Wednesday, January 28, 2009

So Funny I Nearly Split My Pants

Only, I really did split my pants. Yup, right up the butt thankyouverymuch. Yesterday morning as I was walking into the office, I bent down to pick up something I dropped and all of a sudden...POP! The damn butt seam in my pants completely burst open. It didn't just rip a little and then tear open. It literally popped open. And not just a little hole. It split right from my damn crack all the way to the seam in the front. WTF! So, there I am, 30 minutes from home, in a parking lot, with my ass hanging out. I then proceeded to drive home with my bare ass on my car seat because the hole was that big. The worst part is, I thought to myself as I put the pants on this morning, "wow, I guess I have been losing weight because these aren't tight on me anymore." Apparently, the pants thought otherwise.

Clothes ripping was undoubtedly the theme yesterday, as when I got home last night, I realized that I ripped a hole in the shoulder seam of my sweater. Now that's much less of a blow to the ego. At least I can say my shoulders are too big for my shirts and not feel like a tub-o. But saying that my ass is so big it literally split my pants open, well, that's not so flattering. I think I'll just wear dresses and skirts from now on.

Monday, January 26, 2009

I Dink I'b Cubbing Down Wid a Cold

Weekend weigh-in was 142.8...down 1 pound exactly and right on track. I'm going one more week on this diet, and then it looks like I'll be back to eating lots again. Training has been going well. I was thinking that I should start posting my actual workouts in here, but I'm too damn lazy to transfer them from my training log onto here. So, my vague, undetailed summaries will have to suffice. Basically, I only post numbers when they're good and avoid even commenting on the shitty workouts...which happen plenty often.

One thing I will mention that I am particularly proud of was the way I approached training tonight. Most people will think I'm rediculous, but anyone who knows me knows that when I go into the gym I have an all or nothing approach. Which is good 95% of the time, but has led to unproductive workouts and overtraining. Anyway, knowing how awful I felt tonight, I took the mentality of just trying to get a good pump and mind-muscle connection. I didn't try to set the world on fire. No pressure to beat the log book. And I took out dead lifts. Again, I know this may sound crazy, but it was actually difficult for me to take them out. I feel like a week without doing them is a wasted back workout. But I knew I didn't have it in me to do them because they are one exercise that I don't know how to back off on.

Part of me trying to alter the way I approach training (tonight and overall lately) has to do with watching the Homeslice. From the very beginning of us training together, I have always admired the way he trained. There was always a little more gas in the tank, always room for one more rep or one more set. And he rarely, if ever, took time off to recover. I watched him make rediculous gains in his first real offseason last year because of his ability to train like this. While that mentality hasn't changed one bit, I have slowly seen his body breaking down because of this. His workouts have begun to suffer because his body can no longer handle what it once could, and as a direct result, he can't wrap his head around training differently to accomodate for his injuries. He has taught me so much about training, dieting, and competing. Virtually everything I know about the sport has come from his own trial and error as well as his guidance. I would be foolish not to learn from his current situaiton. I love this sport too much to break my body down so early on in my "career." So, I'm trying to train a little smarter and listen to my body in hopes that it will lead me down a successful path.

Speaking of listening to my body, my cold medicine is telling me that it's time to go pass out....g'nite.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Fatty's Losin' Some Weight

That's right, this weekend I was 143.8....that would be 1.8 lbs less than last week. So, I seem to be on a pretty good roll here. I made a minor change this weekend and had my cheat meal on Sunday night instead of Saturday. Unfortunately for me, due to some relationship drama, I did not enjoy my cheat meal like I should have. It's amazing how the disruption of relationship bliss can completely result in a loss of appetite. I actually had to choke the meal down because I simply wasn't hungry. It's funny because when things get rocky on that end, I know that the gym will always be there, and I always seem to have a much better perspective on things after training.


Despite my rediculous thoughts that I would lose strength quickly while on my pseudo-diet, that obviously hasn't been the case. At the very least, I have maintained, and even in some things have continued to improve. A couple of notable lifts for me this week....12 plates (6 on each side) leg press for 15 reps and 295 for 3 deadlifting. Also, for standing military press, I got 100 up for 4....so close. I'm hoping this week will be the week for that 5th rep.

I have a feeling I will only stay on this diet for another week before going back to increased calories. I was hoping maybe to run it until I get to 140....which would probably be another two weeks, but we'll see what the Homeslice has to say. I thought I had more to say when I started this post, but I guess not....THAT'S a first, huh? So, I guess it's back to the drunkards I go....

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Untitled (because I can't think of anything good)

It's simply amazing that I can stick to an extremely restricted diet for 16 weeks without cheating, yet cutting some calories in the offseason is making me go crazy. I'm officially one week and two and a half days into this "pseudo-diet," and I am so stinkin' hungry! And I only cut out 430 calories from my nearly 3,000 calorie offseason plan. The bright side to this suffering is that I am losing weight. I was 145.6 this past Saturday, and I'm one notch tighter on my weight belt (even at night!). As of right now, I'm thinking I'll follow this plan for four weeks total and see where I'm at. The past week was supposed to be lighter training, but that proved unsuccessful. I really have a hard time scaling my training back when I train with the Homeslice or Clarke. I'm so used to chasing down their weights and know that they are always hitting it hard, so for me to scale back makes me feel like a wuss. I was going to make another attempt at lightening things up this week, but, again, that's not working too well for me so far this week. My chest was really sore from Sunday, and I was deadlifting 285 last night. 285 happens to be my 5RM, and I pulled it last night after doing 225 for 5, then 245 for 5 twice, then 265 for 5. So I would venture to guess that I've gained some strength back there ;-) I did pull back quite a bit for the rest of the workout though. Tonight is arms, so that shouldn't be too hard to take easy. I'll try to just focus on my form and getting a good pump. I am definitely guilty of trying to throw weight around sometimes.

This past weekend I had my first deep tissue massage ever, and it was as painful as I heard it would be. The really dig into your muscles to get to your connective tissue, and I was definitely sore yesterday and a little today (of course, I'm sure training back last night didn't exactly help). when she massaged my quads it felt like she was pulling the muscle away from the bone just like when you pull apart pieces of chicken...nice imagery, huh? Then she would literally move my scapula out so that she could massage underneath it....also very weird. It seems that I would be much better off spending my money on a deep tissue massage once a month rather than going to the chiropractor once a week. In fact, I think I'll give it another adjust ment or two with her and then call it quits. My shoulder still hurts, and I still get some numbness in my hand. It's improved, but not all that much. Guess it will just be another ache that I'll wind up training around. Man, getting old sucks.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

My New Year's Resolution

.....is to lose the 50 pounds of fat in one month even though it took me 5 years to put it all on. Yes folks, it's that time of year when the gyms are crowded with the idiots who just SWEAR that this year is THE year that they'll lose the weight. Meanwhile, they wander around aimlessly getting in the way of the regular crowd who are all just trying to grind through their workouts as usual.

Enough ranting, and on to some progress information. I finally took pictures this past Sunday (Saturday's weight was 150....down .6). It took a lot, but I was able to get past all the fat that I've put on to see that I have maintained the most shape I ever have in the offseason. Not surprisingly, my upper body seems to show the most obvious improvements. My shoulders and arms are much bigger, and although my butt's got some, ummm meat, on it, it's still got good shape and isn't saggy or flat. My legs have also kept some good shape despite some obvious added fat. This week marked the first week of my "sorta" diet. I've cut out my carbs, meaning my morning oatmeal and my Carbolyze in my post-workout shake. Also, a small amount of fat was cut out of my two shakes. The change is just enough for me to feel it a little but not enough to loose too much too quickly. I also added in another 45 minute cardio session, which brings me to 4 days of 45 minutes and one day of 30 minutes. By Tuesday, I had already lost 3 pounds, which I know is water-loss from not having carbs, but it's nice to not have that bloated feeling all the time.

In addition to the diet change, I also decided to pull back a little bit on my workouts and take the next two weeks to recover a bit and let all the little aches and pains heal. So far, it seems to be helping a bit. Surprisingly, I am having a more difficult time doing this than I thought. I know that I need to do this because I have a bad habit of ALWAYS training to failure, and I'm sure I'm pretty overtrained at this point. I just feel like I'm wasting my time in the gym not pushing myself to my max. What I need to do is just concentrate on getting a good pump and re-establishing the mind-muscle connection that sometimes lags when you're throwing around heavier weights. I have also been seeing a chiropractor for the pinched nerve in my shoulder. I still have some pain in my shoulder, but for the most part, the painful numbness that it was causing in my fingers is gone. It seems that, now that I've had a couple of adjustments, my middle and lower backs feel weaker. I guess now that I'm "properly aligned" I can work on building the muscles around a straight spine.

For now, I'm going to wait for the craziness in the gym to die down so I can get back to my own, quiet training.