NROL Strength II: Belated Week 1 Results!

• Weight - 14st 3lb (down 6lb from last week)
• Body Fat % - 5.8% (digi-callipers -down 1.6% from last week)
• Waist - 34+ inches (down nearly 0.75 inch from last week)

This has been a particularly tiring week. Getting back into the training has been tough after the vacation although it has been good to get started again. I'm slower than my initial preliminary sessions but I suppose that is to be expected. I'm sure the speed will pick up once I get fully back into the swing of things. The cycling route to and from work has now been sorted out and it works out at just under an extra 2 miles added to my round trip which will be beneficial without adding too much to the journey times. That's good because it means I'll be doing more work throughout the week, an extra 10 miles (nearly) more than before. This equates to just under 70 miles/week just commuting.

As I've said previously I intend to work on the basis of 2 strength weight training sessions in the gym / week and the rest of my exercise coming from cycling. I might increase that to three when I progress but for the moment 2 is enough as the weights are heavy. I also have the advantage at the new work location to use the facilities there (for a small fee of course). They run some classes in the sports hall and I am tempted to get involved in the circuit training once I feel I can fit it in. They also do monthly bleep tests that might be good to get an indication of how good or bad my cardio fitness is. I'll let you know how things progress and whether I get involved with these things sooner rather than later.

In terms of the results achieved above. I think there has been a bit of a knee jerk reaction to my body returning to full exercise and it's brought the figures down quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if there was little positive movement over the next week. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if the figures rose slightly. I think it might take another couple of weeks or so before I start to progress past the point I'd reached before going on vacation. Also we shouldn't forget that the phase that I'm on is a strength phase so you would expect there to be some weight (hopefully majority lean) added at some stage. I need to get back into proper eating and feeding habits. By that I need to move into grazing throughout the day rather than stuffing at three larger meals. To do this I need to have 6 to 7 meals & snacks so that I'm not going more than 3 hours without some food. Timing and having convenient food to hand will be the most difficult thing to get right but it is essential if I am going to add any muscle to my frame. It will need nutrients to do this. Also it will be additionally hard for my body to go into a muscle eating reaction if I'm feeding it. The brain will acknowledge that there's food coming in and so shouldn't go into a starvation /presevation mode.

This is what I should be doing but getting it right can be difficult. I have overeaten doing things this way before and it has been awkward getting the required protien incorporated into them as well. I now have more storage space at work now so the plan is to stash snacks and food that is acceptable at work so that I have a handy supply should I need it. Again I'll let you know how things go. Moving to the new location has meant there are still quite a lot of things to sort out and fit in but I believe that the move will be beneficial as facilities etc are better for me to achieve my goals and that can only be good. That's all for now.

Cheers, BustaGut!

Quick update!

Hi All, Just thought that I would post a quick update following my first stint of training after vacation. Cycling was good although more difficult than I imagined it would be. I suppose we get out of practice relatively quickly. That and the distance increased slightly by about 2miles making the overall distance about 14 miles round trip. This was enough to make my legs ache this morning and I could tell they weren't use to it. The reason for the increase is that the office has relocated and until I get an alternative route sorted the mileage may fluctuate up and down further. Once I have a proper agreed route I will then be able to start timing myself so that I know I'm putting in the required effort.

This morning was the first proper session of Strength II that will count against the 16 sessions I need to complete in this phase. Generally I was pleased with the effort and result although next time I hope to be a little quicker in the change over to other exercises. Initially my back was stiff and a bit restrictive in the squat but by the final set this was much better and the form had improved. Perhaps I may need to do another small but heavier warm up set just to stretch it in preparation for the proper squats. I'll see how things feel next time. On the quarter squat at the rack, whilst the weight I'm using is very heavy I intend to increase this a little next time as I was strong on the final set doing 5 reps instead of the required 3. To me this is a good indication that the weight can go up slightly, especially with the added safety of the rack.

Well that's all for now. I'm trying out a different route to work this morning and will try to see how I can work the return journey into the one way systems of the city centre without being taken too far of my destination's direction. I'll let you know how things go.

Cheers, BustaGut!

Vacation Over: Damage Report (Time for Work!)

• Weight - 14st 9lb (up half a stone [7lb] from last measurement)
• Body Fat % - 7.4% (digi-callipers -up 2.4% from last measurement)
• Waist - 34.75 inches (up 1 whole inch from before vacation)
  

This appears to be considerable damage done over the two week period especially when you consider that I wasn't going crazy. I suppose the first week I ate pretty much off plan and treated myself but the second week was more in line with my usual eating plan with only the odd deviation. I think where things went a bit wrong was that I had considerably more alcohol than I've had in a very long time and I would class this as one of the main culprits for the results above.This coupled with a significant reduction in activity and eating majority high fat whilst fat burning is turned off from the alcohol pretty much account for everything. The activity levels were considerably lower than I had initially anticipated simply because of the heat and the fact that the bike I hired wasn't really up to the task. By that I mean it had two buckled wheels, was too small a sticking back brake and a dodgey saddle. Unfortunately there wasn't another one available at such short notice so I made do. I thought that the little bit that I would use it would be better than nothing. Swimming any amount of lengths in the pool was also difficult since there were a lot of people in there due to the heat and the pool itself was smaller than the pictures I had seen had led me to believe. I'm not making excuses I'm just giving the background. I intended to use the holiday as a break for my body (from exercising at least) and treat myself. I feel that I've done that now and I'm ready to get back in the gym as well as on my bike to progress further and be the best I can. Whilst the break has given me some ground to make back up it has been beneficial in so many other ways.

We all need a break, so long as that's all it is and you get back into the swing of things as soon as possible. That is what I intend to do from tomorrow when I'll be cycling to work and attempt the first official Strength II session on Tuesday. I will be doing two sessions a week initially since they take a lot out of me these strength workouts and as I'll be cycling as well this will be enough to begin with. Depending on how things go and timetable arrangements I may move to three sessions eventually but like I said it depends how things go. I'll let you know.

Cheers, BustaGut!

NROL Strength II: Preparation Sessions completed!

• Weight - 14st 2lb (down 2lb from last week)
• Body Fat % - 5.2% (digi-callipers -down 0.6% from last wk)
• Waist - 33.75 inches (up slightly from last measurement)

Right I've finished preparing the Strength II sessions for when I return from holiday. I did this by running through the sessions trying to get a feel for both the exercises and the weights etc that would be appropriate to use to induce a strength gain. This week I finished workout D and revisited workout A to get that just right. I'm glad I did double check workout A because the trainer at the gym moved me across to the enclosed rack for the quarter squats and showed me the correct form. This was good because the rack and safety rails (which the weight rested on fractionally when the weight was lowered) gave me the confidence (as did the slight pause at the bottom on the rails) to go much heavier. I went from 55kg each side where I origionally performed them to 85kg each side. Although this was a bit too heavy so I resorted to 80KG each side and that felt right. That's a massive improvement and a big difference to have lost out on.

The results above are a little bit mixed as the weight is down as is the %bf but the pictures (although inside) show no improvement (I included some pics of legs as I'm aware I haven't included any previously and thought it would provide a fuller picture of where I am), infact they are less defined than a few weeks previous and the waist measurement is fractionally up since last recording. I'm not too stressed about this as I've put in lots of effort over these past few weeks and I am now truely ready for a good break to recharge the batteries and come back eager to kick some butt (mine of course) in the gym and knuckle down back at work to start moving forward on where I want to be. All of this will take effort and the holiday will be a nice breather before I throw myself into this.

After the 8 week period the Strength II workkouts should take me I will see whether the gym owner was serious in his offer and advice about me using a pre-contest diet and training. I toyed with the idea for some time before I said to him a week or so ago now that I would try it but after I'd completed the 8 weeks of Strength II once I return from vacation. I will need to provide him with the details of the programme I'm currently doing, weights, reps etc so that he will be able to devise a programme for me. Anyway we'll see what happens there as it all might be pie in the sky. If so I'll just continue with NROL and move across to Hypertrophy II (possibly) then after that through the fatloss phases again to strip back. It will all depend on how things go with Strength II and whether the Gym owner was actually serious. I'll let you know.

Will be getting in some activity over the holiday as I'll be biking and swimming but staying out of the gym until I get back. The activity I'll be doing will mainly be for fun and relaxation rather than following any type of training regime (not that I don't enjoy my training programmes because I do but you know what I mean). Anyway it's time for me to go now, I'll update the pages when I return and let you know how it all went. We'll see what the measurements and results are when I get back and I'll take it from there. See you then!

Cheers, BustaGut!

NROL Strength II: Preparation Sessions

• Weight - 14st 4lb (up 1lb from last week)
• Body Fat % - 5.8% (digi-callipers -down 0.3% from last wk)
• Waist - forgot to measure - sorry
  

Training has been hard this week as I've been nursing my back along a little. The trial of workout A wasn't too bad and my back had more or less recovered on Friday when I did workout B which contained lots of deadlifts and it just blasted it. I was in a bad way all stiff and achey, bent over. But it was more from overdoing it rather than having pulled anything so that was something at least. It felt much better the following day but I was lifting a few things and bending quite alot all day so by the end it was stiffening up again. Today it's been ok although I can still feel like its done a lot of work and is recovering still. At the moment it's like after a normal gym session so presume it's ok and will be ready for the next session by Tuesday.

My first impessions of the the Strength II sessions are that they certainly knock the stuffing out of your muscles, even with the extended rest periods. I'm trying to push my self hard and lift as heavy as I can whilst not losing too much in the lifting form. I have a couple of more sessions next week before I go on holiday and then I will have sampled all of the Strength II workouts. I can then have a couple of weeks off from the gym knowing what's in store for me once I'm back (quite frankly a lot of hard work - but it will do me good- I think!).

Cycling too has been hard work. The weather hasn't been great, infact it's been terrible, lots and lots of rain. That wouldn't be too much of an issue but the worst thing has been the wind. It makes eveything that much harder and really slows you down, nearly to a stand still sometimes. You feel like someones pushing you back whilst someone else is hanging off your back wheel dragging a freind behind him. It's just stupid! Then there are days it's as still as anything and you seem to be flying along at a great speed - it's those days that keep you coming back after the windy ones.

I'll be putting in plenty of effort next week so I gain maximum benefit from the remaining workouts so that they can act a bit like a buffer to the start of my vacation. I'll let you know how it all goes.

Cheers, BustaGut!