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..