Okay, Tuesday morning I got back into the gym. I worked out twice Tuesday; shoulders in the morning and triceps in the afternoon. Today (Wednesday), I hit the gym once and finished heavy week with back and biceps. But, being Wednesday, I'll start with my stats.

Weights & Measures Day:

My weight remained the same but my body composition improved. I lost fat and gained muscle. Cool! This is most likely due to dietary changes I made after last weeks weigh-in. Let me explain...

Dietary Changes Lead to Results!

I cleaned up my diet over the past week a bit. I also increased my caloric intake to 4000 calories/day. I increased my fat intake to 35% of my daily calories or about 155 grams of fat per day. For fat sources, I eat primarily salmon and almonds (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats). Although I do eat about 2 lbs. of beef per day which accounts for about 25% of my daily fat intake. I'm eating 400 grams of protein per day or 40% of my calories from protein. My carb intake is at 25% of my daily calories or 250 grams/day.

The above dietary changes seem to have made a positive difference. My strength is up. I'm gaining lean tissue fairly quickly. Fat is very anabolic so keeping my fat intake so high helps greatly with muscle growth. It is very important for keeping testosterone levels as high as possible.

By dropping my carb intake to 25% of my daily caloric intake, I seem to have slowed down the rate at which I am gaining body fat. I'm still eating enough carbs to have plenty of strength in the gym but not enough for my body to store the extra carbs as energy (fat).

Just to be on the safe side, I had some blood work done. I had this done because of the large qualities of protein and fat I've been ingesting. Both of my kidneys were severely damaged in a motorcycle accident many years ago so I like to err on the side of safety. Large amounts of protein and/or fat can wreak havoc on the kidneys if not enough water is consumed. 

Other than a slightly elevated BUN reading, everything look fine. BUN stands for blood urea nitrogen. BUN is an end product of protein metabolism. Elevated levels can indicate potential kidney problems. However, BUN levels can also become elevated when consuming large amounts of protein. At 400 grams/day, it is very likely that this elevated level is due to the consumption of so much protein. To resolve this issue, I increased my water consumption by 1/2 gallon per day.

Anyway, I'm still hovering around 10% body fat so I'll continue on my quest to gain muscle mass for a few more weeks anyway. At some point in the near future, I'll make to switch to my cutting phase as I have my first contest of the year scheduled for April 14, 2007.

Onto my recent workouts...

Tuesday Morning's Workout (Shoulders):

Having shoulder injuries, I decided to do a hypertrophy workout as opposed to a heavy one. After a lengthy warm-up, I started out with some triple drop sets of dumbbell lateral raises...

Dumbbell Lateral Raises (Triple Drop Set):

30s x 12, 25s x 12, 20s x 12 (no rest between weight changes)

30s x 12, 25s x 12, 20s x 12 (no rest between weight changes)

35s x 12, 30s x 10, 25s x 10 (no rest between weight changes)

35s x 10, 30s x 10, 25s x 10 (no rest between weight changes)

I kept my form super strict for the dumbbell lateral raises, using a 3,0,2,1 tempo. Next, I hit the cable machine and set the pulley at the lowest setting for some single-arm cable lateral raises...

Single-Arm Cable Lateral Raises:

35 x 12/12

35 x 12/12

35 x 10/10

30 x 12/12

My shoulders were absolutely enormous with the pump I received by this point. Then I put both pulleys down to the lowest settings on the cable cross. I grabbed the left handle with the right hand and the right handle with the left hand. I bent at the waist so that my upper body was parallel to the floor and did 3 sets of reverse cable flies for the posterior (rear) delts.

Reverse Cable Flies:

35s x 12

35s x 12

35s x 12

My shoulders were really sore at this point - but from muscle pain (a good thing). I finished my delts with 3 sets of reverse flies on the Body Masters pec deck/reverse fly machine...

Reverse Flies on the Body Masters Machine using a 4,0,2,1 tempo:

80 x 21

100 x 12

100 x 12

That was it for Tuesday morning's workout. I returned in the afternoon for a heavy tricep workout.

Tuesday Afternoon's Workout (Triceps - Heavy):

After many, many warm-up sets, I started my heavy tricep workout with weighted parallel dips with my elbows close to my sides...

Weighted Parallel Dips:

BW+100 x 5

BW+100 x 5

BW+100 x 4

Next I did a couple sets of decline skull crushers. I like to do these on the decline bench because the angle ensures that there is constant tension on the triceps.

Decline Skull Crushers:

125 x 6

135 x 6

That was it for triceps. I've had problems with my right elbow in the past and I started to feel a lot of stress on it. Besides, 5 very heavy sets for triceps is a good workout on heavy day.

Wednesday's Workout (Back and Biceps - Heavy):

For back I started with bent-over V-bar rows. To do these, I take an Olympic bar and stick one end in the corner. I place a 100 lb plate over the end in the corner. This helps keep that end of the bar down. I load the other end of the bar with plates. I grab the V-Bar from the seated row station and put it under the Olympic bar near the plates so that I can grab a handle on either side of the bar. Bending at the waist, I row the plates up to my mid-section.

Bent-Over V-Bar Rows:

225 x 4

225 x 6

225 x 6

Bent-Over Barbell Rows:

225 x 6

225 x 6

225 x 6

That was it for my heavy back workout. For biceps I started with straight-bar curls...

Straight-Bar Curls:

115 x 6

125 x 6

125 x 6

Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curls:

50s x 6/6

60s x 6/6

60s x 8/8

That finishes up heavy week. Tomorrow is a day off from the gym. Friday, I'll start my hypertrophy week with a couple of leg workouts.