Clearly time hasn't changed the fact that I still suck at blogging consistently. Honestly it is still a pain in my ass to have to log out of one account to log into another account to blog. I'll take time to figure out how to better handle that situation in the future, but for now - it just isn't a priority.
What have I been doing for my health? Let's start with the nutrition as it is a shorter update. Well, still sort of following ETP. They say on my "training days" I should be eating almost 2800 calories. On my "rest days" I should be eating about 2300 calories. With ETP, it is all about hitting your calories then your macros and then you worry about timing. I suppose this is common in things like the body building world as I compare my numbers of what I'm eating for macros to body builders and it is surprisingly quite similar. The difference is, I don't have a body builder body. lol
For nutrition on my "rest days" I should be hitting 2350 calories. 175g of protein, 85g of fat and just over 200g of carbs. Again - the primary target being - get your calories in. Then if you have to just pick one of the macros to it, hit your protein. In an ideal world you will get + or - 10g of the protein and carbs. + or - 5g of the fat. Regarding timing, well they say slow carbs before your workout to help you get energy and fast carbs after a workout. On my training days the only thing that changes is I get more carbs. Protein and fat stays the exact same.
What has this forced me to do? Something I said I couldn't ever see myself doing. Measuring food. Logging it into MyFitnessPal and pushing for some consistency. I've logged for over 60days straight and that alone is an accomplishment. It for the most part is pretty accurate. I may have had some days around xmas where I just stopped logging halfway through the day. Whatever. Like anything in life, its not about perfection, its about consistency and trying to be better.
Workouts - I had wavered a bit and finally decided I was going to go back to Body Beast. My big fear was leg day... ugh, fucking leg day. I reminded myself though that it was only 1 day of the week. I could suck it up for one day per week. Necessary evil. Body Beast lasted 2 whole weeks then I got hurt. The infamous neck/shoulder pinch so I couldn't turn my head. Good times... good times.
The injury pissed me off and caused me to re-evaluate what I was going for. At the same time I was dealing with a completely swollen left quad. I couldn't bend that leg very well, so it made stretching a struggle. I took a week off to rest up my neck/shoulder and keep stretching it out. Trying to work things out without dealing with another 6 weeks of physical therapy. That's always fun. It did work and for the most part I got past it on the right side.
What did I decide on? Well during my re-evaluation I started following Al Kavaldo who is all about body weight exercises. Which led me over to start reading the book Convict Conditioning. Which, no real surprise they have an app for that if you wanted to follow it and work at it. The app is free, it illustrates how to do the exercises. Also links to YouTube videos that show you how to do the exercises. It gives you progressions on how to get to the next level. The next level of the exercise. Its pretty awesome actually.
This is going to sound gay and girlie but the routine speaks to me. Bottom line it is about training for functional movement. Being more flexible. Being stronger. NOT getting hurt. All things that I wanted but kind of have half been able to get there. I've done various home workouts that have gotten me stronger, done one other one that got me flexible (Piyo) but none that did them both. Almost always - I ended up with a hurting body, which is never the goal.
Right now I'm re-learning. I'm learning proper form from the ground up. SLOW and controlled movements through each exercise and each progression. Learning how to do various bridge exercises so that I'll be able to do a full bridge, should I be able to progress to the end here. Or be able to do a one handed handstand, again, should I be able to progress through the end. I have done a 2min wall headstand, for whatever that is worth. Still learning, still progressing through it. I do like it though. It is a slow workout. Zero cardio. I don't sweat at all. My muscles work though. Boy do they work.
OK - now time for me to fuel up so I can go get at it.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Bod Pod test results and NUTRITION
Well this morning I went for a "Bod Pod" test to see where I'm at from a body fat/lean body mass stand point. For those that don't know, Bod Pod is considered the most accurate Body Fat test available at this time.
I've guesstimated for a while now I'm around 25%. Today's results confirmed I'm not far off. 24.3% and 172lbs. Considering I'm 5' 11" tall and 43yrs old, I'm not totally sad about that. Obviously room for improvement though.
One thing that I was very surprised they went over with me was, how to get better. They spoke nutrition to me. They didn't have to. I was there for a body fat test and nothing more. Yet they took the time to ask me about my nutrition. Inquire about the things I'm eating, when I'm eating them and how I can get closer to my goals. They even included how much I SHOULD be eating if I wanted to just maintain where I am or how much I should be eating if I wanted to get leaner. Much to my surprise (kind of) those numbers were very much in line with what I got from ETP. I should essentially be eating almost 2800 calories on "training" days. Considering I was eating maybe between 1400 - 1600 using the 21 Day Fix, this will be a drastic change to my body. A welcome change though for sure.
Next up - figure out how I can get there and hit my macros on a daily basis. Let the fun begin!!
I've guesstimated for a while now I'm around 25%. Today's results confirmed I'm not far off. 24.3% and 172lbs. Considering I'm 5' 11" tall and 43yrs old, I'm not totally sad about that. Obviously room for improvement though.
One thing that I was very surprised they went over with me was, how to get better. They spoke nutrition to me. They didn't have to. I was there for a body fat test and nothing more. Yet they took the time to ask me about my nutrition. Inquire about the things I'm eating, when I'm eating them and how I can get closer to my goals. They even included how much I SHOULD be eating if I wanted to just maintain where I am or how much I should be eating if I wanted to get leaner. Much to my surprise (kind of) those numbers were very much in line with what I got from ETP. I should essentially be eating almost 2800 calories on "training" days. Considering I was eating maybe between 1400 - 1600 using the 21 Day Fix, this will be a drastic change to my body. A welcome change though for sure.
Next up - figure out how I can get there and hit my macros on a daily basis. Let the fun begin!!
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
E.T.P. - Eat To Perform aka Nutrition
SO.... I had done the 21 Day Fix nutrition for a while and it is certainly great for meal plans and portion control, etc.... it definitely wasn't right for me. I found myself starving on multiple occasions, seeming like it was forever between snacks and meals, etc... I finally started tracking my food in My Fitness Pal and holy crap. I was only consuming like 1200 calories. No wonder I was fucking starving! The only time I would hit anything near where I really should be is if I was snacking and having beers.... not the best way to make up your nutritional deficit. Not to mention, I didn't really like being told "I can only have this, but can't have that". F-that noise.
Fast forward.... everyone is out there on Black Friday trying to find their next big toy purchase. New TV, vacation, computer, etc... I'm all searching for something to help me reach goals. Fitness goals. Where does ETP come into play on this?
Well, ETP had been recommended to me a while ago by multiple friends and I kind of just "liked" their FB page and casually followed it. Never really digging into it all the way to see what it was all about. To me, I've already had the (mis) conception that I needed to do more workouts and eat less. Seems like I was completely off base there. People are eating 4000 calories and 250g of carbs on a single day without issue. WOW!! What the hell am I doing wrong?
Here we are on Small Business Saturday, which apparently is a thing.... ETP had one of their books "on sale" for $20, regularly $50. To the naked eye this was a great deal... unless of course you've seen their ad where you can buy all 4 of their books and a year membership for $50. Either way... I bought the book. Read and read and read and read, all 101 pages in essentially a day, but still could not completely wrap my head around what I needed to do. This book did a great job of explaining the hows and the whys but not such a great job of just telling me what the hell I needed to do. That of course brought me to Google. Which is where I found what appeared to be a normal every day woman's experience with it.
http://killerfitgym.com/my-etp-experience-faq/
BOOM! Everything became so much clearer.
Now that I've got a clearer picture of what I need to be hitting for target nutrition AND I'm actually tracking it, I have to figure out how to get my numbers up.
This is what my nutrition looked like today and its definitely clean, but not even close to enough. Below it you can see my target numbers. Until next time!
Fast forward.... everyone is out there on Black Friday trying to find their next big toy purchase. New TV, vacation, computer, etc... I'm all searching for something to help me reach goals. Fitness goals. Where does ETP come into play on this?
Well, ETP had been recommended to me a while ago by multiple friends and I kind of just "liked" their FB page and casually followed it. Never really digging into it all the way to see what it was all about. To me, I've already had the (mis) conception that I needed to do more workouts and eat less. Seems like I was completely off base there. People are eating 4000 calories and 250g of carbs on a single day without issue. WOW!! What the hell am I doing wrong?
http://killerfitgym.com/my-etp-experience-faq/
BOOM! Everything became so much clearer.
Now that I've got a clearer picture of what I need to be hitting for target nutrition AND I'm actually tracking it, I have to figure out how to get my numbers up.
This is what my nutrition looked like today and its definitely clean, but not even close to enough. Below it you can see my target numbers. Until next time!
Sunday, November 22, 2015
F.I.T. EPIC OCR/Health Update
OK - so last week I did a new OCR. It was called the F.I.T. Epic Fifth Challenge. It was up in Diamond Hill State Park in RI.
I'll be honest, when that day started my body was shaky and I felt a little sick. Under the weather. I've been battling something for a few weeks now and it seems to come and go. I said to hell with it though and went ahead with the plan of conquering this OCR.
The course is a state park. Trail running, which should have been obvious to me but as usual I was oblivious. I had heard that there was over 900' of elevation on the course, but when all was said and done I guess there was actually over 1200' of elevation. It was crazy. I'm very happy I didn't wear running shoes for the event.
What were the obstacles? Well besides nature, the hills, the rocky trails, trees, etc... there were some obstacles you had to hop over, some you had to climb under. There was one random stop coming down the hill the first time where you had to grab a 45lb barbell and press it over your head 30 times. That was kind of easy. All the tougher obstacles were at the bottom of the hill. The hills were there to exhaust you and tax your legs and lungs, which it worked. At the bottom of the hill there were a couple of wooden barriers you had to climb over. Some of them were inverted so that was definitely challenging. There were ones you had to jump up, grab on, get your feet up there and swing your whole body up to grab the next piece of wood so you could go up and over. There were cargo nets. Oh, there was a peg board that was 12' in the air or so, I managed to climb all the way up that. There was rope right after that and I failed miserably on that. The atlas ball (65lb concrete ball) that you had to pick up and roll it over your shoulder down your back 5x. Then there was the Wreck Bag carry. Pick the weight of your bag (I went with 50lb, the heaviest was 1 size up, 70lb), put it on your shoulders and start running up hill. Yes, up the fucking hill again. There was this obstacle called "The Destroyer" that had a lot of people up in arms. In all honesty, if you had some good upper body strength you could conquer it. I was able to conquer it. I remember a woman behind me say "holy shit, he made that look easy". When I went over the top I heard them yell "BEAST". lol Kind of funny. There were some monkey bars, which honestly was my biggest fear going into this. My kid's playground monkey bars are tougher, probably because I can't swing my legs. These weren't bad at all though. There was no mud. It wasn't messy. I totally could have worn my headphones (bummer). It was tough though.
How did I do? I finished in 1 hr 33min, which put me at about the middle of the pack. 255th out of 530. Honestly I think I did very well for myself. I learned I need to get better with my cardio, specifically hills, if I want to improve upon my completion time. I loved the challenges. I DEFINITELY need to improve my grip strength and overall strength. Learning how to climb a rope wouldn't be a bad thing. lol I didn't incur any penalties (if there were any I didn't know what they were). I honestly conquered every single obstacle but that frigin rope climb. DAMN THAT ROPE!! Damn me for not being prepared.
How can I improve? Well, first off... I wasn't going for "time" as so many others were. I had never done a course like this. My only previous OCR was the Mudderella, which wasn't very hard (IMO). Now that I have a better understanding of what I would be up against, I would definitely push harder for a better time. At one particular obstacle I stood there for 5 or 10 minutes, letting other people go ahead of me, because I was unable to do it my first couple of tries. Well shit, there's 10 minutes I could shave off my time! There were other areas where I'd stop and let others go ahead of me while I tried to understand what the flipping challenge was that I was supposed to do. Again, more time to be shaved off. Then of course there was the trails, the hills. I need to be better with them and my cardio if I'm going to improve my overall time.
It was great to have it not be a cold, miserable day out there. Not just for me, but for my supporters. My wife and kids came out to cheer me on. In addition, my friend Jack who was originally scheduled to run the race with me, was there with his beautiful daughters. They were cold, they didn't have the "benefit" of running up a hill I guess. LOL Their support though was greatly appreciated.
Would I do it again? YES Actually I'm trying to figure out what my next races will be. There are a couple that happen in the dead of winter that I'm not too sure about. We shall see. There will be more races though, that's for sure. I'd like to get some of my more fit friends involved in them. One because I think that they would truly enjoy it and two, because it would give me more opportunities to share in healthy challenges with them.
How is my health? Actually after I finished that race I was tired! Not really surprising. My knees and shoulders have been hurting lately. Since I just finished up 2 months of frigin physical therapy to correct my knee issues it is clear they are hurting not from what I AM doing, but more because of what I am NOT doing. I've been really good with my form. Really really focused on it so I know that isn't the cause of my discomfort in the knees. It is stretching. Its been pretty tight lately and I've stretched here and there, but I need to get back to doing this 4x a week to get past the pain. The shoulders? I can only guess its due to the handstands. I'm working on yet more stretches to try and address the shoulder discomfort as well. Like with anything though, consistency is the key. You get nowhere fast if you aren't consistent.
What am I doing to stay active/healthy? I've been doing some Men's Health Anarchy program for the past couple of weeks and that has been the extent of my fitness. It's not a bad program. There is a lot of focus on cardio/HIIT style, even when you pick up the dumbbells. A lot of core stuff. I'm not complaining, because it is a change from the norm. One other thing I am kind of working on is learning how to do a handstand. I'm technically on level 3 with that. Level 1 was hold a plank with your feet on a wall for 60 seconds. Level 2 was hold a wall handstand for 60 seconds, again, body against the wall. Level 3 is learn to bail safely. Level 4 is hold a wall handstand for 90 seconds. Lots and lots of strain on your shoulders. I'm supposed to be practicing it daily, for like 5 minutes a day, but I've only be doing it a couple of days out of the week and a couple of 60 second wall handstands. Honestly the shoulder pains have been holding me back a bit. I'm probably going to try and stick with it and see both the Anarchy program and the handstand thing through. 1) The Anarchy program is only 6 weeks long and the workouts are only 30 min or less, which is awesome. 2) How fucking cool would it be to learn the skill of a handstand? Seriously, 43 and learning how to do a handstand. That just blows open doors for new fun fitness challenges like, walking on your hands, handstand push ups, etc... Very cool.
Longer term, what's on the horizon? I just don't know. I really don't. There are so many things I could be better at with my overall health and fitness. For one, I don't think you are supposed to wake up in pain or discomfort. Simple tasks like walking up hills or steps should not cause discomfort. Lifting things over your head, should not cause discomfort. I call myself healthy, but really I'm just strong and sometimes active. Healthy, well that means something else now doesn't it? It means something different to just about everyone. Everyone battles with something in their health. I am no exception. My version of healthy is waking up every day, without pain, being strong enough to conquer my training and still have energy in the tank to keep up with my family.
There are multiple directions I could go with my health/fitness challenges. Lots of different things I'm looking at. 1) There is a course a website Eat To Perform that intrigues me. There is no question to anyone who knows me that nutrition is an area I could improve upon. I've got 3 different books I'm currently reading (yes, that's right, I read now too). I'm at different stages for each one. The 1st one I'm on the chapter relevant to the phase I'm on right now. The 2nd one, I just started flipping through. The 3rd one, well, I'm getting ready to experiment with one of the first techniques.
1) Chris Salvato - Handstand Beginner's Guide
2) Steven Low - Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength
3) Kelly McGonigal - The Willpower Instinct
In addition to all this, there is a new Beachbody program that is coming out that definitely intrigues me. It is called Hammer & Chisel with Sagi Kalev & Autumn Calabrese. I have the discipline to do the workouts, its the nutrition that is the bigger challenge. That is going to be the challenge no matter what workout I choose. Hence why I'm reading the willpower book.
Until the next time.
I'll be honest, when that day started my body was shaky and I felt a little sick. Under the weather. I've been battling something for a few weeks now and it seems to come and go. I said to hell with it though and went ahead with the plan of conquering this OCR.
The course is a state park. Trail running, which should have been obvious to me but as usual I was oblivious. I had heard that there was over 900' of elevation on the course, but when all was said and done I guess there was actually over 1200' of elevation. It was crazy. I'm very happy I didn't wear running shoes for the event.
What were the obstacles? Well besides nature, the hills, the rocky trails, trees, etc... there were some obstacles you had to hop over, some you had to climb under. There was one random stop coming down the hill the first time where you had to grab a 45lb barbell and press it over your head 30 times. That was kind of easy. All the tougher obstacles were at the bottom of the hill. The hills were there to exhaust you and tax your legs and lungs, which it worked. At the bottom of the hill there were a couple of wooden barriers you had to climb over. Some of them were inverted so that was definitely challenging. There were ones you had to jump up, grab on, get your feet up there and swing your whole body up to grab the next piece of wood so you could go up and over. There were cargo nets. Oh, there was a peg board that was 12' in the air or so, I managed to climb all the way up that. There was rope right after that and I failed miserably on that. The atlas ball (65lb concrete ball) that you had to pick up and roll it over your shoulder down your back 5x. Then there was the Wreck Bag carry. Pick the weight of your bag (I went with 50lb, the heaviest was 1 size up, 70lb), put it on your shoulders and start running up hill. Yes, up the fucking hill again. There was this obstacle called "The Destroyer" that had a lot of people up in arms. In all honesty, if you had some good upper body strength you could conquer it. I was able to conquer it. I remember a woman behind me say "holy shit, he made that look easy". When I went over the top I heard them yell "BEAST". lol Kind of funny. There were some monkey bars, which honestly was my biggest fear going into this. My kid's playground monkey bars are tougher, probably because I can't swing my legs. These weren't bad at all though. There was no mud. It wasn't messy. I totally could have worn my headphones (bummer). It was tough though.
How did I do? I finished in 1 hr 33min, which put me at about the middle of the pack. 255th out of 530. Honestly I think I did very well for myself. I learned I need to get better with my cardio, specifically hills, if I want to improve upon my completion time. I loved the challenges. I DEFINITELY need to improve my grip strength and overall strength. Learning how to climb a rope wouldn't be a bad thing. lol I didn't incur any penalties (if there were any I didn't know what they were). I honestly conquered every single obstacle but that frigin rope climb. DAMN THAT ROPE!! Damn me for not being prepared.
How can I improve? Well, first off... I wasn't going for "time" as so many others were. I had never done a course like this. My only previous OCR was the Mudderella, which wasn't very hard (IMO). Now that I have a better understanding of what I would be up against, I would definitely push harder for a better time. At one particular obstacle I stood there for 5 or 10 minutes, letting other people go ahead of me, because I was unable to do it my first couple of tries. Well shit, there's 10 minutes I could shave off my time! There were other areas where I'd stop and let others go ahead of me while I tried to understand what the flipping challenge was that I was supposed to do. Again, more time to be shaved off. Then of course there was the trails, the hills. I need to be better with them and my cardio if I'm going to improve my overall time.
It was great to have it not be a cold, miserable day out there. Not just for me, but for my supporters. My wife and kids came out to cheer me on. In addition, my friend Jack who was originally scheduled to run the race with me, was there with his beautiful daughters. They were cold, they didn't have the "benefit" of running up a hill I guess. LOL Their support though was greatly appreciated.
Would I do it again? YES Actually I'm trying to figure out what my next races will be. There are a couple that happen in the dead of winter that I'm not too sure about. We shall see. There will be more races though, that's for sure. I'd like to get some of my more fit friends involved in them. One because I think that they would truly enjoy it and two, because it would give me more opportunities to share in healthy challenges with them.
How is my health? Actually after I finished that race I was tired! Not really surprising. My knees and shoulders have been hurting lately. Since I just finished up 2 months of frigin physical therapy to correct my knee issues it is clear they are hurting not from what I AM doing, but more because of what I am NOT doing. I've been really good with my form. Really really focused on it so I know that isn't the cause of my discomfort in the knees. It is stretching. Its been pretty tight lately and I've stretched here and there, but I need to get back to doing this 4x a week to get past the pain. The shoulders? I can only guess its due to the handstands. I'm working on yet more stretches to try and address the shoulder discomfort as well. Like with anything though, consistency is the key. You get nowhere fast if you aren't consistent.
What am I doing to stay active/healthy? I've been doing some Men's Health Anarchy program for the past couple of weeks and that has been the extent of my fitness. It's not a bad program. There is a lot of focus on cardio/HIIT style, even when you pick up the dumbbells. A lot of core stuff. I'm not complaining, because it is a change from the norm. One other thing I am kind of working on is learning how to do a handstand. I'm technically on level 3 with that. Level 1 was hold a plank with your feet on a wall for 60 seconds. Level 2 was hold a wall handstand for 60 seconds, again, body against the wall. Level 3 is learn to bail safely. Level 4 is hold a wall handstand for 90 seconds. Lots and lots of strain on your shoulders. I'm supposed to be practicing it daily, for like 5 minutes a day, but I've only be doing it a couple of days out of the week and a couple of 60 second wall handstands. Honestly the shoulder pains have been holding me back a bit. I'm probably going to try and stick with it and see both the Anarchy program and the handstand thing through. 1) The Anarchy program is only 6 weeks long and the workouts are only 30 min or less, which is awesome. 2) How fucking cool would it be to learn the skill of a handstand? Seriously, 43 and learning how to do a handstand. That just blows open doors for new fun fitness challenges like, walking on your hands, handstand push ups, etc... Very cool.
Longer term, what's on the horizon? I just don't know. I really don't. There are so many things I could be better at with my overall health and fitness. For one, I don't think you are supposed to wake up in pain or discomfort. Simple tasks like walking up hills or steps should not cause discomfort. Lifting things over your head, should not cause discomfort. I call myself healthy, but really I'm just strong and sometimes active. Healthy, well that means something else now doesn't it? It means something different to just about everyone. Everyone battles with something in their health. I am no exception. My version of healthy is waking up every day, without pain, being strong enough to conquer my training and still have energy in the tank to keep up with my family.
There are multiple directions I could go with my health/fitness challenges. Lots of different things I'm looking at. 1) There is a course a website Eat To Perform that intrigues me. There is no question to anyone who knows me that nutrition is an area I could improve upon. I've got 3 different books I'm currently reading (yes, that's right, I read now too). I'm at different stages for each one. The 1st one I'm on the chapter relevant to the phase I'm on right now. The 2nd one, I just started flipping through. The 3rd one, well, I'm getting ready to experiment with one of the first techniques.
1) Chris Salvato - Handstand Beginner's Guide
2) Steven Low - Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength
3) Kelly McGonigal - The Willpower Instinct
In addition to all this, there is a new Beachbody program that is coming out that definitely intrigues me. It is called Hammer & Chisel with Sagi Kalev & Autumn Calabrese. I have the discipline to do the workouts, its the nutrition that is the bigger challenge. That is going to be the challenge no matter what workout I choose. Hence why I'm reading the willpower book.
Until the next time.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Onward and Upward
As usual, been forever since I posted. I'm OK with it.
This spring/summer I let my love for beer, pizza and snack type food (aka junk food) get the best of me and my weight went from 166lbs in May up to 180lbs in September. Sure I still worked out and still pushed hard to get stronger, but that wasn't helping my weight.
Additional contributors to my weight gain. 1) Inconsistent workout schedule 2) Bad knees
The workout schedule, I was accustomed to working out 5 to 6 days per week in the comfort of my own home, starting it at 5AM. For the past few months I've been struggling to find a consistent schedule with my buddy Kev at the gym. At a minimum I want to get 3 days per week at the gym with him. Again, its been a real struggle between his schedule, my schedule and everything else. In addition, the workouts are starting at 8PM at night, not y best time to workout, but it'll have to do. He pushes me hard and makes me move weights that I wouldn't otherwise feel comfortable with in my own home, so, its a positive thing.
The knees. I went to an orthopedic Dr and got them checked out. I was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The pain had reached the point where I couldn't walk up stairs or hills. It was far too uncomfortable to try and push off my feet. Make no mistake, the issue isn't my feet. I found myself holding onto railings and pulling myself up stairs to get up stairs and leaning on the railings to try and walk down them. Absurd for sure. I can run a mile in under 9 minutes but can't walk a flight of steps. Dr gave me physical therapy script as my solution and that has been working out quite well.
September came and reality was I needed to get things back under control. I couldn't keep drinking a beer or two every night or other night for that matter. Insert 21 Day Fix. We already own the program and honestly I've never, ever followed the nutrition portion of any Beachbody program. Why not give it a shot. We've just wrapped up week 2 of that and I'm down 6lbs, which I'm good with. It took me over 4 months to put on almost 14lbs, I'm not going to lose that in 2 weeks. Forward progress is forward progress.
I just completed my first OCR (Obstacle Course Race) last weekend. It was the Mudderella. It was definitely a fun event. The course was 5 miles long and it only had 13 to 14 obstacles. I was hoping for less running and more obstacles as I had not done any running since early April and was really worried about my knees. As it turned out my legs were stronger than I thought and my body as a whole held up really well. The obstacles I didn't find all too challenging, the biggest challenge was mental and the running I guess. It was awesome to have my family there to help support me. It was also awesome to be able to do this with a couple rock stars from my fit group. It proved to me that I could do this and that I also needed to push myself harder.
Next challenges are 1) to stay on track with nutrition 2) keep pushing for 3 nights at the gym and a couple mornings at home (cardio/stretching) 3) the F.I.T. Epic Challenge. Until next time.
This spring/summer I let my love for beer, pizza and snack type food (aka junk food) get the best of me and my weight went from 166lbs in May up to 180lbs in September. Sure I still worked out and still pushed hard to get stronger, but that wasn't helping my weight.
Additional contributors to my weight gain. 1) Inconsistent workout schedule 2) Bad knees
The workout schedule, I was accustomed to working out 5 to 6 days per week in the comfort of my own home, starting it at 5AM. For the past few months I've been struggling to find a consistent schedule with my buddy Kev at the gym. At a minimum I want to get 3 days per week at the gym with him. Again, its been a real struggle between his schedule, my schedule and everything else. In addition, the workouts are starting at 8PM at night, not y best time to workout, but it'll have to do. He pushes me hard and makes me move weights that I wouldn't otherwise feel comfortable with in my own home, so, its a positive thing.
The knees. I went to an orthopedic Dr and got them checked out. I was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The pain had reached the point where I couldn't walk up stairs or hills. It was far too uncomfortable to try and push off my feet. Make no mistake, the issue isn't my feet. I found myself holding onto railings and pulling myself up stairs to get up stairs and leaning on the railings to try and walk down them. Absurd for sure. I can run a mile in under 9 minutes but can't walk a flight of steps. Dr gave me physical therapy script as my solution and that has been working out quite well.
September came and reality was I needed to get things back under control. I couldn't keep drinking a beer or two every night or other night for that matter. Insert 21 Day Fix. We already own the program and honestly I've never, ever followed the nutrition portion of any Beachbody program. Why not give it a shot. We've just wrapped up week 2 of that and I'm down 6lbs, which I'm good with. It took me over 4 months to put on almost 14lbs, I'm not going to lose that in 2 weeks. Forward progress is forward progress.
I just completed my first OCR (Obstacle Course Race) last weekend. It was the Mudderella. It was definitely a fun event. The course was 5 miles long and it only had 13 to 14 obstacles. I was hoping for less running and more obstacles as I had not done any running since early April and was really worried about my knees. As it turned out my legs were stronger than I thought and my body as a whole held up really well. The obstacles I didn't find all too challenging, the biggest challenge was mental and the running I guess. It was awesome to have my family there to help support me. It was also awesome to be able to do this with a couple rock stars from my fit group. It proved to me that I could do this and that I also needed to push myself harder.
Next challenges are 1) to stay on track with nutrition 2) keep pushing for 3 nights at the gym and a couple mornings at home (cardio/stretching) 3) the F.I.T. Epic Challenge. Until next time.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Goals.... how do you measure success?
Here is something that I have wondered about. Especially since right now my workouts are primarily driven by "home workouts". How do set goals with these programs? How do you measure success?
Certainly I've completed my fair share of home workout programs. Power90, T25, P90x3 and Piyo (to some degree), Body Beast, etc... I guess I've always had the same goal. It all goes back to Power90. When I bought that, I saw Tony Horton on the cover. The dude was ripped. Ripped abs, pretty jacked. It was clear he was FIT. THAT is the body that I've always wanted. That, as the program/brand stated, was the "Beach Body". It is something I've never had.
When I first started doing these types of programs, the number 1 goal was to get to a healthy weight. Bottom line is that I was extremely out of shape and you need to start with a goal. For some people I guess a goal could be just to show up every day and do it. The results at the end of the program are whatever they are. That is certainly one approach. Every program offers similar visual results. Some offer more specific things, like Body Beast offers you the chance to gain mass muscle size. Some programs use weights, some don't. Some are purely cardio based (Insanity), some have little/no cardio (insert Piyo here).
When I started working out (again) back in July of 2013 I was 197lbs and I knew to get to a healthy BMI I needed to get to 176lbs. I had accomplished that by December of 2013. I was down to about 175lbs. Yet - I still had a pretty pudgy belly and I wasn't very muscular at all. Tony Horton and P90x3 came out and I jumped on it immediately. Fantastic program. I grabbed hold of that and ran with it to try and target those problem areas. I wanted bigger arms. A CHEST. A back with some width. Strong legs. Most importantly... I wanted the ripped core. I wanted a 6 pack. I'll spoil the surprise... I didn't get everything I wanted. LOL
As I've pushed ahead doing these assorted programs I've never had any clearly defined goals. NEVER. Just a vision of what I want my body to look like. I haven't gotten there yet. I've managed to continue to improve upon my nutrition and I feel pretty good about that. I need to work on those random binges that come up when it's date night. My weight right now is fluctuating between 167 - 170lbs, which isn't too bad. It is considered a healthy weight for someone of my height (5' 11"). I feel like I am continuing to shape my body more in line with how I envision it is supposed to look, albeit SLOWLY. Or, more accurately - more like I would prefer it to look. How I WANT it to look. Continuing to shed some fat and gain muscle. Yet despite this presumed forward progress, I can't help but feel like I'm a hamster on a wheel. Just getting up, getting on my wheel to do my exercise because "that's what I'm supposed to do". It's what healthy people do. That's great and all... but where am I going with this? What am I working towards exactly here? Abs? (Yes - definitely abs and hopefully so much more)
I spoke to this a little in my last post, but let me touch on it here a little more. I have a couple friends that do CrossFit and they are always speaking very highly of it. How goal driven things are. I couldn't help to wonder what this was like. Goals? What goals? Like, you want to be able to bench press more? Squat more? What? Inquiring minds want to know!! Like NOW!! I seriously don't know what it's like to have goals other than "to finish a program" in "hopes" to be in better shape than when I started. Those have always been my goals. Other than of course, getting that Tony Horton body that I saw on the cover of Power90 over 12 yrs ago. lol
For REFERENCE:
Certainly I've completed my fair share of home workout programs. Power90, T25, P90x3 and Piyo (to some degree), Body Beast, etc... I guess I've always had the same goal. It all goes back to Power90. When I bought that, I saw Tony Horton on the cover. The dude was ripped. Ripped abs, pretty jacked. It was clear he was FIT. THAT is the body that I've always wanted. That, as the program/brand stated, was the "Beach Body". It is something I've never had.
When I first started doing these types of programs, the number 1 goal was to get to a healthy weight. Bottom line is that I was extremely out of shape and you need to start with a goal. For some people I guess a goal could be just to show up every day and do it. The results at the end of the program are whatever they are. That is certainly one approach. Every program offers similar visual results. Some offer more specific things, like Body Beast offers you the chance to gain mass muscle size. Some programs use weights, some don't. Some are purely cardio based (Insanity), some have little/no cardio (insert Piyo here).
When I started working out (again) back in July of 2013 I was 197lbs and I knew to get to a healthy BMI I needed to get to 176lbs. I had accomplished that by December of 2013. I was down to about 175lbs. Yet - I still had a pretty pudgy belly and I wasn't very muscular at all. Tony Horton and P90x3 came out and I jumped on it immediately. Fantastic program. I grabbed hold of that and ran with it to try and target those problem areas. I wanted bigger arms. A CHEST. A back with some width. Strong legs. Most importantly... I wanted the ripped core. I wanted a 6 pack. I'll spoil the surprise... I didn't get everything I wanted. LOL
As I've pushed ahead doing these assorted programs I've never had any clearly defined goals. NEVER. Just a vision of what I want my body to look like. I haven't gotten there yet. I've managed to continue to improve upon my nutrition and I feel pretty good about that. I need to work on those random binges that come up when it's date night. My weight right now is fluctuating between 167 - 170lbs, which isn't too bad. It is considered a healthy weight for someone of my height (5' 11"). I feel like I am continuing to shape my body more in line with how I envision it is supposed to look, albeit SLOWLY. Or, more accurately - more like I would prefer it to look. How I WANT it to look. Continuing to shed some fat and gain muscle. Yet despite this presumed forward progress, I can't help but feel like I'm a hamster on a wheel. Just getting up, getting on my wheel to do my exercise because "that's what I'm supposed to do". It's what healthy people do. That's great and all... but where am I going with this? What am I working towards exactly here? Abs? (Yes - definitely abs and hopefully so much more)
I spoke to this a little in my last post, but let me touch on it here a little more. I have a couple friends that do CrossFit and they are always speaking very highly of it. How goal driven things are. I couldn't help to wonder what this was like. Goals? What goals? Like, you want to be able to bench press more? Squat more? What? Inquiring minds want to know!! Like NOW!! I seriously don't know what it's like to have goals other than "to finish a program" in "hopes" to be in better shape than when I started. Those have always been my goals. Other than of course, getting that Tony Horton body that I saw on the cover of Power90 over 12 yrs ago. lol
For REFERENCE:
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Fitness program updates, etc...
First - been forever since I last updated. I completed Body Beast which was awesome. If it weren't for the brutal leg day I'd probably still be doing it. I had a lot of fun with that one and saw some great results.
Once I completed that I set a new goal to take up running and try to run a 5K. I last ran one 12 yrs ago and I was in pretty good shape back then (at the time I thought it was the best shape of my life). My plan was to alternate the Couch to 5K app (3 days week) with Power90 Strength (3 days week). I did that for a month and it wasn't great. The Power90 stuff simply wasn't a challenging enough strength workout. I just came from Body Beast for fucks sake! There is one sequence in the program where they do a lunge/squat combo sequence and it is all without weights. I was using 20lb dumbbells with it just so I could push myself more. A lot of the exercises in Power90 are body weight exercises and they only do them for a certain length of time. So, if you do push ups as an example and they are only doing them for 1min and you've done that but not gotten the push you wanted... then what? It was time to find something else.
A friend from one of my fitness groups had been recommending a kettlebell program called "Kettleworx" as a solution for sometime (initially she thought it would be a great workout for my wife). I kept pushing it off as in all honesty I didn't want to buy more shit. I already had enough fitness crap to be fit, why do I need more? How much shit can you have? lol A LOT! The short of it is, I bought the program and have bought a bunch of kettlebells and the program is fantastic. Works really well. REALLY well.
Where am I on my running? My goal with the running was to complete the C25K program. Be able to run a 5K and have my pace be 10min miles. As my last run for the C25K program I ran my first 5K. I finished in 27min 56sec. I guess 9min miles. Pretty excited about it, but I want to improve upon that. More on that probably in a separate blog entry.... however, my thoughts on that brought up the thoughts about goals. I really need a separate post for that, because honestly every time I think about it my brain goes in 12 different directions and I want to just do a brain dump... at the same time though I want to make sure it makes sense to someone other than me and my random logic mind.
Back to workouts.... so right now, I'm running scarcely. lol Once or twice a week is probably the max my body can handle at this time. My knees just hurt from it and I HATE that a workout can make me feel so weak. That can, instead of empower me, it breaks me down. I try to think about the positives it also brings, like the cardio.... the decent amount of calories burned in less than 30min. It is just the pain the knees AFTER the run that kills me (mainly the right knee). The whole run not a single bit of leg/knee/shin/feet pain at all. NOTHING. Not until after my cool down. Then the right leg just kind of gets weak. It hurts to push off of anything (like when you are walking up steps) and the pain stems straight from the knee.
Other workouts, for strength it has been Kettleworx - Evolution. I can't say enough good things about the program. Cardio without doing HIIT? Good stuff. Strength/core training without dumbbells? Cool. Everything is all compound moves. Meaning, you work more than 1 body part at a time. One of the favorite moves is probably the squat-upright rows. Squat down with the kettlebell and when you come up from the squat do an upright row. Just always seems, no matter what the exercise, you are working more than 1 body part. The downside I guess would be cost. I spent $90 on the program and probably another $200 on kettlebells. Good thing my wife and I have good paying jobs. lol
Kind of a workout side note.... I have a couple of friends that do Crossfit and both speak so highly of it. Highly of how much the workouts push you. How varied the workouts are. How goal driven everything is. How tight knit the community is, how encouraging everyone is about you getting to your goals. Both of them have told me repeatedly that it is a place where they think I would thrive. Anywho, I investigated it a little. There is a new place not far from the house called Great Woods Crossfit. They offer 3 free sessions. My first one is May 4th. :) We shall see how it goes. I'm nervous about it. I don't think I'm in horrible shape, but I really think I could be better. I like the thought of the challenge. I like the thought of getting my body closer to the way I envision it. I feel I'm close and every time I think I'm right there, I seem to push myself away. Is that a workout issue thing? No. Accountability thing? Maybe... More of a discipline thing most likely. Either way I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm looking for answers and I'm hoping to find some there. We shall see.
Next post will be about goals. Until next time.
Once I completed that I set a new goal to take up running and try to run a 5K. I last ran one 12 yrs ago and I was in pretty good shape back then (at the time I thought it was the best shape of my life). My plan was to alternate the Couch to 5K app (3 days week) with Power90 Strength (3 days week). I did that for a month and it wasn't great. The Power90 stuff simply wasn't a challenging enough strength workout. I just came from Body Beast for fucks sake! There is one sequence in the program where they do a lunge/squat combo sequence and it is all without weights. I was using 20lb dumbbells with it just so I could push myself more. A lot of the exercises in Power90 are body weight exercises and they only do them for a certain length of time. So, if you do push ups as an example and they are only doing them for 1min and you've done that but not gotten the push you wanted... then what? It was time to find something else.
A friend from one of my fitness groups had been recommending a kettlebell program called "Kettleworx" as a solution for sometime (initially she thought it would be a great workout for my wife). I kept pushing it off as in all honesty I didn't want to buy more shit. I already had enough fitness crap to be fit, why do I need more? How much shit can you have? lol A LOT! The short of it is, I bought the program and have bought a bunch of kettlebells and the program is fantastic. Works really well. REALLY well.
Where am I on my running? My goal with the running was to complete the C25K program. Be able to run a 5K and have my pace be 10min miles. As my last run for the C25K program I ran my first 5K. I finished in 27min 56sec. I guess 9min miles. Pretty excited about it, but I want to improve upon that. More on that probably in a separate blog entry.... however, my thoughts on that brought up the thoughts about goals. I really need a separate post for that, because honestly every time I think about it my brain goes in 12 different directions and I want to just do a brain dump... at the same time though I want to make sure it makes sense to someone other than me and my random logic mind.
Back to workouts.... so right now, I'm running scarcely. lol Once or twice a week is probably the max my body can handle at this time. My knees just hurt from it and I HATE that a workout can make me feel so weak. That can, instead of empower me, it breaks me down. I try to think about the positives it also brings, like the cardio.... the decent amount of calories burned in less than 30min. It is just the pain the knees AFTER the run that kills me (mainly the right knee). The whole run not a single bit of leg/knee/shin/feet pain at all. NOTHING. Not until after my cool down. Then the right leg just kind of gets weak. It hurts to push off of anything (like when you are walking up steps) and the pain stems straight from the knee.
Other workouts, for strength it has been Kettleworx - Evolution. I can't say enough good things about the program. Cardio without doing HIIT? Good stuff. Strength/core training without dumbbells? Cool. Everything is all compound moves. Meaning, you work more than 1 body part at a time. One of the favorite moves is probably the squat-upright rows. Squat down with the kettlebell and when you come up from the squat do an upright row. Just always seems, no matter what the exercise, you are working more than 1 body part. The downside I guess would be cost. I spent $90 on the program and probably another $200 on kettlebells. Good thing my wife and I have good paying jobs. lol
Kind of a workout side note.... I have a couple of friends that do Crossfit and both speak so highly of it. Highly of how much the workouts push you. How varied the workouts are. How goal driven everything is. How tight knit the community is, how encouraging everyone is about you getting to your goals. Both of them have told me repeatedly that it is a place where they think I would thrive. Anywho, I investigated it a little. There is a new place not far from the house called Great Woods Crossfit. They offer 3 free sessions. My first one is May 4th. :) We shall see how it goes. I'm nervous about it. I don't think I'm in horrible shape, but I really think I could be better. I like the thought of the challenge. I like the thought of getting my body closer to the way I envision it. I feel I'm close and every time I think I'm right there, I seem to push myself away. Is that a workout issue thing? No. Accountability thing? Maybe... More of a discipline thing most likely. Either way I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm looking for answers and I'm hoping to find some there. We shall see.
Next post will be about goals. Until next time.
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