1 More Month of Training

This week I've got to film and submit my video.

Today my eating was spot on I had:

• Eggs and Almonds
• Salad w/ Ranch, 1 hamburg patty, chicken with marinara sauce and veggies.

And right now I'm drinking Endurox (a great post workout drink), since your cells are insulin sensitive after a workout, having the high glycemic carbohydrate drink with protein allows the cells to quickly absorb the nutrients and go from a catabolic state to an anabolic state.... which is what Endurox does.

As far as my workout goes, despite the 2 weeks of injury and 1 week of illness.... I'm still pretty strong. I was hitting about 9 or 10 explosive pull ups per set, which is right where I want to be. My only problem is once I stop the explosive pull up my forearms act up a bit. Not NEARLY as bad as it was, but there is some sharp pain, after a minute or two it seems to go away, thankfully.

Oh and ever since I've actually focused on some of the opposing muscle groups for the pull and vertical push, that is getting much stronger ever week. I still want to take a shot at 500 snatches but I suppose that can wait until tomorrow.

Lets make it real

I ate like crap this weekend, it's my girlfriends fault!

No its really my fault, the truth is once you know how to eat right, it doesn't matter where you are or whats available or offered to you, if you eat it and you know better ITS YOUR FAULT.

I have a 16 kg kettlebell and I kind of want to see if I can do 500 kettlebell snatches in an hour. I know the RKC is 100 52.5 pound kettlebell in under 5 mins.... but I don't have 52.5 and i definatly can't do 100 in under 5 mins.... YET.

But I might give that a try this week. In addition to shooting and editing all the parts of my video. Should be good. We will see how strong I really am, especially coming off of being so sick.

Going for the gold for the next couple of weeks of training. Because if I get into Ninja Wariror, well its at the end of March, got to give it my best.

Before and After

I decided to post my before and after picture, it will be something that I'll include in my Ninja Warrior video because I think it is important to see how far I've actually come.

Big difference hu? I have a lower body fat percentage that I did in 2008 right now, but I weigh more, built up a lot more muscle since then. :)

Food for - I forgot what I ate

Yup, can't remember what I ate yesterday, fish maybe? Don't know I was sick. I think there was clam chowder too maybe.

Anyways, better today, made it to the gym and...... didn't do to bad. Strength is returning, forearms feel 100x better than they did before. I don't really get any pain in my forearms until I either start doing inverted rows with my fingers or explosive pull ups (because of the impact coming back down takes a big hit on your grip).

But otherwise feeling pretty strong.

There was a discussion a while back about training, whats better weights or calisthenics (body weight exercises) and while I feel as though each has their own proper place in exercise and I never took one side or the other but here is what I came up with.....

Whether it is body weight training, kettlebells, dumbbells or plates, resistance is resistance, body weight generally having a very static amount of resistance. Now, provided that the exercise you are comparing incorporates the same set of muscle groups from one exercise to another, than the better exercise would be the one that challenges and stimulates muscle growth in the individual that's attempting the exercise.

For example, the core is active when doing a pull up, it is not that active with doing a pull down, however if you can't do a pull up, it doesn't matter if its a better exercise, you just can't do it. Also pull downs hit the muscles a little differently that pull downs do. GENERALLY, I do not like to do seated or lying exercises, I like the core to have an active role in every exercise I do, but I do find that can become a limitation in some instances.

If you can add additional resistance to a body weight exercise or make it easier using inclines or resistance bands, the body weight is going to be better. HOWEVER, there are just some things you can't do without external resistance and I think it naive to cut those exercise out completely just because you have a position of body weight or nothing.

I one day want to open up my own training studio. One where someone can come in, pick up there custom program at the desk and a trainer is always on hand to show you how to do the workout AT NO ADDITIONAL COST, thats right semi-private training is built into the normal gym membership, it might have to be more expensive than a normal gym membership, but I would rather pay a trainer whose going to take a client through a program designed for their body, their needs, than pay than group fitness instructors or front desk personal. I'm not knocking those two jobs, I just want a very different kind of gym. Back to the point, I'd like to primarily focus on people building up to that body weight manipulation strength, but for someone who is deconditioned, overweight and has postural issues..... your looking at a long road ahead.

Food Journal - 2/21

I've been sick, and when I'm sick soup and not eating go hand in hand.....

Breakfast
5-10 almonds

Lunch
Buffalo Chicken Salad

Dinner
Clam Chowder
2 cookies


Awesome right? .... :(

Massage me to happiness

Got a full body massage today and I feel 100 times better. My forearms keep getting better everytime I get work done on them. Which means back to the gym tomorrow! YA!!!


I'm hoping to squeeze in two more sessions before the regionals in Florida....

With any luck, this week of training will go really really well so that next week I'll be able to film, edit and post my entree.

That also means one more week on low carb and then I switch to nuritrent timing, ya for food! Even though my cheat days basically are nutrient timing, but whatever....

Injury Still Effecting Training

The strain or tear (I'm begining to think the latter more and more) that I suffered in the rock climbing gym in my forearms is still effects how my training sessions are going, and since there is such a focus on grip strength I may be in trouble come March.

Then again with the short amount of training and injury, for me to make it past the regionals would be pretty awesome.

Food Journal - 2/20

Breakfast
2 Egg Omlete with ham cheese and peppers

Snack
Chicken Salad

Lunch
Salmon, green beans, small sweet potato, 2 shrimp
2 oatmeal cookies

Dinner
Chicken Wings Bone In Honey Mustard
Frozen Yogurt Mint, with chocolate chips

See, injury + being sick = eating okay.

Food Journal - 2/19

Breakfast
Pork and some sort of Spanish wrap with beef in it.

Snack
Bacon 3 slices

Lunch
Frozen yogurt smoothy with banana and strawberry, 250-300 calories

Dinner
Fried Haddock with french fries.

Food Journal - 2/18

Breakfast
Salad with beans, ground been, guacamole and cheese

Snack
5-10 tortia chips with cheese

Lunch
5 ounces of frozen yogurt with cookie dough and whip cream
-thats bad right? Although I looked up the glycemic load of frozen yogurt and it was only 12...... an apple has a GI of 30 something......

Snack
I had about 8-10 mini eggs throughout the day, the chocolate cadberry kind.

Dinner
Salad with vinigret dressing
Chicken with mozzarella, spinach, brown rice and veggies
a MINI all american apple from UNOs.....
2 slices of gluten free pizza

For some reason by dinner I could not eat enough to be satisfied, I was so freaking hungry.

Food Journal - 2/17

This is why I want to keep a food journal because even thinking back like a day or two and I start to forget....

Breakfast
Ham and Cheese Omelet

Snack
Muscle Milk

Lunch
Chicken Chow Mein (Its chicken and veggies)
Egg Foo Young (Its basically a chineese omelet)

Dinner
Iceberg Wedge with Blue Cheese - I apparently get very sick after eating blue cheese
Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Food Journal - 2/16

Breakfast

• 2 Eggs

Snacks

• Low carb cereal bar thing
• Muscle Milk

Lunch

• Salad and grilled chicken

Dinner

• Hamburg patty with guacamole

I really REALLY need to eat more. Shame on me.... good thing I didn't work out. I'm really going to try and eat more today I promise, especially since i'm working out today.

Thinking outside the gaming box

Back when I would spend 5 days a week 2 hours a day doing Capoeira, the word muscle fatigue came to mind by the end of the class. But you wait maybe 20 mins after class and you'd be ready to go again.

Why is it then that with something like capoeira a person can go for a long period of time and then something like strength and conditioning training for the upper body, its like 10-15 mins and your like "okay moving on because that part is done...."

I think what I'm trying to get at is, capoeira is a martial art but its also a game, a fast kicking, makes you feel like your super human game. And while by the end of 2 hours your legs are roasted, the regular touch and go impact of capoeira is not completely devastating to the body.

Is it possible to make a "game" out of an upper body workout? Obviously for many after a few seconds of doing pull ups or swining from side to side your body is toast. Even for those training Ninja Warrior, high intensity training for a min and your toast. But what if it where possible to lower that intensity, make you physically lighter than you normally are?

Here me out while I ramble and put this all together in my head.

If you can't do a pull up you have two options, either you switch to a pull down cable OR you use a heavy resistance band to take some (or alot) of your weight away. At a certain body weight the later is a better choice of the two. What I'm proposing is why not create a game or some method of training using a cabling system that takes the weight and pressure off your body and allows you to use that upper body strength for longer periods of time.

Two options:

1. You could use the cable system to aid people in doing advanced calisthenic exercises, like pull ups, muscle ups, explosive kip ups, finger grip pull ups, and on and on and on....

2. You could use the cable system and make a game. Have you ever heard of the "Jump Gym" or "Sky High Gym"? They are facilities that have giant trampolines EVERYWHERE, so they play dodgeball or just jump all over the crazy place, it makes you feel super human (even if its just a moment). Why can't a game like that be made with a cable system? It doesn't have to be a crazy complicated game, but something good.... l

You'd need a safety harness and instead of a cable you'd need some type of resistance band to support your body and difference strength of resistance depending on your body weight and strength. The final piece you'd need is something to allow you to move around the room..... you know the part thats actually attached to the ceiling. If it where just a simple exercise something that doesn't move would be fine, but if it was some sort of game you'd need some sort of ability to shift the cable around in the ceiling..... that I'm not really sure how to do but I'm sure SOMETHING like that exists... like for high wire or something.

It could be like a zip line but then you can only move 2 directions. I think I have an idea for how you could move around the room all over the place but its too complicated for me to verbally explain, I've have to draw it out.

Food Journal - 2/15

Breakfast

• Almonds

Lunch

• 7 honey mustard wings with all the bone and fat included

Snack

• Muscle Milk

Dinner

• Hamburger patty with guacamole on top
• 2 sausages

I guess this makes up for the piles of food I ate yesterday. I really should be eating more. I just not hungry when I drink lots of water.

You can always learn more

Today was interesting, I've been reading up on a little more advanced program design. Primarily focused on how the body should be balanced in terms of muscular strength. For example, your biceps and triceps should have a 1:1 strength ratio. So if you curl 45 pounds, you should be able to do tricep extensions with 45 pounds.

The theory behind it is you body will only let you get so far off balanced before it just will not allow you to get any stronger. While obviously there are going to be genetic anomalies where the body will allow for a greater off balance of strength, focusing on the balance will allow you to gain strength in areas where you may have previously hit a platou.

I don't normally do curls in my workout but I gave it a shot. Using a one rep max calculator I can determine where these muscles actually fall into place. My 1 rep max for curls was 56 pounds, my 1 rep max for tricep extensions was about 25 pounds.....

Obviously 56 and 25 aren't even close. I don't know if I'll ever be at a 1:1 ratio in that department but I believe it builds a better and stronger body if the two muscle groups are closer in strength. My hope is that as I focus on developing my triceps more, that it will allow my biceps to increase in strength as well.

You know I'm wondering if a weak tricep is contributing to my issues with my grip strength? Very likely.

No, I'm not going to sit and just do tricep extensions with the dumbbell to make it stronger, I feel that there are other exercises that will better help me for Ninja Warrior.

I'm curious to see what my tricep extension with a cable strength is and curl strength with a cable. I'll take a little test with it tomorrow perhaps.


For the shoulder, the pull to push ratio should be 3:2. Now I can do pull ups with weight attached to my body, my 1 rep max is around 275, my STANDING overhead press is 118..... Not even close. My overhead press should be 183. I'm not entirely sure how I want to go about improving this ratio, but I really feel if I start to close that gap my pull up strength will improve.

Food Journal - 2/14

Obviously it being valentine's day I am going to go out and have a spectacular meal.... that being said.

Breakfast
2 Eggs Scrambled

Lunch
A plate and a half of random meat + veggies, went to the all you can eat buffet after my hair cut, the plate was not stacked crazy high or anything like that. I also had 2 Tbsp of apple pie and ice cream.....

Snack
Salad w/chicken

Dinner..... here we go....
2 bread rolls w/butter
cup of calm chowder with crackers
Pacific Salmon with pumpkin risotto and lobster coslaw
Apple Brown Betty (basically and apple crisp with ice cream)

Snack
About a half bag of cadberry mini eggs.

So it was all bad at the end. But this was planned/expected. From now until the 27th I'll be back on my low carbohydrate diet. After that I will spend a month on nutrient timing which should place me right at the door front of the regionals.

Found out that the regionals in Flordia will be the March 27-29 and the finals will be in Las Vegas April 21st and 22nd.

The plan is keep going on my low carb nutrition and workout plan from now until February 27.
From February 27-March 27 switch it up to nutrient timing and the workout plan will move into another phase.
Provided I make it past the regionals, From March 29-April 21, I will continue to do nutrient timing and focus the training more on rope climbing and finger grip strength.

By February 27 I should be well below 200 pounds, after that I'll film my video submission. If I do nutrient timing correctly, I could continue to change my body composition and change it as much as 4% from the time I submit my video to the time the regionals hit. AND THEN, I'm just going to pack on as much muscle as possible between the regionals and the finals (provided I make it).

I've come a hell of a long way in a short amount of time in terms of strength. However far I go in Ninja Warrior will not discourage me, in a years time of continuing my training program and nutrient timing I should be able to destroy that course next year. DESTROY.

Food Journal - 2/13

What I ate today:

Brunch

• Hamburg patty with cheese
• 2 hot dogs (obviously no bread with either)

Snack

• Oatmeal cookie (just one)
• Muscle Milk

Dinner

• 2 Egg spinach and fetta omelet

Snack

• Some sort of Atkins Day Break cookie thing w/ 1-2 slices of apples

I keep on going through my head to come up with what the hell else I ate and..... nothing. I just drank lots of water all day long. So note to self eat more food, I mean I know I'm trying to cut weight but this is not the best way to do it. What can I say I just was not hungry and I worked out today.

Tomorrow I will eat well for sure. Going out for a nice dinner on a date.

And the grip is

I took it light today, didn't push it to hard and things are feeling and working pretty well. Felt a little strain in my forearms with when I started to get past 7 close grip pull ups (very little), did some other grip and other kb swings, snatches ect. And things are looking pretty good. I'm going to focus on taking it easy all week, then take it up a little bit next week and by the end of the month I should be well beyond where I was before I got injured.

YA! :)

With all the lifting and hand grip strength I've been doing. I helped someone move this weekend and it was incredibly easy. I guess if I was going to get a full time job other than training, that lifting different shape boxes and objects would be the way to go. Like a mover, or UPS box handler or construction worker, someone who is just constantly working their grip building clutch grip of steel.

Weekend of eating and recovering

Due to my overworked forearms I took the weekend completely off, went a little laxed on my nutrition and just let me forearms completely rest.

Over the weekend I had a quesadia (steak) some eggs with home fries stirfry whole wheat blueberry pancakes and frozen yogurt....

Not all at once and not all in the same day.

And it got me thinking, I should probably start tracking and posting what I'm eating, so I'm going to start posting that as well. I'm being hopeful to todays workout that I've let the arms recover enough to ease into them. When recovering from an injury its important to start off easy and work your way up, I can't blast myself right out of the gate otherwise I'm going to start back at square one.

I've also taken up another precaution and that is getting a massage every other week, the one I got was so hard on my body I was almost yelling. (and trust me I'm no wimp) BUT IT HURT LIKE CRAP.

Wish me luck.

TGIF

Been busy today cleaning, throwing stuff out, packing stuff up, selling stuff on eBay, so I haven't really eaten too much and thats when horrible cravings start. This is one of the reasons why having all your meals pre-done and ready to be rehashed and eaten is paramount when trying to be on a successful diet.

Pizza, nachos, anything I'd eat right about now and be satisfied. I'm not gonna, and it sucks something awful. I did just have some sausage and hamburg in some marinara sauce.... didn't cut it!

Going a long period of time without food is a good setup to failure.

Maybe I'll go have a tuna or chicken salad to help satisfy the hunger. I'm not working out today, I'm going to let my forearms rest another day before I use them. A friend wants me to help him move tomorrow, he doesn't seem to understand that if I'm not lifting weights, I'm certainly not lifting furniture.


Some TGI Fridays would be good, potato skins.... haven't had them in so long. NO! NO! NO!

SALAD with chicken or tuna!

Massage

My massage got bumped up to today which means hopefully I'll be able to workout tomorrow or Saturday at the latest.

I hurt like hell today, my body has been so banged up over the last month. It really makes me wonder what other people's body look like / condition there is if they aren't getting any work done on their body.

I highly recommend if your training for ANYTHING, getting a massage like once a month. As far as Ninja Warrior and I go, I'll be getting one like every other week. If I can keep my body as healthy as possible while working out my physical gains should continue to be exceptional.

Especially when my nutrition switches to a more nutrient timing diet. Makes me wonder how all the other competitors are doing, do they just have a natural gift to eat whatever they want and do and couple of pull ups and BAM super human strength? Or are a few of them like me where every time I sit in front of a meal I have to look at it and think "OKay is this going to help me achieve my goal of Ninja Warrior or hurt?" And then days I have to go to the gym and I don't feel like working out or doing one more rep or set and I have to challenge myself "do you really want to be on Ninja Warrior, yes or no?"

To which I always answer a resounding, yes.

Push hard, don't give up.

Not much happening today

Finally have a massage for my forearms scheduled tomorrow. VERY HAPPY, I need it so bad that its actually inhibiting my workouts significantly.

Since I'm a little detailed on what I want to do for a workout, I've been working on my kettlebell swings and snatches, it doesn't seem to kill my forarms and helps with my girp, so win-win.

Thats about it, weight is continuing to come down nicely, my explosive and overall strength seems to continue building through the roof. I'm really hoping that once the forearm issue is corrected I'll be able to move forward and at the end of the month film my video for G4 and get on the show.

Right now my training has been focused on a lot of raw strength and a little bit of cardio. Next month I'll focus of more endurance and speed. (yes I said it endurance and speed in the same sentence, it can happen!) This will all be possible because I won't be focusing on so much of weight cutting. Depending on how long of a wait between the video I make and actually (hopefully) being on the show, you will probably see a 10 pound muscle gain in that time. I'm hoping that by the end of the month I'll be able to get down to 190 or lower, I think I'm at 206/207 right now, and then next month just eat to gain strength and muscle....

.....I don't mind having Popeye like forearms.

Video Submission Planning

For Ninja Warrior I have to submit a < 5 min long video that... hold on let me get the quote....

"States my full legal name, age, where i'm originally from, where I live, occupation, married/single and if I have kids. nickname, why I think I can be the next american ninja warrior, demonstrate my physical strength, be visually impressive and interesting."

I don't have a camera, so I'm going to have my brother record everything from his iphone 4sgx9er turbo fighting hyper edition phone, or whatever and use a little adobe premier to cut it all (yes I've made videos before).

Basically the plan is a voice over into that has a little feeling, a little slowness in it kind of what you see from a Nike comerical, you know there working out but its all slow and sweaty or something. The voice over (me) will talk introduce who I am, why I go into fitness, show a picture of what I used to look like and then show a uncut 3 minute circuit of me doing the core elements of Ninja Warrior, talking about how I broke down the course, yada yada.....

And at the end the link to my blog.

Something like that, I think a little more effort should be put into it instead of just "here is me doing flips and lifting cars and shooting fireballs!!!!!! ARGGHHHH!!!" although shooting fireballs would have me sold on the casting couch.

I'll think about what I want to show a little more when I'm at the gym today, I think my forearms are going to be a constant pain until I get them massaged out, but I have no money at the moment so not much I can really do right now is there!  :(

Cardio on off days

My workout went okay today, I felt much stronger than previous weeks, my kip up (explosive pull up) went much better, I was doing 50 lbs attached at my hip with some close grip pull ups. Unfortunately I tried to do some finger grip stuff and could feel the pull in my forearms....

:(

Well I'll stick to only 3 days of pure resistance training, but tomorrow I'm going kettlebell swings for cardio.

I'm listening to this strength and conditioning pod cast and I like what they have to say, "if its important, do it everyday, just change the intensity, exercise order, reps, rep range, and don't go to failure." I kind of like that.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/strengthcoachpodcast/Episode_90.5-_Strength_Coach_Podcast.mp3

Have a listen, I really like this pod cast in general. But this one happens to be about Kettlebell Certification.

Back to the workout

Alright, back to the three day workout this week. I'll give it a shot today, I can feel the forearms are better but still a little strained, I'm going to try to get a massage and get everything worked out as soon as I have some extra money.

I cheated on my diet this weekend, it was the super bowl and I wanted to miss behave, no alcohol or anything like that just chips and dip and some cupcakes.

Back to the dietary plan like normal today though, I figure I should be on this plan until the last week of the month and then after that change it up to a more nutrient timing nutritional plan.

They say that you are only as strong as your weakest link. And I very much appreciate that saying. I remember when I was taking Capoeira, I started wearing 5-finger Vibram shoes (total barefoot), and how much strong my foot strength became in such a short amount of time and how I could tell in Capoeira the different some foot strength really made to what I was doing. Ever since then I've thought a great deal about training and that perhaps more of a focus on hand and foot strength should be included in a program. It is so some extent but its kind of like a "wave as we drive by, you get it but we aren't stopping for picture".

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if my grip is strong, then my back and everything else should be strong as well.

Taking a nap and then working out.

Wish me luck, I can already feel strain in my forearms just thinking about what I need to accomplish today for a workout.

Gym Test 1, 2, 3

After failing out even before getting through half my workout on Thursday, taking Friday completely off and eating a few extra carbohydrates all wrapped together by sleeping in until almost 3 in the afternoon on Saturday....

...I'd say my body was tired.

I'm going to make an attempt today I break a few muscle fibers and see how that goes. Just a few light things I can do that doesn't tax my grip too much. My girlfriend tells me "I hate when you lose weight because your chest shrinks." So perhaps I'll do a little chest overloading today to give it a slight pump plus a few other push and leg exercises, going to try to stay away from anything that challenges the grip strength but the pull up bar calls to me as soon as I walk into the gym.

Monday my re-revised program will kick in. 3 days a week. Each day a full body workout. Only once a day and if I want more than that it has to be cardio. Can't burn off another week like this one because my grip fails.

Tassadar has failed us

My grip strength completely failed today. I was about half way through my workout doing finger push ups before the shooting pains from my hands, up my forearms I couldn't take anymore and had to stop or potentially risk serious injury. :(

Went to the mall and one of those Asian massage therapy places and had them massage my forearms for 15 mins, then went do to Brookstones and used the hand massager on my forearms, they are sore but feel better. My hope is that after a night of rest I'll be recovered and be able to continue working out on Saturday at the latest.

I think I'm going to have to tone it down, I just over worked myself last week with all my regular workout stuff plus the rock climbing gym. The rest of me feels fine and strong, except my forearms.

Rest.

I usually go to this really nice place for my massage but they don't do 15 minutes and I needed something ASAP. So I'm in this place in the mall, with my face down and the women walks away from me to the counter and breaks the loudest fart I think I've ever heard in a retail setting. Like if you work retail and you have to let one go you let it out slow or go to the bathroom or something but don't let it all out rip in front of customers that's just messed up.

I've been consuming under 50 grams of carbohydrates for a few days now, probably part of the reason I'm having such a hard time recovering. (this is why nutrition is so important!) And I started thinking about spiking blood sugars, fat/digestion and muscle replenishing and I came up with a few questions / points I need to research the answer too.

• Depending on the carbohydrate type and number of carbs, how much do I need to take before my body is kicked out of fat burning mode and into fat storing mode? IE when insulin decides it needs to come out and mess everything up.
• Fat slows down the digestive process, that way your blood sugar doesn't get spiked too quickly. How many grams of fat does it take to cause a significant enough slow down to eat "X" number of carbohydrates?
• How much glycogen do "X" exercise expend per rep/set/% of 1 rep max?
• How much protein absorption can the muscle take after a work out when the body is trying to refill glycogen stores?
• How many carbs -> glycogen do our bodies actually store, I know its stored in the muscles and liver but how much? What the "number"?

I have questions and I'm searching for answers, I don't know if I'll find them, but I dam well is going to try, because my forearms just hurt too much to do anything else, including type anymore.....