PenteKing’s BodyBlog

Christmas draws closer with each passing day, and as it approaches, I notice that the stress level among my friends and colleagues has risen in conjunction with it. I’m unaffected because I refuse to let the madness of the holiday season infect me. The mass marketers and retailers have turned the season into a frenzied rush to buy consumer goods that won’t last past February.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bitter or disenchanted; I’m amazed. Every year, my friends swear they won’t get pulled into the whirlwind of excessive credit card debt and rushing from home to home to "celebrate" the holiday, and every year, I see that promise fall by the wayside as pressure (both within and without) erodes their once-solid resolve. I refuse to go along. Even when my children were younger, I refused to yield to the pressure. I decided, based upon that year’s circumstance and financial situation, to enjoy the holiday season on my terms - not those dictated by others. I told my children, (and I tell them today as well), the holiday season is YOURS to do with as you please. YOU decide how to celebrate it (or not). Bowing to outside pressures is putting due pressure and guilt upon oneself. That, my friends, is not what the holiday season is all about.

Peace and love to everyone - regardless of your religious and/or political persuasion. We are ALL God’s children.

I signed up to participate in a fifty (50) mile bicycle ride on behalf of the American Diabetes Association. I was tempted, at first, to go for the entire 100 mile trek, but common sense kicked in at the last moment and save me from myself. Still, 50 miles is an awe-inspiring achievement. The local organizers have put together a realistic training program (which I plan to follow to the letter) that promises to have me in biking shape by the time the event gets underway.

Has anyone in the community done anything like this before? If so, can you give me some tips or pointers on training? Thanks in advance.

My sons live back East, where Old Man Winter has just dropped approximately a foot and a half of snow on them. I called them yesterday to let them know that their Christmas presents were in the mail and to be on the lookout for them. (One of my sons has roommates that think ANY food that comes into the house is community property, and I didn’t want the five pound ham and accompanying groceries to go missing.)

Both complained of the cold and the snow and the freezing rain, and how their morning commute was going to suck and how they couldn’t WAIT for summer again. And yet, when I raised the topic of their moving out to Southern California, you think I had suggested something akin to their committing patricide. They could NEVER, so they both claimed, leave their friends behind. Their entire lives, they both said, were wrapped up in New England. They would never even think of leaving.

Well, in that case, I replied, Freeze. It’s harsh, but sometimes, tough love is what parenting is all about.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem? For the past two days, when I’ve used the Workout Tracker, I enter all of my information and then click "Save". The screen disappears and then I get a web page with the following error message: Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 83886080 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 79 bytes) in /mnt/www/bodybuilding/htdocs/workout/include/class.bwt_database.php on line 594
When I return to the Workout Tracker page, my information looks like it’s all there, but this is still weird behavior. I’ve reported it to the sysops, but was wondering if anyone else in the community is having the same troubles.

I recently purchased a new iPod Nano (an early Christmas present to myself) and I must say that this thing is incredible. I went for the 8 GB version, and I’m not sorry in the least. At first, I thought 8 GB might be too much, but I find that it barely holds all the music I want to carry around with me. (Admittedly, I have a LOT of music.) I can arrange my songs into playlists to suit mood or occasion, and the best part is that it fits in my pocket. When working out, I place it in an armband holder, and I have songs to carry me through the longest of my workouts.

I’m not usually impressed by technological advances, but this little item is super cool!

It’s true. It’s not my imagination nor is it wishful thinking. I’m getting stronger. Since commencing this routine in June of this year, I estimate that my strength has doubled. My endurance is better, my recovery times are shorter and I can lift more weight. It’s a good feeling.

My muscles aren’t growing as quickly as I would like (I plan to fix that), but they are growing. I can see definition in my triceps, and I can feel the muscles in my pecs and quads. It’s true that my body measurements haven’t changed in a while, but I can now do sixty minutes of hard exercise, and while I’m spent at the end of that hour, I’m not exhausted. When I started, I’d have to take a two hour nap after Coach was through with me. Now, at the end of the hour, I’m looking around to see what else I can do.

I won’t fall into the trap of overtraining. I did that when I was younger, and I pride myself on learning from my mistakes (except where women are concerned). My goal is to build muscle at a slow, steady and rententive pace. I’m not looking for quick fixes or miracle cures. They don’t exist. They never did, and they never will. The only thing that works is plain old hard work and effort, and that’s what my plan is based upon. Sweat, blood, tears, effort and work.  I’m not a quitter. Sure, I have my moments of discouragement and doubt, but then, don’t we all? I am only human after all. But even though I have momentary misgivings, I don’t quit.

I don’t know the meaning of the word.

Some of you have responded to my blog about Coach telling me that I would never be a bodybuilder - that I don’t have the capacity to build the kind of muscle I’m looking to develop. You were quite adamant about getting rid of Coach and finding someone else who would help me achieve my goals.

To everyone who responded, THANK YOU!

You guys (and gals) made me realize something. I’m responsible for achieving my own goals. I can’t depend upon Coach - or anyone else for that matter. It’s up to me. Maybe I won’t be another Steve Reeves (my waist/chest ratio isn’t right), but I will be the best that I can possibly be because I refuse to quit. I WON’T GIVE UP MY DREAM!

And I’m keeping Coach because I feel comfortable with her. It’s hard to find someone who understands your limits and consistently pushes you past them, and that is what she does. Don’t worry, though. I won’t let her diminish my ardor for the sport.

Bodybuilders of the world, UNITE!

…is a tad more tolerance and understanding. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend the absolute level of anger and hatred that’s afloat in the world. Mothers are killing their children; husbands are killing their wives; teenagers are shooting random people in shopping malls; Arabs are fighting Jews; Muslims want jihads against Christians.

STOP THE INSANITY!!!

We are ALL God’s children. I wonder if it’s ever occurred to the fanatical among us that maybe, perhaps, our diversity is God’s master plan. Perhaps the intention was to test our ability to adapt to one another - a test to see whether we could overcome our baser natures and become more spiritual and loving.

We live and then we die. No one knows what awaits us in the after life, and because we can’t possibly know, it is really worth fighting about? Wouldn’t it be more productive to see if we couldn’t advance ourselves as HUMAN BEINGS? When you strip away the exterior, we’re all the same underneath. We claim to be a more highly evolved species than the lesser beasts.

We should suit action to word.

Bruce Brown, owner and operator of the Athletic Center (where I train) died last night after a long illness. I didn’t know Bruce all that well. By the time I joined the gym, he was already ill and undergoing chemotherapy. He would come into the gym every now and again, but his visits weren’t for the purpose of seeing how the gym was running (the staff took care of that) or to take his clients through their paces (he’d turned them over to the other trainers). Rather, I think it was a way of reflecting on the past twenty years of his life; of looking around and seeing what he’d built and determining, in his own mind, whether his life had had any purpose.

Had he asked me, I would have told him that it did. People scoff at those who live a clean and healthy lifestyle. "All that work, and you die anyway," they say. "What’s the point?"

The point is this - to challenge yourself each and every day. The point is to move forward toward a goal. The point is to achieve something. Otherwise this world just becomes a waiting room. Bruce helped more people than can be counted. In my short time with the gym, I have seen at least a dozen people make significant progress toward achieving their goals. Whether their goal was to lose weight, or gain muscle size, or simply to attempt something they were told couldn’t be done doesn’t matter. What matters is that Bruce gave them a venue in which to pit themselves against their personal demons. He provided an environment that was safe and clean and (most importantly) supportive. His was the only establishment in San Diego that was committed to the sport of bodybuilding. And by that, I mean committed in a way that 24 Hour Fitness or Pure Fitness or the YMCA could never imagine.

You will be missed, Bruce. You will not be forgotten. A little part of you resides in everyone you have ever helped, no matter how tangentially. Rest in peace.

Had a long, serious talk with Coach today. As some of you may or may not know (it doesn’t matter), my measurements have stayed EXACTLY the same since July 25, 2007. This despite lifting heavy weights, cleaning up my diet and taking supplments. I’m talking ZERO increase.

In talking over this phenonmenon with Coach, she suggested that perhaps I have the type of body that will not readily grow muscle. Her thought is that my body has nothing but slow twitch muscle fiber (good for endurance; lousy for muscle growth). She suggests I re-focus my goals and concentrate on training for a triathalon or marathon or something similar, and that I give up the idea of having a Steve Reeves-type body. "If, after all this time, you have made NO progress," Coach said, "it ain’t going to happen."

I’m seriously bummed out about this. I suspect she may be right. I’ve been busting my a**, and have seen no progress. My strength and endurance have doubled (and this is an objective assessment), and my phyisque has changed (I’m smaller and tighter and my clothes no longer fit), but I’ve not increased in size. My weight hovers between 195 and 200 (depending upon how much food I eat) and that’s that.

What do you guys think? Is Coach right? Should I give myself some more time? Should I try something different? Enquiring minds WANT to know.