Today was a more normal day–if any day is normal.  I was able to get more general things done and not be so focused on putting out fires.  I noticed a difference in the gym as well.

Today I went to the gym in the morning to do some fasted HIIT cardio.  I ran my intervals, increasing to 6 intervals from 5 the previous session.  The gym itself was a little bit more crowded than usual.  I guess that's normal.

In the afternoon (about 4 hours ago) I went to the gym a second time for some more HIIT cardio.  I again ran 6 intervals.  It felt great to hit the gym two times in one day.  Hopefully that will become normal soon as well.

My eating continues to be good despite challenges I've been facing.  I haven't had anything to drink in the past 6 days other than water and non-fat milk.  I can feel the difference in my body already.

I did some more planning that I'm not ready to share yet.  I also did some work on the eBook I plan to write.  I spent a good portion of the evening trying to get music to transfer to my mp3 player.  I finally managed to fix the problems and the music is now transferring.

I look at myself in my pictures and honestly, if I were comparing yesterday to today, I would not notice a bit of difference.  However, Adam Waters is much too smart to send us down that path.  Instead, he has us comparing our Day 1 picture to our current picture every day.  That is where I see a difference in my physique.

Tomorrow is a weight lifting day.  It involves my favorite exercise, deadlifts.  Interestingly, I read an awesome article on how to properly do deadlifts.  It breaks the process into 3 major parts and then each major part is broken into anywhere from 5 to 10 minor parts.  It is really an awesome article and one I plan to study so that I can perfect my deadlift.  However, the article makes it clear that when done right, deadlifts present the single best way to add a ton of lean body mass to your frame.  No wonder I love them so much!

Until tomorrow…

“Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” — Zig Ziglar

What motivates you?  Is it the fear of failure?  Is it the future?  My answer is really simple.  What motivates me is knowing that you are going to be looking at my pictures every day.

The accountability factor that is the daily photograph is what keeps me motivated and working hard.  I used it today at the gym while working out.  I was doing step ups and really wanted to give myself permission to quit at 5 reps, but I pushed on to 11 reps because I knew it would have more of an effect on my body.  That gets seen through the pictures.  Thus, the pictures indirectly motivate me.

The exercise is what is making a physical change in my body, but my insistence on beating my last workout is what continues to produce results.

“How soon ‘not now' becomes never.” — Martin Luther King

So many people put things off until later.  I had that experience this morning.  I woke up for the gym and it was freezing cold.  I thought to myself “Not now, I can do this later” and actually sat down on the couch and pulled a blanket over myself.  I would have surely fallen back to sleep but I kept thinking “Something is going to derail you if you act like this.”  After just a few minutes, I got up and left for the gym.  Once my feet were moving, it was easy to go the rest of the way.

“I do not try to dance better than anyone else, I only try to dance better than myself.” — Mikhail Baryshnikov

When I go to the gym, I don't try to do better than the guy next to me.  For one thing, how do I know how long he's been lifting.  He might be lifting more than me due to the length of time he's been working out.  Without that knowledge, I have no way of knowing if I can do better than him.  That's why I only focus on beating myself.  I always have a week's worth of my workouts on a clipboard when I hit the gym.  I look back at past workouts and determine what today's goals are going to be.  I write those goals in the margine next to each exercise and then I go to work beating those goals.  It doesn't matter if I lift more than the next guy or not–it only matters that I lift more than myself from the previous trip to the gym.

My advice to you is to figure out what motivates you and then use it to your advantage.  Take every opportunity to make motivation work for you.  Motivation is a very personal thing.  Personalize it by doing the right thing for you.

Until tomorrow…

I didn't feel particularly strong today. I was coming back from a week off that I took due to my need to recover from my office move.  I had to cut out the second set of the second giant set because I don't ever go for more than an hour when lifting weights.  It is something I learned from the Optimum Anabolics program by Jeff Anderson.  This time, the delays were not my fault.  I had a couple that was using the assisted chin up machine at the gym and they would not let me work in.  They must have been doing a million sets because every time it was my time to do that exercise, there they were monopolizing that machine.  Without that major delay, I would have finished everything today.  I feel like I did push myself on every single exercise today.

I did 30 minutes of steady cardio today as well.

My main post and my pictures for the day will follow later in the day.

Workout programs are a dime a dozen these days.  You can read through any bodybuilding magazine and get bombarded with the best chest routine, the best shoulder routine, etc.  Our spam folders get filled with offers for the best workout program ever.  But what happens when we jump from program to program?

Frankly, there are so many different workout programs out there because different things work for different people.  If you've done much reading on working out, you've no doubt encountered the idea that your body will adapt to any given training program over time.  The key is to find training programs that give you results.  What some people do is pick 4 programs that are 12 weeks in length.  They then cycle those programs in and out during the year.  This avoids the adaptation issue.  Each time they come back to the programs they get better and better results.

I've personally tried several workout programs.  Some have worked, others have not worked.  In the category of those that worked would go Optimum Anabolics by Jeff Anderson, Bodybuilding Secrets Revealed by Will Brink, The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuyler, and the various levels of bodybuilding programs from http://www.global-fitness.com.  Others that fall in the category of not working include X-Size and Mass Results training.  I am keeping the good routines in my arsenal to be called upon when I need them.

Currently I am working through The New Rules of Lifting program.  I really like this program because it has a built in method for avoiding adaptation.  First, they vary the rest times in the workouts.  Second, they vary the repetitions, which then causes you to vary the weights you are using. Next, they vary the types of workouts:  fat burning, hypertrophy, etc.  I've been getting tremendous results with the fat burning workouts.

I think the most important thing anyone can do is find what works for them.  This includes nutritional issues as well as workout issues.  For some people, the carbohydrates/protein/fat ratio of 40/40/20 might be too restrictive and for others it might be too high in carbohydrates.  The only way to know is to make small changes.  Don't jump in and change everything at once.  I think the first thing to do is dial in your calories.  Find out what is the best number of calories for you (even if you don't crunch numbers, you can get a feel for how much food is right for you).  Once you have that dialed in, experiment with the ratios.  Add carbs, subtract carbs, do whatever it takes, but carefully examine the results you produce.  Find what works for you and then stick with it.  You will definitely need to vary your nutritional programs, so be prepared to readjust as needed.  Once the nutrition is dialed in, add cardio to the program.  Determine how much cardio is enough for you.  The objective should be to do as little cardio as possible with maximum results.  When you add cardio to your program, don't just do an hour a day and call it a success.  Start with 20 minutes and see what happens.  Increase it to 30 minutes and compare the results.  Go with the best results path for you.

As my regular readers know, I've recently started doing cardio twice a day on non-lifting days and once a day on lifting days, with one day off each week. I am carefully tracking my results and will make adjustments as needed.

My biggest tip for today is to stick with your program.  Don't just aimlessly jump around.  You have to give a program time to work.  This is why I'm sticking with The New Rules of Lifting for Mission 1 (and possibly even Mission 2).  I want to give it time to work properly.

Until tomorrow…

I spent alot of time driving again today and I came up with a plan for my goals.  I am not really sure if my goals are achieveable and I'd like to get everyone's opinions on my goals.

Ultimately, I want to reach 200 lbs of LBM and 13% body fat by the end of my 100 day mission.  I have set up the following plan to achieve this: