Diet of the day: 10/07/2007

Energy Flux of the day: 10/07/2007

Drum roll pleeeeaase:

Introducing the new Training log of the day! I will be embarking on an easy quick read system so I can keep you the appreciated reader, easily informed on my training exploits with ease.

Today will be the first example. I will add custom homemade badges of my activities to my blog along with the date to symbolize carried out training.

Such a day merits the following:


22:00 UPDATE: I have returned from geurilla, I wish I could say i aced it or that I even cmpleted the whole cycle! I didn't - I managed 3/4 of the cycle! not bad for a first attempt in a long long time.. I only wish it would get better!

It was around the 8 minute mark that I was feeling physically sick from the sprinting. My stomach was knotted and my lungs ready to give thier last ounce of effort in order to propel my stomach contents skyward.

It's so bizzare. Your physically and mentally giving it all you have, your moving your legs as fast as they can go, pounding the ground with your running shoes like the beat of a drum and the speed just doesn't come! your exhausted... you couldn't sprint fast even if your life was solely depending upon it!

Even now as I write im in fits of coughing due to the stress placed on my lungs.

Early night for me tonight thats for damn sure! Low intensity cardio first thing remember.

Diet of the day

Offerings to the great dieting gods!

If thier was such a thing I would ask for the strength to create my own breakfast and to resist the temptation of evil Milky ways screaming my name from supermarket shelves. OK I could have easily resisted the Milky way, but I wanted it sooo bad lol.

Im suprised on how much easier eating is becoming. Barring the PPWO meal, I have DEVOURED anything placed in front of me with ease! Im one hungry mofo on the warpath with any wholesome food in my path.

Energy Flux - Hard work, Great Results?

So,

The 30 day program has expired. Due to huge demands on time I will not be completing another cycle within the foreseeable future.

The successor to the 30day cycle is a generic routine of my design, consisting of basic compound movents with a dash of isolation. I will be routinely posting my workouts again as I have the program in full digital format.

So what exactly is energy flux about? Energy flux is the basic relationship between energy intake and energy expenditure. A really cool way to raise your metabolism to eye bleeding speeds, add some mass and keep fat on the back burner. Sounds great huh? One problems exists - It's incredibly tough to boot!

The protocols in question require EXTRA energy intake AND EXTRA energy expenditure. In effect were deliberately eating more and choosing to take it back off with metabolic boosting exercise. This approach could be used to take weight off whilst maintaining muscle OR to add muscle whilst maintaining/losing fat.

My schedule will look like this:


MONDAY:

• AM - Low intensity Cardio
• PM - Compound based weight training

TUESDAY:

• AM - Low Intensity Cardio
• PM - Guerrilla Cardio (Hi-Intensity)

WEDNESDAY:

• AM - Low Intensity Cardio
• PM - Compound based weight training

THURSDAY:

• AM - Low Intensity Cardio
• PM - Guerrilla Cardio (Hi-Intensity)

FRIDAY:

• AM - Low Intensity Cardio
• PM - Compound based weight training

SATURDAY:

• AM - Low intensity Cardio
• PM - Phat Chinese Grub!
  

SUNDAY:

• Still digesting phat Chinese grub!
• Relaxing

Looks easy huh? For starters the Guerrilla cardio is enough to turn a man inside out!! its a high intensity cardio schedule which lasts 12 minutes. But a harder 12 minutes you wont find! Here is a rundown:
Its incredibly tough! trust me Ive done it before.. Before long I will be inserting excuses to avoid it like the plague!

Welcome Muscletalkers

Ever since I have implemented the Star counter on my blog, i have had the ability to see where my visitors come from with respects to followed links etc.

I have noticed that a few guys from MT have been sneaking on recently.

Please feel free to chip/chime in with your experience guys and gals. All encouragement and wisdom is greatly appreciated.

Don't be a stranger.

Diet of the day

Food glorious fooooood!

What a throwback to my school days.

Anyhow, another day and another diet. It's getting a right juggling act to balance my daily macros. Mo meals, mo problems.

Today's diet is a little opposite to yesterdays diet. Heavy on the carbs today and a little light on the fat. Not deliberate in the slightest i may add. My bran/oats shake was due to be consumed around 10:30 and not mid afternoon. Due to work obligations this was not possible. Not to worry!

Perhaps tomorrow will be a happy medium.

Im loving Total 0% Greek yogurt right now. Lovely texture, nice taste and very minor bloating compared to natural yoghurt's. Less protein is yielded for your hard earned pennies though. I would recommend a hint of flavouring system from black star labs to really turn Total 0% into a delicious tasty/healthy treat.

I have been begrudgingly fleeced out of my chewing gum at work. As such I'm in a sharing mood.

At some point I'm my life I would welcome the opportunity to become schooled in nutrition and training. On a more professional level than the current personal level. As such I'm always willing lend a shaky hand to friends who seek a little advice.

I would like to post a small snippet from a document I written for a friend who was new to training.

A post to a friend

Right, where do we start and what do we address.

As you probably have guessed yourself, your diet is far from optimal to help you achieve your current goals. Goals I assume to be to keep a reasonable level of body fat whilst building some quality muscle. Correct? Good, let’s continue.

At the moment, as you are new to training, your body is will be in the honeymoon period of weight training. Basically this means that seeing as though this is the real first time your training on a regular basis, and hitting the gym hard. Your body will be forced to quickly adapt to the stresses you are placing upon it by rapidly adding whatever is needed to cope with the new demand. In this case muscle. It is quite literally the initial shock to your system that causes this! However as you have probably guessed, this period does not last. Whilst you could get away with eating dog shit for dinner, breakfast or whatever during the honeymoon period, the time approaches were this type of diet is going to stop you from gaining in the gym. Not only will this slowdown your increase of the weights on a weekly basis, it could also stop you gaining any muscle at all as energy demands are not met. Now I know anyone with half a brain cell wouldn’t be stupid enough to take the time out and pay to go to a gym. Just to end up looking exactly the same 1-year down the line. All your £’s would have been spent on what would essentially be a trip to see some sweaty people in skimpy clothing.

The next bridge we must cross is to detail what you should expect from the gym results wise. I am going to use this time to speak about body composition and goal setting.

Essentially there are 2 people in the gym. Or at least there should be. They are those who are bulking, and those who are cutting. The bulkers are the guys whose primary aim is to add quality muscle mass whilst trying to keep a limit on fat mass. The cutters are guys whose aim is to strip them of body fat whilst maintaining as much muscle as they can in the process. Your now thinking “hey wait a moment; I want to add muscle WHILST stripping bodyfat”. Now this is entirely possible for honeymoon trainers and steroid users. A natural trainer with a little training under his belt will be hard pressed to do both. This type of stuff isn’t achievable for 95% of natural trainers. Swallow the bitter pill and let it go! As you know my personal aim is to Bulk up until I’m happy with my muscle mass levels. Mass doesn’t come overnight and will take time and patience. Only when I’m happy with my levels of mass or unhappy with possible acquired bodyfat, would I consider cutting. it would be pointless of me to do anything else at this given time. For starters nobody will see your 6 pack hiding under your best winter coat! No use cutting down to a 6 pack unless you have the muscle to accompany it. Unless of course you fancy the look of a peasant class chaver , or Christian Bale from the Machinist. You decide what is right for you!

The rant is over and hopefully your head should be clearer on what choices you have in front of you

Diet of the Day

I know I know, its early.

I'm slightly off the mark with regards to intake! Thanks to some serious re-shuffling of macros due to a rushed breakfast. A breakfast I may add that failed to satisfy on any real level.

For those who don't know my routine personally, I usually buy a serving of scrambled egg on toast from my works cafeteria every morning. 104 pennies of the realm will secure the hungry morning customer 3 whole scrambled eggs on 2 slices of brown toast. Not a bad price you will agree! Well... you would agree with me unless you have recently been on the receiving end of this breakfast! I would call it rubber on slices of carbon...

I'm glad of this as I'm fed up with lame 'o' breakfasts screwing up the rest of my days planning. To remedy this I will be shifting breakfast forward and eating at home. This will allow me to sneak in a quality homemade shake somewhere around 10:30. Dinner Will be pushed back to 12:30 to allow digestion time. Such changes will make my daily intake alot easier to manage.

Your head a splode!

The results are in after another week of training and eating. It most certainly seems the case that I simply cannot gain on 3800kcals each day.

I will admit that I had the odd treat on Saturday and Sunday (especially Sunday). However my intake was kept high on both days with some quality feeds as per usual.

The obvious step is to carry on with the system. Keep plodding onwards and upwards to the next step

4000kcals

Protein and fat levels will remain somewhat stable. Good ole carbs will be bumped up AGAIN.

I'm feeling like a stuck record at the moment. I'm throwing extra calories at the equation and the scales say the same old thing everytime I step onto them. The most handsome gent in the mirror still looks similar to that of 3-4 weeks ago.

I know blokes who need to eat 6000kcals+ to bulk!! Hopefully it won't come to that, but I'm prepared if it does.

Until next time. Keep eatin'

YOUR HEAD A SPLODE!

Unbaised eyes

How many time have you been in the following scenario? Picture this: It has been a while since you have rubbed shoulders with a couple of your pals. After a typical greeting and a trip to the bar later you begin talking about what you have been up to. Besides the typical chit chat about cars, houses, partners etc... The topic of conversation always falls onto appearance at some point during the evening, with specific interest payed to us training folk. It's at this point that you brace yourself for impact. Comments will either stroke your ego or kick you in the teeth!

I guess that I got away with minor bruising in my recent meeting. It was decided that I had "lost some of it" and looked skinnier. This would have been seen as a major boot in the guts to most trainer looking to increase their physical size, however I'm glad my small cut that i recently employed had its desired effects - remove the bodyfat and keep the muscle.

The choice of clothing i wear usually dictates the comments I get. A fitting vest in the gym gets some good positive comments and a generic Tee on a night out gets a few chin strokes and questions to whether or not I'm still training.

All this poses the question:

1. Would you rather be seen as a "big guy" knowing fine well your carrying a little excess bodyfat?
   
2. Would you rather take a few hits as to your size, only to look sharper, shapely, and more defined when the shirt comes off?

The answer is very much subjective. I personally would prefer number 2 anyday of the week as it seems that the stereotypical big guys you see in all gyms look the real deal in a T-shirt. However when you stick them in a vest under the summer sun, they have no real definition and look soft and padded.

Diet of the day

Cor blimey I'm bloated!

Granted you could get 3800 calories easily from a few meals coupled with a side order of maccy D's. Try doing this fairly clean and it becomes a challenge. I would certainly find more time to update the blog, should my PC find its way in front of the toilet. Talk about regular guy!

Yet another grueling session of the secretive 30day cycle was preformed this evening. Back and shoulders being particularly tough to complete all the reps with the given weight! When I say tough I don't mean putting the weight down when the muscles scream... I mean pushing on through the barrier of pain and getting the job done! I think this is a fundamental mistake many gym rats fall into, not pushing hard enough.

Every now and then me and my ex training partner would test the level of our training resolve. We would basically go hammer and tongs at wide grip chins until we got to 50 reps. Hell it's not like you could say "hey buddy your up, I'm taking a breather" Noway Jose!! Once you stepped up to the bar, you weren't getting off until you paid your dues! No matter how long it took... the first 10-12 were plain sailing, the next 7-8 OK, after that? madness. It fells like an impossible task! stick with it though and you will get through alright. This is an important lesson in the realisation that the nagging voice in your head needs to take a backseat sometimes!

The mere though of slapping another 250g of Cottage cheese down my neck before bed is a stomach turner. Granted I can and will manage to physically eat it. I have to! its counted and serves an important purpose in my quest. It just gets a little tough on your mind sometimes when you eat when your not mentally ready to do so.

Something is going to have to change in my diet very shortly! I think the inclusion of a homemade concoction of nutritional sexiness will be included to make life a little more tolerable.

Revelations

Years after my escape to the underground to become a soldier of fortune, I have surfaced to show my fellow blogsters my physical starting point.

Lines shall be drawn into the sand. The physique in this picture will be forged with an anabolic sledgehammer of food and training. The 14lbs goal sat on my shoulders is a heavy task to undertake, I however would rather die drying than deem it impossible.

And now without further ado. I would like to present yours truly:

+

Here is the part where I play down my pictures in an attempt to save some face.

Needless to say the pictures were taken in a mirror and as such are not the best quality. Poses are pretty bland too as its hard to hit up a quality flex with a camera in your hand.

Be lenient. It's not often I post my skin up on the web!

Diet of the day

Another boat load of chow down the hatch! Lets see what a eating like this for a week does to the 3-style man.

NEWS FLASH: A picture or 2 of me will find thier way onto here tomorrrow!

Love that DOMS.

Do youselves a favour ladies and gents. DONT use a Motorola phone for your alarm clock! It just doesn't work to great... Perhaps I should have charged the phone up a little more first eh :)

I managed to drag my DOMS laden bones from my flea pit bright and early this morning to perform my cardio on my bad lad exercise bike. I sure need to replace that exercise bike when coinage permits as the bastardo squeeks like a mouse caught in a trap. I will hold my hand up and admit that the £15 of the realm I payed for it back day, was money well spent!

A Nice spin bike will be on the cards soon enough!

The one, the only - BAAADD LAAAD! £15 Winner

The food is coming thick and fast now friends. Clever planning and carfully placed hoards of protein is what is needed for me to achieve my goals. The ever usual sports bag of goodies is as usual, being ferried to and from the workplace alongside a under the desk stash of nutrient sexyness.

Goodies

Chapter 2: How semi fasted cardio works

As the small collective of regular readers will have discovered, I’m a huge fan of fasted cardio for keeping fat at bay. Fasted cardio can be utilised at any time of the year, regardless of whether the individual is cutting bodyfat or building as much muscle as possible.

How do you make a bodybuilder cringe? Walk into the gym and shout cardio. Far too many trainers forgo the benefits of a regular cardio schedule as they are afraid. What exactly are they afraid of you ask? The answer – Losing muscle! I will admit that if cardio is approached with a carefree approach then undesired results are a possibility. Fuelling, intensity and the duration of cardio all have a major impact on the outcome. This is where the science comes in.

Energy Systems

We have 3 energy systems that get called upon to create energy. These 3 are as follows:

• ·TThe ATP-PC system
• ·TThe Anaerobic system
• ·TThe Aerobic system

Why 3? The human body being a clever little so and so only has survival in mind. As a very flexible unit your body can wind down calorific usage in times of starvation, increase usage and storage in time of surplus, create energy from any macronutrient via a whole variety of inner chemical wizardry and even choose which type of fuel to burn when faced with energy demanding situations. The entire above are carried out with the utmost efficiency. Each of the 3 energy systems is unique! They all have different attributes and roles that will be called into action depending on the type of exercise used.

The ATP-PC system (adenosine tri-phosphate phosphocreatine) is predominantly used for exercise that is no longer than 30 or so seconds in duration. Stored levels are very small and as such can only provide energy for a short duration. Weight lifting and other short burst exercise like sprinting will utilise the ATP-PC system to its maximum effect. Once it’s depleted it’s onwards and upwards to the anaerobic system.

Taking the baton from the ATP-PC system, the anaerobic system has a little more shelf life than its predecessor. Starting in and around the time of the ATP-PC system, the anaerobic system will take fuel from stored muscle glycogen and carbohydrate intake for its 15 minutes or so stint of stardom. Although this system is a quick fire way of producing energy, it lacks the efficiency to go the distance! Producing only 2 ATP molecules from 1 glucose molecule, as opposed to the possible 38-200 molecules produced from the aerobic system. Needless to say it is heavily relied upon by us weight training heroes.

Last but not least is the slow but efficient aerobic system. I like to call this the “Mr Fusion” energy system after Doc Browns Delorian which would run off of anything you shoved into the fuel tank! It’s important to note that the aerobic system is the only one which will readily use carbs, muscle tissue and most importantly fat for fuel. As to which gets burnt is dependant on fuelling, intensity and duration of exercise. Here are a few graphs to give you an impression:

This is a beautiful graph! Easy to read and understand. It is to be understood that a mixture of glycogen and fat will be burnt for fuel; however it is quite evident that the ratio can be swung in a more favourable direction if one was to alter the intensity of their exercise. Onto duration:

The above graph gives us a visual clue to how exercise duration effects which fuel we burn. Please take the timeframe with a pinch of salt as it has been said that approx 15-20 minutes is required to shift from the anaerobic glycogen burning zone, into the more favourable aerobic zone to which will start using adipose tissue (fat) for fuel.

Before the cardio happy bunny interprets from the chart that fat burning is awesome approaching the 2 hour mark, please bear in mind that somewhere around the 45 minute mark glycogen stores will start to diminish and other sources like amino acids will be broken down for fuel. This is bad for the aspiring bodybuilder as your muscle tissue is a prime candidate to be placed in the firing line.

What has the muscle conscious individual learned so far? Cardio should be performed for no longer than 45 minutes max and intensity should be kept fairly low to throw the fuel burning ration more towards fat burning.

Why Semi Fasted:

Exactly why do I recommend the semi fasted approach? Besides from the testimonies of many trainers and personal results I will have to lean on a few little scientific crutches to get the job done:

"A study carried out at Kansas State University (Wilcox, Harford & Wedel Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, 17:2, 1985), indicates that a kilogram of fat will be oxidized sooner when exercising in the fasted condition in the morning than when doing the same exercise in the afternoon. By measuring respiratory gas exchange, caloric expenditure, and carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism, these researchers showed that the mass of fat burned during aerobic exercise amounts to 67% of the total energy expenditure achieved when the same exercise is done later in the day or in the fed state."

Besides the above we can take advantage of the lack of fuel and natural dip in morning insulin levels to more effectively promote fat burning. This fasted environment is great for coaxing a larger amount of fat from stores for the furnace!

Although fully fasted is ok if kept under 45 minutes and at a real low intensity, I would recommend 5-10g of BCAA’s to sip on during morning cardio. They will not only symbolise the end of the fast but also spare and hard earned muscle in the process. A small serving of a decent grade whey 80%+ could also do a similar job without hiking insulin too much…

Time off done and dusted: Nose to the grindstone!

now that was enjoyable!

What have I been upto when not tuning into blogger.com on a daily basis to enlighten my gigantic audience to my inner ramblings? Some things good and some things apparently nerdy. Neither one being peticularly good for my eye balls! Giggty Giggty :) Basically I have been doing alot of reading and games playing. Im currenly nearly finished with Derren Browns latest book - Trick of the mind and am now just starting to work through anything Sports Nutrition related.

The game in question is the beatifully nerdy Lord of the Rings online: Shadows of Angmar. Very similar to World of Warcraft in terms of play but obviously set in the world of middle earth. How could a guy lose? The question should be not how a guy loses but what a guy loses. Ill tell you the straightforward answer - £8.99 each month for subscription and roughly around 22-25 hours per week! couple that with work, my gym going lifestyle, my girl and my week is planned... Though I complain about my so called "lack of time" I would have it no other way (besides work). This is my world and take out 1 key item and my house of delicatedly stacked cards will collapse.

Diet of the day will be posted all this week. Perhaps baring saturdays night fine Chinese cuisine. MMMMMM.

Also on the list is a small article regarding cardio.

Ditch the Zero and get with the hero!

Enjoy the read?

I hope you enjoyed or at least gleaned some kind of useful info from the postings on insulin etc. It's just the start of a collection of slightly more science orientated explainations on my dietary protocal.

Ill be writing a post on Green tea very shortly.

Enjoying the rest. However....

Tis day 3 of 5 into my rest period.

Im finding it a lovely break from the physical rigours of daily training although my mental capacitiy still takes a beating from daily dietary planning etc... What makes it hard is the ability to hit specific intakes I have deemed suitable to my goals. Not that eating alot is the problem! I have eaten upto 4700-5000kcals daily before without any problems. The hardship comes in when your trying to adhere to specific timings, meal combos and hard clean rules! If I was to fumble a meal early in the day it's tough to make up the difference later that day without breaking some of the foundations i base my diet around. This is what makes it difficult!

Granted not many people need to be so rigid with regards to thier dietary protocals... However you can consider my less than favourable Sep2006-mar2006 for my last bulking cycle! I gained very very little in terms of size. Refinement was made with regards to muscular quality but size is what im lacking and need. Hence the stringent approach! Time is valuable, if a little extra TLC is all it takes to achieve my goals then im all for it!

This guy didn't mess about to get in shape