I’m off to play college football in about 8 weeks, so I decided to start this journal to track my progress as well as to keep myself accountable. About ten weeks ago is when I first began to take working out and nutrition seriously, and I’ve seen some great results. I’m going to keep track of both my workouts and my diet in this journal.
Mon: 6/12/06
Today was a ME upper body day. I had a fair day though my bench has plateau’d the last two weeks. I’m going to try going down about 5-10 pounds next week and working my way up to see if that helps. I went up on all of my other lifts.
Today’s lifts:
Bench 5x 185, 4x 195 , 3x 205, 3x(max) 215, 3x (90%) 190, 3x (90%) 190
Incline DB bench 7x 60, 7x 65
DB Row 10x 60, 10x 65, 10x 70
Flyes 10x 20, 10x 25, 10x 25
Ab Circuit + some forearm/grip stuff
Yeah, it’s pretty tough to bench a lot when you have gorilla arms.
Mon 6/12/06:
My food/supplement intake for the day:
10AM: 2 Chicken breasts, 2 tbsp flax seeds, a bunch of baby carrots, multivit
12:30PM: Lightly Blackened Salmon, more baby carrots, a serving of unsalted mixed nuts
2:15 PM: Serving and a half of mixed nuts
4:20PM: 2 brown eggs, 4 egg whites, a mixed greens salad (no dressing), green apple, 200mg alpha lipoic acid
5:15: 2g arginine
5:30 - 6:45 PM Lift
7:00PM: 2 Scoops Cytogainer (28,40,310), 1 banana, 3-4g creatine, 200mg vit c, 400mg vit e
8:15PM: Shrimp, steak, and chicken fajitas, 1.5 servings brown rice
10:00PM: PB and Banana Sandwich! - 3 tbsp Natural crunchy PB, 1/2 banana, two slices whole wheat bread; 1.5 cup fat free organic milk
12:15PM: Snac ZMA, 2g arginine
1:00PM: 1 chicken breast
For a grand total of roughly 3300 calories. Yes, I know I need to be eating more!
Just a couple things…
1.) Where are you headed to play ball? I am a college football player myself (WR), still at the juco level but will be transferring after December… Not so sure as to where yet, but I have a couple places in mind right now that will hopefully work out.
2.) If you could list the weights you are using for your workouts, it may help gauge your progress better and see how you are coming along.
Good luck! These journals are great to help keep you focused and will really be a tool for you to go back and look at what you have done in the past or what you could’ve done differently.
Tues 6/13/06
Today was Lower Body ME effort today. I had a pretty good day especially on my Snatch Grip DL my “max” went up 15lbs. from last week. I swapped a couple of excercises up from ones I’d been doing. I had a lot of energy for the workout atleast until the very end.
Today’s lifts:
Snatch Grip DL 5x 235, 4x 245, 3x 255, 3x 270, 3x 255, 3x 245
DB step ups: 8x 70, 8x 80, 8x 90
Hamstring Curls: 8x 90, 8x 92.5, 8x 95
Neck Machine: 10x 30, 10x 32.5, 10x 35
Wrist Roller x 25lbs
Tues 6/13/06
10am: Egg and chicken breast sandwich on toasted whole wheat bread with slice fat free cheese, mixed green salad, cup and a half organic fat free milk, 1g fish oil
12:30PM: 2 chicken breasts, 2 cups lettuce, 1g fish oil, 21 natural whole unsalted almonds
2:30PM: 1 chicken breast, 1 cup lettuce, 3g fish oil, multivit
4:10PM: 1 chicken breast, 1 apple
5:20pm Pre-WO: 2g arginine
6:45PM post WO: 1.5 scoops cytogainer, 1 orange
8:00PM: 2 pieces fresh salmon sushi; 2 ebi shrimp; sushi roll with shrimp, crabmeat, crabstick, caviar, cucumber, rice, wrapped in seaweed with sesame seeds sprinkled on top – which is delicious by the way
12:30AM: Snac ZMA, 2g Arginine
1:00AM: 1 chicken breast
Not sure how many calories I took in today. I can’t find any nutritional info for sushi online. However, I don’t think it was enough, again. Arrgh
I also ran out of Cytogainer today. I’m considering just going to 20g whey with water and two bananas as my PWO meal. Any suggestions?
Wed 6/14/06
I decided to do some swimming right after I woke up this morning. A.) I need to burn some fat, and I hear excercising first thing in the AM will do that B.) We’ve got several games in high altitude next year so I’m going to need some huge and efficient lungs. This is exasperated by the fact that I have a history of allergies and asthma. I swam six max effort lengths holding my breath for each length with about 45sec rest in between each. I then swam a couple of recovery laps. I felt great after and all day until my workout.
This afternoon was a short distance/change of direction day. I had zero energy and really didn’t have a good workout. So, I don’t think I’m going to swim on running days anymore. Here’s the split:
Dynamic Warm-Up
“Ground based mobility”
Low pogo jumps – 3 x 20 sec
High pogo jumps – 3 x 10 sec
Quick steps/ankling 2 x 10 yds
Wideouts – 2 x 5 secs (fast as possible)
Lateral quick steps – 2 x 10 yds
20 yd shuttle x 6 (30 sec b/w)
3-cone drill x 5 (1 min b/w)
Illinois drill x 3 ( 2 min b/w sets )
I did these drills on astro turf with tennis shoes on and lost my footing a couple of times. I think I’m going to start doing all this on grass with cleats. Other than one blistering pro shuttle (sub 4.6) it was a pretty dissapointing afternoon.
Wed 6/14/06
10:30AM Chicken breast and 2 egg white sandwich on toasted wheat bread w/slice of cheese, 2 cups Orange juice, 3 large celery sticks, 200mg alpha lipoic acid
12:15PM: 2 “lightly” blackened salmon, 4 large celery sticks, 28 mixed nuts
2:20PM: 1 chicken breast, 3 large celery sticks, 4g flax oil
4:15PM: 4 egg whites, 1 large brown egg, 2 cups mixed greens, 3 strawberries, 20 grapes
5:15PM Pre-WO: 2g Arginine
8:30PM: 10oz Sirloin, mixed greens salad w/bacon bits, baked potato
10:00PM: Natural PB and banana sandwich on whole wheat bread
1:00AM: Snac ZMA and 2g Arginine
1:45AM: 1 chicken breast
Grand total for today is 3500 calories give or take
Well, I decided to start this back up. We’re well into the season (5-2), and I’m the second string tight end. My game has improved dramatically since camp, this is my first year of ever really playing football. I played a year in high school but didn’t really take it seriously. I turned down some opportunities to play pretty good college basketball because I believe my body type and skills are more of the football type. One thing that has been frustrating for me is that I don’t feel like the athleticism I displayed regularly on the basketball court is really showing up on the football field. However, I’m chalking that up to a lack of playing experience.
I got lazy nutrition wise the first month or so when I got here after dealing with some nagging injuries, but I’m back on top of things now! My frame is starting to fill out a little bit; I’m at 242 with a lower BF%. Though, my arms are still extremely lanky. :rolleyes:
Here’s my current nutritional breakdown:
I’m eating 4-5 meals a day. This meals consist of a lean protein (turkey sausage, boiled eggs, grilled chicken, baked chicken, tuna); various fruits (apples, bananas, berries); fats (almonds, coconut oil, fish oil, olive oil, flax seeds, good cheese) and veg. I will also have brown rice, oatmeal, or a baked potato 4-5x a week usually at night after workouts. Because of the time restraints of being a colege athlete, I also usually have atleast two pseudo meals a day with a protein bar/shake + fruit.
Supplement wise, I’m taking Vit C, Vit E, Magnesium and Calcium after workouts and a multi-vit with breakfast. I also take ZMA, more vit c and e, 1g of arginine, and the occasional melotonin before bed. I’m also taking Creatine Mono, Muscle Milk, and ON whey.
My main concern right now is to increase my max strength which is severly lacking and definetley my missing link. My lifting schedule is as follows:
Sunday 4pm: Upper Body Rep Effort
Wednesday 6:30am: Upper Body Max Effort
Thursday 7:00pm (after practice): Lower Body Max Effort
My mainlifts right now are bench and box squat. Once the season is over and my CNS can handle it I will begin doing deadlifts. I do a lot of compound excercises like chin ups and dips as well. I am also really focused on strengthening my core.
Sunday 10/22 Upper Body Rep Effort
Max reps Dumbell Press (65lb DB’s) 13x ,12x ,8x
Seated Cable Row 10x 110 , 10x 120
Bench Supported Dips 10x BW, 10x BW
Side Cable Bends 10x 50, 10x 70, 10x 80
Plate Pinches (two ten lbs. plates) 75 secs ,65 secs
Tempo runs with team 4x60, 4x 50, 4x 40, 4x 30, 6x 20
Overall, it was a pretty solid workout. I had a good energy level. We have a limited amount of time to perform our lifts so I try to be as efficient as possible.
are you inseason.
Yes. 5-2 tied for second in conference
Had an OK workout this morning. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I was doing Close Grip Bench for the first time in forever. The lifting bars in our weight room are (seem) really skinny to me (big hands), so I never feel like I can get a good grip. Anywho…
Close Grip Bench 4x 135 4x 155 3x 175 3x 185 5x 165
DB Bench 10x 70
Lat pulldown 10x 100 10x 100
Med Ball cable crunches 15x 30 15x 50
wrist roller
I’ve been extremely busy, so I’m just now posting these last two workouts:
M.E.L.B. 10/27/06
Safety Bar Box Squat 95 x 5, 150 x 5, 185 x 2, 200 x 2, 225 x 2, 245 x 2, 235 x 8
DB Step Ups 30 x 8
Back Leg Elevated Split Squat BW x 5, 20 x 6
Glute/Ham Raise (slow with emphasis on back traction) BW x 8, Red Band x 6, Red Band x 8
Shrugs 225 x 10, 245 x 10
Light Ab Circuit
10lb. Med Ball drops onto Abs (haha but was awesome) 2 sets 10 reps each
Afterwards, I had some PNF stretching and Chiropractic work done. My friend who did it told me pretty much that he had no idea how I just worked out. Apparently, my spine and what not was pretty misaligned thanks to some aggravated and stiff hip flexors. I’ve been dealing with this for like a month and his work seems to have solved all of my problems. The workout was more of a rehab type nature.
R.E.U.B. 10/29/06
Glute/Ham Raise: 3 x10 (focus on traction)
Medicine Ball Warm up
“Bands” core warm up
Rep effort exercise:
Bench with Red Bands (warm up) 45 x 5, 95 x 5, 135 x 5
Grip 1 “wide” 160 + bands x 14 reps
Grip 2 “med” 160 + bands x 10 reps
Grip 3 “close” 160 + bands x 5 reps
No bands : 160 x 19 reps (left a couple of reps in the tank booo)
Chin Ups: 1x, 5x (WM assisted with bands), 6x (WM assisted with bands)
DB Power Clean: 25 x 12 reps, 15 x 10 reps
Tricep “extendouts”: 10 x 10 reps, 25 x 12 reps
DB Hex Holds 3 sets x 25 lbs. til failure (no stop watch)
Med Ball sit-up tosses w/partner: 50x (very tiring)
DB side bends: 65 x 10, 65 x 10
Med ball ab drops: 1 set 15lb. bag x 10 reps
PNF/Chiro work
couple of minutes on the bike
Good workout once again more of a rehab theme. First experience benching with bands, and it was awesome.
Max Effort Upper 11/1/06
Incline Bench: 4x 135, 4x 160, 3x 175, 2x 190, 4x 165
Glute/Ham Raise (Rehab): 8x (slow, focus on traction)
DB Bench: 8x 70
Dips (off bench): 10 x, 10x
Light Ab circuit
Okay workout. It was early (6:30AM). I failed the third rep on Incline @ 190 because I hit the rack going up.
Sunday Rep Effort Upper 11/5/06
Rep effort DB Bench: 16x 65, 11x 65, 9x 65
Cable Row: 10x 120
Bench Dips: 12x BW, 12x BW
Side Cable Bends: 13x 60, 13x 70
Plate Pinches (20lbs): 70 seconds
Team Run:
4 x 60 yds, 4x 50yds, 4x 40 yds, 4x 30yds, 4x 20yds
Good workout today. Sprints were good I felt like I was flying. I’ve been working hard on my mechanics particularly my start, and it seems to be paying off.
Note: I’ve got some bursitis flaring up in my right knee so I was unable to do a lower body lift this week. Prolly won’t be able to this week either.
Wednesday Max Effort Upper 11/8/06
Close Grip Bench: 4x 135, 4x 135, 4x 155, 4x 165, 4x 175
DB Bench: 10x 70
Hanging Knee Raises: 10x, 10x
6:30AM Workout so didn’t have much time. Last game of the season is on Saturday, and my body is probably ready for some rest.
“Injuries” :
Extremely jacked up hip flexors, groin, hips, and lower back
Tendonitis in both knees
Ganglian cyst in joint on right hand/wrist
The biggest thing is my hip flexor area. I’m going to be getting some ART next week and also prolly some chiropractic work. I have access to an indoor, heated swimming pool, so I’m prolly going to do a lot of swimming for my Deload (RELOAD) week.