90 Day Transformations

Merry Christmas!

The end of another year.  New Year's Eve is next week and I am sure that everybody is thinking about what new transformations they want to make in 2011. 

I, for one, finished both the Beginner and Intermediate progams from the Men's Health Book of Muscle and started Starting Strength to get my lifts up.  I stopped at Thanksgiving and am just going to pick it up again after the first of the year.  I lifted for about 14 months non-stop and that's a huge accomplisment for me.  I'm not resting on my laurels, though, because it's pointless to do that much work and then just stop.  So this is simply a short break to just relax, enjoy my friends and family and good food, and not worry about getting sets in.

When I stopped, I got my bench up to 165, my deadlifts held steady at 305 (I backed off for Starting Strength), and my squats are 175.  Decent, but in no way impressive.  I feel that I have so much more strength I can gain.  Interestingly enough, my strength protocols weren't producing much in the way of hypertrophy that I can see, and I really don't care.  Feeling - and being - strong is it's own reward.  I've always been a skinny dude (even under my fat suit I wore periodically) so having the beginnings of some real strength is kind of intoxicating.

Anyway, I also picked up The Four Hour Body, by Tim Ferriss, and have been continuing my exploration of Paleo.  Once I get my lifts up to 1.5 plus times my bodyweight, I'm going to move away from the strict strength stuff and get more into the metabolic conditioning stuff.  Perhaps another round of P90X?  Crossfit?  Some kind of martial arts?  Lots to think about and plan for 2011.

So everybody enjoy your holidays and get excited about 2011! 

The Transformations continue..

The Towel Method..

While I was swapping plates between front squat sets this morning, a guy working out nearby said, "hey, I like your towel method."  I was like, "eh, wha?" 

"Your towel method," he said again, pointing at the towel I had hanging out of the waistband at the back of my pants.  "That's a great way to gauge how far down you are squatting."

I still didn't get it.

"You stop when the end of the towel touches the ground, right?"

I realized that I had my hand towel just the right distance hanging out of my pants so that when I was at the bottom of my squat, the end of it brushed the ground.  Perfectly.  Like I planned it.  I laughed and said I hadn't planned it but that I was totally going to patent The Towel Method and I'd happily send him a check for 10% every month.  We laughed heartily.  Then got back to our workouts.

Weeks 18-20, New Personal Record Deadlift, Paleo Update

   

This phase of the workout introduces something I'd never heard of before getting this book called "wave loading."  It's pretty cool.  Check it:

Three sets of warmups
One set of 6 reps.
One set of 1 rep, heavy.
One set of 6 reps, heavier than the first set of 6, but lighter than the set of one.
One set of 1 rep, heavier than the first set of one.
One backoff set of 10-15 reps, obviously lighter.

On Monday I put up 165 on my bench and this morning I deadlifted 275 for the second set of one rep, which is about 50 pounds more than my usual 225-235.  I figured if I can do 8 reps with 225, I can surely do just one with 275.  It was hard, but I'm quite sure I could have done at least one more.  So next week I will bump up the weight by maybe 10 pounds or so.

As for the diet, I'm not really seeing much change other than I'm consistetly at or under 175 these days instead of at or above it .  I think I may be bottoming out weight-wise and won't really get really cut unless I make some kind of concerted effort to do so through calorie deficit and cardio.  And right now, I'm still concerned with gaining mass so I think it would be counterproductive to my goals to try to switch horses midstream.  However, I do think the Paleo Diet is the way to go and I'm sticking with it, but I will start adding dairy back in next week for my post workout nutrition and to get my calories up.  Nothing crazy like GOMAD, but just a reasonable amount per day.