Muscle and IF

Two blocks of DC done

2010-02-04T01:55:00.000-08:00

Uploaded my B3-workout to youtube a while ago but forgot to add it to my blog. Here it is:

Yesterday I did my B1-workout again and I have completed two blocks of DC-training.

During my first week and the first couple of days of my second week I experienced muscle soreness. All those sets to muscular failure took their toll and my biceps and triceps were not conditioned for this kind of abuse. :)

That beeing said; everything feels good now and improvements in reps and weight is profound!

In my first B1-workout I did barbel curls with 30kg for 16, 5 and 4 reps, each set to absolute muscular failure. Yesterday I did 32.5kg for 21, 6 and 6 reps!

In my first A1-workout I did incline bench in the machine with 70kg for 14, 4, 3 reps and on Monday I did 90kg for 11, 4 and 3 reps!

The leg press machine is a fun addition to my strength training. Yesterday I did 260kg (572lbs) for 20 reps. I am supposed to do 4-8 reps first but there is not enough room for weight plates on the machine so I have only done the widowmaker set till now. Next time I am going to do leg presses I will do some heavy back squatting first. I do not look forward to that but it has to be done.

The weight is not moving so I will fast less and eat more the following weeks.

Also, I might ease up on the calf raises since I am getting some weird pains on the inside of my ankle..time will tell.

Submission wrestling

2010-01-30T02:59:00.000-08:00

Me and some friends meet up every friday and grapple. They have been at it longer then me since I have about 10 balls in the air at any given moment in time..:)

We practice submission wrestling where the main objective is to gain positional dominance over your opponent and submit him with a lock or a choke. In competition you also get awarded points for sweeps, passes and throws.

This is, in my opinion, a great sport that gives you many challenges. You can practice full speed, full force against a non complient opponent since there are agreed upon rules that makes it safe. If you get trapped in a lock or a choke you simply "tap out" by clapping your hand or foot on the ground or on your opponent. You can also say; "tap", or something similar that you both have agreed upon before starting.

Some of the most important factors of sub.wrestling (again, in my opinion) is technical mastery, endurance (both cardiovascular and muscular) and strength.

The only thing I got going for me at the moment is strength. I have many hours of practice ahead of me before I can claim to be a good technical grappler. My endurance will creep up towards the summer (because of my bodybuilding project).

Here is a video clip of yestedays grappling session (the first guy I am grappling has about 10 kg on me):

First week of DC-training done

2010-01-28T04:03:00.000-08:00

First, here is my B2-workout:

This completes my first week of DC-training. It has been strange for me to use machines and to take each set to failure. The arm-focus is also unusual for me (never worked my biceps so much) and I have been sore 3/4 of my first week. I still need to eat more since my work week is packed with physical activity.

Everything feels good so far, the soreness is gone and my body is adapting well.

As some might have noticed, I do not go gung ho with my leg-work. This is to make sure I do not re-strain my back (hurt it a bit right before christmas).

Week two has started! Here is my A3-workout:

More DC

2010-01-24T11:54:00.000-08:00

This Friday I went to the gym and did my A2-workout right after work;

Later in the evening me and some friends met up and did some grappling. Great fun but I need to work my cardio! Since I begun this muscle building project I have not focused much on cardio. Since I am doing intermittent fasting, getting enough callories to build muscle is hard enough without me doing 2-3 days of cardio in addition to the stuff I have to do at work.

For those of you that are wondering why I am calling my workouts A1, B1, A2 etc..; The program I am using now is a upper-/lower body split that is divided between 4 days (Mon, Wed, Fri, Mon) and has 3 different exercises for each muscle group. Tomorrow I will do my B2-workout, Wednesday will be my A3-workout and Friday will be my B3-workout. Guess what comes next Monday? :) That is correct! A1 and the circle begins again!

Took some stats today after 14 hours of fasting:

Weight - 75.1 kg
Fat - 9 %
Fat free body mass - 68.3 kg
Fat - 6.8 kg

And a picture:

Dogg crap training

2010-01-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

I know, I know... I suck at updating this blog. Will do better, promise!

So, what is new.. Well, my back is all healed up and I have started lifting weights again. This period I decided to try out DC-training (dogg crap training) for bodybuilding. I have never gotten around to testing it before so this is a perfect opportunity.

For those of you that have never heard about DC, check out this link:
http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_50_pounds_of_muscle_in_12_months&cr =

In short: it is a weight lifting program designed to give you as much muscle as possible as fast as possible. It is not a beginners routine and uses negatives, statics and extreme stretching. It also builds heaps of strength and is similar to some of the more "known" programs like 5x5.

Beating the log book (progression), variation (rotating 3 different upper/lower body workouts), rest pause sets, periods of progressive overload followed by a deload period, multi joint exercises but also isolation exercises. Machines are also frequently used because of safety reasons for when you work out alone (like I do).

Here is my first DC-workout (my A1-workout):

The chest exercise and the seated dumbell presses is something that I have almost never done so I started with a bit too little weight there (overshot my targeted RP-reps for the exercise).

My program is almost identical to the one in the article above (some sligth adjustment because of exercise machines and my fear of messing up my back again..:).

Here is my B1-workout:

Happy new year!

2010-01-01T05:40:00.000-08:00

Seems like my back has healed well. Must have been a muscle pull.

Laying on my back for over 1 week is not something I am used to so it felt real good to lift some weights yesterday.

I started out with a good warm up, did some front squats, first without weights, then a progressive warm up followed by 3x5 with 60 kg. Everything felt good so I will stick with the front squat for at least one full period (8-12 weeks).

After that I felt like doing some bench pressing. I was a bit hesitant to bridge so I just kept a small arch in my low back. I should probably not have gone so heavy but like I said, I was messed up for laying on my back most of the holliday so I did some progressive warm up and did 1 x 5 with 100 kg. Felt great and I still had some power in the tank.

I was fairly tired after this so instead of doing weighted pullups I decided to see if I could do 20 strict pullups. Went well.

Finished off with 3 x 30 sec plank with the feet on a bosu ball.

In the following weeks I will be going back to the basics, focusing on; the front squat, bench press, trap bar deadlift (light weights, getting used to the exercise), weighted pullups, standing barbell press, weighted chinups and plank variations.

I will be going back to a starting strength type of routine but more on this later.

On the 13. April I will be 30 years old. One short term goal is to weigh 77 kg at around 9% body fat by then.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T01:43:00.000-08:00

Short update from the land up north. It is Christmas, we have just devoured a huuge breakfast of rolls and home made garnityre, topping it off with a nice strong cup of coffee now.

Why the $%$ I am seated in front of my computer you think? Well, I hurt my back on Monday. Had to happen sooner or later. In my 29 years of roaming this earth I have never been injured because of a workout.

Here is the set that gave me a kink in my lower back:

As you can see, form was good. No rounding of the back, no shifting from side to side, no loss of tension. I blame my poor warm up. Too short warm up and too few progressive sets before hitting my work weight.

Enough of that. My back is getting better. Probably just a muscle pull.

Here is what I had planned for my Thursdays workouts:

The roll outs was overkill. Might have to add a workout dedicated for core-work on a separate day. Plan will change now. Will let my back heal, eat plenty during the Christmas holiday and create a rehab plan with a very competent friend of mine.

Fat caliper said that I have lost some fat lately. Down to 8-8.5% fat at around 74.5kg body weight.

Sorry for the short sentences and fact-heavy post but hey, it is Christmas morning here in the north of Norway and I have to play with my oldest so he survives the wait..:)

Have a wonderful Christmas and a motivating new year!

Love,

Bjorn Granum

Muscle building period #3

2009-12-12T03:45:00.000-08:00

Like I mentioned in the video above; this last period was not very productive because of little sleep and too little food.

I have not gone up in weight and my fat-caliper measurements are about the same. I did gain some strength and had some fun, so it was not a complete waste.

In my third period I am going back to a routine that is similar to my first one. Since I have access to a trap bar I have decided to increase my 20 rep weight in the trap bar. I will ease into it and start with a fairly easy weight.

Like my first period, this period will consist of two full-body workouts; Mondays and Thursdays, giving me more time to restitute then my last period.

Mondays will look like the video;

warm up with foam rolling, some light stretching, dynamic stretching and some activation/mobility work
trap bar deadlift, 20 reps , taking short breaks when/if I need them
weighted dips, activation set of 12-15 reps followed by a total of 10-15 effective reps spread out in sets of 5-1 reps with 10-20 sec breaks between sets
facepulls, 2x10 reps

Thursdays might look something like this;

rear foot elevated squat, activation set of 12-15 reps followed by 10 effective reps divided into smaller sets of 5-1 reps with 10-20 sec breaks between sets
standing barbell press, 3x5 reps
weighted chinups, activation set of 8-10 reps followed by a total of 10 effective reps
one foot stiff legged dead lift, 2x10 reps
one arm dumbell bench press, 2x10 reps
standing and kneeling wheel-rollouts

These are my current thoughts for this period. My Monday routine is set, I will just have to test out my Thursday routine to see if it will fly.

Till next time: Do not hate..motivate! Do good and prosper!

Dead lift form and what I eat

2009-12-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

Since it seems like you guys would like me to focus more on youtube updates, I will..:)

As I have mentioned before; I have two sons, one 5 month old baby and one 5 year old. The baby is getting his teeth at the moment so sleep is slowly becoming something of the past.

I have skipped the Wednesday workout two weeks in a row now because of my poor restitution (mostly because of too little sleep), so it felt ekstra nice to get in a good session today (yes, I prosponed the Wednesday workout for today)!

Lately I have been thinking about my dead lift form and have arrived to the conclusion that I shift my weight too much forward at the start of the lift. I tried to focus on maintaining the weight at the back/center of my foot today.

It does not make much sense to "focus of form" with an "active" work weight, so because I am a bit impatient when it comes to my own development I used straps on my work sets so I could focus on my legs and my low back.

Might do me good to complete a period of rack-pulls to strengthen the top part of the dead lift.

While I was waiting for the squat rack to be available I decided I would try the one arm wheel rollout. This is an extreme exercise that I have seen over at Ross Enamaits site; www.rosstraining.com , but never tried.

Considering I have not done any core-work for quite some time, I was fairly pleased with my effort.

My power wheel will get more milage in the weeks to come. Last Monday I felt that my core was week during 117.5kg squats.. Not good..

Regarding my diet and my comments in the video above; I eat fairly healty, take one table spoon of fish oil every day, drink two protein shakes miksed with milk every day (extra calories and to maintain a high protein inntake) and use 5g kreatine monohydrate every day.

I also eat quite a lot of sugar, fat and eat far too little green and fruits.

That is it, that is all.

Slow but steady

2009-11-22T04:53:00.000-08:00

Three weeks into training period number 2 everything is going good. I am learning new stuff and have just started doing self-massage with a medicine ball and some tennis balls. My foam-roller is in the mail and Mike Boyles; "Functional Strength Coach 3.0", is slowly being programmed into my brain these days.

My measurements for today:

Weight: 75.2 kg

Left thigh : 10 mm

Left sub scapular: 8 mm

Right suprailiac: 5 mm

Left abdominal: 10 mm

Right triceps: 5 mm

Lean body weight: 68.4 kg
Fat: 6.8 kg

So far I have gone up 3.2 kg in lean body weight and 1.2 kg fat. Not too shabby!

This week I skipped my Wednesday workout because of poor time-management (aka life). I also cut my Friday workout short in the sense that I only did the bulgarian split squats, bench press and one arm dumbell row. My numbers are still increasing and everything feels good.

The gym I use will get a trap-bar soon. Once it arrives I will use that instead of the conventional deadlifts simply because I can.

Once my foam roller arrives I will film how I implement it into my workouts.

Considering I really suck at this internet/blog-stuff, should I do a youtube-blog instead? Chime in if you have an opinion. My thinking is that more people would check it out.. ?

Modifications

2009-11-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

Below are some extracts from my Monday routine;

I was quite happy with my form in both the squat and the benchpress today. It felt like I got OK depth without my usual but-tuck, something that might have been caused by a good warm up.

I decided to try some myofacial relese with a medicine ball, something that I have not tried before. After 5 turns back and forth all around my thighs (adductors, abductors, hams, quads, t-bands) I did some mobility exercises, some dynamic stretching and finished off with some light stretching of my hip flexors.

This kind of warm up is something I will explore more as I honestly felt much more focused and "loose" during my squats today. Some tennis balls and a foam roller will be my next "gadgets" for sure!

This is how my routine looks like now:

Monday

Back squats - 3x5
Bench press - 3x5
Weighted dips - 15+4+3+3
Weighted pullups - 5+2+2+2+2+2
Standing calf raises - 3x5
Seated curls - 15+4+3+3
Face pulls - 2x10

Wednesday

Dead lifts - 3x5
Standing barbell press - 3x5
One arm dumbell bench press (oadbp) - 12+4+3+3

Friday

Bulgarian split squats - 4x8
Bench press - 3x5
Weighted dips - 15+4+3+3
One arm dumbell rows (oadr) - 4x8
Seated curls - 15+4+3+3
Seated calf raises - 3x5
Face pulls - 2x10

My cough is still present, I am not rid of my cold yet but I am fighting it with extra calories, seal oil, more fruit and more greens!

Monday and Friday routine

2009-11-02T13:07:00.000-08:00

This was my Friday routine. On Mondays I squat for 3 x 5 reps and do standing calf raises in the smith machine, 3 x 5 reps. Those are the main differences.

I might make some changes in regards to my back-exercises; Since I got heavy dead lifts on Wednesday I might exclude the T-bar rows. I will consider doing one arm dumbell rows or T-bar rows with more volume on Fridays.

My focus this period is lower body and chest. I will be doing more of everything this period; higher frequency, more volume and similar intensity.

Fasting is more 14/10 then 16/8 now. My activity level is high and my sleep pattern is not optimal (not that is has been the last 5 years..:) so I try to eat a bit more.

Todays workout was the one above (in the video) and 1.5 hours of swimming at work (slow pace, lots of breaks).

Time to get some shut-eye! Keep on keeping on and remember;

Don´t hate, MOTIVATE! ;)

Wednesday workout

2009-10-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

This Thursday I tested my "Wednesday"-workout. Since it has been a while since I did ordinary dead lifts I went a bit easy. 130 kg felt OK and I was fairly happy with my form. 60 kg in the press was about 5 kg too heavy for 3 x 5 so I will start with 55 kg and add 1 kg per week.

My plan was to do one arm dumbell rows but decided to use the T-bar row since I have not used it in a program yet.

Still not 100% recovered after my cold but it feels like it is finally letting go.

Here is my Wednesday workout:

Starting building period number 2!

2009-10-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

The flue is almost gone and I started my new weight training period today. My glutes were a bit tired after two days of dancing and stretching (final study for my bachelors degree.. been putting it off for some years now.) so squatting felt heavy.

My program for this period will look something like this:

Monday

Squat 3 x 5
Bench-press 3 x 5
Dips 15+4+3+3
Pull-ups 5+2+2+2+2+2
Seated dumbbell curls 15+4+3+3
Seated leg press 3 x 5
Face pulls 2 x 10

Wednesday

Dead-lift 3 x 5
Standing barbell press 3 x 5
One arm dumbbell row 3 x 5
One arm bench press 10+4+3+3

Friday

Squat 3 x 5 (I might change it to bulgarian split squats 15+4+3+3)
Bench press 3 x 5
Dips 15+4+3+3
Pull-ups 8+4+3+3+2
Seated dumbbell curls 15+4+3+3
Standing leg press 3 x 5
Scare crows 2 x 10

In addition to this I swim, do water aerobics, play football and bandy once per week since it is my job. All these activities are low intensity so they should actually help me recover better. My main challenge is getting enough nutrition to grow so I might have to be even more "sloppy" with my 16/8 fasting.

I am quite the sugar addict so I will battle this addiction this period, eating more greens and fruits.

Today's workout:

Squat 3 x 5 reps with 110 kg - Medium + to Heavy - (M+/H-) I might start using my belt
Bench 1 x 5 with 100kg and 2 x 5 with 97.5kg - M+
Dips 15+4+3+3 with 10 kg - M(+)
Pull-ups 5+2+2+2+2+2, 20kg - M+
Seated curls 15+4+3+3, 12.5kg dumbbells - M
Seated leg-press 3 x 5, 30kg - M-
Face pulls 2 x 10, 50kg - M+

Yeah! Good to start up! Might film my Wednesday workout. Will post fat-caliper measurements and weight this Sunday. My program is not set in stone and I will adjust it as I go along. This period will probably last 8-12 weeks depending on...everything..:D More lean mass, more strength, minimal fat-gain!

Don`t hate, MOTIVATE!

"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Ghandi -

Sample clothes!

2009-10-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

I got some samples with my B-logo sewed on. Everything is 100% cotton and of great quality. I really liked the sweat suit! No flashy writing, perfect for training and chillin` at home.

My cold is still stuck in my chest so I can not exert my self much before it feels like I will cough one of my lungs up.

In my frustration of not beeing able to train effectively I went to the gym to test my strenght yesterday. Turned out to be a OK session!

I managed to squat 140 kg (308.6 lbs) x 1, one arm bench a 45 kg (99.2 lbs) dumbell x 3 on both my arms. In addition I held a static 90 with my left arm (comedown for the one arm chinup) for about 10 sec.

Not bad considering I have been sick for about two weeks!

I really look forward to my next lifting period!

Let me know how you like the sample clothes by voting in the poll to the right. Have a nice weekend!

Down with the cold..

2009-10-12T01:30:00.000-07:00

My oldest son has been sick for about 5 weeks and now I got it. Coughing mucus, tight chest, swollen throat, basically all the nasty stuff except fever.

It is a bit annoying seeing that I have gotten in 11 weeks of quality training till now. I squatted 102.5 kg (225.5 lbs) x 20 reps in my last workout before I got sick. It was real heavy but I felt like I could have continued progressing, adding 1 kg per week.

When this cold clears I plan on doing a more strength focused period before embarking on another low volume/frequency period. Will probably do a two way split, upper/lower, 4 days per week, one squat day, one dead lift day. 3x5 reps on the big lifts, ladders on the support exercises.

No training this week.

220 lbs x 20 done!

2009-09-21T03:49:00.000-07:00

I finally squatted 220 lbs for 20 reps! I know it is not much but it feels like I am starting over now and it is a great feeling! Here is the video:

Since I had to work out early today, I worked out in the fasted state (14 hours fast when I preformed the workout). This is not something I do very often but sometimes I have to because of life.

As you can see from the video, it did not bother me much that I had not eaten for 14 hours, I did not collapse or evaporate nor did I atrofi 5kg of muscle after..:D

I forgot to do the measurements this Sunday so I will do them tomorrow.

Next milestone will be 220 lbs x 8 reps in bench press.

8 weeks done!

2009-09-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

The first picture is my starting picture, the second one is after 8 weeks on my lean bulk - program.

Probably can not see much from those pictures but my lean body mass has gone up from 65.2 kg to 68 kg (an increase of 2.8 kg or 6.2 lbs) and I have added about 1.1 kg (2.4 lbs) fat.

This week I did 20 reps with 95 kg (209 lbs) in the squat, 120 kg (264 lbs) x 10 reps in the Rumanian deadlift, 48.5 kg (106.7 lbs) x 8 reps in dips and 22 kg (48.4 lbs) x 8 in chin ups.

I am still writing M-M+ behind most of my lifts (my way to judge the intensity) so there is plenty of weight that can be added over the next couple of weeks!

My program is designed like a hard-gainer routine but I never go until failure. I focus on what I consider to be the two most important training principals; progressive overload and restitution.

To those that are thinking; "6.2 lbs gained in 8 weeks...HAH! That is nothing!", consider this:

I have never and will never use drugs, I take pictures and measurements after a 15-16 fast (and I fast 16 hours every day) under very similar conditions (food/water inn take and after a bowel movement and urination), I have a full time job, two sons (5 year old and a 3 month old baby) and lift weights twice per week with only one work set on the compound movements.

In two weeks I plan on lifting 220 lbs x 20 reps in the squat. It will be my first milestone this period...one that is going to hurt..:D

Sorry for not posting last week. I was working the entire weekend.

Working on a web-site for the web-training service and will get some sample clothes with my logo on sometime this month! If you would like a program designed for you, maybe with your own personal training video, shoot me a e-mail; bjorn@bjorngranum.com.

Stay cool!

Workout music and custom workout videos

2009-08-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

I talked to a friend of mine about workout music this week. The past couple of years I have been more and more drawn to old school metal music when preforming interval workouts and while lifting weights.

My mp3 player has some Iron Maiden, Pantera and a couple of Disturbed albums. All of them rock but after a couple of years of the same tunes I am starting to look around for new material.

My friend mentioned Gamma Ray so I bought "Power Plant" and pressed play.. YES! Perfect! High paced metal with a great sound! I forsee great sessions at the gym in the near future.

If any of you guys/girls reading this have tips for workout music; post a comment and let me know!

I managed to create a poll to see if there is interest to get workout videos made by me for your unike goals. Disregarding the small number of votees there was a positive trend.

If you would like a training plan that fits your goals coupled with clear videos where I explain the program and go through the ABCs, send me a e-mail at; bjorn@bjorngranum.com , and mark the subject line with your name and; web-training.

This is not an automated service. I have to intervju you via e-mails first, give you payment details (I charge via paypal), create your program, run it by you via more e-mails, film and edit the videos that will go along with the program.

The service cost $80 for the first month and $40 for subsequent months. Feel free to e-mail me any questions you might have if this sounds interesting for you; bjorn@bjorngranum.com .

I am still making great progress. I have finished 6 weeks of training and have added 2.6kg fat free mass and 0.7kg fat. That is about 433 grams of fat free mass and 117 grams of fat per week.

My glutes are well rested and I managed to do RDL this week. Tomorrow is squat day! Can`t wait!

By the way... Not sure if I have mentioned it before but I am taking a progress picture after each week. The plan is to create a time-lapse with the pictures at the end of my training-year.

My methods for measuring progress

2009-08-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Just to make something clear regarding the my fat % numbers etc.; I use a ordinary fat caliper and weigh my self every Sunday after a 15 hours fast. I do not keep a record of what I consume in my last meal on Saturday and using a fat caliper is not super accurate.

What I am implying is that my fat gain/lean gain numbers is an estimate. I measure the same spots and use the same tablet for estimating my body fat % every time. I am no proffessor but my measurements show a trend.

This past week gave me a total weight gain of 0.5kg and my body fat % stayed at 8.5% for a total fat gain of 100g and a lean body mass gain of 400g. Measured after a 15 hour fast and a hot bath.

My glutes are still not recovered so I might have to skip squats and RDL this week. We shall see.

Peace!

Mini weights

2009-08-18T02:57:00.001-07:00

A while back I made a how-to-video of how I made mini-weights. I plan on stretching the progression on my current program as long as possible before reaching a sticking point on the weights. These mini-weights come in very handy since I now can increase the load by 0.5kg per session if I want.

I made four 250 grams weights and four 500 grams. These along with my gyms 1.25 kg and 2.5kg plates gives me the variables in weight that I need.

I bought bicycle innertubes of two different size, cut off the valve, cut the tube in half, tied of one end, filled it with sand until I got my desired weight (used a small scale to weigh them), tied the other end, tied both ends togather and put some tape on.

The video explains the process in detail:

Old dog learns yet another lesson..

2009-08-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

I am borderline handicaped from my tricking-session on Friday. Stupid me did not warm up properly before jumping around on a field 30+ times. Well, yesterday and today I have been properly reminded why I should practice what I preach in regards to warm ups and dynamic stretching before ballistic movements.

Should have dawned on me after jumping 3-4 times on one foot with all kinds of powers pulling me in different directions but nooooo... The; "I am 18 years old again"-feeling blurred my mind.

What I am trying to say is my ass hurts! Or rather; my glutes are hurting along with my entire core. I might actually have to move my strength session to Tuesday because of my stupidness.

Enough of that. I have been on my program for 4 weeks today so I took some new measurements yesterday after 15.5 hours of fasting:

Weight: 72.6kg

Left thigh : 8mm (+0.5mm)

Left sub scapular: 7mm (+1mm)

Right suprailiac: 6mm (+1mm)

Left abdominal: 10mm (+2mm)

Right triceps: 4mm (-1mm)

This sums up to a total of 1.8kg gained, 0.5kg fat and 1.3kg lean mass. I am quite happy with these gains considering the amount of junk I have stuffed my self with over these past 4 weeks. I will continue consuming high calorie foods but will reduce my inntake of sugar (yep, I am a sugar junkie:). In fact, I will try to eat even bigger meals and consume 1-2 gainershakes per day.

Througout this period I have fasted 16 hours on most days but not all. Some Saturdays and Sundays have gone by without fasting, some days I have fasted 14 hours, some days 15.5 etc.

This will probably continue.

Short summary: Things are going according to plan, I am gaining mostly lean body weight and am getting stronger every workout.

Stay cool, and remember; if you like my blog, subscribe, share it with your friends and family! :D

Old dog learns new tricks

2009-08-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by flips, spins, handstands etc.

After watching a ninja-movie I went outside, found a field or a place with soft sand and practiced the front flip, cartwheels and the likes. I usually kept practicing until I landed the trick I was practicing.

Lately I have been fascinated by free running- and tricking-videos on youtube. One trick that I always wanted to be able to do is a jump with a flat spin (butterfly twist as I now know it is called).

I searched on youtube and found several tutorials for the butterfly twist and I did not think the trick looked overly complicated.

Today I decided I would give it a go so I went outside and found a field, put my camera up and started practicing. It was great fun and I am proud to say that I actually landed a couple of OK ones before I called it a day.

3 weeks down, 49 to go!

2009-08-11T01:12:00.000-07:00

I have changed the title of my blog since it is more fitting to what I am doing.

My approach to building muscle is not the traditional one. One of the "dangers" with trying to build muscle is going overboard with what and how much you eat to ensure enough calories for muscle building. A natural by-product of eating more calories then one spends each day, is gaining fat.

I have always been lean. My set point for fat % is probably no higher then 12% body fat (rough estimate). Because of evolution, we are programmed to store fat if we get to eat more then we need. It packs on our bodies and stays there like reserve rations for when food supply becomes low.

Well, for me, food supply is always high. I have no need for fat reserves and I would not like for my set point to get higher.

Intermittent fasting lets me have a somewhat liberal approach to what I eat and how much I eat. These first 3 weeks of my training-cycle I have not counted calories and I have not stressed with macro nutrient control and the likes.

I have been eating three big meals every day (sometimes two plus a gainer-type-shake), sometimes including chocolate, sweets etc. to get the calories in.

Yesterday I took some fat caliper measurements. I have gained about 0.5kg fat and 0.8kg lean mass in these past 3 weeks. Some might shake their heads in regards to that 0.8kg lean mass gain, well, it is probably mostly fluids (glycogen, water) but I measured after 15 hours of fasting.

Training is going very well! As some of you might have seen from my videos; I started pretty low on the weight and am working my way up. Feels great to move weight around when I am in a calorie surplus!

I will end this with a video of me and my son doing a tabata-workout. A guy that calls him self "ChuckW" over at the rosstraining forum posted a video of himself and his son doing a tabata-workout. This reminded me that I have to include my son more. Anyways, here it is:

Training while on vacation

2009-08-02T07:50:00.001-07:00

Me and my family went on a short vacation to Sweden this week. We drove on Saturday and spent 6 days in Skellefteaa.

Since I knew we would be there for most of the week I started scanning the area for a proper gym.. My two strength sessions were going to happen, vacation or no vacation.

The hotel we stayed on had a gym but it turned out to be a useless gym for me; no squat rack, no bench press, no dip possibilities, no chin up bar and no dip-belt, oh well, the search continued.

Luck struck as we were walking down the street to find a resturant; A fully equipt commercial gym 500 meters from my hotel! YES!!

Needless to say I got my lifting on as usual and as planned. They did not have a dip-belt but I found two straps that one can use to do suspended leg-raises with, tied them togather, found a carabiner from a pulldown machine and presto, dip-/chin-belt! Felt a bit like Macgyver.. :)

Fasting and feeding has not been according to plan during my vacation but I have at least consumed more calories then I have been spending.

Filmed Thursdays Romanian dead lifts with my mobile phone but did the classical; "set the phone on its side so the video becomes useless for uploading"-trick. If someone know how I tilt the video in adobe premier pro, please, chime in!

One of my hobbies is disc golf. Did two rounds at my local court last evening. Some nice scenery and a bit of music goes hand in hand when trying to hit those chains.. active meditation.

That is it for this week. Will jot down what I am lifting etc. next week. Stay tuned and spread the word about my blog if you find it entertaining!

Thursday workout and more about my approach

2009-07-24T01:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did my second strength workout for the week and it felt awesome!

It has been quite a while since I did overhead pressing and Romanian dead lifts so I am a bit sore today.

Session went great and I was fairly happy with my form in most of the exercises. I see that I can go lower with the barbell when doing Romanian dead lifts and work a bit on my shoulder mobility.

Here is the video of what my Thursday workouts will look like:

About my approach

Some of you might have noticed that I use low frequency, low volume and high intensity for my strength workouts. Well, the intensity might not be through the roof quite yet but I promise that it will increase over the next 8-12 weeks.. :)

My goal is to pack on muscle while staying below 12% body fat. Since I plan on doing this for 12 months I will design and work my way through several training cycles.

This first cycle consists of a hard-gainer-type of routine where I focus on compound exercises, two full-body strength workouts per week and one high intensity interval session. I will also do one mobility/flexibility-workout each week to avoid injuries.

I am a big fan of intermittent fasting and have been using Martin Berkhans "leangains"-approach with 16 hours fasting and a 8 hour eating window for over a year and simply love it.

I will probably not go into much detail regarding IF (intermittent fasting) in this blog, but in short; I do it to make my body into a muscle building, fat burning machine. You can read more about IF over at; http://www.leangains.com/ , and Brad Pilons blog;
http://www.nutritionhelp.blogspot.com/ .

My eating goes something like this;

3-4 meals per day (and maybe a power shake),
one medium meal to break my fast (on weight training days I consume this meal about two hours before my workout),
one big meal for dinner,

maybe a power shake (1 scoop of ice cream, 2 cups of milk, 1 banana, two scoops of peanut butter and 30-40g protein powder) if I need more calories that day and a medium meal with some extra casein (usually milk) in the evening.

Some might want to know all about macro nutrients etc... If so I might write about that in a later post. As you might have gathered till now, I like to keep things simple.

I started this period at 70.8kg body weight (weight taken after 15 hours of fasting) with about 8% body fat. That means my lean body mass is about 65.2kg. It is this number I want to increase. Hopefully I will manage to pack on around 6kg of lean body mass during these 12 months.

I use 5 spots for my fat caliper measurements.
Here are the measurements I took the 21-7-09 after 14 hours of fasting;

Left thigh: 7.5mm

Left sub scapular: 6mm

Right suprailiac: 5mm

Left abdominal: 8mm

Right triceps: 5mm

I will use the camera on my mobile phone to take progress pictures as I go along. Here are my pre-bulk pictures:

Building muscle and hopefully my bank account

2009-07-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

I have decided to build muscle for 1 year. There will be many training cycles and I will discuss them as I go along.

My first training cycle started today. Mondays will go like this;

Low volume, fairly low frequency and high intensity. I have started with light weights and aim to use submaksimal weights the first 2-4 weeks. After that I will add weight in small increments each workout.

My other project is multi level marketing. I have started to work from home, coaching others in mlm and work for a company called Agel Enterprises. More on this in a later post.

I will add the pieces as I go along and will aim to update this blog at least once per week. I will most likely divide each post in two; "Muscle", where I will discuss that weeks training and diet and; "MLM", where I will talk about my mlm alfa team.

Next post will be on Thursday where I will have a video of my other weight training session and some more information about both muscle and mlm!

Stay tuned!