Day off...

Took a day off today, felt like crap. Got a slight sinus cold. Might even take tomorrow off if I really feel like crap, or just go in and sweat it out, do some cardio.

If I do go in, I will bring my FLIP and do Bench. I want to first show what my form is like (horrid, I'm sure, after watching "so you think you can bench"), and what my max is.

Then once I get my form down really well and everything in a few weeks or months, I'll repost and show the difference.

New Gym First Workout

I had a great workout tonight. I am really liking the new gym, it has every free weight from 1-100 with 2 pairs of each weight. Lots of really good cable machines. Lots of really good free range cables. But whats awesome is the men's locker room and stuff. There is a whirlpool, sauna, tanning beds, big screen TV, and like 20 other things that are awesome. I think I might move in there.

There are 10 tennis courts, and a track (all indoor), 2 bike and plyo rooms. Enough about the gym though.

I maxed out at 95lbsx3 on the EZ Bar Curl, it should be noted that I was swinging what felt like, quite a bit.

Really warmed up well, with heating up my shoulders for an hour, then dynamic stretched them.

Dumbbell Curl 45lbs each x 6 reps x 3 sets
Preacher Curl 65lbsx6Rx3S
Forearm Curl/Rev Curl 35lbs/15lbsx15ishx3
Cable Curl Twist 90 degrees 35lbs each x 6reps each direction x 3S
Chin Ups (Bodyweight) 15x2

Now lets just all pretend you all read all that.

Caz big-ish Update

After a few weeks of debating, I am going to stop playing hockey this season completely. Focus on working, living life, and bulking up.

I have set a goal of weighing 210 by March 1st. No goals in terms of lifting yet, as I have yet to get a solid gym membership yet. I don't know exactly what I weigh now, but I think it is probably 185ish. What is more important to me is being stronger and bigger. I desperately need to work on my front delts/clavicular pecs, along with my forearms, abs, and hamstrings.

I'm back on Creatine fulltime, and feel stronger up top than ever before.

I think I need to rethink my bulking process too, I am thinking about cycling workouts every 2 weeks. Maybe supersetting for 2 weeks, low rep maxing for 2 weeks, plyometric/stretching for 2 weeks. Any thoughts, please let me know. I'm just thinking P90x style in terms of 'muscle confusion'.

Lastly, I am seriously thinking about getting even more flexible, I'm already in the 95th percentile, but I would like to be far more flexible. Thinking everyday yoga or something.

New things

I am starting to really settle in in Kzoo.  I have a PT job now, just need to look for a FT one in the mean time.  After figuring out what I will be doing next, either playing in the NA or walking on next year.  I will start changing things up for my workout, get a settled program.

I need to find a legitimate gym, then I will start going my vids again I think.

I think I may start coaching/teaching the game again.

If I do decide to try and walk on, my goals will be to Bulk all winter long, to get up to 200 lbs, then cut down to 6% BF before June 1st.

Workouts are going good.  I'm focusing on just maintaining or bulking slightly.  Doing mostly muscle group training.  I'm trying to drop my Caloric intake down to 2000calories, which is tough considering I'm use to eating upwards of 4000 calories/day.  I'm also dropping my protein to 150g, and upping the quality of the protein I am getting (more amino acids).

I got a job working for a local Elementary School, working as a lunch/recess aid.  Which is pretty fun work, the kids are a riot.

I am really enjoying playing the Battlefield 3 Beta, putting up a 2-3 k/d every game.

After arriving back in Kzoo, I feel a great burden has finally lifted from my shoulders.  I know I can finally move on to whatever I want to, at my leisure.  Coaching, Teaching, Playing, or nothing at all.

The future is certainly bright again.

Heading back to Kalamazoo today.  10 hour drive, don't know what the future might hold.

After over a month of silence, I think I am will try to get back to Blogging.  I am making some serious changes in my life including leaving my current hockey team.  Not sure what the future holds.  The great part about the future is that it is only bound by your imagination.

Update on Training Camp

Well, without saying what is needed (like 5 paragraphs). Training camp is going well.

I ran a 23min 15second 3.3 mile run. On monday.

And then today I ran a 11min 40second 1.7 mile run.

Its been a wicked couple weeks of workouts. Lots of icebathes. Lots of plyometrics. Lots of sprints. Lots of sore feet.

Thinking of changing caloric intake

After reading a little up on the issue and doing a few small/simple formula's I feel that I need to decrease my caloric intake a little during training camp do drop a few pounds of fat until the season really gets started.

First, I will be eating 175g of Protein from now on, instead of closer to 200-225.

Second, my BMR is ~1975kcalories. By playing hockey I need to add roughly 1000kcals/hr for that, along with exercise I would need to add even more. In other words, on a hockey+workout day, I might ingest 3500calories instead of my 4250-4500 now, and on a off day, I will probably only ingest 2500. I feel that after a month of trying this, I will have a better guesstimate on my maintenance kcal needs. All in all, I will be watching over each day how much kcals I need. Soon I will be getting a calorie, and heart rate monitor so hopefully I can watch these figures even closer.

Thoughts on Day 2 and 3 of Training camp coming soon today.

Training Camp

So over the next couple weeks or so, I will be posting regarding my Training Camp for this upcoming hockey season with my team.

Day 1 (8/15/11) - After getting a lot of politics(ish) stuff out of the way, training camp finally arrived. I went in with a different attitude than I have previously because I knew a good percentage of the team and knew the coach and surrounding cast.

The day started out for me at 9am wake up, with a good breakfast of bagels and Wheaties.

After arriving at the rink at 12 noon, we had a team meeting until roughly 1:30pm. At which point we were given workout gear, and sent outside to what we thought was the warmup to a day of testing. No.

We worked out outside for roughly an hour doing calisthenics/plyometrics/cardio work.

We then moved into a cycling room where we worked our legs on the bikes for around 15 minutes of hell. Then we tested our Bench, and Squat, both numbers I won't disclose because I feel they are inferior to my PR's.

After all this we went back outside to do a timed 2.2mile run. I finished with a time of 15minutes, 23 seconds, which is pretty good considering how much stuff we did prior.

2 weeks of Food Averages

Daily Food Averages

For week of 7/19-7/25

4095.6cals

497.6g Carbs
32.9g Dfiber
46.6% Carbs

158.7g Fat
45.7g SFat
23.5g PolyUnSat
56.9g MonoUnSat
3693.6mg Omega 3
19161.9mg Omega 6
0.86g TransFat
34.1% Fat

194.4g Protein
19.3% Protein

For week of 7/26-8/1

4052.6cals
529.7g Carbs
39g DFiber
50.4% Carbs

161.7g Fat
41.9g SFat
19.3g Poly Unsat
65g Mono Unsat
1645.6mg Omega 3
16670.7mg Omega 6
1.19g Trans
34.7% Fat

152.6g Protein
14.9% Protein

Keep in mind that I was on a mild vacation from the 20th to the 1st, and from the 26-31st I was on a Carbs diet for the 5 game weekend.

Thoughts on tryout with Port Huron (+Game 3, 4, 5)

Looking back at the weekend, I felt that I have no regrets, which in the end, is all I can ask for.

I give myself a A- on the all 5 games + the testing. I would have gotten a A+ had I scored more.

Game 3-5 on Saturday were a lot better, I was able to keep my energy levels up through all the games through proper rest, nutrition, and warm up methods.

By game 5, I was still able to go 100% without sacrificing for anything, which really helped me.

I didn't get picked for the All-Star games, which I figured might have been the case. I did absolutely nothing wrong, was in the top 25% on the weekend, but the team already had their team picked and there were only 3-6 spots to fill.

If the team was ONLY looking for players who could score, then they will fail later on when they can't skate, or have hockey sense worth a crap.

Now I'm back to Maryland for training with Network, 3 more weeks, then moving to whatever team I sign with. Lots of decisions to make. :/

Str8Geno!

Port Huron Weekend :: Game 2 & Testing

Bench Test, Shoulder Width (+2 inches), 2 inches off chest: 135lbs, 18reps (semi-failure)

Pull Up Test, Shoulder Width, Palms Facing Forward: Body (180lbs), 16reps (semi-failure)

Stand and Jump Test: 8 Feet Flat

I felt that if I had a good night of sleep I could have done slightly better in all tests. It wasn't as good as the testing I got at Network but I did really well compared to everyone else.

I felt I could better 8 feet on the Jump, but honestly, I wasn't positive.

Game 2:

I played pretty well overall. Played very well in the first period. Not very well in the 2nd, just not putting things together. 3rd period went okay, but again not amazing. I played really well, really quick, made the best of the situations I was in, but never scored.

I give myself a B+ on the day. B- for game 1, A- for the testing, and B+ for game 2.

Port Huron Weekend :: Game 1

Game 1 was a game where everything was easily predictable. I knew going in that everyone would be going hard in the first period and trail off from there. I played pretty well the first period, not getting the puck too much though. The second period was a crap-shoot, I started getting tired and double shifted a couple times when the Center's were switching up accidentally. I played well towards the end of the 2nd period, and going into the 3rd period I played very well. Almost scoring on two occasions. I felt a little grogy, drained and light headed, but I think it was mostly due to not having a great night of sleep. My problem was sleeping soundly. Last night I didn't get 2 hours of straight sleep. Maybe 7 hours of sleep, but not REM sleep. Sucks. I really needed it to, didn't play up to my potential in game one.

Hopefully game two is much better along with Combine testing afterwards. I will update after that, later tonight.

GohardorGohome.

Thoughts on future physically

http://www.leangains.com/2010/12/maximum-muscular-potential.html<<

To take it all in. I would be somewhere between 170 and 177 ish. I'll go with 174. Which is okay. I honestly don't want to drop any more weight than where I am right now. I would like to stay at 180 until next March.

I need about 5 lbs of baby fat for hockey to burn in case I need reserves in games or what-not. So I could perhaps get down to 5% BF, but I would need that extra 2-3% for energy to burn in case I have nothing left from being on the ice.

For now during this upcoming season I will be doing the same workout I am doing now, lots of Cardio, plenty of Plyo and dynamic stretching. Maybe hit the gym and tone the muscles I want to be tone that would atrophy otherwise every week or so in a circuit workout. My only goals physically will be to increase my flexibility, thru yoga most-likely.

Starting next March I will go through 2-3 months of Lean Bulk, along with more Physcial Therapy for my Shoulders.

Edit - Thought of one more thing I would like to change physically dramatically. I would like to pack on some muscle to my core (abs mainly), and increase my VO2 Max.

Leading up to Tryout

So the last few days has been a not-so-good draw on my nutrition. But now all the partying is over, the next 3 days its all loading up on food, and tons of cardio, core work, and plyo. Friday I have 2 games, Saturday I have 3, Sunday I might have another 2 if I make the All-Star games.

So I'm probably going to eat close to 6000 calories tomorrow and thursday. Looking to figure out how much Carbs and Fats in percentages I should be having during that time.

Watch out, this weekend is going to be off the chain.

Last week's averages

This past week 7/12-7/18 averages were....

3879.4 Cals

445.4g Carbs
32g DFiber
44.7% Carbs

151.9g Fats
41g Sat Fats
35.1g PolyUnsat
55.8g MonoUnsat
6265mg Omega 3
28163mg Omega 6
1.2g Trans Fats
34.7% Fats

195.3g Protein
20.6% Protein

My thoughts.....I am sticking to 200g of Protein, 150 is near impossible to achieve with my caloric intake, and at 150 I am noticing muscle atrophy in my upperbody.

I started eating some fatty fish and macadamia nuts.

I would still like to see it become 40%C, 40%F, 20%P though.

Sunburned....

I have learned my lesson, that is all.

My first week of Fatty diet, daily macro averages.

4052Cals

528g Carbs
39.7g DFiber
51%Carbs

136g Fats
39.7g Sat Fats
27.3g PolyUnsat
44.7g MonoUnsat
1789.7mg Omega 3
25754.1mg Omega 6
1.11 Trans Fat
29.3% Fats

197.4g Protein
19.7% Protein

My thoughts, I need to drop my Protein and Total Carbs down a little. I want to get my I want to be looking at 3500cals, 400g Carbs, 200g Fat, 150g Protein. It will be hard though.