Day 26: Kinesio Taping
Hello Shredders.
This is the second day of my little break from the Metabolic Surge program.
I have a long history of back problems. Most of them disappeared when I stopped working in front of a computer as I did for more than 10 years. I also have a problem with one of my upper vertebrae which can be seen very clear on x-ray images, but I never took care of it since childhood. Doctors prescribed physio therapy many moons ago, but I had lots of other more important things to do of course.
Since I take working out seriously, I realized that I have to do something about it sooner or later. It’s just not helpful if you are constantly stiff in your neck or you have random pain during movements when you work out or just turn your head around.
Kinesio Taping
So finally I went to a physio therapist and arranged an appointment with an orthopedist for some 3D scanning. The therapist is also a specialist in Kinesio Taping. I’ve heard of Kinesiology because I’ve read that bodybuilders or athlete’s often have a kinesiologist, but what exactly it is I don’t know.
The Kinesio tape is claimed to reduce swelling, pain and decrease muscle spasm. Invented by a Japanese chiropractor, Kenzo Kase, his taping technique has been used by sports medicine professional world-wide.
As for the taping, despite the similar name, it seems not to be related at first look but it’s supposed to help me anyway. I’ve been three times at the therapist and he showed me a couple of stretching and mobilizing exercises, and massaged some stiffness away. Today he put some of these Kinesio tapes on my neck and I will see how that goes. On the long term I will have to see what the orthopedist says, and if I can relax my neck with some stretching and better posture.
Blame my Notebook
I am working with a notebook nowadays instead of a desktop computer. So my keyboard and my monitor are in a completely different position and not very adjustable. For instance, it is a rule of thumb for healthy posture to put the monitor in a height so that the first line is at the height of your eyes. Try that with a notebook. If you add some short or far sightness into the mix you have lots of people sitting in front of their notebooks with a very unnatural posture for their spines.
PS: If you look at today’s pictures you can see the blue tape on my shoulders.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
 Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 26 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 4 Comments
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 25: Weekend Ahead
Hello Shredders.
This was the first day of my little break from my Metabolic Surge mission. A much needed break with a lot of catching up and finally a couple of hours in my free time that I don’t spend in front of my computer or in the gym. I didn’t plan it that way, but it turns out my break falls on a weekend. This is even better!
You can probably see on the date of the blog post, that I am posting this one day delayed. Basically this means I don’t turn on my computer at the end of the day to process my photo and update DAS, nutrition plan and blog. Instead, I will keep updating sporadically for the time being, until at least I continue on the Metabolic Surge in a few days from now.
Nutrition wise I could have done better. I am sure I am within my calorie limit, but I ate outside at the afternoon and the food available was not as clean as I hoped for. I consider it as a cheat meal, as normally the MS program recommends to have a cheat meal at the last day of Phase 3 which I had one day earlier without cheat meal.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 25 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 1 Comment
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 24: End of Round 2
Metabolic Surge: Round 2, Phase 3, Day 5
Hello Shredders.
This is Day 24 and hence the last day of my current (second) round of Metabolic Surge. After my yesterday’s realization moment that not only my camera is out of focus, I have kept my plan and went for the full body Pre Exhaust Superset Workout followed by HIIT on a stationary bike and even some extra steady state cardio.
The gym was very busy, so I had to perform two of the exercises in non-superset fashion with extra short rest. But I also felt it was a successful workout, mainly in the legs but also on the other body parts.
The Priority Principle
I also came to the conclusion that I should probably prioritize my biceps workout in the future. The priority principle says that you should do the weakest body part first. Weakest not in term of strength, but in terms of where you feel you need more work. I have occasionally skipped the Biceps and often felt kind of embarrassed when the gym was busy, because the weights that I use are so small compared to other people. Not that I would normally care what other people think, but it definitely influenced my actions in the past. Call me shallow. Technically I will have to check this first, as if I fatigue the biceps (arms in general) first thing in the workout I may have problems hitting the maximum performance with the following exercises, but I am sure with the right state of mind and planning prioritizing the biceps will be possible. I could also have an extra workout for biceps and arms only for example. Even once a week would already be a big step forward.
Nutrition wise everything is going well. Since I put the MS schedule on the sidelines to catch up on other things, I don’t expect a very high energy expenditure during the next couple of days. This means I am going back to my normal TDEE calorie level on the baseline diet during that time. I don’t want to compromise the results I achieved so far with the Metabolic Surge workouts by overeating for days.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 24 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 1 Comment
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 23: Regroup
Hello Shredders.
Day 23 of my mission (yesterday) didn’t go as planned. I’ve had a lot to do in the past couple of days and therefore a lot of stress. I also learned about some disturbing news at Monday afternoon that will keep me thinking for a while and have an influence on my life for the next couple of years.
However, all this will not stop me from completing my mission successfully, I’ll just have to rearrange my priorities a bit and off we go.
Temporary Out of Focus Experience
I’ve been sitting here yesterday before my workout to go through some past workouts-sheets and note down the weights to use during the scheduled Pre-Exhaust Supersets, when I realized that I was barely able to focus on that, yet alone focus in the gym lifting the weights. Frustration set in for a bit, and then I decided that it is probably the best time to take a day off and get back to an organized way. My wife was at the same time preparing for a long refreshing walk up to the mountain peak and I didn’t even want to join her for that. I thought about it for a moment, but really wanted to be without anything going on for a few hours and just switch off. I also consciously didn’t write this blog post yesterday evening, I took my daily picture (don’t want to miss any days!) but kept the computer off on purpose.
Regroup
In situations like this, I’ve learned in the past, it is probably the best to rethink a few tasks on the schedule, maybe change a few self-inflicted deadlines and most importantly regroup.
Today would be official Metabolic Surge rest day (Day 24). After I return home later in the day, I will complete what I missed out yesterday. Meaning I am going to do my full body Pre-Exthaust Supersets today, followed by an HIIT session. So in effect, I will then have switched Day 23 and Day 24 and could go on as usual.
This last workout is also the final workout of Phase 3 of the current round and a new round of Metabolic Surge will start with a low carb meal plan after that. However, before starting this new round I will catch up with some paperwork on my desk and take care of some other things, to ensure I have a clear mind when I kick it off. There is normally no more rest between these rounds, but I am now putting the Metabolic Surge schedule on the side until I feel ready to go back to my PRW and move into Round 3. This may be two days, it maybe five. We’ll see.
In the meantime I’ll keep eating clean, doing my cardio, take daily pictures and update my accountability scores. I might even throw in a weight workout if I start to miss the cold iron. I just want to make sure I am doing this wholeheartedly, I am not a friend of half-baked potatoes.
PS: Funny how this shows one more time that all of this happens in the head. I am fully recovered and it’s not my body that tells me to put these workouts on hold.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 23 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 3 Comments
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 22: 45 Minutes Cardio
Metabolic Surge: Round 2, Phase 3, Day 3
Hello Shredders.
This will be another very quick update. I did a lot of traveling in the car today and just returned from my 45 steady state cardio on the treadmill. I skipped one complete meal at 15:30 unfortunately and I am still not yet done eating my last oatmeal.
I also didn’t have enough time for my mental training and visualization today, but at least I got the cardio and blog post including daily photo and stats done.
I am going to hit the sack now without a lot of other explanations. Tomorrow will be another busy day, not only will I do Full Body Pre-Exhaust Supersets, I’ll be busy with other stuff all day long. I hope that things calm a bit down in the following few days.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 22 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | Leave a Comment
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 21: Busy Sunday
Metabolic Surge: Round 2, Phase 3, Day 2
Hello Shredders.
This was Day 21 of my mission and I feel the past two days of training in every single part of my body.
I initially planned to have my workout later during this Sunday, but changed my mind before noon and squeezed it in before the 1:30 meal. Turns out this was a good decision, I am very tired now and wouldn’t want to drive to the gym for an evening workout.
I spent all afternoon giving helicopter rides to some birthday girls and boys, the rides were birthday gifts from their parents and the weekend is the only time they have together.
Nutrition wise I was spot-on today. I ate my afternoon meals during breaks, but I had to cut back on water for a few hours to keep everything under control. Today I decided to leave out my 100 calories of walnuts and almonds from my breakfast for the near future. Metabolic Surge says to keep the fat as low as possible, but I kept these nuts anyway till now to have at least one (small) serving of healthy fat per day. I still get a bit of it with the seeds in my cereal and the bread, so it’s not completely gone.
Tomorrow is a cardio only day, no weight lifting. I’ll be on a road trip for a few hours, but depending when I am back I might also repeat my sauna and whirlpool session once more to support my recovery.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 21 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 3 Comments
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 20: Eating like a Horse
Metabolic Surge: Round 2, Phase 3, Day 1
Hello Shredders.
Today I started Phase 3 of my second round Metabolic Surge, which means Muscle Rounds training and eating like a horse. These are the exact words that our über-meal-planner Tom Venuto used to describe what’s needed to gain lean body mass in one of the recent audio interviews. The interview was conducted by Fitcast.com and the other person interviewed was Dr. John Berardi, he was the one who designed the meal plans for Nick Nilssons Metabolic Surge program. Go and download the freely available file to your iPod or MP3 player if you haven’t done that already.
Eating like a horse for me means an aggressive calorie surplus of up to 20%. Tom often says he recommends a surplus of 10 to 15%, but he also said that he would himself use an aggressive calorie surplus and cycle the calories 3 days high (surplus) and 3 days low (deficit) or TDEE, and work with the cardio to keep the fat off and adjust in real time if needed. It also means eating 100% clean food, I do not eat junk food ever and I rarely eat processed food. I can’t actually remember when I did the last time to be exact. Maybe my meal replacement bars from EAS that I have once in a while are the “junkiest” foods that I have, and the protein powder the most processed food now that I think about it. Or I might just be too tired to remember anything else right now. (Uh, the birthday cake from Day 10, I remember that one now)
I had no cardio scheduled for today, but I still used my mountain bike to go to the gym which gave me about 40 minutes of light cardio exercise. Since I have already done one round of Metabolic Surge, I was also able to use the correct weights this time and even increase a little bit from my last workout. On the way back I realized that this Muscle Round technique allowed me to do 96 squats (!!) with my highest 8-12 reps 3 sets squat weight from before.
I could still feel the soreness in my legs a bit before my workout, but yesterday’s sauna and whirlpool absolutely helped my recovery. I’ll definitely repeat it in the future.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 20 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 3 Comments
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 19: Whirlpool & Sauna
Metabolic Surge: Round 2, Phase 2, Day 2
Hello Shredders.
Today was a calm day, with no weight lifting and no cardio on the schedule. It was the second and last Nutrient Isolation Day for this round and I ate a lot of fruit and nothing else. I almost got a wrong start by getting up and subconsciously starting to prepare my cereal and nuts for what I usually eat for breakfast, but luckily before adding the milk I realized there was a problem. It’s now sitting on the kitchen top waiting for tomorrow morning.
I also went into a sauna and whirl pool today, both is supposed to help with recovery from the muscle soreness in my legs and also strengthen the immune system. It’s been ages that I was in a sauna, so I enjoyed it a lot. During the whirlpool session I thought the soreness is gone, but walking away from the place and cycling home proved me wrong.
As some of you know, I am normally living in Hong Kong which is the sauna and massage paradise. But over here where I am at for pilot training, in Europe, it’s a complete different story.
Tomorrow I’ll work my lower body using Muscle Rounds again, hopefully I am a bit more recovered by then. It’s also the start of Phase 3, which comes with high protein and low fat food. I’ll be in a calorie surplus again to gain as much muscle mass as possible over the next 5 days.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 19 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 6 Comments
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
Day 18: The DOMS is Back
Metabolic Surge: Round 2, Phase 2, Day 1
Hello Shredders.
We are writing Day 17 of my mission and I am once again on the first of my two Nutrient Isolation Days. There was no weight training today, but I did 30 minutes steady state cardio on a stationary bike and some stretching, as recommended by the Metabolic Surge author.
Walking was indeed a bit difficult today, with the DOMS back in full scale in my calves. This is the aftermath of the workout from Day 16, two days ago. I could also feel my quads and hamstrings from yesterday’s workout, but I expect the real DOMS to set in tomorrow or the day after on these two muscles.
The Dreaded Chicken Skin
I had to deduct two points from my accountability score today, because I too little on one of my meals (ate rushing out the door) and too much on the next meal. I had a half roasted chicken today and thinking that I am on Low-Carb so fat won’t hurt I ate the skin along with it. Only later I realized that this was a mistake and it boosted my fat intake for today exceeding my limits (“Very Low Carb Very Low Fat” was the official plan). I usually never eat the skin of the chicken, and unlucky as I am the chicken wasn’t as tasty as it usually is from the place I picked it up. Water was fine though. I was a bit worried for a few hours, but caught up on the early afternoon already with my usual amount.
1677 Calories of Fruit
Tomorrow is Fruits Only day, which means I can eat fruit only but as much as I want. I did exactly this on Day 7 of my mission, but until today I didn’t calculate how many calories I ate. Turns out I had 1677 calories. 16.1 grams of Protein, 384.2 grams of Carbohydrates and 8.45 grams of fat (and 10 blackberries, but I have no blackberries today to check the weight ;)
Interesting number, but I also have to admit that I couldn’t see any more fruit at the end of Day 7.
Daily Accountability Log:
Daily Blog Pics:
|
Pre Metabolic Surge |
 Metabolic Surge Day 18 |
Filed under: Mission 2 | 2 Comments
Tags: bffm, burn the fat, cardio, Food, Gym, Health, Life, metabolic surge, nick nilsson, Physique Transformation, Shredder, Shredders, Sport, Sports, tom venuto, workout
RSS Feed
