Above, you’ll see a relatively healthy meal. If I ate that six times a day and trained properly, we’d see some serious results. Below, you’ll see a not-so-healthy meal that most people would consider acceptable. We’re not looking for acceptable.

Monday, May 8th, proved to be the worst day of the quest… thus far. Physically, that is, mainly in part due to the unhealthy eating and more importantly, lack of intensity and focus in the training session at night.

It was the first workout that just wasn’t acceptable in these first six days. Monday’s element is wood, as Tuesdays is fire. Wood builds the fire and as a result, we train arms on Monday. That means we build supple yet strong arms that can lift heavy weights without the risk of injury, but past arm injuries makes this very challenging.

As a result, I avoided lifting heavy weights and opted for more reps with lighter weight. While this helps my muscular endurance in my arms, it prevents the development of strength and size. I need to find balance in this training session to be able to grow properly.

I ended up training for only 50 minutes before ending the session. I rarely found my heart rate elevated and barely broke a sweat. Again, this is unacceptable. It’s not worth noting the exercises, since I performed so many different variations, but stuck mostly to common ones.

I also made sure to integrate plenty of body weight exercises, but looking back I realize that I should have performed dips or close grip pushups after every biceps set and chinups after every triceps set. That would have made the difference, so hopefully, we learn from that mistake and make adjustments.

Let’s see if we can make a fire without wood.