Out of Shape 32 Year Old's Log

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 03:55 PM

Howdy folks. I'll be taking my current log which was started on another forum over here from now on. I'm not going to bash that forum but I will take moment to talk about a particular moderator, let's call him "RodentApeboy" - who apparently thinks banning bb.com customers (who've spent ~$100.00 in the past month alone) for no reason is a wise business strategy. No, actually I won't talk about him, it's pointless.

I will ask: Anyone know how to contact the owners of bb.com and any other on-line site that sells workout supps?

With that nonsense out of the way... on with the show. I'll be cut and pasting the log over here from this point onward.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 03:56 PM

The background: I'm currently 32. Will be 33 coming up pretty soon. Doesn't bother me too much. Turning 30 didn't sit well and at the time I was dating a real bitch and she helped spoil what would have been a crappy day anyhow. I imagine 35 isn't going to feel great but I got time to burn before that day rolls around.

I've been in "decent" shape in the past. By decent, I mean as decent as a guy can get who has desire and motivation but didn't quite know what to do when it came to training and diet. A few years ago I finally utitlized the power of the World Wide Web and discovered better ways to eat, how much, when and so on. I also stumbled onto better methods of training. Using that, I was able to make pretty good gains for a bit. Then work interfered and everything went way-side. 1 year ago I re-began my training and once again didn't do so bad with my gains - I started out slow enough and after 6 weeks went on a bulk diet. I put on good muscle weight but my caloric intake must have been a tad high and I was getting a bit too much flubber along with the lean weight. After training for 6 months, work once again reared it's ugly head and I discontinued.

That's all changed now: I work from 10am to 7mp M-F and 10am-5pm on Saturdays. Plenty of time for me to hit the gym, albeit only in the morning. The gym I signed up with gets pretty crouded on weekends and at nights so I'm going to try and do the AM workouts and see where that gets me.

So, one week ago I began my new journey. My current stats are unimpressive enough:
Age: 32 (33 in June)
Height: 5'11
Weight: 180-185
F/B%: 20-21%

As most of you can see, this is neither good nor is where I want to be. My immediate goal is to drop the flubber. I'm also hoping since my body is new to the training that I'm lucky and manage to keep most of my lean weight and maybe even grab a pound or two while I'm initially training. By my calculations, I want to drop my overall weight down to around 165 pounds while keeping most of my current lean muscle weight. At that point, my fat/body weight will be close to single digits (11-12%) and from there I plan to bulk up back up where I am (hopefully not gaining too much fat back in the process). From that point onward, I will evaluate what to do.

I have decided on a 3 day split to start with doing 3 days of low-impact cardio and taking Sundays off. All these workouts, unless otherwise noted, are in the AM (~8AM).

Monday: Chest, Front Shoulder, Biceps
Mon PM: Yoga (for my back)
Tuesday: Abs, Aerobic
Weds: Legs, Calves
Thursday: Aerobic
Friday: Back, Rear Shoulder, Tris
Saturday: Abs, Calves, Aerobic
Sunday: OFF

On a weight training day, my diet usually works as following:

7:15AM: 8 oucnes skim milk, 1 scoop whey
7:30AM: 12 ounces water, 2 scoops No-xplode
7:50AM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1 scoop Muscle Milk* 1 tps flaxoil
8:00AM: WORK OUT
9:00AM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1 scoop whey
10:30AM: Breakfast. ~300-500 calories, high protein
12:30PM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1/2 scoop whey
3:00PM: Lunch. ~300-600 calroies, high protein/carbs low fat
6:00PM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1/2 scoop whey
8:00PM: Dinner. As lunch.
10:00PM: 3/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup lowfat yogurt, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp flax oil

* I usually mix a shake together, split it in half and add muscle milk for pre-workout (and take some flax oil) and add whey to the other half and have it in the car for post workout

I generally drink 1+ gallons of liquids a day. I drink a lot of skim milk, and at work I try to drink at least 3 liters of bottled water a day. For breakfast and dinner, I usually drink skim milk. I've gotten to where I buy them 3 gallons at a time. I haven't had any problems with being intolerant, I like the taste and it's got good protein, so I figure what the hell.

On off or cardio days, the diet is pretty much the same but I cut back the pre and post shakes and have a heavier breakfast after my morning milk and whey shake settles down.

In 2 months I plan to step up my cardio to higher impact. 2 months after that I plan to try out incorporating 1 day of HIIT (prob on Saturdays) into the mix. Don't want to have a heart attack so I'm not pushing it initially. Once I hit my goal of dropping the fat weight, I plan to cut back the cardio and re-evaluate my lifting days - maybe do a 4 day split and lose 1 day of cardio. We'll see.

Today was Day 8: Back, Shoulder, Tri. This was the first day of my training after I'd recieved my package from bb.com containing my No-Xplode. I took only 1 scoop today to test it. I can't say I felt that much but I was feeling groggy as shit this morning and I do think it snapped me out of it. The first few workouts for me are always weird anyway. I'm in such bad shape that it's hard to have serious workouts so I just try my best to get everything I need done and don't push myself too hard. Maybe next month I'll start stepping up my game. I felt a nice pump in my triceps, which was nice. I'm still at the stage where doing very little tends to make me very sore the next day in at least 1 of the muscle groups I work. Sometimes as much as 3-4 days.

Well, that's it for now. Will post a follow up sometime in the next week.

JUSA

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 03:57 PM

DAY 12: Last night I hit my Chest followed with some work with shoulders and then biceps.

I'd really screwed the pooch over the weekend. Normally, I don't drink. It's been 6 months since I even drank more than a drop. This weekend was a fraternity reunion of sorts for me, they do this every year. I hadn't been back in a long time, but I'm in town now (more or less) and I wanted to catch up with some of my old friends. I made a thread in the misc section how fat everyone got so I won't go into it here. What I will go into is how I stayed up late both Friday and Saturday, schluffed off my Saturday workout and spent most of Sunday sleeping off a hangover. A real f'king mess of everything and while it was nice to see some of the guys, I won't be doing that again anytime soon. Need to train. Harder... well maybe not harder, yet, but smarter for damn sure.

My weight hasn't had any solid change. I've actually put on roughly a pound. I weigh myself in the mornings after I hit the little boy's room and at night before I sleep. It actually doesn't fluxuate that much, in the mornings I'm usually around 180-182 and at night I'm usually around 182-184. The overall trend this week is that my weight has gradually increased a tad, I'm guessing a pound overall. My fb% hasn't moved, though, and my scale probably isn't sensitive enough to read too much into this at this point. I'm a little concerned my goal to drop 1 pound this week was not met and I'm more than a little concerned that psychologically, if I start putting weight on I'm going to dump my goal to get a lower fb% and just bulk. Muscle weight is a hard siren to ignore (speaking of past experiences here).

This morning I'm feeling pretty wasted. For whatever reason yesterday I had a hell of a time eating, I just had no appetite the entire day and had to force myself. That's never fun. I also slept in and missed my morning workout and decided to make up for it by hitting the gym in the PM, which I'm not used to doing. (Normally, I'd like to hit the gym around the same time every day...). Sunday night I couldn't sleep, probably because my sleep patterns were f'ked from the weekend. I got to bed at around midnight. Another screw up on my part, can't grow if you don't sleep right.

Expecting a sluggish workout since I was having an off day, hadn't got much rest and had screwed up the weekend, I went ahead and took two scoops of No-Xplode 40 minutes before my workout. As I left I downed a pre-WO shake. It felt like lead in my stomache and this didn't do much to improve my mood about my workout, which didn't sit well for me since I generally enjoy chest days.

My workout was good, though. I thrusted through my chest routeen and threw in a stretch at the end, having read some article on Test Nation about it. Maybe now isn't the time for me to experiment and stick to the basics, but I didn't do much. (In hindsight, I think I didn't do it right anyway and ended up stretching my front delts as much as my pecs. If I do this again I'll adjust my grip to hit the pecs more focused next time around). 3 sets of DB bench, 3 sets of incline, 2 sets dips and then the stretch. Not bad. I'd have done 1 more exercise, but I didn't want to over-do it. Shoudler was next. Not bad but didn't feel very strong, they'd been hit a bit during my chest program and I have almost no muscle endurance at this point. At this point I was very exhausted and finished off my workout with biceps skipping a little but hitting them a tad.

I think here I'll talk about this one moron at the gym. I've really decided that no good can come from those big plastic balls at the gym that you're supposed to use to stretch your back but seem to only get used by jackasses trying to squat with them. I don't normally pay too much attention to other people while I workout but the Y I work out at for some reason only has one pair of 45s I was looking to use for my chest. I look around and see this goofball over on the squat rack... STANDING on a large blue bubble ball... whatever the **** they're called. I'll give him credit for having good balance as he was squatting up and down on it. He had one of the 45s I wanted. Thankfully, he wasn't using it. I thought about it for a moment and walked over to ask him if he was using it. He mentioned I could work in or something. Thinking better of it, I told him I'd just use the 50s. Which I did. Later he was doing some kind of tricep thing with the 45 behind his back.. on the damn blue ball. He was not very muscluar but cut decently. Apparently he was some kind of trainer. Man, the Y must be hardup if they dug this clown up. Later I saw a guy with a sad bowl haircut doing deadlifts. Wanting to incorporate these into my program sometime down the road, I asked him if he did Deads on leg days or back days. He commented he only gets to work out once every 1 or 2 weeks so he hits everything. Wow. Realizing I was talking to the wrong guy about proper form.. or anything... I ended the conversation as quickly as I could (I don't like to talk much anyway.. distracting).

When I got home I drank some old creatine I had lying around. Cell-Tech Grape, I think. You can really taste the sugar. Part of me wondered if it's still good after lying around for 6 months. It probably isn't but I'm sure the sugar is, which my body desperatly cried out for so I drank it anyway. I then took a shower then forced a PW shake down my gullet. I felt like shit. My GF was pissed off, saying I pushed it too hard. I agree. I'm just not ready yet to push my body hard. I tried to go to sleep at 10, couldnt and ended up going to bed at midnight. The bad is I f'ked my sleep AGAIN but the good news is by midnight I was ravenous and was able to gobble down some cottage cheese before I went to sleep.

Today I'm still shot. I have little energy. Muscles feel like they got a good burn, though. My morning cardio wasn't anything special. I hope to eat like a horse today and finally get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is a leg day. I think I might skip the no-xplode or only take 1 scoop. We'll see

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 03:58 PM

Well, I'm almost embarrased to be writing this log at this point. I read other logs and it's usually just people's routeen and done with. Me, I get sick on Tuesday, have a shit workout, get even sicker on Weds, skip work and the workout. Weights been fluxuating more than usual, was 181.5 21%bf this morning. Who knows how accurate the stupid scale is, though. I figure once I drop below 18% BF the scale will officially be worthless and I'll have to get calipers if I want any kind of reliable measurement.

Woke up this morning a little before 7pm. Wasn't easy, the fiancee kept me up late last night whining. Got up, had a protein shake and decided to go back to bed and get my leg day (which should have happened on Weds) done tonight. I'll hit Back/Tri/Shoulder tomorrow in the morning and do some cardio and abs on Sunday to catch-up.

Nothing good to report,

JUSA

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 03:58 PM

No workout as yet. As per some problems I've encountered with my decrease in energy and (especially) sex drive since undertaking my new workouts, I've decided to make some changes to the program. I made a thread about it somewhere else (uhmm.. here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...816#post5530816 ).

I'm beginning to think my body isn't quite ready for this program. I'll ease off working to failure and maybe slow down on the cardio.

I've also decided: Screw cutting. I'm going to continue to eat clean (as I can) but increase carbs and good fats. I incorporated a baked potato into my daily lunch and plan to keep that going. I'll toss in 1 cup of oats, 1 cup low carb protien cereal and 1 cup of bran cereal into my daily shake (I divide the shake into two and drink 1/2 between breakfast/lunch and the other half betwen lunch/dinner).

I ordered some ZIMA and Tribulus to maybe help increase my test levels, if thats a problem. I'm trying not to go suppliment crazy, hopefully once I'm in better shape my body can handle the strain I'll ease off. Also at that point I'll go back to cutting and drop the extra useless weight. A little extra muscle will be helpful when I'm cutting anyway and I don't workout to look skinny so this is probably for the best.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:10 PM

Sat 4/23:
I had scheduled legs today, since I skipped it on Weds. I also skipped out on back/rear-shoudler/tri on Friday so I had a lot of ground to cover. I was going to hit legs last night but when I got home I was pretty spent and given my issues with possible OT, I thought better of going in. I did have a normal love making session with my finacee', so that bodes well for my ailing test levels.

Yesterday I didn't full out throw out my back but I gave it a scare when helping a friend take a riding lawnmover off his truck. I also decided to take it easier by going upper body and hitting my back day. I'll try and get legs in tomorrow and gauge my triceps on Monday. If they're not feeling 100% I'll move my chest/front-shoudler/bicep to tuesday. I'm not sure either way if I'll be ready for legs on Weds (if I hit them Sunday) so I may shove that back to Thurs and by Friday, either way, be caught up on my workouts and back on schedule.

Today's workout was good. I took 1 scoop No-Xplode pre workout about 40 mins and then 10 mins before I workout out was a milk/muscle milk combo. After I got home my arms were pretty spent but I wasn't nearly as bad as I was last tuesday after my chest program.

When getting home, I once again drank the old creatine and took a shower. Then I drank a milk/whey shake. I really didn't feel good in my stomach and ended up spitting up some of it. I'm beginning to think it might not be the no-xplode (it'd been in my system more than a couple hours before I spit up) and it might be the old creatine. I'll have to check and see if creatine goes bad... I'm sure it does, but I stupidly didn't think it might make you sick or something. Serves me right - I'm dumping the Cell-Tech (what's left) and going to go without No-Xplode next workout and see if I gauge any difference. The first time i used No-Xplode, 1 scoop, I didn't have any problems.. however, the past two times which I've felt queezy I did use the creatine. There's a correlation for sure so it can't hurt to substitute it for fruit juice or something for the sugar.

Judging my weight, I'm up a little over a pound this week. Workouts haven't been great so it's hard to say how much of the weight is clean. More and more I am thinking of breaking down and getting calipers and learning how to use them.

That's it for now...

JUSA

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:10 PM

I think my test levels are getting back to normal. Last night marked the second successful outting with my babe. I had a 9:15 appointment with my doctor this morning, which I'd made last Weds I think. I went ahead and went forward with it and told him what I was doing, what was wrong and what I thought it was. He mostly agreed. He took some blood and will get the results back tomorrow. He said if I had low test, he'd give me something to help it. I ruled out viagra and that crap, told him I'd only want to increase my test. He agreed. Now, while I think I will get over this hump in a week or two naturally, I'm not going to turn anything down from the doc, either.

Saturday: Hit Back, Rear-Shoudler and Tricep. All were a little sore the following day (in a good way). This was my first workout to not use the No-Xplode or the shitty Creatine. No belly aches after I worked out. Clearly, the problem lies with one or both of those products.

Sunday: Had a decent workout. Worked legs. Squats, 145x8 for 8 reps. Did two warm-up sets before it and 1 cool down set after. I really felt doing this that it wasn't my muscles which were the bottleneck but my musclar endurance. I was just too pooped to do much more but I felt like my legs weren't the part of me giving out. While I know the weight I was doing was pretty sad - I also know how fast Squat jumps in gains. I wouldn't be surprised to be doing sets of 185 in a couple months. I think the workout was "decent". Legs a little sore today, but in a good way. Skipped Calves.

Monday: Today. I was going to skip this workout but I really wanted to get back on track. I had the before-mentioned 9:15 appointment with the Doc so I was highly motivated to get up on time for once in the morning. I did. I drank down a milk whey shake and waited a skant 15 minutes and took down a milk/muscle milk preWO shake. Not the best, I know but time was a factor. Chest went easy enough. Did straight bar bench press, I was a little worried I'd have no strength here - last time I'd gotten back into shape I stuck almost entirely to dumbells. Even after I gotten up to using 60s when I tried straight bar I was pretty weak. This time around, I'm going to flip-flop between them. 1 set of 95 (x15), 1 set of 115 (x12) then two sets of 135 (x8). Not great, but not the worst. Should increase rapidly, just like every other lift. I stayed on machines for my shoudlers, lat raises and shoulder press. Did 3 sets for each exercise. Only did 1 set of bicep, again - this time not because I was tired but because I'd run out of time (had to make the appointment).

I'm not too worried about skipping the biceps. They get a decent rub on my back days and I'm not one of these guys who equates being in shape with big biceps. Kind of annoys me to see guys doing set after set of bicep curls and ignoring their legs, back, etc... such a small muscle anyway, it's not like it takes much to shock it into growth. Besides, I'll take big triceps over bi's any day of the week... although my goal is to have both.

I've decided to re-try the no-Xplode this Friday with my back day. I'd do it on Weds but there is no way in hell I'm going to take something that potentially makes me queezy on a leg day. Even with the lighter workouts I'm doing on my legs, I just won't risk vomiting all over the place like that. I really don't think it's the no-xplode anyway... first time I took it (1 scoop) I had no problems. I only got sick after I started incorporating the questionable creatine in my post-workout diet. I'm excited to test this theory of mine - really, the no-xplode is freaking great as far as giving you a boost... it doesn't just make you more fit to work out longer, it seems like with every exercise you do it's that much easier to squeeze one or two extra out. That said, I haven't been going to failure since my recent OT problems... but even still, the NOXplode gave me a nice feeling (assuming it's not what made me want to puke).

That's it for now...

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:11 PM

As a ammendment to the last post...

ZIMA and Tribulus arrived today. Went ahead and took 1 of the Tri's when it showed up. Haven't taken the ZMA yet... supposed to take it "60 minutes before bedtime on an empty stomach"... guess I'll do it an hour before my last meal, it also said to avoid calcium (the stuff in Milk and Cottage Cheese, which I eat before I goto bed). Hopefully this will work as decently. Luckily, the Tribulus doesn't have any problems with milk and it doesn't matter when I take it, according to the bottle. I'll take it before bed with my cottage cheese and after my workout with my multi-vitamin and post-WO shake.

Weight this morning: 182. I was going through my daily averages and I only jumped a little over half a pound in weight in the mornings on an empty stomache. The evening weight fluxated a bit more - but the overall average was up over a pound and a half from last week. I'm not reading much into this, though.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:13 PM

No workouts yesterday or today. I was considering going in for a leg day today but I'd just hit them on Sunday. On the soreness scale 1-10, they were a 5 Monday and a 6 Tuesday. Today, they mostly feel OK but I didn't want to push it. I might just consider the Sunday leg day my WO there for this week... that said, I kind of want to get back to the gym. I think I'll push Friday's Back/Shld/Tri day up and hit it tomorrow. Weight this morning on empty stomach and bladder was up again to 183. Although my shitty scale isn't budging much on the % it's saying my fat body weight is, I'm noticing a difference in my belly. Seems smaller. Fiance agrees. Speaking of her, I am pretty sure my test woes are over. I'm not sure what the silver bullet was but some combination of more carbs, more fats, Tribulus and ZMA suppliments, more rest and easing back on the workouts (no more failure) have done the trick. While I skipped out yesterday on the workout, I did have morning sex and that night I was horny as hell so I went back to bat a second time. Not bad for an old man and certainly a ridiculous improvement over the 1 pump chumping I'd been floudering about previously.

Anyway, this is a workout journal not a sex diary. I'll shut up about that stuff for the moment and only bring it back up if it starts interfering with my training or drops off again. (I'll leave it at, both times yesterday were back to the normal excellent level of quality I expect from myself).

Back to my training... man, I really like when you're first working out how your muscles seem pumped all the time. I see myself flexing more often in the mornings after/during my shower. Got a full length mirror - might as well use it. I know it's pretty stupid to talk about gains this early on but I'm happy with the increased fullness in my pecs and delts. Arms look much harder. Actually, I feel harder all over. This is good. Now I just need to keep eating and training to keep this up. Hopefully, no more hurdles but I'm sure there will be many to come... just need to take them in stride.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:14 PM

4/28/05:
I had scheduled to push my Friday workout up to this morning. Yesterday afternoon I toyed with the idea of going in that night (I was ready then) but by the time I got home I decided rest after a long day would be best.

I hit the gym this morning, was running a bit late but not too bad. Fyi, Today I did re-try the No-Xplode. I'm going to make a post soley devoted to this after I end here. Suffice to say: I experienced no problems (quite the contrary, I really enjoy how it stretches my endurance and ability to lift).

In the spirit of trying new things, I also experimented with dead-lifts in my back programm. I did one set, warm-up, of just the bar. Working on getting the form right, mostly. Moved up to 95, did a set of 10. Form seemed off so for my next set I really slowed down and focused on it. Same weight, same reps. I felt good and would have been to go up on weight but my lower back muscles were screaming after 2 sets so I decided this was a good start. Next week I hope they'll be stronger. I really felt it in my legs so I'm happy I skipped out doing legs yesterday... wouldn't have worked. Although, I think once I'm in shape doing legs on Weds and Back on Friday won't be an issue... should be enough time for recovery there.

Back: Good. Deads didn't do much but it's going to be awhile to get those "support" muscles in shape to get me where they will really hit my back/legs. I'm sure there is great benefit just doing them and besides - gotta start somewhere. Did some lat pulldowns and rows. Overall, not bad.

Rear Delts: Tried some new things, normally I toss shrugs into this but skipped out for a different exercise. Can't think of the name right now, but it's where you grip a wedge bar and pull it up to your sternum. Felt good, threw a shrug into it at the end (weight was pretty low for doing shrugs, though). Did another 3 sets of something else I can't think of the name... sitting on a bench with my chest to knees and taking dumbells like a swimmer doing butterfly.. wtf is the name...

Tri: Skull crunch/narrow grip bench combo, then some pulldowns. Felt pumped did 3 sets of each.

Overall I felt good and got a decent pump throughout my body. Ate right after (shake) and had better-than-eggs mixed with a potato about 1 1/2 hours later.. got busy at work right as I sat down to eat. I experienced ZERO side-effects of queeziness or feeling sick this time out. I've narrowed down that problem: Had to have been the shitty old creatine.

Weight: No change. Getting a little heavier at night (on full stomach) but hovering pretty steady at 183 in the mornings.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grant73
"Not bad for and old man?" Damn in 6mths, I will be 32.

I'm about to have a birthday, sue me. I'll be on cloud nine pretty soon when I'm in better shape, bear with me.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:14 PM

THIS POST HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH MY TRAINING, DIET, PROGRESS, SEX LIFE OR ANYTHING ELSE. TALKING ABOUT NO-XPLODE HERE, SKIP IF YOU DON'T CARE

First off, let me start by saying I've used it now about 4 times total and each time I've felt great using it. You really feel when it kicks in and it gives me, a guy just starting, plenty of extra drive and ability to push through what would normally be tough. I remember last time just starting it took me several weeks to get to the point where I'd workout the full 1-hour I was shooting for and often I'd quit 30-40 mins into it due to being tired or lacking mental focus.

My "rant" here is this post I read when researching if I thought this supp was right for me. Most of the reviews were sterling (which I can see why). That said, I say this one guy who gave it a serious bashing. At first he spoke in vague terms, talking about how he got sick & threw up and this-and-that. Most people egged on him pretty hard and slowly his posts got more and more specific. By the end he came off like a scientist pointing out why the body rejects it, etc... at the time I (rightfully) wrote him off as being biased against it. What a bullshitter, I thought. I didn't like how his story changed... at first he was just a guy who got sick, then suddenly he's an expert on the stuff and was able to point out the hows and whys behind it. Whatever. Read a post from "another" user which used the exact same terms why it was bad in another thread. I was sure he was the same guy and was full of shit, so I bought it and figured I see for myself.

I wouldn't have thought much of it, except after the second time where I got so sick. Made me think maybe he was onto something. I've since decided that isn't the case and narrowed my woes to another supp I was taking which might have spoiled. Anyway, I'm pissed that guy came here giving bad advice. Screwing with my head. I may go look that SOB up and toss some negs his way but since he's probably got 10 accounts I wonder if it will matter.

JUSA

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:15 PM

Friday 4/29/05:

Think rest is in my plans tonight. Yes, it's Friday but I work Sats so going to bed early isn't a big thing here. Yes, I'm pretty boring. I went in this morning for some cardio, haven't done it in a while. Had very little motivation. Quit after 30 minutes, not so much being tired as just not wanting to be there. Think my test might be wavering, hence the good rest prescribed for tonight. Didn't get to bed quite on time last night and I got up in the middle of the night - GF had turned off the AC and it was hot. Grr.

I'm actually a day ahead of schedule on my workouts, thanks to skipping legs on Weds. I think I'll go in tomorrow and hit some of the "support" muscles like lower back, calves and abs. I haven't been training any of them and I need to catch up. I'll try next week not to skip out on these little guys, especially lower back since it appears to be a bottleneck with my deadlifts.

Today my muscles feel good. Got a nice warm soreness in my Triceps, feel a decent burn in my back and rear delts. Traps, too. I know soreness isn't a good judge of having a good workout but all the places I hit are a little sore so I'm happy. I'd rate each about 3-4 on my soreness scale 1-10. We'll see if they're still tender tomorrow or not. I hope to be getting to the point next week where my muscles are getting more used to being torn apart in the gym.

Weight continues to increase. 184 this morning on empty stomach. At night before bed it hasn't been going up as much. I'd be worried but my unreliable scale isn't going up on it's calculations for my fat/body% and just by looking I feel like some of the fat is ever slowly melting away from my midsection.

I'm debating whether or not to take pictures. For my own use, I don't plan on posting any here until I have a decent "after" shot to go alongside with it.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:15 PM

Worked the following muscles this morning:

* Lower Back
* Abs
* Forearms
* Calves

Quick notes: Lower back felt much stronger than it did a few weeks ago. Only did one exercise, 5 sets. (I need to brush up on the names of all these things.. the exercise where I sit in the angled chair on my quads facing frontwards and lower my body then raise it. Set 1: no weight, 2: 25, 3: 35, 4: 35, 5: 25 -- on the weighted sets I would drop the weight and go to exhaustion).
Ab workout was nothing special, went easy on them. 2 exercises, 3 sets ea.
Forearms: 3 exercises, 3 sets ea. Only thing of note: Having a weak grip, my middle exercise was just holding dumbells for 1 min. 1: 50, 2: 60, 3: 60. Couldn't keep it quite the full minute on the last 2 and on the last set after I couldn't hold it - I immediately picked up 40s and kept it as long as I could.

Weight last night was 187, a personal high. This morning back to 184.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:16 PM

Nothing new, wanted to go into work today to catch up on paper work... I've been using smokeless tobacco for many years and today I'm hoping to quit it - cold turkey. Been 13 hours so far. Kind of want a chew. Had a greasy lunch (Mmm chicken express) to help with any cravings I might have for salt. While I'm sure this will be a long-term good thing in my life, I'm expecting that in the next couple weeks things might schluff off a bit - especially with diet. We'll see.

Going to hit T-Nation and see if I can find that article about rice and gripping...

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:17 PM

Forearm workout page from T-Nation (no rice, though)

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.d...hydra?id=459981

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.d...hydra?id=459521

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:17 PM

Weight continues to increase. 184.5 lbs. this morning. Workout was chest/shoulder(front)/bicep.

Chest went merely OK. I went straight bar for the second week in a row with bench and didn't alternate w/ dumbells. I was curious if my strength had increased any. It hadn't, much. 45x20, 95x16, 115x12, 135x8, 135x8 --> not overly impressive. I don't think it's much improvement over last week, either. [EDIT: I checked: No improvement] Will check when I'm done here. Next week I'll go back to dumbells. After bench, did straightbar incline bench then finished with some dumbell flys. Will work some dips in next week or do decline.

Shoulder: Not much to report. 2 exercises, 3 sets ea.
Bicep: 2 exercises, 2 sets ea. Weak, I know. But, this is my first week to really focus on them. I'll do more next week and they'll get a rub on Friday with Back.

Took a "heaping" scoop of No-Xplode. Think I might be getting a tolerance for it. Might take 2 scoops next time. Shame, it was fun while it lasted - although, I do think I got some benefit from the stuff. I was really out of it this morning, I'm sure I'd been worse off without the No-Xplode.

Thinking of doing some cardio work tomorrow - not for fat burning but for actually strengthening my heart. We'll see.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:18 PM

Chest & shoudlers feel torn up. Guess I hit them harder than I thought. Biceps, not so much. I think next WO with them will be full-on. They're ready.
Skipped lunch yesterday... couldn't be helped. I nursed my two shakes throughout the day and spread them out... ate well when I got home. Weight this morning was for the first time since I've been tracking: Down! Gotta be the skipped lunch. I packed lunch and a snack today and I made my shakes with an extra cup of oats. Tomorrow is legs and I want to be ready. Ordered calipers from BB.com over the weekend. Haven't shown up yet but I expect them sometime this week. Hopefully with the instructions I'll be able to figure them out... as flubby as I am - I still can't quite believe I am carrying 40 extra pounds of fat. 6 months ago it was like 27. I just don't think I could have put on nearly 15 pounds in that time even with a shitty diet and lack of exercise. We'll see.

Johnny USA · 05-05-2005, 04:19 PM

Chest and shoulders feel fine today. Oddly, forearms still a little tender. Not having spefiically targeted them yet.. well, they weren't in great condition. Lower back also squeeled a bit during squats. I skipped calves (today was leg day), although they feel fine - given the other formerly skipped parts I'd hit on Saturday are STILL aching a tad... didn't want to push it.

Weight this morning, 185. Calipers still haven't arrived from bb.com yet. Hope they'll be here by Friday.

Today was a leg day. Took no-xplode, 1 scoop, for the first time on a leg day. Funny thing about no-xplode - you work out and when you're done you don't feel like you gave 100% and you get home and you're shot and the next day you're sore as hell! We'll see how my legs are after today's grind.. didn't feel like I'd hit them that hard but I was worn when I got home and this morning. Even took a nap at work.
Squats: warm-up, 95x20, 115x14, 135x10, 155x8. Did some leg presses on a pin machine - think I'll not use it anymore. Didn't feel like I was getting much out of it. Threw in some lunges for good measure. Hams: Did the same 2 exercises, 3 sets ea.

05-05-2005, 03:55 PM	#1
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	Out of Shape 32 Year Old's Log Howdy folks. I'll be taking my current log which was started on another forum over here from now on. I'm not going to bash that forum but I will take moment to talk about a particular moderator, let's call him "RodentApeboy" - who apparently thinks banning bb.com customers (who've spent ~$100.00 in the past month alone) for no reason is a wise business strategy. No, actually I won't talk about him, it's pointless. I will ask: Anyone know how to contact the owners of bb.com and any other on-line site that sells workout supps? With that nonsense out of the way... on with the show. I'll be cut and pasting the log over here from this point onward. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 03:56 PM	#2
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	The background: I'm currently 32. Will be 33 coming up pretty soon. Doesn't bother me too much. Turning 30 didn't sit well and at the time I was dating a real bitch and she helped spoil what would have been a crappy day anyhow. I imagine 35 isn't going to feel great but I got time to burn before that day rolls around. I've been in "decent" shape in the past. By decent, I mean as decent as a guy can get who has desire and motivation but didn't quite know what to do when it came to training and diet. A few years ago I finally utitlized the power of the World Wide Web and discovered better ways to eat, how much, when and so on. I also stumbled onto better methods of training. Using that, I was able to make pretty good gains for a bit. Then work interfered and everything went way-side. 1 year ago I re-began my training and once again didn't do so bad with my gains - I started out slow enough and after 6 weeks went on a bulk diet. I put on good muscle weight but my caloric intake must have been a tad high and I was getting a bit too much flubber along with the lean weight. After training for 6 months, work once again reared it's ugly head and I discontinued. That's all changed now: I work from 10am to 7mp M-F and 10am-5pm on Saturdays. Plenty of time for me to hit the gym, albeit only in the morning. The gym I signed up with gets pretty crouded on weekends and at nights so I'm going to try and do the AM workouts and see where that gets me. So, one week ago I began my new journey. My current stats are unimpressive enough: Age: 32 (33 in June) Height: 5'11 Weight: 180-185 F/B%: 20-21% As most of you can see, this is neither good nor is where I want to be. My immediate goal is to drop the flubber. I'm also hoping since my body is new to the training that I'm lucky and manage to keep most of my lean weight and maybe even grab a pound or two while I'm initially training. By my calculations, I want to drop my overall weight down to around 165 pounds while keeping most of my current lean muscle weight. At that point, my fat/body weight will be close to single digits (11-12%) and from there I plan to bulk up back up where I am (hopefully not gaining too much fat back in the process). From that point onward, I will evaluate what to do. I have decided on a 3 day split to start with doing 3 days of low-impact cardio and taking Sundays off. All these workouts, unless otherwise noted, are in the AM (~8AM). Monday: Chest, Front Shoulder, Biceps Mon PM: Yoga (for my back) Tuesday: Abs, Aerobic Weds: Legs, Calves Thursday: Aerobic Friday: Back, Rear Shoulder, Tris Saturday: Abs, Calves, Aerobic Sunday: OFF On a weight training day, my diet usually works as following: 7:15AM: 8 oucnes skim milk, 1 scoop whey 7:30AM: 12 ounces water, 2 scoops No-xplode 7:50AM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1 scoop Muscle Milk* 1 tps flaxoil 8:00AM: WORK OUT 9:00AM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1 scoop whey 10:30AM: Breakfast. ~300-500 calories, high protein 12:30PM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1/2 scoop whey 3:00PM: Lunch. ~300-600 calroies, high protein/carbs low fat 6:00PM: 1/2 packet Myoplex, 2 cups milk, 1/2 scoop whey 8:00PM: Dinner. As lunch. 10:00PM: 3/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup lowfat yogurt, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp flax oil * I usually mix a shake together, split it in half and add muscle milk for pre-workout (and take some flax oil) and add whey to the other half and have it in the car for post workout I generally drink 1+ gallons of liquids a day. I drink a lot of skim milk, and at work I try to drink at least 3 liters of bottled water a day. For breakfast and dinner, I usually drink skim milk. I've gotten to where I buy them 3 gallons at a time. I haven't had any problems with being intolerant, I like the taste and it's got good protein, so I figure what the hell. On off or cardio days, the diet is pretty much the same but I cut back the pre and post shakes and have a heavier breakfast after my morning milk and whey shake settles down. In 2 months I plan to step up my cardio to higher impact. 2 months after that I plan to try out incorporating 1 day of HIIT (prob on Saturdays) into the mix. Don't want to have a heart attack so I'm not pushing it initially. Once I hit my goal of dropping the fat weight, I plan to cut back the cardio and re-evaluate my lifting days - maybe do a 4 day split and lose 1 day of cardio. We'll see. Today was Day 8: Back, Shoulder, Tri. This was the first day of my training after I'd recieved my package from bb.com containing my No-Xplode. I took only 1 scoop today to test it. I can't say I felt that much but I was feeling groggy as shit this morning and I do think it snapped me out of it. The first few workouts for me are always weird anyway. I'm in such bad shape that it's hard to have serious workouts so I just try my best to get everything I need done and don't push myself too hard. Maybe next month I'll start stepping up my game. I felt a nice pump in my triceps, which was nice. I'm still at the stage where doing very little tends to make me very sore the next day in at least 1 of the muscle groups I work. Sometimes as much as 3-4 days. Well, that's it for now. Will post a follow up sometime in the next week. JUSA __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 03:57 PM	#3
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/19/05 (Day 12) DAY 12: Last night I hit my Chest followed with some work with shoulders and then biceps. I'd really screwed the pooch over the weekend. Normally, I don't drink. It's been 6 months since I even drank more than a drop. This weekend was a fraternity reunion of sorts for me, they do this every year. I hadn't been back in a long time, but I'm in town now (more or less) and I wanted to catch up with some of my old friends. I made a thread in the misc section how fat everyone got so I won't go into it here. What I will go into is how I stayed up late both Friday and Saturday, schluffed off my Saturday workout and spent most of Sunday sleeping off a hangover. A real f'king mess of everything and while it was nice to see some of the guys, I won't be doing that again anytime soon. Need to train. Harder... well maybe not harder, yet, but smarter for damn sure. My weight hasn't had any solid change. I've actually put on roughly a pound. I weigh myself in the mornings after I hit the little boy's room and at night before I sleep. It actually doesn't fluxuate that much, in the mornings I'm usually around 180-182 and at night I'm usually around 182-184. The overall trend this week is that my weight has gradually increased a tad, I'm guessing a pound overall. My fb% hasn't moved, though, and my scale probably isn't sensitive enough to read too much into this at this point. I'm a little concerned my goal to drop 1 pound this week was not met and I'm more than a little concerned that psychologically, if I start putting weight on I'm going to dump my goal to get a lower fb% and just bulk. Muscle weight is a hard siren to ignore (speaking of past experiences here). This morning I'm feeling pretty wasted. For whatever reason yesterday I had a hell of a time eating, I just had no appetite the entire day and had to force myself. That's never fun. I also slept in and missed my morning workout and decided to make up for it by hitting the gym in the PM, which I'm not used to doing. (Normally, I'd like to hit the gym around the same time every day...). Sunday night I couldn't sleep, probably because my sleep patterns were f'ked from the weekend. I got to bed at around midnight. Another screw up on my part, can't grow if you don't sleep right. Expecting a sluggish workout since I was having an off day, hadn't got much rest and had screwed up the weekend, I went ahead and took two scoops of No-Xplode 40 minutes before my workout. As I left I downed a pre-WO shake. It felt like lead in my stomache and this didn't do much to improve my mood about my workout, which didn't sit well for me since I generally enjoy chest days. My workout was good, though. I thrusted through my chest routeen and threw in a stretch at the end, having read some article on Test Nation about it. Maybe now isn't the time for me to experiment and stick to the basics, but I didn't do much. (In hindsight, I think I didn't do it right anyway and ended up stretching my front delts as much as my pecs. If I do this again I'll adjust my grip to hit the pecs more focused next time around). 3 sets of DB bench, 3 sets of incline, 2 sets dips and then the stretch. Not bad. I'd have done 1 more exercise, but I didn't want to over-do it. Shoudler was next. Not bad but didn't feel very strong, they'd been hit a bit during my chest program and I have almost no muscle endurance at this point. At this point I was very exhausted and finished off my workout with biceps skipping a little but hitting them a tad. I think here I'll talk about this one moron at the gym. I've really decided that no good can come from those big plastic balls at the gym that you're supposed to use to stretch your back but seem to only get used by jackasses trying to squat with them. I don't normally pay too much attention to other people while I workout but the Y I work out at for some reason only has one pair of 45s I was looking to use for my chest. I look around and see this goofball over on the squat rack... STANDING on a large blue bubble ball... whatever the **** they're called. I'll give him credit for having good balance as he was squatting up and down on it. He had one of the 45s I wanted. Thankfully, he wasn't using it. I thought about it for a moment and walked over to ask him if he was using it. He mentioned I could work in or something. Thinking better of it, I told him I'd just use the 50s. Which I did. Later he was doing some kind of tricep thing with the 45 behind his back.. on the damn blue ball. He was not very muscluar but cut decently. Apparently he was some kind of trainer. Man, the Y must be hardup if they dug this clown up. Later I saw a guy with a sad bowl haircut doing deadlifts. Wanting to incorporate these into my program sometime down the road, I asked him if he did Deads on leg days or back days. He commented he only gets to work out once every 1 or 2 weeks so he hits everything. Wow. Realizing I was talking to the wrong guy about proper form.. or anything... I ended the conversation as quickly as I could (I don't like to talk much anyway.. distracting). When I got home I drank some old creatine I had lying around. Cell-Tech Grape, I think. You can really taste the sugar. Part of me wondered if it's still good after lying around for 6 months. It probably isn't but I'm sure the sugar is, which my body desperatly cried out for so I drank it anyway. I then took a shower then forced a PW shake down my gullet. I felt like shit. My GF was pissed off, saying I pushed it too hard. I agree. I'm just not ready yet to push my body hard. I tried to go to sleep at 10, couldnt and ended up going to bed at midnight. The bad is I f'ked my sleep AGAIN but the good news is by midnight I was ravenous and was able to gobble down some cottage cheese before I went to sleep. Today I'm still shot. I have little energy. Muscles feel like they got a good burn, though. My morning cardio wasn't anything special. I hope to eat like a horse today and finally get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is a leg day. I think I might skip the no-xplode or only take 1 scoop. We'll see __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 03:58 PM	#4
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/22/05 (Day 15) Well, I'm almost embarrased to be writing this log at this point. I read other logs and it's usually just people's routeen and done with. Me, I get sick on Tuesday, have a shit workout, get even sicker on Weds, skip work and the workout. Weights been fluxuating more than usual, was 181.5 21%bf this morning. Who knows how accurate the stupid scale is, though. I figure once I drop below 18% BF the scale will officially be worthless and I'll have to get calipers if I want any kind of reliable measurement. Woke up this morning a little before 7pm. Wasn't easy, the fiancee kept me up late last night whining. Got up, had a protein shake and decided to go back to bed and get my leg day (which should have happened on Weds) done tonight. I'll hit Back/Tri/Shoulder tomorrow in the morning and do some cardio and abs on Sunday to catch-up. Nothing good to report, JUSA __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 03:58 PM	#5
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/22/05 (cont) No workout as yet. As per some problems I've encountered with my decrease in energy and (especially) sex drive since undertaking my new workouts, I've decided to make some changes to the program. I made a thread about it somewhere else (uhmm.. here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...816#post5530816 ). I'm beginning to think my body isn't quite ready for this program. I'll ease off working to failure and maybe slow down on the cardio. I've also decided: Screw cutting. I'm going to continue to eat clean (as I can) but increase carbs and good fats. I incorporated a baked potato into my daily lunch and plan to keep that going. I'll toss in 1 cup of oats, 1 cup low carb protien cereal and 1 cup of bran cereal into my daily shake (I divide the shake into two and drink 1/2 between breakfast/lunch and the other half betwen lunch/dinner). I ordered some ZIMA and Tribulus to maybe help increase my test levels, if thats a problem. I'm trying not to go suppliment crazy, hopefully once I'm in better shape my body can handle the strain I'll ease off. Also at that point I'll go back to cutting and drop the extra useless weight. A little extra muscle will be helpful when I'm cutting anyway and I don't workout to look skinny so this is probably for the best. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:10 PM	#6
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	Sat 4/23/05 (Day 16) Sat 4/23: I had scheduled legs today, since I skipped it on Weds. I also skipped out on back/rear-shoudler/tri on Friday so I had a lot of ground to cover. I was going to hit legs last night but when I got home I was pretty spent and given my issues with possible OT, I thought better of going in. I did have a normal love making session with my finacee', so that bodes well for my ailing test levels. Yesterday I didn't full out throw out my back but I gave it a scare when helping a friend take a riding lawnmover off his truck. I also decided to take it easier by going upper body and hitting my back day. I'll try and get legs in tomorrow and gauge my triceps on Monday. If they're not feeling 100% I'll move my chest/front-shoudler/bicep to tuesday. I'm not sure either way if I'll be ready for legs on Weds (if I hit them Sunday) so I may shove that back to Thurs and by Friday, either way, be caught up on my workouts and back on schedule. Today's workout was good. I took 1 scoop No-Xplode pre workout about 40 mins and then 10 mins before I workout out was a milk/muscle milk combo. After I got home my arms were pretty spent but I wasn't nearly as bad as I was last tuesday after my chest program. When getting home, I once again drank the old creatine and took a shower. Then I drank a milk/whey shake. I really didn't feel good in my stomach and ended up spitting up some of it. I'm beginning to think it might not be the no-xplode (it'd been in my system more than a couple hours before I spit up) and it might be the old creatine. I'll have to check and see if creatine goes bad... I'm sure it does, but I stupidly didn't think it might make you sick or something. Serves me right - I'm dumping the Cell-Tech (what's left) and going to go without No-Xplode next workout and see if I gauge any difference. The first time i used No-Xplode, 1 scoop, I didn't have any problems.. however, the past two times which I've felt queezy I did use the creatine. There's a correlation for sure so it can't hurt to substitute it for fruit juice or something for the sugar. Judging my weight, I'm up a little over a pound this week. Workouts haven't been great so it's hard to say how much of the weight is clean. More and more I am thinking of breaking down and getting calipers and learning how to use them. That's it for now... JUSA __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:10 PM	#7
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/25/05 (Day 18) I think my test levels are getting back to normal. Last night marked the second successful outting with my babe. I had a 9:15 appointment with my doctor this morning, which I'd made last Weds I think. I went ahead and went forward with it and told him what I was doing, what was wrong and what I thought it was. He mostly agreed. He took some blood and will get the results back tomorrow. He said if I had low test, he'd give me something to help it. I ruled out viagra and that crap, told him I'd only want to increase my test. He agreed. Now, while I think I will get over this hump in a week or two naturally, I'm not going to turn anything down from the doc, either. Saturday: Hit Back, Rear-Shoudler and Tricep. All were a little sore the following day (in a good way). This was my first workout to not use the No-Xplode or the shitty Creatine. No belly aches after I worked out. Clearly, the problem lies with one or both of those products. Sunday: Had a decent workout. Worked legs. Squats, 145x8 for 8 reps. Did two warm-up sets before it and 1 cool down set after. I really felt doing this that it wasn't my muscles which were the bottleneck but my musclar endurance. I was just too pooped to do much more but I felt like my legs weren't the part of me giving out. While I know the weight I was doing was pretty sad - I also know how fast Squat jumps in gains. I wouldn't be surprised to be doing sets of 185 in a couple months. I think the workout was "decent". Legs a little sore today, but in a good way. Skipped Calves. Monday: Today. I was going to skip this workout but I really wanted to get back on track. I had the before-mentioned 9:15 appointment with the Doc so I was highly motivated to get up on time for once in the morning. I did. I drank down a milk whey shake and waited a skant 15 minutes and took down a milk/muscle milk preWO shake. Not the best, I know but time was a factor. Chest went easy enough. Did straight bar bench press, I was a little worried I'd have no strength here - last time I'd gotten back into shape I stuck almost entirely to dumbells. Even after I gotten up to using 60s when I tried straight bar I was pretty weak. This time around, I'm going to flip-flop between them. 1 set of 95 (x15), 1 set of 115 (x12) then two sets of 135 (x8). Not great, but not the worst. Should increase rapidly, just like every other lift. I stayed on machines for my shoudlers, lat raises and shoulder press. Did 3 sets for each exercise. Only did 1 set of bicep, again - this time not because I was tired but because I'd run out of time (had to make the appointment). I'm not too worried about skipping the biceps. They get a decent rub on my back days and I'm not one of these guys who equates being in shape with big biceps. Kind of annoys me to see guys doing set after set of bicep curls and ignoring their legs, back, etc... such a small muscle anyway, it's not like it takes much to shock it into growth. Besides, I'll take big triceps over bi's any day of the week... although my goal is to have both. I've decided to re-try the no-Xplode this Friday with my back day. I'd do it on Weds but there is no way in hell I'm going to take something that potentially makes me queezy on a leg day. Even with the lighter workouts I'm doing on my legs, I just won't risk vomiting all over the place like that. I really don't think it's the no-xplode anyway... first time I took it (1 scoop) I had no problems. I only got sick after I started incorporating the questionable creatine in my post-workout diet. I'm excited to test this theory of mine - really, the no-xplode is freaking great as far as giving you a boost... it doesn't just make you more fit to work out longer, it seems like with every exercise you do it's that much easier to squeeze one or two extra out. That said, I haven't been going to failure since my recent OT problems... but even still, the NOXplode gave me a nice feeling (assuming it's not what made me want to puke). That's it for now... __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:11 PM	#8
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	As a ammendment to the last post... ZIMA and Tribulus arrived today. Went ahead and took 1 of the Tri's when it showed up. Haven't taken the ZMA yet... supposed to take it "60 minutes before bedtime on an empty stomach"... guess I'll do it an hour before my last meal, it also said to avoid calcium (the stuff in Milk and Cottage Cheese, which I eat before I goto bed). Hopefully this will work as decently. Luckily, the Tribulus doesn't have any problems with milk and it doesn't matter when I take it, according to the bottle. I'll take it before bed with my cottage cheese and after my workout with my multi-vitamin and post-WO shake. Weight this morning: 182. I was going through my daily averages and I only jumped a little over half a pound in weight in the mornings on an empty stomache. The evening weight fluxated a bit more - but the overall average was up over a pound and a half from last week. I'm not reading much into this, though. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:13 PM	#9
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/27/05 No workouts yesterday or today. I was considering going in for a leg day today but I'd just hit them on Sunday. On the soreness scale 1-10, they were a 5 Monday and a 6 Tuesday. Today, they mostly feel OK but I didn't want to push it. I might just consider the Sunday leg day my WO there for this week... that said, I kind of want to get back to the gym. I think I'll push Friday's Back/Shld/Tri day up and hit it tomorrow. Weight this morning on empty stomach and bladder was up again to 183. Although my shitty scale isn't budging much on the % it's saying my fat body weight is, I'm noticing a difference in my belly. Seems smaller. Fiance agrees. Speaking of her, I am pretty sure my test woes are over. I'm not sure what the silver bullet was but some combination of more carbs, more fats, Tribulus and ZMA suppliments, more rest and easing back on the workouts (no more failure) have done the trick. While I skipped out yesterday on the workout, I did have morning sex and that night I was horny as hell so I went back to bat a second time. Not bad for an old man and certainly a ridiculous improvement over the 1 pump chumping I'd been floudering about previously. Anyway, this is a workout journal not a sex diary. I'll shut up about that stuff for the moment and only bring it back up if it starts interfering with my training or drops off again. (I'll leave it at, both times yesterday were back to the normal excellent level of quality I expect from myself). Back to my training... man, I really like when you're first working out how your muscles seem pumped all the time. I see myself flexing more often in the mornings after/during my shower. Got a full length mirror - might as well use it. I know it's pretty stupid to talk about gains this early on but I'm happy with the increased fullness in my pecs and delts. Arms look much harder. Actually, I feel harder all over. This is good. Now I just need to keep eating and training to keep this up. Hopefully, no more hurdles but I'm sure there will be many to come... just need to take them in stride. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:14 PM	#10
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/28/05 (Day 21) 4/28/05: I had scheduled to push my Friday workout up to this morning. Yesterday afternoon I toyed with the idea of going in that night (I was ready then) but by the time I got home I decided rest after a long day would be best. I hit the gym this morning, was running a bit late but not too bad. Fyi, Today I did re-try the No-Xplode. I'm going to make a post soley devoted to this after I end here. Suffice to say: I experienced no problems (quite the contrary, I really enjoy how it stretches my endurance and ability to lift). In the spirit of trying new things, I also experimented with dead-lifts in my back programm. I did one set, warm-up, of just the bar. Working on getting the form right, mostly. Moved up to 95, did a set of 10. Form seemed off so for my next set I really slowed down and focused on it. Same weight, same reps. I felt good and would have been to go up on weight but my lower back muscles were screaming after 2 sets so I decided this was a good start. Next week I hope they'll be stronger. I really felt it in my legs so I'm happy I skipped out doing legs yesterday... wouldn't have worked. Although, I think once I'm in shape doing legs on Weds and Back on Friday won't be an issue... should be enough time for recovery there. Back: Good. Deads didn't do much but it's going to be awhile to get those "support" muscles in shape to get me where they will really hit my back/legs. I'm sure there is great benefit just doing them and besides - gotta start somewhere. Did some lat pulldowns and rows. Overall, not bad. Rear Delts: Tried some new things, normally I toss shrugs into this but skipped out for a different exercise. Can't think of the name right now, but it's where you grip a wedge bar and pull it up to your sternum. Felt good, threw a shrug into it at the end (weight was pretty low for doing shrugs, though). Did another 3 sets of something else I can't think of the name... sitting on a bench with my chest to knees and taking dumbells like a swimmer doing butterfly.. wtf is the name... Tri: Skull crunch/narrow grip bench combo, then some pulldowns. Felt pumped did 3 sets of each. Overall I felt good and got a decent pump throughout my body. Ate right after (shake) and had better-than-eggs mixed with a potato about 1 1/2 hours later.. got busy at work right as I sat down to eat. I experienced ZERO side-effects of queeziness or feeling sick this time out. I've narrowed down that problem: Had to have been the shitty old creatine. Weight: No change. Getting a little heavier at night (on full stomach) but hovering pretty steady at 183 in the mornings. Quote: Originally Posted by Grant73 "Not bad for and old man?" Damn in 6mths, I will be 32. I'm about to have a birthday, sue me. I'll be on cloud nine pretty soon when I'm in better shape, bear with me. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:14 PM	#11
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	No-Xplode Discussion THIS POST HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH MY TRAINING, DIET, PROGRESS, SEX LIFE OR ANYTHING ELSE. TALKING ABOUT NO-XPLODE HERE, SKIP IF YOU DON'T CARE First off, let me start by saying I've used it now about 4 times total and each time I've felt great using it. You really feel when it kicks in and it gives me, a guy just starting, plenty of extra drive and ability to push through what would normally be tough. I remember last time just starting it took me several weeks to get to the point where I'd workout the full 1-hour I was shooting for and often I'd quit 30-40 mins into it due to being tired or lacking mental focus. My "rant" here is this post I read when researching if I thought this supp was right for me. Most of the reviews were sterling (which I can see why). That said, I say this one guy who gave it a serious bashing. At first he spoke in vague terms, talking about how he got sick & threw up and this-and-that. Most people egged on him pretty hard and slowly his posts got more and more specific. By the end he came off like a scientist pointing out why the body rejects it, etc... at the time I (rightfully) wrote him off as being biased against it. What a bullshitter, I thought. I didn't like how his story changed... at first he was just a guy who got sick, then suddenly he's an expert on the stuff and was able to point out the hows and whys behind it. Whatever. Read a post from "another" user which used the exact same terms why it was bad in another thread. I was sure he was the same guy and was full of shit, so I bought it and figured I see for myself. I wouldn't have thought much of it, except after the second time where I got so sick. Made me think maybe he was onto something. I've since decided that isn't the case and narrowed my woes to another supp I was taking which might have spoiled. Anyway, I'm pissed that guy came here giving bad advice. Screwing with my head. I may go look that SOB up and toss some negs his way but since he's probably got 10 accounts I wonder if it will matter. JUSA __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:15 PM	#12
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/29/05 (Day 22) Friday 4/29/05: Think rest is in my plans tonight. Yes, it's Friday but I work Sats so going to bed early isn't a big thing here. Yes, I'm pretty boring. I went in this morning for some cardio, haven't done it in a while. Had very little motivation. Quit after 30 minutes, not so much being tired as just not wanting to be there. Think my test might be wavering, hence the good rest prescribed for tonight. Didn't get to bed quite on time last night and I got up in the middle of the night - GF had turned off the AC and it was hot. Grr. I'm actually a day ahead of schedule on my workouts, thanks to skipping legs on Weds. I think I'll go in tomorrow and hit some of the "support" muscles like lower back, calves and abs. I haven't been training any of them and I need to catch up. I'll try next week not to skip out on these little guys, especially lower back since it appears to be a bottleneck with my deadlifts. Today my muscles feel good. Got a nice warm soreness in my Triceps, feel a decent burn in my back and rear delts. Traps, too. I know soreness isn't a good judge of having a good workout but all the places I hit are a little sore so I'm happy. I'd rate each about 3-4 on my soreness scale 1-10. We'll see if they're still tender tomorrow or not. I hope to be getting to the point next week where my muscles are getting more used to being torn apart in the gym. Weight continues to increase. 184 this morning on empty stomach. At night before bed it hasn't been going up as much. I'd be worried but my unreliable scale isn't going up on it's calculations for my fat/body% and just by looking I feel like some of the fat is ever slowly melting away from my midsection. I'm debating whether or not to take pictures. For my own use, I don't plan on posting any here until I have a decent "after" shot to go alongside with it. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:15 PM	#13
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	4/30/05 (Day 23) Worked the following muscles this morning: * Lower Back * Abs * Forearms * Calves Quick notes: Lower back felt much stronger than it did a few weeks ago. Only did one exercise, 5 sets. (I need to brush up on the names of all these things.. the exercise where I sit in the angled chair on my quads facing frontwards and lower my body then raise it. Set 1: no weight, 2: 25, 3: 35, 4: 35, 5: 25 -- on the weighted sets I would drop the weight and go to exhaustion). Ab workout was nothing special, went easy on them. 2 exercises, 3 sets ea. Forearms: 3 exercises, 3 sets ea. Only thing of note: Having a weak grip, my middle exercise was just holding dumbells for 1 min. 1: 50, 2: 60, 3: 60. Couldn't keep it quite the full minute on the last 2 and on the last set after I couldn't hold it - I immediately picked up 40s and kept it as long as I could. Weight last night was 187, a personal high. This morning back to 184. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:16 PM	#14
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	5/1/05 (Day 24) Nothing new, wanted to go into work today to catch up on paper work... I've been using smokeless tobacco for many years and today I'm hoping to quit it - cold turkey. Been 13 hours so far. Kind of want a chew. Had a greasy lunch (Mmm chicken express) to help with any cravings I might have for salt. While I'm sure this will be a long-term good thing in my life, I'm expecting that in the next couple weeks things might schluff off a bit - especially with diet. We'll see. Going to hit T-Nation and see if I can find that article about rice and gripping... __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:17 PM	#15
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	Forearm workout page from T-Nation (no rice, though) http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.d...hydra?id=459981 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.d...hydra?id=459521 __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:17 PM	#16
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	5/2/05 (Day 25) Weight continues to increase. 184.5 lbs. this morning. Workout was chest/shoulder(front)/bicep. Chest went merely OK. I went straight bar for the second week in a row with bench and didn't alternate w/ dumbells. I was curious if my strength had increased any. It hadn't, much. 45x20, 95x16, 115x12, 135x8, 135x8 --> not overly impressive. I don't think it's much improvement over last week, either. [EDIT: I checked: No improvement] Will check when I'm done here. Next week I'll go back to dumbells. After bench, did straightbar incline bench then finished with some dumbell flys. Will work some dips in next week or do decline. Shoulder: Not much to report. 2 exercises, 3 sets ea. Bicep: 2 exercises, 2 sets ea. Weak, I know. But, this is my first week to really focus on them. I'll do more next week and they'll get a rub on Friday with Back. Took a "heaping" scoop of No-Xplode. Think I might be getting a tolerance for it. Might take 2 scoops next time. Shame, it was fun while it lasted - although, I do think I got some benefit from the stuff. I was really out of it this morning, I'm sure I'd been worse off without the No-Xplode. Thinking of doing some cardio work tomorrow - not for fat burning but for actually strengthening my heart. We'll see. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:18 PM	#17
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	5/3/05 (Day 26) Chest & shoudlers feel torn up. Guess I hit them harder than I thought. Biceps, not so much. I think next WO with them will be full-on. They're ready. Skipped lunch yesterday... couldn't be helped. I nursed my two shakes throughout the day and spread them out... ate well when I got home. Weight this morning was for the first time since I've been tracking: Down! Gotta be the skipped lunch. I packed lunch and a snack today and I made my shakes with an extra cup of oats. Tomorrow is legs and I want to be ready. Ordered calipers from BB.com over the weekend. Haven't shown up yet but I expect them sometime this week. Hopefully with the instructions I'll be able to figure them out... as flubby as I am - I still can't quite believe I am carrying 40 extra pounds of fat. 6 months ago it was like 27. I just don't think I could have put on nearly 15 pounds in that time even with a shitty diet and lack of exercise. We'll see. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)

05-05-2005, 04:19 PM	#18
Johnny USA Amateur Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 71 Recipes: 0 Rep Power: 4	Wed 5/4/05 (Day 27) Chest and shoulders feel fine today. Oddly, forearms still a little tender. Not having spefiically targeted them yet.. well, they weren't in great condition. Lower back also squeeled a bit during squats. I skipped calves (today was leg day), although they feel fine - given the other formerly skipped parts I'd hit on Saturday are STILL aching a tad... didn't want to push it. Weight this morning, 185. Calipers still haven't arrived from bb.com yet. Hope they'll be here by Friday. Today was a leg day. Took no-xplode, 1 scoop, for the first time on a leg day. Funny thing about no-xplode - you work out and when you're done you don't feel like you gave 100% and you get home and you're shot and the next day you're sore as hell! We'll see how my legs are after today's grind.. didn't feel like I'd hit them that hard but I was worn when I got home and this morning. Even took a nap at work. Squats: warm-up, 95x20, 115x14, 135x10, 155x8. Did some leg presses on a pin machine - think I'll not use it anymore. Didn't feel like I was getting much out of it. Threw in some lunges for good measure. Hams: Did the same 2 exercises, 3 sets ea. __________________ 5'11 190 lbs (and growing)