February 21 to March 21, 2009
I must say this month was a bit discouraging stomach wise. I have been trying to grow my muscles and bump up my testosterone with weightlifting hoping that the extra muscle and higher amounts of testosterone would help me get the cuts in the stomach muscles without having to go on starvation diets and massive amounts of cardio. However, this month my strenght has increased nicely along with my muscle size but my weight has increased to 178 and I believe my stomach has not improved by looking at the photos. I have been eating well taking protien twice a day on workout days once before working out and another time just after the work out. Also this month I did continue using the sauna after the workouts. I worked out on average about 4 to five times a week for 1.5 hours each time. Chest 1 time a week, legs twice a week, calves 3 times a week,(twisted my ankle so all month had to baby the reps a bit), biceps one time a week, forearms 1 time a week, shoulders twice a week back and traps 1 time a week. Did not work my stomach. I had been hoping that if I could drop my bodyfat my stomach would naturally just look good. Will continue to test this hypothesis for one more month and if I don't see gains will start with the cardio and abdominal exercises.
I had read an article in muscle and fitness saying a person to increase testosterone should do 10 sets of squats with 10 reps each of about 75% of max. So I have thought I would try to implement this and see if I get a bump in testoterone and a bump in fat loss from this. On one of my leg days each week I have been building up to the 10 sets of 10 reps by adding 1 set each time. Currently up to 9 sets of 10 using 185. Not sure of my exact match but the first time I started with 6 sets and it was pretty grueling so it seemed like a good weight. Once I hit 10 sets of 10 reps I will try to start adding 5 pounds a week and keep doing 10 sets of 10 reps. Will do this and no other cardio or stomach this month and keep diet and alcohol constant. I have been eating a few cookies every other day but that is about it for sweets and have been drinking about 1 time every two weeks. When I do that one time of drinking alcohol it is in the quantity of about 7 beers.
One other thing you might find funny, I bought this month and have been using that rubberish fat belt you wrap around yourself. I do sweat more where the belt is but even that didn't seem to help my stomach this month.