The combination of reverse pyramids and Visual Impact had me putting on a solid bit of muscle. More muscle than I ever had before. The has caused my weight to increase. Normally I wouldn’t care but this contest means a lot to my teammates and I do not want to be the one to gain weight.

So with that said, I am somewhat sorrowful to announce that I am doing the first phase of P90x and am currently on week 1. I am doing P90x because it’s a quick and proven system for me that I know works. Even though I don’t care for the 6 days a week workouts, I only have to do it for the next 30 days and then I am done with the contest. After that I am going to go back to either reverse pyramids or Visual Impact and cut my workouts down to 2-3 days a week with a mix of sprints and clean eating. At that time, I will again be posting more progress stats and I will stop stepping on that darn scale!

I decided that I want people to look at me and see someone that is in great shape. I don’t want them to look at me and see a guy that walks like he spends all of his time in the gym. That is the direction I feel like I was headed.

I have been on Phase II of Visual Impact for 2 weeks now and am really starting to notice a difference in not only my strength but also my muscle definition.   Along with the standard weight training outlined in the VI book, I am also doing the recommended 15 minutes of H.I.I.T cardio immediately following each weight session. The only thing I am not following in its entirety is the recommended 2on/1off schedule. I don’t have access to a gym on the weekends so I lift Monday/Tuesday and Thursday /Friday.

My diet really suffered the last year while I experimented with the Leangains approach.  I’d scour the internet for people that where doing Leangains and I would see the crap they would shovel into their mouths on their workout days and I assumed I could do the same thing.  However, I never saw the same ab ripping results that so many others achieved. I didn’t put on a lot of fat but I did put on a pretty decent layer over my muscle.  All my clothes still fit, just not as good as they once did.

So now I am back to living the Primal lifestyle outlined on MarksDailyApple.com and in the Primal Blueprint.  In the last 2 weeks, I am down 6lbs and my lifts have gone up every week. Something about this diet just works for me. I am starting to look good and I am feeling great.

The picture below is one that I took yesterday. Upon close inspection, I can really start to see the individual muscles popping in my shoulder and through my arms.  Now if I could get that same definition through my abdomen area,  I might start to really consider the dream I have of competing on stage.

Here is my starting lift weight as of 2 weeks ago. At the end of the 2 month Phase II program I will be posting my end lift weight.

A few months passed on the program and I gained weight.  In desperation and because I thought it was my weight lifting routine, I searched for a new program and ran across Visual Impact. I started this weight lifting program but continued to eat Leangains style. Months later and still not getting the results I wanted, I stopped doing Visual Impact and started doing a reverse pyramid routine.  But I continued to eat Leangains style. The muscle was starting to pile on but so was that unwanted fat.

Now here I am a year later and I have gained 24lbs over my lowest weight.  Could some of it be muscle? Well I suppose so. After all, my clothes are still fitting although a little snug at times.  But I notice a significant layer of fat as well. Gone is the defined area of my stomach that I had last year.

There is no doubt in my mind that Leangains works. I just know that it hasn’t work for me like I had hoped it would. My biggest issue with food is that if you give me an inch,  I will take a mile. Leangains gave me that inch. It allowed me to eat carbs after a workout. Lots of them. In my mind, this transformed into chips, rice, granola bars, etc.  Deep in my mind I knew that I shouldn’t eat this stuff but I did anyway. After all muscle building needs carbs right!? I would gorge on lifting days and low carb on non-lifting days. This may work for some people but it does not work for me. I need to be strict or I fall off of the wagon way too easily. I would fall off of the wagon several times a week.

I am not happy with the way I look or feel. Therefore I am doing an intervention on myself. A rewind of sorts. Starting today I am back to 100% primal with one relaxed “cheat” day a week.  No more counting carbs, calories, or fat. I will just eat what is on the allowed foods list and go with that. On days that I lift, I may up the amount of carbs a bit but nothing crazy like I have been doing.

I will continue to lift using the Reverse Pyramid routine. I have been very happy with the muscle and strength I have received from that program. I am also going to add in some more heavy HIIT days.

My goal is to lose 25lbs in the next 2 months. It’s an aggressive approach but obtainable if I stick to the plan.

Today I am going low-carb and low calorie. The weekend is coming up and we are traveling. I hope that I can maintain some sort of dignity in eating.

What is Reverse Pyramid?

One of the most conventional types of lifting is the pyramid. Most of the guys you see at the gym are going to be doing this. You start out with a light weight and lift it for about 12 reps. You then add weight to the stack and pump out 10 reps. Add a little bit more weight and do 8 reps. The last set is usually the hardest and peaks out around 6 reps.

The reverse pyramid is the complete opposite. Your first set should be your hardest and you should complete somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 reps to failure. From there you would actually decrease weight by about 10% and pump out 10 reps. Decrease the weight by another 10% and pump out 12 reps.  That’s it. You are done and you can move onto the next exercise. The idea is that you should be lifting the hardest weight in the beginning while your muscles are still fresh. Not at the end where you are already fatigued.

So I set out to the gym to do just that. Reverse Pyramid. My intent was to do Chest and Back. Same exercises I have done the last few weeks but with a little bit different of an approach.

Chest

• Incline Press
• Fly’s
• Push-Ups

Back

• Dumbbell pullover with one arm
• Bent Over Rows
• Pull-Ups

It was a little hard at first to try to pick a weight that I knew I could only lift 6-8 times. After a bit of trial and error I got it though. I went through my usual routine and felt fantastic afterwards. And by fantastic I mean that I was shaking and felt like I was going to vomit. I left the gym and headed back to the office completely worn out but thrilled with this new type of workout.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. I wake up with the intent that I am going to go do some sprints at the park. It didn’t happen. My chest and back where so sore from the workout that I could barely move.  Sprints postponed.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. I wake up with the intent that I am going to go do some sprints at the park. It again didn’t happen. Although not as sore as I was on Saturday, I was still feeling the effects of Friday’s workout. The sprints will have to wait until tomorrow.

I am going to play around with this technique a bit more in the coming weeks and see if there is anything to it or it my soreness was a fluke. I figure if it works for Martin at leangains along with all of his clients, it might work for me as well.