DAY 15 - Back to 40/30/30/Stretch-Pause, Part 1

WEIGHT = 168.5 LBS (I actually thought it would be higher!)

WORKOUT

This was the first day of a new week which means things change again. That's to be expected, though, since this program is only 4 weeks long. Actually, the final 2 weeks are about the same implementing a routine called "stretch-pause" training. This is another unique training method I had not heard of before. The principle is that you do a "normal" set of a full-range contraction exercise (say bench press) to failure, follow that up with a stretch exercise (say chest flyes), and then jump right back to the first exercise (bench press) but...you only do partial reps to burnout. Rest 90 seconds and then do that again.

DAY 15's schedule called for following that routine for chest, back, biceps, calves, and traps. Learning something new is always a challenge so this was no different! I struggled a bit with weight selection and logistics. Since you're only supposed to rest 20 seconds between mini-sets (90 seconds between full sets), you don't have much time to make adjustments! This resulted in a pretty long workout. The time sure flew, though, since I was constantly changing exercises and weights. I had a good sweat worked up, too, which I felt good about.

Post workout, my muscles felt pumped all night! I hope that continues for the rest of the program.

DIET

After a couple of low fat, high protein days it was back to normal again. Damn those walnuts tasted good this morning!

Breakfast: Protein shake with creatine. 3 oz of homemade breakfast sausage and one serving of "overnight oatmeal" (the recipe link is not exact but pretty close).

Snack (2): 1 cup of blueberries, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 4 tsp ground flax with some cinnamon

Lunch: I made up a killer stir fry over the weekend to heat up for lunches a couple times this week. Grilled chicken, 1/2 cup red onion, 1 cup broccoli, 1-1/2 cups green beans (fresh from the farmer's market), brown basmati rice...all mixed up in a tablespoon of coconut oil with garlic.


Snack (2): 1/2 cup of cottage cheese with 1 cup of blueberries. 4 tsp ground flax seed.

Dinner: The wife is on a roll with dinners and tonight was no exception! Turkey meatloaf! After my workout, I had a protein shake with glutamine then it was time for meatloaf. On the side I had some sweet potato with coconut oil, molasses, and cinnamon. I followed that up with some fresh yellow watermelon from the farmer's market.

Pre-bed Snack: 1 cup of yogurt with almonds.

Today's food volume was pretty high so tomorrow I'll try to lighten things up tomorrow (DAY 16).