Today was a full rest day and I used it to plan ahead for the coming week.  I looked over my planned workouts (there are 4 distinct workouts in this particular series) and decided what my starting weights should be.  I'm being very agressive this time with my starting weights.  I am running with this workout plan until April 11, 2008, 10 days after The Big Reveal.  It is primarily aimed at increasing strength.

Wave Loading:  What the heck is it?

When you do a strength training program you are trying to teach your muscles to generate more force at their current size.  As your muscles grow that growth will help you generate more force, but for now we have to fool the muscles into generating more force.  There are two techniques taught that will help you get past your current limitations:

Your body learns to “skip” motor units.  Normally, your body will call on motor units in order of the size of their fibers as you attempt a heavy lift.  The small, slow-twitch fibers go first, then the medium-sized fibers on up to the fibers reserved fro max-effort lifts.  The muscles of the most experienced lifters can bypass the slow-twitch motor units and go straight to the motor units that contain the biggest, strongest musce fibers.

Your body learns to “switch off” the mecahnisms within the mucles and connective tissues that inhibit force production.  If your body thinks you are trying to do something that will cause damage, it has a braking system in place to stop it.  The longer you lift the further in the background these mechanisms go. 

These two techniques happen on their own, subconsciously.  In my new workout plan I will be employing another technique called “wave loading.”  It will be combined with “precontraction.” 

Precontraction is where you activiate the muscles opposite the ones you plan to use in the lift.  For example, if you were bench pressing, you would flex your lats and pull your shoulder blades together in back before you lower the weight to your chest.  At this point you pull the weight to your chest like a row and you should be able to generate more force on the upward push this way.

Wave loading involves a warm up and then six reps of an exercise followed by a set of just one rep.  The next set will be another set with six reps, but it will be with a heavier weight than the previous set of six.  Because the body remembers how heavy the single rep was, the eight you use for the set of six is going to feel relatively light, even though it is more than you used for the previous set of six.  When you do your fourth set, you again use a heavy weight for one rep.  This one rep set should feel lighter because you don't have to lift it for six reps.

Thus, wave loading is a technique for tricking your neurosystem into lifting heavier and heavier weights. 

Accountability Log:

Nutrition Log:

Workout Log:

Today was a rest day.

Thought for the Day:

Anything worth doing is worth doing right.  That includes a physique transformation.  Learn what you need to know in order to be successful at your transformation.  Leave no stones unturned.  It will benefit you in the end.

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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(Special thanks to Mike Groom for the countdown clock idea!)

The stats are in for the week and as I suspected, I've made some progress.

I knew I'd lose some LBM as I did not have a full week of lifting this past week (with all weight training ending on Tuesday).  I'm extremely satisfied with these results.  It is the first time since February 24, 2008 that I've seen the scale move and 3 pounds down is awesome! 

This week I am sticking to my cycle of 3 days low carb and 1 day of high carb as it seems to be working.  I will continue the cardio plan I've been on and I will continue with my Flatten Your Abs training.  In addition, I will be doing wave loading to increase strength (more on that later today).

Until later…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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Today was my final training day of the week, with tomorrow being a day of rest.  I hit the gym early at 5:30 a.m. and ran for 30 minutes.  I managed to run 3.5 miles in that time and it was intense.  What I did today was I started out jogging at a pace of 6.5 MPH.  I did this for 2 minutes.  I then upped the speed to 7.0 MPH and ran at this pace for 8 minutes.  At that point I upped the pace to 7.5 MPH and ran at that pace for 5 minutes.  I then upped the pace to 8.0 MPH and ran for another 5 minutes.  It then got very, very intense indeed.  I upped the pace to 8.5 MPH and ran it for 2 minutes.  I then upped the pace to 9.0 MPH and ran it for 2 minutes.  I then upped it to 9.5 MPH and ran it for 2 minutes.  I spent the final 4 minutes of my run at 10 MPH!  When I hit the “finish line” I was gassed!

As soon as that was done and I was ready to leave the gym, I decided to work on my squatting technique.  I've been re-reading Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and it describes, in detail, what the perfect squat would be.  I went to the squat rack (that is mostly unused at this gym) and proceeded to practice with the empty bar.  I worked on keeping my chest up during the entire movement.  I worked on getting better depth on the squat at all times. I worked on watching a point on the floor six feet in front of me.  I paid careful atttention to where my knees were travelling during the movement.  Most importantly, I worked on the hip drive.  A squat is really a hip movement overall and most people miss this when doing the exercise.  In fact, when you watch most people squat, it is really a standing leg press, not a squat.  While I don't really have that problem, I wanted to be sure to practice every aspect of the squat because I'm going into wave loading next week (more on this tomorrow) and it will require me to lift some pretty heavy weight.  I wanted to perfect my form before hitting the heavy loads I'm facing this coming week.

I'm excited to see my workout results this coming week.  I felt really strong today, even getting my “test squats” up over 250 pounds with great form.  I'm ready for this week's lifting and warn you to watch for some huge numbers!

My reveal is in 17 days and I'm working hard.  Today I was tempted by pizza but the reveal was on my mind and I turned it down.  I probably would have anyway, but the reveal made it much easier to do.  I'm really working hard on my Flatten Your Abs workout these days.  I attacked this in a progressive manner from the start.  I did just 1 set the first 2 weeks of working the program and am now up to 3 sets (where I shall stay until I go up a level).  It is a great program and one I highly recommend.  Give it a try!

Just a note that my online friend, Mike Groom, will be doing his reveal in about 50 days from now. Go on over to his blog and give him some support!

Accountability Log:

Nutrition Log:

Workout Log:

Thought for the Day:

Men and women were not only created equal, they are supposed to workout in the same manner as well.  What's good for a man is good for a woman.  Don't believe all the stuff about women needing to lift differently than a man because it is nothing but rubbish.

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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Today's podcast explodes the myth that cardio is the only useful and effective way to burn fat.  I discuss the role of weight training in a fat loss program and specifically, I discuss why women will want to lift heavy to burn fat. 

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Today was another cardio only day as I cruise through a half a week of no lifting.  I ran another 3 miles.  I also set a personal best by hitting 2 miles in 16 minutes.  I must say that I ran very hard today.

I am currently going through Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe for the third time.  If you have not read this book, you have not learned about strength training.  Mark Rippetoe is the premier strength training coach in the country if not the world.  He is very closely tied to the CrossFit movement and is also a certified CrossFit trainer.  Reading Mark's book always gives me a chuckle because he is extremely prickly.  For instance, after going through the mechanics of the squat, Coach Rippetoe proclaims that you are ready to do a squat.  He tells you to use some chalk.  He then says “if your gym has no chalk, bring your own.  If your gym complains about your chalk, find another gym.” 

In the strengthmill.com forum, Coach Rippetoe has a Q&A forum.  Alot of people post links to their YouTube videos wherein they are squatting or deadlifting and they ask the Coach for his critique.  The reading gets very entertaining.  After one reader posted a huge list of links to different exercises, Coach Rippetoe comments:

“I assume these were attachments or links or something, but they are obviously fucked up somehow. Nevertheless, there have been lots of videos posted by now, and the intelligent trainee can compare his video to the ones already posted, read my comments on those, and draw his own conclusions about what I would say. So, be intelligent and do your homework.”

When the same reader finally gets a posted video to work, the Coach gives a very brief response:

“Look down. Quit looking in the mirror.”

Finally, the Coach has had enough of this reader:

“Look Sly, if your knees are traveling forward at the bottom and your heels are coming up in the air, it's wrong. I obviously can't see a lateral problem in this view, but go back and read the fucking book. There are lots of ways to fix this that don't involve brain surgery-level analysis. If your knees are going forward, make them go back. Or out, since if they go out they're not going back. Or your ass is hooked up pretty well to your knees — make it go back at the bottom, which requires that you lean over more, which will drag your knees back and stretch out your hamstrings. You have to get out of your quads and into you posterior chain, and there are lots of ways to do this. They're in the Fucking Book. Read it again.”

How is that for a blunt coach?  I was rolling on the ground laughing after reading these comments.  When another reader posts a video that has typical issues, Coach Rippetoe states:

“Standard deal, leg press with the bar on your back. See the many previous posts regarding this problem.”

When a reader asked when they should begin using a weight lifting belt, Coach Rippetoe responds:

“It's discussed in the book. Which you should always check before asking obvious questions.”

This is a guy that reminds me of myself.  I hate stupid questions.  However, Coach Rippetoe takes it to a new level.

I highly recommend Coach Rippetoe's books.  He spends alot of time explaining the correct form for various exercises.  He has a basic routine that you can use to increase your strength that is broken into two workouts:

Workout A

Squat
Bench Press
Overhead Press

Workout B

Deadlift
Overhead Press
Power Clean

That's it.  3 exercises and you work them for a long time.  You should see tremendous strength gains using these simple routines.  If you have not read any of Coach Rippetoe's books, start with Starting Strength as it lays the foundation for Coach Rippetoe's beliefs.

Accountability Log:

Nutrition Log:

Workout Log:

Thought for the Day:

In order to make a full physique transformation you need to committ to it fully and work at it constantly.

Come back tomorrow for the podcast as I am releasing it tomorrow.

Until tomorrow…GET BACK TO LIFTING!

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