12 Days Later

Here's a photo I took this morning after 12 days of Rapid Fat Loss. To see the before picture from 12 days ago, scroll down to the previous post.

Hey Kids!

I'm still here, still working my ass off in pursuit of my goals.

I'm on a 12 day stint of Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss program right now. I'll be done on October 1st, and then I'll resume bulking.

This is my general approach to body transformation at this point. Bulk a little, cut a little. Repeat. Don't ever let yourself get too fat while adding muscle. For me I would say the upper end is 14% body fat and even that is pushing it.

Here's a photo I took on Day 1 of RFL (three days ago):

How Are Your Shoulders?

If you're like me you have one (or maybe both) shoulders causing you a little discomfort, and possibly even pain in certain movements.

If not, you're interested in preventing shoulder problems. Have a look at this video. I've implemented it into my training to address the issues I've been having with my right shoulder. I'll be posting again in a week or two to report my progress.

What's your maximum muscle potential?

Here's a very cool calculator that you can use to figure out your maximum muscle potential.

Here are my results:

Height: 72 in Wrist: 6.5 in
Ankle: 9 in

Your estimated maximum muscular bodyweight at ~10% bodyfat is: 204.8 lbs

Your estimated maximum muscular measurements (@ ~8%-10% bodyfat) are:

Chest: 47.2 in Biceps: 16.7 in
Forearms: 13.4 in Neck: 16.3 in
Thighs: 25.5 in Calves: 17.1 in

I found it reading Lyle McDonald's latest article.

Weird Video of the Day

This is a video of deceased Japanese body builder Katsumi Kitamura drinking a bowl of egg whites and making a frozen chicken shake. And yeah, the guy was obviously taking lots and lots of steroids.

New Rules Of Lifting Fat Loss Routines Suck

That's pretty much it. If you're using them you should stop now. They suck. Here's why.

Photos after 6 weeks of Ultimate Diet 2.0

Progress Pic

Week 5 of Ultimate Diet 2.0 begins today. Here's a quick photo I took this morning:

Neglect!

I've been seriously neglecting this blog. So here's a brief update.

I've been training a minimum of three times a week for the last (almost) 2 years. Some people send me messages from time to time wondering if I've quit or given up. Never!!!

I'm in week 3 of Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0. It's challenging but it's also a lot of fun. You workout four times a week, and I do a morning cardio session on Thursdays. All told I'm spending about six hours in the gym each week which is the most I've ever done. Surprisingly it doesn't seem like any more than when I was only doing three hours a week.

I'm going to take some new photos this coming Monday and post them.

That's about it..

Taking a 2 week break.

I have one week left of a two week break from dieting.

Look, let me speak clearly. If you want to lose fat and keep muscle, and not waste a lot of time doing it, you simply MUST get Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss Handbook.

It's hands down the best $40 dollars you will ever spend.

I actually hate having to take a break. The progress on Rapid Fat Loss is so amazing and so.. well, rapid, I hate to stop.

I'm going to start again in one week as a "category 1" dieter and do the diet for 12 days and then take another two week break, and then it's time for Lyle's Ultimate Diet 2.0.

I can actually say that my abs are almost visible. I'm honestly within a month or so of dieting before I have clearly defined abs and I could not be happier.

I'll update again later on.. hopefully some pics will be posted after I get ripped.

PSMF

I have been doing a protein sparing modified fast since 12/07. It works wonders. In two weeks I have seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of fat on my body. It is not a scientific measurement by any means but simply squeezing the fat on my abdomen makes it apparent that I have been shedding fat.

Tonight I am having some alcohol and for the next two weeks I will be eating maintenance calories.

After New Years I will be back to doing PSMF. I love it.. hunger is almost non-existent. Taking ephedrine and caffeine has made a huge difference too. I highly recommend Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss Handbook, even though Lyle is a big asshole.

Changes.

I've decided I'm sick of doing Starting Strength. I've increased all my lifts substantially while my body has continued to look basically the same. This is to be expected. Strength training in the five rep range results in myofibrilar hypertrophy.

So starting tomorrow I will be starting Hypertrophy Specific Training (HST). I'll spend the next week figuring out my 15, 10 and 5 rep maxes on a variety of exercises and then I will take two weeks off from all lifting (I plan to continue some low intensity cardio during this time).

Afterward, I will begin an HST cycle. You can learn more here.

So that's it.. hopefully I will see some noticeable change in physique and in January I'll start cutting with Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0, a cyclical ketogenic diet. I will cut for four months and resume bulking in May of 2009.

Until next time.

Hello again

I went back to eating for strength a few weeks ago, and now I am stuck with my lifts. I cannot get my squat back over 270 x 5.

Likewise, bench and press are stuck. Lots of room to improve my deadlift.

I've also started power cleaning instead of rowing but my form sucks so I have some learning to do there.

Tomorrow I'm going to cut volume and drop weights by 10%. On Monday I'm going to start an intermediate routine described by Mark Rippetoe in Practical Programming for Strength Training called The Texas Method.

Essentially you schedule progress weekly using Volume/Recovery/Intensity days.

Cut Begins Tomorrow

Today I squatted 270 lbs. for 3 sets of 5 reps each. I think I'm at my physical limit for now because I can *barely* get the last rep in each set, and I have no choice but to let out a primal drawn out grunt as I drive up on the last rep. My face is beet red with veins popping out on the sides of my face. Not pretty. Then my heart is beating like a drum for a minute or two after each set. One technique I utilize is to pull the bar down against my back when I'm pushing up on that last rep. It's supposed to trigger some kind of fight or flight response and it works. You feel that bar dig into your delts and back and somehow squeeze out the last rep.

So, I'm going to stick with this weight for the next month or so. Hopefully as I cut some fat I can keep squatting this amount of weight.

It's funny to think of how difficult squatting 270 lbs. is for me when I watch videos like this one (50 seconds in) where the guy squats 215 lbs. for 40 reps in 90 seconds. "Holy shit" is about the only thing that comes to mind watching that.

Hydrostatic Weighing Results

In November my hydrostatic weighing results were:

age: 31
height: 72
weight: 175

%fat 11.00353

Fat mass: 19.25618
Lean mass: 155.7438

I kept dieting down to 163 lbs. until February. Then I slowly raised calories until I eventually reached 3600 kcal some time in April.

Today my hydrostatic weighing results were:

age: 32
height: 72
weight: 187.7

%fat 12.9653

Fat mass: 24.33587
Lean mass: 163.3641


Gains:

%fat +1.96177

Fat mass: +5.07969
Lean mass: +7.6203

Ratio lean to fat gain: 1.5 (for every 1.5 lbs. of lean mass gained, I gained 1 pound of fat).

Total weight gain: +12.69999

Not too shabby for less than three months of work!

The beauty is that if I lost five pounds of fat and kept the lean mass I've gained I'd be at 10% body fat. Losing five pounds of fat is easy and can be done in a month. However, as mentioned in a previous post I'm easing back into dieting since this will be my first post-mass gain phase cut. My first cut was just post-fat ass. The point being, I don't want to lose any strength, so I'm easing calories down slowly. Next week I'll drop down to 2500 kcal and start watching the scale more closely. If I'm not seeing any movement after another week I'll add in thirty minutes of jump rope on my off days. I'm hoping I don't have to drop calories any lower but I probably will have to, so long as I keep all my strength gains.

Hopefully by September or so I can return to another mass gain phase. I'm going to do things differently with respect to my carbohydrate consumption next time, but I'll save all of that for a post some other time.