flop small :: Bet Big

It was 33 MFing degrees this morning when I went to the gym. Wheee!

Aight, I weighed myself again this morning. Two weeks and I weigh 162 for a gain of 6 lbs. I really don’t think that’s a good measure of my progress though. First of all, I’m still working on getting the right vibe in the gym. Second of all, the pounds are going to be much tougher the closer I get to 176.

I know I definitely need to be eatting more. I’m really having trouble eatting the big meals though. So I’m going to split things out into smaller meals and eat the fuck out of powerbars.

Did I mention I took some “before” pictures? The hell if I’m posting them though. Well, for the right price… But, I can’t think of a better way to show myself what kind of improvements were made after two months.

I was telling my wife this morning about how Ben asked me the other day what kind of plates we have at home. Apparently, his mother is getting him a set of dishes for X-mas. I told Ben the truth, we have two sets of dishes. One flowery set that she eats off of and one plain, boring set with a blue/green stripe that I eat off of. I don’t understand how a guy can eat off of anything flowery without having flashbacks to sitting through your sisters tea-parties as a child. Even if she didn’t have tea-parties…or you don’t have a sister…ok, work with me here.

And, like the title says, I’m taking the two days off. I tweeked my back again this morning. I seem to do this consistently on chest days. Which probably tells me something about working too heavy and thinking I can lift more than I really can. Especially on the 3/0/1 tempo - which is an ass-kicker.

I had my wonderful wife book me for a massage and an adjustment at her chiropractor for Friday morning. I made sure the masseuse is a lady, just can’t get used to the idea of a dude touching me, ugh, QUICK CHANGE THE SUBJECT!

After I asked her to book it, I was wondering if it was too much to ask if the masseuse was hot. Since I didn’t really want to get kicked out of my own house, I decided I better not.

I was IMing Grey earlier that one of my new favorite excercises in the gym now is the vertical row. Damn if my shoulders don’t smart something fierce today. In order of like so far: squats, lunges and vertical rows. Next week, I’m going to try dead lifts and see how I dig those.

Still not sure if I’m going to take the two-day break. I was leaning against it before, but now with the masseuse booked for Friday morning, I’m giving it more thought.

So Thanksgiving has come and gone and you might think I took the opportunity to relax and take it easy from my bet with Rick. Hell, fuck no.

I was in the gym bright and early on Saturday for leg-group. When I pulled up I drove slowly past trying to see if the place was even open because it sure didn’t look that way. I parked, got out and sure enough the door was open with narry a soul inside. Which is good, I hate working out in front of people.

Part of this new routine I’ve started has me approaching weight-lifting with a “tempo” in mind. From my reading, you get the most small muscle tears that are conducive to building muscle and adding weight in the lowering phase of a lift. This has me performing reps with a tempo of 3/0/1. Three seconds down, no hold, one second up.

I’ve also started the one on, one off (I’m not sure if I’m going to do the two day rest on the turn around) and taking the creatine. First off, let me say the creatine is some interesting stuff. Mank says the stuff is junk and I don’t know what his full experience is with it. But I’d heard a number of other people with recommendations. Before I bought any, I used the interwebs to learn all I could about it. What the right dosage is, what the right delivery is (powder, pill, liquid). And what kind of brands are out there with what kind of reputation.

I have no idea if creatine is going to result in producing more muscle mass, but I can tell you the effects I feel from it. My workouts are generally more focused, but most importantly I feel like I have more to give during each excercise. No, I don’t go in and all of a sudden lift twice what I used to. But the intensity and work in the muscles is up a notch. For $40 a month, that’s worth it to me.

The downside to creatine? Well, it tastes like plastic bubblegum with strawberry flavor. And the brand I have looks a lot like, um, semen. No joke. So as long as you can get over that picture and flavor, no worries.

Ok, that was a joke.

I also weighed myself on Saturday. Originally, I was going to wait until this Wednesday and the first full two weeks. But, I was curious, sue me. How much did I weigh? Wouldn’t you like to know! I’ll just say I’ve gained. The first pounds are going to be the easiest though, so how much or little I’ve gained right now is pretty moot.

Another two weeks from this Wednesday will be a month and that’ll be a better benchmark. I’ve been eating roughly 2500-3000 calories a day and only put on a very thin wrinkle of fat, that says something I think. Even better, I feel like I’m growing into what I’m doing in the gym.

An interesting side effect of the morning workouts is 11am is my favorite time of day now. I’m at my most upbeat and have the best focus then. I have had a couple relapses into minor depression in the late evenings. This is a new texture to my day, not sure where this is going.

I just got started with my break-in routine, but after doing a lot of reading on the site linked below (slow work week), I’m going to change to a more prudent course.

Before I was doing 3 days on, one day off. The site below goes to great lengths explaining that rest is really one of the cornerstones of any weight gain program. That means getting a great nights sleep (been doing pretty good with this). It also means taking the right number of days off.

There’s quite a few sample workout regimens on the site that are tailored mostly weight gain and strength. It’s interesting to see that none of them have a 3 days on, 1 day off pattern. Apparently I was going to work myself into either burnout, injury or an early grave. So now, instead, I’m going to go with a tried and true one-on, one-off cycle with a two day rest before starting again.

From what I’ve read, there are three major factors to weight gain: intensity of workout, diet and rest. I feel like I’m doing well in the other two, now we’ll see how upping the rest helps. Not that I have a lot of time. If this doesn’t work out by week 4, I’ll pretty much be too far behind to make up the difference.

I mentioned intensity of workout and I’ve notably left out all the excercises I’m doing for the entire week. Another thing that’s been a recurring theme from what I’ve read is that doing a wide variety of different types of excercises in one routine is hugely counterproductive. So it looks like I guessed right there.

If you’re at all curious specifically what excercises I’m doing, don’t be. I’m doing basically what anyone else would do, but probably fewer types. No more than three types per day, plus crunches. Every excercise to failure.

Yes, it still hurts.