StressMonkey’s BodyBlog

I’ve read on several profiles that people sometimes feel like they stick out like a sore thumb when they are in a crowd because they are trying to live a healthy lifestyle.  I definitely had one of those moments recently.  I was trapped in an airport because my flight got delayed.  I was getting hungry so I decided to go see what I could find to eat.  I was hoping I could at least find a Subway or a smoothie place.  I didn’t have enough time for a sit-down meal so I needed something that would be relatively fast.  I walked into the food court and was presented with these choices: McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, greasy looking Chinese food.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Just the thought of eating that food made me sick to my stomach.  I kept on walking and after about five to ten minutes I came across another food court that offered, you guessed it, the exact same choices.  What’s funny is that both food courts were completely packed with people.  A part of me felt a little nuts for making such a big deal about it.  I ended up noticing that a yogurt stand was selling bananas.  I had a banana and a protein bar (which I had brought with me).  With choices like that it’s no wonder so many people have problems controlling their weight!

I was just absolutely exhausted at work today.  I didn’t get much sleep last night and I’ve in general been stressed out trying to keep up with the various tasks associated with the hell on Earth known as the Christmas season.  More that once today I thought to myself that I didn’t know how I was going to possibly lift tonight.  Subconsciously the little devil on my shoulder was telling me to blow off the gym and just let the couch swallow me tonight.  Luckily I didn’t do that I went anyway.  I ended up having an awesome workout and now I feel absolutely great.  So was I really not as tired as I thought I was and my mind was playing tricks on me or did the adrenalin and endorphins from pushing hard at the gym kick me into overdrive?  Either way, how many people don’t exercise because they think they’re too tired after a hard day’s work?  I’m glad I learned not to think that way!

I’ve gotten several questions from people wanting to know tips/secrets/routines I used to build my chest up.  Let me preface this by saying I’m am the furthest thing in the world from a fitness expert.  I’m just going to describe what worked for me.  A part of me can’t believe I’m sitting here giving fitness advice.  Anyway, here’s the short answer: I did a ridiculous amount of pushups.  That’s it.  Long answer: Post-college several years ago I wasn’t happy with the way my body looked and I wanted to make a change but I didn’t have the cahones to join a gym.  I also knew nothing about exercising properly.  I tried to think of what I could do in my apartment and I came up with pushups.  When I first started I don’t remember how many I could do but I know it wasn’t much.  The key was that each session I would try to do a little more than the last time.  If I could only do 40 one day I would shoot for 45 as a goal the next time.  If I didn’t make it, fine, but at least I tried.  My routine was to do 20 pushups, rest briefly, do another 20 pushups, rest briefly, and so on.  I also would write each set of 20 down because it was easy for me to lose track of my count.  Each time I would pass 100 I would rest a little longer.  I kept doing this until I hit my max.

I think another key was consistency.  I did a session at least three days a week.  Unless I was sick or on a vacation I stuck to my routine.  Just as with going to the gym consistently I don’t think I would have gotten the same results if I would have been “on again off again” with doing this.  I made sure I stuck with it.  Before I joined a gym in July 2007 I was doing at least 500 pushups in a day’s session, which means at least 1500 pushups a week.  What started as “let me try a few pushups” morphed into me doing pushups for well over half an hour each session.  Once I put on some good music and got into a zone it really didn’t seem like that long.

If you look in my photo gallery at a picture titled “0703-1007 front” you can see a shot of me in 2003 compared to me in 2007.  I look absolutely awful in the 2003 picture, but you can also tell that I’m not flat chested.  The routine was taking hold.

A part of me is proud of myself for taking the initiative to start a program like this and sticking with it.  Another part of me is horrified that I concentrated on a single exercise and muscle group for so long.  Oh well, lesson learned.  I don’t do this anymore.  Now I go to the gym three times a week and train all of my muscle groups properly.  Usually one day a week is chest day.  I don’t do anything out of the ordinary.  Last week on chest day I did a lot of benching: incline, decline, flat, etc.  This week I would guess that my personal trainer will have me doing pushups and dumbbell presses.  He always mixes things up so that I’m always doing something different.

I’ve been lucky in that when I joined the gym and started training properly I wasn’t starting from scratch.  I had a good foundation on my chest to build upon.  So that’s it.  I don’t have any secret routines and I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary.  I just found that if you want a bigger chest the pushup is your friend.  Now drop and give me twenty!