Don’t Have a Keg…

So, I go away for the weekend and have some free time and thought I’d check out the hotel’s "state of the art" fitness center and guess what? Another disappointing "gym." It still amazes me that these resorts think that if you have a couple treadmills and a bike you’ve got a fitness center that will make everyone happy. Not a weight in sight. Oh well, I needed the cardio too…

A day early this week as I’m about to head up to northern Michigan for a beautiful fall weekend and to hob-nob with my fellow community theatre enthusiasts at the annual Community Theatre Association of Michigan Fall Conference. Just a slight uptick in my weight (223.8) and bodyfat seems to be pretty stable, actually down a bit - so despite my "binge" earlier this week and my not feeling too well on and off for the past couple weeks, things are not too bad. Hmmm, a gain in weight and a loss in bodyfat…could I actually be putting on muscle? What a radical concept!

I finish up rehearsals this coming week for the play that I’m in (Doubt) and am looking forward to increasing my time in the gym and reaching a few goals.!

Okay, I don’t know if it’s because I’ve not been feeling well and tonight I did feel good - but I had the hardest time just trying to stop eating. I mean, I’ve binged before but tonight’s cravings where almost impossible to resist. Has anyone else ever experienced this type of hunger? Thank goodness my house is no longer filled with junk food - but I’m sure I took in a week’s worth of carbs none-the-less. Oh well, now that I’m satieated (is that a word?) I can at least go to sleep. Hopefully, tomorrow is better…

It’s been a rough week and I got very little training in. Despite my previous post, my current bout with Crohn’s hadn’t actually subsided. So all week it’s been up and down - I start to feel good one day, then bad the next. At this point as I write I’m anticipating a fairly good day but there is a twinge of pain still. We’ll see how it goes. And I don’t think I mentioned that I’m currently acting in a play right now ("Doubt" a powerful drama) so on top of not feeling well I"ve been in rehearsal four nights a week - so I"ve had to muster my energy each night for rehearsal leaving little, if any, for training.  

However, my weight has dropped a little again and if I can keep this up I’ll break 220 in about two weeks. I just hope that the losses aren’t mostly muscle - and judging by the fact that I’m having trouble keeping my pants up these days I’d say it is mostly fat coming off - despite the bodyfat readings of my scale. My weight loss trend started prior to this latest flare-up though so I’m sure I’ll be able to keep it up once I’m feeling 100% again.

Okay, no more whining for today! We all have problems - it’s how we handle them that makes the difference, right? Positive attitude and all that. Celebrate success!

Speaking of success and positive attitudes, if you want to see some great examples of both check out the website of my friend Christopher Showerman (actor/producer) at www.christophershowerman.com not only is he a great guy, and a bodybuilder in his own right, but he has a tremendous positive attitude which he demonstrates not only through his life but on his website.

Take care all!

Or at least as better as I get! It was a rough weekend and even yesterday I was still a little out of it (see my last blog for details) - but my gut is feeling much better today and I was at least back on my "feed" and able to eat regular meals again without any ill effects. Tomorrow, time to hit the weights!

I feel like absolute crap today. My Crohn’s kicked in yesterday and has gotten worse overnight. I don’t know if it’s the rain or what but I’m totally drained of energy and it’s a chore to just write this blog. But, even with this I did do my weekly weigh in. Nothing spectacular but the weight is still moving slowly downward or at the very least not moving up. I’m in a play right now and that’s getting in the way of my workouts. But that will be over in three weeks and nothing planned after that until after the New Year to interfere with my training (health notwithstanding). Have a good week everyone!

So a few blogs ago I had checked on what the average man could bench and found some interesting information. Now, I’ve started to wonder how do my overall measurements compare to the average guy - specifically my arms.

As stated before I’ve always wanted to get my arms to 18" (flexed, cold) and always seem to fall just short of my goal.  18" sure seems a reasonable size when you read about pro bodybuilders with 20, 21, or even 22" arms. Now granted, the pros are more than likely exaggerating their size to maintain a certain mystique, maintain their ego, and even to "psyche" out the competition. There are also experts, such as Ellington Darden - one of my favorite workout "gurus" of the eighties, who say that because of improper measuring almost all arm sizes are exaggerated (especially with a cloth tape which can add a quarter of an inch to the circumference because of the width of the tape itself).

Anyway, it looks like finding out the stats on the average male arm is tougher than I thought! There are several articles and discussions on the web, including here at bodybuilding.com, and they mostly point back to the same one or two sources - Men’s Health magazine again - and the answer seems to be that for an American man of 5′9.5" at a body weight of 175 his arms are 13" in circumference. What I can’t find is if that’s a flexed or unflexed measurement. My guess is unflexed as 13" seems a bit on the small side to me for a flexed arm of a fully grown man, but I could be wrong.

Now granted I’m a little taller and a lot heavier than the so-called "average" man I’ve referred to above, but in any case my arms are significantly larger than 13" even unflexed (about 14.75" unflexed - 16 flexed as of this morning). I, of course, don’t think my arms look that big, but I imagine that’s common among those of us who workout to get both bigger and stronger, and hanging around the gym and forums like this one probably does mean that I tend to be around people who are, on average, larger than average. Heck, my training partner’s arms tape at around 18" and I’ve compared myself to him for years - even when his arms where "only" about 16" and mine where in that average neighborhood of 13" (was I really that "small" once?). My own personal obsession with big arms was probably strengthened when I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s and my weight dropped to below 140 lbs and my arms shrank to 11" (flexed! - I was literally skin and bones at that point).

Where am I going with all this? I don’t really know, mostly Sunday morning rambling I suppose. But I’m curious as to what other people think. When is an arm "big?" And I, of course, mean in a solid, muscular way.

Keep lifting!

Weight is about the same this week, a pound or so heavier, but bodyfat is down again. I’ve actually been a little afraid to take measurements but think I will do that again next week. I did have a good experience this past weekend on a trip to Cedar Point (voted best amusement park in the world for the 10th year by "Amusement Today") as I had no trouble fastening the restraints (seat belt) on the Millennium Force. Last year it was a tight squeeze, this year it wasn’t. So by that measurement at least I know my hips and waist are smaller! But, I also easily fit into the shoulder harnesses of "Raptor." A mixed blessing. A blessing because I could ride, a curse because that means my chest and shoulders haven’t reached "freak" proportions yet (haha)! Actually, I doubt that I’ll ever not fit into those harnesses as I believe you need an upper body circumference of more than 60" in order to be too big to ride. More than a foot larger than I’ve ever been and a measurement usually found in only the very obese or the very chemically "enhanced" bodybuilder.

Ride on everyone!

Not literally, of course, but I did get a workout in tonight. The first in about two weeks (gasp). The good news is that I felt good, the bad news, I may have lost a little strength. But at least I’m off my fat butt and doing something again. Now, to get the workouts back to being a habit and/or routine.