Day In, Day Out

Another week, but more of the same! I'm just taking it day by day, meal by meal, workout by workout. Hopefully in the end it will all add up the desired outcome!

Hoping to be able to provide a bit more of an update later this week around training/diet rather than "I did this, I ate this" - but as thats all that time allows for atm thats what I'll provide for tonight - sorry!

Had a really good back workout yesterday. Utilised a new move and a couple of moves I haven't used in my routine for over a year. Change is good for both muscle and mind and should force some adapative work and hopefully growth!

I've started playing around with fasting on cardio days. Usually I'll chug back 10g BCAAs and a bit of MP Pulse V4 for the caffiene kick and mental focus it gives prior to the gym and then the moment I finish training I'll swig down 25g whey. With the fasted approach I've got some 200mg caffeine pills and I'm simply taking one of those and heading off the gym upon waking and am having no post work out shake. All in all it means I don't have meal 1 on cardio/carbless days until I've been awake and active for 2.5 hours. The idea is that the workout is fuelled purely by fat as the body has no carbs to use for energy, and that the body then continues to use fat for fuel during the EPOC (excess post exercise oxygen) phase directly after training.

A rarity today, and not something I do often or want to do often but 2 gym sessions. AM was fasted cardio and abs (inclusive of walking to the gym although I need to find a jumper with sleeves on as my baggy workout top wont cut it in the cold of winter!). Walk to and from the gym is approx 10 mins in total. I hit up 20 mins on the stepper hitting a steady heart rate of 130 and then hit 10 mins HIIT (high intensity interval training) on the bike. First 5 mins were 30 sec sprints with 1 minute inbetween, second 5 mins were 30 sec sprints with 30 sec inbetween. Abs started with lower ab work, moving on to obliques and then upper abs. As my upper abs are pretty thick, if ever so slightly hidden I just want to concentrate on hitting my lower abs hard over the next few weeks to ensure they are as developed as my upper abs as and when the fat covering them up is stripped off.

This evening I hit a 30 minute chest isolation session. I don't want to fatigue chest too much as I hit it hard and heavy on Sundays but I feel there is alot of room for improvement around seperation and definition. With this in mind I hit 8 sets of cable crossovers with mixed height and weights but strict slow reps with long hard squeezes. After these were done I hit 3 sets of bodyweight dips to failure making sure I leaned as far forward as possible to hit chest rather than triceps. To finish I did 7 sets of incline dumbell flyes. I used 2 angles of attack on the incline and reps were strict with slow negatives and deep stretches at the bottom - ensuring the weights were light enough to allow minimal bend at the elbows. Finished the session with some static squeezes of the chest. A really good session, chest fully pumped with blood - great seperation by the end of the session and barely able to pinch any skin.

Today was another zero carb day (by zero its more like under 20g as almost everything has a carb or two in it).... by the time I have my next meal I will have had 4 meals of eggs! Today looks like:

Meal 1 - 200ml egg whites, 1 scoop whey, 5g BCAA, teaspoon of instant coffee, spoon of udo's oil. (all blended with ice into a frappachino)

Meal 2 - 200g cooked chicken breast. 1/2 avocado

Meal 3 - 50g whey mixed with 20g Almond Butter

Meal 4 - 250ml egg whites, 1 scoop whey, 5g BCAA (blended like meal 1), 20g cashew butter

Meal 5 - 6 egg omlette with leftover chicken (dark meat) and 15g mature cheddar cheese

Meal 6 - 200ml egg whites, 1 scoop whey, 5g BCAA (blended like meal 1), 20g peanut butter

Shoulders tomorrow - hoping for a good one as its my volume workout for shoulders which normally gives me a fantastic pump and includes ALOT of working sets. Planning to do:

Reverse Pec Dec - 2x warm up and 3 working sets

Standing Military BB Press - 1 warm up and 4 working sets

Quad Set:
Seated Lat Raises into Standing Lat Raises into BB Shrugs into DB Shrugs (12 reps for each movement) - 4 working sets
Upright Cable Row - FST7s (7 working sets)
Front BB Raise - 3 working sets
Face Pulls - 4 working sets

Food prepped for tomorrow:

Pre Workout Shake (PreWO) - 4 scoops MP Pulse V4, 10g BCAA

Post Workout Shake (PWO)  - 25g Whey, 40g Vitargo, 7g Creapure, 5g BCAA

Meal 1 - 75g jumbo raw oats mixed with 150g fat free greek yoghurt, 1 scoop of whey, squeeze of honey and blueberries (all mixed together)

Meal 2 - 200g chicken breast with 100g wholegrain rice and mixed veg

Meal 3 - 50g whey mixed with 20g almond butter

Meal 4 - 200ml egg whites mixed with 1 scoop whey, 5g BCAA. 1/2 avocado

Meal 5 - 300g Sirloin Steak with broccoli

Meal 6 - 200ml egg whites mixed with 1 scoop whey, 5g BCAA. 20g peanut butter