Gone, but not forgotten.

After a brief hiatus from updates, I'm back.

Medicine-

I'm getting further and further disenchanted with the state of modern medicine. It is often overly depressing to encounter terminal cases in which the family won't accept the inevitable outcome. Combine these depressing factors, with working too many hours, being understaffed, etc. It's difficult to keep morale high when you're working all day and seemingly getting nothing done.


Diet:


Weight: ~255
I've been a bit relaxed on my dieting considering work has taken an exorbitant amount of time and food prep has been a bitch.  I have done my best to reach my protein intake goal of 250-300g/day. Pair that with restricting my carb intake, and I have not gained any weight, and actually have lost a bit... all while maintaining/gaining strength during the prep and peak phase for my meet.

It's easy to lose sight of progress, as it is very slow, but as my coach pointed out: In the last year I've dropped 10% of my bodyweight while getting stronger and building muscle...

I've switched over to Grass fed beef (bought a side of beef: Grass fed for $3.00/lb processed/vacume packed),  Omega 3 eggs, eliminated the vast majority of bullshit from my diet. Though I do need to get another 20 loaves of sprouted grain bread from Trader Joes... At least for the next few months I should be able to keep the diet in check with decent food-prep.


Lifting:

I had planned on doing a meet on Sept 7th, but work has put an end to that. I'd say my last 2 months have been a waste, but after talking with the coach, I'm going to do a "mock" meet.  this upcoming week when I have a day off... At least we can reset my maxes and see what progress has been made. 

Openers are extra conservatively planned at: 405 Squat, 315 bench, 465 deadlift.  Goals are ~550/365/550

Even my conservative numbers, while they aren't my lifetime maxes (too many knee surgeries), are at or higher than they were a year ago... at 30 lbs heavier.



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Updated progress photo: April-August

New phase

Lifting

New block started last week. 

Squats up to  385x5,   Bench up to 275 5 sets of 5, and Sumo deadlift 415 5 sets of 5 (first time sumo in ~7 months.    Pretty decent week.

Squats tomorrow are a max triple for a few sets... and then some reverse band singles of doom. benching and deadlifting are both set for triples too... 

I'm looking at a full powerlifting meet Sept 20th...



Diet
-Morning weight:  263

Had a bit of cheating when I went to Indianapolis this weekend. Had some good pizza, the best tacos I've ever tasted (La Chinta in Broad ripple had amazing carnitas and skirt steak tacos!)


Locked the diet back down yesterday though... Grilled some steaks for dinner, and am going to skewer and grill up 10 lbs of chicken and 10 lbs of beef on the 4th...



Medicine:

Officially not a general medicine resident anymore. Neurology rotations only from here on out.

I'm in clinic this month, so I work a solid 8-5ish. Unfortunately I am on call all night  this week, as well as the weekend... not looking forward to it, but I have the 4th off...

Board exam on the 12th, Studying... 'hard' for it. That's taking quite a bit of time away from neurology studying.  It also has brought to my attention to the fact that my neurological knowledge is extremely lacking. I guess that's what this next 3 years is for, right?

I had a meeting with my mentor recently, discussing my future goals, and career pathways. It's still unclear what I'm going to do, but likely it will take some customization to fit my needs/desires.

Grinder.

Medicine: 

In the ER this month getting abused. Half of my shifts make me want to murder people. The drug-seeking, the lying, the environment, etc. It's draining and eats my soul. The more I work down here... the more jaded and disinterested in patients I am becoming...  4 shifts left. The ER crud got to me, and I'm pretty sure I got a wonderful atypical pneumonia- Hello Z-pak. On top of that, my tweaked neck has been pretty back this last two weeks, made so much worse from the deep bone shaking coughing I've been doing. Currently, I'm unable to turn my head to the left.

Lifting:

It has been in the pits. As above, I've been dealing with being sick for the last week and a half; which has worsened considerably over the last few days. My inability to breathe has caused me to minimize my accessory work...

--

Squats on the 17th went well. My top set(s) of singles were slated at 395. The last one I pushed to 6 reps. After some reviewing, I do think I was a little high on most of the reps.  Strength is there, I just need to get deeper and be less of a bitch about heavy weight. The mental game is the hardest thing when I'm lifting.

This is the last week of this current block. I'm excited to see what's next up for me from my coach/guide/mentor/guru. I'm 90% sure I'm going to try to do a Meet by the end of the  year if I can get Brandon to keep improving me. It might be the push I need to perform better in the gym. 


Diet:

No cheating at all this week, but this illness has made me rather nauseated, and getting enough protein in is EXTREMELY difficult. 

Hopefully I'm not dropping too much hard-earned muscle.

--DT

No avoiding it...

No avoiding it... Fatty needs cardio.
===
Calories/macros tracked this last week. 2200-2500 kcal. 250-300g protein.
Weight stable from April 2013 until June9th 2013 at 263.

Progress is slow, but steady. Fat is coming off, strength is coming up, muscle is building.
I'll be continuing as planned as far as weights and diet goes, but I'll be doing what I've been trying to avoid since starting with Brandon: Cardio. It's hard enough to get my 4 workouts in between work and the baby... trying to tack on an additional 30minutes daily is going to be a strain. My upcoming block, Coach is going to try to trim back some accessory work from one day to make some cardio time.

I'm thinking I'd like to find a decent recomb bike on the cheap... or just be less of a lazy bastard and strap the baby into the jogging stroller...

Lifting

Diet

Logging everything for the boss-man. Keeps me honest, but it is enlightening, showing me how little protein I have been getting. (250g most days, barely goal).

It also keeps me on task when I see I'm 100g shy of goal, and need to pack the protein in...

Progress pics/wt in the am.


Lifting

on task with the program, slight detour and I attempted a max on (narrow grip)bench... Nailed 365, bombed on 405. Damn. If I could learn to use some leg drive, it'd be easy...

Squats are progressing insofar as technique. Even today, I dropped the bar lower on my back, getting away from my usual high-ER bar. Made the lifts much easier. Went belt less today, no problem with 6 sets of 3 @ 345. The weight felt really good. I resisted pushing the wt up for a max... The squats don't seem to be difficult for anything other than my core-stabilizers. Prime movers aren't overly taxed. If I build up tightness in my setup, I think it can progress my lift tons.

Deadlift: love/hate. I feel weak as shit at deadlifts. I need to work on this.

Skwats and sustenance.

Weights

On target, following the program as laid out. I've always had a problem with sub max training. I never feel like I'm progressing enough. I always have this wild hair up my ass to try to test my max. I have a very hard time keeping the "train, don't test" mentality. My progress has always blown because of this. The accountability of having a coach run my programming I think is what I needed all along.

Squats are progressing insofar as my technique and glute contraction patterning. The weights I'm using aren't overly brutal, and move just fine. Once I grease the groove for a while, I'm sure large gains will occur.

Here's a video of today's squats. First at 325, then the last (of 8 sets of triples)@345. Bar path is not straight, and on the ascent things drift a little forward, as you can see me rock to my toes. Slowing down or using heavier weights might help stop this...

Diet

Weight stable at 263-264. Work made it damn near impossible to do the rx'd cardio on top of lifting. This upcoming month will be better.

Tracking every single macro this week for the boss. Trying to nail down my problem.

Grilled 3 lbs of chicken and 5 lbs lean grass fed top sirloin, some peppers and other greens.




"Take the slow road – don’t be the guy “bulking” and “cutting” and “dieting.” All of these things fail. It’s about a lifestyle." -Wendler


Medicine:

ICU complete. Studying casually for medical boards. No sense of urgency yet...

Insert clever title

Diet:

16hr fasts are going well. Frantic pace in my eyes, slamming food and protein shakes at a pace of 60-80g protein q 2hrs.

Wt was down to 263 yesterday, so the bloat, or whatever the fuck has gone away.

Cappuccino rush Dynamatize is pretty delicious protein powder. The carb count is a touch high, so it's usefulness is limited, but solid taste. My go to low carb powder is matrix 5 orange cream.... Dirt cheap, good macro profile, and tastes awesome (little foamy)...


Weights:

Repeated block 2 week1 considering last weeks missed workout.

Highlights
Monday
squats up to 315 for some triples
Cg bench up to 265 for triples

Wednesday
Deadlifts up to425 for triples.
Cg bench up to 295 for some singles

Friday
More cgbp up to 265
Squats to 365 with belt for doubles.

Saturday
Rack pulls to 465 for doubles

Things I've realized:
My glute activation on squats and deadlifts is lacking severely. Most notably on rack pulls, I reflected and noticed it felt like I was using all back...

My right elbow is flaring early on bench. I need to concentrate on keeping them tucked during the press.

Sloppy Squat Setups Sink Ships.

I need to not be afraid of grinding out squat/deadlift reps. I need to learn to struggle/recruit more muscle...


Medicine:

Nothing new: ICU... People die...