Stewy37’s Transformation to a Lean, Mean, Fightin’ Machine

stewy37 · 03-06-2006, 01:36 AM

The past couple of months have been anything but productive for me. Not enough training, not enough sleeping, lousy nutrition, lots of boozing. Basically, everything opposite of what I should have been doing. I’m pissed at where I’ve let myself get, and it’s time to get serious. Success requires goals. Achieving goals requires a plan.

Goals:
8% body fat: I’m 6 ft 206 lbs and way above 8%. 8% will be lower than I’ve ever been in my life. Not having to lug around useless bodyweight will make a huge difference in my movement. The appearance and health benefits don’t even have to be stated.

Bring my conditioning levels higher than ever: The better my endurance, the easier my job will be, and the harder I’ll be able to train.

Regain and surpass my previous strength: I’ve lost a lot of strength in the last couple months. While I will get stronger during my fat loss/ conditioning phase, I will really focus on maximal strength once I’ve reached my first two goals.

Increase Flexibility: Make it a habit

Train BJJ every chance I get and start Muay Thai probably 2 days a week.

The Plan:
Nutrition:
This is the most important part and what I’ve been the worst at. I will be following the guidelines in The Grappler’s Guide to Nutrition by Michael Fry and John Berardi. Basically eating complete, lean protein at every meal with vegetables and fruits. Grain carbohydrates should be eaten in the hours following exercise. The majority of my meals will be made up of John Berardi’s 20 superfoods. Water and milk will be my only drinks with milk not being a high percentage of what I drink.

Supplementation:
Protein: Muscle Milk – various flavors
Creatine Monohydrate – EAS Phos****en
Greens +
Cytomax – post-workout
Biotest -Power Drive – I’m going to be training a lot, and I’m going to need a lot of recovery help. This isn’t very expensive, so I’ll see what the results are.
SAN Tight – My fat burner
Biotest Flameout – reduces inflammation and gets my essential fatty acids
GNC Mega Men Gold – Daily multivitamin
ZMA – Helps me sleep. Supposed to increase testosterone by restoring zinc and magnesium deficiencies common in hard training individuals. I’ll be training a lot, and getting enough sleep is going to be a problem for me, so I’ll need the best quality sleep I can. My day starts between 4:00 AM and 5:30 AM. On days I do BJJ, I don’t get in the rack until about 11:00 PM. That gives me 5-6 ½ hours to sleep most nights. I sneak naps in whenever possible.

Training:
Brazillian JiuJitsu on Monday or Tuesday – Thursday. Once I figure out where I’ll be training Muay Thai, I’ll add that in. Probably Muay Thai on Monday and Saturday.

The Workouts:

Adhering to this exactly won’t be possible. Being a Marine infantryman, I have to work around unit PT and training for war. These will be separate from what I end up doing in the mornings with my unit.
Week 2 all rest periods will decrease 5 seconds. After that weights will increase each week. Once I’ve figured out where my strength levels are at I’ll increase steadily at 1.5%-2% each week. Where it says “For Time” I will beat the previous week’s. Cardio at the end of each workout will increase 90 seconds each week. I based this off of Chad Waterbury’s 10x3 For Fat Loss. I’ve had a lot of success with his programs in the past.
I’ll also be stretching heavily after each workout.

Day One - 45 Sec Rest Between Exercises

Deadlifts 10 x 3 @ 75% 1RM
Barbell Front Squats 10 x 3 @ 75% 1RM
Incline Bench Press 10 x 3 @ 75% 1RM
Core Circuit 1 from Ross’s Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness
Cycle Sprints - Low 60, Sprint 30 sec for 10 min

Day Two - Crossfit Elizabeth (modified to regular dips vice ring dips)

Superset 21-15-9 reps for time
Clean 135 lbs
Dips

10 Min Jump Rope

Day Three - 45 Sec Rest

Back Squats
Seated or Bent-over Rows 10 x 3 @ 75% 1RM
Romanian Deadlifts 10 x 3 @ 75% 1RM
Standing Military Press 10 x 3 @ 75% 1RM
Core Circuit 2 from Ross’s Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness

Walk 60 sec, Sprint 30 sec for 10 min

Day Four - Off

Day Five
Overhead Squats 10 x 3 @ 75% 1RM
Burpee Mania from Ross’s Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness

Day 6 - 11 Min Jump Rope

Day 7: Off

Today was Day One and looked like this:

Deadlifts 10 x 3 @ 275 lbs (Was way too easy. Should have bumped the weight up)
Barbell Front Squats 10 x 3 @ 185 lbs (Again this was too light of a weight)
Incline Bench Press 10 x 3 @ 175 lbs (My bench gets annihilated when I don’t lift regularly, and it shows here)
Core Circuit 1 from Ross’s Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness (16 minutes to get through it)
Cycle Sprints - Low 60, Sprint 30 sec for 10 min

farmboy · 03-06-2006, 05:32 AM

Looks like you have some pretty well-set goals. I think you have a better grasp on the nutrition part, which is probably my weakest aspect. You're schedule looks even more well documented than mine! Good luck!

thomas87 · 03-06-2006, 10:29 AM

This is going to be taxing, hope it works out for you

GreenRecon · 03-06-2006, 04:51 PM

Looks like you have a well thought out plan. You should have no problem dropping below 8% if you stick to your plan. Just curious whats your mos?

stewy37 · 03-06-2006, 05:19 PM

I'm an 0331. Nutrition in the field is going to be the toughest thing to manage. We only get so much food at a time, and so I scavenge all I can just to maintain weight. There's always someone willing to trade a main meal for some M&Ms or pound cake, so I get rid of some junk and get something kind of healthy.

GreenRecon · 03-06-2006, 05:25 PM

I was a 0352 and then 0321. Got out in 03. I used to always trade pound cakes and m&m's for peoples peanut butter. Also I would tape 10 powerbars together to make bricks and then carry them in my ruck. Trying to eat right in the field sucks.

farmboy · 03-06-2006, 05:31 PM

BTW. how's the GNC multi working for you?

judogido · 03-06-2006, 05:52 PM

Good luck. Mate, just make sure you leave enough recovery time inbetween training. Last thing you wanna do is make yourself prone to injury because of overtraining considering you need to be in full working order as infantry.

stewy37 · 03-07-2006, 11:38 PM

Did day 2 last night:
Superset 21-15-9 reps for time - 8 min 45 sec (will get a lot better)
Clean 135 lbs
Dips

10 Min Jump Rope

I wasn't going to do anything but eat and sleep today, because I have a PFT tommorow, and I wanted to be fresh for it. This afternoon, I was running my guys through gun drills and pulled my right hamstring. Took some naporsyn and iced it up. I'll see how it feels tommorrow. Hopefully, it doesn't take me out of commission for too long. I can't afford that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by farmboy

BTW. how's the GNC multi working for you?

I haven't really used any others, and my diet has never really been good enough to compare vitamins anyway. I did use these for the entire time I was in Afghanistan though. I rarely got sick, but that was probably the daily doxycyclene and the massive ammount of food I would consume to keep myself going.

stewy37 · 03-07-2006, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenRecon

I was a 0352 and then 0321. Got out in 03. I used to always trade pound cakes and m&m's for peoples peanut butter. Also I would tape 10 powerbars together to make bricks and then carry them in my ruck. Trying to eat right in the field sucks.

Heh. I came in in '03. Just got back from Afghanistan in Jan, and I'll be heading over to Iraq in September.
Guess the guys around you ate better than mine. I can usually get a beef teryaki or chicken patty for m&ms or pound cakes. Powerbars are the shit in the field.