Fierce 5 & Carb Cycling
So sorry for the silence! The holiday season is always a crazy time, and then the new year just slams you right out of the gate! It’s hard to believe we’re already in the middle of March, so I’ll share what I’ve been up to along with a sneak peek recipe from my up and coming cookbook!
As mentioned in my previous post, I did begin Fierce 5 on January 2nd. I’m still going strong, and I must say, I’m really loving the program! I also reached out to a mutual friend, who’s a trainer at Gold’s Gym to get his thoughts on my macros and optimizing them in preparation for the Beachbody Classic in July. He thought I should try my hand at carb-cycling and set my macros accordingly. As such, I have high, med, and low carb days were my fats and protein stay static. I also consume 30% of my carbs post-workout. Originally, I had three high carb days, but dropped one of them to a medium day since I felt it wasn’t enough time for me to deplete glycogen, thus my weight has been holding the same for the past month and half. I do think I’ve entered into a sort of body recomp, which is good….albeit slow. The main goal with carb cycling is to prime the metabolism ahead of a cut, so I don’t have to diet down so much to burn fat.
Okay, so more on my current program! Fierce 5 is a relatively simplistic program that focuses on compound moves and heavy lifting to build strength and mass. It consists of two workouts (A and B), which you alternate and do three times a week. The goal is to increase the weight each week until you hit failure. Then, reset the weights by 15% and continue on. Workout A is comprised of squats, bench press, pendlay rows, and a superset of calves and triceps. Workout B has front squats, overhead press, Romanian deadlifts, and a superset of lats and biceps.
I started my weights pretty light and have steadily increased each week. Thus far, I’ve only failed on biceps and just reset this week. They’re still quite tough, so I’m sticking with the same weight, but adding reps….for now. Ideally, I can bump up the weight again in another week or so. Front squats have also gotten tough, so there’s a good chance I’ll have to reset, or at least move to paused back squats for now.
Either way, the timing works out perfectly as I just signed up to work with one of my favorite athletes, Katie Corio! She’ll be coaching me throughout the next 16-weeks as I prep for the Beachbody Classic! I can’t wait to see what kinds of workouts she has in store for me. We’re scheduled to begin on March 20th! I’ll keep y’all posted with details as I get them!
Recipe Sneak Peek: Chocolate Protein Donuts
I’ve been wanting to share a recipe for some time, so here you go! I been bitten by the baked donuts bug, and found that protein donuts make GREAT snacks that are low carb, high protein and delicious! They’re fun to decorate and the flavor options are endless! Below is the latest recipe I threw together, so I hope you enjoy it! If so, let me know how they come out and share pictures!
Correction: The serving for the above recipe is for one donut….NOT two. You can make 8 smaller donuts by filling the donut cavities 1/2 full.
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