Michigan Muscle Boy

Arnold's fallen off the wagon and so have I

So, I was talking with the Big Girl today, and she told me she had dropped the metabolic diet.  My wife had been asking me exactly why I had been doing it.  I won't speak for Nancy, but for me, it was just too neurotic.  You were constantly watching what you ate and trying to figure out if you were having too many carbs.  It was also difficult transitioning on the weekends (that's where Nancy lost it).

I also started max strength today.  Arnold and I will do it on Friday.  Here was the deal:

• Leg press (75% 1 RM): 400 lbs./8 reps X 4 sets
• Free standing rack pull (60%): 135/8 reps X 4 sets
• Bench press (75%): 145/8X4
• Seated cable row with wide bar (75%): 130/8X4
• Seated Calf (75%): 150/8X4
• Weighted crunches with 25 lb medicine ball: 10X4

The free standing rack pull is a partial stiff legged dead lift.  The seated cable row is like a bent row.

Let them eat chicken

So, on the weekends, I've taken to regalling myself in chicken dishes, a lot of times with rice and beans.  I think it has to do with the fact that I eat so much red meat during the week on the good ole anabolic diet.  We're heading into a new phase of max strength.  I have to be honest, with all these work pressures, particularly the strike that continues on in a new "fact finding" mode, I just have not had the time to update.  I wonder about the wisdom of max strength with all of this, but I promised Arnold.

A Muscle Definition Workout

So, yesterday I mentioned I would describe one of our muscle definition workouts.  The basic regimen with these is that we do a superset of two exercises for 30 reps each at 30%–50% 1RM, rest 30 seconds, and repeat 2 more times.  We then move on to the next superset.  We do this for four supersets.

These can really knock you out.  Today's superset focused on the upper body.  Here's what we did:

• Bench (75lbs)/Dumbbell Shrug (30lbs)
• Incline flyes (25lbs)/Calf raises at 45 degrees (100lbs)
• Side Lateral (8lbs)/incline dumbell curl (20lbs)
• Seated calf raise (80lbs)/front dumbbell press (20lbs)

It was fun workout that Nancy and I pulled off together.

Onward

Well, the strike continues or maybe not, but I've decided to move on.  As a new faculty, I'm not on strike because I am in a weird gray zone, and the president of the union advised us all not to go on strike.  I'm also not picketing but have brought various sustenance to the picketers.  They're colleagues.  I've never been in a situation where I was on the opposite side from management.  It's a stressful line to tread, hence the last post.

I responded to comments on that post.  I really appreciate the support.

We've been doing a lot of workouts, and I have not been reporting on them too well.  Here's where we stand.  Right now, we are concluding a muscle definition phase after having started our metabolic diets.  We did the muscle definition phase to figure out how it worked before Nancy got hot on her competition.  We're doing one tomorrow, so I'll write up what it is like then.

Next week, we may begin a three week max strength period.  When we have done max strength in the past, the one thing I have remarked is the level of mental concentration it takes.  I wonder if now is the time to do it. 

Diane, a reader who commented on the last post, notes that she has done some figure competitions and is interested in following Nancy's progress in her preparation for the next bodybuilding competition (here and here).  Diane, I highly recommend looking at Serious Strength Training.  For female bodybuilders, they focus a lot on max strength and muscle definition.  We will do more hypertrophy than they recommend, probably all of October, November, and December.  In our most recent podcast, Nancy and I discuss some of her training goals.

Eastern Michigan, A Challenging Start

So, I never really talk about what I do, but the whole damn thing has shot to hell.  For nine years, I worked as a professor at University of Michigan.  Then I didn't make tenure there, so I switched this year to Eastern Michigan, which seemed like it had some possibilities.  I arrive, and that day the whole damn place goes on strike.

The strike is acrimonius, and it sucks to start this way.

This blog provides a good overview of what is going on from someone who has been there longer than me.

Ketchup: The New Sports Supplement

As the big girl targets another bodybuilding show, I've decided to take on the role of her sports supplements adviser.  My first recommendation: ketchup, but only in quantities small enough not to blow her anabolic diet.

I think I've finally got the low carbs and lifting thing figured out.  Oddly, it seems to involve eating a McDonald's double quarter pounder with cheese without the bun and a bit of ketchup about 1/2 hour before hitting the gym (right around 500 calories, mostly from fat, my new fuel).  Timing food intake seems to be key.  I'm also thinking I might have to up carbs a bit during the week from the not more than 30 grams I'm currently doing.  Andy's given me some ideas for how to do that.

At any rate, I had a great workout today, a 15 rep per set wonder with 60 seconds rest between sets.  Today was a hypertrophy day in the medium microcycle.  Here's the workout:

• Bench (60% 1RM): 115lbs/15 reps X 4 sets
• Incline flye (60%): 30/15X4
• Dumbbell front press (60%): 35/15X4 (drop setted down to 30 starting second set)
• Cable lateral raise (65%): 21.25/15X4
• Dumbbell shrug (60%): 50/15X4
• Dumbbell incline curls (60%): 30/15X3; 25/15X1
• Calf raises (60%): 120/15X4

I've started some mild shoulder issues which I managed to fix by altering angle on some of the exercises.  I've become convinced that the shoulder thing relates back to a dislocation I had as a kid.  If I manage it and stretch a bit, I do OK.

Burning down the house for carbs

A picture might say a thousand words here, but it's too late for that.  Yesterday, in my desperation for toast, I double toasted three slices of Zingerman's sourdough bread in our toaster oven.  Well, mistake.  The bread caught fire, and then amazingly, the toaster oven caught fire, or at least parts of it.  Lots of burning plastic smell.

Fortunately, the conflagration stopped at the toaster oven.  I tried spraying it with our fire extinguisher, but our fire extinguisher had lost its charge over the years.  Fortunately, as my wife counseled, just keeping the door closed deprived the fire of enough oxygen to put it out.

What a mess.

I'm now toasting in our full scale oven.  I guess you can lead a man to carbs, but you can't give him common sense.

More Hypertrophy Training

I worked out at 6:00 PM yesterday.  What a hard time to work out.  I'd been in an orientation all day and was kind of hungry, but I felt I had to hold to the training regimen.

Here's the drill (60 seconds between sets):

• Bench (60% 1RM): 115 lbs./12 reps X 4 sets
• Incline dumbbell flye (60%): 30/12X4
• Front dumbbell press (60%): 35/12X4
• Incline side lateral (60%): 15/10X3
• Dumbbell shrug (60%): 50/12X4
• Incline dumbbell curl (60%): 30/12X4
• Seated calf raise (60%): 120/12X4

It was hard, but I held up pretty well.  However, I was tapped on cardio.

Today, I ate shortly before going in for cardio.  That worked well.

The Anabolic Diet is a Two Phase Diet

So, Chris D. has been wondering how you can lift on low carbs, and Andy, who I actually see in person at the gym, has been raising the same issue.  Andy even went to look up the anabolic (metabolic) diet on the web.

Here's something that I don't think I've been making terribly clear.  The anabolic diet includes a carb load on the weekends once you make it through induction.  So, it's not like a standard low carb diet because you really carb up sometimes.

Also, I've been tracking workout performance, and I may come to the conclusion that I should boost carbs some during the week at strategic times.   So, the idea is to become a strategic user of carbs vs. someone who relies on carbs as his or her main fuel source.

Interesting lunge analysis from Gold's Gym

The image at left is from our most recent exercise analysis of the lunge on the Smith Machine at Gold's Gym, Ann Arbor.  The drawing shows the basic leg positioning at the start of the exercise (yellow) and at exercise's end (orange).  This type of analysis gives a good perspective on the movement's basic elements.  It also shows how well form holds up over multiple reps.  We'll probably use it again.