I am still right around 190-192 pounds but feel like I am right on track and compared to this time last year I feel I am stronger and lower in body fat when compared to where I was 6 weeks out for my last Victoria Cup Competition. So hopefully this means I will come in a little better shape :)
I am still struggling with some elbow/bicep tendon soreness especially in my right arm so this week I have been taking it easy on my upper body pulling exercises and trying not to engage my bicep too much/ It is starting to feel a little better so hopefully I can get past this shortly.
I am about 7.5 weeks away from the Vancouver Pro Am Where the BC Provincial Championships are going to be held. Last year I quailed to compete in both Masters and Open in this years BC Championships so I will take part and do my best to move place at the BC's and move forward into the Nationals.
I am right about where I want to be in terms of my weight and body fat percentage, of course I would like to have a little more muscle but this next several week swill be very intense at the gym and I should add a few pounds will losing a little body fat at the same time. I am currently sitting right around 190 pounds and just a tad over 7% body fat. I need to get down to between 4-5% body fat for competition day.
I am contending with a bit of an elbow/bicep tendon issue. The more work you do the more chance of straining the body and one area I find this happens to me is in my bicep tendon area. It just tends to get soar and likes to make my workouts a little less comfortable ;) I will be modifying some of my exercises around this strain to lesson the stress on the area and hopeful recover from it.
In this video I also show a little bit of my workout routine on this day which targeted Chest, Legs, Triceps and Abs.
Some stuff going on in my life right now... My dog Sammy got injured, both of his front legs got broken and we are not entirely sure how it happened, we found him lying mid way in our driveway early Monday morning. It could have been a car but only his front legs where injured and nothing else. I also think he may have tried to jump the ditch and because there is a lot of tall grass in the ditch he may have not realized how deep it was and landed badly, there was a lot of flattened grass in one of the ditch areas near where he ended up so this is a possibility?
We had our local vet put pins in his legs but this was not holding so we had to take him to a $$$ specialist $$$ where he had plates installed which is much more secure than pins and should help Sammy get back to full heath as soon as possible.
I am about two months out now from my Men's Physique contest (Masters and Open categories). The show is called the Vancouver Pro AM. I feel like I am well on track, perhaps even ahead of schedule in the cutting portion which is OK since I can focus a bit more on my Workouts and add some muscle mass for the show. If all goes well at the Vancouver Pro AM and I place in my Masters division then I will be going to the Nationals in August, you never know I could also being going to Nationals as an Open qualifier but I am not counting on this one :)
I had my 3/4 session of SMP (Scalp Micro Pigmentation) and it's looking real good up there, I plan to go back for one more slight fill in to hit a couple spots that perhaps need just a little tlc. But overall I am happy with everything so far.
Lastly I received a new Apple Watch Case called the Lunatik EPIK, I went with the Polycarbonate version since I was a bit worried that the aluminum one may scratch my Apple Watch, the Polycarbonate version looks the same and is a little less money. Right after I bought mine Lunatik came out with the H2O water proof version but I don't plan to swim with my Apple Watch so simple is better for me. I plan to do a review of the Lunatik EPIK once I have worm it for a while but so far so good!
I have been using my Fitbit Aria Body composition WiFi scale for a while now but its time has come to an end. I was actually on my second Aria scale since the first one packed it in almost a year into using it. Fitbit did kindly replace my first Aria Scale for me. But as fate would have it, about a year later my replacement scales also started acting up and even after several reset attempts I just could not get it to function properly.
So it was time for a new scale and even though I think Fitbit is a great company I was not going to give the Aria scale a chance for a third strike :)
My local Best Buy had a really great sale on some of their iHealth Fitness Devices so I figured why not give them a try and I picked up the iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale and one of their blood pressure monitors. I hope to review the blood pressure monitor at a later date. Anyway, the price was right for both units, close to half price!
Full disclosure here... My first iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale was actually defective right out of the box. It setup fine but would only properly take my weight readings but not my body fat percentage readings, it would always give me error readings. A simple return and replacement at Best Buy solved this problem and so far my new iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale Review is working trouble free!
Make sure to watch my YouTube video for the iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale since I do show you around the device and take you through how the software works. What you need to know about the iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale is that the setup for it is super easy, pretty much just use your iPhone camera to scan the UPC on the back of the iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale and you will be setup in a couple minutes. In terms of the iHealth software, it's really good and of course their one iHealth App will work with all of their iHealth devices. When using the iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale with the iHealth iOS App you can see of course your weight, your BMI, your Body Fat, your Body Water, your Muscle Mass and your Bone Mass.
Most of these Body Analysis WiFi Scales simply use an electrical current though your lower body and use the resistance of the returning current to base your body composition results. This is far from an exact science since much of the resulting info is also based on your age, sex, height, weight and if you have indicated that you consider yourself to be an athlete or not. Based with your information and on a dada base of people with similar stats, the iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale will then make an educated guess as to what your body composition stats will be.
This works great for people that fit in to the norm, but for people that are really lean and or muscular or even both, it can kind of get difficult to really accurately give accurate stats. So for a person like me that is very lean and has a lot of muscle mass for my age, the readings will be off to some degree. For example on my Skulpt Aim I get body fat readings of around 7-8% while on my iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale I read between 10-11%, so about a 3% difference in this case.
I was fully expecting these results since my Fitbit Aria read about the same as the iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale when it comes to body fat percentages. I simply take into account that my iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale is about 3% higher than where I really am at.
Overall I am very pleased with my new iHealth Vista Body Analysis WiFi Scale and love that my daily weight readings are being synced with MyFitnessPal to all my other paired devices and Apps.
I was sent a couple tins of Viter Energy Mints to try out and post my thoughts on this product. In a nutshell, Viter Energy Mints are Altoid sized mints that pack 40mg of caffeine in them along with some other "B" family vitamins like B3, B6, B9 and B12.
For reference 40mg of caffeine is what you would find in about half a cup of coffee. But keep in mind coffee primarily gets absorbed in your stomach where as the Viter Energy Mints get absorbed in your mouth where not only does the caffeine get into your system quicker but more of it will get put to use. You can always take more than one mint if you need more of a kick, it is recommended not to take more than 5 per hour and 10 per day.
In terms of taste, the only option available at the time of my review is the Wintergreen flavour and the Viter Energy Mints do taste like your typical strong breath mint with no obvious caffeine or vitamin aftertaste.
Will I be ditching my morning coffee for Viter Energy Mints? Not a chance but that's not what they're for! Viter Energy Mints are for those times when a coffee, tea or other type of energy drink is not available or not convenient. Perhaps you simply don't feel like a beverage or trying to drink a beverage at that time would be a distraction?
In terms of cost if you are comparing raw mg of caffeine per serving, well the Viter Energy Mints are the clear winner here too since when you buy them in a 6 pack you will be paying just over $3 per tin of 20 mints. And since 2 mints equals the amount of caffeine found in a single coffee than your cost for your caffeine fix will only be about 33 cents. I have yet to find a coffee shop that sells a decent cup of coffee for under a dollar... Even when I make my own cup of coffee at home using my Nespresso machine I am paying over a dollar.
So there it is! Getting your caffeine fix and that boost of energy you need has never been so easy or convenient. Make sure to pickup some Viter Energy Mints for yourself and give them a try.
You can also head over to the GoViter.com website and check them out there.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016 at 12:44PM ;)
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