Rest day rambling

I'm really tired from yesterday, which I consider very positive.  But I'm really tired.  Time to eat more.

I think this is a point often lost: eating is restorative.  Most are concerned about getting fat, feeling too full, whatever.  If you aren't eating enough, recovery will be hampered.

Another way to think of it is this: Berardi's Scrawny to Brawny first habit taught is to add three blender shakes a day, and it's usually wildly successful for adding lean mass.  Why?  Because most of us think we eat enough, but we don't; add a few more quality, protein-laden calories, and lean mass results.  Does lean mass just happen?  Of course not, but if you're lifting heavy, activating the GLUt pathway, and eating a lot of clean calories, your chances are much improved.  Unless you track your calories faithfully, I'm willing to bet you don't eat enough.

Worried about getting fat?  Check out CBL from Kiefer and/or Robb's Paleo stuff.  Both are solid.  Carbs matter, as does timing.  If it didn't have a face or grow in the ground, don't eat it.  Simple.  Most Americans are getting fat from eating processed junk. (this from the guy who downed a pizza yesterday -- no need to be militant, but do be realistic)

Also, I got some BCAA+ from True Nutrition.  It's my blog, so I can shill for companies I like.  AtLarge is the bomb-diggity for protein and other supps, and True Nutrition (nee True Protein) is fantastic for just about everything.  Plus they are just up the road from me, so I get my orders within a day.  Awesome.

BCAAs pretty much suck -- no amount of froofroo additives can change the basic, fundamental compounds.  And shouldn't.  TN's BCAA+ are not cheap (you can buy cheap BCAA powder from them, but I like the additives (extra leucine, citrulline malate, etc.) and flavoring (I got watermelon), so I spend and get the plus.  The taste is not the remarkable part (it sucks, slightly hidden by the tasty watermelon) -- the solubility of BCAAs these days is amazing.  Used to be, taking them was like drinking water with crushed styrofoam on top.  This stuff dissolves entirely.  Much better, and much more likely not to induce gagging.  Joe Bob says check it out (obscure cultural reference, I know.)

Another thing I've added is a morning shake two hours after waking.  I freeze a couple of very ripe (must be badly spotted) bananas, stick the frozen things in a blender, add heavy cream (about half a cup), three scoops of Nitrean+, two squares of dark chocolate (must be 72% cocoa or higher), and some almond milk to motivate everything, and blend.  Fantastic and a jolt of quality calories that doesn't leave me dragging.  Delicious.  Word to the wise: buy the bananas in bulk (think Costco or Sams or whatever), let them get super-ripe, PEEL THEM and put them in plastic ziplocks, and freeze.  Then you just shake out the frozen nanner and don't have to worry about that peel, which never wants to come off after frozen.  Peel them before freezing.

One other bit of babble: if you have a big box store like Costco, buy the McCormick taco seasoning in the gargantuan size that you'd never normally use in a year -- don't bother with individual packets.  Buy a ton of ground beef, whether from there or your favorite grass-fed source (highly recommended, and I can offer recommendations for online sites you can order from), and make up five or six pounds of taco meat.  Then go to the refrigerator aisle and buy a 5-pound bag of shredded cheese -- cheddar or Mex mix, doesn't matter.  Buy a gargantu-bottle of hot sauce.  You can eat a pound of taco meat with a half cup of cheese or more, throw some lettuce and diced fresh tomatoes on it, and eat a pound of the stuff while reading email at lunch time.  Seriously, otherwise I'm deadly bored with food by 6 ounces, but I can down a pound of this without thinking.  Mix in some mashed potatoes (Costco has excellent mashed pots in the section over by the roaster chickens and fresh fruit) and warm up a couple of flour tortillas, and it's a slice of heaven.  Drink with water and chocolate milk and you have a caloric orgy.  I make six pounds of ground taco beef at a time and freeze it in individual pounds.  Works like a champ, is stupid-easy to make, and takes nearly no prep on the day you eat it.

Another winner is to make a chicken divan -- chicken, broccoli, and cheesy sauce.  If you want a recipe, someone let me know and I'll publish one.  Might anyway -- that's a slice of my childhood right there.  Use rotisserie chickens (Costco's are bigger than anyone else's and at least as cheap, so buy two and pull them as soon as you get home; store the pulled chicken in ziplocks and freeze it if necessary) and it's very easy. 

Anyway, enough rambling for the moment.  Hope some of this is helpful.  Go eat.

training 11.14.2012

Cube week 1, day2 -- bench max

Not very chatty -- too beat.  Very excited going in today.  I love days of testing.

Spiked mid-afternoon; between being oddly tired  and knowing a test was coming, I was yawning all afternoon.  B-Ala/creatine mix before training.  Dynamic work and the heater to start.  Very hungry at the start even though I ate a large pizza for lunch (seriously).  Should have been dragging and full with fat belly, but instead am hungry and skin tight.  Go figure.  Finished dynamic warm-up with some band work for shoulders.


Don't call it a comeback -- I've been here for years.  (name the artist for extra points)  It felt good to get back under some heavy weight, I have to say.

Get to it.

Floor Press 1RM: 225kg  might have had one small jump left, but I don't think so.  This might be a FP PR for me -- I'll have to go back and check.  No shoulder pain, which you may recall has always been my FP nemesis.  Ring finger on the ring.  That's a lot of weight.

Bench 2x15 @70%: these were really freakin' tough after the FP.  Weight wasn't important. 

Pull-ups, widest grip, weighted, fat grip, 3x12: used my Ironmind belt and some plate weight and cranked these out.  Just felt fantastic.  These were supposed to be lat pulldowns, but I don't have the plate-loaded cable machine yet.  Ought to just weld one up, but finding a stainless slide is not trivial.  Anyone knows where to find one, please let me know.

Band press-downs, average band (elitefts, old school) x100: a bitch, in a word.  Triceps are pretty done by this point, so I was whining like a kid by the time I hit 100.

DB shrugs, 40kg DBs, 3x15: slow and squeeze at the top, no bobbing.  Wow.

Military press, wide grip (outside the ring), 3x12: wimp weight -- it's all I had.  Ground them out.  Right shoulder barked a little, but not badly.  Did these seated with seat at 80 degrees.

I'm cooked.  Loving this.  Triceps are screaming, everything is pumped tight.  Time to eat.

Next is speed squats.  Thanks for checking in.

training 11.12.2012

A new beginning today.  Since I have had to suspend work with Big Mike T for a while, I asked Brandon Lilly if I could get in on his newest group of Cube Method guinea pigs and he was gracious enough to accept.  So today is the beginning of ten weeks of something I love -- self-experimentation -- using the method of someone who has experienced what could be considered an explosive renaissance in powerlifting of late.  In other words, it seems to work, at least for Brandon.  So I'm going to try to see how it translates to an old fart like me.

Used B-Ala/creatine mix to start; no extra caffeine.  No food in several hours, since 1# of chicken at lunch with a salad and a ton of bacon.  Yup.  Used knee sleeves (not wraps) and loose briefs with a Spud DL belt to prevent dropping my briefs.

Today is DL reps day, day 1 of week 1.

DL, sumo, 3x3 @80%: 275kg -- harder than expected, probably from a month of not doing heavy DLs

DL from 4" blocks, 2x3 @85%: 285kg -- felt good

SSB Olympic squats, glutes to calves, 3x8 @55% of squat max: 180kg -- sucked wind badly

GHR 4x10: my GHR is inbound, so I did SLDL to a stretch with 100kg; back was barking a little at this point

Back Raise x50: this was polish -- my back is officially toast.

Knees were barking walking up and down the stairs at the office today, but didn't feel them at all in the rumpus room.  Ran the heater to start until the sweat was pouring; felt a little like high school wrestling practice at that point.

Next is bench max.  Off to eat -- stay tuned.  Feel free to ask questions; I think I understand enough to answer at this point and can always involve BL if not.

Thanks.

training 11.11.2012

Gorgeous day today, though quite cool for around here.  Actually ran the heater in the rumpus room today, primarily because I wanted to get a good sweat on.  I did.

Started with a fair amount of dynamic work and regular bar work.  Took B-Ala/creatine mix prior to and strictly water during.

Nothing more than wrist support today.

Competition bench x4@8.5: same as last 3x8.5.  Felt good about that.
Bench + chains x4@8.5: precious little.  Think I was a little toasty from the previous sets.  Changed grips up to get as many fatigue sets as possible.  Ultra-wide was strongest, which was a little surprising, actually.
Squats x10: light weight, heels on a plate with toes out a good 30 degrees, glutes to calves.  Did a lot.  Going to get back to heavy squats very soon and will likely continue to do bodybuilding squats on the side for added size.  Actually given some thought to a Sheiko squat cycle, but not sure.  I'll have to think about it.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Be safe and buy extra ammo.

training 11.8.2012

Another day in the rumpus room.  Started off chilly, but got a good sweat on in a hurry.

B-Ala/creatine mix, nothing else in me but my lunch and snack.  Wrist support and a sweatshirt.

Seated DB shoulder Press with the fat DBs loaded to 65kg, sets of 10

in a superset with...

Weighted wide-grip pull-ups with 75kg between my legs, sets of 10

Tried some belt squats but kept riding my knees forward over my feet, so I decided not to hurt myself and instead moved on.

Did a bunch of direct neck work with one of those head-harness doo-hickeys

in a superset with

Partial squats -- bottom half -- with heels on a plate and a lot of weight.  No support of any kind, dropped to heels slowly enough to maintain control and squatted to just beyond parallel.  Sets of 20.

I love this kind of stuff for a little while; it's nice to hit things I wouldn't normally.  My next program will have to include some of these things as distractions to maintain focus and fight boredom.

Plus, even though my neck is bigger than it has ever been, someone I hadn't seen in years recently reminisced about when my neck used to be so much bigger.  Makes me wonder what changed to give them that impression.

Thanks for checking in.

training 11.7.2012

B-Ala/creatine mix, wrist support only except where otherwise noted.

Dynamic warm-up and a bunch of bar work.  Going to undertake a specific shoulder program to build up, particularly because I will likely be back to throwing a baseball hard in a few months and need some shoulder girdle stability.

2-board bench x4@8.5:  hit a ton - as much as I've ever done with a 2-bd.  Felt great.  Was seriously pissed off by my boss in mid-session, which might have helped. 

Threw on my loosest shirt and cranked out a bunch more sets with the 2-bd.  Very happy with the way it felt, the groove, everything.

Incline (45 degrees) x12@9: Again, a ton.  Reached 150 kilos for a dozen, though the last set was a serious grind and I did not bother to lock out all the reps.  Full ROM down, though, and stayed tight.  Again, very happy about this.  Triceps are entirely cooked now.

Was going to do some belt squats, but decided to do them tomorrow.  I know I won't train Friday, so it will be good to do some things tomorrow.  These days, this is mental health time.

Also eating much heavier -- experimenting here.  Still on CBL and have been hitting a pound of meat each meal (which is more than my usual has been) several times a day.  My veggie intake is pathetic -- too much effort for too little perceived gain.  I down them in the evening more than during the day in the office.  Besides, they just take up room.  Been keeping the carbs pretty clean at night, though have hit some Halloween candy pretty hard the last couple of nights.

Speaking of which, I don't know about you guys, but we hardly had any kids this year.  We usually average about 10 pounds of candy handed out, and I doubt I gave away 3 this year.  Almost no one showed.

Anyway, thanks for checking in.  Take care.

training 11.6.2012

Had to split time with training the boy, but got some concerted work in.

Warmed up under the bar.  Wore loose briefs and knee sleeves.  Used B-Ala/creatine mix.

Squat x2@8  lifted a ton and did five sets of two reps.  Feel good about it.

Kroc rows, Arnold press, power snatches by the bushel-full. 

I'm tired in several ways.