Al Posted September 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2016 So I had an unplanned day off on Tuesday last week. More so - unplanned … let's call it carb-load evening, because I'm afraid to say I was binge eating. I didn't add protein to my oat bran, thinking I'll have it pre-workout, and was busy all day and didn't have my third meal of the day at 3pm (I had speghetti squash with some broccoli and chicken that day) and couldn't face training while being hungry as hell, and completely forgot that a protein drink was an option. Anyway - came home and ate my squash with meat, and then more! A piece of bread with thick-thick-thick layer of pesto sauce, 5 weet-bix pieces, some with butter (oh no! uh.. Yes. Butter), and cheese and even a spoon of honey, some unaccounted amount of nachos, probably some chocolate and probably some nuts - I can't be sure, and definitely a bag of popcorn was involved. I are crappy-carbs & fats until the end of the week last week sort-of attempting to moderate it down rather than cut the carbs out again, but I guess - I just ate it all and there was nothing left, so naturally - I won the war with carbs. I believe this episode was caused by: Insufficient recovery Aggravated by stress which triggered easy-carbs consumption Lack of solitude and meditation/reflection So I'm taking time this week to write / blog more, instead of watching films or scrolling to the bottom of my facebook feed, stretch and space out. And hopefully leave to bed earlier. I'm still swollen with victory after last week. And just recently stopped giving the 21-gun salutes.. Week 6. Workout 1. LEGS. 7-Sep-2016, Wed 6pm Barbell Squats (10x10#) 20 x6# warmup 40x10# 40x10# 40x10# 40x8# and 2 ugly 40x8# and 2 ugly 40x10# 40x5# 40x10# 40x8# 40x10#This is a 5kg increase compared to Week 5 (30 Aug). However, I've finally sat down to read the Poliquin article on German Volume Training and he specifically talks about timing rest time between sets. So I guess I should keep the same weight but actually time the rest accurately. Romanian Deadlifts (10x10#) 30 x 4# warmup 45x10# 45x10# 45x10# 45x10# 45x10# different grip 45x8#diff 45x10#diff 45x10# 45x10# with straps 45x10# with straps Unilateral Calf Raises (5x10#) in Smith machine because Cityfitness Johnsonville had an upgrade done... the person who decided it was a good idea to remove the old pull-down & row cable machine and the lever machines - burn in hell. That was the best equipment there. Thank you though for shoulder lat raise machine and the assisted chin-up, though I like THE OLD machines better than this STAR TRAC crap 20x12# warm-up 40x12# 50x10# 50x10# 60x9/10# 20x20# Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted September 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2016 Week 6. Workout 2. CHEST. SHOULDERS. 8-Sep-2016, Thu 6pm nothing worth noting except the increase in bench press.. Flat Bench Press (5x10#) 20x8# warm-up 32.5x10# - good. 32.5x10# 32.5x10# 32.5x8# 32.5x6#, had probably 1 more in me That was actually 2.5 added vs Week 5, that was Ok. Incline Dumbbell Press (5x10#) 12x10# 12x9# 12x10# 12x8# and 2# shaky 12x7# Definitely some progress made here in terms of reps number, I guess sticking with the same weight and focusing on the chest and the right form will do the trick. Flat Bench Dumbbell Flies (3x10#) 9x7# - I thought maybe I can add some weight, but probably not yet. 8x10# 8x10# - just stick with 8 for now, master the form and the tempo. SUPERSET Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press (3x10#) 8x10# 8x8# 8x8# -? I didn't actually record the last reps… so I guess it was 8. Seated Lateral Dumbbell Raises (3x10#) 4x10# - from my note to self last week - go with 4s 4x9# - really tough to do with a nice form 4x8# - ? Again, didn't record the last reps so no idea,,, SUPERSET Bent-over Rear Delt Dumbbell Raise (3x10#) 5x10# 5x11# - last reps wasn't good 5x11# - last 2 reps crappy Seated Barbell Press (3x10#) used the Smith machine again, same weight. Used a folded yoga mat to support lower back, because the chair / bench was too tall 10x6# 10x10# 10x6# Squeezed more reps in the second set and did worse in the first and last. Horizontal External Shoulder Rotations (3x20#) 3x20# I only did one set cause I got soooo bored Cardio 10' tabata jog Pseudonym 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted October 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2016 Ooooh... so no matter how painful it is to confess - I've abandoned the challenge and, for all I-"the Aliona of today" know - betrayed myself. Go to the next post for conclusions about the fitness challenge. Now I didn't drop out on the 8th of September, as the last documented workout above may suggest. But I certainly started getting overtrained under-recovered around that time. It was difficult enough to keep going to the gym and I stopped blogging completely. So here's the log of workouts and for the overall conclusions on the challenge - go to next post. Which is when I write it - it will be there :) 10-Sep-2016, Sat was a Back and Abs workout and I failed to do the Ab roller exercise. How do you people with Ab rollers get to a stage when you can comfortably bring yourself up to four-point-doggy-style position? As soon as a deviate from the 90 degree angle - I just fall down flat on the floor. And I imagine it is painful and kinda funny to see. 11-Sep-2016, Sun was a Legs-day, the not GVT one. Glute-Hams Raises - nah-ah, not done. Did calves instead. 13-Sep-2016, Tue - Arms & Abs and I slacked on Abs only doing bits, like 2 sets. Then there was a GVT Legs day again, and the beginning of Week 7 since DYD start on some unrecorded day, cause apparently it was "not a fine day for science" and I forgot my pen and scribbled with a pencil. I did not finish that workout according to my notes. Squats with lots of warm-up sets and 10x10# with 40kg, and RDL with only 6 x10# of 47.5kg. I've probably had enough and needed a hug or something.. 16-Sep-2016, Fri - Chest and Shoulders - and did worse than last week with reps and weights dropped 18-Sep-2016, Sun - Back and Abs 19-Sep-2016, Mon Legs - increased the weight on front barbell squats to 35kg but was only doing around 6# 21-Sep-2016, Wed- Arms & Abs - roughly same performance as last week 23-Sep-2016, Fri marks the beginning of Week 8 on DYD challenge program)- Legs GVT - upped the weight on squats and probably hurt my back then, dropped the weight on RDLs 25-Sep-2016, Mon - Chest, Shoulders 29-Sep-2016, Thu - Back and - Abs I did not do 3-10-2016, - Legs 5-10-2016, Wed - Arms, Abs 6-Oct-2016 , Thu - Legs GVT - the jolly facebook DYD group advised to start with the last decent workout, which I thought was week 7. So instead of moving on to Week 9 of the program which was appealingly titled "Deload" week, I went back to the same training routine to repeat it for two more weeks diligently and then deserve a "deload" (which, sorry for killing the suspense, I never got to.) 10-Oct-2016, Mon - Back, Abs 11-Oct-2016, Tue - Legs I have no notes after that day. I was at the gym probably twice, maybe three times since then not working out for a week and then about ten days in a row, doing basic exercises when I finally went. I went last this Friday, 28th October and did some basic stuff with light weights watching my form and going as slow as I can. Aaaaand I skipped Saturday and Sunday this weekend, and am a bit at lost as to what to do next ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted October 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2016 Facts: 12 weeks fitness challenge run by Fighterdiet.com / Pauline Nordin. This specific was called Discipline Your Dedication. There are others - Build and Burn, Butt Bible, Super Shred, etc. How do you enter? You purchase a challenge pack online (just google fighterdiet challenge), the simplest option containing an ebook on what to eat and how to train and access to a cloased facebook group active during the challenge period. For this specific challenge, I purchased the cheapest pack and paid $60 USD. More expensive options may include fighterdiet supplements, rubber bands and other cheap equipment, T-shirts, etc. Branded crap, as far as I'm concerned. What's in that ebook? The ebook, again in case of DYD, had Nutrition basics - a really-really brief "how to" guidelines on how to calculate your lean body mass, and rather dubious suggestions of C 2.2g, P 3g, F 1g per 1kg of lean body mass (without specifying what purpose this breakdown serves), how to calculate calories (and going into details of how to recalculate when calories do not add up! apparently USDA kcalories for 100g of broccoli does not add-up to recalculated grams of carbs in 100g of raw broccoli * kcalories per 1 gram carbs + grams of fat * calories per 1 gram fat + grams of protein * calories per 1 gram protein ... Yeah, crazy OCD shit like that. And people were actually recalculating calories! Thank god Pauline didn't mention that cooking food also changes its nutrient composition and bioavailability of nutrients!) a sample meal plan for one day - three options for men: low with 2,464.80kcal on day off (first of all ".80kcal", seriously?, medium with 2,878.64kcal on rest day, and high calorie menu with 4,014.47kcal on a rest day (4k kcal on a rest day, Carl! it's 4,175.20kcal on a training day), and a list of "food swaps" (if you can no longer stomach green beans, you could swap it for asparagus, mushrooms, eggplant, or broccoli. But first - you have to recalculate the macros and the calories!), and three options for women: low with 1559.36kcal on day off with 40% coming from protein, 24% from fats and 36% from carbs, medium with 2,114.75kcal on rest day (why such a huge gap? No one knows and the macro ratios are similar), and high calorie menu with 2,369.87kcal, and, once again, the list of "swap foods". Like... pretty much the same stuff duplicated. I am struggling to understand why. An intro to refeeds (what everyone else in fitness industry calls Carb Cycling, Pauline Nordin calls refeeds but doesn't bother explaining the when and how to actually use them and how not to abuse them). There again - we have a refeed menu for men and for women and separate REFEED food swap list which covers pretty much all the same things as the previous two nearly identical swap food lists covered, but also includes foods like banana, blueberries, raisins, and white bread. Btw, a refeed daily calorie intake for women is 2,682.89kcal (I can almost hear Pauline's proofreader saying - let's just round it up to 2,683kcal and her responding, "no way! .89, I insist, this shit is important!") with 65% coming from carbs, and men's - 5,080.55kcalories with 62% coming from carbs. a training program for 12 weeks, with different splits and workouts for weeks 1-4, weeks 5-8, week 9 and final weeks 10-12; a separate cardio progression program ambitiously called "Extreme Cardio From Hell" that assumes from 60 to 90 minutes cardio daily. He-he-he... Don't be frightened. This is not a must do for everyone. Other questions to cover next, when I have time again: What is this facebook group for? What is the challenge in this "challenge"? What was special in DYD as opposed to other challenges? Do fighterdiet challenges actually produce results? What are the workouts like? Pros and cons What is the meal-plan like? Pros and cons What is the facebook group experience like? Pros and cons How many people participated and how many actually stuck to the end? What was the most difficult about it? Was it worth it? Where did I go wrong this time? - I did drop out after 7 or 8 weeks, so what went wrong in MY case? Would I do it again and what would I do differently? Any other questions? Pseudonym 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigken1985 Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 On 10/30/2016 at 10:56 PM, Al said: Facts: 12 weeks fitness challenge run by Fighterdiet.com / Pauline Nordin. This specific was called Discipline Your Dedication. There are others - Build and Burn, Butt Bible, Super Shred, etc. How do you enter? You purchase a challenge pack online (just google fighterdiet challenge), the simplest option containing an ebook on what to eat and how to train and access to a cloased facebook group active during the challenge period. For this specific challenge, I purchased the cheapest pack and paid $60 USD. More expensive options may include fighterdiet supplements, rubber bands and other cheap equipment, T-shirts, etc. Branded crap, as far as I'm concerned. What's in that ebook? The ebook, again in case of DYD, had Nutrition basics - a really-really brief "how to" guidelines on how to calculate your lean body mass, and rather dubious suggestions of C 2.2g, P 3g, F 1g per 1kg of lean body mass (without specifying what purpose this breakdown serves), how to calculate calories (and going into details of how to recalculate when calories do not add up! apparently USDA kcalories for 100g of broccoli does not add-up to recalculated grams of carbs in 100g of raw broccoli * kcalories per 1 gram carbs + grams of fat * calories per 1 gram fat + grams of protein * calories per 1 gram protein ... Yeah, crazy OCD shit like that. And people were actually recalculating calories! Thank god Pauline didn't mention that cooking food also changes its nutrient composition and bioavailability of nutrients!) a sample meal plan for one day - three options for men: low with 2,464.80kcal on day off (first of all ".80kcal", seriously?, medium with 2,878.64kcal on rest day, and high calorie menu with 4,014.47kcal on a rest day (4k kcal on a rest day, Carl! it's 4,175.20kcal on a training day), and a list of "food swaps" (if you can no longer stomach green beans, you could swap it for asparagus, mushrooms, eggplant, or broccoli. But first - you have to recalculate the macros and the calories!), and three options for women: low with 1559.36kcal on day off with 40% coming from protein, 24% from fats and 36% from carbs, medium with 2,114.75kcal on rest day (why such a huge gap? No one knows and the macro ratios are similar), and high calorie menu with 2,369.87kcal, and, once again, the list of "swap foods". Like... pretty much the same stuff duplicated. I am struggling to understand why. An intro to refeeds (what everyone else in fitness industry calls Carb Cycling, Pauline Nordin calls refeeds but doesn't bother explaining the when and how to actually use them and how not to abuse them). There again - we have a refeed menu for men and for women and separate REFEED food swap list which covers pretty much all the same things as the previous two nearly identical swap food lists covered, but also includes foods like banana, blueberries, raisins, and white bread. Btw, a refeed daily calorie intake for women is 2,682.89kcal (I can almost hear Pauline's proofreader saying - let's just round it up to 2,683kcal and her responding, "no way! .89, I insist, this shit is important!") with 65% coming from carbs, and men's - 5,080.55kcalories with 62% coming from carbs. a training program for 12 weeks, with different splits and workouts for weeks 1-4, weeks 5-8, week 9 and final weeks 10-12; a separate cardio progression program ambitiously called "Extreme Cardio From Hell" that assumes from 60 to 90 minutes cardio daily. He-he-he... Don't be frightened. This is not a must do for everyone. Other questions to cover next, when I have time again: What is this facebook group for? What is the challenge in this "challenge"? What was special in DYD as opposed to other challenges? Do fighterdiet challenges actually produce results? What are the workouts like? Pros and cons What is the meal-plan like? Pros and cons What is the facebook group experience like? Pros and cons How many people participated and how many actually stuck to the end? What was the most difficult about it? Was it worth it? Where did I go wrong this time? - I did drop out after 7 or 8 weeks, so what went wrong in MY case? Would I do it again and what would I do differently? Any other questions? Seems like a load of hogwash if you ask me. Full of gymics to con people out of their money. The best "Challenges" were stupid simple, so people stick to them. ( Think Body For Life) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Posted November 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 2 hours ago, Bigken1985 said: Seems like a load of hogwash if you ask me. Full of gymics to con people out of their money. The best "Challenges" were stupid simple, so people stick to them. ( Think Body For Life) Thanks for your comment Bigken :) I wouldn't say that it's complex or untrue, and not too different from Body For Life either. The diet routine works if you are able to stick to it, preferably for life. It's basic principles delivered in a way that is tailored to a selected audience : men and women with prominent appetite who chronically consume large meals and are not willing to reduce portion sizes but are ready to sacrifice the visual appeal of these meals and taste (because let's agree - vegetables without added salt and fat are meh at best, and yuk most of the times) - in order to achieve their desired physique. The "unique value proposition" that people pay money for is (a) community support and (b) a chance to be a promo-doll, travel to LA and be a fitness model for a day :)) The facebook community support is hugely motivating. Unless or until one becomes overwhelmed and then it becomes annoying. So going back to questions: What is this facebook group for? The group provides a platform for people to share their success, motivate and be motivated, to ask questions and receive advice. It is moderated by ~20 people who previously have demonstrated a level of understanding of the fighterdiet principles and usually have achieved some level of success improving their own physique, so when you ask a question and tag a moderator - the question will get answered within minutes or an hour (for me in NZ it did take a bit longer) by someone who supposedly understands what they are saying. Having said that, I was deeply disappointed with some of the moderators approach and answers. Only 2-3 people are actually qualified to render any exercise or nutrition advice. And you don't want to imagine what sort of problems people were sharing and looking for recommendations from this supportive community, and how frequently I felt the need to urge them to seek professional medical advice and not listen to what everyone and their dog has to say. The great bit was at the beginning - seeing people sharing their flex pictures, motivational posts, sometimes sharing their stories or challenges and observing the response of the community - very friendly, encouraging and motivating. There was still all that at the end of the challenge but you could see much fewer posts from fitness-newbies, and i too (having gone off track and not kept up with the pace) was looking at the later posts through a lens of annoyance ("they probably work as PTs and don't have a full time job" kind of thoughts going through my head. Although many actually did have full time jobs, children and were still working out - no idea how. Maybe in the Northern hemisphere there's more hours in a day?) What is the challenge in this "challenge"? That wasn't clear and it still isn't - how will a winner be determined. But the main prize is a trip to LA to meet with Pauline and have a photo shoot :) Participants had to submit one "before" picture in a swimming suit, something like 10 progress pictures, and an "after" picture. All photos were uploaded to facebook group albums - and all group participants could see each others pictures. If there was at least one bastard in that group - these pictures are in the Internet forever. But in the group and one the surface - there was so much cheering going on, and everyone would comment "I see those gains" and "looking awesome" even if the picture was same as last week's and looking ... average. So, at least on the surface, everyone was very respectful of everyone else's feelings and privacy. Apparently the person with the most visible physique transformation is going to win. What was special in DYD as opposed to other challenges? It was open for women and men, and was supposed to be co-hosted with Mike Rashid. Most other fighterdiet challenges are for women only. (I imagine Butt Bible for men, hmmm) The Mike Rashid collaboration didn't go well. There was a lot of throwing shit on the fan at one point when he finally showed his face in the group and interacted with whoever was specifically interested in following his workout plans. I never was. For anyone interested though, attached to this post is his "mastering the basics" ebook shared to the facebook group. MasteringTheBasics_EBook.pdf Pseudonym 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pseudonym Posted November 10, 2016 Report Share Posted November 10, 2016 Good report, Al. Wow, TBH, that just sounds like a program that's been written by someone with no clues at all. Seriously - counting calories to 2 decimal places?! Where's the common sense? So what now for you? Are you still training and dieting? I'm pretty sure you could do a better job of it yourself than they have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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