90 Day Transformations

Let's Talk Tempo..

 

So my workout from Monday (my first chest workout on the Intermediate Program) has my pecs feeling like they're being pulled off my chest with meat hooks. 

Try this:  8 reps of bench press, feet on the bench, and with this tempo - count slowly to 6 as you are lowering the bar and then count slowly to 3 as you push it back up - pause for one second at top and bottom.  I did this with 95 pounds and barely made it to 8. 

The last two sets of each of the three workouts uses the same tempo and the other sets in the routine use a faster, albeit still very slow, tempo.

Hurts.

     

In other news, anybody who has followed this blog over the last couple of years knows that I think diet is a really big deal in these fitness programs. I had been trying to wing it a bit on this program and at least as far as keeping the softness at bay, it hasn't been working.  I decided last week to follow the menu in the book. 

Here it is:

Breakfast:

1. Omelet - 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites, 1/2 cup of mushrooms and peppers/tomatoes, 1 ounce reduced fat cheese
2. 2 slices whole grain toast
3. 6 ounces of orange juice or fruit
4. Water

Snack:

1. 1 cup reduced fat yogurt

Lunch:

1. Grilled skinless chicken breast
2. 1/2 cup brown rice
3. 1 cup mixed vegetables
4. Small side salad with 1 tbsp oil and red wine vinegar
5. Water

Dinner:

1. 8 ounce grilled sirloin steak
2. 1 baked sweet potato or 1/2 cup brown rice
3. 1 cup mixed veggies
4. Small side salad with 1 tbsp oil and vinegar
5. Water

Snack:

1. Apple
2. 1 tbsp natural peanut butter

I substitute things in there so it doesn't get monotonous, but this is it, people.  It's about 3000 calories or so and the carbs, protein, and fat is balanced out nicely. 

And for some reason, eating right is so damn hard.  But, just like with the workouts, I gotta just keep going day-to-day on the diet if I want to accomplish my goals.

Just keep going.

End of Beginner Program

So I ended the Beginner Program with a bang..  225 on my deadlifts this morning.  Bam!

Time for a recovery week and then on to the Intermediate Program!  I'm stoked.

215

Just a quick numbers check-in.. 215 pound deadlifts, 135 pound squats.  Of course, the guy who got on the squat rack after me put up 500 for real pounds in his last set of squats (I had to break out my ipod touch calculator to add up all the 45 pound plates he had on the bar).