Archives for May 2008

How does the principle of total immersion change how you plan?  Listen in for the answer in this brief podcast.

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Today was my first day using the No Nonsense Muscle Building program from Vince Del Monte.  It was a lower body and abdominals workout and I have not done just my lower body in a long time.  This workout was only an hour long and it was intense.  My calves were burning after being worked so hard!  My abs felt like they were going to rip apart.  I am now setting aside FYA for the time being just to see what results I get from this program's abdominal exercises.

I did end up letting my employee go today.  I will not go into detail, but suffice to say that I am comfortable with the decision.  The new person is coming on like gangbusters already and that's an awesome thing to see.

I did alot of thinking about the future today. I'm not sure why I was in such a reflective mood.  I also picked up a new headset with a microphone so that I can finally record my podcast.

I will let you know my “deep” thoughts once I've processed them.  I've been reading The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen R. Covey and I think that's gotten me thinking.  I've spent alot of time in my journal lately (my handwritten one).  That, too, is getting me to think.

Accountability Log:

Nutrition Plan:

Workout Log:

Training Notes:  The Single Leg Leg Extension, Single Leg Hip Extension, One Leg Box Step Up, Single Let RDL with DB and DB Bulgarian Split Squat are per leg (so when I have 90 x 14, that's for each leg, so I did that twice).

This was a pretty intense workout.  Back extensions and RDL before the regular Deadlift added a new dimension to the workout.

Thought for the Day:

Change is a good thing when applied in the right way.

Question of the Day:

What do you need to change immediately?  Comment this article with your answer.

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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Today was a rest day.  I spent some time doing planning for Mission 3 and setting up my workout logs for next week.  Vince Delmonte will have me doing an lower body and upper body split.  I will hit lower body one day, upper body one day and then have two days of body weight conditioning work.  This will go on for four weeks and is called Upside Down Training.  If you are interested in putting on alot of muscle, this guy's program is the way to go.

Vince gives the following advice for building Muscle:

Step #1

Committ to lifting weights at least three to four times per week. Your goal is to stimulate your muscles with resistance (stress) which results in your muscles growing bigger to avoid the stress from occuring again. Once you go home, let the muscle heal through nutrition and rest, it will grow bigger and you will repeat this process again. Ideally you should hit your muscles once every 72 hours so you could perform 2 upper body workouts per week and 2 lower body workouts per week.

Step #2

Focus on eating at least 5-7x a day with balanced meals from carbohydrates, proteins and fats. If your goal is to build muscle than you should be eating at least 15-18 x your current body weight. Your carbohydrates should equate about 45% of your intake, your proteins should equate about 35% of your intake and your fat should be the remaining 20% of your intake. You should focus on over half of those meals being solid whole food meals and the remainder can be liquid meal replacment shakes.

Step #3

You should focus on stretching at least half the amount that you lift weights. One of the biggest mistkakes I see is people training, training and training with out any stretching. Stretching helps restore normal length to the tissue and if you are constantly training, your muscle tissues will shorten and big to perform weaker and slower and have a higher incidence of injuries. So if you are lifting weights 4 hours in the week, at least an additional 2 hours should be dedicated to stretching. You must counteract the shortening of the muscle tissues that occurs with weights or else you are a injury screaming to happen.

Step #4

Avoid supplements that have not been around for longer than 3 years. I learned this phisophy from an Australian strength coach who recommended not trying any supplement until it has been around at least 3 years to pass the test of time. This will make your life much easier and help you avoid all the marketing hoopla in the latest fitness and bodybuilding magazine. If you follow this rule, you will discover only a small handful of supplements still standing. Here are the ones you should not go with out: a high quality multi-vitamin, fish oil capsules, powdered creatine and a protein powder. These products will cover your nutritional basis for health, healthy body composition, strength and muscle mass.

You really should check out Vince Delmonte if you're serious about building some serious muscle.

I spent the rest of the day working on my website.  It is just about ready for a preliminary launch!

For those of you looking for the podcast, my headset with microphone died, so I will be recording and posting it tomorrow.

What is PACE?

I have had several people ask what PACE cardio is.  I reviewed it previously, so please check out my review.

Accountability Log:

Nutrition Log:

Workout Log:

Today was a rest day.

Thought for the Day:

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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Week 3 of the nutritional experiment is complete and the stats are now in.  Things are looking excellent:

Analysis:

In the past week I have lost 3 lbs, dropped 1.2% body fat, lost 0.0411 lbs of LBM (not bad during a cut) and lost 2.96 lbs of fat.  For the entire experiment I have lost 6 lbs, lost 2.97% body fat, gamined 1.2 lbs of LBM and lost 7.2 lbs of fat.  I believe I've found what works for me.  At this point my plan is to end my experiment at the same time my Mission 2 ends so that I can announce my new plans.  It is going to be awesome!

Until later…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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I woke up today with a severe case of DOMs, but it made me smile.  I've been working extra hard these days and the DOMs is a sign that I've been changing things up pretty well.

I came to a tough decision today.  I have terminated my personal training arrangement.  I was pretty conflicted about the trainer to begin with.  I did like the way my time with him was interfering with my own workouts.  Then i was looking through The Millionaire Workout by Ryan Lee and realized that every endurance exercise I was being taught was in this book I held in my hands.

With that in mind, if I want to add some endurance training to my plan, I can do so using this book.  I don't need to layout $350 a month to a trainer just yet.  I honestly believe that at some point (probably as I get close to entering a bodybuilding contest) that I will either need a trainer or a very advanced training partner, right now just isnt' the time.

Today was a cardio only day.  I'm sticking to my PACE workouts.  I did a good 24 minute treadmill session that had me dripping with sweat.

I am now planning my next workout phase and believe I will be using Vince DelMonte's No Nonsense Muscle Building program.

I highly recommend this system.  I've dabbled with some of the workouts and I've read through the plans.  He has some great support on his site and you can't go wrong with this guy's plan.  Let's see what it does for me.

Coming up tomorrow will be the first podcast in my Total Immersion series.

Accountability Log:

Nutrition Log:

Workout Log:

24 minutes PACE workout on treadmill.

Thought for the Day:

Be decisive.  When making decisions it is essential to do it decisively and to not look back.

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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