Well, kids, this is my first entry, hope it comes out as well here as it looked in my brain.
Stalling in the Diet
I've started my journey towards my first bodybuilding show. I have to tell you, that even thought I've only been "living the lifestyle" for a few months now, I have to say that I'm addicted to it (we'll see how I feel about that when I'm two weeks out from the show). I love it. And I'm very lucky to have the support from my friends, my family and especially Kate, she does have to live with me after all.
The first few months of the diet - which is the hardest part - I saw great success. I lost over 20 pounds, over 6 percent in body fat an well over 5 inches off my waist. Huge success for me. Then it happened. It smacked me in the face HARD. I hit "the wall".
For anyone who has ever hit a wall in their training, diet, what-have-you, you know what it's like. Its a very sobering experience. I've hit many a wall in my training before. And being relatively young and actually quite stupid, I just backed up and rammed face first into it again. Eventually one just has to stop and take a look at what their sticking points are. I'm learning to do that in my training, and with the help of my nutritionist Mike, I'm learning to do that with my diet too.
I tell clients all the time not to get frustrated. I guess it's easy to say when you're on the other side of it. But doing what he does and being as good at it as he is, Mike played with my diet and to quote him: "going to have you get strong, perform high for two weeks and then really diet down." Game face bro.
Reformatting the Lifting Routine
So strength training is where it's at for me. I love it. I would linger in the realm of heavy triples and singles and spend hours in the gym only doing a few things. That was fun, and I was putting up some decent numbers, but the problem was it wasn't great for symmetry. Nor was it good for the high volume training that I needed to do. So for a few weeks starting back in August I took a break from Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program, which I highly recommend for anyone to try if their goal is to get strong. It's simple, effective and easy to use. Who doesn't want that?
Enter John Meadows and Mountain Dog Training. I've never met John. I've never met Jim Wendler either. But both their programs have left me in a sweaty heap on the floor.
Mountain Dog Training, in a nutshell, is a hypertrophy based program that maximizes muscle growth, but focuses on saving your joints and giving you a vicious pump. It does what it claims.
After suffering through several weeks of this savage training (if you want to try this, look for the article that John was featured in in April 2012 Muscle & Fitness, has a very easy to follow beginner's type workout) I was talking with Jason, and be both decided to go back to 5/3/1. We want to put on some muscle size and gain some strength back in our "off season".
Jason, for those of you who don't know is my best friend. He is the man who talked me into all this insanity, but he is also the man who is helping me every single step of the way. He hooked me up with Mike and is the craziest workout partner anyone could ever ask for. Jason also just took 1st Place in the Novice Class at Granite State Open back in October.
So long story short, Jay and I have started 5/3/1 this week, and I'm anxious to post all the results. Keep an eye out folks.
Leg Day Hell
So since I haven't finished my first week of 5/3/1 I'll show you what 75 minutes of Leg Day Hell looks like. This was the last high volume, hypertrophy based leg routine I did looked like. I'd like to tell you that it wasn't hard at all, and that it was easy. I'd be lying.
Seated Leg Curl (3x10 warm-up) 4x10 working
Squats 135x8, 225x8, 275x8, 315x8, 315x8
Leg Press 135x8, 225x8, 315x8, 405x8 then strip set 10 of each weight pyramid down
Leg Extensions 4x8
Walking Lunges 3x30
I didn't put the weight I used for the curls or extensions because no one cares.
Hope you enjoyed the read. Til next time...
