First off, some workout comic relief:

Okay as soon as you’re done laughing, read on.

About eighteen hours fasted, I did a glycogen depletion workout:

10 40 lb. dumbbell press
10 40 lb. dumbbell row
10 40 lb. dumbbell front squat
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

10 15 lb. db lateral raise
10 20 lb. db hammer curl
10 40 lb. db overhead bench tricep extension (so both hands on one db)
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

This took 25 minutes.

Rest two minutes.

10 35 lb. db press
10 35 lb. db row
8 35 lb. db front squat
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

In case you didn’t notice, dropped 5 lbs for the second round here, same for below.

10 10 lb. db lateral raise
10 15 lb. db hammer curl
10 40 lb. db overhead bench tricep extension (kept this weight the same!)
Rest a minute, repeat for five sets

My upper body feels destroyed. I definitely could have done some more leg exercises, but I’m so wiped at this point, I’d be a bit afraid to try for fear of passing out! That’s a rough feeling, but it’s also good to feel like you really pushed yourself. I originally wanted to cut the entire workout plan in half – and that was only about halfway through the first half of the press/row/squat first round! So I’m glad I persevered.

Now I just need a toddler to really take my workout to the next level!

I really dreaded working out today (for some reason). I think I’m fighting some sort of winter doldrums. Having said that, I’m relishing the bitter cold that we’re going to experience the next couple days (Temps in the teens!). Go figure.

Today’s workout was a modification of Monday’s glycogen depletion routine. Here’s what I did.

Circuit A:
30 lb lunges, 10 reps per leg
30 lb dumbbell press, 15 reps
30 lb bent-over dumbbell row, 15 reps
Repeat for three sets, one minute rest between sets

Circuit B:
10 lb lateral side raises, 15 reps
15 lb hammer curls, 15 reps (alternated to regular curls)
35 lb overhead tricep extension (that’s one dumbbell for both arms)
Repeat for three sets, one minute rest between sets

Do A, B, A, B

Notes: upped reps on lunges on the second A/B set to 15 and the weight to 2x35lb. dumbbells. Upped press and row weight to 35 lb. dumbbells. Lateral raises on second A/B set were to the front.

After:

1 minute side plank per side
2 minutes front plank
2 minutes rest
Repeat

This took 50 minutes.

And then did some low intensity cardio on the stationary bike while watching a South Park episode. Avg heart rate was around 120 for 22 minutes it took.

Second time around on the glycogen depletion workout, I’ll say that what I like about it is that its fairly constant and is difficult to slack off on. I am working on finding the “sweet spot” as far as weights to use. Note that I went light on legs for a purpose – the “cardio” I’m doing is leg intensive, so I’m sparing some work for that reason.

I get to take advantage of a small gym for a couple months via this condo complex we’re temporarily living in. It’s got dumbbells up to 50 lbs., a bench, and two stationary bikes and a treadmill. Enough to mix up my workout routines a bit.

So today, I tried out a workout suggested by Lyle McDonald for glycogen depletion (Calling this workout “LMGD” for future reference). The gist of the workout is to do high sets and reps across the entire body. This works to deplete glycogen stores, which keys the body for fat loss. That’s a gross simplification (I’ve blogged about this here) and if you really want to learn about this, I suggest you go over to bodyrecomposition.com and pick up Lyle’s Ultimate Diet 2.0.

Anyway, here was my workout:

6x15 of:

2x35 lb dumbbell front squats
Stability ball leg curls (Video search)
2x50 lb calf raises
30 lb dumbbell press
30 lb dumbbell row
Rest one minute between sets (approximately, anyway)

Then, 6x15 of:

10 lb dumbbell lateral raise (first 3 sets – side, second 3 were front)
15 lb dumbbell hammer curls
30 lb (single for both arms) overhead tricep extensions

Total workout time: a bit over 53 minutes.

This workout was the anti-fun, which Lyle warns about in advance. I feel really beat up. Theoretically, I’m supposed to do the entire workout again tomorrow; however, as I’m fasting until dinner tomorrow night, I’ll probably do something else tomorrow and maybe repeat the LMGD on Wednesday.

High-rep, high-set workouts are supposed to be good for building mass (that’s the word on the street anyway). They are also supposed to increase mitochondrial density in the cells. As mitochondria are the furnaces in the cell, this would seem to lead to greater fat burn, but that’s a pretty unscientific conclusion on my part.

Afterwards, I did a bit over 20 minutes of light intensity cardio on the stationary bike (heart rate was about 135 on average) while watching a South Park episode on my Cowon A2.

Twenty-eight hours fasted, I did the C8B300 in 16:46. After about a three or four minute rest I did 5 sets of 30 seconds work / 30 seconds rest of each of these kettlebell drills with my 35 lb. kettlebell:

Single-arm swings (alternating arms at the top of each swing)
ATB uppercuts (flipping the bell)
Swing/flip/catch; press/flip/swing
ATB hot potatoes

Total exercise time was 40 minutes. Again, the goal here was glycogen depletion. I believe I’ve accomplished depletion now – both by fasting (liver glycogen depletion) and rep-heavy weight lifting (Over two days – 2xC8B300, 10x10 yesterday, KB drills). Based on weight, I’ve swung back to around 173, which was my pre-NYE weight (post-NYE weight was 183: I’ve explained the drastic fluctuation here).

And maybe my eyes are tricking me, but I think I’m seeing some visual cues as to improved leanness! Woot!

After a much-needed rest day yesterday and having replenished all my glycogen stores via the various New Year’s celebrations, today’s goal was glycogen depletion. Here’s how I went about it: I started with 10x10 of the following exercises, completed in circuit fashion with a minute of rest after each set:

Push-ups
35 lb. kettlebell rows (10 per arm)
18 lb. kettlebell military press (10 per arm)
35 lb. upright row
Air Squats
53 lb. kettlebell dead lifts
Rest 1 minute

Total time to completion on all 10 sets was 36:45.

I then rested four minutes and starting at 40:45 on the stopwatch, I did the Ballantyne’s Crazy 8 Bodyweight Cardio Circuit (C8B300). Needless to say, having already done some 600 reps of exercises, I was a bit slower on the C8B300. Nevertheless, I finished at 59:52, so 19:07 seconds on the C8B300. Not really fast, but hey, not bad either. And that I got the entire workout done in less than an hour? I get at least two gold stars for that!

Followed up with a shower and lunch consisting of a small new york strip steak (trimmed of most of the fat) over four overeasy eggs over a bed of spinach — all was cooked in extra virgin coconut oil. Quite tasty!

And now begins a 30 hour fast!

About 26 or 27 hours fasted, I did the C8B300 in 16:54. I feel I’m reaching some lower limit of speed on this cardio circuit as I scarcely rested (i.e. I took only a couple of paused breaths here in there). I bet with some fine-tuning I can get it to 16 minutes flat, but that is gonna be pushing it.

Afterwards, I rested probably three minutes or so and then did 15x3 single-arm kettlebell rows @ 35 lb kettlebell supersetting with 10x3 single-arm kettlebell presses (i.e. lying on the ground) @ 35 lb. kettlebell.

Then did 15 upright rows x 3 (@ 35 lb. kettlebell with both arms) and 15 military presses (@ same).

Finished off with 100 double-arm 35 lb. kettlebell swings. I broke this into three sets of 50 / 25 / 25.

Total workout time was around 43 minutes.

I managed the Ballantyne’s Crazy 8 Bodyweight 300 Cardio Circuit (C8B300) today in a record 17:27. I’m coming off a full day of rest and a weekend where I had a carbohydrate refeed and otherwise normal eating.

After, I rested for about five minutes and then did two sets of the following three kettlebell combos using my 35 lb. kettlebell:

• Kettlebell swing/flips x 20
• ATB Kettlebell uppercuts x 10

Then:

• Kettlebell rows x 10 per arm
• Kettlebell military press x 10 per arm

Then:

• Kettlebell swing/flip/catch/press/flip x 10
• Kettlebell snatch x 5 per arm

Since that wasn’t enough (???), I did 5x20 35 lb. single-arm (switching with a flip) kettlebell swings (100 total).

And then finished off with 2x20 35 lb. kettlebell upright rows mixed with 2x15 35 lb. kettlebell front squats.

Entire time was about 47 minutes.

You might be wondering why I did such a long, mixed up (aimless?) workout. Well, the goal here was glycogen depletion, which is accomplished by lots of repetitions across all body parts. I figured the C8B300 is a great glycogen depletion circuit though it is mostly composed of presses (making it short on pulls). Thus, the complement to the C8B300 would be doing a number of kettlebell exercises since kettlebell drills focus more on pulling motions. That was the idea anyway.

Why do you want to deplete glycogen? Well, the idea is to fast-track the fat mobilization process by exhausting glycogen stores in the muscles. Once depleted, the muscles will need fat for energy, which the body will be forced to provide (So you are putting the body in a catabolic state).

Of course, the only reason I have glycogen stores to deplete in the first place is because of the aforementioned carb-refeed. Why did I carb-refeed? To protect against downregulating metabolism from dieting/fasting/low-carb’ing – I was also trying to make it more likely that my weight training workouts over the weekend actually result in some muscle growth (anabolic state). In short, this is a pseudo-modified implementation of a cyclical ketogenic diet (maybe?).

I’m fasting until dinner tomorrow night.

In other exercise news, my brother stumbled on a local who is getting rid of his 70 lb. RKC kettlebell. I’m gonna nab it in the AM for a steep discount to the dragondoor.com price* (honestly, buying a used kettlebell is going to be a steal no matter what – its not like a used kettlebell is any worse than a brand new one**).

* I got my two 53 lb. RKC kettlebells together off eBay. I suspect that Dragon Door unloads the kettlebells that get returned to them under their extensive, satisfaction-guaranteed one-year warranty on eBay. I highly recommend keeping an eye on their ebay store for this purpose – their brand of kettlebell is just obscenely expensive if you buy new off their website. Ebay FTW!

** That is, of course, unless the seller has painted a unicorn, hearts and/or rainbows on it (Okay it could conceiveably be all rusted up, but that seems unlikely, and you’d figure that out upon seeing the bell anyway)