Dakoose's Athletic/Strength Training and Recomposition Diet Journal.

[dakoose]

I briefly maintained a journal here when I did DC but that didn't last too long....this time around I hope to keep this one going for a long damn time.

Brief description of what I'm doing: I've done BB training in the past and its grown stale so I'm going with a more athletic/power/explosive type training while still keeping in some of my favorite hypertrophy work. I'm implementing more compound style moves that should carry over more to overall athleticism, explosiveness and power. I'll be using bands as well two times per week.

In terms of diet, I'm coming off a dirty bulk which didn't go so great. I've never tried one so I figured what the hell, lets see how it goes and I gained a couple pounds of muscle but put on body fat. After getting up to 195 from 185 over 2-3 months and realizing that most of it wasn't muscle I reduced calories and am back at 185-188 at somewhere between 9-12% body fat. My plan going forward is to do a recomp averaging ~2350 calories daily but cycling calories pretty drastically. I'll be doing 2 days a week at 3000 calories, 2 days at 2500 calories, 2 days at 2000 calories and 1 day at 1500 calories. Ratio's will be 40% protein, 35% fat and 25% carbs. Full disclosure, the diet portion is a blend of what I learned from my experience working with Skip and from a later stint with John Pinder from IA's.

Training will be 4 days a week with, if I'm feeling fresh on one of my off days, an extra workout for arms. On at least two off days I'll be doing interval sprint training on an outdoor track in preparation for physical examinations for a government job.

The overall template is:

Sunday: Dynamic Upper Body, 2500 calories.
Monday: Sprint Interval Training, 2000 calories.
Tuesday: Lower Body/Back Hypertrophy, 3000 calories.
Wednesday: Upper Body Hypertrophy, 3000 calories.
Thursday: Sprint Interval Training, 1500 calories.
Friday: Dynamic Lower Body, 2500 calories.
Saturday: Either sprint interval training or direct arm work, 2000 calories.

Hopefully this journal is around for the long haul!

[dakoose]

Today's Workout: (Note, I'm starting my log three weeks into my workouts and the blasts will be 4 weeks on, 1 week off, rinse and repeat.)

I warmed up with 5 minutes on the elliptical, body weight squats, light push-ups, shoulder pre-hab and 2 sets of kettlebell swings with a 25lb plate.

Dynamic Bench Press: 145 x 8 sets x 3 reps. Did these with double choked long mini bands from EliteFTS. 1 minute rest between sets.

Hang Cleans: 165 x 5 sets x 3 reps. Form isn't perfect on these yet and I'm emphasizing the high pull portion more than you would in a typical clean in order to hit the traps slightly more than usual. 1.5 minute rest between sets.

Push Press: 165 x 4 sets x 4 reps, followed by 100 x 2 sets x 20 reps. These are done explosively on the way up with slow negatives. 1.5 minute rest between sets.

Farmer's Carries: 55 lb dumbbells x 6 trips across the gym. My gym is pretty long so 1 trip each way is good. 45 second rest between each trip.


Life Fitness Weighted Crunch Machine: 80 x 25,23,21
Lying Leg Raises 3 sets of 15.

All sets for abs were done with very slow, controlled negatives.

[dakoose]

Today's Workout:

I warmed up with 5 minutes on the tready, body weight squats and shoulder pre-hab.

Romanian Deads: I always confuse Romanian deads and stiff-legged deads....which is the one that hits the hamstrings and which is the one that focuses more on the lower back?
-Either way, I got 375x3 and then 315x8 for my down set. Done with standard shoulder width stanc. I could have gone heavier but didn't wanna push it being that I haven't done heavy deads in a while.

Hammer Strength High Rows: Added on 200lbs of weight and banged out 4 sets of 10, each arm worked individually with 1 minute in-between sets.

Dumbbell Pullovers: 90's for 4 sets of 9, 1.5 minutes rest between sets.

Hammer Strength Machine Shrugs: 140 in additional weight, did 4 sets of 8 reps with first 7 reps done with a 3 second hold on top and an 8 second hold on the final rep.

Farmer's Carries: 60 lb dumbbells for 4 trips across the gym, 45 seconds between sets.

[daneoz]

Looks really good man, I'll be following

[dakoose]

Looks really good man, I'll be following

Thanks bro! From a quick skim over at your log it looks like you are (were?) recomping too. How'd that go for you?

[dakoose]

Today's Workout:

I warmed up with body weight squats, shoulder pre-hab and some extra light sets on my first exercise before ramping up to working sets.

Incline DB Presses Ramped up to 105's for 4 reps and then did 2 down sets with 85's for 11 and 10 reps. 2 minutes rest after the first set and then 1.5 minutes between the down sets.

Pec Deck: 115 x 13,13,13. Done very slowly with a grip/stance that really slammed my chest. 1 minute rest between sets.

Seated DB Overhead Press 70's x 9,8,8,8. Explosive going up and controlled going down. 1.5 minute rest between sets.

Seated Lateral Raise Machine: 120 x 17, 130 x 14, 140 x 14.

Grenade Ball Triceps Cable Pushdowns: 17.5 x 13,12,11,11. Each arm worked separately, 10 breaths between each set (8 total, 4 per arm).

Cable V-Rope Crunches 72.5 x 21,21,21,21. 1 minute rest between sets, each set had seven in each direction (forward, right, left).

[daneoz]

I was always pretty chubby so recomping was hard and changes were too small to notice. It's something I'll definitely do when I get lean.

[dakoose]

25 minutes of sprint interval training on a tready. I would have ran on the track near my apartment but it was raining badly. I put in on a 2 incline and did 45 seconds sprinting at level 10 with 1-1.25 minutes walking at 3.5.

[dakoose]

Last night's workout:

Speed Squats: 185 x 10 x 2 (10 sets of 2) with 185 and a pair of EliteFTS Monster-mini bands. 1 minute rest between each set.

Speed Deadlifts: 245 x 6 x 1. 2 singles with short mini bands, 2 singles with short monster-mini bands, 2 singles with short average bands and then 2 triples again with the short mini bands. 45 seconds rest between sets.

Barbell Step-Ups: 165 x 4 x 6, with 6 reps done with each leg in each set. I did these on a platform 5 levels up with 1 minute rest between sets.

Short Band Adductor/Abductor Side Walks: I did three sets of 8 for adductor and abductor side walks with each leg, so 12 sets total, all done back to back with no rest in-between.

[big ross]

I was training for the FBI, if that's what you're doing there entry fitness test is no fuckin joke lol. 25 minute interval sprinting is pretty beast mode, the ratio of sprint to walk is also impressive. Good work and post a video of you dunking.

[dakoose]

I was training for the FBI, if that's what you're doing there entry fitness test is no fuckin joke lol. 25 minute interval sprinting is pretty beast mode, the ratio of sprint to walk is also impressive. Good work and post a video of you dunking.

Yeah....that's exactly what I'm doing. I've always maintained a good level of fitness so I was able to pass the exam the first time I did it (my friend timed me).....but just barely. I'm hoping to get a great score when I actually test with them officially. Hopefully my youth, clean record, fluent hebrew and good level of fitness gets me going. I've got a meet and greet with them at headquarters next week.....fingers crossed.

And yeah, the sprinting is pretty fucking rough.

How's you do on that exam?

[big ross]

On the written exam I shit all over it, wash very hard at all, just watch out for the double negatives and absolutes. I don't know If they are making you handwrite an essay on why you should be an agent but I killed that too.
When I was training for it I could do the push ups and sit-ups and sprints easy. I ran the mile and a half like 11:30 fresh which didn't give really any points so I was gonna have a hard time. I hurt my back deadlifting two weeks before the written test so I couldn't submit the entry fitness test you do on your own. I was going to fill it out anyways but was scared of the polygraph. The recruiter called me though once a month for like 6 months about submitting the fitness test and coming in for an unstructured interview. Anyways, it was really an awesome experience here, I felt like an idiot when everybody was introducing themselves and they were all 8 year military vets or 10 years border patrol. If they asked you to come in there's a reason for it you know. If I didn't get into grad school I really would have pushed the FBI harder, and honestly if my career doesn't work out I might try again because it seems so awesome.

[dakoose]

On the written exam I shit all over it, wash very hard at all, just watch out for the double negatives and absolutes. I don't know If they are making you handwrite an essay on why you should be an agent but I killed that too.

Yeah, I'm very thorough, perceptive and rational (I think) so I don't have much trouble with exams such as the one's they administer. I'm pretty sure I killed the logical reasoning exams I took in phase-1. I know I passed; otherwise I wouldn't be in for phase II and the Meet and Greet, but I think I did very well on the exams.

Anyways, it was really an awesome experience here, I felt like an idiot when everybody was introducing themselves and they were all 8 year military vets or 10 years border patrol. If they asked you to come in there's a reason for it you know. If I didn't get into grad school I really would have pushed the FBI harder, and honestly if my career doesn't work out I might try again because it seems so awesome.

It's funny, before you wrote this I figured that the majority of people who have made it this far probably have military and/or government experience, both of which I lack. However, like you said, the Government is pretty selective when it comes to this position and the fact that I made it to here gives me confidence going forward. I really hope that my Hebrew speaking makes me a more attractive candidate, as it is one of the languages on their in-demand list.

[big ross]

You should be golden. How did you score in the fitness test you had to submit for phase 1.

[dakoose]

You should be golden. How did you score in the fitness test you had to submit for phase 1.

You need a minimum of 12 points for a passing score and if I recall correctly I scored 15-16. Now, I didn't do any special training for the exam, so now that I'm incorporating some sprints into my routine on off days in addition to tailoring my weight training for more speed/strength I think my score will get better, I hope.