Finishing up strong

The week started off hot. Everything was flowing, mood was good. Morale untouched.  The end of the week not so much.  Physically I kicked ass. I had a great shoulder workout which is historically my laggiest body part, they just dont grow, even after I hammer them to exhaustion and sheer agony natta.  Friday I chose cardio, did almost 4.5 miles on the treadmill.  I left dizzy, and wanting to vomit but overall happy with the weeks lifts.  On the other side. I've been in a funk the last 2-3 days.  Doubt, pessimism, irritability. I think the isolation maybe kicking in. Who knows. This is typically where I start questioning all my choices and decisions career wise and I am never able to talk myself out of that downward spiral. Hopefully next month is better.

The end of the week finished off with sadness. No details but a training accident here on post left 2 folks very injured and 2 more no longer with us. I cannot imagine the families who received the news. Your sons are away from the war, training and honing their skills and this happened. Really makes you think, however no time to think when I get a message telling me a Patron saint of a man who I worked with briefly but remained in contact with after his retirement passed away as well.  He had a heart of gold, never was in a bad mood, and consistently on a daily basis would ask about my family. A true saint. I'm infuriated that I cannot be local to say good bye. It never fails, every time I go away, birthdays, holidays, tragedies, family reunions. I miss them all. I havent been home to see my family in close to 3 years. Everytime I try some shit comes up, just like this damn assignment.  The same assignment that is going to ultimately seal my fate with OTS because I know in my heart of hearts that the powers that be have seen that I am gone and push the package aside.  Can I deal with this shit for 10 more years?

Enough of the feeling sorry for mysel

Shoulders.  3 reps of the 5/3/1

Barbell Military Press

135x3
155x3
175x8   this was a best for me. putting me close to a 225 max. My wrist felt great

After that I was off to the raises,  DB lateral raises, Barbell shrugs,  DB front raises, DB rear lateral raises. Upright rows.  I was just drilling away.  My strength gains this week were great personally.

More ab work and cardio after.

to have the time to focus on the lift, really hit the weights hard,  run, and eat eat eat.  If anything happens during this assignment it will be that I have that physical transformation I have been trying for for years.

Chasing the road map

Chasing the road map, that's what we go after. Being lean, being veiny, looking like a road map on our chest, shoulders, arms, what have you.  Its not all about big muscles, its about diet, exercise and hydration.

I am naturally a creature of habit. I've had the same cell number since the yr 2000. Hell I just bought my first new wallet last month, the other I bought in 2001. I just find what works and I do not deviate.  The same goes with diet. Yes it gets boring and boring fast, however its the end result that we are after.

I followed a similar diet when I deployed last yr or so and I dropped my initial 12 lbs just from eating, I did not cardio because it was too friggin hot.

Each day is the same, ground hog day.

Breakfast

Eggwhites scrambled with ham, cheese, tomato, bacon, peppers, and mushrooms. A bowl of cantaloupe, and a bowl of strawberries with a small OJ

Lunch is 2 chicken breast, broccoli, brown rice, and a bowl of cucumbers with vinegar on it.  I will occasionally swap out the chicken for fish, or turkey burgers no bun

Dinner is a repeat.  some weeks typically on a Friday, ill have a cookie, or a milk shake just so I do not lose my freaking mind.

I snack on almonds Beef jerky or Jars of peanut butter lol. and If im feeling froggy, ill hit up star bucks

I read an article today how women are increasingly getting Upper Arm tucks. I thought YGTBFSM. How lazy are we that we have to go and cut skin away because they refuse to tone up the muscle underneath.  I understand getting new tits, sometimes you gotta alter what god gave ya, but hell the tricep is 70% of the arm, just lift some damn weights.

so in honor of that article I trained Arms today.

Bis

Standing DB curl
55x8 60x8 70x6 75x6 each arm

Hammer Preacher curls 105lbs x 12 4 sets

Single Arm kettlebell concentration curls. I hold the kettle by the ball not the handle
30lb x 8 4 sets

Tris

Close grip 225x8 3 sets

Rope pull downs 165 x 10 4 sets

Single hand cable behind the neck raises

60x8 3 sets

Bodyweight Dips

3 sets of 10

Finished up with some Hanging leg raises, some ab rope pull downs and hit the tread mill for 35 minutes/

Chasing the road map

Leg day getting it done

Last night I did legs.  Lemme just preface this with the amount of comedy in the gym makes it hard to focu on anything.  The exercises I see  the 1 qtr squats of 900 lbs.  I'm just in awe.

Anyway in 5/3/1 my routine was fairly simple.  After warm up.

225x5
255x5
285 I got for 11. My cardiovascular went out before my legs.  Something I Imadmiteldy need to focus on.   After that it was hack squats, leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls and lots of calf work.  I finished that up with the mountain climber machine Hiit for 10 min. That was prob a bad idea as I'm smoked today but feel good.

Current supps are everything under the sun lol

Xtend BCAAs
God know how many different types of protein due to the guys that just departed  dumped their tubs in my hands
Ergogenix Ergoshred
Ergogenix Ergobolic
Ergogenix. Ergotest
Genomyx. DCP

Multi V and fish oil round it out.

Preworkout I take crazy if its an early lift. Or Hemavol if its an evening lift.  Both are awesome Craze is mind blowing lol

Today is Arm training Bis and Tris. A fun day for sure as ill finish with Abs and cardio

Tomorrow ill cover my food intake and how shitty it is that I cannot rape the dessert bar very night.

Week 4 Daily lift. Cutting the fat

Scale said 223 today that's about 5lbs down this month.  Not a bad start, but damn I'm starving haha.

The nice thing about being away is that I can train a body part each day and do cardio after, instead of racing through my lift to pick up kids etc.  

I use the 5/3/1 program and it has an app that I use and it's awesome. A great program with flexibility

Today was chest.  Week 1 all 5 reps for the main lift flat bench
All you do Is put your max in and the app will calculate the rest for you easy as that.

My max bench is 350 lbs so today's main lift went like this

225x5 ( the app said 205 but I adapted)
245x5
265x5+ meaning do 5 but rep to failure as it will adjust for you in the future on the app. I got it for 10 which put my new max at about 352.  Not bad with a sore wrist.

Afterward was a lot of assistance lifts. Incline bench 4 sets. Cable crosses high setting and low setting 4 sets each.   Stretched. Did some hanging leg Raises and some weighted decline sit ups then hit the tread mill for 20 min.  I do some variation of treadmill elliptical mountain climbing wall every day for 20 min and a few evenings a week go for a 2 mile run.   I figure by July progress should be full tilt.

Ill cover food and supplements. In tomorrow edition

Marathon, not a sprint...

Progress comes slowly, finally today a got an email address. How about that 3 weeks later and finally some progress. I guess I am just used to go go go and the mentality here is whatever. But god forbid if you speak up about it, you get called unprofessional for actually caring, wanting the tools to do the job and well wanting to work.

Speaking of progress, the week or 2 leading up to deployment I didn't do anything. Ate pizza, drank beer, no physical activity. I figured shit 6 months to clean it up. Here I am back at it. Chopped chicken, veggies all day. Bleh! but it worked last time and time for more work.

This photo is from day 2 in country 228 lbs.  I know its a crap pic, however this is the best you get in a man can.   Today I am 224 so its starting slowly.  Marathon and not a sprint.  I'll be training 5/3/1.  Cutting cals slowly over time, because frankly thats all I have is time.  The food is good and the gym is adequate and well there is no office here so to speak so its just me alone for 6 months.    The clock has started.  Time to roll.

Love to breathe in that Fresh Air!

Yes something about the desert, really makes ya feel great. Blowing your nose 15 times a day as mud comes out, hacking up your lung because its coated in dust. Waking up and bleeding from all the crap. : im gonna edit this part, I often forget as a military member I am not allowed to form an opinion and better not post anything that can be used against me lol:  . At that point I nodded off to dream land as he rattled on thinking of the day that I'll be surfing with my friends in Puerto Rico upon my return from this little tour.    Aside from all the fun civilian stuff, my training is starting to hit its stride.  2 months after a small wrist fracture I was able to put up 305 for 6 reps yesterday with little pain, should be back to form in no time.

Diet is coming alone nicely as well, if they would just put the dessert bar in a different place and not near the exit I would be fine. 

Return to the middle East

It was a quick 14 months since I departed Qatar, when I found myself with short notice 1 week to prepare orders to Kuwait.  The last year flew by simply because I had 4 TDY's during that timeframe totalling 13 weeks. SO essentially I was only really home 9 months.  This tour will be unique as it is a DCMA tasking. Basically administering a little over 2 billion dollars in contracts for Northern Kuwait.  Even more challenging is the fact that the notice came down 10 days prior, the person I replaced had already left and the turnover provided was via Facebook haha. All the turnover in the world could not prepare me for the Army.  God bless anyone who can serve a day in this organization.  Wow,  more on that in the future. The day I arrived the Army felt the need to pull access from us to a certain network drive that basically contained every document I will need to perform my work. In addition after 2 weeks the Army still hasn't set up my email lol

So short notice orders, no turnover, no access to anything that I need to do work, and no email to conduct business.   Piece of cake,  I am convinced I was sent here to fail, I really am.  However I wont, I've traveled the 2 plus Hours to another Army post to burn the documents I need to DVD's and Hard drives.  I'm using my stateside AF email address to conduct business, and I talk to everyone like I already know what Im doing lol.  Truth is I'm clueless.   Its been a really rough start, but on the flip side it is a DCMA tasking so its much slower than last yrs tasking so I have the time to figure it out.

As much as I hate leaving home, I look forward to these taskings for personal and professional growth, a chance to reflect alone on life, a chance to physically grow and change and last an adventure to say the least. I'm basically my own boss here with my own room and my own vehicle. That is unheard of for someone with my rank. I'm in the office about 14 hrs a day but I do leave for food, gym, and occasionally downtown to see the locale. You never really know fear until you drive 200 KPH in downtown just so you do not get ran off the road and die.    More to come..........