Added Creatine

Ok, I’m still slacking on posting, and I probably will keep slacking on my posting…  I’ve just gotten busy.

Now I’ll post updates when I get a chance and if there are changes to what I’m doing.

As of now, I’m in the second half of Hypertrophy II.  I just started taking Creatine a week ago tomorrow.  As of yet, I have not noticed any gains that are out of the ordinary.  Neither in strength or size.  I didn’t pre-load as I’ve read one should do.  Instead I just started taking 5g/day.  We’ll see if/when I start noticing some benefits of taking Creatine.

Slacking on posting

Ok, so I’ve been slacking off.  I’ve gotten really busy and I haven’t had a chance to write here, but here I am now.  I haven’t been slacking off on working out, though.  I was able to work out four days last week and today I started my second week of Hypertrophy I.

So far, I have just one thing to say… I HATE high rep lower body workouts.  And tomorrow is my 3×15 day on workout B (lower body).  Last Tuesday, I did the 4×10 workout B, and quit after three sets of the Bulgarian Split Squat/Step Up superset.  So, needless to say, I’m not looking forward to tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

Hypertrophy I - A1

Did my first workout of Hypertrophy I today.  I liked it.  It took less time than I thought it was going to take.  When you look at the workout on paper, it looks really long, but it moved along pretty quickly.

I think it took me just a little over an hour to get it done.  I always forget to look at what time I start working out.  I did notice I parked my car at 4:37am.  After I park my car, I go into the locker room, take my sweatshirt and sweatpants off, walk out to the station I’m going to be using, put my gloves and headphones on, then start working out.  I don’t know how long that takes, but let’s say no more than 5 minutes?  I did notice that I finished the last set of swiss ball crunches at 5:45am.  That makes the workout right at about an hour long.

Since this was the first workout, I spent the first couple of sets of each exercise determining the right weight to use.  So, even though I feel like I got a good workout, I feel like it’ll be better on Thursday when I do workout A2 with the correct weights from the get go.

I’m going to really try to hit the gym four days a week for this program:  Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.  This will hopefully allow me to get the most out of the program.

Still not happening

I tried yesterday and I tried again today, but I just couldn’t get up at 4am.  I’m guessing that I still need some rest to get completely over my cold.  I feel much better.  I still have a lot of congestion and a residual cough, but my body feels a lot better.   I just couldn’t get out of bed.

I’m going to take the weekend off.  In other words, I’m not even going to try to get up early to work out.  Then hopefully Monday I’ll be able to hit it hard again.

Still sick

Today was the first day I felt somewhat normal when I opened my eyes in the morning in a week.  I slept six hours straight - another first in a week.  I’m still coughing a little and the left side of my head is still congested, but man, I’m feeling better.

Needless to say, I haven’t been working out.  If I feel good tonight, I’ll try to wake up early to get Hypertrophy I workout A1 tomorrow.  If not, I’ll try to get A1 Thursday, and B1 on Friday.  I really want to get started.

Fat Loss II stats

Here are the stats for the Fat Loss II program:

A1:

• Front Squat:  105×12, 105×12, 105×10
• Wide-grip cable seated row:  105×12, 120×12*, 120×12
• Supine hip extension with leg curl: 12, 12, 12
• Barbell push press:  95×9, 75×12, 75×10
• Dynamic lunge: 55×12, 55×12*, 55×12*
• Upper-body Russian twist:  0×12, 10×12, 10×12

A2:

• FS: 105×12, 105×12, 105×12
• WGCSR: 120×12, 120×12, 120×12
• SHEwLC:  12, 12, 12
• BPP: 75×12, 75×12, 75×12*
• DL:  55×12, 55×12, 55×12*
• UBRT:  25×12, 25×12, 25×12

A3:

• FS:  105×10, 105×10, 105×10
• WGCSR: 120×10, 120×10, 120×10
• SHEwLC: 10, 10, 10
• BPP: 75×10, 75×10, 75×10*
• DL: 55×10, 55×10, 55×10
• UBRT: 25×10, 25×10, 25×10

A4:

• FS: 115×10, 115×10, 115×10*
• WGCSR: 135×10, 135×10, 135×10*
• SHEwLC:  10, 10, 10
• BPP:  75×10, 75×10, 75×10*
• DL:  65×10, 65×10, 65×10*
• UBRT:  35×10, 35×10, 35×10

A5:

• FS: 125×8, 125×8*, 125×8*
• WGCSR: 150×8, 150×8, 150×8*
• SHEwLC: 8, 8, 8
• BPP:  85×8, 85×8, 85×8
• DL:  75×8, 75×8, 75×8*
• UBRT:  35×8, 35×8, 35×8

B1:

• Snatch-grip deadlift:  135×12, 155×12, 175×12*
• T-push-up:  8×12, 8×12, 10×12*
• Bulgarian split squat with overhead press:  20×12*, 15×12*, 10×12*
• Underhand-grip lat pulldown:  120×12, 135×12, 135×12*
• Romanian deadlift/bent-over row:  65×12, 70×12, 70×12*
• Lower-body Russian twist:  12, 6, 9

B2:

• SGDL:  175×12, 175×12*, 175×10
• TPU:  8×12, 8×12, 8×10
• BSSwOHP:  15×12*, 15×12*, 15×12*
• UHLP:  135×12, 135×12, 135×12*
• RDLBOR:  95×10, 85×11, 75×12
• LBRT:  12, 12, 12

B3:

• SGDL:  135×10, 135×10, 135×10 (adjusted down to try to meet rest times during BSS)
• TPU:  10×10, 10×10, 10×10*
• BSSwOHP:  15×10, 15×10, 15×10*
• UHLP:  135×10, 135×10*, 135×8
• RDLBOR:  75×10, 75×10, 75×10*
• LBRT:  10, 10, 10*

B4:

• SGDL:  155×10, 155×10, 155×10*
• TPU:  10×10, 10×10, 10×10*
• BSSwOHP:  15×10, 15×10, 15×10*
• UHLP:  135×10, 135×10, 135×10*
• RDLBOR:  75×10, 75×10, 75×10
• LBRT:  10, 10, 10

B5:

• SGDL:  165×8, 165×8, 165×8*
• TPU:  12×8, 12×8, 12×8*
• BSSwOHP:  20×8, 20×8, 20×8
• UHLP:  150×8, 150×8, 150×8
• RDLBOR:  95×8, 95×8, 95×8*
• LBRT:  8, 8, 8

A6, B6:  Came down with a cold and decided to skip them, use this week as my rest week and start Hypertrophy I next week.

* Indicates I had to pause before one or more reps or I could barely complete the last rep.

Decided to call it

I wasn’t feeling too hot last night, so I decided to call the Fat Loss II program.  I was only one workout of each A and B short of finishing it.  I’m going to use this week as my rest week and will start up on Hypertrophy I on Monday.

As I was typing up my log spreadsheet, I started thinking that I should probably work out on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  I don’t know if that’s wishful thinking at this point.  I guess I’ll find out after Tuesday’s workout.

Good news, Bad news

Good news:  I did Fat Loss II Workout 5B yesterday and I felt great.  I was able to increase the weight on all exercises.  I felt great.  And another great thing was that yesterday I finally noticed some change in my mid section.  I had been somewhat disappointed because I was working hard on the Fat Loss program and I hadn’t seen any obvious fat loss.  For some reason, though, yesterday I actually noticed a smaller gut.  It’s weird how it  sneaked up on me, but I’m happy it’s there.

Bad news:  Yesterday I went to work and came home early because I felt sick.  Last night I ran a fever, had a cough, and didn’t get much sleep.  Today was supposed to be my workout day (6A), but there was no way I was going to do it.  Now I’m debating on what to do next.  I had two workouts left in fat loss (6A and 6B).  One option is for me to just ride out this cold, take this week as my rest week, and start Hypertrophy I on Monday.  The other option is to hopefully get 6A in tomorrow morning and 6B Saturday morning, next week as my rest week and Hypertrophy I the week after that.  I guess it kinda depends on how I feel tonight.

I Love 8 rep sets

Today I did FLII Workout 5A.  This is the first one that goes down to 8 reps  with 30 seconds rest.  I really liked it.  It feels so good when you’re at “oh-my-god-fiiive”, then think, “hey I only have three more reps to go!”

The 30 seconds rest are a challenge.  It’s barely enough time to take a sip of water and write down what you just did (barely enough).  When I did the first superset, I didn’t write anything down until afterward.  I would do my eight reps of front squats, take a sip of water, walk over to the cable station, sit down, and had about five seconds of rest left.

For the other two supersets I bring the swiss ball to the squat rack so it’s easier to rest during the rest period.  I always feel guilty bringing the swiss ball to the squat rack, but it’s early in the morning so there’s almost no one there.  And besides, I’m justified in using the squat rack for the push presses and the barbell dynamic lunges, right?  If I didn’t use the squat rack then I’d have to clean the barbell up before the presses or lunges.  Right?

I feel good about today.  I increased my weight in all the exercises except the upper-body Russian twist.  I know I could have, but the 45lb plate seems like it would be too awkward to hold.  I’ve been using a 35lb plate and that seems comfortable enough to hold, but the 45?  I think I’ll give it a try on Wendesday (my next workout A).

Almost forgot… I finished my workout before 5:30am so I decided to try to get some HIIT in again.  I did a 5 minute warm up, three 1min sprints with 2min walks, and a five minute cool down.

It’s a good tired

I feel good today.  I got through FLII Workout 4A today without a hitch.  I was even able to up my front squat, wide grip row and upper body russian twist weights.  That made me feel good.

After my workout  I was able to get in 10mins of HIIT (three 2min walk/1min sprint combinations) followed by a five minute cool-down.  I almost cut the third sprint short, but I made it through.  All-in-all it was a very productive morning.

I was tired at the end.  I still feel tired now (about 8 hours later), but it’s a good tired.  I like feeling this way.