Implementing Lessons Learned……………………

Its official, we’re off and running, we’ve started the 2016 Endurance Macro. This year we will start off with lots of stretches and lots of stationary cardio, progressing to higher intensities as we progress through the macro. And of course we will be in the weight room 5 to 6 days a week, pushing and pulling and minimizing rest between sets. Like the 2015 round, this macro is focused on endurance; this year we are also including stretches. I need the recovery and I think an additional 30 minutes of daily stretching may just be the right answer to prevent, or at least minimize those Niggly Injuries that have handicapped my pursuit of that Last 10 Pounds.

 

My Schedule………….

This is the first 4 weeks of the 2016 Endurance Macro.

	Week 1		Week 2		Week 3		Week 4
	AM	PM	AM	PM	AM	PM	AM	PM
Monday	FitBlen	Upper	FitBlen	Upper		Upper		Whole
Tuesday	Stretch	Whole	Stretch	Whole	Stretch	Whole	Stretch
Wednesday	SLOG	W&L		W&L	SLOG	W&L		Whole
Thursday	Stretch	Whole	Stretch	Whole	Stretch	Whole	Stretch
Friday		Lower	FitBlen	Lower	FitBlen	Lower		Whole
Saturday
Sunday	Stretch	W&L	Stretch	W&L	Stretch	W&L	Stretch

 

Acronym	Workout
FitBlen	Fitnessblender.com; Quiet Cardio – 20-40 minutes of non-impact cardio
Stretch	30 minutes of combined upper/lower body stretching and foam rolling.
SLOG	Slow Jog; 20-30 minute segmented runs; 4 on, 2 off eventually progressing to 5 k’s
Upper	Bench press drop sets combined bar and dumbbell, including rows. Incorporate shoulder and bicep work
Lower	Squat drop sets front to back, include pull ups and balance work (one leg).
W&L	Wings and Legs – Biceps and Calves plus Lateral raise (as time permits).
Whole	Squats, Bench, Row (bent and upright), Press. Or similar, just get sweaty!!!! Generally with Workout Partner.

 

Upper – 30 to 45 Minute	Lower – 30 to 45 Minute
Big Triple; Barbell Bench – Neutral grip 160 pound range, 5 count at bottom. Dumbbell Bench – 60 pound (each) range, full stretch and bottom. Dumbbell Row – 75 pound range, full stretch at bottom	Big Triple; Front Squat – 100 pound plus hold at bottom last 3 reps. Back Squat – 150 pound plus, hold at bottom last 3 reps. Pull Ups - neutral grip
Big Twin; Wide Grip Pull Ups Wide Grip Lat Pulls, full stretch	Big Twin; One Leg Dead Lifts – 15 pound range Hip Thrusters – 145 pound range
Final Play; Dumbbell Bench – Narrow, 40 pound (each) range full stretch plus connect at top. Lateral Raise – 15 pound range, pinky fingers up. Cable or Barbell curls.	Final Play; Hamstring Curl/Pushups. Light Dead Lifts, 135 pound range.

This is my Plan and I’m sticking to it.

Reevaluating Supplements………………..

Over the last 3 months I have been taking the following supplements;

Calcium, Mag, Zinc (1000/400/25 mg)	Omega-3 (3000 mg) from Fish Oil
Multi (One A Day Men)	Kelp, Iodine (150 mcg Iodine)
B6 (100 mg)	Vitamin C (1000 mg)
B3 (500 mg)	Psyllium (1 tbs) (breakfast and dinner)
Creatine (5 g)	BCAA (6 g) (2X per day post workout)
Vitamin A (10,000 iu)	Zink (50 mg)
Vitamin D (400 iu)	Biotin (new, as of June 1, 5000 mcg)

 As far as the Kelp, I had been up to 6 tablets (900 mcg iodine) per day and you know what? I started to lose my voice, I started going horse……...the initial signs of excessive iodine, maybe. I cycled off for a few weeks and things went back to normal. I started again, only now I’m sticking to one tablet daily……………..and of course making sure I don’t lose my voice again.

I read an article on niacin just recently, specifically niacin and sleep. It seems that niacin can induce sleep, which is good……....if I’m ready to hit the sheets. Niacin also opens up blood flow to whole body, not just the skin, e.g. the flush, the prickly heat……. And maybe it could induce a bit more blood flow to those love handles and man pooch. However, the effect is short lived, an hour or so. Maybe niacin before a cardio session is all that is required to get the fat into the bloodstream. When I run in cold weather, I notice a skin temperature difference between my oblique’s and my love handles; you can actually see this in the mirror. The fat is cold and the muscle is warm, the fat is pale and the muscle is pink. Over the next few months I will be experimenting with taking my daily dose of niacin before my morning cardio. If the love handles start pinking up after a run, maybe, just maybe I can get the blood flow I need to those areas to mobilize the fat………then again maybe not. Another thing I would like to try is using B3 (niacin) while skiing or motorcycling during cold weather. Since we are dilating capillaries at the skin, bringing warmer blood to the surface, maybe my fingers and toes wouldn’t get as cold. Another factoid about niacin; increasing the dosage of Omeha-3’s interestingly reduces the effect of the flush, not the capillary dilation or blood flow, just the discomfort. Maybe that’s why the flush hasn’t bothered me recently when I pop a 500 mg tablet before bed; I upped my Omeg-3 from 1 gram to 3.

Against my doctor’s better judgement, I have also stopped taking Lipitor, even the 2.5 mg dose. I’m hoping that between the niacin and the increase in Omeg-3’s plus my consistency with psyllium, my cholesterol drops to the 200 mark. I will be going to the doctor for a well-baby check in the near future and of course the customary drawing of the blood. We’ll see how that turns out before I consider statins again. And as a last note on statins; even in small doses, they do effect…………..those masculine feelings. If you feel you are a bit………limp…….in that area, just stop taking the med. 

I plan on cycling off of the Creatine in the coming weeks. I think this is appropriate since I am done with the Power Macro for 2016. I know the effect of this, I’ll lose some water weight plus my general lift strength will drop. But for endurance I’m really not paying attention to overall strength, we want to improve cyclic loading. We want to increase the mitochondria density, not just muscle size.

A few journal entries back I had mentioned stacking BCAA’s with nicotine lozenges to see if there was an improvement in mood, in focus. No gains in this department. I have been attempting to see a difference when the two are combined for close to 5 months now and any mood, focus improvements are strictly from nicotine. Way early (several years back) in this blog series I had looked at BCAA’s as a mood booster and the reason perceived fatigue was reduced. Stacking the two does not amplify the effect of either. 

I have read several articles recently on the use of Tyrosine, a dopamine and adrenalin precursor. I might try stacking this with nicotine and/or BCAA’s in my next go around to see what effect that has on mood, focus and/or bigger lifts.

Niggly Injury of the Month…………….

It seems like all of the stretching, lighter loading and stationary cardio routines are paying off. The TFL (or glute) pull is starting to be less…….cantankerous. However, it seems now there is an issue at the left shoulder, the anterior deltoid to be specific. When I lift my arm up to the side straight arm fashioned, there is a tight spot. It’s not a joint pain, it is a muscle pain. If I bend my elbow and do the same thing, there is no pain. The tender point seems to be where the bicep tucks under the anterior deltoid. This will have to be watched. I think it was cause by overdoing military presses. We’ll keep an eye on it and include stretches in that area also.

So my niggly injuries also initiated a bright spot in my life, better than any complement or gesture of how hard you work to manage normal. Because my normal morning routines at the gym I usually go to have been very infrequent, e.g. no morning cardio, the girls that I normally see and greet at the gym called to ‘see where I was’. I was so flattered that they actually thought enough to call, to see if I was doing OK. Wow!!! Like family.

 

Key Performance Indicators……………….

KPI’s for the month of June. Baseline Endurance Macro.

June Best
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Total Weight Moved
Front Squat (Sup)	4	8	3,680    (115*32)
Back Squat (Sup)	4	8	5,280    (165*32)   8,960 Total
Pull Up	4	8	----------
Bench	4	8	5,280   (165*32)
Dumbbell Bench	4	8	3,520    (110*32)  8,800 Total
One Arm Row	4	8		1,760    (55*32)   Each Arm
Masculine Feelings (Scale 1 to 10) = 6+
Cardio; Minimal Cardio, Fit Blend and SLOG
Notes; Lower 3 exercises completed as a superset; Front Squat, Back 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 Deep, Ass to Grass Squats. Any rest or lag is at the bottom. Calculated Squat 1RM – Front 144/Back 207.   Upper 3 exercises completed as a superset; Bench, Dumbbell Bench and Rows. There is 90 second rest between sets. The objective is not additional weight but minimal rest. All are neutral grip Bench Presses. Calculated Bench 1RM – 207.

These are pretty good numbers and they’re getting better. I was really pleased with myself when I completed my first set of 115 pound front squats. In the July round I hope to push that weight up to at least 125. And the back squats, I’d like to get to 175. The mind is there, just hope like hell the body follows. These are my goals anyway.

Late Note; Did a 2 rep set of 135 front squats 26 June 2016, Ya! Hooooo!

Conclusion……………..

June has really been a recovery month. Most big muscle lifts that involve the legs have been a compromise some place between ‘Ouch, it hurts’ and ‘OMG, I can’t believe I did that’. And the cardio; pretty much nonexistent. I’ll be starting from scratch if I want to run any distance. Basically I’m still searching, searching for that Last 10 Pounds.

 

MMJennings

Ring of Fire.......................

Well the latest news on my quest for that Last 10 Pounds; they are moving us to Korea. Yep, another opportunity experience another country; to work and to workout. I was in Korea for an initial 3 weeks to commission the project we are working on. Then back to Japan for 3 weeks to pack up the apartment and get ready for the move, then back to Korea for the duration.

The hotel we are staying at is the Grand Hotel in Onyang-dong, Asan-si. It’s a pretty old hotel and the Koreans have a little different view of what quality accommodations are. In fact after staying there, I will never again bad mouth a Motel 6. However, the Grand does have a pretty good gym. The equipment is also old but very usable and unbelievably, the gym is uncrowned. Basically, the Grand Hotel gym is equipped like the Kakegawa Japan K-Fit gym; smith machine, bench rack, older cable machines and a couple of extra 20 Kg bars for dead lifts.

As far as my return to running, it has been a long period of foot recovery, June 4^th through mid-September. I am running again, albeit short runs, but running just the same. This is my fourth week of every other day and two day in a row runs. Soon (next week), I will roll it up to daily with only 1 or 2 days off per week. Then just start slowly increasing the mileage and of course, the speed.

The foot feels pretty good, most of the time. Every now and then I do feel something going on but no sharp pain and no swelling. Maybe once I get settled in Korea, I’ll get another X-ray just to make sure.

As I mentioned in previous blogs, I had been using Fitnessblender.com and working whole body circuits on the mornings I didn’t run. The Fitnessblender.com workouts have served me well but I do not consider these a substitute for the benefits I get from running.  It will be nice to get out there and sprint it out once again.

A Little Bit More on Isometrics…………..

Ever heard of the Ring of Fire? No, this isn’t that song from Johnny Cash; this is..….. dare I say……. Spot Reduction. The impossible dream; crunching your way to 6 pack ab’s. You doubt my statement? I say it’s true; I read it on the internet (LOL).

I was cruising through the web one Saturday morning and for fun did a Google search on ‘love handles’. Scanning through headings I notice the term ‘Ring of Fire’. I had to check this out. Larry Scott, a bodybuilder from the days before Arnold, came up with this wholly isometric process. Basically, you contract all of your mid-section muscles, one at a time, rotating around your torso, kinda’ like a hula hoop. The procedure;

• Hold each contraction at least 10 seconds.

• Contract your upper ab’s trying to pull your ribcage down to your hips; 3 reps.
• Contract your lower ab’s trying to pull your hips up to your ribcage; 3 reps.
• Contract the left side of your ab’s and partially engaging your oblique’s trying to pull your ribs and hips together; 3 reps.
• Contract your left oblique’s trying to pull your ribs and hips together; 3 reps.
• Contract your left lateral flexor (lumbar) partially engaging your erector spinae and try to pull your left shoulder blade and hips together; 3 reps.
• Contract your erector spinae and try to pull both shoulder blades to your hips; 3 reps.
• Contract your right lateral flexor (lumbar) partially engaging your erector spinae try to pull your right shoulder blade and hips together; 3 reps.
• Contract your right oblique’s trying to pull your ribs and hips together; 3 reps.
• Contract the right side of your ab’s partially engaging your oblique’s trying to pull your ribs and hips together; 3 reps.
• Repeat the process for 4 sets.

And when you’re done, if you contracted hard enough, you will feel pretty good lactic acid burn around your entire waist; hence the name, Ring of Fire. “I fell into a burning ring of fire, I went down, down, down and the flames went higher……….” Anyway, the thought is that if you complete this group of isometric exercises over an extended period of time, the fat from your love handles will just melt away. I not so sure about melting fat but it does leave your mid-section feeling nice and tight when you’re done. To me it’s the perfect shower routine. All I can say is Burn Baby, Burn.

And Yet Another Book Report……………..

Another item I ran across while cruising the internet, looking into ‘love handles’, was a book authored by Dr. Eric Berg, DC. In his book, The 7 principles of Fat Burning, Dr. Berg looks at several hormone based reasons why you can’t lose weight; excuse me, I mean can’t lose fat. He considers the first law of thermodynamics, e.g. the energy balance, secondary to hormonal balance. Some of his reasoning has merit, it flows along with a number of insights we learn from Lyle McDonald. And then again, some of his assumptions, like energy balance not contributing to fat loss, are just plain……………crap!

Dr. Berg identifies four basic hormonal imbalances; adrenal, liver, ovary and thyroid. He also provides key indicators (symptoms) of each condition; where you carry weight. For example, if you carry weight at your love handles through your lower tummy, you may have an adrenal fatigue issue or if you are heavy all over (fat equally distributed), it indicates a thyroid issue. Ovary types carry weight through the butt and thighs and liver types have a ‘pot’ belly. Once you fix these, you’re on a path toward fat loss; maybe.

Dr. Berg tries to correct all of his identified hormonal issues primarily through dietary and exercise prescriptions. If you eat correctly and do this type of exercise, it will force your body into a specific hormone response; a fat burning response. You will shed fat and live longer. On the dietary side, for all of the identified conditions, the good doctor has you cut two primary contributors to body fat, sugar and refined carbohydrates. These control insulin and fat metabolism. WOW!!! That’s an understatement. Isn’t this the same rhetoric we see with other wonder diets; South Beach, Atkins, Paleo, etc… Could the good doctor’s book just be a rebranding of the same old low carb diet? Maybe repackaged, just to get his name on the label?

And I also think his exercise prescriptions fall short. Number one, he is weak on prescribing exercise intensity. Whether aerobic or anaerobic, intensity is where it counts; Distance, Duration and Difficulty count. This is generally where people fail in whole body healing, lose the fat routines. They don’t want to put in the effort.

The ZERO intensity exercise prescription that the good doctor quotes for his adrenal fatigue (love handle) cure is in fact really off base. The doctor considers adrenal fatigue the result of an accumulation of stress from all sources. Exercise stress, mental stress, lack of sleep, too much coffee, poor diet, etc……… Basically he’s saying if you exercise harder than a slow stroll after you 200 calorie dinner, your cortisol levels will prevent you from losing fat, you’ll be in a defensive mode, a survival mode, e.g. you need your fat to survive and fight another day. I say ‘poppycock’; and if he is blowing smoke here, the other cures are sure to be misleading.

In previous blogs, I have been quoted as saying, “I am not a big believer in ‘overtraining’ for recreational or hobby exercise”. And I am not a big believer in general life stresses overly affecting your hormonal response. From exercise, you may be tired after several days, weeks or even months of exercise (an overreaching condition, maybe) but your capacity to recover improves as you continue a program. And even if you add stressors, like……life itself (my boss, my wife, my mortgage, my….., my……, my……), I do not think you could reach a level of adrenal fatigue that would make a ‘rat’s butt’ difference in fat lose. For god sake, you are not living in ‘Bengali’ or ‘Damascus’. If you’re reading this, chances are you are in your living room, feeling sorry for yourself because you can’t lose weight (fat) by just sitting on the sofa or maybe your mean boss told you to wear slacks instead of jeans or maybe……some other meaningless ‘I’m a victim’ dribble. No one is shooting at you, you are not spending months at a time in battlefield conditions and you are not stranded on a deserted island looking for insect larva as the basis for your only meal of the day. Get a life people. Western culture stress levels in modern society are a stroll in the park compared to what life was like 200 years ago, there is minimal stress in today’s society. And that stress is generally self-inflicted.   

You need exercise intensity to build and tone muscle, and improve aesthetics. If you really think you have an adrenal fatigue condition, take three deep breaths, pull your naval to your spine and find your chi…….more often, e.g. or find another mechanism to de-stress. Just don’t blow off exercise; intense exercise. In fact, exercise may be your de-stressor. If you eat light (minimal calories) and piddle around with a daily 20 minute walks, you may lose some fat but I guarantee you will never be satisfied with the looks you attain. You will end up outside of that ‘normal’ envelope. And I’m pretty sure that would push you toward more unwanted ‘feeling sorry for yourself’ stress.

With that said, the book does provide a verity of good points as far as eating, water weight and electrolyte balance(s). It’s a book that you may want to read; then again, you may not. Just don’t get all stressed out over it. 

So in conclusion, find your chi, read a book, take a nap ………..then go out for a run or go lift something heavy. Got to be relaxed when tackling that Last 10 Pounds.

MMJennings

Fat Loss Padawan

In my last blog I mentioned that I now had a training partner. Another convert (maybe) in pursuit of  That Last 10 Pounds.

So we started her out slow, morning cardio (treadmill walking and recumbent bike), very light resistance training (from whatever they had at the apartment’s she is staying at) and a Saturday 30 minute run walk that followed my Saturday morning 5 K ‘slog’ ritual. And as I stated before, she was interested in straight weight loss. However, as she progressed and asked questions; she convinced herself that the routine that I personally follow may be the right answer on keeping age related gains at a minimum. So before I introduced her to a heavier, more intense resistance routine, I wanted to make sure she understood and warn her of a couple of things.

·         “Anything you do is for yourself, not for other people”. Comment – I should have covered this in my original blog entry, A Book is Judged By Its Cover. You should not be attempting to impress your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your neighbor, or the guy (or gal) at the office water cooler ‘checking you out’. If by chance you start to look a bit ‘healthier’, a little more cut, or even a bit slimmer in your quest for ‘normal’, people will take notice, will give you a nod and a smile and will compliment you. Believe me, you don’t have to ask. And once people start to notice, you know you’re on the right tract.

·         “Besides a generic ‘losing weight’ before your next trip to the US, do you have any specific goals?” Comment – This was a loaded question because I knew from our previous chats and talks that there was only ‘weight loss’; fat loss and weight training were  relatively new concepts.

·         “Once you get to where you want to be weight and size wise, do you have a plan to maintain or improve?” Comment – Again, a kind of loaded question. If you ask anyone, male or female, if they have any long term goals on fitness and nutrition AFTER the short term goal of ‘weight loss’,  most will give you that ‘dear in the headlights look’. Remember the original blog, to keep what you earned you will need, as a minimum, a maintenance plan after you reach any goal. And if you are chasing that Last 10 Pound Unicorn like I do, you will need a true fitness plan and a way to judge progress (KPI).

I did not get a specific answer to these questions from my apprentice, but at least (hopefully) got her thinking.

So how did my apprentice progress, in 6 weeks of resistance training, concentrating on squats, benches and core (lots of balancing and abdominal work)? She went from just lifting a bar (20kg) to 60kg Squats X 8, to 40kg benches X 8 and from NOT being able to complete 1 decline bench crunch to 12 reps holding a 6kg weight. And the ‘InBody 220’ indicated a good pound of muscle gain, however, no fat or overall weight loss. So we have ‘weight’ gain with improved strength, sounds like Lean Gain to me, and the fat loss is sure to follow.

The comment that I really took interest in is when she stated that her cloths fit differently. And when I asked how, she stated looser through the seat and tighter through the thighs. I would assume the squats making a difference here. Anyway, she has come away with 1) feeling confident with heavier weights, 2) feeling really great on a continuous basis and 3) a new understanding of a ‘work out’. If she keeps it up she’ll benefit in ways that others can only dream of.

After this initial 6 weeks of gym time, my apprentice went on to Japan and then back to the US for over a 3 week period. When she returned she told me that she was working on diet but had let her workout routine slide. And it was pretty apparent during that first workout back at the Taichung World Gym, she could initially lift quite heavy, but fatigued very quickly. So she was back for only 2 weeks this time and hit the gym regularly, then back to Japan for 2 weeks and again slacked off in the exercise department while on the road. Not a great track record.

Folks I’m here to tell you that diet alone isn’t the fix. And as you get older, you need the muscle mass to stay healthy. Just losing weight will not keep your blood sugar, cholesterol and hormones under control. From everything I have read and based on my own personal experience, people were not designed to carry greater than 25% fat. To manage a healthy lifestyle, guys should be below 20% (closer to 15%) and gals below 25% (as close to 20% as achievable).

As far as travel, I am disappointed with my Padawan, letting a workout schedule slide. Even an abbreviated one would have maintained those small gains made in the gym. Doing nothing can really effect (and reverse) any gains you have made. I have worked and traveled across the US and within a day or two, found a gym. And, albeit tougher, you can find places overseas that allow for continued benefit. The World Gym in Taichung Taiwan is more than accommodating and when I travel on one or two week missions to Beijing, the hotel I stay at has a fabulous gym. There are also several private clubs close by (we’ll talk about those in a later blog).

And even if there isn’t a gym nearby, there are always parks and sidewalks and early morning runs or even loading up your back pack and climbing the stairs. There are also push-ups, sit-ups, mountain climbers, planks, handstands, jumping jacks or other body weight calisthenics to keep you occupied. So no gym is No Excuse. Letting a workout routine slide because you’re too busy or traveling or whatever just doesn’t hold water. The ONLY excuse I can think of for not spending 30 minute to an hour a day getting sweaty is that you were abducted by aliens.

So hopefully, when my Padawan returns to the US at the end of her Asian assignment, she’ll keep up with the workout routines and look at gaining on That Last 10 Pounds.  

Live Long and Prosper??? (Op’s wrong movie)