Workout review: Protein Synthesis Problems

I'm having a problem digesting protein.  I keep defecating it all out and watching my expensive protein flush down the toilet, and consequently I'm not building muscle.  My weak bitch records reflect that too.


Here's my weak bitch records:

All weights are in American Standard lbs.


7/29/2016 01:59 PM 

Smith machine one arm bench press 
Left 90-0, 90-0
Right  90-0, 90-0
Stiff legged deadlift  385-.1, 405-0
High bar back Squat wearing strongman inzer knee sleeves 295-.2, 275-.9
Rack pull 515-0, 515-0
Precor cable machine triceps pushdown rope attachment 120-.2, 140-.1
Precor Cable machine standing hammer  bicep curl rope attachment 200-.3
Precor pec fly machine 240-.1, 240-.1
Romanian deadlift 55-15



7/22/2016 01:22 PM 
Bench Press 195-.1, 235-0, 245-0, 195-.1
Standing shoulder press 145-.2, 185-.1, 205-.1, 145-.2
Conventional deadlift 365-.1, 415-0,
 345-.2, 415-.1
Precor Seated row cable machine 250-.1
Precor Seated leg press 310-.2, 360-0, 330-0


7/15/2016 12:32 PM 
Smith machine one arm bench press 
Left 70-1, 80-.1, 90-0
Right 70-1, 80-.1, 90-0
Stiff legged deadlift 375-.1, 385-0
High bar back Squat wearing strongman inzer knee sleeves 265-1, 280-1
Rack pull 515-0, 505-.1
Precor cable machine triceps pushdown rope attachment 100-.1, 120-0
Precor Cable machine standing hammer  bicep curl rope attachment 200-.2

7/9/2016 10:27 PM 
Bench Press 195-.1, 195-.1, 215-0
Standing shoulder press 145-.1
Conventional deadlift 395-.1, 345-.1, 415-0, 395-.1, 425-0, 395-.1, 325-1
Precor Seated row machine 245-.1
Precor Seated leg press 290-.1, 310-.1

Precor Seated row cable machine 250-.1

I use a rating system to document my lifts.   One full with good enough form repetition counts as “1”. Two quality reps with decent form count as “2”.  

Any number  with a decimal point in front of it represents a partial rep or a miss.

A “.9” represents a rep with not very good form but I still completed it.  A  “.4” means I got the weight almost half way up.  A “.3” represents the  bar traveled far less than half way.  And “.1” means I barely cleared the  weight from whatever it was resting on or I barely came out of the hole with it or I slightly budged it off my chest. A “0” means no movement of the weight just force being applied to it but it stays stationary -- essentially turning it into an isometric movement. Any number I failed to mention, just remember a “1” is a complete rep and a “0” is isometric.



Summary and Conclusions

I was expecting a gain in my bench press on 7/22, but I stayed the same at 195 lbs with a record of ".1" -- which is the same as 7/9.  In fact most of my lifts were stagnant and the only things that I made progress in was the standing rope attachment tricep extension and the standing rope attachment hammer bicep curl.  Both of which had negligible gains.

This leads me to the concept that just because you supply the body with the raw material protein in the form of animal flesh to make muscle doesn't mean you get to tell the body where it wants to build that muscle.  I'm not blaming all my lack of strength gains on this phenomena but I'm theorizing it is partly to blame for stagnancy in my other lifts.

The crux of my plateau lays in the simple fact that for some reason my body doesn't want or can't process the meat I'm eating and synthesizing it into skeletal muscle fibers.  I don't know if it's because my digestive system is just not simply accustomed to digesting the animal protein and needs to increase its uptake in meat digestive enzymes.  I haven't lifted in almost eleven months prior to my recent training efforts and I'm sure that has a role in my predicament.

It could be also that I'm getting older and my body is losing its ability to process animal protein.  I'm vaguely remembering that the pancreas and the liver are responsible for producing much of the catalysts that enable digestion, and perhaps in my case these two organs are losing their ability to function as a consequence of my aging.  Who knows?

But I remain optimistic about it.  After my last workout on 7/29, I was able to go to a chinese buffet two times in the last 48 hours and ingest copious amounts of chicken and beef.  I can feel my muscles bloating up and the skin surrounding them stretching taut, and I understand that to be a sign of muscle growth and consequent strength gains.

In my previous post, I had mentioned protein poisoning as a possible explanation of my lack of strength gains.  I also had mentioned that I was drinking about 12 scoops of protein powder diluted in water throughout the course of my training session.  

I have since cut back on the intra-workout protein powder ingestion.  For the heavy compound lifts like deadlifts and squats, I'll still mix two scoops per twelve ounces of water, but then for the isolation movements like tricep extension or bicep curl I'll mix only one scoop into the shaker bottle. Also for the isolation exercises I'll drink the protein shake once every other drop set whereas before I was drinking it before every one.  Do I still get the after workout protein defecation? Yes, but it is considerably less than before where I would be on the toilet for three hours post workout.  

I guess I could stop taking the protein shake intra-workout but then my lifts would suffer.  

Another possible lack of progress in my bench press records is that I'm not stimulating the pectoral muscles well enough.  To remedy this, from now I'm including a pec fly movement on a pec deck machine.  I might have stated this before, but there is a direct correlation cause and effect between the pec fly exercise and how much you can bench press.  Before the last time I quit training for eleven months, I was doing the pec fly machine until I could complete the movement with the full stack of weights.  I reckoned incorrectly that since I could lift the whole stack, the exercise was no longer useful. 

This time however, I'm sticking to the pec fly because it singlehandedly is the best for pectoral stimulation.  Even if I finish the stack(that 240 lbs. lift on 7/29 is the whole stack by the way), I will continue to do this movement because it wells the chest full and good with blood and lactic acid and sarcoplasmic fluid when repping until muscle failure with sub-maximal weights. This stretches out all the sheaths and casings that surround and inhibit muscle fiber growth. You want that pliability in the muscle so it can expand and get stronger from protein synthesis.

Workout summary and explanation

Here's my weak bitch records:

All weights are in American Standard lbs.

7/9/2016 10:27 PM 
Bench Press 195-.1, 195-.1, 215-0
Standing shoulder press 145-.1
Conventional deadlift 395-.1, 345-.1, 415-0, 395-.1, 425-0, 395-.1, 325-1
Precor Seated row machine 245-.1
Precor Seated leg press 290-.1, 310-.1
Precor Seated row cable machine 250-.1


7/15/2016 12:32 PM 
Smith machine one arm bench press 
Left 70-1, 80-.1, 90-0
Right 70-1, 80-.1, 90-0
Stiff legged deadlift 375-.1, 385-0
High bar back Squat wearing strongman inzer knee sleeves 265-1, 280-1
Rack pull 515-0, 505-.1
Precor cable machine triceps pushdown rope attachment 100-.1, 120-0
Precor Cable machine standing hammer  bicep curl rope attachment 200-.2, 


7/22/2016 01:22 PM 
Bench Press 195-.1, 235-0, 245-0, 195-.1
Standing shoulder press 145-.2, 185-.1, 205-.1, 145-.2
Conventional deadlift 365-.1, 415-0,
 345-.2, 415-.1
Precor Seated row cable machine 250-.1
Precor Seated leg press 310-.2, 360-0, 330-0

I use a rating system to document my lifts.   A full on with good enough form repetition counts as “1”. Two quality reps with decent form count as “2”.  

Any number  with a decimal point in front of it represents a partial rep or a miss.

A “.9” represents a rep with not very good form but I still completed it.  A  “.4” means I got the weight almost half way up.  A “.3” represents the  bar traveled far less than half way.  And “.1” means I barely cleared the  weight from whatever it was resting on or I barely came out of the hole with it or I slightly budged it off my chest. A “0” means no movement of the weight just force being applied to it but it stays stationary -- essentially turning it into an isometric movement. Any number I failed to mention just remember a “1” is a complete rep and a “0” is isometric.


Workout Commentary

A lot of my lifts didn't go up. A lot of it had to with I had a terrible bout of protein poisoning.  That's where your body has been over-saturated with protein.  I wrote an article about it here.  For three straight days after I worked out I was crapping my guts out.

My first meal after I worked out was a chinese buffet and I was gorging on steak.  An hour later, I expelled it into the toilet.  Accordingly, I reckoned my next meal should be considerably less dense protein than steak, so I ate a Subway footlong sandwich with salami, ham, and bologna.  An hour later I was back on the toilet watching my sandwich flush down the drain.  Now I'm thinking okay I guess I better stay away from protein from meats at least.  My next meal was hummus with pita chips but even with that I experienced indigestion and flatulence.  The protein in bean products is so minuscule I was surprised even that gave me digestive complications.

The next day I had more bowel irritability up until a full 48 hours after my training session.  I never had protein absorption problems like this before.  I recall vaguely from something I read on the internet that the body eventually adapts by increasing protein enzyme uptake which breaks down the food protein into more easily digestible amino acids, so I guess I got  to wait it out until my digestive system is able to handle the excessive protein intake which is so essential to muscle building and strength.  My point is that's what caused me to have zero strength gains on the 7/22 workout I listed above.

Another reason I'm guessing I didn't make strength gains on 7/22 was I only had two or three hours of sleep before training.  I had worked from 6 pm 7/21 to 6am 7/22 on my training day and I only got three hours approximately of sleep.  During my workout, I was lethargic and was slightly dozing off while resting in between my training sets.  It's not impossible to make strength gains when you're mentally fatigued but it's not conducive to making personal records for your lifts either.   Whatever.  I know -- excuses, excuses.


With such mental tiredness, I was surprised I even got through the training session and the only reason I survived it was I started my workout midday.  My theory is that the body's energy levels and alertness and general overall mental sharpness to make strength gains is best accomplished mid afternoon starting at around 12pm until maybe 2pm.  There's something about having the Sun out radiating light and heat on top of your body that triggers a physiological response for the body to take action whether it be a strength training session or mowing your lawn.


I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating.   My workout numbers just represent a small portion of what I accomplish during a training session.  Behind each of those lifts with a "1" or a "0", lies a multitude of reps.  Take my bench press on 7/9 for example. I put a 195 lb lift which I marked with a ".1"  After that lift I broke down the bar and repped until failure with 95 lbs of bar weight.  I did that for three sets.  Then I removed more weight off the bar leaving 65 lbs.  Again I banged out more reps until failure which means I kept pushing the bar off my chest until my pectorals and triceps were on fire with lactic acid burning sensation and welled up to capacity with blood until it felt like my muscles were going to burst from the pressure.

My reasoning is that there are variety of casings and sheaths that surround the muscle and its individual muscle fibers.  You can see for yourself here.  In my opinion that crap limits muscle growth and consequently inhibits strength gains.  To counter-effect that phenomena, you rep with submaximal weight in the range of 5-10% of your 1 rep max until your muscles start turning purple from the lactic acid and blood build up and keep repping the weight until you can no longer perform the movement with an absolute breakdown in form.  This should stretch all those muscle sheaths and casings which should make room for muscle growth.  But how should I know, I don't take biopsies of my muscle and put them underneath a microscope so this paragraph could be complete conjecture.

Protein poisoning

My strength training system is workable and proven to produce strength gains.  But there is a major flaw in it:  protein poisoning.

What is protein poisoning you ask?  From the light research I found on the internet, basically it's when the body is over-saturated with nitrogen which is a byproduct of protein intake and its subsequent digestion in the body.

I experience the symptoms of protein poison always during my workout and after my workout for 24-48 hours.  I get diarrhea, flatulence, stomach cramps, and indigestion.  During my workout which lasts three to four hours, I constantly drink a protein shake.  Right now I currently take Muscle Meds Carnivore protein shake intra-workout and I usually ingest anywhere from 10-12 scoops of it each training session.  Each scoop according to the label has approximately 23 g of protein.

At the beginning of my workout, I feel fine but then towards the last half of my workout up until the end of it, I starting experiencing gas and usually I crap my guts out as I approach the end of my training session. At that point, my guess is that I've reached that over-saturation point of nitrogen in my body, and consequently my body expels the protein it doesn't need by way of my anus.

After I workout, I take a shower and snack on Skittles candies to mainline sucrose into my bloodstream so it can refill glycogen stores in my muscles and my liver.  The liver has a deposit of glucose in it that gets emptied out during muscle training and starvation and it needs to be replenished with quick digesting sugars.  Otherwise a hunger response is triggered by the liver and won't be satiated until the liver restores its glycogen reserves to an acceptable level.


After I'm done with my shower and I'm still in a over-saturated with nitrogen state, I focus my caloric requirements on fats and carbohydrates.  I'll do french fries, potato chips, guacamole--basically anything that is high in fat with almost zero protein.  All foods usually have a trace amount of protein even vegetables.

For the next 24-48 hours after that, I'm still concentrating on getting my calories from fat and carbohydrates.  The point that I switch to denser proteins like steak and chicken is arbitrary.  I just try to listen to my body's satiation levels.  If after I eat a bag of french fries and it's reaching into the latter part of 24-48 hours after my training session and I feel hungry still even after eating the fries, I know it's time to gorge on steak.

I know that isn't a scientific cut and dry process and relies totally on you really paying attention to what foods your body it needs to repair itself, but that's what works for me.

Who died and made you boss?

I'm going to blunt about this.  You don't get to tell your body when it gets to make muscle.  That crap about having forty-eight hours to build muscle through protein synthesis is conjecture.

The truth of the matter is you don't get to tell your body when you should grow your hair.  You don't decide when to breathe. So why the fark do you get to tell your body that it only has forty-eight hours to make muscle?  Why do you get to tell your body that it only needs .7 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle?

The fact of the matter is that strength training and muscle building follows a basic pattern:  you lift heavy weight and then you eat beef and rest and sleep then for your next workout you make gains.

That basic pattern could play itself out in a million different ways.  You could eat a ton of beef for two or four or only one day.  Then you sleep erratically for a couple days and if you're lucky you get one good night of sleep. Even though you're not following the unfounded half-truths that researchers and YouTube dumb arses are spewing from their mouths, I can almost gurantee you'll make gains.

The body is not that cut and dry. Just follow the basic pattern of muscle stimulation via you lifting heavy weight and then rest and repair through beef intake and sleep, and you should make gains over the long run.

Like you give a f*ck

Here's a summary of my weak bitch workouts.  I don't know how long I'll keep up the workouts because my ability to work out is directly related to my income. If I'm broke I don't go to the gym, but I'll try and keep it up as best I can.

5/28/2016 11:13 AM
Bench press 145-2
Pec fly 205-.2
Dead lift 315-.2
Deficit deadlift 1" 275-.3, 274-1
Seated row life fitness 110-.2
One arm Smith machine
Left 40-1, 50-0
Right 40-1.2, 50-.2
Life fitness seated leg press 270-.1

6/5/2016 03:42 PM
Bench Press 175-0
Single arm bench press Smith machine
Left 50-.1
Right 50-.2
Stiff legged deadlift 1" deficit 285-.2,
285-.2
Squat 185-1, 205-1
Rack pull 405-.1, 415-.1

Gym 6/10/2016 11:59 AM
Freemotion shoulder press cable machine
110-.1
Freemotion pec fly 140-.2, 1
Conventional deadlift 325-.2, 305-.2
Seated row life fitness 200-.3, 220-.1
Life fitness Seated leg press 290-.1, 310-.1

6/20/2016 12:29 PM
One hand bench press Smith machine
Left 50-.5, 60-.1
Right 50-1, 60-.1
Stiff legged deficit deadlift "1 285-.2,
305-.1, 335-0
High bar back Squat wearing strongman inzer knee sleeves 225-1
Rack pull 405-.1, 415-0
Life fitness Cable machine standing bicep curl 80-.3

6/25/2016 01:32 PM
Bench Press 195-.1, 175-1
Shoulder press life fitness 205-.1
Conventional deadlift 325-.2, 365-0, 375-.1, 395-.1, 325-.3
Life fitness Seated lat row cable machine-
130-.1
Life fitness Seated leg press 330-.1, 350-.1

7/2/2016 02:58 PM
One hand bench press Smith machine
Left 60-.2, 60- .1, 70-.1
Right 60-.2, 60- .1, 70-.1
High bar back Squat wearing strongman inzer knee sleeves 250-1
Rack pull 465-1, 515-0, 485-.1
Life fitness triceps pushdown rope attachment 85-.2, 145-0
Life fitness Cable machine standing bicep curl rope attachment 97-.3
Stiff legged deadlift 375-0

I'm trying to give myself a full seven days of rest because the workouts are so intense and long in duration. I average about three and a half hours per training session.

I changed my rating system.  A full on with good enough form repetition counts as “1”. Two reps count as “2”.

Any number  with a decimal point in front of it represents a partial rep or a miss.

A “.9” represents a rep with not very good form but I still completed it.  A  “.4” means I got the weight almost half way up.  A “.3” represents the  bar traveled far less than half way.  And “.1” means I barely cleared the  weight from whatever it was resting on or I barely came out of the hole with it or I slightly budged it off my chest. A “0” means no movement of the weight just force being applied to it but it stays stationary -- essentially turning it into an isometric movement. Any number I failed to mention just remember a “1” is the best and a “0” is the worst.