Holidays

The worst time of the year...for losing weight.

Every holiday season, for several reasons, I tend to gain weight. It's cold so the body tries to insulate itself (I often find myself hungrier than usual). In addition, things come up--one after another--that divert attention away from your fitness goals. Family gatherings, travel, shopping, semester finals, projects, planning and on and on and on. While all of these things are important, do not let them interfere with your progress! Remember that after the holiday season, you will be left by yourself looking in the mirror. Don't let the holidays be an excuse. If you remain persistent, you won't be kicking yourself later while making New Year's resolutions.

Find the time to work out and eat right. You will be more active this time of year with all the walking around, looking at things and buying others. But this does not count as a valid substitute for exercise. Remember that. Also remember that your dedication will help others stay motivated for losing weight too. Believe it or not, success is contagious; unfortunately, so is failure. Just keep doing what you have been doing and I will do the same.

If you have not done it yet, make sure you plan your next short-term goals. These are important to tide you over for your big breakthroughs. Without smaller goals, you can starve yourself emotionally, succumb to despair and quit. Do not let this time of joy turn into one of sorrow. Understandably, you may have to make small sacrifices here and there when it comes to trips to the gym or your diet. Just make sure they remain small. For now, I am content with my new workout regimen which I have altered once again:

Day 1 - Upper Body
Day 2 - Cardio
Day 3 - Rest
Day 4 - Lowe Body
Day 5 - Cardio Rest
Day 6 - Rest
Day 7 - Upper Body

When the new year draws closer, I will post my next set of goals.

Until then..

Continued Progress

Last night, on my day off from the gym, I went there anyway to soak in the hot tub and take measurements. Right now, I weigh 199 1/2 Ibs and have 16% body fat (down from 204 Ibs and 16.5% body fat). I expected the decline to slow after roughly 18 months of working out. In order to keep progressing, I think I am going to alter some of my routine.

I like the two days on, one day off regimen but I think I am advancing into the heavy weights category. When I last worked my chest muscles (two days or so ago), I was able to press 90 Ibs (plus whatever the bar apparatus weighs) without flinching. I think to cut the rest of the body fat, I am going to deload for one week and multiply the reps. I did this before and had amazing success. The only downside is that there is a greater potential for injury because I will be lifting for twice the length--even if it is only half or 3/4 of the weight.

The plus side is that performing 20, 25 or even 30 reps per set gives me the opportunity to perfect my form. I still catch myself occasionally arching my back or kipping my body in some other way to help lift the weight on the latter reps of a set. This will hopefully remedy the bad habits that I am still trying to lose.

I will begin the new regimen next week.

Until then..

Diminishing Returns

One reality about working out is that your muscles cannot perform indefinitely--even with plenty of rest in between sets. The fact that you tire as the workout goes on will manifest in your inability to perform at the same level. In other words, you will reach a point in your workout when the effort you expend yields less results. When you reach that point depends on several factors--whether you are working one or more muscle groups, how long you rest in between sets, whether you are bulking or cutting, etc.

Here is an example of diminishing returns:

Set 1: x weight, 15 reps
Set 2: x weight, 20 reps
Set 3: x weight, 25 reps
Set 4: x weight, 17 reps
Set 5: x weight, 12 reps

As you can see, Set 4 is the point of diminishing returns in this example. While everything else was static, you were not able to continue your progression to more and more reps with each set. Note that diminishing returns is not confined to repetitions. You can have diminishing returns on the amount of weight you lift or even the time in between sets.

Identifying the point of diminishing returns is an important part of strength training. You need to know when your body is tired, when you can push it further and when you need to stop immediately due to fatigue and exhaustion.

I will probably take more measurements within the next week. I have been trying to restrict my caloric intake even more and push myself harder at the gym. Today was chest and it is already sore. I'll be sure to post results.

Until then..

Success!

I did not think I would be able to do this for a long time. Today, I was finishing up my last forearm exercise when I decided to try it. I have done this many times before and can normally make it halfway through. But, today I just focused and finally did it! I was shocked because it has been nearly a decade since I was able to do one...single...pull-up.

You often see cruddy advertisements on television featuring some product like the Iron Gym or whatever it's called. It is so funny for two reasons. First, they want to make you think that if you just buy their craptastic product, you will look like the chiseled model. Second, they obviously think that the product is for normal people. Here is a little fact: normal people cannot do pull-ups. Go try it. Just do one. Make sure not to kip ('kipping' means jerking your body in order to generate momentum to help you complete the rep. A synonym for this word in the weightlifting world is 'cheating')! I still weigh slightly more than 200 Ibs which means my arms have to lift 200 Ibs off of the ground to the point where my chin clears the 8' tall (or so) bar. It is very difficult. Just to make sure it was not a fluke, I tried it again. The second was tougher but I still managed.

Tomorrow, I will try to do sets of 5 pull-ups. Progressive is so wonderful :)

Until then..

New Regimen

I was gone this weekend and decided to splurge on food. Normally I don't do this but I made an exception...it's been a while since I was on vacation. Anyway, if the weights in my gym are accurate, I gained 2.25 Ibs over the weekend! Before that, I started implementing a new regimen:

Days 1, 3 and 5: Strength training days: weights then abs then cardio then sauna then pool
Days 2, 4 and 6: Abs then cardio (double time) then sauna then pool
Day 7: rest

So far so good. Before I left for the weekend, I was down to 16% body fat and 202 Ibs.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Until then..

Blah Days

It happens to everyone, and today it happened to me. I am unsure whether it was due to lack of sleep, the heavy steak and cheese sandwich I ate pre-workout or the negative energy that arose as a result of a problem one of my roommates had. Whatever caused it, this has been one of those "blah" days. You simply do not feel like doing anything productive. You just want to eat whatever you want, whenever you want and then, once your gluttonous needs have been met, you just want to climb back into bed and hibernate until next year. You have to constantly remind yourself why you even bother working out, you notice your physical flaws and you ruminate over them. It seems nothing you do will accomplish that goal--the way you want to look and feel.

So, what do I do about "blah" days?

I remind myself of how far I have come in my weight-loss journey. I recall that just over one year ago, I had trouble bending over to tie my own shoes. I remember buying two pairs of 40" waist shorts--the same ones that have to be worn with a belt today because of all the hard work I have put into transforming my body. I tell myself many many times while at the gym that I do not need to lose another 1% body fat right now, this instant; I only need to survive today, to get through my current workout and that I will enjoy the pleasures that await me later--namely a good soak in the hot tub and a good dinner. While I believe this is not the right day-to-day attitude, sometimes it is necessary in order to survive the blah days.

Whenever you have a blah day, just go about business as usual. This is where your mind will prove its worth. Your mental fortitude that you have been reinforcing this whole time will carry you into the next day. Just believe in yourself, realize that you have been advancing towards your goal for a while now and today is no different. Sure, your workout today may be awful and nearly unbearable mentally and your body will probably react to that in some fashion. But it is better than giving up or allowing this to become a pattern. Blah days happen to everyone occasionally--it is part of human nature. We do not change instantaneously. Think of your next blah day as a test of your patience and your dedication. Then assure yourself that you will survive and be stronger tomorrow.

Until then..

Results --1st Goal Obtained!

I'll be sure to post pics later, but I look a LOT better than my last pics. My first set of goals was to drop down to 15% body fat and 205 Ibs. Currently, I weigh less than 205 Ibs but I still have around 16.25% body fat :( My new goal is to drop to 190 and see how I look then and what my body fat % is once I get there. By then, I should be below 15% BF but we'll see. After that, depending on the look, I will either continue to drop down to perhaps 185 or even 180 if necessary and 12% BF. Once I am satisfied with my BF %, I will start bulking back up--probably to 205. Should only be a day or two on those new pics.

Until then..