Sunday 24 October 2010

Back Session, Fasted at Mandalay Bay, no Buffet

Date: Thursday 21st October, 5pm
Location: Mandalay Bay Gym, Las Vegas.

Workout
Chin Ups (2 x 5 weighted @35lbs)
Barbell Bent Over Row (5 x 5 @90lbs)
One-Arm Bent Over Row (3 x 10 @55lbs)
Dumbbell Deadlifts (Romanian) (3 x 10 @75lbs)
Leg Raises on leg raise machine (3 x 10)

Time: 33 minutes

Nutrition - this time barely compliant with my Leangains experiment :-(

- Fasted all day until the session, after 'buffet gone wrong' the day before
- 20g BCAA 30 minutes after session.
- Wine, steak and veg spiraled into non-Paleo gluttony ending at 1 am

The gym at Mandalay Bay must get kudos for having the best equipment I've encountered in a Vegas gym. The only criticism would be the lack of an Olympic bar, in contrast to Caesar's. On the other hand, Mandalay had dumbbells that went up to 75lbs, which for me wins over Caesar's insubstantial 50s.

In addition, the $15 fee was more palatable than the $25 at Caesar's.

Nothing interesting to report from the session, except perhaps my continued determination to keep a straight back with the Romanian deadlift. This actually helps when you have limited dumbbell size, because in fact doing 10 slow, strict reps was perfect at 75lbs whereas I can lift much more with bad form.

As I write, our US holiday is coming to an end. Good job really, because the wheels have started to fall off the nutrition vehicle. Once things start to go wrong in the holiday environment, it's really hard to pull them back. It's just as well I managed to keep things on an even keel until the final 4 days.

2 comments:

Asclepius said...

I will be keen to hear the results of this experiment. of course what I really want to know is whether the Vegas-tables implemented a leangains effect on your wallet! :)

Just one thing to note...I reckon you might not be getting optimal bang for your buck with the deadlifts. IMO (!) you'd be better off dropping the reps (down to 4-6) and going heavier. Or, if you cannot get access to heavier weights, do a harder variation (on a box), but again, keep reps lower.

Methuselah said...

Broke even on the gambling, but the house won on buffets. More on that in a later post!

I agree on the reps point - but have deliberately upped the reps to address form issues. Will then drop them again...