My Journey to Shred

I'm a 45year old who's trying to get back in to shape. After a good solid 2 years in the gym building form and knowledge, I want to take this to the next level.

[jonmaporter]

Staying accountable

I went in to the Christmas break after a good block of training, with increases in muscle mass and a drop in body fat, knowing that I would get fluffy as I overate and drink more alcohol than normal.

The standard issue male muffin tops have come but the base core of back muscularity can still be seen between the shoulder blades.

For some reason although saved upright, these have come out on their side - probably user error.

Id like to see more chest and trap development over the next year, but the squat work can be seen in the rounded glutes.

Again, better development of the chest and arms over the next year, which with the proper supplementation (JYM supplement science) and nutrition with consistent training should see another 1″ on the arm at least.

[jonmaporter]

Shortcut to Shred for the average guy

This Summer I had one goal: get in shape for my vaccy to Mexico.  That meant, getting down to 196lbs and below 20%bf.

I missed both targets but I’m not downhearted.  I did get down to 204lbs and 22%bf; so, close but no cigar.  It did reinforce or underline for me, a couple of points.  One, my body type can run to fat quite quickly - I probably have a lower metabolic rate or genes predisposed to store fat.  Two, that diet is extremely important, especially macro proportions.  Three, that my training over the Summer did lay down a great foundation.  Lastly, training with rotator cuff tendonitis sucks and sometimes requires you to adjust your plan.

Bodybuilding.com has a great body type tool that helps you understand whether you are a mesomorph, endomorph, or ectomorph.

When I do this test, it recommended I do the Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Shred (STS).  So coming back from vacation and being a little...well fluffy shall we say, that was the program I went with.  This is a six-week program that mixes microcycles of linear and reverse linear periodisation, with cardioacceleration.  er what?  Linear periodisation is where the resistance gets higher, usually by increasing weight while decreasing reps; reverse linear periodisation is where the resistance gets smaller but the reps increase.  In STS the front half of the week focusses on multi-joint linear progression to build muscle and strength; while the back half of the week focuses on reverse linear progression with single joint lower weights but higher reps to build tone and endurance.  Cardioacceleration is a specialty of Jim Stoppani; instead of resting you do 45 to 60 seconds of cardio - it’s purpose is to keep metabolic rate high to more effectively burn fat.  It’s tough.  Not gonna lie to you - I finish every workout soaked in sweat.

On top of the training, Dr Jim gives you quite specific guidance on diet; especially around carbs.  Starting in week one on 1.5g of carbs per pound of body weight, down to 0.5g or carbs per pound in weeks four through six.  Of course, he has other guidance that naturally point you to his supplements and products.  Now it would not be unnatural to get all cynical about this; however, I have tried all different types of pre-, intra-, and post-workout and thermogenic supplements.  None. Repeat, none, have been as effective as Jym supplements and they are no more expensive than other products.

I have had to make some concessions to a life that wont let me train six days a week, or eat exactly as proscribed.  Saturdays are one of my days I spend with my wife and family; I cherish those.  I cannot follow the diet exactly, as my wife has to eat and has particular issues she needs to manage in her diet.

Even with these concessions this program has been awesome and the results have been great; increased strength, with a leaner, more toned body.  The workouts aren’t easy - the cardioacceleration means you don’t really get any real rest periods.

I really recommend you try this program out!!

[jonmaporter]

Week one, day one: chest, tris, and calves

Today was the start of a new program; Jim Stopanni’s 12-week Shortcut to Size, starting with chest, triceps, and calves with nine exercises of 29 sets.

It’s also the first day when my calorie intake goes up dramatically.  On workout days, I’ll be eating about 4,000 calories a day, and on rest days about 3,690 cals with a consistent macro of equal grams of protein and carbs.  On a workout day, I’ll be eating 359g each of protein and carbs and 137g of fat.  That will be over nine separate meals that including pre- and post-workout snacks and a meal on waking to refresh the liver with protein to stop overnight muscle breakdown.

In the workout, I also wanted to introduce a Stopanni element called ‘cardio-acceleration’.  Akin to high intensity interval training, between sets I remain active and bump my heart rate back up by doing 45″ of exercises like kettle ball swings, body weight squats, bench step-ups.  In a typical hypertrophic workout you would expect heart rate to dip from cardio to fat burning during recovery. The heart rate profile looked like this:

My average heart rate was in cardio and I burned 800 calories, which is double that which I burned in a strength session, and more than spin (540 cals) or BodyPump (448 calories)   I had to stop the cardio-acceleration after nine sets, as I was feeling nauseous and I saw little point in losing my pre-workout and BCAA to just be ‘macho’.  My aim will be to incrementally increase the amount and if need be, add any outstanding balance at the end of the workout.  Each muscle group starts with four sets, with single joint exercises at three sets.  The last set of all exercises is done in this phase as a rest-pause.

It was promised to be a tough workout and it was; enjoyably tough.

[jonmaporter]

The deadlift 1RM

Earlier this week I talked about how I had seen progress in my squat and bench press 1RM.  Today was about testing my deadlift.

And it’s up!! From 279 on May 11th, to 335lbs June 8; that’s a 20% increase of 56lbs.

Jim Stopanni is now my go to guy for training: next up Shortcut to Size, with a review at midpoint to see what I need to do to reduce fat.

[jonmaporter]

A look back over Shortcut to Strength

The last five week I’ve been following Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Strength program and I wanted to post my thoughts and reactions.

Jim Stoppani promises that if you follow the training and nutrition plan, you will see strength gains your 1RM squat for all three on the big lifts. That’s been my experience.  However, I haven't been able to reduce my waistline, but that’s on me not Jim.  Understandably and for good reasons, DQ Blizzards aren’t in his nutrition plan.  That said, while my waistline hasnt gone down, my chest and back have certainly got larger as tops have got tighter on top.

The program (like all of his plans) is based on periodisation; in this case, three two-week phases where the weight goes up from 80 to 85 to 95% of 1RM, while the reps drop from 8 to 5 to 2 on the big lifts.  The ancillary lifts are similarly structured.  These means you progressively challenge your body and move the ‘point’ of adaption further along the scale.

To the critical question; has the program strengthened me and have my 1RM gone up?  Yes x 2.

Quite apart from the comments I’ve had about looking bigger, I can see changes in my chest, legs, and back.  My 1RM for squat, deadlift, and bench press have all gone up, by between 20 to 50lbs.

This has put me in to a great place for my next phase: the shortcut to size.  The issues there will be increasing mass while getting leaner.  If by week 6 of the 12-week program I’m not back down to 203lbs, then I’ll have to change direction to the Shortcut to Shred so that I’m beach ready come my September vacation.

[jonmaporter]

The curious case of the auto-calculated 1RM

Those of you how are members of Bodybuilding.com’s bodyspace exercise tracking site will know it can auto-calculate your 1RM based on your exercises; here’s the thing.  How does it do that and how accurate is it?

First things first, what the Hell is 1RM?  This is your single-rep max; how much you can lift in one rep before failure.  You cannot do another rep.  Ok? Good.

Why is this important tho?  Jeez you ask questions like a machine gun...it’s important as it tells you how strong your body is getting and also many exercise programs use a % of your 1RM to set pre-determined training loads to meet the objective of the program.

So how does it does Bodyspace calculate your 1RM?  It will apply the weights you use in a workout and against an inbuilt calculator provide your theoretical 1RM.  It’s less clear on the site how the algorithms were arrived at, or how they are updated (if ever).

Ok; so how accurate is it?  Not sure to be honest.  I know that’s kinda vague and the only way you can really find out your 1RM is by doing a test.  The reason for the vagueness, is that your 1RM depends on the person, their lifting style and technique.  It’s also impacted by what training you’ve done in the last 3 or 4 days - is your body fatigued from another workout or are you fully rested and have you slept well.  One of the peculiarities that struck me today, was that in going from 80 to 85% of 1RM and from 8 to 5 reps (based on my prior auto-calculated 1RM) the value dropped by some 20lbs.

So where does this leave us? Well the only true 1RM is the one you have tested and not allowed bodyspace to autocalculate.  But as a guide, it’s useful and can be handy.  My current training calls for 85% of 1RM for the three big lifts (squats, deadlift, and bench press), but elsewhere it says 5R - that’s a weight where you can only do 5 reps in one set and no more.  So I’m going to use the auto-calculated 1RM...because I cant be arsed to do a test.  Recognise it’s not 100% accurate, but its sufficiently accurate for what I need.

[jonmaporter]

To the A-Hole who left their weights unracked in the squat cage and the preacher curl bench.  To you Sir, I award The Asshole of the Day prize.

Please read, learn, and inwardly digest this handy list

[jonmaporter]

Reflections on a week

So ends week one of Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Strength, Jon’s version.  My version as I added RPM and BodyPump, the latter on a rest day.

Monday was squat focussed, Tuesday push or bench press focussed, and today (Thursday) was deadlift or pull focussed.

By Tuesday my lower back was aching like a bugger, my legs had been pushed, so I held some back in RPM.  Come Wednesday and BodyPump, the ache had receded somewhat, but was still present and knowing I was going in to a pull focussed workout today, I again held back.  Unlike this one lady who insisted on trying to use the same weights as the instructor; who was 30 years younger and stronger.  I worry that this old lady has woken up this morning with a serious case of DOMS.  Anyway, I’m using BodyPump and RPM for conditioning and fat burning respectively; I’ll leave the big weights to the big sessions.

Do I enjoy the strength training?  Sure do.  There’s a sense of achievement lifting bigger weights, and hopefully this will lead me to bigger gains when I go into the Shortcut to Size program in five weeks.

Does my body ache? Damn sure it does; but the RPM helped flush out the aches in my legs, and the BodyPump helped with the rest.  The ache is that good feeling of ‘yes I went, pushed myself, and worked hard”.

So to next week, and the last week of 80% 1RM before I go up to 85%.

[jonmaporter]

New phase to build strength

Today marked transition from fat busting to strength building.

Over the next six weeks I’ll be following the Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Strength program, in preparation for following his Shortcut to Size program.  I’m really excited to be doing these programs for two reasons; they look awesome and it means I can eat more - when I get the size program I’ll be on 3,500calories on a workout day.

First tho’ the strength program.  It’s a four day a week program based around the three big lifts of squat (Monday), bench press (Tuesday), and deadlift (Thursday); today was squat focussed day.  But I’m adding to the program; on Tuesdays and Thursdays I plan to do spinning to keep up the cardio work, and bodypump on Wednesdays and Saturdays for body conditioning.  In the latter, I won't be trying to lift big weights at all - in comparison to my strength workouts the weights will be tiny.  The program is further split in to three phases, each lasting two weeks.  In phase one, I’ll be doing 80% of 1RM, in phase two this goes up to 85%, and in the final phase up to 95% of 1RM.  Each workout has the big lift to start, then ancillary exercises to help build strength.  The first exercise is always five sets of eight, usually followed by three sets of eight for other exercise.

The squat focus workout today lasted just over 60 minutes, including a five minute walk to warm up on the treadmill.  As I sit here munching on my lunch, with my lower back griping from the romanian deadlifts, this workout does hit every leg muscle and hit them well.  My one query is about the warm up sets for the squats - it’s not mentioned but I’m going to do them as I don't want my nearly 50-year old body to disintegrate from over-training.  That said, purposeful, intense, and a good workout.

[jonmaporter]

A heavy vacation

Just over two weeks in the UK and seven pounds heavier, but what a great time visiting friends and family.  I wont apologise for the food I ate (the clotted cream was heavenly) or the cider I drank (tastes so much better than North American rubbish); but now I need to knuckle down in the gym.

The program all leads towards my next vacation in September when my family go to Mexico - so 22 odd weeks to get that beach ready bod.  Plenty of time.

The program starts out with me stripping off the chubb with an intense three week program of four HIIT cardio and weight sessions (split in to upper and lower body workouts), plus spin and body balance.  Today was the upper body workout....feck I’m sore and tired, what an introduction back.

Let’s break this down.  The session started with 20 minutes of cardio, alternating one minute walking with one minute running.  Then weights; bench press, rowing, shoulder press, bicep curl, tricep kickback; each of 20 reps, doing two sets without rest.  Then 10 minutes cardio; five walking, five running.  Then back to the weight superset without rest.

The cardio elements really work to raise your heart rate, the weights attempt to keep your heart rate in the cardio zone; 57 minutes in total burning nearly 700cals in total, and this is how it looks from my fitbit:

A great workout that really kicked my ass and here’s a link to the complete program.

[jonmaporter]

Back to a new program

The cold has gone, the weekend was great (go OIlers), and the film awesome (who doesnt love Patrick Stewart swearing?), Monday morning was back to the gym and the start of the last three weeks before vacation and a new program.

The program is based on Christian Thibaudeau’s Fat Busting article.  Monday and Thursday concentrates on strength sets - I don't want to lose strength as I do my HIIT intervals on Tuesday and Friday.  It’s these sessions which will cause my metabolism to burn hotter and faster for the 36 to 48 hours afterwards.

[jonmaporter]

A lesson in patients

Please excuse the pun but this last three days has been frustrating.  Monday started with going to the gym, combating what could be the onset of a head cold through a HIIT session and arm workout.  I felt strong, I felt good, my nose and head cleared.

It was a lie.

It was a cunning trick by the virus to fool me into believing I had dodged the cold.

Nope.

Come Monday evening it hit with vengeance over night.  Tuesday and Wednesday were spent combatting the virus with DayQuil and NiQuil, orange juice, and lots of liquids.  I relaxed in to and decided this week was a wash - keep the calorie deficit and macros on target as closely as I could, then come back to the gym next week.  My plan to train through was shot.  Dead.  Deceased.  My sleep was too poor to give me the rest and recovery I needed, my head on Wednesday too much like cottage cheese to contemplate getting dressed, let alone leave the house.  Yes I spent all day in my pj’s and life was good.

It’s worked.  It’s Friday and I’m breathing far easier, my sinuses aren’t congested, and my throat and chest are fine.  Just gonna relax in to the weekend, see the OIlers v Red Wings on Saturday in Rogers Place, with one of my step-sons (he’s an avid Red Wings fan, so this should be fun).  The Logan on Sunday...it’s gonna be a great weekend.

[jonmaporter]

I sodding hate colds

Last week of the Rewired program and I get a cold from the Field Marsha - she was bed ridden for the weekend, while I went to the gym and did the morning HIIT and arms session.

That said, I think I’m going to play tomorrow by ear.  When I used to cycle back in the UK, the general rule of thumb was if the cold was just in the head, train.  If the cold had got to the throat and chest, don’t train.  The logic was simple; if the infection has got to your chest, the last thing you want to do was put additional stress on your system.

[jonmaporter]

A quick update

Now in to my eight of nine weeks of the James Grage Rewired program and I weighed in on Saturday.

Absolutely stocked that I lost 4lbs last week.

If (and it’s no small ‘if’) I can keep that up, come March 21st and my flight back to the UK, I should be very close to my goal weight of 196 lbs.  Then if I can keep my weight under relative control, when I come back I can flit over in to a Summer bulking 12-week program.  That should lead nicely in to doing a shred before my Mexico two-week vacation in September.

[jonmaporter]

Oh my freaking good God...

....I’d forgotten how much I hate burpees.

Phrase Three of the James Grage Rewired program introduces HIIT sessions of three rounds of burpees, jumping jacks, and high knees over three days; Monday arm day, Wednesday chest day, and Friday shoulder day.  Wednesday was a killer as it’s the day after leg day.

The phase also also introduces pre-exhaustion and overload sets.  For example, pre-exhaustion is doing leg extensions before leg press.  An example of overload sets, are drop sets.

So the Monday HIIT session was hard and the Hell with burpees continued on Wednesday AM; the day after leg day.  That was interesting.  If interesting can also mean your thighs, hamstrings, and calves shrieking at you and your breath coming in ragged spurts.  The graph below shows my heart rate during this HIIT session.

You can see the three hills where I go in to burpees, star jumps, and high thing jogging, followed by 5 minutes of lower heart rate as I’m on the elliptical.  You can also see, that by the third HIIT superset, that in response to taking a more ‘measured’ approach (much slower between burpees, rather than straight up and down) by heart rate doesnt climb so high so quickly.  It’s a small difference, but if you know what to look for, its there.  Basically by the third set I was (to coin a UK Forces expression) ‘hanging outta my ass’.

The effect of HIIT and the reduced calorie intake should be seen quite quickly.  The former creates an EPOC effect (here’s a great article) which is a bump up in the metabolic rate so burning more calories after the workout.  The latter is me eating less, while making sure I nail my macros as much as I can.

So while I may hate burpees; I love the effect they have.

[jonmaporter]

The cult of bioimpedance & next steps

So a couple of apparent contradictory things happened over the weekend, which caused me to question but then affirm the progress I’ve made.

Firstly, I weighed in and my scales showed I’d put on 2lbs, and my body fat had gone up by 2%.  That would be an extra 4lbs of fat; so I’d have had to lose lean muscle mass and gain fat.  Given the training and macro ratio of last week, almost impossible.  Secondly, my wife (without prompting I hasten to add) said “wow, you are starting to get big”, she clarified meaning more muscular.

The scales I used to weigh and get my body fat, are FitBit Aria scales and they use bioimpedance to determine body fat.  It works by sending an electrical current through the body and measures the resistance to that current; with fat more resistant than muscle.  So measuring resistance can estimate the composition of the body.  However, hydration effects the results.  Secondly, the estimation is based on a prediction the manufacturers have arrived at after testing lots of subjects with both the Aria and another method.  So the Aria provides an estimate based on a prediction.  However, the prediction can have up to an 8% variance in the ‘true value’.  As hydration has such an effect on the reading, even trying to replicate the circumstances (naked, no earlier than 20 minutes having drunken water) can be thrown off by what was eaten the night before (rice always makes me ‘heavier’ the next day and soaks up alot more water).  The value of the Aria is seeing the value change over time, and in my case, get below 20%.

Then to my wife’s remark -she’s not backwards coming forward.  If she sees my putting weight on, she’ll let me know.  Equally, if she sees me getting too lean she’ll say - mainly because she likes a more ‘fuller figure’ to hug.  I could tell that my body was changing - slightly larger traps, more developed chest and arms.  But it wasn’t until the Field Marsha remarked, that I knew it was becoming apparent to someone else.

The take away is this; don't let the body fat reading be all consuming measure of success, it is one element that needs to be looked at over time.  You’ll see the changes before someone else, but they will.

So next week sees a change of pace in my diet and training.  My calorie intake reduces down to 1800 a day net - so any calories I’ll burn I will replace.  That’s key - aiming for 1,800 will mean I’m on a calorie restricted diet aiming to lose between 1 and 2 lbs a week  Yet I want that to be fat, not muscle.  If I didn't replace the calories I burned in exercise, then I wouldn't be refueling my body for the next workout and I wouldn't be supporting my current lean body mass.  In my training, I introduce interval training.  This sits alongside the cardio and weights.  While the weights will see the full introduction of drop sets - these beauties should bring a new intensity to the workouts.  This for three weeks, before I end the James Grage program and flit over to one based on Christian Thibaudeau fat busting guidance; this blends strength training, with alactic sprints, and high intensity interval training.  More on that later fitfam.

[jonmaporter]

Killin’ it

Week four of the James Grage 9-week rewired program with a new diet plan, and my body is responding just as I hoped.

I started out at 214 lbs with a piss poor resting heart rate of over 70.  I'm now down 3 lbs in two weeks and my resting heart rate is nearer to 50.  That heart rate change may seem quite a sudden drop, but remember, I used to do a great deal of cardio work when I cycled.  So my heart wasn't in bad shape, so much as engine just needed tuning and then run for longer.

This next phase of the program re-introduces three 30-minute cardio sessions a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  On top of that, I plan to do spin once a week.  The program also changes how the super-sets are done.  In the first three weeks, antagonistic muscles were worked equally in most sets (i.e.one bicep and one tricep exercise); in this phase, the sets concentrate on one muscle group.  This means that each muscle gets less time to recover, needs to adapt to the change in emphasis, and I come away more tired.

Last week, I also constructed my cut program for the last three weeks before I go back to Blighty in March.  If keep up the progress, I hope to be close or at 196 lbs.