Progress Report: Why no diet is perfect

I'm not going to lie. The ketogenic lifestyle is kicking my ass.  The first month, I had excessive urination which led to potassium, magnesium and sodium depletion. This cascaded into rapid heart beat, muscle weakness and headaches. The magnesium and sodium are easily supplemented through salty foods or pills but the potassium is hard to come by especially when you're trying to maintain low blood insulin levels.

This guy recommends bone broth soup.






The only problem is they don't sell bone broth soup at McDonald's.

I recently added almonds to my diet.  One cup has almost a thousand milligrams of potassium which is a fifth of government recommended daily allowance guidelines.

The good thing about almonds is they're low in carbohydrate.

As you can see, it has two net grams of carbs per one ounce.  It has also has three grams of fiber. This will quell your appetite quickly.  Also because of the fiber it balances out any excessive digestive acid that you might have taken on when consuming animal fat and protein.  Now for the bad part. The fiber will also cause you to sit on the toilet a couple times of day. 

This is why I say no diet is perfect.  The ketogenic lifestyle makes it necessary for you to exist on only fat, protein and fiber with very little carbohydrate intake which is a very primitive way to eat. My food choices are spinach salads, meat or chicken, low carb vegetables and nuts.   Your selection is limited especially if you eat out a lot.  

Pros vs. Cons. Which one do you sacrifice? Do you give up feeling energized and focused throughout your day while keto adapted or do you choose a large and varied food diet that is accomplished through a high carbohydrate based diet? 

PROGRESS REPORT

Here are my numbers.

Gym Tuesday 12/23/2014 01:08 PM 

Conventional deadlift mixed grip 1"deficit 325-4, 345-1, 355-1, 375-1

Stiff legged deadlift mixed grip 1" deficit  325-1

Life fitness cable row machine 260-1 

Rack pull mixed grip 425-1

Technogym leg press machine 340-1

Workout notes:  I've been experimenting with the mixed grip on all my pulls.  The trick to holding onto the bar is your undergrip hand.  Your undergrip hand has to lock onto the bar with a hook grip (fingers overlapping thumb), and then use your other hand to pack the thumb of your undergrip hand deep into the center of your palm.  Then take the overlapping fingers and clamp onto your thumb even harder.  I find that one tightly secured hand is enough to not let the bar slip out of your grip. 

There is a slight strength difference in grip when alternating between left and right.  My left undergrip hand is weaker than my right, but I alternate just to give both hands an opportunity for grip strengthening.  

The other thing I noticed is using mixed grip on my pulls strengthens the forearms, fingers and wrists.  This has great carryover to the bench press because the harder you can squeeze the bar seems to aid in exploding the bar off your chest. 

Why I think high carbohydrate intake is detrimental to strength

First off let's start with the facts. Any carbohydrate intake leads to an increase in insulin levels in the blood. The insulin is there to shuttle the blood glucose from the ingestion of carbohydrate into muscles and the liver.  This influx of massive insulin surges that accompany heavy carbohydrate intake also lowers blood glucose levels to a starvation mode level.

When the body has low blood glucose levels it first starts breaking down muscle tissue and starts feeding on muscle glycogen reserves and then switches to fat reserves for energy. The problem with this system is the attack on the muscles.

As a person who trains for strength, you need all the muscle you can get. Why would you start that insulin effect of breaking down muscle for energy supply to the body no matter how temporary it lasts?

I used to believe that more insulin is good because you need it to produce Insulin Growth Factor, an anabolic hormone your body produces to stimulate muscle growth.  The problem is that insulin also lowers blood sugar levels and shifts your body into starvation mode.  What happens when you go hungry?  Your body becomes catabolic and breaks down muscle for however short a time to return blood glucose levels back to normal.

One or a couple more times of this small stealing from your muscle might not add up to much. But cumulatively over the course of three or four rest days between workouts with several carbohydrate feedings done each day, those small catabolic attacks on your muscles can add up to significant strength loss.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but the fact of the matter is the ketogenic diet has as its goal to never elevate blood glucose levels. That's why it's superior to a high carbohydrate diet.

You can disagree with me on this, but one thing you cannot deny is that fat and cholesterol are needed to produce testosterone.  The ketogenic diet explicitly states -- high fat, moderate protein, low carb.  It's a perfect match for strength training because the high fat intake will produce testosterone, and the low carb intake will avoid massive insulin surges in the blood.

Heart palpitations on the Ketogenic Diet

So when I get heart palpitations or my heart starts beating rapidly, I immediately think to ingest sodium.

Even a month and a half into the ketogenic diet and having stopped the frequent urination problem I was experiencing, I still need to supplement with sodium.

Most people recommend beef or chicken broth. That takes too long to prepare. Other people recommend putting salt into a glass of water and drinking it. But that's a lot of salty water to drink and it tastes disgusting.

My personal favorite is soy sauce.  Just a couple of sips is all it takes. There's no need to prepare anything and you only have to drink a glass of water to remove the salty taste.

Keys to a successful adaptation to the Ketogenic Lifestyle

The two most important words in the Keto Dieter's vocabulary are moderation and balance.  

Here's what I mean.  You have to eat animal protein for glucose, but too much protein causes the body to be acidic.  The stomach has to compensate for the digestion of extra protein by secreting more acid.  This can lead to health problems such as acid reflux or indigestion problems.

The way to balance this acid increase is to consume acid's opposite: alkaline.  Alkaline sources are zero carb vegetables like spinach, romaine lettuce, broccoli or what they call cruciferous vegetables.  Any acid indigestion problems will be immediately cured by eating them.

Moderation is something I had to relearn.  Up until yesterday, I used to shoot Lite Salt into my mouth and follow it with water.  The reason was to up my potassium intake. Now that I'm somewhat adapted to a keto diet, my potassium requirements are lowered.  When I first started on the Ketogenic Lifestyle, I was urinating all the time because my body was emptying itself of it's glycogen reserves for energy.  The byproduct of glycolysis is water so the body will dump the excess. Unfortunately, this excretion will also strip the body of its sodium, potassium, and magnesium deposits.

A little over a month and a half into the Ketogenic Lifestyle, my mineral requirements are stabilized.  I don't have the excess urination anymore so I don't have to shoot the Lite Salt into my mouth anymore.  I learned that the hard way by overdosing on Lite Salt and having to make an inconvenient trip to the bathroom to flush my bowels.  To remedy this, I only sprinkle Lite Salt onto my foods to taste.

Moderation and balance.  Simple concepts to understand and execute but imperative if you are to be successful at the Ketogenic Lifestyle.

Progress Report: Nazi Vegans, more weakness, and the Ketogenic Lifestyle

So I've recently begun taking flaxseed oil gel capsules.  I got the idea from this Nazi vegan:




It's amazing how the Nazi vegans are so arrogant about how they're more healthy than meat eaters yet they have a ten year life expectancy deficit compared to meat eaters.

The Nazi vegan in the video recommends mixing in flaxseed flour into your recipes to help with heart health.  But I just take a flaxseed oil gel capsule which I found at a local grocery store chain.

The reason I stopped taking fish oil was the fish burps that accompany taking it. But the flaxseed oil gel capsules have no adverse reactions like that and they're pretty much tasteless.  Plus they have almost double the concentration of omega 3 fatty acids that fish oil gel capsules have.


The Ketogenic Lifestyle

I've been on this lifestyle for over a month now. The biggest hurdle in trying to live this lifestyle is relearning how to eat.

I wake-up and for breakfast I eat chicken breast lathered with coconut oil. I'll also eat ten slices of bacon and douse that with coconut oil.

The coconut oil is pretty much tasteless except for a subtle lingering after taste of coconut. I got the coconut oil from Trader Joe's, a grocery store that specializes in hard to find eclectic items.  The oil is just a way to add more fat to my diet and it helps me to have stabilized energy levels while feeling satiated until my next meal.  Also because I have a digestive allergy to butter because I'm lactose intolerant, the coconut oil is a very good substitute that doesn't mess up my stomach and intestines the way butter does.

For my supplementation, I take the flaxseed oil gel capsule, a multivitamin fortified with iron, and a magnesium 500mg pill.  I'll also eyeball out two teaspoons of Lite Salt into the palm of my hand, and I'll shoot it into my mouth. Then I'll follow that with two glasses of water while my eyes tear and my mouth gets sucked into the back of my head.  This torture is endured to up my potassium and sodium intake for the day which you'll have to do unless you want your heart to feel like it's exploding out of your chest.

For an afternoon snack I'll go to Walgreen's or a grocery store and buy a salami meat tube.  Any meat will do as long as it has a 2 to 1 fat to protein ratio.  2 grams of fat for 1 gram of protein for example.

Dinner is just a Subway Sandwich shop spinach salad loaded with gobs of oil, fatty meats, olives and pickles and a dash of tomatoes.

Of course now that I'm back to heavy lifting again, I have to cycle in lean animal proteins like chicken to refill glycogen reserves that were depleted during my training session.



A Lesson in Weakness

Here are my numbers.

Gym Tuesday 12:30 12/16/2014
Conventional deadlift 1"deficit 315-1
Stiff legged deadlift  1" deficit  315-1
Life fitness cable row machine 260-1
Rack pull mixed grip 415-1, 415-0
Technogym leg press machine 320-1

These are the first deadlifts I've done in almost four months.   I switched to using a mixed grip. Before I used lifting straps but I'm going to try and hold out by just using my hands before I go back to the straps.

My pre workout meal of two Cliff oatmeal bars was not enough to carry me to my last sets of exercises, so I'm going to eat one or two more Cliff oatmeal bars before I do another deadlift and legs training session to keep my energy levels up.

Progress Report: Slowly inching my way back

I don't understand modern theories of strength training.  Most of it centers around muscle building.  The classic theory is that lifting weight stimulates muscle growth by way of ripping apart muscle fibers and then repairing them with adequate protein intake. They're missing although the underlying foundation of strength which is your skeletal frame.  It's true the muscles have to adapt and grow, but without a strong and sturdy skeletal frame that adapts and becomes stronger and thicker over the course of a weightlifter's career it will be impossible to handle heavy loads.

Anyways, here's my progress report:

Click here for what the numbers mean.


Gym Saturday 12/13/2014 10:03 AM
Shoulder press seated 205-1
Dead chest press 145-1
Dead pin press 1/4" above chest 155-1,
165-1
Dead pin press 4" above chest 175-0
Precor incline press machine 2" deficit 260-0
Precor incline press machine 220-1
Precor incline press machine 2" above chest 200-0
Pec flyes rehab work 5 lb dumbbells

These numbers are meaningless without an explanation, so here it goes.  When I say "dead chest press", I take the safety arms in a power rack and set them three or four inches below by chest while laying down on a bench.  I then place the bar behind me on the safety arms.  Then I lay back, reach over my head and grab the bar and place it on my chest and then press the bar up.  I find doing it this way strengthens the wrists and forearms which you need to press heavy weight.

When I say "dead pin press", the bar is resting on the safety arms of the power rack but the bar is set at an approximate above my chest.  To complete the lift, I wrap my hands on the bar and push up.  The height measurements correspond to how far it is above my chest.

The reason I do it this way is that I got the idea from watching one of Nick Wright's videos.  He mentions something about not being able to bench the bar more than halfway up when trying to hit a personal best record, so to address that sticking point he did floor presses to concentrate on the top half of his bench press or the lockout.  Start the video at 6:30 to see what I mean.





Basically the whole bottom half of my bench press is my sticking point.  I can't get the bar off my chest, and if I do I get stuck two or three inches off my chest.  So to address those sticking points, I figured why not break my bench press down into segments like I do with my deadlift.  If I'm doing rack pulls and deficit deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts to increase my conventional deadlift, why not do the same thing for my bench press?

To address this, I'm basically having my hands set at varying heights when I'm chest pressing or incline pressing.  The shoulder press I'm not really worried about so I just adjust the seat height of the military press rack so the bar is below my chin.

Finally I have to explain what I mean by "rehab work".  It means I take a pair of 5 lb dumb bells and I lay back on a bench.  Then I take the dumb bells one in each hand, and I sweep my hands back in a Christ crucifixion pose until my knuckles are resting on the floor.  I'll usually hold my hands there at the bottom for a couple seconds and then bring them back to the top above me just as you would in a dumb bell pec fly movement.  This helps to stretch the front deltoids in a gentle manner after working them with so much chest pressing.  

Wheat is like cocaine

Thoughts on the ketogenic lifestyle after a little over a month

When I first started the ketogenic lifestyle, I was nervous as hell. I thought I was going to die or seriously injure my organs.

The truth is I feel better. I don't feel the huge insulin swings or blood sugar crashes.

Progress Report: Nazi Vegans, the ketogenic lifestyle, and an upper body workout

So I was on the YouTubes and Mark Bell was on a video talking about the ketogenic diet.



And I guess some Nazi vegans were on the prowl looking to bash some people for eating meat and following the ketogenic lifestyle.  Well, since I follow the ketogenic lifestyle, I thought I would put my two cents into the conversation and I told them that they didn't know what they were talking about.  They didn't like that. We exchanged words and they're a bunch of sissies so they didn't back up any of their words with action.

The thing was they were bickering with me in such a manner over the stupidest smallest minutia that some switch flipped off in my head that I actually felt compelled to lift.

So I went to the gym and banged out this episode of weakness.

Gym 09:23 PM 12/09/2014
Shoulder press seated 135-2
Dead chest press 135-2
Dead pin press 1/4" above chest 135-1
Dead pin press 4" above chest 155-0
Precor incline press machine 2" deficit 240-1
Precor incline press machine 1" deficit 200-1
Precor incline press machine 200-0
Precor incline press machine 2" above chest 180-1
Pec flyes rehab work 10 lb dumbbells

My pre-workout meal was three oatmeal raisin cliff bars. Intra-workout meal was one Cytosport Cookies and Cream container of whey protein drink. Post workout meal was three handfuls of Skittles candies.

Each oatmeal bar had 47 grams of carbs. Each handful of Skittles had around 35 grams of carbs. 

The oatmeal bars were chosen for the slow release of glucose caused by the fiber of the oatmeal. (Fiber slows down the digestion process of nutrients.)

The Skittles candies were chosen just as a quick mainline of sugar straight to the liver to refill glycogen reserves and keep my appetite down post workout. Somewhere I read on the internet that it takes about 120 grams of carbs to replenish glycogen reserves in the liver. 

So as you can tell my war on carbs has subsided because I just know from experience that carbohydrate is necessary to sustain energy during the course of a workout.  

Of course I went straight back to the ketogenic lifestyle for my post workout meal. Earlier in the day I had bought a bunless, no ketchup or cheese double quarter pounder from McDonald's and I had it stowed in my vehicle underneath my seat. It was kind of cold and hard but I was hungry and I needed some glucose and protein so I ate it and fell asleep.


The following days I've been ketogenic although my meat intake has risen threefold.  Without working out my double quarter pounder intake was around two a day. Now that I'm back to training, my double quarter pounder intake today has risen to six. I don't want to eat too much meat though for fear of a massive blood insulin spike which would cause leptin resistance and make me hungry.

You see, leptin is an appetite suppression hormone your body releases to make you feel full.  The problem with carbohydrate intake is it makes the body release insulin. This massive influx of insulin into the body then causes leptin resistance, so you will never feel satiated and continue to eat thus causing you to be fat.

The goal this time around is to gain muscle but lose weight.  The experts even Mark Bell say it's impossible.  But I think the trick is to manipulate that interplay between insulin and leptin.  So before a workout I'm eating slow release carbs and post workout I'm eating fast digesting sugars.

 The intra workout food choice is whey protein. I like it because the insulinogenic effect is very slight and I drink a couple of sips before every working set of my heavy lifts.  More than half of the protein in the whey is converted to glucose so it also provides energy for me to accomplish my workout. The post workout meal is a moderate amount of meat or low fat protein.


I never really noticed the sweet taste of meat since I stopped eating sugar laden foods. My taste buds have adapted to pick up the slightest hint of sweetness in foods. Chicken and ground beef are almost like eating a piece of cake but with more of a diluted sugary taste. Even spinach salads I can taste the carbohydrate in them as well .

the only snack I could find without the poison a.k.a. sugar and high fructose corn syrup toxins

I went to a gas station and every aisle is loaded with sugary foods.   This is the only one that will keep me energized and focused for the rest of the day.

The Revolution Starts from Within: The Ketogenic Lifestyle

If change is ever going to be had, it has to start from inside you.  You can't expect to change your environment if you yourself are out of balance with nature.

The ketogenic lifestyle is your ticket to finding your inner equilibrium.  Without the hormonal trigger of leptin via the absence of carbs, you will be hungry and will hence fall out blood sugar balance. You will then become hungry causing excess glycogen to be stored as fat.  You will thus be overweight which is a catalyst for disease and sickness. Basically unbalanced.

When I said ketogenic lifestyle in the title, I didn't mean to say ketogenic diet.  A diet has connotations of starving yourself, weakness, and cloudiness of the mind. Contrary to that, the ketogenic lifestyle keeps you alert, strong and focused. A diet in terms of caloric restriction causes a weight loss sometimes. The ketogenic lifestyle has the same goal but the weight loss is more significant and consistent.  Unlike a diet where you basically go hungry, the ketogenic lifestyle allows for nourishment through a high fat moderate protein ultra low carb.

When on the ketogenic lifestyle,  there are feedback signals from your hormonal system that will be completely new to you. You have to learn them. If your heart beats rapidly and if you've had excessive bouts of urination and you're developing muscle aches and headaches, then it's probably caused by an electrolyte imbalance and you probably should go pour a one and a half teaspoons of Lite Salt into a glass of water and drink it.  Then drink another glass of plain water. Your rapid heart beat and headache should subside.  If you've eaten enough protein and you feel sluggish, you may need to supplement with a 500mg pill of magnesium.  You should feel your energy levels normalize.

To start off my day, I eat enough fat and protein to sustain me until dinner or a mid afternoon snack and then dinner. For breakfast,  I'll take a half stick of butter and melt it and pour it over some chicken breasts.  Then I'll tear pieces of chicken and dip them into melted bacon fat or a flavored sour cream dip that has 1 gram of sugar per serving.  I'll also flavor the dip with Lite Salt to up my potassium intake.  Also I'll get my micronutrients out of the way with a magnesium pill, a 1200 mg calcium pill, and a multivitamin that has iron and vitamins.  For lunch and dinner it'll be just like breakfast -- high fat moderate protein ultra low carb no more than five grams of carbs per meal.  Also I might eat a spinach salad at dinner and drizzle it with oil or melted animal fat. No dressing because it has way to many carbs that will knock you out of ketosis.

Keto diet micronutrient supplementation

You should take mineral supplements to ward off symptoms of keto flu.

My keto flu entails sluggishness, muscle weakness, headaches, heart palpitations or heart beating rapidly.

To get rid of the headaches and the rapid heart beat, I drink soy sauce straight from the bottle. I also eat salty foods that are zero carbohydrate high fat of course. I hope that's obvious.  Bacon and certain deli meats are good for sodium supplementation. But you want to avoid the meats that have sugar added to them because those will take you out of ketosis.

To get rid of muscle fatigue and sluggishness, I supplement daily with 500 mg pills of magnesium that I picked up from Walgreen.  The effects of this pill are immediate and you should feel energized right away.

I have a problem with digesting dairy products. I know I have lactose (dairy sugar) intolerance and I'm pretty sure that I have a casein (dairy protein) allergy as well.  I know that because whenever I eat dairy products I get an upset stomach and I wind up on the toilet an hour later. So I have to avoid cheeses even the processed kind, milk, and butter only if I don't take a lactose enzyme that helps me to digest the butter.
So I also have a 1200 mg calcium pill daily for bone maintenance.

To supplement potassium intake I eat avocados, guacamole that's made out of avocados, and I sprinkle my food with Lite Salt , a namebrand low sodium salt substitute that has potassium chloride.  A quarter teaspoon has 350 mg of potassium which is ten percent of USA RDA government guidelines.  The potassium intake is not something I obsess over because meat and chicken have a lot of potassium.

I also take a multivitamin. The kind I take have a lot of iron and water soluble vitamins and fat soluble vitamins.

I don't know how long I'll be able to sustain myself on this diet but I need to shed fat and I feel very low carb intake is the best way to do it.

Preaching to the converted: yet another ketogenic diet

I would have to guess I'm on less than 20 grams of carbs per day.  The only supplements I take are a  multivitamin and soy sauce.

Keto flu

I get the Keto flu quite regularly.  Being in ketosis especially in the first few weeks, you tend to urinate a lot.  That leads to dehydration and loss of salt in the body.  I know I'll get keto flu when I urinate three or four times in a row and then I get this weird tingling sensation in my fingers and limbs.  My heart starts beating rapidly and I get muscle twitches.

The simple fix although it tastes quite disgusting is to drink soy sauce.  Although after I drink it, I have to drink a glass of water to get rid of the dryness and salty taste in my mouth. After about twenty minutes, my heartbeat returns to normal and the tingling sensation goes away.

Progress Report: My take on the Ketogenic Diet

All of this has been inspired by The Ketogenic Diet.



 Like anything in life, eating without carbohydrates takes patience, diligence, and perseverance. I started living without carbohydrates on November 8th, 2014. My first couple weeks have been hard because I didn't know how to survive without dietary glucose intake--stuff like bread, pasta, juices and the like.

The one thing you have to realize about your body is that it's a closed loop system. That means you receive inputs from your hormones that signal to your brain to coordinate an action. Think of your home heating system. There's a sensor in the thermostat that when it detects the temperature falling below a preset level, it'll kick on the furnace system to heat the house. That's what's called closed loop because the inputs are closed within the system and the resultant action is closed within the system as well.

My main problem with adapting to the Ketogenic Diet is not knowing the feedback signals of my body.  I didn't realize that when your heart starts beating convulsively, that that's the signal to eat potassium.  I get my potassium from those little tubs of guacamole that you get from the supermarket. I eat one of those at least once every two days. I didn't realize the first thing you should do in the morning is try to get most of your protein in at breakfast.  Also try to eat a lot of fat with the protein as well.  That combination of the high fat and high protein helps me to carry out my day's activities feeling relatively energetic. I was unknowing of the fact that if you feel headaches that it could be a) not enough salt intake or b) not enough protein intake which supplies glucose via the process of gluconeogenesis.  Most of the time the headaches are going to be from low protein intake because your brain still needs that steady supply of glucose to survive because it hasn't learned how to turn on the action of lipolysis or the act of breaking down fat into ketones which the brain can then use as energy source -- otherwise known as ketosis.  The salt intake for me is not an issue because the foods I eat have plenty of salt in them already. 5-6 grams of sodium is the acceptable intake range to ward off the headaches.

In fact the adaptation to a high fat moderate protein diet (probably about 150-160 grams of protein and the rest just fat) has caused me to rethink my approach to dieting.  I don't count calories anymore. I eat when I'm hungry.  I eat protein along with fat every meal because that's what my body feels best on.  I can go longer between meals because my energy levels aren't fluctuating all over the place.  This in turn has caused me to eat less food which results in less calorie intake which resulted into a weight loss of seven pounds in almost two weeks.

Now mind you most of that was water weight ( I was constantly urinating the first couple days).  But as the weight loss continued I could feel my clothes getting bigger.  Honestly that might be muscle mass loss as well, but hopefully some of that is stored fat although I'm not totally sure.

Sugar is evil redux

Same guy, same presentation but more biochemistry presented in layman's terms.

Sugar is the devil

A ketogenic diet video that influenced my eating habits

Nutrition: Progress Report, the Ketogenic Diet

All of what I write has been inspired by The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald.

So my first few days on the ketogenic diet have been difficult.  The first day my body especially my brain was in a state of shock because I wasn't pumping it with carbohydrates at least not in the form of breads or juices.  On the contrary, I was eating a lot of chicken to supply glucose to the brain via the process of gluconeogenisis or the breakdown of protein into glucose. At least the first three or four days I was consuming 250-270 grams of protein per day to keep my brain happy.

Suddenly after that, I woke up on the fifth day feeling not so fatigued.  I felt energetic maybe even happy.  I haven't felt like that since I was a boy.  I knew I had flipped the metaphorical ketone switch.  That's the adaptation where the body and the brain especially accept that there are no serotonin releases to get their fix off of and have to live off ketones for energy.

Much as you like to probably consider yourself drug free, you have to remember serotonin is a drug that the brain and body fiend for.  Your craving for carbs in the form of pasta, desserts, fries and the like are all related to the body's need for serotonin.  Like it or not, every time you eat a Snicker's bar you might as well be a junkie sticking his arm with a needle full of dope.

 This was probably my worst day of eating because my brain wasn't ready to give up its serotonin addiction.  As you can see from below, I had to eat a whole chicken to give my brain its fix.  The wraps I ate at Dunkin Donuts were without the tortillas so I still adhered to the zero carb principle.  I also ate a container full of guacamole to nourish my body with potassium and sodium to keep myself from getting heart palpitations and headaches. Also notice the vitamin I took.  I don't eat a lot of vegetables so the vitamin I hope will make for any nutrient shortcomings I have.

	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Dunkin Donuts - Angus Steak and Egg Breakfast Wrap, 2 wraps	460	26	28	28	1,140	2
7-11 - 1/4 lb Big Bite - No Bun, 2 hot dog	720	4	68	22	0	4
7-Eleven - Buffalo Chicken Wings, 3.5 wings	90	3	6	7	600	0
Walmart - Jlr - Rotisserie Chicken (the Whole Chicken), 18 oz	960	6	60	102	3,960	0
Sabra - Spicy Guacamole, 12 tbsp	270	18	24	6	900	0
Health Peak - Sentry - Complete With All Rdi Nutrients - Multivitamin & Mineral Supplement, 1 Tablet	0	0	0	0	0	0
Add Food Quick Tools	2,500	57	186	165	6,600	6

Another consequence of my changing to zero carb eating is I got rid of my addiction to track my macros. That's right no more myfitnesspal.com for me.  The reason for that is I eat when I'm hungry but I don't crave that much food because I kicked myself off my serotonin habit.
The only con of the zero carb lifestyle is lack of food choices.  Your only options are meats, cheeses, certain high fat vegetables like avocados, eggs, chicken, pork,and of course leafy greens and the other vegetables.  But I admit that I don't do many vegetables or salads because they pretty much shoot right through me and I wind up on the toilet soon after that. The lack of food choices could get old pretty quick, so I don't know how long I'm going to last on this diet.  But perhaps the need to feel healthy and energized will overcome my need for variety.

Nutrition: The Ketogenic Diet

First off I'm writing this from the perspective of someone who has not lifted heavy weight in almost three months. But the overall encompassing notion of this site is to achieve strength through experimentation with nutrition and heavy weight training without the use of anabolic drugs so I feel this post is relevant to that objective.

I'm on a ketogenic diet. My two references for implementing an endeavor as such are this video and this pdf download.

 Here's the video:









And here's the free download link to the pdf download of a book titled The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald.
I don't know how long this link will last so don't blame me if it doesn't work.


The main gist of these info sources is that the human body is a machine that when inputted with different energy sources, it will yield contrary results.

First off we have the insulin effect. That is where your body in response to an influx of carbs and to a lesser extent animal protein will convert those carbs into fat.

Secondly we have the glucagon effect. It is insulin's opposite. It triggers the burning of body fat.

Those two processes are started by what you eat. The ingestion of high amounts of carbohydrates will cause the insulin effect. The complete absence of carbs in your diet will stimulate the glucagon effect and hence shedding fat.

I've done the ketogenic diet before but failed due to my ignorance of the bodily functions involved in fat loss and fat gain but the two sources I listed above have educated me in nutrition and how the body responds to food.

Besides, they're free so what have you got to lose?

indefinite hiatus from strength training

Because my life is crap and my way of making money is slowly eroding away and you don't want to help me out by purchasing from my web store, I'm on indefinite hiatus from strength training and hence blog posting. Good luck with your training and thanks for nothing.

I'm on hiatus indefinitely

Because my life is crap and you don't want to help me out by purchasing from my web store, I'm on indefinite hiatus from strength training and hence blog posting.

So let me explain. I'm a cab driver in the city of Chicago.  As of late, this city has made a fool out of me and disrespected the time and effort I have to expend to have the privilege to earn a living by driving people around town.

There are new quasi taxi services called rideshare services.  They go by cute wisemaker names like Lyft, Uber and sidecar.  They offer the same service as I do, namely picking up people and charging them money to take them to their destinations.

The problem with this is they don't have to deal with one iota of the rules, regulations, and licencing and insurance coverage requirements that I'm required to have to transport people in Chicago. Just in the last year I had to pay an extra fifty dollars a month in insurance which is an addition to the two hundred dollars a month I already shell out for commercial drivers insurance.

Also, I have to every once a year go down to a city government building and waste a day of my life to renew my license. That entails signing an affidavit that states I owe no outstanding debt to the city of Chicago. I also have to submit to a $45 drug test and physical.  I also have to take $50 defensive driving classes and driver education classes on occasion.  I also have to take fingerprints which are then background checked and every month the Chicago police department checks my records for any felony charges.

Every twice a year, I have to take the cab I'm driving to a city of Chicago cab inspection facility where they find fault with the smallest of things like a spot of oil on the underframe, call it a leak, and physically rip off  the cab's medallion licence plate without which I can't transport people for profit because they deem the cab unfit for use.  Then the inspectors issue a three hundred dollar ticket which causes me to have to take the cab to get "repaired". How do you repair a spot of oil?  What a joke. Finally I have to take another day out of my time to have it reinspected.

Uber, lyft and the like don't have any  of this to deal with. They don't have to worry about vehicle inspections or insurance requirements. Their drivers don't have to submit to background checks or drug tests. They're not required to pick up anybody they don't like or from which they can't make a decent sized fare unlike me where I have I am required by Chicago ordinance to pick up anybody and everybody no matter how rough they look or whether I can make any sizable profit from them.  This means they have almost zero overhead costs which means they can lowball and undercut my rates for next to nothing. I can't beat cheaper.

So rather than crying like a little bitch and playing like I'm a victim, I've decided to get out of the taxi business. If the city of Chicago wants to play dumb and turn a blind eye to the serious shortcomings these rideshare services have in their lack of proper insurance coverages and driver vetting which enables them to be less costly than me, my decision is to leave.

My only

An explanation of my workouts

Gym Saturday 9/6/14 11 a.m.
Pause back squats wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 335-2
Shoulder press seated 325-1
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-2
Freemotion decline press cable machine 180-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 255-1
Right 255-1
One hand rack pull
Left 335-0
Right 335-0
Precor incline press machine 220-0, 220-1, 240-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 355-1

Gym Tuesday 4:30 p.m. 9/2/14
Dead bench press 245-1
Dead bench press legs crossed in the air 245-1
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates 525-1
Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates 515-1
Technogym low row seated lat machine 260-1
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine life fitness 130-1, 145-0
Technogym leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 440-0
Pec flyes pair of:
60's-2

These are some numbers I recorded not too long ago for my training sessions.  If you want you can click here for what the numbers mean. Even this isn't a full explanation of what I do at the gym. So I'm going to break down how I exercise every lift.

 Starting from the top with the pause squat, before I even put myself under the bar I stretch my groin muscles so I can spread my legs wide to help me fit my torso between my legs when I'm down in the hole with my glutes to the ground.

You stretch the groin muscles one leg at a time. With one leg on the ground, stick your foot of the other leg on something that is around the same height as your pelvis. Put one hand on the inner side of your knee joint and push down and away from your body. The other hand should be placed somewhere to steady yourself.  To increase the stretch, lean your torso forward and push down harder on your knee.

To get the tension out of the groin muscle, when you feel pain stop putting pressure on your knee and stop leaning forward. Back off the stretch just a tiny amount and then slowly and gently begin the stretch again until you feel a slight painful stretch on your groin muscle and hold the position until you feel the muscle tension release.  Now with a delicate touch, apply pressure again slowly until you feel another slight pain in the muscle. Keep on repeating that process until you feel satisfied you can comfortably open your legs wide enough to enable yourself to squat deep and do that for each leg.

Now for the actual squat. I only do high bar Olympic squats. First, I warm up with 135 lbs for 4-5 reps. Then I'll add 50 lbs on the bar and bang on that for a couple reps. The only purpose is to pump blood into the muscles and lubricate the joints.  Then I'll start doing single rep sets.  For each set, I'll increment the weight by about forty to fifty pounds until I hit a weight that equals a new personal record.

When I attempt the personal record, I'll record the quality of the lift using my five point rating system.  For the squat most of the rating variance depends on how well I keep upright and use the legs and not the lower back to power up the bar to the top. If for example, I lose tension in my hamstrings and bend forward at the waist and use all lower back to power the weight back up, I'll record that as a "1".  A "5" is torso perfectly straight and upright using only glute and quadriceps strength to power the bar up.

After I the personal best record attempt, I'll lighten the weight by fifty pounds and hit it for a single rep set to figure out strength wise where I'm at.  If I feel like I didn't maintain form, I'll back the weight off again by fifty pounds and hit that for a single rep set. If I feel like it's light, I'll add fifty pounds to the bar and I'll keep incrementing and doing single rep sets until I feel fatigued in my glutes and quadriceps and my form starts turning ugly.

Finally, I'll put 225 lbs on the bar and perform burnout sets. That means I'll hit four to seven reps in a set, put the bar back on the rack, catch my breath, and repeat until my quads and glutes are on fire with lactic acid inflammation and swolleness. The reason for it without any scientific proof to back it up is the inflammation helps to stretch the muscles' fascia which is the thin sheath like material that holds your muscle together. When the fascia expands, it allows the muscle to grow.

Shoulder press seated. Before any arm movement, I warm up and stretch my shoulders for ten minutes using a 10 lb plate by doing shoulder mobility work.  Something like this:

Progress Report: it was bound to happen

The basic building blocks of any successful strength training program are stimulus and repair and recovery. You stimulate strength gains by lifting heavy weight and then you rest for a number of days and while you recover you eat animal protein to repair muscle fibers and joints. There's nothing more complicated than that.

How you choose to put forth those basic principles is up to you.  You could for example do what I've been doing for the past eight months and do full body workouts and then take 96+ hours of rest to adequately repair yourself through sleep and animal protein intake.

There's also another option besides the full body workout and that is as you probably know the split routine.

This guy, that's all he does. Split routines. And he's strong as f*ck or SAF as he likes to put it.

So I figured hey if he can do it, so can I.  I'll split my training into three days. Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. On Tuesday, I'll be doing movements that I think can help my deadlift. On Thursday I'll be doing stuff that'll help with my bench press. On Sunday I'll be lifting according to what's good for making squat gains.

Click here for what the numbers mean.

Here's what I did on Tuesday:

Gym Tuesday 9/16/14 10 a.m.
Conventional deadlift with straps on 45 lb plates 535-0
Stiff legged deadlift with straps on 45 plates 525-0
Wide grip deadlift with straps on 45 lb plates 465-0
Life fitness seated row machine 305-1
Bicep curl free motion cable machine
Rack pull 455-1, 505-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 365-1

As you can see, it's all movements that are variations of the deadlift with a couple isolation movements.  I didn't know which day to put bicep curls so I put them here for no other reason than I like having massive arms.

I've figured out long ago that the only way to improve my deadlift is to break it up into two halves. There's the lift off from the ground and then the lift is completed with a hip thrust, so the variations will revolve around that. Wide grip deadlifts and stiff legged deadlifts help with breaking the bar off the ground. Rack pulls and Romanian deadlifts help with the forward hip thrust at the midrange and top of the lift.

On Thursday which is today, I did this:

Gym Thursday 11:54 AM 09/18/2014
Shoulder press seated 345-0
Dead chest press 265-0
Dead chest press legs in the air 265-0
Leverage chest press machine handles set there is no stretch reflex on the front deltoids 315-1
Shoulder press life fitness machine 205-2
Free motion cable machine decline press 160-1
Precor incline press machine 220-0
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine 115-1
Pec fly dumbbells pair of 60's-2

My reasoning for picking these movements is any exercise that focuses on the front deltoids and the triceps will have excellent carry over effect to my bench press, and as you can see every exercise today was focused on those muscles.

On Sunday, I'll do legs. Squats, pause squats, lunges, and kickstand squats. Any exercise that hinges the knees down and brings the glutes to the ground will transfer over to the squat. 

How will it go you ask? I don't know, but the fact that I only have muscle soreness contained on the front of my torso and a slight lingering pain soreness on my backside feels great compared to the total body soreness I would get from a full body workout. The full body workout good as they are for making gains also lead to overall body aching and that kind of pain can demoralize you and unmotivate you to train. 

Another thing about the split routine is I don't feel I have to eat as much to recover and repair compared to the full body workout. Even right now after having trained only arms and chest today I don't feel famished and weak and my hunger is only slightly noticeable.  If I had done a full body workout today I can almost guarantee the only thought in my head would be to stuff my gut with steak. 

Will I make any gains? That remains to be seen. I'll be getting seven days of rest in between for each body part exercised and that extended rest may lead to strength gains or losses. As a matter of fact, if you compare my last progress report's numbers and these ones you'll see I didn't make many gains and I lost a little strength on almost half my lifts. I'm going to blame that on the fact there wasn't enough stimulation for adequate muscle growth because I didn't do enough accessory movements. 

I have a theory on muscle growth and rest periods. It's that the heavier weight that needs to be lifted, the more the amount of time that needs to be extended to adequately recover for proper muscle growth and central nervous system recovery as well. 

The second part of the theory is that in order to get into the bigger ranges of weights like the five hundreds and up, the more accessory movements have to be performed in order for that lift to go up. 

Will the theory hold true in the real world? That remains to be seen as well, and I'll post my workout numbers next week to see if the split routine is worth anything as far as strength training goes. 

strength training without steroids clothing line and knick knacks

Buy this crap from my web store. It has my new official blogspot logo.

Progress Report: The Problem with my Programming

I admit it. My style of training is brutal. Doing 150% of your one rep max week after week tends to burn out the central nervous system quickly.  This leads to achiness and soreness in the joints and muscles.

I was thinking that if I took 96+ hours of rest between workouts, I would heal my joints and muscles nicely and have them ready to attack the weights. But instead as soon as I tried to push up a dead chest press for my latest workout, my front deltoids were in severe throbbing inflammation. Well, I thought to myself, this is going to be a slow and long painful workout.

Take a look at my numbers.

Gym Saturday 9/6/14 11 a.m.
Pause back squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 335-2
Shoulder press seated 325-1
Freemotion bicep curl cable machine 150-2
Freemotion decline press cable machine 180-0
One legged stiff legged deadlift
Left 255-1
Right 255-1
One hand rack pull
Left 335-0
Right 335-0
Precor incline press machine 220-0, 220-1, 240-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 355-1


Home 9/10/14 Wednesday 12:38 PM
Dead chest press 255-1, 265-0
Dead chest press legs crossed in the air 255-1
Conventional deadlift with straps no belt 535-0
Stiff legged deadlift with straps no belt
525--0
Pause back squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves no belt 345-0

On 9/6, I did ten exercises and got through it all right. On 9/10, I could barely get through five exercises because of joint and muscle inflammation and overall body aching.

My point is yeah I admit that my workouts are brutal and they do lead to early burnout of the central nervous system, but if I take a break and rest up for a week or two I'll lose the hard earned strength gains I have made. So to avoid that I'm still going to do the main lifts and their respective variations, but I'm going to stop for a week or two the hypertrophy training I do for smaller muscles.

For triceps as an example I'll get on a cable machine and work up to 200% of my one rep max and try and lift the weight so there is at least an inch gap between the plates in the stack. Then I'll go down about forty pounds and try and hit that for a couple reps until failure. Then I'll go down again another thirty pounds and bang on that until failure, and I'll keep doing that until I'm lifting ten or twenty pounds for thirty or so reps or whatever number it takes to make my triceps feel like they're on fire.  I'll do four or five cycles of that and my triceps are rock hard for the next couple days from all the inflammation and the blood engorged within them.

The problem with this is my body can only take about a month and half of that kind of training until I get inflamed and sore, so I'm going to just concentrate on the main lifts in the low rep range and not worry so much about trying to achieve that burn that is brought on by ultra high reps.

Here's me in a dreadfully burnt out state attempting some lifts.

This is a 255 lb dead chest press attempt for a rating of "1".

This is a conventional deadlift attempt with straps of 535 lbs for a "0" rating.

As a side note, I don't know if you like kefir but I find it fills the stomach quite nicely and provides some decent anabolic stimulus to the muscles. Just make sure to get the unflavored kind to avoid any insulin spikes caused by the sugary flavored kefir varieties.

Also I had some complications with my Romanian deadlift. It seems that my spine doesn't like first deadlifting the weight up and then letting go of my breath and lowering the weight down for the Romanian deadlift phase of the lift.

Look at this guy to see what I'm talking about:

You see, as can be gleaned from the video, the guy has to let go of his breath at the top of the lift to set up for the Romanian deadlift. The problem with that is when you let go of your breath, the heavy weight you're holding compresses the spine because you lose tightness in the low back when not maintaining the air held in your lungs.   So when you go down to begin the Romanian deadlift, the spine loses its alignment which when pulling up on a heavy weight for a one rep max can lead to spinal injuries.

To remedy this, I'm going to eliminate the deadlift part of the lift and either walk the bar out from a squat or power rack with a held breath or I'll pull the bar from a dead position using a power rack or 45 lb plates set at the proper height.

Teeth care for strength training

You can't get strong without eating animal protein, but how will you get strong without having proper teeth to chew those tough pieces of flesh?

Gargle with hydrogen peroxide.  Go down to your local drug or grocery store and pick up a large size bottle of it for approximately two dollars which by the way is much cheaper than mouthwash. Now take the bottle and fill your mouth half full with it and swish vigorously for thirty seconds to one minute. Do this two or three times. Be careful not to swallow it though, and if you feel like you're going to swallow it go ahead and spit it out of your mouth and refill your mouth.

I find the first rinsing foams up pretty quick which makes the peroxide diluted and weak, so I spit it out and refill.

The frequency of rinsing should be about two or three times a week.

Also allow yourself at least thirty minutes after swishing to spit out the remaining microparticles trapped underneath the gumline.

Progress Report: More microgains

Here are my numbers.

8/29/14 gym 10:55 a.m. Friday
Seated shoulder press dead 315-1
Stiff legged one legged deadlift
Left 245-1
Right 245-1
seated bicep curl cable machine free motion 150-1
Romanian deadlift with straps 345-1, 355-0
One hand rack pull
Left 325-0
Right 325-1
Precor incline press machine 220-0
Pause squat wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 325-2
Free motion decline press cable machine 170-1


Gym Tuesday 4:30 p.m. 9/2/14
Dead bench press 245-1
Dead bench press legs crossed in the air 245-1
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates with straps 525-1
Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates with straps 515-1
Technogym low row seated lat machine 260-1
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine life fitness 130-1, 145-0
Technogym leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 440-0
Pec flyes pair of:
60's-2

Here I am attempting a 245 lb. dead bench press with my legs crossed in the air. I got it off the crossbars for maybe an inch.  It seemed like I held it up for longer than what's actually shown in the video.  It's weird how your perception gets screwed up when you put yourself under training stress.

Here I am attempting a 525 lb conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates with wrist straps.  I cleared it off the ground for maybe half an inch.

Workout notes:  As you can see on 8/29 I did deadlift variations but with weights not even coming close to 500+ lbs.  The only lift I did that was similar to the conventional deadlift in how it's performed was the Romanian deadlift and that was only for 345 lbs at "1".  I also cycled back into my routine the pause back squat which I got up with much ugliness.  The point is that I think doing these things helped me to clear the 525 lb conventional deadlift off the floor for an inch.  Last time I tried it I couldn't even budge it.

The bench press microgain of 245 lbs. at a "1" was due mostly to the fact that I make sure that every pressing variation I do whether it's on a machine or underneath a bar that there is absolutely no scapular retraction or stretch reflex on my front deltoids so I can get the purest expression of my chest pressing strength. 

Scapular Retraction: Why you should work the lats

This world class powerlifter, Andy Bolton, gives tips on how to enhance and strengthen scapular retraction while you bench press.







The point of scapular retraction is it's a rubber band mechanism that you load up with tension by pulling your shoulders behind you and then release while you bench press the bar away from your body.  Working the lats helps with this process. 

Bolton in the first couple minutes goes through a lat row movement on a machine that directly mimics the concentric phase of the bench press, aka the lowering of the bar to the chest.  Notice the detail in which he makes sure the handles are pulled to right below the pecs, the exact same place he puts the bar on his chest when bench pressing. 

Any lat row movement you do should mimic that concentric phase.  It will help with activating that rubber band mechanism along your front deltoids and help increase your bench press when you shoot your shoulders in front of you.  However, mind you it's only good for 1 rep maxes because it will take you out of position to do any reps in a chest pressing set.

Progress Report: Scapular Retraction

This guy knows what scapular retraction is:

And so does this guy:

A lot of people say to do it while bench pressing, and I have to agree with that.

Here I am attempting a dead press of 235 lbs trying to do some scapular retracting:

As you can see I didn't get that far. Maybe a little more than an inch off the crossbars.

The reason I bring up scapular retraction is that when I'm deadpressing there is very little clearance between the bar and my chest in order for me to properly scapular retract. The more I try to pull my shoulders back the more my chest rises and the bar ends up digging into my ribcage which by the way is very painful.

Who cares you ask? If I did have enough clearance I then would be able to properly pack my shoulders and lats into the bench padding.

Who cares you ask? Well you see, what a lot of people seem to miss and not understand about bench pressing and scapular retraction is that the more you can swing your shoulders back and behind you, the tenser the stretch reflex can be imparted into your front deltoids.

You see when I was using the leverage chest press machine I was able to get 370 lbs up for an inch. The reason that was is the machine enables you to adjust the handles so they can be set behind the vertical plane of your chest. See the video below:

So what I would do is get the handles about three inches behind my chest and this would put a serious stretch reflex on my front deltoids. I would actually stand up and then slam my butt down into the seat and wedge my body between the back pad and the handles which allowed me to move heavy weight.

I always knew this was happening but I underestimated this stretch reflex effect so when I went to bench press my pressing strength was severely lagging.

Enter the dead press. As you can see I can't even lift 235 lbs. So how do I go up? I train without the stretch reflex caused by scapular retraction. Like I said the bar stops that when dead pressing. My theory is that by dead pressing without scapular retraction you're recruiting more muscle fibers in the front deltoids, triceps, and pecs. This should in turn should lead to an increased touch and go bench press when the shoulders and lats are properly set into a scapular retracted position.

Does it work? I don't know yet. I have been making small micro gains in my dead press though. A couple weeks ago I could barely get 225 lbs off the crossbars:

Anyways here's my numbers. 

Gym Thursday 11:20 a.m. 8/21/14
Shoulder press seated 285-1, 285-1, 305-0
Stiff legged one legged deadlift
Left 235-0, 235-1
Right 235-1, 235-1
One hand rack pull
Left 325-0
Right 325-1
Decline press free motion cable machine 200-2
Life fitness seated leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves 405-0, 405-1
Bicep curl free motion cable machine 150-2
Romanian deadlift without straps 275-0, 275-0
Romanian deadlift with straps 295-4, 345-0, 315-1
Incline press Precor machine 220-0

Gym Monday 11 am 8/25/14
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates 525-0
Stiff legged deadlift on 45 lb plates 515-0
Dead chest press 235-1, 245-0
Dead chest press legs in the air 245-0
Life fitness seated leg press machine wearing inzer strongman knee sleeves
405-1
Lat row seated life fitness machine 305-1
Life fitness Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine 130-1
Pec fly dumbbells pair of 55's-2

Workout notes:

As you can see, I've been resting for 96 hours and it's been a positive experience. My lifts are going up and I feel a lot more explosive. The only problem is my joints and spine fall out of alignment with the extended rest and I have to remember to do spinal stretches to straighten my spine out before attempting heavy deadlifting. I did have a slight vertebra disc slippage when I pulled up 415 lbs because my hips and lower back were slightly misaligned.  It was painful but I stood with my back to a wall and bent over backwards to pop my spine back into place. No big deal. Problem solved and I finished the training session albeit with a slight pain in my lower spine.

Also notice my inclusion of the Romanian deadlift on 8/21. It definitely has great carryover effect to the conventional deadlift. My bar speed coming off the ground is very easy and fluid thanks to the Romanian deadlift, and it works the low back without the heavy load placed on it when conventional deadlifting.

Also you can see my incline press on the Precor machine severely decreased. On 8/13 it was 300 lbs for a "1".  8/21 it was 220 lbs for a "0". The reason was that I set the handles on the machine right at chest level thereby reducing any chance for stretch reflex along the front deltoids.

Also notice on 8/25 I cycled the pec fly back into my workout. I'm also going to put a reverse fly to work the rear deltoids. My reasoning is that if I attack the muscles involved in scapular retraction and front deltoid stretch reflex, my touch and go bench press should go up.

Progress Report: What got you from point A to point B will not always get you to point C

Here's my progress report and the numbers recorded.

Gym Wednesday 10:45 a.m.  8/13/14
Life fitness seated shoulder press machine 205-1
Stiff legged one legged deadlift
Left 225-1
Right 225-1
Precor incline press 300-1
Life fitness seated bicep curl cable machine 150-1
Life fitness seated leg press machine 405-1
Life fitness seated decline press cable machine 200-0, 200-1
One hand rack pull
Left 315-1, 335-0, 315-1
Right 315-1, 335-0, 315-0

Gym Sunday 2 pm 8/17/14
Dead chest press 235-0
Dead chest press legs in the air 235-1
Conventional deadlift on 45 lb plates  515-1
Stiff legged deadlift  on 45 lb plates 515-0
Tricep extension rope attachment cable machine life fitness 130-1
Seated leg press life fitness machine 405-1
Life fitness seated lat row machine 305-1

Here's a video of me attempting a 235 lb. dead chest press attempt:

Now mind you I gave this attempt a "0" because even though I got it off the rack crossbars, it was just my chest and stomach muscles bracing upwards against the bar and consequently lifting the bar up not my arms.  That's why I gave this attempt a "0" on 8/17.

Interestingly enough however I did manage to clear the bar off the racks when I crossed my legs in the air using mostly my arms and a negligible amount of upward force from my activated stomach and chest muscles, so I gave it a "1" on 8/17.  When my legs are crossed and dangling in the air, it makes my chest and lower back flat, so I have no noticeable arch in my torso.  This seems to make it easy to get my arms underneath the bar and consequently load my lats with tension which provides some liftoff assistance. However, I don't know the real reason why I'm stronger with my legs crossed in the air while pressing as opposed to when my feet are on the floor. It's just something I've noticed and I don't know how to address it because it's generally thought that chest pressing with your feet on the ground is supposed to be the more stable and thus stronger lift.  I'm just going to ignore this weird phenomena and focus on the fact that I'm making progress in at least one of my chest press lifts.

I wish I had a video of my dead chest press with my legs crossed in the air, but honestly I didn't think it was going to be more powerful than with my feet on the floor so I didn't even set up my camera phone for the shot.  Next time I post a progress report, it will have a video of the lift.

Moving on to the deadlift, I've been experiencing lower back pain due to me conventional deadlifting 500+ lbs and rack pulling the same amount in the span of a week, so I decided to switch my back strengthening lifts up and do one handed rack pulls instead of the double handed rack pull.  It was a success because it did alleviate my lower back pain due to the lesser amount of weight I can pull with just one hand compared to a double handed pull, but it was also a failure because when I went to do my conventional deadlifts I couldn't even get 415 past my knees while standing on two 45 lb plates.  Usually I have no problem with that kind of weight.

To my remedy this, I plan on adding a Romanian deadlift to just focus on my spine and hamstrings. Here's a video of the lift if you don't know what I'm talking about:

Of course I'm going to do it my way because I'm stubborn and don't want to listen to anybody.  I'm going to do heavy singles with my knees in an almost locked position.  Who knows? I might even lock my knees.  I'm just going to experiment with it and see how it goes.  Maybe I'll sever my spine in half and have to retire from lifting and stop cluttering the internet up with my pseudoscience.

The trick to the Romanian deadlift is keeping the spine straight.  You do that by sucking in a little amount of air through the nose to elevate the chest and lock the upper back but not so much air that you put the lower back into an arched position. You hold your breath throughout the entire range of motion of the lift until you reach the top.  This should help in preventing slipping the discs of your spine.

The reason I'm adding the Romanian deadlift is that it should help tax the spinal muscles and align the vertebra in my back.  The reason I couldn't do well in my conventional deadlift this past week was my spine and the muscles that are responsible for keeping it straight atrophied and became lax because I neglected to do a double handed type deadlift variation.  I only did the one handed rack pull and one legged deadlift on 8/13. These types of lifts focus more on the oblique muscles and to a severely lesser extent the spinal erector muscles, so I'm going to add the Romanian deadlift to address this issue.


Of special note you'll notice my rest periods between workout sessions are longer.  I took around 99 hours to rest and recover between training sessions last week.  The reason is that I don't want to burn out too quick.  My last block of training lasted about 6 months and then I took an almost two week rest between training sessions.  I lost a lot of strength in that two weeks, and the reason for that was I felt I needed the rest to allow my central nervous system to recover. I was only allowing myself 72+ hours of rest between workouts and that had a lot to do with me burning out in my opinion.

Another thing about the 96 hour rest period is that when I go into a workout after that amount of recovery timelength I feel explosive and even a little bit enthusiastic to pump iron.  Because all the lactic acid burns itself out of my muscles due to the extended recovery period and hence my muscle soreness subsides, my mind seems to be in a better mood and not made to feel so victimized to go into a heavy lifting training session and attack the weights.