Don’t Have a Keg…

Had my body composition taken today - and either I’m in worse shape than I thought or the person taking the measurements made a goof. I came out at about 32% bodyfat! Which means that since my last comp test in the spring, where I was at 18%, I’ve lost a whale of a lot of muscle mass and gained a whole lot of fat. So, one of the tests is incorrect…but which one? Today’s used an electronic scale/fat tester but it appeared to be more heavy duty than the home models  - it was made by Tanita, the same company that makes the one I use at home which I shows me in the low 20% range - and only three points on my body were actually tested for fat folds (chest, thigh and middle).

I wonder if anyone else has problems with the electronic methods showing a much higher bodyfat than they believe they have?  

Well, tonight I received a comment/compliment that caught me entirely by surprised. As I was finishing up my workout tonight - deadlift day, hurts so good - a young man (i.e. less than half my age) asked me "how did you get calves like that?"

At first I thought perhaps some part of my leg had grown deformed and I didn’t notice it but through our brief conversation I learned that he had always had trouble building calves and was very impressed with the size and shape of mine. So I gave him a couple of tips and warned him that sometimes our genetics just won’t let us fully develop the body parts we want to develop and secretly gave myself a pat on the back for doing a good deed - and for being able to impress someone with my muscularity, even if only my lower leg.

Just goes to show - we all have something that someone else will be impressed with. Whether it be calves, biceps, triceps, or sheer tenacity for showing up at the gym each day.

Plus, this little episode helped me to forget the comment I got last night at the gym. I have apparently made the leap from "dude, are you done with the bench?" to "excuse me sir, how many sets do you have left?"  I guess the next stage will be to the guy that everyone watches just in case he has a heart attack or something in the middle of a set…c’est la vie.

Things went very well in the gym tonight. Even with my somewhat extended layoff the past three weeks I was surprised to find that I could still pretty much lift the same weight that I did during August even though I was still a little sore from last night’s workout. Strictly speaking yesterday should have been all cardio, but I got a little off this week and was catching up on some lifts I missed Tuesday.

Feels good to be back at it - we’ll see how long I can last this time!

Okay - it’s hard to be tired of something you don’t do enough of, but for the fall I’ve decided to get back to basics and some good old fashioned strength training. I’ve posted my new workout - provided to me by a trainer/bodybuilder friend - lots of sets for chest, but that’s okay with me for now.