PowderMonkey & the endless Blueprint cycles

Unfiltered Tips & Techniques centered around Blueprint Training
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RobRegish
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Post by RobRegish »

Different for everybody but your statements generally echo the norm. In time, you'll learn what's "normal" for you during famine...

Do take care going into workout #3, and discontinue if you don't feel up to it. Take care..
PowderMonkey
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Post by PowderMonkey »

Thursday waking heart rate 75. Bingo.
Not ravishingly hungry, as I was the other day, but more hungry than I would normally be upon waking up.

For some reason, my body decided to wake up after only 5 hours sleep.

I have tinnitus, so I have a clock in my room whose only purpose is to make noise so that I am not deafened by my tinnitus so that I can get to sleep. If I am stressed about something, or have had little or no sleep (3 hours or less), I can hear it when I wake up.

I can hear it upon waking right now, so I think famine is working... My body is under stress even though I don't feel stressed, I feel well rested etc. The only indication that anything is out of the ordinary is my heart rate and slightly more hunger than normal. And tinnitus. C'est fantastique!
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RobRegish
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Post by RobRegish »

Wow. You function on that little sleep?

I'd be out...
PowderMonkey
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Post by PowderMonkey »

Which, 3 hours or 5?

Only on 3 if I have to get up for something urgently, eg plane to catch.

I feel fine right now, but guarantee that if I don't have a nap before I head off to work in a few hours, I'll be really struggling at work.
PowderMonkey
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Post by PowderMonkey »

just got home from work.

only 1 day left, you have no idea how much i am looking forward to food on saturday morning.

well, actually, now that i think about it, you probably do.

didn't feel tired today, but i did have a very short fuse, and things that would normally slide right off my back got me incredibly worked up. i am normally patience incarnate, but today, i had to go and will myself to calm down several times. i also had to really concentrate on things that are normally second nature to me. i made about 6 mistakes in the first 10 minutes at work (not big ones, just things like making a medium coffee instead of a small one, putting 1 sugar in instead of 2 etc). after that, i deliberately made significant effort to focus on what i was doing. no more mistakes. i also found that i was a little bit slower than i would normally have been.

i've not really paid very much attention to my diet until about 8 weeks ago. what's really struck me about famine so far is how much getting the right food (or, not getting the right food) can affect your capacity to do even simple tasks. bit of a captain obvious moment, i know, but it's never really clicked with me until now.

see how i feel tomorrow arvo, which is when i'll have time to do workout 3, but if i had to do it right now, i feel like i could.
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RobRegish
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Post by RobRegish »

Play it by ear then. I'm sick as a dog today and crawling back into bed.. Your call but just stay healthy!
PowderMonkey
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Post by PowderMonkey »

Didn't have a very good day today.

I did end up at the gym, though, and this lifted my spirits somewhat.
Famine workout 3 is extremely tough. I found myself wondering whether Rob is secretly trying to kill me (hi Rob!). I got through squats and rows, but in the pulldown and row superset, I only got through 2 sets of each. I was on the third set of tbar and could tell that if kept going I would pass out. I figure this is the whole point of famine, so I did my cool down and ended the workout there.

I am absolutely ravenous right now. Bring on the food in the morning.
I am waking up early so that I can savour breakfast.
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RobRegish
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Post by RobRegish »

Great work man!! Congrats on making it through and you did the RIGHT thing!!

Now, hear me out on this... You go find your favorite buffet, OK? Your goal when leaving day 1 of Feast to be banned for life from that establishment. If you can't manage a lifetime ban, I want no less than a one year ban on you. This, due to "loss prevention" flagging you for the ridiculous amount of food you're going to eat vs. pay for.

Let me know how you make out :)
PowderMonkey
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Post by PowderMonkey »

sadly there are not very many buffets in australia. i love sushi and have managed to find an all you an eat sushi restaurant in sydney city. i'll be heading there for dinner in about half an hour's time.

so far eaten today:
1 chicken burrito
1 salmon rice cake
about 2 litres (slightly over 0.5 gallon) whole milk (it's very hard to eat at work, so i drink lots of milk)
1 double fillet portuguese chicken burger
1 mango coconut thickshake
1 homemade protein enriched shake (2 scoops icecream, about 1/2 cup oat bran, 2 large strawberries, 1/2 punnet blueberries, protein powder, about 2/3 cup whole milk)

i only had the homemade shake about 1/2 an hour ago, but weirdly, i'm already hungry again, and the thought of sushi has my mouth watering.

think i'll take a book with me to the restaurant and spend a while there.
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RobRegish
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Post by RobRegish »

Good man!!

Sorry to hear about the dearth of buffets in Australia. I suppose you get a waiver.... :)

GREAT work!!
hally83
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Post by hally83 »

Nice work congrats on finishing it. I just got my Kre-anabolyn order (im overseas and have a US postal address) and have just started taking it. Hopefully should see some good gains.

Keep us updated. Make sure u take measurements/photo's before u start the feast. Its always a good thing to have improvements that motivate u :D
PowderMonkey
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Post by PowderMonkey »

Eaten tonight:
  • 10 plates of sushi (around 20-25 pieces) + miso soup, totaling $43. My friends got sick of watching me eat when they were well and truly full and went elsewhere while I finished.
  • 1 bubble tea
  • 1 4-slice pepperoni pizza. Very salty. Almost too salty.
  • pomegranate frozen yoghurt topped with fresh strawberry, fresh kiwifruit, and gummy bears.
Good lord it is good to eat food again.

Before eating all this, I was at the gym, doing:

Bench press:
45lb x 10
75lb x 10
135lb x 0 (I had in my head for some reason that I'd been benching 135 last week. That was my squat last week)
115lb x 2 (still wasn't thinking straight, thought that I was now struggling with weight that I was doing far better with last week)
95 x 10 (the penny drops. Felt kinda stupid, then felt better because I'd already gone all out with 115, so probably could have got 100 or 105 for 10 if I'd been thinking more clearly 5 minutes earlier. Next time, gadget!)

Back squat:
45lb x 10
75lb x 10
135lb x 10
Work set was hard, last rep was slow, but I got through it, so this weight goes up next time.

Dumbbell pullovers:
15lb x 10
30lb x 10
40lb x 10. Probably should have gone to 45.

Stiff legged deadlifts:
45lb x 10
85lb x 10
145lb x 10
Felt this one in my lower back. Don't know if that's good, bad, or inconsequential. Could have gone heavier.

Too many people at the gym. I'm not agoraphobic, nor am I claustrophobic. But this was just silly. I had to ask some guys to move when doing bench, because it was that or nudge them with the barbell. That's how close they were standing to the bench.

Also, some bright spark who works at the gym has moved the weight rack all the way up one end. So now, instead of about 30% of people being bothered to rack their weights when they are done, it's dropped to about 2%. Really quite irritating. If I am a weakling, and I can be bothered to rack my weights, even when I struggle to remove the 45lb plate from my barbell after doing stiff legged deadlifts, anybody can. My gym is just full of lazy morons. I seriously can't wait until I'm ripped. Then I'll be able to call people out on this and have them be intimidated. There are other benefits to being ripped, but being intimidating is something that I look forward to.

Although I don't know fill even still be at this gym by the time that happens. I've found a powerlifting gym, and it's not that far away. Once I'm set up with a real job and have finally gotten my own place, I'll be checking them out.

I'm hungry again. Glass of milk, methinks. Or 3. Off to investigate the kitchen, brb.
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RobRegish
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Post by RobRegish »

I can empathize. See here how to handle gym weirdo's, BP style :)

https://bodybuildingsupplements.com/phpB ... .php?t=924
PowderMonkey
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Post by PowderMonkey »

Feast workout 2 down.

I can feel myself improving. Very strange sensation, but when I was walking down the street yesterday, I actually felt the difference from 2 weeks ago. Not doing anything strenuous, just walking. But I felt stronger, more powerful, and ready to hit the gym. I went last night.

I've noticed it in the mirror too. Nothing concrete to report, but my body fat is definitely down, and my core and back are slightly more muscular, especially lower back. My shirts fit slightly better too, which is a nice feeling.

One thing I thought last night during the workout, is there a particular reason that there is only 1 work set? Would it be harmful to do 2 work sets? Also, is adding isolation exercises for calves and biceps a bad idea? Calf raises are my absolute favourite, and I haven't done them in over a month =(

Specifically for Rob: reading ahead in the blueprint, I notice that there isn't a specific workout mentioned after feast workout 5. There is a particular full body routine that I was doing before I started the blueprint, and wanted to ask you if this would be a good fit for the remaining time on feast? I can post details here or message them to you for clarification
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