First, I want to start by saying that the results I had this week fall within the success range. Target is to lose 1 to 2 lbs of body fat per week, which drops me between 0.5% and 1% per week.
This week, I followed the changes to the routine that I made as well as the dietary changes. So without further adieu, here's the results for the week.
Start: 157 - 157.5 lbs
Body Fat %: 12.2%
Caloric intake: approximately 2200
Finish: 156 lbs
Body Fat %: 11.5%
Caloric intake: approximately 2250
I talked about some of the changes I was going to make for the diet. I lowered the protein intake and raised the cabs slightly, but raised the fat intake. Increasing the fat slightly in a low fat diet can be productive, because yes, your body does need the fats. The fats added were clean fats, like egg yolks, and fish/seafood. The macronutrient ratios for the week looked something like this, for an average day:
Calories: 2250
Protein: 33% (about 187 g) - 750 calories
Carbs: 47% (about 265 g) - 1060 calories
Fats: 20% (about 50 g) - 450 calories
I think the fat intake is perfect where it is. I'd like to drop the protein a bit more, and raise the carbs a bit. I'd like to see the protein around 30% and the carbs at 50%. Doing this is a little difficult because of the food choices for the meals. This would result in having to do things like cook half of a turkey bacon strip, or add half an egg yolk. While not impossible, I think the numbers are close enough to where I really want them to not worry about it too much. To compensate I do things like on alternate days have a more carb dense food with one of my lunches (like brown rice or Yams) to bring up the average for the week. This seems to be working well.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Recovery week
Recovery week was very beneficial. I took the week off from weight training and stayed with the cardio. Hit the cardio hard core doing standard 3 days per week on the elliptical for 35 min a day, and added a yoga routine on days where I usually do my strength exercises. The purpose of this was two-fold; first, doing yoga will help retain strength, but not completely exhaust the muscles while preventing atrophy. Second, it adds a boost to the current cardio regimen for the week. I don't consider it a full cardio routine because of the heart rate being so low, but its a good sweat and calorie burn.
I alternated between cardio and yoga for 6 days. On the seventh day, I rested completely.
The results were very satisfying. Here are the numbers:
Weight: 157 lb
Body fat: 12.2 %
Total loss was 1.5 lb and dropped .8% body fat.
Changes for the coming week: I'm making a small change to the diet. I want to slightly decrease the amount of protein I've been taking in. I typically have been taking in almost 190 g per day. My health coach suggested that I drop this to no more g than my body weight in lbs. So I'm going to look to cut back on the protein and replace with clean carbs.
Second change is to now move on to my full body workout 2. This is just a variation in routine, and was planned from the beginning.
I will be following the routine for 4 weeks and then do another recovery week.
Third change, I will be moving the strength training days to M W F. Cardio T Th Sa and adding a yoga day on sunday.
Until next time.... Cheers!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Breakfast like a King
I always stress that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and for that reason, I have two! Almost invariably, I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, with a few variations. The base meal consists of taking in enough protein to balance the diet, and eat a sufficient amount of good carbs that are high in fiber. To accomplish this, I use my two staples in my diet: egg whites and extra lean ground turkey. I make a scramble consisting of 4 egg whites, salt, pepper and garlic, mix in the cooked ground turkey. There is my protein serving for breakfast. For the carbs, I go for a 1/2 cup of oatmeal with a pinch of brown sugar, and 3/4 cup of fat free milk. Blueberries are a great source of antioxidants and go wonderful with oatmeal. As a side treat, I have some kind of citrus; either an orange or a half grapefruit. I used to drink fruit juice, but decided that there was too much added processed sugar. The fruit is sweet enough, and provides a reasonable amount of fructose for a good morning pick-me-up.
This meal supplies me with a good 465 calories: 51 g Protein, 54 g carbs, and only 10 g of fat. It fills me up enough to get my day started, and to last me through the insanely boring morning meeting at work.
This meal supplies me with a good 465 calories: 51 g Protein, 54 g carbs, and only 10 g of fat. It fills me up enough to get my day started, and to last me through the insanely boring morning meeting at work.
Monday, March 7, 2011
What does the hardcore routine look like?
So, I talked about some of the changes I made to P90X, and the basics of the diet that is designed to melt the flabby weight away. So this is a post about the details of the workout plan, as it stands now.
By now, I shared why is important to do a mix of cardio and weight training, and how the diet is designed to fuel the workout and send your metabolism into overdrive. So lets get into the nitty gritty of what's going on in the workout - the Big Lebowski of the program.
I said before I decided on a full body workout. This makes it easier to shift days of the workout plan if needed, and ensures that all muscle groups are worked more often. I decided to take the traditional approach of doing this workout 3 days per week. Typically, people like to do a Monday/Wednesday/Friday workout. I decided to shift that to the right and make it Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. Since this is the more tedious of workouts, I want to make sure I don't burn out during the week, and give myself one day to do the workout on my own time. In the remaining 4 days, I hit the elliptical. 35 minutes to start the routine, working up to 45 and possibly 60 when I'm in need of a real boost. Every morning I make an effort to skate with the pups. Not a huge contribution, but it helps a little bit - especially since it's doing some light cardio in a fasting state. Cardio first thing in the morning helps burn big time calories, as your body has no other resources to select from aside from the fat stores. In addition to the cardio, I do the X-stretch routine from the P90X plan to remain flexible and help reduce chance of injury. One day per week, if I'm not feeling too toasted, I throw in a Yoga routine. This is optional, except in my recovery week.
So the plan goes as follows:
Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday: Elliptical for 35 mins at my target heart rate of 152, burns about 350 calories (that's 1400 calories per week - more than 1/3 of a lb of body fat!)
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: Full Body workout #1.
Full Body Workout #1 goes as follows:
Chest: 4 Variations of pushups selected form the Chest & Back routine from P90X.
Back: Chinups, pullups, single arm and double arm rows
Legs: Light weight, high rep squats, Wall squats, calf raises, and lunges
Shoulders: 2 variations of shoulder presses, 2 variations of shoulder flys
Biceps: 4 variations of Dumbbell curls
Triceps: chair dips, kickbacks, extensions, and side pushups
Abs: 3 sets of 5 Pilates roll-up (Pavel's exercise)
When doing Cardio, to maximize the fat burning state during the workout, you want to target your heart rate for fat burning mode. Typically, this lies around 75% of your maximum theoretical heart rate. The calculation for is based on your resting heart rate. I calculated mine to be approximately 150 bpm. I wear a Polar hear rate monitor during cardio because I don't trust the monitors built into the equipment in the gym. Plus, with the monitor I can use it when doing cardio away from the gym, and make sure i'm in the zone.
By now, I shared why is important to do a mix of cardio and weight training, and how the diet is designed to fuel the workout and send your metabolism into overdrive. So lets get into the nitty gritty of what's going on in the workout - the Big Lebowski of the program.
I said before I decided on a full body workout. This makes it easier to shift days of the workout plan if needed, and ensures that all muscle groups are worked more often. I decided to take the traditional approach of doing this workout 3 days per week. Typically, people like to do a Monday/Wednesday/Friday workout. I decided to shift that to the right and make it Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. Since this is the more tedious of workouts, I want to make sure I don't burn out during the week, and give myself one day to do the workout on my own time. In the remaining 4 days, I hit the elliptical. 35 minutes to start the routine, working up to 45 and possibly 60 when I'm in need of a real boost. Every morning I make an effort to skate with the pups. Not a huge contribution, but it helps a little bit - especially since it's doing some light cardio in a fasting state. Cardio first thing in the morning helps burn big time calories, as your body has no other resources to select from aside from the fat stores. In addition to the cardio, I do the X-stretch routine from the P90X plan to remain flexible and help reduce chance of injury. One day per week, if I'm not feeling too toasted, I throw in a Yoga routine. This is optional, except in my recovery week.
So the plan goes as follows:
Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday: Elliptical for 35 mins at my target heart rate of 152, burns about 350 calories (that's 1400 calories per week - more than 1/3 of a lb of body fat!)
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: Full Body workout #1.
Full Body Workout #1 goes as follows:
Chest: 4 Variations of pushups selected form the Chest & Back routine from P90X.
Back: Chinups, pullups, single arm and double arm rows
Legs: Light weight, high rep squats, Wall squats, calf raises, and lunges
Shoulders: 2 variations of shoulder presses, 2 variations of shoulder flys
Biceps: 4 variations of Dumbbell curls
Triceps: chair dips, kickbacks, extensions, and side pushups
Abs: 3 sets of 5 Pilates roll-up (Pavel's exercise)
When doing Cardio, to maximize the fat burning state during the workout, you want to target your heart rate for fat burning mode. Typically, this lies around 75% of your maximum theoretical heart rate. The calculation for is based on your resting heart rate. I calculated mine to be approximately 150 bpm. I wear a Polar hear rate monitor during cardio because I don't trust the monitors built into the equipment in the gym. Plus, with the monitor I can use it when doing cardio away from the gym, and make sure i'm in the zone.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Details and science of my diet
Ok, so here's some of the good shit I promised to share. I'm bragging about Tom Venudo's awesome diet plan but haven't said shit about it other than "it's so awesome". To keep myself out of trouble, I'm only going to explain what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. Since most of what is said can be found on any decent nutrition website, I'll be that generic. If I put it together the way he does, I could be copying his work, which I would like to avoid doing.
The basics: Eat less food at once, more often during the day. Intake the proper amount of macronutrients per meal, and never create a calorie deficit by diet alone.
What the hell does that mean?
It means you must eat enough calories in one day to prevent your body from going into what Tom calls the "starvation response". That is, your body isn't getting enough fuel, so it turns on its fuel management system, and slows down the rate at which the fuel is burned. In simple terms your metabolism slows down, and that in turn slows down the rate at which you burn excess body fat - ya know the shit we don't want to keep.
So to make sure this doesn't happen, I calculated my Basal metabolic rate using my lean mass weight (body weight * (1 - body fat %)) as an indicator of how many calories I need to intake. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is, in simple terms, how much energy you burn off sitting on your fat ass watching TV. Mine turned out to be approximately 1750 calories.
Since I'm working out 6 times per week, I added a multiplier of 1.55 to my BMR. Why? Because as much as I'd like to, I don't sit on my fat ass and watch TV all day. I go to work, and I work out. I need to give my body that fuel so I'm not losing lean mass. If I don't, then when I create a calorie deficit, I'm going to be hitting the "starvation" levels. So, with the multiplier, my caloric intake would be 2650 calories per day. That's how much I'd eat if I wanted to not lose any weight and start building muscle (Next phase). Now, we have to create a calorie deficit. I've taken into account the energy used in my workouts, and my BMR. So to create a deficit, I slash that number by 20%. That leaves me actually near the recommended daily intake of 2100 calories per day (2150 in my case). This is purely coincidental. I suppose I fall in the standard deviation of what they used to estimate the daily caloric intake for everyone on the planet.
This brings me to how often I eat. To make sure your metabolism is in full throttle, it always needs something to break down. No food, it slows down and when fasting, goes almost dormant. On average, it takes a normal person (by that I mean one without any serious medical conditions) 2.5 - 3 hours to digest a meal. So, to make sure my metabolism is always in high gear, I eat every three hours or so (work schedules sometimes get in the way, bastards!) On an average day, I get up by 6:00 am, and go to bed between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm. that's 16 or 17 hours in the day divided by 3, just over 5 meals per day. Since I'm eating 5 meals per day, and I only get 2150 calories per meal, I divide that by 5 and come up with about 430 calories per meal. In another blog, I'll write about making sure all 430 calories count, and balancing the macronutrients at each meal.
I take this to the next level though, cause I'm badass. Its nearly impossible to come up with meals that all have the same exact calorie amounts unless you eat the same thing every day for all 5 meals. Boring as shit. I employ a calorie tapering method in addition to this. I follow Tom's advice of "Breakfast like a King, Lunch like Prince, Dinner like a peasant". For both breakasts, I have between 500 - 530 calories. At lunch, I 'll have between the 430 and 480 calories, and for dinner I usually end up only having about 250 - 350 calories left for meals that day. So the calories taper down during the day (like the Triforce!) rather than what most american's do... the inverted triangle: late or no breakfast at all, big lunch, and HUGE dinner!!
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I make sure I have two!!
The basics: Eat less food at once, more often during the day. Intake the proper amount of macronutrients per meal, and never create a calorie deficit by diet alone.
What the hell does that mean?
It means you must eat enough calories in one day to prevent your body from going into what Tom calls the "starvation response". That is, your body isn't getting enough fuel, so it turns on its fuel management system, and slows down the rate at which the fuel is burned. In simple terms your metabolism slows down, and that in turn slows down the rate at which you burn excess body fat - ya know the shit we don't want to keep.
So to make sure this doesn't happen, I calculated my Basal metabolic rate using my lean mass weight (body weight * (1 - body fat %)) as an indicator of how many calories I need to intake. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is, in simple terms, how much energy you burn off sitting on your fat ass watching TV. Mine turned out to be approximately 1750 calories.
Since I'm working out 6 times per week, I added a multiplier of 1.55 to my BMR. Why? Because as much as I'd like to, I don't sit on my fat ass and watch TV all day. I go to work, and I work out. I need to give my body that fuel so I'm not losing lean mass. If I don't, then when I create a calorie deficit, I'm going to be hitting the "starvation" levels. So, with the multiplier, my caloric intake would be 2650 calories per day. That's how much I'd eat if I wanted to not lose any weight and start building muscle (Next phase). Now, we have to create a calorie deficit. I've taken into account the energy used in my workouts, and my BMR. So to create a deficit, I slash that number by 20%. That leaves me actually near the recommended daily intake of 2100 calories per day (2150 in my case). This is purely coincidental. I suppose I fall in the standard deviation of what they used to estimate the daily caloric intake for everyone on the planet.
This brings me to how often I eat. To make sure your metabolism is in full throttle, it always needs something to break down. No food, it slows down and when fasting, goes almost dormant. On average, it takes a normal person (by that I mean one without any serious medical conditions) 2.5 - 3 hours to digest a meal. So, to make sure my metabolism is always in high gear, I eat every three hours or so (work schedules sometimes get in the way, bastards!) On an average day, I get up by 6:00 am, and go to bed between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm. that's 16 or 17 hours in the day divided by 3, just over 5 meals per day. Since I'm eating 5 meals per day, and I only get 2150 calories per meal, I divide that by 5 and come up with about 430 calories per meal. In another blog, I'll write about making sure all 430 calories count, and balancing the macronutrients at each meal.
I take this to the next level though, cause I'm badass. Its nearly impossible to come up with meals that all have the same exact calorie amounts unless you eat the same thing every day for all 5 meals. Boring as shit. I employ a calorie tapering method in addition to this. I follow Tom's advice of "Breakfast like a King, Lunch like Prince, Dinner like a peasant". For both breakasts, I have between 500 - 530 calories. At lunch, I 'll have between the 430 and 480 calories, and for dinner I usually end up only having about 250 - 350 calories left for meals that day. So the calories taper down during the day (like the Triforce!) rather than what most american's do... the inverted triangle: late or no breakfast at all, big lunch, and HUGE dinner!!
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I make sure I have two!!
Changes and week 1 results
Never again will I doubt the sage-like advice of Tom Venudo. He promises that you can not lose body fat without cardio. He claims that yoga is good, but for most people, they can't sustain the intensity of a yoga workout for the full 30-60 minutes that a good cardio exercise requires. I agree with him on this now.
Yoga did not get the heart rate up high enough to enter the fat burning zone. I love yoga, and will continue to find room for it in my routine, but it is no longer a core in the routine. I just don't have enough hours in the day to work it in on a regular basis.
Change #1: Replace Yoga with traditional cardiovascular workouts. I chose the elliptical, as I'm still trying to kick the smoking habit, I can maintain the full 30 - 40 minutes on the elliptical without feeling like I'm going to die.
Change #2: The injury, however short it was, rose an alarm for me. If I miss routines, that means certain parts of my body aren't getting worked that week. To minimize the damage this can cause, I decided to go to a full body routine, as recommended by my fitness coach (as part of my health insurance plan) and by the sage Tom Venudo.
I decided that I'm going to keep P90X as part of this routine, because I really want to give it the praise that I think it deserves. So, I whipped up a full body routine that incorporated 4 sets working each muscle group: Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps. I took my 4 favorite exercises from the 1st phase of P90X and made a full body workout plan. Now, I'd still be doing the exercises that I feel are giving me progress, but won't miss a muscle group if I get injured or am told by the boss that I have to work late.
In addition, as an extra tiny bit of cardio daily, I skate with the dogs around the lake in the morning. They love it, and it gets me going in the morning, and pumped for an exciting day.
So, here's the results from week 1 with the new changes:
3/6/11
Weight: 159.5 lbs
Body Fat%: 13.3 %
This is more like it. The overall weight lost was within the 2-3 lbs indicating healthy weight loss (more than that you're losing lean mass, and probably water wight too!). My body fat % dropped almost a full 1% from the previous week. My goal is between 0.5% and 1% each week. The big jump I believe is from adding the cardio regularly. I expect to see that move closer to 0.5%.
Yoga did not get the heart rate up high enough to enter the fat burning zone. I love yoga, and will continue to find room for it in my routine, but it is no longer a core in the routine. I just don't have enough hours in the day to work it in on a regular basis.
Change #1: Replace Yoga with traditional cardiovascular workouts. I chose the elliptical, as I'm still trying to kick the smoking habit, I can maintain the full 30 - 40 minutes on the elliptical without feeling like I'm going to die.
Change #2: The injury, however short it was, rose an alarm for me. If I miss routines, that means certain parts of my body aren't getting worked that week. To minimize the damage this can cause, I decided to go to a full body routine, as recommended by my fitness coach (as part of my health insurance plan) and by the sage Tom Venudo.
I decided that I'm going to keep P90X as part of this routine, because I really want to give it the praise that I think it deserves. So, I whipped up a full body routine that incorporated 4 sets working each muscle group: Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps. I took my 4 favorite exercises from the 1st phase of P90X and made a full body workout plan. Now, I'd still be doing the exercises that I feel are giving me progress, but won't miss a muscle group if I get injured or am told by the boss that I have to work late.
In addition, as an extra tiny bit of cardio daily, I skate with the dogs around the lake in the morning. They love it, and it gets me going in the morning, and pumped for an exciting day.
So, here's the results from week 1 with the new changes:
3/6/11
Weight: 159.5 lbs
Body Fat%: 13.3 %
This is more like it. The overall weight lost was within the 2-3 lbs indicating healthy weight loss (more than that you're losing lean mass, and probably water wight too!). My body fat % dropped almost a full 1% from the previous week. My goal is between 0.5% and 1% each week. The big jump I believe is from adding the cardio regularly. I expect to see that move closer to 0.5%.
4 months to obtaining the body I want for my vacation.
One thing that we can never have enough of is motivation. I decided on January 30, 2011 that I was going to take a vacation to Hawaii on my birthday in May. The idea was that I would use the fact that I didn't want to be embarrassed about the body I was going to be donning on my vacation. I knew from past experience that a motivator like that is a big drive.
So what's the goal? For my vacation, I'd like to have around 8-9% body fat. Definitely want to be in the single digits. I don't look as flabby in the single digits, and if all goes well, 8-9% is attainable, and realistic. This would put me at around 153 lbs.
I knew that Tom's diet and workout plan worked great in the past (yes, I didn't post details about that, but I wanted to get right to the point of THIS blog). P90X, gave me mixed results. I made a few changes to P90X that I though would fit well into the old BFFM plan that worked well for me when I was 26.
So Here are the starting numbers:
January 30, 2011
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 162.5 lbs
Body Fat %: 14.2%
Meals per day: 5
Calories per meal: approx 430
Workout routine:
Mon - Yoga (60 min)
Tue - P90X Chest & Back
Wed - Yoga (60 min)
Thur - P90X Shoulders & Arms
Fri - Yoga (60 min)
Sat - P90X legs & back
Sun - Rest
This started out pretty good. For 3 weeks I saw good results, except for the fact that I gained weight between 1/30 and 2/6. The table shows how this worked for me:
2/6/11
Weight: 164 lbs
Body fat %: 13.9 % (what!??)
2/13/11
Weight: 162 lbs
Body fat %: 13.6 %
2/20/11
Weight: 160.5 lbs
Body Fat%: 12.70% (I think this was a bogus reading - I estimate I was actually closer to 13 %)
At the end of the 4th week, I injured my knee somehow (I have no idea how it happened, maybe slept on it funny). So, I missed legs and back, and could hardly to Yoga. That's the week I saw a devastating result:
2/27/11
Weight: 162 lbs
Body Fat %: 14.2 %!!!
I believe half of this was that I am getting better at using the body fat measurement tool, and half to do with the fact that I missed 3 workout days that week. In any event, even though the numbers were looking OK, I didn't feel any slimmer, and actually felt a little more bulky. My body wasn't responding as nicely to the workout routine as I had hoped, and missing days due to injury were crippling my results. Time for a second change. That is the change I feel I need, and will be the focus, in excruciating detail of the rest of the blog.
So what's the goal? For my vacation, I'd like to have around 8-9% body fat. Definitely want to be in the single digits. I don't look as flabby in the single digits, and if all goes well, 8-9% is attainable, and realistic. This would put me at around 153 lbs.
I knew that Tom's diet and workout plan worked great in the past (yes, I didn't post details about that, but I wanted to get right to the point of THIS blog). P90X, gave me mixed results. I made a few changes to P90X that I though would fit well into the old BFFM plan that worked well for me when I was 26.
So Here are the starting numbers:
January 30, 2011
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 162.5 lbs
Body Fat %: 14.2%
Meals per day: 5
Calories per meal: approx 430
Workout routine:
Mon - Yoga (60 min)
Tue - P90X Chest & Back
Wed - Yoga (60 min)
Thur - P90X Shoulders & Arms
Fri - Yoga (60 min)
Sat - P90X legs & back
Sun - Rest
This started out pretty good. For 3 weeks I saw good results, except for the fact that I gained weight between 1/30 and 2/6. The table shows how this worked for me:
2/6/11
Weight: 164 lbs
Body fat %: 13.9 % (what!??)
2/13/11
Weight: 162 lbs
Body fat %: 13.6 %
2/20/11
Weight: 160.5 lbs
Body Fat%: 12.70% (I think this was a bogus reading - I estimate I was actually closer to 13 %)
At the end of the 4th week, I injured my knee somehow (I have no idea how it happened, maybe slept on it funny). So, I missed legs and back, and could hardly to Yoga. That's the week I saw a devastating result:
2/27/11
Weight: 162 lbs
Body Fat %: 14.2 %!!!
I believe half of this was that I am getting better at using the body fat measurement tool, and half to do with the fact that I missed 3 workout days that week. In any event, even though the numbers were looking OK, I didn't feel any slimmer, and actually felt a little more bulky. My body wasn't responding as nicely to the workout routine as I had hoped, and missing days due to injury were crippling my results. Time for a second change. That is the change I feel I need, and will be the focus, in excruciating detail of the rest of the blog.
Some experiments that didn't work
P90X introduced me to one workout that I fell completely in love with: Yoga. Never had I imagined that I would do yoga, and not in my wildest dreams did I think I would like it.
Yoga-X was the workout that I felt did the most for me. So, as part of an experiment, I decided I would try the P90X program again, and bump up the amount of yoga I did, as I felt it gave me a pretty good cardio workout, and worked on "toning".
A second change I made was looking for a substitute workout for Ab Ripper-X. Not that it wasn't a great workout, it was! But, it was the only workout in the routine, and I felt that the first 7 minutes of it did nothing for my abs, and make my thighs burn. I knew that there was something better, and that's when my friend introduced me to an author who I believe is the current Ab workout champion of the world, Pavel Tsatsouline. A Russian strength trainer and ex russian military drill instructor. No, this guy didn't look like Zangeif from Street Fighter II... he looked about my size, with good strong abs, and a nice physique all around. It was something I felt I could attain without the use of supplements or drugs.
In his book "Bullet-Proof Abs", he explained in a very similar style that Tom Venuto's explanations, that most ab exercises are bullshit. Anything you can do 50 reps of is doing nothing for you. He broke down how core exercises should work the core, and ab exercises should work the abs, and gives a whole book of about 25 exercises that do just that. And these aren't basic crunches or situps. These are the real mo-fo deal, man. 3 sets of 3-5 reps of each exercise is enough to give your abs the hardcore workout it needs. I dubbed his book "New Testament" of the fitness bible.
So, for 1 month, I implemented the diet change (following Tom's diet plan to a fault), the change where I added more Yoga, and substituted Ab Ripper-X for Pavel's ab routine from hell.
Yoga-X was the workout that I felt did the most for me. So, as part of an experiment, I decided I would try the P90X program again, and bump up the amount of yoga I did, as I felt it gave me a pretty good cardio workout, and worked on "toning".
A second change I made was looking for a substitute workout for Ab Ripper-X. Not that it wasn't a great workout, it was! But, it was the only workout in the routine, and I felt that the first 7 minutes of it did nothing for my abs, and make my thighs burn. I knew that there was something better, and that's when my friend introduced me to an author who I believe is the current Ab workout champion of the world, Pavel Tsatsouline. A Russian strength trainer and ex russian military drill instructor. No, this guy didn't look like Zangeif from Street Fighter II... he looked about my size, with good strong abs, and a nice physique all around. It was something I felt I could attain without the use of supplements or drugs.
In his book "Bullet-Proof Abs", he explained in a very similar style that Tom Venuto's explanations, that most ab exercises are bullshit. Anything you can do 50 reps of is doing nothing for you. He broke down how core exercises should work the core, and ab exercises should work the abs, and gives a whole book of about 25 exercises that do just that. And these aren't basic crunches or situps. These are the real mo-fo deal, man. 3 sets of 3-5 reps of each exercise is enough to give your abs the hardcore workout it needs. I dubbed his book "New Testament" of the fitness bible.
So, for 1 month, I implemented the diet change (following Tom's diet plan to a fault), the change where I added more Yoga, and substituted Ab Ripper-X for Pavel's ab routine from hell.
The search for a good workout plan
In today's America, you can't even get online to post a blog that no one will ever read without seeing an advertisement for a "revolutionary workout program". Most of these are pure rubbish. "Workout in just 10 minutes a day, and look like you've been doing steroids your whole life!". Please... on a good day, it takes me longer than 10 minutes to whack off, and this muscle bound douche bag is promising me that's all it takes to get ripped? The one program that caught my eye though, was P90X. Here's why:
The foundation of P90X satisfied my "Triforce" analogy. It promoted eating a good diet, doing cardio, and working the muscles. It claimed it wasn't easy which was a big plus for me because any program that claims that its easy, I skip right over. In addition to P90X talking the talk, I knew some friends that tried it, and claimed they got great results with it. Sounded like a winner. At the very least, it would give me a handful of exercises that I could use in my current rotation, and as an added bonus, a lot of the exercises use bodyweight only - perfect for someone who was traveling as much as I have been. So, it was settled. P90X it is!
I gave P90X by itself a whirl, and saw some results, but in the end was disappointed. Pro: I felt much stronger, I do believe the exercises did add some lean mass, and help build strength. Con: I saw little to no decrease in body fat percentage. I'd say over the 90 days I lost about 1.5% body fat. That's .5% per month. Not the results I wanted. Just to be clear, I did follow the diet of the P90X program, but was a little skeptical of it. There was no calorie counting, or any tips on what a "serving" was in their little block diagram of what you could eat that day. I assume if I was more pro-active in that aspect, I would have seen better results. I'm not slamming P90X, because I think it's an awesome workout! I just need to adapt, because the program, as it was designed, didn't do what I wanted it to do for me.
The foundation of P90X satisfied my "Triforce" analogy. It promoted eating a good diet, doing cardio, and working the muscles. It claimed it wasn't easy which was a big plus for me because any program that claims that its easy, I skip right over. In addition to P90X talking the talk, I knew some friends that tried it, and claimed they got great results with it. Sounded like a winner. At the very least, it would give me a handful of exercises that I could use in my current rotation, and as an added bonus, a lot of the exercises use bodyweight only - perfect for someone who was traveling as much as I have been. So, it was settled. P90X it is!
I gave P90X by itself a whirl, and saw some results, but in the end was disappointed. Pro: I felt much stronger, I do believe the exercises did add some lean mass, and help build strength. Con: I saw little to no decrease in body fat percentage. I'd say over the 90 days I lost about 1.5% body fat. That's .5% per month. Not the results I wanted. Just to be clear, I did follow the diet of the P90X program, but was a little skeptical of it. There was no calorie counting, or any tips on what a "serving" was in their little block diagram of what you could eat that day. I assume if I was more pro-active in that aspect, I would have seen better results. I'm not slamming P90X, because I think it's an awesome workout! I just need to adapt, because the program, as it was designed, didn't do what I wanted it to do for me.
So now, the awesomeness begins
In the past, having fallen victim to the same diet frustrations that everyone else faces, I wondered with all the misinformation mingled in with the good information, will I ever find the real story? Well, if this book wasn't the real deal, I don't know that anything is. To keep it short, and avoid plagiarism, lets just say that within the first two chapters of the book, I realized that my main issue was that I wasn't eating enough, and not working out enough. The caloric intake I was maintaining mixed with my low-to-no level of cardiovascular exercise, I was turning my body into the ultimate fat-storing machine. And as genetics has dictated to me, it all goes to my belly and chest.
Finishing the book opened my eyes to a whole new point of view on the subject. The book outlined why popular fad diets never work, and explained how to heat, when to eat, and what to eat. Hands down, the best book on practical nutrition on the planet! But the book explained so much more than just eating. It outlined how to do cardio to maximize the fat burning process, and the need (not benefit, the NEED) to do weight training to keep your lean muscle mass from diminishing. The picture was coming together.
Making a nerdy ass Legend of Zelda reference, the Triforce pieces are as follows: Diet, Cardio, Weight training. In that order. You'll never get anywhere on a diet of eating garbage. While its possible to maintain a good weight with just basic exercise each week, its pretty much impossible to lose body fat without cardio. Weight training is the tier that hold everything else in place. Losing body fat also means losing a little bit of lean mass, as in order to do so, you must have a calorie deficit. Weight training minimizes this loss because working your muscles allows them to grow back stronger. Also, the more lean mass you have, the more calories your body burns at a resting state (Basal Metabolic Rate) in order to maintain the muscle (so, in other words, the whole story to the "tidbits" I've found earlier on in my quest).
Now, I felt I was getting somewhere. Armed with knowledge that made scientific sense, as well as a whole lot of common sense, I felt in my gut (the wobbly, jelly-belly that it was) that I was on the right track. Part of this program is to record all your results. When a results aren't what you want, you then have all the records to go back and look at why it might have happened that way. This blog will be a part of that.
Finishing the book opened my eyes to a whole new point of view on the subject. The book outlined why popular fad diets never work, and explained how to heat, when to eat, and what to eat. Hands down, the best book on practical nutrition on the planet! But the book explained so much more than just eating. It outlined how to do cardio to maximize the fat burning process, and the need (not benefit, the NEED) to do weight training to keep your lean muscle mass from diminishing. The picture was coming together.
Making a nerdy ass Legend of Zelda reference, the Triforce pieces are as follows: Diet, Cardio, Weight training. In that order. You'll never get anywhere on a diet of eating garbage. While its possible to maintain a good weight with just basic exercise each week, its pretty much impossible to lose body fat without cardio. Weight training is the tier that hold everything else in place. Losing body fat also means losing a little bit of lean mass, as in order to do so, you must have a calorie deficit. Weight training minimizes this loss because working your muscles allows them to grow back stronger. Also, the more lean mass you have, the more calories your body burns at a resting state (Basal Metabolic Rate) in order to maintain the muscle (so, in other words, the whole story to the "tidbits" I've found earlier on in my quest).
Now, I felt I was getting somewhere. Armed with knowledge that made scientific sense, as well as a whole lot of common sense, I felt in my gut (the wobbly, jelly-belly that it was) that I was on the right track. Part of this program is to record all your results. When a results aren't what you want, you then have all the records to go back and look at why it might have happened that way. This blog will be a part of that.
The search for my Holy Grail
A quick google search landed some good generic information: weight training is a good start as building muscle will help burn fat (more on this later). Also, some sites claim that weight lifting really won't do much by itself (Later I will agree with them). Their answer was to do cardio. Nothing but cardio 3 times per week for best results. As I researched more and more that every site I went to, like assholes, have their own opinion, and they all stink. 90% of sites visited wanted to sell you a product guaranteed to make me lose 50 lbs in one month (well, really If I paid the arm and a leg, that would surely bring me down to 110 lbs!). The more I researched, the more bullshit I could smell. The results I wanted were not going to come in a bottle, unless it was a bottle of HGH, which was out of the question because, frankly, I like my balls.
I came across juicy tidbits here and there from fitness sites, that would actually do some good to mention here. I've heard cheap-ass exercise videos talk about "spot training". I thought, "Hmm this might be interesting to look at - I only have a couple trouble spots, maybe this will help". I blasted Google with "spot training exercises" and along with shitty video clips on YouTube of funny looking 80s videos, I found nothing. I took off the "exercises" and just searched "spot training". This proved to be the most useful two words I've ever typed into Google.
I came across not a video or article on how to do spot training, but a blog post (or reply, it was a long time ago) about the myth of spot training. The author was Tom Venuto. He went on, at great lengths, on why it was a myth, and had a great scientific explanation for each case he presented. Double checking his claims, I found that many of them are backed up by the scientific community. "This guy at least has a pretty good idea of what he's talking about!", I thought. So I checked him out on the web. Surely enough, he has a product, but this one I didn't mind buying. It was a book. "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle". I still use this book as the core fundamentals of my fitness plan.
Why am I doing this at all?
Ever since I was a young boy, I had always had a slender build. Skinny, not very muscular, but always active and in pretty good shape. Senior year of high school, I was a slender 5'9 weighing in at 140 lbs soaking wet. In college, I spent 5 years eating crappy food, and due to school work and the introduction of alcohol on a regular basis, I had far less time to be as active as I was as a youngster playing soccer 3-5 times a week. After college, once I started my career, I had even less time, but still continued the same crappy diet. At the ripe young age of 25, I looked at myself, and for the first time I decided I did not like what I saw. I had hit 160 lbs, which doesn't sound like much, but all of it was in places I didn't want it, or need it. Still scrawny arms, legs and chest, minus the development of cute little man boobs bowing down as if introducing themselves. Aside from playing sports, I had no idea what to do in order to get rid of the unnecessary insulation that was growing on me like a fungus. Something had to be done, but having no idea where to start, I started where any logical person in this day and age would start: Google.
The journey begins
Well, actually, the journey has begun a long time ago. Since I just started blogging about this now, I will go back and outline what I've been doing, what I plan to do, what has worked, and what has not. Throughout this blog, I will be naming some exercise programs by name. Some of these may have worked well, others may not have. What works/doesn't work for me may not be the case for you. I don't recommend anyone mimic what I'm doing, but I will be posting full details of why I'm doing what I'm doing, and if you decide to follow, by all means be my guest.
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