It may be Cinco de Mayo, but there are no 12oz curls in today’s workout. 🙂

Today was MUCH better than Monday’s workout. Mentally I was there. Physically I pushed harder too. My shipment came, so yesterday I started loading creatine. No idea if that actually played into today’s performance. I will probably continue to load for just another 2-3 days and then go on a general maintenance amount of 2-5 grams (not sure yet). It seems the modern wisdom is you don’t need to load any more, nor cycle. Just keep on a daily “maintenance” dose and always take it every day.

Anyways, the workout went well. Felt good. But I certainly am feeling like I’m not getting enough per bodypart any more. I do want to switch to a split and have more work per part. However, I’m going to stick with this at least for 2 more weeks. It’s generally recommended to stay with a routine at least 8 weeks to see how it does. I may switch off at 6, but I may not… but won’t consider it before then. It’ll play into the discipline factor, and THAT mental game is important.

As for supplements.

• Multivitamin. Right now just finishing out the jug of the “basic” multi from Costco. It’s good enough for now, better than nothing, and I’m not going to waste it.
• Fish oil. I forget what the capsule amount is, but one of those a day.
• Optimum Nutrition’s 100% whey gold standard. I like it because it’s one of the best whey’s out there, and well… it’s got digestive enzymes, which really help on the uh… “intolerance” factor. 🙂  I try to have at least one shake a day, maybe two, depending how my overall protein intake is for that day. Certainly have one after a workout.
• Optimum Nutrition’s Creatine powder. Pure creatine, (CreaPure). Doing a small load right now just to get me going, but I’ll eventually just revert to a standard 2-5g dose per day every day. Take it in the morning on non-workout days (whenever my shake is), take it after workout on workout days (in the post-workout shake).
• A lot of water. I’ve got a 16oz glass. I wake up, drink one of those. As soon as I have to pee, I’ll drink another full glass. Repeat this throughout the day. Keeps me rather well hydrated. I’ll have at least a gallon of water a day.

And that’s it. Nothing special, really. There’s all sorts of fancy shit on the market, but I don’t need to worry about that until a lot later. The male ego can’t help but be curious if it’s truly of any use and could get faster gains, but later. Right now my body should make great gains just because I’m new and fresh.

The bigger thing is diet, and that’s hard for me. The main thing? I’m not in control of the menu and the kitchen. Wife’s domain, and I don’t have time nor ability to short-order cook everything. Thankfully, Wife’s a fantastic cook, making not just great tasting stuff but also very conscious about what we’re putting into our bodies. Just that the needs of me, Wife, and 3 Kiddos doesn’t always align with my needs, thus some flux in the supplementation. For instance, last night Wife made this tomato pie (think a savory pie, like a quiche). Tasted fantastic, but not much for protein, so I threw back a scoop of whey in 8oz of water to help make up for it. But I can still do my best to watch my portions and exactly what I choose to put in my mouth.

Anyways, onwards. Enjoying the work. Enjoying the progress.

Not feeling it today.

For all the great progress and improvements I’ve made every workout well… eventually you have to stumble. Today was that day. 🙂

I don’t know what it was, but I have a few guesses. When I started my jog to the gym, another person was out jogging. I thought to myself that I’d like to see if I can keep up with them or even pass them. It was evident I wasn’t going to pass, but 1. that did push me harder, 2. at least I tried to keep pace. That confirms what I knew, that my jogs decline as I go along… slow down, stride decreases, etc.. By the time I got to the gym I felt I had worked harder than usual. I start into my lifts, squats, bent-over bb rows, bb flat bench press, and I found myself still breathing hard and also pushing every rep a lot harder, a lot faster, a lot more explosive.

I think I wore myself out.

When I did barbell curls and rope triceps pushdowns, I was pretty zonked and opted to just superset them. I was just starting to feel drained, and even felt like I could go home and nap for a few hours.

I know I lost the mental game. My brain never was into the workout (I recall not wanting to go, but no… you must push yourself through), and it just got worse.

I still pushed hard. I still worked towards muscular failure. I did go up in weight in some exercises, but stayed the same or dropped reps in other exercises. But pushing harder during the set well… you tell me how it all went. It’s not just about numbers, it’s about overall impact.

I still think it was a good physical workout, just not a very good mental one. Not going to worry about it too much.

I have been thinking about how to change the routine, but I’m not ready yet. I’ll stick on this at least 2-4 more weeks before I switch. When I do switch, I’m thinking about doing a 2-day split, 2x week (e.g. Mon/Tue, Thu/Fri). Probably upper body one day, lower and abs the other. I’m going to keep the same exercises I’m doing now, but then add an isolation exercise. So for instance, bb flat bench press, then cable flies. Not all strictly that way tho, for instance the bent-over bb rows but then lat pull downs… not isolation, but ensuring a more thorough workout for that gross body part. Not totally sure, still thinking it through for what would be best and not lead to overtraining.

Routine much the same as before, but again, everything went up. More reps, more weight. I felt the intensity increase and all through the workout it was hitting me.

It’s all mental.

Well DUH… 🙂

But today’s workout was more mental than any prior. I really noticed it during squats, because I went up in weight and squats are one of those exercises that I’m a little afraid of for whatever reason: probably getting stuck and I can’t push out the last rep, injuring myself, or some such thing, so I always play it conservative. But I pushed harder through it and boy it felt good. And even tho I track my workout progress, keeping track of exercises, sets, reps, weight, today I didn’t pay so much attention. Sure, I’d look at what I lifted last workout to know the starting weight or if I needed to go up, but after that I didn’t pay any mind to how many reps I did with that weight on this set. I think when I do that it makes my brain pre-set to only a particular level of exertion, e.g. “I did 8 reps last time so…” and then somehow my brain says 8 reps is the line. I ignored a lot and really surprised myself at how I’d go up on both weight AND reps. My body can do a lot more than I’m letting it… it’s all in my head.

I am feeling like the workout is getting to a point of “I need more”. I don’t think I’m ready to change up the workout schedule yet because I still feel that things are growing with this routine, not just physical growth, but a lot of mental and just body adjustment stuff. But I am starting to think about what I’ll do. Do I want to just switch to a 4x/week split routine (e.g. upper body Mon/Thu, lower body and abs Tue/Fri)? That feels like it might be too much. But I think about a 3x a week whole body…. that feels like it might be overtraining and not enough recovery. What I’m feeling is each body part is needing a little more work, like bent-over barbell rows AND lat machine pulldowns for back, squats and leg curls, bench press and flies… a sort of 1 compound 1 isolation exercise sort of thing. But also, 2x a week is good on my schedule, going up to 4x well… have to see.

Anyways, so long as I’m improving I’m happy. Body feels so much better than it did a month ago.

Today’s workout routine was steady, but the intensity was increased.

More weight. More reps. Pushing closer to failure. Stricter form. Overall, things went up. Sure, a few things went down (e.g. biceps curls was same weight as last workout but I did a couple reps less), but usually the overall intensity was up because form was stricter or another exercise worked things even harder so overall muscles were more exhausted.

It was so good, by the end I was feeling a little nauseous… pushed it hard. 🙂  I walked home…. couldn’t jog it.

I can tell I’m gaining some muscle. I can see my body changing already. I have wondered about fat loss, and I figure I must be because if I’m gaining muscle and my weight is staying the same well… gotta be losing some fat too. Good deal. I’m probably going to start supplementation soon (e.g. whey protein, creatine) to help things along. I already take a multivitamin, and with the whey and creatine that should be good enough to start.

Oh wow. Just saw amazon.com sells the stuff pretty cheap. Plus it looks like there’s a “subscription” service you can get where they’ll auto-send it to you periodically at an interval you specify. And if you do that, the cost drops significantly. e.g. 10lbs. of Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard is $82.04 (double chocolate) one time, or $69.73 subscription. Plus it’ll ship free with their Super Saver shipping, and no tax. Whereas bodybuilding.com lists it at $84.99 plus shipping. Interesting. But, the joy of the Internet is that with a little shopping around, I’m sure I can still find good deals elsewhere.

Anyways, onwards!

Today’s workout was good. I’m getting locked into good working ranges and getting more comfortable with things.

I strove to be a little more strict today, but obviously wasn’t strict enough as the owner corrected my form a bit on the dumbbell overhead presses… keep things in line with my ears. I thought I was, but I was focusing more on seeing my form in the mirror in front of me and not feeling where the weight was.

I also didn’t do those “machine crunches” because they really are only working the hip flexors; the abdominal muscles are only being worked as a supporting muscle. Owner suggested to me to use the big Pilates ball, lay on my back over that, and crunch that way. I liked that more than I thought I would. Because of the ball curvature I got a bit more stretch and range of motion for the crunch, and if I keep my feet close together it requires a lot more work to remain balanced. Plus my neck muscles (e.g. sternocleidomastoid) got some work too. I like.

I felt like I could do more, which I take as a good sign that my body is getting used to things. I’ll probably stick on this 2x-week, whole-body-each-workout routine for at least a couple more weeks, no real change-ups in the routine. I don’t want to rush things at this point and let my mental excitement get ahead of my physical capabilities. 🙂

Gotta make this a quick entry… need to get to other things with the day.

The workout went well. After doing a lot of reading over the weekend and giving how my body is feeling, I’m changing up slightly. Instead of aiming for 3 sets of 8-12 reps, I’m going for 4 sets of 6-10 reps, except the isolation exercises like curls and triceps extensions I’ll have those be 3 sets since those muscles will have gotten some good work already.

Exercises were the same as prior workout. Some weight increase too. I’m getting close to finding my groove in all the exercises and the amount of weight needed. When doing squats tho, the owner was walking by and just said “keep your core tight, push up through your heels”. Good advice… I’ve forgotten so much but getting it all back. 🙂

I strove to do that during the workout but found that there’s a part of me that’s trying to push more through the weight and letting form be a bit less than strict. Not sloppy by any means, but I’m focused on so many things and strict strict form hasn’t been one of them. For instance, keeping my core tight. Any time I did that, it made things harder, so that’s good. I’m thinking next workout I’ll keep everything exactly the same in terms of sets, reps, weight, exercises, but slow down a bit, try to exaggerate form to be uber-strict, really squeeze at the top of the rep.

Left ankle hurt a bit on the jog home so it was half jog half walk. That’s the ankle I blew out years ago doing jump spin kicks in Kuk Sool and landing badly from being exhausted and losing my balance.

Also tweaking some of my thoughts on nutrition. Only supplements I’m doing right now is a general multivitamin and fish oil in the morning, calcium and vitamin C before bed. Eating good food, ensuring good protein intake. Trying to space out meals every 2-3 hours and keep them small. Not being uber strict here… need to find my groove here too, but it’ll come. I figure after a month or two I’ll want to look at picking up whey protein and perhaps creatine, but we’ll see. I will likely also switch to a better multivitamin, but not until our current supply in the house is used up (e.g. we bought Centrum for the kiddos but it seems to bother their stomachs… so… I need to use it all up since I seem to be the only one that can consume it).

Another cool thing was finding FitnessTrack. It’s a barebones workout tracking app. It doesn’t have all sorts of sexy frills, but I don’t need that. It seems to be doing what’s needed, straightforward, and seems to work nicely. Of course being a developer myself I thought I could write something, but hey… let’s see what’s out there first. If this ends up fitting my bill, great.

Feeling good!

Today’s workout was MUCH better than Monday’s. 🙂

First, after Monday’s workout, of course I was VERY sore, which was to be expected. Not just because it was the first workout, but because I found my limit. At this stage it’s more important for me to recover than it is to get back into the gym, so for now I’m opting to go 2x week to maximize rest and recovery, but still tell my body it needs to start adapting and growing. Once I adjust to this, I’ll see about 3x week, and then once that’s good I’ll consider 4x doing a split like upper body one day, lower & abs the next. But that’s a ways off.

Jogged there, and the jog went smoother.

At the gym, the goal was to do the exact same workout as Monday, pushing myself, but not going over the limit. So if I did 3×12 of something, unless it was WAY easy last time still do 3×12 this time. If I could only do 3×8 because I was sore, leave it alone and just do that. I wanted to finish a full workout today and not go past my limit again.

• Squats
• Bent-over barbell rows
• Bench press
• Seated overhead dumbbell press
• Standing machine calf raises
• Barbell bicep curls
• Rope-handle triceps pushdowns
• crunches on ab machine

I managed to get through the whole workout this time. Dropped the reps on squats because my quads are still rather sore. Upped the weight on the rows and it was just right; probably will bump up next time. Bench can be bumped up in weight. I dropped the dumbbell presses 5# and was able to squeeze things out much better — that’s what pushed me too far last time, so pulling it back was good. Upped weight on calf raises and I think I’ll keep it there but go 15 reps now; I seem to recall calf work likes more reps. Curls went fine. And the triceps pushdowns… man, I forgot how much using that rope attachment forces you to squeeze at full extension. I like, but my triceps may be sore after that. 🙂  Tried this ab crunch machine because I’ve never used one before but I’m not sure how well it actually will work my abs just due to how the machine’s range of motion forces/limits how you move. I’ll keep trying it a few times before I pass judgement.

Was able to jog some of the way home… legs were a little weary, especially the calves, so it wasn’t a full-on run, but it was much better than the “oh God please help me just get home” feeling I had on Monday. 🙂

Feeling good!

I’m back from the first visit to the gym.

Remember, I’ve always worked out at home or did martial arts or other things. I’ve used weight-lifting-oriented gyms before, but maybe it was at school, university, one place I worked at long ago had a fantastic gym… but never a “paid” gym like this. So it was novel to try. The owner did tell me some times when things tend to be dead, so that makes a perfect time for me to go. Worked well this morning: only one other person there working out.

I started out by doing a light warm-up at the house: getting all the joints rotated, some dynamic stretching, and then off I jogged to the place. Would jog for a while, then maybe walk a block, then jog more. The goal was to be a starting working, not pushing myself too hard because I just don’t know where I lie. I’d rather underdo it than overdo it.

When I got there, the workout was pretty simple. I wanted to see where I lay, where things were. Start out with a weight that I figured would be a lot lighter than I could handle, work to have 3 sets of 8-12 reps. And just assess from there.

• Squats
• Bent-over barbell rows
• Bench press
• Seated overhead dumbbell press
• Standing machine calf raises
• Barbell bicep curls

and that’s all I did. I wanted to do some triceps isolation work and then some crunches, but… the overhead dumbbell presses was a little too much for me. That pushed me a little harder than my body was ready to accept at this time. When I went to the bicep curls I noticed after the first set that my head was feeling a little different… and then after the second it confirmed it. That was enough. I didn’t go into this workout wanting to push myself to the limit, but I ended up doing so. But it’s good because well… I didn’t know where the line was at this point in my life, so it was good to find it.

I didn’t jog home… just walked it. And sucked down my entire water bottle. 🙂

So, certainly not some ideal workout, but for the first day back into this? It was satisfactory. I found some limits. I did a rough recording of data in my iPhone, and when I got back for the next workout I’m going to try to do exactly the same workout, tho hopefully I’ll get to add the triceps and ab work. We’ll see. The weights, the reps, and so on… yeah, some stuff I could certainly up the weight on and lower the reps, but right now this is about getting myself back into the groove. Stick with exactly what I did, let my body adjust, and then once I feel good there I’ll start to adjust things around. I figure I may only go 2x week for now to allow my body the recovery time, but eventually 3x week doing this sort of “whole body” workout I think will be more than ample. From leaving the house to returning took just a little over an hour, and that’s great. I’m sure once I’m more fit and into it I’ll be able to improve the time by a bit (e.g. jog home instead of walk).

All in all, I’m happy! Plus there’s an unexpected motivation now to watch my diet. Whenever I’ve lifted weights in the past it was always towards a bodybuilding mindset; not fitness, “toning”, strength, power lifting, etc.. Diet is a big part of that, and well…. let’s just see how that flows for me too. 🙂

Oh, and on the “gear” front. I pulled out a fanny pack that has both a holster and places to carry stuff. I had to switch to my XD-9 subcompact, but that, wallet, keys, iPhone, and then a small towel just threaded through the strap and hanging… all that I need. Worked out fine! I’m happy the solution is there and that I don’t have to spend any more money on stuff.

And now… more water. I want to minimize the soreness I’m going to feel tomorrow and the next day. 😉