Time for a change

Hi,

Here are my stat's to start (a very detailed version of all of this is provided in my journal - http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/Build-Me-An-Ongoing-Journey-m435175-p28.aspx)

Age: 19
5'6"
140lb
6.4% body fat (according to Omron Handheld Analyzer, and I doubt this number simply because I don't look anywhere near 6.4%. However, around a year ago when the Omron Handheld Analyzer clocked me in at 9.6% I got professionally caliper tested by two different trainers at two different gyms and both also gave me those numbers within 0.2%)

Fitness Routine (details in journal):
Monday: 2 mile run(13:11 time), 20 minutes elliptical, 10 minute walking at incline
Tuesday: full body workout (described in detail in my journal)
Wednesday: 5 min warmup jog, HIIT (sprint for 30sec, jog for 1min), 10 min cooldown jog
Thursday: same as Monday
Friday: same as Tuesday
Mon, Wed, Thurs Nights: 3x20 Pushups, 3x20 Sit-ups
Sunday Nights: 1xfailure Pushups, 1xfailure Sit-ups

Diet (details in journal):
3 meals a day, around 40% protein, 40% carb, 20%fat -> around 2100-2200 calories

Progress Photos:
in journal


With that said, I begin...

I have been dedicated to reconstructing my body for nearly 2 years now. I started from simply needing to lose weight to now feeling as if I want to constantly be in the the best shape of my life (that is every week I am better physically than the week before). And yet, for nearly a year now I have seen very little change.

My continuing image that I use to mentally drive myself has been this ripped body with a sketched in stone six-pack. But, I'm not that. I have noticed my abs appear under some conditions, but the progress towards greater definition has been very slow. The only nice results I have seen are some more definition in my legs, back, and arms along with various veins starting to pop out.

Progress has also been slow with fitness. My weights have not increased significantly in a long time. I attribute this mostly to the fact that I am trying to still cut body fat so I can get that defined six-pack. But there could be other issues that I haven't discovered. On the other hand my performance with cardio has increased and my 2 mile time continues to drop (something I am very proud of). In the end though, I want faster progress and after nearly 360 days of only increasing marginally in most categories it is becoming quite frustrating.

And now I feel like it is time for a change in routine. Winter is coming and I will most likely have to get rid of my Wednesday HIIT routine as I do it outdoors on the track (it's already becoming frustratingly cold for that). So, I figured since I will have to change that why not reevaluate my entire cardio and lifting sessions. I am now here asking for any advice you have.

But, please, remember my goals before giving it. I have no interest in becoming "huge". Yes, I know this doesn't happen over night. I know it takes many years. But, just be aware that my goal is not to go that route. Instead I want to be ripped, and overall physically fit. I want to be that person who if you say drop down and give me 100 pushups, I can do it no problem. Or if suddenly my friends say hey lets race a mile, I will beat them. Or if I'm going to go lifting with some wrestling people I know I want to be able to put up a weight that doesn't embarrass me. I want to have this with a body that looks good naked, that screams just by gazing at it that all of the above can be done with it. That is my goal. Now what do you recommend?


Thanks for taking the time to read this (if you read the whole thing),
Michael

ok...I gave your journal a quick look over, ill say a few things.

Your lifting.

Your exercises are good, but what i looked at your doing the same weight every single time. Has anyone ever introduced you to the phrase periodization? There are also other ways to progress not just up weight, but things like reps/sets/rest time etc...

Your also only lifting 2x a week, bump that up to at least 3x

Your rest periods are even focusing on fat loss. Your going about it horribly wrong if your wanting to get stronger...

Honestly, I think your diet is your biggest issue.

Your only eating 3x a day. move that up to 5-6 times a day, by doing this your telling your body that it will constantly be getting food every few hours, your metabolism will increase. The way your eating now is killing your metabolism.

calories, I understand your goals...I do, but looking at your daily entry's your not eating enough, in fact some days it looks on paper like your only getting 1000-1500 calories.

http://www.freedieting....s/calorie_calculator.htm

I ran your stats in real quick with a 5 day activity level. Your maintenance level is approx 2300. But your not even getting that.

It doesnt look like you have any pre/post workout nutrition, which is the most important.

Judging by your lifts and numbers your so concerned with putting fat on yourself that your forgetting you need muscle on your frame for it too show at low bf%.

I dont doubt at all your around 6% judging by all the cardio you do combined with your poor diet. Did you also realize that along with your calorie deficit diet your also burning a good 300-400 calories with cardio. your not even compensating for that.

My guess is you are hell bent on losing fat, which you have done...but you dont have much muscle on your frame, or at least not enough to show your ab's the way you want. You cant compare yourself to other skinny people, some super skinny kid might just have the genetics to have decent ab's even though he is skinny.

jmo

6'3"  @213

Squat 1x20x275

press:200, Deadlift:475, Bench:300, P.clean:235, Squat:385

"The only failure that is final is to stop trying to improve"

crossfit

CSP,

I've looked into crossfit and it seems pretty much at least in "goals" what I am looking for.  The problem is I am on my own and many of the movements are semi-complex.  I have no idea how to approach 90% of the exercises they ask for and have no one to show me how.  I don't want to risky injury incorrectly performing one of them, so I haven't gone through with trying it.

Nmoney34,

Thanks for taking the time to write out your reply!  I haven't tried much with altering my reps as I've ready consistently that staying within 3-7 is for building strength (what I'm looking for).  But, and this I don't mention much in the journal, if I find on a certain day that I'm feeling stronger than usual I will continue to pump out more reps until I can't any longer.  I always make sure that no matter what I'm doing I give it my all so by the end of the session I walk out satisfied with my performance.  As for rest times, I don't strictly adhere to the 1 minute rule.  I would say 1 minute is a minimum, but my actual rest times on the heavy lifts may be closer to 2 minutes depending on how I feel.

As for bumping up my lifting to 3 times a week, that is definitely a consideration (especially now that I will most likely have to get rid of my Wed HIIT sessions outside).  If I do go ahead with this I'll probably be modifying my workout somewhat so that it can be adapted to 3 times a week instead of 2.  Any recommendations here?

I'm surprised you mentioned my diet as being my biggest issue.  I have always thought this was one of the my great successes.  I'm not sure where you get the 1000-1500 calories number, but I guarantee you this is off.  I am definitely getting calories in the low 2000's if not higher.  If you look through my journal it is quite clear that in truth my cut is hardly a cut.  My weight has not changed much for many months besides some fluctuations around +/- 5lbs.  I understand that to gain a significant amount of muscle I would have to eat enough to start gaining weight, but here again refer to my goals.  I am not trying to fit into a pure bodybuilding mentality here.  Surely there are those out there (think of all the athletes and generally physically fit people) that don't consider "bulking" to be part of their lifestyle and yet have muscle enough to be defined and abs that are clearly visible.  Is it asking too much for me to be a part of that?

    

Thanks for taking the time to respond,
Michael

just start doing crossfit man. most of their exercises are lightweight stuff - their goal is for literally ANYBODY to do it. and for exercises you don't know, look at this:
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html

as for bulking, why are you so diehard against it? putting on 10 lbs. of muscle maybe be all that you want and you can accomplish that in one good bulk. you can put on next to no fat at all. just eat a lot more food, but do it CLEAN. if you want to put on any muscle at all you WILL need to eat more. end of story. even if you don't call it a bulk, you need to eat to have an athletic body.

Well im not trying to diss your diet, you eat very clean and thats a good habit. But I think there are a lot of things your going wrong that you dont realize.

meals - your only eating 3, again change that to 5-6 smaller meals

Meal timing - You have no shakes mentioned in your journal, Pre and post workout are HUGE for building/maintaining muscle and strength. Especially post workout...

Calories - This is taken directly from your journal

6:25am:
                1cup Rolled Oats - about 360 calories
                0.75cup Egg Beaters with 0.5 Chicken Breast, Peppers, Onions [Canola Oil]
                1 Pear  The eggs is at 90ish calories, chicken breast about 65, pear 98 calories. All together probably around 663 calories.
12:20pm:
                2 slices Sprouted Grain Bread with 1 Chicken Breast, Lettuce about 300
                1 Sprouted Grain Wrap with 1% Cottage Cheese, Lettuce, Peppers, Onions (Olive Oil)
                1 Apple - Apple is 95, your wrap is about 250
6:30pm:
                0.5cup Quinoa with Garlic, Carrots, Celery, Peppers, Onions (Olive Oil) about 175
                1.5 Chicken Breast [Canola Oil] about 200
               
                That was my diet.

Adding that up comes to about 1685 for me. Unless your measurements are off, or your eating things not listed...

See what I mean as your eating that much and doing all the cardio + lifting. Your never going to get stronger because your not giving your body adequate nutrition.  Now maybe its not always like this, I just took a random sample from your journal.

I understand what your goals are, but you may seriously want to think about adding 5-10 pounds of muscle. No one is saying you have to be this huge body builder. But your at 140 right now. Im 100% positive that you adding 5-10 pounds to see where you are, will do you good in every single aspect. Running, strength, your 6 pack goal. Having more muscle burns more fat and will increase your metabolism. I think with your low bodyfat you probably already have, and will continue to begin breaking muscle down as energy because your calorie intake is so low.

Bump your calories up for a week see what happens, start eat 5-6 meals a day with pre-post workout nutrition... (Whey and creatine) and then make adjustments from there.

Crossfit might be a good choice for you, its aimed at your goals pretty much. Only thing is, your still going to want to bump your calories up some.

6'3"  @213

Squat 1x20x275

press:200, Deadlift:475, Bench:300, P.clean:235, Squat:385

"The only failure that is final is to stop trying to improve"

try to find a crossfit gym in ure area they are everywhere nowadays

YOU GOTTA EAT BIG, TO BE BIG!!

NASM certified trainer
NFPT certified trainer

Winter Bulk goal:245-250 by dec 31
Current weight: 235

Nm0ney34


Well im not trying to diss your diet, you eat very clean and thats a good habit. But I think there are a lot of things your going wrong that you dont realize.

meals - your only eating 3, again change that to 5-6 smaller meals

Meal timing - You have no shakes mentioned in your journal, Pre and post workout are HUGE for building/maintaining muscle and strength. Especially post workout...

Calories - This is taken directly from your journal

6:25am:
               1cup Rolled Oats - about 360 calories 
                   300 calories
               0.75cup Egg Beaters with 0.5 Chicken Breast, Peppers, Onions [Canola Oil] 
                   90 calories egg beaters with 120 calories chicken breast  + ~50 calories canola oil
               1 Pear  The eggs is at 90ish calories, chicken breast about 65, pear 98 calories. All together probably around 663 calories. 
                   ~90 calories (depends on size of pear)

              = ~650

12:20pm:
               2 slices Sprouted Grain Bread with 1 Chicken Breast, Lettuce about 300
[                    140 calories bread, 240 calories chicken breast
               1 Sprouted Grain Wrap with 1% Cottage Cheese, Lettuce, Peppers, Onions (Olive Oil) 
                   150 calories wrap, 80 calories cottage cheese, 60 calories olive oil
               1 Apple - Apple is 95, your wrap is about 250 
                   100 calories apple
              = ~770
6:30pm:
               0.5cup Quinoa with Garlic, Carrots, Celery, Peppers, Onions (Olive Oil) about 175 
                   310 calories quinoa, 120 calories olive oil
               1.5 Chicken Breast [Canola Oil] about 200 
                   360 calories chicken breast, 60 calories canola oil
              = ~850
               
               That was my diet.

Adding that up comes to about 1685 for me. Unless your measurements are off, or your eating things not listed...

See what I mean as your eating that much and doing all the cardio + lifting. Your never going to get stronger because your not giving your body adequate nutrition.  Now maybe its not always like this, I just took a random sample from your journal.

I understand what your goals are, but you may seriously want to think about adding 5-10 pounds of muscle. No one is saying you have to be this huge body builder. But your at 140 right now. Im 100% positive that you adding 5-10 pounds to see where you are, will do you good in every single aspect. Running, strength, your 6 pack goal. Having more muscle burns more fat and will increase your metabolism. I think with your low bodyfat you probably already have, and will continue to begin breaking muscle down as energy because your calorie intake is so low.

Bump your calories up for a week see what happens, start eat 5-6 meals a day with pre-post workout nutrition... (Whey and creatine) and then make adjustments from there.

Crossfit might be a good choice for you, its aimed at your goals pretty much. Only thing is, your still going to want to bump your calories up some.

 

I calculated the actual calorie amounts from the example you quoted.  As you can see it adds up to what I was saying of around low 2000's.

I have bulked before, around winter of last year, and got subpar results.  I went to around 160lbs in about 2-3 months (started at high 140's when I began the bulk).  And though I did notice strength gains, I felt more sluggish in every other part of my life.  Along with this I didn't enjoy how my physique was changing in front of me.  Now mind you that this was a completely slow and clean bulk.  As you can see from above eating clean is not my problem.  Maybe I just put on feat extremely easily?  I don't know.  Either way the pure bulking route did not work and I ended up cutting from 160lbs back down to 145.  I also did this process slowly in the hopes of seeing abs, but in the end I ended up looking the nice after around a 4-5 month process.

I used to eat 5-6 meals a day as well.  In fact it was with 5 meals a day that I went from my original 210lbs of fat down to where I am today.  College life though forced me to switch to 3 meals a day for the most part and I have not noticed any difference.  All the current scientific research (references can be provided if you want me to go find the bookmarks) points to the basic thermal equation that how often you eat and when you eat is for the most part irrelevant.  If you eat more than you burn you will gain weight, if you eat less you will lose it.  I'd be interested to see if you seen studies that prove otherwise.

But with that said, a change is needed.  The question is will increasing my calories now be somehow different than what I did before?  I don't see why it would.  But, I could be wrong.  However, the one thing that I have not changed, or tried to change in any significant way, is my workout routine.  I will look more into crossfit (I can't afford to join a crossfit gym even if there was one close by, nor could I even get there as I have no means of travel in college) and see how I can meld it in with my schedule, but again I am hesitant in the complexity of many of its movements.



Thanks for the comments and helping me out,
Michael

I may have left out some olive oil calculations, I did all the calories based on looking them up real quick. basing a chicken breast off of 140 cals, etc...

At any rate. Looking at your journal and seeing as how your at 6% something is off. Your lifts havent progressed up much, as I said your exercises have been good but a quick skim it looks like theres no real structure to your routine. Thats a big problem I agree, suggesting a 3rd day, and going on something like starting strength or an HST type program would be good for you.

Crossfit just sounds ideal for your goals, your routine needs to be changed a bit and its a problem. I still think you will see more immediate results changing your diet around.

Yes you eat clean, squeaky clean.

Theres no disputing that.

But there is a science behind eating often. The longer you take before eating, your body goes into "survival" mode, stores fat more easily. Though this isnt really your problem at 6%, your metabolism is suffering.

and this is your biggest problem by far. No pre workout nutrition, and no post workout nutrition.

Im the first guy to say you should get most of your diet from real food when you can. But you need that protein shake after your workout. You need carbs after your workout.

You need some carbs and protein before your workout to fuel it.

I really think thats your number one problem. You seem like your trying to base your decisions off science and thats great. But I think you may be misinformed, if you dont want to take my word for it why dont you shoot Dan Mirage a PM and ask him to check out your thread or ask him your questions.

1.) pre/post workout nutrition (doing this would also bump your "meals" up to 5 a day.
2.) Fix your routine to a 3 day, look into starting strength or HST, Smoundzou wrote a good one in the training section
3.) Lose your mentality of being terrified of gaining fat, worst case scenario. You can always lose it.

Im not even saying you need to bulk, you have explained your goals. But you can at least adjust your diet to allow yourself to progress strength wise. I do think that if you slowly started adding calories, to the point where you were gaining just lean body mass. I think you would see that adding another 5-10 pounds of muscle wouldnt blow you up like your afraid, and you would be more muscular and stronger...

6'3"  @213

Squat 1x20x275

press:200, Deadlift:475, Bench:300, P.clean:235, Squat:385

"The only failure that is final is to stop trying to improve"

NmOney34,

I really appreciate the time your taking to help me out.  I'm sure you can understand how I am conflicted here in going down a possible path that is in the wrong direction for my goals.  I generally agree that some form of strength training on a third day instead of straight cardio is needed.  You recommended starting strength and that is actually the original workout plan that I began with.  Through the course of many months I have altered it and added further lifts onto it as to pertain to my individual ideas of where I want to be fitness wise.

I have also looked now further into crossfit, and I just don't think it's the right for me.  I am a man of routine and I just wouldn't feel comfortable with a new workout plan everyday.  I need to have structure so that I can measure myself and motivatate myself to always further progress.

The "survival" mode you speak of has been researched.  First of all your metabolism does not change on an hourly basis.  Studies have shown that even if you eat a significant caloric defecit for many weaks, your metabolism decreases by a maximum of 20% for males (and this is eating around sub 1000 calories per day).  If you read the modern body building and nutrition books (for example Tony Venuto's new literature) they admit that the past idea of having to eat 6 meals a day with timing post and pre-workout nutrition is not nearly as important as once thought.  Either way I do get carbs and protein before my workout by breakfast and within 2-3 hours afterward by lunch.  I will shoot Dan Mirage a PM though as requested simply because I admit to the glaring fact that what I saw could be completely wrong.  I am always open to learning new material.

I will especially try to adhere to number 3 of your suggestions.  I am scared of gaining fat.  It's true.  The fact is that after 2 years of doing this,  I really just want to find a plan that sends me in the right direction this time.  Like I said I tried bulking before and it didn't work out for me.  I just can't help of having that doubt in my mind of what would make this time any different.  But you say I don't need to bulk, maybe just eat slightly slightly more?  I can do that.  I will continue to weigh myself weekly and make adjustments from there.  Maybe gaining around 0.5lbs per week could work out for me.  We'll see.

With that said,

I've been tinkering around with a workout plan that is more dynamic and hopefully will help me achieve my goals. Here's a quick rough draft, let me know what you think: Squats 3x5 Bench Press 3x5 Deadlift 3x5 Shoulder Press 3x5 Pull-ups 3x5 long run Elliptical Pushups Abs Burpees Box Jumps Lunges Dips Chin-ups Core short run Bike Pushups (different from earlier) Abs (different from earlier) Squats 3x5 Bench Press 3x5 Deadlift 3x5 Shoulder Press 3x5 Pull-ups 3x5

I did "Thursday" of my routine today. It was definitely a change from normal. I started off with a bang by running a 5:59 mile time. I then switched over to the bike and went at a light pace for 5 minutes before starting a HIIT session. It was the first time I did HIIT on the bike. I increased the intensity to "level" 5 and did sprints of 30 seconds followed by a light pace for 60 seconds. I did 10 intervals and by the end I was exhausted to a quite drastic degree (though not quite as much as sprints outside that I used to do on Wednesdays -- I really wish the weather wasn't getting so cold so fast). I'm not sure if I would do the bike again though. Maybe I'll try a different version at the gym as there are a few varieities, but whichever one I was using I found it uncomfortable after awhile.

After the HIIT I went into a small circuit of pushups and ab exercises. I initially was hoping for 3x20 normal pushups and then 3x10 diamond. I ended up failing early on the normals on the 2nd and third set. And I had to decrease the diamond pushups to 3x5. It was an awesome feeling though to be on that rush from cardio and then going into pumping your muscles till failure. I'm not sure if this is really a good method at all for growth, but I have to say it felt good in a painful kind of way.

I also did a few variations of ab and oblique exercises. I started with leg raises on a roman chair where I tried to do 3x10. I could not do this! I attetmped it all the same, but by the end I was barely pushing half of a ROM. After this I was going to do oblique twists with a medicine ball, but it felt weird and easy (afterward I found out I was doing it wrong). I switched over to doing medicine ball crunches as well as oblique crunches.

Overall it was a pretty interesting day, but I'm still not sure in the end if it will achieve what I wish. I've been looking more and more into http://crossfitwichitafalls.com/ which seems to be a unique mixture of training that would be perfect for me. I'm a little confused on what exactly their "Met-Con" portions consists of and if it is any kind of specific routine. If someone experienced could explain it to me that would be awesome. Also, even if you have no idea what it is as I don't, let me know still if it sounds like it would fit the kind of lifestyle I'm looking to achieve.

As for diet I have bumped up my carbs somewhat for the last few days. I will continue to do this and measure the results on my weigh in. From there I will adjust depending on my needs.