My personal quest to get ripped and stay ripped :)

[coolcolj]

I just realiased I'be been measuring my waist the wrong way. What I thought was 32 inches was actually 33 inches!

So add 1 inch to all my previous waist measurements

Anyway as you know this week is the last week of my Am refeeds, and PM Low carb (although I will pig out on carbs after my weights). Funny thing was this morning I measured my waist this morning and it read 32.5 inches. Down from 33 when I took a break from my cycle diet. I somehow lost 0.5 inches while pigging out on cookies, chocolates and whatever. It shows you several things -

sprints and weights together is an awesome combo for stripping fat. Even though I'm eating junk food in some meals, the rest of them are just veges and meat, and I'm not really dieting at all. I've never counted calories, its basicly a lifestyle change. I ahve a handle on how much I should eat per meal and I drink lots of water. The 12 tabs of fish oli I take a day must be working too!
Also managed to gain some muscle and lots of strength, as you will see in the next set of pics when I get down to 32 inches

This fat loss thing is a piece of cake!

 

[nclifter6feet6]

how much water are you drinking per day bud? that maybe why diet isnt goin as well. you really shouldnt be pigging out get back on your diet up the water intake to 2 gallons perday. try a quick fix diet for a few days like 1g per pound of bodyweight in protien from lean meat catfish or tuna or chicken 30-40 grams of fish/flax oil 0-10 carbs only from lettuce or cabbage. workout at 3 reps for all excersises and carb up every 5 days to once a week. water is the most important thing, if you drink enuf water you wont feel tired and lethargic keep a gallon jug around at all times

 

[coolcolj]

No my diet was still working, its just that I always lose motivation after 3 weeks. So I thought I'd take a break. Its better this way anyway, I'm not in a hurry. Every pound of muscle I put on, makes me lose fat even faster. My only goal is to get ripped and maintain it, I have not set myself a set time period to do so. In the past when I have set a date, I always fail due to crash dieting etc. This time I won't make the same mistake. Easy does it.

I drink quite a bit. 6 glasses of water at every meal and another 6 in between.

 

[coolcolj]

Well the scale is backing me up

My bodyweight has dropped to a touch under 83kg! WTF!
Here I am eating whatever I want in the mornings, and I had a whole bunch of cakes yesterday and this morning - not to mention thw whole tin of cookies I downed in the 2 days previous, but I am low carbing in the afternoons and a night, yet I'm still dropping fat and bodyweight! I was meant to put on some fat, but I'm losing it instead - can someone explain this?

anyway my waist is a touch under 32.5 inches (proper measurement)

needlessly to say I'll ride this one out while its still working

 

[coolcolj]

Here's my low volume workout that I'm doing now

all concetric movements are done explosively and the negatives on a 3-4 count. All to failure where possible and where noted.

general warmup

2x6 Jump Hang snatches - light bar
2x6 Jump Hang Snatches with Olympic bar

3 standing vertical jumps
straight after the jumps, Back Squat 1x8

3 standing long jumps
straight after the jumps, Front squat 1x8

Single leg standing leg curl 1x8

Toe calf jump - bodyweight x10
(using only your calves to jump into the air and going back straight up upon landing with minimal delay)

Toe calf jump - with dumbells x 10 - to build fast twitch fibres in my calves

Standing calf raise - 1x10 (not to failure, I hold thr top position for a 2-3 count)

toe ups - opposite of calf raise to build the shin muscles
2x15 (just using bodyweight for now and not to failure)

Dumbell incline with flye grip 1x10
Incline Flye 1x10

Single arm dumbell row on Bench 1x10
Chin 10 reps

Single arm dumbell shoulder press 1x10
Lying side laterals 1x10
Lying rear laterals 1x10
Lying L-laterals for external rotary cuffs 2x15 ( not to failure)

Dumbell curl 1x10
Incline dumbell curl 1x10

Dumbell standing tricep extension 1x10
Singel arm tricep pressdowns 1x10

Abs full range crunch 3 x 15 reps, with arms behind, head, then no arms and then with weights.


That's it

Bare in mind this is a guide, reps are max, I will sometimes go as low as 5 when my poundages go up and then I work up to 10. If I hit 10 I will not do anymore, so in that case I don't go to failure in that exercise, and I will increase the poundage the next workout.
Some exercises such as snatches and abs are not done to failure for obvious reasons.

I'm still testing things out, but That's my current workout I'm using now. It is geared more for my athletic goals rather than straight out bodybuilding, but I do want a bit of size to go with it.

 

[coolcolj]

Well today I go back on my diet again for another 3 weeks.
But I've made soem small changes to it. I'll put teh details up in the next few days. Still tinkering with it.

Also I've changed my traing program based on my own research to better suit my own goals - see below

--------------------


I've done some changes to my own program - I'll be keeping a log , so I will get a good idea of what changes my body will go through.

Basicly I now have 3 rep schemes to use -

Explosive - push hard against the weight on the concentrix phase - but slowling near the end to aoid hyper-extending the joint. Then controlling the eccentric phase in 3-4 secs

Normal - control the concentric in a 2 sec lift and lower it in 3-4 secs.

Slow - 5 secs up and 5 secs down.

at this stage I plan to do this whole lot in one session. But I may split em up to keep my workouts under 45 mins, because testosterone drops by up to 80% in the blood after 35-45minutes of working out . So you can recover much faster and workout more frequently if your workout is under 45 minutes.


-------------------------
Lower body
========

Jump hang snatch
2xlightbar warmup
2xOlympic BAR + WEIGHTS (2 vert jumps before each set) explosively, you actually jump into the air here

2 standing long jumps and then do Back squat 1x8 straight after - explosive

Front squat 1x8 medium

Deadlift 1x8-10 medium

reverse lunge 1x8-10 medium

leg curl 1x8-10 explosive

toe jump 1x10 explosive jumps into air using only calves
1x10 with weights

calf raise 1x10 slow - hold the top position for 2-3 sec count

toe raise 1x15 warmup with no weight
1x10 on a Smith machine with weights. This exercise build the shin muscles to balance out the calf strength and helps stop shin splints.



Upper body
========
all have one set 1x8-10 explosive and then one slow set 8-10 reps



Incline Dumbell BenchPress with palms facing inwards

Incline Flyes - good exercise for the rebounding motion

single arm Dumbell Rows on a bench

Chins - shoulder width grip pull to front

Single arm Dumbell Shoulder Press - be very careful here when doing the explosive set

Lying side laterals on a bench, use your elbow to prop your body up at a 30 degree angle. Movement goes to the side. Builds mainly the side deltoid for a wide shoulder and bit of the rear deltoid too. Good for when your extending your arm out to block a shot

Dumbell curl - strength for holding the BBall in the triple threat position

Incline Curl - good for bicep peak

Single arm tricep extension - good for shooting strength. Similar motion to a jump shot

Single arm Tricep Pressdowns

Lying L-Laterals on a bench - very important execise to build up the external rotatry cuffs. Helps to prevent the hunched bodybuilder look, stops injury to your shoulders when you dunk or block a shot etc

Abs - I do crunches on a swiss ball with weights for my upper abs. And then I lie on the ground and put my hands under the natural cuvre of my lower back and flatten my back into the my hands - this works the lower abs and surrounding muscles.
Very important for stability when jumping and all movements.

 

[coolcolj]

My new schedule

Anyway here's an update.

I'm dieting again now, but not dieting
The way I eat now is more lifestyle change, but I'm still losing bodyfat quite quickly! And with no risk of muscle loss, infact I'm gaining muscle at a small but steady rate.

The thing is, I don't need a carb cycling diet. This type of diet is for bodybuilders getting ready for a show, where they pretty much shut up shop as far as training and size goes.

I'm an athlete so I need to train intensely to gain strength and size, while stripping away bodyfat. Much like a powerlifter in many ways that has to make a weight class. And I think I've found the perfect solution - for me at least.

Here's the facts. Last week I was slightly under 33 inches (proper measurement remeber) and now its 32.25 this morning without any diet hardships!! Bodyweight between 83-84kg, means I'm hovering around 12% bodyfat. Visually my waist does look smaller and the outlines of my obliques are starting to press forward. Even flexing my abs and pinching the skin there feels much tighter. And when lying down my hip bones are starting to push out more.

There are more variables in my situation than just diet - let me show you -

Sprinting hasn't helped me the last 2 weeks, because I haven't done any, the bad weather is one reason.
But I have changed my weight training sessions. I have now split my training into 2 parts - Upper and Lower body.
I alternate between em for 4 days. I've also started doing 1 super slow rep set alongside my explosive sets. That has increased my training intensity to such a point that they mimick the effect of my interval sprints! More so with my upper body session, where I jump from exercise to another with 30 sec rest at most. Lower body training is heavy weights with more rest in between

So my currenty schedule is -
Mon - Lower body
Tues - Upper
Weds- Lower
Thurs- Upper
Friday- rest
Sat - Sprint or Basketball - I'm gonna alternate between them on a weekly basis
Sun- rest

Ok details of my new diet -

The key factor in my new diet is to manipulate insulin responce.
It has nothing to do with calories, I'm eating quite a bit of junk food!

There are 2 times in my typical day that I can eat strachy carbs and not suffer the bad insulin side-effects. Breakfast and after training. After a all night fast, the body is gonna suck up the carbs, and off course the 3 hour window of oppurtunity after training. The rest of the time I'm eating my meat and veges meals. Supplemented by 2 fish oil caps at every meals, a multiviatmin and a calicum tabs(with co-factors)

I'm not carb loading and cycling anymore. No need for refeeds either! My calories fluctuate daily depending on if I feel the need to eat junkfood

I'm not counting carbs or calories and its working great! Infact I even eat junk food at breakfast! For example - yesterday caused me to lost 1/4 inch of my waist this morning and this is what I had

Meal 1 - 4 weetbix cereal + soy milk, 2 sauages 5 minutes later and then 8 cookies 15 minutes later

Meal 2 - small Steak and lettuce

Meal 3 - small steak and lettuce

Trained my upper body - intense 50min session

Meal 4 - Fried rice and 2 sauages

Meal 5 - 4 slices of roast beef and lettuce

I got at least 250 gram of carbs, the cookies have a lot in em - its when you take em that's the most important thing!

 

[coolcolj]

me at 33 inch waist

today 32.25inch - 83+kg (183lbs) about 12-13% bodyfat
at 5'9"

Relaxed

Abs flexed

legs at 32.25inch waist

nobody wants to see my ugly head so off it goes

 

[coolcolj]

very strange, I did another upper bodyworkout yesterday and lost another 1/4 inch of my waist!

My waist finally cracked 32 inches !
5 inches to go

Must have something to do with large levels of lactic acid when you train super slow.

I'm almost at the same fat levels I had as a 18 year old.
Here is some funny facts.

At 20 I was far stronger than I am now, and leaner too with a 28.5 inch waist and weighed 69kg 152lbs

I went on layoff until I was 26. And had a 30.5 inch waist then and through just playing basketball weighed 90kg or around 200lbs!

Now at 31 I weigh 184lbs, have a waist just under 32 inches and the same strength levels I had when I was 26, but weigh a lot less and I'm still fatter. Its amazing how much size I put on just playing basketball! Crazy must be all that jumping I did, 6 hours per week of it.

 

[MASSIVEmorris]

Keep it up man, looking good! Out of curiousity (and this goes for everyone out there who posts pic's) ...why do you blur/cover your face? Am I missing something?