More big weights, and now on to something better

My final routine of this power phase is completed. I threw legs in with arms because the routine for them will remain the same until my knee feels 100%. I'd like to give more thanks to Marcella for her great spotting while I attempted and achieved my new 135lb barbell curl 1 rep max. The rest of the workout was lackluster, as you can see below:



Tomorrow I get to move back to my favorite, the bodybuilding phase. The Bodybuilding style of training is focused around maximum muscle stimulation and fiber recruitment to stimulate muscle growth. This is achieved by lifting a moderately heavy weight for 8-12 repetitions through the longest possible range of motion and over the greatest variety of angles. I also like to superset opposing muscle groups (such as biceps with triceps) during this phase to keep intensity high while simultaneously stretching whichever muscle I'm not using. I picked up these techniques from a book (The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding) written by one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A brief, though important, nutritional note:
Many viewing this may wonder why I advocate avoiding animal products. I plan to discuss the 'how's and 'why's in as much detail as I can when I have more time, but for the moment I'd like to start by saying that animal products are scientifically proven to be dangerous to long term health. I am certainly not saying animal foods are the only unhealthy foods out there, but they are high on the list of foods to be reduced and/or avoided if long term health and a better figure are your priorities.

Dr. T Colin Campbell, Chair of the Department of Nutrition at Cornell University and author of The China Study puts it well when he states:

"...animal protein has a quick and major impact on enzymes involved with the metabolism of cholesterol. Whether it is the immune system, various enzyme systems, the uptake of carcinogens into cells, or hormonal activities, animal protein generally only causes mischief"

I will supply more information, as well as supporting graphs and information in future posts, but suffice to say that the researchers I cite and the studies they themselves cite all indicate that animal products are a danger to your health. If you are a vegetarian consuming dairy products or an omnivore, it would be wise to reduce your intake in these harmful foods in favor of... you guessed it - fruits and vegetables! (and legumes, raw nuts, mushrooms, and whole grains of course)

So until next time, eat your beans & greens!

Fried food makes my stomach hurt

We decided yesterday to get Vietnamese for lunch, at Mekong because they at least offer brown rice instead of white, and lots of vegan menu options (forgot to bring the camera, doh!). I didn't want any rice or anything saucy and salty so I opted for a grilled tofu platter - a plate of fresh veggies and tofu that you assemble yourself into spring rolls with rice wrappers

...but the tofu turned out to be fried, much to my dismay. There's no way in hell I would ever raise a fuss in a restaurant over something like that, though, and since we'd waited til 4 pm to eat lunch, I gamely went ahead and ate some of it. Just eating 6 pieces of the fried tofu made my stomach all crampy. Next time I'll ask for them not to fry it because other than that it's a really light and tasty dish, and a good place for work lunches.

Easy 15 Minute Dinner: For dinner I wanted something as light as possible; this is probably a good principle to follow for imperfections - just plan on paying for it for the remainder of the day. So I simply chopped up some garlic and onion and sauteed them,

dumped a pound of frozen spinach in the pan and covered and cooked it til it was mostly defrosted, and then added a can of chickpeas. I sprinkled on a healthy dose of curry powder and some crushed red pepper flakes, and steamed a pack of
broccoli/cualiflower/baby carrot mix.

Edamame is also a great accompaniment, it's got a lot of protein and is really filling, you just have to go easy on the coarse salt. I microwaved it in bag, made a salad, and that was it. It was more than the 2 of us could eat.


I haven't been posting my workouts due to time costraints, but I have been doing them, of course. I had a pretty lackluster arms day that's not even worth mentioning really.

Legs today was about on par with the usual for me except that I usually do at least 2 more exercises: I used to be able to go a lot heavier on squat but I recently dropped the weight to work on my form. I wasn't keeping my feet ahead of my knees properly or going down far enough....

Two workouts and a lot of food later...

I was too tired to post last night, so tonight without further ado I will put them up. Yesterday I managed to get both arms and shoulders in because I had some cancellations in the afternoon, and today I went through pretty much the same leg routine as my first post, again with no pain (very exciting).

Here are yesterdays:


And here is today's:


As a note/reminder, anyone who has questions or suggestions about our posts please feel free to leave comments. Thus far we are focusing on our diet and exercise routines, and I will be adding nutritional tidbits here and there, but if there are any other questions/interests out there comment away!

Derek's Workout

Today was an exciting day (haha) because I was able to do a full-blown legs routine without my knee acting up. I went light on the exercises, but this is very much what one of my leg routines would normally look like. In the near future I hope to add more athletic exercises such as squat-jumps and set-ups, but for now this will do.

Exercise; Sets/Reps @ Weight: (lbs)

After our workouts we have a protein shake containing one serving each of ON Nutrition's 100% Soy Protein as well as Arizona Nutritional Science's Nitro-Fusion multi-source vegetable protein. The shake also contains a fresh banana, a handful of fresh blueberries, and at least a cup of frozen cherries and strawberries, blended with 1 cup soymilk, 1 cup water.

I chose these shakes due to their excellent, plant-derived (no animal protein) amino-acid profiles. That said, I do not recommend a protein supplement for everyone. Studies have shown that excess protein consumption from all sources, but especially animal protein, places stress on the kidneys as well as other systems within the body. I'll go into more detail in the future, but for now I'd like to recommend protein supplementation as a means to an end (in this case, increasing body muscle-mass) rather than a healthy dietary practice

For more information on these protein supplements visit their websites at:

• www.nitrofusion.us
• www.optimumnutrition.com/products/100-soy-protein-p-221/html
  

Marcella's Workout and What We Ate Today:

Like Derek, I do a 4 day training split: Chest/Back, Shoulders, Arms, and Legs. I don't follow a set routine on a given day, I just pull from the grab bag of exercises we do depending on what equipment's open and how I feel. Every day starts with a 5-10 minute cardio warm-up and some stretching. I think Derek will be adding some demonstration clips of exercises in the near future, too.
Today was Legs day:
Breakfast
Every workout day Derek blends us up a fruit/protein powder/soymilk shake for breakfast.

Lunch
Sunday is virtually the only day of the week we have time to go out to eat. Today we went to Nile Ethiopian Restaurant:

Tomato Lentil Soup, full of ginger and garlic and general deliciousness

Vegetarian combo with various lentil, split-pea, collards, mushroom, and eggplant dishes. The injera flatbread it's served with is super low-glycemic and packed with protein, fiber, and vitamins and minerals.
They even brought us some lemon sorbet, on the house! Look at how happy Derek is...

Dinner

Nice and simple: some whole-wheat penne pasta with zucchini, eggplant, and mushrooms. A broccoli and carrot Waldorf-style salad.

This is how we do it: Tons of veggies, liiitttllle bit of pasta for the main dish. Huge, filling salad, usually two bowls of it with dinner. Usually steamed greens too, but it was the end of the grocery week and we'd eaten them all up :{

That's 1 whole eggplant & 1 zucchini, diced and some oyster, crimini, and shitake mushrooms sliced. The pasta sauce is No Salt Added, Trader Joes brand. Hey, I work and study 11 hours a day, dammit!

Salad made of above components; yum! The broccoli/carrot slaw (from Trader Joe's naturally) and Fuji apples make it very filling with all the fiber, and the addition of sunflower seeds and cashew pieces makes it protein-rich.


The pasta dish, made to feed us both, had only about 5 ounces of dry pasta to about 2 lbs of veggies. This is where our diet differs from the norm. Nutrient-dense food should be the centerpiece of the meal, and shouldn't be relegated to a mere side dish! It's amazing how quickly your tastes change when you eat more fresh food; suddenly those big mounds of processed pasta seem about as appetizing as sawdust...