week 3 g2f check in

I had a bad week overall sustained a nasty tailbone injury which made me take it easy for 3 days total, on the plus side I seem to have fully recovered. I had to cut this last workout short due to my wife needing me home so it was only arms and forearms that I got in plus my pre workout warmup run. I was frustrated by it and the injury and the time between sets is what kills me the most I think, 3-4 mins between sets and each set lasting approx 1.5 mins it kind of sheds the gogo mentality of go hard or go home that I have grown accustomed to in the gym. Either way I have steeled my resolve to folllow the program to the letter. I am here monday night post workout and I feel pumped, I am seeing the differences more each week now and feeling that strength increase at each workout. On the weight side of things I hit 172 this morning so finally seeing it go up again when I had stalled at 169 for a bit. I think it was the rest that did it for me personally. Total gym time for the 3 weeks rings in at 4.5 hrs to date, yep that is right 4.5 hrs.
Cal burn wise I am up huge, from a max before the program of 3500 to an average busy day ringing in at 4000+ cals a day. So something is definately going on body wise, I am also hot nost of the time body temp wise. Sleeping in a cooler room has helped with that but it does not help the wife much when she says I am like a sauna when I am sleeping lol. So I will keep you updated and try to get some additional measurements this week. I am also planning to up my cals starting tomorrow for the 4th week to around 4500 to see if that aids in recovery more.

Week 2 g2f check in

So here I am monday night, pre week 2 check in, weight has climed to 169, and bodyfat is currently at 10%, has remained stable from week 1 or so, I should note that the initial increase of 1" around the abdomen has dropped off so I am back at 35" now around the waist. I had dropped my cals this week to 4000ish and I am dealing much better at this number, I do struggle from time to time to eat that much but for the most part if spread out I can manage it. I will note that my strength does continue to climb. I have continually added between 5 to 10 lbs per exercise for a total of 9-10 reps. The one area I am finding lacking is my grip, it seems that it has not grown as much which is ok I can work on that. Measurement wise I have remained static except for my chest which has gained yet another 0.25". I am finding more vascularity in my forearms though, a new vein has shown in my upper forearm when working out that was not there before and it gets quite engorged when I am doing my drag curls.
This was workout number 4 and although I am not seeing the sudden burst in size that I did on week 1 I am still gaining strength and muscle mass. My lean mass according to my most recent bodyfat caliper measurements puts me around 153.8 lbs lean mass, the down side is that I do not really see the visual effect of that gain as much as I would like, there are more subtle differences than anything. I have no doubt that some of week 1 gains were water weight and I had factored that into my weigh in. On week 2 though much of that intial water weight gain should be offset by now. As time wears on into the program I am starting to believe that the claims are largely exaggerated of the huge increase in muscle mass that tim ferris made however the thing that I am taking away from this so far is that training to failure using multijoint movements does have a dramatic effect on the central nervous system and does indeed trigger rapid muscle growth, but to clarify here we need to define rapid. Rapid in my opinion to date means gaining around 2-3 lbs a month of true muscle, not water weight or imagined muscle. I am looking at this from purely a scientific point of view as I am following the program outlined in the book with military precision but how far you read ahead into the book tells you more. He outlined that he followed a simple supplement regimen which I copied almost enitrely to the letter. Diet wise I am following that almost to the letter. So given that I tend to add muscle fairly easily one would think that by now I should have added roughly 16 lbs of muscle according to his methodology. In truth I have gained closer to 7-8 pounds and much of this I believe is muscle memory from cutting back my cals and shedding the 42 lbs of fat that I had on my body.
Do not get me wrong, I am both happy and pleased that I have added the muscle to my frame but it is still a far cry from my desired outcome but as my knowledge base increases and my outlook on both the bodies ability to add fat and muscle become a little clearer as does my understanding of the processes involved in each I am finding that my goals are going to take some added time to achieve. Patience is a virtue they say and I am learning that as time wears on. I will not stop until I hit my desired look and my desired outcome, I am more determined than ever to make my body into the image I desire. I am forging ahead and completing the program as I am only 1/2 ways done it but I think my results are not going to be as dramatic as I had hoped for, which is ok