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My Focus Journal Entry #7

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focus-journal

This week my calories were lowered by 200. It is always a bit of a struggle at first because I am very good at dialing in my calories and then knowing exactly what to eat to hit them. This change will take me a week or so to get used to. In the mean time I am keeping very careful track of what goes into my mouth so that I don't exceed my calories.

I did have one day this week where I exceeded my calories. It was not by much and the week averaged out, so I am OK with it.

My body fat percentage dropped by 0.7% from last week. I am obviously heading in the right direction.

The training continues to be a challenge. I am enjoying that immensely.

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Hamstring Curls for Stronger Legs

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hamstring curls

Hamstring curls are superior to deadlifts in activating the hamstrings. Don't believe me? Read on!

A recent study by Bret Contreras and Brad Schoenfeld from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research seems to show that my initial statement above is true. The study used accomplished trainees who had been training longer than 4 years. It showed that the hamstring curl caused greater activation of the hamstring muscle than any other exercise.

It is for this reason that I tell you not to neglect hamstring curls when training your legs. I feel that you should work your hamstrings very hard at the middle or beginning of your leg training. Below is a typical leg session. As you can see, the hamstrings get their work.

Exercise Sets/Reps
Leg Extension 4 x 15
Leg Press 4 x 25
Lying Leg Curl 3 x 15
Seated Leg Curl 3 x 8
Squat 4 x 10

This plan is quite simple, but quite effective. It begins by pumping blood into the quad muscles and wearing them out. It then continues on by hitting the hamstrings very hard. To me, this does a wonderful job of isolating the hamstrings. The first 2 exercises tire out the quads so that they don't play any role in the hamstring exercises.

If you have any tips on building up your hamstrings please leave them in the comments below.

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My Focus Journal Entry #6

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Wow, what a week! I finished my 4th microcycle with Coach Ryan Miller. While I am not going to reveal workouts and specific advice he has given me, I can say that his program is working for me. Here are some max lift numbers on core lifts that should blow your mind.

Core Lift 1/4/2015 2/1/2015 % inc/dec
Back Squat 320 lbs. 350 lbs. +9%
Incline BB Press 160 lbs. 185 lbs. +16%
Deadlift 350 lbs. 390 lbs. +15%
Chinup Grip Lat Pulldown 95 lbs. 150 lbs. +58%
Seated BB Overhead Press 135 lbs. 150 lbs. +11%

My 1 rep max increased on every single exercise in just 4 weeks. I attribute this to the way Ryan has me attack the exercises each and every workout. These numbers are close to my all time best numbers. For instance, the most I have ever deadlifted is 405 lbs. and I am at 390 lbs. at the moment. The most I have ever squatted is 365 lbs. and I am at 350 lbs. at the moment.

These numbers were done at pretty much maintenance calories. I am ready for more progress and this has simply increased my focus.

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My Focus Journal Entry #5

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focus-journal

I am continuing to improve my lifting numbers. My focus is back in a big way. Having the support of my coach, Ryan Miller, has really helped. He changes up my goal numbers every week and then encourages me to go out and hit them. I am loving the heavy days because that's how I really enjoy training.

Nutrition has been spot on for the most part. I believe I am hitting 85 to 90% healthy meals. I have definitely managed to hit my macros the majority of the time, especially when averaged out over a week.

That's really all I have to report this week.

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My Focus Journal Entry #4

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Another week has gone by and my focus is just getting stronger. I am in my third cycle of Ryan Miller's training program and seeing some good results.

Nutrition Averages

This week my average calories were 2652. This broke down to 32.5% protein, 50.0% carbohydrates and 17.7% fat. Yet again I have hit my macros and feel great. The more interesting thing is that we have also apparently figured out my true maintenance level calories as my body weight stayed exactly the same all week.

Weight Training

This week I worked extremely hard at contracting the muscles with every repetition. I could see a difference between this week and past weeks. My numbers are increasing which means I am getting stronger.

Thoughts This Week

It is so easy to lose focus when busy. I always preach how important it is to plan ahead for nutritional success and now I am starting to see that it applies to training as well. I now sit down each week and plan the days of the week for the following week that I will train. I take into consideration what I have going on that day and as a result I modify the start time of my workouts. It has worked to keep me from missing any workouts.

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