All of these pictures are misnumbered because they say Day 7 when they are in fact from today, which makes them Day 8.  Sorry about the confusion.  These are here by popular demand.

Until later…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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The Challenge

Complete the most unassisted chin ups.

I challenge all of you who currently cannot complete a single unassisted chin up to see who can do the most unassisted chin ups by March 22, 2008.  It is important that you currently cannot complete a single unassisted chin up.

How do you get involved?

Leave a comment letting me know you want to be involved.  I will post an entry outlining my plan for how to accomplish some unassisted chin ups and in that entry will be the list of people interested in joining the challenge. 

What is involved?

Starting on Sunday, December 23, 2007 (80 days from the end of the challenge), I began a weekly post regarding the challenge.  Each of you should provide me (via email) your current progress regarding chin ups.  I will post this every Sunday for all the world to see.

Participants:

Tea [visit her blog]
Lynda [visit her blog]
Suzette [visit her blog]
Lilla [visit her blog]
Jeff
Michael [You are here]

Progress:

Tea — ?? Need an update please
Lynda — ?? Need an update please
Suzette — Suzette is figuring out how to get the training in to do the chin ups. 
Lilla — ?? Need an update please
Jeff — Assisted Chin machine: 2x (part of back routine)
            Assisted Chins: 3×10,4×10
Michael — Completed 2 unassisted chin ups.  Training with 5 x 5 with 30 pounds assistance.

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The statistics are in for the start of Week 2.  I'm not happy, but I'm also not surprised at what has happened.  Read on.

I had a strong feeling that rotating in a higher calorie day was going to increase my weight and my fat percentage.  I'm concerned just a little, but I am not going to do anything different this week.  I am going to stay focused on the plan and if things don't change this next week, I will make some major adjustments to fix the potential issue that I am seeing.

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(Picture posted on 2/10/2008 at 1:02 p.m. taken on 2/10/2008 at 12:04 a.m. after arriving home, before going to bed)

Today I'm going to have to post my accountability entry early.  I am working the rest of the day and then I will be travelling until the wee hours of the morning.  I have managed to take pictures each and every day since I've been here and those will get pasted back to their appropriate articles when I return home.

Today I got up early and headed out to the gym to do my cardio workout. I did a 16 minute Max-OT on the treadmill and managed to get 1.9 miles in–another record for me!  I also decided to play around with the dumbbells a little to insure that I'm hitting proper form on some of my exercises.  It was a fun time and very stress free.

I find that when I travel I feel very tired.  I tend to take alot of naps when travelling.  This time I feel tired but I'm unable to take naps due to my busy schedule.  I know I will be tired tomorrow and yet I have a lifting day scheduled.  I am doing affirmations to prepare myself for tomorrow's workout.  It is going to be a great one!  It is pretty intense because I do 1-1/4 squats and I also do split deadlifts and split good mornings. I will continue to work on the last two exercises with lighter weights, gradually increasing the weight as my form gets better.

I will post my accountability, nutrition and workout logs early tomorrow morning as I want them all to be complete before posting them. (Note:  They were just posted at 10:23 a.m. on 2/10/2008)

Accountability Log (posted 2/10/2008):

I actually missed a meal because the chicken I was carrying went bad.  I'm not stressing about it because there wasn't much I could do.  I resisted the urge to eat fast food, so to me that's a victory.

Nutrition Log (posted 2/10/2008):

Workout Log (posted 2/10/2008):

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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(Picture posted on 2/10/2008 at 1:00 p.m. taken on 2/8/2008 at 9:15 p.m.)

Hi everyone.  Today was another crazy day.  Usually when I travel I am forced to find a 24 Hour Fitness location and then use the GPS to get there for my workout.  Here at the Hilton, they have an amazing gym.  They have 5 treadmills, 5 elippticals, 5 bikes, a full set of dumbbells from 5 to 50 pounds, a lat pull down machine, a leg curl machine, a leg extension machine, two adjustable benches, a chest press machine and a triceps push down machine.  If it was a weight day, I would be able to do my entire workout with the equipment they have here!  However, today was cardio only and so I did my cardio workout.  I did a 30 minute HIIT session on the treadmill with a 2 minute warm up and a 5 minute cool down and a 1 minute sprint at 9.5 mph followed by a walk for 1 minute at 2.5 mph.  I was gasping for breath by about minute 22.

Nothing really to discuss today.  This trip has just kept me very busy.  I haven't had alot of time to think or plan.  I did some reading about bulking to help with cutting (hence the survey post earlier).  I am personally leaning towards the bulking phase, but I believe in the wisdom of crowds which is why I posted the survey.  Thanks to anyone who answers that survey as you will be shaping my next week's workouts.

I have several reasons why I think a bulk phase might be good:

1. I have been on a caloric deficit for a long time
2. I am at 13% body fat (perhaps less since this week's measurements are not in yet)
3. Adding muscle will help with burning fat
4. The plan I have for bulking is to rotate my calories–3 days above maintenance, 1 day at maintenance–to reduce the amount of body fat increase.
5. Adding calories at this point might be a good thing for my body's metabolism
6. Experts disagree on what the exact right approach is, but most say that if you hit your body fat percentage goal (mine was 13%) you are ready to bulk.

I will be extremely interested in the survey results.

Reminder:  I will be coming back to this post and posting my pictures when I return home.

Accountability Log:

Nutrition Log:

Workout Log:

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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