Training Diary-Phase 3- Wk1.

Hey guys! Week one of this last phase, and what did I do on my first workout Monday morning? Crank my low back, so I've been foam rolling, stretching and doing my mobility before every workout, with a specific focus on my hips (loosening up hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings) and my quads, I also specifically worked on my t-spine which has been noticeably tight lately and has been giving me some pain in my upper back. I did some foam rolling (with a roller and 2 tennis balls sticky taped together), mobility and stretching for my upper body too. I haven't specifically done anything on my low back as I wanted to see if relief would come from stretching, foam rolling and mobilizing the surrounding structures (as per Boyles "joint by joint" approach), but might get into it with some foam rolling and light stretching this morning (Friday morning) before I train lower body.

Ok, well I didn't end up training Friday morning due to the sleeping pilll I took on Wednesday night (more below), plus with my back being sore, thought best to get some recovery. Chris gave me a low back stretch called the "pretzel" (picture below) on Friday morning which has given me a huge amount of relief in my low back (just a bit of tightness remains), which is great. What's the take home message? Don't wait til something goes before you do this stuff! It's better now, but still tender. I think it's in part due to my almost zero amount of recovery/regeneration/warm up, my lack of sleep, increased stress due to lack of sleep and the weight I've been moving (yes to those of you who are actually strong, please hold your chuckles!).

While not the same, this is close to the "pretzel" stretch Wedge showed me

So I've been sleeping better, somewhat, but have still been really run down, it appears to be overtraining, which could be from the program or it could be from the program plus my insomnia bout last week (circular reasoning?), I've been irritable, tired but can't sleep, rundown, suffering with flu like symptoms, classic overtraining symptoms.  So, I bit the bullet and took some sleeping pills Wednesday night and subsequently spent most of Thursday (and Sunday) asleep, which was nice, and needed! Now I know you can get them over the counter I'm going to partake on the days I'm free to lay around. Is that addressing the symptoms and not the cause? Possibly, but I need my rest and want to make sure I'm recovering properly before I jump to any great conclusions, even if it is the program I have 3 more weeks then I'm done, so I can tough it out til then, either way. I am, after all, still making gains in both strength and weight (another weight and bf% test may be in order soon, I think I'm sitting at about 98ish).

Rob Superset
Phase 3
Day 1
Upper Body	S	R	Wk1
DB Bench/ 3 Point Row	3	8	32.5kg/32.5kg, 40kg/45kg, 40kg/45kg.
DB Dec/Wd Gp Std Rw	3	8	35kg/90kg, 35kg/90kg, 40kg/90kg.
Pushpress/ Pullup	3	8	50kg/BWx8, 60/BWx8, 60kg/BWx8.
Cble Pushdwn/ BB Curl	3	8	65/40kg, 70/40kg-
Day 2
Lower Body/Abs	S	R	Wk1
BB Deadlift	3	8	80kg, 120kg, 120kg.
BB Lng/BB Good Mrng	3	8	60kg/60kg, 70kg/70kg, 70kg/70kg.
Leg Prss/Sgl Lg Vd Lg Crl	3	8	200kg/1, 200kg/1, 220kg/1.
Rollout/Jacknife	3	8	1,1,1.
Day 3
Upper Body	S	R	Wk1
BB Bench/Unsppt T-br Rw	3	8	70kg/60kg, 90kg/70kg, 100kg/70kg.
DB Inc/ Machine Row	3	8	32.5kg/12 (Plates), 37.5kg/14, 40kg/14.
Hang Clea/Press/ Wd Chin	3	8	60kg/10kg, 60kg/12.5kg, 60kg/15kg.
Skullcrusher/ DB Curl	3	8	-.

Day 4
Lower Body	S	R	Wk1
Wide Back Squar	3	10	-
Lateral Lunge/SLDL	3	10	-
DB Step Up/Valsld Lg Crl	3	10	-
Bodysaw/ Hanging Leg Rs		10-

Diet wise, I've dropped the pies, a bit hard to claim to be a "semivegetarian" when you're consuming 4 meat meals a week, plus I was still having nachos on top of that, my waistline couldn't take it! I have only had one meat meal this week at Hans before we went and saw Scream 4 (it's awesome by the way! "Scream 4": More meta than ever! And almost as much fun"), so I'm feeling good about that. Still eating nachos, but as I'm training in the morning now they have become my post shake, post workout meal, not great I know, but if ever there was a part of the day when a meal like that would be less detrimental, it's after a weights workout (when your body is in recovery and can use excess calories for muscle glycogen, muscle repair etc). This is just a self justification, ad hoc mentality that I certainly don't encourage, and a la Jason Feruggia's "Keep it Real(istic)" post last week, the fatter I get now, means the smaller I'm gonna be when I diet down. Which effectively makes all this hard work useless. I am, after all, not a bodybuilder, I don't use drugs, that would allow me to bulk and cut, I'm just a recreational lifter, whose primary goal is looking good, and being big, a fine line to walk sure, but eating crap is not the way to get there. So, as with the removal of the meat pies, I just need to rationalise the removal of food I like that's subordinate to a goal I actually want to achieve (pleasure of eating nachos v having abs). I've been listening to a podcast on the psychology of "terror management" (scroll down to the podcast entitled "RD Extra: Denying Death") and it's made me realise how important psychology is to a trainer and how little I know about it, could be something for me to research.

I've also ordered some creatine (monohydrate) which I'll start when it gets here, as my goal was to start it when I hit 100kgs, which I almost am. I'll see if it adds any muscle and not just water, I'll also start a Beta-Alanine supplement when/if I get to 105kgs.

Breakfast: 1 cup of oats with 1 scoop protein powder, Hilo milk, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. 700mL of water.

Post workout shake: x2  up n go "energize"'s, 30g of protein powder. 500-700mL of water during training.

Post workout meal: Nachos.
 
Meal before afternoon shift:  Smoothy- 1/2 cup of berries, 1 cup of mixed veggies, 1 banana, 1 pear/apple, 1/2 cup of walnuts/cashews, a touch of cinnamon, 750mL of water, 1 cup of yogurt, 150g cottage cheese, 3 broccoli stems, handful of cherry tomatoes, lentils, chick peas (or various other types of beans/lentils). I also forgot to note, this makes 2 shakes that I have over the course of the day, or I have the leftover one the next day.


Dinner: Various egg options, usually 2 eggs on wholemeal toast.

Supplements. 3-4 fish oil tabs with my afternoon smoothy, and I've started taking a multivitamin supplement once-twice a day.