X-ZACT Training Phase XIV: 121612 - 122912

SESSION XIV – 

I had an idea that maybe I’d summarize these sessions in the first paragraph and anyone who’s into the details can follow the daily routines, thoughts, setbacks, etc. 

Session 14 was an extension of the previous session’s body-weight training regimen, with a few days of light weight training thrown in. A week or so into it I went down to Miami to chill on the beach for Christmas. There’s a gym in the building and I did a vigorous routine and the next thing I know I left knee is stiff, achy and swollen, so I had to ease off the leg work, however I could still do air squats and leg raises, step side to side – basically moves with little or no impact. When I got back to Philly it was day after day of icing, heat rubs, Tiger balm, and trying to get the range of motion back. 

I came up with a “new” (for me) way to measure the fat on my belly. I have a caliper; back to the idea of “That which gets measured, gets accomplished.” (Or something like that.) An excuse to make another chart. Speaking of which, this session’s weight chart will be missing a week. No weigh-ins while I was in Florida.

Now, on with the day by day. 

121612 (Sunday #179) Wake 195.5 Start Session XIV (14)

60 Squats, leg work, str8 leg raises, circles, side-2-side, side kick practice… simple stuff

Dinner at Mom’s – meatball sandwiches.

This is the 2012 year end evaluation montage. I've bulked up pretty well and as planned, or at least imagined, I've become stronger, based on how much I can lift. My core is tighter despite the presence of "Big Chunky", balance training has been going pretty well, although I should probably be doing it more. I should probably be practicing yoga more vigorously as well. The real story is Legs & Glutes aka butt, however until I'm brave enough to don a pair of posing panties, you'll just have to catch me in my shorts. Ready for 2013 and the second half of Xtreme Zombie Apocalypse Combat Training aka X-ZACT. 

121712 (Monday #180) AM – Work

Wake 194.5 38.5% 46.5%
Return to Insanity – kicked my ass!! But I got through, weak spot is on the floor, push up and mountain climbers and crabs – must work on this to become stringer. Protein drink post workout.

2 dinners Turkey Burger 7-ish, Chicken thighs 930-ish.

2 workouts too: 70 squats + leg work, raises, circles, air kicks and stretching. REALLY need to extend leg muscles and back-glutes + hips.

121812 (Tuesday #181) AM – Work, bored. Sleepy.0!! must be running on empty.

Salad pretzels – not very hungry. Get some sleep today. Mild and rainy – this weather zaps me, but still got my training in … maybe another shot of Insanity today? Or something similar.

Wake 194.5  27% 51%  Trash day
A few exercises here and there, cannot seem to get enough to eat. Kind of a relaxing do-nothing day. Had some ideas I didn’t pursue. Already thinking about the Spring leaning and raw diet, at least part time.

FYI – joints are snapping, shoulders, elbows. More twisting and twist stretches.

121912 (Wednesday #182) This is the half way point! (more or less).

Wake 194.5 20% 55% (Good wake up numbers) Post dp/getting better.

Insanity Plyo – warm up and stretch, then two rounds of burpees, attack twists – air squats, bar bends, shoulder pushups – I was done after this. I felt the burn in my chest.

122012 (Thursday #183) Work day/travel day.

First time I’ve traveled right after work. This means no sleep, little food. I must have been a sight on the flights – oh, also means no exercise.

122112 (Friday #184) Solstice Miami

The world’s still here. I slept lots of hours had lots of crazy dreams or astral travels… today I eat again.

Made it to the gym, attempted my intervals routine – only made 3 rounds of the first interval, then did an abs interval. No timer so I had to count reps. In some ways I think I went harder – but others not so much. I need the rigid timing for these. 

Second interval I added 20 lb dumbbells to the mix. 

Third interval was true to form, junk run, crabs, fence climb, air squats, stretch – dripping with sweat @ the end so I’ll call that success! 

Denny’s breakfast, Duffy’s lunch – raw salad dinner at home, then to the bar.

122212 (Saturday #185) – Wake up!

Walk on the beach 20 – 30 minutes, eat at home, maybe work out this eve.
Left knee OUCH! Probably from impact yesterday.

GYM: 20 mins elliptical – I should do this more often. This was to warm up and ease impact from my knee.

Leg presses, Pull ups, shin flexes, calf press, single leg extensions. I was tired and left knee HURT!!

122312 (Sunday #186) No training so far.

50 squats & therapy on left knee – swollen and stiff, just above the knee. I’m guessing impact from 122112 session. Iced it today. Did some pushups, should go back to 100(s) of pushups as a daily reminded. Shoulder and elbows snapping… winter? Or winter of life? I still have (expect) another 13 – 15 decades to live… WELL!

122412 (Monday #187) Miami – not much exercise today. Some squats, pushups b/w episodes of Burn Notice. Xmas eve Dinner @ the club w/ Stazja and co-workers.

122512 (Tuesday #188) Beach Christmas II 70-something degrees, maybe 80s. Maybe I’ll train later…Chest, upper body work.

Our Christmas Tradition since 2010 - spend it on the beach 

in Miami.

Chest workout, about 30 minutes or so.

122612 (Wednesday #189) Miami – walk and random squats and pushups? Not much.

122712 (Thursday #190) Back in Philly. Maybe some home work, knee still hurts, ICE IT! Heat rub and wrap. 4(?) more days til I’m lifting and supplementing again. Going to have to adjust/fine tune the eating still more.

122812 (Friday #191) Wake 195.5 E (error = not enough hydration to get a reading)

Sea salt purge worked in about an hour. Left knee still sore – icing often, Tiger balm, heat rub and wrap/band. It’s been about a week now, but this has happened before. Strengthening the thigh muscles helps. Walking today has been a challenge – but, c’est la vie. Right ring finger still swollen and painful (from bowling). This seems like an injury update.

Chest; shoulder; trapz work (at home) shadow box, squat warm up.

Decided to measure my belly fat with a caliper I got a while back. Target areas re both obliques (love handles, either side of the belly button and right in the center at the belly button (or naval.) So here are the digits in centimeters. (I’ll see if I can find a diagram to show you how I’m doing this.) 

Belly – right = 4.3     center = 3.2    left = 4.5
Obliques – right 2.9   left 3.7  (I measured twice, seems strange how vast the difference is between one side and the other) I did some side bends with dumbbells after these measurements.)

122912 (Saturday #192) Wake 194 E

Back to the morning stack: Rez – Vits D3, C, Yohimbe w/ coconut water. Pretty good sleep, a long winter nap – several sets of diamond pushups.

Family Holiday meal time in Delaware two plates (that’ll cost me.)
Break’s over – the question is whether I start loading Creatine (Cr.) and Beta Alanine (B-A) Monday 123112, New year’s Day or first day of work out??

This chart covers the past 6 and a half months since this

Session of Bajai Bootcamp (A year-long commitment)

began. The theory was that I needed to be heavier to

get stronger. I feel as if it worked. I expect this chart to

move the other way from Spring to Fall 2013.

END of Session 14. (We can skip the Phase 14 chart in lieu of the Year-to-date graph. It pretty much tells the story.)

X-ZACT Training Phase 5: 81212 - 82512

Begin Phase V

Phase V begins literally in the middle of my vacation/tour. I haven’t had many opportunities to train as I’m used to, however I have kept to some of my regular practices, such as walking. Whenever I can get into a pool I do so, but not to swim, aqua-cises, just trying to come up with new stuff and to experience the old stuff. So here we go… 

81212 (Sunday #55) Chula Vista – Good time with Family. No training.

81312 (Monday #56) AM in Miami, no training today.

81412 (Tuesday #57) Miami – Aqua workout.. good cardio session maybe 35-40 minutes:

This is my new inspiration pic.
Reminding me how far I am away from
my goals, and what I need to do to get
there. I should post this on my wall in
case I ever not feel like training! UGH!

I may actually be getting headaches b/c I haven’t been training hard, mild as they may be. This will be the longest stretch of non-constant training since I started. I must remember THIS DOESN’T FEEL GOOD. I feel like I look fat (pic). This is enough to get me back into it. Walked to Denny’s, maybe a two mile round trip.
Awesome workout in the apt gym, cardio + yoga stretch, about 90 mins or more.

81512 (Wednesday #58) Miami – Slept too long, didn’t eat soon enough, body sluggish. Must stop this!!! Filling up on carbs for wake up meal.
Awesome training in apt gym, moving some weight, legs, shoulders, kbox workout, stretch. 60 mins + 15 for stretching.
Bowling with the fam-bam…

81612 (Thursday #59) Miami Airport… travel day. No training today.

81712 (Friday #60) Road trip from Newark, NJ (airport) to Montreal… drive all night in by sunrise. Walked around the city, drank and ate at night. Did we discover the dark & story spot tonight?

81812 (Saturday #61) Montreal, Quebec, Canada – 9 hrs sleep. I’m being very decadent in terms of not training. I’m looking forward to getting back to it. I haven’t made any fitness videos this whole trip. We climbed Mt Royal today. That was a great workout, plus we walked around the city. Walking is great exercise. I feel so much better. Going up those steps winded me, but I made it. I need to add steps exercises to the park work.

81912 (Sunday #62) Montreal – It’s time to step up my fitness lifestyle. If I can start my day with 20-40 mins of cardio that would probably help. I also want to do a fitness vacation once a year. MAKE THIS HAPPEN!! 

82012 (Monday #63) Leaving Canada today, Brooklyn then Philly. Spent the day in Brooklyn and went out drinking with Po.

82112 (Tuesday #64) Philadelphia… 184.5 15.5BF  59 H2O – No weight gain?!? How amazing is that?! I feel like I have a head start. I thought I’d have vacation weight to lose.

82212 (Wednesday #65) – Work
I returned to Philly yesterday and to my amazement, after about 14 days of no supplements, an on-the-road diet, sporadic exercise, more alcohol consumption that usual – in short being completely out of my routine, the scale records no increase in weight. I was 184.5 when I left, and when I came back. I’d allowed myself, what was it? 4-6 lbs, I think… that I’d hoped I didn’t have to use. At one point I thought I was up by 8 lbs., maybe I was, I wasn’t weighing myself on the road. I have since discovered that this no weight gain was a hoax. Even if I didn't actually get heavier certain pants are tighter and I look fatter. Two of the 5 ways I evaluate myself - warning signs... 

"Before" pix should look miserable. So here's grumpy fat man
after doing insanity wake ups for 3 days. I think the fitness
fall back is the diet. Most people (I think) don't follow the
prescribed fitness plan to the letter, which is why their results
vary. Insanity is my wake up session,  I usually do something
later in the day. Let's see what happens.

Anyway, by the time you read this I will have filled in all or most of the days I was on the road.

I did get one shock – despite seeing some definition in my belly, it’s still freekin big!! Yeah there is less flab than before and the BF% is lower, but I’m still very far from my six-pack fantasy (goal). So I’m going to have to get solid with the diet thing. I may just have to try the paleo strategy, force myself to open my day with 30-40 minutes of cardio, a la my version of Insanity, park workout and Zombie Combat Training… I may even have to go so far as writing down what I eat from minute to minute, planning meals – which probably won’t be so bad once I get used to it.

One thing that’s held me back I think is worrying about over-training. That stays in the back of my mind and I think I may use it as an excuse. I believe I can push myself a bit harder. When I do I get a rush – I want to condition myself to go for that rush, and make the rush tougher to reach.

Age, is that “dinosaur in the room” (ha ha) – quite a few of my friends keep bringing it up… theirs not mine. Nonetheless that kind of talk has a way of seeping into the psyche (mine) and I may have to reluctantly admit that my years are a tough hurdle to clear. This, to me is almost like giving up, and now that I think about it, I think of Frank (heading towards 62) and he’s still doing his thing, just differently than he did it in the past. Whew – so there – it’s been approached, dealt with and vanquished!! Good thing for mentors, even unofficial ones.

Today (early AM) I broke out the straps and the dumbbells. It’s my first night back on the graveyard shift so I may have trouble re-acclimating to being up all night, but I think the exercise will help with that. Later today, lifting at the Y, shopping for fruit and meat and getting back into the routine.
Did a bit of work at work, nothing too major, focused more on stretching out this body especially the upper back and neck.

Wake 185 19.5 56% 6hrs 80` 

Insanity Plyo Training 25 of 43 mins – yeah that shish is tough. Stretch – Goal move fast & accurately.
Faux Meta (works better) b4 bed: Turkey burgers & blueberries, not much food in the house yet.

TO THE Y for POWER DAY!!

* Deadlifts to 315 lbs. str8 legs lo-reps.
* Leg press/calf press 450 tops.
* Shin flex 2 short sets, shoes too thin.
* Leg curls 210 max 2 sets of 3!! Yeah getting stronger hammies!! Need those forpower.
* Leg X  singles took a while to warm up.. started light (90) then repped up to 135. Would be nice to hit 200 lbs single leg extensions.

First day of “new” diet is actually a previous eating style, which I thought would gain me weight, but the opposite happened, so this diet won’t be so “new”.

2 protein drinks (40g: 160 kcal) Turkey burger (19g 76 kcal) plus whatever else. Mainly protein fat, little carbs but they sneak in. No starch tho. I’m not gonna go crazy with it. Whatever carbs are in the trail mix and fruit I’ll deal with.

82312 (Thursday #66) AM Work
Not much energy to do much. Feeling the results of Power Leg Day. A deadlift feel I haven’t had in a while. I pushed it!! Got more range of motion (ROM) in the leg press. Hips, groin opening and getting more flexibility (stretches working, finally!) Elim – good adjusting…
When I wake up Insanity & Park work…

Wake: 185.5 27 of 43 mins Insanity Plyo. Protein drink, chicken thighs etc. I’m sore! Wondering if I should go to the park. It’s getting late. Maybe just a walk.

43 mins in the park.. good but not strong. Ropes. Getting better with assisted pistols. Crab push ups are better, less pain in the forearms (not acupuncture but rest). Didn’t have much energy but I think I can change that – JUST DON’T STOP!!! 

82412 (Friday #67) AM – work.

Just going to do some shoulder and arm w/ 10 lb dbs. Maybe stretch and slow move. Then lift at the Y – wonder how the legs will feel later.
Squats – Chest – Maybe arms…

In – 188… wake up 186 – final tally 184.5. 28 of 43 mins Insanity. Just slightly further, but I felt stronger. The body made me do it… I was going to skip it today. Day 3. I may have gone further if I knew what was coming. Have a take a look at the whole thing again.

To the Y for upper body lift day. Squats, Incline bench first, if possible, then declines and flat. Back – pull and row, shrugs, whatever’s left.

Actual:
* Squats – maxed 225 (sets of 5 reps, deep as possible)
* Incline Bench: very lite 105-110 max. The upper bod is weak.
* Decline (smith) no cable also lite 3 sets, hi- to the top of the chest.
* Close grip bb press flat – 125 lbs 3 x 5s: Anabolic Part 45 mins

Insanity drained my strength. 3 days straight of doing that. I don’t want to take a break b/c cardio breaks usually mean quits for me… I feel like I am getting a handle on it. I’m still modifying tho. I will have to grow beyond the drain – over the hump – how long will this take?

Finish: Shoulder work. Lying rotator cuff work, bent str8 arm laterals. Stretch. 60 mins done. Walk home.
Protein drink after. Big dinner. 2 chicken thighs, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach. Go to work. Relax. Nothing but stretching, maybe pull out the ankle weights.

82512 (Saturday #68) Final Day of Phase V.

I came as close to doing nothing at the job as ever. Almost had to force myself, but did get a few push ups in here and there. I’m supposed to be on a break.

Wake 185.5 – it didn’t seem important to add the rest. However I will note that my Body Fat is up and hydration is down, (they are related in the way the scale calculates both) from before vacation. UGH!

I managed NOT to do a 4th day in a row of Insanity. I hope I don’t fall off like I did with running through the woods. I figure I can do my wake up Insanity two days on, one or two days off, and split them up with running and park workouts. I must admit I get a better cardio workout when I’m trying to keep up with someone, whether it’s cross fit or insanity and even when I’m modifying the moves. This should be enough to keep me into it. I just can’t skip too many days.

Easy warm ups today. I didn’t eat as much as usual and I didn’t wig out on carbs as suggested in the instructions – I did give myself a guilty pleasure carrot cake treat in the morning after work.

Leg lift rotation, just like GX sessions only with ankle weights: Two rounds; first round 25 reps, second round 40 reps. I think I can eventually get 3 progressive rounds. The weights are 5 lbs each. (I can double up maybe later to measure progress.)

* Side lateral raises:
* Lying straight leg raises (it’s harder seated and that’s an option for later):
* Inner thing Raises:
* Kneeling butt raises: (Glute lift)

I keep returning to legs and I think the upper body has suffered for it… or maybe that’s just in my mind. Next major lifting day will involve back work including shrugs and pulls… pulls I can always do in the park with the ropes or on the playground.

I’m REALLY expecting this Insanity stuff to ramp up my energy level and combined with the “diet” to significantly cut down the belly fat. I took some eval pix to keep me honest.

End of Phase V

I like the way this chart makes 1/2 a pound seem very dramatic!
It works on the psyche. I keep returning to this 180-185 plateau
and lately I've been over it at the end of the day. Measurement
day comes again around day 90, that will put me about 30 days
into insane wake up sessions as well as the hi-pro/lo-carb eating.
We'll see the results together.