Howie

[Howie]

ok so if my pull-ups don't start getting better than I've got no hope. LOL. I did roughly 150+ pull-ups total yesterday and somewhere around 250+ push-ups as well! Great workout overall and I added "Killer Abs" to the end of it. I like to keep my calorie burn around 600 cal and only burned 550 last night but I'm not as concerned about calorie burn on resistance training nights. Next time I do this workout combo I will more than likely bump the intensity up but for now I am still nursing my chest so I had to hold back a bit toward the end a little.

[Howie]

So I'm starting to understand that I need to make a choice about where I want to go with my workouts.
From the information I've been gathering doing the total body Jack of all workouts only works really well for people just getting into fitness. Once you've gained a strong base level of athletics doing some of everything starts to plateau your progress until you just stand still. While I still see improvements in my weight and times I am definitely seeing that I'm getting near a limit for some of the markers I've been doing.
The information that I've seen says at this point you will need to pick a specialty. If you want to get big, than eat more, lift heavy, and stop Metcons and heavy cardio. If you want to stay fast than work on speed related stuff, quick explosive exercises. If you want to have high endurance that spend time doing long endurance training.
My issue, however, is that I like to get a little piece of all of these things so I will probably just push as hard as I can and ride this beginner's train for as long as I can. I'll eventually have to make a choice if I want to keep seeing improvements, but for now I will focus on keep myself entertained.

[Howie]

Just ate a pound of bacon and a chicken salad and plan to lift heavy later today. I'll let you know how this goes. LOL

[Howie]

Did "Just Arms" last night and loved it again! That has got to be one of the best arm workouts I have available. By the end of it you will feel so fuckin' swoll! Love it!
I've decided that I need to get to sleep no later than 10:30pm so that I can get close to 8hrs of sleep each day. If I'm not done with my workout by that time I'll cut it short like I did last night. I was doing Killer abs and only got through the Ab Ripper part and called it a night.
Other than cutting it short that workout last night was great and inspiring!

[Howie]

You know, it's funny that I've lost 65# so far and did so pretty quickly, but now that I would like to get my BF% down about 4% less than where I'm at now (which equates to approx 9# of fat loss) it's become so damned difficult. I lost the bulk of my weight in the first 4-5months and have only made very slight changes in the 7-8 months after. UGH!
So as I stand now I need to bring my weight down to around 163-5 to be as lean as I would like to be. This projection assumes I loose no muscle weight along the way. It's really become the key focus of my Diet, and exercise regimen EVERY day.
I'll keep posting my progress but I thing this just may be a long laborious process for me.

[Howie]

I'd like to start this off by saying my core and legs are pretty sore this week. Even though soreness isn't really a good thing it does let me know that I'm pushing my body in new ways.
Last night I did my "CF WOD" day and chose to do "Barbara". This WO consists of 5 sets of 20 pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups, and 50 squats in that order with 3 min break between sets. It took me 45 minutes to do it which IMO is pretty bad. I was really feeling like shit before the workout and almost called it off but did it anyway.
I did Relief after and WOW...I really haven't been doing my stretches much lately because I had taken two weeks off for recovery, than kinda half assed last week most of the time cutting Relief out of the workout. Relief is what normally seems like a stupid-easy 23min stretch session, but last night it was workin' me hard. I really need to make sure I don't skip my stretching anymore. I assume the tension that's been in my lower back this week is a direct result of me not stretching and working out anyway. At least I didn't get hurt....Lesson learned.
Chest and Back tonight!

[Howie]

Just heard some of the best advice concerning workout volume I've heard.
"Your workout is not what makes you stronger, it's the recovery from that workout that will get stronger"
He went on further to say that "how do you know how much training is too much?" and said that it's simple, it's a volume of exercise that you can fully recover from.

[Howie]

So I just learned something that I wouldn't say is entirely new but put into a context that makes a lot of sense to me.
When doing Aerobic exercises your body is mostly fat driven and is fully appropriate for a low carb, ketogenic diet.
Anaerobic exercises are primarily glycogen driven so carbohydrate metabolism is needed to have good power output at those activities.
To make this crystal clear: To excel at a specific exercise you'll need to eat appropriately ie. Aerobic=low carb, Anaerobic=carbs.

Attachments:

[Howie]

Took the night off last night. I've been really sick the past couple of days and just want to sleep. I'll be starting up Asylum next week until I lean out to 10-12% BF or P90X2 arrives. I'm hoping that I get lean enough before I get P90X2 so I can condition my strength a bit before.

[Howie]

ahh it was great to get back in the game last night. Speed and Agility at about 90% to ease me back into it. Starting an unmodified Asylum on Monday in an attempt to lean out a bit more before I focus further on building muscle.

[Howie]

Ugh...so last night was supposed to me my first day of Asylum Round #2. Unfortunately I was much too sick and took the night off and opted for sleep instead. This isn't a massive issue as I have a scheduled rest day this week and will just move that to yesterday to keep me on track. I'm still a little jacked up today with congestion but taking things light shouldn't be a problem.

[wardjf79]

If you can push through it's good, but speaking from my own experience, sometimes it doesn't work out that way. Best to recover a bit and come back strong.

[Howie]

I managed Speed & Agility last night with only moderate problems. It is VERY obvious that I'm coming back from a long recovery stent. Combined with my congestion I was only able to do S&A at 85% and was pouring sweat. I had to take several intermissions to go clear out my sinuses but otherwise all was good.
I'm doing well with cutting out artificial sweeteners (or sweeteners in general) and have sworn off soda and cut out Splenda from my coffee in the morning. I'd eventually like to cut out coffee as well but it's not on my top priority list. I understand that it can affect my cortisol but seeing that my cortisol should be high in the AM and ideally lower as I get closer to bed time I don't feel like a cup of coffee in the AM is pushing me outside that norm much.
I finished reading "The Paleo Solution" on Sunday and can't recommend that book enough to anyone looking to improve their health. I've listened to all 101 of Robb Wolf's 1hr+/- podcasts so a lot of the information was just a recap but put in a order that made it crystal clear why and how. Great book.
Tonight: Strength
Cheers!

[Howie]

Did Strength last night and boy oh boy is it obvious the impact low carbs have on anaerobic workouts. I'm sure my massive recovery time also plays a big roll in my low endurance.
I plan to keep my carbs really low for this month and see if it helps cut fat. If it doesn't do much of anything I'll be adding back in my carbs ASAP.

[Howie]

Last night I did Back To Core from Asylum. I suspect that my difficulty with workouts this week has had more to do with my sickness rather than my diet. That being said my workout last night felt great and I had eaten about 3/4 cup of mint chocolate chip icecream earlier in the day. LOL woops!
So Back to Core went great. I didn't hit it at 100% because I am trying to focus on good form and also easing my body back into this Asylum program. I think I only burned around 400 calories last night but I'm using that number as more of a meter to show me the intensity I performed the exercise at rather than being interested in trying to extend the workouts longer and longer and longer to get the calorie burn up. Something that has become VERY clear to me is that exercise has a point of diminishing return. If you push too far you start moving backward in your progress. I suspect this is why I've seen very little progress sense I've been making these hybrid programs. I made them with the mindset that if I take the most difficult workouts and string them back to back than I will get more results....wrong, all I did was just burn myself out.
There are some clear cut things I'm seeing now:
1) Figure out what results you want to see and train accordingly.
2) I like the rule of 3 (3 days of training 1 day rest or very light training, 3 weeks of training 1 week of very light restful training, 3 months of training 1 week off entirely). You MUST allow yourself to fully recover or your progress will be stunted.
3) Take stretching and warmups seriously they make a massive difference.
4) Your diet must reflect your training if you want results.