Lazy To Hot

Terrible food habits

Weefz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:15:14 +0000

FFS.

In theory… I’m supposed to be eating 2000-2500 calories per day, <30g carbohydrate, at least 140g protein and the rest of the calories from fat.

In practice… I'm pretty sure I've gained fat lately and with 2 months to my target, I'm dropping the calories to ensure a smallish deficit each day. I've been tracking on FitDay for the past few weeks.
It shows that today I’ve eaten 1239 calories so far. 165.7g carbs, 50.6g fat and 38.8g protein.

FFS. Time to break out the biltong.

Back to blogging

Weefz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:02:21 +0000

Been crap at updating the blog but still working out three times a week.

I joined a gym!

I’m now doing free weights!

I’m currently squatting 15kg (5×5) and overhead pressing 12.5kg (badly).

I just “ran” 1.6km in 15:26. God, I hate cardio.

Nutrition Issues

Weefz — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:42:26 +0000

I feel like crap. Every time I try to cut down on carbs, I get this terrible flu-like pain all over my body. More info later…

Workout Diary 28th and 30th May

Weefz — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:14:17 +0000

I bought My Workout Trainer the other day, which purports to graph workout results and store pictures for easy comparison. It’s pretty good with regards to storing reps, weights, sets, rest periods and offering a huge range of exercises. Sadly, it doesn’t work if your computer isn’t set to US date format. I had to upgrade to fix some corrupted workouts caused by date issues and even with the latest version and a new uncorrupted workout profile, the graphing feature just causes it to crash. What a waste of $40. WordPress may just hold reams of text instead of fancy databases and charts but at least it’s reliable.

I know I talked about doing 2 rest days between workouts lately but today I decided to push it up to a single rest day as my recovery times are getting better. I’m not in agonising pain the day after working out any more, so yay, progress! :)

30th May – Workout B

5×5 dumbell front squats (6kg)
3×5 underhand cable pulldowns (1×27.5kg, 2x23kg)
3×5 shoulder presses (14.5kg)
5×5 dumbbell deadlifts (5kg)
10×5 triceps extensions (2kg)

Wasn’t supposed to do the pulldowns today but some guy started his bench machine workout just as I got to the gym and I was bored of waiting.

28th May – Workout A

5×5 dumbbell front squats (5kg)
5×5 underhand cable pulldowns (23kg)
1×1 underhand cable pulldown (27.5kg)
10×5 dumbbell snatch (5kg)
5×5 bench Press (18.5kg!)

I was so happy that day coz I managed to do a full bench press workout on machine setting 4 for the first time! Last year I did a haphazard sort of bench press routine but never managed to increase the load. I guess this programme is paying off already :)

Workout Diary – 25th May 2009

Weefz — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:16:33 +0000

Missed logging last Friday’s workout as I rushed straight off to York to stay with boyfriend’s parents for the weekend. Glorious weather and lovely ice-cream in a beautiful city! :)

Still nice weather back in London this Bank Holiday Monday – which means hot sticky uncomfortable workout. Nevertheless…

Exercise Log:

Triceps extensions (2.5kg)
Shoulder presses (14kg)
Db front squats (7kg)
Db deadlifts (9kg)

I stalled on set 4 of the shoulder presses at this weight last week so I’m very happy to have completed all 5 sets today!

As for the strange quad pains in my last post? I skipped one of the quad workouts on Friday, did nothing at all on the weekend and woke up pain-free this morning :) I’m guessing it was pre-injury warning pain so will be more careful in future.

Rest Day Benefit?

Weefz — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:10:17 +0000

RAther paradoxically, after two days of complete rest from exercise, both my quads hurt more than they did on the first rest day.

To top it off, I twinged another section of my left quad on the first set of squats. I hope these aren’t injury pains.

Workout Diary 18th and 19th May 2009

Weefz — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:58:12 +0000

Forgot to post last night!

Exercise log 18th May:

297 ab curls!

Week 5 Day 2 is a BIG jump from Day 1 at 8 full sets with only 45 seconds rest between! I managed it but had to give it a good three minutes before attempting set 8.

Pain Log 18th May:

Hamstrings
Quads
Shoulders

My back and chest were fine today – not pain-free but nothing worth mentioning. Both yesterday and today my left quad was worrying me a bit. I’m getting sharp pains rather than typical muscle burn so I either need to go easy for a bit and leave 2 rest days between workouts, or do more reps at less weight.

Exercise log 19th May 2009:

Triceps extensions
Machine shoulder press
Dumbbell deadlifts

Pain Log 19th May 2009:

Left quad felt a bit twinge-y all day. I couldn’t face doing the front squats after the deadlifts, as now both my quads are giving weird pains. Definitely going for a 2 day rest.

Workout Diary 17th May 2009

Weefz — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:31:31 +0000

Right, I’ve taken some measurements and discovered something I’ve always suspected – I have muscle weakness down the entire left side of my body.

Weight: 64kg
Body fat: 25.7%

Chest: 84cm
Left Bicep: 29cm
Right Bicep: 30cm
Waist: 74cm
Hips: 103cm
Left Thigh: 60cm
Right Thigh: 62cm
Left Calf: 35.5cm
Right Calf: 36cm

Next set of measurements will be on or around the 21st of June.

Exercise:
Since I’d rather work on building muscle all over than on my abs this month, I’ve skipped the ab curls I missed yesterday and gone straight back to Workout A (modified again):

Machine Bench Presses 5×5 (14kg)
Machine Bench Press 1 rep (18.5kg – multigym only goes up in 4.5kg steps :( )
Lat Pulls 1×5 (14kg)
Cable Underhand Pulldowns (2×18.5kg, 2x23kg)
Dumbbell Snatches 5×5 (4.5kg again, doing them properly this time)
Dumbbell Front Squats 5×5 (1x9kg, 4×4.6kg)

I’m not doing lat pulls any more. I realised that if I’m training for chin-ups and pull-ups, I should really do something that more resembles them so I’ve switched to Cable Underhand Pulldowns and whacked up the weight significantly. If I increase by the planned 2.5kg per exercise I’ll be doing proper chin-ups in only… 6 weeks! Perhaps I was hasty in buying the chin-up bar.

Pain Log:
I woke up feeling pretty good this morning! Bit of lower back pain but nothing unusual for me.

During the workout I made sure all effort was evenly distributed between both sides of my body, so now my left quad hurts like a bugger. I don’t think it’s injured, but must be careful. Everything else feels okay.

Cutting Carbs

Weefz — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:29:45 +0000

I woke up feeling like crap today. My muscles weren’t too bad but my bones ached all over. After scraping out of bed and drinking one of my new protein shakes (soy protein tastes like cardboard), I flopped about for a few hours waiting for the pain to pass.

It didn’t. I spent the morning wondering if I had the flu, then finally had a proper breakfast when my bf got up. Mmm, bacon+cheese bagel and a can of coke!

As if by magic, my aches diappeared. For 2 hours.

So, I did some googling and discovered that reducing carbs makes you feel like crap for the first week or two :( I haven’t removed them from my diet completely but I’m eating and drinking less; 1 can of coke and a caffeine tablet at work instead of two cans of coke. A few taco shells or tortilla wraps instead of a big plate of rice – that sort of thing. I haven’t craved them. I just hurt all over, under the muscle pain

Hopefully it will pass soon. I couldn’t motivate myself to do ab curls today. I cold barely drag myself around ASDA to buy food.

Pain Log:

Mild soreness around glutes, quads, shoulders and a little bit of hamstring pain
All my bones ache

Workout Diary 15th May 2009

Weefz — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:39:00 +0000

I’m so bad. I’ve made more modifications to the StrongLifts Dumbbells programme. It’s probably to my own detriment but hey, I’m lifting for strength and muscle mass not competition. It’s no big deal if I don’t progress at top speed.

Exercise Log:

25 dumbbell front squats (2.8kg)
25 dumbbell deadlifts (10kg)
25 overhead presses (9.5kg)
0.1 dips
25 triceps extensions (1.4kg)

I tried to do a single dip between two chairs. The instant my arms took some weight both my triceps panicked at the unaccustomed load, cramped up and I spent the next 5 minutes wandering around the recreation room waving my sweaty armpits at the world to try and stretch them out. I’ll increase the weight on tricep extensions for a couple of weeks and try again later.

As for the deadlifts – I tried the one-legged version and it does NOT play well with lower back pain and sciatica. I’m sticking with normal dumbell deadlifts.

Pain Log:
Left quad still hurt today. Everything else was fully recovered :)

Nutrition:
I have now figured out that I’m expected to eat a whopping 140 grams of protein a day! To put that into perspective, lean minced beef is about 20% protein, so I’d need to eat the equivalent of 700g of beef every day… so I’ve bought a large tub of soy protein shake mixture. Mmm, supplementastic!

Not tried it yet as I pigged out on a late taco dinner. I’ll let you know how it tastes tomorrow. It can’t possibly be worse than the ProShot.