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.