Day #3

8:00am Update:

Got up this morning at 4:30am and hit the gym at about 5. I normally go to the gym that is 1 minute from my house, but because I wanted to work legs this morning I drove a little further down the road to the Prattville gym.  The gym near my house has a Smith Machine (bar on a track) but no free bar, and no rack for squats like the Prattville gym has. Up until last week I have pretty much always done squats with the Smith Machine, but after reading more I've become convinced that I should transition over to a free bar. The free bar forces much more core and lower back work, so I'll get much more out of my squats this way. Like many guys, I never really worked legs very hard. Only within the last year can I say that I've actually consistently hit a leg workout...before I'd always find an excuse, or just do a really light workout which probably didn't benefit me much. I am starting to put a little more effort into legs now so I'm excited to see if can make some progress with my workouts.

After my 10g of BCAAs, here is what I did this morning:

Squats (free weights)
Warm up - 135lbs - 6 reps
225lbs - 12 reps
245lbs - 10 reps
275lbs - 8 reps
295lbs - 8 reps


Deep Front Squats (free weights)
135lbs - 12 reps
135lbs - 10 reps
135lbs - 12 reps
145lbs - 10 reps


Plyo Jumps (height is estimated)
32 inches - 6 reps
36 inches- 6 reps
40 inches - 6 reps


Seated Calf Raises (slow w/ full range of motion)
90lbs - 10 reps
90lbs - 10 reps
90lbs - 9 reps


Overhead Dumbbell Shoulder Press (slow)
45lbs - 12 reps
55lbs - 11 reps
60lbs - 8 reps

Took 10g BCAAs at 7am, and will take 10g more at 9am. I'm hungry, but not uncomfortable. Looking forward to lunch already :)

1:00pm Update:

Banana, protein shake, foot-long turkey and ham from Subway, and some yogurt. Decent lunch, but that is 3 days in a row now I've gone to Subway for lunch...I think I'll pack my lunch for the next two days. Also, I am probably going to try to work out just before lunch Thursday and Friday. We'll see how that goes since I'm also planning on doing a Corezone workout with some friends tomorrow morning at 5:30am.

4:00pm Update:

Eating my 2nd meal of the day, and took a time out to read up a little more on fasted training and BCAAs. I just found out that I have an hour gap in my plan to stimulate protein synthesis...from 11am to 12pm. On days when I train (lift weights), I take BCAAs at 5am, 7am and 9am, and then I eat at 12pm. Berkhan (who as of right now I'm inclined to believe is a genius) recommends BCAA supplementation every other hour when training during the fasted state. Furthermore, protein synthesis begins to climb in the 3-4 hour window after exercise...so it is especially important to not have a gap in there if I want to ensure I provide my muscles with a plenty of amino acids. So...looks like I'll be changing up my BCAA supplementation to the following: 5am (pre-workout), 6am (post-workout), 8am and 10am.

I know that the true test of the science is in the results...but the more I read about this stuff the more it makes sense. Is it conventional? Absolutely not...but people used to think the world was flat too.