Second week...

Done with the second week of the new routine. I'm getting more used to it. Some changes have been made. I'll talk a bit about those below. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way things are going, and realize that this is a whole different level of commitment to the gym - being there twice a day and spending, more or less, 3+ hours per day actively working out.

It's been two weeks and I've lost 10 pounds.

I did take the opportunity yesterday to have my body fat tested by a full-body hydro-immersion method done by GetDunked. My understanding is that with the possible exception of testing by air displacement (which requires a lab and even more specific and calibrated equipment), that immersion is the most accurate way to test body composition. TrainerDave™ had used calipers to test my body fat when we started working out, and I think the results were somewhere around 18%-19%. I thought that wasn't too bad for a starting point. TrainerDave™ was off by just a bit. The result from the dunking? 24.5%

Je suis trés unhappy avec ça. Still, Aeron, the guy who did my test, assured me that the situation was not as bad as I had hoped and pulled me away from the dunk tank where I planned to then drown myself. He said that he does this kind of testing all day, every day, and that the common tables of target BF% aren't wholly accurate. Most male athletes in my age range, he said, are between 16% and 24% (but usually at the lower end of that scale). Going below into the low teens is where it gets into the bodybuilder look. (Aeron also made me feel better by telling me that the first time TrainerDave™ got his body fat tested, he was about 10% over where he thought he would be.)

The report that came with the dunk (and I'm supposed to get a more thorough one in my email inbox, though that has yet to arrive) gave the following as my "hydrostatic evaluation":

HYDROSTATIC EVALUATION

Body Fat %	24.5%	Fat Body Mass	54.0 lbs.
Lean Body Mass %	75.5%	Lean Body Mass	166.2 lbs.
Ideal Body Fat %	15.0%	Weight for Ideal	195.5 lbs.
Goal Body Fat %	3.0%	Weight for Goal	171.4 lbs.

HYDROSTATIC TEST DATA

Gender	Male	Age	36 years
Height	69.75 in.	Weight	220.3 lbs.
Ankle Circumference	9.00 in.	Resting Pulse	70 bpm
Water Temperature	34ºC	Water Weight	6520 grams

METABOLIC INFORMATION

Your Activity Level	Over 12 hours per week
Maximum Exercising Pulse	166 bpm
Daily Caloric Intake to Maintain Weight	3965 calories

All very interesting. Apparently the final report will have more detail and instead of giving results as absolute numbers, it will display ranges with standard deviations and variances. Being a stats nerd, I think I like that better.

As far as the changes to the workout and diet go, I had a talk with TrainerDave™ on Wednesday at our second session. A week and a half had passed since our first workout together, mostly because there was no meeting on Memorial Day, and the week before that he was prepping for a contest in Los Angeles. (He came in 2nd in the welterweight division, by the way.) I mentioned that the breakfast, shakes, and dinner weren't a problem and I was sticking to those just fine; however, carrying my lunch and having it be so repetitive was killing me. Since IBM Almaden has a huge cafeteria, there is plenty of selection. On top of that, lunch is a social event at IBM, and carrying my lunch means that I miss out on it. People in my group think I'm a bit strange for carrying lunch and staying so strict. (And...really...there's only so much you can do with chicken, sweet potato, and broccoli when you have to carry it around all day.) TrainerDave™ said that as long as I don't go nuts and eat a pile of fries every day, it doesn't much matter what I eat at lunch, since I'll be burning all of it off anyway with working out in the morning and evening. So, a big salad with a chicken breast and fat-free dressing will be just fine. He even said that I could have pasta if it's on the menu. This is good news and makes me feel like I can live like a bit of a normal person, especially at work.

I also mentioned that I felt like getting up that early to work out, and going so late...that I wasn't getting enough sleep to maintain this kind of activity level. We re-tooled the schedule (and more importantly, re-spaced out the eating) so that I could get more sleep. I think that's going to work out well. I've also started keeping a more reasonable schedule at work. I'm only being paid for 40 hours a week, so I'm not doing what I did for the first two weeks and putting in 55-60 hours. I get there around 8:15 and leave around 4:45. That seems to work much better and I get home at a reasonable hour. So, the new schedule is:

• 08:00am - Breakfast


• 10:30am - EAS Triple-protein shake


• 01:00pm - Lunch


• 03:30pm - EAS Triple-protein shake


• 06:30pm - Post-workout AST VP2 whey protein isolate shake


• 08:30pm - Dinner

The other change is that I'm really liking the cardio, so I've upped it. Before, I was doing 45 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening after I lift. I've raised both of those to be an hour apiece. Right now, according to the monitor on the elliptical machine, I'm burning around 850-900 calories per cardio session. That's 1700-1800 calories per day from running. If one pound of fat requires burning 2800 calories, then I should be shedding around 3.75 calories per week just from the cardio.

Okay...time to wrap this entry up. I'll leave off with the numbers from this past week. I start cycle three today, since I took my off day in the middle of the week.

Day 1: Chest and Triceps (5/25/2008)

• High cable cross: 70 x 20|20|20|20


• Incline iso press: 120 x 15, 140 x 15|10


• Flat DB press: 50 x 15|15|15


• Dips: 4|5|5


• Push-ups: 15|15|15


• Lateral raise (DB): 15 x 20|20, 20 x 20


• Tricep pushdown: 100 x 20, 120 x 15|12


• Front shoulder raise: 50 x 20|20|20

Day 2: Back, Delts, & Biceps (5/27/2008)

• Pullups: 28(assist) x 9|6|6|5


• BB row: 205 x 12|12|12|8


• Pulldowns: 90 x 15, 105 x 12|12|10


• Cable rows: 100 x 15, 120 x 15|15|15


• Reverse pec deck: 70 x 14|11|12


• Shrugs: 180 x 20|20|20


• High cable curl: 60 x 20, 75 x 20|20|20

Day 3: Legs (5/28/2008)

• Lying leg curl (SS): 50 x 20, 62.5 x 20, 75 x 15|15


• Leg extension (SS): 6 plates x 20, 7 plates x 20|15|15


• Leg press: 360 x 20|20|20|20|20


• Walking lunges: 20(L/R) x 12|12|12

Day 4: Upper chest & shoulders (5/29/2008)

• High incline iso press: 160 x 15|15|15|7


• Military press: 140 x 15|15|15|13


• Side DB raises: 20 x 20|20|20|20


• Front raises: 60 x 20|20|20|20


• Rear delt rows: 105 x 20|20|20|20


• Upright cable pulls: 80 x 20|20|20|20


• Shrugs: 180 x 20|20|20|20

Day 5: Biceps & Triceps (5/31/2008)

• French curls (SS1): 70 x 15|15|15|15


• Skullcrushers (SS1): 80 x 15|15|15|10


• Tricep pushdowns (SS2): 100 x 15|15|15


• Alternating DB curls (SS2): 25 x 15|15|15


• Preacher curl (SS3): 50 x 10, 40 x 10, 30 x 20|15


• Overhead tricep extension (SS3): 100 x 20, 110 x 20, 120 x 14|20


• Back dip (SS4): Bodyweight x 20|20


• Concentration curls (SS4): 20 x 20|20

After the first week...

I haven't been posting as much lately, mostly because between work at IBM and this new crazy gym schedule, I haven't had the time or the energy to do continual blogging of this experience. That's not to say that I don't want the information up there. I absolutely do.

I think, though, that since the workout regime is exactly the same every week, I'll post the whole week in one shot. I need to make some comments about what I think of this new style of training.

Oh, and I ended up not hiring Mark as a trainer. Too flaky. He kept canceling appointments at the last minute, and that just wasn't working. So, I ended up going with a guy named Dave Patellaro. Good guy, who will hence be known as TrainerDave™. (He also goes by his trainer persona, Mr. Impact, but I just can't bring myself to call him that. A little bit of me dies inside each time I see that at the end of a text message.)

The diet...is killer. That is turning out to be my biggest challenge.

The workouts...well....here's the past week.
Oh, and each day also includes 45 minutes of cardio in the morning, and 30 more minutes of cardio after lifting.

Day 1: Chest and Triceps (5/19/2008)

• High cable cross: 70 x 15|15|12|10


• Incline bench: 135 x 12|8|6


• Flat DB press: 60 x 4|6|5


• Dips: 3|3|4


• Push-ups: 15|8|6


• Lateral raise (DB): 15 x 20|20|15


• Front lift: 40 x 20|15|15

Day 2: Back, Delts, & Biceps (5/20/2008)

• Pullups: 0 x 3, 100 x 10, 90 x 6|4


• BB row: 135 x 12|12|12|8


• Pulldowns: 90 x 10, 105 x 8, 90 x 10|10


• Cable rows: 100 x 15|12|15|15


• Reverse pec deck: 70 x 10, 50 x 15|15|15


• Shrugs: 180 x 18|15, 90 x 20|20


• High cable curl: 45 x 20, 60 x 15|20, 75 x 18

Day 3: Legs (5/21/2008)

• Squats: 135 x 15, 205 x 15, 225 x 10


• Leg curl: 135 x 20|20|20|20


• Leg extension: 60 x 20|20|20|20


• Stiff leg deadlift: 115 x 15|15|15|15


• Standing calf raises (SS): 100 x 30|30|30|30


• Seated calf raises (SS): 50 x 30|30|30|30

Day 4: Upper chest & shoulders (5/22/2008)

• High incline BB press: 90 x 15|15|15|15


• Military press: 90 x 15|15|15|15


• Side DB raises: 15 x 20|20|20|20


• Front raises: 40 x 20|20|20|20


• Rear delt rows: 90 x 20|20|20|20


• Upright cable pulls: 40|50|60|70 x 20


• Shrugs: 140 x 15|15|15|15

Day 5: Biceps & Triceps (5/23/2008)

• French curls (SS1): 60 x 15|15|15|15


• Skullcrushers (SS1): 70 x 15|15|15|15


• Tricep pushdowns (SS2): 80|90|100 x 15


• Alternating DB curls (SS2): 30 x 15|15|15


• Preacher curl (SS3): 50 x 20, 40 x 15|8


• Overhead tricep extension (SS3): 100 x 20|20|20|20


• Back dip (SS4): Bodyweight x 19|16


• Concentration curls (SS4): 30 x 16|8

Day 6: OFF

And that's the 6-day cycle that will keep repeating. I need to ask TrainerDave™ whether I can relax the diet on the days off just a bit. I really do think that having some real food once per week will help maintain my sanity and push me to keep on track during the workout days.

Legs, sort of...

Today was the first leg day back after the holidays, and the first leg day after an absence from the gym always involves pain and suffering (or is that fear and loathing? I doubt Kierkegaard hung out in the gym a lot, but you never know.)

Yes, there was pain. Matt (my lifting partner, who will be a regular co-star in my blog) abdicated first and smartly stopped. I wasn't so wise, and pushed on. After the first round of leg press, Matt mentioned that he was not feeling well (that familiar feeing of "If I hold still, maybe the nausea will pass."). He stopped after one light round of squats. I pressed on, but stopped after the third exercise. I held it together until I got to the locker room, but just had to succumb. I haven't lifted until I vomited for a LONG time. Typically, this can be a source of pride ("I lifted so hard I threw up!") among hard-core lifters. I didn't feel that swell of pride today.

I have a strong suspicion that sudden sickness was the result of poor nutritional planning today. I loathe keeping close track of what I eat, and I hate counting calories, but I think that for a while, I need to buck up and write everything down.

So, how many calories? I decided to do a Google search on "calculating caloric need" and chose several of the top results, each of which was a calculator specifically for adult needs. I used the same information for each calculator: Male, 35 years old, 5'10", 218 pounds, heavy activity (defined as approximately 1 hour of vigorous activity 5-7 days per week). Here are the results for my daily intake to maintain my current weight.

• About.com: 3527


• ahealthyme.com: 4045


• Baylor College of Medicine: 3494


• International Sports Science Association (ISSA): 3720


• American Cancer Society: 4955

Hmmmm....wide variation there. Some of the sites give actual formulae, but not all. There seems to be (surprise!) a lack of standardization here. I need to do some more exploring about the history and derivation of these systems of measurement.

For now, though, I think I'm going to go with the ISSA measurement, which is laid out clearly on the bodybuilding.com web site. The helpful part here is that it gives caloric breakdowns based on goals. Using my stats, I get:

• Maintaning weight
  
  
  
  • Protein: 163g/652Kcal
  
  
  • Carbohydrates: 628g/2510Kcal
  
  
  • Fat: 62g/558Kcal
  
  
  
  


• Building mass
  
  
  
  • Protein: 196g/784Kcal
  
  
  • Carbohydrates: 595g/2378Kcal
  
  
  • Fat: 62g/558Kcal
  
  
  
  


• Losing weight
  
  
  
  • Protein: 218g/872Kcal
  
  
  • Carbohydrates: 573g/2290Kcal
  
  
  • Fat: 62g/558Kcal
  
  
  
  

I'll go for losing some weight first, and then adding muscle mass when I get to a happy point.

Enough of that. Here's what I did for leg day today. Remember, this was cut short by the vomiting. Grrrr.....

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - Legs

Elliptical	8:03 / 1.0 miles
Linear leg press (F)	530 x 10 : 620 x 10 : 710 x 10
Squat (M)	160 x 10 : 220 x 10 : 260 x 10
Calf extension (M)	350 x 15 : 365 x 15 : 365 x 15

Ideal Proportions

In thinking about the way we classify and categorize bodies, the issue of metrics and measurements is key. Of course, subjective evaluation, aesthetics, and social perceptions are all part of the way metrics and measurements come about; however, there are wide variations in all of these ways of classifying. When looking at contemporary bodybuilding images, the freakishly huge, obviously steroid enhanced body jumps out immediately. This was not always the case, though. While poking around online for general perspectives on aesthetics and measurement, I ran across an entry at the Sandow Museum. (Eugen Sandow was an early bodybuilder, and the museum preserves artifacts from historic periods in bodybuilding.) The article hit on something that is obvious, but I hadn't thought about until I saw it: the ideal Greek form, sculpted and muscular, was quite different than todays ideal. I won't repeat all of the detail here, but it's at Sandow Museum Ideal Greek Body Form web page.

This made me decide to take my own measurements. Measurements for the Greek ideal are scaled from measuring the circumference of the wrist. Why? What is it about the wrist that it can be used as a universal key for this measurement? Clearly, it only holds for men (since the male body was the object of aesthetic for the Greeks.) I also noticed that the measurements described by the Greeks are the same ones we use today to classify bodies through measurements for determining body fat percentage (with the exception that the Greeks didn't measure the shoulders, and we do now).

So, here are my measurements (in inches), compared to the ones that would make me a proportional Greek ideal. Note: This is not to say that I aspire to embody the Greek ideal, but it is an implicit cornerstone of the Western historical aesthetic, and thus a useful frame for comparison.

Body Part	Greek Ideal	My Current	Difference	Percentage
Wrist	7	7	key	n/a
Shoulder	n/a	52.5	n/a	n/a
Chest	45.5	45.5	0.0	0.0%
Waist	31.85	39.0	+7.15	+22.4%
Hip	38.68	40.25	+1.57	+4.1%
Bicep	16.38	14.25	-2.13	-13.0%
Forearm	13.19	12.25	-0.94	-7.1%
Thigh	24.12	24.0	-0.12	-0.5%
Calf	15.47	17.0	+1.53	+9.9%
Neck	16.84	18.25	+1.41	+8.4%