Learning Your Body

You will hear competetive bodybuilders talk about learning your body.  I never really knew exactly what this meant until I had prepared for about 4 bodybuilding competitions.  In general, learning your body means understanding how your body responds to varied approaches to diet and training, how long it takes to see a response, and to [...]

“The Slingshot”

Back in the early to mid 1990’s, there was a bodybuilding magazine called Muscle Media 2000.  It was sort of an underground publication that, in my opinion, was on the cutting edge of bodybuilding diet, nutrition, and supplementation strategies.  The guys who began it later began a supplement company called EAS who brought creatine monohydrate [...]

Two Day Update

I forgot to write an update yesterday, so this will be a two in one blog entry.  Let’s get this out of the way first:
Today’s Training: No morning cardio this morning.  I did calves and abs this morning instead as my bodyweight has now dropped to 216lbs and I don’t want to overdo the cardio [...]

Improvement

I’m getting better at meal timing and frequency and I’ve added some complex carbs to my meals which has made a world of difference.  Body weight this morning was 219lbs and my pants are fitting better.  Here was today’s meals:
8:00am        2 Servings MRP, 1 Serving Protein Powder
11:30am       6oz London Broil, 1/2 cup rice
3:00pm        6oz Salmon, 1/2 [...]

Lean Beef

I bought some London Broil yesterday and my wife and I cooked it on the grill last night.  For those who don’t know, London Broil is one of the leanest cuts of red meat available.  This is good because you get very little fat and tons of protein.  The drawback is that it can be [...]

One week complete!

Well, the first week of “focused” diet and training was not too bad.  As I reflect on previous years of contest preparation, I am recognizing similar thoughts going through my head.  As I entered the week, I was gung ho on plunging into a reduced carb stage and tons of cardio.  This works well when [...]

More work to do

I did not post yersterday’s diet and training, so I’ll recap yesterday and today in this post.  Yesterday I did not weight train, but I did do my usual 30 minutes of cardio in the morning with the 15/15 split elliptical/bike.  I was at work until 7:30 as I am every Monday Wednesday and Friday, so I did not weight [...]

Back to work

I have been of vacation from work since Friday June 29, 2007.  I returned to work today with lots to do and several important meetings back to back in the morning.  I got up and hit cardio for 30 minutes before going to work and had a solid first meal (protein shake).  The diet was [...]

Support System

This afternoon my wife noticed me logging my meals into my diet journal.  I had not discussed with her the fact that I was planning on beginning my preparation for the contest next April.  Normally, bodybuilders begin serious contest diets 12-16 weeks before their competition.  I usually give myself somewhere around 20 weeks to prepare [...]

Protein First

(Note: this was actaully July 3 diet and training; I posted it the following morning so the date on the post is July 4) 
Day one of my journey brings many issues to the table.  Over the years I have taken many varied approaches to diet and training and have learned what works well and what doesn’t [...]