Week 101 — I’ve been lifting for >100 weeks!
Saturday, September 26th, 2009Passed a milestone this week, I have been lifting for more than 100 weeks! If I do say so myself I am rather proud of that. If you’ve read my profile you know that before I started into this seriously nearly two years ago my attempts at lifting were half-hearted, unguided and never continued more than a week or two. (What? You can’t look like Arnold in a couple of half-assed workouts whilst stuffing your face with cookies?)
Had a setback this summer with the additional weight that I put on. My waist is up a quarter inch since the beginning of the summer and my weight is up 4-5 lbs or so, but I am trying hard to get it back down again.
In the great news department, there were a couple of gains to note in the monthly measurements tonight, namely my chest, bis and forearms, clocking upward ever so slightly… a half inch on the chest, an eighth inch on the bis and another eighth or so on the forearms. Sweet. I have done some tweaking in the routines to hit the bis, lats and delts a bit harder and it looks like it is working. Now to get the belly fat back into recession mode…
Gotta love the commenters on the pix. Received a comment from someone about a recent pic telling me that I need to keep hitting the cardio — no argument there — but then socks me with a "3" rating. WTF. This after I gave this particular rater a "10" on a pic of his. I’m all for reciprocation on pic rating (I rate you, you rate me), but really. Ok, yeah, I’m still a bit of a lard butt and I need to work on the BF, but I think an 8 would be more fair, IMHO.
Now, granted the ratings each poster uses are extremely subjective and there are many who give "10"s for everything, and I am in that catergory. My own philosophy is that if you’re lifting and/or dieting and/or hitting the cardio and think you’re making some progress whether it’s real or imagined and you have the balls to post a pic to the world, then dammit you deserve a "10" for the effort if nothing else. My "ratings" are in the written comments in a good-great-awesome-incredible sort of scale, if you can call it that. Occasionally I’ll not rate a pic of a first posting of a starting point pic of some guy hoping to make some changes with 30%+ BF, and I’ll write something encouraging in the comment field… I was there myself at one time. I have no problem with those who use a 7-8-9-10 scale for ratings, saving the 10s for the awesome bods out there and I know I am not one of those. But a 3? Good grief. Lifting and busting my arse for nearly two years for a 3 from a noob? Pshaw. When I first joined bb.com and was extremely reluctant, hesitant, etc. about posting pix, a lower rating on a pic would send me into a grumble for a while, and had I gotten a 3 back then, I might’ve left for good and given up completely on the lifting. Now I just shake my head and chuckle.
I am coming up on the two-year mark for my joining bb.com and getting started making some body changes and I don’t want to lose any momentum… so I’ll keep liftin’.
| Posted in Training, Other
Week 99 — End of Summer
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009Some more random musings, but then I guess that’s what a blog is for!
Summer vacation is over and it is back-to-work time. In some ways that’s good, because it means I will be back to a stricter eating plan and regular workout routine. When I am off in the summer I am away a lot and the eating and workout schedules got out the window. I seem to have really "suffered" this year, too. My weight is up a fair bit from the beginning of the summer, and my waistline hasn’t escaped some expansion as well. Though, the last BF pinch measurement I did, I wasn’t up all that much, maybe a mm or two, so that hardly seems the entire cause. Perhaps I actually have some muscle weight gain? Seems unlikely with the erratic workout schedule, but who knows. This bodybuilding stuff affects everyone differently.
I think I am going to have to revise my "how I started" bio on my profile page a bit. In it I state that I had slimmed down some in college. I thought I had, I really did. This past week I was looking through my college yearbooks trying to answer some questions that a friend and I had come up with, and I came across some pix of myself. Ugh. Was I a chunker in college. I was going to scan an example for this post but there weren’t any shots that would crop well enough to get the point across.
On the college subject though, the alumni news from my alma mater arrived recently and in it was a photo of a group of guys from my era, and in fact I knew most of them in college, with their families at a little mini reunion they had recently. Was that an eye-opener! Guys that were skinny computer geeks in college are now these very fat code writers. I’m not talking a few pounds overweight, I am talking into serious obesity. Wow. I was kind of glad after finding my pic in the yearbook that I have gone the opposite way: fat computer geek to fit IT Guy.
Been looking at the workout routine and trying to put in a few changes here and there. Kind of hard to mix it up a lot with only dumbbells, but I have discovered incline bicep curls… what a pump they give you! Also added in the body weight dips for some extra tricep work. My delts I feel are lagging and I want to concentrate on them this winter, but with the shoulder problems I’ve had I need to tread carefully there… any suggestions out for hitting delts good with dumbbells? The other day in the leg routine I finally tried doing calve raises holding a pair of DBs… I’ve been doing them with body weight only all this time… and what a burn that created that I am still feeling two days later! Walking stairs is very interesting at the moment, and if I sit for too long my calves get stiff. Have to think carefully about doing that routine again! Probably used too much weight for a first go at weighting the exercise.
Well, autumn is approaching and it is back to the better eating and lifting routine. Hopefully as I approach the two-year mark of the concerted fitness effort I can continue to make some gains.
So, I’ll keep liftin’.
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Posted in Training, Other