Monty's Quest for the Holy Grail (ABS!) page

[Monty]

I've been thinking of making a journal for some time now. A way to hold myself accountable and a way for people to openly bitch slap me when I'm pussying out. Plus, I think I need a little ego stroking from time to time. I haven't started a journal yet cause I'm pretty lazy when it comes to internet posts and the like. So weekends, forgetaboutit. I hope I can keep this up cause I think it will help me in my vain quest to LGN.

A little background info...
-Was always a fat little kid. Loved my PB&J. Jiff, no crappy skippy peanut butter. And always homemade jams. Was very active.
-Got into weight lifting around 16 or so. end of highschool, start of college, I was in the neighborhood of 190# (divide by 2.2 for everyone else who isn't American.). Played baseball and soccer. Wasn't coordinated enough for Basketball.
-Hurt my shoulder...sky rocketed to 225.
-CW and weight training back down to 210.
-Got out of college and had no time or desire to continue with weight training. Felt burnt out. That was 2003/2004.
-Discovered crossfit in 2006/2007. Thought it was genius. Did that off and on for a few years. Went from 225 down to 210.
-Joined MDA and went primal/paleo in October 2010. Started at 230.
-Currently, I'm 30 years old at 195#.

I'm looking to slim down more. I think with my body style (5' 10"), 180# should be comfortable. Gonna shoot for that for now and re-assess later. The weight loss for me has been slow, but I think that's cause I seriously under eat...especially on the weekends. When I realize this and pig out, I drop the weight. Just went from 200 to 195 in the past few weeks. I'll post a picture and my measurements to keep myself accountable.

Secondly, I'm looking to gain some strength back. I recently did some simplefit type workouts for a couple of months. Started at level 4 and went thru level 6. I was just trying to up my pull ups to were I could maintain around 10 to 12 pull-ups (not kipping). Right now, I am focusing on weight/activities that include a push/pull movement. For example (using the 5-5-5-3-1):
Tuesday: bench press and weighted pull-ups
Wednesday: Sprints
Thursday: Deadlift and Shoulder press and SDHP (Sumo Deadlift High Pulls)
Saturday: Squats and cleans

Going to switch to M-Tues-W-F once kid is done with soccer. I'll do this until I get bored with it. I always liked crossfit, but it is too much for me. I want to do something that incorporates a lot of movements, but I have to remind myself of what my goals are.

My diet is closer to paleo. I have cheese occasionally and milk too. I get some pimples after eating dairy, so I limit it. But I love cottage cheese and cheese curd. Buy farm fresh, free range eggs. Meat from the store. Fruit and veggies from vegetable stands in the summer, from the store in the winter. I have very limited alcohol. If i do drink, I shoot for vodka or rum or tequilla with soda water and lemon or lime. Sleep...could be better. I usually get 7 hours a night. Sometimes less. Very rarely more. 8 is the max. I sit behind a desk all day. I'm a highway engineer. Work in Syracuse. Its much more relaxed than my previous job (site design engineer). So already, my stress is a million times lower.

So, last night was a sprint day. I did back and forth in my back yard 8 times. My lot is about 200' wide (or 60 meters). Back and forth = 120m. Averaged about 16 sec. per sprint and rested for 1 minute in between. Last sprint took me the longest only because my 4 year old son wanted to run with me. So I gave him a head start. When he reached the other side of the yard, I begin and we race back to the start. Well, I got to the turn, turn-around and see him flat on his face. I bust out laughing and go pick him up. He cracked me up cause he does the Peter Griffin knee thing without knowing it.

I'll log stuff as I go along. Not big on posting what I ate or taking pictures of food. It doesn't stay around long enough for pictures. I'll try to generalize. Other than that, I'll just add some general ramblings. Cool? Cool.

We'll find out if I did this right...

[Monty]

Dammit! I knew I would flake out on this.

Work outs were

Thursday 8/11/11: Deadlifts, Shoulder Press and High Pull Sumo Deadlifts. I'll have to post the weights later.

Friday 8/12/11: Reverse Grip Bench Press, Behind the head Push Press and reverse grip barbell curls. This was a day just to do something because I had so much energy. I tried some old workouts that I had long forgotten. The reverse curls are great for working the forearms and biceps at once. Mowed the front lawn. Too cheap for a rider. Got a 22" push. Takes forever, but its a good way to get a walk in. 0.6 acre Lot/22" cut = lots of walking.

Saturday 8/13/11: Play Day. Had a BBQ at my wife's uncles house. Stayed pretty Paleo except for one Sam Adams Summer Ale. It was tasty, but heavy in my gut. Ate some grilled chicken, salt potatoes with butter (heaven!), garden salad that I made, and some weird broccoli/carrot/bacon salad stuff. It had some creamy dressing to it, but damn tasty.

Play included some wiffle ball with my son (He just turned 4 and can wollop a wiffle ball-I have the bruises for proof), about 20 games of bean bag toss (my team was on fuego), some lacrosse with a soon to be nephew, and throwing a football to my other nephew while he was going down a water slide. Also played on the monkey bars with the kids. I had to show them how its done.

Sunday 8/14/11: Had to mow the back yard. A side note: We've had an invasion of frogs and toads lately. I almost ran over at least 8 frogs and 4 toads. Damn things are all over, but we've been getting some good rain at night so its pretty wet out back. Got a wedding next week and all my old suit pants and shirts are way too big. I had one pair that was a 38 waist! Shit, I was a fat bastard! Went shopping with the family and got me a sweet pair of 34" waist, slim fit suit pants. And I can fit into a Large shirt now, unless I flex my back.

I'm loving this! Currently, I teeter anywhere between 195 and 200#'s. Pictures to come. I have to find my...oh, there it is. No excuses now. Time to be accountable. Will post some tonight.

[Monty]

Workouts:

8/9/11
Bench Press
5 - 135
5 - 185
5 - 205
3 - 205
2 - 205
1 - 215

Weighted Pull-ups
10 - body weight
3x5 - 14#
3 - 19#
2x1 - 35# (Used my son as weight on this one)

[Monty]

8/11/11
Reverse Grip Bench
10 - 45
10 - 95
5 - 135
5 - 145
5 - 155
3 - 165
1 - 185
1x2 - 195
Took it easy with these to find a good weight to work with.

Behind the Neck Push Press
10 - 45
5 - 95
5 - 105
5 - 115
3 - 125
2x1 - 135
This was good. Really felt it in the shoulders and traps the next day. Lowering weight onto back was very difficult as weight increased. May have to reset on the rack to do these correctly.

Reverse Grip Barbell Curls
4x10 of 45, 55, 60, 65#'s
Great forearm/bicep workout in one.

[Monty]

8/15/11
Squats
5 - 135
5 - 155
5 - 165
3 - 185
1 - 200
1 - 210

Weighted Dips
10 - body weight
5 - 14#
5 - 19#
3 - 24#
1 - 35# (Used my son as a weight for this set)

Cleans
5 - 45 (form work)
5 - 65
5 - 75
3 - 85
1 - 105
Legs were pretty sacked from the squats so I stopped here. Gonna switch this up with another day to avoid that happening again.

Barbell Curl
4x10 - 45, 65, 75, 75

[Monty]

Here we go. The first few were from January this year. I was about 210 then.

[IMG] [/IMG]

[Monty]

These ones are from last Friday (8/12/11). I am now between 195 and 200.

[IMG] [/IMG]

I hate my stomach and moobs. But they are both getting smaller.

[Monty]

Here are the little monkeys playing with the bar and flexing like their old man.

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IcarianVX]

Good stuff Monty. I am the same height/weight but I got 10 years on you. LOL.
You seem to carry most of your fat in your lower stomach. When you do lose that, and you will - just keep at it, your will have some loose skin. I have read some stuff about dmso and msm helping with that. If you are concerned about that, just google it. And if I just made you self-conscious about it, sorry.

For your weight training, what are your rest periods between sets and exercises? I have found that with lighter weights (not saying yours are) and higher volume per exercise I try to get only 30 seconds of rest and it works pretty well. If you do low volume heavy sets, then longer (about 90s) is pretty optimal. It, of course, is all about the individual, but since you and I are about the same height/weight wise just thought I would throw out what works for me.

[Monty]

I'm not really worried about loose skin yet. My belly seems pretty flexible. Not to say it won't happen.

I just started tracking my time. With lighter weights, 60 secs is good. For heavier, 90 is optimal, 2 minutes seems like forever.

What is dmso and msm? I may have to keep those in mind.