Wednesday

It was absolutely beautiful today. If we had the weather we had today every day of the year I would not be one bit upset. I decided to go for a walk outside since I'm inside for most of the day.
Sled Drags:
70 lbs
30 minutes

I broke up the drags into two segments. The first ten minutes was done with my shirt on. After 10 minutes I decided to take my shirt off and blast my nips. Last summer my only goal was to get a tan and I failed miserably. I'm not making the same mistake again this year. I just have to do more conditioning and lifting outside.

The past couple of days Gifford and I have been going back and forth about a wrestling match we've been planning. It started when we were goofing around one day a few months ago and he prevented me from scoring on him for about 30 seconds. After that he thought he could hang with me. Not so much. Today we had an impromptu wrestling match. We kind of felt each other out for a minute with me taking a few set up shots and not really trying to finish them. Giff is a strong guy and doesn't really know what he's doing which actually makes it tough when we are on our feet. I finally picked a good single leg and took him down. He committed the cardinal sin when it comes to being taken down. Never reach back. I tucked my head under his armpit and drove him to his back, got him in a headlock and finished the job. The whole thing lasted about a minute and a half.

Even though he was the challenger he still had to make up some excuses like, "Beating me isn't that big of a deal." Or, "I've never wrestled before." Or, "Let's play basketball or run a 100m dash." Fuck that. I answered his challenge. Now he wants to wrestle again. Probably not. He's just going to have to live with the sour taste of being a loser in his mouth. Sorry brah.

Song of the Day:

These guys used to be a band called Western Addiction and rocked harder than most. Now they are Dead to Me and rock just as hard.

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

That's for you Giff. Eat it.

Tuesday- Standing Press

I was a man possessed today. After about two weeks of deloading before the meet I needed to release some energy in the gym. Boy did I ever. All over the place. My spinal erectors are still sore, but not as bad as yesterday and my right hip is still giving me shit. But I wasn't about to let that stop me. Also, here is a video of my 551 squat. Notice the fist pump at the end.



Hang Snatch: worked up to 170x2
I can't even remember the last time I did these. They felt pretty good. The last one got a little loose and almost took my right shoulder with it. I dumped it just in time. No harm, no foul.

Standing Press: worked up to 155x10
Original plan was to just do five. I was feeling good so I maxed it out.

Chins: 40 total
w/ Dips: 60 total

Shrugs: 3x12
w/ Barbell curls: 3x8

Sledgehammer Tabata

10 minutes elliptical

The sledgehammer Tabata kicked my ass. I'm out of shape, unless you count round.

Song of the Day:

These guys kick ass. 'Nuff said, ball in.

“He who lives without discipline dies without honor.” -Icelandic Proverb

And So It Begins

Today is Day 1 of our Biggest Loser Challenge. On the line is dinner and drinks at Hooters of Brookfield. I went there the other week with some buddies from college. There is lots of talent from what I saw. The way it's going to work is that body fat lost is going to be points for and muscle lost is going to be points against. So if I were to lose 3 pounds of fat and 1 pound of muscle I would net 2 points.

I am going to structure my training differently than what I have been doing lately. I am going to focus on the four main lifts: bench, deadlift, standing press, and squat. I am going to train three times per week with this four lift rotation. My first two weeks will go like this. Tuesday=SP, Thursday=Squat, Saturday=Bench, Tuesday=Deadlift, Thursday=SP, Saturday=Squat, and so on. At the end I am going to add a simple four minute Tabata finisher. This protocol is twenty seconds of all out work with ten seconds rest. This is done for eight rounds totaling four minutes.

The non weight training days will focus more on cardiovascular work. Since I'm not too keen on spending hours on a treadmill or a bike I am going to be doing more interval type training like pushing the prowler, sprinting hills, barbell complexes, sled drags, pounding/flipping the tire, etc. The intensity, duration, and what I do will vary based on how I'm feeling, and what I've got coming up the next day.

My diet is going to be relatively low in carbs. I'll get about 30 grams on my non weight training days and about 150 grams on my weight training days. Based on how I know my body reacts to carbs I think this plan will be good for me to keep my energy up, aid in recovery, drop fat, and at least maintain the muscle I do have.

Nic and I did our body fat tests today. I came out at 16.5%. I weighed in at 216.1 lbs which gives me 180.5 lbs of lean body mass and 35.6 lbs of fat mass. In the next eight weeks I'll be looking to shed about 15 or so pounds of fat and maintaining all my muscle. Here's some pics to get you through the rest of today.

Today's training was pretty light. I'm still sore from Saturday so I did a bunch of rolling out, mobility stuff, and some conditioning.

Prowler:
3 Hi, 3 Lo
90lbs
20 yards

Tempo Sprints:
75%
30 yards
x6

Song of the Day:


“The abdomen is the reason why man does not easily take himself for a god.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

Meet Recap and Future Plans

Meet Recap

To start off the meet went awesome. It was a great venue with a lot of great lifters there. It was ran about as well as a meet could be ran and I will definitely be competing there in the future.

I want to thank Nic for coming with me and being a great training partner through this whole process. He had a great day and I'm sure he'll be posting his own meet recap soon. On to the day. I also want to thank Dom and Brock LaFace for coming and supporting us. Brock took some videos and pics that I may post later.

Before I talk about the meet I'm going to relay a story that happened to Nic and I the night before the meet.

We really wanted to find a buffet to get our bloat on before the meet since we were both a little light. We walked to this place called Mongolian Grill that was right next to our motel. When we got there we were told it wasn't a buffet type place so we kindly showed our way out. We got in my truck and as I was starting the ignition I saw Nic look through my window and say, "What the fuck?" I looked back and here is the guy from the Mongolian Grill at my driver's side window. I rolled it down a bit and here's where it gets crazy...Asian crazy.
"You come back and eat. Girl say it not all you eat but you go through many time."
"No that's ok we're going to go somewhere else."
"No you come here and go through many time. She no work here long. She wrong. You go through many time."
"No, really it's ok we're going to get something else."
"Don't go to mall. It thirteen dolla. You come here it nine dolla."
At this point he reaches into my window and taps my shoulder.
"Don't reach into my car. We're going somewhere else. Leave."
"Ooh ok. Haha."

I rolled up my window and all I could do is laugh. I'm not a racist person, but when someone perpetuates a stereotype to that degree what else can I do? I'm sure if I was in Mongolia people would laugh at the way I talked when trying to speak their language, but really, who the hell runs after customers like that and tries to order them back into the restaurant. Times are tough, but I didn't realize they were that tough.

On to the meet.

Squat:
485: good lift
535: good lift
551: good lift (meet PR)

I took a conservative opener for a number of different reasons. Number one reason being that the first squat is like the first hit in a football game. You are nervous as hell until you get that first one in and then after that it is all business. The 485 opener felt lighter than my last warmup set at 405. Man do I love squat bars and monolifts. 535 I don't really remember too much about. The 551 felt heavy when I took it off the rack and I actually thought I was going to get called for depth on my way up. Once I racked it I looked back and saw two whites and a red and gave a little celebratory fist pump. It probably looked really lame but I don't care- PR baby.

Bench
275: good lift (PR)
284: good lift (PR)
292: no lift

Bench went about as well as I expected it to. This is still my weakest lift and a cause for some timidness when I talk about my lifting. Everyone asks, "How much you bench?" To which I reply, "About285ishitsnotreallymybestliftlet'stalkaboutsquattinganddeadlifting, those are my money lifts." Either way I'll take the 284. PR baby

Deadlift:
535: good lift
586: good lift (PR)
600: no lift (missed above my knee)

Man did I want that 600 deadlift. I got it above my knee but just couldn't pull my hips through. It's probably a weight that I could hit in training, but that doesn't really mean anything. Gotta do it in a meet. I'm still happy with the 586 though. PR baby.

Total: 1421 (PR)

All I can say is...PR baby

Future Plans

I'm fat. Not as fat as some, but fatter than I'd like to be. To that end I'm going on a diet. Nic and Matt and I are doing a "biggest loser" contest. Whoever loses the most body fat wins. The diet is going to last eight weeks and end the Friday before Memorial Day. We are going to set it up so that body fat lost is points for and muscle lost is points against. I'll be talking more about that and how I'm going to set up my diet and training tomorrow so stay tuned. I'll also be posting weekly pics and body fat updates. The only two that count are the starting and ending numbers but I just want a way to track my progress and stay honest.

The loser (actual loser, not biggest loser) is going to buy wings and drinks at either Buffalo Wild Wings or Hooters. I will not lose. I cannot lose.

“It is not sufficient that I succeed - all others must fail.” -Genghis Khan (Yes, I realize the irony of the authorship of that quote.)

Song of the Day:

The Loved Ones are an awesome band. I've seen them live a number of times and I would highly recommend them. Especially their first full LP, Build and Burn. Every song on that album is great.

Thursday- 2 Days Out

It rolls out and stretches or else it gets the hose again. I did tons of that today. My right TFL has been bugging me the last couple of days so I had Brad do some release techniques on it. His words, "Holy shit, that f***er is angry." Yeah.

There are lots of things, all mobility related, that I'm going to really focus on next week, which will be a deload. In no particular order they are my right hip flexor group, right TFL, right tibialis anterior, left quad, and both adductors. All of this is, in my mind, related to my right tibia having a slight bow to it. I really fall to my right arch when I walk and the problems that creates is now coming to a head because I haven't done anything to correct it.

This won't be a problem for my meet. My strength and mobility are fine for squatting, benching, and deadlifting. But I need to do more than just those three things, like walk without pain, conditioning, and kick Matt Gifford's ass in our upcoming wrastlin' match. Next Thursday, probably around 12:30 pm. It's gonna be epic.

Now here is a post about some of my least favorite things this country has to offer.

Something that has been on my mind lately is this low calorie beer crap. One thing that many people don't understand is that alcohol has 7 calories per gram. There are only so many carbs that can be taken out of the beer to reduce it's caloric load. The calories that are then taken out are from the alcohol. To me this is useless. This is probably due to the fact that alcohol companies are not required to place nutrition labels on their products. If they did then people would be able to compare different nutrient and alcohol values.

If the alcohol content is reduced then people will just drink more beers. Here is a dialogue from two friends, Lance and Morgan, in college. At the time Lance was thinking about dropping some Lbs.
Lance: I'm going to start drinking Michelob Ultra. You know, drop some pounds.
Morgan: Lance, you defeat the purpose of low carb/calorie beer when you drink 22 in one night.
Lance: You're right. Fuck it.



Bullshit

Not only is it crap that alcohol is taken out, but the taste is also reduced. I can't speak for everyone else, but I would rather drink full flavor/ calorie beer then watered down reduced calorie swill.

This post was originally posted on 12.13.09

Tuesday- 4 Days Out

Just a bunch of rolling, stretching, and mobility throughout the day. Here is an earlier post on two of my favorite foods in the whole wide world.

F+(Pb)or(Ch)=Y

It's a simple equation. It is also the key to making food delicious and/or gaining weight. It breaks down like this: Food + Peanut butter or Cheese = Yummy. The theory states that the addition of peanut butter or cheese to any food will make that food better than it being by itself. Bored of chicken breast? Add some cheese. Like fruit? Add some peanut butter. I've been at the very least husky and, at times, fat my entire life. These are the things that I think about.

Want to give that ice cream a sweet-salty flavor but the peanut butter gets hard when you try to mix it? Melt the peanut butter in a microwave for about 30-40 seconds and drizzle it on top of the ice cream. The peanut butter will return to its original consistency once it cools from the ice cream. Hi, I'm Troy. I create solutions.

Like Manna from Heaven

Now, for whatever reason whenever I posit this theory to people they take it as a challenge to think of a food that disproves the theory. I bet you've already tried to think of one. Have you got one? No? Do you know why you haven't thought of one yet? Because that food doesn't exist. And even if it does, I sure as hell am not going to eat it. People have thrown all kinds of weird food at me, but I put them in their place by explaining the theory. Let's use worms as an example. I'm not saying worms and cheese (or peanut butter) tastes good, but it sure as shit is better than just worms. Bam. That sound you hear is your mind being blown.

There have been a few close calls though. I was worried about citrus. That was until I tried oranges and peanut butter. For that combo I almost had to change the equation to F+(Pb)or(Ch)= IJCAL (I Just Came A Little). Gummy products were also thrown into the fire (figuratively). One: there are peanut butter jelly beans. Two: Gummy bears are used to top ice cream, just like peanut butter. Three: Tried GBs with Pb. Awesome.

Even I will admit that this theory is just that, a theory. If someone can come up with a food that tastes better alone then I will change my thinking. For all you steak purists: Grow a set and eat some cheese dammit. If you can think of a food that would taste great with the addition of peanut butter and cheese, you're my best friend. If you are a girl, can you make this food? Yes? When can we get married?

The way steak should be

In closing I want you all to experiment and try different combinations. Be curious. Live a little. And for Pete's sake, eat something. You're too skinny.

This post was originally posted on 11.18.09

Monday- 5 Days Out

Bench: Worked up to 250x1

Lat Pulldowns: 3x20
w/ Tricep Pushdowns: 3x15

Short and sweet today. Nothing major, just worked up to my last warmup set for Saturday. I have a feeling that this week is going to go by a little slower than most. I really look forward to my training and when I can't really do much time kind of stands still. Either way, it will be a good opportunity to mentally prepare myself for the challenge. The rest of this week is going to be rolling, stretching, and mobility. Since I won't really be doing much I will be reposting some of 200 Pounds is 200 Pounds' greatest hits. Check back this week for some past posts that some of you new readers may have missed.

Song of the Day:

"There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson