Beefcake! BEEFCAAAAKE!

Beefcaaaaake!

Okay, second session of the "4 Hour Body" Occam's Protocol Workout A, done! Arms feel a teensy sore, but this will probably be MUCH worse by tomorrow. :) Though without the calibration overwork of last time, it may not be so bad.

It took NO time at all to get in and out of that gym. None. It seemed ridiculous. Had to resist the temptation to do MORE.

Lifting to failure was crazy, though. Added 10 pounds of weight to last week's weight on both machines. Made it past my minimum reps by like, 1.5 reps, which is totally fine and on track. Means I'm lifting the correct amount. Struggled like a mofo, trying to inch that weight stack up, held that right there as long as I could when it stopped moving upwards, shaking and grimacing, then slowly lowered it. The book says 5 - 10 seconds on the lowering part, which I think I achieved.

So, it's good...I know that I have made significant strength gains because this week. On the shoulder press, I lifted the same weight to failure with significantly more super-slow paced reps than my fast-paced 5-reps-or-less failure weight from last week. On the pull-down, where I was lifting MUCH more weight overall, I again did significantly more super-slow reps at 80% of that previous 5 rep fast-paced failure weight on the other. Proof positive that muscle growth has occurred. Crazy to think I can just keep bumping my weights up 10 pounds or more a week from this tiny amount of lifting!

And I don't hate using the shoulder press now. I used to avoid that one like the plague. I don't know why I hated that lift so much. It just seemed to be my weakest. And now I am already lifting more on that one than I ever used to. Next week, shoulder press 40 pounds! Overhead pull-downs, 90 pounds! I know for your gym rats that is pa-the-tic, but to me it's amazing. Two rounds of this protocol (probably 3 - 4 months worth, though you should break it up) would theoretically put me within reach of enough strength to do actual body-weight chin-ups!

A, on the other hand, was astounding. On the pull-downs, he did 14.5 reps to failure, more than twice the minimum reps. I don't think he realized that what he was doing was too easy. If within the first two reps it feels like you're going sail past your minimum, you're supposed to stop, wait 5 minutes, add 5 - 10 pounds to the already increased weight, and do a single set to failure. Maybe he knows what too easy feels like now. As I predicted, though, I think this means that he's freaking thriving on this protocol. He puts on muscle easy-peasy. I KNEW I could already see a big difference in his arms. He will probably be able to increase his weights 15 pounds a week pretty often.

I've been giving a lot of honest, painful thought to the food thing. Worried about becoming Cartman in the Weight Gain 4000 episode a little bit, here...deceiving myself into thinking that eating this way while only walking and doing minimum lifting per week won't result in fat gain. Poking around the net, re-reading Ferriss' thoughts on the subject.

Should cut down on the overall calories, though I haven't been counting. Probably should stick with full compliance to ONE protocol at a time. Maybe I really can digest beans and tolerate the carbs in them now. Maybe I really should try giving the Slow Carb diet a fair shot. Talking to A about it, he's on board. Gonna switch out the whole milk (now this WAS Ferriss' suggestion, but I think more for people who have trouble gaining on Occam's), for something like unsweetened hemp or So Delicious coconut or almond beverage mixed with my protein powder to cut down on overall calories and carbs. Suck it up and stop eating any fruit/"low carb" (but relatively carby) treats such as chocolate coconut flour cake during the week. Have my glorious cheat day to upregulate metabolism once a week. Buckle the fuck down. Actually put on muscle that you can SEE, instead of becoming a big blob of fat pretending to be doing something healthy, waddling around, crowing about my "progress" when everyone just sees me getting fatter. BEEFCAAAAAKE!