2 D ventures into the 3rd DIMENSION!

[2 D]

Hey hey!

This will be my first fitness log, hopefully it will last a while.

My Beliefs & Wants
I personally believe in mind over body, but to have the two in harmony is a healthy balance everybody should strive for. I don't like the concept of rest or not working out, so yeah rest days are tough for me. I believe if you want it bad enough you'll work hard and long enough to achieve it. I want ultimate fitness and ability, I am NOT striving for a look, I am striving for strength and fitness and health first and foremost, the LOOK will come with it in time.

My past efforts & Failures
I started out a large lad, around 2003 I was sitting at something like 280 lbs. For the latter part of my teenage years I said to hell with it and ate whatever I wanted, whenever. Looking back, from a calorie standpoint, I wasn't eating a huge amount of food, but what I was eating was extremely unhealthy. Sweets, junk food and booze etc. whenever. I didn't like the way I looked, even more I hated the way I felt, so I decided to change. First I eliminated fast food, then sweets and then began eating cleaner, at least at the time I thought it was clean, it was still crap though. Then I began working out, basic calisthenics and some light cardio as I didn't have access to a gym, I had to ride a mountain bike and jog lightly. I wasn't always out of shape, as a kid I could keep up athletically with anybody in school and best most of my peers regularly in athletics until high school. I began rowing on the school's club rowing team and was super fit for my freshman year. I tweaked my back and decided to quit, also the coach was a dirt bag, so I stopped rowing. Unfortunately this is when I stopped exercising all together.

Fast forward about two years and I began eating fruits and vegetables, began eating mostly whole grains and some meats. I became obsessed with fat loss, did LOADS of cardio, some minor weight training and was eating clean and in a massive caloric deficit. I was working out no less than an hour a day of high intensity cardio, primarily running. My workouts of choice were stationary bike, running and swimming. Was eating mostly grains and fruit, very low fat and protein diet, I'd eat like 8 bowls of plain cheerios a day and a few bowls of oats, add some fruit and salads etc. I didn't have much muscle to begin with, but this diet as you can imagine really didn't help preserve it, much less build it. I hit a plateau and thought I just needed to increase my intensity and duration of cardio, so I began running faster and further, swimming longer and harder etc. I also lowered cals, this helped a bit. Got down to around 186 lbs. at 5'11". Injured myself bad and relied on swimming as my primary workout until about a year ago when I discovered this site and so it began. I experimented with new diets and supplements, learned the significance of nutrition and proper eating habits. I looked into weight training and studied it hard, began adding it to my regimen. Of course my body was starved, so I put on weight, luckily I was so active at the time, it probably came in the form of muscle.

Now here I am, much more knowing than before, but still green behind the ears.

Current Status
Short term goals: Lower body fat, get into former shape without losing muscle.
Near Future goals: Get down to about 185 lbs. without losing muscle or strength, this time the healthy way.
Long term goals: Compete in an Ironman competition and place well.

The Diet
Basically I'm trying to strive towards a nutrition plan along the lines of the paleo diet. Almost everything coming from nature, mostly focusing on eating meats, (chicken, lean steak, lean turkey), oats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and maybe some dairy. I'm going to be aiming for around 1,900-2,000 calories a day, don't have a particular macro breakdown, just want to focus on getting in my protein and fat requirements in daily, then fill the rest w/carbs.

Supplements
GF Pro Whey Protein Isolate
Supplement Direct bulk L-Leucine
NOW ADAM
NOW Super Omega 3-6-9

Stats
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 218 lbs. (Been lax lately *sigh*)
Age: 24

Training:
Monday
Full body weights + cardio & conditioning
Tuesday
A.M. workout = Weights + Conditioning
P.M. workout = Conditioning/Cardio
Wednesday
Full body weights + cardio & conditioning
Thursday
A.M. workout = Weights + Conditioning
P.M. workout = Conditioning/Cardio
Friday
Full body weights + cardio + conditioning (Marathon workout)
Saturday
Rest or Active recovery, depends on how sore & fatigued I am.
Sunday
A.M. Workout light weights & conditioning
P.M. workout Conditioning/cardio

That is the plan for now. I'll be in school this summer, finishing up some courses and I have two classes on Monday's and Wednesdays which only allow time for an evening workout or a VERY early morning workout (I'd have to run outside as the gym won't be open this early). Tuesdays, Thursdays and the weekend all allow for two workouts per day. I'm going to try following this regimen to see how my body holds up, I've done intensive training like this in the past and held up well, so hopefully the body is up for the mind's challenge.

I hope to have some cameras later this summer so I can post some culinary confections, as well as training stuff. I'm low on cash right now and looking for a job, so hopefully that will come a little later on with my log.

Fitday link is in my signature.

[2 D]

Full Body workout


Monday May 5th 2008
Leg stretching
10 minute moderate intensity warmup on fit cycle
Bulgarian Split Squats
45 lbs. x 10 x 10, 50 lbs. x8 x8
Superset into
D.B. Side Lateral Raises
20 lbs. x10 x10 x10 x10
wanted to keep weight low, work on form here
3 min recovery @ Moderate intensity on Fit cycle in between sets
T-Bar Row
3 plates x8 x8 x8 x8
Superset into
Bodyweight Dips
x12 x12 x12 x12
3 min recovery @ Moderate intensity on Fit cycle in between sets
Flat D.B. Press
2-70 lb. d.b. x8, x10, x12, x10
Bit lower in weight than usual, really wanted to focus on range of motion and form here, felt great.
Superset into
D.B. Concentration Curls
30 lb. d.b. x12, x12, x12, x12
3 min recovery @ Moderate intensity on Fit cycle in between sets

Total Effort: 6/10
Run Before you can walk factor: BITCH/10

*sigh* I had a rough session yesterday, my legs had massive DOMS from yesterday's training. I normally would have done conditioning post-lift, but I was feeling very sluggish today for no apparent reason. Ate a LOT of food last night, so I might do a second workout today sometime to help blast some extra cals. I was impressed with my form today, struggled a tinge on the Bulgarian split squats due to the massive amount of DOMS, but aside from that everything else was nice and fluid

[xquick]

FIRST

glad u started this

[xquick]

for easing your way back in those are some good numbers man. glad to see this thing rolling

[2 D]

FIRST

glad u started this

Thanks greg, glad to have someone on board. Either going swimming tonight or out drinking w/my friends. I could do both, but my pwo nutrition would be several beers as I would have to go straight from the pool to the bar likely.

[matthor]

hey dude, subbed for sure.

off to work but i'll have a thorough read tomorrow morning.

good job starting the journal

[xquick]

Thanks greg, glad to have someone on board. Either going swimming tonight or out drinking w/my friends. I could do both, but my pwo nutrition would be several beers as I would have to go straight from the pool to the bar likely.

wats wrong with that, carbs pwo

just order some chicken fingers to get the protein

[2 D]

hey dude, subbed for sure.

off to work but i'll have a thorough read tomorrow morning.

good job starting the journal

Thanks Matt, glad to have you on board along w/greg!

wats wrong with that, carbs pwo

just order some chicken fingers to get the protein

Heh, ended up skipping that swim, it was like 7:00 P.M. and the pool closes now at 8:00 P.M. instead of the 11:00 P.M. like during the academic year. So I went out drunk bowling with some buddies that were in town for a last few nights. Came back, gonna do some laundry, wake up and kill it conditioning tomorrow.

Just ate my last cottage cheese and oats tonight while on this diet. It's gonna be a funky diet for sure, but I had success following a similar diet. I'll probably keep whey protein just because I don't feel like eating 2 pounds of chicken every day.

[2 D]

Conditioning


Light Leg stretching/warmup
10 minute moderate intensity on fit cycle (Supposed to be a warmup, but got my heart rate way too high and said screw it, kept it moderate paced).


Deck of Cards
Heart = Pushup # on card x 2
Spade = 10 lb. Medicine Ball slam # on card x 2
Club = Sprint Mountain Climbers x 4
Diamond = 65lb. D.B. Swings
Joker = 250 meter sprint on erg

Jacks = 11
Queens = 12
Kings = 13
Ace = 14

Ok this was actually a pretty challenging day, wanted to keep the duration of the Erg sprints down as I'm slightly out of my regular shape. These were still pretty tough especially since I added two extra Jokers to the deck from another deck before the workout. The backside of the new joker cards were colored blue, while the deck I was using was colored red, so when a joker was up I could see it coming as the color cards would go from red to blue. I didn't really stop to rest during this, took one or two active recovery breaks where I just stood in the same place and did body weight squats, 20 reps both times.

Going for a run or a swim tonight, haven't decided, it will depend on time and the weather.

Total Duration = 38 minutes, 20 seconds
Effort = 8/10
Run Before You can Walk factor = 1/10

Cool down = 10 minute slow cycle on Fit Bike
Leg Stretching

[The Solution]

Subbed, but got a few Questions

you lift 6 days a week? do you think thats excessvie
Also 2k calories.. I think thats light for cutting/bulking for your size

Anyways I cant wati to see where this takes you man!

[2 D]

Subbed, but got a few Questions

you lift 6 days a week? do you think thats excessvie
Also 2k calories.. I think thats light for cutting/bulking for your size

Anyways I cant wati to see where this takes you man!

Great to have you aboard bob.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out my maintenance calories right now. For a while I was working out around 3+ hours a day, weights, conditioning, cardio etc. I was eating like 3,000 a day (check out fitday journal around mid-April).

So I'm resetting to around my BMR for about a week or two to see a few things, like body composition, strength, endurance, look and energy levels. Something I found extremely odd, was when I upped the carbs and the calories, I actually lost strength. I was repping 225 5 times on flat bench, now I'm down to 200 lbs. I can't figure out what went wrong.

Once I get feeling slightly normal again, I'm going to up it to around 2,300 or so and see how that treats me. This journal is also an experiment in terms of nutrition, I'm excited about the paleo diet.

As for lifting, no I lift about 4 days a week, right now they're full-body workouts. Looking to switch to a new weight routine here soon, I came across a regimen on these forums which is very interesting and unique, a modified West Side for Swimmers. Since I'll be swimming a lot and conditioning, I feel this will help build power without losing mass and also allow my muscles ample recovery for conditioning and swimming.

[The Solution]

From a bystander viewpoint, seems like ur body needs the kcal from being overtrained, and that you were still in a major caloric defecit, so ur going to see ur weight jump a bit trying to get ur metabolism back in check.

a lot of us have gone through this stuff, and ive been there with 2 hrs of workouts a day + about 700-800 calories,

it sucked but now im up to 4.2k cals and about 45-60 minutes of workouts a few days a week.

I hope u find what u need soon enough.

IMHO you are going to need at least a total rest day just for the sake of ur CNS and recovery.

[xquick]

looks like a good DoC there andy. solid time on that too. looks like u pushed it hard.

[2 D]

From a bystander viewpoint, seems like ur body needs the kcal from being overtrained, and that you were still in a major caloric defecit, so ur going to see ur weight jump a bit trying to get ur metabolism back in check.

a lot of us have gone through this stuff, and ive been there with 2 hrs of workouts a day + about 700-800 calories,

it sucked but now im up to 4.2k cals and about 45-60 minutes of workouts a few days a week.

I hope u find what u need soon enough.

IMHO you are going to need at least a total rest day just for the sake of ur CNS and recovery.

Yeah, honestly I gave my body a full week of rest from the gym and exercise about two weeks ago, it didn't help much. I've been having trouble sleeping lately, maybe more sleep. Part of the reason I'm under-eating right now is because I'm in the process of moving to a new place, once that is over I'll probably try a diet reset and bump up the calories.

looks like a good DoC there andy. solid time on that too. looks like u pushed it hard.

It was difficult, the fact that the rows were 250 meters and not the usual 500 is probably what helped me through this, everything else was gravy though.

[matthor]

got to agree with bob here. I think you are likely over trained from your previous training and lack of adequate food and following the above schedule on such few (such mind bogglingly few!) calories will have you over training in a few weeks if your not still suffering from its affects from previous overwork/undereating.

I get the want to eat more natural foods and thats fine, but eat a lot more of them!

read the articles in Lyles Blog about intervals and steady state cardio and why you shouldnt be trying to over do it: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/blo...ized/training/

I think you're really setting yourself up for trouble with this current diet/training.

Intervals 1-2/week max. If lifting fullbody, 2-3x a week max. Low intensity cardio can be done more but i would just allow your body to fully recover for a while so id keep any extra sessions 30min max and very comfortable

[2 D]

got to agree with bob here. I think you are likely over trained from your previous training and lack of adequate food and following the above schedule on such few (such mind bogglingly few!) calories will have you over training in a few weeks if your not still suffering from its affects from previous overwork/undereating.

I get the want to eat more natural foods and thats fine, but eat a lot more of them!

read the articles in Lyles Blog about intervals and steady state cardio and why you shouldnt be trying to over do it: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/blo...ized/training/

I think you're really setting yourself up for trouble with this current diet/training.

Intervals 1-2/week max. If lifting fullbody, 2-3x a week max. Low intensity cardio can be done more but i would just allow your body to fully recover for a while so id keep any extra sessions 30min max and very comfortable

Yeah I've re-evaluated the training regimen. I was initially scared because I upped the calories and saw weight gain, but it was I believe mostly from what you and Bob are talking about, and that is eating too few calories. The body was starved.

So yeah I'm still damn hungry, so gonna up the cals a lot more and reduce training. I do want to get more marathon workouts in, so upping the cals won't be bad at all.

Going for a run tonight, not going to over-work myself, just want to get back into the swing of things. Total distance shouldn't be much more than 2-2.5 miles, nothing impressive, I just need to get back to running form so I'll start out slow and easy.

I'm definitely going to add in a full rest day to my week and do Conditioning/Intervals inbetween weight training days and do low-moderate paced cardio pre and post lifting.

Thanks for your input fellas, and FYI these eating habits technically have NOT happened yet, I ate around 2,400-2,500 calories yesterday and well on my way to a similar amount today.

[The Solution]

Type up a new split and type up ur diet and macros later 2night if u get a chance, 6 days in the gym working out is way too much.

[svcatch2]

Yeah I've re-evaluated the training regimen. I was initially scared because I upped the calories and saw weight gain, but it was I believe mostly from what you and Bob are talking about, and that is eating too few calories. The body was starved.

So yeah I'm still damn hungry, so gonna up the cals a lot more and reduce training. I do want to get more marathon workouts in, so upping the cals won't be bad at all.

Going for a run tonight, not going to over-work myself, just want to get back into the swing of things. Total distance shouldn't be much more than 2-2.5 miles, nothing impressive, I just need to get back to running form so I'll start out slow and easy.

I'm definitely going to add in a full rest day to my week and do Conditioning/Intervals inbetween weight training days and do low-moderate paced cardio pre and post lifting.

Thanks for your input fellas, and FYI these eating habits technically have NOT happened yet, I ate around 2,400-2,500 calories yesterday and well on my way to a similar amount today.

good choice Bud!! Your making the right decision here, just dont forget to enjoy training and EATING as well....I would like to see what ure goin to come up with MATTHOR had great suggestions of 2-3 full body workouts plus 1-2 high intensity interval days would be fine, if you eat at maitenence you would still lose weight!

[2 D]

Type up a new split and type up ur diet and macros later 2night if u get a chance, 6 days in the gym working out is way too much.

Sure no problem Bob, appreciate the feedback as I know I have a lot to learn and experience yet.

New Regimen:

Monday: Full-Body Weight training, + Moderate Intensity Cardio
Tuesday: A.M. workout - Conditioning P.M. Workout - Swim or Run (both will initially be quite light in both effort and duration, I need to re-establish myself in both sports).
Wednesday: Full-Body Weight training + Moderate Intensity Cardio
Thursday: Same as Tuesday
Friday: Full-body lift + moderate cardio
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Low intensity swim/run OR Active Recovery

Macro's roughly around 220 grams of protein (~880 cals), 60 grams of fat (~540 cals) and carbs about 250 grams (~1,000 cals) of carbs.

Total Cals ~ 2,400

SVCatch: Thanks for stopping in man, I was born a Buckeye and I'll die one.

[matthor]

program looks a lot more appropriate.

You may find those cals are still too low but keep an eye on weight and mood and performance

[The Solution]

Program is good, i would keep the cardio after weights to Low Intensity, sparing muscle mass is better with low intensity cardio.

Looks great, maybe up the fats a bit if you lack calories.

[2 D]

program looks a lot more appropriate.

You may find those cals are still too low but keep an eye on weight and mood and performance

I'll definitely play around w/the cals and adjust them as needed. Going to throw some steaks into the diet, should help up the calories a bit.

Program is good, i would keep the cardio after weights to Low Intensity, sparing muscle mass is better with low intensity cardio.

Looks great, maybe up the fats a bit if you lack calories.

I know... It's just so hard for me to NOT go fast. *Sigh*

Thanks for the feedback Bob and Matt, definitely still need to iron out diet, but that is a work in progress.

EDIT: Bob & Matt here is the new routine I was looking into which would be a four day split and I'd alter physical activity accordingly.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=7584741

[svcatch2]

I'll definitely play around w/the cals and adjust them as needed. Going to throw some steaks into the diet, should help up the calories a bit.



I know... It's just so hard for me to NOT go fast. *Sigh*

Thanks for the feedback Bob and Matt, definitely still need to iron out diet, but that is a work in progress.

EDIT: Bob & Matt here is the new routine I was looking into which would be a four day split and I'd alter physical activity accordingly.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=7584741

Hey bro thats what I like to hear GO BUCKS!!! Now onto your new program, looks alot more appropriate I read the article you posted about the possible routine but w the extra conditioning you do I would stick to 3 full body workouts a week, and trust me you can eat 2,500 cals with this setup you got a still lose weight easily!!!, GOOD LUCK!!

[2 D]

Running Session Tuesday 5/6/08



Total Duration : 21 minutes
Total Distance : 1.8 Miles

Total Effort : 4/10
Run Before you can walk factor : BITCH/10

Meant to post this last night, but I went running around 10:20 P.M. and didn't get back to my place around 10:50, then showered and ate a meal and went to bed.

This was very painful for me, I haven't truly run since last spring when I was in excellent running shape despite coming off an injury. I over trained both with weights and running. I was doing H.I.I.T. for 30 minutes 4 days a week, instead of walking in between sprints I was running at around 7 mph and then sprinting at around 12-15 mph (varied the pace to shock the body). When I wasn't doing H.I.I.T I was doing progressive overload weight training and hit legs hard every day w/Deads, Squats and Leg Press. After about 2 months of this my body couldn't take it anymore and I tore up my lower legs bad, tendons and ligaments etc. Luckily no surgery was needed, but I was told to stay off of them in terms of activity (lifting & running) until fall.

So I struggled with a pace and distance that used to be easy for me, but thats part of this lifestyle is building up your weaknesses, so I'm going to take it slow and gradually increase speed, decrease rest time and increase pace. I wasn't exhausted by any means from this run, but I just felt out of it.

[AllGenetix]

subbed fo sho! loving the work so fat, keep it up. any progress pics/measurments to start?

[The Solution]

seems like the run was more painful then beneficial :*(

[xquick]

smart move to try and work your way back into Andy. sounds like before u were hitting it really hard and there's a strong desire to want to jump right back in and go just as hard, but i think u are realizing somethings you might need to just ease back in. it's tough for sure, i'm probably gunna go through it too when i change things up

[The Solution]

smart move to try and work your way back into Andy. sounds like before u were hitting it really hard and there's a strong desire to want to jump right back in and go just as hard, but i think u are realizing somethings you might need to just ease back in. it's tough for sure, i'm probably gunna go through it too when i change things up

blasphemy, just chow down 4k calories and hit it hard, its a recipe for success and you have been there so I think u know how to get it done greg,

Hows the diet going Andy? 2500 kcal toady?

[2 D]

subbed fo sho! loving the work so fat, keep it up. any progress pics/measurments to start?

Thanks for hoppin on board Kirk, glad to have you. No progress pics or measurements sadly. Don't have video or digital camera yet (hoping soon) and I have to use the University gym and they don't take measurements or even have the needs to do so. It's sad because the facility is not what most would consider out-dated, it just lacks certain things.

seems like the run was more painful then beneficial :*(

Not physically painful, just very psychologically hurtful to see how far I had digressed. In my house of like 170+ guys, I used to be known as the runner, so this is hard for me.

smart move to try and work your way back into Andy. sounds like before u were hitting it really hard and there's a strong desire to want to jump right back in and go just as hard, but i think u are realizing somethings you might need to just ease back in. it's tough for sure, i'm probably gunna go through it too when i change things up

You have no idea, I was going to go to our football stadium as it is unlocked at night, but they're doing construction on it and there was an off-duty police officer there. I like going onto the field and doing yardline suicides with crab walks and bear crawls thrown in.

blasphemy, just chow down 4k calories and hit it hard, its a recipe for success and you have been there so I think u know how to get it done greg,

Hows the diet going Andy? 2500 kcal toady?

Last time I chowed down 4k cals it was in the form of 2,000 clean usual foods and then a jar of Nutella.

Dieting is fine, been at about 2.4k cals the past two days, going to likely finish today around 2,300 or so.

About to go do fullbody workout here soon, gonna change things up and use the elliptical post-lift for cardio instead of bike.

[The Solution]

About to go do fullbody workout here soon, gonna change things up and use the elliptical post-lift for cardio instead of bike.

Strive to get to 2.4-2.5k calories.. bump up that PWO meal if you have to buddy, your body needs the cals.

Also keep that cardio to LOW INTENSITY, i know it may be tough to do, but just take it easy. walk on a treadmill awtch some TV, turn up the tunes and your good to go.