It's Confirmed ...

It's confirmed: I'm overtrained. I've been exhausted for the last
couple of weeks and unable to get enough sleep. When I've been in bed,
I've been restless.

I'm taking the week off of cardio, trying to reduce my training from
eight or ten hours a week to four or five.

New Workout

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Full-body (required)	Isolation (optional)	Full-body (required)	Isolation (optional)	Full-body (required)	Isolation (optional)
Bench Press	Front Raises	Deadlifts	Triceps	Low Rows	Military Press
High Rows	Curls	Lat pull-downs	Side Raises	Dips	Calf Raises
Squats	Flies	Inclined Bench Press	Shrugs	Stiff-legged Deadlifts	Rear Raises

• The chest and back exercises are done as antagonistic supersets with 30 seconds between exercises and a minute and a half between sets.
• The leg exercises get one minute rest between sets. Hopefully, the deadlifts will work.
• If we skip days, the isolation exercises are the first to be cut.
• Typical 2x10, 3x6, 1x15-20 format.

The Before and After Pictures

Well, I've been promising them for a while. Here they are. They sets
cover December to May and the final pictures are from the end of my
cut phase in June.

Clarifying My Cut and Bulk Phases

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend and he expressed concern over my bulk and cut phases. He didn't like the idea of yo-yoing and said that it had to be bad for me. I wasn't clear in my explanation with him, so I want to write this stuff down clearly now. This blog can also serve as a reminder to myself if I ever get off track.

My goal in weight lifting was to lose body fat. That's how I started. I tried unsuccessfully to lose my gut. Year after year I berated myself for getting fatter. Gale was also getting heavier. She really did yo-yo. Her weight went from 62-75 kg regularly. She'd starve herself until she got down to the weight she wanted, then she'd binge and gain it all back plus half a kilo for good measure. I wanted her off of that roller coaster. When my research turned up that many nutritionists were then recommending strength training to build up the metabolism, it made sense to me. There was a method I could follow: lift heavy, get big, increase metabolism, lose fat. What they said rang true in my ears. I was losing muscle mass every year. It was getting harder and harder to keep the weight off, even when restricting my calories, which I wasn't very good at.

Tracking my nutrition for a few months opened my eyes. I had been aiming for a 35-35-30 breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat, but I found that even trying to increase my protein over historical levels left me with way too much fat and sugar. I had had no idea that my diet had been so bad.

Anyway, back to the main point of cut and bulk. Many people eat like pigs during bulk phases. I don't. Many people starve themselves and do hours of cardio a day. I don't do that, either. For me, the phases are merely a time to concentrate on one aspect of my diet and exercise.

I almost always lose fat, even when I'm bulking. Last bulk phase, my fat went down 2%. The one before that, I went down 4%. Compare that to my cut phases where I lot 4% and 5%. In short, my fat continues to go down because I always do a reasonable amount of cardio. My muscle mass doesn't go down because I don't starve myself and I lift heavy all the time.

I'm at 18% body fat right now, down from 33%. My metabolism is up, probably by a couple thousand calories a day ( my 36 pound increase suggests 2160 calories). By next year, I'll have most of my gut whittled away. I'm in no hurry: this is a lifestyle choice and not a fad diet. I do what I know is right and avoid dangerous activities, exercises, and foods. I don't need to do the kind of insane bulk/cut cycles bodybuilders use because I am not nor do I ever intend to be one. Bulk is merely a period where I eat a little more of the right foods and lift a little heavier. Cutting just means that I watch my diet a little more closely, increase my cardio, and lift lighter with more reps to burn extra calories.

I am not yo-yoing. Look at the fat chart here and see.

Skim Milk -- The Perfect Gainer?

I bought a pack of skim milk from the agricultural market today. The
nutritional information for a 100g serving was: Carbs 55g, protein
35g, and fat 1g. Compare this to Ultimate Nutrition's gainer: Carbs
53g, protein 34.5g, and fat 6g per 100g serving. Hmmm. Virtually
identical nutrition profiles except for the reduced fat in the skim
milk powder. Something to think about.

Upping the Cardio

This week I started running to work twice a week instead of biking.
The current regimen is MTF bike and WTh run. The totals are about 50
minutes a day for each. The runs this week left me a cripple,
especially on leg day. I hope that my legs get cut up more than they
are now and that I lose more fat jogging/running than I have been
while biking.

I Made a Mistake

Well, I did the official numbers on my cut phase, and it turns out
that my initial, rough guess was wrong. I actually lost about 5kg of
fat in the five week phase -- not stellar performance, but not
something anyone should laugh at. More importantly, my lean mass sits
exactly where it was before I started. That's right! I lost 5kg of fat
without losing a single gram of muscle.

End of Cut Phase Report

Well, I went an extra week on my cut phase because I had some Hydroxycut left. I shouldn't have bothered. This week was terrible: I binged, failed to work out regularly, and drank a lot. Sucks. Anyway, here are the measurements:

Weight: 109kg (-2)
Neck: 18 (+0.5)
Chest: 46 (+-0)
Arms: 16 (+-0)
Forearm: 13.5 (+-0)
Wrist: 8 (+-0)
Waist: 41 (+-0)
Hips: 44 (+-0)
Thighs: 27.5 (+1.0)
Calves: 16.75 (-0.75)
Bodyfat %: 18.6 (+-0)

Basically, I'm sitting at the body fat that I had a couple of weeks
ago, but with a kilo and a half less muscle. Not good. The last week was really bad.

Time to start bulking again!