Today’s workout routine was steady, but the intensity was increased.
More weight. More reps. Pushing closer to failure. Stricter form. Overall, things went up. Sure, a few things went down (e.g. biceps curls was same weight as last workout but I did a couple reps less), but usually the overall intensity was up because form was stricter or another exercise worked things even harder so overall muscles were more exhausted.
It was so good, by the end I was feeling a little nauseous… pushed it hard. 🙂 I walked home…. couldn’t jog it.
I can tell I’m gaining some muscle. I can see my body changing already. I have wondered about fat loss, and I figure I must be because if I’m gaining muscle and my weight is staying the same well… gotta be losing some fat too. Good deal. I’m probably going to start supplementation soon (e.g. whey protein, creatine) to help things along. I already take a multivitamin, and with the whey and creatine that should be good enough to start.
Oh wow. Just saw amazon.com sells the stuff pretty cheap. Plus it looks like there’s a “subscription” service you can get where they’ll auto-send it to you periodically at an interval you specify. And if you do that, the cost drops significantly. e.g. 10lbs. of Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard is $82.04 (double chocolate) one time, or $69.73 subscription. Plus it’ll ship free with their Super Saver shipping, and no tax. Whereas bodybuilding.com lists it at $84.99 plus shipping. Interesting. But, the joy of the Internet is that with a little shopping around, I’m sure I can still find good deals elsewhere.
Anyways, onwards!
Stuff From Hsoi 
You might want to avoid whey (and other dairy proteins) until you lean out to where you want to be. Because of the profound insulin response it yields, you may have trouble leaning out while using whey. And, you want a Whey Protein Isolate, not just straight Whey 😉
You’re actually better off just eating real food – say, a nice chicken breast – post workout. There’s an hour or so post workout where you get the best effect. I understand wanting to use whey or something to help – it’s a little more portable. It’s surprisingly easy to do real food, though, especially if you’re still leaning out.
One other alternative that I’m looking into is using an egg white protein powder instead of WPI. A more normal insulin response to that protein source, but still portable ala WPI.
You also need to replete glucose in the muscles post-workout. The best bet is a starchy carb of some sort (sweet potatoes, potatoes, and other tuber type veg… not bread!), or, alternately (and my favorite) a nice tall, cold can of coconut juice/water! Yum!
Just some thoughts 😉
Yeah, the isolate. And something with digestive enzymes. That’s why I like Optimium’s stuff. I have thought about egg white or casein powders too. Egg would probably sit better with me digestively, but it’s also rather expensive. *sigh*
I do try to do the proper dietary thing, but it’s hard around here. I’d have to totally short-order cook everything myself, and it’s just not feasible in the household with Wife and Kiddos. That’s the main trick.
But for now, it’s just lots of good meat, good carbs. And trying to keep the crap to a minimum…. hard to go cold turkey on it. 🙂
Oooh… no casein! It’s bad juju… been related back to cancer, etc.
Tell me about going cold turkey… ugh. I cook for Beth and I (which is easier than throwing kiddos in the mix, granted), and I just make sure I have some leftovers. I throw an appropriate amount in the cooler on the way to the gym. Sometimes I’ll just grill up a bunch of something, and throw it in the fridge for gym use, etc… But a shake of some sort is definitely easier, for sure…
Going “proper”, dietarily, doesn’t have to be that hard. You just force the family to go there with you… LOL…
Really? I didn’t know that…. OK. Egg it is. And probably better anyways since again, it’s more digestively friendly. 🙂
Force the family to go there with you. Dude, you don’t have kids… it’s obvious. 😉
I should say, I really don’t want to supplement if I can avoid it, but it’s a tradeoff. I like the WPI because right after a workout it metabolizes quickly and can feed the muscles the best in that time frame. But throughout the rest of the day? No, whey digests too quickly, I’d rather not have it.
And then there’s that whole “lean meat” issue, and frankly I hate chicken. So to mind overall caloric intake, supps are useful to give me what I want and not what I don’t want (e.g. too much fat). Granted, all the game meat in my freezer is a help in that direction, but only so much do I have and deer season is a ways off. 🙂
All in all, I want to just eat food. I prefer it. But compromises have to happen because of the food situation here… not just kids, but since Wife does the cooking well, I’m mostly at her mercy (and she doesn’t put as much emphasis on meat/protein as I do). So…. here we are.