Looking to lose an extra human I apparently picked up along the way

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Hi, this is the FBI. We've apprehended a dangerous criminal and it appears he's frequented this forum under this screen name.

Well anyway, I'm back and gonna go get back at it. Was 181 earlier this morning and have had a rough time of it recently both professionally and socially. But neither is ultimately anything too serious, and just had me down for a little bit. But fuck that, I'm too awesome to stay in the doldrums.

The good news is that I've continued to workout at the same regular pace and also kept adding pounds on the various bars I've been lifting. So some of that weight gain is certainly muscle. But not all of it. A co-worker last week commented how "jacked" my arms were for "someone so skinny."

Anyhow, time to get my act together. I've not been doing a lot of cardio (on purpose actually to try and maintain strength gains), but that has led to absolutely no room for error on the calorie front. So I'm going to ramp up the cardio again. It was a huge part of losing all of the weight in the first place, so I know it can work.

My heart rate monitor broke a long time ago and I've been unable to fix it. So I've been doing without for a long time now. So I'm going to shell out the $55 and buy another one off Amazon. Probably right after I'm done posting this. Training with a heart rate monitor helped me a ton in estimating calorie burn. Furthermore, if for some reason I screw up and ingest more calories than I should (usually because I'm chatting up a member of the fairer sex at a local watering hole), I at least would have the option of hitting the "tipsy treadmill" to burn it off.

The extra cardio shouldn't affect my weight training too much, except possibly my legs training. Fortunately that's both my strongest and relatively biggest body part. So it needs the "GAINZ" less than elsewhere on my body.

I got down to 162 once, so I should be able to do it again and this time I'm hoping to be a lot stronger once down there. If I can maintain my current strength levels, I should look pretty good down at that weight, and actually be comfortable with a slow weight gain back up from there.

Sorry for the long absence, and I'll try and pop in on folks tomorrow.

Vee
 
YAY!!!!! Vee is back. You are way too awesome to stay in the doldrums! :D YAY again!!!!!
 
:party: Whoopwhoop, Vee came back out of the doldrums! :party:

Great to hear you´ve been keeping up with your training even while having a tough time of it on all other fronts.
 
Was 180 flat this morning. My 32 jeans don't really fit so that's the first order of business (I can get them on but it's a tight squeeze). The 33s fit fine, but then they were loose not too long ago. I've peed a lot today (TMI?) so I'm guessing the bloat and the weight will fall tomorrow and I'll be something like 178.

Here's today's workout (Legs Day), all sets and reps successfully completed:

Squats (3x4, IE three sets of four reps) - 190 pounds
Deadlift (3x4) - 235 pounds
Alternating Lunges (3x6, each leg) - 27.5 pounds on each arm
Leg Extension (3x7) - 95 pounds

I was then supposed to do some calf raises, but a guy heard me talk to my friend about the Bears' game on Sunday and he decided to chat with me for a while about the Bears. Nice guy but it did chew up a bunch of time. So I skipped the calf raises (my calves are real strong anyway, always have been) and finished with:

25 minutes incline treadmill - Crank up to full 15% incline and check my heart rate every minute. When it gets above 160, lower the incline to 0 and check every minute. When it gets back below 115, crank it back up all the way again. And repeat the process until my 25 minutes are up (at minute 24 it goes back down and I cool down for the last 45 seconds or so).

And that's my workout today. About an hour and a half total. Gonna do Cardio on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. I do legs on Monday and Wednesday and so this keeps the cardio from interfering with that as much as possible. Tomorrow is full upper body with no cardio.

Food was perfect today.
 
178 pounds this morning (guessed correctly yesterday).

Got today's workout in, all sets and reps completed (though the very last rep of the day, a curl left handed, got there by the slimmest of margins):

Bench Press (5x4, 5 sets of 4 reps) - 160 pounds
One Armed Dumbbell Rows ( 4x5) - 75 pounds
Standing Strict Press (4x6) - 90 pounds
Lat Pulldown - Parallel Bar (3x7) - 125 pounds
Tricep Pushdown w/ rope (3x10) - 35 pounds
Alternating Dumbbell Curls (3x10) - 27.5 pounds

Lately when I hit failure, it's usually on curls. Which is fine as those tend to come at the end of the workout and won't affect my other lifts. also I believe these failures come from increased workloads on the compound movements, which obviously also work the biceps pretty hard. No cardio other than walking to and from the gym.

Legs again tomorrow, but without squats and deadlifts.
 
Hi Vee,

You are killing the workouts. I love that feeling of doing an exercise to failure and I hate the feeling at the same time. Makes me want to do better. Add more weight or more reps. Sometimes though it just hurts-lol. What kind of schedule are you doing? Back-bis, shoulders-tris- legs etc. or are you doing upper body and lower body? Just wondering as when I was younger I used to push the weight pretty hard and now that I am older I am not sure my body can handle it anymore.
 
Schedule goes: legs, upper body (today), legs, push (chest, triceps, shoulders), pull (lats, back, biceps). 4 week cycle. Increase weight and decrease reps in weeks 2 and 3. Do a deload in week 4 with minimum weight and reps. Then start a new cycle with a little more weight for any lifts I had no fails on.

For all of my food issues, this setup has really been working when it comes to strength and muscle gains (ironically partially because of the food issues I suspect).
 
Hi MrVee,


Your comment in your first post really resonated with me. In the last 14months or so I've dropped around 60lbs (it's taken way too long!) and although I'm pleased with my efforts lately, I am getting really bored of being fat, bored of worrying about being fat, and bored of trying to stop being fat. I know that doesn't help you any, but it may be comforting to know you're not alone in being sick of it all.


I'm trying to use this apathy to my advantage and keep telling myself that the harder I work the sooner this portion of my life will be over.


Hope it's been a great weekend for you and your keeping at it.


Naif


I'm feeling the SAME way, and I'm glad someone was finally able to put into words what it is that I'm feeling too. I'm REALLY bored of just worrying about my eating habits and worrying that I'm gonna fall back into my old ways. I'm really looking for the right kind of motivation to keep me on track :frown:
 
Schedule goes: legs, upper body (today), legs, push (chest, triceps, shoulders), pull (lats, back, biceps). 4 week cycle. Increase weight and decrease reps in weeks 2 and 3. Do a deload in week 4 with minimum weight and reps. Then start a new cycle with a little more weight for any lifts I had no fails on.

For all of my food issues, this setup has really been working when it comes to strength and muscle gains (ironically partially because of the food issues I suspect).


I haven't tried that but it makes sense. When you deload do you cut back on calories at all?
 
The purpose of the deload is to try and recover strength for the next week, so no, calories remain stagnant. Still do my cardio.

176 this morning as the water weight continues to dissipate. "How to lose 6 pounds in 4 days," by MrVee
 
175.5 this morning.

Thanks for all the "welcome backs" everyone. Feel like Gabe Kaplan.

Anyway, gonna try and do some apartment shopping today or tomorrow. Change of scenery might do me some good. Wish me luck.
 
The purpose of the deload is to try and recover strength for the next week, so no, calories remain stagnant. Still do my cardio.

176 this morning as the water weight continues to dissipate. "How to lose 6 pounds in 4 days," by MrVee

Ah, I get it. Thanks.
 
Good luck apt hunting. I´ve been planning to do so for quite a while now but I hate moving so much!
 
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