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Hey, everyone!

I have been lurking for some time now, and decided to wait before getting my first BP run started. I finally started to plan this out, and my 5-day famine will begin on Wednesday March 14. I'm gunna be following 2.0 and will likely use a HIT sort of training style during feast, similar to Dorian's Blood and Guts. The training sessions during the famine will be just about exactly how they are laid out by Rob.

I would not say I am even close to being overtrained at the moment, so I will only have three fully days off before beginning the famine. Tomorrow will be that final day off. I need to be sure to remember to take my resting heart rate tomorrow morning upon waking so I have a base reading. I unfortunately do not have a scale at my disposal, as I am currently on Spring Break from college. Even if I did, it would not be the same one that I typically use every day at college. I will however be back at school on Sunday, which will be the final day of my famine. I will be sure to go there and see how much weight I lost. I know that my starting weight will be basically exactly where it has been for the past month: ~189 lbs.

I have been very stagnant, but mainly because of this injury I have been dealing with. On December 12 I hurt my lat deadlifting. It has been a huge ordeal that has been seriously detrimental to my life as a bodybuilder. I quickly dropped from 200 lbs down to 185 lbs in less than a month after having taken a full three weeks off of training. This really did not surprise me though because I have put in my blood, sweat, and tears to get to 200; considering I started out at 5'11" weighing in at a whopping ~130 lbs. I am seriously as ectomorphic as they come (I feel like everyone says that, but it really is the truth). At 6'0" and 200 lbs, I was very satisfied with the way I looked and performed. Since then, I have been in a real funk that is affecting me more than just physically, but psychologically as well. It is not a severe issue or anything, but it just really sucks to have been where I was before and now have to deal with this decreased bodyweight and performance. Needless to say, I am not as pleased with what I see in the mirror lately either.

After I hurt my lat, I did not get it checked out soon after because I was uninsured for a while. It was not until a few weeks ago that I finally got insured, and then began to act quickly. When I got back to school for the Spring semester though, I did go to our free Physical Therapy clinic on campus, which began in early February. They were only seeing me once/week, and then didn't feel like they were doing much, so decreased it to once/2weeks. It was pretty useless to be honest. I think they simply were not accustomed to dealing with an injury acquired from heavy weight training... But then after I got insured, I had an MRI done (which was less than two weeks ago). They called it a grade 1 lat strain, which makes me wonder how bad it was to begin with considering that the injury occurred exactly three months ago. I gave it plenty of rest, yet the strain still persists. After the doctor and I reviewed the results of the MRI, he wants me to go back to PT, but this will actually be far more frequent, and will not be some lousy free clinic. Apparently the dude he suggested to me is a powerlifter in addition to being a PT, so he should be able to relate much better.

Until my lat gets better, I cannot train deadlifts heavy, and I also struggle with any sort of heavy pull in the vertical plane. I can do most rowing exercises in the horizontal plane relatively pain-free, so that is one good thing. It just sucks that I cannot do two of my favorite things (heavyass deads and heavyass weighted pullups). This is the reason I was waiting to run the BP, because I wanted to be back to full health, but I honestly do not see that happening anytime very soon considering it has already been three months. I will just simply have to take it easy on the movements that bother me, but I can still go all out for the rest! I'm hoping to see improvements in my squat and bench (both of which were actually substantially weak relative to my deadlift pre-injury).

I am really looking forward to seeing how I react to this. Considering I basically force-fed myself every day for the past three years, it will be weird to see what happens once my kcals get down around 1500. I may drop weight like crazy, but then again, I may gain it back like crazy considering my body was once over ten pounds heavier than it is currently! This is going to be a lot of fun.

As stated, I won't be using all the supplements that Rob suggests to really get the most out of the BP, just so I can see what my results are like without. Of all the things he suggests, BCAAs will be the only thing I will likely be using regularly. I have lots and lots of bulk BCAAs, as I find them to be a very critical supplement. So I will be using them 3on/3off during feast as Rob suggests in the BP. Other supps I will use are fish oil, multi-vitamin, Universal Storm (for creatine), Genomyx Gut Health, AI Life Support, and will occassionally use the following as I see fit: Genomyx Slin-Sane, vitaimin d, zinc, digestive enzymes, protein powder, and DAA.

I will likely write more tomorrow in an attempt to really sort things out and solidify my plans for this BP run. Let me know if you guys have any suggestions or if anything sounds out of whack... glad to be with you all here on the BP forum!

I took my blood pressure upon waking this morning. I realized I also will be able to get a good baseline reading tomorrow morning since the famine will not have technically started yet... Anyways, I took four different readings today and I got 70 bpm every time. So I think it's safe to say that is my current rested hear rate. Today will just be another day off before my famine begins tomorrow. I'll continue to run through the blueprint and try to perfect my plan for this run. Stay Tuned, Y'all!

Good luck on your run! You'll find it well worth the time and effort.

Don't worry too much about not being able to do certain lifts because of injury. If you stick with the lifting game long enough, you're going to find out that there are some movements that you permanently can't do because they cause problems, especially once you have 10 or 20 years under you belt.

Also there are so many ways to get around an injured area by slightly changing things. Right now I'm dealing with elbow tendonitis (which I've had before), so I simply have eliminated a few problem movements and actually just changed hand position on several which takes pressure off of the inside of my elbow. Once the tendonitis resolves, I'll go right back to using some of my old movements.

It sounds like for now you need to stick with more mid-range and contracted movements for your back and stay away from anything that is more of a stretch position lift.

Glad to hear you've figured out how to work around your elbow issue. I am still trying to figure that out with my lat, but in the meantime have lost an incredible amount of thickness in my back. The difference in my back's appearance three months ago compared to now is like night and day. Like you said though, trying to avoid that stretched position may very well be part of the solution to finding movements that still work with my body. I'm hoping the Physical Therapist I go to on Monday will be a big help... Thanks for stopping by the log, man!

I'm having trouble finding certain pieces of info, like where I can figure out exactly what "The Formula" is, for example. I see it mentioned a lot throughout 3.0, but I still don't know exactly where to find the contents of this mixture. I'm wondering if there is anything that I'm missing? When I signed up I was sent two PDFs. One is entitled "theBLUEPRINT2.0," and the other "3.0 - Mother Document." Are there any other resources I should be referring to? I also have bookmarked a URL that gives a bunch of different loading pattern spreadsheets for use with Periodic. Any other documents/URLs I should be aware of? Thanks!

There is a supplement section that has the info you need for the formula. Rob should be sending it to you shortly as it sometimes is sent separate from the other documents. If you don't receive it in a few days, I would PM Rob to make sure it didn't get left off.

This morning I took my resting hr again and got 70 bpm each time. So that will definitely be my baseline.

I didn't eat anything before soon going to the gym shortly after. I warmed up a little bit on the stationary bike and did some lighter warmup sets with squats. My lower back was feeling a little tight today, so I wanted to make sure I warmed up adequately.

Squats 235x6 --------> Seated Cable Row 190x6
235x6------->190x6
235x5------->190x6

Chest Supported T-Bar Row Mchn +125lbsx6 --------> V-Bar Cable Pulldown 140x8
+125lbsx6-------->170x5
+125lbsx6-------->170x5

Standing BB Curls 85x6
85x6
85x6

Inc. DB Curls 30x6
30x6
35x6

Preacher Curls 60x6
70x6
70x6
70x6

I did two minutes of rest between each set, as per Rob's suggestion in the BP. It certainly was not a very challenging workout, but I can see how this will get tough after days of low-calorie eating and increasing training density. I'm gunna be doing some LISS cardio in a few hours. I have a treadmill here at home so I think I will do some uphill walking for about an hour or so.

I'm about to go to the grocery store and get some more food for this famine. Gotta figure out a list of stuff before I head out the door... I'll probably write back later with what I ate for the day, so stay tuned!

I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill at my house walking on a slight incline. It just got annoying after a while because there would be times where the belt would slightly stick with each step I took. I had to take really rapid short steps to prevent this from happening entirely haha so it was more like a shuffle than a real walk. I got fed up after 45 mins, but whatever.

When all is said and done for today, I will have taken in just under 1500 kcals for the day. My protein consumption is <25 grams. I think I'm gunna be able to get through this just fine considering there are only four more days remaining.

Just a couple of quick questions though:
-How close should I be training to failure during these three famine training sessions? I saw a thread where Rob suggested working until you feel "fatigued." I ask this, because I almost feel as though I may not have worked as hard as I was supposed to today during my weight training session. Perhaps this is because I was adequately fueled, so the next two workouts will end up being much more challenging even without reaching near failure since I will be far less nourished?
-Also, I see where Rob clearly states to do an hour of cardio on each day that you weight train during Famine. Should I also be doing an hour on the Famine days in which I am not scheduled to weight train? In the event that I don't receive an answer to this question, I will likely assume that I should be. So in that case, I will be doing an hour of cardio tomorrow.
-Finally, during the three resting re-feed days that follow Famine, should I literally be doing nothing? Like, is it okay for me to do a little bit of cardio, or should I try to avoid unnecessary activity altogether?

ICJLM wrote:I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill at my house walking on a slight incline. It just got annoying after a while because there would be times where the belt would slightly stick with each step I took. I had to take really rapid short steps to prevent this from happening entirely haha so it was more like a shuffle than a real walk. I got fed up after 45 mins, but whatever.

When all is said and done for today, I will have taken in just under 1500 kcals for the day. My protein consumption is <25 grams. I think I'm gunna be able to get through this just fine considering there are only four more days remaining.

A. Answers for you brother!


Just a couple of quick questions though:
-How close should I be training to failure during these three famine training sessions? I saw a thread where Rob suggested working until you feel "fatigued." I ask this, because I almost feel as though I may not have worked as hard as I was supposed to today during my weight training session. Perhaps this is because I was adequately fueled, so the next two workouts will end up being much more challenging even without reaching near failure since I will be far less nourished?

A. You got it... You don't want to work to absolute muscular failure, Famine is brutal enough! You do want to work "close" to it, within 2-3 reps or so. The goal is to deplete muscle substrate - not put you through a train wreck (although you'll feel close). Workouts 2 and 3 are a WHOLE 'nother ball game...

-Also, I see where Rob clearly states to do an hour of cardio on each day that you weight train during Famine. Should I also be doing an hour on the Famine days in which I am not scheduled to weight train? In the event that I don't receive an answer to this question, I will likely assume that I should be. So in that case, I will be doing an hour of cardio tomorrow.

A. Not sure if I communicated this in the best fashion, but it isn't "mandatory" per se. Some Low Intensity, Steady State (LISS) cardio is fine, either on training days or on your off days. Listen to your body here, and do stay well hydrated. It's yet another stress your body needs to adapt to and will create the stress we strive to impose. Don't feel bad if you don't do it everyday (or even at all). The diet plus weight training alone usually register an average loss of 1lb/day!

-Finally, during the three resting re-feed days that follow Famine, should I literally be doing nothing? Like, is it okay for me to do a little bit of cardio, or should I try to avoid unnecessary activity altogether?

A. Nope. The only activity you should be partaking in is destroying your local buffet. That and LOTS of sleep! You've paid your dues during Famine. 3 days of eating and sleeping? It's well earned my man...

Finally, I'd recommend the PT but also icing for your lat. Fill a dixie cup with water. Add some cayenne pepper, then freeze. Slowly peel the cup as the ice melts. May or may not be legal in your state, but you can cite my ignorance of the law as your excuse...

Also, look into SuperCissusRx. Has literally worked wonders for me and MANY others here. The last tip I'll give you is this: establish at least one (but ideally 3) movements that don't aggravate that lat. Top of my list would be DB pullovers on a flat bench, then trying varying incline angles. Tbar rows, 1arm DB rows and the seated cable row would be at the top of my list.

That lat will heal, and there's ALWAYS a way. I'll help you find it...

Speaking of which, you may want to listen to my www.superhumanradio.com show this Tuesday. "Ask The Expert" details a unique transdermal curcumin homebrew I use for such injuries when all else fails.

Hope that helps!

Yesterday upon awakening I took my pulse, and found that it was always 70 bpm, just like my baseline reading. I ended up not doing any cardio, which is good cuz I see Rob said it is not ENTIRELY necessary. Still dieted just as hard as planned though. I think I ended up eating under 1500 kcals yesterday.

Then today I woke up and took my pulse. I was having a tough time getting a consistent reading, and it was basically all over the place. I got under 70 bpm a couple times, and got as high as 75 bpm a few other times. Either way though, it is not the consistent 70 bpm that I had for the several days prior.

After waking up, I just hung out around the house for a bit and made sure to drink lots of water before hitting the gym. I also had some tea using a few green tea bags. (I have been going HAM on the green tea)! I hit the gym for the second famine workout, and after a little bit of warming up, got into my working sets. Looked something like this:

205 lbs for 10 reps on Flat BB Bench
ss/50 lb DBs for 7 reps on Overhead Press

185 lbs for 9 reps on CGBP
ss/45 lb DBs for 7 reps

135 lbs for 8 reps Incline BB Bench
ss/45 lb DBs for a tough 4, then had to drop it 35 pounders! hahaha

135 lbs for 11 reps on Decline BB Bench
ss/35 lb DBs for 8

135 lbs for 10 reps on CG Decline

Some pre-loaded EZ Bar for 12 reps on Inc. Skulls

Cable Tri Pressdown for 12 reps

I had a tough time selecting all the proper weights, as you can see. I overestimated some lifts, while also underestimating others. I basically tried to make sure I was working to the point of "fatigue" that Rob described. One minute rest times were much less than I expected. Such a huge difference from the two minutes used during the prior famine workout. Which reminds me: I realize now that I did the first famine workout incorrectly. I did three total sets of each different bicep exercise, rather than doing one set of each of the three different bicep exercises (hope that made sense). Ya, so I basically ended up doing far more sets than was necessary. But I'm all about trying to make this Alarm phase as "alarming" as possible, so I guess that could be a good thing... Unless it is possible to make the Famine phase unnecessarily difficult to the point that it ends up being a bad thing?

Speaking of alarming, I decided to do LISS after the lift. I have never done any sort of cardio that has exceeded 25 minutes, other than the treadmill walking I did a couple nights ago... So today I got on the stationary bike, and was really torn about how long to stay on there. I had a mental battle where at certain times I insisted that I only needed 25 minutes or so of LISS, and then other times I kept reminding myself "this is the alarm phase, so toughen up, you pussy." I decided to listen to the voice that wanted me to keep going! I ended up peddling away for a total of one hour. I was absolutely beat afterwards. I never felt so drained after a workout in my life. I lost A LOT of water during that bike ride too. Then afterwards I decided it would be a good idea to do sets of 12 BW pushups separated by 15 seconds of rest... Considering how easy 12 consecutive pushups are, I ended up doing many many sets until I felt adequately "fatigued."

I got a little bit of food in after the gym, but of course it is never enough. I absolutely hate being hungry. I am as ectomorphic as they come, so I am used to force-feeding myself 24/7/365, so this famine is absolutely killing me. Wait until I get to Feast. I'll be sure to write down at least one day of eating so that you guys can see how ridiculous the amount of food is that I normally eat!

I think I may still have anywhere from 150-280 kcals remaining for today, but I am really not sure. So I am gunna make sure that I under-eat if anything. I'll prob have some raw spinach and 1/3 and avocado just to be safe. Tomorrow I have to work from 9:30-3:00, so I plan on fasting until I get home from work. It should be easy to go through the short 5.5 hour workday without eating, since I will be keeping busy all day long. I prefer to save kcals for later in the day so I do not have to feel like I am starving as I try to fall asleep.

As for the rest of this famine phase, I am going to continue trying to make it as hard as possible. Rob said that it may not even be necessary to do any more cardio or even the third Famine workout, but I insist on doing both! Rather than just having the diet set off the "alarm," I plan on doing so with exercise too. My plan for tomorrow is to walk my dog around the block for a solid half hour, at the least. Also, I wanna do random sets of pushups to near failure throughout the day since I will not be touching chest for quite a while with weights since that is how the BP has it laid out. Then on Sunday I still wanna do the final Famine workout so my body gets really alarmed by this increased training density. I may or may not also do some cardio on that final day of the famine after the weight training. Then I decided that before I get the Feast started with a bang, I wanna wake up a little bit earlier on that morning before class on Monday and run the stairs in my dorm building. I'll prob do some sets of pushups between the sets of stair sprints too. Then after that, the feasting begins! I CANNOT wait!

.... Ha, I think that's all I have to write for now. Sorry if my thoughts seems really scattered right now. That's because they are! My train of thought is constantly being interrupted by the thought of food. Haha I absolutely hate it... Oh, and another thing: I need to make sure I am more accurate with my calorie counting so that I don't have to end up cheating myself of kcals, like I fear I have done the past couple days.

Stay tuned!


PS: I was just proofreading this, when I realized there was something ELSE I forgot to mention. I weighed myself at the gym on Wednesday following the conclusion of the first Famine workout, and weighed in at 187.5 lbs. Today I weighed myself on the same scale following the conclusion of the second Famine workout and cardio, and weighed in at 182! This is absolutely nuts. I have not been this light in a LONG time. You need to keep in mind: less than 14 weeks ago before I got injured, I was a big 200 lb bodybuilder. So right now I feel absolutely tiny, and it SUCKS! I may even be less lean now than I was at 200, sadly.... Which also reminds me: I snapped a few pics today with my laptop webcam when I was waiting for the bathtub to fill up. These may have to act as my "before" pics. Maybe I will also get a few more shots the morning before I start Feast. This will be when I am most emaciated by the famine....

And thank you for all the answers, Rob. I am looking forward to the PT that starts on Monday. I will have to give some of those other solutions a try. I used to use cissus religiously, but have not been doing so at all lately. It definitely seems worth revisiting. I actually usually buy the bulk Super Cissus RX powder from nutraplanet under the USPowders brand that they carry. It ends up being pretty cheap that way.

I have heard you mention both of those other things on SHR (I feel like I spend so much time of my life listening to that podcast haha). I don't realistically see myself gathering the supplies to make that curcumin concoction anytime soon, but will definitely do so if I get desperate enough! As for the cayenne ice thing, I remember hearing that on SHR, but never gave it a try because I had a tough time finding cayenne pepper. I have some now though, so I wanna give that a try soon.

Thanks again for all your responses!

Yesterday when I woke up and took my resting hr, I was mostly getting 68 bpm. I got that reading three different times, and then got 73 one other time. Yesterday I walked with my dog briskly for a half hour as planned. I also did some bodyweight squats and pushups.

This morning when I woke up I took my hr and got 77, but I think that's cuz I was really antsy since I had to pee really badly haha. So I went pee and laid back in bed to allow my body to relax again. Then I kept getting 74 bpm just about every time. I got 76 once and 71 once too, but usually always 74.

I still haven't eaten anything, and I will soon be going to the gym for famine workout #3. I'm gunna stay away from squats today and just use the leg press instead. I definitely don't wanna risk injury as a result of these short rest times... I'll write back later to talk more about this workout and my final day of famine. Omg it feels so good to say that: "my final day of famine." I can't wait to feast tomorrow!

Just hit the third famine workout... Ummmmm THAT WAS NOT FUN. It was damn near impossible to keep up with, cuz each set kept getting harder and harder. I made it through though, but did definitely have to lower some weights throughout the workout. That's not to mention how low the weights already were to start with in the beginning of the workout!

I did the workout fasted, and still haven't eaten anything. I'm really starting to get used to this whole fasting thing, which worries me cuz I hope I will be able to bounce back and stuff my face with food just as easily as I always do. I'm sure I'll be fine though!

I weighed in at 180 lbs postworkout! Wow! I have not been this light in a long long time. It is such a scary thought to consider that maybe the weight won't just come right back as planned, but dammit, I AM A BELIEVER. Considering this significant weight drop, I actually don't look half bad in the mirror. I would expect to look absolutely tiny, but looking at myself now, I would almost say I look the same size. I also do still have somewhat of a pump right now though. The one thing that looks different is not necessarily size, but I look soft as hell haha. I don't look in the least bit dense, hard, vascular, or any of those desired things like usual. But I know those will all soon return once I start going wild on my macronutrients over these next few days. So stay tuned peeps, cuz this is gunna be a fun ride.

...And Rob, if you see this, let me know when a good time to call you over these next couple days would be! As much as I thought I understood what I had to do in each phase, I have again realized that all of this info is still kinda overwhelming me. I've been wanting to call for a while now so you could help me out, haha but I just feel like it is so awkward and such an invasion of privacy!

I cannot stop thinking about all of the food I am gunna eat tomorrow. Holy crap, I cannot wait... It's gunna get weird. I'm about to crush an unprecedented amount of nutritious food. Haha sorry, I just felt like I needed to write that down here, cuz my desire to return to my normal dietary habits is overwhelming right now!