Well I certainly appreciate your attention to detail! As for question one, I’d back off a bit and relax for a few weeks. My gut intuition tells me you’re stressing too much. Result: high cortisol. Just a guess.
Question two: Strict attention to biomechanics. Videotape yourself. Look for clues. I can’t do that for you unfortunately. Might be due to a prior injury, or to everyday habit patterns.
Hope that helps…
[quote]iluminatae wrote:
Hi Coach! Thanks for offering to participate and thanks for T-Nation for hosting this live session.
I have a couple of questions for you and hopefully you can help.
Current stats are 5’7.5", 187 lbs and around 15% body fat, age 39 years. My Goal this winter is to get to below 10% body fat and then start to build some mass. I ultimately want to gain back about 15-20 lbs of mass. My build is somewhat stocky and I believe I am somewhat of an mesomorph-endomorph.
====Question 1=====
Training History
Active in sports as a kid 10-25 years old. I played Hockey, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Baseball and Rodeo. My last year of Highschool I started Judo and competed at the University level for about 5 years. Trained with weights most of my high school days right through university. Basic strength conditioning program for Judo involved Bench, deadlifting, squats and chinups and not really into mass building at all because Judo competitions are based on weight categories. I competed in the 150 lbs weight class. I was pretty lean then, my guess was around 8% bodyfat.
Aside from all these activities I grew up on a farm and worked there until I went to University.
Injuries
- dislocated both shoulders twice - both are a little loose
- broken right collar bone
- broke three ribs on right side
- broken femur and tibia in right leg (indoor tobagan accident with my older brother) - lets just say that Testosterone got the best of me that day.
- torn ligaments and things in my right ankle
- torn rotator in left shoulder, am dealing with a strained pec tendon right now in this shoulder - I pulled it using a pec dec thing at a gym when I first started.
- strained right knee
- fractured vertebrae in neck and torn ligaments in there somewhere. I think it was the trap. It friggin hurt. No long term effects from this except for the occaisional flare up where I have to get a massage and take some Advil.
- numerous broken toes fingers etc.
After school I continued playing recreational sports and lifting until about age 30. Then life hit me square in face and I got a full time job that basically kept me on the road 4 days a week and so my activity levels plummeted. I continued to play hockey in the beer leagues up here in Canada which never really did much for my fitness. Over the past 6 years or so I packed on alot of blubber.
I have been on a fat loss program for about 3 months now. Started Aug, 01/04. To date I have dropped 19 lbs scale weight, 10.7% body fat and gained 5 lbs of lean mass. This is according to Irontrainer 2 and my accumeasure calipers. Am Currently at 15% BF and 186 lbs scale weight with a lean mass of around 159 lbs.
For the last three weeks my body fat has not dropped, it stayed at 15%. My lean mass has increased 5 lbs in the past three months.
Diet is as follows;
1800 calories per day
180 grams of carbs per day
180 grams of protein per day
40 grams of fats (flax, fish oil caps)
What I have been doing is cycle 3 days of low carb, low calorie with one day of high carb, high calorie. The above is a low day.
High day is 2200 calories of a 50% Carb, 30% protein and 20% fat diet.
150 grams protein
250 grams carbs
44 grams fats
My foods on a typical day are;
=Proteins=
Canned Salmon
Chicken Breasts (skinless)
Whey protein powder
1% Fat cottage cheese
Top sirloin steak
extra lean burger
=Carbs=
plain rolled Oatmeal
Brown rice
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Veggies, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, zuchinni, carrots etc.
Fruit. Mainly bananas and apples
Fibre one Cereal
Red Kidney Beans
Fat free yogurt
=Fats=
Natural Peanut Butter
Natural Almond Butter
Flax seed oil
Sunflower oil
Olive oil
Fat free salad dressing
=Condiments=
Mixed herb spices
Tobasco sauce
Pepper
Salsa
I drink about 3-4 litres of water a day.
Now I am honest and can’t tell you that this is followed 100% of the time. I would say I cheat once every couple weeks and binge on a meal. I drink the occaisional beer but haven’t had one in about a month.
=Current strength and cardio routines=
I was doing a 4 day per week weight training program. 2 days upper body, 2 days lower body. Cardio until recently has been 4 days per week of continuous stationary cycling (45 min) at a heart rate of 118-150 it usually averages around 130 bpm.
I changed up my wieght training to 3 days per week full body and have started this monday. Am using Chad Waterburys latest program of three day per week. My cardio is 2 days of intervals and 2 days of continuous (45 min) per week.
I own a power rack, 300lbs of olympic weights, 90 lbs set of power blocs, ez curl bar with around 100 lbs of weights and an incline decline bench. I also have a stationary bike.
Seeing as I have hit a plateau (I think) are there any suggestions as to what I can do? I am willing to do anything now to break through this.
========Question #2======
What I have been noticing is my right leg is significantly weaker and not as flexible as my left leg. It is about 1/2 inch smaller than my left leg measured at the quad. I am wondering what exercises a person should concentrate on to bring this leg back up to strength. I have started doing step ups on my bench and also lunges. I tried single leg squats and can do about 3 of them off the bench with my left but can cant really do one with my right. Are there any other routines, single leg exercises or exercise progressions that I should be doing for this.
[/quote]
