#329: Guest Blogger, Moses Goldman: Working for a Living

 I have invited Moses Goldman  to share some of his story with FMR. MG is an old friend who is just beginning to run for his life after many years of less healthful habits. His candor and commitment inspire me. I hope you feel the same way... Pennsy


it's been nearly a month with the new lifestyle.  I've been a sedentary rock for about 16 years.

today, I'm kicking myself and in the dumps.  I should be celebrating... but I'll get to that.

there are days when I can manage two 40 minute sessions in one day.

today hasn't been one of them.  I lifted weights for about 15 minutes, walked a brief and slow lap around a track and swam a lackluster 18 minutes.  felt like a poor effort - but then I ate that damned bread this morning... slows me down, way down.  note to self - stop eating bread.  the high I seek... not here today.  the motivation... ?  where is it?

like I said, there are these days.  days where I push into a zone where the sweat is pouring off of me and my ceiling of intensity just grows and grows and there is a soaring feeling of incredible ability... I could go on and on... and I do just that.  yesterday I pushed hard for 40 minutes (30 minutes aerobic, 10 minutes weights) once in the morning and then last night again.

it may not be good for me to be doing this to get high.

but that is a motivation I must admit.  to get higher and higher.  not just to live strong and healthy.

lord knows this 279 pound 5'7'' machine needs to live strong and healthy.  maybe the buzz should be collateral and just another thing I notice, including the sore muscles and sweat.  something I notice around the continuum of activity and more activity.  the goal - pure, steady and engaged activity; the very happy center.  buzz, sweat and soreness as solely the byproduct - not the goal.

but it feels damn good anyway.  I don't know if I'm making any sense.  I'm looking for something sustainable.

I have been doing everything from EFX Elliptical training - 30 minute sessions; stair machines - 20 minute sessions to date; swimming breaststroke and kickboarding and treading water - usually 20 minute sessions; weight lifting; power walking with intervals of sprinting and wild armed gesticulations (I don't know how else to put it) - up to 2.2 miles in about 40 minutes or more; cycling - upright and recumbent, up to 4 miles in some cases and in about 15 minutes with varying levels of intensity and resistance; the upper body crank, yoga, pilates yoga....

the tao te ching says "if you want to become straight, be crooked."  ok.  here's the point.  there will be lackluster days.  gotta allow for dips and turns in the road.  positively speaking, the amount of activity I just did is amazing for the couch potato I've been for 16 years.  compared to my best efforts in the past month - pooh.  big steamy one.  not good.

but better than nothing.  and what a day yesterday was.  what a day.

here's the thing.  if I get down and play the loser tape because I had a weak morning and just couldn't push enough - I might quit.

 (perhaps I need to back off bread?  some people it's chocolate.)

better yet, perhaps I need to give myself a break for at least getting to the gym.  the proverb from the tao te ching could be rephrased today as "don't put your eggs in one basket."  one workout isn't a commentary on the overall quality of your new thing.

there has to be a happy medium between this contemplation and making sure I kick my own ass the next time I make it out there.  striking this kind of balance in moments like these seems to be my meat in adulthood.

I've been lapping the milk of a childish will to quit at my new projects ...for too long.  yeah, I feel like a "loser" today.  play that tape long enough and I'll quit all over again.  sucks to be fat and unhealthy.  most of us, actually NONE of us set out to be in this boat.  but when we get there, we find we've picked up some pesky demons along the way.

note to self.  good job.  note to self.  you will try running longer next time you hit that treadmill.  note to self.  never look at the scales - it isn't about the scale anymore, it's about life.  note to self.  you're a sexy 279 pound beast with more muscle and a narrower frame and you are living strong.  note to self.  take out the garbage.

#154 Returning to the Gym After a Loooong Hiatus

Weight	Body Fat	BP
394	42.8%	148 / 95

I'm not all the way back to where I was before I started working out in 2008. Just most of the way. I'm not really discouraged because I'm not really surprised. I knew I wasn't getting the exercise I needed, and I watched every bite of food as it went in. The truth is, I was so depressed most of the time that I didn't care if I gained weight and lost strength or not. Well I've spent some quality time with the headshrinkers and it turns out that yes, I do care. I lived healthy once, and saw the results of that change. I can do it again.

I am making some changes in my approach. this time. I will be keeping my workouts much simpler and more intense. I want to burn off some of this fat in a hurry, and the way to do that is through frequency, intensity, and nutrition.

I am not going to get as involved in all those numbers that I love so well. Less time crunching data and more time crunching abs. I'll still update the "Tale of the Tape" periodically, but mostly I'll be tracking the three metrics above. Weight is easy to understand and to measure. Body Fat Percentage is also easy, and I think it's an important qualifier for body weight. Lots of athletes are classified obese even though they have very low body fat. Clearly that is not the case with me right now. But one day...

The last and scariest number is the one I've not tracked in the past: Blood Pressure. That's become important since my recent career struggles. I have taken a stab at several jobs, even tried to start my own business, but have not seen a steady paycheck for 14 months now. The combined stress of unemployement and poor job matches left me very depressed and hypertensive for the first time in my life. We are controlling it with medication for the time being, but I would rather do so with aerobic exercise if I can. I'll be hitting the cardio hard, but with care to be sure I am improving without having a stroke on the step climber.

My initial workouts are very gentle and low impact. The biggest difference I've noticed, besides my weight, is the weakness in my legs and butt. Squats are a real effort, and a lunge is not a realistic possibility. I'll be building leg strength in some other ways until the weight and joints are ready for those big lifts again. More on lower body later.

My cardio workout is 30 minutes on the treadmill in a very strict run/walk rhythm. I set the belt at what feels like a comfortably brisk walk to me, then alternate walking and jogging every 60 seconds, changing my gait without changing speeds. That allows me to get my heart rate up and a good sweat going, more than I could have with a faster walk. I am also able to go much farther than if I had been running or walking full speed the entire time.

Resistance training is also light; just upper body work with a blue band clipped to the wall. Push/Pull/Twist - Standing Chest Press, Standing Row, Woodchopper Right, Wood chopper Left. 50 reps each without rest between. That keeps my heart rate up and got a real burn started in my arms and obliques.

I'm also doing some things at home to work on the lower body strength. We've been moving furniture and boxes from the second floor to the basement. That's a lot of trips up and down stairs. I am being very deliberate in the way I lift and carry things. I don't want to hurt my back, and I want to practice my form so my body remembers how to lift heavy iron as well as liquor boxes full of old paperbacks.

All in all, it's good to be Pennsy today. My mental health is as good as it has ever been, I'm turning my body back in the right direction, and career prospects seem just over the horizon. I just have to keep working in the right directions.

Peace,
Pennsy

Post #100, Training to Run

Trust me, I am as surprised as you are. Other than my marriage with Mrs P, I have never been this faithful to anything. Six months of exercise. 100 posts. Amazing what the fear of death can make a man do, huh?

New Chapter. Pennsy's second race. In two weeks I am running in the 5K Midsummer Night's Run benefiting Lexington's Central Baptist Hospital. The race is run at 8:30 at night on August 9th, hence the catchy name.

Since my last race, my regimen has focused on strength and building muscles. I have been very successful in moving toward that goal. Now I am shifting gears. My goal for the next 12 weeks is to drop 5 points of my Body Fat Percentage. My lifting will be targeted toward maintaining cardio intensity and muscle mass. And I intend to run and run and run.

I have done well with two-week plans. Now, I'm building an ambitious five-week plan with two milestones. A 5K in two weeks and a 10K on August 31. I will make a decision about that second race after the one on the 9th.

My intention is to work at maximum intensity in three day cycles - two on, one off. Lift Heavy, Run Hard, Rest Well, and Repeat. I'll be lifting to set a new PR every time. I'll be running to build and maintain endurance toward running those 6.2 miles by Labor Day. And everything I do will be done with fat burning in mind.

One reason for a simple exercise plan is that I want to spend a lot of time learning and practicing better nutrition, not fidgeting with workout plans. I have done a fairly good job at getting rid of the things I shouldn't eat. Now I intend to learn more about the things I should.

August around the corner makes me feel a little melancholy. It always has. As a child, I knew that there was still plenty of summer left, but school was coming just the same. The other side of that coin was that while I loved baseball on the brick streets and camping in the Pennsylvania woods, I also really liked school. So along with the sadness there was anticipation. My yearly calender has always been tied to that academic year. Ninteen Septembers of shiny shoes and new pencils can do that to a man. It feels right to make this a time for new beginning. More precisely, a time to continue the good work God has begun.

And a moment for a prayer tonight. An artist I love and admire is giving birth to twins tomorrow. They are going to have a great life, but first their Mom is going to have quite a day. God bless you Gennet. You're going to be a great American mom. Go down that road.

Ok everybody. On your mark...get set...

Peace,
Pennsy

Groovy Century-mark road sign is from FreeFoto.com

More Power!

Paul Anderson was one bad dude. That's him over there, lifting enough iron to build a DeSoto. In the 'fifties, he was the strongest man in the world, and it made him a star.

I've become fascinated by the sport of powerlifting. I am no more likely to compete in that world than in the world of bodybuilding, but the idea of testing the physical limits intrigues me. I want to learn more about it.

I did some research and put together the following plan for my next two week period. It's a four day split

DAY ONE - Clean & Press (Mrs.P says it sounds like I'm doing laundry on this day)

Clean & Press, 5 sets of 5
Dumbell Curls & Press, 3 x 10
Lat Raise (Standing & Bent over), 3 x 10

DAY TWO - Squat

Squats, 5 x 5
Hip Abductors 3 x 10
Hip Adductors 3 x 10
Straight Leg Deadlift 3 x 10
Front Squat 3 x 10

DAY THREE - Bench

Bench 5 x 5
Decline Bench,, Dumbells 3 x 10
Incline Bench, Dumbells 3 x 10
Pullovers 3 x 10
Close Grip Press 3 x 10

DAY FOUR - Deadlift

Deadlift 5 x 5
Bent over Rows 3 x 10
Forearm Curls, Barbell 3 x 10
Good Mornings 3 x 10
Barbell Curls 3 x 10

The idea is to do these lifts as heavy as possible (once I've learned the new ones.) Each power lift is supported by the others - theoretically, they should increase my performance in the big lifts.

I have also put a warmup together based on bodyweight exercises. I'll talk more about that tomorrow, once I've tried it out.

Finally, I'm adding 30 min of cardio back into my daily routine. I've missed it, and it is time to get back up on those nasty machines at the other end of the room.

Peace,
Pennsy

Fat Man Bragging

January 19
Weight 405
BMI 49.3
Body Fat 43.8%

April 20
Weight 362 (Down 43 lbs/11%)
BMI 44.1 (Down 5.2 pts/10.5%)
Body Fat 33.5% (Down 10.3/23.5%)

I am fittn’ to bust.

Today I did my cardio. Knees and ankles all felt great. I did 96 minutes total. 6 on the stair climber and 30 each on the bike, the elliptical and the treadmill

I have also decided that while I admire Jeff Gallaway and find much wisdom in the things he says, I seem to feel better if I do some gentle stretching both after a 6-10 minute warmup walk and after my workout is finished. So there’s my conclusion after that brief experiment.

The weigh-in was such a shock that I looked to see if something was blocking the scale. I was hoping the week’s change of pace would pay off, but was not prepared for that kind of result. It seems like the fat melts in big bursts, not on a gradual smooth curve. I am really looking forward to seeing how the resistance bands might alter my results. they are much more of a cardio challenge than the weight machines have been (at least the way I’ve been using them).

And just look at that BMI! Soon I won't be Morbidly Obese any more. I'll just be plain old obese. Now hows that for a goal?

I’m going to go mow the lawn now. I feel so good, I don’t want to sit still.

By the way, check out today's Pennsyltuckian for a review of a book I really enjoyed. Maybe you will like it too.

Peace,
Pennsy

Adding Sleepy Back Muscles to my Workout

Did I say I did about ten minutes on the stair climber Tuesday night? That was obviously a lie. I may have spent ten minutes figuring the thing out, but tonight I did three minutes (a new personal record, by the way) and my butt was certifiably kicked. I felt like one of those guys behind old Judah Ben Hur. I spent most of my post-weight-lifting cardio on the elliptical, followed by a long slow stroll on the treadmill, just to see if the knee would stay settled down. It’s been a little over two hours now, and It feels pretty good.

I introduced a couple of new exercises into the weight regimen. Brad suggested that my program was imbalanced, placing too much emphasis on pushing (chest and arms) and not enough on pulling (shoulders and back). My back has most of the history you might expect from an obese middle-aged man, so I’m eager to do whatever will strengthen things back there. I tried a couple of new machines. Both are rowing machines. On one you pull handles straight toward you horizontally and on the other you lean forward with your chest on a bench support and pull up diagonally. I was able to pull a reasonable amount of weight, and completed my sets. Sitting here at my keyboard, I am feeling (yes, I’m going to say it) muscles I didn’t know I had. High in my back, between the points of my shoulder blades, I can tell that something was working that isn’t used to it. It isn’t sore, exactly. Just kind of alive in that jolted suddenly awake way that Molly gets when you sneak up on her during a nap.

I'm going to try the cable rowing machine next time.

Saturday morning, Brad is going to teach me some free-weight exercises, just to change up my routine a little. Maybe that will get the fat furnace burning again.

It feels good to wake up sleeping muscles. But not as good as running that first full mile is going to feel. Patience. Patience.

Peace,
Pennsy

You Talking to Me? - or the Tale of the 300 lb Chicken

I worked cardio tonight. About 7 minutes in the stair climber, 30 on the elliptical, 30 on the recumbent bike, and another 15 on the treadmill to cool down. The left knee and right Achilles' tendon both felt better afterwards. Still trying the stretchless workout. I haven’t noticed any ill effects yet.

Are you talking to me?

Tonight, I feel stranger than I have since I started working out. I met with Brad, the owner and head of Promatx today for my quarterly progress review.

We talked about nutrition, of course. I have some things I can do better now. Need to work harder on eating more small meals throughout the day. Right now, I have carbs in the morning and fats and protein in the evening. I need to even that out some.

Having a trainer tell me that I need to eat more was a real shock. But there was an even bigger one.

“What is your goal?”, Brad asked.

“I want to lose 200 lbs.”

“How would you feel about changing that?”

We had just measured my body fat,and it turns out that in order to reach my target weight, I will have to lose almost 50 lbs of lean muscle along with the fat. I was confused. So what should my target be?

Based on my current lean body weight, if I get my body fat down to 18% (not bad for a man of 47) I would weigh 304 lbs! Were I to get down to 10% body fat (pretty fit for anyone of any age) I would weigh around 277.

These numbers have really rattled me. Especially when I consider that since I started working out, I have gained 19 lbs of muscle and lost 53 lbs of fat.

See what’s happening there? My lean weight (in red) is increasing almost 40% as fast as my fat weight (blue) is going down. I don’t have the patience to work the figures at this hour, but it appears to me that if my muscle weight keeps increasing at this rate, I will be at 10% body fat at right around 300 lbs.

I am going to be a trim, muscular 300 lb man. That sentence freaks me out for reasons I can’t even begin to explain. The words seem so incongruous - me...fit...trim...three-hundred pounds -- I can’t even picture what that will look like. It certainly won’t look like anything I have ever imagined myself being.

It’s one thing to count your chickens before they’re hatched, but I’m starting to realize that there’s a very big chicken waiting to peck its way out of this blubbery shell and the bird scares me a little.

Jeremy Likness has posted a series of before/after pictures of himself as he reduced from 30+% to 10% body fat. (245 to 188 lbs)

Frankenpennsy will be 6 inches taller and 112 pounds heavier. - It that even possible? And will I really look that imposing in robin's egg blue underpants? This may send me to the shrink a few months early.

Peace,
Pennsy

Expert du Jour - Jeff Galloway

I did ninety minutes of cardio today. A long, gentle run/walk on the treadmill, and a half hour on the elliptical. I really wanted to do 10K on the treadmill, but the left knee said it was time to step off, so I did. I wasn’t really paying attention to speed at all, just trying to listen to my body - run when i was ready, stop when it was time.

Weigh in tomorrow - I peeked at the scale today and am officially at a plateau. I have my quarterly check in with the trainer (Brad is my new man - Jordan is off playing professional football which I find to be incredibly cool). I’ll see what his thoughts are about how to get the fat burning motor started again.


EXPERT DU JOUR

I read a book this week, Running - Getting Started by Jeff Galloway. He’s a blogger and a columnist for Runner’s World and a 1972 Olympian, so I figured he had some valuable things to teach me. And so he did.

The thrust of his message to beginners is to avoid the pitfalls that make most people give up. He suggests a run/walk approach where you begin a run by walking at a very slow pace, then gently work your way up to short runs, stopping to walk again before you become breathless and tired. in this way, you avoid “overdoing” that causes the kind of fatigue and soreness that discourages so many new runners.

He had some things to say that surprised me. He does not think runners should lift weights, especially lower body exercises because they build up heavy muscle that you’re just going to have to haul around when you’re running.

He is also very much against stretching, (except in the case of IT band injury) which really caught me up short. His position is that stretching almost always does more harm than good, reduces your performance, and increases your recovery time.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone suggest that stretching was bad for you. Still, this is a very respected and experienced dude. I’m going to experiment with the no stretch thing for a couple of days, but it still sounds really weird to me.

It is a good book, though. Gallaway obviously loves running, and loves helping others to run. His passion shines from every page. I don’t intend to spend too much time reading books about running, but I think this one will be useful to me for a long time.

SPRINGTIME IN THE BLUEGRASS

Still, a good day to be Pennsy. Thanks to lynross for posting this beautiful photo on Webshots. The Bluegrass flora are starting to bud and bloom. I sure do love me some Kentucky today.

Peace,
Pennsy

Weak as a Baby

I had a spicy dinner too late the night before and did not sleep well. I also skipped my afternoon snack even though I have a basket of apples in my office. I was ok during the day, but the gym never lies.

I wanted to do a low weight high rep cardio day on the weights, and I ran out of juice fast. Started with cable curls and pushdowns and I never really felt right after that. I had to lower weight to do my second sets on several exercises, and really struggled on the Lat Flies, not one that’s ever been much of a problem for me.

I decided to walk a mile on the treadmill to cool down. I finished, but at the slowest speed I’ve ever walked and I actually had side stitches before I was done. I was afraid I’d given myself a hernia!

At the water fountain, I said something to the lady in front of me, and she said she was feeling the same thing. She blamed it on the time change. I have never noticed that affecting me before, but then I have never asked as much of my body as I am now.

I think that all those things combined - daylight savings time, Hoppin’ John at 9:00 for supper, 5 hours of fitful sleep, careless eating - all that stuff sort of worked together to remind me that fitness is an organic web. Pull out one thread, and the rest of the fabric feels the difference.

I took last night off to try to get my bearings a little, and I’ll hit it tonight for a long night of Cardio. I need to be in the gym this weekend, because there’s more travel coming up next week, this time to Chicago. I’ll almost certainly miss three days, and I want to anticipate that as best I can.

I’m looking forward to this week’s weigh in, though. My pants are pretty clownish these days. I want to get some more, but I kind of don’t want to commit to my current weight. Does that make sense? No, but neither does going to business meetings wearing baggy Charlie Chaplin drawers. I’ll probably pick up a pair or two before my trip.

Peace,
Pennsy

Pennsy's onesy is by Nappy Head
I found the Little Tramp photo on this blog: The Spark (Pennsy's feet are bigger)

All About the Cardio

Today was the first time I used the workout Jordan suggested - lower weights, higher reps, shorter breaks -- for the next two weeks, I’m all about the cardio.

I went through my sets as fast as I could do them without short changing my form. Getting hurt is the last thing I want right now.

The weights went fine. I was concerned that the lighter weight wouldn’t give me the same workoiut, but by the 40th rep, I was feeling it, especially on the chest press and the triceps pull-downs.

Two miles on the treadmill felt like, well, like two miles. The resistance workout had my heart rate up in the 140's when I hit the treadmill. My walking seems to be pretty consistently taking it to 156. I was not exhausted when my miles were finished, but I was ready to stop. I was a little shaky after I finished the programmed cool down, so I put in another couple of minutes till my head and heart stabilized.

After a nice long stretch, I soaked in the shower, then dressed. All in all, it was a pretty routine workout. Which is cool. Because three weeks ago, I could not have done any of it.

Peace,
Pennsy

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I found the creepy heart graphic here.

Four Hundred Pounds of Muscle

Swapping fat for muscle? Am I destined to become 400 pounds of rippling man meat? (see nearby illustration. Pennsy will have more hair.)

I am still pissed about my weight, so I walked three miles after my resistance training today. I could have done four, but my shoelace came untied - which I didn’t realize - and I developed a hot spot on the ball of my right foot. I decided to stop before it turned to a blister.

I spoke with Trainer Jordan about the weight. I was a little surprised that he did not offer the same easy answers that others had. He asked about my diet, which was my first question as well. I’ve been eating pretty well. Yesterday I had Fruit, Yoghurt, and Granola for Breakfast. Lunch and twp snacks were SlimFast. I also ate some Peanuts at lunch.

He assured me that I’m doing the right work and looking slimmer. Most people do plateau on their initial rate of weight loss, but not this early. His suggestion is to increase reps and lower the weight a little. That way I can turn my weight training into a cardio workout as well. That sounds like good advice.

Speaking of cardio, my resting heart rate has come down 9 BPM from 87 to 79. I’ll take the progress where I can find it. I also noticed that I’m two notches tighter on my belt than I was at Christmas. Are Mom and Mrs P right? Am I just swapping fat for muscle? Will I eventually turn into a pink version of the Incredible Hulk?

For the answers to these and other questions, tune in tomorrow for our next thrilling episode.

Peace,
Pennsy