Here We Go Again…………….

We are well into the 2017 Power Macro. We are into the 3^rd month in fact. And I must admit, I have not been keeping up with my Journal Entries. So I will try to rectify that and catch you up in that everlasting pursuit of that Last 10 Pounds.

My routines for this Power Macro are;

Type	Exercises
Upper	Main Show – Drop Set Bench Press - neutral grip bench plus single arm Kettle Ball as the drop. (4 sets) Supplement Round 1 – Double Row Super, narrow grip land mines followed by lighter set of barbell rows. (4 sets) Supplement Round 2 – Curl Super, Reverse Curl (Vince Grinada) pus bent concentration Curl. (4 sets)
Lower	Main Show – 5 X 5 Front Squat, followed by 4 superset raised heal Front Squat and pull-ups. Supplement Round 1 – dead lift or leg press, seated calf raise superset (4 sets). Supplement Round 2 – Cable Twists or Wood Choppers (4sets)
Cardio	Option 1 – Run, Intervals 1 on 2 off or 1 on 1 off, 30 min working toward 45 These are heart rate based, not a race, not endurance.

This is a 6 day a week program, alternating a 2-day upper with a 1-day lower and a 2-day lower with a 1-day upper every other week. And again, every 4^th week is a light load week. This schedule has been working pretty well and in fact I have seen a couple of new PR’s. I have seen 195 on the bar for front squats and generally I am pulling over 150 on the narrow grip land mine rows. Quad’s and Back are my strength target areas this go around. As far as getting back into running, before I caught a niggly little cold, I was up to 35 minutes of 1 minute runs (in-between a jog and a sprint) with a 1-minute walk, 35-minute duration. These ups and downs generally jacks my heart rate to 140 to 150 bpm during the ups and drops it back to 130 to 135 during the downs. I have not felt the general fatigue (in my legs) I had felt in the past as far as steady state or the split 20’s.

I have also been doing a hell of a lot more stretching and foam rolling after the lifting days and especially after the run days. No niggly hip pain……..yet, maybe?.....well, maybe a twinge.

Walking Pneumonia………….

I hate colds, I hate nagging cough, congested chest, hacking up phlegm ball colds. They really, really suck. I came down with something during the last week of February and it lingered through mid-March. I had to cut my 4-week cycle back a bit just to recover. Couldn’t lift (heavy anyway) and if I ran, I spent the next 2 to 3 hours coughing as I recovered from the cardio session. This has been one of the worse colds I can remember. No amount of vitamin C could have prevented it. No amount of rest seemed to relieve the symptoms. It was just a nasty two-week episode. If you can avoid catching one, like the Niki commercial says, JUST DO IT.

Based on this ‘snivel’, it will take several weeks to catch back up with my Power Macro planned progression. But I will preserver.

Squats, Squats and More Squats…….

After better than 1 year practicing my front squat, I can now tell you from experience that it really is the ultimate exercise………especially if you are at the 60 year mark, plus. The older I get and the more friends I have that don’t do anything, much less squat as a major form of exercise, just can’t keep up. They are physically and emotionally drained, debilitated. As the old saying goes….ain’t got your health, ain’t got nothin’.

During the Sculpting Macro, completing 32 rep squat sets, I was left breathless, huffing and puffing for 3 minutes between sets. If you want to feel your heart beating fast, furious and hard, that’s the way to go. And I never did complete a full third set, 2 and ¾ sets was my best. What I gained from that routine; this allows you to make progress, as far as carrying a weight for an extended period, but you will NOT be able to add weight……there is a limit.

During the Power Macro, I have been able to increase the weight on the bar, but at a reduced number of reps and sets, e.g. 5 X 5’s equals 25 reps total….vs. 32 reps in one set. However, total weight on the bar has dramatically increased. Maybe I should be writing about rep density (higher weight per rep) vs. endurance. From the Sculpting sets, we were looking at a rep density of 126 lbs/rep….…the Power set, I have seen 175 lbs/reps. And were hoping to see 185 lbs/rep sessions before the end of the power macro.

Those Love Handles………..

I have not forgotten my quest, finding my unicorn, suprailiac fat or love handle reduction. This is a tough area. If I go back to Lyle McDonald’s thoughts, these areas will stick with you until you drop to below maybe 10% body fat. Lately I have been reading that (and this is in line with Lyle’s essays) fat above the hips (suprailiac) is a sign of insulin resistance. So is the key to diet down further, or is the key to yet again shoot for things that 1) reduce insulin secretion and 2) improve insulin sensitivity. In my case (hepatic insulin resistance) or maybe both. On a number of training consulting web sites, the key factor here is sugar. Maybe instead of tracking total calories, total macro’s I need to track sugar only. I know there is quite a bit in my diet, however I never have tracked it specifically. Maybe look at total sugar, broken down into natural sugars and added sugars. Knowing this I can control or at least set a limit on added sugar. The other option is to increase vitamin D and maybe add berberine to my supplement list. Both of these are hyped as improving insulin sensitivity.

Planning a New Endurance Macro………..

Not too sure what I want to do this year as far as endurance. I think I will carry over some of the cardio, e.g. the splits, from the Power Macro and maybe add calisthenics to the back end. So it would be 30 minutes on a tread mill plus 30 doing pushups, bodyweight single leg squats, planks, light dumbbell/kettle ball snatches, hip thrusters, etc….. maybe re-look at the Fitnessblender web site for some thoughts. Basically, I’ll go from a 40 minute routine to 1 hour. And yes, we will most definitely add light front squat sets to the cardio routines (squat every day…..LOL).

Because of my real job, unless I start getting up at 3:30 am, I do not have the opportunity to run (or other cardio) 1^st thing in the morning. And this may not be a bad thing since I discovered two years ago (2015 Endurance Macro) that after a fasted run, blood sugar actually increased followed by an upswing in insulin (liver glucose dump, dawn effect, etc…). During this year’s Power Macro, by default, I have not been doing morning workouts and stay fasted as long as possible (my first snack is generally 10 or 11 am). I also walk at least 2 miles a day on the job site. I am usually out and about from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, excluding meetings, etc….These actions have been pretty lucrative as far as return on time investment. I tour my job site(s) and get in a steady state cardio session. This has basically minimizes any insulin spikes…….or drops. In fact, it is such a good investment, between fasting in the am, light lunches and the walks I have been routinely seeing 190 on the scale, not just water weight blips. Maybe if I increase the duration a bit…….as long as it does not interfere with my money making job……I might make a bit more progress in my fat to lean ratio. The only thing missing is carrying a weight or dragging a tire (LOL).

As far as lifting, I will probably go to a 4 day lifting routine(s), lighter and more reps per set; go for the burn. This would mean faster out of the hole, e.g. explosive, with some sort of working recovery between sets, maybe the same movement with no weight. Or maybe ‘down the rack’ routines to failure. Or maybe a combination to facilitate overall recovery.

Anyway, by the next blog entry, I will have a specific plan nailed down.

 

Supplements………

For the first three months of 2017, I have been pretty consistent with supplements. In mid-March I backed off a bit to give my body a break. However, for the majority of this 2017 Power Macro I have been taking;

Calcium, Mag, Zinc (1000/400/25 mg)	Omega-3 (3000 mg) from Fish Oil
Multi (One A Day Men)	Vitamin C (2000 mg)
B6 (100 mg)	Psyllium (1 tbs) (breakfast and dinner)
B3 (500 mg)	BCAA (6 g) (2X per day post workout)
Vitamin A (10,000 iu)	Zink (50 mg)
Vitamin D (1000 iu)	Biotin (5000 mcg)
Creatine (5g)	L-Tyrosine (400 mg)

During my several week respite, I dropped the Zinc, Calcium, A, B6, D, Biotin, Creatine and Fish Oil. And, almost immediately, I noticed a lack of……..those masculine feelings. I am beginning to think that the Omega 3 or the D are the building blocks I’m looking for in the management of..……those masculine feelings. The calcium I will be dropping all together…….kinda’ concerned about calcification of major arteries. More on that in my next blog entry. The other thing to note is that if I overdo the nicotine, caffeine and L-Tyrosine, in a fasted condition, I feel a bit loopy……overstimulated……elevated heart rate, anxiety, etc….. Just need to keep track of the dosing.

After my respite, I will be replacing the Calcium/Mag/Zinc with a straight Magnesium supplement plus double up on the Zinc. I will also double up on the Vitamin D and will switch from Fish Oil capsules to a bulk liquid. I have also reduced my B3 supplement to 250 mg per day. The reason for the liquid is…..expense. The reason for the 250 mg of B3; my Jan 20 2017 follow up cholesterol blood sucking, HDL was high (93 up from 70) jacking up total cholesterol (from 217 total to 221). To strike a happy medium and hit my target of 200 for total, I’ll cut back on the niacin. 

So my new supplement list will look like;

Magnesium (400 mg)	Omega-3 (3000 mg) from Fish Oil
Multi (One A Day Men)	Vitamin C (2000 mg)
B6 (100 mg)	Psyllium (1 tbs) (breakfast and dinner)
B3 (250 mg)	BCAA (6 g) (2X per day post workout)
Vitamin A (10,000 iu)	Zink (50 mg) (2X per day)
Vitamin D (1000 iu) (2X per day)	Biotin (5000 mcg)
Creatine (5g)	L-Tyrosine (200 mg)

 

Summary…………

Even with a busy schedule (14 hour days), I have overcome the desire to be…..lazy…..and back off on my training goals. I still find time (schedule time) to lift, to run, to breath and stretch those 60-year-old muscles. I would rather push my blog column to the side than drop any of my fitness goals. If you’re not committed, you’ll never lose that Last 10 Pounds.

MMJennings