My training log

[Peter Som]

Eatin' bacon and all that!

[Dave1066]

First of all were from two different countries. A rasher of bacon in the UK and portions of food is generally a hell of a lot smaller than in the USA.

No I'm not trying to gain mass. Which is why I only had one rasher of bacon. And even if I did have two rashers. There is no way from one meal. You are going to gain mass. Unless..(explained below).I grilled the bacon aswell. And actually that meal minus a normal leaf salad, brown sauce, and vinegar is recommended by Jack Dempsey... As a dinner time meal. Vinegar and brown sauce have no fat...Nor does cucumber or tomato. Bread and semi skimmed milk has very little fat. So actually its quite healthy! When you brake the meal down.

Thanks for your concern, but I do know what i'm doing..
Its not as simple as, do this exercise+ eat this = mass. That is a common misconception in the public sector..By have a go Henry's PT instructors and dietitians, who haven't had proper training and education. Just go look at your local fitness rag or on the internet. Look at the advertisements, and look for how many have recieved any form of education or training. But it worked for them right? So it should work for everybody? No is the answer to that. I sat through 3 hour lectures in her royal majesties armed services. Having served in one of her Infantry battalions. And taking part in sports. In the lectures, they go into body types, metabolism, food, exercise, exercise intensity, exercise regularity, supplementation, and life style. Then you put it into practice, so your in no dout about what you have been taught.

All of the previouly mentioned must be taken into consideration. When working out what to eat, and when. If you want to gain mass and gain mass quickly. With high intensity exercise,high intensity life style, with a fast metabolism, and Ectomorph body type. You would need to consume close to 5000 calories a day. That goes pretty well for a Mesomorph body type aswell. A Mesomorph could get away with eatting less in the same day to day conditions. The three main different body types are Ectomorph, Mesomorph, Endomorph. Those three body types are a good indicator on how fast your metabolism is or isn't. If your an Endomorph, then yes you should be very careful of what you eat. As Endomorphs gain weight very easily, but find it very hard to loose weight.

Now by controlling your muscle/weight gain or loss through diet is much better than supplementation. Because the stomach and the intestines have evolved to digest the food we normally eat over a very very long time. Bodies find it harder to digest supplements. As its not in a natural form. A good example being the history of Creatine throughout the years.

So I do a lot of conditioning, and at the intensity and regularity I do it. Plus I do a physical job. One rasher of bacon is not going to harm! I'd be surprised if a Endomorph would gain weight from one rasher of bacon after working out and with my day to day activities...

[Dave1066]

Well been out and did another 5 milers today. My times keep getting quicker and quicker. Took 36 minutes today. Sweat a good un. The first 1 1/2 miles I found pretty easy going. Though at times I feel I could of jogged faster, so I picked the pace up. At times the pace is just naturally fast. But that is usually when I am focusing on technique rather than speed. Must get my Heart rate monitor watch working again. To make sure I am working my heart in the right beats per minute zone for the performace gain and goals I have. It also maximises and economises your work out time, by making sure your heart is in the correct zone for the targeted performance gain you want.
For instance if you jogged to slow, and your heart rate dropped. Then your wasting effort and potential performance gain, you are not fully economising your time and effort. Your just going through the motions. Its a great bit of kit for achieving performance goals quicker, especially if you train a loan. As it can be a great motivator, with an audio beep if your heart rate is dropping to low.

Anyway came in semi skimmed milk drunk, healthy meal, and a herbal tea. To help my body rebuild its self.

[Dave1066]

Well earlier today, did the normal exercise. Couple times around the circuit, then boxing up to the hour. worked up a good sweat during the circuit training. Today in the boxing time. I concentrated on technique. After watching a lot of boxing of boxing last night. And have read some of Dempseys book. To refresh my mind. At times I would of course pick the speed up. And other times I would go for maximum strenght power punches. For good measure I mixed it all up with the speed ball.

[Dave1066]

Well I have just taken my stats again. Since starting my fitness regime in December. When I was 166.6 LBS, I'm now 171.51 LBS. Have put on 4.91 LBS in muscle. Good result! The result I'm aiming for at the moment is 175 LBS. Then I'm going to get ripped.

I have today spoken with the head coach at the boxing gym I attend. About my next steps and the future. Talked about the boxers I'm a fan of. The boxers who I want to include in my style as much as possible. Talked about my progression in the future, level of attendance ect. All sounds very positive.

I managed to get my heart rate monitor watch working again. So looking forward to the run tomorrow.

[Dave1066]

Hi well been out and done the 5 miler today, with my heart rate monitor watch. I put in a time of 34 minutes and 47 seconds. Which brakes my old 5 mile record. Although I am starting to dout if it is actually 5 miles. So i may measure it.

My average beats per minute over the jog was 110bpm.
I stayed in my bpm target zone 57% of the time. That zone was from 150bpm-175bpm.

Finished exercising, stretched, glass of semi skinned milk, and a healthy bowl of soup..

[Dave1066]

Well today I added two knew exercises to my circuit training routine. I added one armed push ups. I noticed Chris Eubank Snr doing them in a video...Thought I'd try them. Liked them, they work slightly different muscles to the other push up exercises I do. One armed push ups are also tougher. I also added hanging knee raises.

I do 6 reps one arm push ups per arm. I do 10 hanging knee raises. I added them on to the end of my exsisting routine.

In todays circuit. I warmed up with two minutes skipping. I did two sets of each exercise. Because of the two new exercises this added some time. It took me 30 minutes and 20 seconds. My average heart rate through out the whole time was 162bpm. I stayed in my target zone of 150-175bpm 83% of the time.

After that I took the heart rate monitor off. And continued with boxing. I did this for 23 minutes. So 6 minutes shy of a full hours work out. I started off with a 2 minute round of shadow boxing to practice foot work, speed, and to warm up. I then did roughly 2 minutes on the speed ball. Then a rest roughly 30 seconds, then heavy bag. Practicing the falling step and medium and long range punches. Then speed ball for 2 minutes. Then 20 fast jabs rest, 20 fast hooks, rest, 20 fast shovel hooks, rest, 20 fast upper cuts, rest. Then speed ball, rest. Then combo power punches on heavy bag, using all my strenght for 2 minutes. Then speed ball. Then practicing fast 1-2 and 1-2-1, moving around using foot work.

Then warm down stretches, glass of semi skimmed milk, then baked beans on toast.

I have noticed a couple of advantages of using bag gloves for bag work. It is true, what the old boxing champs and coaches say about them. After a good session on the bags. You can feel the skin and muscles around your knuckles aching. I only lightly wrap around my knuckles. I mainly concentrate on my wrists. The skin on my knuckles is definitely toughening up. Compared to when I have used my sparring gloves. Where you don't get the same effects or advantages. But obviously sparring general purpose training gloves have other advantages. The other main reason I'm using bag gloves is to develope speed as well.