In fact, that Niggly Injury I described last month, the TFL
pull, it slowed me down, I stopped running the 2nd week into the
third month, but it didn’t stop me. Nope, still doin’ the drop set squats,
still making progress on the bench, still pullin’ weight with the biceps. I
ain’t no Quitter!!! I’m gonna’ Get-R-Done.
More Manly Stuff…….
So besides the items I listed last month that give me just a
taste of those………masculine feelings…….I have a few more I want to add.
·
anytime I you get to use my chainsaw.
·
anytime I can beat something with a hammer.· anytime I get a compliment from a young lady.
· driving a pick-up truck with a bench seat and a 3 speed on the tree (a rare pleasure).
These are fun things to think about but the one thing, the
ultimate, are the big lifts. Squats and deads……..these get your juices flowing.
Key Performance
Indicators……………….
KPI’s for the month of April. No improvement but there is
progress.
|
April Best
|
|||
|
Exercise
|
Sets
|
Reps
|
Total Weight Moved
|
|
Heavy Squat
|
4
|
8
|
6,880 (215*32)
|
|
Drop Set Squat
|
4
|
12
|
6,480
(135*48) 13,280 Total
|
|
Pull Up
|
4
|
8
|
----------
|
|
Heavy Bench
|
4
|
8
|
6,400 (200*32)
|
|
Drop Set Bench
|
4
|
12
|
6,480 (135*48) 12,880
Total
|
|
Row
|
4
|
8
|
3,200
(100*32)
|
|
Masculine Feelings (Scale 1 to 10) = 5+
|
|||
|
Cardio; Dropped cardio weeks 2 and 3 waiting out TFL
injury.
|
|||
|
Notes;
Lower 3 exercises completed as a superset; Squat, Drop Set
Squat and Pull Up. There is 4 minute spread between the start of each set. In
that 4 minutes you complete the 3 exercises plus just enough rest to allow
heart rate to settle out. This set is like an extended Sprint; very, very
whole body. All squats are Box Squats using standard bench (18”) as a squat
limit. Calculated Squat 1RM – 267.
Upper 3 exercises completed as a superset; Bench, Drop Set
Bench and Rows. There is 4 minute spread between the start of each set. In
that 4 minutes you complete the 3 exercises plus just enough rest to allow
heart rate to settle out. All are
neutral grip Bench Presses. Calculated Bench 1RM – 248.
|
|||
The second week into this cycle, stopped the cardio hoping that
Niggly Injury would fade into memory. No such luck however, still painful,
especially after polishing a chair all day. I will probable curtail any runs or
serious cardio until after the leg is much better. Maybe I get back into the
fitnessblender.com routines again.
CO2 and You……………..
I have covered some of my thoughts on CO2 in previous
entries. However, I do not think I have talked about sleep and the role CO2
plays. As you may have noted from previous entries, I have suggested that CO2
allows for better sleep. And I here to tell you that yes, anecdotally, fresh
clean air at low CO2 levels will have you sleeping like a baby.
It is spring here in central Washington and over the last
two weeks I have slept with the windows open and the door ajar; a flow through
situation. The CO2 levels in my bedroom never got much above 500 ppm. And as
soon as we closed the windows and turned on the AC, CO2 in the bedroom started
to push 1300 ppm. Sure enough, restless inconsistent ZZZZZZ’s. There is a
connection, there is a threshold.
In everything I have read so far, there is a neurotransmitter
(orexin) that controls wakefulness. CO2 stimulates orexin, CO2 stimulates
wakefulness. This makes sense as far as you circadian rhythm, your natural
sleep cycle. CO2 levels are low in the evening because of all of the plants and
trees pulling CO2 from the air through photosynthesis. And in the morning, CO2
levels are elevated because the plants and trees have no sunshine, no
photosynthesis. However the range of CO2 change is very small, maybe 50 ppm. Anyway,
even within this small range, low CO2 helps you sleep and the higher morning
levels, promote wakefulness. WOW!!!
What a connection!!!
So what I have discovered is that if I need to work or play
hard the next day, get to an area of low, outside level low, CO2. If I need to
be awake and alert………………breathe into a paper bag???
Getting the Fat
Out…………….
In one of Lyle McDonald’s books (I think it was The Stubborn Fat Solution), he had
talked about the various fats that are not only in your body, but he also
discussed the various fats that we eat. These of course would be saturated and
unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated). Saturated fats are generally
thought of as animal fats and unsaturated are from plants and fish. One of his
thoughts is that if you maintain a diet based on healthier and easier mobilized
unsaturated fats, you would eventually replace your body’s fat reserves with
these fats through a ‘Feed and Bleed’ process, e.g. a perpetual dilution
process. I think Lyle McDonald called it Differential
Fatty Acid Storage. The question I have is how long does this take?
I gonna’ tell you here and now when it comes to fat
consumption, my personal diet isn’t that clean; I eat butter, I eat steak, I
eat bacon. Yes indeed, I eat my share of saturated fats. However, I also eat
lots of nuts, smother everting I can in olive oil and I have also been
supplementing with at least 6 grams of omega 3 (fish oil) since the beginning
of this year’s Power Macro. And do I feel any different, do I feel leaner? I
can tell you I’m gaining on it; maybe!!!! I look better in the mirror anyway.
I have lost fat over the last several months and it’s been through
a combination of training and diet, plus some supplements. However, I think the
one thing I’m missing out on, to trim the fat even further, is an adrenaline
rush. Large dumps of adrenaline (epinephrine) that get the existing stores fat
mobilized are on the weak side. And the follow up ‘low-effort’ cardio to burn
the fat after release is not there. OK, again from Lyle’s book The Stubborn Fat Solution, adrenaline in
the absence of insulin releases fat and a 60% effort cardio routine should burn
that released fat. I have called this the ‘Widow Maker’ in previous journal
entries.
I’ve been working the 60% cardio portion for a while (up
until my latest niggly little injury) using the modified SLOG routines. And
more recently, adding a short weight routine in the middle or the end of the
cardio. This makes me feel good, feel like I’m accomplishing something but I
don’t think it targets the existing fat stores. I think I need to put the lifts
on the front end of this routine or go back to the ‘Widow Makers’. Maybe
completing the Drop Set Squat routine and getting on the stair master would be
a viable alternative.
And if I can replace the fat in my love handles and
man-pooch with more of an unsaturated base, maybe just maybe the next time I go
for that Last 10 Pounds, it
won’t be so difficult. As I get closer to the Endurance Macro, I’ll give this
some thought and ‘write it down’. This little paragraph is a start anyway, gets
me thinking.
End Thoughts…………
So I have one more month of working this year’s Power Macro,
I hope to start my morning runs after this last week-o-rest, at least at a
limited pace anyway. The bottom line……………….Don’t Be a QUITTER, always push forward.
Bee Good
MMJennings
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