That First Month is the Hardest…………….

Well, we are a month into our Sculpting Macro and I feel like……………..I’m spinning my wheels. My workouts are inconsistent (yet constantly poor), my diet is the pits and my trip to the Doctor was more than depressing. All of these are challenges that can be and must be overcome if I’m ever going to beat that Last 10 Pounds.

 

Sculpting Macro Workout Plan…………..

The Cardio for this Sculpting Macro was actually an easy rhythm to get into; go to the gym, hop on a treadmill, run intervals, run SLOGs or just plain run. Keep the runs to less than 30 minutes and then go do something else; bike, lift, elliptical, calisthenics, circuits, etc.…, anything to get the heart rate up. And do this for as many days in a row as you can sensibly endure. As far as progression; run faster, run longer, run more incline………..pretty straight forward, pretty easy to accomplish.

The resistance training however; low suck. Just couldn’t get into a routine. So after three weeks of flailing around at what seemed like a random sequence of grabbing weights and pretending to get something out of it, I sat down and…………………….I wrote it down.

Goals;  

• Improve shoulder width and depth (Deltoids).
• Improve upper back (upper and mid Traps).
• Deep squat (ass to grass) 225.
• True dead lifts (releasing the bar, each rep) 285.
• Slow down and hold (two count) all exercises at the point of greatest stretch.

Limitations (Injuries);

• Forearm right side (Brachioradialis) pain from certain movements (pullups, hammer curl).
• Shoulder right side (neutral grip bench press).
• Foot (previous broken) the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th toe impact.

Schedule;

• Monday and Tuesday upper/lower splits, Thursday and Saturday whole body.
• Thursday whole body, concentrate upper; Saturday whole body concentrate lower.
• Try to work specific muscle groups at least groups three days per week.

Exercises;

Upper Body	Days				Lower Body	Days
Chest	M	T	T	S	Quads	M	T	T	S
BB Bench Press Neutral Grip			X		BB Back Squat		X		X
BB bench Press Wide Grip				X	BB Hack Squat
BB Press, Narrow Grip			X		BB Front Squat
BB Press Inclined, Neut Grip					BB Split Squat
BB Press Declined, Neut Grip					Leg Press			X	X
Cable Fly					Leg Extension		X	X
DB Bench Press	X				Sissy Squat
DB Bench Press Inclined	X				Goblet Squat			X
DB Press Declined					Abduct, Adduct, TFL
Push Ups					Side Shuffle
Dips	X				Hip raise
Upper Back & Lats					Ab/Ad Machine				X
DB Row	X				Ab/Ad Bands		X
BB Row, One Arm			X		Ham, Glut, Low Back
T-Bar Row					BB Lunge
Seated Cable Row	X			X	Bulgarian Split		X
Bent Over BB Row					BB Dead Lift
Pull Ups					BB Straight Leg Dead Lift			X
Lat Pull	X				DB Single Straight Leg Dead		X
Straight Arm Pull					Suitcase Dead Lift		X
TRX Overhead Extension	X			X	Back Extension		X
Lateral Deltoids					Leg Curl		X	X
Standing Barbell Row				X	BB Lunge
Dumbbell lateral Raise			X		Bulgarian Split
Arnold Press	X				BB Dead Lift
Anterior Delts					Calves
Front Raise					Seated Calf Raise				X
Mill Press				X	Standing Calf Raise				X
DB Press					Tibia
Posterior Delts					Weighted Toe Lift
Reverse Incline Fly
Bent Over Fly
Laying Side Raise
Rotator Cuff Pull	X		X	X
Biceps
Standing Sissy Bar Curls			X
Preacher Sissy Bar Curls
Preacher Dumbbell
Standing Dumbbell	X
Incline Dumbbell
Drag Curls	X
Cable Curls				X
Triceps
Cable Pull Downs	X
Kick Backs
Overhead Cable

 Daily Routine;

Monday	Tuesday	Thursday	Saturday
3 Set, Rest 4 and 3 More Dumbbell Bench Dumbbell Incline Bench Dumbbell Row	4 Sets, Timed 4 Minutes Back Squat (Heavy, deep as can go) Abductor (Band) Adductor (Band)	4 Sets, Timed 4 Minutes Bench Press  Neutral Grip (Heavy) Rotator Cuff Pull One Arm Barbell Row	4 Sets, Timed 4 Minutes Dead Lifts (Heavy) Abductor (Machine) Adductor (Machine)
4 Sets, Timed 3 Minutes Dips Seated Cable Row Lat Pulls (to Pull Ups)	4 Sets, Timed 4 Minutes Suitcase Deadlift Bulgarian Split (Weighted) Dumbbell Single Straight Leg Deadlift	4 Sets, Timed 3 Minutes Goblet Squat Leg Extension Standing Sissy Bar Curls	4 Sets, Timed 3 Minutes Guillotine Bench Standing Barbell Row Cable Curls
4 Sets, Timed 3 Minutes Standing Dumbbell Curl Drag Curl Cable Pull Down	4 Sets, Timed 2 Minutes Back Extensions (Twisting) Leg Extension	4 Sets, Timed 4 Minutes Bench Press Narrow Grip (Low Heavy) Lateral Raise One Arm Barbell Row	4 Sets, Timed 4 Minutes Deep Squat (Light) Standing Calf Raise Military Press Rotator Cuff pull
4 Sets, Timed 3 Minutes TRX Overhead Extension Arnold Press Rotator Cuff Pull	4 Sets, Timed 2 Minutes Leg Curl Barbell Straight Leg Dead Lift	4 sets, Timed 3 Minutes Leg Curl Leg Press (Light and Hold) Seated Cable Row	4 Sets, Times 3 Minutes Leg Press (Heavy) Seated Calf Raise TRX Overhead Extension

Write it down, organize it and work your plan. WOW!!!

Journaling the Diet………….

By taking a picture of everything that went into my mouth I discovered at least one thing; my diet ‘ain’t clean’. Two items I need to work on are alcohol and sugar. And by far sugar is the worse of the two evils.

In a one week period, the total of useless calories that went down my throat was just amazing. In fact; OMG, I’m a Sugar Junkie.

Item	Servings	Total Calories	Empty Calories
Beer	Three 10 oz	150 X 3 = 350	350
Wine	Five 6 oz	125 X 5 = 600	600
Cookies	Five Medium	55 X 5 = 275	25g Sugar, X 4.5 = 100
Candy	Four  Handfuls	200 X 4 = 800	114g Sugar, X 4.5 = 513
Ice Cream	Four  Cups	377 X 4 = 1500	104g Sugar, X 4.5 = 468
	Totals	3525	1731

 In a 7 day period, between booze and junk; 3500 total calories. WOW!!! And of those 3500 calories, 50% were empty calories. Double WOW!!! Basically I ate an extra day and a half worth of food in that week. If I wasn’t working out as intensely and as regularly as I do, I would eventually end up as a poster child for Bariatric Surgery.

This just won’t do, it is embarrassing. Last note; 243g of excess sugar works out to approximately 0.5 pounds of the white stuff in a week. So in 52 weeks, one year, I would consume 26 pounds of sugar. WOW!!!

 

So What Did the Doctor Say…………..

 On the 22^nd of October I paid a visit to my friendly neighborhood pill pusher and the first thing he said was “how’s that diabetes and cholesterol doing”. And you know something; he was on target. The blood work showed total cholesterol at 240 and that my HDL and LDL were upside down; again. Bad JuJu or…….so they say. For almost 2 years; no statins, and for the better part of a year; no niacin. And I know what my pill pusher will prescribe; more statins. The problem; I don’t know if I will accept the prescription; I feel awfully damn good without it. When he does write the actual prescription, I will ask for 10mg tablets and if I decide to use the medication, I may only take 5mg. The reason; the half-life of  a statin is around 24 hours, so after taking 10mg a day for 6 days, your system is floating at around 20mg of the stuff. If I drop the does to 5 mg per day, my system float would be down to about 10mg. And in my opinion, that may be too much.

I think what I will do is restart the niacin (B3) and B6 routine again, skip the statin and see where I end up. If I can get the HDL and LDL reversed and push total cholesterol down close to 200, I would be satisfied.

As far as my HbA1c; 5.7. This value is pretty close to what we have been seeing with the home test kits. All this really means is that yes, I am still ‘practicing’ diabetes, I am still dealing with the dawn effect (hepatic insulin resistance)……………or maybe that extra bowl of ice cream?

So besides the Cholesterol and the blood glucose issues, what else was out of spec on this last go around?

·         Mono%; 12.4% - High – White blood cell, indicates stress, high cortisol. Cold be the exercise load; maybe.

·         Creatinine; 1.48mg/dl – High – Waste product, high levels are a sign of dehydration, too much red meat and excessive exercise. If you look at my blood work over the last 10 years, this is actually the norm for me. 

·         Glucose; 103mg/dl – High – Blood sugar, this is normal for me and it’s been this way since 2002.

·         GFR Est; 52ml/min/1.73m2 – Low – Indicates loss of kidney function, associated with higher Creatinine. This is also a 10 year norm for me.

·         T3 Uptake; 27.4 – Low – Sign of low thyroid function, its known as getting old. T3 Uptake has been dropping progressively for over 10 years.

 

If you will note, I have commented on each of these out of spec readings from a 10 year perspective. How can I do this? Most recently, the health organization that my pill pusher belongs to, has put all of my records on line, including lab reports. This is great, no more wondering, you can see and actually plot the trends.

And finally, a few days after my doctor’s appointment, I got out an order to iHerb. Besides the supplements I have generally been taking, I included a batch of B3 and B6. They worked before, they should work again. I will start again on November 1^st.  In my next entry, we’ll get into what I’m taking and if there is an effect.

 

Conclusions…………

 

I can only hope that the next few months will be less depressing and more productive. Now that I have figured out that I’m a sugar junkie, I can fix it. Now that I have figured out why my Sculpting Macro was in the toilet, I can improve it. Now that I have figured out that maybe I need some help in diagnosing chronic health conditions, I can take specific supplements (and maybe med’s, last resort) to correct the condition. I can get back on track and I can take on the battle for that Last 10 Pounds.  

 

MMJennings