It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about fitness. It’s interesting to go back and look at some of my older posts. A lot has happened since then and I’ve learned so much about fitness in general. I competed in four bodybuilding competitions which not only gave me an amazing high, but a better understanding of how to properly diet as well. I also feel like over the past year my workouts have evolved. I have made some mistakes, but the most important thing is that I’ve had fun and met some amazing people along the way

The purpose of this blog is to keep track of my diet and progress for the year of 2012 in the form of blogs, photos and logs. There are a few bodybuilding competitions that I have in mind for 2012, the first being The Ironman Naturally on January 28th (so come support me). My plan is to diet as slowly as possible this year, so the Ironman show won’t be my best show in terms of my conditioning. I’m just doing it for fun and I kind of decided last minute to compete in it. The big ones for me are some of the natural shows which I’ll take my time to prepare for. Ultimately I’m shooting for a pro card which would make me a professional natural bodybuilder. It may take years, but again I’m in it to enjoy the ride and to support others. But I will get there.

My contest prep coach Mike Orr is awesome and knows a lot about the sport. He’s been helping me with posing, dieting and my workouts. Some specific areas that I need to pay more attention to are my shoulders and legs. My legs have grown a lot in the past year, but they can be thicker. And my shoulders could also use some size. My weight has shot up from 140 in July to 160 as of November 2011. I’ve lost 7 pounds just by cutting out junk food and drinking more water. By next month I hope to be between 147 - 150 or so. Stay tuned as I’ll be posting more in the coming days and weeks.

Peace,

Wade

So here’s a sample of my diet for the day and it’ll stay this way for the next 2 - 3 weeks. My macros are or at least should be the following; 210 grams of protein, 210 grams of carbs, and I’m trying to keep fats under 70 grams.

Meal 1    6 egg whites

             1 cup of oats with 15 raisins and 14 almonds

Meal 2    Optimum Nutrition whey protein shake, 1 apple

Meal 3   2 chicken breasts, 1 cup romaine lettuce and a cup of white rice, a tortune cookie

Meal 4    Optimum Nutrition protein shake

Meal 5    2 Table spoons of natural peanut butter with half cup of oats and a scoop and a half of whey, 10 raisins and 10 almonds all mixed together.

Fitday.com calculates my macros to be 54.9, carbs 212, protein 216.3

I often get questions on what exercises help to tone and sculpt the mid section. I’ve watched both men and women train feverishly in the gym week after week trying to get the perfect set of abs. Most men look to achieve a chiseled set of abs with a visible Adonis belt. Women usually go for a flat or toned stomach. Unfortunately most of the people that put in such great effort in the gym never get the results they hope for and wonder why. I have to admit that I very rarely train my abs. I find doing those types of exercises to be boring and redundant. If I had to guess I’d say that I train them maybe once every few weeks, maybe even once a month. I definitely want to start incorporating more ab routines into my workout schedule and I’m going to make an effort to do so soon. So how do I keep my abs toned and what do I recommend to others?

First you must understand that you can do all the crunches in the world, but if your body fat percentage is too high you’re not going to see any kind of result. Some people due to genetics are just naturally lean (ectomorphs) and they don’t have to work at it as much. But some people are genetically predisposed to a higher body fat percentage (endomorphs) and they’re facing an uphill battle. Their body’s are covered in a layer of subcutaneous adipose tissue or fat. So getting the body fat percentage down by dieting and getting proper nutrition is the first step.

You should also include a good routine to your weekly workout schedule. Weighted exercises are going to increase the actual size of the abdominal muscles. Weighted cable crunches, weighted sit ups, hanging leg raises and hanging wipers can help to increase strength and size of the ab muscles.

Indirectly working the abs through using compound exercises that work the core. These include squats, dead lifts and bent over rows. In my opinion this is the best way to ab development.

And of course the standard crunches, sit ups and exercise ball movements also aid in getting a toned midsection.

Again if you don’t eat properly and diet then all of the above exercises are pretty much worthless if you’re trying to tone your stomach.

Uneven Chinups (warmup)

BW/12

BW/11X2

T-Bar Row

90/6

90/5X2

105X6

Cable Rows

165/7

165/6X2

185/5

Bentover Dumbell Rows

80/7

80/6

85/5X2

Back Extensions

85/10X2

55X18

Treadmill 20:00 minutes

Stretching for 10 minutes

The past two to three weeks I’ve upped my water consumption. Realizing the importance of water consumption, in the past I would only drink 3, maybe 4 liters of water a day. But just recently I’ve taken it up a notch to about two gallons a day. Have I noticed a difference? HELL YES!! Any water retention that I had quickly went away and I’ve noticed a difference in my vascularity. There are subcutaneous veins that I’ve never noticed before surfacing. My arms and shoulders look like roadmaps, especially after I eat a meal slightly higher in carbs and sodium. And definately after a good workout. I can even see veins popping out of my stomach. So the moral of the story is to DRINK MORE WATER!!! That is if you want to be leaner.

The past week like I planned I paid no attention to my sources of macros (fried chicken, burgers etc.) And I very loosely paid attention to my overall calories. It’s funny but when I count calories it seems like it’s harder for me to keep my diet in check. Mentally it feels like I’m starving myself. When I’m a little less strict, I still have a basic idea as to how many calories I’m taking in and I know how to control my portion sizes, juggle the macros (protein, carbs and fat) and still end up feeling full in the end. A slightly higher carb intake has helped with the hunger and cravings as well. I’m still experimenting with my diet, but I have a basic idea as to what works for me(not necessarily from a health standpoint). Another thing that I’ve noticed after a week of slightly higher carbs and not caring where my macros came from is that I feel and look fuller. And my vasularity has also vastly improved over the past week. On my left shoulder I’ve noticed veins that I’ve never seen before, and the ones that were there already there seem bigger. I just feel anabolic more often than not.

From a bodybuilder perspective I’d have to say that I’m not an advocate of low carb (keto) diets anymore at least for myself. The longest I can see myself doing it for is two or three weeks tops, and that’s if I want to shed bodyfat fast and I mean fast. Even then I don’t think I’d do too well as I’d shed muscle fast too. Carb cycling to a certain degree is good for me I think, but that takes some guessing and experimenting as well. The diet is only part of the equation of course and the low carb diet is one that didn’t work for me in the long run, but may work for others. Maybe I’m just not that sensitive to carbs. My workout routine has also been changing frequently and I’m sure this has something to do with the results I’ve been seeing. I’ll discuss what’s been working for me in the weight room in another post.

Last night as I was shamelessly munching on chips and pizza (consider it a cheat meal) I was putting some thought into the principles behind “clean” dieting. The reason we all do it is to either gain lean muscle or to cut bodyfat right? Sure. But just how realistic is it to stick to such a clean diet over a long period of time? What ends up happening when someone who goes on a strict diet gets fed up? They drop off of the diet and end up binge eating which is what I ended up doing last night. Because of this it becomes harder to stick to it. Now I’ve seen other bodybuilders do this and I’m not sure if it’ll work for me, but what if I stopped paying attention to my sources of calories and paid more attention to overall calories and macros? In other words to a certain degree have a looser diet (burgers, fried food etc) and eat a little more of what I want. I’m sure it takes some discipline as far as planning. And I can image it’s very hard to get the calorie count when eating out. But we’ll see. I think I might be able to cut fat and gain muscle without eating so clean all the time. It’s driving me insane. I’m not talking about eating like this continuously either, just in moderation. And in no way is this optimal for your health. But just for a brief period I’d like to try it so I don’t go crazy.

Here’s an example of my diet on a typical day:

Meal 1 -

6 egg whites, 1 scoop of whey protein shake, 1/2 cup of oatmeal  

Meal 2 -

1 can of light tuna in water, 1/2 cup of almonds

Meal 3 -

Chicken breast, 2 chicken wings, 1/2 cup of brown rice or 2 rice cakes

Meal 4 -

1 whey protein shake, 1/2 cup of almonds

Meal 5 -

6 egg whites, 1/4 pound roast beef mixed in with the egg whites

Meal 6 -

1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1 scoop of Muscle Milk mixed into the oats.

1 gallon of water throughout the day.

I don’t really take too many supplements, but here they are:

Purple Wraath intra workout

Vitamin C 3000mg

Vitamin B Complex

Okay, so I can’t really go into too much detail about my workouts as I don’t have my hand written training log with me. I figured I’d share a little about myself and my training goals. And try to go into my training as much as possible. This blog is to basically get the ball rolling for me I guess. And the purpose behind it is to learn from others, share and to try new things. At the very least it’s to keep a diary or journal of my progress.

I’ve pretty much been into working out and fitness since college, maybe even half ass in highschool. My body’s always been very responsive to weight training as I have more of a mesomorphic (athletic) build. Unfortunately I didn’t really know how to diet properly when I was in my late teens and early 20’s. But the good thing is that my metabolism was fast at the time so it really didn’t matter how I ate. Not so much the case now as I have to watch what I eat more closely. Between the age of 20 and now at 30 I’ve experimented with different workout programs and diets. Anything from Bill Starr’s 5X5 Madcow Program to high volume training (15-20 sets per bodypart), each one has yielded different results. I’ve also tried low carb, high carb diets, higher and lower calorie diets as well as water manipulation and different supplements. There’s also been times when I’ve completely lost touch with excercise or dieting and let myself go for a few months. It’s something that I’ll never give up completely though. There’s nothing that feels as good as seeing results that you’ve produced. When I get into it I live it….I eat, sleep and breath fitness. I love the focus that’s needed to push myself to the limit. I haven’t quite pushed myself to the limit yet, but plan on doing so in the next few months. The last decade or so has been a hell of a ride fitness-wise and I look forward to more

One of my lifelong goals is to just stay as healthy as possible without any kind of chronic injury. My immediate goal is to gain as much natural lean mass that genetics will allow. And to be conditioned to the max.

Where am I now in terms of composition? Well I’m not sure what my exact dimensions are off the top of my head so until I get them here’s a ballpark guess. My bodyfat sits at around 7 percent or so. I’ve noticed that my arms and chest have increased in size in the past month. Not a big increase, but an inch or so for each over the past month. As of June 16th my waist was 31 and it’s now a 28. I don’t really pay attention to the scale as it messes with me psychologically so I have no clue how much I weigh right now. In a later post I’ll have pics, dimensions as well as my workout routine and diet.

- Wade