Breaking Limits: JlCh's log

[JlCh]

- Background -
I have had a bad lower back since 2007 or so and that still hasn't changed. During my first BP run back in Sept/Oct of last year, I retweeked it after I got it strengthened up. After tweaking it, I was continuing to try and workout and eventually came down with bronchitis and strep throat. This put me down mid feast for about 3 weeks and I quit working out about 3 weeks after that. I have worked out no more than 10 weeks from November 2010 to August 2011. I attempted to do my 2nd run in January, but didn't have the drive or dedication to keep it going and I soon backed out. However, the end of August I started Famine for my 3rd attempt and I'd like to say it was successful. I completed the run and am getting back in the groove. The diet was subpar, but I was destroying the gym as far as hitting the weights.

Progress of last BP Run:
Oct 3rd (post famine):


Nov 12th (post cruise):


Both pictures were taking 3 days cold. First pic was taken the on Monday before my first feast workout, last picture was taken 3 days after last Cruise workout. Things I noticed that got bigger/stronger is tri's, shoulder, and traps. Chest lagged, but the picture wasn't the best. It by no means got smaller. Even though it was a 3.0 run, I really didn't lose any bodyfat -- which was my fault with poor diet and no cardio.

This time around, I had my first BP log bookmarked and I accidentally clicked it instead of the one to take me to the main page. I decided to read it and it has swayed me to take 2.0 on again due to the strength gains in there. I will still be looking to peel off some fat, so should be interesting.

I'm currently on day 1 of famine. During my first workout though, I seem to have done something to my forearm during curls. I have about a quarter sized bulge there. I didn't feel it when it happened and I can push on it without much issues -- just a discomfort/slight pain. As soon as I noticed I quit all upper body and hit a couple more lower body exercises. The workout was textbook besides I can' do squats and the last curls exercise got skipped.

Famine day 1:
925/1480 cals
~20 grams of protein.
Weight: ~186 (I need to get rehydrated)

As I mentioned above, I have lower back problems and so squats and some other lifts are out of the question. For some reason hack squats (on leg press) and front squats work out decently, but back squats destroy my lower back and it is a quick way to send me out of the gym. Anywho, I'll be trying to work this to my advantage during this run and keep good lower workouts going. But I think this post is plenty long enough. Just to toss it out there, today I sneezed once and have coughed a little bit. Will be playing things by ear on whether or not I continue famine or postpone.

Hope you enjoy the ride if you decide to tag along.

[JlCh]

Famine workout #2:

Super setted:
Flat dumbell press: 65x8
Incline dumbell press: 65x6
Decline BB press: 115x10 (Lifter's note: Chest was donzo'd)

1 minute break between each of the following:

Flat DB press: 65x8

Incline DB: 55x5

Decline bench:115x8

Arnold press: 40x10

Rope pull downs (dunno weight)x10

Flat close grip bench: 135x10

Overhead DB extentions: 70x6

2 minute break then I finished it up with

BW Dipsx8

Working took ~15-20 minutes.

Diet so far has been:
Banana and 4 oz of juice (~200 cals)
Can of Mandarin Oranges (~315 cals)
Coffee with some creamer (~100 cals)
1 Large apple with cinnamon (~130 cals?) Really not sure on that one, just a guestimate

~775/1480 (I know numbers don't add up, just ball parking it)

About to finish up the night with vegetable soup and a can of V8 Fusion.

[JlCh]

Day 5 of famine was finished up yesterday. I had to work all day and the gym here closes at 2 on the weekends, so I didn't get in for the 3rd workout. Got home and lazed around for a bit then had to head back in for my 2nd job and some grocery shopping for today's starting of feast. It was 10:30 before I even attempted an at home workout with dumbells and after the first super set my lower back was starting to cramping up and I decided to bail. The first set hit pretty hard though, so I doubt I would've gotten through the whole thing.

Unfortunately today I'm stuck working a long ass day. Generally I'm the part time job, but my full time co-worker went on vacation. And with Thanksgiving coming up, the product delivery is coming in a day early -- today. So Instead of being home for the majority of the day demonlishing everything in sight, I'll be all around the place.

Ah well, will make it work.

[JlCh]

Forgot to post that I woke up and weighed myself and was 178.8 -- which was a 4-5 lbs drop, not including the water weight I put on. Worked 10 hours and a 90 minute long class. I still managed to get 200+ g's of protein down, but not sure of exact amounts. I estimated my protein intake at around 198 then I devoured like 4-5 bowls of homemade chile which was loaded with hamburger. I'd say I'm around 250 g's over all. Took 3 KA today, but think I'll dial it back to 2 for the next couple days.

Supplements for this run:
KA
AN (only on workout nights)
MusclePharm Assault
Musclepharm Combat Powder
Karobolyn
Mass Pro Aminos

If I do any fasted cardio I'll be using 10-20 g's Controlled Labs Purple Wraath

Might take some GABA on nights that I can manage it. I never seem to get enough sleep on it though.

[JlCh]

Weight this morning: 181.6

Supplements: 2 KA

Diet:
3330 calories
120 g fat
300 g carbs
299 g protein

This is a very rough estimate, chances are it's higher in everything than listed here (very good chance it is). I still have a lot of home made chile left and I ate a ton of it today again and don't know the macro's behind it. I just pulled up nutritional facts of kidney beans and ground beef and guesstimated from there. I did 4 servings of beans and 1 of beef and called it good.

Will prob do measurements tomorrow before eating if I have time and will also be heading in for workout #1 tomorrow evening. It's a bit early, but the following day is Thanksgiving, so yea .

[JlCh]

I forgot how taxing these workouts are. I was in pretty good shape when I did my first run back last year, but that isn't the case now :p. It's always nice working up sweat that competes with the people doing cardio though.

Feast workout #1
Bench press: 195x10 -- Prob should've went up to 200, don't think I would've been able to get an 11th rep though.
Dumbell Pullover: 75x8

EDT:
Incline DB press: 70x6x6x6x5x5x4 (32 reps)
1 arm rows: 70x6x6x6x6x6x6 (36 reps) <-- Will go up to 75 next workout

Hack squats: 225x9
Romanian deads: 135x10

EDT:
Front squats: 135x6x6x6x2
Stiff Legged deads: 15x6x6x6

During my workout I had lower back discomfort and on the 4th set of the EDT I could tell it was about to go from discomfort to pain -- so I bailed. I was even going pretty light on the SLDL. I had to split a bunch of wood before heading out to the gym, which got the lower back tensed up -- not sure if there would have been a difference or not. Also, after the upper portion of this workout I was literally shaking and I had to take like a 5 minute break and a very slow warm up for legs LOL.

Ah well, will keep at it, hopefully the issues reside. Anywho, took measurements today and I've gotta say I'm quite a bit behind where I was last year. I assumed I was, but didn't know it was this bad.

Measurements:
Chest: 40 inches
Stomach (Navel): 34 inches
Shoulders: 48 1/2 inches
Hips: 39 3/4 inches
Calf: 15 inch inches
Quads: 22 3/4 inches
Forearm: 12 3/4 inches
Bicep: 15 1/2 Inches
Neck: 16 3/4 Inches

Supplements for the day:
Ground oatmeal and MP Combat Powder 2 hours pre with a KA
MP Assault 30 min pre
MP CP, Karobolyn, MASS pro amino's and a couple other ingredients (10 min prior)
Will take another KA before my next meal and Adaptogen N before bed.

Edit:
Diet:

3014 cals
93 fat
332 carb
212 pro

Fell asleep for a couple hours so I ended up missing a meal.

[JlCh]

I forgot to mention that yesterday I was up to 184 in the morning, but today I was back down to 181 -- not sure if it was water or food, as I know that fiber was coming at me hard.

Today I fasted until 2:30, drank 14 grams of amino's and did 15 min of worthless cardio on this machine here at the house. Just doesn't get the job done that I need done -- but the gym was closed and it's icy/snowy outside so going out and doing anything in the yard was kind of out of the question. Will try to make it to the gym on other off days and get some quality cardio in. The diet overall was crap today. I had assumed the Thanksgiving dinner would be done in a timely fashion so all I had was a protein shake around 3:30 and then waited until 9:30 before I got more food (went over there at 6 and they said it'd be about half an hour). I ate as much as I physically could -- and then some. Had 4 plates, but still don't think I touched the 3k mark. I didn't even have chocolate pie and that's unheard of. No matter how full I was on prior Thanksgivings I always had room for it :p -- not this time though.

Took 1 KA before I feasted on the turkey and what not. I also forgot to mention that I do take zinc and magnesium prior to bed nightly as well as Osteo Biflex and SuperCissus in the mornings. On nights before working out, mornings before working out, and evenings after a workout I'll take 2 pills of MP Armor-V which is their multi. I got it for free when I bought their tub of Assault (Or Combat powder??). I assume that the full dosage doesn't get absorbed properly, so I try to split the full serving up over 24 hours -- dunno if it helps or not .

May hit up the gym tomorrow for Workout #2 depending on how I feel. I'm pretty sore today and not sure if it's going to be the same or worse tomorrow. Will have to play it by ear.

[JlCh]

Did another workout today, probably should've given it 1 more day of rest, but it was between working out a little bit before I was ready or taking 3 days off. From my experience, I seem to do best with 1 on/1 off with 2 off every 2-3 workouts -- so I think the 3 days off route wouldn't reap as much. Anywho, I slept in and didn't get to the gym till late and ended up getting booted out of the gym before I could finish my workout. Lower back was still tense and during my bench warmup I felt a bit of a pull in my upper back/neck and not sure if I pinched a nerve or anything. I foam rolled for a few minutes and massaged the shit out of neck/back. Will have to wait till morning to see if that's what happened or not. Anywayyyyyyyy

Feast workout #2 (Day 5):
Benchpress: 215x5 (help on 5th rep)
DB Pullovers: 85x6

EDT:
Incline DB Press: 70x6x6x6x6x6x6 (36 reps) <-- Increasing next session
Bent over DB Rows: 75x6x6x6x6x6x6 (36 reps) <-- Increasing next session

Hack squats: 275x5
Romanian DL: 135x8

Gym was about to close so did 2 static holds on the hydrolic leg press at 900+ each. Wasn't enough, but it was taking ages for the pressure to keep going up while I was holding the weight and I wasn't sure what the machine could handle (goes up to like 1300) so I just stopped there.

As I said, lower back is still giving me issues and the Romanians seem to mess with it. Hamstrings were still sore as shit though, so between that and them messing with my lower back I kept the RDL's at a low weight and didn't push the reps too high. I think next workout I might opt out the RDL's and see how my back handles just the EDT set with front squats/SLDL's and finish it up with some top range SH's -- especially since SLDL usually hammer my hams anyway. I really miss the SH's as I haven't done any (not counting today's because they weren't true SH's) either 2 workouts. No diet update today, but I demolished half of a chocolate pie and ended up passing out, so macro's will be off and calories will be sky high. Should still hit 200 grams of protein though, although that's still a bit low. I'll quit blabbering now and wrap this up with weight:

Wed: 184
Thurs: 181
Today: 183

Don't remember the decimals. Seems like weight is fluctuating a lot, so kind of hard to know what's going on LOL.

[RobRegish]

Great work man!

You are SMART to play it safe, with the lower back. Curious to know how you like the KA/AN that you've added?

[JlCh]

The lower back is prob a smart move, but it's always a pain to walk out of the gym because of injuries instead of a feeling of accomplishment :p. I'm still unsure about the KA/AN. Maybe my next run I'll only buy KA and drop the mass of other supps to test things out. As for the AN, I seem to get about 4-5 hours of solid sleep then I wake up pretty frequently there after. I've only taking it 2 nights so far though, so yea. I do feel like I'm not quite as sore as I should be overall though.

Feast Day 6:

Will prob fast for another 2 hours and have an 8 hour feeding window. No cardio for either today or tomorrow -- just want rest.

Weight: 185.4

Also, I'd just like to say I can already tell I'll be coming out of this BP run stronger than I was at my prime last year before I got sick.

[JlCh]

Feast Day 7:

I whoopsied last night. Friend's bday and he got a keg and wanted me to come over. I ended up finishing light and came home around 1 but had 3 shots and 4-5 beers. It over a period of 4 hours or so, so didn't get drunk really -- but more than I was aiming to drink.

Weight: 183

Breaking the fast early today. I gotta work and won't have access to food until I get back home, so yea.

[JlCh]

Feast Day 8

Will be looking to go to the gym later today, but while I was at work I did something to my knee. Not sure what it was and why it did it, but I was kind of sitting on my heels looking at the bottom shelf to see what need to be stocked, and when I stood up I had a very sharp pain on the medial side of my knee. It kinda felt like the pain was under the knee cap and slowly went over to the inside as I stood further up. I bent down like that again and when I was coming up cautiously there was still the pain, although not as severe. I also noticed while stepping up onto a step there was also a pinch feeling. Dunno if I'll be able to do squats of any sort today, so will be having to play around with it.

Weight: 184.8

[JlCh]

Knee felt OK but lower back is still fucking worthless (pardon the language, but it's needed for desired effect). Skipped RDL and tried doing SLDL and just wasn't going to work -- even belted up. I think next workout I'll just try front squats and hamstring curls against all desire. Can't keep slacking on legs like this.

Feast Workout #3:
Bench press: 225x4 (10 lbs increase, same amount of reps as last w/o -- whoops)

Wait.... Did I read that right? What is this scam Rob? This program doesn't work and that crustacean juice you're so proud of? What a joke. Crab juice can't get you buff, you're just a scam artist....

DB pull over: 90x5 (might be 95, I don't remember what the max dumbell is there)

EDT:
Incline DB press: 75x6x6x6x6x5x4 (33 reps)
Single DB row: 80x6x6x6x5x5x4 (32 reps)

Hack squat (leg press): 315x2 (PR)

EDT:
Leg extention: Dunnox6x6x6x6x6
Hamstring curl: dunnox6x6x6x6x6

So, the pullovers will be a problem here in the coming weeks -- should I just switch to EZ bar pull overs? I'm rather fond of the dumbells, so it's a bit unfortunate. Also, the leg EDT was done with 3 second negative on each rep. The only machines at the gym are hydrolic ones, so the weight fluctuates as you do the rep. Gotta make do with what you got/can do I guess. Always a bummer to not be able to do what you want. Forgot straps again so couldn't do my rack pulls.

And yes, I knew that this workout was suppose to be 2-3 reps, but didn't expect to be able to get a clean 4th rep of 225.

[JlCh]

Unfortunately life throws things at you that you can't help. Not a bad thing really, just a pain to have to deal with something else other than what was planned. No cardio today and I just broke my fast. Co-worker called in sick and I have to fill in for him, do my other job, plus go to 3 classes today. Just came home to eat real quick.