Day 93 - CrossFit

As I think more and more about my ultimate goals, the more I think about my "dream" body. Others may have a picture in their mind, or have pasted their head onto their dream body to help them visualize. Ultimately, I want to be fit, strong, and healthy. I am an athlete, but an athlete that no longer has a competitive sport to compete in. What does it mean to be an athlete? What does it mean to be athletic?

The more I think about it, the clearer the picture is for me. I want to model my "dream" body on the athletes that exhibit the greatest strength in all aspects of fitness, which includes cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. The best examples I can think of that cover this category are Boxers, Wrestlers, and mixed martial artists. Now, I'm not a violent person, but I like that each of these sports requires someone to compete in a specific weight class.

As a shorter and smaller person, I've always had to rely on other aspects of my athletic ability to compete against those bigger and stronger than me. My strong points in athletic fitness were always, well, everything but strength and power. But that was absolute strength and power. When you compete in weight classe, strength to weight ratio and power to weight ratio are what matters. So, my "dream" body is to maximize my abilites in all aspects of fitness, while remaining in my "weight" class, whatever that may naturally fall in, which I'm guessing is somewhere between 135-145 lbs.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I'm not just looking for big muscles and low body fat. I'm looking for everything else. Yesterday I stumbled upon CrossFit, which is a strength and conditioning program that combines different exercises into workouts that develop all aspects of fitness. It takes the idea of cross-training to the extreme. If you haven't heard of it before, you should definitely check it out and watch some of the workout videos. Everyday they post a Workout of the Day (WOD) and CrossFit athletes performing them. Now, I've only watched a few, but you'll soon realize that these are killer workouts. Watch these people with excellent physiques become totally wiped and struggle to complete these exercises as they tire.

This program is used by firefighters, police officers, SWAT, and military. I like to think of it as the training Jason Bourne got.

I think this is exactly what I need. A lot of the WODs look like obstacle courses, which I used to just love as a kid. Run, jump, climb, throw, lift, as fast as you can and try and put in the best time.

Well, it turns out that there's a CrossFit club in my current city. I really want to join, but I don't know if I'll do it right away, as it would be an extra cost and I'd have to drive to it. I can't really justify that now since my gym membership is essentially free (student at Uni) and it's a short walk away. It's also at a specific time each day, so there's no flexibility. Eventually it's something I would like to do though. It just looks awesome! You do something different everyday, so it's exciting and you wouldn't have to worry about boredom setting in. It is possible to just follow the workouts on your own, but they use a lot of equipment that my gym doesn't have.

They also use a lot of squats, deadlifts, presses, power cleans, clean and jerks for the weight lifting portions. I think I'll have to work on my form first before I fully engage. But this is certainly exciting stuff!

Cheers,
Raiden

ShredderSphere daily accountability starts tomorrow, so
Get your game face on!

Day 93

Day 92 - Raiden's Chocolate Granola Bars

I mentioned yesterday that I spent some time Sunday making my power/protein granola bars. This time they turned out better than the batch before as I made a few changes. I think that the recipe might be ready for sharing.

Granola:
4 cups oats
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup flax seed
1/4 cup almonds (chopped)
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup natural honey (heated)
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

Batter:
8 scoops chocolate protein powder
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup cranberries (dried)
3/4 cup egg whites (approx 5)
1 tbsp natural peanut butter (heated)

1. Mix dry ingredients for granola in a large bowl.
2. Mix heated honey and applesauce together
3. Drizzle honey and applesauce mixture over dry granola mixture and mix well to evenly coat
4. Spread granola mixture on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper (or waxed paper)
5. Bake at 325F for 30 min or more (until nice and toasty), mixing and stirring around at intervals of 10 min. to prevent outside portions from burning

While granola is baking:
6. In a separate mixing bowl, add water to protein powder and wheat bran mixture until it's close to a cake batter mixture consistency (hand stir with wooden spoon)
7. Add egg whites, cranberries, and raisins and mix well
8. Slowly add heated peanut butter and mix well.

9. Once granola is nice and toasty, mix it with the protein "batter" to coat the granola.
10. Lighty spread this mixture into either a 8x13 pan (thick bars) or two 9x9in pans (thinner) lined with parchment paper (or waxed paper). Spread it just so it reaches the edges of the pans and DON'T press it, just make it so it has a general uniform height. There needs to be spaces in the mixture to get a nice even texture
11. Bake at 325 for another 25-30 min.
12. Let stand to cool and then remove from pans
13. Cut into bars of desired size
14. Store in airtight container and enjoy!

According to fitday, the total batch is approx:
3746 calories, 31/51/18 protein/carbs/fat 287g protein, 564g carbs, 73g fat

I cut mine into 12 bars which yields 312 cal/bar, 23.9g protein, 47g carbs (7.8g fiber), 6g fat, <1g saturated

15 bars would give you 250 cals/bar, 16 would give you 234 cals/bar.

The protein content will of course depend on your protein powder (fitday uses 25g/ scoop). The carbs are split about 50/50 complex (oats, bran, and nuts)/simple (applesauce, honey, raisins, cranberries).

Some changes you can make to this are fairly simple.

Up the protein with an extra scoop of protein powder and egg whites.
Lower the fat: drop the peanut butter (I didn't find it added much taste)
Raise the fat: add 1/4 cup of walnuts or pecans
Lower the sugar: swap out some applesauce for the honey
Chewier and more complex carbs: more oats

Anyway, if you do make them, let me know and if you have any suggestions for improving them, let me know as well! I like the taste, but that's me. I'd like to know what others think.

Today's pics:

Day 92

Day 91 - The True Confessions of Raiden Matsuo

Yesterday I made a short but to the point post. I had done wrong over the weekend and the guilt was getting to me. The accountability factor of having to report back to this blog did help control it however.

It was kind of one of those deals where a cheat meal turned into a cheat day, which turned into a cheat weekend. It all started with the work Christmas party, which was a buffet style dinner. Luckily though, as a result of eating smaller, more frequent meals, I'm unable to overeat as much as I used to be able to in one sitting. But then there was the beer, and then there was the desert table, and then there was the drunken late night ordering of pizza, and then there was the hangover breakfast, and then there was the samosas for lunch (which is my normal cheat meal), and then there was the beer at the matinee music gig that I caught, and then there was the leftover pizza from the night before.

My body basically had a conniption from all the garbage I was suddenly feeding it. I felt awful by the end of this trek. I was back to my senses by Sunday, but there was definitely some damage done. Oh, and what do I see? A couple of comments from Sammy and Adam advising caution when trying to put on some muscle to not overeat, and to continue eating good clean foods. Oh, the guilt was really setting in there.

But, as I look back, it may not have been as bad as I've made it out to be. As I said, I only managed one plate at the buffet, and a good third of it was filled with salad and grilled tomatoes and peppers. I filled up mostly on the meat, which was a seafood mixture of mussels, clams, and fish (seafood is always good lean protein) and half of a chicken breast, and I had just a bit of pasta and potatoe salad. Ok, well, I won't talk about the beer and the cake, but I did get some watermelon in to slow me down from the cake. The pizza we ordered was topped with chicken, ham, mushroom, peppers, and onion, so I managed to stay away from the sausage, ground beef and bacon. My hangover breakfaast was half of a waffle covered in lots of good fruit (and whipped cream) with a side of ham and some baked beans. So not great, but not terrible.

I did miss my workout yesterday, but once again, I really needed the rest, especially after I spent most of the day on my feet doing chores as well as making up another batch of my protein fortified granola bars. I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Today was much better as the order of the work week definitely makes it easier for me to stick to my planned nutrition. I was back in the gym today and got in a good workout and banged out some great sets. I left the gym completely exhausted. The difference between the strength building exercises and all the isolation exercises I was doing before is dramatic. Before, when I was just focusing on 2 or 3 body parts per workout, that body part would get tired, but I'd still have plenty of energy left, or at least that's what it seemed like. Doing whole body compound strength exercises leaves me just wiped, but I still feel good. It's more like the feeling after playing a game of hockey or doing some rock climbing.

Well, before I ramble on too much longer, here are my weekly measurement stats:
Week 13: 2007-12-03 to 2007-12-10
Weight: 134.99 (-0.28, -18.4 total)
BF: 20.96 (-0.07, -5.6 total)
Suprailiac: 10 mm (11.6%)
Jackson/Pollock chest/ab/thigh: 8/14/12 (9.74%)

Not much changes this week, but the PhysicsDiet data is still playing catch up. I expect to see it go up next week. Even with my weekend binge though, the fat levels stayed the same as far as the pinches go. So, I guess the answer to my transformer hard-gainer in disguise question was that the buffet meal (and subsequent binge) didn't do a whole lot for either muscle or fat, but it did make me feel like crap. My stomach is starting to feel not quite as tight as it was a couple weeks ago. Although, some of my pinches felt like I could have recorded them as the next notch down, but it wasn't quite enough for me to record them as being different from last weeks numbers.

Well, here's today's pics:

Day 91

Day 90 - Guilty

I'm guilty. Full confession tomorrow and update to this post tomorrow. It's late, so I need sleep.

Addendum:

Day 90

Day 88 - Transformer: Hard Gainer in Disguise

I hit a new milestone today, but not necessarily one I was looking for. Today I hit a new low on the scale, 133.4 lbs. Of course, I thought I was now on a strengthening and muscle gain program. I guess I've just fallen into the classic "but I don't want to get fat again" mode. Even though I was trying to eat more, I just haven't been able to get myself to really put myself in a surplus. I mean, I kind of pigged out a bit last weekend. After doing so, I sort of had that fat bloated and gross feeling, and backed off a bit. Maybe that is what I'm going to have to do to gain some muscle back? I mean, I did see my weight go up a bit this week only to have it rocket back down the past couple days.

Maybe, even after those years of packing on the fat, I'm a hard-gainer in disguise? Back when I was lifting heavy before, I don't think I was ever really able to put muscle on before. I might get a bit more definition, but my weight would go down. Well, at least I know a bit more about this stuff now. I only had my bf tested once before up until this past year (I was about 16% back when I was 18). I've done some reading that puts reasonable muscle gains in the range of 0.25-0.5 lbs a week (I'm not a genetic freak so I'm going to aim for the average). That's lean muscle tissue. With that muscle tissue comes about an extra 0.25-0.5 lbs of glycogen and water. So a gain of about 0.5-1 lb of lean mass should be possible in a week with little fat gain.

Ok, well, I know I'm really good at pigging out, but can I pig out on good clean food? Maybe. We'll see. Maybe I just need a good binge fest to spike my muscle growth to go with my weight training. Hmmm, I'm just about to head out to my gf's Christmas work party w/ plenty of free food provided. Will I live to tell the tale? Tune in tomorrow and find out if Raiden managed to gain muscle, or gain fat, or through the miracle of the Hard-Gainer in Disguise, actually lose muscle and fat after pigging out!

Until next time, Transformers, transform and roll out! (apologies to Optimus Prime and Hasbro)

Day 88

Day 87 - The Gun Show

Hey, did you get your tickets yet...to the Gun Show?

Ok, well, the gun show pics have been making their way around the Shredder blogs, so I thought I would throw mine in the mix. It's one of those things that you never really see for yourself. It's like looking at your own ears. No matter how fast you turn your head, you can never see them with your own eyes. Not even me, and I think I have pretty big ears. Or maybe my eyes just aren't fast enough o_0


Haha, ok, well, that was fun.

...and now for the rest of the story:

Just pics today. I'll chat more later. Gotta get some quality sleep to let those muslces recoup and grow!

Day 87

Day 86 - The obligatory fat pants pic and another change up

Well, I'll start off today by saying it was an honour being featured in Adam Waters' blog post today as part of the "ShredderSphere". Back when I started taking my daily pics and lurking on Adam's blog, I never thought I'd come as far as I have and actually become a part of Adam's shredding community. Although I'm not an official member of the Shredder Council or a part of the current weekly accountability group shred, I've been shredding alongside them all and posting daily (since day 52).

Currently, I've switched modes from fat loss to muscle gain/strengthening in preparation for my return to the ice to play in a special hockey game over the Christmas break. So, as part of the strengthening, I've upped my calories and my weight has changed direction and is slowly going up. I figured I should get the obligatory "fat pants" pic done before I put on too much more (hopefully muscle). My lowest daily weigh-in was 133.6 lbs a week ago. Today my weigh-in was 134.8 when I took these pictures:



These pants were a size 32 waist. The new pair of jeans I bought a few weeks ago are size 28. I actually probably could have gone with a 27 in the waist, but my legs were too big.

Today, I also changed up my weight routine. Initially I had been continuing on with the bodybuilding type muscle growth/fat loss 3 set x 8-12 rep x 3 exercise scheme. This has been great for my muscle definition and my fat loss, but isn't the best scheme for building strength and power, which is my focus now, since those are the qualities that I desire as an ice hockey goaltender. This requires different type of exercise-set-rep scheme, honestly, a type that I hadn't really done before. I was kind of stuck in the 3x10 or 3x12 or 3x15 mindset with a lot of isolation exercises.

Well, I'm going to be following the StrongLifts 5x5 beginner strength program, which focuses on compound exercises using heavier weights at lower reps. Even though I've been weight training on and off for close to 8 years now, I am probably still considered a beginner with respect to strength training (which is different from general weightlifting and bodybuilding). As I haven't done some of the exercises in this program in a while, I think it's best for me to follow the beginner program. I'll be using different starting weights once I figure those out, but the idea of progression in weights rather than sets and reps will be followed.

Today was the first day of this new program and I must say, the barbell squats felt pretty good and I concentrated a lot on my form (after listening to Michael's podcast). The pull-ups that I did were probably the most draining on me, but they felt awesome. 3 sets of those, each one to failure.

Anyway, I hope to catch up and reply to some of the comments and to get around to everyone else's blog to comment soon. It's a busy time for me, so everyone keep shreddin'!

Today's pics:

Day 86