reefpicker’s BodyBlog

So I stop exercising for a bit… Why? Well, first of all, my BF is back and we go out to play basketball and racquetball and walk, etc, and that takes time after work… Second thing is that I feel guilty that I don’t spend time with him… He is not working and I am the one out all day, coming back late (around 6pm or later) and then he is there at home, cooking or cleaning or what not, and I feel like I should spend some fun time with him…. Then there was the marathon, which I am proud to say, I did run in it but I only did like 1/4 of it…. In any event, I was running and keeping active but not doing my weight routine as intensely as usual…

This serves as a lesson: Doing weights and keeping a high intensity routine, helps keep off the fat from your waist… Specially when you do cardio a couple of times a week….

And my nutrition has been poor too…. Eating too much carbs and not much protein…. Breads, breads, and breads…. They are my weakness….

And the other bad thing is that I have not been consuming shakes or eggs or tuna or even PB that much…..

Well, I will try to make a change… I gained a couple of pounds but most importantly, my pants are starting to feel a bit "tight"… Not significantly, but enough that I know its starting to affect me…. And not to be OCD about it, but I can no longer see my mid-abs….

Not that I am formally periodizing, but I decided to start a new routine… I am going to be doing Legs on Sunday, then a back/shoulder routine on Tuesday, then I hit the gym again on Thursday for a bicep/tricep workout.  Then its back to Chest on Saturday…

I also decided to add some simple compound movements… I do dips in almost every workout (3x a week)… I decided to do pushups on Chest days, neutral grip pull ups on Biceps/Triceps days and on Back days….

I also have set up a new goal… As soon as I can do 12×3 sets of dips, I am going to add weights… Right now I seem to be able to do 12,10,10 at the most but thats usually b/c thats the last excercise I do…

I also finally got the side bend right… Long story short: I was doing it with two dumbells… This works b/c it still hits the right muscles but it is not as intense as a one dumbell version…

 I still have not figured out which compound excercise I will do for leg days… The squat is a sorta compound movement but not as much… IDK if pushups are compound btw… I think compounds require teh movement of more than one articulation… but my idea is to do non-isolation exercises: exercises that put several muscles to work together… Pushups are one… Dips too… Pullups…. I need to do cleans, deadlifts, and such but IDK if I am strong enough to try those… I also need some guidance.. I dotn want to make a mistake..

I am really enjoying learning a bit more about BBing and Strength training… Is a great hobby and a great way to get healthier and stronger…

I also decided to run only 2x or 3x a week… And only less than 30 mins… This is just in case the ppl that say that aerobic and anaerobic exercise adaptations counteract each other, in case they are right,…. just in case……

Today I measured my…. ehem… what did you think? LOL My waist, of course, at the level of the navel, and it turns out that I have shed about .5 - .75 inches of fat around that area… Right now some of my size 30 jeans are no longer fitting me that well…

Not sure how I managed to shave that weight but my guess is that it has slowly occured over the last month or so.

Today, I performed a full set of triceps kickback with 30 pounds. I admit that I lost form in the last few reps, but oh well, I did it and thats what matters. I think that in a few months I should finally see some additional muscle growth. I already feel, for the very first time in my life, that taking my shirt off in public is something i would actually consider (i.e. at the beach, at a park, etc). The funny thing is that once I get pumped up, after I have done a few excercises, I get this weird feelings. IDK, like I feel pumped and strong but its like… I guess the best word is energized… But I also feel that I want to overpower… IDK Its a weird thing…

 Well, tomorow I am running to see if I can accelerate the fat burning. I want to reach my goal of 10% BF.

I finally fixed it!

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My treadmill had not been working for a couple of months now.  I used the one at the gym.  But now that I cant drive and the temperatures may be dipping soon, I needed an alternative.  I finally put some time and neurons into it and I found out what was wrong.  A piece of the treadmill that connects the front roller to the motor was loose.  I pounded at it with a makeshift hammer and I got it in place.  I hope it does not come loose again while I am running at 6mph or I would fall on my head! LOL

So now I can finally run 2 miles per day as I wanted to.  I will probably have to eat more LOL I love eating haha so thats not a problem….

 Next month I hope I can start running a few more miles per day and maybe a couple once a week.

I am setting up some new goals for my body sculpting…

Goals achieved: In one year I have managed to go from 165 pounds to 145 or loose 20 pounds of mostly fat.  That enabled me to go from a very tight size 34, to a rather loose size 30.  I also went from having small, non-protuding biceps, to 13.5 inches bicpes…. Triceps have grown too and my chest and shoulders have seen some growth.  I use to barely be able to lift 10 pounds with my triceps.  Now I can do 20 easily.

So my new goals are as follows:

1) Body fat: 20% now.  I want to reach 10% at least.
2) I think that means loosing 15 pounds of fat
3) Run 4 miles regularly (I do 2 now)
4) Reach the 14.5 size on my biceps (now at 13.5)…
5) Bench my body weight.  I already bench about 105 lb.
6) Further lower my Resting BPM, which currently is at 59.  It used to be around 65.
7) Start a leg routine
8) Sculpt my trapezius muscles (upper back, neck)

This are rather modest goals.  I would like to achieve this in the next 3-5 months.

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