dorito’s BodyBlog

When my unit first got here in Iraq we began a competition to see who made the biggest improvement fitness wise.  We still have some time to go, you’ll forgive me if I don’t give exact flight dates out of here, but I’ve noticed a major improvement.  In March I started off at 17% BF working my way down to 9.5% where I’m at now.  The most significant change being in this last month when I boosted up my cardio ahead of weight lifting.  In June I was at 12.2%, a pretty big difference in one month.  This level of progress is a measuring tool that’ll keep me motivated until I get rid of the last of my excessive fat.  Wish me luck!

These past few weeks I’ve really been focusing on cardio.  My time on the weights has been pretty sporadic.  I don’t get on them but for a couple of days a week, and even then it’s only 2 exercises/4 sets per muscle group.  I just can’t seem to get into it like I used to.  Really getting tired of having ‘any’ flab around my middle so I’ve been hitting it hard with cardio.  My goal every day is to do at least 3 miles.  That’s pretty easy when I use the bike machine, so I try not to use the bike machine.  15 minutes on that thing equals 3 minutes on any other cardio machine.  My favorite is the treadmill, though lately I’ve been using the eliptical most of the time.  All my time on weights the few weeks prior did in my cardio stamina.  I’ve had to do less intensity on the treadmill and shorter distances than I used to.  Most days I feel really out of it, so I just go on the eliptical.  Still, starting to hit cardio intense again.  Did a mile in 7 minutes today on treadmill before doing the last 2 on eliptical.  I might end up just continuing with that, increasing the time on treadmill by a minute or two every other day.

Thank God for weekends   Btw happy late 4th of july!

I hate running outside here, this place sucks.  There’s so much dirt outside that it gets in your lungs and when you could normally run much faster, it’s weighing you down.  What’s even weirder is I had people who smoke running faster than me.  I’m normally not that bad of a runner, and lately with all the cardio that I’ve been doing, I’m getting really good at it.  I guess the wind blowing against you and the sand and dirt being in your lungs kind of makes things harder than they should be.  The wind was playing tricks on me too.  I was running around the track, and on one straight part it was full force against me.  On the opposite, there was nothing, no push of air, no resistance, nothing.  That segment fighting against the wind really sucks.

Today just wasn’t that great of a cardio day.  I had to chill out for 15m after it so I could prevent myself from throwing up.  The walk to chow and to work right after were unusally slow because of how exhausted I feel.  Which is strange, ’cause I’ve done many 3 mile runs before and walked away perfectly fine.  Today was a pretty off day, I gave it my all and it still felt off.

I’d like to call this day 1 in renewed dedication to the gym.  I’ve done away with just about every supplement and am sticking to protein for a while.  It’s been the only thing I’ve used for the past month and I think it worked out well even with the shorter schedule that I was adhering to.

Since I started I’ve lost over 4% bodyfat, yet with my more intense ab workout still have managed to gain size on my abs.  Makes a gut look bigger, at least at first.  If I keep doing away with body fat like I am, I should be down to a healthy size waist in no time.  Really it’s the only thing I’m unhappy with at this point.  I’ve definitely improved in just about every other area.

Cardio wise, my running has gone down from 26 minute 3 miles to a 22.  If I can get away from the platoon PT that’s taking up my cardio days, I may be able to continue reducing that number.  Tomorrow will tell.

Would like to apologize for my earlier temperament, things weren’t going the best for a while.  You’d still be surprised to find that I probably took the things that were happening the easiest out of everyone that I was working with.  Maybe I was a bit explosive that one day, but it never lasted two days in a row.  I guess that’s how me and sleep works.  Everything changes when I wake up.

The Marine Corps is infamous for it’s PT programs that it puts its Marines through.  Some units take it to a degree farther than others.  My PT is now controlled by my unit instead of doing my own program.  Now I have to do theirs.  No time for chow.  Barely enough time to get cleaned.  Then work.  Bastards.  So my program that I’m on is out the window.  Now I need to do theirs, which for many of you, you know someone’s workout isn’t everyone’s workout.  A person finds what fits them best.  Every PT program this platoon comes out with is retarded.  They favor group punishment, someone doesn’t put out, everyone suffers.  Bastards, I hate them.

The day after I got back Corporal’s Course I went to the gym.  I’m trying to get rid of body fat at the same time as working on my PFT.  Pretty much I think I’d look in great shape if I didn’t have the small gut that I have now.  If I can get rid of that. I’m pretty good.  I’ve gotten pretty big from when I first started.  My arms went from 15” to 17”.  

I’ve gotten a lot better on my run.  I was going at a little less than a 7 minute/mile pace as opposed to my normal 8.6 minute/mile pace.  I was killing myself, but I felt good about how well I was doing too.  I hit the 2 mile marker under 14 minutes.  An improvement like this could seriously help my PFT score.  My PFT score reflects my promotion score, so the better that is, the sooner I get promoted.

Yesterday was the first real muscle day.  I did biceps/triceps.  Three exercises for each, 4-5 sets per.  I’d have done more exercises/weight than I did, but the gym was so packed I couldn’t find any free weights, I really mean ‘free’.  I finished with a 10 minute slow cardio session on the elliptical.  Overall it was a pretty good workout.

Overall I think I should be where I want pretty soon.  Wish me luck :p

I thought I’d add this in because it has some PT relation to it.  It’s not an easy thing to do, the training they have out here.  The educational stuff is… I guess I shouldn’t say that’s hard.  It goes over a lot of what a leader should be, how to be one.  Things to keep in mind when dealing with subordinates and seniors.  A lot of things they emphasis is integrity, dependability, bearing.  Basically being a really honorable person.  It’s cool stuff, that aspect of it.  They teach drill too, and sword manual.  For those of you who don’t know, sword manual is marching with a sword, different positions.  A lot of commercials you see with Marines have exactly what I’m learning now.

The hard part is the PT.  We’ve been doing strenuous exercise every day.  I’ve been getting my butt handed to me.  PT is never within what I’m able to normally do.  They design it so that it isn’t.  It’s something I have to keep pushing myself through, ignore the pain and keep going with it, even though half an hour ago I hit the point I thought I’d have to stop.  It’s motivating kinda.. but there’s a lot of hard things about it.  Lots of running at a really fast pace.  Faster than I’m used to.

You have a lot of jumping jacks, tons of push ups, and 8 count bodybuilders, which is something like standing up, then doing a push up, then standing up again, except a slower motion, that really sucks!  Man, thinking about a lot of what I have to do really sucks cause I have 6 more days of it… wish me luck..

Yesterday we had a large sandstorm.  I’m not a professional Iraqi storm chaser so I can’t tell you if this one was huge or not.  Suffice to say at points I couldn’t see 5 feet in front of me.  I’d say it was bad enough.  Kept everyone in doors and not wanting to go anywhere, meaning everyone stayed out of my office   Usually, whenever there’s a lot of wind, sand isn’t too far behind.  The storm started before I work up in the morning, and ended some time after evening chow.  That’s a long storm!  I think the latter part of its duration was more of the dust settling than any actual wind.

While I"m at it I’ll also let everyone (all two people), who read know that I’m going to be gone for two weeks, and my training is going to be post-poned.  I’m going to be doing Corporals Course, basically leadership training that will take up my whole day. Will return to this site as soon as I can after that and start posting more of my misadventures here.  Later all!

Today was the 2nd day of my new schedule.  It was all about cardio/abs.  I jumped on the treadmill for a moderate pace of 6.1 mph and .5% incline.  Cool thing was I’m conditioned enough to the point that I was able to do 4 miles without really breathing heavy.  I remember before I joined the Marines, that pace kicked my butt.  I’m definitely getting better at running.  On my Zune I put together a new playlist of my favorite songs, there’s a lot them that are high intensity, wanting to make me run 12 mph.  The songs really just put me in the zone and kept my mind off most of the discomfort I might be having for about the 50 minutes that I was going at it.  Pretty sure I’ve found that runner’s high that I always hear about.  Strange thing is, this is all coming from a person who used to despise running.  I guess it’s a thing you just need to get used to.  I did 4 miles under 40 minutes, the last .3 mile that I ran was at a very slow walk.  I think that long of a cool down as a good idea, kept me from feeling like I was going to throw up.  I stretched before and after the workout, thus this mornings I don’t feel any ill effects from such a run.
When I was in CAX, we had a good amount of down time.  In my platoon I was falling out of runs all the time before then.  I decided I’d finally fix that problem and work on my running.  Went to the gym almost every day and did just running, starting with a 5.5 mile run the first day, and working into a consistent routine of 2 mile sprints to 4.5 mile runs.  I alternated between the two so I could work on a speed workout and an endurance run.  After that month, I cut my normal 3 mile pft time down by 1.5 minutes and was one of the few who never fell out of our runs.  Since then I’ve been working on my running, while not as often, it’s still 3 times every week.  Running overall has become much easier and enjoyable overall now.  It sucked at CAX, but pushing through the pain it’s now something I don’t mind.  Partially because I now feel good at it.

Last night was chest and back.  It’s hard for me to bring a workout log and keep track of all the numbers and everything I do, it seems to distract from the actual workout itself.  Then it begins to make the whole thing seem to mean nothing but numbers, and x amount of reps.  To me that destroys the point of going in the first place.  You’re not there for x amount of reps, you’re there for the movement itself, not the completion.  Finishing the movement means nothing if you don’t get anything out of it.  So I focus on the feel of the movement, feeling that the muscle that I want to use are being used.  More often than not, this leads to fewer possible reps as its a slower motion most of the time.  There are the workouts that I use heavy weight at a more intense pace, it really depends on the goal of that day.  To me my workouts are erratic in what I do and how I do it.  I feel this gives way to a better shock on my body as it NEVER has a chance to get used to what I’m doing.  I’m still noticing improvements.  I’ve dropped over a % of body fat while gaining 4 pounds, not too bad.  This is my bulking type phase too.

So last night was chest and back.  Worked out pretty intense with chest, but it was slowed down overall because of an odd pain in the shoulder.  I felt my form was right, but for some reason that pain was still there, so I did less weight than I normally could.  I went to exercises that isolated the chest itself vs. a compound exercise and finished off my workout that way.  Back was pretty easy, there wasn’t any odd pains doing that.  It’s just not that fun of a workout for me.  I should try to do the one I enjoy the least first, so that way I still have a good workout left for me when I leave the gym.  Normally back/shoulders I don’t enjoy too much.  The most enjoyable for me is chest/arms.  That 3+ mile run is also pretty fun too.  I hate to say it but i think I’ve started to enjoy them.  Today is 100% cardio.  This is going to be a 5-6 mile run lasting at least an hour if not more. Abs always goes after a cardio workout, and I hit them intense enough they wont be able to heal 100% in just one day, so it has to be every other day.  We’ll see how this new workout goes.