Training and Self Assesment (It begins today)

It’s that time again. So soon? Yes, it’s been five weeks since my last hypertrophy routine (here) and it’s time to review my progress and chart a new course for the next month.

Work Out

My goal was to gain 10-15 pounds and to pay close attention to my rest intervals between exercise sets. My starting weight was 168-lbs and my concluding weight was 180-lbs. I estimate that I gained 9-lbs of muscle, 1-lbs of fat, and 2-lbs of water from creatine consumption. I bought a stopwatch to time my rest intervals and I religiously stuck with 90-sec rests between most exercises, with the exception of Olympic lifts that I allowed 120-sec breaks. My gym attendance and performance was solid. I did slack a little in week three because my body was taking quite the pounding from the high-volume routine and I felt like I needed a rest. In hindsight, I’m a tad disappointed that I didn’t increase my weights as aggressively as I could have. I also didn’t follow through on my “oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful to continue running at lunch” idea. One final note about the hypertrophy routine: Hamstring day (Friday) was impossible thanks to poor workout design on my part. I had to skip the Single-Leg Back Extensions and I had to move the abdominal exercises to the end of the combine.
Grade: B+

Diet

My plan was to overfeed by 1,000-kcal/day (approx 3,500-kcal/day) with as much protein and carbohydrates as I could cram into my pie hole. I succeeded and excelled. My FitDay log reveals that my consumption regularly hit 3,900-kcal/day with 400-g of carbs and 350-g of protein. Just like with the work out, I took the diet lighter for week-3. After I got a feel for my food intake, I became delinquent with my nutrition journal.
Grade: A

Supplements

Once I’ve purchased the supplements, it is easy to follow through with. I can’t say that two weeks of Mag-10 was worth the $60 I paid for it. It may have made a slight (+/- 1-lb) difference by limiting fat gain. The week’s worth of Androsol that I had stored away was about as effective as the Mag-10. I don’t know why I blow money on supplements. I guess I can’t resist the gamble that I might stumble upon the fabled miracle muscle serum. I do, however, vouch for the effectiveness of cheap creatine. I believe it helps gain mass, though some of it is water. I cycled off the creatine last week and I’ve lost 2-lbs. My guess is that I lost the water weight from creatine.
Grade: A

Sleep

I was shooting for 8-hours a night. Most of days I achieved my goal (though at the expense of the book I’m reading). I could do a lot better though. Some of my lack of rest came from poor quality sleep, as opposed to low quantities of sleep. Lately I’ve decided to limit caffeine consumption after noon.
Grade: C

New Plan

My workout plan is geared for strength gains. Now that I’m heavier I should, hypothetically, be stronger. I’ve chosen four lifts that I want to increase my single repetition max, bench press, squat, dead lift, and clean&jerk. I will work on all four lifts every day while rotating which lift comes first. I’m guessing I’ll need 2 – 3-minute breaks between sets. Week-1 will be devoted to 5-rep max. Week-2 will be devoted to my 3-rep max. Week-3 will be devoted to my 1-rep max. Finally, Week-4 will be devoted to setting new 1-rep personal records. Week-4 will require a slightly different design than its predecessors, but I’ll worry about that three weeks from now. Finally, I’d like to hit a brief run every now and again at work.

Monday
Bench Press: 1X10, 2X5
Squat: 1X10, 2X5
Clean and Jerk: 1X10, 2X5
Dead Lift: 1X10, 2X5
Reverse Crunches: 3X10
Crunches: 3X10

Tuesday
Squat: 1X10, 2X5
Clean and Jerk: 1X10, 2X5
Dead Lift: 1X10, 2X5
Bench Press: 1X10, 2X5
Triple Drop Seated Calf Raises: 3X10
Standing Calf Raises: 1X100

Wednesday
Off... maybe a lunch break run.

Thursday
Clean and Jerk: 1X10, 2X5
Dead Lift: 1X10, 2X5
Bench Press: 1X10, 2X5
Squat: 1X10, 2X5
Cyclone: 3X10
Vacuum Contraction (Horse Stance): 3X30-sec

Friday
Dead Lift: 1X10, 2X5
Bench Press: 1X10, 2X5
Squat: 1X10, 2X5
Clean and Jerk: 1X10, 2X5
Dumbbell Motorcycles: 3X10
Dumbbell Wrist Curls: 3X10

Saturday/Sunday
Off... maybe a short run.

...See how the four core exercises rotate? Cool. In Week-2 all repetitions of 5 become 3’s and in Week-3 they become 1’s.

I’m reaching a new level of detail for my upcoming dietary plan. I am planning a generic daily menu. Meals can be replaced with other substances as long as the kcals, protein, fat, and carbs remain comparable. I’m using Stage 2 of this article as a guideline, though I am not attempting a caloric deficit; I will keep my intake at maintenance levels.

7:30AM: 1-cup cottage cheese, 0.5-cup pineapple chunks, 1-head of broccoli
9:30AM: 6-oz chicken breast, 0.5-cup rice
11:30AM: 4-oz ground turkey, 1-oz cheddar cheese
1:30PM: 1.67-serv whey protein, 0.67-tbs flaxseed oil
3:30PM: 1.67-serv whey protein, 0.67-tbs flaxseed oil
6:30PM (post workout): 1-serv whey protein, 1-cup milk, 1-cup yogurt
8:30PM: 2 eggs, 1-serv whey protein
10:30PM: 1.67-serv whey protein, 0.67-tbs flaxseed oil

This menu results in 2,750-kcal, 90-g fat, 160-g carbohydrates, and 320-g protein. For non-workout days (Sun, Wed, Sat) I’ll switch the 11:30AM meal with the 6:30PM meal.

Once again, I'm going to try to work on sleep. I'm gunning for 8-hours a night, minimum. Sleep usually is the first thing to suffer when life starts to get overwhelming, so for the next four-weeks I'm going to plan on hitting the ol' bed at 10:30PM and waking up at 6:30AM.

In four-weeks I shall look back and see how this all pans out.
...and so it was written, shenry at 4/28/2003 07:13:00 PM.
...and so it was appended with .