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Sunday, October 29, 2017

48 hours after workout: protein intake

Without question, the first 48 hours after you workout heavy you will need to stuff your gut with fatty beef if you hope to gain muscle and get stronger.

After those 48 hours what happens then?

I workout every 72 hours approximately. That means I got 48 hours of copious beef consumption but what happens after that? I still got 24 hours left until my next workout.

The answer is eggs. I'll go to Dunkin Donuts and get egg and bacon on plain bagel.  That'll be my main staple protein source for those 24 hours leading up to my next workout.

My reasoning is that per egg there are only 4 grams of protein but as far as amino acid profiles go, there is no food more perfect than an egg. They have all the amino acids in small proportions but they will satiate your muscles' constant hunger for protein without overdosing.  Too much protein will cause your body to expel it, and when that happens you're watching all of your expensive protein being flushed down the toilet.

Of course as you get stronger, that 48 hours time limit for protein intake will become irrelevant as you will be in constant need of protein to get stronger.  Then you'll run into the problem of not getting enough protein ever.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

The aha moment: McDonald's double quarter pounder no cheese no salt no bun

The mere fact that I can put a McDonald's double quarter pounder in a car, leave it over night and then come back in the morning and eat it for breakfast without getting food poisoning should at least make you ponder for a brief moment as to what they're putting in that burger meat.

But hey I'm all about candid honesty so I have to be truthful no matter how unpalatable the facts are:   McDonald's double quarter pounders no cheese no bun no salt made me stronger.


Look at my numbers.

 2017/10/27 12:03

Gym

 Decline bench press 205-.5, 215-0, 225-0
Conventional deadlift  365-1, 415-.1
Pause squat 235-.1, 225-.8, 275-.1
 Rack pull 505-.1, 455-1, 525-0



Gym 2017/10/21 08:56

 Decline bench press 205-.1, 205-.2, 215-.1, 225-0
Conventional deadlift  365-.4, 415-0, 365-.7, 415-.1
Pause squat 235-.3, 245-.2, 225-.9
Rack pull 505-0, 455-.2

Conclusion:

The training was the same, the rest intervals were the same.  The only difference between the first and second workout is that I used McDonald's double quarter pounders no cheese no salt no bun as a post-workout protein source for the first 48 hours after my workout for the time proceeding my 10/27 workout.  For the
10/21 workout I used steak from a Mexican restaurant as a post workout protein source.


As far as I know cows have no significant differences between them as far as protein content goes, so maybe it's the preservatives McDonald's puts in their burgers that gave me the strength gain.  Who knows?

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Meager Beginnings

Gym 2017/10/15 09:52

Decline bench press 205-.1, 225-0, 245-0
Conventional deadlift  425-0, 365-.2, 415-.1
 Pause squat 235-.9, 255-.1
Rack pull 505-0, 455-.7


Gym 2017/10/12 09:42
 Bench press  210-.1, 225-0, 275-0, 260-0
Standing shoulder press
 195-.1, 205-0, 145-.2
Standing behind the neck shoulder press 195-.1, 205-0
Bent over barbell row 335-0, 285-.2, 305-.1
One legged leg press
Right 85-.1
Left 85-.1
Stiff legged deadlift 365-.2, 425- 0


Gym  2017/10/09 07:48
 Decline bench press 225-0, 245-0, 205-.7
Conventional deadlift  425-0, 365-.8
Pause squat 235-.6
Rack pull 505-0, 455-.3



Gym  2017/10/06 07:31
Bench press 205-.2, 235-0, 255-0
 Standing shoulder press 175- , 135-.1, 185-0
Standing behind the neck shoulder press 185-0
Lat pull front 110-.3
Lat pull back  200-
Lat row 250-.1, 250-.2
One legged leg press
Right 65-1
Left 65-1
Stiff legged deadlift 425-0



Gym  2017/10/03 07:55
Decline bench press 225-0
Conventional deadlift 365-1, 425-0, 415-.1
Pause squat 235-0, 225.3, 215-.9
 Rack pull 495-.1 , 465-.3


Gym 2017/09/30 09:21
Bench press 220-0, 235-0
Standing shoulder press 155-.1, 175-0
Standing behind the neck shoulder press 115-.1, 125-.1
Lat pull front 110-.1
Lat pull back 120-5, 160-1.2, 200-.1
Lat row 250-.2
One legged leg press
Right 65-.1
Left 65-.2
Stiff legged deadlift 425-.1




Gym  2017/09/27 11:10
Decline bench press 195-1, 205-.1, 215-0
Conventional deadlift 375-.1, 425-0, 375-.1
Pause squat 185-1, 235-.1, 205-1, 225-.2, 215-1, 225-.1
Rack pull 495-0, 465-.3, 485-0



Gym  2017/09/24 08:35 
 Bench press 185- 1, 235-0, 205-.1, 195-.2, 
Standing shoulder press 135-.2, 115-.2, 155-.1
Standing behind the neck shoulder press 115-.1 , 125-.1
Lat pull front 110-.1
Lat pull back 110-.2, 120-.1
Lat row 230-.2, 250-.1
Stiff legged deadlift 375-.2, 425-0, 375-.2
One legged leg press
Left 65-0, 65-.2
Right 65-.2, 65-.2

Gym  2017/09/21 09:28 
Dip assist machine 60-.1, 60-.1, 45-.1
Conventional deadlift  325-.2, 375-0, 390-.1, 425-0, 325-1, 375-0
Rack pull 495-0, 455-.1, 455-.1, 
Leg press machine 370-.1, 370-0


Gym  2017/09/18 11:43 
Bench press 195-.2, 235-0
Standing shoulder press 135-.1
Behind the neck shoulder press 115-.1
Stiff legged deadlift 325-.7, 375-.1, 375-.1
Lat pull down behind the neck 100-.3, 110-.1
Lat pull down front 110-0
Lat row 230-.1
One legged leg press 
Left 40-1.3, 60-0, 65-0
Right 40-1.1, 60-.2, 65-0


Gym  2017/09/15 06:31 
Conventional Deadlift 325-.2, 375-.1, 325-.3, 325-.7, 395-0
Dip assist machine 85-.9, 55-0, 70-.1
Rack pull 415-.6, 465-0, 435-.1, 435-.1, 
Leg press machine 325-.2, 370-.1



Gym  2017/09/12 10:16 
Bench press 235-0, 185-1
Standing shoulder press 135-.1
Stiff legged deadlift 325-.1
Lat pulldown 100-.1
Lat row 220-.2


Gym
 2017/09/09 10:23 
Conventional deadlift 335-.3, 335-.2, 385-.1
Bench press 185-.8, 205-0
Assist dip 85-.1
Leg press 325-.1
Rack pull 405-.2, 455-0, 430-0

 2017/08/31 14:49 
Bench 235-0
Dead 365-.1
Lat pull down 80-1
One legged leg press 
Right 40-.3
Left 40 -.3



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.

Work out notes:

Not much to say really.  I'm back in the gym.  

Bench press remarks:

I'm beginning to think of the bench press as a movement that is just not isolated to the front deltoids, triceps and pectorals.

Rather it is a symbiotic cooperation between triceps, pectorals, and all of the heads of the shoulder deltoid muscles which include the front, lateral, and rear deltoid. 

Hence my workouts reflect that thought.  I do shoulder presses, behind the neck shoulder presses, and bench press on one day.  Then the next workout I do decline bench press.

The rationale behind this is the bench press has too many micro oscillations in the bar path to constrain it to the just the front deltoid.  True, off the chest the bar path comes straight up the first two or three inches but then it gently arcs upward toward directly perpendicular to over your head closely mimicking the shoulder press movement.

Further what if you're maxing out and the bar path becomes erratic while you're struggling to push the weight up.  Your elbows and shoulders don't maintain perfect form.  They take on positions that kind of approximate the behind the neck shoulder press.  The elbows tend to flare out.  The elbow joints take on sharper angles, and tricep muscle recruitment dominates over front deltoid and pectoral involvement -- just as it does when one behind the neck shoulder presses.

The behind the neck shoulder press is accomplished by putting the bar on the back of your neck as if you were squatting. Then with both hands press the bar off the back of the neck in a vertical movement towards the ceiling. It emphasizes tricep, forearm and wrist strength which are all important to the bench press. 

Another reason is the law of radiation.  This simply means flexing one muscle tends to contract the surrounding muscles. Wouldn't it stand to reason that if you had strong thick lateral and rear deltoids, then your front deltoids would contract stronger and more forcefully and enable you to support heavier bench press loads?  That's why I do the shoulder press and behind the neck press and decline press in addition to the bench press to increase my bench pressing weight.

Intra-workout protein intake:

I've totally ditched the powdered crap in the tub protein shake, and I'm using fatty steak as an intra-workout protein supplement.  

The reasoning is two-fold.  First, the powdered sh$t in a tub protein shake does exactly that:  it makes me crap my guts out while I train.  It probably has something to do with the nasty emulsifiers, and artificial preservatives and sweeteners and God knows what else the unscrupulous sh$thead protein manufacturers are putting in their sh$tty protein powder. All I know is that dried protein powder in a tub makes my anus vomit.  

Rarely do I have problems with eating steak while I workout.  No more liquefied protein sh$ts in the middle of my training sessions which shortens the duration of my workout.  Good riddance to the nasty dried powder crap in a tub.

The second reason I've converted to steak is that steak is less insulinogenic especially when it's greasy and fatty.  This helps thwart your body releasing insulin hormone into the bloodstream which will in turn help assimilate dietary protein into the muscles.  

This video can explain this concept better than I can: