What’s the saying the plumber’s toilet never works, or the cobbler’s kids have no shoes. I guess the Web designer’s website is never updated. I’ve just had a crap ton of stuff going on lately. I do have some ideas and a new layout that I want to try. Maybe in the next few weeks I might have some time to get to them.

10 minutes of jump rope to warm up

Descending bench press on the Smith machine. This one is kind of hard to explain, but basically I start out setting the pins rather high so that I’m only doing a few inches of push with the bar. Then for each set I add weight and lower the pins a little more.
160×12 high pins, 180×10 mid pins, 205×6 low pins, 205×1 lowest, 180×3x2 lowest pins

Chin ups 8,7,6,5

Dips 8,7,6,5

Bent over row
65×10wu, 95×10, 115×8, 125×5

Decline bench
barx10wu, 135×10, 155×8, 165×6x2

Hanging leg raise 20, 15, 12 superset with
Standing cable crunch 20, 15, 12

A blender, probably obvious but I have both a large one and the small single serving kind. Also the whisk ball shaker is a favorite of mine.

Frozen banana slices, slice up some bananas and keep then in a baggie in the freezer. Toss a few in the blender with the whey and some milk. Much better than ice in my opinion. Thickens and adds good flavor.

Apple Pie spice, this one is a great quick and cheap flavoring to add to vanilla whey, either blended or just in the shaker. Really takes away the bitterness of the Creatine, Carnitine, and BCAA.

Splenda and cinnamon, another good mix of to have on hand. Mix some of each in a small spice shaker for a quick dash of flavor.

Frozen berries, these are great to add when you are mixing up a breakfast smoothie. Depending on the berry mix it can get seedy though.

I’m sure I have some other protein smoothie ides on this blog somewhere too. Feel free to add any more ideas or recipes. I’m always looking for more.

Muscle Meatloaf

2 lbs ground meat (either turkey or quality beef, I prefer 93/7 beef)
4 whole eggs (I don’t separate whites, but you can do 2/2 if you want)
2 cups old fashioned oat meal
2 Tbsp BBQ sauce (I use Famous Daves Rich and Sassy)

Throw in various spices to taste. I don’t measure these so feel free to adjust or replace and mix and match as you want. These are some common ones in order from most to least that I use:
Cookies Seasoning or Old Bay Seasoning
Chili powder
Mrs Dash
Oregeno
Black Pepper

I don’t use ketchup because it’s so high in sugar and carbs, plus the little bit of BBQ sauce and spices add enough flavor. Sometimes I will put some hot sauce on the top before cooking.

Mix it all together and put in olive oiled meat loaf or other such baking pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 90 minutes. Remove from oven let cool and cut into servings and put in storage containers. I can usually get 5-6 meals if I cut it right.

Honestly I don’t know the detailed nutritional info on this, I have just tried to keep the protein high, fat and carbs reasonable, and sugar low.

My head was still hurting, but not too bad. Wednesday and Thursday I felt pretty good so last night I was going to try again and get a normal workout, maybe a little lighter, depending on how it went. But sure enough as soon and I got in to some reps, terrible pain in my head. I was pissed. So I just went back home and let it all calm down.

Today I have a doctor’s appointment so we’ll see if anything is wrong or what. Since I don’t get headaches people keep telling me I need to get it checked out and not just “wait it out”. I really have no idea what it could be. I hope it’s nothing. I want to get back in to the gym, because other than work and my kids, I don’t really have anything else do to.

The YMCA has an older but decent free weight room, they also have the usual cardio machines, bikes, treadmills, etc, and also a room of some Cybex brand single function exercise machines. But other than ride one of the bikes once a week, I spend my workouts in the weight room. For the past few months I have had good luck and enjoy doing a “Reg Park style” workout. I found the original workout on T-Nation in an article by Mike Mahler. At first I was pretty strict with the workout but I’ve added and modified a couple things. It’s basically a full body workout similar to what I was doing with my home workouts, but I can utilize some heavier weights and better equipment. At the core of the workout are the big basic, compound exercises, squat, dead lift, and bench press. I really don’t like to mess too much with isolation exercises.

There are 3 workouts to this and I try and get 1-2 days between for recovery, the first exercise is the back extension, a strong lower back is crucial to being able to do the big compound exercises properly. I really try to be strict with form and follow a 5×5 and 5×8 and gradually add weight over time. I don’t really use a lot of weight, yet anyway, I’m working on increasing slowly over time. The pattern I do is 5×5 one week, 5×8 next week, then back to 5×5 and adding 10lbs. So far I have noticed some good gains in size, strength, and endurance from this workout. Although after 6-8 weeks on this I will make some adjustments so as not to get into a rut and stagnate and many people do when the do the same workouts all the time.

Reg Park Workout Day 1

1. Back extension 3×10 +40lbs dumbell
2. Bench press 5×5 @ 155lbs
3. Barbell bent over row 5×5 @ 115lbs
4. Power clean and press 5×5 @ 105lbs
5. Squat 5×5 @ 95, 105, 115, 125, 135lbs (my squat form has been terrible – my hip flexors are weak – so I decided to go light and really try to stick the full range and get my legs parallel or below before I try to use much weight)
6. Barbell curls 5×5 @ 85lbs
7. Dips 5×8
8. Hammer curls 5×5 @ 40lbs dumbells
9. Calf raises 3×12 @ 200lbs
10. Hanging ab crunch 3×20

I will follow up in a couple days with the Day 2 workout.

More than likely I will focus on my workouts, fitness, MMA, food, and things like that. Oh and I’m sure I’ll also ramble on about relationships and Web stuff too. I’ll make my self post about my workout later tonight. Now I have to or I’ll look like more of a jerk than I already am. Ha.