When faced with an issue in your fitness program it is best if you become an agent of change.  Nobody else is going to fix it for you.  It is entirely up to you.  Most people don't even care what happens with your fitness plan, so take matters into your own hands and turn it around.  The effort you put into this will pay off big in the long run.

Avoid confusing solutions.  Don't just blindly trust everything you read from the so-called experts on the internet.  Consider the source.  What has this person done in the past?  Do they have body building competition victories under their belt?  Have they built the physique they've promised you will get if you follow their system?  These are just a few of the questions that need to be asked.

The fitness industry is a disaster these days.  You have people trying to sell their latest workout system to you at every turn.  These people turn out to be hypocrites who only really care about the money.  They preach a particular method for working out, saying it is the most efficient and guaranteed to bring you success.  Later, when one of their friends releases a "revolutionary new system" the hypocrites jump on the affiliate bandwagon, using their large lists to sell this new system even though it completely contradicts what they themselves teach.  When is it going to stop?

"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.  The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it.  You are overcome by the fact because you think you are." Norman Vincent Peale

I have some honest concerns about helping out people on the Shreddersphere right now.  Quite honestly, the number of people in the Shreddersphere has grown tremendously.  I used to run through the entire list in about 30 minutes each day, but to do the same thing now would require about 90 minutes of my time every single day.  I just do not have that time to spare.  At the same time, I honestly believe it is important for us to support each other.  The question becomes how can we do it?

I have been very disappointed that there are just a few people who consistently comment posts on various blogs.  With a group the size of the Shreddersphere we should see blogs full of comments, but that just isn't happening.  Do people just not understand the power of the support they are giving?  Is it not understood that for there to be accountability there must be people consistently holding us accountable?  How can we be held accountable if nobody is commenting our blogs?  What sort of positive pressure is there if we are not commenting each other's blogs?

When I look at my menu it has gotten slightly boring which is the reason for the regrouping.  I am going to make things a bit tastier for myself.  I will not be changing my macronutrient ratios at all as they have been working well for me.  I have been pretty much cycling my carbohydrates in what some would call an odd manner, but in a manner that makes complete sense to me.  After all the research and reading I've done on the topic of nutrition, I settled in on this plan.  What has been amazing is that I've been eating a ton of calories, gaining muscle and not gaining fat in the process.  It is all about eating the right way to keep the body a fat burning machine.

I have written some goals for myself regarding abdominal training.  I am mixing it up a bit more than I have in the past 8 weeks.  Training overall has been awesome for me, but abdominal training has been dull and I need to spice that up or I will stop doing it regularly (bad). 

When I finish 12 weeks of H.I.T. I plan to test my 1 rep max on deadlifts, squats, bench press and overhead press.    I am excited to see what the changes in those numbers will be.

After spending the week going back and forth to San Diego, I had to go again today for hockey.  The team played terrible and I ended up getting myself more work.  I volunteered to make the kids run on Thursday's after practice.  We will be running for 30 minutes every Thursday in an effort to further improve their conditioning.

Pictures of the Kids

 

	The kids just love to copy Daddy.  I crack up when they pose on the other side of the tripod, so I figured I'd share with you what I'm looking at alot of the times I'm taking pics.
	It is a pose down between Alyssa and Daddy!
	Another pose down, but this time between Mitchell and Daddy!

My son has been a goalie since he was 6 and he is about to turn 14.  Much of that time he was playing roller hockey.  He has put the past 4 years into ice hockey and has goals and dreams he'd like to accomplish.  He constantly states that he is going to make it to the NHL and that he will do whatever it takes to get there.  He understands that he needs to go to college and plans to use his hockey skills for a scholarship to a good school.  Next year he will have the opportunity to play Junior A if he continues to grow like he is now.

Today we had a game against a team that was better than us.  As usual, my son had to face more shots on goal than any normal goalie should and he played out of his mind crazy.  We have a local hockey discussion forum where the parents talk about hockey stuff and after the game I came upon a parent asking about our game.  Another parent (one who is not a part of our team or our organization) had the following to say about the game:

InTheCreaseDaddy may be crazy for having a kid playing goalie (I honestly do agree with you on that), but his kid played one hell of a game yesterday. So much so that the parents on the other team started saying things like, "That goalie is amazing," and "Nice save." The other team's parents were saying nice save as if it was their goalie. If it weren't for that kid the the games would be uglier than Britney Spears after she shaves her head.

I noted that he said "games" plural, so I contacted him via private message and here is what he said:

I've watched your team play 6 games this season.  While your team lost each one of those games badly, each of those games would have been much uglier without your son's goaltending abilities.  He kept the games as close as he possibly could.  He, unfortunately, has very little help from the rest of his teammates.  He is quite a good goalie and you should be proud of him.

In order to meet this goal I will need to be virtually perfect with my training and my nutrition.  I am expecting all my readers to keep holding me accountable.

I will be honest that I was not that into my workout today.  Mentally I think I had checked out.  It has been a long week and I was very tired going into the gym.  However, I still managed to slaughter most of my lifts.  I also made a friend.

"You want just 1 plate on each side, right?"

As I walked up to do my leg press there was a man already on the machine.  He said he had one set of leg press left and asked if he could finish before I worked in.  I had no problem with this, especially when this was my first exercise of the day.  He did 270 lbs. (3 plates per side) and barely managed 8 repetitions.  This guy "looked" in pretty good shape.  As he got off the sled he looked at me and said "You want just 1 plate on each side, right?"  I smiled.

"No, I need to really load up the sled actually!" I replied.  He laughed and watched as I loaded 800 lbs. on the sled.

"How the hell are you going to lift that?" he asked.

"With intensity, man, with intensity!" I replied.

I got into the sled and did my repetitions.  When I finished he started to ask me a bunch of questions about my workout.  He asked how many more sets of leg press I had and when I informed him that I had none left he was shocked.  He couldn't understand how a 1 set for each exercise workout could possibly do anything for me.  We talked a bit and it turned out that he also does a full body workout, but does the standard high volume method.

Interestingly, Craig asked if he could join me in my workout, saying that he had just started his lifting routine for the day and was intrigued by my workout plan.  I took 15 minutes to explain to Craig how the H.I.T. workout functions.  I explained that he would need to use extreme intensity when doing his lifts.  I explained that he would need to take things to failure.

We worked out together.  He used far less weight than me on every single exercise despite being about 20 years younger than me and about 10 pounds heavier than me (muscular, not fat).  When the workout was over, Craig stated that he was amazed at how difficult it was.  He couldn't believe that he had only done one set per exercise and had still gotten a beating!

He watched me at the end of the workout do my deadlifts.  Once again I set up 300 lbs. on the bar and tore off 8 repetitions.  I explained to him that the amount you can lift depends alot upon the form you use in doing it.  After about 10 minutes I did another rep with the 300 lbs. just to show him what I meant.  I've learned that I get my best lifts when I get into position for the deadlift and then drop my butt down so that it is just about touching my calves.  I then drive my feet straight down into the ground and the bar comes up like it weighs nothing at all.