Archives for the month of: February, 2012

My Current Plan

February 13, 2012 //
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I’m going to post my current plan that I’m working to now. It’s all based on 1 of 2 sources. The Lyle, and Paul my personal trainer at Omega Fitness. My current goals are:

  • Be strong for footy
  • Not lose a lot of weight during footy season currently (93kg)
  • Keep a lowish body fat

Diet

My aim is to intake 300g of protein a day. This is based off the calculation of 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Ref: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/protein-requirements-for-strength-and-power-athletes.html

I’ve got rather lean from eating around 300g of protein across 5-6 meals a day. I find it a lot easier to not overload on carbs (great for burning fat) since I’m no longer hungry (resulting in no cravings).

I also thought I would be fine to cut out fruit and veg since I’m taking a multivit. It wasn’t long before my body odor took a big turn for the worse. After speaking with my manager (who is a natural body builder), he enlightened me that you need to continue eating fruit and veg to keep your ph level balanced.

Training

During footy season my PT has got me on a low rep strength program. This will help with reducing lactic acid for footy trainings the next day. The program has some specific stuff to target me dodgy knee. I’ve noticed a good improvement in balance at the gym and footy trainings after a couple of weeks.

My weekly routine is:

  • Mon morning gym session
  • Tues footy training after work
  • Wed night gym session
  • Thur footy training after work
  • Friday recovery swim + foam roller
  • Sat crossfit / footy game
  • Sun recovery swim + foam roller

Supplements

My supplement intake now consists of:

  • Multi vit (Poliquin) – Daily – General health + boost immune system
  • Fish oil (Poliquin) – Daily – Help mobilize fat
  • Protein concentrate powder (Optimum Nutrition) – Daily + Post workout – Build muscle
  • BCAA (Poliquin) – Pre & Post workout – Help muscular endurance, recovery, and help keep size on during footy season.
  • Micronized creatine – Daily – Improve workout performance

Paul switched me from my standard supermarket mutli vits and fish oil. He informed me that the multi vits contained cheap and very nasty ingredients. And also the cheap fish oil tablets contained heavy metals that aren’t good for you. I haven’t looked into this much, and decided to take his word for it.

Also, here are Lyle’s articles on supplements, Part 1 and Part 2

 

Overall, I’m very happy how things are going. I’m noticed gains in strength, balance, speed, muscular endurance at gym sessions and trainings. My body composition is the best it’s ever been. And my recovery is turning around well enough. The 5 trainings a week are going well.  Looking forward to footy season!

Categories Health, Training

Thinking twice about supplements

February 7, 2012 //
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I thought I was super healthy with my high protein diet, and my multivitamin that I take religiously every day. Then Paul my PT dropped another bomb on me regarding your typical supplements. Like other supplements, the cheap ones seem to be, well, cheap. Read this article that analyses the popular Centrum multi-vit. It mentions how some of the main ingredients are sourced from some places you probably wouldn’t align with being healthy.

Fish oil + Multi Vits

Now it just so happens that my PT suggested the Poliquin supplements (not a coincidence), of which I followed without question. I would’ve liked it if the article linked to or mentioned what goes into making the Poliquin multi-vit. It seems I’ll have to try dig that up somewhere else. I’ll post if I find anything.

Categories Health

My New Workout Program

February 5, 2012 //
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Had my first sessions with Paul the P.T last week. I thought I was in rather good shape. I was wrong.

Paul has set quite a simple starter strength program. The strength training is good as it (obviously) increases my strength and core stability. But the low training limits lactate, and has less impact on the following days of footy training.

Before we went through the program I performed a balance test where I stood on one leg and slowly raised the opposite knee up and forward whilst keeping the rest of the body aligned in the original planes. I failed miserably. My hips shot out to the side and I would lean quite far to the left when raising the right leg. This showed that I had weak core stability. All those weighted crunches didn’t help then!

Balance test, I failed

My new strength program consists of 2 circuts of  4 exercises.

Circuit one:

  1. Close (hammer) grip chin ups
  2. Petersen step
  3. Dips
  4. Barbell step ups

Circuit two:

  1. Squats
  2. Close (hammer) grip dumbell bench press
  3. Lying leg raises
  4. Cable crunches

For the chin ups, dips, step ups, sqauts, and bench press I do 5 reps on the first set, then 4, 3, followed by two on the last set. The resistance for each exercise should be increased in future workouts to ensure progression. Also, each rep is completed with a 5 count on the initial movement, then hold for 2 seconds, followed by a 5 count on the returning movement. The Petersen step is constant with 8 reps per set, but also has the 5 count with 2 second hold.

Switching to the strength program has been a good change. I’ve noticed the exercises helping a lot during footy training (core stability especially). I’m not putting on size and muscle as I’d hoped. I think I’m even looking smaller already. But plenty of time to “stuff around” with that in the off season.

I’m enjoying switching progression from asthetics and muscle size, to more functional strength and stability.

Finally, a nice article on how powerlifting unexpectedly changed one man’s life.

Categories Training