Destination: Abs (Redux)- Wk5.

Hey guys, no training diary blogs for a couple of weeks now, sorry about that, but there has been very little to report. As far as my back goes, I've had no body issues at all, and now that I'm in this new phase, I'm lifting heavier weights which is nice. As you'll see below, I've basically stopped doing intervals in the conventional sense, as in boxing, X-Trainer etc, I've replaced them with sled pushes and pulls, with moderately heavy weight. Why? It's functional strength work which will keep more muscle mass than simply sprinting or boxing will. I actually walked out pumped after doing these, and they're hard as hell!

These were my measurements as of the 28/08/11, for my previous measurements, see here.

Height- 185cm                    
Weight- 92.1kg
Bodyfat Percentage (skin folds)
Tricep- 19mm
Bicep- 3mm
Subscapula- 16mm
Supraillium- 19mm
Total- 57mm
Bodyfat Percentage= 20.47%.
OMRON= 18%

Girths
Arms Relaxed- R- 35.3cm, L- 35.5cm
Thighs- R 60cm, L 62cm
Chest- 103.5cm
Waist- 91.5cm
Hips 103.5cm

As you can see, I'm down just under 2% BF, and 1.5kgs, with only slight decreases in girths, which is nice, not much I know, but if I keep this up for the next couple of months I should start to get to a place I'm pretty happy with. My goal is to get as close to 10% as possible, I've planned to do this for 6 months, but have no problems going over. I'm not doing anything drastic, I'm not crash dieting, I'm still eating 7-9 meals a day, eating all the time really.  I've just cut out the junk, kept my protein levels high, and focused my weight and interval training to a higher intensity. I'm feeling no fatigue, or over training symptoms, in fact, I feel great!

 Here are some comparison photos from my first week til now, as always, I report, you decide!
 

So hopefully from these few pictures you can see some modest change in appearance. True, it's only been 5 weeks, and my Calories have not been dropped to an extreme level (not yet anyway). As any of you who train at CBD would see, I'm always carrying a smoothy around with me (with my bottle of water, and my file, yes I'm a dork!)

Alternating Set System
Day 1- MRT- Phase 2	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
A1: Dynamic Lunge	3	8*ea	60	17.5kg,20kg,20kg
A2: BB Pushpress	3	8*	60	45kg,45kg,45kg
B1: SLDL	3	8*	30	45kg,45kg,45kg
B2: NG Chins	3	8*	30	BW,BW,BW
C1: Jacknife (Feet on Fitball)	2	10	0	1,1
C2: Hanging Knee Raise	2	12	30	1,1
Day 2- HIIT
5-10 min warm up				Sled Pushes/Pulls with 70kg
1 minute on	7			1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
90 seconds off	7
Cool down 3-5 mins
Day 3- MRT	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
A1: DB Reverse Lunge	3	8*ea	30	20kg,22.5kg,22.5kg
A2: BB BO Row	3	8*	30	60kg,70kg,80kg
B1: DB Jump Squat	3	8*	30	15kg,20kg,22.5kg
B2: DB Incline Press	3	8*	30	25kg,27.5kg,30kg
C1: Pallof Press	2	12ea	0	80kg,80kg
C2: Rollout	2	12	30	8,10
Day 4- HIIT
5-10 min warm up				Sled Pushes/Pulls with 70kg
1 minute on	7			1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
90 seconds off	7
Cool down 3-5 mins
Day 5- MRT	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
A1: Dynamic Lunge	3	8*ea	60	20kg,20kg,20kg
A2: BB Pushpress	3	8*	60	50kg,60kg,60kg
B1: SLDL	3	8*	30	45kg,45kg,45kg
B2: NG Chins	3	8*	30	BW,BW,BW
C1: Jacknife (Feet on Fitball)	2	10	0	1,1
C2: Hanging Knee Raise	2	12	30	1,1
Day 6- HIIT
5-10 min warm up				Sled Pushes/Pulls with 70kg
1 minute on	7			1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
90 seconds off	7
Cool down 3-5 mins

Diet's been good, I've been going pretty hard on the bacon and eggs, but apart from the fact that they're fried, they're not affecting my fat loss (hopefully), I only eat one piece of (low fat) bacon, one egg, and one sausage, it's about 3-400 Calories. Apart from that no deviations, no junk, no alcohol (apart from that one night out). Feeling good!

Diet
Monday- 3200 Cals	T-S- 2600 Cals	Sunday- 2100 Cals
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
Oats/milk/30g pro powdr	Egg/whites/Spinach	Smoothy
Protein- 39g	Protein- 32.5g	Protein-29g
Carbs- 41g	Carbs- 1.5	Carbs- 45g
Fat- 8.2g	Fat- 13.4g	Fat- 4g
Total- 415 Cals	Total- 260 Cals	Total- 429 Cals
Morning Tea	Morning Tea	Morning Tea
x2veg sausages	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables	Egg/whites/Spinach
x1 multigrain bread	Protein-46.5g	Protein- 32.5g
butter	Carbs- 13.5	Carbs- 1.6
glass hi-lo milk	Fat- 18.2	Fat- 13.4g
Protein- 43.3g	Total- 420 Cals	Total- 260 Cals
Carbs- 31.5
Fat- 18g
Total- 473 Cals
Post Sleep	Post Sleep	Lunch
Vegetable smoothy	Vegetable smoothy	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables
Protein- 46.6g	Protein- 46.6g	Protein-46.5g
Carbs- 37.9g	Carbs- 37.9g	Carbs- 13.5
Fat- 3g	Fat- 3g	Fat- 18.2
Total- 411 Cals	Total- 411 Cals	Total- 420 Cals
Before Work	Before Work	Afternoon Tea
Smoothy	Smoothy	Vegetable smoothy
Protein-29g	Protein-58g	Protein- 46.6g
Carbs- 45g	Carbs- 90g	Carbs- 37.9g
Fat- 4g	Fat- 8.2	Fat- 3g
Total- 429 Cals	Total- 429 Cals	Total- 411 Cals
Post Workout Shake	Post Workout Shake	Dinner
x2 up n go/30g protein	x2 up n go/30g pro	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables
Protein- 45.1g	Protein- 45.1g	Protein-46.5g
Carbs- 55.7g	Carbs- 55.7g	Carbs- 13.5
Fat- 8.3g	Fat- 8.3g	Fat- 18.2
Total- 517 Cals	Total- 517 Cals	Total- 420 Cals
Post Workout Meal	Dinner	Evening
tofu/glass hi-lo milk	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables	Bacon and Eggs
Protein- 39.2	Protein-46.5g	Protein- 42.7g
Carbs- 36.4	Carbs- 13.5	Carbs-3.9g
Fat- 22.7	Fat- 18.2	Fat-28.9g
Total- 432 Cals	Total- 420 Cals	Total- 404 Cals
Before Work
Smoothy
Protein-29g
Carbs- 45g
Fat- 4g
Total- 429 Cals
Protein-276.2g	Protein- 268.9g	Protein- 233.6g
Carbs- 292.5g	Carbs- 198.6g	Carbs- 113.1g
Fat- 68.2g	Fat- 73.6	Fat- 70.2g
Max Total- 3109 Cals	Max Total-2460 Cals	Max Total- 2200 Cals

Destination: Abs (Redux)- Wk3.

Sorry I missed last week, I don't want to simply post week to week if I have nothing particular to say. With that mindset in, well, mind, how am I progressing? To be honest, the results are coming slow, I look better in the mirror than I do on the scales. I'm feeling leaner, the clothes are loose, but the scales say I've actually put on almost a kg (with a reduction in BF of about 1%), I haven't done any serious assessments, simple OMRON and scales at the moment. I've got a major assessment coming up next week. It's insane the weight difference I feel and see from high to lower carb days (sometimes a difference of 3kgs), which messes with your head, but my goal is ultimately to keep as much muscle as possible, so doing it slow is fine (after all I want to look good around December, a considerable amount of time away).

Training is solid, back is feeling good, no pain or discomfort. I've been semi regularly doing my foam rolling and stretching. I've been trying to increase the weight, but it's really f-ing hard doing 15 rep sets with any moderate weight, increasing it just makes you want to die! HIIT is fun as always, especially the boxing, I really like the way I feel during dieting phases, I like the diet restrictions (as much as I constantly crave Nandos and nachos), and I like how clean and healthy I feel. You enjoy food more when you're not just eating crap all the time. Psychologically, I get far more enjoyment out of a piece of chocolate now, than I did eating a whole bag of malteasers before, not hard to see why.

Assessment next week guys, complete with photos and measurements, eep!

Alternating Set System
Day 1- MRT- Phase 1	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk3
A1: Fr-Squat Psh Press Cmbo	3	15	30	40kg,40kg,40kg
A2: Seated Cable Row	3	15	30	65kg,65kg,70kg
B1: DB Step Up	3	15ea	30	10kg,10kg,10kg
B2: Pushup (on Fitball)	3	15	30	15,15,15
C1: Glute Bridge	2	15	0	1,1
C2: Plank	2	60s	30	30s,30s
Day 2- HIIT
5-10 min warm up				X-Trainer
1 minute on	5			1,1,1,1,1
2 mins off	5			5min cooldown
Cool down 3-5 mins
Day 3- MRT	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk3
A1: Deadlift	3	15	30	60kg,60kg,70kg
A2: DB Alt Military Press	3	15	30	15kg,15kg,15kg
B1: DB RFESS	3	15ea	30	12.5kg,12.5kg,12.5kg
B2: Wide Grip Pulldown	3	15	30	75kg,75kg,75kg
C1: Landmine	2	15ea	0	25kg,25kg
C2: Rollout	2	15	30	8,10
Day 4- HIIT
5-10 min warm up				Boxing
1 minute on	5			1,1,1,1,1
2 mins off	5			5mins cooldown
Cool down 3-5 mins
Day 5- MRT	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
A1: Fr-Squat Psh Press Cmbo	3	15	30	40kg,40kg,40kg
A2: Seated Cable Row	3	15	30	75kg,75kg,75kg
B1: DB Step Up	3	15ea	30	15kg,15kg,15kg
B2: Pushup (on Fitball)	3	15	30	15,15,15
C1: Glute Bridge	2	15	0	1,1
C2: Plank	2	60s	30	30,30
Day 6- HIIT
5-10 min warm up
1 minute on	5		-
2 mins off	5		-
Cool down 3-5 mins

Diet has been good, for days that I've been feeling a bit naughty, I've been having (low fat) bacon, sausage eggs (as in x1 strip of bacon, x1 egg and x1 sausage which comes to about 350Cals, all protein and a little fat). I would recommend this to my clients who are on high protein diets, I would advise, however, not to have this type of meal with any carbs at all, no bread, no drink (other than water), its just too high in fat.

The diet took a massive hit over the weekend, after my night out on Friday (some thoughts on that coming in another blog, prepare for a rant people!). Nachos, large meals, ugh! And I have an assessment this week! Grr!

You really do realise it's the large portion sizes that contribute so much to the excess bodyfat, since I've been keeping most of my meals at about 400 Cals I've noticed the belly fat drip off. That would be another piece of advice to my clients, get rid of those gorging, large meals, you want to feel satisfied by the end of the meal, not sick.

Other than this past weekend, I've been on track with diet, eating right, for the first time in a long time. There is some debate about counting Calories, I used to be against doing it, and many professional coaches are, but I think it's worth doing at least once in your life (and by counting calories I simply mean working out your daily intake X your Physical Activity Level -  500-1000 Cals to drop weight, not weigh all meals etc). This way you get to see, objectively what you need to be eating, people often think they've got a pretty good hold on the Calories they're supposed to ingest in a day, I've seen people get it so wrong it's crazy, on both ends of the scales (I've seen girls eating 1500 Cals over what they're supposed to and guys eat that much under!). This is what you see most often with so called "hard gainers", they think they're eating a lot when in actuality, they're eating nothing, or binging and starving. The point is to consistently meet Calorie targets, with the adequate mix of protein and carbs.

Diet
Monday- 3200 Cals	T-S- 2600 Cals	Sunday- 2100 Cals
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
Oats/milk/30g pro powdr	Egg/whites/Spinach	Smoothy
Protein- 39g	Protein- 32.5g	Protein-29g
Carbs- 41g	Carbs- 1.5	Carbs- 45g
Fat- 8.2g	Fat- 13.4g	Fat- 4g
Total- 415 Cals	Total- 260 Cals	Total- 429 Cals
Morning Tea	Morning Tea	Morning Tea
x2veg sausages	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables	Egg/whites/Spinach
x1 multigrain bread	Protein-46.5g	Protein- 32.5g
butter	Carbs- 13.5	Carbs- 1.6
glass hi-lo milk	Fat- 18.2	Fat- 13.4g
Protein- 43.3g	Total- 420 Cals	Total- 260 Cals
Carbs- 31.5
Fat- 18g
Total- 473 Cals
Post Sleep	Post Sleep	Lunch
Vegetable smoothy	Vegetable smoothy	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables
Protein- 46.6g	Protein- 46.6g	Protein-46.5g
Carbs- 37.9g	Carbs- 37.9g	Carbs- 13.5
Fat- 3g	Fat- 3g	Fat- 18.2
Total- 411 Cals	Total- 411 Cals	Total- 420 Cals
Before Work	Before Work	Afternoon Tea
Smoothy	Smoothy	Vegetable smoothy
Protein-29g	Protein-58g	Protein- 46.6g
Carbs- 45g	Carbs- 90g	Carbs- 37.9g
Fat- 4g	Fat- 8.2	Fat- 3g
Total- 429 Cals	Total- 429 Cals	Total- 411 Cals
Post Workout Shake	Post Workout Shake	Dinner
x2 up n go/30g protein	x2 up n go/30g pro	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables
Protein- 45.1g	Protein- 45.1g	Protein-46.5g
Carbs- 55.7g	Carbs- 55.7g	Carbs- 13.5
Fat- 8.3g	Fat- 8.3g	Fat- 18.2
Total- 517 Cals	Total- 517 Cals	Total- 420 Cals
Post Workout Meal	Dinner	Evening
tofu/glass hi-lo milk	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables	Bacon and Eggs
Protein- 39.2	Protein-46.5g	Protein- 42.7g
Carbs- 36.4	Carbs- 13.5	Carbs-3.9g
Fat- 22.7	Fat- 18.2	Fat-28.9g
Total- 432 Cals	Total- 420 Cals	Total- 404 Cals
Before Work
Smoothy
Protein-29g
Carbs- 45g
Fat- 4g
Total- 429 Cals
Protein-276.2g	Protein- 268.9g	Protein- 233.6g
Carbs- 292.5g	Carbs- 198.6g	Carbs- 113.1g
Fat- 68.2g	Fat- 73.6	Fat- 70.2g
Max Total- 3109 Cals	Max Total-2460 Cals	Max Total- 2200 Cals

Destination: Abs (Redux)- Wk1.

Well, as of Wednesday night I hurt my back, quite intensely, but not to much actual damage, it was more a muscle "twang" with resulting soreness that actually, if you could look at it this way, was quite fortuitous as it alerted me (with the aid of the photo in this blog) to a problem I have, which is "anterior pelvic tilt" (for more see here). I've since been on a rehab program and addressing movement deficiencies and I gotta tell ya, I feel better, as in complete relief, I did HIIT on Thursday night, and thought I'd still be too sore to do my MRT on Friday, but after extensive foam roll, stretching and activation on my abs and glutes I felt good, so proceeded to do a light MRT workout, where I hurt my back even more... just joking. It was a really good workout, I focused on posteriorly tilting my pelvis by actively activating my glutes and abs, which helped "turn the lights on" (coupled with my prior activation drills) and make the exercises I was doing flow properly. I experienced almost no discomfort during training itself, felt fine afterwards and this morning.

I'd forgotten how bullshit hard MRT training is, and how much I have been getting on my clients backs for work that is really intense!

Alternating Set System
Day 1- MRT- Phase 1	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
A1: Fr-Squat Psh Press Cmbo	3	15	30	40kg, 40kg, 40kg
A2: Seated Cable Row	3	15	30	60kg, 65kg, 65kg
B1: DB Step Up	3	15ea	30	10kg, 10kg, 10kg
B2: Pushup (on Fitball)	3	15	30	BW, BW, BW
C1: Back Extension	2	15	0	BW, BW
C2: Plank	2	60s	30	60s, 50s,
Day 2- HIIT
5-10 min warm up				5 min run around GF room
1 minute on	5			1,1,1,1,1
2 mins off	5			Boxing Intervals
Cool down 3-5 mins				5min cooldown
Day 3- MRT	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
A1: Deadlift	3	15	30	60kg, 60kg, 60kg
A2: DB Alt Military Press	3	15	30	12.5kg, 15kg,15kg
B1: DB RFESS	3	15ea	30	12.5kg, 12.5kg, 2.5kg
B2: Wide Grip Pulldown	3	15	30	75kg, 75kg, 75kg
C1: Landmine	2	15ea	0	45kg,45kg
C2: Rollout	2	15	30	8, 6
Day 4- HIIT
5-10 min warm up				5min warm up
1 minute on	5			1,1,1,1,1
2 mins off	5			X-Trainer Intervals
Cool down 3-5 mins				5min cooldown
Day 5- MRT	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
A1: Fr-Squat Psh Press Cmbo	3	15	30	25kg, 25kg,30kg
A2: Seated Cable Row	3	15	30	55kg, 55kg, 60kg
B1: DB Step Up	3	15ea	30	7.5kg, 7.5kg, 10kg
B2: Pushup (on Fitball)	3	15	30	BW, BW, BW
C1: Glute Bridge	2	15	0	BW, BW
C2: Plank	2	60s	30	30s, 45s
Day 6- HIIT
5-10 min warm up
1 minute on	5
2 mins off	5
Cool down 3-5 mins

As far as diet goes, I've been strict this week, with "cheat" meals cming from 2 Quorn lasagnges on Wednesday night (650 Cals) which I subsitituted for half of my vegetable smoothy (211 Cals) and my post workout tofu mean (432 Cals), which put me even. I also had 4 vegtarian sausages on Friday night with 2 pieces of wholemeal bread which is about another 250 Cals on top, but I removed my last half of the vegetarian smoothy, so it came out close.

I've also removed the tofu and vegetarian sausages as of Thursday, and replaced it with chicken and veggies. I did this for several reasons (1) the incomplete protein, they say all your amino acids go into a "pool" where incomplete proteins get filled by the complete ones you ingest, still I don't think I'm getting the kind of thermic effect from the vegetarian proteins that a complete protein will give, (2) the sodium content of vewgetarian meals is ridiculous, I was consuming upwards of 1.5g a day (upper limit is less than that), I was getting headaches, this is not healthy.

Diet
Monday- 3200 Cals	T-S- 2600 Cals	Sunday- 2100 Cals
Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
Oats/milk/30g pro powdr	Egg/whites/Spinach	Smoothy
Protein- 39g	Protein- 32.5g	Protein-29g
Carbs- 41g	Carbs- 1.5	Carbs- 45g
Fat- 8.2g	Fat- 13.4g	Fat- 4g
Total- 415 Cals	Total- 260 Cals	Total- 429 Cals
Morning Tea	Morning Tea	Morning Tea
x2veg sausages	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables	Egg/whites/Spinach
x1 multigrain bread	Protein-46.5g	Protein- 32.5g
butter	Carbs- 13.5	Carbs- 1.6
glass hi-lo milk	Fat- 18.2	Fat- 13.4g
Protein- 43.3g	Total- 420 Cals	Total- 260 Cals
Carbs- 31.5
Fat- 18g
Total- 473 Cals
Post Sleep	Post Sleep	Lunch
Vegetable smoothy	Vegetable smoothy	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables
Protein- 46.6g	Protein- 46.6g	Protein-46.5g
Carbs- 37.9g	Carbs- 37.9g	Carbs- 13.5
Fat- 3g	Fat- 3g	Fat- 18.2
Total- 411 Cals	Total- 411 Cals	Total- 420 Cals
Before Work	Before Work	Afternoon Tea
Smoothy	Smoothy	Vegetable smoothy
Protein-29g	Protein-58g	Protein- 46.6g
Carbs- 45g	Carbs- 90g	Carbs- 37.9g
Fat- 4g	Fat- 8.2	Fat- 3g
Total- 429 Cals	Total- 429 Cals	Total- 411 Cals
Post Workout Shake	Post Workout Shake	Dinner
x2 up n go/30g protein	x2 up n go/30g pro	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables
Protein- 45.1g	Protein- 45.1g	Protein-46.5g
Carbs- 55.7g	Carbs- 55.7g	Carbs- 13.5
Fat- 8.3g	Fat- 8.3g	Fat- 18.2
Total- 517 Cals	Total- 517 Cals	Total- 420 Cals
Post Workout Meal	Dinner	Evening
tofu/glass hi-lo milk	Chicken/Mixed Vegetables	Egg/whites/Spinach
Protein- 39.2	Protein-46.5g	Protein- 32.5g
Carbs- 36.4	Carbs- 13.5	Carbs- 1.6
Fat- 22.7	Fat- 18.2	Fat- 13.4g
Total- 432 Cals	Total- 420 Cals	Total- 260 Cals
Before Work
Smoothy
Protein-29g
Carbs- 45g
Fat- 4g
Total- 429 Cals
Protein-276.2g	Protein- 268.9g	Protein- 233.6g
Carbs- 292.5g	Carbs- 198.6g	Carbs- 113.1g
Fat- 68.2g	Fat- 73.6	Fat- 70.2g
Max Total- 3109 Cals	Max Total-2460 Cals	Max Total- 2200 Cals