I'm Back

I pretty much stopped blogging on here for an extremely long time because I didn't think anyone was looking and I didn't think anyone really cared. Since my last blog there has been quite a few things that have changed with my diet, exercise routine, weight, etc.

One of the most recent changes was my drop in weight, For the entire year of 2005 I worked hard to go from 133lbs to 190lbs and to maintain that weight level, well life has it's ways of throwing you curve balls and everything fell off. After two months of not working out, eating, etc. my weight dropped to 170lbs and it sucked. Well, a few weeks ago I put my diet back in order and put my exercise routine back in order and I am up to about 182lbs.

There are a few things I need to say about the recent attention I have been getting from various newspapers that can help explain the changes I have made in my diet and my training. In the article by the NY Times it was written that from reading other blogs and support groups that I learned to gain weight, not entirely true. Also, it was written that I am an "internet bodybuilding guru" also not true (But it does make me laugh everytime I think about that). I used alot of books, online resources, etc. to learn the ins-and-outs of bodybuilding, but that stuff does not work for everyone. Everything I have accomplished for myself is through trial and error. I try stuff out for a few months, look at the results and decide if I liked the results, if I did or didn't I had everything logged in a notebook for future reference to show me what worked. So I guess in short, if you have come here for the answers, I don't have them and I am not a huge source of knowledge, all I can offer anyone is the knowledge of my experiences and it is up to you to decide if it will work for you.

Now to the changes. I have been trying to bulk for the past year and as mentioned before I lost 20lbs of the weight I had put on. Now that I have started back I had a different angle to approaching my weight gain. I kept a significant portion of my weight but I had dropped some muscle and a good amount of fat (fat gain is inevitable during bulking phases no matter how much you exercise, just comes with the territory). So I am starting out with a lower body fat percentage than I had 4 months ago, this gives me the opportunity to try out a new diet and a new workout routine. As of right now my diet consists of about 15% fats, 40% protein, 45% carbs with around a total caloric intake of between 4500 to 5500 calories. I wanted to see if I can build muscle and burn fat at the same time. Now everywhere you go you will hear that you can't do both, and for the most part I agree. I understand that my weight gains are not going to be as dramatic as they once were, but I figure I have never tried this before so why not give it a shot and see what happens.

My training has changed up a bit also, I am not sure what my routine was like during my last post, it was either me lifting 6 days a week or 4 days, not sure, with no cardio. Well, now I am doing 4 days a week with the following split:
Monday: Back, Bis
Tuesday: Chest, Tris
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Legs, heavy abs
Friday: Light shoulders, heavy traps
I have a few friends that hate the idea of this split because shoulders should be done on chest and tri day and traps should be done on back and bi days, well I just feel like I get more from my split then the one my friends and others recommend.
One thing to note, I am not training for strength, I am training for size and symmetry, so anyone reading this must understand that I don't care if I can lift a car as long as it looks like I can :)

Well since I have started this new diet and routine, I have gained 10lbs and the fat has started to melt off of me. The abs are looking shredded, the veins are sticking out everywhere and the striations in my shoulder, pecs, and everywhere else are starting to show.

I hope everyone enjoys the future posts, I should be back on tonight, I had a somewhat strange week so my workout split is a little off and tonight I will be doing back, bis, traps and legs tomorrow but I will try to post either tonight or tomorrow morning the exercises and weight used tonight. Have fun guys and remember to eat hard, sleep hard and train hard.