84 Days of Glorious PAIN

Day 65 - Let the Dynamic Transformation begin!

2011-11-02T21:01:00.000+10:00

Day 64 - To My Dearest Followers

2011-10-31T21:42:00.000+10:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything in over a month, I have been super busy socially and between that and gymming and eating (and sleeping) I don't have a lot of time to just kick back let alone do a blog.

So I've been doing some thinking and I'm going to video blog from now on.. No typing, no thinking, just saying what I'm feeling and telling you whats up. This will hopefully make it easier for me and beneficial for you.

For those who are wondering, even though I have missed a mess of blogs, I am yet to miss a meal, workout or cardio session and have recently tipped the scales at 113.4kg (almost 16kg down from my starting weight).

I'll explain some of the set backs I faced in future rest day posts.

This week is the start of week 10, which means the start of phase 3, which means the start of DTP. If you are not aware what DTP training is, read this then prepare to vomit. And if you have a few spare minutes watch this:

and this

...Then vomit

First DTP workout starts tomorrow which chest and back, talk to you then! (if I'm still alive!)

Day 38 - Phase 2, Chest and Tris

2011-10-05T21:33:00.000+10:00

Training days are the best days of the week. If find it a lot easier to persevere through the exhaustion at work when I know I'm going home to get ready to hit the gym.

Didn't have a great start to the day. I ran out of oats! I thought I had 2 or 3 bags left but it turns out I didn't. Then he boss had a go at me today for 'being late to work.' Apparently my start times for the last 6 years have not been correct which means I have to leave home earlier to get to work which also mean I have to wake up earlier (then 5am) to get my cardio done. In fairness, I have been genuinely late a few times lately, mainly from simple things like not being able to find my wallet and/or keys or leaving my laptop at home. So I have to pick up my game.

Chest and tris today, phase 2 style! Lots of sets, lots of weight, lots of grunting haha.

Started with decline DB press. Worked my way up to 30kg during my warm ups but by the time I'd got there, someone decided to take the 30kg dumbbells and hold on to them while resting. Instead of waiting I thought “bugger it” and grabbed the 32.5s. Only just got to 10 reps, so in the end it was probably a better choice.

Straight arm pull overs next. Thought I'd try the “bench across the shoulders” method opposed to just lying on the bench. It worked out alright and I surprised myself with how much weight I could use.

Incline DB press was the last chest move and by that time, my chest was fried! Had to really dig deep to get my reps out and really had to concentrate to keep good form.

First of the triceps moves was bench dips. These thing are still here to haunt me. I thought they would get easier, only doing 10 reps but I was wrong! Had to rest-pause to get the reps put on the last 2 sets.

We moved on to overhead cable extensions and once again, I thought I would smash the weight but I was truly rooted by this time. And after looking back, we were supposed to do triceps push-downs, not overhead extentions. My bad.

Last move of the night was one-arm DB extensions. I went super light on this and still failed before 10 reps. I was well and truly spent by this time.

All up, we took an hour and 10 mins. Which is alright for 2 people and 24 sets. I felt we went just about as fast as we could go and got the job done pretty well.

Can't wait for bed tonight then a 4:45am rise to hit some cardio and abs. Until then...

AM Cardio – 25mins Brisk Walk

Meal 1 – CNP Pro MR (multi-vitamin, Green tea, L-Carnitine, Yohimbe)

Meal 2 – 180g tin of tuna, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 3 - 180g tin of tuna, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 4 – 180g tin of tuna, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 5 – 200g chicken breast with garlic

Meal 6 – Post-workout shake

Meal 7 – Casein Shake

Pre-workout: DY NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, Green tea, L-Carnitine, Yohimbe)

Decline DB Bench Press

10 reps of 32.5kg

10 reps of 30kg

10 reps of 27.5kg

Straight Arm Pull Overs

12 reps of 17.5kg

10 reps of 22.5kg

10 reps of 25kg

Incline DB Bench Press

10 reps of 20kg

10 reps of 17.5kg

Bench Dips

10 reps with body weight

8+2 reps with body weight (rest-pause)

6+2+2 reps with body weight (rest-pause)

Over Head Cable Extensions

10 reps of 2 plates

10 reps of 2.5 plates

10 reps of 2.75 plates

10 reps of 2.25 plates

One-Arm Overhead Extensions

10 reps with 5kg

10 reps with 5kg (forced reps)

Post-workout Shake: 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g of dextrose, 5g of creatine, 10g of glutamine

Day 37 - Rest That Back

2011-10-04T21:28:00.000+10:00

My back!

Man, I have never felt my back like this before, I blame the dead lifts. My lower back is fried. This probably the most I've felt a workout the next day since I started this program, which is great!

Didn't do much worth talking about today (except catch up on 4 blog posts haha), which I apologise if you were hanging out for them. I am just so tired lately and doing anything but sleeping and sitting around seems like a chore. Not to worry though, I'll try my best to stay on top of the for the remainder. Should see a lot of change in this phase which is exciting, so I should have a lot to talk about and hopefully keep you interested.

Anyway, best hit the sack now. Chest and triceps tomorrow. Pumped to see what type of weight I can hit on the bench press. Until then...

-Scott

AM Cardio – 25mins Brisk Walk plus 3 sets of crunches (25 reps)

PM Cardio – 25mins Cross Trainer plus 150 twists

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, Green tea, L-Carnitine, Yohimbe)

Meal 2 – 180g chicken tenderloin, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 3 - 180g chicken tenderloin, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 4 – 2 tuna and brown rice sushi rolls

Meal 5 – 200g round steak with garlic and mushrooms

Meal 6 - 200g round steak with garlic and soy sauce

Meal 7 – Casein shake

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

Day 36 - Phase Two Begins!

2011-10-04T20:52:00.000+10:00

Phase 2 started today!

Can't believe we're in to week 6 already, almost half way.

Jumped on the scales this morning and found myself at 120.1kg, 9kg down from my start weight. The scales aren't a very good indication of my progress but they give you the idea that what I am doing is working. I'm noticing my arms and legs lean up now as well. Starting to see some quad definition and starting to see the classic “biceps vein” when I'm in the gym which is always a good motivator. This phase will see some dramatic difference and the training volume is going up as well as the cardio and the number of reps in going down so we will be lifting heavier. Also, we wont be pre-exhausting the muscle, we'll be going straight into heavy compound lifts, which will be good fun.

I'm going to follow the book exactly in regards to training on this phase. Which involves a lot more sets and therefore will take a lot more time so we'll really have to smash it to get our workout done in under an hour. But more sets means more calories burnt. tonight, we failed at keeping the time down, majorly. Mainly because we didn't know what weight we would lift and Brock had never done a dead lift or a bent over row so I had to give him some pointers on form. We WILL improve on this next week.

So, back and biceps. Started again with my old friend wide grip pull downs. I'm finding it a lot easier to hit my lats with this now. Just gotta go a little lighter and squeeze the weight down.

Then into reverse grip pull downs. This is probably my favourite pull down exercise. You can really feel your mid-lats working and can generally go heavier that the wide grip.

Bent over dumbbell rows are awesome. I've only done them a few times before but they really hit the whole upper back.

On to dead lifts now. Dead lifts have always scared me a little bit because you can really mess yourself up in your form is sloppy. Not that I use poor form, I'm just very aware of what can happen. Managed to hit it pretty hard though which was good. Even got to pull my weight belt out, which hasn't been used for a long time. The book says to used dumbbells but the dumbbell rack at the gym is usually pretty busy so we used a barbell on the power rack instead. Also, we only took the bar down just past our knees, instead of all the way on to the floor to keep the weight on our back and keep it off our glutes and legs.

DB shrugs still feature is phase 2 but only needing 10 reps, I could go a lot heaver. I found it very annoying (and sometimes painful) lugging huge dumbells around so we're going to use the barbell and power rack next week.

Finally on to biceps. By this time an hour and 10 had already past so we were waaay behind schedule. We quickly knocked out 5 sets of barbell curls then moved on to machine preacher curls.

After an hour and 40 mins we were spent. I cant remember the last time I trained for that long, hopefully it will be the last.

Went home for a shake and a quick game of FIFA 12 before a casein shake and bed.

Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow and a relaxing day at work haha. Until then...

- Scott

AM Cardio – 25mins Brisk Walk

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, Green tea, L-Carnitine, Yohimbe)

Meal 2 – 180g chicken tenderloin, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 3 - 2 salmon and brown rice sushi rolls

Meal 4 – 180g chicken tenderloin, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 5 – 1 scoop of whey protien

Meal 6 - post-workout shake

Meal 7 – Casein shake

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

Pre-workout: DY NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, l-carnitine, yohimbe)

Wide Grip Pull Downs

10 reps with 13 plates

10 reps with 12.5 plates

Reverse Grip Pull Downs

10 reps with 13.5 plates

10 reps with 13 plates

10 reps with 12.5 plates

Bent Over DB Rows

10 reps with 15kg

10 reps with 20kg

Dead Lifts

12 reps with 60kg

10 reps with 80kg

10 reps with 90kg

10 reps with 100kg

DB Shrugs

12 reps with 50kg

12 reps with 55kg

10 reps with 55kg

Barbell Curls

10 reps with 5kg

10 reps with 7.5kg

6+4 reps with 7.5kg (negatives)

Machine Preacher Curls

10 reps with 1 plate

10 reps with 1.5 plates

10 reps with 1.75 plates

10 reps with 2 plates

4+6 reps with 3 plates (negatives)

Post-workout Shake: 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g of dextrose, 5g of creatine, 10g of glutamine

Day 35 - Sleeeep

2011-10-04T19:47:00.000+10:00

So tired... So, so tired...

Did nothing but sleep today, pretty much. Got out of bed early to do cardio, even after a late night (midnight is late for me ok haha). Then after meal 3 lied down for a bit of a kip and woke up just in time for meal 4 haha. Unfortunately, I wasted a day. But man I needed that sleep.

Cat Empire were good, to be honest I was a little disappointed. If I was to have my time again, I would of stayed at home but I bought the tickets before I started the program and had a good time out with mates which I don't do very often.

My meals last night, I had shake just as I got out of the car and had a second one waiting for me in the car for after the gig. I managed (somehow) to get back to the car after exactly 3 hours, so I had the shake and headed home without missing a meal

Continued to smash down some tortillas today, so good. I'll be buying some for work tomorrow, thats for sure. Until then...

- Scott

AM Cardio – 20mins Cross Trainer

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, Green tea, L-Carnitine, Yohimbe)

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 - 180g chicken tenderloin, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 4 – 180g chicken tenderloin, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 5 – 150g chicken tenderloin

Meal 6 - 200g round steak with garlic and soy

PM Cardio – 20mins Brisk Walk

Day 34 - Tabasco and Tortillas!

2011-10-04T19:34:00.000+10:00

Just a borin' ol' rest day today.

Did make an awesome discovery though! Wholegrain tortillas! Amaaazing! AAANNNDDD! Tabasco sauce!

Sorry about the excitement but I'm so pumped that I found a delicious, easy to prep carb source and a delicious, metabolism friendly hot sauce! I went to town on these today and plan on buying many more haha.

Helped out my old man on the farm today as well, the poor cows had some ticks that needed tending to so I helped him out with that, which was fun. Reminded me of being a teenager again haha.

Going to see The Cat Empire tonight, should be fun. I'm going to save my cardio for the dancing and jumping around that is bound to happen. Gotta make sure I time my meal right so I don't miss one, this might be difficult but I should be right.

Until then...

- Scott

AM Cardio – 20mins Cross Trainer

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, Green tea, L-Carnitine, Yohimbe)

Meal 2 – 180g tin of tuna, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 3 - 180g tin of tuna, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 4 – 180g chicken tenderloin, 1 wholegrain tortilla, Tabasco sauce

Meal 5 – 200g chicken tenderloin

Meal 6 - ½ scoop of whey protein, ½ scoop of casein protein

PM Cardio – +20mins of Hip shaking and such things

Day 33 - Good Bye Phase One!

2011-10-04T19:10:00.000+10:00

Last workout of phase one, so we made sure we made it count.

Started off with delts as per usual, side raises first. I felt like I've hit a bit of a wall with the side raises, it never was my strongest exercise. I was so disappointed with my effort with the side raises I felt I really needed smash front raises to make up for the side raise. I wasn't over the moon with my effort so once again, I gave it everything on shoulder press to really finish my delts off.

I was happy with the shoulder press equally a PB on the first set and dieing after 10 reps on the second set.

On to legs and man, I don't think I've hit legs like this before.

I've never hit real failure with leg extensions before, the pain always gets me but today, I persevered. After the first working set I had a pump going in my quads. I had never felt this before, it was an insane feeling. Such a big muscle and so full of blood! It really got me psyched for the second set.

Second set I ran out of puff after 14 reps but still had 6 to go, so I got Brock to force the last few reps out and the pump get even more intense! Looking back, I still can't get over how full my quads felt.

Hit some good weight on the leg curls. I was exhausted by this point but had to keep pushing. Got my sets done and hit the leg press.

I had just about nothing left in the tank once I got to the leg press, first set I went pretty light. So the second set, I loaded the machine up with 240kg and gave it everything I got. After about 3 reps, I was really struggling then something clicked in my brain and I said to myself “Its not going to go away until you finished this set, so hurry up and get it done!” I smashed out the last 12 reps relatively easily and once I'd caught my breath, realised I actually had 280kg on there and therefore set a PB! The power of the mind baffles me sometimes.

Quickly nailed calves (while nearly seeing a fight erupt in the gym haha) and we head home for a WELL needed post workout shake.

My disorganisation is still letting me down as I still haven't pre-cooked any meal and still relying on subway and MR shakes to get me through, which really gets me down. Gotta really tighten my belt and cook something up but I am so tired all the time now and it make getting motivated really hard because I know if I stay up and cook, I'll be dead at work the next day. Sort of a catch 22.

Rest day the next 2 days. I'm going to a concert on Saturday night which should be interesting, I'm too focused right now to blow my diet, I'm just more concerned about how tired I'm going to be. Until then...

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 – Subway (6” roast chicken on wheat, letttuce, tomato, onion)

Meal 4 – Subway (6” roast chicken on wheat, letttuce, tomato, onion)

Meal 5 – Post-Workout Shake

Meal 6 – casein shake

4l+ of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM Cardio – 20mins brisk walk

Pre-workout: NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

DB Side Raises

8+7 reps with 12.5kg (swung)

9+6 reps with 10kg (swung)

DB Front Raises

15 reps with 15kg

15 reps with 12.5kg

DB Shoulder press

15 reps with 20kg

10 reps with 20kg the 5 reps with 15kg

Leg Extensions

20 reps with 10 plates

14+6 reps with 10 plates (forced)

Leg Curls

8 reps with 13 plates then 7 reps with 12 plates

15 reps with 12 plates

Leg Press

15 reps with 220kg

15 reps with 280kg

Standing Calf Raise

2 sets of 15 reps with 40kg

Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey, 80g of dextrose, 5g creatine, 10g glutamine

Day 32 - Have You Ever Tried Taking A Jumper Off After Triceps?

2011-09-29T21:10:00.000+10:00

It's near impossible haha.

Good ol' chest tonight. Last chest day of phase one, therefore last day of pre-exhausting my pecs and doing piss weak bench press's haha.

Not much to say about this workout, it was pretty stock standard tonight. Weight's still edging up so I'm happy about it. Looking forward to a shower and bed tonight, though.

Legs and delts tomorrow night, had to squeeze them in without a rest day inbetween because Brock and I have pretty hectic weekends planned. I got a bit of a sleep in tomorrow then I'm spending all day tomorrow doing TAFE stuff at work (on my RDO) so I should be nice and rested (and nice and angry) enough to smash legs to make up for last week. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 – 190g tinned salmon with lemon and black pepper

Meal 4 – 190g tinned salmon with lemon and black pepper

Meal 5 – 2 scoops of whey protein

Meal 6 – Post workout shake

Meal 7 – Casein shake

4L+ of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM cardio – 20mins Brisk Walk

Pre-workout – DY NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Pec Fly Machine

13+2 reps with 13 plates (negatives)

9+6 reps with 13 plates (negatives)

Decline DB Bench Press

15 reps with 22.5kg

10+5 reps with 22.5kg (rest-pause)

Incline DB Flys

15 reps with 17.5kg

Cable Pushdowns

15 reps with 11 plates

11+4 reps with 11 plates (rest-pause)

Bench Dips

13+2 reps with body weight

9+2+2+1 reps with body weight (rest-pause)

Overhead Cable Extentions

10+5 reps with 2.5 plates (negatives)

11+4 reps with 2 plates (forced reps)

Post-workout – 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g of dextrose, 5g of creatine, 10g of glutamine

Day 31 - How Bad Do You Want It?

2011-09-28T20:15:00.000+10:00

Another rest day today, with a bit of upper abs thrown in in the evening.

Just a normal day really. Really need to spend some time doing some cooking on the weekend, I am struggle to eat properly, well, I'm still not cheating. Maybe I'm being to hard on myself? I'm just feeling bad for not eating at least 5 whole food meals.

Chest and triceps tomorrow. Hopefully Brock has had enough water this time. Speaking of Brock, he sent me this youtube clip the other, it's pretty cool inspirational wise. I'll post it at the bottom.

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 – 2 small tins of tuna, 1 wholemeal bun roll, lemon juice, black pepper

Meal 4 – 2 small tins of tuna, 1 wholemeal bun roll, lemon juice, black pepper

Meal 5 – 150g chicken breast

Meal 6 – Casein Pudding

4L of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM Cardio – 20min Brisk Walk

PM Cardio – 20mins Cross Trainer

Crunches

3 sets of 20 reps

Day 30 - The Big Three-Oh!

2011-09-27T21:30:00.000+10:00

Our Last back/biceps workout in phase one! Which means the last time I get to destroy my old friend hyperextentions. We both completely forgot our workout tracker, so we did our best to remember what weight we lifted last week.

Felt better on the wide-grip pulldowns today, really concentrated on my form during the warm up which carried over onto my working sets and really tried to hold form on the seated rows too.

Decided to do hyperextentions before shrugs because the dumbbell rack had about a million people in front of it. I hindsight, it wasn't the smartest idea because you really need a strong lower back to shrug really heavy and I certainly felt weaker heading into shrugs after drilling my 'christmas tree' on hyperextentions for the last time.

Just as we started shrugs, Brock went to get some air because he was feeling sick, so I carried on knowing I didn't need a spotter for shrugs. He came back about 10 mins later, after a spew and I made him go straight into his shrugs.

See, Brock turned up to my house sunburnt today and spewed from dehydration, so I had no sympathy. Just told him to keep drinking his water and finish his sets. After shrugs, he went for another spew while I started on biceps. He came back looking for a nod from me to go home but he still had 2 exercises left. After torturing him on 2 sets of biceps curls, I sent him off to get his shake, because I could see that he was definately cooked. He was very greatfull haha. I doubt he will get sunburnt again any time in the near future.

I finished biceps and we hit the couch to regroup.

Another rest day tomorrow. I used to get annoyed at how much we rest on this program, but lately I've been looking forward to it. And as our workouts are going to get more intense, I think I am going to start craving them haha. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – Subway (6” Roast Chicken on wheat, with letttuce tomato and onion)

Meal 3 – grilled cod fillet, 2 pieces of wholemeal bread

Meal 4 - Subway (6” Roast Chicken on wheat, with letttuce tomato and onion)

Meal 5 – 2 scoops of whey protein (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 6 – Post-Workout Shake

Meal 7 - Caseine Shake

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM Cardio – 20mins Brisk Walk

Prework – DY NOXPUMP, 5g of creatine

Wide Grip Pulldowns

15 reps with 12 plates

15 reps with 12.5 plates

Seated Rows

15 reps with 12 plates

Hyper Extentions

15 reps with 10kg

DB Shrugs

15 reps with 45kg

Cable Curls

9+6 reps with 7.5 plates (negatives)

8+7 reps with 7.5 plates (negatives)

7+8 reps with 7.5 plates (negatives)

Concerntration Curls

15 reps with 5kg

15 reps with 7kg

Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g dextrose, 5g of creatine, 10g of glutamine

PS Just realised I've been spelling "dumbbell" wrong for the last 4 weeks, my bad

Day 29 - Getting Fed-Up

2011-09-27T20:52:00.000+10:00

Really starting to feel the mental effects of the diet now. My patience is getting smaller, my frustration toward small things is increasing and my urge to head-butt people who annoy me is becoming dangerous. Just gotta take a deep breath...

Back at work today but I'm so exhausted. Could really do with another day in bed. I have the trainee with me tomorrow so I'll be able to fob my work of to her haha. And I really need to pre-cook some food, I'm eating too much Subway. It's not that bad but its still a little proccessed, so I could do better. I just hate the frozen chicken so much haha. Organisation will be the death of me.

Gotta rest up for back and biceps tomorrow afternoon, until then...

AM Cardio – 20mins Brisk Walk

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – Subway (6” Roast Chicken on wheat, with letttuce tomato and onion)

Meal 3 – Subway (6” Roast Chicken on wheat, with letttuce tomato and onion)

Meal 4 - Subway (6” Roast Chicken on wheat, with letttuce tomato and onion)

Meal 5 – 150g Chicken Breast (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 6 – 150g Chicken Breast with a tiny bit of Dijon Mustard

PM Cardio – 20mins Cross Trainer

Day 28 - Just Another Sunday

2011-09-27T20:27:00.002+10:00

Boring rest day today, so nothing really to tell.

Still recovering from that flu though, I spent a lot of the day sleeping. Probably sleeping off that leg workout haha.

Other well needed rest day tomorrow, until then...

- Scott

AM Cardio – 20mins Brisk Walk

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 – 180g Chicken Breast, medium wholemeal bun, heap of mushrooms

Meal 4 - 180g Chicken Breast, medium wholemeal bun, heap of mushrooms

(multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 5 – 180g Round Steak, heap of mushrooms

Meal 6 – Casein Pudding

PM Cardio – 20mins Cross Trainer

Day 27 - Totally Bowled Over

2011-09-25T21:52:00.000+10:00

Big day today. I got a call from a mate who was off to play a charity indoor cricket game to raise money for a disabled cricket team to travel for a comp. I had originally turned down the offer as I knew I was still sick and really had to rest up if I was to smash my legs today. But I ended up giving into temptation and went and played. It was so much fun, I haven't played indoor cricket for years and it felt good to be back out on the carpet. The disabled guys had a great time as well and it probably won't be the last time we play along side them.

After that, I was pretty spent. I got home and sat down to relax for a little bit but just as I did, I noticed Brock had arrived in my driveway. Didn't realised the time had gotten away from me this badly. So I ripped my cricket clothes off, chucked my gym gear on and off we went.

I was in no mood to workout today. I was tired, I wasn't feeling strong, I just wanted to lie down. But as I've said before, I have a job to do. So I sucked it up and started hitting my delts.

Side raises increased a little this week. Not the weight, more the amount of swinging in my action. Once I start to fail, I use my whole body to swing the weights up and concerntrate on the negative movement. Only because Brock isn't strong enough to help me up on the exercise.

Really pumped myself up for front raises and ended going up a weight. I tried left then right alternating this week where I have been doing 5 a side up to 15 each arm. But I found I like the straight left-right better, so I'm going to sick to it.

Went up on weight on DB shoulder press as well. Really struggled on the second set but I got the reps out then went straight to warming up my legs.

I hit the leg extension pretty hard today to make up for last week where I chickened out. I'm slowly getting better at putting the pain aside and concentrating on getting the set done, this really helps with leg extensions as they are easily the most painful exercise I've done, especially 20 reps. I typically unhinged myself from the thing and fall in a heap on the floor but I couldn't even do that this week.

I was so exhausted by the time I had gotten to leg curls that I could of easily packed up and left. But I gave it everything I had left, which wasn't much but I did them damage I needed to do.

Leg press was the last exercise as there was no time for calf raises today (once again). I went significantly under-weight on the exercise and felt very light headed and absolutely exhausted. So Brock pumped me up and I knocked my sets out and head home to a post-workout shake that last about 4 seconds in the bottom of my shaker cup before it was deep within me.

I went and had a shower and a lie down and felt great after about an hour of deep breathing and listening to the football on the radio.

I learnt my lesson today. Whether I learn from it. is another question haha.

Just a plain ol' rest day tomorrow. So, until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 150g salmon fillet, 120g Brown Rice

Meal 3 – Subway (6” roast chicken on wheat, letttuce, tomato, onion)

Meal 4 – Post-workout shake

Meal 5 – 200g round steak, heap of mushrooms and a tablespoon of soy sauce

Meal 6 – casein pudding

6l+ of water with 6 scoops of xtend and 40g glutamine

AM Cardio – 20mins brisk walk

Pre-workout: NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

DB Side Raises

10 reps with 10kg

15 reps with 12.5kg (swung 6 reps up)

DB Front Raises

15 reps with 12.5kg

15 reps with 15kg (rest-pause)

DB Shoulder press

2 sets of 15 with 20kg

Leg Extensions

20 reps with 8 plates

20 reps with 9 plates

Leg Curls

9 reps with 12 plates then 6 reps with 10 plates

15 reps with 11 plates

Leg Press

1 set of 15 with 200kg

1 set of 15 with 240kg

Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey, 80g of dextrose, 5g creatine, 10g glutamine

Day 26 - I Got The Bird Flu, But I Ain't No Chicken

2011-09-23T19:36:00.000+10:00

Can not believe how well I'm feeling this morning! I've never started to recovered from the flu this quickly before. I'm not sure if it was all the extra glutamine, all the water and BCAAs, getting the Tamiflu early or just getting some well needed rest but I woke up feeling so much better, not 100% but better.

So I got in meal one and headed to the gym for cardio. It felt good getting a sweat on by actually doing something, considering I'd been laying in bed sweating like a pig for the last 24hrs until my fever broke early this morning.

Once I got home from cardio, I knew I'd be able to complete a workout this afternoon so I messaged Brock and hit the couch to rest up and watch my new favourite form of entertainment, National Geographic Documentaries, specifically Megafactories. I've watched about 10 over the last 2 days haha.

So after my third meal, we hit the gym. Not expecting much, I really surprised myself going up on weight on most exercises and significantly going up on all triceps exercises. Once again, not sure what it was but I nailed it.

When I got home from the gym, I got a call from the doctor that the results of my nasopharyngeal swab test came back confirming that I have Influenza A. Which was good to know I guess haha.

But now, its time for a shower, meal 5 and an early bed time. Legs and delts tomorrow so I'll need to be well rested for that. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – small salmon fillet, 120g brown rice

Meal 3 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 4 – Post-Workout Shake

Meal 5 – 200g round steak with mushrooms and soy sauce

4L+ of water with 4 scoops of xtend and 40g of glutamine

AM cardio – 20mins Elliptical Machine

Pre-workout – DY NOXPUMP

Pec Fly Machine

16 reps with 12.25 plates

13+3 reps with 12.25 plates (negatives)

Decline DB Bench Press

7+8 reps with 25kg (rest-pause)

18 reps with 22.5kg

Incline DB Flys

15 reps with 15kg

Cable Pushdowns

15 reps with 9.5 plates

20 reps with 10 plates

Bench Dips

15 reps with body weight

13+2 reps with 10kg (drop set)

Overhead Cable Extentions

18 reps with 2 plates

11+4 reps with 2.5 plates (negatives)

8+7 reps with 2.5 plates (negatives)

Post-workout – 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g of dextrose, 5g of creatine, 10g of glutamine

PS I just remembered I put 5g of creatine in my pre-workout today to help drag me through the workout, I wonder if that's what gave me that bit of energy on triceps?

Day 25 - Sick As A Dog

2011-09-23T13:30:00.000+10:00

Woke up this morning wanting to die. I felt so terrible. It was a struggle to get out of bed just to get some food into me let alone do cardio, the only reason I did get out bed is because I need to pee for the 30^th time that night. So I had meal one and went straight back to bed.

Eventually got out of bed for meal 2 and headed to the doctors. I requested that the doctor put me down but he wasn't too keen on the idea and after a few tests, he diagnosed me with the influenza. AGAIN! I seem to get this every year and every year it almost kills me. This didn't give me a lot of confidence that I'd be back in the gym any time soon because last time, I was in bed for 5 days. But I had a job to do so I continued to drink my body weight in water, BCAA's and glutmine, got some strong pain killers so I could sleep, took the prescribed Tamiflu then got into bed and hoped everything would be ok in the morning.

I told Brock there'd be no chance of me being at the gym today so we pushed chest and tris back to tomorrow. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 - CNP Pro MR

Meal 4 – small salmon fillet, 120g brown rice

Meal 5 - ½ scoop of whey protein, ½ scoop of casein protein

Meal 6 - ½ scoop of whey protein, ½ scoop of casein protein

8L of water with 8 scoops of xtend and 80g of glutamine

No cardio

Day 24 - I've Hit A Ton!

2011-09-23T11:26:00.000+10:00

Some pretty cool news to start off with today. Last night I hit 1000 views! Never expected this to get so big, especially only after 24 days. But watching the page views go up and up every day reminds me there are people reading which helps me to stay on track.

Some pretty annoying news now. I went home from work early today, sick. Very annoying. Last time I failed this dieting business was when I got sick, so I knew I wasn't going to make that mistake again. I just had to put my head down and keep on pushing though it.

I've got a doctors appointment tomorrow (mainly so I can get a medical certificate because my night jobs will have to be cancelled), until then I'm going to rest as much as I can, increase my glutamine intake (which helps boost your immune system) and drink plenty of water. I'll hopefully be able to shake it by tomorrow afternoon because its chest and triceps day.

The hardest thing I found last time was keeping my diet up. Once again, I didnt feel like eating anything but “comfort food” if I felt like eating at all. So instead of giving into temptation, I relied on protein shakes to get me through. Which isn't the best thing to do but its better than cheating or missing a meal.

I hoped into be at around 3pm and got some solid sleep in before cardio but found it really hard to get to sleep because everything hurt. My back was sore, my quads ached and I had a headache. After a little bit of sleep, Brock bashed on my door and we headed of to the gym.

After I got home, I had a shower and hoped back into bed, feeling even worse than before. Not looking forward to what the next few days are about to throw at me, I got some sleep. Hopefully the doctor will give me some wonder-drug and I'll be right for my workout tomorrow. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of why protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 150g chicken, 150g brown rice, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce

Meal 3 – Grilled cod fillet, 3 sliced of wholemeal bread

Meal 4 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 5 – half scoop of whey protein, half scoop of casein protein (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 6 - half scoop of whey protein, half scoop of casein protein

8L of water with 8 scoops of xtend and 40g of glutamine

AM cardio – 20min brick walk

PM cardio – 20min stationary bike

Day 23 - Back Once Again

2011-09-20T21:58:00.000+10:00

Big back night tonight. I had a MR shake for the meal before the workout so my stomach was empty. This helped me get the most out of my pre-workout because I was pretty tired from the night before and really wanted to smash my back. Also, I got some double-loop lifting straps the other day and got to try them out for the first time tonight and man they made a difference! They take everything off you fore-arms to the point where you don't even have to hang on to the bar! The pull-down bar at the gym has rubber grips so you can't tighten single loop straps so its hard to destroy your back without you grip failing first but this solves everything. Well not everything, I need to be conscious that my grip weaken if I used the straps for every set, so I only use them for working sets.

Nailed shrugs again. Really looking forward to having “neck-pillow” traps, so I can just lean my head over and have a little sleepy haha. I also noticed during shrugs that my upper body is starting to lean out. I'm not looking as wide as I was at the start which was a bit of motivation. My mid-section still needs a LOT of work though haha.

Smashed biceps too. Quadruple drop sets on cable curls for the last set. They were fried by the time I got to concentration curls so I just went light and concentrated on squeezing the life out of them. Still failed at around 12 or 13 reps and had to force the rest of the reps out.

We also caught up on calves which we missed the other day because the gym closed haha

Met up with my Mum and Dad after the workout, it was good to see them and have a bit of a vent about my night work. I only have 4 nights left and plan on taking an extended break from them because it's getting too hard to make it through the night and it has to be taking a toll on my recovery which could lead to over-training or even worse, getting sick.

Rest day and upper abs tomorrow. So I'll hit the road early tomorrow morning then gym in the PM then straight into bed to rest before work again at 11pm. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 200g flathead fillets, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 – CNP Pro MR shake

Meal 4 – Post work-out shake

Meal 5 – Casein shake

4l+ of water with 4 scoops of xtend

A.M Cardio – 20mins cross trainer

Wide Grip Pulldowns

17 reps with 11 plates

15 reps with 12 plates

Seated Rows

17 reps with 11.5 plates

15 reps with 12 plates

DB Shrugs

20 reps with 40kg

15 reps with 45kg

Hyper Extentions

15 reps with 5kg

8 reps with 10kg, 5 reps with 5kg, 3 reps with body weight (drop set)

Cable Curls

15 reps with 7.5 plates

9 reps with 8 plates, 5 reps with 7 plates, 4 reps with 6 plates, 3 reps with 5 plates

Concerntration Curls

15 reps with 8kg

15 reps with 6kg

Standing Calf Raises

15 reps with 40kg, 15 reps with body weight

Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g dextrose, 5g of creatine, 5g of glutamine

Day 22 - Week 4 Begins...

2011-09-20T01:56:00.001+10:00

Another rest day today and it didn’t start off great. Completely forgot my meals for the day and only realised 30mins in to my trip to work. So I got Subway for meal 2 and nipped home on the way to my first job to grab the other meals. Still struggling to eat chicken, even with soy sauce. Not to worry though, I just have to keep shovelling it in and remember why I’m doing it.

Got hit up by the boss at work today as to why I’m taking so long with my night work. I've had a few "after 8am" finishes in the last couple of weeks. I explained to him that I’ve changed my diet and am finding it hard to stay awake without coffee, chicken nuggets, cheese burgers and biscuits (what I used to eat during night work). I’m getting the physical work done, I’m just too tired to drive home and complete my paper work mistake free and end up sleeping so I can get home alive (which is my number one priority). I’m pretty sure he just thinks I’m scamming over time so I don’t expect to be working nights for too much longer. Which is a win for my recovery and health in general but a loss for my bank account. You win some, you lose some.

So I’m currently doing my best to stay awake all night tonight though. I might even grab a coffee to help get me through. And I hope I get enough sleep to be fresh for back and biceps tomorrow afternoon. Until then…

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey, 1 cup of oats

Meal 2 – Subway (6” roast chicken on wheat with lettuce, tomato, onion and capsicum)

Meal 3 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice with soy sauce

Meal 4 – Cod fillet, Medium Wholemeal Bread Roll with lemon juice

Meal 5 – 1 cup liquid egg whites with soy sauce

Meal 6 – 150g round steak with soy sauce and black pepper

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM Cardio – 20min brisk walk

PM Cardio - 20min cross trainer

Day 21 - There's A New Sheriff In Town!

2011-09-20T01:33:00.000+10:00

What a win for Phil “The Gift” Heath! There was no doubt Phil was ever going to lose this one, as soon as Jay Cutler got on stage last night, you could see he was going to struggle to hang on to his Olympia reign. Jay did come out looking better for the finals tonight and Phil had lost some condition but Phil still was a lot better. And hats off to Jay for his sportsmanship and for losing so gracefully. It was a little "bromantic" don't you think? haha

As most of today was spent watching the Olympia, I haven’t got a lot to add. I cooked up 2kg of chicken and some rice to get me through the week, but that’s about as exciting as it got.

Another rest day tomorrow so, until then…

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey, 1 cup of oats

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 – Orange Roughie fillet, 150g brown rice

Meal 4 – Orange Roughie fillet, 150g brown rice

Meal 5 – 200g Round Steak

Meal 6 – Casein Pudding

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM Cardio – 20min brisk walk

PM Cardio - 20min brisk walk

Day 20 - Happy Birthday Amy!

2011-09-17T20:30:00.000+10:00

As the title suggests, it was my friend, Amy's birthday today. So a few of us had lunch together to celebrate and as everyone went to town on a bunch of deep fried goodness, I sat there eating my fish and rice and didn't even feel like I was missing out. I knew that I had a job to do and that touching any of the greasy food would set me back. And the though of eating that stuff didn't even cross my mind, which was good.

Meal 1 - Oats and Whey. Decided against blending it this morning for a bit of a change

But because we had lunch and I had to squeeze in a legs/delts workout before the gym closed, I didn't even get to see any of the Mr Olympia which was disappointing. Not that I'd rather watch Olympia than celebrate my friends birthday so please don’t think that, Amy. I did get to see some of the bikini and fitness girls as well as the Ms Olympia. Congrats to Iris Kyle on her 7^th Ms Olympia, she blew the pack away.

So I'm sitting here, just finished meal 5, waiting for the Olympia Pre-Judging replay to become available on BB.com. I'm trying to watch the pre-judging pre-show but it isn't loading and I'm guessing thats because of the high level of traffic on the site. Come on America, go to bed so I can watch the replay! Haha

AM Cardio. It was 30 degrees at 9am today, got a great sweat on!

So yeah, legs and delts today, always a big day. And I made the mistake of thinking the gym closes at 5pm on Saturday when it closes at 4. So when I arrived at 3, I knew we had to get in, smash it and get out. Started with delts and as always, pre-exhausting before finishing them with DB shoulder press. Still going up in weight on shoulders which is great, I really struggled with the 12.5kg side raises, so I swung the weight up, concentrating on the negative motion to fatigue my delts. With shoulders dead, we went straight on to legs.

After going back through the book, I realised we were supposed to be doing 20 reps on leg extention, not 15. With this in the back of my head I psyced myself out, knowing that it was going to burn uncontrollably. I almost halved the weight to 4 plates and end up finding that weight pretty easy. After the 2^nd second set, I decided to do another set to punish myself for wussing out and I still easily nailed 20 reps with 6 plates. Knowing this, it meant I had to kill leg curls and leg press, which I did. Hit PB's on both and destroying my legs on the press. On my third set of leg press, I chucked 280kg up and on the 8^th rep, my legs gave way but I was saved by the little safety catch thing. If it wasn't for that, I would have been in a world of pain haha. They gym was shut by the time I started my last set of leg press so we were forced to skip calf raises.

620lb Leg Press. It sounds a lot bigger when you say it in pounds haha

Another rest day tomorrow. But I gotta cook some food up for the coming day. I'm going to cook for the week this time so I don't have to freeze so much and hopefully, this will make my food a bit more enjoyable (and A LOT quicker to cook). And to vent a little bit, I HATE cooking days. Until then...

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (I was running late)

Meal 3 – 180g Basa fish fillet, ¾ cup of brown rice

Meal 4 – Post-workout shake

Meal 5 – 130g round steak, 1 cup broccoli

Meal 6 – casein pudding

4l+ of water with 4 scoops of xtend

Pre-workout: NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

DB Side Raises

2 sets of 15 reps with 12.5kg (swung at least half the reps up)

DB Front Raises

2 sets of 15 reps with 12.5kg

DB Shoulder press

2 sets of 15 with 17.5kg

Leg Extensions

1 set of 20 with 4 plates

1 set of 20 with 5 plates

1 set of 20 with 6 plates

Leg Curls

1 set of 15 with 11 plates

1 set of 15 with 12 plates

Leg Press

1 set of 15 with 260kg

1 set of 8 with 280kg

Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey, 80g of dextrose, 5g creatine, 5g glutamine

AM Cardio – 20mins brisk walk

Day 19 - Olympia Eve

2011-09-16T23:31:00.000+10:00

It's late and I'm pretty tired so I wasn't going to blog tonight as it's only a rest day but I couldn't help but share my excitement because OLYMPIA WEEKEND STARTS TOMORROW!!!

Winning Mr Olympia is considered to be the highest accolade in the sport of professional bodybuilding. The grand final, the Tour De France, the Superbowl of bodybuilding and I am quite pumped about it.

Pre-judging starts tomorrow around 2pm Brisbane time and I plan on being glued to my computer watching the live stream.

My bet is on Jay Cutler to take his 5th Mr Olympia followed by Phil Heath as the runner-up. Only because Branch Warren is out due to an injury, I think he would of had a really good chance this year. Phil definitely has what it take to be Mr O but Jay's size will get him though I think. But only time will tell!

I need to fit in legs and delts tomorrow too. I'll probably head to the gym after the pre-judging, using that for some inspiration. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 1 Basa fillet, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 – 1 Basa fillet, 150g brown rice

Meal 4 – 200g round steak with mushroom and soy sauce

Meal 5 – Casein Pudding

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM Cardio - 20mins Cross Trainer

PM Cardio - 20mins Cross Trainer

Day 18 - Man's Gotta Eat

2011-09-15T21:47:00.001+10:00

I'm finding the night work a lot harder without maccas to get me through haha. Once again, I really struggled to keep my eyes open which made the 2hr drive home very difficult. So I had a bit of a kip and headed home only to hit peak hour. It was a long trip haha.

I ended up getting home around 8:30am and slept through to 2:30pm, so I got a solid 6hrs of sleep. I had my first meal and headed to the gym for cardio.

After meal 2, we headed back to the gym for chest and tris and I found that I was wrecked pretty early into the workout. I'm guessing that's because I only got 2 meals in before the workout, but if I was to get a thrid meal in, we would of hit the gym around 8pm and the gym closes at 9 so my options we're limited unfortunately . I'll have to remember this for next time though (which will be Saturday).

I also tried to bite off more than I can chew on DB press tonight. I only managed 14 reps and Brock did at least 4 of those haha. This is the beauty of tracking your workouts, I'll have this info the next workout, so i'll make sure I hit the target reps.

I might leave it there for now. I have to work again tonight, it shouldn’t be as late as last night (touch wood). And looking at the time, I better cook some food up for the night. Just a rest day tomorrow, no abs. I plan on not doing a much but watch telly and rest up for legs. Until then...

- Scott

My water bottle with 'refeshing apple' Xtend. Delicious!

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 1 cod fillet, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 – post-workout shake

Meal 4 – 1 cod fillet, 150g brown rice

Meal 5 – 200g round steak

Meal 6 – 200g round steak

4L of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM cardio – 20mins Elliptical Machine

Pre-workout – DY NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Pec Fly Machine

17 reps with 11 plates

10+10 reps with 12 plates (negatives)

Decline DB Bench Press

10+4 reps with 27.5kg (forced reps)

7+3 reps with 27.5kg (forced reps)

Incline DB Flys

15 reps with 15kg

10+5 reps with 15kg (rest-pause)

Cable Pushdowns

15 reps with 9 plates

10 reps with 9 plates + 5 reps (rest-pause)

Bench Dips

6+4+3+2 reps with body weight (rest-pause)

5+4+2+2+2 reps with body weight (rest-pause)

Overhead Cable Extentions

17 reps with 1.25 plates

21 reps with 1.5 plates (1.5 → 1.25 → 1 drop set)

Post-workout – 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g of dextrose, 5g of creatine, 5g of glutamine

Day 17 - Coast to Coast

2011-09-15T16:10:00.000+10:00

I remembered to weigh myself this morning to a somewhat disappointing result. I was 124.6kg, only down 0.7kg from last week. In saying that, the weight I’m lifting is going up pretty dramatically every week, I’m still seeing a physical difference and its only 2 and a bit weeks in. In the front of my head, I’m more concerned on putting muscle on to burn the fat for me but in the back of my head, I’m still going to be worrying about my weight. So with that said, I’m not going to weight myself every week, just in between training phases (weeks 5, 9 then 12). Just so I haven’t got the distraction of the scales in the back of my head, I can concentrate on the mirror and photos.

Normal rest day today. And I’m all out of frozen chicken so I decided to buy my meals today. One of the many advantages of living and working near the coast is there is always a good quality seafood shop just around the corner, so I relied on that to get me through the day and I wasn’t let down. One of the other advantages of living where I do is I am half way between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and when I’m working up the Sunny Coast, I always try and take in some of the scenery. These photos was taken as I sat and ate meal 3.

Bulcock Beach. I love the Sunny Coast.

Stopped in at Sushi Sushi at Chermside Westfield on the way back the depot this afternoon because I know they sell brown rice and salmon sushi. So I thought I’d have a bit of a treat!

Got home this afternoon and headed straight to the gym for cardio and lower abs. Still struggling with the abs exercises. I’m forced to rest-pause to get the reps out, but I get there.

From working up the Sunshine Coast by day, to driving 2hrs to work down to the Gold Coast by night. I don’t really like the Goldy that much, mainly because it’s so far to drive but also because you have, like, a 75% chance of getting stabbed or shot and while set up on the side of the road at 2 in the morning, that percentage can only increase haha. Don’t get me wrong, I know I have a few international readers and I don’t want to discourage you from visiting the Gold Coast. It’s a great tourist destination, worlds best beaches, plenty to do, it’s just a bit scary late at night.

And I have a "big black security guard" to help protect me haha

My "6D" MagLite. 20 inches of lead and aluminium.

Anyway, that’s enough out of me for one day. Chest and tris after meal 2 tomorrow, which will all depend on when I finish tonight and then when I wake up tomorrow. Pumped to smash last weeks sets! Until then…

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein

Meal 2 – medium Dory fillet, medium wholemeal bread roll

Meal 3 - medium Cod fillet, medium wholemeal bread roll

Meal 4 – 3 brown rice and salmon sushi rolls

Meal 5 – 1 cup of liquid egg whites, 5 mushrooms, ½ tablespoon soy sauce

Meal 6 – Palm sized round steak marinaded in soy sauce and black pepper with 6 mushrooms

+4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

AM cardio – 20min brisk walk

PM cardio – 20 Cross trainer

Lying leg pull-ins - 3 sets of 15 reps

Day 16 - Welcome 'Back'

2011-09-13T21:40:00.000+10:00

Big back and Bi's workout tonight. Still struggling to really hit my lats though. I did a bit of research this afternoon and read a article with the advice of “close your eyes and picture your lats contracting” which did help, but I think I'll have to put my ego aside, drop the weight and really concentrate on the squeeze. If anyone has any tips with lats, please send em my way!

Absolutely nailed the shrugs tonight AND the hyper extentions. I went from doing 22.5kg shrugs and just getting 15 only 3 weeks ago to tonight where I dominated the 35kg dumbell 25 times before failure! I just got in the zone and went for it. I'll definitely be going up in weight next week.

35kg Dumbell Shrugs

PB on hyperextentions too! I went from barely getting 12 reps (and almost blacking out) 3 weeks ago to 15 reps with a 5kg plate! For a bloke that weighs +120kg, I'm very happy with that.

Hyperextentions with 5kg plate (somewhere under my arms haha)

Biceps have always been a weak point for me and to be honest, it's the muscle I least look forward to each week. This attitude will soon change though (hopefully). Because of this we did a triple dropset on cable curls to really fill the muscles up with blood before hitting concentration curls.

I probably started too heavy with conentration curls but “if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.” So I started with 12.5kg and ended up forcing 75% of the reps, but I got 15 out in the end. Hit your rep target no matter what!

Still bloody coughing though. Now it hurts my head everytime I cough. Hopefully the antibiotics and cough mixture will kick in tonight and I'll be able to sleep well. Which reminds me, I tried UPS Labs Jack3d tonight for pre-work as I have a suspicion that the NOXPUMP is too powerful to have at night and that's what's keeping me awake after workouts (where Brock, the insomniac, is sleeping like a baby). So we'll see if that makes a difference. Gotta rest to grow!

Shake, shower and bed now. Then up early for cardio tomorrow. Gotta wan' it! Lower abs in the evening and then I'm working at Burleigh Heads tomorrow night. But until then...

- Scott

When ya gotta eat, ya gotta eat! Meal 2 on the side of the road, Kangaroo Point

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of protein powder, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce

Meal 3 – grilled cod fillet, 2 medium wholegrain bread rolls

Meal 4 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (couldn't finish the rice)

Meal 5 – CNP Pro MR (I got caught up at work)

Meal 6 – Post workout shake

Meal 7 - Casein Pudding

6L water with 6 scoops of xtend (spent a lot of today outside)

Pre-workout: UPS Labs Jack3d (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Wide Grip Pulldowns

1 set of 15 reps with 11 plates

1 set of 15 reps with 12 plates

Seated Rows

1 set of 15 reps with 11 plates

1 set of 15 reps with 10 plates, dropset 10 reps with 8 plates

DB Shrugs

1 sets of 20 reps with 30kg

1 sets of 25 reps with 35kg

Hyper Extentions

1 set of 15 with body weight

1 set of 15 with body weight+5kg

Cable Curls

1 set of 15 reps with 7 plates

1 set of 9 reps with 7 plates then 6 reps with 6 plates

Concentration Curls

1 set of 15 with 12.5kg

1 set of 15 with 10kg

1 set of 15 with 5kg

Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g dextrose, 5g of creatine, 5g of glutamine

Day 11 - From One Extreme To The Other

2011-09-12T21:14:00.000+10:00

Could hardly sleep last night. So I've gone from sleeping most of my shift at work to not sleeping at all. I ended up getting to sleep around 3am only to wake up at 5am for cardio. Surprisingly, I wasn't tired at all today but I am working tonight, thats going to be the real test.

One positive about being awake all night is that I've been able to get food into me every 3 hours for the last 36hrs. My metabolism should be happy about that. I was only drinking whey protein shakes but its better than starving.

Seeing today is only a rest day, I don't have much to talk about.

Didn't pack any food this morning which I later regretted. AND got caught up at work late. I abuse the MR shakes (and subway) too much.

I did had a second crack at abs today though, lower abs. I never thought lying leg raises would be so hard. 5 reps into the second set, the burn was killing me and I ended up finishing the exercise with leg pull-in instead, I still struggled with this but I rest-paused until I hit my target reps of 20.

Another rest day tomorrow because I'm playing golf (again haha) and Brock is busy. We're going to wait until Saturday for leg and delt destruction. Until then...

Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 3 – Subway (6” roast chicken on wheat with lettuce, tomato, onion and capsicum)

Meal 4 – Medium Dory fillet, 150g of brown rice

Meal 5 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 6 – 180g round steak

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

Lying leg raises - 1 set of 15+5 (rest-pause)

Leg pull-ins - 1 set of 15+5 (rest-pause)

- 1 set of 8+6+4+2 (rest-pause)

AM Cardio – 20min brisk walk

PM Cardio – 20min cross trainer

Day 15 - F-f-f-f-freeeezing!

2011-09-12T18:39:00.001+10:00

Just a normal rest day today, nothing too exciting. Totally forgot to weigh myself this morning, so i'll do that tomorrow morning. Still seeing a physical difference but not expecting much on the scales to change.

It was 5 degress in Cabo this morning so I thought “bugger going for a walk down the street” and went to the gym instead. Much warmer. As Kris says, “control your environment!”

My old friend chicken and rice came out of the freezer this morning so I could introduce it to my new fried, soy sauce. They quickly became best of friends. Long story short, I'm eating chicken again. Which is really good because I have a few packs in the freezer still which I'll make my way through this week and do another cook up on the weekend. Also I didn't want to over do it with the fish and grow to hate that as much as I hate(d) chicken.

I have developed a terrible cough around 4 or 5 days ago that hasn't gone away so I went to the doctors this afternoon and he thinks its a throat infection. So I have some anti-biotics which will hopefully clear that up. I'm glad it wasn't anything that would stop me from training, I was a little worried for a bit. Should help me to sleep better too.

In other news, I made it through uppers abs this evening without cramping which was good. Gotta build a strong core to protect my poor ol' back!

Anyway, that's about it from me today. My back and biceps are in big trouble around this time tomorrow, until then...

- Scott

Round Steak, mushrooms and soy sauce. There is more blood than sauce though haha

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR, ½ cup of oats

Meal 3 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice, 1 tble spoon soy sauce

Meal 4 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice, 1 tble spoon soy sauce (multi-vitamin)

Meal 5 – 180g round steak, 1 tble spoon soy sauce, black pepper (green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 6 – 180g round steak, 1 tble spoon soy sauce, black pepper, mushrooms, 1 cup of brocolli (multi-vitamin)

4l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

A.M Cardio – 20mins cross trainer

P.M Cardio – 20mins cross trainer

Crunches – 2 sets of 15+5 reps (rest-pause)

- 1 set of 10+5+5 reps (rest-pause)

PS If you are unable to view some of the blog posts tonights, it's because I'm catching up on the old ones and need to delete the new ones and repost them to keep them all in order

Day 14 - I'm Back!

2011-09-11T21:17:00.000+10:00

Non-training day today. So I slept in to catch up on some much needed sleep then watched Empire Strikes Back at a mates house. Nothing too exciting at all.

Tomorrow is the start of week 3 which is good. Everything is starting to get a lot easier now. Meals are becoming less of a hassle, we are really smashing it at the gym and I have never recovered this quickly from workout in my life. So I'm felling good and ready for what the next 10 weeks throws at me.

Tonight I discovered soy sauce. Last time I had it, I was in primary school and I hated it but drizzled on top of my steak, mind blowing! Things like these are going to keep me going because eating is easily the hardest part of this program. Shout outs to Brock, the culinary genius.

Another rest day tomorrow due to both Brock and I working down the Gold Coast. We're going to move our whole training week back one day to fit in with work. So just 2 cardio sessions and upper abs in the evening. Until then...

- Scott

Cod fillet cooking on my BBQ

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of Oats

Meal 2 – 1 medium Dory fillet, ¾ cup rice

Meal 3 – 1 medium Dory fillet, ¾ cup rice

Meal 4 – 1 scoop of whey protein

Meal 5 – 180g round steak with soy sauce and black pepper

Meal 6 – Casein pudding

4l of water with 4 scoops of Xtend

A.M cardio – 20mins Cross trainer

P.M cardio – 20mins Cross trainer

PS I know I've missed blogging about the last few days because I have been flat out and battling a confused body clock but I will catch up over the duration of this week

PPS I am trying my best to make this blog more visually appealing so I am going to start adding more photos and possibly videos for all you to see. I still haven't added a before photo haha. I just need to install drivers for my phone on my work laptop and I'll takes a heap of pics so it's not all just text. I'll probably update some of the past blogs with photos I've taken but haven't posted. Any other suggestions, please let me know!

Day 10 - Oh What A Night!

2011-09-07T20:00:00.000+10:00

Don't know what happened last night, but as soon as my job was complete (around 4am) my brain decided it was bedtime even though I still had about 90mins of paper work and a 40min drive home ahead of me. I work for Telstra as a construction technician, so I went back to the local telephone exchange for a power nap and ended up sleeping for an hour and a half! I opened my eyes and thought, “oh crap, the sun's up!” So I started the car and headed home but by the time I got on the Highway I was nodding off again. So in the interest of safety, I pulled over for another nap and slept for another hour! All this hard training must be taking it out of me because I've never done that before and I’ve been working nights for almost 6 months now. I eventually got to bed at 7:30am...

...Woke up at 1:30pm fixed myself some brekky and hit the gym for some cardio. Then pretty much hung out at home till Brock came, then back to the gym for chest and tris.

Chest day is arguably my favourite training day because I feel my chest is very lacking and my triceps are one of my strongest muscles.

We pretty much did the same routine as last week, just to see if we could beat it again and that we did! Both of us smashed chest and really dug deep to finish off triceps. We decided to change up dumbell flys to a fly machine, only because I find I can really squeeze the hell out of my pecs at the top of the rep and really get a lot of blood in there.

And we stuck to a decline for bench press because we both feel it a lot more in our front delts on a flat bench. Decline definitely hits the pecs better (cheers to Dorian Yates for that tip!)

Besides that, I haven't got much to talk about because I spent most of the day asleep. And only 4 meals today for the same reason. Meal 0 is the steak I had around 4am. I dug out an old Ronnie Coleman DVD which I haven’t seen for a while. Ronnie's always good for inspiration heading into a tough workout. LIGHT WEIGHT BABY! WOOOH!

Rest day tomorrow, then work again tomorrow night. I got the trainee with my Thursday night so hopefully that will help keep me awake. Or at least I can snooze while she does my work haha. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 0 – 180g round steak

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 1 cod fillet, 2 small wholegrain bun rolls

Meal 3 – post-workout shake

Meal 4 – 180g round steak

3L of water with 3 scoops of xtend

"AM" cardio – 20mins Elliptical Machine

Pre-workout – DY NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Pec Fly Machine – 16 reps with 10 plates

12 reps with 11 plates + 7 negatives

Decline DB Bench Press – 15 reps with 20kg

15 reps with 22.5kg

Incline DB Flys – 2 sets of 15 reps with 12.5kg

Cable Pushdowns – 2 sets of 15 reps with 8 plates

Bench Dips – 15 reps with body weight

11+4 reps with body weight (rest-pause)

Overhead Cable Extentions – 15 reps with 1.25 plates + 11 reps with 1 plate (drop set)

12 reps with 1.25 plates + 11 reps with 1 plate + 2 partial reps (drop set)

Post-workout – 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g of dextrose, 5g of creatine, 5g of glutamine

PS: Brock turned 20 today! So if you are a south-east Queensland local and are looking for a photographer for just about anything (family, baby, weddings, bodybuilding ect), give him a little birthday present by checking his website and/or facebook page

Day 9 - Mmmm, Forbidden Donut

2011-09-07T01:28:00.000+10:00

Just a boring old rest day today. I nailed cardio early and head off to work and had a significantly better day then yesterday.

Tried living without chicken and rice today, only to find that I love fish more than I ever knew. Had a fish burger for meal 3 and its was seriously delicious. The best thing I had eaten in the last 9 days for sure!

Hit the gym after work for 20mins cardio and upper abs. Cardio was a breeze but my poor abs haven't been worked properly for a long time (mainly because I completely forgot about abs last week, my bad haha). The first set of 20 crunches was a bit of an effort itself but when I layed down for set 2, the weirdest feeling came over me. It almost felt like I had a bit of a pump going in my abs. I thought to myself "wow! Time to smash it!" And just as I was halfway through the first crunch, the feeling became all too familiar. CRAMP!!! My abs we're cramping like crazy! I was rolling around on the gym floor trying to make the pain go away but I eventually stood up, stretched myself out and I was good again. Until I took one step forward and started cramping like crazy again! I decided that abs can wait until another day haha.

Not sure what brought on the cramps, whether it was because I had eaten only 30mins prior or if it was because I hadn't done a crunch in a number of years. As you all know, I drink a load of water everyday. Maybe I need more?

Anyway, I got home and hit the sack to get some rest before I headed back to work at 11pm. I cooked up some steak for the trip, enough to keep me going for 9 hours but it looks like it'll be an early night tonight, which is good.

Funny story though. I grabbed a bottle of water at the 7/11 just before I got to work and the bloke behind the counter gave me a 4 pack of donuts for free because I looked tired, bless his cotton socks! They will have to go to a better home unfortunately because I gotta get shredded!! haha Must. Resist. Temptation.

Chest and tris tomorrow after meal 2 probably. Looking forward to it. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 - 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)
Meal 2 - Subway (6" roast chicken on wheat with lettuce, tomato, capsicum & onion)
Meal 3 - 1 medium cod fillet, 1 wholegrain bread roll
Meal 4 - CNP Pro MR shake
Meal 5 - 1 medium cod fillet with lemon juice (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)
Meal 6 - 180g grilled round steak

Meal 7 - 180g grilled round steak

4l of Water with 4 scoops of xtend

1 set of 20 crunches

AM Cardio - 20min Fast Walk
PM Cardio - 20 Elliptical Machine

Day 8 - Do You Want The Good News Or The Bad News?

2011-09-05T20:21:00.000+10:00

Good news: I jumped on the scales as soon as I got out of bed this morning and found I had lost 3.2kg last week. 129.1kg (yes, I know that's embarrassing) down to 125.9kg. A pretty solid start. If I can keep losing 3kg a week, I'll hit my goal for sure. Only time will tell. And I will hopefully get some time to post a before pics tomorrow night so everyone knows what I'm up against.

Bad News: Had a terrible start to the day today. Woke up at 5 for cardio and totality pussied out. I was so tired. I think I may of gone to hard on the weekend, not “partying” just late nights on Friday and Saturday then an early start Sunday. Then Monday came and I was ruined. So skipped cardio to get another hour sleep so I could make it through the day with the thought of doing cardio at work after meal 3.

I couldn't find my car keys and after looking for 40mins, found them in the pocket of the pants I wore last week. Once I'd gotten to work, I found that extra hour made no difference and was pissed off at everything for most of the day. I found I pretty much had no temper and when I struggled to stomach my food, things just got worse. I forced down meal 2 by chewing then swallowing with a swig of water. So for meal 3, I went and got some cod, which put a smile on my face for a little while until I realised I had no carbs with it and it was a training day today. So I started shovelling rice down my hole and swallowing it with water like I did with meal 2. After 3 mouth fulls it was almost coming back up so I gave that idea away and went to the bakery and got a wholegrain roll. I felt disappointed in myself for this so I made sure I worked it off on the weights tonight.

Then my job went sour and which pushed my temper again and THEN I needed fuel but it seems no one on the Sunshine Coast sells LPG!! After stopping at 4 servo's I finally filled up to find my work fuel card didnt work.

I felt God laughing at me today haha.

But on the way home one of my favourite songs came on the radio which cheered me up and I started to get pumped to take my anger out on the weights.

Back and biceps tonight. We followed the same workout as last week, except the the cable cross-over was available so we could do some cable curls, unlike last week. We set out on bettering ourselves on each exercise which we did, so I was pretty happy about that.

We also decided tonight that we would choose a weight that we could get 12 reps with then forced the last 3 using either negatives, drop sets, rest-pause and simply just forced reps. This idea worked, as we found ourselves pushing past failure on some sets.

In saying that, I think I might be going to heavy on my seated rows, I'm not squeezing my back like I should be.

I finally did my 20mins cardio after my post workout shake and after my heart rate had settled down. I know this is not the best time to do it but I got it done and won't skip A.M cardio again. Brock is going to wake up at 5am to text me to make sure I get my arse out of bed and do my cardio tomorrow. True friend.

Tomorrow is a rest day and I'm working that night aswell, hopefully I get some sleep between shifts or I could be in for a tough night. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of protein powder, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 – grilled cod fillet, 1 medium wholegrain bread roll

Meal 4 – CNP Pro MR

Meal 5 – Post workout shake

Meal 6 – 180g round steak

4L water with 4 scoops of xtend

Pre-workout: NOXPUMP (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Wide Grip Pulldowns – 2 sets of 15 reps with 12 plates

Seated Rows - 2 sets of 15 reps with 11 plates

DB Shrugs - 2 sets of 15 reps with 27.5kg

Hyper Extentions – 2 sets of 15 with body weight

Cable Curls - 1 set of 15 with 5 plates & 1 set of 15 with 6 plates

Concerntration Curls - 2 sets of 15 with 9kg

Post-workout: 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g dextrose, 5g of creatine, 5g of glutamine

P.M Cardio - 20mins - Elliptical Machine

PS Feel free to hit my up with advice on getting my food down or some motivation to keep me going strong. Comment below and/or tweet @scott__long (2 underscores.) It's times like today that I really need something like that.

Day 7 - Fathers Day

2011-09-04T20:05:00.000+10:00

It's Father's Day today, so I spent most of my day building Star Wars Lego with my Dad haha. Lego has to be one of THE best inventions ever, doesn't it?

Anyway, because of this I, once again, didn't get anytime to do a post on my cooking. It can wait though, I'll have to do it again a few more times yet.

Also because of this, I ate food not on the approved foods list. Being Fathers Day, I felt the occasion was special enough to "cheat" but in saying that, my cheat meal was roast pork and veges and my portion size wasnt over the top. So it wasn't good, but it was all that bad either. I was in 2 minds about it because obviously I didn't want to cheat but my Dad is a bit of a "foody" and I could see him getting upset if I turned down his lovely roast to eat a dodgey bit a steak.

But while we're on the subject, props to Brock who texted me saying he stayed strong during fathers day lunch, so at least only one of us went soft haha.

on that note,I really gotta go to bed. 5am starts are not easy at the best of times. But my first "weigh-in" is tomorrow so stay tuned! Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 - 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats

Meal 2 - CNP Pro MR shake

Meal 3 - 200g salmon filet, 150g brown rice

Meal 4 - 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 5 - palm sized serve of roast pork, half a cup of peas & corn, 1 bite of a roast parsnip

Meal 6 - casein pudding

4 l of water with 4 scoops of xtend

A.M cardio - fast walk

P.M cardio - fast walk

PS if anyone see's my mum, can you tell her just because I lift weights, it doesn't mean I take steroids. Cheers haha

Day 6 - Sorry

2011-09-03T21:50:00.000+10:00

Hi guys,

I know I said in my last post I would chuck some stuff up about cooking but unfortunately most of my day was taken up playing photographers assistant to my training partner Brock. I got home later than I expected so I didn't get time throw anything together. I had a great time helping Brock out and hope it's not the last time I do. I will try my best to post some stuff about cooking tomorrow. But until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 - 1/2 a egg white pancake (1 cup egg whites, 3/4 cups oats)
Meal 2 - Subway (6" roast chicken on wheat with lettuce, tomato, capsicum, onion)
Meal 3 - 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice
Meal 4 - other half of the egg white pancake (couldn't eat all of it the first time)
Meal 5 - 150g grilled cod
Meal 6 - casein pudding

A.M Cardio 20 mins - fast walk
P.M Cardio 20 mins - fast walk

Day 5 - Nausea

2011-09-02T23:18:00.000+10:00

I woke this morning around 8am and checked my phone just like I do every other morning, only to find that Kris Gethin, the author of this book, had read and tweeted/facebooked about my blog! Talk about star struck! Haha. And because of that, the total traffic has increased from about 50 views to 347 in one day!

So I would like to say massive thank you to Kris for plugging my blog and thank you to all the people who read and will continue to read (including my two new 'followers,' Alex and dan.i.am). Invite you all to leave tips, tricks and motivational support. Or sledging, if that's your thing haha

Talk about the ultimate accountability, it's like the school teacher is looking over my shoulder as I do an exam haha.

Back to my day...

Leg and delts! As I had a rostered day off today (hence the 8am waking time), Brock and I decided to hit the gym after our second meal. We started off nailing shoulders, which was pretty tough to be honest. I have never 'pre-exhausted' my delts before and boy, did it make a difference. I've never had a pump in my delts until today, so now I know how to train them properly.

After that we moved on to legs. After leg curls and extensions we hit the leg press. I somehow managed to knock out a PB on the leg press which I was pretty pumped with but I paid the toll for it. I felt so crook for a good 90 mins after we finished. Looking back, I wish I did another set to make myself vomit instead of trying to stomach a post workout shake while wanting to chuck my guts up.

Straight after leaving the gym I met up with my best mate Chris, for a round of golf at Pacific Harbour Gold Club. For those who are fans of golf, it is the number 1 golf course in Queensland and they do very reasonably priced rounds after 3pm weekdays (seriously, go check it out). I am a rubbish golfer but I enjoy a knock. We hired a buggy so my poors legs could recover but surprisingly, they didn't feel bad at all. I'm not sure if it's the new supps I'm talking or if I didnt push myself hard enough. The true 'damage report' will come in about 2 days when the soreness kicks in...

But that's about it for today. One thing I have noticed is that my appetite has significantly increased and I found myself hanging out for meals more than forcing them in, which is great. I am going to have a bit of an experiment this weekend to see if I can't add a bit of “colour” to my food, making them a little be more appealing. Might even try a recipe from the book!

Tomorrow, being a rest day, I am going to post some photos and some tips and tricks from my cook off last weekend. And on Sunday, post a before picture with my weight and weight loss for this week. I was planning on doing that last sunday but as you may of read, I was way too tired. Until then...

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of whey protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 150g chest breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 – post-workout shake

Meal 4 – Subway (6” roast chicken on wheat w/ lettuce, tomato, capsicum, onion)

Meal 5 – 200g salmon fillet, grilled then baked

Meal 6 – casein pudding

4l of water with 5 scoops of xtend

Pre-workout - NOXPUMP, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine

DB Side Raises – 2 sets of 15 reps with 8kg

DB Front Raises – 1 set of 20 with 6kg then

1 set of 17 with 9kg (more weight next time)

DB Shoulder press – 2 sets of 15 with 12.5kg

Leg Extensions - 1 set of 15 with 6 plates then

1 set of 15 with 7 plates

Leg Curls - 1 set of 15 with 9 plates then

1 set of 15 with 10 plates

Leg Press - 1 set of 15 with 200kg then

1 set of 15 with 240kg

Standing Calf Press - 2 sets of 15 reps with 40kg

Post-workout shake: 2 scoops of whey protein, 100g dextrose, 5g creatine, 5g glutamine

Day 4 - Spring!

2011-09-01T23:33:00.000+10:00

Ended up getting home at 4am this after my job last night got cancelled. That's 2 cancelled jobs in a row for me, I seem to be on a roll with early finishes.

I had a second casein pudding while I drove home last night, but I am going to count that as one of todays meals.

Had a great sleep, woke up at 1pm, but was once again woken by the desire to urinate. One thing that I do find quite annoying while dieting, I wake up once or twice every night to pee. But I am drinking more than 4 litres a water a day so it isn't unexpected.

After having my first meal I headed to the gym to do my first cardio session. As I walked into the weights room I was greeted by 2 familiar faces, Shawn and Danilo, the 2 guys that pretty much introduced me to weight training. Shawn had just joined the gym and Danilo was back after an extended break. It was good to see them and probably won't be the last time you hear about them in this blog.

Besides that, I had a pretty relaxing day. Just knocked about at a mates house for a bit.

I got a piece of grilled cod for meal 3 from the local seafood market but it was quite small, smaller than they normally are. So I had a MR shake to help fill me. The next meal was also a supplement because I forgot to defrost a piece of steak. This was a little annoying because real food is always the best way to go.

Getting pumped for legs and delts tomorrow, 2 of my favourite body parts to train. Legs, because pushing through the searing burn to get just one or two more reps is very rewarding and because you are almost guaranteed to be sore for the next 5 days.

And delts because mine a quite weak and need a lot of work.

But, until then...

- Scott

Meal 0 – Casein pudding

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of protein, 1 cup of oats (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

Meal 2 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 – grill cod, CNP Pro MR

Meal 4 – caseing pudding (multi-vitamin, green tea, yohimbe & l-carnitine)

4l of water with 5 scoops of xtend

A.M Cardio – Cross Trainer

P.M Cardio - Walk

Day 3 - It's Been A Hard Days Night

2011-09-01T01:43:00.001+10:00

Knocked out AM cardio nice and early again this morning. It was colder than yesterday (11°C), so I chucked my Telstra rain jacket over my hoodie and hit the road. I had my 'fat burning combo' (green tea, yohimbe, l-carnitine) with my brekky, knowing this helped me battle the cold.

We hit chest and triceps in the gym this afternoon which was pretty intense, probably too intense. After doing 6 sets of chest to failure, I was feeling pretty wrecked and we still had 4 more exercises to go. I had a chat to my training partner Brock and we decided to only do 2 sets to failure (instead of 3) otherwise we were going to be in the gym all night and possibly leading to overtraining. I felt this was a good decision as we managed to nail the next 4 exercises in about 30 mins and maintained good intensity for the rest of the workout.

In the book it’s got us doing 3 sets per exercise and 6 exercises and getting all this done in under an hour with 2 people isn’t going to be easy. So from now on we’re only going to do 2 sets per exercise, pushing beyond failure on the first set and finishing off the muscle with the second set. This will give us more time and a more intense session and possibly a more effective workout.

After I got home from the gym it was straight in the shower and into bed because I had to start work again at 11pm (after already working 7am-4pm that day). This is probably going to be my biggest challenge during this program as I am working 1-2 nights a week all the way through.

Last time, I failed to prepare meals for night work which lead me to get take away which ultimately lead me to failure, so this time I must be more organised.

I got out of bed at 9:30pm (after being unable to get to sleep), fixed myself an omelette, packed my water bottle and some casein pudding and hit the road.

I’m not sure when I am going to finish tonight, but by the look of it, around 7am. I am currently eating meal 8 and will let you know how my night went tomorrow. Until then…

- Scott

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of protein powder, 1 cup of oats

(with multi-vitamin, l-carnitine, yohimbe & green tea caps)

Meal 2 – CNP Pro MR shake

Meal 3 – Subway (6” roast chicken on wheat with lettuce, tomato & onion)

Meal 4 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 5 – 150g chicken breast (with multi-vitamin)

Meal 6 – post-workout shake

Meal 7 – 1 cup of liquid egg whites (omelette) (with multi-vitamin)

Meal 8 – 1 scoop of casein protein

4 litres of water with 6 scoops of xtend

Pre-workout – bHip energy blend (lol jk NOXPUMP) (with l-carnitine, yohimbe & green tea caps)

Decline DB Flys – 3x15 @ 12.5kg

Decline DB Press – 3x15 @ 12.5kg

Incline DB Flys – 2x15 @ 12.5kg

Bench Dips – 2x15 @ body weight

Overhead Cable Extentions – 2x15 @ 1.3 plates

Cable Push-Downs – 2x15 @ 8 plates

Post-workout shake: 2 scoops of whey protein, 80g dextrose, 5g creatine, 5g glutamine

PS I just found out that Kris retweeted my tweet! Check it!

Follow him! @kagedmuscle and me @scott__long

Day 2 - Special Delivery!

2011-08-30T20:27:00.000+10:00

Supplement order arrived today! This completes my supplement stack for the program. I was hoping they'd arrive last Friday but that obviously wasn't the case. So now i have the 3 legs of the stool all sorted: Training, Nutrition and Supplementation

(from left to right)
- CNP Professional Pro MR meal replacement
- DY Nutrition NOXPUMP
- Optimum Nutrition Creatine
- NOW Green Tea Extract
-  Optimum Nutrition Casein Protein
-  Optimum Nutrition Opti-Men Mutli Vitamin
-  Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein
-  Twin Lab Yohimbe Fuel
- Scivation Xtend
- NOW L-Carnitine
-  Optimum Nutrition Glutamine

Shout outs to http://a1supplements.com.au/ for THE cheapest supplements in Australia and also to http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of protein powder

Meal 2 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 4 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 5 – 1 cup of liquid egg whites (omelet)

Meal 6 – 180g round steak

A.M Cardio - 20 walk

P.M Cardio - 20 Cross Trainer

Pumped up for chest and tris tomorrow at Fitness'n'Motion! But until then...

Day 1 - And It Begins...

2011-08-29T19:58:00.001+10:00

5am start this morning. Woke up and nailed down a brekky shake, chucked on me woolies and hit the road for 20mins of cardio. Cardio was a lot easier than I expected, in saying that I was pretty pumped up being the first day. I found that I didn't get much of a sweat up but it was about 15 degrees outside. Might try to rug up a bit more tomorrow.

Found it pretty hard to eat all my meals today, the smell of chicken and rice was a big reminder that this isn't going to be easy. Took me 40mins to eat meal 4. I'm thinking about packing a shake for meal 3 in future.

Brock and I it the gym at around 6pm to do back and biceps. I always find my lats difficult to really hit but we'll see how sore I am in a couple of days. Hyperextentions almost killed me again, I blacked out for a few seconds after the second set which pumped me up to see if I could pass out on the third but my lower back was well spent by that time.

I found that having music in my ears was more of a hindrance than a help. I might save the ipod for solo workouts.

Anyway, just finished my post workout shake, time for a shower and bed. Until tomorrow...

Meal 1 – 2 scoops of protien, 1 cup of oats

Meal 2 – 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 3 - 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 4 - 150g chicken breast, 150g brown rice

Meal 5 – 1 scoop of protein, ½ cup of oats

Meal 6 – Post-workout shake

4 litres of water

Pre-workout supps – NOXPUMP (DY Nutrition)

Lat Pull Down – 3 sets of 15 reps with 11 plates

Seated Cable Row - 3 sets of 15 reps with 10 plates

Dumbell Shrugs - 3 sets of 15 reps with 25kg

Hyper-Extention - 3 sets of 12 reps with body weight

Machine Preacher Curls - 3 sets of 15 reps with 2.3 plates

Concentration Curls - 3 sets of 15 reps with 7kg

Post-workout Supps: 2 scoops of protein power, 80g dextrose, 5g creatine

Day minus 1 - Cooked

2011-08-28T21:45:00.001+10:00

Good evening reader.

I post this using my phone as i lie in bed absolutely cooked after spending all cooking (see what i did there?) unfortunately my benches are made for midgets, not men so my back is a tad bit sore.

But i still had to make a post seeing its one more sleep till we kick this all off.

Anyway, gotta hit that hay, got 20mins of cardio in about 7 hours!
Gotta get shredded!!! Haha

Day Minus 5 - "It's" about to get real

2011-08-25T00:09:00.000+10:00

Good evening reader(s),

Just thought I'd post a quick post out seeing it's only 5 days from the start day.

To be honest, I'm not as pumped as I thought I would be this far out. I think that's because I have tried and failed before and really don't want that to happen again. In saying that, I feel I have covered every base so actually failing should be quite difficult.
I have a training partner who is more than excited to kick this off and transform himself into Thor. I have this blog where I will share everything I do helping me to keep accontable. And I have a very judgemental bathroom mirror haha.
But I'm sure once I finish that first cardio session before work on Monday, I will be psyched for it.

Now, I originally planned to do a few detailed posts on training, nutrition and supplementation but I recently decided that I won't. Only because all the details of these things are covered in the book (http://www.amazon.com/Body-Design-Complete-12-Week-Transform/dp/1451602170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314193149&sr=8-1) and I want to encourage you to buy it. In saying that I will still be posting what I train, eat and supplement with each day and if you have any questions, just comment on that post and I will be happy to help.

A quick summary of the training schedule is weights 3 days a week, cardio 7 days a week and twice a day on rest days.

I will be eating only whole foods. My protein will be coming from chicken breast, lean steak and fish. My carbs will be low G.I, these will be rolled oats, brown rice, sweet potato and some vegetables. The only fats I'll be eating are that fats naturally occurring in the protein sources.

I will be taking protein, pre-workout, post-workout, recovery and fat burning supplements.

I will elaborate why my training/nutrition/supplementation is like this as the program goes on instead of just flooding you with information, so if you are interested, stay tuned!

Anywho, my training partner, Brock Beazley and I are going food shopping tomorrow so I'll take some photos of that and throw them up and HOPEFULLY all my supplements will be delivered in the next 2 days and I'll get a few pics of them for you too.

I'll leave you with a song from one of the best hip-hop acts of all time and one of my favourite acts, The Streets. This song has got some great lines in it and I am sure it will help me make it though the tough 12 weeks that are ahead of me. You'll probably just think "what is this rot I am listening to?!" haha. Untill next time...

- Scott

Day Minus 9 - Goal setting with FLOW

2011-08-20T13:55:00.000+10:00

Alright kids, it's time for another blog post.

This morning I'm going to share with you my fitness goals and pretty much what I want to get out of this transformation.

In the book, Kris uses the F.L.O.W goal setting technique which I’m sure some of you have seen before. FLOW stands for:

Fixed

Limitless

Opportunities

Weaknesses

Fixed goals are like, short term goals. In this program they will relate to your physical appearance, for example: Get six-pack abs or lose 10kg.

Limitless goals are more long term goals or goals that inspire us from within. These goals don't have a “completion date.” Examples of these goals are: Becoming fitter so I have more energy to play with my kids or feel confident in your body.

Opportunities are doors that will opened as you continue to improve your health. Some of these may be: Become a qualified personal trainer so you can help other people reach their fitness goals or meet new like-minded people who may inspire you.

And finally weaknesses are things that are potential 'roadblocks' or things that will distract you from your goals. Like: bacon strips, bacon strips, bacon strips or poor organisation skills.

This is my FLOW chart

To explain my weaknesses, anyone that knows me well, knows I am terrible at organising myself which last time lead to missed meals and cardio. This time round I am consistantly working 1-3 nights a week as well as during the day which is going to be THE hardest thing about this transformation. But if I sacrifice a little bit of sleep to get my cardio and workouts done, make sure I have all my meals precooked and always have a meal replacement shake in my car just in case, I shouldnt have any issues.

Unitl next time...

PS If you wanna learn more about proper goal setting for motivation have a look at:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/the-new-science-of-motivation-body-by-design.html
and
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kris-gethins-4-secrets-to-success-for-2011.html
OR

Go and buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Body-Design-Complete-12-Week-Transform/dp/1451602170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314085733&sr=8-1

Day Minus 16 - A Quick Update

2011-08-13T12:18:00.000+10:00

Welcome back! Or if it's your first time here, welcome!

After reading the first blog post again (if you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do it now), I thought some of you may be asking yourselves “how can he be so confident that this program will work?” Let me take some time to explain.

I have followed one of Kris Gethin's 12-week transformations before (12-week hardcore trainer to be exact) and due to my own undoing, it was with out 100% success. I ended up “wussing-out” after 9 weeks after getting a cold, making excuses and creating a defeated mindset instead of picking my chin up and powering on. In saying that, I did lose about 18kg (40lbs) in 9 weeks and put on some solid muscle. So I am certain this program will work, it's all up to the individual and how badly they want it.

The biggest thing I struggled with was accountablilty. I didn't tell many people I was following the program and therefore, if I missed a meal, if I cheated, if I missed a cardio session, only I knew. Which made is very easy to fall off the rails. This is pretty much the main reason of this blog. It says in the book to join “Bodyspace,” (http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/) which is a fitness social networking website to help with accountability and tracking your progress. It was good for various reasons but because I knew no one on it, I could still get away with what I was doing. But this time I will be all over facebook, posting on this blog and I have a training partner with the same goals so it be a WHOLE lot easier.

Yeah, speaking of my training partner, Brock Beazley (of http://www.brockbeazleyphotography.com/ fame, yeah, a shameless plug haha) has decided to do the program with me! So I'll keep you updated about him as well, because being a small-business owner, he will be doing it on a budget and doesn't work a regular “9-5, 5 days a week” week which some of you could relate with.

Anywho, I might leave this post here, short(er) and sweet. But I will be back soon with more detailed posts on my training, nutrition and supplementation as well as a few little tips and tricks I learnt from last time I followed the program. And I will touch more on all the specifics of the program as I get closer to the start date of August 29.

Until then, watch this video. It's the trailer for the Body By Design book, which I complete forgot existed until I had completed the first post. It explains things a little better than I can. Enjoy!

- Scott

PS Go and buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Body-Design-Complete-12-Week-Transform/dp/1451602170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314085733&sr=8-1

Day minus 24 - The First Post

2011-08-05T02:12:00.000+10:00

Greetings!

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read my blog, well, to read this far at least.

I thought I should set the scene so everyone knows why I am taking the time to write all this.

My name is Scott Long and I have an excessive body fat percentage. In other words, I am big fatty haha. I am just your average, run of the mill, 25 year old kid from Caboolture, QLD. I work as a technician for Telstra and I enjoy fishing, going to the gym and apple turn-overs fro Mai’s Hot Bread Shop (which unfortunately, do not go hand in hand).

My weight has not really been big an issue for myself (it has for my knees haha), but as I get older, everyday things are getting harder to do. Things like tying my shoes laces, getting in and out of cars and walking, anywhere haha. One day I thought to myself "If I'm only 25 now and it's this hard to do things, imagine 5, 10, 20 years time?!"

So like many people that are overweight and looking for a solution, I have been actively trying to find ways to 'lose weight' and keep it off. After trying a few diets and exercise programs, I have found the answer.

This program is called "Body By Design" and it’s the product of Kris Gethin, who is the Editor In Chief of bodybuilding.com a specialises in 12-week transformations.

Kris has been around the fitness and bodybuilding scene for many years. I am not here to blow smoke up his behind so if want to know more about him, you can read more about him in his book or on bodybuiling.com. Long story short, I trust he knows what he is talking about.

Gethin’s book, Body By Design teaches a few things that are vital to successfully reaching your weight loss/gain goals which I will touch on at a later date but today I'm here to tell you why I've started blogging.

This blog is going to help me firstly, by tracking my progress. “Research has shown that keeping a food journal alone can double weight loss. One study published in the journal Behaviour Therapy took it a step further by determining that "obsessive-compulsive" self monitoring was the most effective-this means that the more detailed you are with your records, the better your results.”

So I plan to record everything from what I eat, what I lift and how I’m feeling about everything on this blog.

Secondly, it’s going to help me keep accountable. “The most powerful method to bind internal goals to external actions is to tell everyone about your goals: in other words, to make your private commitments public. Studies have shown that turning a private goal into a public one can propel it from a passive to an active state; like the flip of a switch, sharing your goals with others shines a light on your commitments and ensures that you stick to them. It may seem as though a simple concept couldn't possibly have such a significant impact, but research has repeatedly provide that telling others about your plans can make all the difference.
What happens when you make a visible commitment is that you put your reputation on the line. If you share a goal with someone and then act inconsistently with fulfilling it, you are seen as lacking integrity and trustworthiness”
So even if only one person reads this blog, (which will be my Mum haha) I can be kept accountable if I miss a meal, eat something I shouldn’t (or ‘cheat’ as they say the in fitness industry) or skip a workout/cardio session, I have someone/where to confess to.

And thirdly, it will hopefully inspire someone else to take up the challenge of completing the Body By Design 12-week transformation as well. The blog will be able to show that if you put in the hard yards, you WILL reap the rewards.

That’s just about enough for the first post. Hopefully every post won’t be this long so you don’t get bored of me rambling and lose interest.

If you want to learn more about Body By Design you can go to the website: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/body-by-design.htm or just go to amazon.com and buy the book. It’s about $30 US which is about 25 cents Australian and it is well worth the money!

PS I am not paid or sponsored by anyone to write this blog or blow smoke up it, I simply believe it is a great product and want to tell anyone who will listen about it.

- Scott