Super Size Me

Training Logs
21

[quote]phatkins187 wrote:
I’ll be following your posts bro. You are an entertaining dude! I’d recommend not setting %'s for your macro goals, rather setting your protein and EFA’s, then worrying about the carbs if you start putting on fat. Fats have the lowest thermic effect, are the most caloric, and are only essential in small amounts. They also slow digestion (miniscule amounts)! Don’t be afraid of the carbs…you will feel SO much better with them and your recovery will be much easier. Basically, I’m saying set your caloric #'s and worry about the total protein first, get your carbs in second, and if you aren’t getting enough fat, add fish oils first!

I’m impressed you’re tackling BBB…that’s way too intense for me (since I’m dieting). Remember to EAT EAT EAT on that type of program. Your BMR will skyrocket with that type of schedule and you should be hungry constantly.

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions along the way. And PLEASE feel free to post “motivational pics” of T-Vixens from time to time ;)[/quote]

Thanks for the pointers, man. I’ll definitely focus on total kcals and protein and then let the carbs and fat just come in as needed. For about 2-3 years, I’ve had this mindset that carbs are evil, so now I do everything to avoid them. I need to change that (and I have for the past two days).

[quote]London Runner wrote:
Prof X has said that one of the reasons that us new guys got invited in is because we post A LOT and are active in the forums, plus we don’t write like we have mental deficiencies.

So no point of the less talking! I think he wanted us to come in and get things moving a bit in there![/quote]

Very true. I also read a number of his old T-Cell Alpha posts, and they mimic what he’s saying now (about how the T-Cell is a place for serious lifters or people who aspire to be serious lifters, where people engage in intelligent discussion). Now, a few of the recent posts haven’t been too intelligent (I’m sure you know which), but that doesn’t mean I should refrain from posting!

22

Today’s workout was nice. Looked something like:

DB Standing press
BB Upright row
BB Standing press
Close-grip bench
Close-grip dips
DB Decline extensions
Back squat
Angled leg press
Lying leg curl
Captain’s chair leg raise
Ab roller
Reverse crunch

13-15 reps each. I overestimated some of the weights and consequently couldn’t get my 13-15 reps, so I utilized the rest-pause method. Generally took 1-2 rest-pauses to get the job done on the ones I needed to finish out.

I also updated my post from yesterday to reflect my workout. I realized that there are a few threads on this site that hint at the BBB workout scheme, so there’s no harm in posting my exercises.

I did not keep track of my diet today. However, it was very similar to yesterday’s except with more fruit, no Jimmy John’s sandwiches, and more meat instead of protein powder.

Right now, it’s only 10 pm, but I’m extremely tired already. Could be due to a number of factors: back-to-back workouts, 5 hours of sleep last night, my body being used to sleeping a few hours after working out (I usually finish my workouts around 11-12am; today I finished by 4pm). Who knows. All I know is I’ll be getting a good 7-8 hours of sleep tonight!

I’m looking for some feedback on my workout scheme, but I’m too damn tired to write about it. I’ll bring it up tomorrow.

23

Today’s workout consisted of:

Deadlift
Bent-over BB row
DB Kroc rows
Incline bench
Super incline iso-lateral bench
Decline DB bench (neutral)
Chin up
Chin up (eccentric)
EZ bar curl
Incline DB curls
Seated calf raises
Seated leg press (for calves)

Went for 10-12 reps each. The poundage estimates were much better than Monday’s estimates, but I still failed on a number of the exercises. In those cases, I always did 1-2 rest-pauses to get at least 12 reps (sometimes going for 15 reps).

Today I realized that my grip sucks. Even with chalk, I couldn’t get more than 6 deadlift reps in. From now on, I think I’ll have to use the straps when doing 6+ reps.

Diet has been very similar to the past two days as of 7:00 pm. I’m going out for some dinner + drinks for my friend’s 22nd birthday, so I’ll be “carb-loading” slightly. Definitely not going overboard since nights of heavy drinking usually result in piss-poor workouts.

I may be changing my workouts a little bit, but in the end, it’ll still be BBB (it’s a matter of exercise selection… but the same body parts will be worked out). Stay tuned.

24

[quote]jo3 wrote:
Today I realized that my grip sucks. Even with chalk, I couldn’t get more than 6 deadlift reps in. From now on, I think I’ll have to use the straps when doing 6+ reps.

Diet has been very similar to the past two days as of 7:00 pm. I’m going out for some dinner + drinks for my friend’s 22nd birthday, so I’ll be “carb-loading” slightly. Definitely not going overboard since nights of heavy drinking usually result in piss-poor workouts.
[/quote]

Are you using gloves in the gym or just bare hands? Some people use gloves that have wrist support straps built in, I was thinking of getting a pair.

Don’t worry about getting the carbs in you. But stay away from the drink if your working out the next day. It will totally fuck up your workout. I learnt that the hard way a few Sundays ago at a BBQ.

LR

25

[quote]London Runner wrote:
jo3 wrote:
Today I realized that my grip sucks. Even with chalk, I couldn’t get more than 6 deadlift reps in. From now on, I think I’ll have to use the straps when doing 6+ reps.

Diet has been very similar to the past two days as of 7:00 pm. I’m going out for some dinner + drinks for my friend’s 22nd birthday, so I’ll be “carb-loading” slightly. Definitely not going overboard since nights of heavy drinking usually result in piss-poor workouts.

Are you using gloves in the gym or just bare hands? Some people use gloves that have wrist support straps built in, I was thinking of getting a pair.

Don’t worry about getting the carbs in you. But stay away from the drink if your working out the next day. It will totally fuck up your workout. I learnt that the hard way a few Sundays ago at a BBQ.

LR[/quote]

I am not using gloves. I’ve used them in the past (3-4 years ago), but I thought they pinched my skin a bit too much. Deadlifts are really the only lift where my grip can become a limiting factor, so for the time being, my straps (on work sets) will do.

I ended up going balls to the wall last night. Had one or ten drinks too many, and I definitely felt it this morning. Not only do my muscles feel fatigued, but my diet today has been absolutely shitty (first two meals, that is). I’m doing all I can to salvage it.

Eating big, eating clean, and drinking no alcohol for the rest of the week.

Time to take a 3-hour nap to recharge the batteries.

26

Made a long ass edit to yesterday’s post, but for some reason it didn’t update. Here’s the short version:

I decided to change up my routine slightly. Instead of doing 3 different exercises per body part, I’m sticking with 1 exercise and doing 3 sets with it. Also, I’m going to limit using rest-pause as much as possible. (Basically, I’ll only do it if I can’t hit my desired rep range on my last set. If I fail before my last set, I’ll lower the weight.)

Workout consisted of:

DB Seated press
DB Decline extensions
Angled leg press
Captain’s chair leg raise
Ab roller

3 sets of 10-12 reps each. I had to lower the weight on the DB seated press, but the other lifts were good to go.

For the remainder of the workouts this week, I’m just going to choose 4 exercises from earlier this week. On Sunday, I’ll come up with a solid workout plan that I’ll follow for the duration of this program.

27

Today’s workout consisted of:

T-bar rows
Incline bench
Seated leg press (for calves)
EZ bar curl

3 sets of 8-10 reps each. Instead of sticking with one weight and rest-pausing (which is what I had been doing this week), I’m now taking each set to failure/near-failure and lowering the weight for the following set(s). The key is to get the desired reps in.

One more workout till week 1 is complete. I’m excited about next week because I kind of rushed into BBB and wasn’t fully prepared in terms of exercise selection and set/rep schemes. With the help of some of the vets on this site, I now know what I need to do.

Time to grow like a weed.

28

Week 1 is done! Here are my exercises for today:

BB Standing press
Close-grip bench
Back squat
Standing cable crunches

3 sets of 8-10 reps each. Struggled to get my 8 reps with the standing BB press and with my squats. Each time I failed to get at least 8 reps, I took 12-15 deep breaths and pounded away again. For my squats, I lowered the weight by 10 lbs before going at it again.

I’m starting to have some problems with my right leg. My knee is starting to feel tight, and I’m still experiencing soreness around my right hip. I’m still choosing to work through it since the discomfort isn’t unbearable, but I’m afraid something might happen if I keep ignoring it. Also, my lower back appears to round quite significantly at the bottom of my squat (“in the hole”). This is an issue even with body weight squats (ie. no weight on my back). I’m not sure what the deal is, but hopefully I can get that resolved as well. Here’s a thread I started on it: http://tnation.tmuscle.com/free_online_forum/pictures_pics_photo_body_image_performance/how_to_fix_lower_back_rounding_during_squat

Looking forward to my day of rest tomorrow :slight_smile:

29

[quote]jo3 wrote:
Week 1, Day 6

Week 1 is done! Here are my exercises for today:

BB Standing press
Close-grip bench
Back squat
Standing cable crunches

3 sets of 8-10 reps each. Struggled to get my 8 reps with the standing BB press and with my squats. Each time I failed to get at least 8 reps, I took 12-15 deep breaths and pounded away again. For my squats, I lowered the weight by 10 lbs before going at it again.
[/quote] No rest-pausing, just lower the weight for the next set… If you start RPing stuff to get extra-reps, you’ll probably burn out fairly fast. [quote]
I’m starting to have some problems with my right leg. My knee is starting to feel tight[/quote] Do you squat knees out in front, narrowish stance?
Squat with a wider stance and think of it like picking up a large medicing ball lying between your feet… While keeping your low-back arched. So, sit back between your legs, basically.
Also, I haven’t checked the whole log… If you’ve got the leg press in there, put your feet higher on the pad and maybe a little wider apart. [quote], and I’m still experiencing soreness around my right hip. I’m still choosing to work through it since the discomfort isn’t unbearable, but I’m afraid something might happen if I keep ignoring it. Also, my lower back appears to round quite significantly at the bottom of my squat (“in the hole”). This is an issue even with body weight squats (ie. no weight on my back). I’m not sure what the deal is, but hopefully I can get that resolved as well. Here’s a thread I started on it: Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness

Looking forward to my day of rest tomorrow :)[/quote]
Uh-oh. You need to get your squatting technique right my friend… Otherwise you’ll get injured very fast on this routine.

30

Looks like you’ve got some solid advice from the Vets there Joe.

Is this knee thing something that just came up, or have you had it before, and it went away, but came back?

BBB has advised you to do some of the same exercises that he’s put me on.

LR

31

Hello there !

Finally found your Log.

I’ll favorite this and come back and see how your doing.

Wish you every success !

32

Also what some kind soul gave me in regards to the big lifts:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6529481301858251744

How to fix your squat and stuff.

Hope its of some help.

33

@C_C: I’ll lay off the rest-pausing. Also, I hope the link to my lower back rounding thread answered some of your questions about my stance. I didn’t know it was ideal to put your feet higher up on the pad when leg pressing (my right knee actually hurts right now, and I think it may have been due to heavy leg pressing with my feet around the middle of the pad), so I’ll be sure to incorporate that.

@LR: The knee thing is pretty recent. Like I wrote to C_C above, I think the feeling came after doing some heavy leg presses on Thursday. I never had the problem after squatting 3x a week last month, so I don’t know what else it could be. However, it could also be a combination of all my inflexibility issues. Maybe my tight IT band and gluteus medius have put extra force on my knees.

@SmallToBig: Thanks for dropping by. I did get a few pointers from that video.

34

Came up with my workout schedule for the next 17 weeks. If I begin to stall on an exercise, I’ll change things up slightly (ex. go from incline bench to flat bench). If that doesn’t help, I’ll switch to a different exercise that hits the same target muscle group.

If anyone (particularly anyone with BBB experience) thinks I could better structure my workout, please chime in. Even if you aren’t familiar with BBB, I’d appreciate some feedback.

[b]Monday[/b]
HS high row (supinated grip)*
Incline bench
EZ bar curls, narrow grip
Seated leg press (calf)

*Ideally, I’d like to do pull-ups, but I’m not strong enough to do 13-15 reps of BW pull-ups with good form. Hopefully, I’ll move to pull-ups at the end of 17 weeks.

[b]Tuesday[/b]
Seated DB shoulder press
Weighted dips
Back squat*
Romanian deadlift**
Capt. Chair leg raises

*As some of you may know, I’m having some issues with my IT band and gluteus medius. Hopefully the stretching/warming up I do from now till Tuesday alleviates the problem, but if not, I may do leg extensions instead or skip it completely.

**One thing BBB doesn’t touch upon is the hamstrings. To fix this, I’m going to throw in a hamstring exercise after my quad exercise.

[b]Wednesday[/b]
DB decline bench (neutral grip)
Bent-over BB row
DB hammer curls
Seated calf raise

[b]Thursday[/b]
BB upright row
Elbows-out DB extension
Leg press
Glute-ham raise*
Kneeling cable crunch

*Same situation as above (supplementing quad exercise with hamstring exercise)

[b]Friday[/b]
Deadlift (conventional)
Incline bench
Seated leg press (calf)
EZ bar curls (normal grip)

[b]Saturday[/b]
Standing BB press
Close-grip bench
Back Squat
Leg curl*
Hanging pike

*Same situation as above (supplementing quad exercise with hamstring exercise)

35

Looks good to me man!

LR

36

[quote]jo3 wrote:
@C_C: I’ll lay off the rest-pausing. Also, I hope the link to my lower back rounding thread answered some of your questions about my stance. I didn’t know it was ideal to put your feet higher up on the pad when leg pressing (my right knee actually hurts right now, and I think it may have been due to heavy leg pressing with my feet around the middle of the pad), so I’ll be sure to incorporate that.[/quote] Well, what it does is avoid the ugly angle your legs will be at in the bottom position of the exercise… The angle that usually screws up people’s knees. Puts more hamstring/butt in there, though. But if you push enough weight and go deep enough (without your low-back rounding/ ass coming forward off the seat! There should be no pressure on the low back on a leg press other than the pressure you get due to holding yourself in the seat with your hands!), your quads will grow, espeically in the higher rep ranges.

[quote]
@LR: The knee thing is pretty recent. Like I wrote to C_C above, I think the feeling came after doing some heavy leg presses on Thursday. I never had the problem after squatting 3x a week last month, so I don’t know what else it could be. However, it could also be a combination of all my inflexibility issues. Maybe my tight IT band and gluteus medius have put extra force on my knees.

@SmallToBig: Thanks for dropping by. I did get a few pointers from that video.[/quote]

37

Just want to add, that your initial assessment is a training sessions. Just because you’re not working out doesn’t mean that you’re not using someone’s expertise and time.

38

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Well, what it does is avoid the ugly angle your legs will be at in the bottom position of the exercise… The angle that usually screws up people’s knees. Puts more hamstring/butt in there, though. But if you push enough weight and go deep enough (without your low-back rounding/ ass coming forward off the seat! There should be no pressure on the low back on a leg press other than the pressure you get due to holding yourself in the seat with your hands!), your quads will grow, espeically in the higher rep ranges.[/quote]

Thanks for the tip!

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
Just want to add, that your initial assessment is a training sessions. Just because you’re not working out doesn’t mean that you’re not using someone’s expertise and time.[/quote]

Point taken, but I don’t know if this applies at 24-Hour Fitness. The 45-min session (it was supposed to be an hour long) consisted of me filling out a bunch of paperwork, filing out a paper survey, filling out another electronic survey (with the same questions as the paper survey and plenty more), and then the physical assessment (which has its merits, but 24-Hour’s way of doing it is quick and dirty). Either way, I don’t think it’s fair for them to advertise a training package as a great deal when 33% of the package is an assessment.

Didn’t realize how much of a vagina I was. I have no chest muscle endurance whatsoever. But before I get into that, my exercise selection:

HS high row
Incline bench
EZ bar curls, narrow grip
Seated calf raises

4 sets of 13-15 reps each. I used some momentum towards the end of my high row sets. For the incline bench, I kept failing around 8-10 reps, even when my last set had 30 less lbs than my starting set. The curls and calf raises went well. I slowed down the eccentric portion of the calf raises and kept my calves fully stretched at the end of the eccentric motion for about 10 seconds on my last rep (read that from one of C_C’s posts, except I think he does that for each rep). Now, I’m having difficulty wiggling my toes.

Didn’t think 1 extra set was gonna make much of a difference, but I definitely felt it.

I think my pride got in the way on the incline bench. I really didn’t want to lower the weight too much, so as a result, I never hit the desired rep range. Starting tomorrow, I’m gonna have to put all that aside. Worrying about what people think will get me nowhere.

Quote from MODOK from another thread:

Injury/Soreness Update

Right knee was bothering me all day. Occasionally, I’d feel a sharp pain just from walking around. I was afraid to squat down, thinking that my knee cap would pop out, but that was never the case. Does anyone have any suggestions for alleviating knee problems besides wearing a knee sleeve to keep it tight/warm?

The IT band/TFL area on my right side is also a growing issue. I’ve been stretching it throughout the day, and I also did some foam roller work on it. I guess it’s unrealistic to expect it to get better in one day, but hopefully things start to work themselves out this week or the next. I’d hate for my lower body training to suffer because of it. However, it’s better to take things slow for a few weeks than to snap/pull/strain something and be out of commission for 4-6 months.

39

HA your on the same Day as me !

Calfs were horrible, i got to rep 9 of 15 and all you could hear was “ow ow ow ow ow ow ow” out of me AHA !

Today won’t be “that” bad just 3 excercises just hope i don’t get buried in the bottom of my squat !

Best of luck !

40

[quote]jo3 wrote:
Didn’t realize how much of a vagina I was. I have no chest muscle endurance whatsoever. But before I get into that, my exercise selection:
[/quote]

Yes… this is not fun at all. I’m the exact same way. Back my freshman or sophomore year in college, my old training partner was DEFINITELY not as strong as me.

We’d work through our first exercise on bench, and move on to Flat DB press or something, maybe another BB variant. By our heavy sets on there, he was almost consistantly always repping as much/more than me… and the guy’s bench was a good 40 lbs or so below mine.

Just wanted to put it in perspective. Use this knowledge to your advantage. Anyone can feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you should start focusing your chest rep ranges to the slightly lower side. I’m not saying keep it 1-3 or anything like that, haha, but I know with a few exercises I like to make my rep range slightly lower, just because my muscles handle heavier weights/lower reps easier, or vice-versa.

Keep up the good work, man… and don’t worry about ego-lifting. Be smart about putting weights on, because if you get in a bad cycle of cheating to add weight… well that’s just no good at all. :slight_smile:

Eat like a horse and in a few months people will be asking you how you train!