Week 65
I bought a digital micrometer this week and used it tonight to check my BF%… I think now I know why my BF% readings seem to be low… they were! The cheap plastic micrometer I was using until now was reading less than accurately, shall we say.
I measured with both tools tonight and there was a 6 mm difference in the total between them!!! According to the pinch total from the digital one I am around 12%, which is probably closer to accurate than the 9.8% that the total from the other one is telling me. Sheesh. I am going to use both over the next couple of weeks to see what the difference is between them and then I will have to go back and look at all my BF% pinches and adjust them accordingly. Disappointing in a way since the BF% is higher than what I was measuring, but somehow I knew it wasn’t right, and even commented on it often in the blog posts.
Had a number of positive comments from coworkers at work on Friday about my appearance. Don’t know what inspired them to suddenly notice, but it was an ego booster, esp. since my weight has been creeping up since the holidays. I want to say it’s muscle gain, but with the BF% pinch measurements all out of whack I can’t say it with any certainty. The BF% pinches have been relatively steady with an ever-so-slow downward trend, so I am hoping the weight gain is muscle gain. I haven’t been doing anything different with the diet than I have been doing all along.
I have added a second day of bicep work to the routine. My arms just haven’t done much of anything except look a little more defined. The size hasn’t really changed at all. They initially went down from the fat loss and came back up to about where they were with the fat and haven’t changed much since. There was a recent article on bb.com about adding another workout day for a particular body part if you aren’t getting the gains you want. The multiple days seem to be working for my pecs. I have been doing two days for them for quite a while and have added 1.5 inches to my chest since I started all this. The first day I do flat bench presses and flyes, the next day I do incline and decline flyes and presses. I figure since the dual day thing seems to be working for the chest, why not try the arms.
On Saturdays I do biceps and back and I have now added to the incline/decline chest day (usually Tuesday) a dumbbell curl "rack run," where you curl with the heaviest weight you can handle and work your way down to the lightest you have. A profile commenter suggested that routine to me in the summer and I tried it a few times but didn’t add it to the routine until now. I am anxious to see what the monthly measurements look like in a week since it will be about a month that I have been doing it. I think my bis are looking better in the mirror, but as always, it could be wishful thinking.
I want it to be the real thing and not wishful thinking, so I’ll keep liftin’.
