Ed's Diary

[edco76]

Your poor wife!!! That would be one of my worst nightmares....*shudder*

When I was in Hilo, I went to BJ Penn's fitness club. He wasn't there, altough he WAS there in the early morning. My homegirl and I were already on our way back to South Kona so I couldn't wait around for him. He has a bunch of T-shirts for sale there, and the clerk at the desk told me his MOM makes them She says the business is very family oriented. Cute! Sorry, no autograph....

Thanks for the concern, yeah she is pretty miserable. She's not a "sitter" so it is killing her. Got her "fracture walker" boot yesterday so that helped a little.

You went to BJ's gym? How awesome is that?

Yeah his family is pretty well to do, made a lot of money in real estate and now they make a lot of money off of Baby Jay lol. His brother runs a local MMA promotion and his family also oversees his 2 gyms. He is my favorite fighter so I have a bit of a man-crush on him.

 

[edco76]

OK well, I'm a little frustrated. Weighed last night..................No change. I have been stuck or seeing very little progress for too long. I believe I am going to switch things up for a bit. I have been doing a 5x5 routine for 2 months. I have seen good results in strength gains but my weight really kinda plateaued when I started. The easy answer would be that I am experiencing mass gaining while in a deficit because I am a newb. But my pics and measurements arent really showing that.

I think I may have gotten bit by the lifting bug. My original goals were to lose body fat, increase my conditioning, and strength. I think the macho man in me got sidetracked on lifting and lifting only. How? I don't know. Body weight feats are actually much more impressive to me than lifts. By impressive I mean that I would rather do 1 arm pull up than a heavy bench press.

I think over the next couple weeks I am going to focus on conditioning and body weight exercises. And see what sort of results I get. I know my diet is ok. My daily average last week was about 2k per day and I am 6" and 190. I'm going to do some high intensity circuits at my playground this week.
Pullups - rings and bars
push ups
Modified "ab rollouts" with the swings
Muscle ups
Box jumps
Burpees
Start a pistol progression
Do more sprints and steady cardio.

I think the body weight exercises combined with proper protein will be adequate to keep me from losing muscle. And the added cardio work, especially the higher intensity stuff should kick start the fat loss again. Hopefully by November or so I can be down to about 180, 10-12% BF and I can re-assess my goals. Then I may focus on bulking and lifting heavy this winter.

 

[Curvie Girlie]

Thanks for the concern, yeah she is pretty miserable.

Oh I bet! I hope she has some kind of hobby to keep her mind occupied.

He is my favorite fighter so I have a bit of a man-crush on him.

Awwwwww! His gym is kinda small, but it IS Hawaii. The vibes were good in that place. Then again, it IS Hawaii

The easy answer would be that I am experiencing mass gaining while in a deficit because I am a newb. But my pics and measurements arent really showing that.

Maybe they are about to, and just haven't "caught up". Sometimes my body is weird like that....nothing for a while then all of a sudden I weigh a few pounds less and am smaller out of seemingly nowhere!

Body weight feats are actually much more impressive to me than lifts. By impressive I mean that I would rather do 1 arm pull up than a heavy bench press.... Hopefully by November or so I can be down to about 180, 10-12% BF and I can re-assess my goals. Then I may focus on bulking and lifting heavy this winter.

I feel ya on that one, I remember last October I was lifting to bulk for some reason, I dunno why really, I just thought it would be cool, but I found that I couldn't really do much body-weight resistance work and realized my strength wasn't very functional. It was that I was just good at lifting weights! Hmmm, 6', 180, 10-12% BF? Sounds hot, we want pictures!!!!!!!!!!

 

[edco76]

Well, I'm not there yet lol. Maybe when I make it I will post some.

 

[Curvie Girlie]

Mayyyyybe

 

[edco76]

This is one of the reasons I don't post picks. It gets pretty brutal after a few pages.




He posted pictures in the wrong forum lol.

 

[Curvie Girlie]

Weird! Then brutal....><

 

[edco76]

Ok I actually do have some pics now. Just of working out though. I took them for a different reason but I will post them anyway.

Pull ups

Barrier lateral jumps

INverted rows

Box jumps. lol me from the chest down. I was jumping! I jumped right out of frame.

 

[Steve]

Nice to put a face to the name. Looks like my circuit workouts at the playground behind my house, lol.

2000 calories per day puts you at 10.5 calories per pound. Round that up to 11. I could see that being your problem, to be honest... which I'm sure you don't like to hear.

This doesn't necessarily mean you need to eat less. Maybe you simply need to add more metabolic, calorie-waisting work to the mix to make that deficit bigger.

I wouldn't be so quick to ditch the heavy stuff though. Scale back, sure. Throw it out completely though...

When I was doing a lot of metabolic work, I still maintained 2 strength days that were very brief. You could even do metabolic work on those days too.

I'm talking 3 exercises using 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps. In and out.

But it's your call.

 

[edco76]

Yesterday
Calories
1959

Fat
570 (28%)

Carbs
699 (34%)

Protein
760 (37%) 188g

2000 calories per day puts you at 10.5 calories per pound. Round that up to 11. I could see that being your problem, to be honest... which I'm sure you don't like to hear.

No, I don't mind hearing it at all. I'm actually sorta forcing the last 200. I was at 1800 for a few weeks and wasnt seeing results and was worried about muscle maintenance so I upped it to 2k.

This doesn't necessarily mean you need to eat less. Maybe you simply need to add more metabolic, calorie-waisting work to the mix to make that deficit bigger

I agree. Thats one reason I wanted to change things up. I think I was too focused on lifting. I want to get in more high intensity, more frequent work. I seem to recoup from intense cardio and circuits faster than heavy lifting.

I wouldn't be so quick to ditch the heavy stuff though. Scale back, sure. Throw it out completely though...

I'm not ditching. At least I don't feel I am. Right now I can bust my ass with body weights an I think I am going to get some adjustable dumbbells. When I hit the BF% I'm looking for I'll likely have to go back to the gym for some olympic lifts to add mass, but right now I think pull ups, pistols etc... will keep me getting stronger.

 

[Steve]

No, I don't mind hearing it at all. I'm actually sorta forcing the last 200. I was at 1800 for a few weeks and wasnt seeing results and was worried about muscle maintenance so I upped it to 2k.

If you're going to add a ton more calorie-wasting stuff, don't drop too much, if at all. But you certainly have some wiggle room.

I agree. Thats one reason I wanted to change things up. I think I was too focused on lifting. I want to get in more high intensity, more frequent work. I seem to recoup from intense cardio and circuits faster than heavy lifting.

Define intensity.

I'm not ditching. At least I don't feel I am. Right now I can bust my ass with body weights an I think I am going to get some adjustable dumbbells. When I hit the BF% I'm looking for I'll likely have to go back to the gym for some olympic lifts to add mass, but right now I think pull ups, pistols etc... will keep me getting stronger.

You can certainly keep getting stronger using BW.

I just think it's easier to maintain muscle while dieting with external loads... but that might simply be a personal observation of mine.

 

[edco76]

Define intensity.

Well to finish last night, I went over to this lil make shift soccer field thats right beside the playground and on the way home. I decided I had something left in the tank so I remembered a a WO of the week I saw on Ross's forum once where the guy was doing pull ups on the goals and sprinting to the other goal rinse and repeat. So I gave that a shot. I made it through 5 trips and then felt dizzy and like I was going to puke. That was pretty intense since I had already done a pretty tough WO.

 

[Steve]

I would define that as intensive.

When it comes to training, there's a line between intensive and intense.

Intensive is more of a perceived difficulty.

Intense is more quantifiable, as in 90% or max intensity.

My circuits were brutal. Very intensive.

My lifting is intense.

It's my belief, especially when you're down around your size, that intensity must be applied appropriately to preserve optimal muscle and performance.

 

[edco76]

I would define that as intensive.

When it comes to training, there's a line between intensive and intense.

Intensive is more of a perceived difficulty.

Intense is more quantifiable, as in 90% or max intensity.

My circuits were brutal. Very intensive.

My lifting is intense.

It's my belief, especially when you're down around your size, that intensity must be applied appropriately to preserve optimal muscle and performance.

Not sure I follow you there. From that I would define my WO's as both lol. I sprint as fast as I can sprint. I jump as fast as I can jump. Or do you mean that intense = 90% or max of FRESH intensity? Meaning that on my 4-5th sprints I was running as fast as I could but not as fast as I could on rep 1. That make sense?

 

[Steve]

Yea, you're circuit stuff does feel intense in the face of fatigue. But it's really not in true terms. Yea, it's hard. But that's intensive.

Think of it like this.

I've been lifting heavy weights for over a decade.

If tomorrow I decided to diet, I would never completely eliminate heavy weight training. I'd reduce the hell out of it in terms of volume. But I'd keep the weight on the bar.

Sure, I could do some downright nasty circuits, either field work or even in the gym. They'd whoop my ass too.

However, those sorts of things aren't what sends optimal signaling for muscle maintenance IME, which you can take for what it's worth.

In general, we might be (well I might be) splitting hairs. I've just found with me personally, when I sacrifice intensity for intensiveness, I don't retain muscle and strength as well.

So generally, especially given the fact that it's not an either/or proposition, I include both.

 

[edco76]

Ok, I got ya now. I think we may have gotten a little off point though. I am getting some DB's and will be doing 1 arm bench's and OHP, snatches. Things like that. Really I think heavy squating and deadlifting will be the only things that will seriously be hurt. You have to remember also that pull ups and body weight rows are still pretty hard for me. My body weight rows were actually harder than the db rows I have been doing. I can also weight these if I show some sudden improvement. I'm also doing a pistol progression and an ab roll out progression which (especially for now) I feel like will be strength building exercises. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I may be trying to chase 2 rabbits with 1 dog here. I just feel like I got a little sidetracked on my goals. While I definitely don't want to lose much or any muscle. I just feel like since my goals were, and are
1.Fat loss
2. Health
3. Fitness (run faster, longer, be more athletic)
4. Get stronger and add mass (yes I know some of these conflict but I'm talking long term)

I just feel like for some reason I have been devoting too much time, energy and budget to goal 4.

 

[Steve]

And you very well could have been.

You're dieting.

So muscle building belongs at the bottom.

However, your first goal is fat loss. Fat loss is stupid without muscle maintenance, unless you're going for that soft look... which you're not and I know you know.

So part of goal number one needs to entail 1) a calorie deficit and 2) some muscle preserving stuff.

I wasn't really paying attention to exactly what you'd be doing. But if you're going to have some true strength oriented stuff in there where you're not metabolically taxing your body (i.e., short rests, low weight, high volume, circuit stuff), than you're all good.

The athletic and health qualities will develop on top of a solid strength and cardio program, naturally. Of course you can add 'flares' here and there to hone in on some particular qualities, such as speed.... but that's small stuff.

I'm really just spouting off. Not saying you're right or wrong in your approach. I'm confident you know enough to make wise desicions. I just like talking about this stuff.

 

[edco76]

No, I appreciate you taking the time. No matter how many times you think things through, its always good to bounce ideas off of others. Especially others who know more than you. It almost always exposes holes holes somewhere.

 

[Curvie Girlie]

Hey Ed, you look good to me, but I know how it is to want to improve and be long, lean, and mean. Seems like you have one of those "compact" bodies I guess. Nice forearms! I like Steve's advice for sheezy. Makes me really really guilty though, seeming that I haven't done formal weight training in over 2 weeks ......... I suck . Well, the standing postures in yoga are pretty decent, though. I actually very much enjoy balancing on one leg, engaging my core with my arms out. For some reason it really makes my mind peaceful.....

 

[edco76]

Hey Ed, you look good to me, but I know how it is to want to improve and be long, lean, and mean. Seems like you have one of those "compact" bodies I guess. Nice forearms! I like Steve's advice for sheezy. Makes me really really guilty though, seeming that I haven't done formal weight training in over 2 weeks ......... I suck . Well, the standing postures in yoga are pretty decent, though. I actually very much enjoy balancing on one leg, engaging my core with my arms out. For some reason it really makes my mind peaceful.....

Thanks! I have a rather weird build. I have short thick legs and a long lean (build anyway) upper body. At 6" tall I wear a 30' inseam pants if that tells you anything. I'm not too unhappy with my body. Still a bit of spare tire and flab. I think I am about 15-20% bf. I did weigh 187 this morning but I cheated. I don't usually weight in the mornings lol. But it made me feel a little better even though I know I didnt lose 3lbs of fat in 2 days.

Speaking of balance. I love that bench I am box jumping on. If you notice it has springs at the base. So every jump I have to stabilize upon landing. Also I can't half ass it. If I dont land flat footed and centered, I go for a ride.

Also here is the best part of working out at the playground



My workout partner