So…..! What’s new? Well, after losing 1 lb during week one, I gained back that one pound after my third week. I adjusted my macros to 185 lbs once I had lost the pound, yet, I gained it back. Amazingly, it seems that I have gain muscle mass and dropped body fat based on the physical changes, weight and clothes. Again, I can’t really show anything more than one picture I took on day 0 there have been changes without doubt.

One thing is certain, using the proper lightning angle to help create better shadows of my muscles, my abs when flexed, are looking ridiculously good, and again, this has just been with 3 weeks of training.

Before I show the pictures, I want to make sure I mention I have done a couple of things different from what instructed in the program.

• First one is, although I have followed the total caloric intake suggested, and as close as possible the macro ratio, in many occasions I have altered the macro ratios, sometimes eating more fat than suggested and less carbs at some point, but always balancing the macros so at the end of the day I still have eaten the right amount of macros.

•Second, I have more often than I’d like to admit, ignored the 3 big meals and 2 small meals suggestion. At times I only have 3 meals and one snack, or 2 meals and 3 snacks. Again, always staying within the daily caloric intake.

• Third, for the cardio days, I’ve been implementing Lyle McDonald’s Stubborn Fat Protocol, only twice a week.

• Forth and last, I have added extra sets and in rare occasions extra exercises to some of my workouts when I have the energy and I have felt I can exercises more. One I always do is the abs crunches. I can’t just do 3 sets of 12 reps and be satisfied. In this case I do 5 sets of 15 reps of kneeling cable crunches with the maximum weight the machine allows me, and this is because my abs can handle it since before I started this plan.

With that said, here are the photo comparison of day 0 and day 24, and below the picture I took flexing with the light coming from above.

I personally consider re-racking weights part of my workout. I understand if one lifts very heavy, after finishing the exercise the last thing we want is to be picking up more heavy weights, especially 16, 18 or more 45 lbs plates from a leg press machine, but the way I see it is, you’ll be pushing your body even further by getting the benefit of lifting more weight but also leaving the equipment ready for others to use.

It won’t be the first time I have stopped my workout to go help women unload weight from the equipment they’re about to use because some brainless douche decided to walk away from the squat rack leaving the barbell with three 45 lbs plates on each side of the bar. Let’s say you an uneducated animal who don’t care to help other guys at the gym, but at least do it for the women who also use the equipment. Although you probably won’t care anyway if someone sees you as a walking piece of sh*t for having an attitude at the gym, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t leave the gym equipment ready the way you found it when you first were going to use it. It’s not your fucking gym!

Another issue I see all the time is how mainly guys would leave a bench dripping sweat from top to button and not taking a minute of their time to wipe the bench off. I’d like to know how they would feel if I was to stand next to them, wipe the sweat off my face with my hand and rub it on them. I’m sure their reaction won’t be a nice one. So then why the hell would you leave a bench in such condition when you’re done using it?

I think part of the blame goes to the gym and their employees. Many of this big chain gyms have signs asking members to clean after them, to re-rack weights, and yet the employees won’t move a finger to let members know they need to follow rules. I worked for a small private owned gym for almost a year, and we would walk to members and ask them if they were done they needed to re-rack the weights. I can tell you after the second time they would start doing it without being told to do so.

My only wish is that this post gets to many people and somehow get them thinking about this, and hopefully they start changing their habits at the gym.

The Front Lever

It has been a little over two years since the last time I tried doing Front Levers. At that time I was working at a small private gym and weighting about 10 less than I weight now. I can’t really recall where I first saw this exercise but it called my attention making me want to try it. For me it was a time where anything that looked challenging enough I would try it and if I wasn’t able to do it, I would condition my body until I got it done.

My first attempt was a success, although I was never able to do more than 4 repetitions, and  my last rep would never get to be completely horizontal. It was fun though, since it is one of those exercises that puts your core muscles to the test, especially if there is no swinging to help and you use your muscles instead.

This time I was able to do 7 reps, and although I could have probably gotten to 10 I felt I was already having trouble reaching a full horizontal position, since I was trying to hold it for a split of a second each time and lower myself slowly to avoid swinging. Eventually I will work on holding it for a longer time until I am able to just stay there for a considerable amount of time.

For now, here I leave you with a video of the exercise.