JOIN TODAY

Alright so I feel it is due to time to change it up once again. With my good friend  Daveh competing and killing his first powerlifting meet in November. He has officially talked me into giving it a go too.
Now I just hope my body holds together until April. ( I have ducktape just in case ) Now this is supposed to be a smaller meet but I want to beat all my previous PR's I have so far. Now this last year has been terrible for me as far as setbacks and injuries but over the past 3 or 4 months I have been just taking smaller leaps and been more consistent and that has been working so far.

Recently got some new goodies for my training aids. A good jump rope for cardio. 7mm knee sleeves, elitefts mini bands, and some new meal prep containers. ( hopefully this will help me making excuses of not packing my lunch and eating out )

I will be focusing more on moving weights and getting strong than looking good. I tend to have decent results when I just train hard anyway.

As of right now I do not know what my Max lifts are and I do not want to try them as yet , just simply because of injury prevention.
I will try and focus on eating better and more often. Which I have been doing some and I feel much better in the gym than I have in  a while.
But I would like to learn a bit more about better cooking using stuff like coconut oils and which rice is better than others and so. I seem to have forgotten how to eat good over the years.
I will be adding a good joint supplement program and see if that helps. My joints hurt bad all the time and I am open to suggestions.
Right now I am thinking of a basic supplement program of.
Fish oil,
Vit c
Turmeric
( thinking of trying beef gelatin )
I guess getting older you just have to fix what hurts.

Some stats I took today.
Arms 17 3/4 flexed , not flexed 16
legs at thickest point 25
waist at hips 41
waist at belly button  38
chest ( I think I measured right ) 50
shoulders  ( if measured right ) 58
Not sure what my weight is. I will weigh as soon as possible.

Today will be legs so I will post later what happens there.
Hope to see some in here. With advice.
 

In

in.

In with the fun....

Following. The easiest way to get some coconut oil into the diet is to add a tbsp of it to hot oatmeal in my opinion.  Buy extra virgin coconut oil if you can afford it as opposed to refined coconut oil because EVCO is less processed and has more health benefits than refined CO.  Coconut oil isn't the best oil to cook with because it has a really low burning temperature and smokes quickly.  Avocado oil is actually really good to cook with because it has a higher burning temperature (higher than olive oil) and has a neutral taste where it doesn't really affect the taste of what you are cooking.

Rep + jayt.
I saw avocado oil at Sams wholesale the other day, and some interesting coconut oil and flours.  I may try to grab that next go around there.

I also think I will grab a 25 lb bag of rice as I see me eating that often.

Question though. Basmati vs yasmine rice? Not sure what the true difference is.
Also was looking at noticed they both have zero carbs. 

In

In

Rep + jayt.
I saw avocado oil at Sams wholesale the other day, and some interesting coconut oil and flours.  I may try to grab that next go around there.

I also think I will grab a 25 lb bag of rice as I see me eating that often.

Question though. Basmati vs yasmine rice? Not sure what the true difference is.
Also was looking at noticed they both have zero carbs. 

I don't think I've ever cooked with Jasmine rice.. I normally just use brown Basmati rice.  If you've ever eaten the rice at Chipotle, I'm like 90% sure they use Basmati.  I actually prefer the taste of brown rice to white and I like the extra bit of fiber that comes with it too.  I'm sure you're aware already, but quinoa is a good substitute for rice since it cooks faster and is actually a complete protein.  It's more expensive than rice, but I'll use it occasionally to switch things up. 

As far as flours go, coconut flour's macro profile is amazing; it is just pretty tough to work with.  It absorbs any moisture super easily so you have to add a lot of milk and/or eggs to the coconut flour.  Coconut flour also tastes super coconutty and really limits the recipes you can use it in without it tasting "off".  You have to specifically look for coconut flour recipes as it is not a direct 1:1 ratio to wheat flour.  Almond flour is another good flour that I use and it is easier to work with.  It has a more neutral taste than coconut flour, however you can still tell it's not regular flour.  If I had to recommend one flour to try, it would be the almond flour.

Some other little changes that you can make to be a bit more healthier is to use pink Himalayan salt instead of table or even sea salt.  Pink Himalayan salt contains many trace minerals and electrolytes.  A healthier substitute for table sugar is coconut sugar which is lower glycemic and also contains electrolytes.  Sorry for the mini rant, but this is a topic that I have a lot of interest in lol.

Following. Good luck!

Good luck Seaver, enjoy the ride!

IN!

I don't think I've ever cooked with Jasmine rice.. I normally just use brown Basmati rice.  If you've ever eaten the rice at Chipotle, I'm like 90% sure they use Basmati.  I actually prefer the taste of brown rice to white and I like the extra bit of fiber that comes with it too.  I'm sure you're aware already, but quinoa is a good substitute for rice since it cooks faster and is actually a complete protein.  It's more expensive than rice, but I'll use it occasionally to switch things up. 

As far as flours go, coconut flour's macro profile is amazing; it is just pretty tough to work with.  It absorbs any moisture super easily so you have to add a lot of milk and/or eggs to the coconut flour.  Coconut flour also tastes super coconutty and really limits the recipes you can use it in without it tasting "off".  You have to specifically look for coconut flour recipes as it is not a direct 1:1 ratio to wheat flour.  Almond flour is another good flour that I use and it is easier to work with.  It has a more neutral taste than coconut flour, however you can still tell it's not regular flour.  If I had to recommend one flour to try, it would be the almond flour.

Some other little changes that you can make to be a bit more healthier is to use pink Himalayan salt instead of table or even sea salt.  Pink Himalayan salt contains many trace minerals and electrolytes.  A healthier substitute for table sugar is coconut sugar which is lower glycemic and also contains electrolytes.  Sorry for the mini rant, but this is a topic that I have a lot of interest in lol.

Thank you so much, just the kind of info I need. Rep+

Thanks for following everyone else.
Glad to have support.

So yesterday legs did not go as well as I wanted it to, but I tried to hit them more this morning.
Yesterday was all back squats no wraps. Only used my new knee sleeves and I really liked doing this. Nice and warm and felt a bit easier on my joints.
135 x 15 x 2 short rest
225 x 5 x 3 short rest
5 min break add belt
315 x 3 x 5 sets with short rests. I got side tracked helping someone out and a bathroom trip, and ran out of time.
I was not really feeling it this workout anyway. Was having to move fast just to keep my attention to be there.

This morning was going to be long stressful day of dealing with the ex over child support papers and driving over 10 hrs, fast food and fast snacks, so just not a day I was looking forward too. I knew I was going to be late and would not want to hit the gym when I get back so I went in to the gym at 5 am.
Hit some supersets and giant sets.
yate rows ( 3 sets of 15 with 135 ) with leg press, ( I never counted reps on leg press just focused on muscle groups and control. And went till I could barely rack it again.
I am pretty sure I was doing over 50 reps with 200 on the press for 6 sets.
switched to rack pulls of 315 x 6 for next 3 sets with the leg press. I was pretty winded on these.
Rack pulls are really difficult for me for some reason.

Low row hammer and high row hammer strength rows 3 plates x 10 x 4 sets each
Back was getting a great pump and I hit lat pulldowns with leg ext to failure , 4 sets
Rear delt db flies and some short ab session and I was done.

I am super tired and hope tomorrow will be better for me.
Chest is tomorrow and I hope to use the mini bands and see what happens.

Also I got my labs back on my TRT that many know I am on.
Test was 404 and estrogen was low at 7. I guess that is why my joints hurt bad too.
This was 6 days after last shot.
My test never gets really much higher than that. I really don't care, I just wish my joints felt better.

Thank you so much, just the kind of info I need. Rep+

Not a problem Seaver. If you have any other questions, I would be more than happy to help.