[islander]

Hi McFreid I very much enjoyed reading your log. For some reason I found myself doing it with a english accent. Ill have to go back and read some more but just from reading page 6 these are my thoughts. Your measuring of bodyfat, you are taking these measurements yourself and calculating them? How many areas are you pinching? Have you ever tracked you sodium levels in your food? They seem like they might turn out high and result in extra water retention which would result in your bouncing weight. You diet looks very good, do you do your macro count as well? I notice you do alot in one workout. When doing so much in one workout I find it hard to maximize each exercise and muscles needed are already to fatigued to assist properly. When is the last time you changed your routine. If not noticing any gains in strength or positive body changes a 'shock' to the body is good by switching up your routine. You may have done so already but I have not had a chance to go back and read yet. There is many more great exercises you can incorporate which might make you gain muscle faster which burn fat faster, if that is your goal. I see you do have the bascis and also like to do alot of pushups and pullups which are very beneficial. Oh which reminds me, core, when doing deads tighten your abs before and during your rep. Always look straight ahead and slightly retract your sholders slightly and lock out but setting your hips forward. Depending on what part of the deadlift your back is rounding in your hamstings could also be to tight to allow you the full ROM. Are you doing a conventional deadlift or a striaghtleg? Ahh there was something else but I was trying to remember everything I wantd to say as I read along your log. Really great writer.

[mcFreid]

Originally Posted by islander

Hi McFreid I very much enjoyed reading your log. For some reason I found myself doing it with a english accent. Ill have to go back and read some more but just from reading page 6 these are my thoughts. Your measuring of bodyfat, you are taking these measurements yourself and calculating them? How many areas are you pinching? Have you ever tracked you sodium levels in your food? They seem like they might turn out high and result in extra water retention which would result in your bouncing weight. You diet looks very good, do you do your macro count as well? I notice you do alot in one workout. When doing so much in one workout I find it hard to maximize each exercise and muscles needed are already to fatigued to assist properly. When is the last time you changed your routine. If not noticing any gains in strength or positive body changes a 'shock' to the body is good by switching up your routine. You may have done so already but I have not had a chance to go back and read yet. There is many more great exercises you can incorporate which might make you gain muscle faster which burn fat faster, if that is your goal. I see you do have the bascis and also like to do alot of pushups and pullups which are very beneficial. Oh which reminds me, core, when doing deads tighten your abs before and during your rep. Always look straight ahead and slightly retract your sholders slightly and lock out but setting your hips forward. Depending on what part of the deadlift your back is rounding in your hamstings could also be to tight to allow you the full ROM. Are you doing a conventional deadlift or a striaghtleg? Ahh there was something else but I was trying to remember everything I wantd to say as I read along your log. Really great writer.

This was a great reply!

I'm not in anyway English, but I too see what you mean. Not sure how that style developed... Maybe it's 'cause I read a lot and much of literature is from England? Who knows. Anyway, I have various answers regarding your real and very enlightening questions.

I take the measurements of my body fat using a HANDHELD Omron Fat Analyzer. I have been doing this since last summer. I also got professionaly caliper tested around July of 2008 and the Omron Fat Analyzer and the caliper test showed identical numbers on the dot. I was around 9.6% BF back then.

I have never tracked my sodium levels. I would agree though that they are probably quite high. Sadly, I can't do much about it as I am restricted to whatever my dining hall offers and most of the time that means I have to resort to eating the Deli Meats (which are carriers of extreme sodium). I do my best to limit it though. For example I no longer put additional salt on any of my foods, not even my eggs in the mornings. I also make sure to drink plenty of water to make up for it. I would say I average around 4-5 liters a day. And I'm not sure if this is scientificly valid but I don't believe I am holding water because I seem to have to go to the bathroom every 1-2 hours (is this average for a person drinking as much as I do?).

You make an interesting point with this being a possible culprit of my weight fluctuations. I have never considered that, but last Sunday I made the decision to switch from daily measurements to weekly as I feel like it is less stressful(plus now I have another reason to look forward to every Sunday of the week).

As for my diet again I do my best to estimate my macros. I shoot for around a 40C/40P/20F and believe that I do do a fairly good job of getting there. Before college I used to count every calorie to the exact decimal place and make sure that I was where I wanted to be (this is when I was still losing weight from being a fat kid and was on a 30C/50P/20F diet). From those days I obtained a fairly good idea of what portions of what foods contain what calories. I have used that knowledge to now estimate my daily intake.

Do I do a lot in one workout? I don't really feel like it. I mean I'm usually in the gym for around 45 minutes of actual weight lifting. You do bring up a good point though with changing my routine. I haven't changed it in a very long time. Instead I have been adding to it. For example it originally started with just the squats, deadlifts, and bench. But then I wanted to work on my back so I added DB Rows. And then I wanted to get my shoulders bigger so I added the DB Standing Shoulder Press. And so on. Maybe it is time for a complete change though. I'll strongly consider that. Any recommendations?

Thanks for the advice on the deadlift! Today is my weight lifting day and I am going to make sure to take your knowledge to heart. You talked about my back rounding and it usually seems to be happen on a very very slight scale right at the very beginning of the lift. Before I lift my back is straight and usually by 1/2 up and on the full way down it is straight. But, for that one instant right now when I am pulling the weight off the ground it curves slightly. I followed Rippetoe's guide to deadlifting for my form so I usually place my feet so that the bar is halfway between my toes and heels. I then bend my legs until my shins touch the bar and this is my starting position.

Thanks again for a very well put response and I hope I answered everything you wanted to know. Please do respond again as I always am happy to see someone else have an interest in my journal.

[mcFreid]

Friday 3/27/09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diet:
7:15am:
2 small-medium Apples
1 bowl Cream of Wheat
5 Egg Whites with Deli Ham, Onions (Mustard)
12:20pm:
1 medium Apple
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Cucumber, Green Pepper, Garbanzo Beans (Low Calorie Light Italian Dressing)
1+ bowl Seafood Soup [a lot of extra seafood]
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey, Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)
2 thin slices Turkey
5:20pm:
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Cucumber, Green Pepper, Garbanzo Beans, a little Cottage Cheese (low Calorie Light Italian Dressing)
1+ bowl Seafood Soup [extra seafood and vegetables]
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey, Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)

That was my diet.



The Workout:

ELLIPTICAL:
5min @ ~77rpm, 1resistance
3x5x150 BB Squat
1min rest
3x5x160 BB Deadlift
1min rest
3x5x125 BB Bench Press
1min rest
3x5x35 DB Shoulder Press
1min rest
3x5x40 Assisted Pull-Ups
1min rest
3x6 Dips(chest version, leaning forward)
1min rest
3x5x25 Assisted Chin-Ups
1min rest
3x10 Knuckle Pushups
30sec rest
3x30secx Bicycle Crunches
30sec rest


That was the workout.



The Day:

I had a great lifting session today. I found myself able to take the additional weight on my squat. That was a huge satisfaction. I am going to try to start increasing all my movements by 5 pounds if possible every week. I’m tired of not progressing. I want to get stronger and I feel like this is the way to do it. I mean after all I’ll never know if I can lift the additional 5 pounds until I try. Squats are a perfect example. I thought I was stalling at 145; I felt like I was pushing myself to the edge on every rep. And yet, it seems I could do 150 just as well. My instinct tells me my other lifts may be the same.

There isn’t thing else to tell. That is all. Good night.

That was the day.




This concludes Entry #113.

[islander]

Hii Ok definitely think its time to mix it up! Congrats on the squats tonight by the way! You body it used to this routine and these reps just adding more weight might help but its also fun to incorporate new thing and methods. I posted a thread awhile back about 'Bursting threw Plateaus' or something and it had some great ideas. Ill see if i can find it for you. I found this one thats not bad on deads today for you. I think the main thing just remember to keep that chest out and head up. YouTube - MIKE MENTZER Teaches DEADLIFT or mabey work on shoulders a bit more because mabey arnt strong enough to help start the lift. hmmm your wo do look great tho! You have all the compounds down so I can see why you hesitate to add some isolation moves. Mabey training for power instead of hypotrophy, so lower rep heavier weights longer rest. Ill find the thread let me know what you think.

[mcFreid]

Originally Posted by islander

Hii Ok definitely think its time to mix it up! Congrats on the squats tonight by the way! You body it used to this routine and these reps just adding more weight might help but its also fun to incorporate new thing and methods. I posted a thread awhile back about 'Bursting threw Plateaus' or something and it had some great ideas. Ill see if i can find it for you. I found this one thats not bad on deads today for you. I think the main thing just remember to keep that chest out and head up. YouTube - MIKE MENTZER Teaches DEADLIFT or mabey work on shoulders a bit more because mabey arnt strong enough to help start the lift. hmmm your wo do look great tho! You have all the compounds down so I can see why you hesitate to add some isolation moves. Mabey training for power instead of hypotrophy, so lower rep heavier weights longer rest. Ill find the thread let me know what you think.

Hey, I'll check out that thread you mentioned but honestly the fact that I still feel like I have some progression in me makes me want to stick to my routine. I felt sore today, something I haven't felt in a while. I know it isn't a real indicator of strength gain, but I do feel like my current workout now is still working for me I was just missing the component of increasing weights. Regardless eventually I will most certainly have to switch up my daily lifting session so thanks for the thread recommendation.

I also watched that video on deadlift and payed close attention to my form yesterday. I think the problem is my hips are coming up before my shoulders and upper back. This is causing my shoulders to stay down while my lower back comes up (i.e. curvature). I'm going to try to work hard on preventing it, but I'm not sure on what the best method is to go about fixing the issue. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Michael

[islander]

ya for sure if you love it stay with it, I was throughing just my 2 cents in there!

http://www.bodybuildingdungeon.com/f...t-through.html found it! Cheers

[mcFreid]

Saturday 3/28/09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diet:
9:20am:
1 medium Apple
1 small Apple
3/4 bowl Rolled Oats Oatmeal
5 Egg Whites with Deli Ham (Mustard)
12:20pm:
2 small Apples
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Green Pepper, Garbanzo Beans (Low Calorie Light Italian Dressing)
1+ bowl Chicken Barley Soup [extra chicken]
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey, Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)
5:10pm:
1 plate 2-3 small Hamburger Patties, 1 Vegan Hamburger Patty, 2-3 medium pieces Chicken Breast [slightly fatty], Cooked Beans

That was my diet.



The Workout:

--


That was the workout.



The Day:

I woke up sore today! Yes, I say that with an exclamation mark. I haven’t felt sore, and I mean really sore all over in a very long time. I directly take this to be a result of the weight progression. Man I just wish I had added weight earlier. Now I know: just because I feel like my body can’t go further, doesn’t mean it can’t. I can’t wait to keep pushing my boundaries!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I feel like I have found the culprit of my deadlift form troubles. After careful examination it seems that my hips and lower back are moving before my upper back and shoulders. For a split second this is causing my shoulders to stay low while my lower back comes up (that is creating a slight curveting). It doesn’t stay this way though and as soon as the rest of my body plays catch-up my back becomes perfectly straight again. Now that I know what is wrong, I have to figure out how to fix it. Any recommendations?

I was fairly active today as the weather has finally improved to awesome conditions. The only downside of this is that the dining hall decided to do an outdoor picnic and my food choices became severely limited. I think I screwed up in my choices by eating hamburger patties. I should have remembered my mantra that it is best when on a cut to not eat at all than eat unhealthily. Oh well, it is just one meal. I won’t stress over it; I know that in the future I will make the right choice.


That was the day.




This concludes Entry #114.

[islander]

Actually not eating could be worse and would have been in your case. Hamburger patties are usually pretty low in fat esp since people usually cook the heck out of them. Its the bun and mayo and cheese thats the bad part of a burger. If you dont eat your body will go into starvation mode and the next time you eat your body would have stored all the calories incase of 'starvation' happening again. So you can actually do more harm then good but starving yourself. Not to mention you would have gone catabolic and your body would have started eating those nice sore muscles of yours.

Im a real visual person. Ill have to get someone else to read your definition of whats going on with your deadlift.

[mcFreid]

Originally Posted by islander

Actually not eating could be worse and would have been in your case. Hamburger patties are usually pretty low in fat esp since people usually cook the heck out of them. Its the bun and mayo and cheese thats the bad part of a burger. If you dont eat your body will go into starvation mode and the next time you eat your body would have stored all the calories incase of 'starvation' happening again. So you can actually do more harm then good but starving yourself. Not to mention you would have gone catabolic and your body would have started eating those nice sore muscles of yours.

Im a real visual person. Ill have to get someone else to read your definition of whats going on with your deadlift.

I find this to be true if you decrease calories for a period of time. Missing one meal though just as it isn't going to make you instantly fat is not going to make you instantly catabolic. For this reason psychologically I think it would have been beneficial to me to skip the bad stuff and just eat a few vegan burger patties (it was actually the chicken breast that most concerned me because it seemed overly fatty even without the skin).

I actually just found out that my camera can take videos so this coming Tuesday I'm going to get a video of it and post it on here. That should help describe in perfection what I meant in writing.

[mcFreid]

Sunday 3/29/09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Measurements:

Body Weight: 150.4lb Change: -1.80lb
Lean Mass: 136.56lb Change: -2.09lb
Percent Fat: 9.2% Change: +0.3%
Body Fat: 13.84lb Change: +0.29lb

Progress Pictures:








Thoughts and Opinions:

I am somewhat disappointed with my numbers today. Not extremely so, but somewhat. I felt like I did better than this and deserved more of a body fat percent drop (though my body weight did decrease). The result of the week seemed to be that I lost muscle and gained fat; of course not at all what I wanted! Now this could all be because of the screwup for dinner last night; that is possible. But, I’m not going to play the guessing game. I am going to restrict my diet further this coming week by making small changes here and there. Most likely they won’t show up on my diet report because I generally find it hard to post portion sizes (as it is lots of guesswork). But, hopefully the next Sunday Edition will have numbers that show my success.

Regarding the images there really isn’t much to see. I mean I feel leaner, but it doesn’t seem to be showing up. I guess it takes a while for “feelings” to equate to a visual difference. I did try and take some more poses this week to give you guys and myself a better idea for where I stand. I’m having trouble getting the back pose correct though. It seems I’m pushing my butt out and then shifting it to one side (no I don’t have any herniated disk it’s just me not knowing where to place my lower back). If anyone has any recommendations for striking a good back pose, let me know.

As always I will end with the standard request… Questions, comments, criticisms, critiques?




This concludes Entry #115 Sunday Morning Edition.

[mcFreid]

Sunday 3/29/09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diet:
9:15am:
1 small-medium Apple
1 small-medium Pear
4/5 bowl Cooked Rolled Oats
5 Egg Whites with Deli Ham (Mustard)
12:20pm:
1 medium Pear
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Cucumber, Green Pepper (Light Red Wine Vinaigrette)
1 bowl Chick Pea Vegetable Soup
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey, Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)
5:25pm:
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Green Pepper (Light Red Wine Vinaigrette)
1 bowl Chick Pea Vegetable Soup
1 plate 1 small-medium piece Pork Chop [fat stripped off], Broccoli, Black Beans and Vegetables
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey, Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)

That was my diet.



The Workout:

PUSHUPS:
1x67 (65 in 1min)
SITUPS:
1x55 (41 in 1min)


That was the workout.



The Day:

It was rainy out and I was mostly sedentary. I had a big homework assignment so that occupied most of time. My real news came at night.

I was able to use my camera as a video camera and took movies of me doing my pushups and sit-ups. It is immediately evident as you will soon see that my pushup form is complete ****. My back caving in as if it had a 200lb anvil on it. I am going to focus heavily on fixing that. My numbers themselves were also lower, but I think it was because, believe it or not, my focus on form. I mean I was getting my elbows parallel on each rep. At least I can go out saying that my sit-ups looked good: right? If not let me know. Anyway, here are the videos:

YouTube - 3 29 09 pushups

YouTube - 3 29 09 situps



Thanks for watching and good night.


That was the day.




This concludes Entry #115.

[islander]

hmmm I think they dont look as bad as you say. The only thing I can think of is widen your foot stance a bit, that seems to use the whole body better. Also really concentrate on keeping your abs tight and take it a bit slower. I am definitely not a pushup master lol. People have always told me 'stick your ass in the air' I guess what I feel is my ass in the air is actually a straight back. hmm I will try and think who is think could critique better for you. You seem to know how you think they should look so keep filming yourself until you get the results that look how you think they feel. Your pictures show a huge improvement, very nice! Filming is a great way for people to critique there own form. Have you ever figured out your macros? Seems like mabey your not quite getting very much protein. Or do you go to bed very early? Just no food after 5:00 seems like along time if you dont eat for another 16 hrs. What time of day do you workout? Sorry hope you dont mind all my comments! I talk alot. Well type I mean.

[mcFreid]

Originally Posted by islander

hmmm I think they dont look as bad as you say. The only thing I can think of is widen your foot stance a bit, that seems to use the whole body better. Also really concentrate on keeping your abs tight and take it a bit slower. I am definitely not a pushup master lol. People have always told me 'stick your ass in the air' I guess what I feel is my ass in the air is actually a straight back. hmm I will try and think who is think could critique better for you. You seem to know how you think they should look so keep filming yourself until you get the results that look how you think they feel. Your pictures show a huge improvement, very nice! Filming is a great way for people to critique there own form. Have you ever figured out your macros? Seems like mabey your not quite getting very much protein. Or do you go to bed very early? Just no food after 5:00 seems like along time if you dont eat for another 16 hrs. What time of day do you workout? Sorry hope you dont mind all my comments! I talk alot. Well type I mean.

Thanks for looking! For the pushups my back is supposed to be parallel to the ground so that ideally you could put a glass of wine on it and it wouldn't spill throughout the motion. I'll try a wider stance on my feet like you suggested. I also will keep my abs tight though I knew at this before and I always seem to lose focus on them once I get a few reps done. I'll keep cracking at it.

Do you really see an improvement in the pictures? In what areas exactly? I mean it could just be because I see myself everyday, but to me I look identical. It isn't very motivating :/, but I try to not let it get to me.

Like I said before I do have to estimate my macros and I shoot for around a 40/40/20. As for the quantity of protein, I've been asked this a while back and it is quite deceiving from my diet entries as they make it seem like I don't get enough. The reason is because of portion sizes. For example when I talk about a slice of bread with deli turkey, I mean LOTS of deli turkey (thin 3-4 inches piled high on a sandwich. I definitely don't believe my protein quantity is a problem here. But I do keep an open mind, and hey, maybe your right. If my body fat doesn't improve over the coming weeks I will take your suggestion to heart. After all it is just another variable that I can tweak, and maybe tweak for the better.

My typical schedule is to wake up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:30-8, in the gym at 8:45-9:30, and then bed at 10:30.

And I don't mind the comments at all! Keep them coming! It is a big motivation that someone is interested in my performance. Thank you!

-Michael

[danp100]

good afternoon mr. mcfreid, first off this is an incredible log you have going. its loaded with detail, very simular to mine that i kept when i first started competing. which btw was very beneficial to my trainer to make adjustments to my diet and workouts. second, having read your goals they are achievable but while in college they are going to be tough and i wish you all the luck. i know eating at the dining hall you are subject to their menu which is unfortunate and makes your goals even harder. your diet is 70% of you. third, i have never counted calories in my diet. i count grams of protein and carbs. i let the fat take care of itself thru the meat i consume.

with that said you may see more results it your adjusted your diet to @ 200g or protein per day and @ 175g of carbs per day. this is less than 1600 cals the fat intake would put you around 2000 cals for the day. i have always found it more beneficial to count the grams i consumed. sugar is the #1 enemy of bodybuilders and fitness looking gurus (one of your goals i believe). again i know you are limited on your choices, but the first thing bbers give up with starting a contest diet is fruit. it is high in fruitose, which is natural sugar. i see where your are consuming over 3 pieces of it a day. each piece of fruit has about 25g of fruitose, you are having burn off almost 100 cals of empty cals everyday. thats alot of hard work. we also give up breads, pastas, and other high carbs foods. we do keep the complex carb foods, oats, rice, sweet potatoes. we try very hard to eat only good protein sources, we do alot of our own cooking. stay away for bad proteins - processed meats (over cooked thus damaging the nutrients), diary (high in fats). so if you had a choice between 3 grilled burgers minus the buns and a pile of deli turkey cuts, you are better off with the burgers. you should probably take a napkin and dap the grease off the burgers.

on your routine, i've seen alot of guys try the full body workout but not last very long. they lose interest, their gains are not very good over time, it takes alot of energy to complete it 3+ times a week. i noticed you are doing squat, bench, and deadlift all on the same day and you are having problems with the dead lift. the hardest thing to do is dead lift after squat. each movement uses the most muscles in the body. i would imagine your shoulders and lower back are tired after carrying the wieght. hench your form would suffer. i'm a big fan of partial dead lifts. they are done in the squat or power rack, place the cross bars at just below knee level. bend down with your back flat grip the bar and lift with legs then squeeze the back straight. this lessens the chance of injury and target the lower back. i think we could change your routine around to take advantage of this 3 lifts while working more in that muscle group with some added exercises in 1 or 2 other areas. only if you are interested. i hope some of this makes sense. if not ask and i hope i can add clarificaton.

dan

[mcFreid]

danp100,

Your post was very informative. Back when I had more control I made the choices for diet as you suggested. By today's means though like you mentioned it is difficult to near impossible. Some of your suggestions though seemed extreme. For example, I don't think I am comfortable eating hamburgers on a daily basis. As to measuring protein and carb intake, the best I can do is estimate. I know what 200 calories of deli turkey looks like, i know how much protein is one egg white, how much in a 1/2 cottage cheese, etc.. For carbs you mentioned limiting fruit. In this area I think you are wrong. Fruit is very low GI and is actually quite filling for its calorie count; I would hardly count it as "empty calories". Most of my carbohydrates due in the end come from complex sources anyway (oatmeal in the morning, garbanzo beans and kidney beans as well as one slice of whole wheat bread for the rest of the day). I will continue to tweak my diet though as it becomes necessary and if I really stop seeing progress I will definitly return to your enlightening post.

As for my workout I have considered many times of deviating away from full-body. The issue is I only have 2 days of the week to do lifting as I find that without significant cardio I easily gain fat. I also find that hitting a muscle once a week simply isn't enough for me. No matter how hard I hit it, how much I push to failure, within a few days I am ready to go again and it would seem having a week off of one muscle would be a waste. Again though, I will never discount it. I am always open to changes and if my weights do truly stop progressing up I will take another look in this area. Also, regarding my deadlifts I don't think my form is having issues because of the squats beforehand. I have no doubt that if I did deadlifts first it would have the same result. Tomorrow I will be going to the gym with a camera. I hope that by taking a video I truly will be able to analyze and fix my form. Once I post the video please critique it if you have a moment. I am interested in your words.

Thank you,
Michael

[mitbar]

hey bro just stopping by been watching for awhile. my two cents right now would be to take what danp says and utilize it man. he is very knowledgeable and experienced. right now i am doing a contest cut and we took fruit out immediatly as its mainly sugar and sugar if not burned quickly turns into fat regardless of where it is on the GI chart. also eating hamburger, steak and chicken on a daily basis is not bad for you at all and will allow you to calculate your macros much better than eyeballing turky meat. which by the way is loaded with sodium. if your serious about what your doing look into what danp has said. if you want proof just stop by my log and look at the pictures and progress i have made by counting macros and watching my fat and sugar intake.

p.s. counting macros is not difficult at all, go to walmart and get a cheap food scale and weight your food. you will need to only really do this once and you will know how much food you need to eat per meal and what amount you need to prepare.

[mitbar]

oh and the deads your having trouble due to being fatigued and your body is not able to keep strict form. if you continue this you will hurt yourself brosef. do partial deads or do deads first before squats. i hope you can take what we say with a grain of salt and try it out before you discount a npc judges help and a npc competitors help. no disrespect ment at all bro.

[mcFreid]

Mitbar,

I just respectfully disagree on so much of what you just said.

I have seen no evidence behind the statement that "fruit turns into fat unless you burn the calories off immediately". And, even if it were true, I eat my 2 servings of fruit (which equate to around 150 calories) for my morning breakfast. I tend to hit the gym around 30-60 minutes after eating breakfast, so in that regards I do burn it as soon as I digest it.

As for eating hamburgers, steak, and chicken: I have no problem with the latter two. The hamburger through at my college's dining hall is most likely 80/20 beef as that tends to be the cheaper (and the tastiest) variety. That is ~64% fat and 240 calories for just 3oz. I see no way how eating that is healthy and would improve my cut. Steak and chicken on the other hand I eat whenever my dining hall provides it. The only consistent clean sources of protein I can get though are deli turkey, 4% fat cottage cheese, and egg whites (mornings only). For this reason I tend to choose the deli turkey as my main sources and make up for the plethora of extra sodium by drinking plenty of water (around 5-7 liters a day).

In regards to measurements I spent around 6 months before college with a food scale and measured everything I ate down the decimal place in macro percentages. I used fitday for the entirety of that duration to make sure everything was perfect. When I got to college though this is simply not possible. It is way too ridiculous of a hassle to actually bring a food scale into the cafeteria and weigh everything before I put it on my plate. I would have to lug the food scale in my backpack everyday (I know you said I would only have to do this once but that is not the case since my dining hall's food varies daily). To compensate I estimate. The 6 months of experience helps a lot and I feel like I do a fairly decent job. Plus I have learned to respond to how my body reacts to what I eat and how small changes in my diet are immediately felt in my performance at the gym. This combined with checking my body fat and weight has allowed me to keep track of my diet and make the necessary adjustments along the way.

Last of all, how can you know this about my deadlifts. I can tell you straight up it is not because I am fatigued. I know what that feels like and this isn't it. Is it too much to believe that I may just not have the form down simply for the sake of not having anyone to coach me so I had to teach myself a long the way. How is that not more plausible? Anyway, tomorrow I will hopefully be taking videos of it all and with that I should be able to see how making small changes in my form will lead to the result I want.

I am sorry if I seemed aggressive, but it is just that you stated your opinions so factually that it made me become defensive. I don't mean anything by it and again still welcome responses. In the end you could very well be absolutely right in everything you said. Time will tell if what I am doing is working on it. If it stops working, if I start go hit a dead end or even worse start going backward I will take another look at every tiny detail you mentioned and will strongly consider it all.

Thanks for writing,
Michael

[mcFreid]

Monday 3/30/09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diet:
7:45am:
1 small-medium Pear
1 small-medium Apple
3/4 bowl Cooked Rolled Oats
5 Egg Whites with Deli Ham (Mustard)
1:50pm:
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Cucumber, Green Pepper, a little Kidney Beans, a little Garbanzo Beans, Cottage Cheese (Light Olive Oil Vinaigrette)
1 bowl Chicken Noodle Soup [extra chicken]
3:10pm:
1 medium Apple
1 bowl Chicken Noodle Soup [very little chicken and noodles]
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey [less than usual], Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)
5:40pm:
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Cucumber, Green Pepper, Garbanzo Beans (Light Olive Oil Vinaigrette)
1 bowl Mushroom, Rice, and Vegetable Soup
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey [less than usual], Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)

That was my diet.



The Workout:

TREADMILL
5min @ 8.5mph
5min @ 8.6mph
~3min @ 9.0mph
last 0.2 miles (until 2.0 mile) @ 10mph
-> 2.0 mile in 13:46
ELLIPTICAL [full motion]
5min @ ~11calories per minute, 2resistance
5min @ ~12.5-13.5cpm, 4resistance
5min @ ~13.5cpm, 6resistance
5min @ ~13.5-14.5cpm, 8resistance
TREADMILL:
10min @ 4.0mph, 6%incline

PUSHUPS
3x30 (1min rest)
SIT-UPS
3x30 (1min rest)


That was the workout.



The Day:

Besides a one fluke with my meals during lunch time (I had to split it into two quickly succeeding smaller meals) my day was pretty much perfect. I had an excellent treadmill run as can be seen from yet another personal record. At night I did my pushups and sit-ups. I recorded my pushups (videos will be posted later, tomorrow most likely) and checked my form after ever set. I am still sinking in my lower back horribly, but I think each set I got better. I think with a little more practice I’ll get it perfect. I didn’t take a video of my sit-ups though because from yesterday’s it didn’t seem like any changes needed to be made. I can report though that they felt easier today which was a welcoming improvement as I thought I was stalling for a bit on them.

Tomorrow is a lifting day and I am looking forward to incorporating some new advice I have gotten from responses here and elsewhere to this journal. The first is I am going to curl my toes on the squat to make sure that my weight is not rolling to the balls of my feet (note that I make sure to NEVER let it go on my toes themselves). I also will really focus on perfecting my form with the deadlifts using my camera’s video capability as a guide. I will be posting both squat and deadlift videos as long as my one’s from tonight tomorrow. I look forward to any critiques you guys/gals may have when viewing them. Until then, good night.


That was the day.




This concludes Entry #116.

[mitbar]

its cool man your gonna do what your gonna do, best of luck to ya. oh and for the future and in life when taking criticism dont get defensive man.

[mcFreid]

Thanks and I'll try my best not to.

[mcFreid]

Lots of questions that I receive revolve around my diet and making sure I get the adequate protein content. I always respond by saying that the written text is deceiving because I do not include portion sizes for some items (such as deli turkey on a sandwich). Today I decided to take a photo of an average lunch of mine so that you could get a better idea towards what I eat. Before I post it I do want to let you know I used slightly more deli turkey than normal since the soup of the day didn't contain any protein. And now, without further ado, my lunch (approximately 1/3 of my daily caloric intake).

[mcFreid]

I'll be posting these later as well in my journal entry along with a description, but I'm excited to hear what you guys have to say about them right now so here are the videos of today's lifts. Tell me what you think.

YouTube - 3 31 09 squatsWarmup

YouTube - 3 31 09 squats1

YouTube - 3 31 09 squats2

YouTube - 3 31 09 squats3

YouTube - 3 31 09 deadlifts1

YouTube - 3 31 09 deadlifts2

YouTube - 3 31 09 deadlifts3

YouTube - 3 31 09 benchpress1

YouTube - 3 31 09 benchpress2

YouTube - 3 31 09 benchpress3

YouTube - 3 31 09 dbshoulderpress

YouTube - 3 31 09 dbrows

YouTube - 3 31 09 knucklepushups

YouTube - 3 30 09 pushups1

YouTube - 3 30 09 pushups2

YouTube - 3 30 09 pushups3

[mitbar]

just from watching a few of your squats and deads i can tell you that your balance is off. for deads your weight is way to much on the heels of your feet and the same with squats you seem so close to falling over backward. take it or leave it thats what i see. peace

[mitbar]

also your bench seems really unstable also, your extremely wably. i think if you lowered your weight and stuck to 10-12 reps for a whiile to get the form down better you would be much happier.

[mcFreid]

Hmm.

Well for the deadlifts I think you have a point. Sometimes I do find myself off balance and almost having to take a step back (it's rare but it does happen sometimes).

I'm surprised you said this with regards to my squats though because really my issue has been having my weight roll slightly onto the balls of my feet. The balance thing you could have been referring to here is because for some reps I tried taking on a recommendation of curling my toes to keep the weight on my heals. I didn't like how it felt though so I switched back to just keeping my feet flat. Either way, I don't get that feeling of falling backward for my squats so I think it's all good (but hey you could be right - I'll look for it more closely next lifting session).

I see what you mean on the bench being shaky. I'll try to focus more on keeping it perfectly stable. If I can't fix it than yeah maybe I'll lower the weight some and switch to doing like you said, 10 reps or something.

Thanks for the advice,
Michael

[mcFreid]

Tuesday 3/31/09
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diet:
7:40am:
1 small-medium Apple
1 medium Apple
3/4 bowl Cooked Rolled Oats
5 Egg Whites with Deli Ham (Mustard)
12:20pm:
1 medium Apple
5 Pickle Spears
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Cucumber, Green Pepper (Light Red Wine Vinaigrette)
1 bowl Asian Vegetable Soup [extra vegetables]
1 slice 12 Grain Bread with Deli Turkey [more than usual], Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)
5:20pm:
1 bowl Lettuce Salad with Cucumber, Red Pepper, Carrots (Light Red Wine Vinaigrette)
1 bowl Asian Vegetable Soup
1 plate Pot Roast [fat stripped off], a little Roasted Vegetable Salad (Ginger Soy Dressing)
1 slice Whole Wheat Bread with Deli Turkey [a lot less than usual], Lettuce, Tomato (Mustard)

That was my diet.



The Workout:

ELLIPTICAL:
5min @ ~77rpm

3x5x150 BB Squat
1min rest
3x5x165 BB Deadlift
1min rest
3x5x125 BB Bench Press
1min rest
3x10x25 DB Shoulder Press
30sec rest
3x10x25 DB Bent-Over Rows
30sec rest
3x5x25 Assisted Chin-Ups
1min rest
3x6 Dips (triceps version, straight)
1min rest
3x10 Knuckle Pushups
30sec rest
3x30secx Knee Raises
30sec rest

SOCCER PRACTICE:
80min @ moderate intensity



That was the workout.



The Day:

I woke up today excited for my weight lifting session. I took my video camera with me and recorded pretty much every lift. I feel like my form was decent enough for everything and actually not even as bad as I thought for the deadlifts (I think the problem is rooted in the fact that I’m keeping my butt up too high in the starting position). The workout itself was just average since some of my focus I felt was lost to me thinking about the camera and getting the video shots right. Still though, it was a good day in the gym. I should also note that I tried curling my toes during the squat motion and found that this just made everything worse. It felt unnatural to have my feet in that position so I switched back to flat toes and just made sure I had my weight on my heels as much as possible (it still did shift to the balls of my feet once and awhile, but I don’t think that is a huge deal). Anyway here are the videos and I’ll let you guys be the judge (I also included my pushups from last night).

YouTube - 3 31 09 squatsWarmup

YouTube - 3 31 09 squats1

YouTube - 3 31 09 squats2

YouTube - 3 31 09 squats3

YouTube - 3 31 09 deadlifts1

YouTube - 3 31 09 deadlifts2

YouTube - 3 31 09 deadlifts3

YouTube - 3 31 09 benchpress1

YouTube - 3 31 09 benchpress2

YouTube - 3 31 09 benchpress3

YouTube - 3 31 09 dbshoulderpress

YouTube - 3 31 09 dbrows

YouTube - 3 31 09 knucklepushups

YouTube - 3 30 09 pushups1

YouTube - 3 30 09 pushups2

YouTube - 3 30 09 pushups3

My diet today was normal. Taking the camera with me to the gym though inspired me to take it with me to the dining halls. I snapped a photo of my lunch so you guys could get a better idea of what I meant by the “deli turkey” on my sandwiches. Hopefully this will quench any arguments that I don’t get enough protein.



For the last few days (it started up Sunday) my left knee has been bothering me as well. It’s mostly on the left more outside side of the knee and I can feel some slight pain when I press down on the area as well as some achy pain in general when moving it. During running and squats and basically any movement the pain doesn’t get any worse and sometimes even goes away (or I just stop noticing it) so I don’t think those movements have anything to do with it. Maybe I just slept on it wrong or banged it somehow without noticing. Either way, I figured I should mention it just in case.

At night I had soccer practice for a little over an hour. There were only four of us so we decided to do two on two for most of the time. This lead to actually a decent workout and got me slightly winded and sweating by the end. My only concern is that calluses started to form on certain areas of my foot because of it. I hope that this will not come to affect me later on as part of my gym routine. I doubt it will, but I’m just putting it out there. Overall I had a good time as well as some extra exercise in (which was good since I think I had a slightly big dinner).

That was the day.




This concludes Entry #117.

[islander]

Hi ok just watched squat 2 and dead 2. Just on my way out but ill be back in a bit and watch a bit closer only thing I can say off the bat is on your deads your toes are pointed out quite a bit. Shoot sorry gotta run also get yourself some flat skate shoes ones with air or gel can make you unbalanced.

[islander]

k and a quick thing on the bench and my apply to dead and squats to. You know about breath properly? Out on the pushing movements in on the pushing. (I think!) Im not a pro by any means but I know its pretty important and may be one more little thing that could help.

plus it looks like you may be locking out your kness and before you even come to the top of the movement something is going on with stance.

[mcFreid]

Hi Islander, 'always happy to read your comments

Is the toes a bad thing? I heard that they should be around 30 degrees and that the knees should track over the toes. I find it most comfortable at the angle I placed them, but comfort is not always an indicator of what is good. Let me know if you think there is a genuine problem there.

I'll look into the shoes in the future, but for now I'm a broke college student and got to deal with what I have :/.

I focus a lot on my breathing actually. And yeah you have it right you exhale on the push/pull. I make sure to do that for every lift.

Someone else commented about the violent knees locking out and I'm definitely going to work on that. I'm confused on what you meant by the second part of that sentence though.

Thanks much for the comments,
Michael