Tweaking the "EDGE"...
This week has been pretty good!! The overall workout plan that Andrew and I have been following is probably leading to overtraining. For me personally (I don't want to speak for Andrew) I went 4 days straight of moderate to heavy fitness, and felt knackered by the end of Wednesday night. In fact, I've been noticing that I feel a little de-energized if we do go 6 straight days of total fitness (which is what we were doing prior to the New Year).
On Wednesday night, Andrew and I came up with an adjustment to our plan.
"Well what's the current plan??", you may be asking. Here's a breakdown of what we've essentially been doing (broken down into two parts - exercise and diet):
Exercise
For exercise, we've been following a loose version of Roger Applewhite's plan (he's a fitness guy who had some exercise routines listed some years back on the EAS.COM/BodyforLife.COM site...I still have his workout plans). The overall plan is essentially based on a "muscle overload" routine (pyramiding); the way it's done is as follows (this applies for any weight training exercise that we may do):
Perfrom 5 sets of an exercise; increasing in weight as we go
1st set - Perform 12 reps of an exercise at a pre-determined weight
2nd set - Increase in weight (by 5 or 10LBS); perform 10 reps of an exercise
3rd set - Increase in weight (by 5 or 10LBS); perform 8 reps of an exercise
4th set - Increase in weight (by 5 or 10LBS); perform 6 reps of an exercise
5th set - Drop down in weight (ideally to the weight used in the 4th); perform 24 reps of an exercise as this is the burn set
By the end of this routine, we end up doing 60 reps of the given exercise. What is important to remember here is that we are not going to total heavy weight. The point that we keep coaching each other is on doing the exercise right; keeping good form. If form suffers due to too much weight, then we feel that we won't be getting as much out of the exercise as we should be.
NOTE: the below is what Andrew and I adopted for our workout routines, not exactly the routines as listed by Applewhite. The overloading routine I mentioned earlier is essentially what we use as a core plan.
Day 1: Chest - we try to do 3 different exercises for chest using the overloading routine above. This can be anything from dumbbell bench, cable x-overs, weight bench, pushups, etc...
Day 2: Biceps/Triceps
Day 3: Back
Day 4: Legs
Day 5: Shoulders
Granted, we try to workout at least 6 days a week so we just start our routines again with a rest day mixed in. We try to do 3 exercises per muscle group and follow the overloading routine for each exercise.
Diet
For diet, this really started back in Oct/Nov of 05. I can't speak for Andrew here, this is mostly for myself, but my diet has honestly not been very good. I've always had rich food (being Indian that's not hard to do) and portion sizes have been...well...North American sizes.
Anyway, I started to make a conscious choice about what was good. More soups and salads, less burgers and fries. Actually, it was still too much meat and protein in my diet. I say this because of my vacation time in Thailand. There, I got used to "proper" portion sizes. No meal being bigger than the size of my fist (ie. chicken and rice dish would essentially be about a "fist size" serving). That and I ate much more green and healthier foods (lots of salads, fruit, etc...). Listening to Tony Robbins also helped me with relaizing the difference between Alkaline and Acidic food content...so...now I eat much more "green" foods.
Here's a pic of how I looked in Thailand (Andrew and I had been training about 3 or 4 months prior to this pic and it was taken the first week I was in Thailand). Please note - I still need to upload a "real" before pic when I was essentially 40 pounds heavier...like really unhealthy. The great part was that I made some awesome imporvements to get to what I look like in the pic. Since then, I've leaned out even more and want to keep going to get some real definition.
The modified plan:
Now, we're thinking of introducing more rest-days into the workout plan in order to give the body time to re-coup and build muscle. Why are we doing this now? Well, I'll share with you what I want my outcome to be, the reason why I'm doing it, and finally what I'm doing to get there.
Outcome: The goal is to stay at my current body weight. I want to lean out (ie. no more tummy), build muscle mass, and become stronger. The main focus is to also improve my "heart" health. I want to have a strong cardio balance with my muscle gain.
Reason/Motivation: What's getting me charged is being able to run the length of the Stanley Park seawall this summer. I want to be ripped; as Andrew put it for himself, the best shape of my life. I want to turn heads when I come running around a corner (like people saying "Holy $^*t!!, that guy's freakin' ripped!!").
If I go to a restaurant or a pub or some social venue, I got essentially 3 seconds to make an impression. I want to come in beaming with confidence, huge smile to light up the room, and just feel awesome about being me!
Being single, I also want women to notice me right within that first few seconds and size me up; I want generate interest! I know this isn't all about being fit, what it's more about is someone seeing me and saying "that guy is lighting up the room just by being there...there's something about him (in a good way)....I want to get to know him". That would be AWESOME!!!
The final motivator is that I want to live a long and healthy life - I don't want the last years of my life having to manage sickness, disease, or some illness (that I find disturbing); I want to be healthy right to the end.
What am I doing to get there: So here's what Andrew and I are doing:
Exercise
1. We're going to get a trainer to help us with our routine. Just to get some ideas and to mix up our current workout patterns.
2. Break up our training days. 3 days on, 1 day rest. Out of the 3days we're in the gym, 2 of those days will be heavy weight. Cardio everyday (at least 20mins) but the 3rd day of each cycle will be strictly cardio - 40 to 60minutes of cardio.
3. Both of us to get back on track with using journals
Diet
1. More greens. I'm going to stick to my new routine of fruit or veggies during the mornings; protein or sandwich for lunch; light salad or protein for dinner. All of this being mixed up by 6 small meals a day. I've also got some Green drink mix - it's an organic mixture (supposed to taste like shit) but it's good for me.
2. True meal portions
3. Only one free-day to eat crappy (and in moderation)
4. Cook at home more (this should help me save money too)
5. Continue on the organic eating plan...fruits and even dairy products seem to taste better.
I'm on my way!
Harvey
On Wednesday night, Andrew and I came up with an adjustment to our plan.
"Well what's the current plan??", you may be asking. Here's a breakdown of what we've essentially been doing (broken down into two parts - exercise and diet):
Exercise
For exercise, we've been following a loose version of Roger Applewhite's plan (he's a fitness guy who had some exercise routines listed some years back on the EAS.COM/BodyforLife.COM site...I still have his workout plans). The overall plan is essentially based on a "muscle overload" routine (pyramiding); the way it's done is as follows (this applies for any weight training exercise that we may do):
Perfrom 5 sets of an exercise; increasing in weight as we go
1st set - Perform 12 reps of an exercise at a pre-determined weight
2nd set - Increase in weight (by 5 or 10LBS); perform 10 reps of an exercise
3rd set - Increase in weight (by 5 or 10LBS); perform 8 reps of an exercise
4th set - Increase in weight (by 5 or 10LBS); perform 6 reps of an exercise
5th set - Drop down in weight (ideally to the weight used in the 4th); perform 24 reps of an exercise as this is the burn set
By the end of this routine, we end up doing 60 reps of the given exercise. What is important to remember here is that we are not going to total heavy weight. The point that we keep coaching each other is on doing the exercise right; keeping good form. If form suffers due to too much weight, then we feel that we won't be getting as much out of the exercise as we should be.
NOTE: the below is what Andrew and I adopted for our workout routines, not exactly the routines as listed by Applewhite. The overloading routine I mentioned earlier is essentially what we use as a core plan.
Day 1: Chest - we try to do 3 different exercises for chest using the overloading routine above. This can be anything from dumbbell bench, cable x-overs, weight bench, pushups, etc...
Day 2: Biceps/Triceps
Day 3: Back
Day 4: Legs
Day 5: Shoulders
Granted, we try to workout at least 6 days a week so we just start our routines again with a rest day mixed in. We try to do 3 exercises per muscle group and follow the overloading routine for each exercise.
Diet
For diet, this really started back in Oct/Nov of 05. I can't speak for Andrew here, this is mostly for myself, but my diet has honestly not been very good. I've always had rich food (being Indian that's not hard to do) and portion sizes have been...well...North American sizes.
Anyway, I started to make a conscious choice about what was good. More soups and salads, less burgers and fries. Actually, it was still too much meat and protein in my diet. I say this because of my vacation time in Thailand. There, I got used to "proper" portion sizes. No meal being bigger than the size of my fist (ie. chicken and rice dish would essentially be about a "fist size" serving). That and I ate much more green and healthier foods (lots of salads, fruit, etc...). Listening to Tony Robbins also helped me with relaizing the difference between Alkaline and Acidic food content...so...now I eat much more "green" foods.
Here's a pic of how I looked in Thailand (Andrew and I had been training about 3 or 4 months prior to this pic and it was taken the first week I was in Thailand). Please note - I still need to upload a "real" before pic when I was essentially 40 pounds heavier...like really unhealthy. The great part was that I made some awesome imporvements to get to what I look like in the pic. Since then, I've leaned out even more and want to keep going to get some real definition.
The modified plan:
Now, we're thinking of introducing more rest-days into the workout plan in order to give the body time to re-coup and build muscle. Why are we doing this now? Well, I'll share with you what I want my outcome to be, the reason why I'm doing it, and finally what I'm doing to get there.
Outcome: The goal is to stay at my current body weight. I want to lean out (ie. no more tummy), build muscle mass, and become stronger. The main focus is to also improve my "heart" health. I want to have a strong cardio balance with my muscle gain.
Reason/Motivation: What's getting me charged is being able to run the length of the Stanley Park seawall this summer. I want to be ripped; as Andrew put it for himself, the best shape of my life. I want to turn heads when I come running around a corner (like people saying "Holy $^*t!!, that guy's freakin' ripped!!").
If I go to a restaurant or a pub or some social venue, I got essentially 3 seconds to make an impression. I want to come in beaming with confidence, huge smile to light up the room, and just feel awesome about being me!
Being single, I also want women to notice me right within that first few seconds and size me up; I want generate interest! I know this isn't all about being fit, what it's more about is someone seeing me and saying "that guy is lighting up the room just by being there...there's something about him (in a good way)....I want to get to know him". That would be AWESOME!!!
The final motivator is that I want to live a long and healthy life - I don't want the last years of my life having to manage sickness, disease, or some illness (that I find disturbing); I want to be healthy right to the end.
What am I doing to get there: So here's what Andrew and I are doing:
Exercise
1. We're going to get a trainer to help us with our routine. Just to get some ideas and to mix up our current workout patterns.
2. Break up our training days. 3 days on, 1 day rest. Out of the 3days we're in the gym, 2 of those days will be heavy weight. Cardio everyday (at least 20mins) but the 3rd day of each cycle will be strictly cardio - 40 to 60minutes of cardio.
3. Both of us to get back on track with using journals
Diet
1. More greens. I'm going to stick to my new routine of fruit or veggies during the mornings; protein or sandwich for lunch; light salad or protein for dinner. All of this being mixed up by 6 small meals a day. I've also got some Green drink mix - it's an organic mixture (supposed to taste like shit) but it's good for me.
2. True meal portions
3. Only one free-day to eat crappy (and in moderation)
4. Cook at home more (this should help me save money too)
5. Continue on the organic eating plan...fruits and even dairy products seem to taste better.
I'm on my way!
Harvey
posted by Harvey at
3:04 PM
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