Day 64

This is great… today marks the last ‘official’ day of Stage 2 of training. Sure, I’m still here Mon and Tues next week, but I’m going to relax things a bit, so I have two weeks off. I still want to keep training, primarily because I enjoy it intensely, but nutrition can loosen slightly… and bring on the snowboarding

Thinking out loud – because I leave in the afternoon on Weds, perhaps I could also include my Weds workout in the morning too? That’d be good And I probably will – not really got anything else to do anyways

This morning I slept through my alarm clock! Apparently – somehow – I managed to turn it off without realizing it. Totally not sure how that happened :s But – meant I got to the gym late, and I’m now late for work. Boo. I’m going to try and catch up.

Training wise… once again push up weights and reps – this is a good workout. I like it and thoroughly enjoy it.

I have to admit something though – yesterday was a nutritionally bad day. We did the pitch, and it went extremely well. Prior to the pitch, I had a Fuze Vitalize drink – which I’m sure included lots of bad stuff. Then, after the pitch we went to this Italian, and they have the best bread (and butter) I know… I scoffed it down. And then veal with white pasta. Not a bad selection for lunch… but the bread and butter was bad. But it was a treat for completing the pitch – and fingers are crossed that we get it. Oh – and the two glasses of wine.

To compensate, I reduced my dinner to crackers and a whey shake. Not the most nutritious… but I was rushing…

And the final note – I don’t really know why, but right now I’m exhausted. I come home from work and just need to sleep endlessly! It’s insane. Hopefully this weekend and being more relaxed about food next week will help things out.

Day 63

Cardio’s done. That was pretty easy this morning. It wasn’t too tough to get up this morning… I have a big presentation to HSBC later today, so needed to get up and out! Cardio was good – it went quickly, I was focussed, and while I didn’t push terribly hard, burnt the right number of calories and endured

Last night was interesting… I’m picking my words carefully here – I was ravenous. I got back from work, and I just needed to eat – lots and lots and lots. But the good thing was, I wanted to eat good things – not bad. So I got a half chicken from Swiss Chalet – which I didn’t completely eat… but also got a side of fries – I wanted to try one or two. Funny thing – I opened up the fries, looked at them, the smell hit me – I could only manage to have about 2 before it almost made me sick! They were so fatty, greasy, soggy. They were not good. I can’t believe I used to down them! Good – positive change though

And this ravenous state is teaching me something… that the body’s telling me one of two things:

1. It’s cold outside, and therefore it wants to develop a thicker skin (in contrast to the fact that I’m trying to get rid of fat)
2. It’s ready to grow again… it’s ready to fill those muscles up again

I think it’s a bit of both – but this is a good sign… I need to be wanting to grow when I start growing. And in fact, this links in quite nicely with something I read recently… that one of the best times to ‘grow’ is when you’ve been cutting for a while – the body’s ready and eager to start sucking up those calories and build muscle – that’s why footballers can grow so quickly in the build up to their season.

So this has got me thinking about how I want to approach Stage 3 of training. My expectation is that I’ll want to lose about 10lbs of weight in Stage 3 (as opposed to ~25-30lbs in Stage 2). I’ve noticed a great loss of muscle in Stage 2 (but without the sustained decrease in strength that you’d normally expect). So I’m almost considering upping my calorie intake (good calories) by 500cals a day, which should maintain the muscle, while still allowing me to lose fat. I’ve got some great plans that I can start to follow – so we’ll just see. I’m not convinced of any approach yet – let alone what training plan I’ll do (I need to look into that). It’s still going to be a cutting phase – I’m going to follow the guidelines I set up a few weeks ago. But with regards to nutrition plan, supplements and training – they’re still all TBD.

Day 62

First a confession… yesterday I went round to my friends for the evening, and he offered me some beautiful cheese on wholewheat bread. I had about 1/2 a slice of bread and some crumbs of cheese. Yeah – it was at about 9pm, so very much off the diet… but it wasn’t too bad. It was bad. But I’m content that it wasn’t dire, and the food was worth it. In fact, I realized that this was the first time I’d had cheese on its own in Stage 2 of training! Kinda cool

Training this morning was excellent… once again was able to push weights up on all exercises, which still astonishes me :s So I’m definitely growing in strength every step.

What I’m finding really interesting is that I’m really liking the look of the physique in the mirror – with clothes on that is. Without clothes, the love handles are still prominent, but they’re going down. Right now, stomach fat is low, and lower back fat is more… but considerably less than ever before. So this is motivating and exciting. I’ve started to feel that I’m at a very happy place right now, and each day from this point onwards is definitely moving in the right direction, and I’m getting closer and closer to the ideal place… this is the time when the ideal is in reach – I’m making sufficient progress to get there.

One more note about training this morning – it was intense and exhausting. With the bis workout, much of it is one arm then the other, so it takes considerably longer than doing it all at the same time. Not a big deal, but I spent a LONG time at the gym this morning :s I’m exhausted. Can’t wait till lunch and can have a power nap But it’s all good – as discussed right above, I feel that things are going well, and that the results are certainly showing, and I’m making the progress I want to make Yippee!

Somatotypes

So I took a test on  bodybuilding that helps us identify which is our most likely somatotype… and I came out with mesotype. Which I found quite interesting.

But let’s start with a bit of an overview… There are three somatotypes: ectomorph, mesomorph and an endomorph:

• Ecto: smaller bone structures and thinner limbs. Fast metabolic rate and high carb tolerance
• Meso: medium sized bone structure and athletic body. Mesomorphs tend to be testosterone and growth hormone dominant. This profile leads to a predisposition for muscle gain and the maintenance of a lower body fat. Naturally built and has the tendency to gain weight easy but can also lose weight fairly easy.
• Endo: have a larger bone structure with higher amounts of total body mass and fat mass. They tend to be insulin dominant. This profile leads to a greater propensity for energy storage, including both lean mass and fat mass. This can also mean a lower carbohydrate tolerance.

I had originally considered myself to be an endomorph – it makes the most sense when you consider my physique… I hold a lot of weight around my front and lower back (aka love handles). But perhaps that’s more down to my lackluster diet, rather than my body type… since a lot of the tests I’ve taken are pushing me towards meso.

Articles that I’ve been reading do highlight the fact that a person’s natural phenotype and genetic makeup is different to someone who’s generally overweight due to years of sedentary lifestyle and overeating.

And there are a couple of reasons that meso fits… first, based on my last mass gain cycle, I can gain very quickly. Sure, it wasn’t all lean mass, but I grew fast. And I grew large. I was surprised at the changes.

So meso fits… now, going into a bit more of the research, here’s what I’m learning about mesomorphs in comparison to the other types…

• Strength training can be done more often and for longer sessions then would be good for an Ectomorph, but you must still be careful not to overdo it. You should train with moderate to heavy weighs and at a moderate pace, not resting too long between sets.
• Stick to a good healthy diet to keep you lean and muscular, and watch for any slow creeping fat gains.
• Engage in and enjoy aerobic activities, sports, etc. but do not overdo.

So – I can work longer and harder at the gym, and it’ll benefit me. Diet is hugely important… but as to what makes up that diet – well, this is interesting. Given that I’m a medium on the carb tolerance scale (medium to low I’d say, given my previous history of eating habits), Precision Nutrition recommends a split like: 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 30% fat. For an endo, the split’s: 25% carbs, 35% protein, and 40% fat.

Comparing that to what I’m on right now – actually, it’s not far off!!! I’m about 25-30% fat, 25-30% carbs, 40-50% protein. And I know that this diet is really working out for me – from a weight loss perspective.

On a sidenote, I wanted to talk about how each somatotype links to a personality type. KHeper is a site that explains this quite concisely and clearly… I won’t copy all of the text here… but here are the two that I considered to relate directly to me:

• Endomorph: tolerant, emotionally even, sociable, good humored, relaxed, need for affection
• Mesomorph: adventurous, desire for power and dominance, courageous, assertive, bold, competitive, love of risk and chance

It’s interesting. When I first read through personality descriptions, I didn’t think I had anything in common with the mesomorph, but the more I look at it (and speak with my friends), they can see that in me. I don’t consider myself particularly adventurous or courageous… but if you think about what I’ve done, the holidays I go on, and how I approach life, I guess it applies. It’s interesting.

Insulin and how it relates to the somatotypes

Here’s the basic foundation: in order for a cell to acquire nutrients to use in energy production, the nutrients must be transported across the cell’s membrane. The hormone insulin is used to activate the transportation of nutrients into cells and is considered the storage hormone.

What always confused me was this idea of insulin spiking storage – I associate storage with fat… but it also includes nutrients in muscles, where the storage is needed more than in fat.

When insulin is secreted, the breakdown of stored nutrients is turned off and the storage of nutrients is turned on.

What’s important to remember is that over time, consistently elevated blood glucose levels can lead to cells becoming insensitive to insulin or insulin resistant, meaning more insulin must be secreted to return blood glucose levels to normal and therefore fat oxidization is blunted longer.

Something else that is really interesting – resistance training (amongst other forms of exercise) has been shown to increase the GLUT-4 translocation on skeletal muscle in the absence of insulin, meaning after you lift weights, you do not need insulin for your muscle to uptake glucose. That’s interesting. However, they do point out that insulin will certainly enhance the anabolic response of a meal post workout – but that we should avoid slamming 100g of dextrose (which is pure glucose) to activate that insulin response.

Note: all the above information on insulin is taking from the article – ‘Bulking for Endomorphs’ from Precision Nutrition. It’s a members only e-book, so can’t post a link. Muhahahaha.

It’s about Experiencing

I’m going to talk about a reflection here… it’s something that’s somewhat training related, but I read about it a few days ago, and want to express it.

I’ve had times when the world seems to just dissolve… in a good way. Things have less intensity… whereas I have greater sensory intensity. I am truly focussed on the moment, and everything else – the problems, the materialistic urges, the societal pressures seem to evaporate.

For a long time, I’ve been trying to get back there… and alongside that, I’ve also been trying to understand how to communicate or grasp what that feeling of ‘joy’ is. And yes, the technical term for it is ‘joy’ – unadulterated joy. It’s the pureness of experiencing the moment without any external or superficial pressures acting on it.

And through reading ‘Nothing Special’, Joko (the author) expressed the reasoning behind this better than anyone before.

She talks about the miniscule difference between experiencing and having an experience. For the most part, people would never see a difference between the two: you have to be experiencing something in order to have an experience about something. And here’s where it becomes difficult to describe… unless you’ve experienced joy, and know what it’s about.

When you ‘have an experience’, the experience becomes the object and you’re the subject. You’re focussed on having it, not being in it. Perfect example is me and my Grand Canyon trip – I was so focussed on experiencing ‘joy’ – it was an object of achievement. It was about me having that experience again. Stupid in reality, because you can’t have an experience of joy – you can only be experiencing it. As soon as you place it in a box, you lose it.

And this is the fact… the fact that when you focus on experiences as disparate entities, defining and creating them, they’re objects in your mind. But when you remove yourself from the fact that you’re experiencing an experience, and focus fully in the experience itself, that’s when things start to dissolve and evaporate. That’s when you can begin to feel the pure. The mind is focussed – attributed to experiencing, rather than processing, thinking, etc… It one goal and one goal only.

Once again – this is an extremely hard concept to convey. Joko does it amazingly (and far better than me), but it really set up some alarm bells in me… And what I will say, is that while the intellectualizing of these concepts is difficult, it also acts as an ability to guide the way. Now that I am aware of this concept of experiencing, not having an experience, I can better guide my actions to align with what I hold important. If I reflect and sense that I’m doing what I did in the Grand Canyon, I can put a stop to it, because I know what works… what processes should be enabled to make something possible.

Day 61

Cardio this morning. Went well. Pretty achey getting up this morning though! I’m guessing the aches are from both the snowboarding (the pain’s settling in LOL) and the chest / tris from yesterday. Not bad aches, just makes getting out of bed in the morning that bit harder :s

Decided to try and different program on the cross trainer today – did random – and it pushed me. I haven’t worked that hard on the x-trainer before, and the fact that it was random kept me more focussed on the exercise, rather than drifting away… so the 30 mins went pretty quickly.

On a sidenote, I’ve been spending some time thinking about Mr Kenney… and was looking at his profile yesterday, and I think there was a new pic up… and what’s interesting is that I think it shows quite a nice progression for his body… and because I love showcasing pics… here you go – the comparison:

Either physique is amazing. I’m not going to complain about either – in any way shape or form. My only comment is that this kind of physique is where I’d like to be. Although – what I don’t have right now – is context around his weight / bodyfat. I know he won’t be that heavy (perhaps 160-170?) and his bodyfat will be below 10%, it needs to be. But it’s a goal. It’s something I can visualize.

Thomas DeZago

Amazing profile of this 19 year old (now 20 years old. Amazing arms… arms really to die for. And the rest of him is just plain great!

He’s also got an intense (aka amazing) workout plan, and his diet’s also really good… I’ve noted it elsewhere on the site, so can always refer back to it when needs be.

More pics after the break!

Thomas DeZago – Training Plan

Just in case the training plan disappears from bodybuilding.com, which can happen a lot, I wanted to ensure I captured it here on the site.

Click on for the plan…

Day 60

Once again, tough to get up in the morning… but that’s the coldness and darkness. Once up, really psyched about the workout. Once again pushed up all the weights. Strength is definitely increasing. It’s impressive.

Was quite achey this morning, after snowboarding yesterday. But primarily in the legs, and not in a bad way. I was actually a lot less achey than I had anticipated, which is a good thing.

So all in all, a good start to the week. Bring it on. This is the final full week of stage 2 of the training! Can’t believe it. Oh – and the important thing – a week and a day till Costa Rica

Days 58 & 59

This weekend was awesome. Nutrition wasn’t brilliant, but it was definitely better than last weekend! Damn Presidents Choice decadent cookies! Also – I take full responsibility – don’t go shopping when you’re hungry! Fatty, bad for you foods look too tempting. Dammit.

Sat was a rest recuperation day – I managed to sleep 11 hours overnight – apparently I needed it. Then Sun went snowboarding – 3 hours on the slope, and it was amazing. Loved every single minute of it. And have to admit, I rocked the slope. The snow wasn’t the greatest… it was kinda wet, so meant boarding was somewhat difficult, and getting off of the lifts was tough, basically due to the lack of snow – you were catapulted down the ramp, and when you’re not experienced, it’s hard to stop yourself! So managed to not fall over a few times, but the first few were embarassingly funny

Altogether, I think a good weekend – not excellent, but good.