Archives for March 2012

Below is my training schedule. 3 days a week, in and out of the gym in under 40 minutes (warm up included) as long as I don’t spend too much time chatting between sets with co-workers and gym members.

Day A (Sunday):

A1) Trap Bar Deadlift – 3 x 3
A2) Weighted Chins ups – 3 x 5,6,8
B1) Gluteham Raise – 3 x 10
B2) Weighted Hyper Extension – 3 x 15

Day B (Tuesday):

A1) Weighted Dips – 3 x 2-8
A2) Weighted Hyper Extension – 3 x10
B1) Trap Bar Row – 3 x 8, 1 x 10-15
B2)  Ab Wheel Rollouts – 3 x 10
C) Cable Face Pulls – 3 x 15

Day C (Thursday):

A1) Front Squat – 3 x 5
A2) Weighted Pushups – 3 x 10
B1) Band Hip Thrust – 3 x 15-20
B2) Seated Cable Row – 3 x 15-20

Diet first, training second.

Think of your diet as a box. How much, or how little, you’re eating, will determine the boundaries of the box; how big or small it is. The bigger the box, the more stuff you can put inside without it spilling over into the streets and having people point in your general direction while laughing as you scramble to pick up your unmentionables.

Now that “stuff” I talked about earlier, that’s the training. When eating at maintenance or above, you can get away with a lot more training wise without getting run down or halting your progress than you would while dieting. My diet-determined box is small, which doesn’t leave much room for a lot of sets and reps, so I’ve only included big lifts that will give me the most training bang for my time & effort invested, with enough accessory exercises to add a little extra emphasis to areas I want to focus on (upper back, booty and core strength).

Maintaining (or increasing) your strength while on a diet is an ideal situation, since doing so is a pretty solid indicator that you’re not losing muscle mass. To keep it as simple as possible, I give myself a number of reps to hit on the big compound lifts and if I hit that number and feel good about it, I increase the weight by 5-10lbs during the next session, staying there until I hit that rep number again. Since I’m eating like a baby bird, my strength gains are nowhere near where they would be if I were eating well, but I’m cool with that. Strength maintenance is my goal, so any gain is icing on the delicious cake of Sexification.

For cardio, I do nothing but walk 45-60min on my off days (or a random game of Dance Central), and I only do this because I love reading and being on the treadmill for an hour gives me some quiet time to do just that.

So far I’ve had a nice increase of strength on all my exercises, but the workouts have definitely become more taxing in terms of effort. I’m not run down by any means, but nor am I super excited for a set of heavy chin ups and deadlifts like I was pre-dieting. In light of that, this weeks training will be the last where I increase the weight in any of the exercises, and going forward I’ll just keep everything the same and ride those numbers out until I’m done dieting.

Here are some take away points for YOU:

1 – Focus on the big training rocks. Nothing wrong with included other exercises, but make sure you have your basis covered to a certain degree.

2 – Less is more. Your recovery is already compromised to a degree on a diet, so do less while making sure that the work you do in the gym is meaningful. I recommend training 3 days a week max. Use the extra time this saves you to enjoy your life outside of the gym.

The next Sexification update won’t be until April 1st, but starting next Sunday I’ll be undergoing a more strict diet for 2 weeks to finish off this phase, so I’ll be talking all about that.

Weight: 196.6

I’m a huge proponent of IIFYM (if it fits your macros), with the main reason being that most diets fail from a combination of the physical – occasional hunger, etc – and the mental. Anything that we can do to minimize the perceived difficulties will go a long way towards success in the long run, and this approach does just that (for both me and my clients).

There are no off limit foods. If you want it, you can have it, as long as you hold yourself accountable to the decision and fit it into your calorie budget for the day. This kind of freedom drop kicks the mental side of dieting in face and can change the way you think about dieting (and your relationship with food) forever – triple win.

Here’s a sample of my usual meal schedule.

Training Day:

Pre-Workout: Usually a scoop of Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs). Sometimes it will be a glass of milk or half of a protein bar. All depends on how I feel.

Post-Workout: 1lb of meat with 2 cups of oats, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar & 1 tablespoon of honey.

Meal #2: 2 cups of milk with 100g worth of protein powder and 2 cups of frozen berries.

Meal #3: 6 eggs, 2 oz of cheese, 4 pieces of beef bacon & 1lb of broccoli

Non-Training Day

Meal #1: 2 cups of milk with 100g worth of protein powder and an apple (or no fruit, depends on my mood).

Meal #2:  8oz of meat.

Meal #3:  1lb of meat with a separate plate of veggies.

Burgers (85/10 – 96/4% lean depending on the day)
Steak (sirloin tip usually, but ribeye if I’m feeling particularly manly)
Eggs (6 is the minimum – anything less would be uncivilized and a waste of my skillet)
Butter
Fish (tilapia, salmon)
Pork chops
Bacon
Cheese
Chicken (breasts and thighs)
Protein Powder (CINNAMON ROLL FLAVORED!)
Broccoli
Peas
Corn
Green Beans
Oats
Honey
Brown Sugar
Cinnabons
Milk
Quest Protein Bars
Rice
Apples
Oranges
Blueberries
Strawberries
Ribs
Ice cream
Shrimp
Octopus

Notice a trend here?

Most of my foods are minimally processed, but I also make room for treats if I want them. I also make sure that I’m only eating foods that I enjoy the taste of. I’ve learned the hard way that food that “sounds good” for me to eat will just end up going bad in the fridge, making both my wallet and soul depressed. I’ve had a carton of egg whites sit in the back of the fridge for more than a year once – true story.

Also I pretty much eat whenever I want, subscribing to no pre-determined number of meals I need to get in for the day.  Some days I eat 3 meals and on days I’m feeling more glutenous I’ll eat just once during the day.  Hitting your calories and macros by the end of the day is what matters the most from a physique standpoint.