Reaching For A Different Me

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openczun

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There's a certain excitement that comes with making a decision. Recently, I decided I was done being a couch potato, done ignoring my diet, and done not being able to perform daily tasks that require a little bit of strength. I decided to hit the gym and do it right.

...And as you can see from the images below, I n eed to hit the gym. :). This is my starting point. Hopefully someday I'll look back at these and say "wow".


I must admit, I was little overzealous when I began attempting to construct my workout. So props to the folks on the board who saved me from destroying myself.

I did the reformed workout tonight and it really tired me out. It generated a whole slew of questions though, for which I hope I can find answers. If not, I'll just ask around again.

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UPPER-FRONT-FLEX-20080106.jpg

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LEGS-FRONT-20080106.jpg

LEGS-BACK-20080106.jpg
 
Welcome to the forum, I agree with what der said its a refresher to see someone who wants to learn and not just be told what to do.

When I first saw your pictures my immediate though was he looks like a friendly guy :D
 
Thanks, guys. While I haven't applied it to all areas of my life yet, I have learned that nothing worthwhile
comes without learning what to do, and of course DOING IT -- without expectations of immediate results.

...and yes, I'm generally a friendly guy. Please don't cut me off in traffic though. I can't make any guarantees at that point. :)
 
Have you really been that inactive?
Your BF% is high but I can see a good deal of muscle in the back and more obviously the calves. Have you been playing much sport?
 
3-4 years ago I did lots of cardio and some unstructured lifting, but didn't really ever see (or feel) any gains from it. I've always had a decent level of natural muscle, but because of my diet and activity level, I put on the pudge.
 
It's been 27 hours since my first workout with my new routine and I am sore and tired. For some reason I also ate some food (lowfat yogurt, to be exact) right before I went to bed....and barely slept a wink the entire night.

My quads are extremely tired, but honestly they feel good.... it feels like they are "waking up". I squatted a few times today while standing around at work and they already felt a little stronger. Is that crazy? Maybe there's a post-workout effect that newbies feel after working over some long-forgotten muscles.

I can tell that I shouldn't have too many problems getting to the gym and keeping my focus there. I think nutrition is going to be a real challenge for me. I tracked what I ate today and was surprised, really to see that it was 47% fat, 28% carbs, and 25% protein -- and 1770 calories. Granted, the majority of that fat came from raw almonds and homemade chicken noodle soup, but still.... it's going to be a struggle to get this thing right...

...and I haven't even hit a weekend yet.
 
OK, so it's been roughly 60 hours, with two decent nights worth of sleep since I did my first routine.... and I am still pretty sore.

I'm starting to get worried. Maybe I overdid it? I've read that 48 hours is roughly how long it should take to recuperate, slightly longer the older you get. But I'm only 27 (28 tomorrow).... Something tells me it shouldn't take as long as it is.

I did toss in a few additional basic lifts: curls and skullcrushers, but I didn't do many reps...they were more to keep my blood pumping until the bench (yeah there's only one) cleared up.

My lower back, hamstrings, and quads are still pretty store. I hope it clears up soon, because I'm itching to go back the gym.
 
I wouldn't worry about still being sore now. 48 hours is sort of when DOMS tends to peak. But to be sore for 72 hours? Totally happens.

I just got back to the gym after a layoff of only 6 weeks and even though I thought I was taking it easy, I fried my quads so bad that I had DOMS for almost a week after!

It'll get better once you're at it for a while.

Also, it isn't clear that you need to wait until all soreness disappears before you get back into things. Definitely give your body a few days to recover, but if afterwards, you still feel sore but able to go...go for it.
 
A crappy week -- but it's a start

Well, it took four days of recovery, but I made it back to the gym today. It's amazing how long it took my quads to recover. Pretty much every other muscle was already back in full swing, but my legs held me off.

This time I did the same lifts, reps, and sets, and shaved about 20 minutes off of my routine. It's much easier once you know how much weight to be using.

Nutritionally, I was all over the board this week.
I calculated my BMR to be 2004.7, with 2405 as the amount required by my activity level. I did about 1700-1800 a day Mon-Thu, but today being my birthday was a little tough. We went out to eat at a local mexican restaurant. I use to get soda, two beef burritos, refried beans, and all the tortillas I could eat. Today I only ate a few tortillas, had chicken burritos, no beans, and water to drink. I know they are still bad, but I'm happy that I made an effort to minimize it rather than saying "Well, it's my birthday, I'm just going to go for it".

I still need to work on the composition of my diet if I really want to see some changes. I've switched to eating smaller meals about 6 times a day -- starting when i wake up at 5am. I've been eating lots of lowfat yogurt, almonds, all-bran cereal, chicken, etc.... I've been tracking all of the data on fitday, but it's tough considering how much food my wife cooks from scratch.

I hope I'm not as sore tomorrow as I was on Tuesday !
 
Swap It, Like It

Today was a rough one. My son went in for surgery (tubes in the ears). I almost anticipated not being able to make it to the gym, due to all of the displaced work hours, but I managed to get there anyway.

After perusing the strength anatomy book I got out of the library, I decided to swap out the curls/tricep extensions I had been doing just as some additional isolation. Instead, I did some Dumbbell Upright Rows. That's another whopper of a compound exercise, which I'm all about right now.
I rather enjoyed the variation. It also helped me shave some time off my routine. I finished in about 45 minutes today -- and I was winded.

One thing I also learned today : just like exercise in the morning, make sure you've eaten something recently. I felt pretty light-headed towards the end of the routine. Luckily I don't live too far from the gym and my wife had some whole-wheat pasta with turkey meat sauce waiting for me. That really hit the spot. It also didn't help that I had two skim-milk cappuccinos today. I've got a lot of water to replenish.
 
Thank you. It was a little strange to be in the gym sweating and grunting on my birthday, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run.
 
A little shake-up

Wednesday's routine was the same one I've been doing since I started. To be frank, this time it felt too easy. I guess that's a good sign, probably means I'm gaining some strength. Friday I didn't make it to the gym, because my wife was having a terrible time getting my son to sleep (no naps, staying up VERY late). I skipped the gym to give her a hand, and instead went on Saturday. That still gives me 48+ hours until my next workout.

I like working out on Saturdays. Much less pressure to move quickly -- even though I like getting in and out of the gym quickly. Since my Wednesday routine felt so easy, I decided it was time to bump up the weight a little bit. I added about 10 lbs to each of the lifts I did. Not much, but it made for what felt like a nice workout. I was reasonably tired afterwards -- not very sore today either. I think that's a good sign too.

Calorically (is that a word?) I did pretty well yesterday too -- I think: 42/32/26 carbs/protein/fat. I still think nutrition is going to be difficult for me, but I realize that it's the key to making fat-loss and muscle growth happen. I've got to keep pressing on.
 
Hmm, good point. I did notice a few lifts, even this time, didn't quite get me to that point. I'll go over the numbers and try to recall which I can increase even a bit more.

I don't think the time was wasted in there, but it sounds like it could have been more productive. Thanks for the info.
 
Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb Day

All the preparation in the world doesn't matter if you forget or lose the things you've prepared.

I had a nice lunch (two lunches, really) prepared for today -- leftover salmon, wild rice, and asparagus. I also packed some low-fat plain organic yogurt and a banana to eat for mid-morning breakfast (early morning is always a bowl of all-bran and skim milk). Well, I forgot my lunch at home. It's easy to do at 5am in the morning. So I had to eat lunch from the cafe in our office building. I could have eaten grilled chicken salad, but instead I went for the chicken jambalaya. There was a series of rationalizations, which hindsight tells me are just excuses. So there went a ton of my calories for the day.

If that wasn't enough, when it came time to leave for the gym, I couldn't find my workout log. So I had to dummy one up, trying to remember what lifts I had increased to what weights. Why would I remember? That's why I wrote it down in a log. So my workout was a lot of trial-and-error again -- stupid.

So I ate 300 more calories than I've been averaging and had a less-than-stellar workout. I guess all I can do is use this as a learning experience. I think in the future, I'll :

  • Leave my workout log at the gym. Can't forget it then
  • Make a mental note to always ask myself if I have my lunch before I leave the house.
 
Derwyddon said:
Would you leave for work without putting your pants on?
Click to expand...

I suppose that depends on where I worked.... :rolleyes: ha ha.

Thanks for the encouragement. You're slowly becoming my personal coach.


I guess one thing worth noting is that I haven't been sore after these workouts. My muscles definitely feel worked and tired the following 48 hours, but not sore.

I think I may have hurt my left shoulder though. The stupid dumbbells (they don't have barbells at the YMCA) have very wide ends, and I think it's causing me to have really bad form when doing upright rows.
 
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