Final Post

This is it! Lots of changes are coming soon, but I'm ready. Much thanks for this feeling of readiness goes out to this Wise class. This class has helped me learn so much about the topics I've studied, but more importantly about ideas and things that I hadn't explored yet. High School taught me tons, but independence, passion, etc., are not as much of a focus as note taking, writing, etc., in High School classes. After completing this project I know I have a ton of work to do in order to improve, but I'm so happy I chose to take this class. I will be recommending the class to my little sister, younger players on the tennis team, and anyone else that I can!

Day 8

Last night was Prom, and also my cheat day. I allowed myself to eat junk food yesterday. The amounts were still limited, but I kept it to a minimum amount. I'm now more than halfway through the diet, and just starting to get a hang of it. It really isn't that bad once you get started. I would be fine with making the diet more intense for a competition or another thing, but for now I will keep the intensity at it's current level.

This is my last day to send project materials out. I'm spending the rest of the day finishing the narrative and converting the blog into a pdf.

Day 5

Its day 5 of the diet now. Today I had really low energy levels, so I allowed myself to eat a large sized lunch, and now I feel better again. Other than early today, everything was still going very nicely. I'm editing a couple of the videos I filmed, the next one up will be short video of me explaining my diet and then going through pictures of what I ate that day.

Tons of school final projects have overloaded me this and last week. I finished by government work on Wednesday, am now halfway through Statistics project I hope to finish tomorrow, and then will finish my Wise project throughout the weekend. It's going to be a lot of work, I'm nowhere near finished on the Wise Presentation.

Video #3

Day 4

Its day 4 of the diet now. My energy levels are down slightly. I can't see much of a difference yet either. My weight may have dropped slightly but I can't be sure because of weight fluctuation. I've stayed away from all junk food, anything high carb, and have limited my meals. I'd say it's all going very well so far. Yesterday I did cardio for about 30 min. I may do it again today.

Diet Plan

Here's a plan of the diet I'm following the next two weeks. I decided that I won't be tracking calories, but instead following the guidelines I set earlier in the project:
1. No Junkfood (Anything high sugar, high fat)
2. Don't overeat (Eat Slowly, Pay attention to how you feel)
3. Drink water instead of other drinks (Avoid juices, etc)
4. Don't snack (No grabbing a bites as you pass through the kitchen)
5. Decrease meal size slightly (If you would normally eat 8 things of whatever, now eat 7 whatevers)
6. Keep a goal (Stay motivated by keeping a goal! Have an image or a weight)
7. Spread out your meals (This way you are hungry for shorter gaps of time)

Days 1-6 Follow rules
Day 7 Cheat day, still don't go crazy
Days 8-14
Days 15,16 Carb up

The goal of the cut is to lose as much bodyfat as I can. I will track weight but because the timeline is short I don't expect to see much change. Eating higher amounts of carbs on the last day will make my muscles look "fuller" and shaped better.

End of tennis season

That's it! My high school tennis career finished up yesterday. I finished 1-2 at states this year, not how I wanted to finish, but better than what would have happened if I hadn't worked so hard to heal up. If I hadn't put in the full hour every day towards my PT, icing, taping, etc I wouldn't have played at all this year at States.
Officials knew the stories of my injuries, and recognized that my game had taken a step down from last year. They also saw that I handled my losses calmly even though I knew I could have won. I received the sportsmanship award for my section much because of this.

So moving on to the last two weeks of my project, I'm going to do a very short, but strict diet. Due to the length of the diet, I don't expect to see too much results. It is more of an experiment to understand what bodybuilders go through up to a show. I will be counting calories and tracking macro-nutrients.

2nd Video

Final Tennis Week

This is the last week of my high school tennis career. On Wednesday I leave for Flushing Meadows. I can't tell if I'm nervous or excited or both. I know what competition I'll be up against, and its going to be tough, but I think if all goes well I have a great chance of going far into this tournament. I've been working just as hard as all these guys.

The PT and icing I've been doing has helped my foot dramatically. I know that it will hurt when I play, because I will be going all out, but it is the lesser problem of the two injuries.  My elbow on the other hand has developed into something bad. It is going to hold me back. Unfortunately there is no PT exercises I can do for this problem, so I'm limited to preventing it's inflammation.

No matter what goes down, I'm proud of myself for staying so dedicated to this goal of getting healthy. I wish I could have been healthier, but I've done so much to help myself and it just couldn't be determined by my willpower.

<-----Where I'll be playing Thursday!

First Video has been posted

Example Physical Therapy day

Non-Competition week day

7:30 AM - Wake up, put neosporin,and then specific lotion onto my foot. The skin around my foot is breaking up because I have been using tape so often. This helps it heal faster for the next Friday when I tape up again.

9:00 Morning School

11:00 - Free Period. Go out to tennis courts, Complete a routine usually consisting of multiple sets of 3-4 exercises mainly with bosu ball. Examples include: foot circles, side raises, front raises,  lunges onto bosu ball, single leg squat, juggle while balancing, pass ball on wall while balancing, etc.
I follow this with Hip stretches - 3-5 min jogging/sidestepping warm up. - Leg up on support twist - Wide stance dip under.
This usually takes about 25 min and then I go get lunch.

4:00 - I try to play very light tennis every 2-3 days during the week to keep myself where I need to be for competition. If I'm playing that day I'll play around 4, if not I go home and ice the injuries. After icing, and the water has dried, I put more neosporin and lotion on again.

9:00- I do another physical therapy routine. During this one I really try to feel how my foot feels so that I can understand if I did too much, too little, or just right that day. This helps me plan for the next day.

9:30- Ice again. I usually don't ice my foot here, just my elbow for a quick 10 min.

Injury Progression

The first out of the three tennis tests was sectionals, last Friday-Saturday. It was scary because I've put so much work into tennis, and now my injuries almost prevented me from winning. I created a "speed limit" so that I wouldn't destroy my elbow, and never took more than three steps to a ball so that my foot will heal. Fortunately, the strategy worked for the best - I qualified for state qualifiers with a #2 seed, and didn't further injure myself too bad.

These are the last two weeks of my tennis specific training. The tennis specific training is mostly my physical therapy, but also I add in training that is not specific to my injuries. For example, the side lunge is a great exercise for tennis because it mimics side shuffling and cutting. To include it in my routine I side lunge onto my bosu ball, which works on my ankle stability as well.

Dad vs Son Push-up challenge

My Dad and I have agreed on a push up challenge. In his past,  my Dad was extremely fit, and recently he began training with the weights again.  I have tendinitis in my elbow, so we are going to have the competition when I decide it OK (most likely after states in 3 weeks). He's 50 years old, I'm 18. To make up for the difference, I have to do two extra push ups for each year between us. That's 64 more push ups for me! I have done 80 at once in the past, so if he gets 25-30, I'll have to get 90-95... It's gonna be close!

The tennis-specific training has been difficult due to my injuries. My collapsing arch limits me to exercises where there is no pressure on my foot. I also take it easy on the things I can do because my knee has been bothering me. When it comes to upper body, I cant do anything with my right elbow. This leaves me with core training. Unfortunately, its the only area I can train pain free right now. I'm so frustrated with all this. Physical therapy/icing takes an hour out of my day, and I have a doctors appointment about 3-4 times a week. I'm determined to go as far as I can at states this year though.

Injuries Part 2

Two days after experimenting with a new pattern of taping, I've been able to confirm that the problem stems from the arch in my foot. This is great, because now that I know what the problem is I can zone in on fixing it.
Taping is only short term (Until the end of the season), past then the plan is to use Orthotics. Orthotics would do pretty much the same thing as the taping, lift up the inside center of my foot. To create an Orthotic shaped that way I'll curl my arch by turning my knee outwards, and then standing on a moldable Orthotic that is placed on a foam pad. The foam Pad will push the arching area of the orthotic up, creating support for my weirdly shaped foot.


Another way I'll be working on to improve my foot is my Hip flexibility. I hadn't thought about it myself, but my Physical Therapist pointed out that because my hips aren't flexible, when I attempt to turn, my hips do less, and my feet do more. This whole process has been full of twists and turns, making it seem like a mystery. I will be studying to become a Physical Therapist next year, and my interest in this issue makes me think I made the right choice in major.

I'm going to try to measure my hip flexibility. There is only one movement (lateral movement) that I know Ill be able to measure without tools, but I'll try to improvise best I can.

Lateral Flexibility (Distance from knee to ground):
5/6/15 -

Happiness revisited Entry

1)I feel most happy when I'm in environments that I enjoy and laughing. There is no one specific type of environment I enjoy most. Some environments I love are friendly and full jokes, while wrestling environment is tough, and yet afterwards all is full of laughter.

2) The article had great progression of thought. It was easy to understand, yet hard to read because it was so unnecessarily long. The point it made, can pretty much be summed up in a sentence - People do things that make them happy enough to forget, or be content, about the rest of things.

3) I'd put myself in the A2 section. Currently I do things that I don't enjoy, for not much of a purpose. I want change to happen.

4) The project is the only thing in school that I enjoy. Its the one portion of the things that I do that "matter" that I enjoy. I do things outside of school that I enjoy, but they don't help me move along on events of my life.

5) After thinking of all this, it's pretty obvious what I need to do. If I can make the things that I enjoy into things that move my life events along, I think I would be content and loving an enjoyable life. What I'm doing now is good, but its not where I want to be.

Injuries

I've been seeing Sports Doctors from CMCU, and Physical Therapists from McCune and Murphy, the last two months about fixing pain in my foot. I've been training around the pain, sometimes through it, for that time. The pain is not something that's new however. Last Spring, and the Spring before that, I've had the same pain. Its a reoccurring thing. This time around, I'm fed up, and motivated to fix it for good.

I've been running experiments, such as only doing a certain type of exercise for a couple days, or wearing certain types of inserts/taping, or increasing activity by different increments per day. Though these trials, my Physical Therapist and I have so far agreed that the pain is most likely caused by a weakness in the arch of my foot, which is causing the rest to collapse.



It makes perfect sense. The pain I have isn't through a certain area in my foot, but more over the entire arched area. I also have three extra bones in my foot, that cause my flexibility to be limited, which decreases my flexibility. My guess is that the combination of a collapsing arch, and limited flexibility is making certain tendons receive way too much overload, which causes tendinitis, or whatever else is causing the pain. I have a feeling its not just one thing causing the pain, but they all stem from the same problem.

This is my hypothesis so far. If I'm correct, 300lb+ squats won't be helping my foot's arch heal up. I'm going to have to stay away from things like that for now. My next appointment is on Wednesday, so I'll follow up on this entry then. I assume I will be given physical therapy exercises to strengthen the arch and strengthen balancing muscles.

Update 5/1/15

I had some of my subjects try out the Protein Bars. I didn't expect anyone to say that it was good, but I was still hoping that someone would. Unfortunately, everyone agreed that the bars were extremely dry, and I can't blame them. I'll use this input for the next batch.

I've been limiting myself to one strength/bodybuilding session per week now, to get ready for states. I'm now focusing on tennis specific movements and injury prevention. I'll be back to the heavy lifts in the beginning of June, when I hope to break the strength goals I set. Until then, everything goes towards tennis.

Imovie has been extremely difficult to use so far. I think I'm going to buy a different video editor that is easier to use.

Protein Bars

Note: I meant to post this a while ago, but for some reason it didn't. I just found it in my drafts.

I've been trying to make my own protein bar recipe recently. At first I thought I'd make my own recipe, that turned out to be much more difficult than I thought it'd be. Ingredients included almonds, cheerios, nutella, peanut butter, and olive oil. I baked it for about 30 minutes. The thing tasted horrible, and didn't even turn into a solid :


My next try was going to be a modified version of a recipe I saw online. It was mainly protein, strawberries, and chocolate, which sounded delicious to me. The strawberries had to be freeze dried in order to be preserved in the bar. I attempted to freeze dry the strawberries on my own. First I put something that would absorb water on the bottom of the jar - rice. Next I cut a paper so that it would fit in the jar, and hold the strawberries above the rice. I put the strawberries in the jar, and sealed it, and left it in the freezer for a week.
From there a couple things went wrong. I didn't have a negative pressure in the jar, so not all of the water exited the strawberries. Also when I was getting the strawberries out of the jar, the rice got all over the strawberries and stuck to them. The strawberries tasted like rice. I decided this recipe was a failure.

My last  try was a version of the recipe my Mom used to make her own cereal bars. They tasted pretty good, and could be made in a day. The only variation I made to it was adding protein powder.

Update 4/28

The protein bars taste like... protein. They really aren't very good, but they also aren't that bad either. There are 16 of them, each one contains 25 grams of protein! Most people need between 20g and 30g after a workout, so I decided I'd go with 25g per bar.

 I've been trying to figure out how to work Imovie, but getting the video from the Ipad onto Imovie is really difficult, and frustrating. I think that I'm going to have to buy a video editor for the Ipad if I can't figure it out by tonight. 

Legs are continuing to gain strength. I'm not sure how my upper body is doing, because I haven't lifted upper body in a week now. 

Update 4/26/15

My training schedule has changed quite a bit. I'm finished with my "bulking" and moving on to tennis specific until States (5/28). This may mean that my lifts will level out, or even drop slightly. After states, I'm going to be dropping body fat somewhat. The lifts will go back up then, and is when I hope to reach the goals I set at the beginning of this project.

Squat: Goal - 345 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 315 lbs, 4/26/15 330 lbs,  

My body weight has grown from 165 (in the morning), to 182 (in the morning) over the last 8 weeks. I'm the heaviest and strongest I've ever been after this two month period, but its time to change gears. I estimate that I drop down to about 176-178 after this month.

Current schedule: -Strength lower body + core every 3 days
-Agility training every 3 days
- Injury prevention + Shoulder (rotator cuff specific) 2 out of 3 days
-Tennis 2 out of 3 days

Videos:
I've just gotten filmed what I need to finish my video about how I make my protein bars. I'm going to edit it into a video tonight. My Dad and I also had a push up contest, and filmed it. Those will be my first two videos, and then I think my third will be a tutorial on how to hang clean. Expect the first video tonight, the 2nd by mid week, and 3rd by end of the following week. Note that some videos may be much more simple than others.

All subjects working on plan!

A little later than I expected, but all subjects are now working on their plan. Some have modifications to their diet, others have a certain routine built into their training. I will be reassessing them two weeks from now on May 4th. Hopefully there will be two reassessments total, and one final evaluation before my project ends.

I'm going to make a page for each subject. As the time goes on, I will edit the pages to show their progress.

Strength Fitness goals 4/16

4/16/15

Strength: One rep max

Deadlift: Goal - 355 by 6/1/15

 3/1/15 295 lbs, 3/16/15 325 lbs

Squat: Goal - 345 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 315 lbs,

Bench Press: Goal - 245 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 200, 3/26/15 215, 4/14/15 225

Overhead Press: Goal - 165 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 135, 3/26/15 145

Wise Marking Period Self-Evaluation

Hands on experience - 2.5
I'm training myself and using the information I've learned which gives me enough for 2.5, but I'm just getting to the hands on part of my project. I'll be using the information I've pulled together much more in the next month when helping my subjects and creating videos.

Research - 3.5
Research has been the bulk of my project this far, and I've done a ton! In the beginning I created a document with a title for every subject I wanted to learn about, about 10 in total. Now, about 8 of those documents are 1.5 - 2 page papers with good information. I didn't do the documents about endurance training, because I figured that would broaden my field of interest too much.

Journaling - 3
I have 19 quality posts at this time. In total I've been posting a lot, however, I need to do it more consistently. My posts usually come in flurries of two or three within two days.

Weekly Mentor Meetings - 4
Coach Parker and I have been meeting every Friday 7th period. I get something out of each meeting, usually based around meeting my deadlines.

Time commitment - 3
I would have given myself a 4 if it hadn't been for this week. I've put in a ton of time because I am super interested in what I'm doing. This week, I just slacked off for some reason. I need to get back up to where I was. If I stay at the level I was, time commitment will be back up to a 4.

I'm proud of the work I've done so far. Its not quite excellent, but its more than satisfactory. Hopefully by the time I'm done it will be excellent.

Wrestling and how I became interested in Nutrition

This year during wrestling season my weight class was 162 lbs - Meaning I had to weigh under 162 at the time of the weigh in, usually in the morning. This was difficult because I walked around at 170 lbs. To maintain 170 lbs I ate only until I was just full, and hardly ever had any food high in fat or sugar. The 8 pounds between 170 and 162 was where it got difficult, and to me in a way it was interesting, because it was like a strategy game - making decisions on what to eat, and when to do cardio. Most of the time, I would start the game 3 days out. In this time there was absolutely no junk food, the only liquid I would drink would be water, the amount of carbohydrates and fats I consumed would be limited while my protein would stay high, and on the last day I would cut out sodium, fiber, and weigh my food to match the last few lbs I needed to drop. The last night and into the morning usually were horrible because I would be hungry, thirsty, and thus very grumpy. However it was always worth it for some reason I couldn't really understand back then.

The funny part about all this was that I wasn't a very good wrestler. Not many at my level would put as much into their diet as I did. I really wanted to get some wins as a wrestler, but that wasn't where the bulk of my motivation to do all this came from. The motivation mostly just came out of my own interest. These tricks I could pull could change my body to how I wanted it to be, it was new, and really cool for me. From there, I just kept learning, reading articles online, talking to my nutritionist mom, and watching video after video on YouTube. 

One night I found myself watching videos on nutrition, instead of doing homework due the next day. I realized something very simple, yet still difficult to realize: I liked learning about nutrition, I did not like learning about chi squared tests. I don't know why I like one, and not the other, but for some reason I do. There will always be things I don't want to do that I must do, but as my crossroads approaches, I've got a chance to decide on what I do and don't like. In this first experience with nutrition, its not just nutrition I've learned about, but also understanding passions.

Progress 4/6/15

So we just did the gleaning project review. I graded it really harshly, but then realized that I haven't meet a lot of the requirements either. I haven't been posting three times per week. I'm proud of the work I've been doing so far, and have made a lot of progress. Each one of my entries has a purpose, and I've only been posting check ins when I have data to show. Even though I don't have data that shows progress three times a weeks, I think I should still be posting, I can at least share my lifting routine for that day, which reminds me: I've been weight training 4-6 days each week. I don't know why I haven't posted much about this. I considered it to be the smaller/less important half of my project, but it was the entire project for the journal I reviewed. I've had an ankle injury the last month, so training has been difficult, but here is how I've been breaking up my split by the week:

Tennis- Tennis is the priority still but can't play in full because injury - increasing by 10 minutes each time I play. Play every other day. Only play inside, where the courts are slightly softer.

Legs- I can't train with heavy weights involving my legs like I love to, and usually do, because of my injury. Instead I've been doing lower weight and higher frequency.  Every 2-3 days I use hamstring curl or leg extension machines, which don't put any pressure on the ankle.

Pull day- My weak area in bodybuilding is my back, I've been training it every 2-3 days.  I also train biceps on this day

Push day-  Deltoids, chest and triceps every 3 days. I don't train traps because they have started to get out of proportion.

Abs- Every other day I train one super set of two exercises for 3-4 sets.

Finished preparing for subject meetings, On to videos! 4/1

Its April fools, but its no joke that I'm now starting my YouTube channel. The last week I've been using my research to come to conclusions on what I'll be doing for each of my subjects. For some, I've created a training program, others I gave outlines on how they need to change their nutrition. Two of them will begin taking creatine. I'm helping two others prevent injuries they've had in the past. I'm excited to see what all this comes to! I can meet with some of them this week, but because its break, I won't complete the meetings until next week.

I've also started another small project. A lot of the people I'm working with don't get proper nutrition before and after their workouts. At first to fix this I thought I would just buy them energy and protein bars, but then I realized how cool it would be to make some of my own. My mom, as a nutritionist, had done this before for me and my sister. I'll be making a video of me making these bars, and how to make them yourself.

I'm currently bored, and don't have too much planned the rest of break, so expect my first video by the end of the week!

Personal Fitness Goals 3/26

About three weeks ago ago I began to lift weights as my primary fitness objective. I pictured myself as bodybuilder with a strength emphasis. I've been training in high rep ranges for hypertrophy and muscle gains, but also spending time on powerlifting lifts and lower rep strength exercises. I will continue to post my progress throughout this project.

Strength: One rep max

Deadlift: Goal - 355 by 6/1/15

 3/1/15 295 lbs,

Squat: Goal - 345 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 315 lbs,

Bench Press: Goal - 245 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 200, 3/26/15 215.

Overhead Press: Goal - 165 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 135, 3/26/15 145

Deadlines 3/26

Two weeks ago I created some deadlines. I wanted to finish my research last Friday, and then finish meetings with people by the end of the month...This didn't happen. I was expecting way to much to be done. A lot of work has been done, I'm proud how much work as been done, but the deadlines weren't reasonable. My mentor and I agreed that we would push back all deadlines a week. That leads be to finishing research tomorrow, and I'm on track to do it. Tonight I'm finishing Powerlifting Training, and tomorrow I will cover agility training. Once those two are finished, I will have Covered 7 different, but connected, topics thoroughly. 

Over break I will be meeting with people to get their workouts and deadlines set and straight. After that its straight into the videos! This project has been moving so fast, but I'm enjoying it and it's about to get to the fun part. 

Original Deadlines 3/11

These were the deadlines I created about a week and a half ago. Since then I realized I was expecting too much out of myself. My mentor and I agreed to move all deadlines back one week in order that I can finish the original amount of research that I wanted to. This Friday I will be done with research and moving on to presentations.

Original Deadlines 3/11

Researching

3/13 - Have finished research for 3 subject’s goals.

3/17 - Finished research for 6 subject’s goals.

3/20 - Finished research for 9 subject’s goals.

Presenting

3/25 - Meet with 3 subjects, present info, agree on meeting times/goals

3/27 - Meet with 6 subjects, present info, agree on meeting times/goals

3/31 - Meet with 9 subjects, present info, agree on meeting times/goals

Videos/Continueing project

Through April I hope to produce 4 or more videos that I think would be helpful to my subjects.

Ideas include: - Teaching Hang Clean

• Creatine information
• Meal timing
• Benefit of mixing routines/shocking muscles
• How much protein do you need and what foods to get it from
• Importance of the pump+ tips/tricks to increase pump
• Scheduling training/Frequency training

5/4 - Last meeting with each person, assess results

Project Conclusion + Presentation

To be determined based upon date of presentation

Explosive Sport Weight Training

Explosive Sport Weight Training

Training for sprinting and other explosive sports is pretty straightforward - one must train the muscles used for the sport, and in the specific way they are used during the sport. For almost all sports, almost every muscle must be developed in order to be successful, but certain muscles will be more important than others. For example, a basketball player will use his chest somewhat, but more importantly he needs strong, explosive legs to be fast and jump high.

A basketball player, or sprinter, won’t train for these strong legs the same way a powerlifter would. A bodybuilder trains for size, mostly in high rep ranges. Powerlifters, and athletes looking for explosiveness will both train in low rep ranges, but the athletes differ from the powerlifters in that their movements will be more functional. For example, a powerlifter deadlifts for 3 reps, they are each slow, but pulled out. The athlete does 3 reps of a power clean, which mimics the movement of the explosiveness of the hips while running.  Even if the two different groups use the same exercise, they will execute it in different ways. A powerlifter would squat very heavy, maybe with less range of motion. Athletes also will use heavy weight, but make sure that they can execute full range of motion and explode as fast as they can on the way up instead of grinding it out. They also may considering using elastic bands, as they have been shown to help build explosiveness in muscles.

Example exercises for sprinters:

Train in lower rep ranges, yet as intense as possible. Also make sure the movements are as applicable as possible.

- Power Cleans

- Squats (explode up)

- Bench Press

- Jumping squats

- Pull ups

-Reverse lunge + Knee drive

- Dips

- Sled Push/drag

Sprinting Nutrition

Sprinting Nutrition

As a sprinter, you want to build muscle mass to help you move faster. Good nutrition is essential to building that muscle, and your training will make sure the muscle is in the right areas as excess muscle will only slow you down. The other half of sprinting nutrition is preparing on race day. On race day, you must be not only in your top condition, but also sure that you are not experiencing stomach discomfort, dehydration, or sluggishness.

Building Muscle: A sprinter’s training will be composed of various explosive and athletic movements. Recovering from your workout requires muscle building nutrition. Refer to my Muscle Building Nutrition paper.

Race Day Nutrition:  A general rule is make sure that you eat enough that your energy levels are high, but not so much that you have extra weight on you or that you don’t feel good. To make sure you meet this rule here are a few guidelines:

- Eat food that is light

- Do not eat within an hour of competition. Normally, it takes a person one hour for the food to pass through their stomach.

- Don’t eat foods that will upset your stomach. Dairy, spicy foods, high fat foods are examples of some foods to avoid on race day.

- Your last meal should be high in carbohydrates. Carb-loading makes sure that you have the energy to draw from as fast as possible.

- Have some sodium in your system. This will help you avoid cramps, and stay hydrated.

- Speaking of Hydration, drink enough water that you’re hydrated, but don’t over drink.

A example food to eat an hour or two before your race would be goldfish, or most crackers. They are light, won't upset your stomach, high carbohydrates, and have a lot of sodium.

More example foods:

Bagel, Granola bars, Spaghetti (At least 3 hours before race)

Muscle Building Nutrition

Basic Bodybuilding Nutrition

There are many ways a bodybuilder’s diet differs from a regular diet, however, the two main goals of  a bodybuilding diet are to make sure your muscles are supplied with protein when they need it, and that you have enough energy to use for training.

How many meals a day?  

Three meals a day is considered healthy, and it is. However, a bodybuilder may want to eat more than three meals a day. Eating more often and spread throughout the day will guarantee a more steady supply of nutrients to your muscles. This is important because you want your muscles to be repairing themselves at all times outside of training to get the most gains.

Some people take this the wrong way and eat 5 meals, of equal amounts of calories to their regular 3 meals a day diet. Your body will still need the same amount of calories throughout the day as it normally does, so the more meals you eat, the smaller they should be. Also, this strategy only works if each meal contains protein, because otherwise the meal is only fueling your energy and not helping your muscles rebuild.

How much food/protein do I need?

Everyone’s metabolism is different, and everyone’s metabolism also varies day by day. Some bodybuilders are fans of IIFYM, or “if it fits your macros”, meaning they eat a certain number of calories in each macronutrient category per day. For example, 50g of protein per day, 250 carbohydrates per day, and 80g fat per day. This strategy ignores the fact that metabolism varies by day. There is no exact set amount of macronutrients you should take in. Instead, a better way is to use the numbers calculated as a guideline. If you use IIFYM for dieting, only use it as a guideline, not exact amounts. Everyone can estimate their suggested intake here at ChooseMyPlate.gov. The suggested amount of daily protein intake is 0.36g per lb of bodyweight, but again, this number varies due to many different reasons. A bodybuilder may want to take in closer to .7g per lb of bodyweight.

What type of food should I eat?/Where should I get my protein from?

The type of food should vary. Nobody should only ever eat fish, or only eat broccoli. It’s healthy to be eating different types of food in order to get all the nutrients you need. Protein shakes are great if you need a ton of protein, but most people will find that from their normal diet they get all that they need. If you make choices to eat foods that are high protein there is no need for protein supplementation. More protein that your body can use will not help you.

Good tips on cutting bodyfat

Low body fat percentages bring out the cuts and curves in a muscle. To cut body fat you must be in a caloric deficit. This basically means you need to burn more calories that you consume. You can do this by exercising more, consuming less, or both. Here’s a list of strategies to drop body fat the easiest and simplest ways:

- One of the easiest strategies to dropping body fat is excluding all junk food from your diet. When I say junk food, I mean any food that is high fat or high sugar.

- Another is making sure you never overeat. Pay attention to how much you eat by eating slowly. Eating slowly will allow you to realize when you're full, before you’ve already eaten more.

- Drink water instead of other drinks. Especially avoid juices, they are high calorie.

- Don’t snack. Many people grab a bite of food, even just a cracker, almost every time they pass through their kitchen. Especially at night people trying to diet are more at risk of snacking.

- Lower your normal food consumption slightly. If you would normally eat a sandwich, a protein shake, some carrots, and an orange, don't eat the orange during your diet. Nobody should skip whole meals, but instead just make each meal a little bit smaller.

- Keep a goal. It’s hard to measure small bodyweight cuts by weight due to body weight fluctuations (Average body weights can fluctuate anywhere from 2 to 8 pounds during a day), but for longer diets people can see progress by measuring their body weight. Also, you should be able to see your body change as you make progress.

You shouldn’t have to be hungry when you're dieting. If you spread out your meals throughout the day, make sure you don’t cut too quick, and stay motivated with a goal, dieting really isn’t that hard!

Other tips:

- Make sure you get your protein after a workout within 30 minutes. This is key because your body is most responsive to muscle rebuilding 15 minutes after a workout.

- Have some protein close to when you go to sleep. A lot of rebuilding is done when you’re sleeping (make sure you get enough sleep!) so if your body has nothing to build with, your muscles won't grow.

Creatine

Creatine  

What: Creatine is a chemical (C4H9N3O2)found normally in the body. It can be made by the body and obtained from certain foods.

Who takes it: Athletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and sprinters who want to gain muscle mass.

Where can you find it: Can be found from many different suppliers. To make sure the supplement is creatine with no additives, it is safest to buy from a company NSF certified.

When: When someone is active, has a very healthy diet, and wants to increase their exercise performance, they can take creatine.

Why: Creatine helps to replenish ATP faster. It brings phosphate to the ADP. With more volume of phosphate available, ATP can be replenished faster.

How: Take 240-350 mg per kg body weight daily for 3-7 days. After this phase is complete, maintenance doses vary, but can be estimated with this chart.

Body Weight	Loading Dosage Range/Day*	Maintenance Dosage Range/Day*
Below 155 lbs.	12-16 grams	4-8 grams
156 to 175 lbs.	13-17 grams	5-9 grams
176 to 199 lbs.	14-18 grams	6-10 grams
200 to 225 lbs.	15-19 grams	7-11 grams
Above 225 lbs.	16-20 grams	8-12 grams

What I’m doing; I weigh about 170 lbs currently. My creatine arrived here 2/20, I will begin today. The loading dosage will be 20g for 5 days, then I will stick to the maintenance dosage of 6 grams.  

Bodybuilding specific training

Bodybuilding specific training

Rep Range/Tempo: It's good to mix it up, but the mean number of reps per set should end up around 10-15. Nobody should only train in a certain rep range, and no rep range is exactly defined for a certain purpose. 5 reps will work on strength, but also to a degree with work on muscle endurance, just as 20 reps to a degree will work on strength. No matter what rep range your training in, that last rep should be hard as hell. Bodybuilders train to failure. The harder you train the more results you will get. Tip: Use spotter’s help to help you get to failure.

Tempo is how fast you complete the exercise’s movement. Try a few sets where you move the weight very slow and controlled. Moving the weight very fast and explosively can also benefit as long as the movement is still controlled and safe. The last thing we want is injury.

Set Range: People tend to gravitate to 3 sets per exercise. Thats not the best way to grow. Some bodybuilders have been known to complete up to 10 sets or more. Its not great to only do huge amounts of sets, but as usual, its good to mix it up.

Type of Exercises: Bodybuilders benefit from Time Under Tension exercises. This means exercises where the tension is maintained on the muscle. Most of these exercises are compound - meaning one movement. Keeping tension on the muscle increases the rate at which it will break down, it also helps with the Pump. The pump is really called hyperaemia and is when blood flow is increased to certain muscles. The blood flow increases to these muscles due to engorgement of the muscle’s blood vessels.

Time between sets: On heavier lifting days, spend more time between sets. Lighter days, spend less time. The less time you spend waiting, the better your pump will be.

So why is: its good to mix it up, a recurring theme? When your muscles are worked to do something hard or something they can’t do, they react, and grow so that they will be able to. If you keep doing similar workouts, your muscles will grow to fit that workout best, but may plateau, but if you switch it up, they will continue to react and grow.

Scheduling your workouts: People tend to assign certain days of the week to certain muscle groups, but are there exactly 7 muscle groups you want to train? Not really. I wouldn’t recommend creating a schedule like this. Instead, I would first through experience learn how long it usually takes each muscle group to recover. My legs recover in about 4 days, so every 4 days I do a leg session. My delts on the other hand will recover in about 3. Scheduling like this will guarantee you more gains, but it has its downsides. For example, because every muscle group is on its own schedule, there is a chance that you could end up working chest, delts, legs, abs, back all in one day. To avoid this we can restart the schedule every month or two. Restarting the schedule also plays into the next topic.

Sculpting/Bodybuilding: By rearranging your schedule, you can increase and decrease the number of times you train a bodypart. Some people are genetically gifted with certain muscles being larger relative to their others. They may want to bring the other muscles closer to proportion with the others. Training that muscle harder, or more frequently, will do so. Bodybuilding can be considered an art, because of this ability to change the proportions of muscles to what looks best. Bringing out the lines and texture through diet is the next step to sculpting an amazing physique.

Tips to throw into training: What other things can you do to break plateaus, get more gains, and enjoy yourself more while training?

- Drop sets: Basically one huge set. Start with a weight you max out on at about 12 reps. Go to failure on that weight, drop the weight by about 20%, and with no rest go again. Keep going  for 3-6 sets. I prefer 4. Each set should be to failure.

-  Supersets: Complete a set of one exercise, and immediately move to complete a different exercise. Rest after your second or final exercise before starting again. Make sure the exercises are related, for example, Incline bench superset with cable flys is one of the best.

- Negatives: Use a weight heavier that you can regularly handle. Slowly, bring the weight through an eccentric motion. To raise the weight back up either use a spotter or do one leg/arm down, both up.

- Try a few sets of very slow motion sets.

-Pyramid sets: example rep range: 12, 10, 8, 10, 12