.:: An exploration of exercise plans, weight loss and better workouts. ::.

I take the hot rox first thing in the morning after I wake up.  Then I usually go take my morning crap and take my various measurements (weigh myself on the bf scale, take bf readings using my calipers, measure my waist, record that all in a spreadsheet).  Then I’ll have my first shake of the day (so I’m not eating anything at least 20 minutes after I have that hot rox — seems to work best that way).  I typically have 6 protein shakes a day and a serving of surge on days that I work out.  The shakes have 1-2 scoops of protein (I get 7 total scoops of protein on days that I workout — plus the surge — and I get 8 total scoops of protein on days that I don’t work out) and 0-1 tablespoons of ground up flax seed (I get 5 tablespoons of flax per day).  I also have 1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter per day.

 

The ZMA and 2 caps of fish oil I take right before bed.  The second serving of hot rox I take around 4 pm (I typically am done with my 3rd shake of the day around 3:30, and I have my 4th shake around 6 pm, so I’m hoping my stomach is mostly empty for that second hot rox serving).  The Greens+ I take with my morning shake, and the other supplements that I haven’t already mentioned, I take after i have that morning shake.  Oh, and the BCAAs I kind of take sporadically; I always try to take some before and after workouts or before and after walks, and I sometimes take them whenever I feel hungry (because I figure that’s a signal to my body that it needs some nutrients, and this is the best I’m going to give it ).

 

Your protein amounts will differ (Shugart’s first article has a calorie formula based on weight which seems to work pretty well for me and others).  
 

As far as workout routines, Shugart had a good one if you don’t really want to think about it — basically something that’s hypertrophy/strength based (you want to make sure your body has a reason to hold on to it muscle).  He basically does 10 sets of 3 of some big upperbody movement (dips, bench press etc.) and 10 sets of 3 of some big lower body movement (deadlifts, squats, etc.) and then some higher rep work on arms, abs, etc.  I’m doing something somewhat similar; every day, I do some pressing variation (bench, dips, or military press, etc.), some deadlift variation (clean, deadlift, sumo deadlift, etc.), some squatting variation (overhead squat, backsquat, front squat, etc.), and some back variation (bentover rows, pullups, chinups).  And every day i have a different set/rep style (1 day I’ll do 8×3 on the exercises I’ve selected, one day I’ll do 2×12, one day I’ll do 3×8, one day I’ll do 6×4).  Seems to work well for me.  Depending on how I feel at the end of that, I’ll sometimes do some specific arm or ab work (I’m probably one of the few people who doesn’t do enough arm work, so I’ve been trying to work on that).  This is the sort of routine I typically follow anyway, and it’s been working well (although it’s tough — 8x3x240 on squats last week was *brutal* — but getting through it felt great). 

 

I think the HotRox helps in maintaining muscle mass, but if it makes you feel that bad, I definitely wouldn’t take it (it, along with spike, are the only biotest supplements that merit warnings — they’re no joke).  You can experiment with a half dose (say, 1 pill per day, rather than the starting dose of 2 pills per day, compared to the max dose of 4 pills per day).  I definitely feel like it helps, but even without it, I think there’s also benefit in the low carb.calorie aspect, the carb ups during the workouts (via the surge), and the intense workouts (focus on strength based hypertrophy).  Especially in terms of altering life long term life behaviors and getting rid of that ab fat, which just isn’t good for you (that also may have a good effect on your blood pressure).

 

This is Shugart’s first article:

 

This is his followup:

 

This is the updated article with the Danny John recap: (the body fat changes are good there, but it’s the removal of ab fat/cleaning up of bloodwork that’s really exciting)

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=06-165-diet
 

This is Shugart’s blog as he writes his velocity diet book:

 

And this is the Danny John thread which he updated as he did the whole thing.  I think the Dan John experience might be of most benefit to you, because this is a really big, really strong guy, big thrower, olympic lift fan, etc, so to a certain degree, he’s much more like you than I am. 

 

Tons of good info there.  One of the big things on this diet is to plan things before hand (how many shakes you’re going to drink, when you’re going to drink them, how much flax you’re going to eat, etc.) — it just makes things so much easier, and makes it that much harder to fail.