How Far Will You Go

[biglifter56]

Day 1: "It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit."

Today was a new beginning for me. I started off today as the first day of my cut. I'm currently 6'2 259lbs, with an estimaetd 18% bodyfat. I'm not going to even focus on how much weight I can do on my major muscle lifts, but more importantly, I'm going to be focusing on how I look in the mirror. My entire goal for this journal is getting leaned out, and building as much separation as I can, evening out my proportions, while still putting on as much muscle as possible. Day 1 when I look in the mirror I see weaknesses and strengths. My strengths are definitly my traps, chest, bicepts, tricepts, shoulders, and lats. My weaknesses tend to be in my abs, quads, hams, calfs, and overall bodyfat. Another weakness, which is not so apparent from looking in the mirror, is cardiovascular strength. I have not focused much on running in about 2 or 3 years since I finished up football, and since then I've had a noticeably huge loss in cadio strength. I'm winded much easier than before, and that's something that I'd really like to get back.



My diet is going to consist of 6 or 7 smallish meals throughout the day. I'm not going to have a set meal for each one, I'm going to try to have a variety of foods every day, but mainly stay focused on these basic things:

Protien: 300-360g/day, aiming for 60g/meal. Sources: Chicken breast,Lean Steak,Salmon,Shrimp/Fish,Eggs(whites),turkey breast,pastrami,low fat cottage cheese

Carbs: I'm going to try to carb cycle a low/med/high cycle. High days I'll have 4 meals with carbs(probably 1c oatmeal), low days 2 meals with 1/2c/meal, and med days with 3 meals 1c. All of my carbs on this diet are going to be low gylcemic, I feel like having dextrose and malto tend to make me gain fat and I really want to remove those from my diet all together and instead focus on oatmeal. Sources: Oatmeal, Brown Rice, Sweet potatos, Whole Wheat Pasta, Whole Grain Bread, Lettuce, Broccolli, Asparagus, Beans, Spinach, Bell Peppers, Cucumbers.

Fats: I'd like to keep saturated fat extremely low, mabye have 1 or 2 egg yolks for breakfast and that's it. The rest I'll stick with EFAs, almonds, natural peanut butter, olive oil, flaxseed oil.


Again, I'm not going to set up a strict diet plan, I'm going to just start off with this and play it by ear, see how things go. I'm going to try to keep as much of a variety of food as possible so that I can stay sane durring this. Also, I'm going to allow myself one cheat meal per week, only on sundays, and it will be one of my first 3 meals, maybe pancakes or sushi or something.



As for my workout, I'm going to stay with pretty much the same things I've been doing all year round. I've been having really good success with it, and I'm definitly making gains and building separation and I'm happy with it. I'll be posting my workout as I go through them. So here's day 1:

Quads/Hams/Calfs High rep day

Barbell Squat 3x20 155
Leg press 3x20 360
Leg Extensions 3x20 90
Leg Curls 6x 20 90
Seated calf extensions 6x20 190

I made it a pretty quick workout, but my legs are killling me right now. My hammies are cramping and I can tell I'm going to be really sore tomorrow. My next workout is chest/bies/cardio. Gonna eat 1 more time and then get some rest.

TJ

[biglifter56]

Day 2:

Meal 1:

2 scoops whey
1c raw oats
3 oz salmon
Aminos/Glutamine

Pre workout:
1 scoop Black Powder

Workout: Chest/Bies Heavy barbell

I had a spotter today so the last rep or 2 on most of my lifts required a slight spot, but nothing crazy.

Flat Bench
1x8 245
2x7 265
1x6 275

Incline Bench

1x10 185
3x8 205

Decline Bench

1x10 185
3x6/7 245

Dumbell Flies

4x6/7 65s

Barbell Curl
1x9 95
3x7/8 105 slight cheat on last 2 reps

Barbell Preacher Curls

1x7 85
2x7 90
2x5 90

Dumbell Hammer curls

4x6 40s


I had to go fast on the last 2 bicept exercises because we were running out of time today. I also didn't get to do cardio which was a bummer, but not terrible becuase my legs are extremely sore today. Hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I'll get in 20 minutes. Overall I think I had a really good workout, I felt kind of droggy at the beginning but ended up getting into a rhythm and felt really good by the end.

Meal 2:
2 scoops whey isolate
1c raw oats
glutamine/aminos

Meal 3:
spinach salad
balsamic vinnagret
9 egg whites 1 yolk

I'm about to eat meal 4, probably going to be steak and a salad with some extra EFAs. I'm happy with how today went I stayed disciplined on my diet and worked really hard on my workout. Tomorrow is shoulders and traps, I'm going to try to get some rest tonight becuase I am beat.

TJ

[biglifter56]

Day 3 off day

Day 4

Meal 1
2 scoops whey
1c raw oats
aminos/glutamine


Meal 2
2 slices whole grain wheat bread
3 slices pastrami
mustard

Pre workout: 1.5 scoop black powder


Workout: Shoulder/Traps/Abs Heavy

Dumbell Shoulder Press 4x7 85s
Side db raises 3x6 30s drop set 22.5s
Upright Rows 4x7 105 SS bendover db raises 4x8 30s
Barbell Shrugs 1x12 315 5x6/7 405/410
DB shrugs 4x8-10 150s

Cable crunches 6x20 100
Decilne Crunches 4x12-15

Meal 3
2 scoops whey isolate
aminos/glutamine

Meal 4
Chineese food with sushi
-chicken
-shrimp
-vegis
-garlic sauce
-red pepper
-tuna
-white rice


I had a really great workout today I felt exausted by the time I was done. I'm happy with how my diet is going also, I'm really eating clean and not cheating at all. Today I'm going to give myself a little bit higher glycemic carbs from the whtie rice, but it's a rare thing that I'll be doing, and it's more for the whole carb cyclying aspect.

TJ

[biglifter56]

Meal 5:

Protien Shake
3 Chicken Strips
Hot Sauce

Somewhat of a bad meal here, I was at a friends house and he didn't really have anything to eat besides chicken strips, so I had a few and made a protien shake from his house. Not terrible, but definitly not something I'm going to do again this week.

Meal 6:

5 egg whites, 1 whole egg
Salsa
Spinach Salad
Balsamic Vinnagret
EFAs
Glutamine/Aminos

Also forgot to add that I had my vitamins after meal 4 since I forgot them this morning.

Looking forward to back and tries tomorrow, gonna drink a ton of water right now and get some sleep.

TJ

[biglifter56]

been a while since I've updated. Been pretty busy, but I'm still staying reasonably focused on my diet. My main goal right now is going to be increasing my cardiovascular strength, and getting in cardio 3 days a week atleast, even if it's just a brisk walk for 30 minutes. This weeks also busy so idk how much ill get to update but hopefully I'll stay focused.

[biglifter56]

The last few weeks have been hecktic for me. I'm going to try to get back into updating daily starting tomorrow. Lately I have been missing my leg workouts due to a knee injury that is starting to bother me again. I've been doing a lot of cardio lately, though I haven't really seen any results. But I suppose it's only been a few weeks, I think my diet needs some work, and I need to get better at taking my supplements regularly. I"m going to start taking BCAA's along with my amino fuel because I only take that twice a day and I think BCAAs would be great in between meals and before cardio. I'll update this thing tomorrow.

[biglifter56]

12/14 Chest/Bies

Meal 1

2 scoops whey
1.5 bagel


workout

Flat barbell bench 4x5-7 265
Incline DB bench 4x9,8,7,7 90,100
Decline bench 4x7,6,6,8 245,225
DB flies 4x7 70s

Barbell curls 4x7,7,7,6 115,125
DB preacher curls 4x8,8,7,7 40,45
1 arm Machine Curls 4x7 65

Meal 3

2 scoops whey

Meal 4

Chicken Terriaki
1c fried rice
1c mixed vegis

Snack...4 grilled chickenstrips

Meal 5

3 chicken soft tacos from taco bell

meal 6

2 scoops whey
1c peanutbutter
EFAs/glutamine/aminos


I'd like to see myself eating more vegi's and eating more protien in all my meals. Today I kept my carbs pretty low, and I think tomorrow is going to be a higher carb day. I've got shoulders and traps tomorrow, I'm already sore from today. Gonna get some sleep.

[biglifter56]

Meal 1

I packet myoplex whey
1 chicken burrito with extra chicken

Workout

shoulders/traps

DB side raises 4x12,8,7,7 30,35
DB bench 4x9,8,8,8 80,85,90
Seated high rows 4x8 110
Barbell front raises 4x7 65,75

All shoulder exercises SS with leg extensions

Barbell shrugs 4x7 415
DB shrugs 4x12,8 130s,150s

All traps exercises SS with leg curls

Meal 2

2 scoops whey isolate, aminos, glutamine
1 chicken burrito

Meal 3
Tuna
fat free miracle whip
Cellery
3 slices bread


Meal 4

1/2c tuna
halfull almonds


Meal 5

2 scoops whey isoatlate, aminos, glutamine
2 peaches
Handfull almonds


So today I had a great workout, but my diet is really crappy lately. I haven't noticed how bad it is until I started writing it down. I'm not eating enough, nor am I eating enough leafy greens. unfortunately, I don't have much food at my house right now. Hopefully I have time to run and pick up a few things at the store.


Tomorrow I'm making a pack of 12 porkchops which I think are gonna turn out great. Also I'm going to cook some brocolli and brown rice. I'm really going to go on a cooking spree tomorrow morning and hopefully make enough to last me the rest of the week.


I've got some serious DOMs from chest and bies and I'm hoping I start feeling better. I'm really noticing some great development in my upper body, but my legs have still been lacking. It's been a while since i've done legs because I hurt my knee 3 weeks ago. I'm going to try to do two easy leg workouts per week and hopefully instead of having one all out blitz on my legs(that is actaully really tough on my knees) I think having two moderately tough leg workouts will actually have more of a size increase than the one tough one alone. I'll keep track of this and see how it goes.

Bed time.

[biglifter56]

It's been a while since my latest update, but I have been hitting the gym really hard. i've made a ton of personal bests the last month. I got 275 on flat bench for 6 reps. I got the 115s on incline db press for 7 reps. I got the 95s on shoulder press 6 times. I got 115 on upright rows for 8 reps. I've gotten a few more personal bests but those are the only ones that come to mind right now. Basically, I'm getting a ton stronger, and certainly seeing size gains too.


I feel like my next step needs to be working harder on my weaknesses which are:

Quads, Hams, Abs, Calfs, and BF% My legs have always been a weak point, and it's been very hard to train them heavy because of a football injury that still bothers me 4 years later. Right now I'm doing the following workout:

leg press
4x15-20 450lbs
hack squat
4x12-15 90lbs
leg extensions
4x12-15 150lbs
leg curls
4x12,10,8,7
stiff leg deadlift
4x12-15 275lbs

I don't have barbell squats because my lower back also has been bothering me quite a bit the last few months and especially on squats. my plan is to do this workout until March while strengthening my lowerback through hyper extensions and stiff leg deadlift, and then adding light, high rep squats to my workout.

As far as abs and calfs go, I usually do 10 working sets, with reps ranging from 25 to 10 reps. I do all different exercises.

Cardio I usually do the eliptical, but I'm going to start doing stationary bike, as well as a brisk walk on the tredmill. I typically go for 20 minutes, 3 mintues low intensity, 2 minutes high intensity. I really feel like mixing up intensities durring cardio burns up much more calories in shorter periods of time.


As far as dieting goes, I have been eating a ton of food, really just trying to put on some more muscle. I'm going to get ready to cut, so right now i'm going to start to clean up my diet as much as possible and really eat lean meats/low glycemic carbs/vegis/fruit(mostly grapefruit. I have a sweet tooth and I think grapefruits are probably the best fruit for me to eat)

[biglifter56]

New Workout

Focus: Quads/Hams/Abs/Calfs/Cardio

Chest/Hams
Shoulders/Bies/Abs
Quads/Tries
Back/Traps/Calfs

Two 30 minute cardio sessions.