intofitness.net

Other than a couple of weeks ago on NBC TV’s The Biggest Loser, I had never seen a really fat person do pull-ups. It’s so unlikely isn’t it? I mean how does someone who weighs in excess of 280 pounds with gravity acting on that mass pull themselves up over a bar? I know for a fact that it’s difficult to do.

Do you remember those physical fitness tests you had to take in middle school P.E.?  Never mind about the trauma of undressing in front of people in the locker room.  Maybe you were the type that looked forward to physical fitness testing: the sit-ups, the push-ups, the mile run, and yes, the dreaded pull-ups.  Were you the one that could do 15 pull-ups, and keep going and going like the Energizer bunny?  Were you able to do 80 sit-ups in three minutes and 100 pushups in the same amount of time?  I remember being envious of those athletic people in gym class.

As for me, I was the short, fat kid who couldn’t do anything, maybe 5 push-ups and 18 sit-ups on a good day.  The most humiliating thing was to go to the pull-up bar, knowing that it would take a huge effort just to get my hands on the bar, and then not be able to do a single pull-up.  Pretty much it was only the girls and the fat kids who couldn’t do pull-ups at that age.  Just one of the few reasons I hated P.E…

I just can’t believe what happened today at the gym during my workout.

I was getting ready to do a “negative” pull-up.  That’s when you jump up to the highest position you can just below the top of the pull-up bar, and let yourself down as slow as you can.  These “negative” exercises are designed to build up the strength to perform difficult exercises.  My trainer says that negative pull-ups help you to get better at performing the bench press, and obviously, better at doing pull-ups.  I’ve been doing this negative pull-up exercise for about two weeks now, maybe only three times total.

So I get my hands on the bars, and was just about to hang, when I sensed additional strength in me.  And then I actually pulled my head over the top of the bar!

Un-be-lievable!  I actually did a pull-up, and not just one pull-up, but a total of 16. My five sets of pull-ups were: 5, 3, 2, 3, and 3.  Wow.  These pull-ups were 42 years in the making.  I’m totally stoked.

Reaching 179 lbs by Greek food is definitely not the way to gain weight.  But that’s what happened after Saturday night’s dinner party.  We had some neighbors over to thank them for their generosity in letting us borrow stuff while we had lots of family staying in our home for our son’s recent wedding.  It was no holds barred on the Greek food:  pastitsio, Greek chicken, spanakopita, and Greek salad.  Maria even made carrot cake.  That morning I weighed in at 177, so the next day’s 179.6 was not a pleasant sight for me on the scale.

To offset the planned Greek food, I went on a 5-mile run Saturday morning down to the gym and back.  It was an easy run, but strangely, I felt a little lethargic.  In any case, the 700 calories I burned were not enough to offset my overeating later than night.

To compensate for the unwanted weight gain, I burned over 1700 calories in the gym Sunday:  spin class, abs workout, and a short upper body workout at LA|FITNESS, and then my leg workout at 24Hour Fitness later in the evening.  I sure did sweat a lot on Sunday, but I think the two protein shakes I drank gave me some constipation this morning.  Even so, I was able to drop down to 178.8 lbs.  Surely, if I had had a BM (as my trainer likes to say… stands for “bowel movement”), I would have been at my previous 177 lbs on the scale this morning.

Last night I used my new 24Hour Fitness membership for the first time.  LA|FITNESS closes at 8:00 PM on weekends.  I have to say that the 24Hour in Escondido looks good on the outside, but compared to the new LA|FITNESS, it was definitely an eyesore inside with old equipment.  But there could far worse things.  I am fortunate to be a member at both clubs.

My Lower Body workout routine was good.  I think my least favorite part is the squats, especially the split stance squats where you put one leg in front of the other.  I do them on the Smith machine, and it’s just not comfortable for me right now.  I feel a little hesitant, like I might drop the bar and hurt my back.  The split stance is more difficult that the regular front squats because on the front ones, I can support the weight with both of my legs directly under the weight.  In any case, I sure did sweat a lot … to the tune of about 400 calories.

I continued my new running program this morning before work.  Again, I did about 3 miles.  I felt strong in the legs, probably from the strength training from last night.  But strangely, my pace was a little slower than last week’s.  It’s hard to say why.  The whole run felt good.  I was motivated.  Maybe I got lulled into a slow pace by how easy the run felt.  I will be sure to push myself harder when I feel that strong in my legs.

I’ll find out the answer to that question this evening during my training session because I’ve asked my trainer to take me through my Upper Body routine so I can experience what the pace, intensity, and weight levels are supposed to be like. I don’t think my workouts are intense enough. Let me rephrase that: I’m not intense enough during my workouts. Especially during this Power phase.

I suspect that my “breaks” in between sets and exercises are a tad too long. The pace of exercise is probably too “fast” when it should be a little slower and gritty.

Sure. Some of this uneasiness could be learning these three new routines. I’ve only finished one full rotation of all three, and it could very well be that after one or two more full rotations, my confidence in performing the exercises correctly will increase to the point where I can get more intense.

That’s the way I felt during the other two phases in the past four months.

My intensity does need to decrease when it comes to my weight… on the scale that is. This morning I weighed in at 177 lbs, which caused me to freak out … for just a little bit.  I’m curious to see what body fat % my skinfold measurements yield tonight. If they are the same or lower than last week’s, then I’m okay with the quantity of food I’ve been eating, which ranges from 2500 - 3000 kcal/day while burning anywhere from 400 - 800 kcal/day.

I’m really enjoying the new “Power Phase” workouts my trainer (Murray) has me doing.  I think the terminology he uses is based on the Optimum Performance Training (OPT) model from his NASM Certification.  He’s taking me through the OPT Model for Sports Performance Clients — on the previous link, see the cool diagram at the bottom of the page.  Since I’ve worked with him the last four months, I’ve gone through the Stabilization and Strength phases, so now I’m learning some new workout routines in the Power phase.

What’s nice is that my workouts are only 8 exercises for each of three routines: Upper Body, Lower Body, and Total Body.  So far I’ve tried the Upper and Lower; today at the gym, I plan to do the Total Body workout for the first time.  The weight/sets/reps philosophy behind this phase is heavier weights at fewer reps performed in 3 - 5 sets.  Murray says I should expect to gain about five pounds in weight during this phase with about 1.5 pounds of it in new muscle mass.  He says the rest of the weight will be water weight.  What’s exciting about this weight gain is that he says I should also see my body fat percentage decrease.

**Don’t tell Murray: he doesn’t want me to be in the gym for more than an hour per workout, but I added an ab workout to the routines, so I’m in there for two hours at a time.**

I have to admit that it’s difficult for me to not to FREAK OUT about gaining weight.  I’ve already gained one pound above my previous limit; currently, my weight is 176 lbs.  I’ve been advised not to weigh myself every day, but I need my body weight to enter in the correct info for my heart rate monitor (HRM).  As a compromise, Murray said he would take weekly skinfold measurements with the calipers so I can measure my body fat percentage weekly.  I think this will ease my mind as I see the pounds go up on the scale; I expect some decrease in body fat.  Last week’s caliper measurement yielded 9.1% body fat, which probably means that if I were to take a hydrostatic measurement (under water), I’d probably be at around 7% body fat.  So granted, I don’t have much more fat to lose; I think the healthiest lower limit is 6%.

What’s new about my results just from two workouts is that I’m experiencing muscle soreness.  I think it means that I’m breaking down muscle fibers during the workouts, which should translate into new muscle growth and density.  To that end, I’ve also started taking a creatine supplement before and after workouts, as well as, ensuring that I eat a glutamine supplement with my post-workout protein shake. 

Along with the new workout routines, I’ve just started a running program.  So far I’ve ran two times, the latest run was last night for about 3.2 miles.  I completed the run just before sundown in 28 minutes, which is about an 8:45 min/mi pace.  I think that’s okay for a novice runner at my age.  I had some slight discomfort during the run.  My quads, hamstrings, and glutes were really tight, and limited my range of motion as I was running.  I did take time to stretch before the run, so I was surprised at the tightness.  I hope it goes away before my next run on Friday.

Per Joe Thorn’s recommendation, I’m trying out an electronic running journal called Running Ahead.  Although I like electronic journals, I only plan to use it for running.  I record my exercise in the gym in a traditional notebook journal called The Body Minder.