A Brief Update

First blog in a while. Mainly because I have been busy, tired, ill or all 3 at the same time!

Not much time to write a massive update so it will be brief. Weight-wise I got down to 213lb at 10% bodyfat. Last weekend, after 8 weeks of intense training, hard dieting and all the other things life throws at you I needed a bit of a break. Instead of skiploading for a period of hours I simply started on Friday night when I got in from work and then went all day Saturday finishing with a steak and rib combo at Harvester for good measure. I didn't even skipload in the truest sense either - If I wanted it I basically ate it; a mental break from dieting and skiploading if you like (because even skiploading is a structured way of eating and forms part of the diet).

I'd been fighting off a bit of a bug all week long and I had hoped that the extra calories and break would help recouperation but unfortunately I woke up on the Sunday morning feeling completely rotten. I binned off training and got to be one with the sofa. Unfortunately when you feel really rotten you also dont want to eat healthy stuff like oats, chicken, eggs etc, so yup you guessed it - diet on Sunday was pretty shocking - infact it was worse than the Saturday because apart from eating alot of cheerios the rest of my calories for the day came from chocolate by way of a tub of heroes and a few bars of dairy milk. Over the course of the weekend I piled on 16lb!! It got worse still because I continued to feel ill all the way through until Wednesday afternoon.

Now I never planned to drop all the water weight as my load was extended, but I hoped to be within 3lb. Unfortunately I just wasn't dropping water weight, and a combination of being bloated, feeling crappy and not seeing water dropping off really got to me mentally. Thursday and Friday I dropped a total of 10lb so I actually ended the week just 1.5lb over the week before - a bit of a result. Thank god. Next diet break will be Christmas week.

I have to admit I went to a bit of a dark place last week where I just thought about going back into a bulk and how nice it would be to eat 3500kcals a day again rather than 2000ish (both figures exclusive of pre/post workout shakes).

Anyway - I had been faced with the prospect of not skiploading this week and set myself a strict weight target with hours worth of loading attached to each weight to determine how long I could load or if at all. Fortunately the 7lb water drop on Friday night allowed me a 9 hour load (just 1 hour down from normal). I ate very much within the limits of skiploading protocols yesterday which consisted of:

Meal 1 - 6 large pancakes and real maple syrup/chocolate sauce. 2 bowls of coco pops mixed with protein shake, 3 bowls of cheerios, 2 slices of toasted malt loaf

Meal 2 - 1/3 tub mango sorbet, bag of jelly babies, J20, 200g cake icing.

Meal 3 - 1/2 white baguette with extra light philly, 150g chicken, 2 packs low fat crisps, toffee pecan swirl, 3 cookies, 1/3 tub mango sorbet

Meal 4 - 3 bowls of rice krispies

Meal 5 - buffett of garlic bread, pizza, mozerella sticks, brie and cranberry parcels, mini beef wellingtons, low fat oven chips, 1/3 tub mango sorbet, few chocolates.

All that was good for 10lb - about usual.

Another week starts in the morning so training this week is:

Monday - Back & Cardio

Tuesday - Cardio & Abs

Wednesday - Shoulders, Tri's, Cardio

Thursday - Legs

Friday - Cardio & Abs

A New Beginning (some progress pics too)

Wow what a few weeks! A short update for you:

I have to start by apologising for lack of updates. On Saturday 26th October at precisely 7:25am Lynn gave birth to our second child, Mason William Spencer. Both mother and baby are well although Masons appetite seems to take after mine and he is quite insatiable at times!

Despite everything that has been going on I have had 3 bloody fantastic weeks results wise in terms of fat loss and weight loss. I've lost 2lb, 3.5lb and 0.6lb respectively.

As I had achieved a weight loss as of this morning I decided to skipload a day earlier this week just to throw my body off the scent of my 7 day reload cycle. Frustratingly this will result in an 8 day period before my next load, but it should again add to confuse my body and ensure it does not adapt. I should also add that my skiploads have gone from 6 to 10 hours. For me 12-14 hours would be an all day load so keep an eye on that one folks as it gets interesting at that point, but thats a post for another day.

I am now sitting at 10% bodyfat and 214.4lb (about 97.5kg) and the fat has literally been melting off over the last few weeks.... It's like nothing I have ever experienced before. This is now the lowest bodyfat percentage I have ever been. The real key for me here is that 18 months ago when I got just above this at 12.5% I weighed 20lb less. That is concrete evidence that eating well and training hard in the interim period has provided muscle gains. An amazing fete considering that I almost gave up on lifting weights off the back of my DVT when I lost almost all my muscle size and strength through atrophy. What this also shows is that as a bodybuilder, or somebody that simply wants to add lean muscle and improve their lean muscle mass year on year is that you have to forgo that all year round lean look and allow yourself to eat and train in a manner conducive to growing new lean tissue. If that means you have to sit at 15-18% bodyfat for a period of time then so be it, but if you keep your growing/bulking/off-season (whatever the hell you want to call it) phase relatively in check and keep training hard and with purpose the results will be there for you and everybody else to see when you strip off that extra padding in the future.

I've continued to train at 5AM, mainly for a couple of reasons:

1) I like training fasted - I feel I get a much better mental focus and intensity this way
2) The gym is relatively quiet at this time (go figure!) so I can use what I want, and for the most part people in the gym tend to stay out of my way
3) When I go back to work next week, which will be an adjustment in itself this will not be an additional thing to adjust back to - an element of business as usual so to speak.

I've not really tweaked much in terms of diet the last few weeks. The only things I've really done with no negative impact on weight loss is to start using a whey concentrate/isolate blend for post work out instead of just whey concentrate (isolate is quicker acting than concentrate) add to also add 30-50g of coco pops to my post work out shake.... Yes you are reading that correctly - coco pops as part of my post work out shake. I am finding my training sessions are getting much more intense and taking much more out of me. Taking in the extra carbs certainly provides me better recovery and leaves me feeling less drained towards the end of the week as gylocgen gets really depeleted leading up to my skipload. So what I do at the end of my training session, much to the confusion of some people at the gym is make up my post work out shake (still 30g protein 30g vitargo, 3g BCAA, 8g Creapure) and then pour half of it into a little tub of coco pops. I then neck the shake and eat the coco pops before heading home. The amount of coco pops I have varies on the session and muscle group trained (ie high volume legs work which is a complete bastard gets a full 50g of coco pops whilst a standard chest workout gets just 30g etc).

I think people think the coco pops thing is weird and I have definitely had a few raised eyebrows, but I ask you this: if your on a diet do you want to drink your calories or eat them? Obviously you want to eat as much as you can as this makes dieting feel less laborious. Coco pops (and any kids cereal) are a great post work out carb source as they are roughly 50/50 starch to sugary carbs with the added benefits of cereal companies adding a variety of vitamins and minerals. Hell there is nothing to say you couldn't sit and eat a bag of jelly babies or wine gums instead. Personally I like having a mix of liquid and solid carbs but I don't think it would make a difference either way.

Another thing I've done is to eat a few pineapple chunks with breakfast. Lynn was eating this to bring on labour and I made the mistake of trying pineapple, having never really liked it.... wooops shouldn't have done that - its awesomely refreshing!

The last 2 days I have also started drinking lemon water first thing in the morning. There are a whole host of health benefits behind this (just google them) but the main thing for me is to reduce body acidity due to a very high (350-400g a day) protein diet, and it actually tastes pretty damn good too.

Some progress pics below as haven't put any up in a while. Not the best quality as there is a complete lack of places in our new house to take pictures (the glass in the back door is actually a pretty good mirror!).

Top 2 are from end of last week - hopefully you can see that bottom V (also known as the sex V!) in my lower abs coming out. 

Bottom 2 are from this week and give an idea of the added vascularity I am getting now my bodyfat is down at 10%. Particularly pleased with the vein down my biceps (how vein!) because no matter what I do I never seem to get that nice big vein you see on all the guys in magazines and at shows - proof its there, but has just been covered up! Probably just need a good dark fake tan now to really show up the veiny/grainy appearance to its full.

Stretching and massages

Yesterday was a tough day – the culmination of 2 hard workouts and a calorie deficit really caught up with me.

Sunday was chest day. The workout was hard. Lots of squeezing and stretching and we got to throw the gyms new 55kg dumbbells around too. I was really in the zone so biceps after chest was a real intense slog. Everything in the 12-16 rep range.

Monday was back. I am hitting my back real hard, particularly lats. I don’t think I have any issue with back thickness – in fact I think I have a very thick back and this is one of my strong points. With this in mind I am putting a lot of focus on hitting my lats. As I have a blocky waist and wide hips bones this should help to provide that v-taper look and therefore provide the illusion of having a smaller waist.

So those were the two workouts….. now last night. I could barely stay awake at 6:30pm – In fact I could have just gone to be at this point! My outer pecs were real sore from Sunday and I was having twitches/spasms on my left pec. My traps and back were really sore from Monday mornings workout – my neck was getting real stiff and no amount of stretching seemed to be helping anything. Fortunately my lovely wife, despite being 39 weeks pregnant and fairly immobile, gave me a 20 minute massage to alleviate some of the muscle soreness. Needless to say there was a fair old bit of crunching, cracking and some moaning and groaning to boot as she worked her way through some of the knots that had built up over the last week or two of training. And this brings me on to a point I think many people overlook when it comes to training – the recovery process and additional techniques that can be utilised to allow for a speedier recovery and increased muscle growth.

Massage is often seen as being a bit airy fairy, but if utilised correctly and routinely I have found it to be very beneficial indeed. Now I have to emphasise the point that at the start of my training career I was of the opinion that massages were for pussys and that manly men who lifted weights didn’t need them – soreness was a good thing and should be put up with and accepted as a bi-product of a productive workout. WRONG WRONG WRONG!!

When the weights weren’t overly heavy, as they tend not to be in the earlier days of ones life odyssey of gym work, massage is probably nice but not a necessity. As weights get heavier and training techniques are fine tuned you can literally feel your muscles resetting themselves in odd uncomfortable positions in the 24-48 hours after a workout. A prime example is traps. Do a load of high volume trap work or pump sets, and heavy shrugs (I’m talking 120kg plus) and it literally feels like an invisible piece of string is pinning your traps up to your ears. It’s just a damn uncomfortable feeling and if you roll your shoulders a little you get some incredible crunching noises. This is where massage comes in to its own. It breaks down the lactic acid and blood stuck in muscle tissue, whilst at the same time putting heat into the muscle and very quickly allows the muscle to relax. The benefit of taking out all that lactic acid and blood is that it allows fresh blood flow into the area, and with fresh blood (provided your diet and supplement regime is optimal) comes fresh nutrients and all the goodies required to maximise repair and growth. What you need is a good sports massage. A namby pamby rub and tickle is going to do absolutely nothing – it should hurt! Golden tip – if you find yourself drifting off to sleep it isn’t hard enough. Keep shopping around until you find a therapist that wants to hurt you – most good therapists will take to the challenge and enjoy causing you pain – also ensure that you tell them what you want and where you need them to concentrate – often your grunts, shrieks and groans will be enough to encourage them to concentrate on found problem areas, but don’t be afraid to provide feedback if you feel they aren’t going hard enough. Expect to pay anywhere from £40-£200 depending on massage time and location.

Another benefit of massage is fascia manipulation. Muscle is important, but it’s enclosed in a tight bag known as the fascia. The fascia is very strong and fairly tight and essentially allows muscles to hold their shape. The fascia does have a negative impact on muscle growth in that a muscle can’t grow if it is being restricted in size by the fascia. Cue the need to try and manipulate/stretch the fascia to allow more room for muscle to grow. Massage is one technique that can help manipulate the fascia, but there are two further techniques, that when combined correctly, can lead to a whole new world of muscle growth; fascia stretching and pumping (also known as dc training). The idea is twofold in that.

1. You use weighted stretches (normally at the end of your compound lifts) to stretch out the fascia. 

2. After stretching out the fascia you use isolation moves to really pump up the muscle

The approach should work in that stretching the fascia weakens it, even causing micro-tearing and then pumping the muscle allows it to stretch the fascia further and to cause more micro-tears. The fascia is now stretched out a little – there is a little more room for muscles to grow. Any micro-tears mean the fascia, like a muscle, has to repair itself a little bigger (natural adaption) – there is now even more room for muscle to grow.

Now there are some pitfalls with fascia stretches. Pick a weight that is too heavy, or over stretch and you are just going to get injured – hello muscle atrophy! In most instances only body weight or light dumbbells are required. Holding stretches for 30-60 seconds will be excruciatingly painful and uncomfortable– wimps need not apply or attempt!

Here is an example of a chest fascia stretch/pump routine I utilised on Saturday after hitting all my pressing compound movements: Take 2 dumbbells (I think I used 12kg) – lay in an incline flye position. Now at the bottom of the movement where you get the stretch – that’s your starting position. Let the dumbbells stretch out in that you should find yourself stretching out more and more with those dumbbells getting ever closer to the floor. Do this for 30-60 seconds (30 seconds is a good starting time). I went straight from this stretch into cable x-overs at 15-20 reps concentrating on a hard long squeeze of the chest and getting a real good pump. I performed this stretch and pump method 3 times. My chest still hurts (in a good way) - over 48 hours after the fact.

Right back to me! You may recall if you read my last blog update that I loaded on 8lbs during my Saturday skipload/reefed. I did question how long it would take to come off too as it’s the most I can recall putting on during a reefed! As of yesterday morning I was down 2lb. As of this morning I was down 7lb – yes that means that I lost 5lb in my sleep last night! 1lb more to go to baseline tomorrow. I’ve also decided to tweak my diet this week. 2 main aspects are

• Further reduction in calories by 200kcals per day. In terms of macros this is a percentage ratio of PRO/CHO/FAT 20/20/60 or in kcals 40/40/120. Not a drastic difference, but it should be enough to continue fat loss at a rate I am comfortable with.

• Manipulation of post-cardio meal. This was a PRO/FAT meal but I have dropped FAT. Protein has been upped from 50g in this meal to 60g to bring calories up to compensate for fat removal. The methodology around this is that cardio utilises fat as a fuel source and that by only ingesting pure protein afterwards I am extending the EPOC window and allowing for fats released from cells during
cardio to be utilised as fuel for energy (because if you put fats into your body the body will use these instead of the fats released during exercise). The theory bodes well so we will see how the practical application holds up!

Update

Last week was a really good week in terms of training. I feel like I am able to give every session 110%. Some of my training sessions have been really intense - so much so that I am completely oblivious to if anybody else is in the gym at times.

I feel like I'm getting a nice trade off of size vs conditioning. I am definitely getting leaner, but I am either getting bigger at the same time, or at the very least achieving the illusion of getting bigger as muscle definition/conditioning becomes more defined.

Staying on point with diet was alot easier last week - even the very low carb days on Tuesday and Friday seem to be getting easier!

I was chatting with Andy (Sunday training partner) about intensity today and the point we discussed is actually relevant to all types of athletes or average joes. When you are in the zone and have complete focus you have to give it everything you have and push beyond what you set out to achieve. I say this because there will be days when you just can't get in that zone for whatever reason (diet, tiredness, stress, aches, injury etc). We need to accept these days happen to us all and on these days we will more than likely just go through the motions and not push ourselves to our absolute limits. This is why you have to maximise those days that you are just are buzzing and in the zone. If you planned to run 4 miles do you have the capability to run 6? If you planned to do 12 reps can you push to 15 or 20? Its small moments like these that add up in the long run, and small moments like these that you can miss out on. Ultimately its small moments like these that seperate great from good.

I think I am really benefiting from a mental shift in my philosophy towards training. I am no longer training like a weight-lifter. I am training like a bodybuilder, and as a result I am hopefully starting to look like a bodybuilder. Its no longer about weights but feel for me. Everything is about squeezing and stretching. Its about getting in the right place mentally to achieve small goals on a day by day basis. Completing achievements on a day by day basis all lead me to my end goal but allow me to stay focused in the here and now. I believe that I can control my own destiny and that success is purely down to me and me alone and that by choosing to succeed I can and will succeed. By recognising this I also recognise that if I fail its because I have chosen to fail. Choosing to fail is not an option.

Today is food prep day. I have already cooked up all my chicken for the week (7 large breasts in a little Nando's lemon and herb peri peri sauce). This afternoon I'll be cooking up a load of beef in a healthy low carb cottage pie style. I also have some minced turkey breast to cook up and like the chicken that will get a helping of Nando's sauce. I'm having to do a bit of additional prep work in terms of food at the moment because Lynn is now 39 weeks pregnant with our second child and we could end up having to dash to hospital at any time. This means that I have to have food prepared and the ability to quickly throw into my cooler and take with us (yes I will still be eating every 3 hours!). I've got some protein cookies and flapjacks in the hospital bag as an extra bit of food should the stay be as long as last time (about 18 hours!). As long as I am awake I will be eating!!

Skipload yesterday. It was pretty intense. I should of had a reefeed of 8 hours but after 6 hours of slamming carbs back I just couldn't take any more carbs. Load is outlined below as best as I can remember:

• Meal 1: 4 large pancakes with maple syrup, lemon juice and sugar, large bowl of frosties, large bowl of coco pops, cinammon and raisen bagel with honey and jam, jam out of the jar, toffee pecan swirl pastry, 2 alpen light cereal bars, protein shake

• Meal 2: 5 extra large marshmallows, 1/2 Jamaican ginger cake, 5 weight watchers cake slices

• Meal 3: Chips in baguette, 1/2 pizza, mozerella sticks in bbq sauce, hashbrowns, 1/2 tub of ben and jerries frozen yoghurt. Protein shake with BCAA's

• Meal 4: 8 weetabix covered in sugar. 3 weight watchers cake bar slices

Last 2 meals of the day were protein in form of mince turkey breast, egg whites and peanut butter.

Load was good for 8lb weight increase. Will ber very interesting to see how long it takes for that to drop off!! I only lost 0.5lb last week, although another half an inch off my waist so everything keeps moving in the right direction.

Lift, Eat, Sleep, Repeat

A brief update on all things me… Training continues to go well. Intensity and volume is up and generally sweating like a pig. There will no doubt come a time when I have to dial it back but at the moment I’m loving the additional volume. I’m really focusing on what it is I am striving to achieve now when I’m in the gym and how the movement relates to each particular muscle to enforce that mind/muscle connection. It’s easy to talk about stretching and squeezing and how form is king and the weight moved is simply a by-product of the contraction of the muscles but it is definitely an entirely different thing to go and do it. I am definitely starting to sense a shift in my mentality and training from that of a recreational weightlifter to that of a bodybuilder. I would also say that the changes are already noticeable in my physique, even this early on. 

I ended up losing 3lb last week, and another inch off my waist. I think my waist has already shrunk further this week and body fat now at the 13% level. Skipload on Saturday was pretty intense. 6 hours between 9-3. I managed to ram down A LOT of food. Day started with a 2.5 hour fast and then meals were as follows: 

Fasted State – Intra workout swell drink at half dosing

Meal 1 – 2 giant bowls of frosties (probably 150g frosties in each), bowl of coco pops, toasted cinnamon and raisen bagel with honey and jam, 3 large pancakes with real maple syrup, 4 alpen light bars, 2 large spoons of neat strawberry jam from the jar, 2 scoops of whey.

Meal 2 – 2 alpen light bars, nutrigrain elevenses bar, bag of jelly babies, 2 large white choc chip pancakes, 2 tootsie rolls

Meal 3 – Small pizza express pizza, 10 mozerella sticks dipped in bbq sauce, chip baguette with bbq sauce, tub of raspberry sorbet, 5 weight watchers cake slices, a cookie 

Meal 4 – 1/3 tub of ben and jerries frozen yoghurt, 1 large pancake, 3 weight watchers cakes

Meal 5 – 200g chicken breast with 3 slices ham

Meal 6 – 200g egg whites mixed with 1 scoop of whey and 4g BCAA. Spoon of peanut butter. 

That equated to a 4.5lb water weight gain. Despite hammering back as much food as I could handle, I have base-lined today, which is a day early. This means the load extends up to 8 hours on Saturday 9 -5 and that meal 5 becomes another carb orientated meal. 

I’ve been using my intra-workout drink and so far with great success. It definitely seems to be doing the job so I am pleased. So far I’ve only been taking at 1/2 -2/3 dosing to build up a tolerance to high amounts of glutamine but will start to run at the full 30g dosing as of tomorrow and for the remainder of my training this week.

I went over to Milton Keynes on Saturday to pick up my vitamins from Nutri Centre, among other things and they happened to have Optimum Nutrition Casein 1.8kg tubs at half price!! I love this stuff and Optimum Nutritions flavouring is second to none but its definitely a luxury item at full cost with bulk powder casein generally tasting like dust and ruining anything you add it to. Of course I couldn't help but pick some of this stuff up and have been mixing with my normal whey wherever I consume whey to create a tapered release protein that delivers amino acids to my body over a much longer period. Its helped to keep me feeling fuller between meals, and I can't help but feel my muscles appear fuller and harder courtesy of the drip feeding of aminos. I'll definitely be investing in a few more tubs!!

Intra Workout - lets get scientific

In brief I have been training well this week, beating the log book in either weights or reps and weight is down. Bodyfat is noticeably reducing – the changes are noticeable day by day at the moment which is incredibly motivating. To summarise; abdominal fat significantly reducing, legs starting to go grainy with extra veins becoming visible, waist visibly looks to have shrunk as V taper is becoming much more noticeable. Will measure up in the morning to confirm but the mirror doesn’t usually lie. That’s all the about me your getting because this is actually a blog post whereby I want to talk about something a bit more technical – intra workout nutrition!

I have long been playing with and toying with pre workout, intra workout and post work out drinks to try and find an optimum solution for a number of years and finally I think I have found the answer! Protein Works are busy making my very own blend of which I will only need to add one or two further ingredients to. Hopefully this will save having about 6 pouches of varying powders to weigh and mix every time I want to make this cocktail! Thanks have to go to DBT for the idea and knowledge behind it. I have just manipulated some of the values/ingredients to suit.

The idea behind the drink is to swell the muscles during a workout. This swell has many positive benefits and the ideas are as follows:

Cell volume and hydration status are always in flux. It is not possible to constantly maintain a cellular swell. Yet research has demonstrated that the signaling cascade that takes place in the cell as a result of swelling resembles the response initiated by growth factors. Cellular swelling is an anabolic signal triggering protein anabolism and hindering catabolism. When muscle cell water content is elevated protein synthesis is stimulated and when water content is decreased, protein synthesis is inhibited and protein degradation increases.

Cellular volume decreases after exercise and after everyday life stresses (many simple normal body functions). When cells shrink due to oxidative and exercise-induced stress, glucagon activation and high urea concentration we end up with:

• A decrease in glycogen synthesis
• A decrease in glutamine uptake by inactivating transporters
• A decrease in taurine efflux (outflow)
• An Increase in the rate of release of glutamine and alanine from muscle
• An increase in protein breakdown

Cellular volume increases in response to hormones, insulin and high concentrations of L-glutamine, creatine, glycine, alanine, and glucose. When cells swell we end up with a:

• Increase in glycogen synthesis
• Increase in glutamine transporters, and therefore uptake

In turn when we have a decrease in the rate of release of glutamine and alanine from muscle we end up with:

• An Increase in taurine efflux by activating taurine transport pathways
• A Decrease in protein breakdown and an increase in synthesis
• Stimulation of urea synthesis and ammonia formation from amino acids
• A Decrease in glycogenolysis, glycolysis and glucose-6-phosphatase activity
• An Increase in alanine uptake
• An Increase in glycine oxidation
• An Increase in lipogenesis by decreasing carnitine palmitoyl transferase

Cell Volume Regulation

The increased concentration of amino acids and potassium during cell shrinkage eventually leads to swelling, which triggers volume regulatory decrease (potassium efflux). At maximum swelling, inositol, betaine, and taurine efflux begin as the cell begins a regulatory decrease in cell volume.

Just how cellular swelling creates an increase in protein metabolism is not specifically known. The most likely reason is centered on the mechanisms involved in cytoskeleton (cell stretching), regulatory proteins, and stretch-activated cation and anion channels.

For many toggles cellular swelling will play a role. The intake of Alanine, Glutamine as well as Glycine should be beneficial.

Based on DBT’s findings and my own understanding of how amino acids interact with each other (because this is also important) and how the body utilises I will be trialling the following intra workout drink over the next few months. My hope is that it will both aid in intra cellular swelling, intra workout energy levels and overall muscular hydration. As I am on a cut this will be almost completely calorie free. Maybe 2kcal as I will add a bit of sugar free squash to get rid of the taste of Leucine which I know tastes like battery acid.

Without further ado:

8g  L-Leucine
4g L-Alanine3g Beta Alanine
3g L-Glycine
1.5g Taurine
15gL-Glutamine

I plan to mix in about 1-1.5l of water with some sugar free product such as high5 zero which will provide additional electrolytes lost, and as somebody that sweats profusely due to the current intensity of my workouts that’s definitely a bonus.

What each of the ingredients do:

L Leucine: L Leucine is around eight percent of the total amino acid count in your body's protein structures. It is also the fourth most concentrated amino acid in your tissue and is one of the three essential BCAA’s. It preserves muscle glycogen (glucose which is stored in the muscle tissue used to power your movements), maintains nitrogen balance and enhances mental clarity when performing intense physical exercise. If you don't have enough L Leucine in your diet your body will not be able to make use of the protein that you give it, regardless of how much protein you consume.

L Alanine: As an amino acid, alanine is used by the body as a building block of protein. Alanine plays a major role in transferring nitrogen from tissue sites in the body, to the liver. Alanine is also used by the body to draw upon blood sugar as an energy source

Beta Alanine: Beta Alanine elevates Carnosine concentration in muscles and is useful for anyone participating in sports which require explosive actions. Increasing the concentration of Carnosine in muscles is vital to athletes as Carnosine can increase the ability of your muscles to work harder and perform for longer. It may also prevent lactic acid build up during intense exercise, thus reducing fatigue.

L Glutamine: Glutamine is a semi essential amino acid that the body is able to produce in small amounts; however the majority of it must come from the diet. It is required for hypertrophy and also plays an important role in repairing damaged tissue.

L Glycine - Glycine is recognised as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and has also been shown to exhibit anti-inflammatory, antispastic, and antipsychotic activity. Glycine can improve the uptake and use of creatine by the body.

Taurine: Taurine can draw water into your cells and act as a cell volumiser. This can help draw additional nutrients into the muscle. Taurine has also been shown to increase glucose into cells and isrecognized as a great supplement to help reduce cramps.

You will note the lack of creatine, arginine and BCAAs… possibly a few other well known “pump” ingredients. Reason for this is that a lot of pump ingredients such as arginine work to store water between the skin and muscle allowing for additional blood flow/volume. Whilst this creates the look of a pump the additional volume of water pushing against muscle cells causes muscle cell shrinkage! Naturally this is not what we want! Creatine I have overlooked because I take it pre workout and post workout. I don’t need to consume during. BCAAs I take through the day. The effectiveness of Leucine is significantly reduced by the other 2 branch chain amino acids, so I’ll toy with dropping it from pre/during workout to throughout the day and we will see what happens!

Oh Happy Monday

Well I now know that my 4 hour reefed was not enough on Saturday. I base-lined this morning – 2 days early! To summarise; my reefed as outlined in my last blog post (see below) equated to a water weight gain of 2lb. In 24 hours I have shed that water weight and as of this morning I weighed the same as Saturday. In a nut shell this means that my 4 hour reefed was not enough to completely replenish glycogen stores or to fill me back out.

I could have guessed without standing on the scales to be honest as I had what I refer to as “that Wednesday look”, and what I mean by this is that typically refeeding/skiploading on a Saturday makes you look large but watery on a Sunday and through Monday and Tuesday definition and size start to find a nice balanced look as they start to off-set each other to the point that on Wendesday the balance reaches its optimal point and you essentially look big, hard, full, lean and vascular. Another post for another day – but its through these weekly refeeds and my ability to track water weight reduction that I will know how many days before my show to “carb up” and how long for. This approach also removes the need for diuretics, sodium manipulation or dehydration techniques (another reason why its slightly controversial!)

What will now happen throughout the course of this week is that I will start to go flat and will end the week more delepeted than usual. Although I will bump the reefed window to six hours for next Saturday the knock on effect of under-eating this weekend just gone is that I may have to go straight up to 8 hours in 2 weeks time as I’ll essentially be working from a negative starting position when I start this weeks load. To try and manage this situation I may need to manipulate my cardio schedule this week. IF I am already 2lb down in weight or more before Friday I will drop Friday’s cardio session and take an extra 2 hours in bed. The added benefit of this approach is that moving the cardio session out and then back in the following week will elicit a better response next week.

Was supposed to be back and abs with 20 mins steady state cardio this morning, but dropped abs as I am doing tomorrow after cardio and was pretty tired after back. I had that nice dull achey feel in my lats all morning long. A sure fire sign that I hit the intended muscle group nice and hard this morning.

Workout consisted of:

• Bent Over BB Rows (reverse grip) – 3 working sets of 10 @ 100kg 
• Rack Pulls - 4 working sets of 8-12 reps working up to 230kg 
• Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs – 4 working sets of 10-16 reps working up to 195lb 
• V-Bar Twisted Pull Downs – 3 working sets of 9 reps at 130lb 
• Squat V-Bar Cable Rows – 3 working sets of 15 reps at 172lb 
• Single Arm Cross Body Cable Lat Levers – 3 working sets of 8-12 reps at 60lb 
• One Arm DB Rows – 3 working sets of 8 reps using 48kg dumbells

30-40 mins cardio in the morning followed by abs. 2.5 hours fasting too. Carb free day - note the complete sarcasm is my voice when I say I can't fucking wait!