This.

Give it some time. Said the pot to the kettle.

You mean you think that's the problem?

I think it must be..

I asked some of the people doing the program and I was lifting way too heavy on my warm up sets. They are just for getting the joints and muscles lubed up for heavy weight.

So, basically instead of doing 1 work set on bench yesterday it was more like all 4.

I fixed that today... here is my back workout for the day:

Deadlifts
95 X 8
135 X 7
145 X 6

work set:
155 X 15

medium grip pullups (not chins)
9, 6
work set: 10

bent arm pullover:
45 X 15
work:
65 X 10

bent over rows:
65 X 15

Work set:
95 X 15

T bar row machine:
55 X 15
work set:
70 X 18

then I did crunches and reverse crunches to "good failure" about 75 crunches and 25 reverse crunches.



thoughts:
I need to add more weight! I could have sat there and deadlifted 155 all day long, I will definitely have to add weight on that.

The pullups are hard as hell, I do them very slow and controlled, eventually I plan to add some weight for my heavy sets.

The bent arm pullovers I have never done before and it felt pretty awkward... the work set weight was about right.

When I was doing the work set for the bent over rows I noticed my back started to round on about the 10th rep, I straightened it out and finished the set but my form was slipping.

With the T bar rows I REALLY need to add some weight... I will use my work set weight this time for my warm up next time...

The workout felt great and I am loving this program so far...!

I hate the smith tbar row, try just using a barbell.

Maybe I just called the exercise by the wrong name..

The exercise isn't on a smithmachine it's a lot like this:

Lever Seated Row

That is very different from what I think mreik is picturing, which is sort of like this or a T-bar row which is more like this.

And yeah, getting results takes time and may not happen if you're constantly switching back and forth. Hence the joke about hypocrisy, since I've evidenced quite a lot of impatience myself.

From now on i'll call it a seated row, cuz I spose that's what it is.

And true.

Yep. But being patient is so hard, haha. Last night I was reading a really great old article on 'periodization, muscle synthesis, and the importance of applying the scientific method' that I was totally gonna share with you but I seem to have lost it. -_-

Being patient is hard..

I think I have been pretty patient with my slow muscle development... but! I always want to cut when my gut sticks out.

I think I am just going to not have my bodyfat tested at all during this program so that my mind won't get in the way and want to cut.

Definitely going to go all out with this program and not think about cutting one bit for the next 8 weeks.

Getting some damn muscle is my main priority anyway!

and drat! About that article.. hah, let me know if you find it.

Sounds like a good plan to me. And I'm going to flat-out ignore what my scale says and be content in the knowledge that there is very little more I can do. For at least... two hours.

Heh, good plan. Are you stuck at work and can't do any exercise or something?

Here is my diet for the day... can you guys comment?

During this 2 week prime phase we are intentionally creating a catabolic environment. We reduce high GI carbs and saturated fats... also we drop all fast acting anabolic supplements.. which for me are creatine and BCAA's.

Ronnie states:

* * The lesson to learn here is it takes a controlled catabolic environment to create an anabolic environment.* *

So here is my diet:

10:00 (woke up late) 4 egg whites 1.25 servings oatmeal, 2 tablespoons milled flax seed.

12:30 - 1:20 workout

1: 30 Post workout: ON 100% whey gold standard, .75 servings oatmeal, banana

4:00 12 oz alaskan pollosk, 1/4 head of cabbage, half a serving of almonds (11) 2 fish oil caplets, multivitamin

6:45 1 slice of whole wheat bread, 6 oz deli oven roasted chicken breast, 3 egg whites

9:30 1/3 head of cauliflower, about 2 servings of south beach diet ranch dressing (omega 3's, healthier than regular ranch)

12:30 1 serving of natural peanut butter.

leaving me at:

grams cals %total
Total: Calories 2073
Fat: 64 578 29%
Sat: 9 79 4%
Poly: 8 73 4%
Mono: 20 184 9%
Carbs: 164 505 26%
Fiber: 38 0 0%
Protein: 221 884 45%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

It's my birthday today! I'm 22 years old

I celebrated with some shoulder presses, shrugs, and other shoulder work...

Here is my weight training for the day:

DB sitting shoulder press:
warm up 20 X 15, 25 X 10, 30 X 6

work:
35 X 15

Side lateral raises
5 X 10
8 X 6

work:
12 X 15

Rear delt machine
25 X 15

work:
45X 15

Shrugs:
30 X 15
35 X 15

Work:
70 X 15

Thoughts:

I am not use to working in this 12-15 rep range so I wasn't sure what I was capable of... this was another easy workout and I need to up the weights a lot next time... all the lifts were too easy.

Welcome to Club 22. Bitch. I think I went to that same party! Hahaha.

Diet looks fine. Nice and clean.

Re: the lifts, what you can do for 12-15 isn't necessarily gonna be significantly less. But I suppose you already figured that out, haha. Experimenting is fun right.

Might be helpful. I would only go down about 15-20%'ish of your 1RM for similar exercises and see how that treats ya.

yeah, i'll have to push myself harder.. good thing I figured that out now. I guess one of the few lifts that I know my limits in all rep ranges is the bench press.

Birthday party was great, my grandparents came into town (i'm not even sure if they knew it was my b-day... they never said happy b-day or anything.. haha) but we went out to eat at a steak buffet. I ate quite a lot! That was at about 5:30. Then me and a buddy went to Paradiso at around 10:30, I had the carne asada and a bunch of chips (I had about 2 baskets of chips, I figured what the hell, I can cheat on my birthday), I took home half my meal, though.

It was fun.

Today is an off day from weight training. Tommorrow I am going to get my arm day in and then saturday is legs.