. Dale said it looked like I pushed it over adn just watched it go. He was nice enough to roll it back u the ramp while I waited int the AC of the truck. Bythen , all the venting and yelling was done and we headed back to the gym.
I then went home and laid on the chair , ate ,read, ate, watched tv, ate and finally off to bed at 820pm. NOt the best day ever but sometimes you get that.
Monday am cardio
-Only 10 laps with the sled adn two plates. Alternately forwards and backwards laps. I have not got my ipod loaded yet so i was still using Martha's. My sled session was inspired by Fergie, Aerosmith, Pink, THe Chemical Brothers and Rammstein.
Keep Truckin'
The SPUD
-back raises and pullup 3 rounds x8 per set supersetted
-Floor press rev bands. 325x5x4, 375x3x3
-Fat bar curls supered with pushdowns 4 rounds x 8 per round
- Front, side and rear delt raise with purple bands 3 rounds each x10 per set.
Done for the day.
Sunday Cardio Insanity
-I had been telling everyone that I was going to try 20 laps with the sled and Sunday was as good as day as any. Started out with 2 plates and it stuck to the pavement on a nice muggy 745 am start in SC. The usual happened, two laps in i started hallucinating and that continued for the next 3 laps. The next five weren't awful but I could not get a rhythm and by lap 10 Iwas hating life. Then a gym member and his wife came out and started pulling sled and that charged me up adn I hammer off 5 more laps but they disappeared after the first two laps before I realized they were gone. THe last five laps were hell. I had to stop 2 times a lap and take off 20lbs.
I finished about 1030am. I sat in my rocking chair at the gym and just dazed off for 20 minutes. I really could not move. I had a lot of things to do and move in teh gym and Dale was ready to help me but I just could not move. I told him it would be a hour before I could do anything. Sure enough, at 1130 after alittle food and some more rocking chair I was better. to top it off, it was a zero carb day so my energy was already dying after the ridiculous cardio sled.
We loaded up a few pieces of equipment that I was taking out of the gym because i still have way too equipment in one place and headed off to the storage unit. Unfortunatley we got there and I requested a dwonstairs unit and somehow got a upstairs unit. Now my storage place is a old cotton warehouse. THe bottom units are great and stay 70 degrees all year but the upstairs are whatever the temp is for the day. Yesterday, it was about 95 or so. I backed down the lower ramp leading to the bottom unit thinking it was going to be a easy deal. I got out and started checking the locks on each door. My key would not fit any of them.
At this point, I am thinking it's a upstairs unit but I try each door again hoping I screwed up and a jiggle of each lock might out the magic door. No luck, so i go upstairs and start on those locks and of course it's the last one. Bythis time, the no carb, stupid cardio and heat are getting to me and I get pissed. I call the old lady and yell at her becasue she got the unit and I asked her alot of times to make sure we get a lower unit. There was no point in that either but it just went that way.
Now, I have to make a decision. Keep the unit adn suck it up because these unit are hard to get and at 40 bucks for a 8x20 a good deal. Usually, you pay a 100 or so for a uinit that big inmost places. The only way to get stuff to the second floor is a ramp built to the second floor, so I go ahead adn back up the trailer. Now, you should never back up a ramp when you are pissed. It took me a couple of minutes on the lower ramp and like 30 on the upstairs ramp after I ran it off the sides 10 or 15 times, cussed at the top of my lungs each time it ran off or went the wrong direction. Finally, I get it up thereafter mcuh scraping and nearly blowing my truck up in reverse.
Now, the upstairs is old wood that is about 4 inches thick adn about 100 years old so it is not a smooth path. I walk all the way to the end to get the cart to move stuff with. On the path, is a old sofa that is sitting in themiddle of the path. I get the cart and on the way back , I stop to move the sofa becsue there is no way we will get equipment by it. As I am pushing the sofa off to the side, the cart starts mving towrads the rail but there is no rail where I have stopped and I zone out and watch the cart go over the edge like a waterfall. The cart hits the ground with a band but does no damage to it. I stare over the edge for a moment and decide that is enough for the day and pack it up adn take the equipment back to the gym. Dale said it looked like I pushed it over adn just watched it go. He was nice enough to roll it back u the ramp while I waited int the AC of the truck. Bythen , all the venting and yelling was done and we headed back to the gym.
I then went home and laid on the chair , ate ,read, ate, watched tv, ate and finally off to bed at 820pm. NOt the best day ever but sometimes you get that.
Monday am cardio
-Only 10 laps with the sled adn two plates. Alternately forwards and backwards laps. I have not got my ipod loaded yet so i was still using Martha's. My sled session was inspired by Fergie, Aerosmith, Pink, THe Chemical Brothers and Rammstein.
Keep Truckin'
The SPUD
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wed Pm Squat and various GPP
Wed Night Squats were not great because I added in 45 more minutes of stepmill before I to squatting. Not the best idea, but the road on the bodyfat loss is coming to a close at the end of August so I have to suck it up alittle longer.
Squatting wise-Raw to 405x3, Loose briefs that go on like SPandex now 500x3,600x3 then raw again with 405x10
-Conventional pulls from floor. Not much here either and eeked out a few sets 315x5,405x3,500x1x3 sets
-Pullups and Backraises for 3 rounds each of 10
Thursday 400am Sled Drag for a hour with 2.5 plates for 9 laps. Then had to opn the gym and did 20 minutes on stepmill .Took a 2 hour break, then did 35mins on the stepmill and 15 mins on the bike.
-Came back in the pm and did some upperbody sled for fun. 4 1/3mile laps. Nice Pump. 'Bout all I got energy for nowadays
Friday 420am Sled drag again with two plates and some change. It felt like 4 plates. By lap two , I was hallucinating and seeing white spots in front of my face. The goal was 15 laps but I lost count somewhere in my vision quest so it was only 13 or 14 laps. Plenty anyway. I pulled four laps then did a backwards lap to break it up and help keep my sanity.
Saturday's are always better because there is no cardio to do. Amen
Squatting wise-Raw to 405x3, Loose briefs that go on like SPandex now 500x3,600x3 then raw again with 405x10
-Conventional pulls from floor. Not much here either and eeked out a few sets 315x5,405x3,500x1x3 sets
-Pullups and Backraises for 3 rounds each of 10
Thursday 400am Sled Drag for a hour with 2.5 plates for 9 laps. Then had to opn the gym and did 20 minutes on stepmill .Took a 2 hour break, then did 35mins on the stepmill and 15 mins on the bike.
-Came back in the pm and did some upperbody sled for fun. 4 1/3mile laps. Nice Pump. 'Bout all I got energy for nowadays
Friday 420am Sled drag again with two plates and some change. It felt like 4 plates. By lap two , I was hallucinating and seeing white spots in front of my face. The goal was 15 laps but I lost count somewhere in my vision quest so it was only 13 or 14 laps. Plenty anyway. I pulled four laps then did a backwards lap to break it up and help keep my sanity.
Saturday's are always better because there is no cardio to do. Amen
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Monday Night and tues/wed am cardio stuff
We got a new comp bench in on Monday so of course we had to test it out. I had the liftoff platform extended for extra tea bagging and the pad widened to 14 inches. The material on the pad makes you stick like a champ with no need for stickum at all. Zero sliding which means more leg drive. The bench was awesome but my day suck as the am cardio smashed me, then I did 50 mins more on the stairmaster.
Raw two board-315x3,365x3,405x3, 455x3, 315x8 off chest.
Swiss bar/football bar. Just got this in too and wnated to try it out. Did close grip tricep with 225x8x4 sets-This bar works great as a poor man's log press so I did overhead presses supered with hammer curls using the swiss bar4 sets of each at 10 reps or so.
Monday night sucked ass as we had a bunch of storms that knocked the power out in out neighborhood. I was hoping the power would be back on when I got home after training at 9pm but it was not. The flashlight was waiting by the door along with my salad. I don't know if youhave tried to eat in the dark after training but it ain't fun especailly with a salad. So after half of it landed on me while I sweated even more I tried to go to bed. When you are on a diet and you have your metabolism reveved up as high as it will go, you are a sweating machine even with the ceiling fan, regualr fan and a/c hitting you. I was already pissed and very tired but I laid down for about half ahour and just sweated in the 100 degree SC night time humidity. THe sheets were soaked so I decided to take a cold shower thinking that would help. It cooled me off some so I tried to lay down again and the sweat just started pouring again. I then packed all my stuff up and went back to the gym at 1130pm. No way I could take it all night long. Well the gym is hot too except when you turn on one ac unit int he spin room. I cranked the ac, grabbed severall mma pads, laid them onthe floor and then got 4 or 5 yoga blankies. With the door shut in the spin room, it was like 50 degrees in 10 mins. AWESOME. Although uncomfortable all night on the mats, I still slept till 4 when it was time to get up and get ready for cardio. The only dreams I remember were of people peeping in the spin room window and waking me up. Strange.
Tues-stepmill 1 hour, took a break, trained some people then did 50 more mins after that
Wed am 9 laps with the sled 3plates. 4 backwards and 5 forwards. My feet and hips hurt but I decided to sprint with the sled about half way round. Lots of kicking and arm swinging which it felt like I was sprinting for 5 minutes straight but it was only 50 or 60 yard. Felt a slight twinge like I was going to puke but it wnet awaay quick. Down to 215 now.
Raw two board-315x3,365x3,405x3, 455x3, 315x8 off chest.
Swiss bar/football bar. Just got this in too and wnated to try it out. Did close grip tricep with 225x8x4 sets-This bar works great as a poor man's log press so I did overhead presses supered with hammer curls using the swiss bar4 sets of each at 10 reps or so.
Monday night sucked ass as we had a bunch of storms that knocked the power out in out neighborhood. I was hoping the power would be back on when I got home after training at 9pm but it was not. The flashlight was waiting by the door along with my salad. I don't know if youhave tried to eat in the dark after training but it ain't fun especailly with a salad. So after half of it landed on me while I sweated even more I tried to go to bed. When you are on a diet and you have your metabolism reveved up as high as it will go, you are a sweating machine even with the ceiling fan, regualr fan and a/c hitting you. I was already pissed and very tired but I laid down for about half ahour and just sweated in the 100 degree SC night time humidity. THe sheets were soaked so I decided to take a cold shower thinking that would help. It cooled me off some so I tried to lay down again and the sweat just started pouring again. I then packed all my stuff up and went back to the gym at 1130pm. No way I could take it all night long. Well the gym is hot too except when you turn on one ac unit int he spin room. I cranked the ac, grabbed severall mma pads, laid them onthe floor and then got 4 or 5 yoga blankies. With the door shut in the spin room, it was like 50 degrees in 10 mins. AWESOME. Although uncomfortable all night on the mats, I still slept till 4 when it was time to get up and get ready for cardio. The only dreams I remember were of people peeping in the spin room window and waking me up. Strange.
Tues-stepmill 1 hour, took a break, trained some people then did 50 more mins after that
Wed am 9 laps with the sled 3plates. 4 backwards and 5 forwards. My feet and hips hurt but I decided to sprint with the sled about half way round. Lots of kicking and arm swinging which it felt like I was sprinting for 5 minutes straight but it was only 50 or 60 yard. Felt a slight twinge like I was going to puke but it wnet awaay quick. Down to 215 now.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Weekend Training and cardio
Saturday was a light day on both upper and lower but at the gym, any training session turns in a Max Effort superman lifting. I am doing a percentage based training protocol for the first time in several years. It is sort of a Sheiko/Westside/Progressive overload format. It is from a Russian powerlifter that Pavel had put in his Power to the People Newletter. I did not make it to the .975% on either the upper bench and lower deadlift sessions. Additionally, it was a high carb day of 600g so I had that to to contend with as well.
Bench-
185x3x2,225x3x2, 275x3x2,315x3x2, 365x1, 405x1x3 sets
Aux
Laterals(front,side adn rear) 3 rounds x 35lb
-Curls and triceps pressdown 4 roundsx8-10 per set
Deadlift(straight from floor-raw with belt mostly)
315x5,420x5,495x3, 600x1,655xmiss, 500x3
-Back raises and pullups 3x8 per exercise
Sunday
-12 1/3 mile laps with the regular sled and 2 and half plates. Every cardio session has to have some type of challenge so this time, I went the opposite direction which totally messed with my head and was actually harder then the other way. Set it up as 1 backwards drag and 2 forward drags per round and 4 rounds total. It took 2 hours and 15 minutes to complete. To top it off, it was a low carb day with about 90g total for the day. I was loopy all day and never fully recovered.
MOnday AM
-Cardio sled at 445am. 5 laps with the Prowler and 70lb followed by 5 laps of regular froward sled dragging with 2 plates on the sled.
Will let you know how the pm training goes. Feeling drained right now.
The Spud
Bench-
185x3x2,225x3x2, 275x3x2,315x3x2, 365x1, 405x1x3 sets
Aux
Laterals(front,side adn rear) 3 rounds x 35lb
-Curls and triceps pressdown 4 roundsx8-10 per set
Deadlift(straight from floor-raw with belt mostly)
315x5,420x5,495x3, 600x1,655xmiss, 500x3
-Back raises and pullups 3x8 per exercise
Sunday
-12 1/3 mile laps with the regular sled and 2 and half plates. Every cardio session has to have some type of challenge so this time, I went the opposite direction which totally messed with my head and was actually harder then the other way. Set it up as 1 backwards drag and 2 forward drags per round and 4 rounds total. It took 2 hours and 15 minutes to complete. To top it off, it was a low carb day with about 90g total for the day. I was loopy all day and never fully recovered.
MOnday AM
-Cardio sled at 445am. 5 laps with the Prowler and 70lb followed by 5 laps of regular froward sled dragging with 2 plates on the sled.
Will let you know how the pm training goes. Feeling drained right now.
The Spud
Friday, July 18, 2008
First Blog
Hey all!,
Finally getting into the blog game. I have been doing my training logs at SouthCarolinaBarbell.com and Elitefts.com for years now Some know me, some may not so I will give you a brief history. I have been powerlifting for 10 years and have been to the top of 275lb class. I did not start at 275lb nor did I end there. I started at 192lb back in 1998 and over the years worked up to a portly 305! It was at the 308lb class that I was trying to cap off a nice runn of great meets. My best total is 2562 in both the 275lb and 308lb class. That comprised of a 1124 squat, 744 bench and a 722 deadlift as my best lift.
During late '06 and '07, I had a string of injuries first with a partial tricep tear, followed by a severe quad and tendon sprain, followed by a hamstring/glute tear. I fought through all of these trying to finish off my lifting career as 10 years had wore me down. In August of '07, I completely tore off the sprained quad tendon along with the middle quad and outter quad while trying to squat 1205lb. You can watch it on youtybe.com if you like. Look up Marc Bartley 1205 dump. It's a little gruesome, but I make more out of it then it was. You might want to turn the volume down.
After that I spent 2 months at the house basically doped up unable to really move. It was during this time, I realized how many friends and people that loved me who showed up, brought food(which I could not eat for the first two weeks) and just stopped by to keep me company! Everyday is trully a great day to be alive and we are blessed to be who we are and have the opportunities we have.
I had already decided before the meet that no matter what I was going to take a break from powerlifting to lost weight and get all my life in order since for 10 years I had devoted my life powerlifting. You know when it is time. I just think I would go out that way! It's fine though, I probablly still would have done the meet already knowing the outcome.
Then the next chapter began writing itself. I enlisted another Elite contributor and bodybuilder/diet specialist shelbystarnes@troponinnutrition.com . He gladly helped me through a lot of things about carb cycling and nutrition that I thought i knew but not nearlly as well as I thought. My first goals were 235 and 10% bodyfat. I reached that about 5 weeks ago. Now, my obsession is get it to 6 or 7%. My weight is down to 223 or so at 9%. My best guess is 205-210lb right now to make that. The end time frame is August 31 but this is the second or third time I have changed my goals along the way so it may be more after I meet that goal.
In order to do this, I had to be strict with diet, of course, but I also had to do cardio which was very difficult in the beginning because of the healing leg and I hate cardio. Over the years, I had eliminated it until about 2005 when I realized that I had to do some in order to maintain a decent volume level while training so I did the Prowler twice a week for a 1/3 lap around the gym with about a 100lbs on it. I kept this up for a year or two and it greatly imporved my training volume and weights.
After I got to walking again without crutches and starting rehabbin myself, I realized I had to start incorporating it to make good weight loss progress because the diet had slowed the weight loss down to a crawl. So I started with some bike for 10-20 minutes. I graduated to the setpmill and 30 mins twice a day and thought that was great. Shelby promptly let me know that was not going to work with the amount of fat I had and the unreasonable time frame I thought I could do this in. Well, double 30s turned into double 45s into 60/30 into where I am now, a 60 and 50 minute session everyday for 6 out of the 7 days in a week! And this just to meet 10% by August. So for the past two months, I have been doing stepmill/stairmaster twice a day and sled/prowler on the weekends for cardio.
My training is still powerlifting oriented, I did not and could not go back to the bb style of training that I gave up in 1998. It built a decent base from 13 to age 30 but never really got me anywhere or reached any real goals. Now, I have fused the two togther and made it work which is where I am at now and this blog will begin. Somedays, I got it and somedays I get hammered by powerlifting but I hang in there and that will be the basis of this blog. How to hang in there and find a way through training, nutrition and life!!
Thanks for reading.
The Spud
Finally getting into the blog game. I have been doing my training logs at SouthCarolinaBarbell.com and Elitefts.com for years now Some know me, some may not so I will give you a brief history. I have been powerlifting for 10 years and have been to the top of 275lb class. I did not start at 275lb nor did I end there. I started at 192lb back in 1998 and over the years worked up to a portly 305! It was at the 308lb class that I was trying to cap off a nice runn of great meets. My best total is 2562 in both the 275lb and 308lb class. That comprised of a 1124 squat, 744 bench and a 722 deadlift as my best lift.
During late '06 and '07, I had a string of injuries first with a partial tricep tear, followed by a severe quad and tendon sprain, followed by a hamstring/glute tear. I fought through all of these trying to finish off my lifting career as 10 years had wore me down. In August of '07, I completely tore off the sprained quad tendon along with the middle quad and outter quad while trying to squat 1205lb. You can watch it on youtybe.com if you like. Look up Marc Bartley 1205 dump. It's a little gruesome, but I make more out of it then it was. You might want to turn the volume down.
After that I spent 2 months at the house basically doped up unable to really move. It was during this time, I realized how many friends and people that loved me who showed up, brought food(which I could not eat for the first two weeks) and just stopped by to keep me company! Everyday is trully a great day to be alive and we are blessed to be who we are and have the opportunities we have.
I had already decided before the meet that no matter what I was going to take a break from powerlifting to lost weight and get all my life in order since for 10 years I had devoted my life powerlifting. You know when it is time. I just think I would go out that way! It's fine though, I probablly still would have done the meet already knowing the outcome.
Then the next chapter began writing itself. I enlisted another Elite contributor and bodybuilder/diet specialist shelbystarnes@troponinnutrition.com . He gladly helped me through a lot of things about carb cycling and nutrition that I thought i knew but not nearlly as well as I thought. My first goals were 235 and 10% bodyfat. I reached that about 5 weeks ago. Now, my obsession is get it to 6 or 7%. My weight is down to 223 or so at 9%. My best guess is 205-210lb right now to make that. The end time frame is August 31 but this is the second or third time I have changed my goals along the way so it may be more after I meet that goal.
In order to do this, I had to be strict with diet, of course, but I also had to do cardio which was very difficult in the beginning because of the healing leg and I hate cardio. Over the years, I had eliminated it until about 2005 when I realized that I had to do some in order to maintain a decent volume level while training so I did the Prowler twice a week for a 1/3 lap around the gym with about a 100lbs on it. I kept this up for a year or two and it greatly imporved my training volume and weights.
After I got to walking again without crutches and starting rehabbin myself, I realized I had to start incorporating it to make good weight loss progress because the diet had slowed the weight loss down to a crawl. So I started with some bike for 10-20 minutes. I graduated to the setpmill and 30 mins twice a day and thought that was great. Shelby promptly let me know that was not going to work with the amount of fat I had and the unreasonable time frame I thought I could do this in. Well, double 30s turned into double 45s into 60/30 into where I am now, a 60 and 50 minute session everyday for 6 out of the 7 days in a week! And this just to meet 10% by August. So for the past two months, I have been doing stepmill/stairmaster twice a day and sled/prowler on the weekends for cardio.
My training is still powerlifting oriented, I did not and could not go back to the bb style of training that I gave up in 1998. It built a decent base from 13 to age 30 but never really got me anywhere or reached any real goals. Now, I have fused the two togther and made it work which is where I am at now and this blog will begin. Somedays, I got it and somedays I get hammered by powerlifting but I hang in there and that will be the basis of this blog. How to hang in there and find a way through training, nutrition and life!!
Thanks for reading.
The Spud
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)