Start of a recovery week

Today was day 12 of my Powerlifting block. Tomorrow starts my first day of a recovery week. I'm looking forward to some rest and recovery . My body is tired. Today I had to use Spark to get through my workout. I haven't had to use Spark in almost two years. I've been training very hard the last 3 weeks. This is the first heavy hypertrophy program I've done in years. I'm not used to it yet. I'm getting great results though. After my recovery week I'll be starting a power building program of 5 reps.

Recovery mode

My body was really tired after the deadlift test on Tuesday. I tried doing a small squat workout on Wednesday. But my body is fried and needs some R&R. I'm not stepping foot in a gym or working out until Monday. And then coach Vernon Smith said he's going to be pushing me as hard as my body can handle. He warned me, this next training session will be intense. He told me he needed me to come into the gym physically and mentally ready. Because he's going to test my limits, So, no training for me until Monday. Sounds like fun huh?

Train less, gain more, hire a strength coach

For years I was a hard gainer. That's a term powerlifters, bodybuilders, and strength athletes use for someone who doesn't gain size or streangth easily. Someone who has to train harder and still takes longer to get gains than most. For years I'd heard how the majority of streangth athletes over train. And of course I thought I was training perfectly. I felt I was doing the proper amount of everything. And then I hired my powerlifting coach Vernon Smith. I'm training less now than I ever have. And now I'm getting the best streangth gains I could ever have dreamed. Turns out I was just like every other idiot amatuer athlete out there. To much training and not enough rest. All I needed this whole time was a good coach. I only wish I had figured this out when I was younger. I wasted a tremendous amount of time and effort in my twenties training religiously with hardly any gains.

If your an athlete. Do yourself a favor. Hire a coach. You'll be great full you did.

Day off for recovery and New Mexico health Care connect

Just last week I was blogging about how I'd gotten in good enough shape that I was working out 7 days a week. And that in addition to training every day I was hoping to start doing two workouts in one day at least once a week. Well yesterday I felt like crap. I was tired, sore, grouchy, and wasn't motivated to go to the gym. So today I had to eat my words and take a day off from training.

My day of recovery couldn't have happened at a better time. My wife had the day off from work. So we spent the day together. We slept late, did lots of cuddling, and a few chores together.

My wife has been commuting 120 miles a day for work since we moved to Albuquerque 19 months ago. She got a new job that's only 2.7 miles from our house. That'll give her an extra 2 hours a day at home. The best news is her new job has full benefits. Her medical insurance is only $600 a month. We had been getting medical insurance from New Mexico health connections. For the 5 of us it was $957 a month. But the cost was going to go up to $1257 a month on January. My wife saved our butt financially with her new job! $1,257 a month is rediculous. Needless to say we have cancelled New Mexico health connections.

Weight loss, getting back in shape, and CrossFit

I'm exhausted. After doing minimal training last year I'm doing CrossFit 3 days a week, weightlifiting 3 days a week, and a bench press program 3 days a week. I'm taking tomorrow off from training. I'm just going to eat healthy and recover.

I can tell my physique is changing. My clothes are fitting much looser. And my wife freaked out a couple days ago when we hugged. She said my midsection had gotten so much smaller it was like hugging a stranger. I'm losing WAY more weight in the last two weeks with CrossFit than I was doing powerlifting and track training. That's one thing I remember from back in the day at Zia CrossFit in Santa Fe NM. CrossFit gets you in shape QUICK! But I also remember being chronically injured. And this morning at weightlifiting practice my shoulders hurt so bad I couldn't do my push press sets. I'm struggling with my decision to go back to CrossFit. Yes, it'll get me back in shape and help me lose weight quicker than anything else. But I'm already beat to hell and it's only been 2 weeks. Is it worth it?

Eat and sleep!

Last night I struggled getting through my weightlifting workout. Once I got home I was so exhausted I couldn't get off the couch. I finally mustered enough energy to eat and shower. Then I collapsed into bed. I slept for ten hours. Once I awoke I weighed in, increased my macros on MyFitnessPal,  and ate a big healthy meal. Now I feel like a million bucks!

All week my calories were really low. Probably to low. I gained two pounds this week. I weighed in at 319 with 31% body fat. I assume the weight gain is either my body freaking out from not having enough fuel, water retention, or muscle gains. I'm doing a ton of strength training right now. Weightlifting 3 times a week and 3-4 days a week of CrossFit. But even with that much strength training I'm assuming 2 pounds of muscle gains in one week is pretty much an impossibility. I increased my calories on Avatar Nutrition to only lose a moderate amount of weight instead of the extreme weight loss option. I guess my next weigh in on 11/7/17 will show me if I made the right choice.

To much on to little calories

Tonight at weightlifting I could barely finish my workout. I'm exhausted. After doing minimal training the last year I jumped full throttle back into weightlifting 3 nights a week, CrossFit 3 nights a week, and calorie restriction. I'm trying to do to much, to soon, with not enough calories. Tonight I'm getting a full 9 hours sleep. Tomorrow I'll increase my calories and do less weight at CrossFit. I got much to excited about getting down to the 105k weight class. I need to slow down my weight loss and take care of my body. I'm not as young as I used to be. My body isn't nearly as able to tolerate the abuse it used to.

Bear Canyon CrossFit barbell club

Last night I did my first weightlifiting workout with Bear Canyon CrossFit barbell club. I had a lot of fun. The people were really friendly, welcoming, and supportive. I was definitely training with a group of like minded people. I enjoyed it a lot. The head coach Dylan was pretty knowledgeable.

The next 7 weeks we'll be doing a pretty aggressive squat program. I'm looking forward to gaining back the strength I'd lost the last year. This gives me 8 months to prepare for my big 2018 goal of The New Mexico games weightlifiting meet. Plenty of time to get my game back.

I seem to be recovering better this week from the crazy hard CrossFit workouts I'm doing 3-4 days a week. It didn't seem to hurt my weightlifiting training last night much, if at all.

Poor performance and recovery

I've noticed I'm not making gains or recovering like I used to..... No matter how much I try to lose weight I can't..... Seems the harder I work the weaker and fatter I get..... I get night horrible sweats to the point the bed is soaked..... i expect some of these due to age but not this much. I finally broke down and went to see my doctor. Turns out I have very low testosterone..... I'm not sure what to think about this yet. I'm almost relieved that I finally have an actual reason that I'm feeling like this. I have an appointment with an endocrinologist this week. I'll keep y'all updated as I find things out.

Don't move during acupuncture

My back was getting better. And then on Thursday after the acupuncturist put the needles in my back and left the room I had to adjust the pillow I was laying on. It was under my stomach and I was struggling to breath-that's a problem with guys who have big fat stomachs like me.  So I stood up and moved the pillow, then laid back down. Apparently that's a bad idea when you have needles jammed into your back muscles. My back muscles moved and flexed causing the needles to move, scrape, and tear. For three days it hurt so bad I struggled to walk, talk, or even breath. My next appointment is on Tuesday. I'll be still this time. You can count on it.

Snatch high pulls and other weightlifting joys

Today I completed 4 sets of snatch high pulls at 90%. I LOVE snatch high pulls and clean high pulls! They're one of my favorite exercises of all time. When I first started weightlifting I hated any kind of high pulls. I sucked at them, and they completely exhausted me. Not only would high pulls tire me out for the rest of the workout, but I'd be physically wiped out the rest of the day too! It's amazing to me how the body can adapt if it's given the right stimuli.

I'm also amazed at how much more sleep I need now that I'm an olympic style weightlifter. Today after my workout I laid down to rest for a moment or two. I had no intention of falling asleep. I woke up 2 hours later. Since picking up weightlifting I sleep much more deeply. I never struggle to get to sleep and I rarely wake up during the night. I never needed this much sleep when i played football, trained MMA or triathlon.

Since the powerlifting meet I competed in a few weeks ago my elbows have been hurting when I do jerks or any kind of presses. I'm not sure what's going on there,  but I purchased a bottle of glucosamine chondroitin. Glucosamine really is a miracle drug. My Rottweiler used to run with me when I was a hard core triathlete. She'd average 25 miles a week. About the time she turned 7 her hips would hurt after long runs. I started giving her human grade Glucosamine and after a few weeks she never had problems with her hips ever again. On hindsight I suppose I should have started taking glucosamine as soon as I became really serious about weightlifting. Especially since I didn't pick the sport of weightlifting up until I was 38 years old.

more sleep for olympic style weightlifting

I've found I need 1 to 1.5 hours more sleep a day now than I did when I was a hard core triathlete. I'm only training an average of about 6 hours a week weightlifting. When I was a triathlete I was training an average of 22 hours a week. It's amazing to me I trained almost 4 times as much as an endurance athlete as I do as a weightlifter, but I need significantly more sleep now. 

The last 3 or 4 weeks I've had the best sleep of my life! For the last few years I had been struggling with sleep apnea. I wasn't sleeping well and I was constantly tired beyond belief. I assumed the sleep apnea was from obesity. In the last month I've lost 13 pounds. That's a drop in the bucket of what I need to  lose, but I've lost almost all of my problems with sleep that I had developed. There's no way losing 13 of the 140 pounds I'd gained made my sleep apnea go away. Now I'm beginning to wonder if my sleep apnea had to do with my weight gain or if it had more to do with the severe depression I had been in. Can depression caused sleep apnea? I'm not certain, but i know one thing for sure, I'm unbelievably grateful to no longer feel chronically exhausted and overworked. And I'm even more appreciative to no longer feel constant despair and hopelessness. 9 years of working 80-90 hours a week had beat me down physically and emotionally. Since I had never suffered from depression before I didn't realize how it gradually worsens. Like a frog in a pot of water that is gradually brought to a boil. The frog doesn't realize it's in a life threatening situation until it's almost to late because it had worsened so gradually. I now understand why they call depression the silent killer. Especially with men. We don't ask for help. No matter how bad things get we always say everything's fine, until it's to late. Even more so with Correctional Officer's. Machismo is huge among corrections employees. That's one of many reasons why the suicide rate among correctional officers is so high. Studies have shown the rate of PTSD of correctional officers is higher than combat vets. I've lost a lot of my fellow correctional officers by suicide the last two decades. 

help to recover

This week will be the hardest week of training I've ever done.  I'm only half way through and already my legs are trashed! Today is my only day of rest this week so I thought what better way to recover than with a massage! Plus it's my 40th birthday today. What a great gift for myself! My legs were so sore it hurt when the massage therapist was working on them! Hopefully the massage will help me recover more so I can trash them all all over again.

glycogen and olympic style weightlifting

Great news! I'm relatively certain I've figured out what caused the fatigue during my workouts the last week. I thought it was caused by one or a combination of the following: dieting, to many hours at work, lack of sleep, or because my new intensive training program was to difficult for me. Turns out it has to do with my glycogen levels. I'd  been doing a bench program after weightlifting. Doing both was causing REALLY long training days and was burning me out.  A couple weeks ago I started weightlifting on Mondays, Wednesday's, and Fridays and doing the bench program with pull ups and abs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My muscles glycogen levels were able to fully replenish because the muscles used on each day were different, but an athletes liver glycogen levels takes 48 hours to fully replenish from strength training days. Since I was strength training 5 days consecutively my livers glycogen levels were getting lower everyday and never recovering. I'll be going back to doing bench press after my olympic weightlifting. Olympic style weightlifting is such a mental game. I'm always learning something new.

upcoming biggest volume week ever

Last week was a recovery week. Even though the weights were low and I didn't do many sets or reps I struggled to finish my workouts. I worked 12 hour shifts on all my days off but one, on Friday I got a mandatory 16 hour shift, and I'm attempting to lose weight (down 13 pounds so far). I'm not sure which one of those was the culprit of the struggles in the gym or if it was a combination. Starting tomorrow I'll be in a really big training week. It'll be the most volume and intensity I've ever attempted in a week. Hopefully the last week of lower volume was all I was needing because I'll need to be at %100 this week.

I usually cycle creatine monohydrate. After a meet I'll take 4 weeks off, then I'll take a it again until my next meet. It usually ends up being a month off 2 months on. I started taking it again tonight. I'll need the extra help starting on Moday.

eating to train and recover

My sports nutrition coach is having me eat 400 grams of carbs on a heavy weightlifting day. 1/3 to 1/2 of my carbs should be eaten in a block of 2 hours before, during, and two hours after my training. When I first started I found that I perform best if I eat 2 cups white rice with a cup of milk and a little sugar before my workout. It wasn't until a recently I found I workout best if I drink orange Gatorade with chocolate whey protein during my workout- tastes like an orange-cicle!

I'd always struggled with energy after my workouts. I'd feel wiped out for hours. This week I tried a new post workout shake. It's made with 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 1/2 scoops whey protein, BCA's, Glutamine, a banana, and two tablespoons peanut butter. Within minutes of pounding my post workout shake I feel unbelievable. The most ignored aspect of training is recovery. Hopefully this'll jump start my lifting. 9 1/2 weeks left until the last shot at qualifying for the Masters National Weightlifting Championships.

weightlifting, massage and illness

My wife's family bought my wife a couples message for her birthday. She and i had a the massage on Monday. I thought that was perfect timing because I have a weightlifting meet this Sunday. I figured the massage would help me recover and taper. Instead of helping me,  3-4 hours after the massage i became sick. It was the exact same thing that happened last time i got a massage. Same symptoms and time frame. I'm trying to figure out if it's the massage that's making me sick or if I'm over training. The next time I get a massage I'm not going to get it during my taper. I don't know, can a massage cause a person to get sick?

The  week before last my wife and i did our budget,  but we neglected to factor in that our kids are home for summer break so we'd be going through a lot more food. By Thursday the following week we were out of food. That day was my last heavy day to determine what weights I'd be attempting at the New Mexico games weightlifting meet. Even though i hadn't eaten i still lifted a 85/105. After every lift I'd see spots and get light headed. Apparently eating  before lifting is important. Who knew? Haha.

balancing weightlifting, work, and eating

Today i had a break through on my snatch form. My strength is still low from the 7 weeks off from training. But thanks to the breakthrough on my form i hit an 84k snatch. That's less than i was lifting in April, but I'll get back to my old numbers eventually.

I've been working 12-16 hours every day since June 6th. My first day off will be July 6th. That's over a month of 92 hour work weeks. Obviously exhaustion has a lot to do with my strength returning so slowly. My wife is pushing for me to work a lot of overtime so we can get enough of a down payment for a new home so that we can move. At first i was willing, but now I'm having 2nd thoughts. I've been working 80-90 hour work weeks non-stop since 2006. I'm tired. I'd like to have a normal life, more time with the kids, and more sleep. I know my wife wants to move off prison grounds and move back to Albuquerque so she can be closer to her parents, but I'm happy where we're at. I really enjoy my career, i like living on prison grounds, i enjoy living in Santa Fe more than I've ever enjoyed living anywhere else, i love the church we go to, and I love weightlifting at the Miller Gym. If we moved to Albuquerque all that would change. I'm not sure i want to change things. With the exception of the amount of hours I've been asked to work I've never been this happy. Where I'm at now is where I'm happiest, why kill myself to leave?

I have two workout buddies, Kevin Y. and Heather,  who were incuraging me to start logging my food on My Fitness pal. Logging my food is helping my diet a lot. I've gone 27 days without binge eating. That's getting pretty close to the longest I've gone without destructive eating since i fell off the wagon back in 2012.  I've lost a little weight, 10 pounds or so. But this time my goal isn't to lose weight.  It's just to eat relatively healthy and avoid binge eating. Losing some weight this month is probably another reason my strength is rebounding so slowly. Haha, that's a tough one: lose weight and look better and be healthier or be strong?

massage for Olympic weightlifting

When i was competing in triathlon I heard a ton about the benefits of massage for athletes. I'd heard  it promotes flexibility, reduces fatigue, improves endurance, helps prevent injuries and prepares the body and mind for optimal performance.

Yesterday I'd had two hard workouts in a row and i was incredibly sore so i thought I'd try it out. It felt AMAZING! After i left i felt like a new man! No soreness at all! Truly, I've never felt anything as magical as that was.  And to think, it'll help my lifting on the platform too! I believe I'm hooked. I'm going to have to get a massage more often!

I went to Massage Envey on Zafarano Drive in Santa Fe New Mexico. They were incredible there! I highly recommend them!

sick and training

So far after 6 weeks of Olympic weightlifting I've built up to a 53k power snatch. A 53k snatch is much much weaker than I was hoping for, but I'm still much better at Olympic weightlifting after 6 weeks of training than I was after many many months of triathlon training, and I eventually became an excellent triathlete.    

My Olympic weightlifting coach Shane Miller of Miller weightlifting says my biggest attribute is my enthusiasm and effort. It was the same way with triathlon. I had the worst body type for triathlon, but my dedication and willingness to push myself harder and train more made me an excellent triathlete. I'm hoping my determination and willingness to work hard will make me as successful at Olympic weightlifting as I was at multisport. So far after 6 weeks of hard training I was feeling sluggish, fatigued, and ended up getting sick. Getting sick is a good sign in regards of my training. It means I was pushing myself to my bodies limit. I used to get sick every few months when I was training for triathlon and I was an endurance beast! I'm spending this week lifting light weights to recover, next week I'll come back stronger.

"Success is often nothing more than moving from one failure to the next with undiminished enthusiasm."
-Winston Churchill

I'm currently 260 pounds. 20 pounds lost so far in 6 weeks of Olympic weightlifting.