Topspin's Journal

[[Focus]]

What Greg said is part of why I suggest a ketogenic diet (wherein appetite and portion control are semi-automatic).

You know what Atkins is? Like that, except with more emphasis on actual healthy eating. (Quality sources of protein, and lots of fibrous vegetables). But you look like you might be one of those carb addicts. Me, I could eat bacon, eggs, cheese, steak and sausage all damn day, every day. Dunno why I haven't tried it yet.

But really, it would probably be more feasible to just take Greg's suggestion and keep better track. Tracking your intake will allow you to determine your baseline and modify accordingly. It really is a simple matter of calories in vs. calories out, for most people. I'm sure you might think it scary/embarrassing/inconvenient/whatever, but an objective analysis of your nutrition will be fundamental to your success.

 

[topspin]

I don't think I'd be able to do any kind of rigorous diet because of what the cafeteria has... some days there just aren't a whole lot of good choices - usually the meat is greasy and oily. And yeah, I probably am a carb-addict. But thanks for the advice from both of you, I'll start a Fitday journal tomorrow (mostly because today I ate a lot of stuff that I would have no idea how to put in...)

So for an afternoon snack I had an Auntie Anne's pretzel (free today! 20th anniversary) and then dinner was at an Asian birthday party, so ate a lot of different things that were probably all decently healthy (i.e. turkey, various vegetables, tofu, duck, etc.) aside from the piece of cake I had, since it was a birthday after all. Maybe I'll run an extra 15 min tomorrow or something to make up for it.

Tomorrow, I'll also see if I can find a camera to take some "before" pics.

 

[topspin]

Fairly boring workout today. Tried doing some new things again, so that I could eventually work towards a 3x5 routine. With the lat pulldowns, I tried 90s but by the third set my left arm wasn't cutting it at all, so I'm going to scale back to 80. Did the rows at 25, easily. Tried to do a few different ab exercises, but I'm still really shaky on what I'm doing there.

For cardio, did 45 min as promised, but I think I'm getting bored of it. I'll try to figure out something else to do sooner or later. Drank another muscle milk afterwards, because I didn't want to eat a real meal at 10am after already having some Raisin Bran for breakfast.

Got my FitDay Journal set up:

Keep me on track!

 

[topspin]

There's now a lonnnng list of food that I ate today on FitDay. I'm at 2285 calories when my "total energy requirements" according to the site posted earlier are 2142. Obvious discrepancy.

Went to Target today to pick up a few things and, while I was there, grabbed a carton of Muscle Milk. (BTW, shopping for stuff while the super bowl's on... no lines and great parking ) I know I said it was kinda disgusting before, but the vanilla creme I had today was pretty good (as opposed to the cookies 'n creme from before). I think I'll replace my dinner with some Muscle Milk on my workout (non-tennis) days.

 

[topspin]

I've been feeling pretty good and I've faithfully entered everything I ate into my FitDay log. Again, I don't think I'm eating any less, but I'm trying to start by eating better. (Aside from the piece of chocolate I had while I was studying... but honestly, I was falling asleep and sometimes I think that eating a little is just about the only thing that will keep me up and working.)

If anyone could comment a little on my diet so far, which is more or less characteristic of a normal day for me, I'd really appreciate it. The biscuits and cereal were breakfast. The tortilla/ham/cheese combo was actually a wrap I had a lunch, along with the vegetables and rice mentioned. The apples were morning snacks. Afternoon snacks were the cheese, egg white, and muscle milk (I just wanted to try some ).

Dinner will probably be a subway sub, but it's whatever my mom/dad brings me from tennis.

 

[[Focus]]

Some of your amounts are a little strange. When you enter a piece of chocolate do you actually mean the size they are referring to or a whole bar? And, say, why 1 egg white? But maybe that's just me.

Overall I'd say your diet's okay. It's certainly not amazing, but it's not horrible, either. Given what you say you have to work with, it's pretty decent. It's just a matter of trying to keep your diet as clean as you can, favoring whole, unprocessed foods over others as often as possible. Could go a little higher on the protein and a little lower on the carbs, too, ideally. And most importantly, being consistent.

More relevant, though, in terms of simple fat loss, is accurately tracking your intake and the resulting changes in your body composition over a period of time (2 or 3 weeks is usually enough to notice), then either increasing or decreasing your intake accordingly. Most calorie need/expenditure numbers are rough estimates, so it's vital to success to figure it out for you as opposed to some hypothetical average person. Being honest and meticulous in tracking your nutritional choices and their effects will ensure your success.

 

[topspin]

Thanks for the feedback. The chocolate was just a little piece, a bit bigger than a quarter. As for egg white... well, it was the white of one egg, since I'm told that egg yolks have lots of cholesterol, fat, etc.

The whole egg-white thing was my attempt to get more protein in my diet, especially as a snack. Any ideas on other protein-filled snacks? I mean, when I'm actually at school (and can't head back to my room) I don't really want to be carrying around a hard-boiled egg. I'm eating apples now, which I think is alright, but as you said it's another carb to add to the list.

So dinner did end up being from subway, a turkey breast sandwich. I was considering having some more muscle milk (I think it's pretty tasty actually) but decided that I didn't really need it, it wasn't helping me at all. Tennis was a good day today. Easy conditioning (we jumped rope for probably a total of 5 min) but obviously, we did a lot of hitting and I felt pretty good about it. Anyway... hopefully I'll be able to stave off any temptation to eat more tonight. And believe me, there's always something

 

[topspin]

Decent day today - not the best, but could be worse. Diet today, according to FitDay, was horrendous, generally because of dinner today. Unfortunately, it was just a result of cafeteria food. Choices were eggs, sausage links or patties, corn dogs, fries, and/or pancakes with chocolate, whipped cream, strawberries in syrup, etc. I ate eggs and a corn dog, and that alone pretty much sent me over the edge fat-wise. (By the way, yes, I did eat five apples today. I kinda have a habit of eating a lot of one food once I decide I like it.)

I also had a double-dose (of powder, which is still less than the ready-to-drink version) of Muscle Milk, and I'm starting to think it's too sweet. Any ideas on something to mix it with? As is, following it with an egg white or some cheese kind of takes the edge off, but doesn't change the fact that it can be sickeningly sweet.

Workout was alright today. Changed my routine a bit - planned 5x5 for everything. Dumbbell bench at 25 per hand, and then did two sets of lunges with 50 until my spotter showed up. Finally got to do some squats, 3x5 of 135. Raises were especially weak, at 10 each, but that's probably because I worked pretty hard on the bench.

Cardio was bike. Conveniently, even though I didn't have my watch, I could do perfect intervals because there was a basketball game about to go on and the warmup clock was set for 20 just as I was starting up. Excellent I wonder if I could get that regularly?

 

[topspin]

Tennis day today. Didn't feel that great, don't think I really put that much effort in. The drilling and conditioning were easier than normal, and I didn't have my heart in it during matchplay. Disappointing.

Diet has been alright. Poor proportioning on my part for lunch - a chicken pecan salad from Barnelli's with bread, and I ate all of it including the bread with butter. Hmm. I entered it info FitDay but don't fully believe it - doesn't seem possible that me eating that much food is that few calories, even if it is a salad.

It's alright though, I think. Boiled more eggs today since I was home to carry me through the rest of the week. I also (kinda) found a solution to the muscle milk sweetness thing. Today, instead of eating chocolate, I had muscle milk to satisfy my "sweet tooth." Although I might have some chocolate anyway, to celebrate Chinese New Year's. (But don't worry, it'll be little.)

 

[[Focus]]

Hey there, spin.

Re: the muscle milk, try mixing in some cocoa powder.

And yeah, vegetables are pretty sparse in the calorie department. That's why those serious about nutrition rarely even count them (the non-starchy ones, that is). They're a great choice to fill up on, if you like that sort of thing. Unless you're actually low on calories, in which case... meat, cheese and eggs. Mmm, mmm.

Keep on keepin' on. Hope you have a lovely rest of the week.

 

[topspin]

Hah, I wish I was low on calories. I think you just listed some of my favorite things Although I'll admit that I've actually started to like and appreciate different salads. Veggies are actually pretty flavorful.

I'll pick up some cocoa powder this weekend, test that out. Yum, cocoa.

Workout today was pretty good. Did everything 5x5 as planned, which was good. Lat pulldowns were down to 70 for some reason, probably because I didn't warm up, I was able to maintain good form (for once) and didn't feel like my left side was struggling. I'll stick to 70 for a while. Rows, I did 30lbs (up from 25 last time) which was largely possible because of my easier job on the lats, but still felt pretty good. No spotter, so I did lunges at 50lbs. Just realized a little while ago that I forgot to do abs entirely, but I still don't have a good plan for that.

Cardio was on the bike today, 20min of 2min intervals, switching from easy to hard. It went quickly, because there were some people scrimmaging basketball on the court below and it was kind of fun to watch. Finished up with 200 jumps on a jump rope, just 'cause I felt like it. I think I'll try some different jumping rope stuff now, 'cause everyone always says it's good for footwork, but I just feel like I'm jumping up and down 200 times.

Diet was good, until dinner. Details are in the FitDay, but basically I had lots of healthy snacks today, mostly apples, oranges, bananas, and egg whites. Then at dinner, I didn't want to go to the cafe (which evidently had crap anyway) so I ordered food. Unfortunately, though I got a supposedly healthy chicken caesar salad, it also had croutons and such, and I also ordered bread sticks (with a friend) and ended up eating three and half of them. Not good. The only consolation? In my FitDay journal, it lists caesar salad with things like whole eggs, cheese, and anchovies - which my salad definitely didn't have, so who knows what the actual calorie content was?

Anyway, I felt really full, but not quite satisfied after all that, so I had a little chocolate that my parents gave me for Chinese New Year. (Happy Chinese New Year!) It was really, really good, and it was small, so I really don't feel bad about it at all.

 

[topspin]

Off day, so no workout and no tennis. Diet was pretty bad though. Details in the FitDay, but basically I ate a huge lunch, probably two or three meals' worth really. Oddly enough I don't feel to guilty about it, I just am obviously disappointed and I want to know why I "binged" so badly. I'm pretty sure that it was just because I had basically no food between meals. Other days, I had apples and stuff between breakfast and lunch. Another thing is that I think eating carbs just makes me want to eat more carbs, especially bread. That happened last night too.

Hopefully, armed with this new information, I'll be better off in the future. Just kinda annoying that I probably won't be able to tell any difference on the scale tomorrow from my days of good eating, thanks to these past two days.

 

[topspin]

Big lunch today pretty much threw off my diet, and in retrospect I should've shown a little more self-control. That's what I get for eating with my older brother (who's also training, but bulking), his best friend who's in the army, and my friend who also has a tendency to eat a lot.

The workout today, however, was pretty good. I feel like I could've done more than 25lbs on the dumbbell bench, but whatever, and then did 12.5 on raises. Squats, I bumped it back down to 95 so that I could focus on form, since I haven't been going fully parallel. I definitely feel some stress in my knees though - any advice? For cardio, I just did 30min of intervals on the elliptical, but I really need to find a way to make it more interesting.

 

[topspin]

So I haven't been on for a while, so I'll break it down... (Diet stuff is all in FitDay... not very good over the past few days, but alright today aside from some chocolate)

Sunday, I went to the gym with my brother, who taught me how to deadlift. I started at just 115 so I could get the form down, which I think I'm going to continue at for some time, and then maybe move up. Cardio - 20 min on the elliptical.

Yesterday was a tennis day so I didn't lift. Drank a lot of this K20 thing I got for free at the gym on Sunday. Also ate a bunch of these LeanSource bars that are supposedly healthy, but definitely too easy to eat too many.

Today lifted 5x5 on everything, 25lbs twice and 30lbs three times on dumbbell press (I'm gonna stick to 25 from here on out; I'm worried about form), 5x5 10lbs raises, and then found someone to spot me on squats for 95 lbs, going fully parallel. Cardio on the bike again.

Pretty good day, in my opinion.

 

[topspin]

Okay, so it's been a while again... not been doing as well as I should have.

Since my last post... Wednesday was a tennis day, so not much to report, and then Thurs. I was honestly too busy for my workout because I was getting ready for a trip to DC. I was gone Friday through Sunday, so I missed a total of three workouts. I ate crap the whole time, more or less, and generally it was not a good situation.

Monday, I had tennis, as usual. I definitely felt all that ice cream and missed running. Tuesday was a normal workout day - DB bench at 30lbs, 10lb raises, 95 and 115 on squats (I luckily found a spotter). Wednesday was another tennis day; we did some conditioning including sprints, which was probably our toughest conditioning for a while.

Finally, yesterday's workout... that was definitely good. I worked out with one of my friends who happens to be really athletic, so after doing lat pulldowns at 80lbs, we benched (I was at 70, and even though it was my "pull" day I decided I should take advantage of having a spotter). Then we did another drill where we hopped up and down stairs, three sets, starting with both feet, then right only, then left only. Then we did star jumps, which I tried to do 3x15 but really ended up doing 15, 14, and 12. Man, they were hard! After a quick 5x5 of 30lb bentover rows, my legs were way too spent to do any significant cardio.

Today was my day off, so no real workout news. Unfortunately, all week I've been eating junk, so yeah I don't know. But I think that being away from this forum actually makes it much harder to watch what I eat, somehow. I've probably been eating 2500-3000 cals per day, when my target should probably be about 2000. But I'll try to keep up now.

 

[topspin]

I haven't done my workout today yet - it will be done in the next few hours, no excuses - but I just wanted to make a quick post about Thursday's workout and some recent "revelations."

As I said, I worked out on Thursday with a fellow athlete and I realized (as I often do) that my training isn't very sport-specific, nor is it targeting one of my greatest weaknesses - agility, or quickness. This leads me to the concern that I need to be including other kinds of work in my workouts - which I'm going to start looking for now.

Yesterday, I was playing some tennis (only an hour) and I also realized that... my legs are freakin' huge - 22 inches at their widest. This kind of went along with the fact that on Thursday, I noticed that my calves were wayy bigger than my friends', at a whopping 15.5in at their widest. Anyway, the important part of this was that, as I was playing tennis, I was wearing a tennis skirt, looked down, saw massive tree trunks, and immediately the image of came to mind. Now, she's wonderful and all, but I'd rather look like . Just (Venus on left, Serena on right.)

Now, aside from the fact that I just think Venus has a better physique, why do I care? Well, yesterday, I felt short. Which is weird, considering that I'm a 5'9'' Asian female. There aren't a whole lot of them my height. And I've been long and slender my whole life... till now, apparently.

So what am I going to do? Not really sure, but I want to revamp my workout and fix this.

 

[[Focus]]

Hey there.

I think it's a common misconception that basic compound movements don't adhere to the Law of Specificity. If anything they do so more than most. Having said that I'm not sure why you wouldn't be doing lunges, as the translation is much more direct than with the other two (deads and squats). Also you don't seem to do anything that targets your core? Seems silly to me given the amount of work it's doing during a tennis game. Not to mention developing imbalances in general. I think I've said it before but you really ought to get on a proper push/pull, upper/lower or full body routine. What you have now isn't properly balanced. At least as far as I can tell from your haphazard posting style. It's much easier to read if you arrange it in an ordered list, I'm just sayin'.

Re: your concerns with size, 5x5 like you're doing is in what is generally referred to as the strength range (though no actual studies have been done on the whole rep range thing - it's all anecdotal). I guess if you want to switch your focus to power rather than hypertrophy you can simply increase your exercise tempo (be explosive on the concentric, or just do the whole thing fast) and decrease your rest periods. Maybe work in some plyometrics. If you want to simply kick your own ass and expend some energy, try alternating sets of burpees and jumping jacks after sets but before resting. Don't hate me, but are your thighs "huge" because they're impressively muscled or because they're coated in a thick layer of blubber?

Re: the knees when you're squatting, are you making sure they don't pass your toes? Check your form. Your stance, specifically. Afaik, with proper form you shouldn't have any issues, assuming they weren't pre-existing. Don't be afraid to widen or narrow your stance a little to see what works best. My knees used to bow when my stance was too wide, but now the only problem I have with squatting is the panic attack I have before I start and the feeling of impending death afterwards.

 

[topspin]

Hey Focus, thanks as always for giving feedback

I think it's a common misconception that basic compound movements don't adhere to the Law of Specificity. If anything they do so more than most. Having said that I'm not sure why you wouldn't be doing lunges, as the translation is much more direct than with the other two (deads and squats).

I'm not really sure what you're saying here; please elaborate?

Also you don't seem to do anything that targets your core? Seems silly to me given the amount of work it's doing during a tennis game. Not to mention developing imbalances in general.

Point taken, definitely. I think it's just the fact there are so many different ab exercises, and it seems like I have to do a lot (i.e. from a million different angles or something) in order to train it in a balanced way... so I, foolishly of course, just kind of ignored the issue.

However, I've seen a lot of people in my school gym doing an exercise that I think I want to imitate (if I have a partner). It's where you do decline situps with a medicine ball, and then you throw the ball to your partner at the top of the situp, and then catch it back again before you go down. I've done them in track a few years ago, but haven't since. Then I guess I'll have to add something for the obliques too; considering the motion of hitting a tennis ball, it makes sense to me that those would be the most important.

I think I've said it before but you really ought to get on a proper push/pull, upper/lower or full body routine. What you have now isn't properly balanced. At least as far as I can tell from your haphazard posting style. It's much easier to read if you arrange it in an ordered list, I'm just sayin'.

I guess the way I post doesn't really make it clear, and I hadn't thought about whether it was easy to see or not, sorry , but this is what I'm doing right now. It's supposed to be a push/pull split, but I don't know if it's properly balanced, as you said, but I tried.

Mon/Wed: Tennis
Tues/Sat: Bench press, front raises, lateral raises, squats/lunges
Thurs/Sun: Lat pulldown, bentover row, squats/lunges (only on Thurs)
Fri: Rest

As you suggested, I want to figure out more plyometrics or some-such to fit into my workout. When I was working out with my friend, we did star jumps, which my legs are still sore from. Of course, she's a volleyball and basketball player, so her vertical is much more important to her sports than it is to tennis, but the point is still explosive power. After all, the tennis ball is only in contact with my racquet for a split second. Do you think I should try to replace exercises entirely with these kinds of plyometrics?

Don't hate me, but are your thighs "huge" because they're impressively muscled or because they're coated in a thick layer of blubber?

Haha, well, I think it's kind of hard to say because it's all pretty relative. I'd say that it's mostly muscular, though. Sure, I've got some fat there, but I haven't got a layer over everywhere - just some excess hanging around the inner thigh. (Pleasant, I know.) Out of my volleyball/basketball player friend and another friend who's a dancer, though, I've definitely got the most muscular calves. I want to get some pictures up eventually, but that involves hunting down our family digital camera, which is often easier said than done.



Before I get to tonight's workout, I want to say a quick thing about another possible exercise. I used to throw discus, so this was something that I did in track. We had a medicine ball which we threw with one, mostly straight arm towards a wall as hard as we could while kneeling, and then the same with the other. We also did stuff like throw it overhead with both hands. Since throwing disc (not including the spin, obviously) and hitting a forehand in tennis are essentially the same motion, I figure the exercise is still useful to me. Only trouble is, I can't think of anywhere I'd be allowed to nail a wall.

Anyway. Tonight's workout. In a nice organized list...

Dumbbell Bench: 5x5, 30lbs
Forward raise: 5x5, 12.5
Lateral raise: 5x5, 12.5
Cardio: 20 min, elliptical

For the first time ever, both squat racks were taken. Of course, the guys using them were doing deadlifts, not squats, but whatever. Since my legs were still sore and I can just do legs tomorrow anyway (usually I don't do legs on Sunday) I figured there was no harm in putting it off a day. Cardio was kind of boring and felt too easy, but it wasn't for lack of trying, promise.

Don't even bother looking at FitDay, it's all crap. I'll clean up my act.

 

[topspin]

Lat pulldown: 5x5, 70
Bentover row: 5x5, 30
Cardio: 20min, elliptical

When I was trying to do squats today, I felt a ton of pressure exactly at the two points where you don't want to - knees and back. Since I wasn't feeling all there anyway (a bit sick), I decided to just skip it. Not good, but I didn't want to hurt myself. Cardio was boring, as usual, but I stuck it out. Still eating too much, not sure what I'm going to do about that, honestly.

 

[[Focus]]

I'm not really sure what you're saying here; please elaborate?

Well in Tennis when you go for the ball, do you squat, lunge or deadlift to arrive in position? I would say that you lunge for the ball fairly often, more often than you would be incorporating movements similar to squats or deadlifts (least of all). This also provides a fair bit of the power on some of your swings. I'm not an expert, but it seems fairly direct.

What I'm saying about squats, deadlifts and lunges is that they are basic movements. They (or something very like them) feature in nearly every activity. Then you've got say bench and its opposite the bent over row. These all translate pretty well to movements in your sport. They're not quite as good in this regard as some others that directly mimic tennis moves (I imagine pushdowns are fairly good for this but unnecessary if you've got all the right compounds in, I think, at least not to start), but they're a hell of a lot better than almost any machine and a lot of different isolation work you could do.

Mon/Wed: Tennis
Tues/Sat: Bench press, front raises, lateral raises, squats/lunges
Thurs/Sun: Lat pulldown, bentover row, squats/lunges (only on Thurs)
Fri: Rest

I guess that's actually not too bad. I don't know why you do the front and lateral raises rather than simply doing a military press though. The pulldown and the row are kind of redundant, as they're the same exercise. Why squats/lunges rather than squats + lunges?

Do you think I should try to replace exercises entirely with these kinds of plyometrics?

As I understand it there is a sequence in which exercises of various types are performed. Plyometrics should be done before weight training if I'm not mistaken. I would put the emphasis on them, yes, if they're sport specific and that is your primary concern.

Haha, well, I think it's kind of hard to say because it's all pretty relative. I'd say that it's mostly muscular, though. Sure, I've got some fat there, but I haven't got a layer over everywhere - just some excess hanging around the inner thigh. (Pleasant, I know.) Out of my volleyball/basketball player friend and another friend who's a dancer, though, I've definitely got the most muscular calves. I want to get some pictures up eventually, but that involves hunting down our family digital camera, which is often easier said than done.

Well if what you say is true, it's mostly genetic, and something you'll have to learn to love. But I find when it comes to the legs a lot of people get confused about what's muscle and what's marshmallow.

Only trouble is, I can't think of anywhere I'd be allowed to nail a wall.

Outside? The side o whatever building that doesn't look too fragile?

When I was trying to do squats today, I felt a ton of pressure exactly at the two points where you don't want to - knees and back. Since I wasn't feeling all there anyway (a bit sick), I decided to just skip it. Not good, but I didn't want to hurt myself.

I don't think I really know enough about this to say anything. I never have these sorts of problems, or get injured. Sorry. Maybe make a post about it in the relevant forum and see what comes at ya.

Cardio was boring, as usual, but I stuck it out. Still eating too much, not sure what I'm going to do about that, honestly.

This I know a little about. The trick is to make the pain of eating too much or the wrong things greater than the pleasure. Easier said than done though. I think one of the more commonly effective approaches is a gradual cleansing of your tastes and tightening of your will. Over the years I've gotten to the point where, today for example I went out to the best rib place in town with my favorite cougar and ordered plain ribs with broccoli, no sauce on the ribs. And I didn't do it because I was supposed to, I ordered it because that was the best choice, and therefore what I wanted. It's a different way of thinking really. There are a number of different ways to go about it but the key is to understand why you're struggling and try to address or mitigate the issue(s). If it's a simple lack of willpower, well, then, as I said, build it up gradually, the same way you would a muscle.