10/10, Phase IV, Day 17

Almost ended 10/10 with a whimper because my abs were so exhausted from the last two days. Nonetheless, I just kept my eye on the goal and slogged my way through the workout.

Now that I'm done, the big question is did I gain 10lbs. of muscle and lose 10lbs. of fat, and the answer to that is no, and I can blame myself for not strictly following the recommended diet. Still, speaking for myself, I do see some difference from how I looked in the mirror three months ago, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that there is when I post my monthly progress pics within the next 3-4 days.

I did consider restarting 10/10, but I thought it best to try something else for a while. After all, I gotta keep the body guessing.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 16

One good thing about 18 reps is that they make 15 reps not so bad.

20 is still a bitch though. (Memories of Fat Loss III's giant sets....ugh.)

10/10, Phase IV, Day 15

Since my delts haven't healed enough from the last week's Front squats and couldn't take the bar even at a lighter weight, I shifted to Zerchers, and although I was apprehensive about having done them just 3 days ago, my abs held up all the way up to 264lbs. for 4 elbows-to-laps reps on the last set.

With today being the last heavy 10/10 day, I thought I'd push myself on the Seated dip and eked out a 450lbs. 1RM (5 plates on each side). Pretty much everything in the upper body went into play, and I could especially feel the lower biceps and upper forearms from stabilizing the handles. Really helped when the apparatus took so much out of the chance of injury.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 13

If there's one thing I like about Double leg swiss ball push-ups is that my shoulders don't seem to be stealing the show and, ultimately, some size away from the chest and arms. I was feeling my pecs and tris more than my delts especially at the last few reps per set.

Since I'm stuck to using bodyweight (don't think I'll ever do backpack push-ups), to spice things up a little, I can always try doing it one leg at a time. [Photo credit: BodyByManheimer.com]

10/10, Phase IV, Day 12

Although I prefer going the free weight route, there's an advantage to taking the occasional machine/apparatus sideline, and with the case of the plate-loaded Seated dip, I've been able to go a lot heavier in this phase than I would've been able to with either the DB decline presses (gym don't got DBs over 100lbs.) or standard dips (don't wanna hurt myself holding a 70lbs. DB between my legs, that is, until I can get this little baby ). One thing I haven't done is to check if my other chest exercises have improved, but I'll have to find out after I'm done with this phase since I don't wanna jinx my progress.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 10

Apparently tying my shoes snugly isn't good for Single leg Romanian DB deadlifts since the increased pressure made my feet cramp up even when I downshifted to a lower weight. Ah well, lesson learned.

Another thing I learned is that I have to differentiate what I've been doing with what a Single leg deadlift really looks like (c/o thecompletepitcher.com). Strange how this picture never showed up the first time I searched for how to do the exercise three months ago. I started practicing this last week with 2lbs. DBs and got tired after 3 reps per leg. This morning I managed to do 3 sets of 8 (bodyweight only), but I made sure I had something to hold on to whenever I lost my balance.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 9

I'm already halfway through this last phase, and I haven't decided what I'm going to do next month. I'm looking into a couple of new programs I haven't tried, but unfortunately I'd still have order them and--unlike 10/10, which is available as PDF--have them shipped over here from the US, which takes forever with standard international shipping, and I'm not willing to pay the premium for faster shipping. So, that either leaves me with going back to NRoL or restarting 10/10. What to do, what to do.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 8

Apparently my system isn't used to heavy dinners anymore and a lot more susceptible to alcohol. Fortunately, my stomach wasn't that upset when I woke up this morning, and I managed to get through the workout all right.

I still couldn't do the Front squats with the Clean grip past my warm-ups so I went back to using Cross-bar, and though I figured out how to keep the bar from pressing on my throat too much, the resulting imbalance forced my abs and quads to work more (which, in itself, isn't a bad thing), and since I was a lot more aware of what I was doing this time (from not choking ),  I saw I wasn't going as low as I should've been (which was the bad thing). I guess if I want to break parallel like I already do with the Zerchers, I'll have to throw out a few plates.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 6

Yesterday's workout made itself very evident when I woke up this morning with sore abs and a stiff upper back. The weather could have been a contributing factor as well since it's been cooler than usual the past few days (and it's supposed to be summer over here). In any case, I just soldiered on (without the ibuprofen) and hope I can get enough rest this weekend.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 5

Today I applied another lesson I learned from Phase II: Don't do 2 heavy Front squat sessions in the same week.

With the bruises on my delts on the mend, I switched to Zercher squats (as indicated in the program) but lightened the load since I hadn't gone over 200lbs. with 'em before (not at 8-10 reps), and at 224lbs. (4 reps only, thank goodness), my abs got a beating from keeping my core stable and got more of a workout than my legs did. Better that than choking--literally--again, though. Guess I need to brush up on my technique come Monday.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 3

With the return of high-frequency training comes the return of the ever-so-anticipated muscle soreness, and although an analgesic took a bite out of the pain, it somehow took off some of the drive to push myself a little more.

And there's also something about "medium" days that tire me out so much more than the other two. Guess I should be glad I only have to do it once a week.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 2

I learned a lot from the last times I did Hypertrophy "light" days, and I started off lighter than I planned since the extra 3 reps per set (up to 18 now--WTF) added up pretty quick. Besides, I'm going to have to do this all over again come Saturday. Whee...

Another new thing I did today was doing Double leg swiss ball push ups with my shins on the ball. The first two sets were fun enough, but when I switched to using my toes... oh! save me jeebus! If bench presses were that unstable, there'd be a lot of plates flying around.

10/10, Phase IV, Day 1

I was planning something special to celebrate this milestone, but unfortunately I'll have to postpone it when I have more free time.

10/10, Phase III, Day 19

TGIF, thank God it's Friday, and also in this case, thank goodness it's finished with "it" being Phase III, but I only have the weekend to get myself ready for the worst phase of all--Phase IV. I'm back to 5x a week for 2 weeks, and I still remember how much my butt got whupped the last time I went through that. Oh well, forward and onward I go.

10/10, Phase III, Day 17

For whatever reason, the airconditioning in the gym wasn't operating at regular capacity this morning, and so I opted to space out my sets a bit further apart than I used to rather than risk overheating. Nonetheless, by the time I had finished, my stomach started acting queasy. I had hoped to do my cardio afterwards so I could rest tomorrow, but that would've been asking for trouble.

10/10, Phase III, Day 15

Hope the extra cheat meals during the weekend and tonight's late-night shift at work won't sabotage my progress in this phase. I already did my cardio today so that I wouldn't have to worry about it tomorrow.

10/10, Phase III, Day 12

I fared much better today than last week by keeping most of the loads the same. I noticed during some of the more taxing exercises that I've been breathing "deeper", if that makes any sense. Seems to get more oxygen into my system and keep me going a little more so I guess that's not a bad thing.

Height	5'3"	Apr 08
Weight	199.5 lbs.	-0.5 lbs.
Chest	44.25"	+0.75"
Neck	16.25"	no change
Upper Arms (unflexed)	15.5"/15.25"	-0.25" /-0.25"
Upper Arms (flexed)	16.25"/16"	-0.125" /-0.25"
Forearms	12"/11.75"	-0.125" /-0.125"
Waist at navel	39.25"	-0.5"
Hips	44.25"	no change
Thighs	27"/27"	no change/no change
Calves	16.375"/16.25"	+0.125" /+0.125"

Comments

• Although a half a pound weight loss seems miniscule, I'm pretty happy for two reasons. First, it's the first time since September '07 that I've been below 200lbs., and second, the first half of April was spent on Hypertrophy where I gained a bit of weight. So yeah, half a pound is huge. I'll have to thank forcing myself to do cardio yesterday despite it being a holiday.
  
• I must've measured my chest wrong last month. If I take March's figure, the growth is a more reasonable 0.25". In any case, I'm glad my chest has caught up with my butt again.
• I suppose I should be concerned about my arms losing some size, and I admit getting obsessed with the numbers before, but what the hell, it's all part of the process.