This Is Hard, I Think I’m Dying………………..

WOW!!! This first month of my Endurance Macro has really been a bust. The first three weeks I made 100% of the planned morning cardio sessions but my evening resistance sessions were ‘draggin’ butt’; I only made 3 of the 4 weekly scheduled sessions. And to top that off, the fourth week, my scheduled ‘Back Off’ week, I really Backed Off. I went on an unscheduled road trip that included driving a 40 year old Porsche from New York to Kentucky. And as great as that adventure may sound, one 40 minute treadmill session and one 5K run in a 7 day period aint gonna’ cut it when trying to gain on that Last 10 Pounds.

So a first month recap would be; three weeks of aggressive cardio combined with three nights per week resistance training sessions with the fourth week a scheduled rest week. During the fourth week, resistance training was scheduled but only cardio was performed. I can pretty much call the month of May a practice month and probably a do over. This is not a bad thing because the cardio was just flat wearing me down. However, to attain my overall goals, we need to stick to the plan.

As much as I was disappointed in my efforts to get to the gym and Get-R-Done, this first month wasn’t all dark and gloomy, there were two pretty interesting observations;

·         First; verification of a casual observation I made during my last 7 day vacation at the beginning of March. After about 3 days of not doing any formal or planed training, I look my best in the mirror. What? Yes, that’s right, after several days of a little R&R, besides dropping close to 8 pounds (all water), when I look in the mirror there is no bloated abdomen, the love handles and man pooch are less ‘puffy’, the lats seem wider and the pecs, the quads, the biceps and the calves all seem more cut. So if you’ve been bustin’ butt for several months and things seem worse or at a plateau, take a couple of days off and then reexamine. I bet you’ll be very surprised. Between finishing up the Power Macro and getting started with the Endurance Macro, I had been working very hard for close to 4 months straight. Again, I don’t believe in over training, but the ‘puffy’ bloated plateau could be a sure sign of over-reaching.

·         The Second item that I will note is that during the 7 days of R&R there was a definite dip in the intensity of those…….masculine feelings. Don’t get me wrong, there are no issues in that department, just the heightened intensity that we had described a few months back, the intensity you get from a good heavy squat day or dead lift day just isn’t there. I think that I’m pretty much on track about how GH and the big ‘T’ are improved through specific weight training techniques, e.g. the lactic acid connection. Do what you can to get a good pump and a good burn and the ‘T’ will flow; maybe. We’ll look at the …..ups….. and….downs…..of this trough this next training cycle.

So when we do make it to the gym and start to move weights, the first thirty minutes of my lower body splits looks like this;

Triple Leg Set (20 to 30 Minutes)

Muscle Group; Lower Back, Glut and Quads

Exercises Included; - Barbell Dead Lift - Barbell Hack Squat - Bulgarian Split Squat (bodyweight)

Exercise Procedure; This is an exercise that consists of 2 bouts of 3 supersets with no rest. There is a 4 minute walking rest between bouts. Each superset incorporates 8 reps each of dead lifts, hack squats and Bulgarian splits. After a good warm up, at something close to 50% of your ORM, complete 8 deadlift reps, back into and complete 8 hack squat reps. Then move to a bench and one leg at a time, complete 8 reps (each leg) Bulgarian splits. After 3 supersets, find a treadmill and set the speed at 3.3 MPH. Walk it off for 4 minutes then repeat with 3 more supersets. - Because the weight is fairly light, keep the lifts slow and deliberate. - Progression should be added weight up to 70% ORM then drop back to 50% and add a 4th superset to each bout. - Bulgarian splits should be as deep as possible to stretch the hams and gluts. You can add weight as part of the progression. There is no rest between exercises within a superset or the 3 supersets that make up a bout. There is a 4 minute walk between bouts. This is the rest period. As you progress through the endurance macro, add weight until you approach 70% ORM then back off to 50% and add another superset to both bouts.

How You Should Feel After the Exercise; This routine should tire you out. If you lift too fast you will be winded by the 3rd superset and my not recover for the second bout. The slower lifts will force you to rely on strength instead of generating power with speed (anaerobic instead of aerobic). You should feel a good lactic burn in your quads and gluts and should be breathing quite hard at the end of the second bout. You may also feel a bit wimpy the next day. If the wimpy feelings or if DOMS extends for several days, back off the weight. If you feel the 3 superset bouts are a bit too much during a given workout, again back off the weight, stick to a minimum of 3 supersets per bout.

May 2015, Starting Weight on Dead is 150 lbs and on Hack is 100 lbs.

During these lower body splits I’m also completing a round of deep squats (ass to grass), leg presses, toe raises, leg curls, leg extensions and standing and seated calf raises. The exciting part (at least for me) is that in this lower body split, I’ve also included bicep exercises.

The bicep routine I have selected for this lower split is also a 3 exercise superset that generates a pretty good pump and lactic burn. The actual routine is posted in the June 25^th 2014 blog; just drop the rows (http://loosefatassweight.blogspot.com/2014/06/surprise-surprise.html). What am I trying to accomplish?  Between the lactic acid release from the Triple Leg Set (above) and from the biceps, I’m hoping there is an excess GH released to accommodate better bicep growth; or even if that is doable for a 60 year old man. This is one of my ‘Hard Gain’ areas. Also I’m working biceps another 2 days per week during the upper body splits. This gives me 4 days per week of bicep work. 

Nicotine and Caffeine…………….

In my pursuit of a…..more convenient…….way to bring those love handles and that man pooch into check, I will actually give nicotine patches a shot. After this second month of the Endurance Macro, after the second scheduled rest week when we roll back into the morning cardio, I’ll be wearing a 15 mg patch and shooting for a peak dose at or near the time of the cardio.

The plan is to slap on a patch the night before, maybe 9:30, 10:00 pm and wear it through my morning cardio session. And just before I jump in the shower, getting ready for work, I’ll pull the patch. This will give me 8 to 9 hours of exposure with a peak blood serum dose of 7 ng/ml at my 4:30 am cardio session.

Now generally, when I’m done with my morning cardio sessions, I incorporate a 20 to 30 minute cool down period where I gulp down 2 cups of coffee; maybe 300 mg of caffeine. Once I start the patch, I will forgo the morning coffee ritual and indulge in several cups of coffee in the afternoon, about 2:00 or 3:00 pm (maybe a bit later). This should get me spooled up for the afternoon weight session.       

The plan is to slowly increase the nicotine exposure time to 24 hours. At that point we should be close to starting the 4^th month of the Endurance Macro. And we’ll reverse this process once we get into the Sculpting Macro. So this would keep me on the patch for a 4 week period and give me more than enough time to evaluate its effectiveness.  Basically, we want to be 100% clean by January going into the next Power Macro.

So we’ll see how this goes. This may be a bust like some of the other supplements I’ve tried but then again, it may do the trick. To gain on that Last 10 Pounds, got to be willing to go the extra mile and try new things. And right, wrong or indifferent, we’re trying to be creative about it.

Mark M. Jennings