I woke up today and was very excited because I got to go back to the gym and I was able to GET BACK TO LIFTING!  It felt great.  What was strange was the workout scheme.  I was doing 6 sets of 4 reps (that was the goal).  It was tough to figure out the right weights.  I also had to be careful because there was nobody around to spot me.  I had a good workout. Here is the log.

Workout Log - Hypertrophy III - Workout A:

These are supersets with 60 seconds rest.  The blue line breaks up the two superset combinations.

Exercise	Weight x Reps
Bent over BB rows	145 x 4 165 x 4 165 x 4 165 x 4 165 x 4 165 x 4
Incline BB Bench Press	145 x 4 155 x 4 165 x 4 165 x 4 165 x 4 165 x 4
BB Push Press	115 x 4 125 x 4 135 x 4 145 x 4 145 x 4 145 x 4
Mixed grip chin up	(40) 4  (40) 4  (40) 4  (40) 4  (40) 4  (40) 4

One of the reasons I've stuck with the New Rules of Lifting is that it is continually changing the volume and intensity of the workouts.  For instance, there are days in here where I will do this exact workout, but with less sets, more reps and less rest.  There are other days where I do this workout with an additional superset combination, less sets and more reps with less rest.  The continual variations keep your muscles guessing and it is why I continue to progress—I avoid that adaptation issue.

Today was my first day back on the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle nutrition program.  It was hard to eat the calories that I needed to hit because I've been so low for so long (36 days).  What was really weird was the oatmeal.  With Metabolic Surge I've been limiting my oatmeal to about 15 grams prior to my workout (mixed into my workout shake).  Today I was able to have oatmeal with my first three meals and it felt pretty weird.    I had the hardest time choking down all that food.  I will get used to it over time, but it was definitely a difficult thing to do today.  One thing I learned from Metabolic Surge is the importance of the fibrous carb.  I used that for the final 3 meals of the day today.

I managed to crank out 43 push ups today.  You can see it here Push up challenge: Week 5 test video.  At first I was a little disappointed that I didn't hit 45, but I realized that progress comes in small pieces and I've made progress each and every week since this challenge began, so who am I to complain?

I've been working on the Max-OT lifting program today.  I spent some time looking over how to group the exercises and I've reviewed a spreadsheet Mike Groom sent over to me (thanks, Mike).  It was an interesting review and I plan to utilize this program in the future.  I've got the person I'm training lifting heavy, with varying sets of 4-6 reps.  At first it was hard, but they got the hang of it and now they even push to get past 6 when possible.  It is fun to watch the progress.

Accountability Log:

	Mission 1:  Day 33 of 40	Accountability
	Meal/Training Plan:  Real-time accountability	Each task completed?
	Day 94: January 27, 2008	Yes or No
5:00 a.m.	Meal 1:  Protein shake and oatmeal and 3 glasses of water	Yes
5:00 a.m.	Supplements:  Animal Pak, Glucosamine Chondroiten, calcium, chromium, glutamine, BCAAs	Yes
5:30 a.m.	Workout: Lifting, abs and 6 glasses of water	Yes
6:30 a.m.	Supplements: Protein shake, BCAAs, glutamine	Yes
8:00 a.m.	Meal 2:  Chicken breast, oatmeal and large salad and 3 glasses of water	Yes
11:00 a.m.	Meal 3:  Chicken breast, oatmeal and cucumber and 3 glasses of water	Yes
2:00 p.m.	Meal 4:  Chicken breast and large salad and 3 glasses of water	Yes
3:00 p.m.	Workout:  Steady State Cardio, bike, 30 minutes	Yes
5:00 p.m.	Meal 5: Chicken breast, cashews and large salad and 3 glasses of water	Yes
8:30 p.m.	Supplements:  Casein protein shake, glutamine, calcium and 3 glasses of water	Yes
	Accountability Areas:	Points	Possible
	Meal 1	1	1
	Meal 2	1	1
	Meal 3	1	1
	Meal 4	1	1
	Meal 5	1	1
	Training	1	1
	Post Workout Nutrition	1	1
	Water	1	1
	Pre-sleep nutrition	1	1
	Accountability	1	1
	Daily Totals:	10	10
	Mission Totals:	316	320
	Workout Log:
	Bent over BB Rows	145 x 4; 165 x 4; 165 x 4; 165 x 4; 165 x 4; 165 x 4
	Incline BB Bench Press	145 x 4; 155 x 4; 165 x 4; 165 x 4; 165 x 4; 165 x 4
	BB push press	115 x 4; 125 x 4; 135 x 4; 145 x 4; 145 x 4; 145 x 4
	Mixed grip chin up	(40) x 4 x 6
	Steady state cardio (bike)	30 minutes
	FYA Abs training	10 minutes
	Push up challenge test	43 push ups

I am going to carefully monitor my progress this week as I am concerned about the increased calories.  I will be cycling the carbs and the calories on a 3 day low, 1 day high cycle.  3 of those cycles and I get a cheat meal.  I'm going to be publishing an article in the next few days regarding what I've learned about carb cycling.

Until tomorrow...do like me...GET BACK TO LIFTING!