Beginning Stage 4

As mentioned in my audio post, Stage 4 is a repeat of Stage 2 with more sets, fewer reps, less recovery.  I decided to use the weights from later in Stage 2 to reflect my improvement.  That worked overall; the dead lifts were more difficult as was the Cuban press but the rest of the workout was just about right.  Additionally, I have moved to a more efficient warm-up routine (one suggested by Schuler/Cosgrove) as the program is taking longer.  My HIIT is now below the eight minute mile and I am working from 15 up to 20 minutes and then going back down and increasing the fast round.  This process takes me about the same time as the metabolic resistance training so the two parallel each other fairly well.  I did my fat % at the gym and I am down 2% (from 22% to 20%).  I don’t know how accurate the machine is but relatively speaking, if I continue to use the same instrument I will be able to chart my progress.  Nutritionally, my clean up phase is over and I have a pretty good idea that eat about 1800-2000 calories a day.  The next phase will be making substitutions and this will entail me changing my breakfast somewhat and removing some of the dairy products I use.  I like cereal but it probably floods too many carbohydrates into my system so I will change out some of the cereal for toast and peanut butter, eggs, or tuna/salmon.  Non-fat yogurt, fruits and nuts would also work.  I keep mentioning alcohol and it never finds a consistent substitute but as the weather gets warmer, wine or light beer may prove to be a good substitute for bourbon.