WhereImGoing’s BodyBlog

Alright…I am actually holding to my one-week downtime, much as it’s killing me to not be working on the weight training portion of my usual fitness routine.  I am still running every other day.  At the moment, I am running 3.75 miles in about 35 minutes, which puts me back on my 10K in one hour pace.  Of course, I’d like to improve that, but it will come soon enough.

My running consists of 1-minute intervals at approx. 8.5 mi/hr, alternating with 30-second intervals of 4 mi/hr.  This has really helped build up my endurance (I started at 8 mi/hr, and worked up), and I’ve been told it also helps extend the fat-burning process later in the day.

Alright…I’ve been pretty dedicated to the weight training for the past four months, and the results are definitely starting to show.  However, I’ve become concerned that, in my desire to get those results as quickly as possible, I’ve been overdoing it a bit.  It’s not unusual for me to feel soreness in multiple spots on my body, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

So at this point, I’m going to shift into my leaning out mode.  This will still allow me to hit each body part once a week (as opposed to every four days), and will incorporate more focused cardio.  I’ve been doing cardio every other day, but when I do it on a day that includes weights in the morning, I just don’t have the endurance I would like to have in the afternoon.  Now, weights will alternate with running, and the diet is going to be cleaned up.  This will allow me to focus more on the weight/body fat portion of my goals.

So I talked about going to a trainer a few weeks ago and getting a baseline reading for my body dimensions.  The bodyfat percentage was actually the item I really wanted to know, although all of the info will be good for me to track progress.  While the trainer reminded me that I’m definitely in the normal range for a guy my age, I don’t want to be average in a tidal wave of obesity.  My plan is to get ahead of the curve and stay there.

My challenge, though, is to acknowledge and respect where I’ve come from, as well as celebrate my progress on the way to where I want to be.  While I can see muscle definition and veins that get me excited, I still see a midsection that is carrying the majority of fat on my body, and all of my old baggage comes rushing back.  Having been a chubby kid, it’s tough to accept the reality that there might actually be a fit guy buried down below all of those hardened fat pockets.  I am getting there, though.  Every once in a while, I find myself looking at myself in the mirror in the morning, and I actually think to myself, "I like the way I look".  Trust me…that’s a big change for me, compared to how I’ve felt most of my life.
This has been a great process, though.

Over the past few weeks, I have been going through my closet and finding what still fits, what might fit soon, and what just needs to go away.  Despite my instincts, I am getting rid of the fat clothes.  They are too much of a crutch, and keeping them around is simply planning to fail.  Trust me…I don’t plan on failing this time around.  If I fall off the wagon, I’m going to have to pin towels together or something, because I can’t afford to buy a new wardrobe.

I may have mentioned it before, but my chiropractor has been setting my workout routine for me.  He’s been really impressed with my development, which is a nice ego boost.  Everything continues to grow, with the exception of my bench press, which has plateaued.  My other chest exercises have been great, but the bench just got stuck a month ago.  So I’m now going to start alternating heavy and light days, with a heavy day consisting of 5 sets of 6 reps, and a light day pushing 3 sets of 10 reps.  I’ll hit that for 3 weeks (with one of each routine each week), and hopefully we’ll see some higher numbers kick in on the charts.

So in order to get a baseline to measure my progress, I met with a trainer yesterday who got some measurements for me, including my body fat percentage.  Body fat came in at 18.5%, which he said was good for someone my age.  I died just a little when he said that…I feel fat, but this is average for most guys?  Wow…that’s kind of scary.

As for the other dimensions, they’re all loaded into the profile.  My current goals are to see if I can lose 10 lbs of weight, which would bring me below 200 lbs, and 8.5% body fat.  I know that’s a very aggressive number…about a half percent loss a week, but I think if I stay as focused as I have been, I can do it.  Keeping up the workout routine, keeping meals relatively clean, and changing things up a bit to keep it fresh are the ways I’m hoping to do this.  So expect a body fat update at the end of June.  I may take a look at the weight in the meantime, but I’m not going to put a huge amount of emphasis on that.

At this point in my development, I have stumbled onto a pretty cool situation.  My chiropractor, who I have been seeing for the past month, is also now providing me with a full workout cycle that I have been following for the past week.  Currently, I am following a 3 days on, 1 day off schedule that allows me to hit every body part once every 4 days.  Each exercise consists of 3 sets of 10 reps, and I focus on 2-3 body parts each workout.  Day 1 is chest, tris and abs, day 2 is back and bis, and day 3 is legs, shoulders and abs.  This equals between 21 and 30 sets per workout, which is a load I’m fine with.

The great thing about this relationship is that the routine can be pretty fluid.  This actually isn’t the end of this cycle, as the routine will get a tweak tomorrow when I go in for another appointment.  I’m going to start documenting the routines on here, although I can’t promise that I will do this daily.  More than anything else, I’m just looking for a more permanent tracking of my progress, and this is as good a place as any.

I have been working out actively since September of 2007, and in that time, I have lost 25 pounds, but more importantly, I have increased my muscle composition for the better.  My strength gains have been steady, but not anything extraordinary.  However, this may be the next phase of my development starting up this coming week.

For the past few months, I have been doing supersets, working at least two body parts each session.  The past few weeks, I have been working a routine where I do three days consecutively, and then take the fourth day off.  It’s almost as if I’ve become addicted to the workouts, and I don’t really have an issue with that.  My main goal up until now has been to burn fat as I build muscle, which is why I’ve been doing supersets, to keep the workout at a higher intensity.  However, starting next week, I will begin doing more concentrated workouts, with the goal of increasing muscle content at a faster rate.  I’m still going to work on diet and cardio, but I really see the opportunity to take the weight training to the next level.