SiLkPaDrE's 1st Blueprint Run.. In for the LONG haul!
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 12:59 pm
Hey guys. I am not quite ready to get the ball rolling yet, because there are a number of microvariables I have to consider. But I am really excited about incorporating The Blueprint into my lifestyle--should be some great stuff.
Here is a little bit about myself:
I have been weight training since I was about 13-14 years old (I'm 19 now, about to be 20 on the 29th--1 more year and I'm legal baby!). I admittedly did not know what I was doing until about a year and a half ago--namely, the majority of my training had a purpose or goal but did not really have a rationale behind it until a year and half ago. It was not until fairly recently that I started to take note of key things such as CNS fatigue and that sometimes less is more, or the significance of nutrition. Anyway, I have nonetheless had quite a number of experiences with different training regiments, different training partners and different diets. I have worked with construction workers, athletes and even a 12-year ex-convict (this guy, despite overtraining me, I believe helped me set up the foundation on which I build upon to this day) and experienced all kinds of gains and losses. The majority of my training was hypertrophy based, and if ever strength based it was on the hypertrophy side of the spectrum. It's actually kind of funny because I made pretty great strength gains and I legitimately never ventured into anything lower than the 5 rep range until this past year. I was a husky kid throughout childhood, never really fat (chubby once in a while--my weight fluctuated a bit) but certainly not skinny. My initial reason for working out was just to get huge and ripped. Hence, I fell prey to prescribing myself routines that pros used and thinking that taking protein automatically meant I was going to attain my goals. Of course as time I went by, I learned more (especially after feeling like crap after trying to follow the routines listed in Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding... in retrospect I was just overly ambitious haha) and grew both mentally and physically. I learned the hard way that training is individualized and that not everything works for everyone and that well, unless I was on steroids that following Arnold's workouts would do me more harm than good. Anyway, in short [is there really anything short about this email right now?] I worked out like a bodybuilder.
My purpose for training remained the same until around my Jr./Sr. year in h.s.. I was applying for colleges and I had big plans man, BIG plans. I was applying to a bunch of smaller D3 schools and well there was an opportunity I saw in front of me that I have for years wished I could have. Let me preface this by saying I played baseball for the majority of my life (age 5-14) and stopped in h.s. because I was kind of tired of it and well with no father figure around (family issues) I had no one to really motivate me. Nonetheless, throughout my entire life I have always been told that I should be playing football and I subsequently developed this strong urge to play the game. My dad would have been the only one to make that happen because my mom was way to scared to let me participate in such a physical sport. Let's just say that I never got the opportunity to play despite always wanting to. I was hoping to do so in h.s., but oddly enough my h.s. didn't have a team. That desire to play never really went away, albeit it did kind of go on standby during h.s. Even so, the bigger and stronger I got throughout h.s. the more I would secretly fantasize about how sick it would be to play some football. I mean I have quick feet, I have slightly above average speed (which speaks a lot for my size) and geez, it was a sick feeling picturing myself in pads laying dudes out. Anyway back to the college app process; yeah, I was applying to these smaller schools and decided that if I could I would try and walk on to my given school's football team despite having never played. Once I got into Tufts, I emailed the football coach telling him my whole story and that despite having no experience that I felt I had some qualities that could be of use to the team. He told me he had way too many kids to cut and that it wouldn't be in my best interest. I didn't let that deter me though; I decided to play rugby for a couple of years. I was pretty decent at it; I started, I hurt some people, although I will admit that I didn't exactly have the highest rugby IQ on the team. It's one of those sports that lends itself to newcomers. So sloppy overly aggressive play can be very effective on the D3 level. For some reason though, I wasn't satisfied. Rugby's a club sport, while football is a varsity one. I had a bunch of friends on the football team and man did I wish I could suit up whenever I saw them heading to practice. Anyway, this past semester (after seeing how crappy the teams '09 season was) I contacted the coach again and told him I was interested still. A bunch of kids had been quitting since my frosh year and that roster was dwindling, I figured I had nothing to lose in trying again and probably a better chance at getting the OK from the coach. Low and behold the coach ended up giving me a chance this time around--I think meeting with him personally and him getting to see my size and build helped me a little with that. This past semester I trained with the team and worked with coaches weekly getting my fundamentals down (they want me to play a 3-technique d-tackle). The training was different from anything I have ever done in the weight room--olympic lifts, plyometrics, STRETCHING haha. I got a taste of functional training. As of right now, that is probably my biggest and primary goal for working out. It's funny how things change. I still want to get bigger and stronger however, and possibly lean out a little.
Anyway, this summer is huge for me. I decided to take summer classes so that I could stay on campus near all of the facilities and most of all the coaches who are more than willing to help me as I need them (they imply that I will make the team so long as I continue doing what I have been--I've been busting my balls man). In a couple of weeks I will be putting on some pads on for the first time, haha, I feel like a little kid. I want to be a complete beast come training camp in August. I had plans in mind on how I would go about achieving this, but after coming across The Blueprint, I saw something that I could potentially work into my big plans for the summer. I was in all honesty a little hesitant to make the purchase at first, but I can confidently tell you that I am glad that I ended up pulling the trigger, because there is some priceless information in there. It's so intuitive too. The whole famine/feast concept is why I think Keto diets can be pretty effective, at least on paper anyway. I have tried running them (and currently am actually) but have never been able to last long enough with them to see if they could yield amazing results for me. College can be a killer sometimes man, with all the partying and late-night eating. Anyway, I am currently doing 3-4 weeks of Keto in the hopes of cutting some weight because I planned on bulking for the remainder of the summer. Actually, I was hoping to Bulk in sort of a recomp way, where I could potentially drop some body fat. But I am not sure how attainable my goals are (granted some progress could be made, but maybe not to the degree that I am hoping). I am currently 5'10 @ some weight between 225-230. I was hoping to cut to somewhere between 205-210 and jump back up to 230-235, but leaner than when I started. I am very aware that this is kind of unrealistic without the use of drugs, but I am so stubborn that a part of me feels that if I try my best that I could make it happen. Anyway, looking at The Blueprint and the kind of results people have experienced, I figured I had nothing to lose in trying it out. My issue lies, however, in incorporating this all into my overall training regiment. I have specific football lifts I have to follow as well as conditioning and what not. If you are interested in seeing them, let me know. Anyway, I am basically at a loss at where to begin in terms of fitting The Blueprint into my bigger picture. I will also admit that I have quite a number of supplements (and planned on getting a few others) and I am not sure if they are encouraged in the protocol. But let me end this here. I apologize sincerely for how lengthy this is; but I have a lot to share. Hopefully this served as some form of entertainment to you all haha. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and if you have any questions for me (what the workouts will look like, the supps I was planning on taking, etc.) I am more than willing to answer them.
For the record, this was originally an email I sent to Rob, but he suggested that I start a log/journal (which I was planning on doing anyway) on the forums. Logs are great and I could see this helping me so much in terms of getting some solid feedback and keeping track of where I am at. I think it was vital that I at least share some of the above info with you all, so that you could have a better sense of my background. Anyway, your patience is very much appreciated!
Once I feel mobilized enough to get things going, I provide more details about diet, starting measurements and what not.
Cheers!
Dre
Here is a little bit about myself:
I have been weight training since I was about 13-14 years old (I'm 19 now, about to be 20 on the 29th--1 more year and I'm legal baby!). I admittedly did not know what I was doing until about a year and a half ago--namely, the majority of my training had a purpose or goal but did not really have a rationale behind it until a year and half ago. It was not until fairly recently that I started to take note of key things such as CNS fatigue and that sometimes less is more, or the significance of nutrition. Anyway, I have nonetheless had quite a number of experiences with different training regiments, different training partners and different diets. I have worked with construction workers, athletes and even a 12-year ex-convict (this guy, despite overtraining me, I believe helped me set up the foundation on which I build upon to this day) and experienced all kinds of gains and losses. The majority of my training was hypertrophy based, and if ever strength based it was on the hypertrophy side of the spectrum. It's actually kind of funny because I made pretty great strength gains and I legitimately never ventured into anything lower than the 5 rep range until this past year. I was a husky kid throughout childhood, never really fat (chubby once in a while--my weight fluctuated a bit) but certainly not skinny. My initial reason for working out was just to get huge and ripped. Hence, I fell prey to prescribing myself routines that pros used and thinking that taking protein automatically meant I was going to attain my goals. Of course as time I went by, I learned more (especially after feeling like crap after trying to follow the routines listed in Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding... in retrospect I was just overly ambitious haha) and grew both mentally and physically. I learned the hard way that training is individualized and that not everything works for everyone and that well, unless I was on steroids that following Arnold's workouts would do me more harm than good. Anyway, in short [is there really anything short about this email right now?] I worked out like a bodybuilder.
My purpose for training remained the same until around my Jr./Sr. year in h.s.. I was applying for colleges and I had big plans man, BIG plans. I was applying to a bunch of smaller D3 schools and well there was an opportunity I saw in front of me that I have for years wished I could have. Let me preface this by saying I played baseball for the majority of my life (age 5-14) and stopped in h.s. because I was kind of tired of it and well with no father figure around (family issues) I had no one to really motivate me. Nonetheless, throughout my entire life I have always been told that I should be playing football and I subsequently developed this strong urge to play the game. My dad would have been the only one to make that happen because my mom was way to scared to let me participate in such a physical sport. Let's just say that I never got the opportunity to play despite always wanting to. I was hoping to do so in h.s., but oddly enough my h.s. didn't have a team. That desire to play never really went away, albeit it did kind of go on standby during h.s. Even so, the bigger and stronger I got throughout h.s. the more I would secretly fantasize about how sick it would be to play some football. I mean I have quick feet, I have slightly above average speed (which speaks a lot for my size) and geez, it was a sick feeling picturing myself in pads laying dudes out. Anyway back to the college app process; yeah, I was applying to these smaller schools and decided that if I could I would try and walk on to my given school's football team despite having never played. Once I got into Tufts, I emailed the football coach telling him my whole story and that despite having no experience that I felt I had some qualities that could be of use to the team. He told me he had way too many kids to cut and that it wouldn't be in my best interest. I didn't let that deter me though; I decided to play rugby for a couple of years. I was pretty decent at it; I started, I hurt some people, although I will admit that I didn't exactly have the highest rugby IQ on the team. It's one of those sports that lends itself to newcomers. So sloppy overly aggressive play can be very effective on the D3 level. For some reason though, I wasn't satisfied. Rugby's a club sport, while football is a varsity one. I had a bunch of friends on the football team and man did I wish I could suit up whenever I saw them heading to practice. Anyway, this past semester (after seeing how crappy the teams '09 season was) I contacted the coach again and told him I was interested still. A bunch of kids had been quitting since my frosh year and that roster was dwindling, I figured I had nothing to lose in trying again and probably a better chance at getting the OK from the coach. Low and behold the coach ended up giving me a chance this time around--I think meeting with him personally and him getting to see my size and build helped me a little with that. This past semester I trained with the team and worked with coaches weekly getting my fundamentals down (they want me to play a 3-technique d-tackle). The training was different from anything I have ever done in the weight room--olympic lifts, plyometrics, STRETCHING haha. I got a taste of functional training. As of right now, that is probably my biggest and primary goal for working out. It's funny how things change. I still want to get bigger and stronger however, and possibly lean out a little.
Anyway, this summer is huge for me. I decided to take summer classes so that I could stay on campus near all of the facilities and most of all the coaches who are more than willing to help me as I need them (they imply that I will make the team so long as I continue doing what I have been--I've been busting my balls man). In a couple of weeks I will be putting on some pads on for the first time, haha, I feel like a little kid. I want to be a complete beast come training camp in August. I had plans in mind on how I would go about achieving this, but after coming across The Blueprint, I saw something that I could potentially work into my big plans for the summer. I was in all honesty a little hesitant to make the purchase at first, but I can confidently tell you that I am glad that I ended up pulling the trigger, because there is some priceless information in there. It's so intuitive too. The whole famine/feast concept is why I think Keto diets can be pretty effective, at least on paper anyway. I have tried running them (and currently am actually) but have never been able to last long enough with them to see if they could yield amazing results for me. College can be a killer sometimes man, with all the partying and late-night eating. Anyway, I am currently doing 3-4 weeks of Keto in the hopes of cutting some weight because I planned on bulking for the remainder of the summer. Actually, I was hoping to Bulk in sort of a recomp way, where I could potentially drop some body fat. But I am not sure how attainable my goals are (granted some progress could be made, but maybe not to the degree that I am hoping). I am currently 5'10 @ some weight between 225-230. I was hoping to cut to somewhere between 205-210 and jump back up to 230-235, but leaner than when I started. I am very aware that this is kind of unrealistic without the use of drugs, but I am so stubborn that a part of me feels that if I try my best that I could make it happen. Anyway, looking at The Blueprint and the kind of results people have experienced, I figured I had nothing to lose in trying it out. My issue lies, however, in incorporating this all into my overall training regiment. I have specific football lifts I have to follow as well as conditioning and what not. If you are interested in seeing them, let me know. Anyway, I am basically at a loss at where to begin in terms of fitting The Blueprint into my bigger picture. I will also admit that I have quite a number of supplements (and planned on getting a few others) and I am not sure if they are encouraged in the protocol. But let me end this here. I apologize sincerely for how lengthy this is; but I have a lot to share. Hopefully this served as some form of entertainment to you all haha. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and if you have any questions for me (what the workouts will look like, the supps I was planning on taking, etc.) I am more than willing to answer them.
For the record, this was originally an email I sent to Rob, but he suggested that I start a log/journal (which I was planning on doing anyway) on the forums. Logs are great and I could see this helping me so much in terms of getting some solid feedback and keeping track of where I am at. I think it was vital that I at least share some of the above info with you all, so that you could have a better sense of my background. Anyway, your patience is very much appreciated!
Once I feel mobilized enough to get things going, I provide more details about diet, starting measurements and what not.
Cheers!
Dre
