Issues?
Well, for the last few weeks, I've not been posting.
Cos there's nothing much to talk about? Nothing too much to be passionate about. Trying to get my ass down to study. I did. Paddy Clarke. Oh it left in in school gym today. Oh YES I've improved my dumbell presses to a total weight of 120 pounds on both hands, or rather, 60 pounds 1 hand. OH yes, i aim to press one Nicole Richie (at her lowest weight of 70 pounds) per hand. That will mean I have to visit gyms with higher dumbell weights. And get the arm strength ready before then. Meanwhile, all is reps for dumbell presses.
Gosh I'm also eating more and more now. I realize that I'm now eating 800+ calories everyday for breakfast. Heavily influenced by Phelps.:
6 slices of bread (6*75), which comes with sugar and butter (+100 cal, a modest amt. already)
1 cup of plain water (0)
1 egg (50)
1 cup of milo (12o)
1 cup of HL fresh milk (150)
450+150+120+100=820 cal
I need to. My metabolic rate just jumped. I need to unnaturally stuff 2600cals a day even in rest mode. On active days it's going to be like 2800-3000 cals.
Chem. Oh test's in a few days. Balls. Nevermind. Damn. I'm going to study for it tomorrow REALLY. Hahaha.
PHYSICS PRAC. Screw. I wan score well. Damn.
Labels: exercise, school
Things in my head right now right then
It's extremely hard for me to keep the 1900 calorie diet. I overshot to 2100 today.
I had just finished editing my econs IAs, what thought will take me an hour actually took three. Well, it's all worth the effort.
What's going on the next few weeks is: testimonial self-write, world lit, ioc preparation, STUDY (NOW).
I am extremely pressed for time. I have to resort to extreme measures to FORCE myself to study more now. Rather do an extra 2 hours per day now than suffer in the dreadlocks of last-minute work, as if this is not last minute enough, I cannot rest on the laurels of "4 more months". M'balls man, as if this is enough time.
Dance! coming up too! this is something i really want to press 100% for. And there's like props undone? And I'll be glad to help, for this' the only thing, besides the sharpness of the moves, that I can contribute to the club.
I must come up with a detailed plan (detailed planning is not something I ever followed strictly before but now i haven't choice.) to split time between work, reading and dancing. This constitutes waking up 2 hours earlier and compromising myself to tight situations where i can't do anything but study.
NEVER be like me, year 5s.
Labels: dance, exams, exercise, school
To Dance: 14 days
To dance: 14 days!
And these 14 days I should try something, a crash diet. Full of fiber, retaining protein, cutting back on carbs by 20%, cutting down on fat percentage as far as possible.
From my calculations, the average number of calories i take in per day is about 2550/2600 calories, rising to about 28oo nowadays, but to successfully make this diet successful, I must cut about 900 calories off, that's if I'm disciplined enough to retain a 700 calorie deficit per day for 5 days a week. So by then, with calculations, since 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories, i can lose 2 pounds of fat.
However, there is a great cost. Muscle may be lost. The only thing I can do to prevent this is to go gym once a week (the most I can accommodate man). I will see how this works out, though success rate is quite low because:
- It's the first time I'm trying this out, inexperienced dude.
- It's very taxing cos of dance and studies, and its really time to start get serious.
- It's still hard to keep track of the food I'm taking in.
My BMR is about 1600 cal a day, with a high metabolism rate. An additional 900 calories must be burned through exercise and heavy activity, which shouldnt be a problem, and i must cut my food intake to a 1800 calorie diet, no cutting lower than that amount, for it will result to lack in nutrients and stuff.
A very hard thing to do. Goodness. Never done it before.
Labels: exercise
HIT 5
Ok, here's HIT at work. Contrary to popular belief, training once in 9 days does NOT impede progress, at least at the beginner and intermediate level. The last time a friend of mine gymed with me was 9-10 days ago. We did the session high-intensity style.
Then his bench was 45kg x TWO,dumbell bench was 11kg(on each arm) x9/10ten days later, his weights are these:47.5kg x 713kg (on each arm) x 10Great improvement, and certainly advocates the effectiveness of high intensity training.
Whereas for me, the last time I trained chest was a full week ago:
last wk:
Bench: 80kg x 4
Dumbell bench: 24kg x 7
This wk:
Bench: 82.5kg x 2
Dumbell bench: 24kg x 11
I made several amendments to my training, including the emphasis on static contraction and negatives, so for example, last week i take 2 counts to lower the bar, two counts to push the weight up, and zero counts on fully stretched position (2020 movement). This week is a 2240 movement. It's very tempting to just push off without negatives in pushing movements, and well it's good that i've overcame the temptation.
Another thing: rest. I had been breaking the last 2 days. Exerting myself and stuff. Today I didn't feel good, and perhaps explaining the weights. The emphasis of rest must never be taken lightly. One cannot and must not underestimate the amount of stress pumping iron can induce upon the body. Let alone the much more intensive-than-normal high intensity training. Sleep is extremely important.
Slowly pieces are starting to fall together. Changing my training and diet, now i must change my rest hours accordingly. Meanwhile anyone thinking of embarking into HIT must first read about the pioneers of this: Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones and their methods. Dorian Yates also trained with high intensity, so it will be good to check him out too.
Labels: exercise
h.i.t 4
I suppose this is my first back session done HIT style, though it wasnt completely HIT cos of the overcrowded gym, it was none other than intensive and painful. I can't really tell the results till my next back HIT which should be the next other session. But other than that, really satisfied to what close-to-HIT training did for me, and how much eating more could help :)
Today was middle and lower back thickening: barbell rows, lat row, one arm dumbell row,
deadlift, with barbell curl, ez bar curl, preacher curl. Shawn came halfway through our workout, disrupted abit, but well its great to have him here. Biceps are still weak, but are improving much. The killer of the day is unanimously voted by the nervous system and all fibers of the body to be: deadlift. The heaviest I've done with 112.5kg x THREE reps only, the third one took 10 seconds to complete, indeed the most demanding i've done so far. But somehow I keep thinking my form was wrong, but i checked the mirror again and again but nothing is wrong. So I ended up doing reps very slowly, about 3 seconds up, 4 seconds down. It's the only exercise I dreadfully love. And needs serious self-encouragement.
So I totally expect a wasted lower back and middle back tomorrow, coagulated with R or L lactic acid in
cis-trans isomerism. Next session is chest and triceps again and I will blog about improvements, recovery and intensity.
Labels: exercise
h.i.t session 3
IT WAS great! Marked by improvements made from the previous session vivifying me with sparkles of content and confidence.
A thought came to me yesterday. I was watching and advertisement on miss singapore universe. Then a thought hit me. If attractiveness is measured based on genetics and not effort, wouldn't it be a pure shot of luck that a pageant is born with such genes? And, as compared to Mr. Universe, the efforts taken to prepare is much less? Such is that of miss singapore and miss world, and I'm not implying that it doesn't take effort to keep the fats off, but you can compare it to the overwhelming load of shit the guys go through for mr. universe.
Compare this:
To this:
Not only do images act as photographic evidence, the process can also be used to back up:
Miss Universe: Step 1: Adding a little muscle to correct areas (if needed, most of the time, not). Step 2: shedding fat to about 15% bodyfat with a strict diet.
Mr. Universe: Step 1: Adding MUCH more muscle as fast as possible to different areas of the body, ensuring SYMMETRY and PROPORTION as well. Step 2: Shedding fat to about 5% bodyfat with a very strict diet.
So why is Miss Universe more popular, or more broadcasted? Well, first, sex satisfies all, second, i presume more people prefer to see beautiful women than musclemen (beautiful man, but what, really, is beauty?) And third, women are better icons of beauty and desire than men.
It seems as if many things in the world will never work in the ranks based on: effort shown and levels of difficulty. This is one great example :)
Labels: exercise
h.i.t session 2
Tomorrow will be the second session of HIT. For further sessions I will report improvements so to better comment on this system of training. Anyway I have only about 2 months before I stop so I have to make full use of it! I should increase my gym frequency to 3 times a week (i have to do it now or else theres no more), unless there's dance training and stuff. And will hit my 60kg weight before cutting.
So far H.I.T had been cool, like, it increased my circumference and stuff. Amazing taking to account it's only one session. But tapes aren't all, the iron never lies, the iron is the real deal.
With this rate, i can clock a maximum of 24 gym sessions (which will probably end up with only 18) from now till cutting time. I can't give a solid verdict on it yet since it's my 2nd session tmr only. For those who aren't clear, HIT is high intensity training, characterized by:
1. Short workout times (For me is maximum 1 hour including warm ups of 15 mins)
2. Minimal number of sets done to maximum intensity.
3. Each set done till concentric or honest muscle failure, with a few forced reps, minimal help from assistant.
4. Short rests between sets. (For me, it's 1 minute between sets max.)
5. 3 stages of muscular contraction: Positive, Static, Negative are emphasized throughout the movement. Eg. Lifting a dumbell up with 2 counts, squeezing it at the top of the motion for 3 counts, and lowering the dumbell with 6 counts.
6. Feeling like shit after the entire workout.
Labels: exercise
h.i.t
This is probably one of the only times I've trained so hard or so intensely. This morning was with zi at the gym. The main characteristics:
1. Average of 1 warm up set before the real set.
2. The real set is maxed to failure, static strength emphasized. With assistant assisting on 3-4 forced reps.
3. Total of 6 different exercises: wide lat pulldown, narrow lat pulldown, underhand lat pulldown, barbell curls, preacher curls, deadlifts.
4. 1.5 minute rest between sets, regardless real or warm-up
5. Intense routine completed in 45 minutes.
I will rate it as 85% max intensity because rest period is a little too long, and negatives arent emphasized. But nonetheless it remained one of the most torturous workouts yet. The finisher, which are deadlifts really left me dead with traps, triceps, glutes, hams, and the erectus (not erectile tissue, but lower back) dying.
Zi kinda died after the lat pulldowns so he stopped right there. Totally understandable cos' as he just started gyming he's not used to this level of intensity. Rather he rest than get sick and miss the exams.
The next time round i shall try 100% intensity, or something much closer than 85%. But it'll probably leave me dying. But isn't that the good thing? No pain, no gain! A confirmed spurge in growth hormone levels!
Labels: exercise
