On French Fries and Barbells

I just finished the fourth workout of this program, so I’m officially halfway through the first month.  What have I noticed so far?  One thing stands out above the rest:

I really want some friggin’ french fries.

Foods that I used to eat without batting an eye now mock me from restaurant menus and my own countertops.  It’s amazing how much more careful I have to be during the week.  But I think simplicity is the key: each meal, I only focus on carbs (beans, already cooked so I just have to warm them), protein, and some vegetable matter.  Protein is already my specialty when it comes to cooking, so I’m having fun coming up with a billion different ways to cook pork chops.  I went on a field trip to CostCo and stocked my fridge with all kinds of raw meaty goodies, so I won’t run out of stuff to cook for a while.

But still, sometimes I feel like that just doesn’t cut it.  Beans are great, but they don’t really give you that “full” feeling as much bread or other carbs do.  So, I find myself getting stricken by french-fry and pasta cravings, something that I’ve never had to deal with before.

The first week was fine because everything was new and novel, but I think from here on out will be the real test.  But no worries.  I can eat those carbs right after my workouts, and Saturday is still “anything goes” day.  I think that’s the only way to do it – you need one day to let loose.

As for the exercise, my gym-bro and I are seeing improved max weight on nearly every exercise every week.  But I still don’t feel like I’m working my muscles to a state of pure exhaustion.  I lift at my max every time, sure.  I lift at the point where I can do no more than 4 or 5 reps per set.  But even after a couple sets, I still don’t feel that deep fatigue in my muscle tissue that I expected.  A couple minutes go by, and they feel ready to go again.  Is it really possible to come to complete muscle exhaustion in less than 30 minutes at the gym?  Maybe for one or two muscle groups, sure, but the whole body?  So maybe I should just focus on one or two each time and rotate.  I’ll still do multi-joint workouts, but I’ll make sure that the focus areas are hit the hardest.

All in all, I think things are going well.  I’m going to keep pushing the envelope over the next two weeks, and I’m anxious to see where I’ll get to by then.

Note: I had been increasing in weight over the first couple of gym trips, but at weigh-in today I noticed that my weight was 1/2 lb lower than it had been at the beginning!  Now ideally, this means that the diet part has successfully lost me fat weight while gaining muscle, but I guess we’ll see in the end.  I’ve been eating a ton, so this one threw me for a loop!

Muscle Build Experiment Progress Report

My first week is officially over, and I now have two workouts under my belt.  The diet has been going well, other than the fact that my dine-out options have been completely confined to Mexican food.  (Beans, meat, veggies.)  It’s cool though.  I like cooking, so I’ve been making huge batches of beans at home and just warming up a bowlful every time I eat.  I made some wicked lentils first, and now I have a big batch of pinto beans to tide me over for next week.  And meat has always been my specialty anyway, so I’m just peachy with cooking up a big hunk of protein for every meal.  Throw some veggies in the mix, and voila.  Bodybuilder’s delight.

Because I have been going to the gym for about a solid year now, I’m finding it difficult to really blast my muscles into exhaustion.  I am going for my max weight every time, though, and that has gone up in just these past two workouts.  Now I just need to focus on intensity and blasting specific muscle groups.  I will still exercise my entire body each workout, but I will alternate my main focus between upper and lower body every time.  Oh, and that 5/5 cadence is murder – it’s great for tiring you out quick, especially when you’re working with heavier weights.  (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down.  It feels like an eternity).

My gym-going buddy and I are both seeing weight gain from this program already.  Both of us were about two pounds heavier than our norms when we weighed in on Friday.  And that was our hungry weight – we probably went up another 2 lbs each after we went for a post-workout meal.

Saturday was Dieters Gone Wild day, and I think I sufficiently sickened myself with all the junk I ate.  I’ll be just fine on beans and meat now, thank you.  Time to gear up for workout week 2!

Muscle Build Experiment Kick-Off

At long last it’s time to kick off my Summer muscle-build experiment.  Over the past couple of weeks I have finalized my workout and diet plan for the next month.  (I plan to go for at least one month, with a possible max of two months.)

I have put together the following plan from various articles that I’ve found across the internets.  This article from Tim Ferriss has the best summation of all of the information that I’ve found so far, so they are the main guidelines that I will follow.

Diet

What to eat:

Firstly, I need to eat large amounts of protein (beef, pork, chicken, eggs).  We’re talking lots of protein.  This is my main food group for the next month.

For carb energy and additional nutrients, I will eat legumes and assorted vegetables.  Lentils, beans, peas, spinach, asparagus, etc. etc.

What not to eat

Bread, rice, other “white” carbs.  No breaded, battered, or deep-fried foods.  I’ll avoid most dairy, and cut out any “liquid calories”.  (i.e., no soda, juices, other sweet drinks.  Unsweetened drinks are A-OK).

Dieter’s day off: Every Saturday all bets are off, and I can eat whatever I want.  I can also indulge in some white carbs and/or dairy immediately after working out.

Exercise

Overview

The key concept for building muscle is simple: intensity. I will only go to the gym twice per week.  I will only go for about a half hour every time.  The idea is that the workouts should be so intense that any more than this would kill me.

With every exercise I’m aiming for “one set to failure” – I should be so close to my max that I can only do 3-6 reps before complete muscle exhaustion. At max I will do two sets of an exercise, but I will aim for one. I will also employ a slow cadence to every exercise to eliminate momentum and maximize resistance. (Tim Ferriss recommends 5/5 – five seconds up, five seconds down).

Specific Exercises

I will focus on multi-joint exercises, and make a point to work out my entire body each time I go to the gym.  Leg Press, Trap Bar Deadlift, enhanced-weight dips and pullups, Squats, Yates Bent row, overhead press, etc.  In the past I was isolating specific muscle groups too much and not focusing enough on multi-joint exercises like these.

Logging

I will record every detail of my workouts, including time spent in the gym, exercises done, reps done, amount of weight, etc.  This way I will be able to track my exact progress.

Current Measurements

Michael over at Clark’s Tuxedos on University Ave here in Provo was kind enough to take my measurements for the project.  Right now, they are as follows (in inches):

Neck – 15

Bicep – 13

Chest – 36.5

Abs – 30

Thigh – 20

Shoulder (entire circumference) – 42

Currently I weigh 190 pounds.

And there you have it.  I’m psyched to see what I can accomplish.  I’ll publish a couple updates along the way, and if you have any ideas or suggestions for me, please let me know!

Oh, and lest I forget, here’s the official “before” pictures:

(Yes, I really am that white.  Lay off, all right??  I swear, Winter in Utah just got over like a week ago…)