Lose That Sixth Grader

What would Serena Williams do? That’s what I asked myself after finishing my strength training and contemplating postponing my interval training until tomorrow. I thought about her two most recent matches at the Australian Open. In both it seemed that the matches were getting away from her. But she dug down, quieted her mind and dominated! And she wasn’t physically exhausted despite the 100+ °F heat. How could she do that? Years of training and playing her sport. She’s physically and mentally tough. I could see it in her face, she’s a fierce competitor.

So, I thought what would Serena do? And I did my intervals tonight. During the high intensity portions when I wanted to slow down, I thought what would Serena do and I pushed to the end. I could see her face before me. I feel much better now that I’ve done my workout.

My last two workouts left me so sore that I haven’t worked out since Sunday 24 January 2009. My schedule called for me to work out Wednesday but I was still too sore. The soreness had eased up to the point where I could have worked out Thursday and gotten a decent one in, but I had so much to do that night that I skipped it.

So tonight I did two supersets instead of the called for 3.  Also, I stopped a couple reps short of absolute failure. If I recall correctly, in the system I’m using I should stop short of failure anyway. I’ll have to look that up and confirm.

I was able to do the exercises I couldn’t do before. I had to modify them a bit. For example on the 1-leg squats I held the doorknob and lowered myself down to a chair in order to maintain my balance and overcome any fear of falling or collapsing to the ground. And guess what, the method I devised was very similar to what someone else came up with as a way of troubleshooting lack of strength for this exercise. I didn’t do exactly as he described but my method was similar.

I actually did the 1-leg reaching lunges, too! I did them facing my bed and reached out towards the bed giving myself the confidence that I could catch myself without falling on my face. So, that’s about it people. I did basically the same thing as outlined before, but only 2 sets and with slightly reduced reps. I feel great. I almost forgot to stretch. I’m going to do that now so I can watch The The Clone Wars with my sons.

Oh, I’m going to do another 24 hour fast. I ate well today. My wife didn’t cook tonight and I’ve had leftovers a few times already this week. Seems like as good a night as any to begin a fast. This is my second one of the week. All in all, I think Serena would be proud of me.

I walked for sixty minutes yesterday. It was completely pain free. No pain in knees. No pain in back or hip. It was great! I was still sore from my Turbulence Training workouts, but that doesn’t really count as pain. I didn’t set out to walk for that length of time, I just felt good walking and kept on going!

I have lived with pain from my back or knees so long that being pain free is still remarkable. Yet over the last couple of months instead of being surprised when I’m not hurting it is surpising when I do hurt. So, I will continue exercising, eating better, fasting and melting off the pounds. As the pounds come off the stress on my knees and back will be reduced as well. This is a great positive feedback loop!

I am totally thrashed. My total workout today took seventy-five minutes. Some of this was moving in between equipment or locations in the house. Some of it was because I had to rest after the brutal bodyweight workout before starting my intervals on the stationary bike. I did not want to venture close to the puke zone again. I also took forty-five second breaks between supersets rather than thirty second breaks. I’m going to have to work up to that level of intensity. The intensity level between Turbulence Training Beginner  and Intermediate bodyweight workouts seems to take an order of magnitude jump!

Here is today’s workout, Intermediate Workout B  along with my modifications.

Warm-up Circuit
Warmup A) Bodyweight Squat 2×10
Warmup B) Plank 2×20 secs
Warmup C) Kneeling Pushups 2×6

1A) 1-Leg Deadlift 3×8/leg
1B) Chin-ups 3×6

2A) Step-ups 3×12/leg
2B) Slow Push-up 3×10

3A) Prisoner Lunge 3×8/leg
3B) Side Plank 3×10 secs/side

4A) Close-grip Push-ups 3×6,8,6
4B) Plank 3×10,15,13 secs

I really need to focus on my right quad and making it fire in the leg exercises. On chin-ups I did wrong, 1st two sets were underhand rather than overhand. The 1st set assisted, 2nd negatives only, 3rd assisted.

On step ups I went outside and used the middle step of the three up into our kitchen door. This step is just slightly lower than knee level. Cranked out last couple of reps of each set of slow push-ups rather than prescribed 2 sec down – 2 sec hold – 1 sec up tempo.

Prisoner lunges were good, but again I need to focus on making my right quad fire. I can feel this more in my left quad than the right. Target for side planks was 20 secs, as beginner it was only 5 secs. This was a really big jump.

Last two sets of close-grip push-ups were done kneeling. On the planks my arms were far more fatigued than my core. The target hold time was 45 secs whereas the beginner target was 20 secs. Overall I think I did good, yet this work out is at least an order of magnitude harder than the beginner one. Go back and compare this to beginner workout B. Also compare the intermediate workout A to the beginner workout A.

Here is my interval workout for today. I modified the beginner interval workout B to up the intensity a bit.

Minute by Minute     Type     Perceived Intensity Level

1                                     Warm up                    3 out of 10

2                                     Warm up                   4 out of 10

3                                     Warm up                   4 out of 10

4                                     Warm up                   5 out of 10

5                                     Warm up                   5 out of 10

6                                        Hard                       7 out of 10

7                                        Hard                       7 out of 10

8                                        Easy                        3 out of 10

9                                        Hard                        7 out of 10

10                                     Hard                         7 out of 10

11                                      Easy                          3 out of 10

12                                     Hard                          7 out of 10

13                                     Hard                          7 out of 10

14                                     Easy                           3 out of 10

15                                     Hard                          7 out of 10

16                                     Hard                          7 out of 10

17                                Cool Down                    3 out of 10

18                                 Cool Down                   3 out of 10

19                                 Cool Down                   3 out of 10

20                                 Cool Down                   3 out of 10

Sorry about the wavy columns. Haven’t figured out how to properly align things in WordPress yet. I finished up with static stretches. I’m going to do more setup ahead of time next time so I can decrease the overall time of the workout. Also, I won’t rest so much in between the the bodyweight exercises and intervals. I should also get a speed increase due to increased familiarity with the workout, this was my first time doing this one.

I did a new workout yesterday.  I only stepped up from the Turbulence Training Beginner Bodyweight workout to the Intermediate level. But near the end I was on the verge of spilling my guts all over the room. Sorry to be so graphic but it is true. I thought I was in better shape than that after working out in this fashion for 6 weeks. Maybe I was just too tired, maybe I waited until too late in the evening. At any rate, I postponed my interval training until today.

The really sad part is that my strength to weight ratio was too low for me to do some of the recommended exercises like 1 leg squats and 1 leg reaching lunges. Even on my stronger left leg, I had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee back in September and am still rebuilding strength in that leg, I could not do those exercises with anywhere near good form.

So here is the almost puke workout

A1) Pushups 3×10,10,8 – target was 3×15
A2) Beginner Inverterd Row 3×8 – was supposed to be Regular not beginner

B1) Y-Squats 3×8 – was supposed to be 1-leg squats
B2) Bicycle Crunch 3×12,16,16 – target 3×30

C1) Bulgarian Split Squat 3×6 – target 3×8
C2) Elevated Pushup 3×8

D1) Front Foot Elevated Split Squat 3×8 – was supposed to be 1-leg reaching lunge
D2) Mountain Climbers 3×6,8,10 – target 3×12

That last superset was what nearly pushed me into the puke zone. It took quite a lot of mental determination and focus to push through the last couple of super sets increasing the number of mountain climbers each time without losing my lunch. I didn’t stretch or do intervals last night.

It’s been a long time since I got close to the puke zone. The only types of workouts to do that before were really high rep squat and deadlift workouts with moderate to light weight. Oh and running suicides or ladders the length of the football field in the hot, humid Mississippi summers during two a day football practices.

I did do my intervals this evening. I did an Intermediate/Advanced Interval Workout

Minute by Minute     Type     Perceived Intensity Level

1                                     Warm up                    3 out of 10

2                                     Warm up                   4 out of 10

3                                     Warm up                   4 out of 10

4                                     Warm up                   5 out of 10

5                                     Warm up                   5 out of 10

6                                        Hard                       8 out of 10

7                                        Easy                       3 out of 10

8                                        Hard                        8 out of 10

9                                        Easy                         3 out of 10

10                                     Hard                         8 out of 10

11                                      Easy                         3 out of 10

12                                      Hard                        8 out of 10

13                                     Easy                           3 out of 10

14                                     Hard                           8 out of 10

15                                     Easy                           3 out of 10

16                                     Hard                          8 out of 10

17                                Cool Down                    3 out of 10

18                                 Cool Down                   3 out of 10

19                                 Cool Down                   3 out of 10

20                                 Cool Down                  3 out of 10

I’m pretty darn sore from head to feet. Tomrrow’s workout will be quite interesting. Hopefully I can make it through without upchucking. I would really like to get my intervals and stretching done on the same day, too. We’ll see. By the way, I also started an 24 hour fast this evening.

Yesterday after two back to back intense days of Turbulence Training yesterday was a day for light activity. I took a 34 minute walk in the cold over a route that was appoximately 2 miles. My legs were sore from the previous two days’ workouts but felt better after walking.

I also drove to Greenwood, SC to meet some relatives from Aiken, SC pick up one of my sons, MJB, who had spent the long weekend in Aiken with them. MJB and I took a slow paced twenty minute walk through the mall as well. So, I got nearly an hour of walking in yesterday.

Today my legs are very sore. I know that means they are recovering and muscle is being built. I’ll take short walks during the day today.

I did Turbulence Training Beginner Bodyweight and Interval Workout B today. The challenging exercises remain to be split squats with my front foot elevated. My right quad is still weaker than my left. The other challenge is bicycle crunches, but my form is getting better and I did 3×20,20,16 more reps than ever before. The most exciting thing was that my 15 year old daughter did the bodyweight exercises with me. However, since she’s training for lacrosse she went on a distance run rather than doing intervals with me.

A set back is a set up for a comeback — Les Brown, Author and Speaker

Now for the regression part. As I’ve written about before you CANNOT out train a bad diet. This week I went way overboard. Most nutrition experts whose material I’ve read lately stress that you don’t have to eat correctly 100% of the time. If you’re serious about weight reduction you should eat correctly at least 90% of the time. You can even lose weight eating correctly 80% of the time.

Let’s break that down a little based on three meals and maybe two snacks a day, call it five meals. In a week that’s 35 meals. Ninety percent of thirty-five is 31.5 call it 32. Theoretically that means you could eat less than optimally for three meals a week. That’s less than one day. Many nutritionists and trainers recommend giving yourself one treat meal a week.

That’s all good and I understand it, but I ate far more than three treat type meals this week. Monday I did the McDonald’s thing. Tuesday I slipped up again. What I didn’t write about on Tuesday was that I got home to pizza and promptly ate at least 4 slices. Wednesday I ate out all day including dinner with my wife at a seafood place seafood can be healthy but not if you over eat and drink along with it, which I did.

Thursday was decent I ate healthily all day. Friday I had a good breakfast. I ate out for lunch and had a homemade style hamburger, potato salad, pickle and 1 oatmeal cookie. I intended to start a 24 hour fast Friday night, but after I got off work at 2330 that night I went to Krystal and had four krystal burgers w/ cheese, fries, a rootbeer and a fried apple turnover.

So, that’s at least eight meals which were way past being sub-optimal. That’s almost three times a pretty lenient estimate of three treat meals a week and obviously eight times the recommended one treat meal a week. This is not the way to reduce my weight by twenty-five pounds in time to win the 4th TT Transformation Contest. This is not the way to be healthy.

Let’s see how far this week of bad eating set me back. I now weigh 252 pounds. That’s not too bad! I thought I would have gained weight. It’s not as good as the five pound weight reduction I recorded last week, but not nearly as bad as the expected gain. I am near the end of a 24 hr. Eat Stop Eat fast which is scheduled to end at 1800 hours today.

But just imagine what my weight reduction could have been if I had done the two fasts I had planned for the week and eaten clean 90% of the time. That three pound reduction could easily have been anywhere from six to ten pounds. But I won’t cry over spilt milk as the saying goes. Nor will I spend any more time in the land of woulda’ coulda’ shoulda’.

I will just do better this week. I’ll plan to have 1 day at most of treat meals. And before the end of the contest, I’ll whittle that down to 1 treat meal per week. So enough analysis. Now for the measurements and pictures.

Age: 42
Height: 5′9″
Weight: 252
Neck: 16.5″
Fore arms: 13″
Upper arms: 15.5″ straight 16.5″ flexed
Chest: 50″ – must have been incorrect before, no way I gained 2 inches on my chest.
Waist: 48.5″
Hips: 47.5″
Thighs: 27.25″
Calves: 16.25″

I put a quarter inch to a half inch on my lower body measurements. I wonder if that’s water? I have been having some problems retaining water in my lower body. At any rate I feel better both physically and mentally since beginning to workout some six weeks ago.

Wow, today was a much better workout than the one I forced myself to do Thursday night. Today I did the Turbulence Training Beginner Bodyweight A and Beginner Interval A workouts. Workout A includes two more exercises than Workout B which I did Thursday and today I did it in less time. I did forget to do my stretching. I’ll have to do that later on this afternoon.

I felt very energized considering I had to work until 1130 last night and got up at 6AM. I did my workout starting at about 8:50AM today. Perhaps I have more energy in the morning that the evenings? Even if that is true,  my schedule is such right now that during the week evening workouts are the only ones I can fit in.

My arms are still pumped and a bit sore from the combination of the work I did last night and today’s workout. The biggest challenge in today’s workout was the planks I did as part of my warmup. What are the  most challenging exercises in your fitness routine?

I didn’t get any planned, traditional exercise yesterday. I walked a couple of blocks, probably 4 total, to get lunch. Later in the night I helped move a 2004 pound disk array at work. This involved a lot fo walking around, moving heavy floor tiles in the raised floor of the data center, climbing up and down a ladder to run fiber cables, etc. So, this morning I do feel like I got a workout. I will workout today. I know I was up and moving around for more than 30 minutes which is my goal for days when I’m not doing a planned Turbulence Training workout.

I really did not want to work out last night. I felt resistance in every part of my mind and body. Then I thought about my entry into the Turbulence Training Transformation Contest. I thought about my health issues. I thought about wanting to look good naked again. I thought about setting an example for my kids, and in particular the talk I wanted to have with my daughter about her going to one session of physical conditioning for Lacrosse and not going back.

So, I got off my butt and did Beginner’s Bodyweight Workout B and Interval Training B. I felt so much better, both physically and mentally, afterwards. It was a Slight Edge decision in my favor. I was a little slow moving between exercises and moving from the bodyweight exercises to intervals on the stationary bike so it took about 60 minutes total. But that is still not too bad. I’m really glad I did it.

Yesterday I did not make any real progress toward my goal of being 235 pounds by 11 April 2009. I didn’t do much walking. I didn’t have my breakfast and lunch prepared ahead of time. My wife and I went out to dinner so I didn’t do my scheduled Turbulence Training.

What was good about the day? I did eat three meals.  Breakfast was grits, eggs and bacon. Not the best but not the worst. Lunch was roast beef sandwich on multigrain bread w/ lots of lettuce and tomato as well as a cup of Italian Wedding soup. Dinner was seafood nachos and lots of shrimp both boiled and fried. I also had a couple of beers. I had trail mix for dessert later on once we got home. I had a couple of pieces of dark chocolate, too.

So, what about the title of this post? The reality is that there is no steady state. Either you are making progress towards your goals or you are moving away from them. You are either exercising simple disciplines that help you or making slight errors in judgement that hurt you. It is The Slight Edge. And while it may not seem like a big deal today, those slight errors in judgement compound over time. In the same way exercising those simple disciplines: eating healthily, exercising, saving money compound over time, too. Which side of the slight edge do you want to be on, the one that is leading you towards your goals or away from them?