Do More, Suck Less

Worked out with Ryan and Zack again tonight – finally making some solid progress with low bar squats (185).  Gotta get the ASS out on the way down and ATM (ass-to-mouth) ratio constant on the way up.  Breathing is everything – so is intensity.  Deadlifts are looking better – sticking at 215 until form gets better.  Press is solid at 95.  Going for 100 next time.

I curiously wandered into a GNC this afternoon to peruse the hard-gainer section.  Lo and behold I walked out with a middle-of-the-road temporary solution.  Just going to try this for a few weeks – two servings a day on top of my already beastly meals.

PS.  I know this is FAR from paleo… get over it.  I’m sick of weighing low 150s while I kill it in the gym.  GOMAD is too much of a pain in the ass (literally, trust me.)

		Serving Size 1 Heaping scoop Servings Per Container 14 Amount Per Serving % DV Calories 740.00 Calories from Fat 45.00 Total Fat 5.00 g 8% Saturated Fat 3.00 g 15% Trans Fat 0.00 g Cholesterol 110.00 mg 37% Sodium 550.00 23% Total Carbohydrate 123.00 g 41% Dietary Fiber 0.00 g 0% Sugars 20.00 g Protein 50.00 g 0% Calcium 400.00 40% Iron 1.80 10% Vitamin A 0.00 0% Vitamin C 0.00 0% ** Daily Value (DV) not established † Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs: Calories: 2000 2500 Total Fat Less than 65 g 80 g Sat. Fat Less than 20 g 25 g Cholesterol Less than 300 mg 300 mg Sodium Less than 2400 mg 2400 mg Total Carbohydrate 300 g 375 g Dietary Fiber 25 g 30 g Calories per gram: Fat 9• Carbohydrate 4•Protein 4

Other Ingredients: Natural and Artificial Flavor, Medium Chain Triglycerides, Lecithin, Salt, Sucralose, Maltodextrin, Acesulfame Potassium, Mass XXX Protein Blend (Whey Protein Concentrate, Calcium Caseinate, Soy Protein Isolate)

One more gem for you before the weekend:

stolen from this page – with more pics

jared mass gain

Zack and I had a great strength session with Ryan Powell today – learned SO much about heavy lifting form.  From here on out we’ll focus on LOW backsquats, remembering to keep knees out and staying bent over.  The whole movement still feels a little unnatural but I’m sure it’ll click after a few more sessions.  Ryan blew our minds with the toes 2 bar pike kipping movement.  Tough on the hands but allows for some very fast T2B action with just a little more energy output.  All in all a great workout and I look forward to learning more from experienced CrossFitters like Ryan.

jared mass gain

Haven’t updated about my mass-gain program in a while.  Yes I am still lifting HEAVY 3 days a week, and YES, I am still eating like an effing monster.  Up about 12 pounds since foundations!!

Eating about 40 grams of protein – for TIME:

jared mass gain

Monday marks the start of the third week of HEAVY strength training in my garage.  Things are going extremely well.  I’ve deviated from Pmenu quite a lot over the weeks and feel like I have a solid workout routine for each of the 3 days per week.

The eating portion is getting easier.  Pounding 17 blocks per day x5 fat is getting easier – and I’ve been eating a dozen eggs a day.  Here’s a typical batch that lasts me a little over 2 days

jared mass gain, zone / paleo

Well the garage gym is complete.  It took a lot longer than expected but everything is in, installed, and all systems are go.

As you may recall, I’m focusing heavily on strength training for the next 14 weeks.  3-4 workouts per week now involve HEAVY, lower rep sets of weightlifting.  Why spend all this time, money, and effort into this garage gym?  simple – to get STRONG.

Let’s face it – I’ve never been a big guy.  I ran my ass off for the last couple years, ate insulin-shocking carbs all day, and maintained a lean, scrawny build.  Fast forward to starting CrossFit at PCF – 5 solid months of zone/paleo, intense metcon WODs with the occasional “heavy” days.  My body fat and weight dropped like crazy (139 low) – yet I have never looked or felt stronger.  Throwing my bodyweight (and more) over my head is getting easier and I’m still achieving PRs on the regular.

So why replace 3-4 CrossFit WODs per week with strength training if everything is going so well?  Easy – to BULK UP.  like crazy.  Goal is a lean 155lbs.  Going Rx is a big deal, and I’ll never get there unless I learn to lift heavy shit, fast.

My new Do-wins.  You wouldn’t even believe the difference they make when performing Oly lifts.

My stud-bar pullup bar.  Freaking awesome in every way.  Top notch quality, and with GREAT customer support.  The guys there really took care of me – even by cutting and welding a custom bar length for my abnormal 19 1/4 on-center studs in my garage.  Solid as a rock, zero wobble in any direction.

Dip belt for weighted chins, pullups, and L pullups

dry-erase boards from Lowes.  Inexpensive way to convert an entire wall into a dry-erase board.

new bumper plates.  Now I have pairs of 10, 25, 45.  Also have some smaller iron ones for smaller weight increments.  Also got a huge 20″ industrial fan to keep cool.  Chalk bucket doubles as ipod speaker stand.

Squat rack setup

Not pictured is my weight bench for doing bench presses.  I also have a laptop with a video camera set up to record my Oly lifts.  Reviewing video footage of Oly lifts helps immensely to spot incorrect form.

So that’s it – stay tuned for more SBWTBH mass-gain progress

jared mass gain

yup, so it begins.

My SBWTBH garage gym is siiiiiick – will post pics & video of everything soon.

jared mass gain

So I was all set to start but ran into a logistics problem with equipment in my garage.  Everything should be in this week so the delay will be minimal.  I’ll still keep the PCF WODs low rep, high weight until then, staying at 16 blocks @ 1x fat.  Just to clarify a few things people have been asking me:

One full cycle is 7 weeks (3 worksheets in the XLS)
hypertrophy microcycle x 3
hypertrophy unload
strength microcycle x 2
strength unload

I talked to a few people about this program, and everyone seems to agree it is a great strength and mass builder.  The only problem is that there is little to no metcon built in – so my times in named crossfit WODs will most likely get slower.  Looking through the program, most exercises are carried out in 6-10 reps.  When it comes time to crank out more reps than that in an actual WOD, I may end up with slower times. Seeing as how strength is my lowest common denominator, a temporary dip in times is a risk I’m willing to take.  I’ll still do PCF metcon WODs on the regular to keep up the endurance.

In other news, I never knew what 1RM weighted pull-up was… found out it was 50lbs.  That’s over a 1/3 of my body weight, pretty cool for not ever practicing it.  I’m sure I can 1/2 it in no time.  Pretty excited to show off my garage gym.  I’ll post a video with invetory list as soon as the last pieces come in.

jared mass gain

10 pounds of lean muscle mass in 12 weeks – that’s the goal. Monday will kick off my Skinny But Want To Be Heyuge (SBWTBH) program.  After weeks of extensive research, I’ve finally picked a mass gaining routine layed out by Robb Wolf and Greg Everett.  It’s called MASS!  A Complete Training and Nutrition Program For Gaining Functional Muscle Mass.  The program is broken into 4 week hypertrophy mesocycles – 3 week hypertrophy microcycles followed by a 1 week unloading microcycle.

I got a new scale this week to prepare and was shocked to find out I was back down to 141 lbs.  I’ve never been stronger or leaner, but I’m never going to reach firebreather status without some serious gains.  My goal is to recap weekly progress every Sunday night and lay out the plan for the next week.  I’ve attached a copy of the template I’m using in case anyone else is interested.

2190295-mass-gain-template

jared mass gain