Training Diary- German Volume Training- Wk 4.

Hey guys, so how's the training going? Well after I did legs on Tuesday night, I decided I'm gonna take about the next 3 weeks off training. I'm tired of this niggling back situation, and it's not gonna get better while I keep loading it up. It's based on multiple factors, my lack of proper warm ups, foam rolling, stretching, mobility etc. So I've been working on that, and will continue to work on it, extensively, over the next few weeks. I'm going to incorporate some core work, basic stability stuff, bridging and planking. I might also work on my glute strength and activation too, prepare myself to come back better.

I fear the program, while excellent for putting on muscle mass, was just the wrong program for me to do right now, with my back the way it is, with my warm up situation being the way it has been. It's very weight, bilateral, quad, squat dominant, which is not a criticism of Poloquin or his programs, but more of my own timing and placement of the program in my current growth cycle. I've been like a little kid with my fingers in my ears about the prehab work and standard mobility stuff, and as Nick Tuminello has been posting on FB all day, I do need to practice what I preach. It's not enough to simply tell you guys you have to do extensive mobility/stability/flexibility training if I can't lead by example. I do ask, that you learn from my example, injuries are what happens when muscles are tight, weak, and you can't provide stability for joints.   I've been using the more functional approach the last year or 2 and it's worked well, true I haven't pushed it as hard as I have with the weight in a while and those programs were largely metabolic, but I'm going to try and incorporate more of the functional training principles in my next program (which will likely be full body circuits for a month or so, to mix it up, be more functional and get my back good again).

Workout 13
Chest/Back
x 10 sets	Wk 4
A1: BB Bench	110kg
A2: Pullup	BW+20kg
B1: DB Inc Bench	35kg,37.5kg,40kg
B2:  BB BO Row	70kg,70kg,80kg
Workout 14
Legs
x10 sets	Wk 4
A1: BB Back Squat	120kg
A2: Lying Leg Curl	70kg
B1: DB Walking Lunge	20kg,20kg
B2: SLDL	60kg,60kg
Workout 15
Arms
x 10 sets	Wk 4
A1: DB Alt Curl
A2: CG Bench
B1: Preacher Curl
B2: Skullcrusher
Workout 16
Chest/Back
x10 sets	Wk 4
A1: BB Inc Bench
A2: Chinup
B1: DB Bench
B2: DB BO Row

Diet's been pretty average, not super bad, but in terms of my burgeoning struggle to maintain some kind of vegetarianism, I've been getting slack, maya once, nandos twice. It also gives a nice little kick to my wallet too! As a sidenote to that, it is interesting the response you get when you say you're a "semi vegetarian", whatever "street cred" vegetarianism has, and I admit, it's close to zero, semi vegetarianism gets you even less. People's reactions are along the lines (and this is from vegetarians too) "so you're not really a vegetarian are you?" It's bizarre. The point is: I eat less meat than I did, which is saying a lot. I used to a eat a bout a kg of meat a day, now I eat about a kg of meat a week or every 2 weeks, do the math extrapolated over a year! That's an impact. Imagine if everyone made similar changes? I'd be happy to see everyone making even some vegetarian options, it all helps.

I wonder, do you guys still want to see how I'm eating while I have a couple of weeks off? It might not  be very exciting.

Breakfast: 1 cup of oats with 1 scoop protein powder, Hilo milk, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. 700mL of water. Vegetable smoothy- 1/3 of a cucumber, handful of alfalfa, a carrot, handfuls of beans, peas, corn, spinach, a few sticks of broccoli. 1 tablespoon of creatine in milk.

Post workout shake: x2  up n go "energize"'s, 30g of protein powder. 500-700mL of water during training. 1 tablespoon of creatine.

Post workout meal: X2 fried eggs on wholemeal toast (x2 slices) with low fat butter.
 
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 vegetarian options such as vegetable sausages, bacon etc.

Pre bed snack (sometimes): Second vegetable smoothy. 

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