JohnnyIrish's Diet/Workout Log

Thanks Quagmire!
I'll check out low bar and give it a try next time I'm in the gym. Once I get it down I'll switch over. It does sound better for what I want to do (posterior chain gains).

As for the zinc and Mag, well I take gnc mega mens. I take one in the morning and one later in the day (usually prior to workout). Per two tablets it gives:
zinc: 25mcg
Magnesium: 100mcg

Interesting.. the Magnesium in my mega mens is only 25% of my RDA. However during the week I eat a bunch of broccoli which is abundant in magnesium.. Hmm, should I still add a mag supp?


DIET:
Ok my plan for loosing body fat, a few small changes in 3 areas.

1) Cut back on my fat intake (as per the anabolic diet for a cut). Honestly I'm not sure what exactly my maintenance level is but I know I'm not at it yet (although I may be close). I will be replacing meals where I eat .5lbs of 12% beef with either a piece of cooked chicken+strip of bacon or .37.5lbs of 12% beef.

2) Starting Monday I'll be adding my Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) supplement. I'll be taking 6 pills/day to start which equals 4.8mg of CLA. Ideally I should take these prior to meals and with no fiber supps..

I realize.. I need a bigger pill case. This is getting ridiculous! lol

3) Doing the cardio Effort advised me.. I need to be consistent here.

These three things should add up into something substantial and I should start seeing results.

Later today my workout progress (I didn't forget Quagmire )

JohnnyIrish said:

As for the zinc and Mag, well I take gnc mega mens. I take one in the morning and one later in the day (usually prior to workout). Per two tablets it gives:
zinc: 25mcg
Magnesium: 100mcg

Interesting.. the Magnesium in my mega mens is only 25% of my RDA. However during the week I eat a bunch of broccoli which is abundant in magnesium.. Hmm, should I still add a mag supp?

Click to expand...

The zinc and magnesium in that multi are in the oxide form, which don't absorb for crap. You should supplement with extra of both, preferably with zinc in some picolinate/gluconate form, and magnesium in some citrate/malate/aspartate form (citrate is probably the cheapest). 30-50mg zinc per day is fine. For magnesium you should take as much as your bowels will tolerate since it acts as pretty good laxative if you overdo it.

www.iherb.com is a pretty good site for cheap stuff... 8oz magnesium citrate for $6.70 isn't too shabby.

My progress on IA's power based routine (advised by effort):

Weird numbers?
(some sets I use different weights so instead of using the highest weight I used or the lowest I'll add up the weight and divide among the number of sets to get an average.. should be a more accurate number)

Barbell Bench press:
3/5/2008 105lbs
7/23/2008 161.6lbs
Gained total: 56.5lbs

Deadlift:
3/7/2008 165lbs
7/10/2008 225lbs
Gained total: 60lbs

Squats:
3/17/2008 145lbs (rounding back ass to ankles)
7/25/2008 187.5lbs (box squats as low or lower, better form)
Gained total: 42.5lbs

NOTE: I could have gotten more gains from both Squats and deads.. but I had form issues in both and had to lower the weight and work my way back up in poundage.

Incline Dumbbell bench press:
3/5/2008 72.5lbs
7/23/2008 110lbs
Gained total: 37.5lbs

Incline Barbell bench press:
4/7/2008 118.3lbs
7/7/2008 145lbs
Gained total: 26.7lbs

Dumbbell shoulder press:
3/5/2008 30lbs
7/23/2008 70lbs
Gained total: 40lbs

Skull crushers:
3/5/2008 20lbs
7/23/2008 60lbs
Gained total: 40lbs

Tricep pushdown:
4/7/2008 37.5
7/7/2008 65
Gained total: 27.5lbs

Leg press:
3/7/2008 195lbs
7/10/2008 345lbs
Gained total: 150lbs

Chins:
3/7/2008 1 set of 5
7/10/2008 4 sets 7,7,6,6
Gained total: 21 reps

Hammers turned into CoC so I can't rate them exactly.. however I've been making good progress on CoC.

Calf Raises:
3/7/2008 180lbs (2 sets)
7/25/2008 240lbs (3 sets) on different machine but its close
Gained total: 60lbs

Pullthroughs:
3/17/2008 37.5lbs
7/25/2008 117.5lbs
Gained total: 80lbs

Chest supported Row:
3/17/2008 35lbs
7/25/2008 95lbs
Gained total: 70lbs

Abs (hard to calculate since I've changed several machines but I've constantly improved from one machine to the next both with weights and reps.)

EXCELLENT JOB!

DAMN...Keep up the good work.

I think I said before, the way the routine is structured you will see longer gains on it because you aren't doing the same thing every session.

How do you feel about your progress recently? Over the last month or so? Important to make sure things are still progressing now.

I wouldn't be nearly as far as I am along this path with our your help! Thank you all so much!

Quagmire:
So far it seems to keep moving nicely. Shall I stay on it for a bit more until it slows?

Yep, keep it up. When things slow/stop either a new routine, or altering this one will be fine.

Great day! I made my bodyweight bench goal today!! :rockon:

New goals:
200lb bench before the end of the year
300lb deadlift before the end of the year

Quagmire:
I tried those Kneeling rollouts. I did 1x8 of them. Honestly I didn't feel it in my abs.. I did feel it in my shoulders, arms and back however (which couldn't take anymore lol). Seeing as how that didn't feel like it was working my abs much I then did my usual ab exercise below.

Side note: I just realized in my previous journals I've been calling 'skull crushers' 'skill crushers' haha. I fixed that from now on.

Today:

Barbell Bench press: 3x5 PR
bar x 10
75 x 6
115 x 1
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 4.5 (f)

/\ I was strong today in bench! I didn't think I'd be able to get as many reps and sets with 165 but I did! I also was smart and got a spotter for all 3 sets again.

Incline Dumbbell bench press: 4 x 8 PR
110 x 9
110 x 8
110 x 9
110 x 8

/\ Gained several reps here.

Dumbbell shoulder press: 3 x 8
80 x 6
80 x 6
80 x 5

/\ Upped the weight back to 80. I'll make up the reps next time.

Skull crushers: 3 x 10 PR
60 x 10
60 x 9
60 x 8

/\ Gained several reps here.

Ab crunch bench 3x10: PR
40 x 11
40 x 11
40 x 12

/\ Gained several reps here. Nice burn!

Stretches:
Supermans: 1x10 reps, each held for 3 seconds
squat stretches: 2 reps, each held for 25 seconds at the bottom
Hamstring stretches (good morning stretches): 4 reps each held for 30 seconds

Note: I was literally less then half an inch from touching the floor with the hamstring stretches.

See what a deload can do!

Would it be possible for you to get a video of you doing the rollouts? Mr.Ruckus said they didn't do s*** for him as well. Were you doing them kneeling? I need to get to the bottom of this. It may be that I have weak abs! Or maybe we are doing them differently!

EDIT-I see you said kneeling rollouts, never mind about that.

If it was a deload.. wouldn't it have effected me more last week?
I'm thinking it was more due to the fact I hit the gym fresh yesterday not after work like normal.

Yeah next ab day I'll see if I can get you a rollouts vid but from what I've seen of mark riptoe's 'how to' vid. I did it the same way.

After reading up a bit more I think I'm going to cave and buy some zinc and magnesium supps. I seriously need to find a good way to organize my pills now.. as they are only going to grow as I add green tea and forskolin in the upcoming weeks too.

Today:

20 min elliptical cardio, plus 3 min warm up, no cool down

After reading this IA article my mind was made up.

Just ordered these sups from iherb:
Zinc picolinate and Magnesium citrate

With shipping and handling it only ran me 21 bucks. Not bad. Also if it helps me sleep it will be SOOO worth it.

If you're not already taking it, 5g+ of taurine before bed will help sleep too.

If you can, cancel the order and get the magnesium citrate powder instead. Those magnesium tabs are a bit of a rip off; I have the NOW pure magnesium citrate powder and I have to take 2.84g to get 110% (450mg) of the RDA. You'd have to take 14 tabs per day to get the same! That Supplement Facts table is really misleading.

Hmmm, ignore my deload comment I was tired

Yeh, thats the IA article where I read Poliquins info.

And Simon I am not getting you. The table says two tablets=400mg of mangesium. Maybe I am missing something.

Johnny, do you have a link to that Rippetoe video?

PS-I have never tried multiintense.

Quagmire:
Sorry not Riptoe, I meant Ross Enamait from here. I was doing the first kneeling rollouts he shows on the video (28 seconds in).

Simon:
Huh? It states 1 pill = 200mg, thus taking 2 - 400mg.
How do you calculate 14 pills=450mg?

I thought you meant Enamait. Get a video if you can, as I say I may just have weak abs.

If the kneeling one doesn't cause you difficulty, then progress to the other variations in the video above. Something is wrong if you can do them standing, one handed, and with a weighted vest!

Yeah, 2 pills is 400mg of magnesium citrate, but you don't get 400mg of magnesium ions (elemental magnesium) from that. Note the Supplement Facts table says Magnesium (as Magnesium Citrate). That just means you're getting 400mg of mag. citrate. If 2 pills were actually to give you 400mg of magnesium ions, it would say from Magnesium Citrate.

To get 450mg of magnesium ions from my pure citrate powder I need to take 2.84g of it per day, of which 2.39g is just the weight of each citrate molecule chelated to each magnesium ion. So only 15% of the magnesium citrate is elemental magnesium. Since each pill is 200mg of mag. citrate you'd have to take 14 pills to get the equivalent of 2.8g and hence 450mg elemental magnesium. Taking two pills a day provides you with only 60mg elemental magnesium.

Hope that's clearer.

Siamon:
Crap.. too late. I'll try them anyway. If it doesn't feel like it helps much then I'll spring for the powdered form. Thanks.




Didn't workout Wednesday because I forgot I had to work my side business that night. I'm looking forward to doing deads later today.


Current weight:
Today: 165.4
7/25 164.6
7/11 165.6
7/4 166.0
6/27 165.4
6/20 164.6
6/13 163.6
6/6 166.0
5/30 165.2
5/23 166.2
5/16 168.0

Today:

Hell yeah! Awesome deadlift gains.. made me exhausted but who cares! haha

Deadlift: 2x5 PR
bar x 10
85 x 6
135 x 1
185 x 1
235 x 5
255 x 5

/\ I added 5lbs from what I did last week for the first set and got it up with no problems (minus my left forearm grip was close to failing), the second set I got balzy and added 20lbs and this time I lifted with my left using the underhand grip. That time my right hand grip was close to failing by the 5th rep but I got it! My form felt good too. Awe yeah.. This felt great.

Leg press: 2x10 PR
360 x 10
360 x 10

/\ I lowered the sled REAL low so I was going deep with these. I think this was the hardest leg press I've done so far. My quads will be hurting tomorrow.

Chins:4 sets
7
7
7


/\ I was seriously exhausted at this point.. even before chins I was breathing heavy. By the 3rd set I was feeling near burnt out/overloaded.. so I missed a set of chins.

CoC: 3x10
Right hand: #1 3x10 (1st set, half inch from closing, set 2 inch from close, set 3 half from closing)
Left hand: #1 1x10,1x8, Trainer 1x10 (inch from closing most sets)

/\ Didn't make gains here.. thats likely because the deads worked my grip already pretty well.

Freemotion Calf: PR
70 x 10
120 x 6
160 x 1
200 x 1
240 x 14
240 x 14
240 x 14

/\ Gained three reps here.

Stretches:
squat stretches: 2 reps, each held for 25 seconds at the bottom
Hamstring stretches (good morning stretches): 4 reps each held for 30 seconds

300 will fall! Good work man.

Good call on cutting the chins a bit short, always a good idea if you are feeling beaten up.

Thanks Quagmire. Oh yes.. 300 will be mine and at this rate very soon too.

On a side note.. after reading up on polquin's article about muti vitamin I sprung the bucks for his 'multi intense' product. It'll replace my gnc mega mens until it runs out (the 180 caps last for roughly 22 days as you take 8 pills/day).

The argument in very simple terms is that most multis are made with synthetic ingredients that are hard to digest/absorb so you don't get what you pay for. From what I read his brand is the exact opposite to the extreme and backed by lab testing to boot. I'm curious if I'll feel any different on his multi then mega mens. It should arrive some time next week so we'll see.