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.

To bulk or to cut? That is the question...

It comes as no surprise to anyone who has worked out (in any capacity) that there are three primary goals:

• Losing fat
• Building muscle
• Maintaining what you have

The first two, respectively, are cycles known to bodybuilders (BB) as "cutting" and "bulking".

So, I've been at a crossroads lately deciding in which direction I want to step up this journey. Thus far, it's mostly been focusing just on getting in to shape and lifting some things. Now, it's time to try something new.

In both bulking and cutting, strict control of the diet is paramount, though in different ways for each phase. There are a number of sources, mostly written by physicians who work with bodybuilders, that suggest that diet and nutrition can put the body into a hyper-anabolic state. The effect is similar to using synthetic anabolic steroids, but arguably much healthier, and since the body is producing things naturally through its own processes, completely without the negative social stigma steroid use garners.

For the bulking, the body gains a significant amount of muscle mass over a relatively short time period. The unfortunate accompaniment to the muscle gain is that the body also packs on adipose tissue (fat). This is where the cutting comes in. Cutting, done right, takes off a LOT of fat and just a bit of the muscle. Most BBs engage in alternating 10-12 week periods of bulking and cutting, and after a while it just becomes part of the rhythm (usually scheduled around a cutting cycle leading up to a competition, for those that compete.)

But, where to start when starting out and approaching cycles for the first time? If I bulk, I'll probably pack on a LOT of weight (on top of what I already have). As vain as it sounds, I just bought new jeans, and want to be able to wear something besides sweat pants as I balloon up like Violet Beauregard, relentlessly chomping on her blueberry gum. If I cut first, I risk losing the muscle that I've built up to this point, and I don't know that I want to face that. I don't want to lose motivation (which I don't think will happen...but there could be disappointment.)

Another detail, and not an inconsequential one, is that I LOVE food. Not just like. Not just enjoy eating. I LOVE FOOD. Bulking, as I understand it, is a joyous and Bacchanalian experience (within reason) being able to eat a lot (at least 1 gram of proteinn for every pound of body weight over the day...2-3 grams if working really hard and using supplements that increase protein synthesis). Cutting, on the other hand, is 10-12 weeks of highly restricted intake, and being hungry and cranky ALL the time. Not fun. And even though constant fun isn't something I require, and I can sacrifice to achieve goals...maybe I want to have an enjoyable experience before I start something that difficult.

I think, in the end, the decision is coming down on the side of "to bulk". That will leave me in the cutting and fat loss during the summer, when I may want to go swimming or something. Better cranky and cut than perky and puffy.

So, the answer to the question, for now, is "to bulk". More details on the experience, doubtless, will follow.

Cardio

Not much to report tonight. I started keeping track of what I eat. It's not so bad.

I took my buddy Xavier to the gym tonight. Good run.

65 minutes. 7.44 miles.

That is all. Off to bed.

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