We are both going to start going for more reps, with more weights. We are going to go all out, and give it 100% to find out just how ripped we can get. We also talked about eating better, if I want to get as ripped as possible, I need to start eating a lot more chicken breasts, and a lot less pizza. This might end up being the most difficult part, as I love pizza like it was my first born. However it must be done, and I will have to cut pizza consumption down to only on cheat days.

Tonight after I pick up my sweety (she had car troubles this morning) we are heading over to her rents house for dinner. After dinner its movie night, and we are watching rise of planet of the apes! I hope everyone has a great evening.

This is going to be my pre pool workout this summer. Every Saturday before I hit the pool, I will be doing this workout, with a few added chest moves. Out of all the workouts in the program, I feel like I get the most pump out of that workout. I like that tony works the triceps as well as the biceps in one workout, and by the time I finish my arms look huge, well at least they are bigger than when I started.

I had a long weekend, I helped my girl move into a new apt all day Saturday, and then we celebrated the new place with one too many glasses of wine. So tonight after dinner, I will be going to bed as early as my body and mind will allow. Have a great night everyone!

All said and done, I have to give it to Nancy on this one; she put together one hell of an arm workout! After we completed the workout, we measured my biceps, and I finally hit the 14 inch mark, wooooohoooooo! Now we have upped the mark to 14.5, and once I get there we will up the mark to my overall goal of 15 inch biceps. I can’t describe how great if feels to finally see progress in my biceps. I have been working at this for about three years now, and while my biceps have grown in that time, they have not grown as much as the rest of my body, and not as much as I would like. I guess it only took me three years to realize the reason my back is so huge is because Tony has you work the back at least twice a week, so I applied this theory to my biceps, and it seems to be working.

Tonight I am going to watch a little American idol, while I eat dinner, then it’s time for a gaming session with the boys, and after all that I’ll be hitting the bed. Have a great night everyone!!

On Monday I talked Nancy into continuing on with the routine as I felt like I was making progress. She agreed to continue but only if I was truly making progress. So after our workout we measured my biceps, and discovered that my biceps have grown just shy of one full inch in two weeks, I’d say the routine is working! We decided that we are going to continue with this routine until we plateau or burn out.

Tonight I am going to make up a ham burger and some green beans. I plan on watching some American Idol (lame I know) while I eat, followed by some gaming on MW3. I hope everyone has a fantastic evening.

The thing is, however, that line of thinking is dead wrong from a physical perspective and creates a deep seated desire to quit the diet (due to continual deprivation) long before the optimal weight is achieved. In fact, for many all it takes is two or three weeks of stalled weight loss to get them to give up. And then they really lose – but not weight – just their goal of becoming the person they really want to be.

Now before I list the benefits of cheat days I need to be clear on a very important point. Cheat days only work when you are running at least a 600 or better caloric deficit on your 6 non cheat days each week. Let’s explore this a bit further. If you are looking for a 1lb a week weight loss (hard to lose more fat than that a week and we don’t want to lose muscle). So if you restrict your daily caloric intake by roughly 800 calories a week (assuming a 2,200 maintenance level caloric target) you eat 1,400 calories a day for 6 days. Now on your cheat day, you really go at it and eat 3000 calories – more than 2x what you were eating in the prior 6 days. Your weekly caloric deficit will still get close to the 3500 you need to lose one pound of fat.

Now you may be thinking that if you skipped the cheat day, you’d lose more like 1.25lbs and that would be better. But the longer you calorie restrict, the lower your body’s leptin level falls and that’s not what you want.

Now I’m not going to get technical here about what leptin does other than to say that it clearly regulates your hunger and is now thought to also impact both your fat and bone metabolism in a way that more leptin improves both fat and bone metabolism. So you can see that keeping your leptin levels up is a huge postive factor in getting your body to your goal.

Leptin gets raised when you indulge in a refeed. For best results you add a lot of carbohydrates in on your cheat days. So for me, it’s my day for popcorn, bread and pasta. While additional fat calories don’t have much of an impact on leptin, I add in fat for pyschological reasons.

A cheat day when properly indulged will not only help you from feeling hungry all the time, it will also help you avoid temptations we all inevitably face (e.g., the birthday cake at work or the smell of fresh baked goods at the grocery store). When you have a cheat day, you are never more than 6 days away from the next cheat day. That makes saying ‘no’ to whatever your temptation is a lot easier.

Finally, if you are eating clean and healthy 6 days a week and then really indulge on your cheat day, you will notice by the end of it you feel sluggish and bloated. I find I don’t sleep well the night following my cheat day as well. All this makes me more than eager to eat properly again. In fact, I rarely feel tempted by any naughty foods for the first 2 – 3 days of my clean eating. And by day 4, I’m not that far away from my next cheat day and can begin planning what I want to eat.

So take that cheat day. It really will keep your body from getting too efficient on lower calories and it makes keeping to your diet completely doable for months or even years!

Tonight is family taco night!!! After dinner I plan on chilling low key around my apartment. I think my girl is going to come over, and we will probably put on movie, even though I fall a sleep before the movie is over. I hope everyone has a fantastic evening.

I really struggled with the sprints today, my quads we on fire after the first round. Needless to say, today was not my best performance, but we got through it. After we finished with the sprints, Nancy and I went on a two mile walk. Even though I had a tough time with the sprints, the walk actually felt really good.

Tomorrow Nancy and I will be hitting the P90X workout Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. I always look forward to this workout, I’m not sure why, I just love it. Tonight I am going to watch the new episode of Game of Thrones, and eat some sausages and sauerkraut for dinner. After all that, I will be hitting the bed early. Have a fantastic evening everyone!

I recently got asked this question in a comment when a gal had gotten confused by some of the marketing statements made about P90X and Les Mills Pump.  I’ve been quite clear in many posts here that if you want to build lean mass, then lifting heavy in a shorter repetition range is superior to lifting light with high reps.  When looking at the Les Mills Pump product marketing, they state that you can “…burn more fat and build muscle without bulking…”.

So is Les Mills saying you can build the kind of muscle you can with P90X?  No.

Is Less Mills claiming you can build muscle while doing it?  Yes.  Do I agree with this? Yes – but it’s  fairly limited.

High rep lifting may better stimulate human growth hormone levels but only if you are exerting yourself with more energy (overall higher intensity) than you would with P90X.  But to me that just says you weren’t ‘Bringing It” with P90X.  When I do a P90X resistance training session I know I brought it when I’m dripping with sweat and my muscles are screaming.  Lifting heavy taps into Type 2a & 2b muscle fiber recruitment which are the fibers you want to engage if you want muscle growth and strength development.  Les Mills will tend to recruit Type 1 and some Type2a muscle fiber which is more an endurance development model.  (Interestingly, you don’t hear the Les Mills trainers talk that much about building muscle, rather they talk more about burning fat and building endurance during the workouts.)

So if you are a guy looking to get ripped, P90X is clearly your choice.  But do things change if you are a woman?

No… But…

This is a bit fuzzier but not because muscle building, fat burning physiology is different between men and women.  Sure, men have a lot more testosterone and HGH then women but all that means is that women won’t bulk up while doing P90X.  So for most women, P90X is the preferred workout.  But if you have some sort of injury that interferes with pull ups (the primary back move in P90X) or you have very muscular legs (rare – most women complaining of bulky legs just haven’t burned of enough fat), Les Mills is an interesting solution.

Your legs/glutes are the biggest muscles on your body.  Your legs in particular are built to take a lot of exercise load and do because you walk with them everyday.  So they are one muscle group that actually can take overtraining.  Les Mills workouts are oriented towards working the legs and glutes more than the upper body within each session.  So doing Less Mills can actually lean up your legs more than P90X.

Now if doing Les Mills, do work up the weights just as you would while doing P90X for best results.  For example, the very first time I did Les Mills, I only put 10lbs on the barbell but now, about 3 or 4 weeks into it (I’m actually doing a P90X/Les Mills hybrid) I load up 30lbs and will shortly go higher.

Les Mills won’t build big biceps but can lean legs.  Any high intensity workout can increase your metabolism and help you burn fat.  So whatever you pick, work it hard!

After Nancy and I finished with the HIIT sprints, we took about a two mile walk. I was exhausted and really did not want to go for the walk, however Nancy insisted if I want to blast the fat off, the walk would really help.

Tomorrow we are back to biceps! I know I said this in a previous post, but I love that this new routine focuses on my arms, more so than any other workout we have done. Tonight is taco night with the family, and after that I am going home to play some XBL followed by and early bed time. Not only was it hard to get up this morning, I also want to make sure I’m well rested so that I give tomorrow’s workout my all. I hope everyone has a fantastic evening.

All in all Nancy and I had a great workout today. After we finished Nancy made sure to measure my biceps, and there was an improvement, or increase in size. This literally made my day, it gives me hope that this new program is working, and we are finally giving my biceps the focus they need.

Tonight I am just lying low, and going to bed early. I am planning on making up some sausages and Kraut for dinner, followed by me climbing into bed and watching some tv before I fall a sleep. Have a great evening everyone!