Discuslifter's log

[discuslifter]

Ok, since requested, I'll start a training log here. I'll include some other stuff besides training to maybe make it a little more interesting so I don't bore everyone to death (assuming anyone reads it?)

I'm comming back from a 2 month lay off where I didn't touch weights due to health issues. Suffice it to say it sucked terribly and I started training again. I don't like feeling like total crap and lifting really helps it out! Take home point - PROTECT YOUR HEALTH!! You don't realize how important it is until you lose it!

I'm 6' tall, currently 190 lbs (down a lot) and somewhere in the 13% bodyfat range. I don't really know, but decent enough to see abs and serratus anterior.

Currently dealing with high lead and mercury levels. Not sure where these came from as I don't eat a ton of fish or anything. I always try to avoid anything bad for you (call me obsessive, but I just want to be healthy), so I was really surprised with this. There are many possible sources for these, so it'll be hard for me to track it down. In the mean time, I am doing several things to help bring these levels down: 3g NAC, 15-30g (yes, you read that right) buffered vitamin C with bioflavanoids (per day), l-glycine, fresh cilantro, fresh garlic, ZMA, and kelp. I'm debating on chlorella or modified citrus pectin, but this is enough as it is. Cilantro especially seems to cause problems that seems like it's doing the job, meaning I get reactions after eating it, and it sounds like something heavy metals would do.

Also dealing with food allergies that has me on a rotational diet. No same protein for 6 days. I can't eat the stuff I used to eat a lot of, i.e. no beef and eggs. It goes like this: Buffalo, ground dark turkey, ground lamb, ground pork, chicken legs with skin, raw whole milk (on carb day). Veggies are a problem and I have to rotate them as well. I get by far the worst reactions to vegetables, so I have to keep my portions moderate. I think my problem was I ate TOO MANY veggies and that helped create allergies to them. My workout protein is only BCAAs so I don't have to deal with rotating different workout proteins which would be expensive and annoying as hell. Also taking 20-30g of glutamine per day divided up in small doses throughout the day to help repair any leaky gut I may have. No, I didn't get tested for leaky gut, but given that I have food allergies, it sounds likely. I just got my blood drawn today for an allergy test. It tests for over 400 items, including 230 foods.

Also waiting on test results of a comprehensive digestive stool analysis (CDSA) test. I'll see what's wrong with my gut and fix anything that's needed. Had an adrenal stress index test (4 times during the day) and nothing that exciting. High DHEAS (good) and slightly elevated cortisol at a couple times during the day. I could take some things to lower it, but I personally think that would be stupid because I probably have high cortisol from something else like allergies or the heavy metals, and simply lowering the cortisol won't help the problem. I feared bad adrenal exhaustion because of lots of fatigue, but it seems more like it's the heavy metals doing that and my adrenals are alright.

Right now following the Anabolic Diet by Mauro DiPasquale using just 1 carb day per week. Not trying to gain weight or lose weight. Just trying to get my strength levels back up. Basically due to my health issues trying to gain or lose weight is a waste of time until I get them fixed (in the process of), and it would be too much stress on my body since it needs to heal. So just doing a basic low volume westside program that's set up like this:

Day 1: DE squat, 7-8x2
Day 2: Off
Day 3: ME pressing day. Working on overhead currently, 3x5
Day 4: Off
Day 5: ME squat, different lift from day 1, 2-3x1-3 depending on how I feel. Assistance exercise like reverse hyper. This one obviously is very taxing, so I don't force myself to do too much if I know I won't be able to handle it.
Day 6: Off
Day 7: DE pressing, 8x3
Day 8: Off

Repeat

I go with an 8 day cycle to allow rest between all workouts so I don't stress myself too much. I'm gaining strength and recovering well. That's what counts, right?

Notable increases: Deadlift has gone up from 315 to 355 in 3 weeks despite having lost so much bodyweight and also getting food poisoning one week and losing 5 lbs. Not too bad. I felt so pathetic only being able to deadlift 315 when I first tried I'm changing up the lift this week and going to box squats since they seem to work well for me and I haven't done them in a while.

I should note I do back work, but just maintenance since I'm trying to get my bench up. I do things like snatches, t-bar rows, pullups, cable rows to chin, and other stuff. This is just a couple sets at 6 reps, not done very hard.

Also working on various imbalances. For example, I do some left leg work, some left bicep work, medial ham curls (they're a bit weaker than they should be), and teres minor external rotations for my right arm (adducted external rotations). That might sound gay, but that's a rotator cuff muscle and it could only do half the reps with the same weight as my left. Not good!! Also making sure I'm flexible and all. PNF stretching is fun (ouch!).

Workout nutrition is pretty basic right now. 20g BCAAs during workout with 5g of glutamine. 2g before and 2g after of vitamin C. This combo actually allows me to recover pretty well. I wasn't using protein powder for a while, and just using food, and this allows me to recover far better than with real food and carbs.

Carb day is basically a bit of milk, brown rice, and whatever other good carbs I have around. I stuff my face. I love my carb days. The morning of it I am excited as hell about carbs, but by the end of the day I swear up and down that I hate carbs and won't ever do that again. Same thing happens next week

Tonight is ME press day and I'll have to watch I don't push it too much because I seem to be having a mercury detox reaction going on right now. I'll post it after I do it tonight. I guess I might as well post yesterday's workout.

[discuslifter]

Monday, October 17th. 7:00 pm

DE cable pull-throughs 1x3, rest 10 seconds, DE ham curls 1x3, rest 60 seconds. Did 8 sets total. I sorta just made this up the other day, but I must say I really liked this superset. We'll see if if my deadlift keeps going up

Then I finished this off with just 2x20 (60s rest) of some erector spinae pull-throughs. Not done to failure. All this is is instead of pulling by extending my hips, I do it by flexing and extending my spine. Do these to help strengthen the spinal erectors since they felt kinda weak. Obviously not heavy so I don't F up my back.

Yes, I know ham curls aren't the best ham workout, but they are less stressful overall than GHR, Reverse hyper, GMs, etc. and I need to recover.


20g BCAAs and 5g glutamine during, 2g C before and 2g C after. Felt great after this workout. It energized me, which seems to be the ticket for me and DE days.

[discuslifter]

Wednesday, October 19th, 7:00 pm

Standing overhead dumbbell press, neutral grip, heels touching - 3x5 - 5 min rest - 52.5 lbs (each)

I suck at these, can you tell? That's why I'm doing them. Up from 45 lbs last week.

Supersetted with:

Neck support off bench - 3x15s - 10, 15, 25 lb plate on chest

Basically a bridge with just my head on the bench, body parallel to floor. Up from a max of 10 lbs last week.


After that:

T-bar row - 1x6 - 200 lbs

Right arm adducted external rotations - 3x10 - 60s rest - 20 lbs

Up from 3x8 with 15 lbs. Now it's getting more even with the left external rotator. Healthy shoulders here I come! (this is done with me laying on my left side, right arm against my body, elbow on hip, and I let the dumbbell go as far down as possible for full ROM. Done on bench to get fullest ROM)


Felt pretty good from the workout. Nothing to failure. 20g BCAAs during workout, 5g glutamine PWO, 2g C before and 2G after. Good increases on these lifts, so I'll keep with this for now.

[discuslifter]

Ok, no training entry today obviously, but some other noteworthy things.


I got my CDSA test results back. Everything is pretty normal except 3 things. Pretty low lactobacillus and bifidobacterium, and high pseudomonas aeruginosa (a bacteria that's bad when there's overgrowth).

Oh yeah, and NO PARASITES!! Wooo! I'm glad about that. I have to admit I was kinda scared to find out, because I find the whole idea of it to be absolutely disgusting. I'd have nightmares for the rest of my life if I was pooping out worms .

I actually expected more things to be wrong, so I'm actually quite pleased I'm not in really bad shape here. Picked up some good human strain, high potency (guaranteed on the shelf, not at packaging), enteric coated probiotic and taking 16 billion little guys a day Also got oregano oil as this specifically inhibits pseudomonas. Need to pick up some tea as well as the tannins also directly inhibit this. The lactobacillus and bifidobacterium ought to help displace this and get it under control, too.

Reading a book called "The Diet Cure" by Julia Ross, M.A.. It's really neat. It goes over how to use specific amino acids to boost certain brain chemicals to help with different problems, along with a lot more. 4g glutamine and 2g tyrosine helps me wake up and be nice and alert in the morning, 2g tyrosine, 500mg GABA, 1g glycine helps me be alert and relaxed. There's much more in this book than that. For example, glutamine is great for dieting when if you start craving sugar or carbs. Tyrosine DL-phenylalanine for depression, lack of energy, lack of focus. GABA, taurine, and glycine for relaxation. Some more interesting things that I haven't tried (so I dunno) is phenylalanine for people that are very sensitive to physical or emotional pain, crying easily, craving comfort, "loving" foods (like chocolate)....basically take phenylalanine if you're a big pussy. Tryptophan or 5-HTP for people that are negative, depressed, worried, anxious, low self-esteem, obsessive, irritable, insomia, and a bunch of other stuff. Also, seratonin tends to drop with dieting, so maybe some 5-HTP could help you not be a cranky bastard when you diet, along with reducing carb cravings. Also, take B vitamins and zinc to help the body make all the good chemicals it needs to from the aminos.

It even goes over different tests you can get done, how to interpret the results, and how to go about fixing the problem.

It has 8 main topics:

1. Correcting brain chemistry imbalances
2. Correcting problems from low calorie dieting
3. Balancing unstable blood sugar
4. Repairing low thyroid function
5. Overcomming food addictions
6. Fixing hormonal imbalances
7. Eradicating yeast overgrowth
8. Fixing fatty acid deficiency

Anyway, it's pretty cool and just thought I'd mention it in case anyone wants some new reading. Got it off e-bay for $5.

[threenorns]

there's probably a reason it was on ebay for $5.

i used to read that kind of stuff but you know what? it gets old pretty quickly - for every one book saying 'x' is the shiznit, you've got three others screaming 'poison!'. it gets too confusing so i don't read any of them any more.

and yeah, me and my family are BAD for allergies. were i to avoid everything i'm allergic to, i'd have to live in a hermetically-sealed bubble with filtered oxygen and distilled water and live on a diet of organic rice pablum, organic boiled chicken, and organic boiled pears.

needless to day, i don't think so!

[discuslifter]

You're right...tons of contradictory information out there.

However, I can't see that as a reason not to read books. It gives pretty good diet advice along with stuff that I know either from experience or hearing elsewhere is good info. You run the BS detector over it and use common sense when you read. If the book sucks, then stop reading it. I'm not gonna give up on learning just because somewhere there is a book that contradicts it. Heck, I've read things that were crap, and I still got something out of it. The fact that I could shoot down all the reasoning in the book shows me that that way DEFINITELY isn't right. So now I know another way that isn't any good. That's more than I would have gotten from not reading anything.

So why bother to read IA's training info since Mike Mentzer said it wouldn't work? Because you've experienced it working? Well I can say this. I've tried raw vegan diet - there's NO chance in hell I could be healthy on that. Tried vegetarian with milk. Again, no way I could survive on that. Higher carb and low fat like John Berardi recommends in his Massive Eating? Let me put it this way - I can eat just meat, milk, and nuts and not get constipated, but I got constipated trying to eat low fat. In fact, the only thing that could possibly allow me to eat vegan would be avocados and other really fatty things. I can't do high protein with low fat. It just doesn't work for me. I know low carb, high fat, high protein works for me. Fasting? I didn't notice any improvements with several tries. Timed carb diet? Great. Anabolic Diet? Great. I wouldn't have known any of this if I never read anything.

[threenorns]

LOL - i didn't say i don't read books - i said i don't read those fad diet books. the information contained in them is dubious, at best. i look at it this way: if this is the only one or one of only a few saying something, then it's probably bogus. look at that "Fit for Life" bit - you can't eat this with that and you HAVE to eat that with this but only between the hours of 7:42am and 9:17am when the moon is in the fourth quadrant and saturn is crossing the plane of jupiter.

[discuslifter]

Originally Posted by threenorns

LOL - i didn't say i don't read books - i said i don't read those fad diet books. the information contained in them is dubious, at best. i look at it this way: if this is the only one or one of only a few saying something, then it's probably bogus. look at that "Fit for Life" bit - you can't eat this with that and you HAVE to eat that with this but only between the hours of 7:42am and 9:17am when the moon is in the fourth quadrant and saturn is crossing the plane of jupiter.

I guess it depends on what you consider a "fad". Like I said, it has pretty solid info in it. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I don't see solid info as being a fad. If the book is one of only a few saying something isn't good, does that mean the books that have the most wide spread info are best? that would mean i should be eating low fat/low cholesterol, very high carb, then. That's the most wide-spread info out there. I don't judge info by how many people are saying it - I base it on the merit of its logic, history, and application.

[threenorns]

ah, but what is "solid" info when there are doctors swearing that eating red meat will lead to seven kinds of disaster?

when new info comes out, i do the same thing i do when new automobile or computer technology comes out: i wait. time will tell if it's solid or not.

[discuslifter]

Originally Posted by threenorns

ah, but what is "solid" info when there are doctors swearing that eating red meat will lead to seven kinds of disaster?

when new info comes out, i do the same thing i do when new automobile or computer technology comes out: i wait. time will tell if it's solid or not.

Time already has told Humans have survived for millions of years consuming red meat, whether it's cows, buffalo, deer, or whatever. There are studies of primitives that have lived thousands of generations on things like red meat and other fatty animal products that are "bad" for us. Those doctors saying that red meat and animal fat are bad for us are going against millions of years of evolution and proof of experience, and saying we should eat stuff that experience has shown is BAD. By the way, my sarcastic tone is not directed towards you....it's directed towards goofy doctors, media, and nutritionists. Humans have survived some 150,000 or more generations under extremely harsh conditions in the past few million years eating "bad" food, yet at the rate we're going, we might be lucky to see 10 generations since the advent of "healthy" processed foods. We've seen 5 or so generations since then, and the 5th generation is already becomming a disaster with kids with horrendous health problems. Each generation worse than the last. Infertility rates and infant mortality on the rise....

But then they'll lie to you and say that people 100 years ago didn't leave anywhere near as long as we do, which is absolutely false. They make it out like you were lucky if you ever lived to 40 or 50. Lying with statistic is all it is.