Have I been getting the days right? For some reason Day 7 feels like a numerical jump or something... whatever, it's definitely day seven, AKA first day of 10's, and it was good.
After two days off, I woke up just a tad late (I guess my body started getting used to sleeping in... or perhaps this we due to staying up too late playing Fallout 3? It's hard because I'm really in the home stretch) for getting dehydrated fully before hitting the gym to do the work out I wanted, which was the full list of exercises (like last day of 15's) because realistically I'm not going to be able to lift again until Monday, four days from now :( So, I got into the gym about 20 after seven and jumped onto the elliptical for a short 5 minute warm-up, then hit all my exercises as quickly as possible.
Bench, bench dumbbell rows, barbell bench, seated rows, incline bench, chest crushers, incline dumbbells, assisted pull-ups, squats, calves, clean and presses, lunges, Arnold dumbbell presses, dead lifts, and on and on... everything was pretty easy, with the lunges and incline dumbbells as always feeling the most challenging. Pull-ups also felt just right. Did eight strap hanging straight leg lifts before doing 10 curled leg lifts, which felt good, oh and the back extensions with 20 lbs. felt really good today. I have to day that I can't wait for the clean and presses to get more challenging, as that whole body hit/pump/heart rate increase you get is awesome. I got that on the last day of 15's but in dropping down to 10's, I've lost it.
So, it was simply a good work out. If I'd had more time, I might have jumped on the treadmill for some sprints, but I simply didn't, so instead I grabbed some 45 lb dumbbells, lifted them to my shoulders and did a set of 10 squats. It felt good, but even with them being 10 lbs. lighter than last time, the left dumbbell kept slipping off my shoulder. I've really got to concentrate on proper form as I suspect I'm letting that shoulder lean forward more than the right. At the same time, I may just not be as strong on that side, so I'm going to focus on keeping that arm up correctly from now on. I think I'll keep throwing these into my work-outs going forward, staying at 45 lb. dumbbells until I'm doing them perfectly.
I have a bodyfat monitor that I keep meaning to start using. I think on some level I'm waiting to drop a little more weight before I turn it on because I don't want to see the truth about my body fat percentage. But as much as the truth can hurt, it's better to know, so perhaps tomorrow I'll "remember".
Low carb is going well as I continue to stay in ketosis. I'm fairly certain that I was running a calorie deficit on my two work-out days off. I just wasn't that hungry, and I did a better job of eating a small meal every two hours or so. Hopefully, I can keep that up.
Weighed in today at 235 with nylon shorts and wet cotton t-shirt, so weight loss is on track.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Not Going to the Gym
Taking two days off from the gym to recover has been surprising difficult. I've actually had a harder time not going than I do going, as I find myself really wanting to hit the gym when I wake up in the morning. I really miss the way a good work out wakes and warms you up, and I find myself worrying that I'm not making the most of being on a diet because I'm not burning the extra 300 to 600 calories per day at the gym. On the flip side though, I haven't been as hungry as days I work out, so I've been able to eat less, and that may balance things out. Still, I'm really looking forward to hitting the gym again tomorrow morning for my first day of 10's.
I'm also considering doing more high intensity cardio on my lifting days, and then doing fairly low intensity cardio on my off days to see if I can limit my long term fatigue a bit more... you know, that's silly and just me trying to figure out how to hit the gym everyday when I know that I really need to take a day or two off a week for optimal results. *sigh*
My routine is going to get a bit disrupted this week as we are heading up to Lake Tahoe to meet my sister for the weekend. We'll do some snowboarding on Saturday, when I should be doing Day 2 of 10's, so I'll be getting some exercise, so Day 2 is going to slip to either Sunday evening or Monday morning. So I'm going to start off day 1 of 10's tomorrow with some extra exercises, a bit like I did on my last day of 15's, given it will be two to three days before I do a true lifting workout again.
We gave notice that we won't be needing our $200 per month parking spot anymore, so we need to leave the car down at my Dad's house when we get back from Tahoe. We also need to sell the car. I need to do some research and make some calls to figure out the best way to do that, whether we should sell it privately or just go to Carmax (which is way out in Modesto) and see what they offer. What a pain in the ass. I can't wait to not have a car again. At least we have a place to park it for now.
Went to an IGDA mixer last night and hung out with some interesting guys. One was an artist at everyone's favorite Star Wars company, the other was a programmer behind the procedural drunk guy in GTA IV and another was the owner of a DS developer. It was fun to have drinks after work again. Oh, and they had this lamb burger that was really good! I'll definitely be going back sometime.
I'm also considering doing more high intensity cardio on my lifting days, and then doing fairly low intensity cardio on my off days to see if I can limit my long term fatigue a bit more... you know, that's silly and just me trying to figure out how to hit the gym everyday when I know that I really need to take a day or two off a week for optimal results. *sigh*
My routine is going to get a bit disrupted this week as we are heading up to Lake Tahoe to meet my sister for the weekend. We'll do some snowboarding on Saturday, when I should be doing Day 2 of 10's, so I'll be getting some exercise, so Day 2 is going to slip to either Sunday evening or Monday morning. So I'm going to start off day 1 of 10's tomorrow with some extra exercises, a bit like I did on my last day of 15's, given it will be two to three days before I do a true lifting workout again.
We gave notice that we won't be needing our $200 per month parking spot anymore, so we need to leave the car down at my Dad's house when we get back from Tahoe. We also need to sell the car. I need to do some research and make some calls to figure out the best way to do that, whether we should sell it privately or just go to Carmax (which is way out in Modesto) and see what they offer. What a pain in the ass. I can't wait to not have a car again. At least we have a place to park it for now.
Went to an IGDA mixer last night and hung out with some interesting guys. One was an artist at everyone's favorite Star Wars company, the other was a programmer behind the procedural drunk guy in GTA IV and another was the owner of a DS developer. It was fun to have drinks after work again. Oh, and they had this lamb burger that was really good! I'll definitely be going back sometime.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Boring: HST Day 6
Today was the final day of 15's, and I "cheated" by doing all the exercises on my list. What that means is that instead of doing only bench press today, which I do every other workout by alternating that exercise with a barbell bench press, I did both the regular bench press and the barbell bench press. Technically, you're not supposed to do that, as the point is progressive load with one set per workout, but I wanted by final day of 15 to be a blow-out, especially since I'm going to take two days off from lifting now before starting in on the 10's.
So this morning was a bit intense, especially when doing big full-body exercises like squats, lunges, clean and pushes and dead lifts on the same day. I also finally remembered to try and do front squats instead of my normal squats (I'm really trying to mix it up so that my body is forced to adjust in different ways), and I just couldn't do them. I've never really done them before, so when I walked up to the bar I had to try and figure them out, which I couldn't. As I mounted the bar on my chest, I think I had the right positioning and form, but it felt really weird and I didn't feel comfortable doing the exercise at the weight I was supposed to. I quickly realized that I should have tried front squats sooner when I was still at a lower weight, so perhaps after this current round of HST I will.
But, not one to give up, I decided to try doing squats with dumbbells instead, something I did when we were moving cross country and still living in hotels between apartments. The gyms only had dumbbells, so I made due with them, which resulted in something I had not expected: despite the dumbbells being significantly lighter than the amount I did with regular barbell squats, they were challenging. Something about having the weight further forward forced my muscles to work differently than with squats AND they definitely forced me to use my core muscles more, which was cool. Then, the big surprise came when I went back to doing regular squats in the gym and found that my max weight quickly went up. My theory is that the dumbbell squats were challenging my body differently, and that allowed me to break through my previous squat weight ceiling. Good stuff.
Anyway, so the problem with doing dumbbell squats right now is that it's difficult to hold the 55 lb. dumbbells at shoulder height while I'm doing them. My arms and shoulders get tired well before my legs do, so the dumbbells start to slip and fall off my shoulders, especially might left shoulder. In fact, I'd say that 55 lbs. is about the max I'm going to be able to do, as I barely pulled off 10 squats with them today before I had to stop, rest, and try again (I did 7 more on my second set). So, I'm not going to continue with dumbbell squats this round of HST, but next time around, I'm going to make them part of the 15's.
I'm trying to work abs into the HST thing too by doing more hanging straight leg lifts with each workout. I think I started HST doing like 4, while today I did eight straight leg lifts before my abs gave out and I wrapped up with 10 more bent leg lifts (basically, you hang by the straps, bringing your knees up to your chest rather than lifting your legs straight up and keeping them straight in front of you). That said, I barely did 8, so I probably won't be able to progressively load much more.
A note for future rounds of HST, my bench press weight of 105 lbs. was too easy - I could have done several more than 15 reps, while my incline bench of 75 was just about perfect. Dumbbell chest of 45 lbs. was not bad, while dumbbell incline of 40 lbs. was too much (I wasn't able to to 15 reps straight through - perhaps this was partly do to this being my last chest exercise though and I was simply tired). Clean and press at 65 was a bit easy, but man my heart and core were feeling it by the end. Dead lift of 95 was too easy too; I should increase these next time... perhaps I'll try dropping only 4% from my max each work out on the next round. Calves were too easy too, but I hit them in other ways (running and jump rope) on my cardio days, so I'm not worried about them.
Weight today wearing all nylon gear was just under 136 lbs.
So this morning was a bit intense, especially when doing big full-body exercises like squats, lunges, clean and pushes and dead lifts on the same day. I also finally remembered to try and do front squats instead of my normal squats (I'm really trying to mix it up so that my body is forced to adjust in different ways), and I just couldn't do them. I've never really done them before, so when I walked up to the bar I had to try and figure them out, which I couldn't. As I mounted the bar on my chest, I think I had the right positioning and form, but it felt really weird and I didn't feel comfortable doing the exercise at the weight I was supposed to. I quickly realized that I should have tried front squats sooner when I was still at a lower weight, so perhaps after this current round of HST I will.
But, not one to give up, I decided to try doing squats with dumbbells instead, something I did when we were moving cross country and still living in hotels between apartments. The gyms only had dumbbells, so I made due with them, which resulted in something I had not expected: despite the dumbbells being significantly lighter than the amount I did with regular barbell squats, they were challenging. Something about having the weight further forward forced my muscles to work differently than with squats AND they definitely forced me to use my core muscles more, which was cool. Then, the big surprise came when I went back to doing regular squats in the gym and found that my max weight quickly went up. My theory is that the dumbbell squats were challenging my body differently, and that allowed me to break through my previous squat weight ceiling. Good stuff.
Anyway, so the problem with doing dumbbell squats right now is that it's difficult to hold the 55 lb. dumbbells at shoulder height while I'm doing them. My arms and shoulders get tired well before my legs do, so the dumbbells start to slip and fall off my shoulders, especially might left shoulder. In fact, I'd say that 55 lbs. is about the max I'm going to be able to do, as I barely pulled off 10 squats with them today before I had to stop, rest, and try again (I did 7 more on my second set). So, I'm not going to continue with dumbbell squats this round of HST, but next time around, I'm going to make them part of the 15's.
I'm trying to work abs into the HST thing too by doing more hanging straight leg lifts with each workout. I think I started HST doing like 4, while today I did eight straight leg lifts before my abs gave out and I wrapped up with 10 more bent leg lifts (basically, you hang by the straps, bringing your knees up to your chest rather than lifting your legs straight up and keeping them straight in front of you). That said, I barely did 8, so I probably won't be able to progressively load much more.
A note for future rounds of HST, my bench press weight of 105 lbs. was too easy - I could have done several more than 15 reps, while my incline bench of 75 was just about perfect. Dumbbell chest of 45 lbs. was not bad, while dumbbell incline of 40 lbs. was too much (I wasn't able to to 15 reps straight through - perhaps this was partly do to this being my last chest exercise though and I was simply tired). Clean and press at 65 was a bit easy, but man my heart and core were feeling it by the end. Dead lift of 95 was too easy too; I should increase these next time... perhaps I'll try dropping only 4% from my max each work out on the next round. Calves were too easy too, but I hit them in other ways (running and jump rope) on my cardio days, so I'm not worried about them.
Weight today wearing all nylon gear was just under 136 lbs.
RPG's and Fallout 3
I'm officially sick of Fallout 3, but I'm not going to stop playing until it is finished. So obviously, I still like it, but there are a couple of aspects that are starting to bum me out.
The first is that you stop gaining levels at 20, which we hit a week ago. I should have known there was a level cap, but for some reason I thought it was 30, so when I hit 20 and that was it, I was especially dissapointed. I suppose it would have been a little better if I had expected it to end at 20, but even if I had, I think I would have been disappointed because we were only about half way through the game when we hit that level. And we were just playing through normally, not trying especially hard to get extra experience points. Granted, we were trying to solve most of the quests, but even so, maxing out when you are only half way through the game seems broken.
Anyway, so one important aspect of RPG's your character growing more powerful, mostly went away about a week ago. Yes, we can still find bobble heads and books that give some bonuses, but we also didn't realize that skills maxed out at 100 either, so many of ours have already been at 100 for over a week too. I think they should have balanced this better as maxing out has taken a big chunk of fun out of the game. The same thing happened to me when I played Baldur's Gate years ago; I was really enjoying the game, so much so that I was trying to get the most out of it by doing all the side quests and dungeon crawls, but then I hit the level cap right before entering the final city area (forget what it was called). I tried to keep playing to finish the game, but I just lost interest and never wrapped it up. Kinda sad.
The second aspect of the game that is bumming me out is the amount of time it is taking to finish the quests, largely because they have a lot of back and forth elements to them, where you travel to this location, then back, then back to that last location, then back. This is a problem with a lot of RPG's for me, and comparably Fallout 3 does a good job of keeping the quests interesting, with lots of story threads going at once which give the world a feeling of depth, but I guess I'm just looking at the amount of time spent on the game so far and feeling like it's too much. Honestly, I would have been happier if the game was about half as long.
Combine the time sink aspect with the level cap, and it feels like I'm putting a lot of time into the game still, but no longer progressing, which takes much of the fun out of it. At this point, I'm playing simply to finish the game and get the remaining achievements. That said, it's still a VERY good game that I would strongly recommend to anyone who is a fan of RPG's or who has wondered what it might be like to live in a post nuclear holocaust Washingon D.C.
The first is that you stop gaining levels at 20, which we hit a week ago. I should have known there was a level cap, but for some reason I thought it was 30, so when I hit 20 and that was it, I was especially dissapointed. I suppose it would have been a little better if I had expected it to end at 20, but even if I had, I think I would have been disappointed because we were only about half way through the game when we hit that level. And we were just playing through normally, not trying especially hard to get extra experience points. Granted, we were trying to solve most of the quests, but even so, maxing out when you are only half way through the game seems broken.
Anyway, so one important aspect of RPG's your character growing more powerful, mostly went away about a week ago. Yes, we can still find bobble heads and books that give some bonuses, but we also didn't realize that skills maxed out at 100 either, so many of ours have already been at 100 for over a week too. I think they should have balanced this better as maxing out has taken a big chunk of fun out of the game. The same thing happened to me when I played Baldur's Gate years ago; I was really enjoying the game, so much so that I was trying to get the most out of it by doing all the side quests and dungeon crawls, but then I hit the level cap right before entering the final city area (forget what it was called). I tried to keep playing to finish the game, but I just lost interest and never wrapped it up. Kinda sad.
The second aspect of the game that is bumming me out is the amount of time it is taking to finish the quests, largely because they have a lot of back and forth elements to them, where you travel to this location, then back, then back to that last location, then back. This is a problem with a lot of RPG's for me, and comparably Fallout 3 does a good job of keeping the quests interesting, with lots of story threads going at once which give the world a feeling of depth, but I guess I'm just looking at the amount of time spent on the game so far and feeling like it's too much. Honestly, I would have been happier if the game was about half as long.
Combine the time sink aspect with the level cap, and it feels like I'm putting a lot of time into the game still, but no longer progressing, which takes much of the fun out of it. At this point, I'm playing simply to finish the game and get the remaining achievements. That said, it's still a VERY good game that I would strongly recommend to anyone who is a fan of RPG's or who has wondered what it might be like to live in a post nuclear holocaust Washingon D.C.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Fatigued
I read it over and over, and I know it from lots of personal experience, you have to give your body time to rest, period. Today was one of those days where I could really feel that truism becuase I barely pulled off 10 minutes of level 14 elliptical before my legs were done. So I switched over to the rowing machine, which I haven't done in years, and after 5 minutes of that my legs and arms were done. Then I wandered over to the seated stationary bike and did five minutes before I finally got it through my thick head that I was done. None of my muscles are really sore, they are working fine, and my overall energy level is high (thus the strong desire to work out), but my muscles are simply fatigued. I just can't get a lot out of them, and I swear I can almost feel them breaking down as I push them to keep going (which is probably what's happening).
So, I had to make due with a crappy 20 minutes cardio work-out today. I probably should have just skipped the gym all together and given my body a break. Oh well. I have day six of HST lifting tomorrow, so I'll skip working out on Tuesday and give my body the break it needs.
Weighed in wearing a sweating cotton tshirt and was 237.
So, I had to make due with a crappy 20 minutes cardio work-out today. I probably should have just skipped the gym all together and given my body a break. Oh well. I have day six of HST lifting tomorrow, so I'll skip working out on Tuesday and give my body the break it needs.
Weighed in wearing a sweating cotton tshirt and was 237.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
VERY Boring: HST Day 5
Had dinner and drinks with C and J, joined by N later just for drinks, two nights ago, and consumed some carbs in beer and Chinese Food form, but I was pretty good. Drank a bit more than I should of for a work-out day, but didn't go overboard, and felt fine enough yesterday to hit the gym hard for some cardio, 10 minutes on the elliptical at level 15 (yes, I dropped down a level), then three sprints on the treadmill at 14 angle and 3.2 mph walking and 9.0 mph sprinting. I actually did the sprints sooner than usual, starting at 4 minutes, then doing the next at 8 and the next at 12... I almost decided to do another sprint at 15 or 16 minutes, but figured I shouldn't push it; there is a fine line between pushing it and going overboard so that you can't work-out the next day.
Finally, I finished off my workout with a couple minutes of jump-roping and jumping-jacks (100 of the later - not sure how many minutes of the first because the class-room was full and I had to do these in a corner without a clock). I'm still having a hard time doing the single leg jumping-jacks, but I'll get there.
Oh, I called in sick yesterday, as I really was bleah in the morning, but my work-out cleared the cobwebs out and I felt good afterwards... at least until we spent four hours at the DMV getting our licenses and attempting to get the car registered. Since she'd only been out of California for a couple of years, she was able to renew her license, but I've been gone longer, so I had to retake the driving exam, which I am happy to report I got a perfect on. Unlike most places, they don't make your license then and there, so I have a print-out temp. license and the real one is supposed to come in the mail at some point. I say we attempted to register the car because after two hours waiting in line and doing paper-work, it turns out it financially makes more sense to just sell the damn thing with out-of-states plates still on it. Waste of time.
Afterward, we ran by the Apple Store to see if they would replace my iPhone with a cracked screen, and they won't. I'm going to try asking an old friend who apparently works at an Apple Store in Palo Alto if he can do anything, but I'll probably have to live with it or find another route to get it repaired.
Last night we went over to T and L's place for dinner and drinks. P and R met us there too, and we had a... well, lovely time. Fun conversation, not entirely about video games either, good food, the girls got along great and we took a look at their rooftop deck which was awesome. Hopefully, we'll be hanging out with them more.
Of course, I again ate carbs, in fact I positively splurged when they served a fudge cake with ice cream on top. Definitely a cheat day. So I made sure to really hit the gym hard this morning on my 5th HST workout day.
It was crowded at the gym again, but I managed to work all the exercises in. Only did 5 minutes at level 15 on the elliptical, as my legs were still feeling yesterday's sprints. The assisted pull-up was perfect, where I"m just starting to find the last couple hard, the clean and push was great in that my core was really feeling it, and the squats felt very nice. I'd meant to do front squats today, but I plumb forgot. Maybe next time.
I wrapped up with 10 minutes waling at 14 angle and 3.2 on the treadmill, doing a minute of really long strides at the end, and this really go my heart rate up. Then I got on a bike to wait for E to finish her Yoga class. On the way back to the apartment we ran into a girl that lives on our floor, and we introduced ourselves to Kate.
The big bummer is that my wireless headphones seem to be dying. I can't get the base unit to charge anymore :(. I need to figure out if I can mix and match one of the other pairs I have in because I really don't like having wired headphones on at the gym (they get caught up on everything).
Weight today 236 (down two pounds... felt a bit dehydrated today, so I'm guess this is a combination of water-weight lost and the fact that I was wearing all nylon, which is lighter than the sweaty cotton shirts and underwear I often have on when I weigh in). We'll see if this weight lasts for a few days.
Finally, I finished off my workout with a couple minutes of jump-roping and jumping-jacks (100 of the later - not sure how many minutes of the first because the class-room was full and I had to do these in a corner without a clock). I'm still having a hard time doing the single leg jumping-jacks, but I'll get there.
Oh, I called in sick yesterday, as I really was bleah in the morning, but my work-out cleared the cobwebs out and I felt good afterwards... at least until we spent four hours at the DMV getting our licenses and attempting to get the car registered. Since she'd only been out of California for a couple of years, she was able to renew her license, but I've been gone longer, so I had to retake the driving exam, which I am happy to report I got a perfect on. Unlike most places, they don't make your license then and there, so I have a print-out temp. license and the real one is supposed to come in the mail at some point. I say we attempted to register the car because after two hours waiting in line and doing paper-work, it turns out it financially makes more sense to just sell the damn thing with out-of-states plates still on it. Waste of time.
Afterward, we ran by the Apple Store to see if they would replace my iPhone with a cracked screen, and they won't. I'm going to try asking an old friend who apparently works at an Apple Store in Palo Alto if he can do anything, but I'll probably have to live with it or find another route to get it repaired.
Last night we went over to T and L's place for dinner and drinks. P and R met us there too, and we had a... well, lovely time. Fun conversation, not entirely about video games either, good food, the girls got along great and we took a look at their rooftop deck which was awesome. Hopefully, we'll be hanging out with them more.
Of course, I again ate carbs, in fact I positively splurged when they served a fudge cake with ice cream on top. Definitely a cheat day. So I made sure to really hit the gym hard this morning on my 5th HST workout day.
It was crowded at the gym again, but I managed to work all the exercises in. Only did 5 minutes at level 15 on the elliptical, as my legs were still feeling yesterday's sprints. The assisted pull-up was perfect, where I"m just starting to find the last couple hard, the clean and push was great in that my core was really feeling it, and the squats felt very nice. I'd meant to do front squats today, but I plumb forgot. Maybe next time.
I wrapped up with 10 minutes waling at 14 angle and 3.2 on the treadmill, doing a minute of really long strides at the end, and this really go my heart rate up. Then I got on a bike to wait for E to finish her Yoga class. On the way back to the apartment we ran into a girl that lives on our floor, and we introduced ourselves to Kate.
The big bummer is that my wireless headphones seem to be dying. I can't get the base unit to charge anymore :(. I need to figure out if I can mix and match one of the other pairs I have in because I really don't like having wired headphones on at the gym (they get caught up on everything).
Weight today 236 (down two pounds... felt a bit dehydrated today, so I'm guess this is a combination of water-weight lost and the fact that I was wearing all nylon, which is lighter than the sweaty cotton shirts and underwear I often have on when I weigh in). We'll see if this weight lasts for a few days.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
HST Day 4
This morning's work-out went great! I think my body has mostly adjusted to low-carb now and not using the NO-Xplode feels much MUCH better. About half an hour before going to the gym I had lots of water (need to rehydrate after a good night's sleep), a cup of green tea (two bags), and a small serving of Wheat Germ mixed with one scoop of vanilla whey protein (about 20 grams of protein). Then, I took 8 BCAA capsules (4.4 grams of BCAA and 200 milligrams of caffeine) right before walking out the door.
Started this morning with a 5 minutes warm-up on the elliptical machine at level 16, and then after putting on my work-out gloves, walked over to the main free weight room where I realized that there were a LOT more people working out than usual, like probably twice what you would see on a normal day. I looked at my lifting chart, saw I was starting off with barbell bench presses at 40, looked up to find those weights and a bench to do them on, and found that they were already taken. This was my story for the entire work-out today; check chart for weight, and then wander around trying to find it or a machine that was not already taken. For most of the lifts I was able to improvise, like I used 25 lbs plates to do my Arnold Dumbbell Press , but in a few cases I just had to wait for people to finish, which was annoying.
Hopefully, today was a fluke and there won't be this many people at the gym in the mornings in the future. It will also help as I get to the second half of my HST lifting plan, as the weights I use will go up and therefore not be the ones EVERYONE else also wants to use too.
Anyway, no problems today with my lifting plan except for two exercises:
1. 15 Lunges (which I did with 25 lb. plates in each hand rather than dumbbells) was fucking hard! Not looking forward to my next lunge working.
2. Palms Down Wrist Curls hurt a little so I stopped at 13 reps. I hurt my right wrist a few weeks back while trying to put spin on a bowling ball using muscle rather than leverage, and it hasn't quite healed yet. It's mostly doesn't bother me, but when I started to feel it towards the end of this exercise, I figured I'd listen to my body and hopefully avoid an injury.
Beyond that, everything went very well. I left the gym almost wanting more, but I know better than to push it. And hopefully my legs won't be destroyed again from the lunges and I'll be able to do some cardio tomorrow.
Random thoughts:
I love Wheat Germ. On a low carb diet, this stuff does a great job of not only giving you a good amount of protein and a feeling of fullness, but it also helps keep you regular. I highly recommend mixing Wheat Germ in with your morning protein shake.
I really like having some carbs in the form of fruits right after my work-outs. I generally eat a banana and some handfulls of blueberries. This much fruit does not knock me out of ketosis and I think it helps my muscles recover faster than they would without any carbs. And in general I recommend eating blueberries, as they may not only help you physically, but they may also help you mentally too! Check this blueberry article out.
I forgot to check my weight this morning. I'm such a dumbkoff.
Started this morning with a 5 minutes warm-up on the elliptical machine at level 16, and then after putting on my work-out gloves, walked over to the main free weight room where I realized that there were a LOT more people working out than usual, like probably twice what you would see on a normal day. I looked at my lifting chart, saw I was starting off with barbell bench presses at 40, looked up to find those weights and a bench to do them on, and found that they were already taken. This was my story for the entire work-out today; check chart for weight, and then wander around trying to find it or a machine that was not already taken. For most of the lifts I was able to improvise, like I used 25 lbs plates to do my Arnold Dumbbell Press , but in a few cases I just had to wait for people to finish, which was annoying.
Hopefully, today was a fluke and there won't be this many people at the gym in the mornings in the future. It will also help as I get to the second half of my HST lifting plan, as the weights I use will go up and therefore not be the ones EVERYONE else also wants to use too.
Anyway, no problems today with my lifting plan except for two exercises:
1. 15 Lunges (which I did with 25 lb. plates in each hand rather than dumbbells) was fucking hard! Not looking forward to my next lunge working.
2. Palms Down Wrist Curls hurt a little so I stopped at 13 reps. I hurt my right wrist a few weeks back while trying to put spin on a bowling ball using muscle rather than leverage, and it hasn't quite healed yet. It's mostly doesn't bother me, but when I started to feel it towards the end of this exercise, I figured I'd listen to my body and hopefully avoid an injury.
Beyond that, everything went very well. I left the gym almost wanting more, but I know better than to push it. And hopefully my legs won't be destroyed again from the lunges and I'll be able to do some cardio tomorrow.
Random thoughts:
I love Wheat Germ. On a low carb diet, this stuff does a great job of not only giving you a good amount of protein and a feeling of fullness, but it also helps keep you regular. I highly recommend mixing Wheat Germ in with your morning protein shake.
I really like having some carbs in the form of fruits right after my work-outs. I generally eat a banana and some handfulls of blueberries. This much fruit does not knock me out of ketosis and I think it helps my muscles recover faster than they would without any carbs. And in general I recommend eating blueberries, as they may not only help you physically, but they may also help you mentally too! Check this blueberry article out.
I forgot to check my weight this morning. I'm such a dumbkoff.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Supplement mixing
I've been taking No-Xplode as a supplement on an empty stomach about 30 minutes before my workouts for over a week, but today I decided to skip this stuff to see if I noticed any change, and I found that my work-out went a little better. It's hard to describe, but I just felt more connected to my body and less head-rushy when my heartrate went up. I originally thought the problem was my switch to low carb, but thinking back, I'd couldn't recall feeling quite this way ever before, and after reading an article on how you shouldn't mix NO-Xplode with caffeine, I decided to try skipping it today. My work-out, even though I was a bit tired, felt a lot better. I'm not sure why that is (could be a one time fluke - I'll know for sure after a couple more work-outs), but I'm guessing that it is in part due to the amount of caffeine in No-Xplode, an amount which the manufacturer won't disclose. Yes, you read that right, they actually refuse to say. This is actually what their website's FAQ says:
"Q: How much caffeine is in N.O.-XPLODE™?
A: The amount of caffeine in N.O.-XPLODE™ cannot be disclosed due to the fact that it’s part of one of the proprietary complexes that make up the complete N.O.-XPLODE™ formula, namely the Ener-Tropic Xplosion complex, which contains methylxanthine, a specific form of caffeine."
Seriously?!? You won't say how much caffeine you put in your supplement which I'm taking in the hopes of improving my work-outs and ultimately my health? Wow, well fuck you then!
Yeah, the way it was making me feel was a little like when I've had too much caffeine, which is possible given that I often drink green tea to wake up before my work-outs and take a BCAA supplement that also has caffeine added, which definitely give me a nice pump, a pump people also describe getting with NO-Xplode. But yeah, perhaps twice the pump is not a good thing! Still, I'm not sure it was that exactly. But I do know that whatever it was that was making me feel kinda funky during my workouts, I definitely wasn't enjoying it, and it definitely went away when I didn't take NO-Xpode. And given the totally unhelpful data on the manufacturer's web-site, I'm probably never going to know if it was the caffeine or not, but I do know that I'm never buying this stuff, or any other BSN product, again!
Boring work-out-log-stuff: This morning I did 10 minutes, five forward and five reverse, on the elliptical machine at level 16, then about 2 minutes at 3.4 mph and 14 angle on the treadmill, but I got off the treadmill when I could feel my leg muscles were still tired from yesterday's sprints. I wanted them to be somewhat rested for lunges on day 4 of HST tomorrow, so, I moved over to the stationary bike and did 10 minutes at level 9 to 11 on that instead (which brought my heart rate up to the mid 130's, perfect!), followed by two minutes of jump-rope, two minutes of high intensity jumping-jacks and 20 straight front leg-kicks (the sort of sprinting exercise to top everything off, but which you want to do in a room by yourself because you look silly doing them).
Today I was exactly 238 (down a little from the 238 1/2 or so on the previous days).
"Q: How much caffeine is in N.O.-XPLODE™?
A: The amount of caffeine in N.O.-XPLODE™ cannot be disclosed due to the fact that it’s part of one of the proprietary complexes that make up the complete N.O.-XPLODE™ formula, namely the Ener-Tropic Xplosion complex, which contains methylxanthine, a specific form of caffeine."
Seriously?!? You won't say how much caffeine you put in your supplement which I'm taking in the hopes of improving my work-outs and ultimately my health? Wow, well fuck you then!
Yeah, the way it was making me feel was a little like when I've had too much caffeine, which is possible given that I often drink green tea to wake up before my work-outs and take a BCAA supplement that also has caffeine added, which definitely give me a nice pump, a pump people also describe getting with NO-Xplode. But yeah, perhaps twice the pump is not a good thing! Still, I'm not sure it was that exactly. But I do know that whatever it was that was making me feel kinda funky during my workouts, I definitely wasn't enjoying it, and it definitely went away when I didn't take NO-Xpode. And given the totally unhelpful data on the manufacturer's web-site, I'm probably never going to know if it was the caffeine or not, but I do know that I'm never buying this stuff, or any other BSN product, again!
Boring work-out-log-stuff: This morning I did 10 minutes, five forward and five reverse, on the elliptical machine at level 16, then about 2 minutes at 3.4 mph and 14 angle on the treadmill, but I got off the treadmill when I could feel my leg muscles were still tired from yesterday's sprints. I wanted them to be somewhat rested for lunges on day 4 of HST tomorrow, so, I moved over to the stationary bike and did 10 minutes at level 9 to 11 on that instead (which brought my heart rate up to the mid 130's, perfect!), followed by two minutes of jump-rope, two minutes of high intensity jumping-jacks and 20 straight front leg-kicks (the sort of sprinting exercise to top everything off, but which you want to do in a room by yourself because you look silly doing them).
Today I was exactly 238 (down a little from the 238 1/2 or so on the previous days).
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Stuff, Day 3 HST and Low Carb
Turned out that the lunges I complained about on Day 2 really kicked my ass, as in made my ass hurt like it had been kicked over and over and over by some sort of sadistic soccer player. When I woke up the next day I was definitely hurting like I had not hurt for awhile, so I decided to take the day off from the gym to let my body heal. Days where you don't go to the gym are a bit odd because without aerobic rush you get from a workout, you don't quite wake up completely until much later in the day.
And on the day I took off I very rarely left the couch because I was busy playing Fallout 3 with the little woman, who has really gotten into it since my last mention of it. Yes, we pretty much played games ALL day! We only got up for a little while to shower, do some cleaning, go down to the store to grab food for dinner and to cook. I think she also got up to do some laundry. I'm actually a bit disgusted by spending so much time in front of a game, but it was pretty fun and holy crap the cost vs. entertainment time is crazy good. We haven't spent this little money on a weekend... well, probably ever! Even so, I don't want to spend all our time playing games, even if we are enjoying them together. We live in a vibrant city now, with tons to do, so we need to make sure we take advantage of that.
Anyway, so yesterday was MLK day, and after spending part of the morning playing Fallout 3, I went to the gym and then later we drove down the Peninsula to have lunch with my grandmother and father. I was a bit worried that we would end up going somewhere I'd have to special order some low carb version of a plate, like a burger but with no bun, and that my grandmother would inquire as to why I was doing that, which would lead to me having to justify a low-carb diet to her, which wouldn't work and I'd be left feeling guilty because she would be left worrying about my health, but happily that didn't happen because we ended up in Max's, where they have a huge menu that includes a dish that is literally a one pound beef burger with brie cheese and no bun on a bed of greens (and potatoes, which I didn't eat). Wow, that was a long sentence, and wow, that was a perfect dish for my diet! Max's also had some non-sugar deserts, which tempted me, but I kept strong and didn't have any because I figured they were probably still high in carbs (like the sugar-free brownie... duh!). I was very close to getting some ice cream though...
After lunch, we hung out with my grandmother for a couple of hours before we hit the grocery store down there. Now we are lucky to have a good grocery store in our building, but it doesn't have quite the same selection as you find in the larger stores out in the suburbs, so we were able to pick up a few items we have been missing. For me, it was low carb ice cream and wheat germ. For her, it was pizza crust mix. We also hit Target for a few things we needed too. You know, after remembering that, I'm no longer sure we actually spent our least ever this weekend, but I could claim that since we went on Monday, it wasn't technically the weekend anymore. Whatever, even with the Monday expenditures, we've been good about spending this past couple weeks.
So, back to the boring part of this post, the day 3 of HST. Thanks to low-carb, yesterday morning was one of the hardest work-outs I can remember having. I started out with five minutes on the elliptical machine at level 16 to warm up, and already feeling low on energy. I felt fine through the chest and back lifts, but when I topped those off with pullups on the assisted lift machine, I found myself winded and struggling to find the energy to keep going. I literally felt levels of exhaustion like I usually only feel towards the end of a overly long work-out. Even my brain was struggling with what felt like extremely low blood sugar levels. But I pushed on, found enough Go to get me the next couple big muscle group/body exercises, squats and clean & presses, but man it was really hard. The end of my lifting consists of small muscle groups, like biceps, forearms and triceps, which didn't tax me too much, so I found enough energy to get on a stationary bike for five minutes at the end, but that was it. Working out while doing low-carb just sucks!
That general trend continued into this morning, in that I just don't have near the energy levels I have during my work-outs when I'm eating carbs. I woke up this morning and found that I felt great, as in no soreness left over from my lunges three days ago, nor the squats I did yesterday. So I went to the gym to do some cardio, starting with 10 minutes at level 16 on the elliptical machine (16 felt harder today than it ever has) and finishing with 15 minutes uphill (level 14) walking on the treadmill with two 15 second sprints at 9 mph. The lack of energy sucked, but there were two bright spots this morning:
The 1st is that Obama's inauguration was on TV, which was awesome. I didn't actually watch his swearing in there and then, I did that later at home with the woman, but watching the setup to it, with various leaders walking out on their way to the event, was a positive reminder that not only did our guy win, but that his win and his campaign are already historically significant events. I was reminded of my hope, or perhaps it's better to say that the hope I've had the audacity to feel again was stoked by what I saw, a record number of people out in the cold to see Obama sworn in as the President of the United States.
We watched the actual swearing in together, my arms around her, she holding her laptop on her lap (we watched in streamed live over the internet, as I couldn't get the TV to receive a clear broadcast signal - going to have to look into why that is) and crying. At one point, with Diane Finstein making the introductions at the podium, I looked out of our big windows at a beautiful day in the city and was very happy to be there, in that moment, in a city full of other Left-Coast San Francisco Democrats. Fuck Yeah!
Weight yesterday and today was 238.
Final Word: I've been taking fish oil supplements. I don't suggest taking them on an empty stomach before your workout as the burbs are horrible!
And on the day I took off I very rarely left the couch because I was busy playing Fallout 3 with the little woman, who has really gotten into it since my last mention of it. Yes, we pretty much played games ALL day! We only got up for a little while to shower, do some cleaning, go down to the store to grab food for dinner and to cook. I think she also got up to do some laundry. I'm actually a bit disgusted by spending so much time in front of a game, but it was pretty fun and holy crap the cost vs. entertainment time is crazy good. We haven't spent this little money on a weekend... well, probably ever! Even so, I don't want to spend all our time playing games, even if we are enjoying them together. We live in a vibrant city now, with tons to do, so we need to make sure we take advantage of that.
Anyway, so yesterday was MLK day, and after spending part of the morning playing Fallout 3, I went to the gym and then later we drove down the Peninsula to have lunch with my grandmother and father. I was a bit worried that we would end up going somewhere I'd have to special order some low carb version of a plate, like a burger but with no bun, and that my grandmother would inquire as to why I was doing that, which would lead to me having to justify a low-carb diet to her, which wouldn't work and I'd be left feeling guilty because she would be left worrying about my health, but happily that didn't happen because we ended up in Max's, where they have a huge menu that includes a dish that is literally a one pound beef burger with brie cheese and no bun on a bed of greens (and potatoes, which I didn't eat). Wow, that was a long sentence, and wow, that was a perfect dish for my diet! Max's also had some non-sugar deserts, which tempted me, but I kept strong and didn't have any because I figured they were probably still high in carbs (like the sugar-free brownie... duh!). I was very close to getting some ice cream though...
After lunch, we hung out with my grandmother for a couple of hours before we hit the grocery store down there. Now we are lucky to have a good grocery store in our building, but it doesn't have quite the same selection as you find in the larger stores out in the suburbs, so we were able to pick up a few items we have been missing. For me, it was low carb ice cream and wheat germ. For her, it was pizza crust mix. We also hit Target for a few things we needed too. You know, after remembering that, I'm no longer sure we actually spent our least ever this weekend, but I could claim that since we went on Monday, it wasn't technically the weekend anymore. Whatever, even with the Monday expenditures, we've been good about spending this past couple weeks.
So, back to the boring part of this post, the day 3 of HST. Thanks to low-carb, yesterday morning was one of the hardest work-outs I can remember having. I started out with five minutes on the elliptical machine at level 16 to warm up, and already feeling low on energy. I felt fine through the chest and back lifts, but when I topped those off with pullups on the assisted lift machine, I found myself winded and struggling to find the energy to keep going. I literally felt levels of exhaustion like I usually only feel towards the end of a overly long work-out. Even my brain was struggling with what felt like extremely low blood sugar levels. But I pushed on, found enough Go to get me the next couple big muscle group/body exercises, squats and clean & presses, but man it was really hard. The end of my lifting consists of small muscle groups, like biceps, forearms and triceps, which didn't tax me too much, so I found enough energy to get on a stationary bike for five minutes at the end, but that was it. Working out while doing low-carb just sucks!
That general trend continued into this morning, in that I just don't have near the energy levels I have during my work-outs when I'm eating carbs. I woke up this morning and found that I felt great, as in no soreness left over from my lunges three days ago, nor the squats I did yesterday. So I went to the gym to do some cardio, starting with 10 minutes at level 16 on the elliptical machine (16 felt harder today than it ever has) and finishing with 15 minutes uphill (level 14) walking on the treadmill with two 15 second sprints at 9 mph. The lack of energy sucked, but there were two bright spots this morning:
The 1st is that Obama's inauguration was on TV, which was awesome. I didn't actually watch his swearing in there and then, I did that later at home with the woman, but watching the setup to it, with various leaders walking out on their way to the event, was a positive reminder that not only did our guy win, but that his win and his campaign are already historically significant events. I was reminded of my hope, or perhaps it's better to say that the hope I've had the audacity to feel again was stoked by what I saw, a record number of people out in the cold to see Obama sworn in as the President of the United States.
We watched the actual swearing in together, my arms around her, she holding her laptop on her lap (we watched in streamed live over the internet, as I couldn't get the TV to receive a clear broadcast signal - going to have to look into why that is) and crying. At one point, with Diane Finstein making the introductions at the podium, I looked out of our big windows at a beautiful day in the city and was very happy to be there, in that moment, in a city full of other Left-Coast San Francisco Democrats. Fuck Yeah!
Weight yesterday and today was 238.
Final Word: I've been taking fish oil supplements. I don't suggest taking them on an empty stomach before your workout as the burbs are horrible!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Boring: 2nd Day HST
I'm going to start adding "Boring" to the tittles of my work-out logs, so anyone who happens to be reading this (which is probably no-one) will know to skip over these posts because they are pretty much going to bore you to death.... Lifting, dieting, HST, blah, blah, blah.... :P
My second HST lifting day went off pretty smooth. I think I've divided my exercises up just about right, including splitting Squat days and Lunge days up, because this morning I was all gung-ho to do both on the same day (even though the plan I put together said otherwise), but when I actually finished my lunges, I remembered why it was wise best not to combine them... my legs were shaking and I still had Dead-lifts to do (which use a lot of the same muscles as squats). Yeah, I'd have to say that Lunges were by far the most challenging of the exercises today, but I'm guessing that will change as the weights on all the others go up. Perhaps next time around I need to adjust the percentages on the lunge exercises, because if they are this hard to do 15 on the second day, I have no idea how I'm going to get through the last day of 15's on my sixth day!
In previous HST plans I had a hard time with assisted Pull-ups where my max weight at 5 reps did not correspond with my max weight at 15 reps. Basically, the formula I use where I find my max 5 rep rate and then drop 5% per workout down literally to the first day of 15 reps didn't work because I simply couldn't do 15 assisted pull-ups at the weights I came up (well, maybe for the first few 15 rep workouts, but not for the last half). But I made an adjustment this time around that seems to have done the trick. I've dropped 6% per work out from the max rather that 5%. I'm finding that while I can already feel the Pull-ups (so they are not too easy), I also feel like I can keep adding on weight for awhile and still do 15, which is how I feel with pretty much all the other exercises I'm doing, except maybe lunges. We'll see how lunges go and if I have the same problem, I'll adjust them down 6% next time around too.
Oh, I kicked off today's workout with 5 minutes on the elliptical at level 16. Not sure why level 16 feels a ton harder than level 15 (15 doesn't feel that different than 14, or even 13), but it is. So of course, that's my new challenge; to get comfortable with level 16 and have that be my normal workout level.
I forgot to weigh myself again this morning. I know I'm around 138 or so, but I need to measure this on more than one day to get an average, especially given the variance in water weight I suspect I have (or had?). I'm going to get my work-out plan out right now and write a reminder at the bottom to jump on the scale at the end.
Still in ketosis. Need to buy some more ketone sticks. It's funny, I did low-carb for a year or more before I discovered ketone sticks, and I did just fine, so I know I really don't need them, but good lord they are fun to check on a regular basis. They're sort of like Daily Affirmations, which I'd post a link to on Youtube, but I can't find the Stewart Smalley ones (stupid copywrite!).
My second HST lifting day went off pretty smooth. I think I've divided my exercises up just about right, including splitting Squat days and Lunge days up, because this morning I was all gung-ho to do both on the same day (even though the plan I put together said otherwise), but when I actually finished my lunges, I remembered why it was wise best not to combine them... my legs were shaking and I still had Dead-lifts to do (which use a lot of the same muscles as squats). Yeah, I'd have to say that Lunges were by far the most challenging of the exercises today, but I'm guessing that will change as the weights on all the others go up. Perhaps next time around I need to adjust the percentages on the lunge exercises, because if they are this hard to do 15 on the second day, I have no idea how I'm going to get through the last day of 15's on my sixth day!
In previous HST plans I had a hard time with assisted Pull-ups where my max weight at 5 reps did not correspond with my max weight at 15 reps. Basically, the formula I use where I find my max 5 rep rate and then drop 5% per workout down literally to the first day of 15 reps didn't work because I simply couldn't do 15 assisted pull-ups at the weights I came up (well, maybe for the first few 15 rep workouts, but not for the last half). But I made an adjustment this time around that seems to have done the trick. I've dropped 6% per work out from the max rather that 5%. I'm finding that while I can already feel the Pull-ups (so they are not too easy), I also feel like I can keep adding on weight for awhile and still do 15, which is how I feel with pretty much all the other exercises I'm doing, except maybe lunges. We'll see how lunges go and if I have the same problem, I'll adjust them down 6% next time around too.
Oh, I kicked off today's workout with 5 minutes on the elliptical at level 16. Not sure why level 16 feels a ton harder than level 15 (15 doesn't feel that different than 14, or even 13), but it is. So of course, that's my new challenge; to get comfortable with level 16 and have that be my normal workout level.
I forgot to weigh myself again this morning. I know I'm around 138 or so, but I need to measure this on more than one day to get an average, especially given the variance in water weight I suspect I have (or had?). I'm going to get my work-out plan out right now and write a reminder at the bottom to jump on the scale at the end.
Still in ketosis. Need to buy some more ketone sticks. It's funny, I did low-carb for a year or more before I discovered ketone sticks, and I did just fine, so I know I really don't need them, but good lord they are fun to check on a regular basis. They're sort of like Daily Affirmations, which I'd post a link to on Youtube, but I can't find the Stewart Smalley ones (stupid copywrite!).
Thursday, January 15, 2009
First Day of HST
Yesterday I did my first day of HST lifting, which means I was doing pretty light weights for 15 reps per exercise, and not surprisingly it was really easy, as well as a bit embarrassing. See the way HST works is that instead of doing the traditional 3 or so sets of each exercise on a given day, then doing that again around 4 or 5 days later (which is about how long you really should wait if you want to make gains in your lifting), you do one set per day, every other day, three times per week (you give yourself a workout weekend every week), adding about 5% more weight to the exercise with each workout. The idea is that you are doing roughly the same number of sets over time (three per week), but you are always increasing the load you are lifting, and this progressive load stimulates your muscle growth more efficiently.
Anyway, so you start with two weeks of progressive loading doing 15 reps per exercise, then drop to 10 reps for two weeks and finally finish off the program with two weeks of 5 reps per exercise. But remember that each day you go up in weight by about 5%, so by the end of the program, on the very last day, you are lifting the maximum amount of weight that you are able to for five reps.
So HST starts off deceptively easy, with the first day feeling very light, and as I already mentioned, you feeling a bit embarrassed. I mean, here you have been lifting for awhile, built up to heavier and heavier weights, until you are no longer the newbie lifter in the gym, then suddenly you drop to a weight below even where you started! For instance, my max squatfor 5 reps is currently is 205 lbs (actually, it's more than that, but while I'm doing low carb I'm weaker, so I figured I give myself a realistic goal), but yesterday I was doing only 85 lbs. for my first day of HST while a girl next to me was doing about 30 lbs. more than that. WEAK!
Anyway, but the nice thing about doing HST is that I enjoy full body workouts, and that's what I'm able to do in under an hour on this program. I get into the gym, do everything quickly, hit every muscle group and then I'm done. It's also great (did I say this same stuff in my previous post?) because while I'm on low carb, my body can't do more than about an hour anyway, much less find the energy to push each muscle group to lift near max more than one set. So it works out well.
Speaking of low carb, I pulled out the sticks Wednesday night and I was already in Ketosis, which was still true for the first HST workout yesterday (and my cardio work-out today). I was able to get into Ketosis so quickly because I did cardio (10 minutes) , sprints (15 minutes) and a jumping-jack/jump-rope combo (3 minutes) in the gym on both Tuesday and Wednesday, so I must of burned up all my glucose stores. So, it's all gravy (or actually fat) from now on.
Yeah, this was a boring post... perhaps I'll have more energy for more creative writing later, but right now my blood sugar levels are just too low :P
Anyway, so you start with two weeks of progressive loading doing 15 reps per exercise, then drop to 10 reps for two weeks and finally finish off the program with two weeks of 5 reps per exercise. But remember that each day you go up in weight by about 5%, so by the end of the program, on the very last day, you are lifting the maximum amount of weight that you are able to for five reps.
So HST starts off deceptively easy, with the first day feeling very light, and as I already mentioned, you feeling a bit embarrassed. I mean, here you have been lifting for awhile, built up to heavier and heavier weights, until you are no longer the newbie lifter in the gym, then suddenly you drop to a weight below even where you started! For instance, my max squatfor 5 reps is currently is 205 lbs (actually, it's more than that, but while I'm doing low carb I'm weaker, so I figured I give myself a realistic goal), but yesterday I was doing only 85 lbs. for my first day of HST while a girl next to me was doing about 30 lbs. more than that. WEAK!
Anyway, but the nice thing about doing HST is that I enjoy full body workouts, and that's what I'm able to do in under an hour on this program. I get into the gym, do everything quickly, hit every muscle group and then I'm done. It's also great (did I say this same stuff in my previous post?) because while I'm on low carb, my body can't do more than about an hour anyway, much less find the energy to push each muscle group to lift near max more than one set. So it works out well.
Speaking of low carb, I pulled out the sticks Wednesday night and I was already in Ketosis, which was still true for the first HST workout yesterday (and my cardio work-out today). I was able to get into Ketosis so quickly because I did cardio (10 minutes) , sprints (15 minutes) and a jumping-jack/jump-rope combo (3 minutes) in the gym on both Tuesday and Wednesday, so I must of burned up all my glucose stores. So, it's all gravy (or actually fat) from now on.
Yeah, this was a boring post... perhaps I'll have more energy for more creative writing later, but right now my blood sugar levels are just too low :P
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Today at the Gym
Today at the gym I started with 10 minutes at level 15 at full ramp height (20) on the elliptical machine. I was listening to the Above and Beyond Trance Around the World podcast, and it was an especially good week. Well, maybe not as good as the weeks they spent in Singapore (or am I confusing Singapore with Thailand? It may have been Thailand) which had lots of great female vocals mixed it, but the energy in this particular week's episode, which was based on sets done in Eastern Europe (Poland?) was really high. I wonder if that's that pattern, Eastern Europe = high energy, deep base mostly non-vocal tracks, which Asia = female vocals and a more trippy trance-like sound.
Anyway, after I finished forward and and reverse patterns on the machine, I switched over to the treadmill for 15 minutes of walking and sprinting. I had the incline set to around 11 (not sure if this corresponds to degrees or percentage) and the walking speed at 3.4 mph, and for the three 15 second sprints I upped the speed to 8.5 to 9 mph. It probably takes between 10 and 15 seconds to get from 3.4 to 8.5, not just because the belt has to speed up, but because you can't just push the increase speed button and have it go up to 8.5. One press and hold of the button will cause the speed to only increase by a maximum of 1.5 mph or so, probably as a safety mechanism, but this is really annoying when you are trying to push the button until it finally gets up to a challenging sprint level AND run at the same time!
Anyway, this is pretty much the most boring post EVER! How can I spice this up a bit? If I mentioned that after my run I did a couple minutes of jump roping, would that save it? No, probably not...
Fuck it, it's too late and this is my blog after all, so I'm just going to keep going.
When I got in the elevator up to the apartment, an attractive girl got on at the same time with her dog, which she directed to "please sit", and because my father recently got a new dog that we've been working on giving positive training feedback to, I immediately responded "good dog!" when it followed her directions. I think she took this as some sort of flirtation because she started telling me how beautiful of a day outside it was... and in my post-sprinting/jump-roping state all I could muster in response was "Is that right?". Then we enjoyed several long seconds of silence punctuated only by my continued heavy breathing. She quickly got off on the floor beneath mine, probably thankful that I didn't follow her off...
So the awesome part about doing sprints is they stimulate your metabolism (something to do with mimicking flight-or-fight modes) so that your heart rate stays up long after you finish your workout, you continue to burn fat and they supposedly stimulate more muscle growth. The not-so-awesome part is that you run hot for long after too, which means, at least for me, you sweat, which sucks if you have to get ready for work right away. So to minimize the chance of showing up for work in wet clothes, I literally take cold showers to cool down. It's either that, or I have to sit around cooling off for about an hour before I get dressed, which I simply don't have time for most days. So, it's cold showers in the morning for me, which I'm guessing that everyone will agree just sucks, the cold part that is, not the showers. And the worst part is that even though I take a cold shower, about five minutes after I get out, I still tend to start running hot again, and that was true this morning.
So I got on the bus still sweating and plopped down to listen to the latest podcast of This American Life, a radio show on NPR that is generally pretty funny (I like it enough that I sent them money). But the last two episodes or so have been kinda depressing. The end of last week's was a story about a man falling in love and how it ended, and the first part of this week's was about a man in Afghanistan who fell in love with a woman that he couldn't afford to marry, who then got money from some Western Aid workers, but it turned out the families dissaproved so he ended up using the money for an arranged marriage. WTF? I wanted to hear funny or at the very least thoughtful stories, not ones that would have me arriving at work bummed out! On the other hand, the people on the bus proably prefer the later, as that means they don't have to wonder if the big sweaty red haired guy laughing in the seat next to them is going to do something... well, odd I suppose.
Anyway, after I finished forward and and reverse patterns on the machine, I switched over to the treadmill for 15 minutes of walking and sprinting. I had the incline set to around 11 (not sure if this corresponds to degrees or percentage) and the walking speed at 3.4 mph, and for the three 15 second sprints I upped the speed to 8.5 to 9 mph. It probably takes between 10 and 15 seconds to get from 3.4 to 8.5, not just because the belt has to speed up, but because you can't just push the increase speed button and have it go up to 8.5. One press and hold of the button will cause the speed to only increase by a maximum of 1.5 mph or so, probably as a safety mechanism, but this is really annoying when you are trying to push the button until it finally gets up to a challenging sprint level AND run at the same time!
Anyway, this is pretty much the most boring post EVER! How can I spice this up a bit? If I mentioned that after my run I did a couple minutes of jump roping, would that save it? No, probably not...
Fuck it, it's too late and this is my blog after all, so I'm just going to keep going.
When I got in the elevator up to the apartment, an attractive girl got on at the same time with her dog, which she directed to "please sit", and because my father recently got a new dog that we've been working on giving positive training feedback to, I immediately responded "good dog!" when it followed her directions. I think she took this as some sort of flirtation because she started telling me how beautiful of a day outside it was... and in my post-sprinting/jump-roping state all I could muster in response was "Is that right?". Then we enjoyed several long seconds of silence punctuated only by my continued heavy breathing. She quickly got off on the floor beneath mine, probably thankful that I didn't follow her off...
So the awesome part about doing sprints is they stimulate your metabolism (something to do with mimicking flight-or-fight modes) so that your heart rate stays up long after you finish your workout, you continue to burn fat and they supposedly stimulate more muscle growth. The not-so-awesome part is that you run hot for long after too, which means, at least for me, you sweat, which sucks if you have to get ready for work right away. So to minimize the chance of showing up for work in wet clothes, I literally take cold showers to cool down. It's either that, or I have to sit around cooling off for about an hour before I get dressed, which I simply don't have time for most days. So, it's cold showers in the morning for me, which I'm guessing that everyone will agree just sucks, the cold part that is, not the showers. And the worst part is that even though I take a cold shower, about five minutes after I get out, I still tend to start running hot again, and that was true this morning.
So I got on the bus still sweating and plopped down to listen to the latest podcast of This American Life, a radio show on NPR that is generally pretty funny (I like it enough that I sent them money). But the last two episodes or so have been kinda depressing. The end of last week's was a story about a man falling in love and how it ended, and the first part of this week's was about a man in Afghanistan who fell in love with a woman that he couldn't afford to marry, who then got money from some Western Aid workers, but it turned out the families dissaproved so he ended up using the money for an arranged marriage. WTF? I wanted to hear funny or at the very least thoughtful stories, not ones that would have me arriving at work bummed out! On the other hand, the people on the bus proably prefer the later, as that means they don't have to wonder if the big sweaty red haired guy laughing in the seat next to them is going to do something... well, odd I suppose.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Low Carb and HST
I've managed to put on a fair amount of muscle and up my max weight in all my exercises this past six weeks or so in the new gym here in my new home town, but I've also put on some fat, my work-outs are taking a little too much time for my schedule, and from experience I know that when you reach your max, you're likely to plateau there for awhile unless you mix it up. So, it's time for a change. Today I started in on a low carb diet and am switching over HST work outs for the next six weeks or seven weeks.
I say low carb, because I still plan to still eat some carbs in the form of fruits (mostly bananas and blue berries) and vegetables, and some of my supplements contain enough carbs to technically violate the induction phase rules for Atkins. But I found last time I did this that I still managed to go into and stay in ketosis, probably because my work-outs were intense enough to burn off any glucose I was accumulating, which was nice because you simply feel better (and I'm guessing it's just plain healthier) when you eat fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.
I haven't started my HST workouts yet, as I still have a couple of more days of strategic deconditioning before I start lifting again. I'm guessing that I'll either be in ketosis by then, or I'll be just on the edge and the lifting will put me over. But since I'm still doing fairly intense cardio at the gym, it won't surprise me if I get into ketosis sooner. We'll just have to see.
I'm really hoping that combining HST and low carb, along with keeping my work-outs very intense, will be the magic bullet in terms of fat loss and no muscle loss. Perhaps it will be extra extra magic and I'll even gain some muscle too (conventional wisdom is that you can't "cut" and gain muscle or strength at the same time)! Yeah, I'm not holding my breath on that last one, but it would be nice and I have heard more than once that high intensity work-outs stimulate the body in ways that allow for muscle growth even when dieting.
It really is time to loose some fat though, both because I want to look better, but also because I've apparently started snoring. The snoring could very well be the result of something else, but I'm guessing that if I loose 15 to 20 pounds that I'll stop. That said, I'll be very happy if I loose 10 pounds in the next six weeks, so if I'm going to hit my goals, I'll have to keep on going past my current plans. But I've found that for me (and in game development) six week goals work well; six weeks is short enough that you can visualize and feel the finish line, but are long enough that you can still set significant milestones to aim for. I'll set a new six week goal once I finish this one.
I say low carb, because I still plan to still eat some carbs in the form of fruits (mostly bananas and blue berries) and vegetables, and some of my supplements contain enough carbs to technically violate the induction phase rules for Atkins. But I found last time I did this that I still managed to go into and stay in ketosis, probably because my work-outs were intense enough to burn off any glucose I was accumulating, which was nice because you simply feel better (and I'm guessing it's just plain healthier) when you eat fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.
I haven't started my HST workouts yet, as I still have a couple of more days of strategic deconditioning before I start lifting again. I'm guessing that I'll either be in ketosis by then, or I'll be just on the edge and the lifting will put me over. But since I'm still doing fairly intense cardio at the gym, it won't surprise me if I get into ketosis sooner. We'll just have to see.
I'm really hoping that combining HST and low carb, along with keeping my work-outs very intense, will be the magic bullet in terms of fat loss and no muscle loss. Perhaps it will be extra extra magic and I'll even gain some muscle too (conventional wisdom is that you can't "cut" and gain muscle or strength at the same time)! Yeah, I'm not holding my breath on that last one, but it would be nice and I have heard more than once that high intensity work-outs stimulate the body in ways that allow for muscle growth even when dieting.
It really is time to loose some fat though, both because I want to look better, but also because I've apparently started snoring. The snoring could very well be the result of something else, but I'm guessing that if I loose 15 to 20 pounds that I'll stop. That said, I'll be very happy if I loose 10 pounds in the next six weeks, so if I'm going to hit my goals, I'll have to keep on going past my current plans. But I've found that for me (and in game development) six week goals work well; six weeks is short enough that you can visualize and feel the finish line, but are long enough that you can still set significant milestones to aim for. I'll set a new six week goal once I finish this one.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Jacuzzi Bioshock
We finally finished playing Bioshock this past weekend. We actually started it about nine months ago, but then we moved, and moved again, then moved yet again, and it's only now that we are settled in SF that we decided to get back into it. I say "we" not because I like to refer to myself in the plural, but actually as in my girl and I, as we have been playing together. Yeah, I know there is no co-op in Bioshock, but it's an adventure game that can be entertaining for even those not playing, and these next-to-you-on-the-couch-drivers can actually help sometimes, especially if they want to throw out ideas of what to do next ("try shooting an electric bolt at that broken door panel"), or point out to the person playing stuff they may have missed ("there's money on the floor right there"), or just help when you're trying to hack stuff ("the bendy piece you need is right there! ").
We actually had a lot of fun playing through the game together, and I credit her being there for getting as many achievements as we did (46 out of 51, or 840 points out of a possible 1100 - not bad for one playthrough). Now the challenge is going to be finding another game she can enjoy watching me play and participate at that level in getting through... I've tried Fallout 3, Left for Dead, Dead Space and Rock Band 2, but none of them have captured her imagination like Bioshock did. They just don't have the same pacing, compelling presentation and/or feeling of a backstory. I'm going to try the New Prince of Persia next to see if she digs that, but I'm thinking I may wait a few days or a week before I try, as I think her love of the Bioshock look and feel may need to fade a bit before she is ready to commit to a new game world.
I have to say that I'm kind of enjoying Fallout 3 so far. I don't easily get into RPG's anymore because I often can't help but see through the game and characters to the database driving its system, but the post nuclear war scenario is interesting enough to keep me curious, I like the fact that there is an alignment system that affects the way the game rolls out (at least it feels like it does, which is good enough) and so far I haven't grown tired with the exploration aspect of the game (probably in large part because you can jump to places you've visited before rather than having to walk or run there again across the hugeness of the world).
Deadspace is a nice adventure game so far, but I've only just started it, so we'll see how it turns out. My first impression is that it pretty cliche, but well done enough to keep playing.
Left 4 Dead I'm also just starting, but my first impression honestly was, well two impression actually - 1. Crap, this game really wants me to play co-op, and 2. These zombies offend me with their running! Don't get me wrong, co-op and multiplayer games rock, but for whatever reason my initial reaction to them is often like first getting into a pool; jumping in is hard, but once I'm in, I know I'll get used to the water and totally enjoy myself. I just need to have a few hours to devote to it and then I can take the plunge. On the running zombies, I just wasn't expecting them... I loved the fast zombies in 28 Days Later , because they were different, but when I sat down to play Left 4 Dead I was expecting the slow moving kind that I would require me to stay calm and think tactically about how to defeat or get around. The running kind combined with pistols with infinite ammo immediately forced me to be more twitchy about my game play style. It doesn't help that I just finished reading "Day by Day Armageddon", another slow moving zombie novel.
Rock Band 2... well, I'm not convinced I can't get her hooked yet. I just need her to find a song she likes that she can do well on. But I may just be doomed as she is more of a dancer than a musician. Even on New Years, when I brought Rock Band 2 up to my sister's friend's cabin and everyone (pretty much all non-gamers) played it for like six hours, she just didn't get into it, so it may be a hopeless cause. I think I'm going to give it one more shot and ask her to play a bit on her own, so she can practice without anyone watching or comparing her abilities to theirs. Maybe I'll spin it as a game where she could conceivably become better at it than me since our experience playing these kinds of games is virtually the same. Yeah, that might be the ticket.
Speaking of New Years, my sister called on Monday to inform me that her friend had caught some sort of skin infection from the Jacuzzi we all hung out drinking in that night. Folic-cue-lite-ous (no idea how it's spelled) was what it is called, and the symptoms are red spots all over your body. A skin infection? Fabulous! That's exactly what I need! But it turns out I didn't have it. In fact, it's apparently one of those things that everyone pretty much has, the bugs that cause it I mean, like staff infections, but sometimes people's immune systems can't handle it, or they get a strain they've never encountered, or whatever... I was just happy to not have red spots all over my body and to not have to find a doctor here yet. I mean seriously, if you are going to get a disease that you need to see a doctor for from being a jacuzzi, then you want something more interesting than that right?!? Well, er, on second thought, perhaps not if your sister was one of the people in the jacuzzi with you.
We actually had a lot of fun playing through the game together, and I credit her being there for getting as many achievements as we did (46 out of 51, or 840 points out of a possible 1100 - not bad for one playthrough). Now the challenge is going to be finding another game she can enjoy watching me play and participate at that level in getting through... I've tried Fallout 3, Left for Dead, Dead Space and Rock Band 2, but none of them have captured her imagination like Bioshock did. They just don't have the same pacing, compelling presentation and/or feeling of a backstory. I'm going to try the New Prince of Persia next to see if she digs that, but I'm thinking I may wait a few days or a week before I try, as I think her love of the Bioshock look and feel may need to fade a bit before she is ready to commit to a new game world.
I have to say that I'm kind of enjoying Fallout 3 so far. I don't easily get into RPG's anymore because I often can't help but see through the game and characters to the database driving its system, but the post nuclear war scenario is interesting enough to keep me curious, I like the fact that there is an alignment system that affects the way the game rolls out (at least it feels like it does, which is good enough) and so far I haven't grown tired with the exploration aspect of the game (probably in large part because you can jump to places you've visited before rather than having to walk or run there again across the hugeness of the world).
Deadspace is a nice adventure game so far, but I've only just started it, so we'll see how it turns out. My first impression is that it pretty cliche, but well done enough to keep playing.
Left 4 Dead I'm also just starting, but my first impression honestly was, well two impression actually - 1. Crap, this game really wants me to play co-op, and 2. These zombies offend me with their running! Don't get me wrong, co-op and multiplayer games rock, but for whatever reason my initial reaction to them is often like first getting into a pool; jumping in is hard, but once I'm in, I know I'll get used to the water and totally enjoy myself. I just need to have a few hours to devote to it and then I can take the plunge. On the running zombies, I just wasn't expecting them... I loved the fast zombies in 28 Days Later , because they were different, but when I sat down to play Left 4 Dead I was expecting the slow moving kind that I would require me to stay calm and think tactically about how to defeat or get around. The running kind combined with pistols with infinite ammo immediately forced me to be more twitchy about my game play style. It doesn't help that I just finished reading "Day by Day Armageddon", another slow moving zombie novel.
Rock Band 2... well, I'm not convinced I can't get her hooked yet. I just need her to find a song she likes that she can do well on. But I may just be doomed as she is more of a dancer than a musician. Even on New Years, when I brought Rock Band 2 up to my sister's friend's cabin and everyone (pretty much all non-gamers) played it for like six hours, she just didn't get into it, so it may be a hopeless cause. I think I'm going to give it one more shot and ask her to play a bit on her own, so she can practice without anyone watching or comparing her abilities to theirs. Maybe I'll spin it as a game where she could conceivably become better at it than me since our experience playing these kinds of games is virtually the same. Yeah, that might be the ticket.
Speaking of New Years, my sister called on Monday to inform me that her friend had caught some sort of skin infection from the Jacuzzi we all hung out drinking in that night. Folic-cue-lite-ous (no idea how it's spelled) was what it is called, and the symptoms are red spots all over your body. A skin infection? Fabulous! That's exactly what I need! But it turns out I didn't have it. In fact, it's apparently one of those things that everyone pretty much has, the bugs that cause it I mean, like staff infections, but sometimes people's immune systems can't handle it, or they get a strain they've never encountered, or whatever... I was just happy to not have red spots all over my body and to not have to find a doctor here yet. I mean seriously, if you are going to get a disease that you need to see a doctor for from being a jacuzzi, then you want something more interesting than that right?!? Well, er, on second thought, perhaps not if your sister was one of the people in the jacuzzi with you.
Personal Best
Today I achieved a personal best doing squats. 205 lbs for two sets of six reps (my first set was a warm-up at only 135 lbs.). That's up from my 195 lb work-out last week on New Years Eve, which was a TERRIBLE idea because apparently lifting at your max on the same day as consuming large amounts of alcohol, sitting in a hot jacuzzi for an hour and playing Rock Band 2 until the wee hours of the morning do NOT mix well... I could barely walk for two days.
I followed up the squats with 80 lb walking lunges (basically, you lunge forward holding a 40 lb dumbbell in each hand, a bit like doing the Monty Python Silly Walk around the gym) for two sets of 16 reps, three sets of seated machine calf raises at 135 lbs, and three sets on the leg abductor machines at 180 lbs for inner and 150 lbs for outer. Then I did two sets of back extensions holding a 25 lb plate, because I realized I'd missed that one on my last back day. Actually I haven't been doing back extensions lately, so I'm still going light on the weight (can't be too careful). Before we left Madison, I was regularly doing them with a 45 lb weight, but while you can hobble around with destroyed legs, or have laughter turn into tears when you've blown your abs, I've found that doing the same to your lower back muscles by pushing them too hard is just not a good idea, so I went easy.
Anyway, it was a great workout, and even at my new max squat, my legs felt totally strong, like I could do more weight with no problem, so I'm probably going to do one more leg workout on Sunday and see if I can do 215 lbs before I get back on a low carb diet to "cut". I say before because the minute I go low carb, I've found my max workout weights drop significantly, around 20%. As my body adjusts, they slowly go back up, but never to where they are when I'm eating yummy carbs and sugars.
After my workout, I seriously thought about creating a fantasy blog called something along the lines of "You're a Fat-Assed Pussy!". It would be written from the perspective of a hard-core gym-rat/personal trainer named Hugh G., and contain actual useful information mixed in with extensive "motivational" verbal abuse. We'll see if I actually get to it or not :P
I followed up the squats with 80 lb walking lunges (basically, you lunge forward holding a 40 lb dumbbell in each hand, a bit like doing the Monty Python Silly Walk around the gym) for two sets of 16 reps, three sets of seated machine calf raises at 135 lbs, and three sets on the leg abductor machines at 180 lbs for inner and 150 lbs for outer. Then I did two sets of back extensions holding a 25 lb plate, because I realized I'd missed that one on my last back day. Actually I haven't been doing back extensions lately, so I'm still going light on the weight (can't be too careful). Before we left Madison, I was regularly doing them with a 45 lb weight, but while you can hobble around with destroyed legs, or have laughter turn into tears when you've blown your abs, I've found that doing the same to your lower back muscles by pushing them too hard is just not a good idea, so I went easy.
Anyway, it was a great workout, and even at my new max squat, my legs felt totally strong, like I could do more weight with no problem, so I'm probably going to do one more leg workout on Sunday and see if I can do 215 lbs before I get back on a low carb diet to "cut". I say before because the minute I go low carb, I've found my max workout weights drop significantly, around 20%. As my body adjusts, they slowly go back up, but never to where they are when I'm eating yummy carbs and sugars.
After my workout, I seriously thought about creating a fantasy blog called something along the lines of "You're a Fat-Assed Pussy!". It would be written from the perspective of a hard-core gym-rat/personal trainer named Hugh G., and contain actual useful information mixed in with extensive "motivational" verbal abuse. We'll see if I actually get to it or not :P
Friday, January 2, 2009
It's not cold here
San Francisco is not cold, in fact, it is never really cold. Yes, you do often have to put on a jacket here, and it should have windbreaker characteristics, but I'm pretty sure I'll never, ever, ever need my 15 pound arctic expedition inspired North Face jacket that now lives in a plastic container under our bed.
So whenever my woman complains about the cold here in our new home town, I remind her of the time it was -14 degrees Fahrenheit and she thought we were going to die from exposure during our three block walk/suitcase-snow-ice-drag from our place in Chicago to the Blue Line train station.
I realized something that day about her: if it is chilly out, she will definitely whine about it (she likes the attention), but if it's actually cold, as in Midwest cold, she gets very, very quiet...
So whenever my woman complains about the cold here in our new home town, I remind her of the time it was -14 degrees Fahrenheit and she thought we were going to die from exposure during our three block walk/suitcase-snow-ice-drag from our place in Chicago to the Blue Line train station.
I realized something that day about her: if it is chilly out, she will definitely whine about it (she likes the attention), but if it's actually cold, as in Midwest cold, she gets very, very quiet...
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