I am slowly progressing toward the annual macro cycle schedule I had posted in my last blog. I’m starting out the year rolling into the Power Macro. I am back to three lifting sessions per week, alternating upper and lower. And I’ll be cutting back on my cardio routines substantially, just two slow jogs per 5 day cycle; some weeks that’s two runs and some weeks that’s four runs. The objective of the Power cycle is to increase total working weight; what’s stacked on the bar. Gotta be strong chasing that Last 10 Pounds.
So for the next 4 months my monthly workout schedule will be;
Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 3
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Week 4
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AM
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PM
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AM
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PM
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AM
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PM
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AM
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PM
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Monday
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Lower
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Slog
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Upper
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Lower
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Slog
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Upper
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Tuesday
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Slog
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Slog
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Wednesday
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Slog
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Upper
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Lower
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Slog
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Upper
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Lower
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Thursday
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Slog
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Slog
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Friday
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Lower
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Slog
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Upper
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Lower
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Slog
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Upper
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Saturday
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Slog
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Slog
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Sunday
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Girlfriend Pie……………
In my last blog, I had mentioned a ‘See Food’ diet, eating just about anything but staying away from sugar and refined carbs; with the exception of blueberry and girlfriend pie. What the heck; Girlfriend Pie?? This is the test of all tests in determining the seriousness and most likely the success of any boy-girl relationship. It is not the make or break decision, however it should be. So here it is; if there is a woman in your life who will go to the trouble of making you a pie, from scratch, you need to keep her. It doesn’t matter what the pie is other than she thought enough of you to make one. My favorite is Blueberry. Apple is a close second.
Yes, girlfriend pie, the best!!!
Those Love Handles……………
As you get older and your metabolism starts to slow, you will find that keeping the weight (fat) in check becomes a bit more difficult. As you age, as you get past that 50, and now past that 60 year point, you will find that no matter how fit you are as far as lifting, running, swimming (aerobically and anaerobically), it seems like diet, or maybe how you digest that diet, becomes a bit more important than previously thought; maybe.
I have been through this before, looking at those last stubborn fat areas; lower abdomen (man pooch) and love handles. I’ve experimented with supplements and brute force. A year ago I had tried DIM (Diindolylmethane) for male estrogen balance and before that, Lyle McDonald’s Ultimate Diet 2 and Stubborn Fat Solution protocols to get to those last areas of stubborn fat. And the results from those experiments were; DIM - Zero UD2 – Rules. Yes, hard work, brute force is the primary answer. However, I cannot believe it is the only answer. My nature is not to let sleeping dogs lie; it’s to chase down the correct answer from multiple options. So in my part time pursuit of obliterating the man pooch and those love handles, I ran across an abstract answer on a website dedicated to Vince Gironda (www.ironguru.com). The following was Mr. Gironda’s answer to a similar question, what to do to control those areas of stubborn fat.
- You have a metabolic problem.
- You need digestive support at each meal (HCL and Enzymes).
- You must stop combining carbohydrates and protein at the same meal.
- You must stop those so called High-Rep reducing exercises (twists and bend-overs). They are responsible for you losing muscle tissue. (Hormone Depletion).
- If you can afford kelp tabs and Vitamin C, take three a day and fifteen kelp tabs.
This is pretty old school, especially the HCL and digestive enzyme comment. Just a quick search on the World Wide Web for digestive enzymes and you will see pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, lipase, amylase…….. These are just a few of the enzymes secreted by your mouth, stomach and pancreas needed to break down proteins, fats and carb’s; not to mention bile from the liver to emulsify fats and oils with water and allow transport into the body from the digestive track. WOW!!!! Maybe as we get older, these enzymes and stomach acids (HCL) are under produced. Maybe that’s why I feel kind of bloated after a meal that is carb or fat heavy. WOW!!!! In fact I have read that in the 1930’s the Mayo Clinic and John Hopkins completed studies that had shown as we approach age 60, stomach acid and digestive enzyme production starts to slow down. So maybe, just maybe my digestion is biased toward carb’s and I’m not getting the proteins, fats and oils I need. Kind of like malnutrition; a starvation mode; maybe. I will order HCL and Digestive enzymes tonight from www.iHerb.com and see what that does? Since I am not taking anything right now, not even a multi-vitamin, and haven’t for the last 4 months, it’s a clean sheet experiment.
As far as kelp, that’s iodine. Now I have read someplace where the WHO has declared that there is an iodine deficiency among western cultures. I’m not sure of a specific reason other than everyone is cutting back on salt; maybe. And processed foods, although high in sodium are not using an iodized product; most likely using MSG. As we know iodine affects the thyroid; our master metabolic thermostat. Elemental iodine powers up the thyroid so maybe kelp tabs, that are high in natural iodine, are what is needed to keep that metabolic thermostat powered up. You don’t know until you try, right?
And vitamin C, that goes directly to the adrenal glands. It helps the adrenals pump out catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine). These hormones are essential to fat mobilization. Energy expenditure (exercise) oxidizes fat once it is released, e.g. mobilized. So I guess vitamin C isn’t off base.
So I will order my HCL, digestive enzymes and take them with every meal. I’ll pop kelp tabs daily and take 3 hits of vitamin C per day and we’ll evaluate the results against my new workout schedule. I will report back in future blogs on the Love Handle situation. Only the mirror can reveal the truth.
Rethinking Nicotine…………….
Many years ago, I was a smoker. Yes indeed, during my senior year in high school and my entire navy career, I was a pack and a half a day man. Yep, coffee and cigarettes were a mainstay of my lifestyle. It wasn’t until the late 1980’s that I was an on and off smoker, finally kicking the habit in 2002. During that whole period I never had an issue with weight or blood serum cholesterol. I’d work hard, I’d play hard, I’d drink hard and of course I’d smoke; that was acceptable in in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
In fact, I remember onboard ship, doing curls and benches with our homemade iron; it was considered pretty cool to have a Marlboro hanging from your lips. 2 inch schedule 80 pipe, condenser zincs and Marlboros were all a 20 year old needed to stay fit while at sea in 1975. Couldn’t run on a submarine, cardio was unheard of; besides only sissies and sonar techs ran (LOL). Lifting was anaerobic, no air right?
So what brings up this ugly subject in today’s world of anti-smoking, anti-nicotine. Again, it’s the love handles and the man pooch, not to mention a 17% improvement in time to exhaustion plus enhanced motor skills (mind to muscle connection); WOW!!! And today, you don’t even have to smoke, chew or otherwise ingest a product to get a low chronic dose, just slap on a patch; pure medical grade nicotine approved by the FDA. This is over the counter, as if you were buying vitamins, fish oil, a milkshake at McDonalds…..
The benefit of using nicotine with a coffee booster sounds an awful like what Lyle McDonald had stated in his Stubborn Fat Protocol for yahimbine. Only instead of using yahimbine, use a nicotine patch. Another advantage of nicotine, the effectiveness does not diminish over time; caffeine and yahimbine become ineffective as a stimulant after several weeks.
There are several nutritional sites that go through some of the benefits of nicotine as far as enhanced lipolysis and time to exhaustion, both through increased plasma catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine). The sites are;
So once I get to the Endurance macro of my annual plan and I start looking at total body fat, I may look into nicotine patches, then again I may chicken out. They are cheaper and easier to administer that yahimbine. I actually have a bottle of yahimbine that I never have tried. The reason; taking 8 or so capsules 30 minutes before a 4:30 am run is pretty harsh. Slap on a patch the night before, heck of a lot more convenient. As for addiction, as a past smoker I’m gonna’ tell you, low dose nicotine from a patch would be nothing more than a nuisance addiction; like a crash after no coffee for several days. The real addiction to smoking was (is) ……….. the smoking, the social aspect; with your buds, out for a night, at work coffee clutches, etc…. I always hated smoking alone. And if you’re serious about training, you won’t put anything in your lungs but air. However, a patch may be just the ticket. An evil turned to good.
Natty or Not………….
I visit this web site on a regular basis; www.nattyornot.com. I find it entertaining and sometimes informative; maybe. First and foremost there are quite a number of grammatical errors that make it a challenge to read and understand (the guy really needs an editor) and second, it is way out there as far as a single individual bashing the supplement, bodybuilding and professional sports industry. Some people would call him a hater, an internet troll. I’m not sure I would go as far as hater or troll; he isn’t bullying you into agreeing with him. The articles are more of a rant than anything. I would classify him more as someone that wants to expose an industry wrought with partial truths and sometimes, outright frauds, but just can’t quite articulate the problem or the issues. He is frustrated. However, as far out as he may be, he does have a point; the supplement industry uses Madison Avenue Marketing Tactics to sell their products. And that may employ a ‘slanted truth’ as to the reliability or even the safety of the products they peddle. Yes, I’m afraid they do show pictures of extreme muscles all pumped up, probably on steroids, and they do use Photoshop to fill in what poor photography won’t capture. Yes, the marketers will tell you everything you truly want to believe, to make you feel that you are only one step away from looking like those fitness and bodybuilding models. If you just throw down your $100, in 60 days this is what you’ll look like; maybe. It is and always has been; Buyer Beware!!!!!!
You must also realize that it is the customer’s decision to invest in the product; it is the customer’s responsibility to be informed. The marketers aren’t evil; they’re in business to make a profit. It’s called capitalism. Is the muscle, bodybuilding, fitness, weight loss and supplement industry any different from auto sales? Making you fantasize about how sexy you’d feel driving that convertible; how sexy you’d feel looking like the fitness models and bodybuilders presented in the ads. Heck, 50 years ago the Marlboro Man, on his black horse, looking rugged and sexy………….was an advertising gimmick for a product that was a known health hazard; the cigarettes, not the nicotine. It worked on me, I felt rugged, sexy and cool lighting up. Yes, I and hundreds of thousands of other U.S. servicemen through the 1970’s felt the same way. Yes, there are some that fall hook, line and sinker for the dream and after a while they learn. Hopefully they learn before it kills them; maybe.
So my friend, keep up the battle, fight those demons and dragons, and if you ever decide you need an editor, let me know, I’ll do my best to help you out.
Conclusion……………..
New routines, old school supplements, girlfriend pies and corporate lies. WOW!!! What a way to start the New Year. Still chasing that unicorn, still chasing that Last 10 Pounds.
MMJennings
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