icecold's training log

[icecold]

Training 15/02/13

This was always going to be a tough session. Far too much lower back and hamstring rapage from yesterdays session. To make things worse, I had horrendous scabs on my shoulders from squatting. Oh look, what's this as my first exercise...

Squats
bar x lots - feeling relatively mobile
60x10
100x5
140x3 - so far dodged too much contact with my shoulder squat burns, but I'd definitely placed the bar differently. Time to man up
160x1 - yep, ouch
185x3 FFFUUUUUUUUUU
185x3 "hey bro, is that blood on your shoulder?"
180x3 good lord the pain! Forcing myself to hit depth
180x3
180x3
180x3
That was brutal. Hamstrings were next to useless after yesterdays RDLs, which I can't remember feeling while squatting before. Lower back is severely displeased too, which isn't great considering what was coming next. However, technique is getting much better and depth is no longer a thing of mystery and myth.

So yeah, blood had soaked through the under armour I'd worn to pad my shoulder slightly, and my t-shirt.


Groce
Luckily, all of the blood was soaked away by my under armour. And yes, that brown stuff is chewed up scabs.


Paused deadlifts (beltless) - short(er) rests (than I wanted!)
100x5
140x4
160x4
170x4 - weirdly, lower back feel better
170x4 - oh, no, there it goes
170x4

Fin

Just silly amounts of fatigue! I'm saying it now, there is no way I'm doing Grace tomorrow. Posterior chain will fall out of my arse if I don't let it recover. I've got to do all of my pressing that I missed this week due to resting my shoulder, so time will also be a factor, but mostly I'm pussying out. Not permanently though, I'm still keen to vomit all over the lifting platform.

 

[icecold]

Tasty battle scar!

I bet you can't wait to get your training back to some kind of normality.

Yeah pretty much. It's a good outlet/distraction though, and the bros are being strong bros.

I'm pretty sure you did a deload only the other week after the PL competition, but it seems right now you could do with one!

kd

A couple of good nights sleep and resting my lower body for the weekend will sort me out well enough. This, and three days in a row of backloading...

Well, that's the plan anyway!

 

[icecold]

The open wound on my shoulder doesn't bother me! It would be the three days in a row of pushing my hammies and lower back to the limit. There's also the possibility of shoulder AIDS actually separating my shoulder as my form gets sloppy, my physio would slap me. Possibly next weekend

Yeah squats were hard enough without the bar grating my skin off as a sweetener.

 

[icecold]

Completely forgot to log...

Training 16/2/13

3ct off the chest pause bench
bar x lots
60x10
80x4
90x4
100x4x4 - default PB
Not at all comfortable because my shoulder wounds are my point of contact with the bench. Like these though.

Narrow grip bench - short rests
80x6x4
The different angle pulls and twists the skin on my shoulders, groce

Pullups
+10x6x5

DB bench
Nope, shoulder AIDS (as in the actual internal injury) bites here massively

Dips
+20x8x3

Rollouts
bwx8x5

Curls

Facepulls - light, slow movement and short rests, hhhnnnnnnnnggggg
3x12

Seated row occupado, so...

Lat pull down - slow movement and short rests
3x12

 

[icecold]

I'm using AIDS to describe the general feeling of grotty snappage that can arise during or after lifting.

Suggested usage:

"Hey man, those squats looked strong"

"Yeah, but they felt like AIDS"

In this case, it seems that after every comp where I've forgotten to stretch my pecs afterwards I end up with a lot of tension in my AC joint and associated discomfort in my supraspinatus (part of rotator cuff, runs above your scap and inserts into the joint). It just feels horrible with occasional sharp pain and a dull ache most of the time, and my physio warned me that if I'm not careful with it I could have an AC separation and then it's no more pressing anything ever. It will clear up, but the fact that it's flared up again means that I'm going to have to be a lot more deliberate with attacking my pec tightness and external rotation strength.

 

[icecold]

It doesn't matter quite so much at the moment because my primary goal is making all kinds of lean gainz, so lifting maximally isn't quite as important (short rests and more sets to take up the slack...). I figure that as long as I don't do anything that hurts it,do a lot of good antagonist work and stretching I'll be stronger in a few weeks.

 

[icecold]

Training 18/2/13

Covered my shoulder wounds with some dressing things and covered those in zinc oxide tape. Let's do dis.

Squats
bar x lots
60x10
100x4
140x4
160x1
185x4
185x4
185x4
185x4
185x4
185x4
Yeah buddy. Still uncomfortable as ****, but better. Squats were good too!

Paused bench
bar x lots
60x8
90x5
112.5x1 nope! Shoulder uncomfortable
105x4 still nope. Feels like I'm driving everything through my non-monged up shoulder. Decided that it's silly to risk it. BB mode engage
80x12
90x10
90x10
90x10
Short rests!

Wide grip bench
90x6 - somehow easier on my shoulder
100x6
95x6
95x6
Happy with these. Not far of my strongest

Seated row super set
12x2

Also, the club has just shelled out for some new bars. Sweet jesus they're handsome! I think Dom has pictures...

 

[icecold]

This is true, I'm paying the price now! I think it'll be fine as long as I can do volume, but I might rest it completely until Saturday now. I will smash my triceps on Weds though

On a dietary note, it's becoming very hard to back load enough. Before I would aim to get 400g but would let myself off at ~350g if I couldn't be arsed. Now I'm shooting for 450g fairly strictly. I think I'll get used to the extra, I think I just need to rely more heavily on dextrose. I dropped down to 100g dextrose PWO which leaves a considerable deficit, but made it possible to eat relatively soon after training.

 

[icecold]

Not in one sitting, but in the space of around 3 hours maximum.

Relying HEAVILY on haribo, but I think I need some variety before I get sick of it. I don't like using milk in a backload either

I think something like this might work:

- 50g PWO
- meal with ~100g to 150g
- shake with 150g
- haribo, donuts, etc. to make up the rest.

 

[icecold]

Cornflakes?

Spice things up.........

Frosties.

Special K?

Ive had that feeling for years with both AC joints

However to foloow and do 90 for much reps, you arent as bad as you might think. Just ease off the heavy **** for a couple of weeks. If its really bad you wouldnt be able to do 40kg..really!

Yeah if I was really worried I wouldn't be doing any pushing movements at all for a few weeks. I'm probably still doing too much though, which is why I'm going to rest it until Sat/Mon depending on how it feels.

Stretching every day too and lot's of upper back strengthening work. I'm seeing this as an opportunity to actually fix my pec tightness while I'm "resting", as even the slightest shoulder protraction under load causes pain. Since tight pec is what's pulling my into protraction, I'm really hoping that this logic makes sense

 

[icecold]

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/7622/5-minute-chocolate-mug-cake.aspx

Replace tablespoon of cocoa with whey of your choice? Got to be quite good for CBL and change the flavour of the whey to stop you getting bored. Pretty sure you can scale up the time spent microwaving it and make a 'bowl' cake.

Going to try it tonight as a iifym dessert

kd

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I'd have to scale it up considerably to get enough carbs to make it worthwhile.

Fitting treat type stuff into this isn't a problem, but I need to find easy ways of bulking out the majority of the backload without massive bloating.

2 Croissants with butter, and an overripe banana, i find it really light on the stomach and makes up 55g carbs

I will try this!

 

[icecold]

Cons:
- backloads aren't as fun as they sound
- if you don't train at a high enough %, you shouldn't backload
- some people find low carbing to be a ballache

Pros:
- backloads are EXACTLY as awesome as they sound most of the time
- mad lean gainz

 

[icecold]

Honestly, I couldn't give you a definitive answer.

All I know is that there was a definite difference between how backloads doing Steedie's ridiculous routine feel compared to my normal training. My theory (also hinted at but not explained in the book) is that you need you need to be hitting high % of neural activation. This means that while you might be putting just as much perceived effort into a maximal 12 rep set as a maximal 5 rep set, you are only hitting higher activation with the 5 rep set. I suspect that as long as you do some lower rep work every day you'll be fine.

Another layer of complication lies with body part splits. Just using common sense, there no way you'll be able to translocate as much tGLUT on an arms day compared to a legs or back day.

I've never had to deal with these problems as strength training ticks all of the right boxes. Practically speaking, I don't think it will make a huge amount of difference, but it might be something to keep an eye on.

 

[icecold]

Does this mean that Steedie trying CBL over complicates things?

kd

No, for two reasons:

1) The routines that Steedie gave to me were particularly low load and high on metabolic stress (30 second rests, super sets on the same muscle groups), even compared to what Steedie normally does.

2) I haven't done a few weeks worth of routines like that, so I don't know for certain that what I'm talking about is definitely a thing.

I highly suspect that if your routine resembles circuits rather than proper resistance training then CBL won't work properly, because that's what the book says anyway. Otherwise, tossing some high load sets (near maximal <8 rep sets) into a normal 10-12 rep routine will be fine.

I think Keifer has exercise programmes suited for CBL if anyone is interested enough to look them up.

You mean I can't backload on arms day?

I did, the full 400g too.

All I'm saying is that I'm not sure if doing a FULL backload if you're doing an arm day every week is a good plan in the long run.

It's not as simple as just saying that though. You might need an extra backload anyway for recovery, you might be doing another workout day the next day, etc. etc.

For example, my arm day was the day after comp day, so I was still absolutely smashed and in need of the extra recovery.

Eventually you'll be able to feel when you should be adding or taking away from your backloads (either with reduction or removal). It's like Keifer says, either you feel tight and dry or a bit puffed up, and from there you can adjust accordingly.

Thanks Syla/Ice/Nitefloozle, that's exactly how I took it from reading the book and thinking about it over the past couple of days but it's always good to hear people's real life experiences experiences of it.

I think I'd be very lost if I didn't initially have people telling me about it IRL. 80% of the diet is simple as ****, but the book does it's best to hide that.

 

[icecold]

Bro, I don't agree with any of that!

It's simple, but difficult in it's simplicity. You are told to avoid low-GI carbs, so I find myself avoiding things like lasagne or risotos because of the pasta and rice respectively - you can't, or rather you shouldn't, eat them even on your backload.

Firstly, white rice is a fantastic carb source for a backload. Pasta less so, but...

Secondly, it doesn't matter! If you fancy having a pasta meal, a backload is the PERFECT time for it. Is it optimal? No, but you're talking about a couple of percent difference to your daily outcome.

You should be trying to make this diet work for you, rather than restricting what you can have in your "cheat" portion of the day. Don't have brown rice/pasta, but don't worry about everything else. Even bread is ok.

This means you start eating things like 'pack of sausages' with maybe the additional side of broccoli. 'Cooked meals' and recipies have somewhat gone out of the window. I think that's a bit crap, but it's what it encourages you to do. It's also quite hard not to become obsessive about it for fear of putting yourself through the nauseating preparation stage again.

C'mon man! There are thousands of meals you can cook. All you've done is default to the meals you normally turn to when you're cutting.

Low carb:
- salad with meat <---- that should be enough variety there anyway, most dressings are low carb too
- meaty soup
- stew
- meat and veg (this is where you live, but what about the other veg and meats!)
- chicken with avocado with olive oil and a splash of lemon
- tuna mayo

High carb:
- curry with loads of rice
- ANYTHING with loads of rice
- pasta meals
- anything high carb you've been craving
...in fact, this is too easy for me to carry on listing

You are making this WAY too difficult. Tbh you're massively setting yourself up to get sick of the diet.

It would be INCREDIBLY hard to mess with your system enough to need to do the prep phase again. We're talking eating carbs all day for a week, probably more.

Other massive negative - my concentration still doesn't seem to be operating at 100%, although I've taken measures to limit this and I'm coping better. Really it's not surprising, you are probably going to function mentally better with some carbs in you.

As I've said to you, this is false. If you're completely carb depleted, as in the prep phase, then maybe. But your body should be coping because you should be eating enough fats.

Other potential negative - not sure on the long term effects with regards to the pancreas / diebetes. I just can't imagine it being good for you in the long term considering the stress you are putting on your body, even if it is intermittant.

CBL is going to be better for your pancreas than most other things. Why? You're dealing with 1 insulin spike per day. Yes, it's a big spike, but compare this to the bad scenario of lots of spikes throughout the day, and not letting your levels return to baseline ever.

But the results speak for itself. The fat has flown off, not sure if I've gained any strength but that's not my goal. I have never had such rapid fat loss before.

But yes, it is extremely effective.

You've already done the hard part (and it is very hard!) and are seeing good results, so now you need to be minimising difficult bits.

 

[icecold]

You get insulin spikes from protein too - just not as much. Fats certainly MCTs are not very insulinogenic.

This is true, and it's why you can't consume a lot of whey during your low carb (aka low insulin) portion of the day.

The insulin spike from protein in meat doesn't seem to cause a problem in terms of interrupting fat burning.

 

[icecold]

I know

The difference between high GI and insulinogenic is important too.

 

[icecold]

Have you looked into the cinnamon stick fat loss drink? It's all about the cinnulin process.

I used to consume a lot of cinnamon for exactly this! In fact I'm pretty sure I learned about it from your posts <3

Unfortunately, I don't think it's compatible with the way CBL works.

As far as I remember (could well be mistaken here ), cinnamon helps to improve sensitivity to insulin. One of the quirks of CBL is that this is actually the opposite of what you want to happen in terms of localised short term effect. Just to make up some numbers, assume that cinnamon would increase insulin sensitivity for 2 hours. That's great for the average Joe who's response is all jacked up, but CBL assumes that you've already got a balanced insulin response (either by default or because you've done the prep phase).

Given that insulin causes all tissues to absorb glucose equally, this causes sugars to be sucked into fat as well as muscle. Again, this isn't a huge problem for your average Joe, because any extra absorption by muscle is a bonus. If you're doing CBL, you're trying to avoid glucose uptake by fat cells as much as possible. Pre-training, you're trying to avoid insulin spikes as much as possible (it's even suggested to use caffeine around meals for it's insulin desensitising effects). Post training, you rely on non-insulin facilitated glucose transport into skeletal muscle via the action of GLUT-4 and GLUT-12 (iirc!), which are translocated to the cell membrane via mechanisms stimulated by high load training.

Of course, that all hinges on my understanding of the mechanisms of cinnulin. I think Keifer mentions it in the book though.

I think you'd find the book interesting btw, given that you're probably even more of a geek than I am with this stuff!

1)You are completely right about white rice. I should aim to be less boring in the kitchen. I'm managing fine with the diet though.


2)Despite considerably upping my morning fat intake, it appears to me to be true. I'm just speaking from my personal experience, take it or leave it, that's how I felt. I am continuing to up my MCT intake.


3)I can't really comment further on this as I was purely speculating. I'm not convinced either way. It certainly isn't 'normal' though.


Agreed!

1) I think it's very important to make sure that eating is as enjoyable as possible. I happen to know that you're a good cook, so get on with it!

2) Of course, I not suggesting that you're lying or anything!

Just to toss some ideas around for a second...

I wonder if it's some left over effect of using cheese during your prep phase. If you're feeling a bit better now that you're not having cheese during the day, it might stand to reason that it was similarly interrupting fat burning processes during the prep phase. If this is the case, hopefully it'll just be a matter of a week or so before your body adjusts.

Either way, you're doing the right thing anyway in upping your MCTs.

3) It's definitely not "normal", but then what is?

I think it's fairly safe to say that CBL is superior to the vast majority of protocols on the basis of a few points:

- Your insulin sensitivity is good. This is a huge one, in that it's a principal concern for "pre-diabetes" and "metabolic syndrome".

- You're sometimes avoiding significant insulin spikes for almost 2 days

The simple fact that CBL allows for efficient use of fat burning energy systems strongly hints that it's a considerable improvement to the way the average modern person functions (obviously, only looking at this fairly limited subset of betterness).

Does the sheer amount of carbs you end up consuming in one go negate these benefits? I don't know. For some of them, this is self evidently not the case (fat burning systems being active), but I wouldn't want to make a sweeping statement of general healthiness.

All I can say is that I feel very good, but in terms of energy and recovery.

 

[icecold]

I just hope you make some earlyin the day energy gains soon, can't be fun with your job!

When I take MCTs now, it's like an instant shot of energy. Kind of like a sugar rush but without the sugar.

Well you made a stew one time, and then grilled a lot of burgers

 

[icecold]

Oh yeah...

Training 20/2/13

Deads
bar x lots - hmmm, I didn't notice how tight my adductors were until now
60x10
100x5
140x3
160x1 - really not getting a good line, bar is quite far away from shins. Speed was silly though
180x1
200x1
220x3 quad/adductor pain :/
200x5 still uncomfortable. I could have done more sets here, there wasn't any danger of snapping. However, in the long run fixing whatever is jacked up is is more important than some slightly gay heavy-ish reps. Very frustrated by the lack of work done, so decided to get some hypertrophy volume in.
180x10
180x10
Satisfying at least! Definitely going to deload deadlifts considerably and work up slowly. Felt most of the of the fatigue from the 10 rep sets in my glutes, which may or may not be important.

RDL
140x5
Glutes fatigued from silly deadlifts, and also not particularly interested in adding hamstring fatigue to my squats on friday.

Tricep cable superset
12x3

Cable rear delt
15x2

Kroc rows
45x25reps

Annoying session! Maybe some day deadlifting will be my friend again, but it is not this day!

However, bodyweight is up a bit compared to 2 weeks ago, and lean-ness is only very slightly diminished. Joocy gainz.