Back in the Saddle…………

I’m well into the third month of my Power Macro, and after a small hiatus of a week plus when moving from Asia back to the USA, are we gaining on that Last 10 Pounds? Or is it gaining on me? I think we’re gaining. Persistence, dedication and application of knowledge will always prevail.

As far as getting past those first few workouts after a short vacation; brutal but survivable. The secret, start out light and after the second week you’ll be right back to where you started. And try not to make big changes in you working routine. I wish I had followed my own advise; I made a substantial change and I paid for it with sore body parts (DOMS) for the first couple of weeks. And my big change; shifting from the smith rack to a standard back squats in squat rack. Still doing box squats, still doing drop sets, it’s just that now I have to balance that bar instead of just push. There is more thought involve, more of a focused effort.

Supplements…………………

We haven’t talked about these in a while and since I quit taking them, what I have discovered. Several months ago, way back in October 2014, I quit taking all supplements. Now some of these were to help control cholesterol, e.g. niacin (B3) and some were the standard fare that anyone that works hard keeping fit would use; Fish Oil, Multivitamin, etc… And some were used to get me past recovery; BCAA’s. However, when we went to Korea, I stopped taking anything. And guess what? I survived, my muscles didn’t deflate and in fact, we gained strength in some areas and endurance in all areas.

In December, I bumped into an article on Vince Gironda and his recommendations for obliterating those love handles and that manpooch. Vitamin C, Kelp, HCL and digestive enzymes was what he called out. And as soon as we got settled back in the USA, got my iHerb.com order out and started fresh, a clean slate, just to see if his old school recommendations held water. So as of March 15, my latest supplement list is;

Fish Oil	Multivitamin
Kelp, 150 mcg Iodine	HCL
Digestive Enzyme	Vitamin C, 1000 mg

Right now I am taking the recommended dosage listed on the bottles but I plan on increasing the Kelp, Vitamin C and HCL dosage before the end of the month. As far as the love handles and manpooch melting away; no indication yet. As far as bloating and after meal discomfort; small improvement. As far as cholesterol; don’t really know until I get back to my ‘Pill Pusher’ in Washington. You have to remember (maybe not but it’s mentioned in a previous blog entry) that I quit taking Lipitor close to 2 years ago and haven’t looked back. And as far as blood sugar; my latest HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin, ReliOn home test kit) shows 5.7, not the best results I’ve seen but for someone that 11 years ago was told that he would be on a permanent prescription of metformin by now it’s pretty darn good; exercise and diet rule. I still need the blood work done, but for now, things look very good.

To Lipitor or NOT to Lipitor……Or Maybe……To Run or NOT to Run

Since we are talking about supplements, I have some updated thoughts on statins, e.g. Lipitor and maybe niacin (B3). A few months after I had finished the last of my Lipitor prescription(s), around September 2013, besides my short experiment with DIM, I have not had an issue with those ………..masculine feelings………, especially in the early morning. In fact, over the last 4 months, those early morning………..masculine feelings………can be so intense they’re actually quite painful; in a pleasant sort of way. For the record, these very intense episodes usually come the second night (48 hours) after a good upper or lower body workout. It wasn’t until after I dumped all of the supplements that I really noticed; e.g. when we left Japan. Basically a good heavy workout (squats, deadlifts, benches, rows….) with lots of lactic acid build up, lots of sleep, no supplements equates to very intense ………..masculine feelings. So we know there’s a release of the growth hormone and the big ‘T’ several hours after a workout when lots and lots of lactic acid is released. And if it’s located in large muscle groups, e.g. gluts, quads, hams, pecs….., then it stands to reason that the impact would be an improvement in those………..masculine feeling. The intensity however, could it be the lack of statin, lack of B3 floating around in my system? Maybe! Those drugs do manipulate total cholesterol and we know that cholesterol is the first link in the chain to the big ‘T’, and other hormones. Or could it be the reduction in cardio? In the last year, because of the 2 overuse injuries, I have really cut back on the cardio, not even half of what it was the previous year. And in the last 3 months, I’ve reduced it to 2 days out of 5, and at a substantially lower intensity. In fact, the sequence of events and the awareness of those………..masculine feelings………looks like this;

• August 2013 through February 2014, increased cardio to 6 days per week, mileage up to 25 to 27 miles per week.
• Finished last prescription of Lipitor September 2013.
• Arrived in Japan October 2013.
• Used DIM over several week period in December 2013 – no appreciable results, dropped the use of DIM.
• January 2014, one week off of any lifting, only cardio. Noted attitude shift and a drop in those ………..masculine feelings.
• February 2014, first overuse injury – sprained calf.
• February 2014 through June 2014, recovered from calf sprain, initially reduced mileage but slowly increasing back to 20 miles per week.
• Broke foot in June 2014.
• June through August 2014, cardio consisted of fitnesblender.com circuit training. Weight routines slowly got heavier.
• Arrived in Korea October 2014, dropped all supplements.
• October 2014 through January 2015, due to weather, due to foot recovery, cardio (running) took a nose dive, maybe 10 miles per week and no additional circuit training. Squats and Deadlifts got heavier and heavier.
• November and December 2014, initially aware of very intense………..masculine feelings.
• January 2015, started on the Power Macro, 2 out of 5 day SLOG’s, very minimal cardio (10 miles or less per week).
• March 2015, back in the USA. During travel 1 1/2 weeks off from any heavy lifting, cardio only. Noted a slight attitude shift and a drop in frequency and intensity of those………..masculine feelings.
• March 2015 back on some supplements (above).
• April 2015, again aware of intense………..masculine feelings.

We’ll have to look at this again when we get into the Endurance Macro. Maybe a high level of medium intensity cardio, e.g. running steady state is the man killer and supplements are a no-never mind. Maybe both are involved. We’ll see!!!

So when going after that Last 10 Pounds, it pays to keep track of those………..masculine feelings. I may have to add this to my KPI’s (LOL).

MMJennings