April's Journal

[aprilai]

after lurking around these forums for a while now, i decided i'll post a public journal here so i can seek more advice to improve myself (fitness and mentality).

age: 16
height: 5'0
weight: 103lbs
goal: lower body fat while maintaining/gaining muscle mass AND train for swimming
bodyfat: 23%

i'm currently an enrolled college student at a community college. i had my first bodyfat testing in the beginning of the fall quarter at 18% bodyfat. as the weeks passed by i started stressing over my classes and gorged on the bakery goodies my mom brought home everyday. she works for a bakery, and receives free goodies often. i started to eat at least 2 muffins or slices of pie most evenings while studying for my classes and justified my binging on how it's unlikely i'll gain weight since i worked out 5-6 days a week. after 2 months i gained 5 lbs (at first i dismissed them as probably muscle mass) but i had my body fat tested again and was at 23%. i was really disappointed with what i've done to myself.

right now i swim for a high school swim team. our season ends in february. we usually do 3 days of 1.5hrs practice and 2 days 1hr practice, but since it's the winter break right now, we only do 1hr sessions.

the following routine is for this week:

monday: 1hr swimming practice (morning), 30 mins pilates in the evening

tuesday: 1hr swimming, 20mins low intensity cardio (bike or eliptical)

wednesday: (just started this weight lifting routine this week)
3x5 SLDL
3x5 upright rows
2x8 military press
3x6 external and internal rotations
3x18 standing calf raises
3x6 bent press
3x15 rope crunches

thursday: 1hr swimming practice

friday: 45mins-1hr yoga
3x6 windmill
3x6 saxon side bend

saturday: rest

sunday: 45mins yoga
3x6 side bends

My Diet:
I'm currently consuming anywhere from 1300-2000 cals a day. My calorie intake naturally zigzags. i find it hard to keep my cals near the same everyday because on some days i'm more full or hungry than the other days. this is something i'm trying to work on right now, since i think it could be what's hindering my progress.

[aprilai]

arrgh, i hate the moment after i finished eating the coffee cheesecake, especially that i ate it as a postworkout. i seriously need to exercise good self-control again, which makes me wonder how the hell i managed to do so well before.

to make up for the overeating today, this is my menu for tomorrow. hopefully i can follow it through!

12/31/04 FRIDAY

9AM: 1 cup Kashi Crunch cereal, 1 cup soymilk, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 2 glasses green tea, 1 fish oil, 1 multivitamin

12PM: 4 oz steak, 1 cup spinach, 5 carrots, 1 cup broccoli, .5 TBSP sesame oil, 2 glass green tea

2PM: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup milk, 1 fish oil, 1 glass green tea

4PM: 3 oz steak, 1 cup spinach, 5 carrots, 1 cup broccoli, .5 TBSP sesame oil, 1 glass green tea, 1 fish oil

7PM: 1.5 scoops Designer Whey protein, 1 cup milk, 1 tsbp cinammon, 1 fish oil

Total: 1191
Fat: 31 283 25%
Sat: 8 71 6%
Poly: 2 19 2%
Mono: 6 57 5%
Carbs: 124 389 35%
Fiber: 26 0 0%
Protein: 111 442 40%

[aprilai]

1. get my knee fixed (torn ligamenet)
2. run a 5k race
3. maintain at 15% bodyfat
4. powerlift at 125% body weight
5. get 2100/2400 on the new SAT
6. maintain a GPA above 3.5
7. volunteer at a medical clinic
8. play more tennis
9. do a handstand walk
10. finish reading walden and thucydides' books
11. decide my major
12. make peace with everyone in my family

[VanillaBean_21]

arrgh, i hate the moment after i finished eating the coffee cheesecake, especially that i ate it as a postworkout. i seriously need to exercise good self-control again, which makes me wonder how the hell i managed to do so well before.

to make up for the overeating today, this is my menu for tomorrow. hopefully i can follow it through!

12/31/04 FRIDAY

9AM: 1 cup Kashi Crunch cereal, 1 cup soymilk, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 2 glasses green tea, 1 fish oil, 1 multivitamin

12PM: 4 oz steak, 1 cup spinach, 5 carrots, 1 cup broccoli, .5 TBSP sesame oil, 2 glass green tea

2PM: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup milk, 1 fish oil, 1 glass green tea

4PM: 3 oz steak, 1 cup spinach, 5 carrots, 1 cup broccoli, .5 TBSP sesame oil, 1 glass green tea, 1 fish oil

7PM: 1.5 scoops Designer Whey protein, 1 cup milk, 1 tsbp cinammon, 1 fish oil

Total: 1191
Fat: 31 283 25%
Sat: 8 71 6%
Poly: 2 19 2%
Mono: 6 57 5%
Carbs: 124 389 35%
Fiber: 26 0 0%
Protein: 111 442 40%

Maybe your giving into those cravinsg becuase your not eating enough? Since I have been eating more, I don't really crave sweets/junk food.

[ChristinB916]

Yeah if you eat MORE of the right foods... the ones that you eating now... you probably won't crave sweets as much even if they are right in front of you. It works for me anyways!

[VanillaBean_21]

Yeah if you eat MORE of the right foods... the ones that you eating now... you probably won't crave sweets as much even if they are right in front of you. It works for me anyways!

I never crave anything. Eating clean foods helped eliminate my cravings.
One time I was making cookies and kept picking at the chocolate chips. I thought they tasted so good. Then I had Natural PB and toast and it was so much more statisfying and even tasted better! My body has adapted to healthy foods now.

[JLB04]

I never crave anything. Eating clean foods helped eliminate my cravings.
One time I was making cookies and kept picking at the chocolate chips. I thought they tasted so good. Then I had Natural PB and toast and it was so much more statisfying and even tasted better! My body has adapted to healthy foods now.

There's that Peanut Butter again its addicting!

[VanillaBean_21]

There's that Peanut Butter again its addicting!

I could probably sit down with a jar and devour the whole darn thing!

[bscrusher]

i am glad to see you are starting to get smart.

i have a few suggestions, and questions.

after lurking around these forums for a while now, i decided i'll post a public journal here so i can seek more advice to improve myself (fitness and mentality).

age: 16
height: 5'0
weight: 103lbs
goal: lower body fat while maintaining/gaining muscle mass AND train for swimming
bodyfat: 23%

i'm currently an enrolled college student at a community college. i had my first bodyfat testing in the beginning of the fall quarter at 18% bodyfat. as the weeks passed by i started stressing over my classes and gorged on the bakery goodies my mom brought home everyday. she works for a bakery, and receives free goodies often. i started to eat at least 2 muffins or slices of pie most evenings while studying for my classes and justified my binging on how it's unlikely i'll gain weight since i worked out 5-6 days a week. after 2 months i gained 5 lbs (at first i dismissed them as probably muscle mass) but i had my body fat tested again and was at 23%. i was really disappointed with what i've done to myself.

right now i swim for a high school swim team. our season ends in february. we usually do 3 days of 1.5hrs practice and 2 days 1hr practice, but since it's the winter break right now, we only do 1hr sessions.

the following routine is for this week:

monday: 1hr swimming practice (morning), 30 mins pilates in the evening

tuesday: 1hr swimming, 20mins low intensity cardio (bike or eliptical)

wednesday: (just started this weight lifting routine this week)
3x5 SLDL

master the regular deadlift first.

3x5 upright rows

drop the upright rows.

2x8 military press

ok.

3x6 external and internal rotations

what is that?

3x18 standing calf raises

good, try sets of 10 reps instead of 18, and try the donkey calf press if you have access. also a standard legpress machine can be used for heavy calf press, it takes the strain off the shoulders.

3x6 bent press

what do you mean by "bent press" and where did you learn that?

3x15 rope crunches

cut rope crunches down to 5 reps per set. do not train more than 2 days in a row.

thursday: 1hr swimming practice

friday: 45mins-1hr yoga

3x6 windmill
3x6 saxon side bend

really? so where did you learn those old school iron lifts? those are GREAT exercises. do them with strict form, and do not dilute their powerful effects by overtraining or by doing so much training that you can not apply high intensity to those lifts. if you are doing those old school lifts you have absolutely no need for rope crunches or any other direct ab work.

if you are doing bent press you are wasting your time by doing miltary press on the same day.

saturday: rest

sunday: 45mins yoga
3x6 side bends

what do you mean by side bends?

My Diet:
I'm currently consuming anywhere from 1300-2000 cals a day. My calorie intake naturally zigzags. i find it hard to keep my cals near the same everyday because on some days i'm more full or hungry than the other days. this is something i'm trying to work on right now, since i think it could be what's hindering my progress.

it is very refreshing to see someone doing those old school full-body lifts. they are going to make you VERY strong.

why don't you do squats or lunges?

if your progress seems hindered it is because of overtraining. cut the volume of your training down to the bare bone and increase intensity. cut out all the cardio and yoga to start, it is not making you a better swimmer or improving your strength or muscle mass, it is only preventing you from recovering, use that time to sleep.

limit your exercise outside of swimming practice to...

bent press
saxon side bend
windmill
deadlift
squats or lunges
calf press

there is no need to do all of these, i think 2 to 4 will be plenty for a while.

do not do squats and deadlift in the same session.

if you must do swimming on monday, tuesday and thursday, do your lifting on friday or saturday only. i suggest saturday, so you can come to your lifting session fresh, apply a high level of focus and intensity, and then recover before your next swim practice.

yes, that is only one day of lifting a week. now you can really apply some high intensity to your swimming practice and your lifting, and accelerate your progress in both. keep your lifting session under 45 minutes.

during your regular swim season i suggest doing very short lifting sessions of one set. these can be done on days you have a short practice or no practice. you can do a number of these short sessions per day. you have to be ULTRA disciplined about not cutting into your recovery.

if you really want to make a dramatic change in the shape of your physique, you will have to give up swimming.

[aprilai]

for the past two days i've been feeling like ****. the relationship between my family and i are getting impassive. i know my family cares for me a lot, but they are being too overbearing. they care for me so much that they always think of what's the safest and 'best' thing for me instead of what makes me happy.

i really hope my parents would just give me some goddamn air. somehow they don't support my beliefs and actions. i dont' even know why they don't trust me. it is not as if i'm not prudent and do stupid things.

i am starting to feel the tinge of depression again. i hate falling in and out of it like no other. i also hate being sad over the things i can't control.

since i'm in a torpor lately, i feel really feeble. nothing tastes good anymore. hell, i don't even feel like eating or exercising. i''ve resolved to sleeping as a solution.

i'm looking forward to the winter quarter. once my classes start, i don't have to think about anything but studying and working. my eating and activities will resume and i won't feel so insipid like now.

[bscrusher]

sorry to hear that a.

what do you mean by "powerlift at 125% body weight"?

[aprilai]

sorry to hear that a.

what do you mean by "powerlift at 125% body weight"?

i want to do the powerlifting moves [bench press, squats and deadlifts] at 125% my body weight. right now my deadlifts and squats are at 90%, but my bench presses are only at 75%. i rarely bench press, so i'm going to start doing them more. usually the reason why i don't bench press is because there's no one to spot for me.

[aprilai]

master the regular deadlift first.

do you mean the conventional or sumo style? and what is the difference?

drop the upright rows.

oops...i just noticed that i meant bent rows, not upright rows. but if you don't recommend that, then what's a better alternative? i picked up the upright rows from coach davis' article on complex training.

what is that?

these:
http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/Subs...lRotation.html
http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/Infr...lRotation.html
i hear they are crucial for swimmers to prevent injury.

what do you mean by "bent press" and where did you learn that?

coach davis' article on ab exercises http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=205abs

really? so where did you learn those old school iron lifts? those are GREAT exercises. do them with strict form, and do not dilute their powerful effects by overtraining or by doing so much training that you can not apply high intensity to those lifts. if you are doing those old school lifts you have absolutely no need for rope crunches or any other direct ab work.

coach davis =D i read your posts on referring to coach davis and so i looked him up. he has a lot of really good information. thanks for referring to him by the way!

if you are doing bent press you are wasting your time by doing miltary press on the same day.

i don't know much about where else the bent press hits. since i did the military press and bent press on the same day, i can't tell the difference. does the bent press hit the trapezius as well? i feel it on my lower back and abs a lot.

what do you mean by side bends?

coach davis' article on real abs

why don't you do squats or lunges?

i am planning to do squats next week. i tried doing the hack squats that day, but after doing two reps, i figured my form was wrong and decided to just do deadlifts and look up on the hack squats again. about the lunges, i forgot to include them in...i did 3x8 of those elevated one legged lunges. i'm not sure of what it's exactly called.

cut out all the cardio and yoga to start, it is not making you a better swimmer or improving your strength or muscle mass, it is only preventing you from recovering, use that time to sleep.

would it be fine even if i keep the yoga for flexibility?

during your regular swim season i suggest doing very short lifting sessions of one set. these can be done on days you have a short practice or no practice. you can do a number of these short sessions per day. you have to be ULTRA disciplined about not cutting into your recovery.

what specific type of exercises?

[bscrusher]

i see, great goal.

for a female to be able to bench 125% her body weight is rare.

the dl and squat are a lot easier. you may find your self able to squat twice your body weight rather quickly if you can get your knee healed right.

having multiple goals is not a bad idea necessarily, but realize this, if you have athletic goals that do not compliment each other, like powerlifting, old school lifting, swimming and tennis. the progress of each, or at least some of these goals, is going to be rather slow.

enough people are becoming enthusiastic about old school functional strength lifting these days that it is almost a sport on it's own. obviously if you concentrated on old school lifting and powerlifting, they would compliment each other and progress in both would proceed quickly. if you did a LITTLE old school lifting to increase power for your tennis stroke, that would work too.

however if you tryed to COMPETE in both tennis and powerlifting, that would not work very well. there is not enough time to devote sufficient attention to each. the time you spent training for tennis would slow down the progress of your powerlifting goals. after a certain amount, the time you spent on powerlifting would slow down the progress of improvement on your tennis game.

so far you have not mentioned any PHYSIQUE goals. if you do not have any, that's fine. it's just that most people who post on an bodybuilding forum want to change the way they look.

i think you should really try to simplify your training goals. pick one primary and one secondary. you are about to be plenty busy when you go back to school. the more you simplify your goals the more focus and QUALITY work you can devote to each.

[aprilai]

i'm not planning to compete in powerlifting or tennis. tennis is more like just a hobby that i want to improve at. the powerlifting goal is for strength purposes. i want to be stronger than i am now. i know that i can be a lot stronger if i have more time [hence, a year should give me enough time]. my weakness is my upper body, and maybe i might not be able to bench press at 125lbs, but as long that it's above 90lbs, i'm satisfied.

my physique goal is to lower my body fat without losing muscle mass. that's it. i know that if i can powerlift more than now, my physique will be more muscular.

i'll revamp my goals in the order of most important to least important:

1. make peace with everyone in my family
2. get my knee fixed (torn ligamenet)
3. maintain at 15% bodyfat
4. maintain a GPA above 3.5
5. get 2100/2400 on the new SAT
6. powerlift at 125% body weight
7. run a 5k race
8. volunteer at a medical clinic
9. decide my major
10. play more tennis
11 finish reading walden and thucydides' books
12.do a handstand walk

hmm... now i have to think about how to accomplish #1 first.

[bscrusher]

whoa! great post!

do you mean the conventional or sumo style? and what is the difference?

conventional or wide stance is not much different. they are both quite different from the sldl however. the sldl must be done with less weight and it puts more stress on the lower back. the sldl puts PROPORTIONATELY more stress on the hams and glutes, but not more ACTUAL stress because you do more weight in the conventional dead. it is much more difficult to do the sldl correctly than the regular dl, so people should master the regular dl before doing sldls.

oops...i just noticed that i meant bent rows, not upright rows. but if you don't recommend that, then what's a better alternative? i picked up the upright rows from coach davis' article on complex training.

i really like john davies teachings, but i do not like upright rows or bent over rows much. if you are doing deadlifts, you have no need of bent over rows. if you are doing old school over head lifts like the bent press, you have no need of upright rows. upright rows have been shown to cause injuries quite often and any benefit you might get from them is not worth it in my opinion. there are PLENTY of better shoulder exercises.

these:
http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/Subs...lRotation.html
http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/Infr...lRotation.html
i hear they are crucial for swimmers to prevent injury.

ok.

coach davis' article on ab exercises http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=205abs


coach davis =D i read your posts on referring to coach davis and so i looked him up. he has a lot of really good information. thanks for referring to him by the way!

alright, you are welcome!

i don't know much about where else the bent press hits. since i did the military press and bent press on the same day, i can't tell the difference. does the bent press hit the trapezius as well? i feel it on my lower back and abs a lot.

well, niether the bent press nor the military hit the trapezius very much. the military hits mainly deltoid and tricep.

the bent press hits the core muscles, deltoid, and tricep. if you do it with a barbell there is an intense grip and forearm effect.

coach davis' article on real abs


i am planning to do squats next week. i tried doing the hack squats that day, but after doing two reps, i figured my form was wrong and decided to just do deadlifts and look up on the hack squats again. about the lunges, i forgot to include them in...i did 3x8 of those elevated one legged lunges. i'm not sure of what it's exactly called.

by hack squats do you mean the machine, or barbell hacks? if you have body building goals, do not try to do squats, barbell hacks or lunges in the same session. each one needs all your concentration. if you can do barbell hacks or lunges after squats that means your squat session was worthless and weak. if you are doing functional strength, you can do those lifts together. just do not tire out your central nervous system and get sloppy.

would it be fine even if i keep the yoga for flexibility?

flexibility for what? figure out how much flexibility you REALLY need and do the appropriate pneumo-muscular stretching. it should take up a few minutes after your lifting or after your swimming. do spinal decompression too.

what specific type of exercises?

if you do heavy deadlifts and bent press for 45 minutes on saturday, that will make you very strong, and it will compliment your swimming.

another good choice would be squats, dls, and bent press.

if you keep it simple and keep it a good complimentary mix of the compound freeweight lifts, you can not go wrong.

[bscrusher]

i'm not planning to compete in powerlifting or tennis. tennis is more like just a hobby that i want to improve at. the powerlifting goal is for strength purposes. i want to be stronger than i am now. i know that i can be a lot stronger if i have more time [hence, a year should give me enough time]. my weakness is my upper body, and maybe i might not be able to bench press at 125lbs, but as long that it's above 90lbs, i'm satisfied.

my physique goal is to lower my body fat without losing muscle mass. that's it. i know that if i can powerlift more than now, my physique will be more muscular.

i'll revamp my goals in the order of most important to least important:

1. make peace with everyone in my family
2. get my knee fixed (torn ligamenet)
3. maintain at 15% bodyfat

#3 is the kind of goal that is a recipe for disappointment. instead formulate a goal that has to do with how you look, no numbers. then form a BEHAVIORAL goal that will get you moving in that direction.

4. maintain a GPA above 3.5
5. get 2100/2400 on the new SAT

those are #4 and 5? why are they not #2 and 3? or #3 and 4?

6. powerlift at 125% body weight
7. run a 5k race
8. volunteer at a medical clinic
9. decide my major
10. play more tennis
11 finish reading walden and thucydides' books
12.do a handstand walk

ok, honestly, that is a mess.

big question...

why are you doing swimming 3 TIMES A WEEK AND SWIMMING IS NOT EVEN ONE OF YOUR TWELVE GOALS?????

hmm... now i have to think about how to accomplish #1 first.

let's say you choose "powerifting" as your primary athletic goal, and "play more tennis" as your secondary. if you train correctly for powerlifting you can play a few games of tennis, say, 2 days a week without cutting into your strength. also you will be hitting the ball harder and your foot speed can improve also. if you are smart about your diet and recovery, you will become more lean, at no cost to your strength or tennis game.

you may find that powerlifting will help you gain the strength to walk on your hands, especially if you keep doing some of those old school overhead lifts.

the 5k race does not go with powerlifting very well. these two goals are uncomplimentary. any training for one will slow down the progress of the other. that does not mean it is impossible to be very strong on the powerlifts and fast in the 5 k. it only means that your training for both will proceed at about half the possible speed.

if you train for both powerlifting and the 5k, you may be in awesome shape for tennis, but if you actually PLAY any tennis your powerlifting progress will stop for maybe 3 days and your 5k progress will stop for at least one day, depending on the volume and intensity of the games.

progress in athletic goals is laid out in training days and recovery days. if you skip a training day or a recovery day you do not progress for that day at least. if what you do during that skip day is strenuous, you must add a recovery day or two to that skip day.

[aprilai]

by hack squats do you mean the machine, or barbell hacks? if you have body building goals, do not try to do squats, barbell hacks or lunges in the same session. each one needs all your concentration. if you can do barbell hacks or lunges after squats that means your squat session was worthless and weak. if you are doing functional strength, you can do those lifts together.

i mean the barbell hacks. i tried it for the first time and i didn't feel i did it correctly. i'm planning to go for functional strength instead of bodybuilding.

flexibility for what? figure out how much flexibility you REALLY need and do the appropriate pneumo-muscular stretching. it should take up a few minutes after your lifting or after your swimming. do spinal decompression too.

flexibility so that i can still do splits. i know yoga is not exactly the best exercise to stretch out, but i find yoga to be really relaxing on my muscles. and what type of spinal decompression stretches do you mean? do you mean the ones where you hang on the pull up bars?

[aprilai]

When I said i want to be at 15%, I primarily want to lose the fat on my lower body. i know i can't spot reduce. when i was at 18%, my thighs had a lot less fat then now. even though i have muscles on my legs, they are covered by fat and so they don't have a nice defination.

i organized my goals on what i'll work on first. some of the last goals are just side-goals i plan to do last out of interest. about the swimming, i actually swim 5 days week on off-break weeks. thanks for reminding me about the swimming...since i'm already working on it i forget to seek higher goals.


1. make peace with everyone in my family
2. get my knee fixed (torn ligament)
3. maintain a GPA above 3.5
4. get at least 2100/2400 on the new SAT
5. swim the 50m in 35secs or less.
6. perfect the butterfly.
7. define lower body.
8. powerlift at 125% body weight
9. volunteer at a medical clinic
10. decide my major
11. run a 5k race

Side goals:
12. finish reading walden and thucydides' books
13. play more tennis
14.do a handstand walk

[bscrusher]

"You can't ride a dozen horses with one ass, so trying to attain superiority in all the traditional measures of fitness simultaneously is a recipe for disaster."

that is a quote from the new article by eric cressey on t-nation.com, check it out.

so, swimming, swimming, leg definiton.

to speed up your 50m you must improve technique in the 50m.

to perfect the butterfly you must swim, and be coached on, the butterfly.

the 50m and the butterfly are both fast swims, so speed and power are the keys here. they are anaerobic events.

if you do squats. and/or barbell hacks, and/or lunges, with a "strength only" protocol on staurday, that will make your legs more defined. it will most likely speed up your 50m.

if you also do bent press on saturday. that will be a good full body session, and the strength you build with the bent press should improve the speed of your 50m as well.

spinal decompression is done hanging from a pull-up bar. see this thread.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=379290

if you just LOVE yoga, go ahead and do it, but don't kid yourself. if there is ANY stress in this yoga class it will set back the progress of your swimming goals by one or two days with each class. if the class is one of those rare classes that is very slow and mellow, and more about meditation and breathing, rather than sweating and straining, that will be more in the nature of active recovery. that would be a good thing, and would not hold back your swimming progress.

why do you want to do splits?

when you enter the regular swimming season i think you will have to cut your lifting down by about 25 - 50% in volume and spread it out in one set sessions that are at least 1 hour apart.

when your swimming training is maximized it will be skill training, conditioning, and rest. anything that is not swimming training and conditioning, or rest, will make you slower.

there are a lot of sources on the web on swimming conditioning and training. do some research, keep it simple, and don't overtrain.

[imperfectly_lou]

Welcome to the journal section April! I am really impressed by how much reading and thought you have put into things. I'll definitely be checking out your journal regularly!

[Emma-Leigh]

Welcome!

Workouts look great - good luck with everything. I'm with Lou, I hope you don't mind me watching in...

[aprilai]

of course i don't mind! i'm glad instead.

if you also do bent press on saturday. that will be a good full body session, and the strength you build with the bent press should improve the speed of your 50m as well.

so are you suggesting that i do 2 weightlifting sessions a week? one long one at full recovery of 3 sets and one short one after practice of one set?

[aprilai]

9AM: 3/4 cup oatmeal, 3/4 cup skim milk, 1/8 cup raisins, 1 dried strawberry

12PM: 1 cup brown rice, 1 cup barbequed duck, 1 cup spinach, 1 cup broccoli, 5 carrots, soy sauce

3M: 4oz burgundy marinated round tip steak, 1green bell pepper, 1 cup cauliflower, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 small onion, 1 garlic clove, string beans

6pm: 2 scoops designer whey, 1 cup silk soy, 1 tbsp cinnamon


source grams cals %total
Total: 1455
Fat: 49 444 32%
Sat: 12 111 8%
Poly: 10 92 7%
Mono: 13 119 9%
Carbs: 147 502 36%
Fiber: 22 0 0%
Protein: 108 431 31%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%


like most of my menus, i'll probably tweak it as the day goes by. just an outline.

workout:
today i'll be doing some yoga. since it's new years, i doubt my school's gym will be opened, so i'm just going to do some yoga at home. i'll also be doing my supposedly workout from friday, since i didn't do it yesterday.

3x6 windmill
3x6 saxon side bend

[bscrusher]

of course i don't mind! i'm glad instead.



so are you suggesting that i do 2 weightlifting sessions a week? one long one at full recovery of 3 sets and one short one after practice of one set?

well, sort of. for now you only have 3 practices a week, so i think you would be best served by one 45 minute lifting session on saturday. that is all the lifting you need for the week.

during the regular season, with 5 practices a week, i don't believe you will be able to recover from a session like that. i suggest keeping at least one of your rest days as a true, total rest day. do your lifting in a 20 minute session on one of the days you do not swim. you can also do lifting one set at a time, occasionally, at times during the week when you feel strong. only do one set at a time and if you do more than one set, leave about a half an hour, or an hour, between the sets. this is a tricky way to lift, you have to be very alert and disciplined about your recovery.

whether you improve in the 50m is in many ways dependant on the wisdom of your coach. i am not a swimming coach, but there are certain principles that apply to all athletic endeavor. i hope you read that eric cressey article.
one important thing, that i have never seen or heard of a highschool coach doing, is separating skills training and conditioning training. in fact, i have never seeen a highschool coach with any plan at all. you must be fresh and strong for each. if you try to learn your skill while tired, you will learn it WRONG. if you try to do conditioning while tired, you will be teaching your body to go slow.


p.s. i love that you are doing things like the windmill and the saxon side bend. i think it's going to take me a while to stop smiling whenever i see that. also you will soon be one of the stronger athletes around. look up arthur saxon's "two-hand-anyhow".

[aprilai]

since next week is the regular season, i'm going to have to do 20 mins of weightlifting. i've never done that before...usually i tend to do mine for 45mins.

Monday: 1:45hrs swimming

Tuesday: 1:15hrs practice, spinal decompression

Wednesday: 1:45hrs practice

Thursday: 1:15hrs practice, spinal decompression

Friday: Meet

Saturday: 1hr diving, spinal decompression, 20 mins weights:
3x3 bench press
3x3 hack squats
3x3 bend press
3x6 external and internal rotations
3x10 one legged standing calf raise

Sunday: rest

if i find myself any time to spend, i'll try to sneak in 30 mins of yoga. all of my yoga sessions are basically used for stretching purposes.
right now i'm using dumbbells for the bend press. hopefully i can strengthen up to use the barbells! balancing them is so much harder -_-;;.

[bscrusher]

wait a minute. what are your ramp up protocols for the day before a meet, and what are your recovery protocols for the day after a meet?


having a big workout day after a meet is a bad idea.

doing anything beyond a few starts and checking of technique, is a bad idea for the day before a meet.

if you do ANYTHING strenuous on the day before the meet, that will make you slower.

...

[aprilai]

um, what do you suggest? i've never heard of doing them before. my coach doesn't suggest anything but "carbohydrates before your meet," and a few reminders on swimming techniques.

[bscrusher]

that is so WEAK, and unfortunately, very typical. if you want to swim faster in the meet, and your coach will not develop a pre-meet protocol, just do not go to swim practice on the day before the meet. use that time to rest, you will be much faster.

if you can get access to another pool, do a few starts, and maybe one full on 50m, CONCENTRATING ON CORRECT FORM, and preferably with someone to coach you. do not make yourself tired. stretch, and go rest as much as you can until the meet.

on the day after the meet, rest or do active recovery.

active recovery is some gentle, non-strenuous activity that stimulates the body, but does not stress it. a low intensity yoga class is good, so is a leisurely walk or swim.

[aprilai]

i'm quite hesitant about what squat form to do. the only squat i've done so far is the back squat. i'm not sure which squat type is the best for strength. i've read about the overhead squat, but since i haven't mastered the other squat types, i don't think it would be a good idea.

which squat form do you recommend for strength? would the hack squat serve it? when i try to squat to the floor instead of parallel, my knees always go pass my toes though. would parallel squats have the same effect as floor squats?