Destination: Abs (Redux)- Wk28.

Hey guys, so we’re off and running into a new program, and I’ve made some pretty big changes with this one too. Bodybuilder style training, low-calorie, intermittent fasting – its been an exciting time. Last program I tried was based around Taubes (and for more see here) and his methods, they didn’t work, this time I’m going with more reliable science, and things are going really well (as you will see below). I got my diet working for me, kind of late in the month, so I’m hoping next month, with me working hard toward fat loss, you’ll see some really good results, my goal of 10% might start to actually look like something I can achieve!

Without further adieu, let us look at the results, then discuss them.

These were my measurements as of 30/1/12

Height- 185cm
Weight- 93.1kg

Bodyfat Percentage (skin folds)
Tricep- 7.6mm
Bicep- 3.2mm
Subscapula- 15.4mm
Supraillium- 26mm
Total- 52.2mm
Bodyfat Percentage= 19.35%
OMRON- 15.7%

Girths
Arms Relaxed- R- 38cm, L- 38.5cm
Thighs- R 61.5cm, L 62cm
Chest- 102.5cm
Waist- 84cm
Hips 103.5cm

These are my current measurements as of 24/2/12

Height- 185cm
Weight- 93.4kg – Up 0.3kg

Bodyfat Percentage (skin folds)
Tricep- 5.2mm
Bicep- 3.4mm
Subscapula- 14.2mm
Supraillium- 11.6mm
Total- 34.4mm - Down 18.1mm
Bodyfat Percentage= 17.47% -  Down 1.88% (or 14.22% – Down  5.13%)
OMRON- 16.2 – Up 0.5%

Girths
Arms Relaxed- R- 38.5cm, L- 37.5cm – Up 0.5cm
Thighs- R 63.5cm, L 62cm – Up 2cm
Chest- 101.5cm – Down 1cm
Waist- 85cm – Up 1cm
Hips 104.5cm – Up 1 cm

As you will remember from my last assessment, and the one prior to that, my results have been really bad. With this new program I’ve dropped the calories right down, eating every 5 hours, trying some basic intermittent fasting on my low calories day. And it looks like it’s working.

What you will see is a discrepancy in my bodyfat percentage – and here’s where I need your input: the measuring system we use, separates the bodyfat percentage by decades, what does that mean? We use several sites on the body to calculate fat mass, we add up each of those sites to form a total number, we use a chart that has the corresponding number with its bodyfat percentage. The averages change, per total number, significantly rising every decade. The discrepancy for me came when I did my assessment last month at age 29, then turning 30 in the interim puts me in a higher age bracket. So the ’17.47′ is the age bracket I am currently in, if I had done this assessment 25 days ago, I would have been 14.22% bodyfat, according to this chart. It would ostensibly seem that I need to put up the bitter, and simply accept the charts predictions, perhaps I could sell it to myself by simply being happy with the fact that I am losing bodyfat, and that this chart is arbitrary. But you see my dilemma don’t you, 14.22 is a huge validation of my training, puts me in a bodyfat percentage category I can start to be really happy with! And come on, did I really gain 3% in the last 25 days? It seems I’ve lost either 2 or 5. But guess if we start picking our results at random, we both lose integrity and bring more arbitration to a system rife with it already, don’t we. What do you guys think?

Let’s get to some photos of the progress:

^^Does this look like 14% or 17%?    ^^Back progress is coming along nicely

^^So you don’t think me a complete upper body whore, here are the wheels – sure they need some development, but they’re there.

Functional Hypertrophy	Phase 1 Dropset
Day 1: Chest	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
1: BB Bench Press	1	8,6,4	0,0,60	100kg, 90kg,80kg
1: BB Bench Press	1	6,4,3	0,0,60	110kg,100kg,90kg
1: BB Bench Press	1	6,4,3	0,0,60	100kg, 90kg,80kg
2: DB Incline Bench Press	1	10,7,5	0,0,60	32.5kg,30kg,27.5kg
2: DB Incline Bench Press	1	9,6,4	0,0,60	32.5kg27.5kg,22.5kg
2: DB Incline Bench Press	1	10,6,3	0,0,60	30kg,25kg,20kg
3: Cable Fly	1	12,10,7	0,0,60	30kg,25kg,20kg
3: Cable Fly	1	12,7,6	0,0,60	30kg,25kg,20kg
3: Cable Fly	1	10,6,4	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
Day 2: Back	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
1: Hex Bar Deadlift	3	6*	1 min	140kg,180kg,180kg
2: Close Grip Seated Row	1	8,6,4	0,0,60	90kg,80kg,70kg
2: Close Grip Seated Row	1	6,4,3	0,0,60	90kg,80kg,70kg
2: Close Grip Seated Row	1	6,4,3	0,0,60	90kg,80kg,70kg
3: Close Grip Pulldown	1	10,7,5	0,0,60	80kg,70kg,60kg
3: Close Grip Pulldown	1	9,6,4	0,0,60	80kg,70kg,60kg
3: Close Grip Pulldown	1	10,6,3	0,0,60	75kg,65kg,55kg
4: Straight Arm Pulldown	1	12,8,7	0,0,60	25kg,20kg,15kg
4: Straight Arm Pulldown	1	12,7,6	0,0,60	25kg,20kg,15kg
4: Straight Arm Pulldown	1	10,6,4	0,0,60	25kg,20kg,15kg
Day 3: Shoulders	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
1: Seated Arnold Press	1	8,6,4	0,0,60	30kg,27.5kg,25kg
1: Seated Arnold Press	1	6,4,3	0,0,60	30kg,27.5kg,25kg
1: Seated Arnold Press	1	6,4,3	0,0,60	32.5kg,27.5kg,25kg
2: DB Rear Delt Raise	1	10,7,5	0,0,60	15kg,12.5kg,10kg
2: DB Rear Delt Raise	1	9,6,4	0,0,60	15kg,12.5kg,10kg
2: DB Rear Delt Raise	1	10,6,3	0,0,60	15kg,12.5kg,10kg
3: DB Incline Shrug	1	12,8,7	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
3: DB Incline Shrug	1	12,7,6	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
3: DB Incline Shrug	1	10,6,4	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
Day 4: Legs	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
1: Back Squat	1	6*	0,0,60	100kg,130kg,140kg
2: Leg Press	1	10,7,5	0,0,60	220kg,200kg,180kg
2: Leg Press	1	9,6,4	0,0,60	220kg,200kg,180kg
2: Leg Press	1	10,6,3	0,0,60	220kg,200kg,180kg
3: Leg Extension	1	12,8,7	0,0,60	110kg,100kg,90kg
3: Leg Extension	1	12,7,6	0,0,60	110kg,100kg,90kg
3: Leg Extension	1	10,6,4	0,0,60	110kg,100kg,90kg
4: Lying Leg Curl	1	12,8,7	0,0,60	45kg,40kg,35kg
4: Lying Leg Curl	1	12,7,6	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
4: Lying Leg Curl	1	10,6,4	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
Day 5: Arms/Abs	Set	Rep	Rest	Wk1
1: Skullcrusher	1	10,7,5	0,0,60	42.5kg,37.5kg,32.5kg
1: Skullcrusher	1	9,6,4	0,0,60	42.5kg,37.5kg,32.5kg
1: Skullcrusher	1	10,6,3	0,0,60	42.5kg,37.5kg,32.5kg
2: BB EZ Curl	1	10,7,5	0,0,60	37.5kg,32.5kg,27.5kg
2: BB EZ Curl	1	9,6,4	0,0,60	37.5kg,32.5kg,27.5kg
2: BB EZ Curl	1	10,6,3	0,0,60	37.5kg,32.5kg,27.5kg
3:Cable Curl	1	12,8,7	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
3:Cable Curl	1	12,7,6	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg
3:Cable Curl	1	10,6,4	0,0,60	40kg,35kg,30kg

Some of you may have seen this on FB – a 220kg deadlift, but it’s not that impressive, as it’s from platforms, I’ve been doing 180kg just off the floor, with, I think at least, strict form.

So, the training style for the past 4 weeks is going to make all my functional readers and strength coaches feel pretty upset. But as Nic Tumminello has been saying lately, bodybuilders train to look good, I want to be muscular, large and ripped, hence a bodybuilding program is suitbale for me. This philosophy doesn’t deny that functional training can do that for you, but it was time for a change, and the volume in this program alone was enough for me to want to do it, given that I’ve focused so much on intensity the last few years.

I’ve picked up a carb breakfast, simply to help with my recovery a bit, I’ve also, a la Ivy and Portman’s book Nutrient Timing, dropped a meal prior to my workout and have been consuming simple sugars and a minimal amounts of protein during the workout (about 25g simple sugars, and 9g protein),  followed by a high carb moderate protein (55g carbs, 20g protein) shake post workout (which I was already doing) which contains (5g) creatine (I like creatine as a post workout supplement, if only because the carbs contained in the shake would stimulate absorption). I’m also, as of tonight (Friday) going to start adding x2 more moderate protein (20g), low (high glycaemic) carb (5g) shakes in at 1 hour and 3 hours post workout, respectively. Ivy and Portman state that muscles (roughly) go insulin resistant  2 hours after training (training activates insulin acceptance), but if we consume a small amount of high glycaemic carbs (roughly 5g) periodically after training we can maximise, what they call, the ‘anabolic window’ hence develop more (fat burning) muscle. These smoothies will only be about 80-100 cals each, so they won’t affect my overall fat loss too much (especially if I offset those calories somewhere else), but should add to my fat loss by stimulating muscle gain. We’ll see in my next assessment if this works.

I’ve also been experimenting with intermittent fasting (see here, here, here, here, here, here, for some literature on this) on my low calorie day which falls on a Sunday, I managed to get a 15 hour fast in last Sunday, with pretty good results, and may try one on Saturday and Sunday this week (the 2 days before my high calories day on Monday). The time counted for the fast was from my last meal Saturday night to my first meal Sunday afternoon, I had a scoop of protein poweder in water early Sunday morning, as I don’t have the recommended BCAA’s (the protein powder after all would have contained BCAA’s, it just would also contain a few more calories than is optimal). At the very least my last assessment demonstrates, the fasting is not affecting my muscle mass, considering I managed to lose a couple of percent bodyfat, and still put on muscle.

Related articles

• Destination: Abs (Redux)- Wk24. (killsessionmusings.wordpress.com)
• Client Results – Cherie Van Wensveen. (killsessionmusings.wordpress.com)
• Want Abs? (sjbodyandfitness.wordpress.com)
• Body Composition (madelinemadfitness.wordpress.com)
• Client Results- Damith Fernando – Pt. 2. (killsessionmusings.wordpress.com)
• Do This…Look like That…Total Body Blitz Workout (shareitfitness.com)
• David Molk aiming to break Combine bench press record (profootballtalk.nbcsports.com)
• Bodyfat and How To Measure It (madelinemadfitness.wordpress.com)
• 2/13/12 – Monday – 21-15-9 (Strength) / Complex Your Life Away (Try it, we dare you) (midwestfit.com)
• Expanding Your Social Network Pt. 1. (killsessionmusings.wordpress.com)

About these ads