Steve_T’s BodyBlog

Despite a few nagging issues with shoulder and upper back, training has been going well for the most part.  I had my annual physical and blood work looked good for cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure was also in a normal range (for me).  About a week ago I set out to start my winter bulk and add a bit of size and strength.  Let’s see how it goes!

Well, despite not much of a change in overall size or weight, my strength has been on the climb lately and I’ve seen some significant progress on chest and shoulders.  My chest has long been one of my relatively weakest body parts and a true laggard for real gains.  I’d been slowly ramping up weight on various chest exercises and recently decided to try my luck at 225 pounds on Olympic bench press, long a storied benchmark for pretty much all guys who work out in the gym.  Keep in mind that up to this point I’d never done it for even a single rep in my life, and was intimidated by the weight.  With a spotter standing by, I squeezed out 2 reps of 225 by myself, and a third rep with a bit of help.  Definitely a great feeling for me!  A few days later I managed 175 for 5 reps on Olympic incline press, and was tremendously pleased with myself on that too.  For shoulders, long a problematic muscle group that I’ve been rehabilitating, I managed to lift 240/8 on a machine based shoulder press today, which is an all-time record for me.  So, I’m definitely quite pleased at how things are going lately, and I’m doing my best to keep my diet up, my rest plentiful, and my focus and dedication levels high.  Hopefully there are more good milestones to come!

Well, I’m absolutely thrilled to be writing that my shoulder has been loosening up (finally) and I was able to perform wide grip pull-ups in the gym for the first time in about 6 months on Friday of last week.  Although I’m continually dealing with my carpal tunnel in the gym I am having a lot of success working around my various challenges and am super hopeful that I can re-introduce some form of military press back into my routine soon.  Strength has been on the rise lately and even I (my own worst critic) am seeing some positive changes with regard to strength and size as of late.  I attribute much of this to my diet which is a lot cleaner than in months past, and I continually monitor my daily caloric intake to ensure my macros are split well and that my protein intake is adequate.  I shoot for a 40/40/20 (carbs, protein, fat) split and am staying much closer to this than in the past.

As I continue my training this year I’ve been focusing on doing a bit of rehab on my shoulder to correct a persistent issue with it.  My focus is going to be on avoiding lifts (military press, dips, pectoral flys) that place a lot of stress on my shoulder, and to decrease overall weight on everything except legs in order to give my shoulder the best chance possible to heal.  Not an easy thing to do since shoulders figure so prominently in upper body workouts, but I’m also convinced that it’s a goal that can be accomplished.

I had some great feedback on my current physique from an old friend over Christmas break, and am highly motivated to continue my training and keep working towards new goals.  Happy 2009 to anyone reading my blog!

I’m pretty happy with my current health, at least the things I’m able to test for.  The other day I measured 120/74 on blood pressure with a 52 bpm heart rate, and am still maintaining my levels of size and strength.  I’m definitely hopeful to maintain this overall fitness while continuing to add a bit of lean muscle mass!

So I was progressing along towards my size and strength goals and dealing with my high blood pressure situation, and then decided to have my cholesterol and testosterone levels checked.  It turns out that I am borderline high on cholesterol and borderline low on testosterone, both of which caused me some level of concern.  I decided to combat my cholesterol levels naturally and without any medication by cranking up my frequency and intensity of cardio exercise, in addition to slightly modifying my diet.  The end result of this is about a 2% loss in bodyfat which, I’ll be the first to admit, feels pretty good.  So, at this point I’m working towards slightly different fitness goals but still hoping to pursue an increase in lean muscle mass for 2009, just probably not as big an increase as I was originally working towards.

I’ve been talking about dieting properly forever, but now I’m happy to report that I’m seeing the results of it after monitoring my bodyfat over the past 2 months with an Omron HBF-306C.  A couple months back I was a rock solid 19.5% bodyfat on the "normal" mode and today I’m down to 17.5% on the same unit (which I purchased so that I could read the directions properly instead of guessing about the one at the gym).  Anyway, my waist is shrinking gradually and I’m totally motivated to continue this diet regimen on my way to a bodyfat level of 15% or possibly lower.  I’m happy to report that my blood pressure is still under control!

Happy to say that my blood pressure is down a few more points (on my home monitor, which cannot be recalibrated) and my strength is up.  I set an all time Olympic decline record today with 225/5 reps unassisted.  Keeping in mind I’ve never before in my life pressed 225 pounds even for 1 rep, it should be obvious that I was overjoyed by the accomplishment!  I’ve been working chest twice a week for the past 3-4 weeks instead of once and it does seem to be paying off.  My chest has always been stubborn with regard to strength and size, so I’m definitely hoping I’m onto something good…and it does seem that way so far!

Well, good news this time about my blood pressure.  At the doctor, my reading was consistently 122/74, which is A-OK for me.  My home testing machine is reading higher than this, and unfortunately doesn’t offer any calibration options (not field serviceable).  So, I’m happy to know that I’ve made a lot of progress towards my goal…and my revised goal is to get off my blood pressure medication within the next few months.

Well, I’ve definitely been watching my caffeine and sodium intake a bit more, and have also added cardio back to my normal routine (low intensity…fat burn and heart health only).  My blood pressure monitoring has been full of mixed results.  It’s still higher overall than I’d like, but it also gets down to pretty low levels (nearly normal) when my beta-blocker is freshly in my system.  I will be going to another doctor’s appointment next week to share my journal of BP results and see if my prescription needs to be altered.  I am surprised to admit that my lifts are quite strong despite removing caffeine from my diet, including my pre-workout supplements.  So, I consider that a win!