1st week update (since break)

I have been really busy this week which is why there is a lack of posts on my blog, however I couldn't miss updating my weight in process just to show I still go to the gym and continue my diet. I had big fluctuations this weeks and I was actually surprised I reached my goal. Somehow I doubt reaching 80.7kgs for the next week because I have less time for working out, now that exams are coming up. I really should free some time for studying which is why the next couple of weeks might be unstable. I'll try my best :)

Sunday update

I promised to restart my diet today, but even this week I lost some weight ever since I got home. My last update was 83.4, and now I'm at 82.8 in about a week. From now on I'll go back to 1kg/week, so next Sunday I should be 81.8kgs. My next post on diet should come then.

5th week update

Well yes. In 11 days I managed to gain back about a kilo. Actually 1.1kg. By sunday Ill reorganize my diet, get back on trail and post a new plan with my initial weight again. I'll try not to gain any more, however sine it was my birthday we might to to T.G.I's which...well noone can resist an Ultimate Jack Daniels Burger huh? :)

Valentine's Day Disco

14 Ferbuary. Love is in the air :) We occupied Mr. Giddens' room so there was no problem with looking for a place to make sandwiches with Sabina. I worked, prepared sandwiches, even special orders so we can sell more. We could have brought one more toaster to be more effective which is one weakness I figured was, but almost everything else went perfect. ADvertising, selling, money arrangement. Another annoying factor was that Sabina bought 60 packets of bread and we had no idea how to sell this much to 50 kids, but we were helped the very next day by our teachers. Even though e are not supposed to sell food in the school they allowed us to sell what was left on Friday, 15th just so Sabina has no money loss. We actually made some profit which is the biggest part of the Service we planned. We thought about giving a toaster to the school so people can prepare their own sandwhiches from now on, or give it to charity to help others. The day was a success but after 3-4 hours of bread cheese and salami I dont want to see any more sandwhices for a while :)

Valentine's Day Disco: Plan

Our plan for the Valenine's day disco began pretty slow and with lot of confusion. I agreed to help and make all the sandwhiches, even left school earlier because i forgot to bring the toaster I was supposed to. It was Sabina and I who planned to bring toasters to satisfy hungry students after they danced to music provided by Stefan. It is the Year11s duty to decorate the school, this way we all helped each other to orgaize a great disco. This plan should have been posted before the event took place, but just because I didnt post it earlier doesnt mean we did not plan it. In my next post I will be reflecting how all the events went.

Winter activity day

I know I made a plan for the winter day but haven't posted yet. Well it went quite well yet not how I planned it would. Daniel and I though we would go to  park for the first two periods and come back for break, than return with another class. However later on we figured there was only one class we had to deal with and then help the other groups.

1. After we went to Bitsevsky park I chose two people from grade 10 who would be the leaders and would choose their teammates. According to our plan we played capture the flag and made up pretty good rules even though I never plaed before, so everybody enjoyed the game up to a certain time. Unfortunately kids started to accuse each other of cheating soon and the game became more agressive, which is why we decided to change to SnowRugby. Those wished not to hurt themselves could not join the game but it was only in the last 15 minutes of our time. Even Year12s joined and so the last 15 minutes were saved and we still had fun. Unfortunately Year12s never made any other contribution. They ignored taking the referees duty and gathered in a group to talk the whole time, this way only Daniel and I contributed to the activty completely. Even teachers tried to call for Year11s help but they kept ignoring it.

2. After we returned and figured we had no other activities we helped the girls make hot chocolate. They had to leave for about 20 minutes to get some more cocoa powder but until then we "held the front" since people kept coming. I particularly enjoyed doing more than just one duty during activity day.

3. The girls returned soon, so we decided with Daniel to evolve into a hot-chocolate delivery group. Firts time it was him opening the doors for me while I took about 10 cups of hot chocolate on a plate and carried from the girls' stand to teachers and students.



 4. By the end of the day the last thing we had to do was cleaning up. We removed the poles from the obstacle course, cleared the road from ice and put the desks back where they belonged. Even though we planned to do one service we did multiple and enjoyed doing it. Unfortunately at some point we had more work than we expected becuse Year11s didnt do much, however I have to admit some of them contributed a lot to planning the day. It was fun, except for a several misallocation of time management which caused conusion in the beginning.

4th week update

I know I should have posted about week earlier, however the break had begun and i completely forgot. I did take the picture for evidence, but didn't post it, so I'll do it now along with a new weekly update. I arrived this afternoon to Moscow therefore I did not measure myself with the same equipment yet but according to my scale in Hungary I gained back about a kilo this past 11 days. Tomorrow I'll just upload the new post and today I'll upload th picture I took the last friday before the break. My goal was 82.9 but I got as far as 82.3 luckily. I knew that in 5 days I'll lose more than 0.3 which the goal would have been for that week and I was right. Now that I returned I can get back on my diet and as soon as this sunday I'll do nother weight in so I can set a weekly goal for the following weeks.

3rd week update - 12 Feb

Even though I thought I'll only go down until 83.3 by this Monday, since I went up to 84.5 in the beginning of last week, I managed to reach 83.0, which means I hit my weekly goal of minus 1kg. It is by next friday when I should reach 82.7kgs, and I'm sure in 5 days I'll manage to lose 0.3 but there is a lot of work to be done until then. From the friday I'll go on an 11 week holiday to home, where I might actually gain a little bit back, yet after the holidays I'll set my new goal to reach. I'll probably stick to 1kg/week again, however after a couple of weeks I might change to 0.5kg as I'll get leaner. It gets harder to lose stubborn fat after a while and I also might change my diet or workout routine, but thats only next month. 

Bench max 112.5 - reflection

Back then I haven't reflected on my goal properly. I wrote I reached 112.5 bench but never got to show evidence. On the video below unfortunately it seems like my spotter helped me out, but he did not even touch the bar. He always showed a movement for me to encourage my lifting, yet never touched the bar unless I was stuck and called for help (this is some good spotting by the way, many people just go ahead and lift the weight for you which is terrible and annoying)

I did a warmup of
2x20 - 20kgs (only the bar to get the feeling)
1x5 - 60kgs
1x2 - 100kgs
1x1 - 105kgs
1x1 - 110
1x1 - 112.5

I only recorder the last bit, however next time I might do fewer warmup reps and go for 115kgs right away after 1x5 - 60kgs. This way I dont get so tired and might be able to do it. The reason why I reflect on it right now is not only to show I reached my planned goal, but to show: My streght is the same or even better since I started the diet. I didn't feel weak, yet I'm losing weight and thats exactly what i wanted with this diet. As i said eralier, it is not enough to Not Eat at all to lose weight, but if you eat Smart, you'll keep good results in the gym with less fat %. By the way, next weight in comes on Monday again! By next friday I should be 82.7 according to my plan. We'll see how it goes :)

Chest routin

This is what we do on our chest days. I actually forgot to record the incline dumbbell bench press, but ill record it and put it up later on for sure :)

Bench - 10x3
Cable "pushdown" - 4x10-12
Incline Dumbbell Bench - 4x6-8
Dips - 4x6-8
Flies - 4x 10-12

Winter Activity Day: Plan

Tomorrow, 8th of Feb, Tear 12 and 13 have planned a winter activity day for the school. This means that almost all students from other grades will participate in actions, like running an obstacle course, playing rugby or capture the flag. Of course all of these will be happening in deep snow. Some of the guys have put much effort in digging the obstacle course in the school yard, however Daniel, Sang Hoon, Jiwon and I are going to  a park, nearby school, to set up the capture the flag game. We will sort out the teams, explain the rules and supervise along with teachers. We will be the referees as well. By the first break at 11.00 we will try and return on time, then leave with different grades until lunch. Post lunch activities will mostly include teachers against students, in every activity possible in school, such as hockey or the mentioned obstacle course.
There will be indoor activities as well for which mostly girls are responsible, and also others will provide hot chocolates for those who run outside in the cold the whole day.
We start from 9 in the morning, have 40 minutes to plan out activities and set up the area, and by 3:40 in the afternoon the day will be over. Let's make it happen!

2nd week Update - Feb 04

Quick update from my Monday weight in. Before the weekend I was in between 84 and 83kg (I even reached 83.2 on Friday), however Saturday seemed to be a cheat day as I was on a birthday and just couldn't resist that chocolate cake :) I'm trying to get rid of what I added on the weekend, but I felt wierd in the past 2 days. I wasn't hungry at all, I barely ate but I didn't lose weight either. I'm guessing my metabolism slowed down as a result of something and my workouts were awful for the past 2 days as well. My body clock is confused as well as we went to bed at 7 in the morning on Sunday. I hope as soon as I get back to school routine my weight loss will continue. Here's a picture from today morning:

This is still 0.7 less than last week and I hope I'll go below or around 83kg. If I don't I'll have to change something in my diet then :)

Deadlift

Here is the deadlift I promised earlier today :) This was my last exercise of the day so I wasn't a 100% yet i did better than expected. In my first Deadlift video, also can be seen on my blog under the post: 'In the gym', I was lifting 8x125 kg. This video was uploaded 10 months ago, so not even a year passed by. I switched to 5x5 repetition for my diet. It doesnt exhaust my body, yet maintains the mass because the body still feels a need for strength as I go heavier. This is why people often say: you can get stronger during a diet, but don't expect to build muscle at the same time. These concepts are very different. I went trough a serious bulking period in the past months to build muscle and strength as well. As far as my deadlift is concerned, here's some evidence (5x140 for warmup, then 5x170kg. I actually went down by 10 kg each set from then on)
One more thing: now I'm going full range. In my first video the bar is stopped above the ground. I don't do that anymore :)

My last rep was messed up as far as my form is concerned. I admit :( At least I have something to improve in :)

Back routine - not fully updated!

This is just a regular back day for us, excluding deadlifts which we also often do. This time I think it was the time which didn't allow us to do our full workout so we missed deadlifts. Soon (actually today) I will record an extra video only with deadlifts. I have an earlier video on deadlifting once, which also allows for comparison: I've gotten much stronger since last year. Unfortunately Shaun can't come today because of family program, but we'll record his deadlifts next time :) Reflection included in the commentary!

Program:

Wide pullups - 3x5
Chinups - 3x5
Narrow pullups - 3x5
Bent over row (narrow) - 4x8-12
Bent over row (wide) - 4x10-12
Cable pulldown - 4x8-10
(Deadlifts, coming soon) - 5x5

Video:

Service for a Mom :)

Since we left Hungary my mom is desperate about dying her hair. She usually gets to do it whenever she goes home but if she can't , she can't visit her favorite hairdresser. That leaves the honor of dying her hair on me. First times, well... it took me about 40 minutes to do the whole thing. I mean there is combingthe hair up, dying it on both sides, trying not to mess up everything around, get the areas where there not much hair but try not to put a lot of dye because 1) I only use half a packet to dye the 'roots' of the new grown hair 2) it irritates the skin on her head if there is too much :(
The last time I was however significantly faster. Took me 20 minutes, and even she acknowledged that the speed rate was much faster, however the results weren't that great :)

I will have to improve my speed along with the effectiveness so I don't leave spots, yet I could recignize that I already feel more comfortable with combing and dying. She might look funny but hey... That's the pont :P

How people feel about cardio during diet?

People hate it. I did as well. I didn't know simply where to put it! Before workout - I'm too tired for weights then. After - too tired from lifting...
Therefore I made a new schedule based on a friend's idea from the gym. One day of lifting, one day cardio.
Since I can't do legs due to my hurt knee my new schedule look like this:
Back-Cardio-Shoulder-Cardio-Chest-Cardio.

Weight trainings I will soon post with oral comments (with Shaun) under proper videos takin in the gym, however recording cardio would be pretty boring :)

Day of Cardio

Treadmil - walking (20 mins)
Started off with :
Incline - 8
Speed - 7 km/h

Now at :
Incline - 10
Speed - 7 km/h

After 20 minutes I rest and strech. I do 4 exercises of for the abdominals (4 sets x 15 reps)
- Leg raises
- Body twist
- Abs machine
- Situps
and then return to the treadmil.

Treadmil - intervals (10 mins)
Started off with :
Min speed - 8 km/h
Max speed - 15 km/h
Switching speed - every 45 seconds

Now at :
Min speed - 8 km/h
Max speed - 16 km/h
Switching speed - every 50 seconds

Really gets the blood pumping and sweat going :) the afterburn is sick!

Drawing

I said I would draw easier things first but what can one do when he feels like drawing? There was a lot of details here to pay attention to, however I focused on the tree and branch rather than anything else to have be able to reflect on a simpler thing. Since the branch was thin it was hard to create the appropriate shading. This is not much yet but I felt like posting it after an hour of drawing. After all it is one of my products :)

Coaching

People would be surprised how much someone can develop in a couple of weeks. David and Franchesco not only gave an example to others and attracted people to lunchtime gym (such as Daniel and Kirill) but showed amazing developments.
Franchesco' form worried me a lot in many exercises. One of them was benching towards his belly and not the mid-chest area. Today his form was perfect and he was aware of it which is even better as he seems reflective and cares about the things I explain.
David has gotten stronger as well. His form was good in the beginning and is better by now, but the change is not as significant as he started out pretty good. He is making really good progress and he told me: "now i understand how you get addicted to trainig". I was relly happy to hear that :)
Unfortunatelly David might have to ease up or even stop on training legs because it hurts him. Since I'm not a sports doctor (yet :) ) I advised him not to train legs. It isn't worth risking. Just a quick update on lunchtime coaching service. I actually might add some pictures to show Franchesco's posture development!

Popular diets + lunch example

For a long time now I have been willing to figure out what diet I should follow throughout the day. There are myths to bodybuilding diets and many many types are heard of all over the internet.

1) Low-carb diet: This diet includes about 70-80% protein, the rest is for fat and  little carbs. Based on my experience it is the worst anyone can try. First of all the body doesn't have its main energy source so it will obviously break down itself somehow. There are carbs in everything. Literally everything, and the choice of foods is more than 80% less. There is vegetables, eggs, meat, protein powders, tvorog, cottege cheese and thats about it. It is boring, catabolizes the body, leads to massive muscle loos on the long run and depressing. Don't even give it a try (however people usually use it in the last couple of weeks of their diet to get rid of the last bit of fat - I think only competitors should do it. It is not healthy!!!)

2) Carb-cycling: This makes more sense to me, however did not give it a try. There are three days: No carbs, Medium amount, and Refill. By emptying glycogen storages (carb storages in the muscles and liver) the body will get rid of the fat rapidly / following the idea above/ but then the next days the body is refilled with carbs so it doesn't have those negative effects which a long term low carb diet may have. If I get there where I only need a couple of kilos to lose (at about 78kgs / because my final goal is 75) I'll give it a try, but still don't suggest it  for just anyone.

3) Intermittent fasting: This one is a wierdo and large scandals rise when bodybuilders discuss whether it is good or not. It is basically having a 4-6 eating window every day. In the rest of the day people fast. This supposedly leads to HGH (High Growth Hormone) secretion in the body as there is no insulin -as a reaction to food in body, especially carbs. Insulin supresses GH secretion preventing muscle growth. This is however a theory. If people don't eat they wont grow either, therefore they eat all their caloric needs (lets say 2000kcals) in 4 hours. I tried this one and felt a lot of positive feedback from my body, however didn't work on the long run. I still think 1-2 days in a week should be like this because it has several health benefits as well (cleanses the body) but if I don't have breakfast my day is ruined, yet I need to eat after training too which is in the evening.

To make it clear, this are myths because theye are worth arguing for or against. For me right now the only important thing is to eat less than what I use so I lose weight, and get lots of protein as well as carbs (less fat) to maintain muscle. This is why I dont care if people tell me: don't eat after 6! Or don't eat bread! These diets fail because they are too strict on people and so everyone gets bored of them... This explains why I eat sandwhich at school :) So here's my lunch example:
- Lots of fruits
- Sandwich (slice of ham, cheese, spinach, ketchup (moderate), mayo (moderate), lettuce)

Sunday 27th

Just a quick check in from my morning weight in. I weight 84.7 this morning. I actually went lower before but it fluctuates a lot when someone is trying to lose weight. It will slow down majorly because in the first couple of days it is mostly water-weight that people lose, not fat. The fat will come after and will take way harder work to get rid of it without burning away muscle or risking high cortisol level (cortisol is a hormone, which appears in the body under stress or lack of sleep. It leads to the breakdown of amino acids in the body which is ultimately the breakdown of muscle-tissue. To avoid high cortisol level at least 6-7 hours of sleep is needed, which makes me finish my homework earlier every day :) )

Breakfast

In order to start the day healthy here is my first tip for diet breakfast!
It seems like a regular oatmeal and it is with just a little bit of my extras. It fills me up until the first break in school, not just oat but there is some raisins to make it chewy and enjoyable and also there is no added sugar whatsoever. So let me show how I prepare it (takes 15 minutes, I always make it the night before):

Step 1. Pour about 100/120gram of oats into a dish. (Oats are not only healthy carbs / slow digesting-low glycemic/ but also have valuable micro-nutrients and vitamins such as vitamin Bs)

Step 2. Add milk or water (I add milk for higher protein content. Milk has 80% casein which is a slow digesting protein, enables the food to last longer and make you feel full)

Step 3. Slowly cook it, and meanwhile add some washed raisins to it.
Step 4. Stir it until it has a thicker consistency which makes it harder to stir.

 

Step 5. Add a scoop or two of whey or any kind of protein (the sweetener in whey protein is just enough to replace sugar and add more flavor to it, and of course also increases my daily protein needs)

Step 6. Store for maximum 3 days in fridge and it eat every morning :)

Drawing Project

It is not only fitness I'm interested in lately. I've been drawing a lot, however realized that to me it is the technique of shading which makes something realistic. First I was only drawing things which popped into my mind, however to be able to reflect on my drawings I figured I should draw something I see and can take a picture of in order to comapre the two. In previous drawings I practiced how to make the shading, now I'll try and use it to make pictures realistic. These are only pictures I drew for fun, but my goal is to make shading perfect, the pictures more accurate and finally to pay special attention to details of what I see. Therefore the first pictures will be simpler, than I'll try and go into more complecated images. Don't take the last picture seriously. Everybody has dreams :)

Diet project specified. Week Zero

I previously described how I will be going on a diet. I took a picture this week (monday) which shows an initial evidence for where I start my diet from.

Every monday I will be posting a new picture to track my progress. My goal is minimum 1kg minus by each monday. With this progress by the February (15th) I aim to be 82.8kgs or below.  There are many factors which contribute to my weight loss. I've done it before and learnt what mistakes I did. As a bodybuilder we can't go ahead and not eat for weight loss. There is a smart way to do it and this is to avoid the catabolism of muscles yet getting rid of the fat. From now on I will be posting on my blog about food and traning as well.

The food part will include what to eat, why to eat (based on my own diet) and how to make it?
The training bit will include videos and comments on form, number of sets and the weight chosen during diet.

As far as the service goes I've been helping David and Francesco during lunchtimes with training questions. I will be reflective on their progress as well as on my own. Their aim (strength gain) might differ from mine (weight loss).

I'm also happy to issue articles to the school newspaper which include tipps for a helthy lifestyle. What to do, what not to do and why?

Lunchtime coaching is therefore direct trainig advice which i can reflect on, yet sharing knowledge in form of articles also contribute to service since "If you are good at something, never do it for free". In this case I will be just glad to share what I learn and read ever since I got into fitness.

As part of creativity I'll try and cook something that taste good and everyone else can easily prepare to follow healthy diet.

Diet

Its been a long time since I posted on my Blog. It was Winter holidays and have to be honest I wasn't even nearby internet, however now that I'm here I'll try and flood my blog with posts I missed out. My first thing was to go back in the Gym, but with a different workout program. So far I went 4 days in a row (legs, shoulders, back, chest) and then 1 day off completely. However I'm starting my diet. Less food, less energy for weights, therefore every second day is going to be a cardio (legs, running, shoulders, swimming and it goes on) This way I burn more calories weekly and have more time to recover from lifting weights, yet I attend the gym every day still. My goal is to go down to 82kgs in a month, so by the Fridays holidays (16th) I should be around 82-3kgs. Right now I'm over 86. Tomorrow I'm going to weight in, take a picture and then every now and then (probably weekly) I'll make an update along with workout videos which I plan to post on youtube to I help out people who might have issues regarding planned workouts. There are going to be hypertrophy workouts as well as strength workouts. Unfortunately my knee gave up a several weeks ago so I will have to go light on leg days. I've been to the doctor but all he could say is that I'm still growing and my kneecap hasn't developed propely. I shouldn't be training legs at all, but I dont want to miss it. Since i do more cardio (which is also hard on my knees) I might skip heavy leg training every second time, but I'll se how much it hurts. I'll have my pictures and videos up soon.