NROL Fat Loss II

I've been through both the "A" & "B" workouts of the Fat Loss II portion.....these high rep sets have not gotten any easier, however the high reps paired with several HIIT sessions each week has caused the needle on the scale to move back towards the left.

Oh and another thing I still can't stand single legged exercises, they never get any easier and they usually bring on the occurrence of me trying to hop on one foot while my other foot is draped over a flat bench.....in other words doing all of these exercises and reps will certainly provide results.....what's the old saying "Do what your weak at you will get stronger"...well close to something like that.

I must say that I do like the exercise change up every 4 weeks or so, it weens me from my steady diet of squats and deadlifts - deadlift and squats.

Workout B      
Alternating Sets      
Snatch-grip deadlift    3x12.
T-push-up    3x12.

Alternating Sets      
Bulgarian Split Squat    3x12.
Underhand-grip lat pulldown    3x12.
      
Alternating Sets      
Romanian deadlift    3x12.
Lower-body Russian twist    3x12. 

My Latest Addiction

I spend hours and hours each day on the internet, sometimes work related sometimes not so much work related. I recently camE across Pinterest, wow think of it as a public cork-board where people post their motivation, favorite food, fitness or health. the topics are endless and limited to what people want to post.

I Survived The Break-In

I just finished the 3 week high rep break-in period of NROL. I've actually lost a few pounds in the last 3 weeks, which is always nice. I broke out the MyoTape to take a few measurements, I hadn't done this since January where I was a solid 10lbs heavier than I am today and found that I really hadn't lost that much size, which surprised me.

So now we're onto the Fat Loss II Phase. 4 weeks of 3X12's Ughhhhh
It looks something like this.

Workout A
Alternating Sets       
Front Squat    3x15.
Wide-grip cable seated row    3x15.
       
Alternating Sets       
Supine hip extension w/leg curl    3x15.
BB push press    3x15.
       
Alternating Sets       
Dynamic Lunge    3x15.
Swiss-ball crunch    3x15.

Workout B       
Alternating Sets       
Snatch-grip deadlift    3x12.
T-push-up    3x12.

Alternating Sets       
Bulgarian Split Squat    3x12.
Underhand-grip lat pulldown    3x12.
       
Alternating Sets       
Romanian deadlift    3x12.
Lower-body Russian twist    3x12.

Time for the classic

CE: 90

RT: 17

CT: 17

PG1 (Turkey Trot or Warrior Dash)

PG2 (Drop 5 lbs)

Starting tomorrow this is the plan for my next 52 days....90 meals of clean food, 17 resistance training sessions, 17  cardio sessions, a race or two and the goal of dropping 5 lbs.

I'm almost finished with the Break In template for the New Rules of Lifting and then it's onto Fat Loss II for the next few weeks.

This should be a good challenge

Lost A Clean Eat This Evening......

Even though we're between challenges I still try to adhere to a clean eating plan....try is probably the key word in that sentence.
It seems as if the "Food Channel" is on an awful lot in this house and one show that's in heavy rotation is Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. For someone that eats a bunch of meals on the road and for someone that wishes to eat as healthy as possible...this is the last show that I need to be watching.
Well it turns out that one of Guy's stops was just a few miles South of the house, Sonny's Famous Steak Hogies was where Friday night "Date Night" was planned.
They say that TV tends to put 10lbs on you, well I think it also adds a few hundred square feet to a restaurant, because Sonny's looked a whole lot bigger on TV than it did in person. The place had maybe 7 booths and 3 tables......but what it lacked in size it made up for in taste. I ordered a #95 with a side of hot peppers,  the bread is baked daily on site and it was soft, fresh and light.......so all in all it was worth losing a Clean Eat as well as making a second trip on another evening......and the prices were very reasonable, the four us ate for less than $40.00.

The Trifecta

So for the third time this year I participating in another Warrior Dash and for the first time this year the race is about 20 minutes from my house, no planes, no rental cars and no hotels.....I can't wait. My wife and I had registered for the Disney 5k at the end of September but she tore the upper part of her Achilles a few weeks before the race so those plans got nixed.  I guess at some point in the next few week I'll have to switch from the elliptical back to running......in hopes of being able to competitively run 3 miles through mud, water and over fire....

The Building Blocks.....

I have a few rules that I try to stick with....

If I'm going somewhere with a group of friends I'll drive that way I have my car and I can leave when I want to.

I don't stay in hotels with a number in their name.

I don't use drive-thru's it's easy for them to forget to put straws, napkins etc... in your bag and you don't discover it till you're home.

I don't like lending books, CD's, etc......this ones self explanitory

Occasionally against my better judgment I break these  rules and often it comes back to bite me in the butt.

Several years ago a friend asked me if I could point him in the right direction of getting healthy, so I lent him my copy of the the book of all books...New-Rules-Lifting . Several years later I'm still without the book and he's still in the same shape that he was back then.

NROL holds a special place with me, it was the first "Real" exercise book that I bought. Years ago I had just dropped 80lbs basically using starvation and cardio (knowing what I know now....not the right way) and I decided to start lifting weights again. Being internet savvy I searched the WWW and time and time again NROL came up as the place to start so I bought the book and started the program, I'll never forget the first time I pulled 200 lbs on a deadlift...fast forward to last week and looking for a program that I hadn't done in a while I bought another copy of NROL.

I'm now on week two of the "Break In' portion...it's been a long, long time since I've done high rep sets followed by a HIIT  session...hopefully the mirror will show some results.


My 52DC results were less than desirable, I missed my CT by one session, there really is no excuse for missing by one session......my weight loss was non-existent....as we fire up for the next 52 DC I plan to run trough the NROL templates, there's a years worth in the book....

Here's Your Sign

Ever Had One Of Those Days

The alarm went off waking and bringing me only to a level of confusion.  Usually, I am up before the alarm.  I stumbled into the bathroom and just stood there in the dark.  The voices in my head argued.  “Go back to sleep you will be on vacation next week and can double up on your workouts.” - ”No – get it done today and allow yourself to enjoy your vacation.”  I stood there – holding onto the back of a chair until the voices quieted down and I decided to go to the gym.  What did it matter if it was not the best workout or if all I did was to go through the motions.  Another 40 minute RT would have been chalked up. READ MORE.......

The above was written by TNT Man,  an active and supportive member on the Men's Health Forums.... I plan to be as active and healthy he is till the day I leave this earth. 

We've all had those days when we just don't want to get our of bed, get motivated and get going with the day. I kind of had one of those days this morning. It was the first night home in a week, the dog got walked at 3:45 AM ( don't ask me about that ) and since my wife blew out her Achilles I knew there was no way that she would be accompanying to the gym.......but I also knew that my body needed the activity...so I dragged my lazy road weary behind out of bed and off to the gym I went...and an hour or so later I felt like a new man.

Speaking of road weary here's one of the reasons and one of the reasons I lost a CE......ready for this...dinner Budweiser, fried pickles, grilled gator, seafood gumbo and an oyster po-boy....I was as bloated as I could be... then couple that with an early morning flight home and while being on Central time and my body still being on Eastern time... I was one bloated, tired human being. Plus to top it off I showed up for the Miss Crawfish pageant only to discover that I should have read the sign closer.

I'm a gadget guy

I love gadgets, cooking gadgets, exercise gadgets (legitimate gadgets..nothing with "AB" in the name), electronic gadgets..etc.... Think SkyMall magazine and I actually use most every gadget that I buy.
Today I came across SportCount a site that sells timers, lap counters, and heart rate monitors . The thought of a timer that fits on my finger is beyond cool the only problem is that I really don't do anything that I need to time.... 

Lots of links and things....

It's the second week of the 52DC and I must say this time I'm a bit more focused.....I'm down a couple of pounds, which is always nice. It's been great having a gym at my disposal and I'm actually contemplating selling my rack, superbench and adjustable dumbbells.



Laura Phelps Sweatt of Westside Barbell breaks the all time 165lb weight class total (again) at 163lbs via 745 squat (WR), 530 bench press (WR) and 525 deadlift totaling 1800 lbs. The first woman to EVER total 11 x body weight. Truly amazing!

 

In keeping with the powerful ladies theme, I came across the site "Strong is the new skinny". Follow this amazing transformation...and I'm thinking of adopting Strong is the new skinny for myself.

Another site that I've added to my RSS reader is Practical Paleolithic. I know very little about the Paleo Diet but the pictures and videos are remarkable.

It was sad seeing all of the DC Earthquake devastation this afternoon, 

I'm sure FEMA will be arriving very soon

 

I was on Web MD the other day, it was the first time I'd been back there since being diagnosed with cancer last year. I came across a slide show of the the 9 least effective exercises.  It seems that I see most of these being done every time I go to the gym. My only regret is that they didn't list "Curling in the squat rack" as the 10th least effective exercise...or is it squatting in the curl rack that's bad.

With the addition of Jessie The Wonder Dog my cardio numbers have increased dramatically. A 6 month pup has to be walked, and walked, and walked.....We've been on a few runs (trots) together and usually after 10 minutes or so I give her a break because I had no idea if she was tired, sore dying, etc.....well last night we took her to the local dog park to see if she possessed any "Doggie Social Skills" and it turns out that she does, but she also has amazing acceleration.

 

I Love Me Some Weekends

It's been a week....I finished up a 3 week stint on the road, it's nice to be home. My wife and went for a moonlit walk on the beach. We also had a transformer blow which caused damage to most anything plugged into an electrical socket -(1) Dell PC, (1) HP Printer, (1) Sony Wii, (1) Air Conditioner, (1) Phillips Speaker System, (1) Netgear Wireless Router, (1) 21" TV............Damn, just damn.....The damage might just be the exact same amount as our deductable.
I did manage a trip to the gym this afternoon and it felt great. Some chicken tenderloins and green beans for a dinner and possibly a long walk for the dog.

Day 1

First day of the Fall 52DC.....time to drop the summer pounds.
I got in a 2.5 mile walk this morning on the hotel treadmill, one CT down 16 more to go.
I weighed myself on the hotel scale, I never trust those scales, but this one leans towards 226 which I think is close to accurate. By Sept 30th I will be at 215 lbs.

Ahhhh Another 52DC Begins.......

So this is the forth challenge in the last year......during the summer challenge I came up short, due to travel and vacation, not a real reason more of an excuse. The good thing about these challenges is just that they challenge you, sometimes it exposes your strengths sometimes it exposes your weaknesses.

 So the goals are as follows
CE: 0/0/90 (0%)
RT: 0/17 (0%)
CT: 0/17 (0%)
PG1 (11lbs in 5% Challenge): 0/11 (0%)
PG2 (64oz of water/green tea each day): 0/40 (0%)
PG3 (1 Soda per day): 0/40 (0%)

I need to get more H2O into my body and less Diet Soda and of course planning to drop that same 10 lbs that I've dropped 1000 times before.

Kind of following the Stronglifts template..I'm taking advantage of the gyms squat rack and the 5x5 program fits in there nicely. Two months of working out in the gym and I've managed to work my squats up to 245lbs for reps, oh course I'm 10 lbs heavier than I was 2 months ago and I wish I could say that it was 10 lbs of muscle, but it's not.

In other news, we've managed to rescue a yellow lab, Jessie is 6 months old and full of puppy energy. A new pup + required dog walks = CT's. At this point Jessie has consumed one pair of shoes and one book bag strap......currently casualties is at a minimum level for a puppy.