My Plan for the Summer

Life has not been going so well for me as of late, but I've still been going to the gym. My goal was to be "ho-ready" for a summer in China, in the words of YouTube's Chris Jones of Physiques of Greatness, but it looks like I'm stuck in America for the foreseeable future. This does not stop me from trying to improve my body and increase my strength.

While I am here in my hometown with access to a cheap, but effective gym membership, I plan to lift at least five times a week. So far, I have been accomplishing this goal. I have been doing more dropsets, lifting heavy and constantly trying to increase the amount of weight that I move each week. I am shooting to do three to five reps with heavy weight, then drop down and do six to eight reps right after with the usual weight that I'd move for maintenance. I am seeing great results with muscular growth and definition so far, and psychologically it feels great to know that I am increasing my strength.

Aside from lifting, I have continued with my heavy bag workouts for cardio, and I will be getting back into boxing soon. Also, while I was apprehensive to do so at first due to its feminized nature, I have begun taking Zumba classes once a week. This has been helping me with my flexibility to a degree, provides a great full-body workout, is good cardio, and it gives me something new to learn that I might be able to teach abroad if I master it. If I were into Latinas I'd certainly enjoy the eye candy there too.

If anything exciting comes up, I'll be sure to blog about it here, but for the time being it's business as usual.

10 Days a (Pseudo) Vegan in Taiwan

As you know if you have been following my other blog (that's right, all two of you), then you know that I have recently returned from a trip to China and Taiwan. By the time that I got to Taiwan, I had lost a lot of weight, and I was not in prime health. This is probably due to the air, the lack of exercise, and of course, the food. As delicious as the food tasted, it did not agree with my digestive tract all of the time.

After bidding farewell to Mainland, I spent about a week and a half with a good friend of mine in Taiwan. Since I wasn't in a position to complain, I adhered to a semi-vegan diet, given that my friend lives a vegan lifestyle. At first, I was skeptical that I would get enough macros to maintain an adequate level of energy, but I was surprised that I felt much more energetic eating little to no meat versus eating huge plates of beef or chicken. I felt much cleaner, and I bounced back from my sickness much quicker than I would with a meat-heavy diet.

Now, I did not do much physical exercise in Taiwan other than swimming, so I can't say that I would be able to lift on the diet that I enjoyed in Taiwan, but overall, I felt much healthier. Now that I am back in the States, meat is back on my plates, but I have been eating less of it and more fruits and vegetables. I probably won't bulk back up as quickly, but overall I feel more energetic, healthier, and cleaner, so it works out for the better. If I don't have the energy to hit the gym because I have a half-digested steak festering in my colon, then that protein doesn't go to making gainz (not muscular, at least), thus, it is a good trade-off.

I might go vegan for a week every two months to detoxify my digestive tract. Maybe I'll incorporate the vegan diet into my bulking and cutting cycles. I'll have to do more research on protein sources and recipes, but in reality, eating vegan (at least the way my friend does) can even be cost and time-effective too since one can just eat raw foods.

If I proceed with this dietary plan, I'll be sure to keep an account here.

Summertime Gainz and 6/19/2013 Leg Day

I finally have some time off during the summer, so I am going to try to utilize it to improve myself as a person. A large part of this self-improvement will be physical, as I try to increase the intensity of my workouts. This has already taken a bit of a toll on my body, but it is a fee worth paying as I have gained about two pounds of lean muscle mass in the past month (not a lot, I know, but it is something to write about for a hard-gainer like me).

Today was my fourth day in the gym this week, and it was leg day. I hurt my neck pretty badly yesterday when working my back and shoulders, so I couldn't squat too heavy. In order to make up for this, I hit the incline leg press a lot harder than I typically do. My workout went as follows:

4 sets, 8 - 12 reps back squats - 160 pounds
4 sets, 8 - 12 reps standing calf raises - 160 pounds
4 sets, 15 reps seated calf machine 150 pounds

I then moved on to the incline leg press machine. I started with ten plates (450 pounds) and did 8 reps. I remove two plates, then did ten reps. I repeated this until I was down to two plates on the machine. After a one minute rest, I repeated this process starting with four plates. I repeated this until I reached a two-plate start. This is much more activity for my quads and hams than I am used to, but I am sure that if I keep it up, I'll improve my strength and endurance (I'm also sure that it's going to burn a lot tomorrow).

To finish up, I did a few exercises for my abs:

4 sets, 12 - 15 reps decline bench crunches w/ 10 pound medicine ball for the obliques
2 supersets, "Captain's chair" leg raises

My workout wasn't very diverse today, but it was effective, and that is what matters. I hope to up the intensity in the coming weeks, and maybe add a few new exercises to my repertoire. Until next time.

Time For Some Heavy Lifting

I've decided to make another small modification to my plans for the end of the year. For the remainder of this month (and probably a week or so into January), I'm going to be lifting heavy. Instead of doing my usual 8-12 reps and pyramid sets, I'm going to be aiming for 6 - 8 with heavier weights in order to maximize strength gains. My new motto for this period will be "If I can do more than eight, I need more weight".

I also intend to rest less between sets in order to stay active. This would be easier if I worked multiple muscles in one day, as I'd be able to alternate between muscle groups. However, I've seen better results when dedicating days to single muscle groups, so I will stick with that plan for now. Perhaps I will change up and work multiple groups later in 2013.

Tomorrow, I put my new plan to the test with a leg day, which should not be a problem at all. I'll probably have to find a spotter once pectoral day comes along though.

Why and How I Started Working Out

I started working out regularly because I was tired of living a monotonous lifestyle of working, gaming, eating, and sleeping; to be honest, I was also tired of being built like a straw!

I started out by purchasing myself a heavy bag for Christmas, and doing about an hour of punching on alternating days. This helped me to improve my cardio (which is still poor after years of living a sedentary lifestyle and having asthma as a child) and also helped me to broaden my shoulders a bit.

I still needed more though, so I bit the bullet and joined a local gym. With almost no muscle mass on my body, I started lifting very light weight. It was embarrassing, but luckily for me, the clientele at the gym that I frequent tends to focus on their own workouts rather than heckling dweebs, and some of them actually went out of their way to help me get started. After a few months of dedicated work, I've earned dramatic increases in strength and a noticeably firmer body.

I'm still not a hulking dude with a physique like Chris Jones, but over the course of half of a year, I've evolved from a straw to a twig. In a few years, perhaps I will be proud to look at myself in the mirror. Until then, at least I can flex my pecs now, and I'm on my way to that "V" that makes the ladies pay the fee!