Posted by Chris on October 29, 2009
As with my Polyphasic updates I had to skip one week but to make up for it I have finalized my current workout routine
I have decided to do a quick clean Bulk until late November. My reasoning is that I had put on quite a bit of fat in the past few months and I don't want to let it go to waste.
It is much easier to gain muscle with a bit of a fat pad. More muscle = a faster metabolism. And of course a faster metabolism means faster weight loss.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term bulk, its is basically just a switch to gaining muscle. So I increase my caloric intake and Lift heavy weights in the 8 - 10 rep range to gain muscle(and usually a little fat).
So here is my current exercise brake down:
the first number after an exercise is the Sets the second and third the rep range.
Monday:
Chest/Tris/shoulders
Bench 4x 8-10 (increasing weight each set)
Incline Bench 4x 8–10 (increasing weight each set)
Chair Dips
Triceps Isolation (various exercises)
Shoulder Presses
Y Presses.
Tuesday:
Abs/light Cardio
Wednesday:
Back/Bis
Deadlifts 4x 8-10 (increasing weight each set)
Chin ups and pull ups
Bicep Curls ( lots of variations 8 -10 rep)
I sometimes throw in a few Rows but so far the heavy deadlifts leave my back pretty shaky so i don't want to over do it.
Thursday: Abs/Cardio or rest
Friday:
Legs/back
Squat 4x 8-10(increasing weight per set)
Leg Raises
Pull Ups Chin Ups
Calf Work (various exercises)
Saturday:
Rest or Cardio
Sunday:
Rest
I throw in some different muscle groups here and there if i feel up to it. Like some Chest Flys on Fridays or Bench.
I have Increased my Protein and Calorie Intake to match my Goal of gaining some weight.
My diet changes a lot and isn't 100% steady but it seems to work ok.
I gained a few lbs these past 2 weeks putting me at 206lbs. All of my Free weight exercises have increased dramatically. But i have a harder time with body weight exercises (lost 1 rep on my pull ups)
My current plan is to Gain weight for a few weeks and then Start a P90X 90 day modified routine to loose the fat for next spring.
If you have any questions leave comments.
Posted by Chris on October 14, 2009
I lost another lb down to 201 lbs.
The shippment of my supplements from bb.com arrived last week on Tuesday just as i expected
USPlabs Jack3d, 250 Grams, Lemon Lime
So i was a bit surprised by the size of jack3d it was smaller than i expected. But after trying it for a week i realized it doesn't matter at all. The scoop is proportionally smaller and the results are great.
Comparing jack3d to Sp250.
Jack3d has more of a clean feeling to it. Not as jittery and more focused. Sp250 has a bit more of a pump but jack3d is very comparable. Overall i like jack3d better now but SP250 is still a great supplement.
Dymatize Elite 12 Hour MRP, 20 Packets, Fudge Brownie
The Dymatize MRPs dont mix very well so i recommend a shaker or a blender. They taste ok, a bit like a blended up protein bar. It wasn't the best tasting experience but the price and nutrition is right.
CytoSport Muscle Milk, 2.47 Lbs, Cake Batter
And of course the muscle milk cake batter tastes great. A bit sweeter then i remember but still one of the best tasting protein powders around.
So with my new supplements i increased my workouts steadily over the week and I'm making good progress once again. The velocity diet at lunch helped a lot and i decided to keep it up for another 7 days. Its very convenient to just drink a shake instead of having to pack a lunch.
Since my workout schedule is stabilizing more i should be able to post a full example of it next week.
Posted by Chris on October 6, 2009
I lost about 1 lb and my lifts and P90X cardio are improving. My diet is getting cleaner every day but I'm still to hungry around lunch time. So I decided to do a partial velocity diet.
The velocity diet is pretty simple. You drink a protein shake/mrp(meal replacement) for every meal and that's it. Its a way to loose some quick weight and shrink your stomach while still getting enough protein and other beneficial ingredients to maintain muscle.
Long term this diet is of course bad. But short term or even just replacing 1 meal its actually a good idea. So my plan for this week is to replace all my lunches with protein shakes/mrps. That should cut down on lunch hunger after that week is over and make it easier to eat smaller healthy portions.
My new supplements and protein should be arriving today.
I ordered:
CytoSport Muscle Milk, 2.47 Lbs, Cake Batter: Best tasting protein powder ever. I eat it with my oats in the morning or if I want to enjoy a shake and not chug it.
USPlabs Jack3d, 225 Grams, Lemon Lime
: My Sp250 is running low so I ordered some of this to replace it. I haven't tested it yet but I have heard great things about it.
Dymatize Elite 12 Hour MRP, 20 Packets, Fudge Brownie
These are great for days when I don't have time to make a certain meal. Provides all the nutrition I need without all the junk around it. Also needed for the velocity diet.
Posted by Chris on October 1, 2009
Week 1 is over. So far i have 0 change in weight. My cardio and strength have improved somewhat. And i do feel much better all around. Not eating junk food and getting regular exercise definitely has its benefits. So far my current workout routine is a heavily modified P90X . I start Mondays with chest and back(replaced most of the push-ups with dumbbell bench) and then i added another bench day(barbell) toward the end of the week after i had recovered. I also had 1 Leg/shoulder day mixed in. The rest of the days i did cardio. This was only the first week and I'm still working on a good routine that i can stick to.
Posted by Chris on September 25, 2009
Since i finished my 30 day polyphasic experiment(decided to stick with it for now) I am now starting a new one.
This might not be the most exiting but it is sorely needed. My new 30 day habit is going to be: diet and exercise.
I have posted my diet and exercise routine before and that is theoretically how i eat. But in reality i haven't eaten like that consistently over the past few month. Consistently to me means: no cheating, eating restricted calories every day for 30 days.
The Rules: Ill try to keep it as simple as possible.
The #1 rule is to stay below 2200 calories. So if i dont have time to cook or don't feel like eating tuna 1 day as long as i stay below the calories I'm still ok.
#2 Try to stick to the diet and healthy foods. After rule #1 this one isn't as important for weight loss but it is for health. The key to weight gain and loss is calories in vs calories out. If there is a net loss then you will loose weight and the other way around.
#3 P90X at least 1 hour per day. Again this aids weight loss and is great for health and body composition. It can offset some bad choices on the calories as well if needed.
So starting today.
Stats:
Male
Height: 6'2
Weight: 203lbs
Body fat%: just below 20
Goal: 10% body fat in the 180lbs
Posted by Chris on September 12, 2009
I overslept again, but this time by 4 hours. So I slept almost a full 7 hours. I blame the Chili! I woke up at 2 and i was pretty tired and had this great idea to keep sleeping in my mind for some reason. So i hit snooze and fell back asleep. Only to be woken up again of course, but this time i decided i was going to get up. So i turned off my alarm clock and ..... fell back asleep until 5:50.
I conclude. Diet is extremely important to adaption and probably polyphasic sleep overall. Overeating screws up your sleep, and since your not getting a whole lot of it, it really messes up your whole day.
Now back to getting up after 7 hours. I feel pretty good of course, but here is the kicker, I don't feel any better than if had gotten up at 2 and had my 7 am nap. Of course i would have felt pretty tired at 2am compared to now. But I don't think that's a fair comparison.
Day 18 recap: I actually felt kind of sluggish in the morning till noon(where i took a nap) I felt like i had slept way to much. The rest of the day went as usual. I did get tired at nap times and took them like always.
Posted by Chris on September 9, 2009
Great, I feel much better today, but now I have to find out why! Was it the diet or the exercise? Was it the 1.5 hour extra nap i took or the 10 minutes I added to my 3 hour core? I made quite a few positive changes yesterday to try and steer the experiment back on track. I hope to be able to find the correlation between these factors over the next few days.
Day 15 recap: In the after noon i decided to be adventurous and take some
Gaspari Nutrition SuperPump250, 800 Grams, Refreshing Orange
again to resume my old workout habits. It went well, I didn't do as good as before but that could be because i haven't lifted heavy for a few weeks. And to my surprise i didn't really have any problems falling asleep.
Posted by Chris on September 1, 2009
It's a week!
7 Days of sleeping 4 hours and I'm still alive. Now on to today. I'm pretty tired, similar to Day 6, but not quite as bad. I had trouble falling asleep last night so my core nap could have been less than 3 hours. I'm using my trusty Iron Gym
to do pull-ups again to keep my self awake. I have it hung up in the room across from me so its a matter of walking out the door to do pull-ups. I'm still waiting for things to get better so I can start improving my productivity and add some serious exercise routines back into my schedule.
Day 7 recap: The rest of the day was pretty average. I'm starting to slowly up my exercising and started with a bit of cardio today.
Posted by Chris on August 28, 2009
Ahhh. Day 3. Dare I say it ? Yes, its worse then day 2 and 1 added together. My eyes hurt and I'm very tired. The first hour awake I had trouble focusing my eyes. Now I'm kind of in the zombie mode. I'm awake but not really. My body feels heavy and tired. It feels like I have to drag it around with sheer will power. Not sure what I'm going to do. Even physical activities sound like a lot of work with this tired body of mine. And my eyes still hurt.
Once again the 7am Nap saved the day! The 7am Nap together with my vitamins and a shower pretty much turns me from zombie to a normal awake business person. The rest of the day was similar to day 1 and 2. I feel normal until about 9pm at which time I then get very tired and have to fight till 11pm.
So I figure once it starts getting better I will incorporate regular heavy weight workouts and my regular supplements back in (check Diet for more info). I want to test how well my muscle recovery will work in this new sleep environment.
Posted by Chris on August 27, 2009
I want to give as much information surrounding my polyphasic sleep experiment as possible. Diet seems to be a hot topic around the sleep blogs. Some say it helps to be vegan/vegetarian. Others Say the extended waking Hours require more calories.
Well here is my current Diet that I've been on and stick to pretty generally.
Supplements i take:
B complex:
Schiff Super Vitamin B Complex, 120 Tablets
Omega3 Flax caps:
Optimum Flaxseed Oil Softgels, 1000mg/100 Softgels
Multivitamin:
Nature's Best Multi Pak, 30 Packets
Protein Powder:
CytoSport Muscle Milk Light, 1.65 Lbs., Chocolate Milk
Fat Burner:
I used to take Lipo6x but I stopped for this experiment since it has caffeine and other stimulants in it.
Nutrex Lipo 6x, 120 Multi-Phase Capsules
I also used to take a pre-workout supplement, but I stopped taking that for the experiment as well. Although I plan on resuming it once I feel normal and adapted
Gaspari Nutrition SuperPump250, 800 Grams, Refreshing Orange
As you can see I've done my homework and I've been keeping in shape for many years. I will be able to tell how my body reacts to the changes in sleep and whether or not I need to make any dietary adjustments.
Breakfast:
For breakfast I usually have either 2 eggs and some toast or oatmeal with a scoop of protein powder and milk. Sometimes I'll have some turkey bacon with my eggs. It just depends on my Mood. Basically my diet is #1 calorie restricted and #2 low carb and high protein. I have Body goals I'm following in addition to the Polyphasic Sleep experiment.
Lunch:
For lunch I usually have a tuna sandwich or some kind of chicken/rice combination. Anything whole food high in protein will do.
Dinner:
Dinner is pretty much the same as Lunch. I try to eat chicken, fish or Low fat red meat and lots of vegetables.
Snacks:
Any good diet has lots of snacks through out the day. I usually stick with baby carrots, almonds, various fruits or fat free cottage cheese mixes.