How to Transform Your Physique #79

So Saturdays are consumed a lot with training my two teenagers.  As I mentioned in #78, these days I tend just work in some exercises as I train them.  Since I pulled sled on Friday, and it was the first time since the vacation, there was no way I was going to put myself in traction and do it again yesterday!  During my son's workout I did some shoulder press, dumbbell rows, and curls. I can only do rows now due to the lat injury. I actually injured myself doing negative chins of all things.  I also threw in some grip work as well. When he was pulling sled I did the lunge/free squat super set.  That's 24 lunges and a free squat set of 25 back to back.  It wasn't hard, but I knew I would be sore.  Again, this was done very controlled without bouncing around.  I then stretched after. I forgot I added in some reverse hypers on a stability ball. This is an experiment. This is a poor man's version of the reverse hyper.  I'll keep readers posted and let's see how my low back responds.

Yesterday's breakfast was exactly the same as Friday. In fact, I won't vary that one bit. And, lunch won't vary much either. I have no problem with "boredom" and eating. The reason we really eat is to fuel the body. Not for pleasure and being satisfied with our taste buds.  So, with this attitude and mindset and with the goal of lowering my bodyfat level, I have no problem staying the course. :)

Lunch was not really optimal. It was a meal replacement bar. A good one though.  Basically I ate this on the fly because of lack of time.  Dinner was a cheat meal at our fav local eatery.  I'll look to see how I do in the next two weeks and if necessary I will cut out this second cheat meal of the week.  No sweets though as a chaser like on Friday. :)

Today I'll probably pull sled light.

How to Transform Your Physique #78

Yesterday has normally been a cheat day all day for what I eat. Since I am tightening things up the only cheat meal I had was dinner. Long time readers know that I encourage cheat days/meals.  So here was yesteday's breakfast:

6 egg white omelet with no fat cheese
1/2 cup oatmeal (not instant)
1 cup of green tea.

For supplements I have always taken a multiple vitamin. I figure why not since they are cheap and if they do help even just a tiny bit I will be better off.  I also take a fiber supplement. Colon problems run in my family so I have started this recently. I just pop a couple chewables.  I also take red yeast rice. Another cheap supplement that has been tied to helping keep cholesterol in check. Another family genetic thing I inherited as I mentioned in the past to Cyberpump readers. I only eat red meat once a week and that would be only on Friday or my one cheat meal that I will start out keeping that's Saturday night dinner.

Mid morning I had a whey protein drink and this was low in carbs as well. I won't make one with over 10 grams of carbs.

For lunch I had the following:

Salad composed of the following:
Spinach
Cucumbers
A few carrots
A few hot pepper rings (to spice it up!)
A small amount of vinaigrette

Grilled turkey breast cutlets
1 cup of green tea

I worked out yesterday as well. I've had to make changes to my routine.  After next year I will be more than likely moving to working out at a local gym that has a full line of very capable machines.  Why next year? I have one teenager left in the house. ;)  I don't do any spine bearing exercises anymore. My low back is still giving me issues due to all the nasty abuse I gave it when I was younger.  So, squats and deadlifts are out.  More details on how I am trying to conquer that in another entry.   I also don't like to bench press anymore either. The reason is the way my joints feel.  It feels well....like I am 2 quarts short of oil in my joints. When I was on vacation I got to use a bunch of different machines at a Gold's gym and loved the variety and also the ability to move quickly between exercises without setup, etc.  And, without joint creakiness.  But, believe it or not, the standing shoulder press doesn't feel creaky in my joints.  Maybe this is because it was never a staple of my program over the decades.

Keep in mind that I have a body that has a base of over three decades of lifting so this type of routine is customized to me based on my training history.

Past injuries I am also working around besides the low back abuse and injuries are a torn right lat, a pulled left hamstring (slight), and a right knee that I injured as a junior in high school and tweaked powerlifting once as well.  Yes, you will likely pay even for these types of long ago injuries.  My dad just had shoulder replacement surgery at 78 years old. He dislocated it back when he was in his 30's.   All of my injuries were my own fault and being stupid.

Long time readers also know that I like sled pulling for cardio. It's low impact, intense, and feels like you are running sprints.  I recently upgraded my sled to a Sorinex Root Hog. It's a great piece for sled pulling variety and of course builit very well. 

I did 4 trips (about 50-70 yards one way). I don't know the exactly distance but it's at least consistent. It's a certain mailbox down my street and back.   I pulled for 3 trips and then pulled out the lawn mower attachment.  This thing kicks your ass even more than pulling because you are using your upper body as well as lower body.  Here is a video of the Root Hog so you can see how I am using it:



The temperature here was 90+ degrees so I was drenched when I was done.  I normall do a few sets of pushups and crunches alternating between the two for 25 reps (currently).  No, this is not to true failure.  I do them very strictly as well as I don't want anymore injuries.

After the workout was another shake. I was on vacation yesterday by the way.

For dinner, my cheat meal on Friday, it was Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza.  The Chicago Stuffed one. I had 3 pieces.  I had two small pieces of cheesecake for dessert.  I will cheat again at tonight's meal but will have no sweets.  If I don't see the results I want, I will cut out this second cheat meal and will secondly tighten up on total calories of the one cheat meal.

Don't be surprised if you see some crazy type of splits in my working of my body.  A lot of it is working out on the fly as I train my two teenagers.  Fitting stuff in between their sets.

Today both of them train.  They will do full body workouts. I am a big believer in full body workouts for athletes to save time of having to go to the gym 5-6 times a week and the body is a WHOLE after all not a sum of disconnected body parts.  Do they compete by bodypart?  No, they don't. They use their whole body on the court/field!

Stay Tuned!

Vacation Eating

So I just splurged for the last 2 weeks eating while on vacation.  As long time Cyberpump readers are aware, I've had some massive weight gains in a short period of time while on vacation.  My metabolism tends to go into overdrive as well during this time which is interesting.  It's probably going "Whoa Nellie!" when it sees all the food to process.  My record from past years is 18 pounds.  Yeah, 18 pounds. :)  We also do a TON of walking as well.  Keep in mind though that some of that 18 is water as I don't normally scarf up pastries, pasta, and more!  This trip I gained about 8-9 pounds and I figured I would not gain as much because I didn't quite eat as much as past record trips.  Normally it takes less time to strip it off and again relates back to water retention being a big part of the weight gain. 

I have always encouraged Cyberpump readers not to be "freaks" when it comes to eating.  That is to "freak out" when they eat something off of their normal diet like it will KILL them instantly as they stand.  Or, to "freak out" because they missed a workout.  If you have been putting in the hard work over a long period of time, it won't even phase you as your body takes a lot more to de-program what's "normal".

I have decided to really tighten things up for about 8 weeks and see what my results are.  I won't cheat as much as I have been will be the main difference.

High Intensity Grass Cutting!

Those that have visited Cyberpump know that I pull a sled for "cardio". It's walking but it's like running sprints. During the summer I cut my grass as another form of activity to burn calories. I have a new sled coming that is really cool and I'll post about that in the future. I got an idea when I was about to cut my grass this last time. My lawn mower actually is self propelled. My lawn has various grading to it. Including slightly up hill at times albeit a small grade up. For a self propelled lawn mower they are really not suited to be pushed without engaging the gear train. Unless you want to add even more resistance to the push of the mower. Hey, what a great idea! High Intensity Lawn Mowing. So, for the front part of my house I tried cutting it without engaging the gear train. Sure enough, it was like PUSHing my weight sled. My triceps were burning. My quads started to burn. I was sweating like a pig (it was in the mid 80's and humid!) and I was getting a good cardio workout as well. Given how hard it was to push through the gear train and the fact that I pulled sled the same day earlier I decided to not continue on for the rest of my lawn. I would have died for sure! Just another idea for another cardio workout...HILM!

Flexibility

One component of health many neglect is trying to maintain flexibility. As you age, things will definitely go south if you don't do anything about it. Some people are naturally more flexible. However, this will degrade too with age and with no action.

I feel we are more advanced with respect to flexibility training than 20 years ago. Stretching the muscles cold? That used to be standard when I was in high school. Stupid. Never stretch a cold muscle. We also over did it as well with respect to how hard we stretched. All I can say is we were sure ignoring common sense back then.

Do you incorporate regular flexibility work into your training? If you don't, you should! There are so many resources for flexibility make sure you weed out the bad versus the good. Try not to go on information overload. Simple tends to be good. Remember that. It doesn't have to be complicated, take 2 hours a day, and cost an arm and a leg to come up to speed on a good basic flexility program.

Overtraining

I am in the midst of again coaching the throws during high school track season. We have averaged (so it seems) three meets a week. Very tiring even for the coach! Both my daughter and son throw. What is interesting is the recovery aspect of their training. The fact is that if someone knew the exact recovery formula and could predict overtraining to the minute, they would be a millionaire! I do believe though that it is better to be slightly undertrained than overtrained. Especially if you are a competitive athlete. Injury will often accompany overtraining and then the athlete is forced to rest. The last thing an athlete wants to do is overtrain. Sleep is often underrated for recovery. You cannot burn the candle at both ends and expect to be able to recover.

This year I have actually tried to be more aware of total body fatigue and try and put in more rest. There are plenty of factors that cut into recovery as well. Not just the training itself. When in doubt, an extra day or two rest will never kill your progress.

Intensity by Bill PIche

I guess you can probably call this cardio experiment Part II.

Fred and I have been talking back and forth or at least probing between the two of us on intensity of exercise, duration, etc. Don't let anyone tell you it's an exact science or that they know exactly the formula. The fact is, no one does. Which is why there continues to be studies coming out. I can tell you that you can wear your body out. Why wouldn't you be able to? Think about it. What I can tell you is you need to recover. And, I also believe there are different recoveries associated with the body. The nervous system is a whole animal that gets neglected because you cannot see it. But, it's the electrical system that drives the body including the muscles.


Overtrain or tax that nervous system and no matter if your muscles feel fine, you won't be firing on all cylinders. I did an experiment yesterday and until I follow through with it I won't be able to draw any sort of conclusion. I have not pulled my sled all winter. I jogged instead. I could easily jog a mile even at once a week without feeling too taxed at the end. Yesterday, I did two up and backs in my normal sled run and was sucking major gas. I was just walking fast. What gives?! The intensity of effort was much higher muscularly. No doubt. What I am going to do is drop the jogging and go to sled pulling only again. Then, go back and try and jog/run a mile. I'll give it a month. Now, if anyone cares to remember, Arthur Jones decades ago said that proper weight training done with minimal rest is the ticket.