Bruno’s almost over his flu and his temperature is down to 99 degrees (he previously hit 103.3). He should be able to go to school tomorrow. Now I’m over 99.5 degrees and my “normal” is usually 97.6. I don’t feel bad just a little tired. And that could be attributed to three days of broken sleep and 5 intense workouts in 7 days. Or I’m getting his flu but it’s sneaking up on me slowly.
Yesterday I managed Power 90X Plus Upper Body Plus. And I raised the weights by several pounds. My biceps and triceps are barking and I can feel all my back, chest, and ab muscles. Incorporating the Bosu and GoFit Disc are ramping up the intensity – especially on push ups, squats, calf raises, and lunges. I really wanted to push it and get one more hard workout under my belt in case I did get the flu.
For that matter the dogs are barking too. Dee Dee and Junior are playing in the front courtyard like two puppies. We’ll have had Dee Dee a month this Saturday and she’s been the easiest puppy we’ve ever had. She acts a lot like the Rottweiler I had in the 1990’s. Bond was purebred and a very well mannered and loving dog. Dee Dee has a lot of the markings and body conformation of a Rottweiler, and sweet natured like Bond was, with a good dose of Border Collie markings mixed in. She gets along really well with five of our cats but the other four don’t bother to come in the house anyway. I have only one totally indoor cat, Lexi, and they get along almost too well.
Dee Dee managed to get past me and into the horse corral again this morning. Fury wasn’t thrilled until I gave her grain. Grain - the great horsey panecea. Then I went out and caught Dee Dee with one of Fury's horse leads. At least she doesn’t run from me though occasionally she won’t come – particularly when she’s found a goodie like horse manure!
I’m working on several blog posts including a good sample of my daily menus and the next “You Don’t Need To Go To The Gym To Get Fit” article. But if I slide down the slippery slope of sick it may take awhile to post them. I’ll probably manage a few short entries in any case.
My latest shipment from Amazon is on its way and include The Cheat to Lose Diet: Cheat BIG with the Foods You Love, Lose Fat Faster Than Ever Before, and Enjoy Keeping It Off! (Hardcover) by Body For Life Grand Champion Joel Marion and Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition (Paperback)
by John Ivy.
After I read them I’ll post book reviews.
Here’s some interesting links:
From Burn The Fat blog - THE GREAT ABS MISTAKE "He Was Doing One Thousand Crunches And Sit Ups A Day... But Still NO Abs!!! By Tom Venuto, NCSA-CPT, CSCS
It takes training to increase strength, build endurance and DEVELOP the abdominals, but to SEE the definition in your abdominals - or any other muscle group for that matter - is almost entirely the result of low body fat levels.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but if you can't see your abs, it's not an issue of “muscle development” at all. You simply have too much body fat covering up the ab muscles. The lower abdominal area also happens to be the one place that most people - especially men - store the body fat first.
There's a Scientific Reason Why Your Lower Ab Flab Is The Last Place To Go
Belly Fat - A Big Problem
Most people don't have their fat distributed evenly throughout their bodies. Each of us inherits a genetically determined and hormonally-influenced pattern of fat storage just as we inherit our eye or hair color. In other words, the fat seems to "stick" to certain areas more than others. Read More.
Obesity: Behavioral Changes Needed To Keep The Pounds Off
ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2008) — According to Rena Wing, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and director of the Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center at The Miriam Hospital, people who are most successful in preventing weight gain, and dieters who lose weight and keep the pounds off, have made major changes in their in diet and exercise routines. Read more.
Carbs...and Carb Cycling for Fat Loss by Jonathon Fass
When dieting for a bodybuilding contest, I use an arsenal of weapons to lose unsightly excess body fat. One of the dietary procedures I institute is to cycle my carbs. Carbohydrates are used as energy by the body; they fuel our workouts, as well as providing ample fuel to be used throughout the course of the day.
Ingesting carbs also replenishes our glucose and glycogen stores to prevent fatigue. Carb cycling allows you to still eat carbs from clean sources, without adding body fat, and cycling enables you to better utilize fat for burning as fuel, as opposed to burning carbs and muscle tissue for fuel.
Are Carbs the Evil Enemy?
Carbs are not the evil villain the media makes them out to be. Improper carb timing can however, cause these carbs to be stored as fat. Carbs are not essential to the body, but they make dieting, and eating in general, a lot easier and more pleasurable... as long as the carbs are from the proper sources.
Carbs get a bad rap in the news, due to people jumping on the proverbial bandwagon to make a buck off the latest trend in dieting.... low carbs! There are tons of low carb foods hitting the grocery stores daily, everything from bread, to potato chips, can now be found with a low carb label. A few years back it was all about bashing fats....remember? Read more.
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I'd take this next one with a grain of salt if you're doing an intense training program like Power 90X. If you don't workout hard - which is exactly what they studied in a workout of 4 sets of 12 reps which is nothing like Power 90X workouts - does mean you'll require less carbohydrates.
An intense workout program will require a different fueling dynamic including UNREFINED carbohydrates like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Unlike the low set and reps workout described below, in P90X Plus Upper Body my push ups typically run 8 sets of 40-50 reps including 8 variations like Pike Push Ups, Plyometric Push Ups, Military Press, etc, and a set with one hand on the Bosu and one on the GoFit disc. Although many standard exercises like bicep curls in P90X are 10-12 reps (to failure or near failure - that weight you're lifting better be heavy enough to make that last 12th rep damned near impossible to complete) you're still doing up to 8 sets PER body part. That means 8 different sets of bicep exercises (hammer, concentration curls, swimmers, etc.) 8 sets of various push ups, 8 sets of different angled pull ups, 8 sets of different shoulder exercises, 8 sets of back exercises, 8 sets of tricep exercises, and some of these exercises are also designed to recruit more muscles by demanding use of balance at the same time as lifting weights, as in the weight warrior - all in one workout.
And P90X keeps you moving at a rate that keeps your heart rate up. Your rest periods aren't spent standing still. These workouts are designed to burn 600 calories a session. I dare you to do 90 days of P90X with a low carb diet under 75-150 grams a day! I guarantee your performance and energy levels will suffer. Unless you run on Crytonite.
Of course if you're married to very low carb all the time (20 to 60 grams a day) and aren't a serious exerciser, or do a less energy-demanding routine of light to heavy lifting of low reps and sets, hey, no problem. Your energy demands from carbohydrates are not as great as those of exercisers who do long and intense workouts combining weight training and aerobics.
And also don't expect optimal results doing 20 to 60 grams of carbs a day, little or no weight training, and light aerobics of 30 to 45 minutes of elliptical or other gentle aerobics three days a week. You can lose weight that way, sure. Great. Just don't expect a lot in strength or endurance gains.
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The Importance of Pre and Post Exercise Amino Acids/Carbs by Robbie Durand, M.A., C.S.C.S.
A few days ago I was getting myself into my pre-workout ‘jacked’ phase having consumed a protein/carbohydrate supplement with some added leucine about an hour earlier when I started noticed a couple of the younger gym rats drinking Power-Aid. It hit me then, I felt like Jessie Ventura in "Predator" when Arnold goes and picks up the truck and Jessie says, "What the fuck?" I was kind of shocked that the word still has not got out that carbohydrate drinks by themselves without some added amino acids is really settling for less in our quest for muscle growth.
Why the hell are lifters drinking Power-Aid?
Carb Drinks Do Not Increase Resistance Exercise PerformanceSurely, the word hasten out that consuming a carbohydrate beverage alone is not going to do anything for increasing protein synthesis and creating an anabolic drive for muscle hypertrophy. Sure, all those Gatorade and Power-Aid commercials look cool with the neo colors coming out of their pores, but its not going to do a hell of a lot for you in the gym. Won't drinking a carbohydrate drink increase your maximal strength and reduce fatigue in the gym?
Researchers studied whether drinking a carbohydrate drink may reduce perceptional effort in the gym. Thirty strength-trained subjects were randomized to a carbohydrate group (C) or a placebo group (P), and lifted weights for 2 hours (4 sets; 10 repetitions maximum; 10 exercises; 2-3-minute rest intervals). Subjects ingested 10 ml/ kg/hour of 6% carbohydrate or placebo beverages during the resistance-training bout. The 15-category Borg Perceived Exertion Scale was used to assess overall body exertion after completion of the last repetition in each set for each exercise. Carbohydrate supplementation exerted no attenuating effect on ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) during resistance training (19). Basically, it means the group drinking carbohydrate beverages didn't find the workouts any easier than the group drinking water.
But drinking some extra carbs should help improve performance with regards to high intensity repetitive sessions in the gym right? According to a new 2006 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, it does not matter whether you consume a high or low carb diet; it's not going to do a lot for performance in the gym. In that study, multiple sets of jump squats were performed by men consuming either a high-CHO (6.5 g CHO kg body mass) diet compared to a moderate-CHO (4.4 g CHO kg body mass) diet. The resistance exercise test consisted of 4 sets of 12 repetitions of maximal-effort jump squats using a Plyometric Power System unit and a load of 30% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM). A 2-minute rest period was used between sets. The results indicated that the power output during multiple sets of maximal jump squats was not enhanced following a higher-CHO diet compared to a moderate- or lower-CHO diet. These data show that elevated carbohydrate intake is not needed to optimize a repetitive power-performance (17). Read More.
