[EME]

Originally Posted by animalfan

congrats mike, i'm glad you are back to training!

also, congrats on the house! i just bought and moved into a new house and sold our first house too. hopefully we'll be staying in this one for a long time, i hate moving.

Thanks bro,

We are really excited about the house! ( it's our first house )

Congratulations to you too. It's a great feeling of accomplishment.

We get to move in, in two more weeks! Normally I hate moving too, but I'm looking forward to this one.

Here are some pics!

http://www.MichaelandKendra.com/NewHouse

- EME

[The Chosen One]

Oh wow!! That looks like an excellent house! Definitly my ideal vision of a dream house thats still within the realm of possiblity for me to own when I grow up, definitly a pool too. Have you two ever considered children, out of curiousity? And thats awesome to see, you definitly deserve all of the sucesses you've had, and thats great that your recovery is going so smoothly. Also, i'm curious, what state do you live in?

[EME]

Originally Posted by The Chosen One

Oh wow!! That looks like an excellent house! Definitly my ideal vision of a dream house thats still within the realm of possiblity for me to own when I grow up, definitly a pool too. Have you two ever considered children, out of curiousity? And thats awesome to see, you definitly deserve all of the sucesses you've had, and thats great that your recovery is going so smoothly. Also, i'm curious, what state do you live in?

Thanks TOC!

Yep, we are definitely going to have kids. We're planning on about 2 years from now, depending on how Kendra's Fitness career is going. If things are going REALLY well, we might postpone that, otherwise, she'll probably take 2008 off from competing to have a baby, and then come back in 2009.
Of course planning having babies is not an exact science though.. so we'll just have to see exactly how all that will work out.

Buying this house is definitely part of laying the foundation for those future plans though.

We live in Oklahoma.

Thanks again!

- EME

[Sixpack]

Great to hear Mike I am glad to see things are on the up and up for you. I figured you would be back in to time. Do you have your current diet posted ? ALso when u do the incline to you hang on the treadmill or do with with your hands free. I do it at about 9% at 3.5mph with my hands free its damn hard. Just wondering Mike. Cheers man
J

Originally Posted by EME

Update time!

4 weeks of chest workouts, and upper body workouts for that matter, are in the books.

Every week has gotten better. I started with the Life Fitness Bench Press and very, very light weights 4 weeks ago.

Each week, I have gone up a weight plate on the Life Fitness Bench Press, and added an exercise.

Here is my current chest routine:

4 Sets Life Fitness Bench Press
4 Sets Life Fitness Incline Bench Press
4 Sets Low Cable Crossovers
4 Sets Pec Dec

I still haven't done any free weights for chest, and probably won't for some time, but it felt really great to do the cable crossovers and the pec dec.

My outer pec area had really gone soft and I lost most of that crease that defines the outline of the pec.

After just one Pec Dec and Cable crossover workout, that line is starting to come back and the mass on the outer pecs is already filling back out.

Amazing what just one workout can do.

I still have a LONG way to go, but things are definitely going in the right direction.

Also, I did seated Dumbbell Shoulder presses for the first time since the year.
I did them extremely light, only 10 lbs, but it felt good to lift free weights up over my head again.

Also, I'm back to full speed cardio on the treadmill now. I did my full precontest cardio routine of 30 mins on the 15 degree incline with no problems at all.

Final note, I actually started cutting when we got back from the Arnold the first week of March. Since then, I have lost 13 lbs, and over 1.5 inches on my waist!

Everything is definitely moving in the right direction.

It's hard, physically and mentally to push my chest again like this.. but things worth doing usually are. :yes:

- EME

[Fitnfirm]

Nice house Michael!!!! I know how excited you two must be, its so cool to have your first house. It has some very nice amenities too DO I see a hot tub!!!! We love ours. And the flowering tree in the front will be very pretty!

Whoever owned it took care of it for sure!!!!! Congrats!

[EME]

Hey J!

Thanks!

I do the treadmill at a 15 degree incline from the beginning. I start at 2.6 mph and work up to 3.6 by the 15 minute mark. I do the remaining 15-30 mins at 3.6 mph.

I actually do hang on, but I keep standing straight up, and I keep my arms and shoulders flexed hard the whole time... almost like I'm doing an isometric contraction on the handles with them.

Believe it or not, it really helps to rip up my arms and delts. I'm really not using my arms to hold myself up, it's like I'm doing an exercise with them during the cardio.

I'm probably not explaining that well, but it really does work for me.

This is basically the diet I'm using right now.
I've tightened it down significantly since getting back from the Arnold.

Meal 1:
3/4 Cup Oats. 1 Cup Skim Milk
10 grams BCAA's

Meal 2:
2 Scoops Whey with Water

Meal 3:

1 Chicken Breast or 1 Can Tuna
1 Baked Potato or 1-2 Cups Green Vegetables
1 Tbsp Flax

Meal 4:
2 Scoops Whey with Water

Meal 5:
1 Apple
2 Tbsp. Peanut Butter

Pre-Workout
1 Serving Primed

Post-Workout
1 Serving Regeneration-X

Meal 6
2 Chicken Breasts
1 Baked Potato or 1-2 Cups Green Vegetables
1 Tbsp Flax

I sub the vegetables for the baked potato to make some days lower carbs, and some days higher... some days I eat one baked potato, some days two.... I'm really playing it by ear right now based on what my body is telling me during this recovery process.

- EME

Originally Posted by Sixpack

Great to hear Mike I am glad to see things are on the up and up for you. I figured you would be back in to time. Do you have your current diet posted ? ALso when u do the incline to you hang on the treadmill or do with with your hands free. I do it at about 9% at 3.5mph with my hands free its damn hard. Just wondering Mike. Cheers man
J

[EME]

Originally Posted by Fitnfirm

Nice house Michael!!!! I know how excited you two must be, its so cool to have your first house. It has some very nice amenities too DO I see a hot tub!!!! We love ours. And the flowering tree in the front will be very pretty!

Whoever owned it took care of it for sure!!!!! Congrats!

Hey, Thanks FnF!

Yes, we are really excited, we get to start moving in, in 13 days!

Yep, that's a really nice Hot Tub. Can't wait!

It's going to be a great house for us. Really nice neighborhood and close to everything we do.

It's immaculate. The house was built in the 90's but EVERYTHING has been replaced in the last couple years. All new appliances, brand new heating and air and water heater, all new thermal windows in the whole house, all last year. The pool and the underground tornado shelter were both even put in new last year!

The couple we are buying it from clearly intended to stay for a long time, but something happened and they had to move.

Oh darn!

LOL. Can you tell I'm excited about it??

- EME

[Fitnfirm]

The couple we are buying it from clearly intended to stay for a long time, but something happened and they had to move.

Oh darn!

LOL. Can you tell I'm excited about it??


Ya once in a lifetime you stumble upon a great deal, I think I even see a hint of a stinker in that OH DARN I cannot believe it has that much new and updated stuff in it! You dont have to do anything but maybe paint a new color if you wanted, how nice is that! That master bedroom is cool, I love the walls in there & Window shape. Just wait till the green grass comes! Ill be you suddenly have many male friends coming to visit when they get a look at Kendra :yes:

[EME]

That's not even the master bedroom..... it's an upstairs gameroom/ extra room. It's huge! It's actually going to be our workout room. The color is really cool They did a neat paint technique in there.

We have 4 other bed rooms in the house, not counting the game room, and we only have furniture for 2 bedrooms right now!

The master bedroom is really nice too. It has a HUGE walk in closet ( which Kendra has already claimed entirely for herself ) almost the size of our current guest room in our apt. The master bath also has a really big jacuzzi tub and a seperate shower. Very nice.

- EME

Originally Posted by Fitnfirm

The couple we are buying it from clearly intended to stay for a long time, but something happened and they had to move.

Oh darn!

LOL. Can you tell I'm excited about it??


Ya once in a lifetime you stumble upon a great deal, I think I even see a hint of a stinker in that OH DARN I cannot believe it has that much new and updated stuff in it! You dont have to do anything but maybe paint a new color if you wanted, how nice is that! That master bedroom is cool, I love the walls in there & Window shape. Just wait till the green grass comes! Ill be you suddenly have many male friends coming to visit when they get a look at Kendra :yes:

[Fitnfirm]

Holy cow, you really hit the jackpot there!!!!!!! Im sure Kendra has alot clothes!!!!! I hope you two dont lose each other there, You may need 2 way radios LOL

[EME]

Had to talk about the house for a few because it's a big thing going on in our lives right now...


OK.....Back to the Pec Tear log


More to come after tomorrow night's workout.

- EME

[Fitnfirm]

I thought white potatoes were bad for us? Splain please

[EME]

Originally Posted by Fitnfirm

I thought white potatoes were bad for us? Splain please

There is nothing inherently wrong with russet potatoes.

They are higher GI than some other carbs, but they have a place in nutrition also. They are excellent for refilling glycogen stores if/when you don't want to use a sugar.

It really depends on what your goal is.

Remember, whether you store any carbs or calories comes down to the timing of the intake of those calories, and your total caloric deficit or surplus.

I'm currently operating in a caloric deficit...... I'm down almost 15 pounds now in the last month. My body isn't storing anything at the moment.

I'm primarily using the baked potatoes as a glycogen filler on the days I need it. I tend to do vegetables for 2-4 days, and then potatoes for 2-3 days.

My situation is a bit different than a normal person cutting though, because I am also filling back out as I recover from my injury and surgery. Keeping my glycogen stores full is an essential part of making sure my muscles recover properly.

In the offseason, I have found that I personally carb load better with russet potatoes than I do with lower GI carbs such as sweet potatoes or brown rice. When carb loading for contest prep, however, I use a lower GI carb just to make sure I can control the rate of load better, and be sure not to spill over.

- EME

[Sixpack]

Thanks Mike everything looks good. ITs really amazing how one gets to know his or her body very well. You know how your body reacts to the different foods you take in thats for sure live and learn,I have found many things that work good for me being diabetic. I am down to about 183 now one more pound to go then its going up to 200 baby hehe. You have to do what is best for you. About the house so if I come visit there is plenty of room for me to stay :fingersxd

LOL I hope to see ya at the "O" man
J

[2Ripped4U]

Haven't checked out your log in awhile EME, congratz on back to lifting!

[Viperspit]

Hi Mike, just found this thread. Congrats on the recovery, sounds like your doing well and feeling a lot better about the workouts. Congrats as well on you and Kendra being homeowners. Nice place, when's the first pool party? :line: