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

What to Choose, What to Let Go

Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.
He lets go of that and chooses this. (Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu)

Pennsy's great experiment has concluded. First I confess to the failures. I didn't do nearly as much cardio as I planned. I rode the bike to work a couple of times, and spent some time walking on the treadmill, but the running, climbing, spinning stuff was pretty much not part of my routine. And I hit the wall like my feathered friend here at the two hour mark of today's work out. Every part of me was either shaking, screaming, or wanting to puke. It was time to stop, so I stopped without doing any of the arm isolation lifts I had planned.

What to Choose

Now for the successes. (Comparing June 21 to July 6)

Weight decreased from 357 - 354
Body Fat % decreased from 32.1 - 31.9
Lean Body mass stayed at 241 lb - three pounds of fat up in smoke

And the personal best lifts.

Bench Press 155 - 175
Lat Pulldowns 160 - 180
Deadlift 145 - 195
Squat 105 - 225
Pushups 0 - 28 (4 x 7 in between 4 x 30 Crunches)

I also found, by checking my heart rate during these workouts, that because I tried to keep up a good pace, my heart was beating between 120 and 140 BPM - not exactly running, but not exactly watching summer re-runs either.

I gained a lot of strength in the big exercises where I wanted to see growth. More strength = more weight = more muscle mass to gobble up fat. I have been getting on the treadmill without pain for several days now, and those bigger muscles will start paying dividends when I can get my heart rate up to a training level and keep it there for a while.

The long two day rest periods worked well. I did get tired by the end of these long sessions, but I never started out that way. And I found myself anticipating getting back to the gym all day when the recovery days were finally over. When I lift heavy weight, my long-neglected muscles are going to require greater rest periods - more time to run!

What to Let Go

There are some things I would change if I were to undertake this kind of intense muscle building course again. First, I would make the work-outs shorter. Too many exercises, especially arms and shoulders. I wanted to work Biceps and Triceps and all three Deltoid directions, but wound up burning too much fuel (and time) on these toning exercises. I would probably include leg curls in that bunch too. My focus needs to be on whole body conditioning, not isolated muscle sculpting. If I keep doing push ups and pulling heavy deadlifts and squats then my legs and arms are going to look just fine. I'll do body building later. Right now, I'm still in the demolition phase - making muscle to burn fat.

And too many reps, I think. My 20, 12, & 8 plan was not a random choice. I wanted to start with light weight and high reps to be sure my form was solid before testing my limits. That was wise, I think, and something I'll probably continue as I add new movements into a routine. But after a while, I found I used up a lot of gas grinding out those 45 lb bench presses. I would like to have been able to test that 200 lb barrier, but not yet.

Bench pressing without a spotter is holding me back. Now that I have had the experience of straining to lift a 175 lb barbell back into the hooks, it's time for me to bury my pride or shyness or insecurity or whatever it is and ask someone for help. I think I don't want to ask because I'm still lifting so much less than most of the guys back on the wieght floor. If I want to get over the hump, I'm going to have to get over my reluctance to ask for a spotter's assistance.

Pride, pride, pride: the single greatest cause of injury in the gym. I need to remember that I am a beginner, and will be for many years. I will work hard and grow and learn, but it will take time before other lifters are watching me the way I watch the guys with ths skinny legs squatting 285 in the power cage. I may be much stronger than that one day, but for now I need to remember where I am - at the beginning of a journey.

What I Take With Me on the Journey

Making a plan like this, and sticking to it was a very good thing. It created a goal and a time-table - a finish line to press toward. It turned my routine into an event with a beginning, middle, and an end. At times I was tempted to improvise - to change up the plan - and while I did substitute lifts a couple of times (ex. standing barbell curls for preacher curls) I did not yield to that temptation. I stuck with the discipline of the program. I hope I'll learn to design better plans, but working from a plan based on weeks and not days felt really good to me.

I have been thinking about Personal Trainers. I think I might like to be one some day. This is very early to contemplate such a thing - like wanting to be a doctor because you liked you first two months of high-school biology, but it is something that's on my mind. I need a lot more experience, and I need to build a body that elicits confidence, and I need to know a lot of stuff, but still I keep thinking that I might end up being a 55 year old personal trainer somehow. I guess I'll mention these dreams to Brad at my quarterly review in two weeks and get his thoughts. Soon as I feel comfortable about paying for it, I should probably start working with a personal trainer myself. And of course, I'll do what I always do when I start a new obsession - I'll read books and blogs about it. I will test it out and see if this is just a late-midlife thing, or a real vocation I want to pursue.

For now, that will do. And for now, it's pretty good being Pennsy.

Peace, y'all.
Pennsy

A Father's Gift

Like so many young people today, she is heavier than she should be. I was a fat child, and I was the exception. I didn't have any fat friends at all. Now, we don't seem so hard to find. She may be 13 or 14. While I was doing an easy walk on the treadmill, rehabilitating my injured ankles, she came out of the group exercise room carrying a medicine ball, bouncing it on the floor every few steps. She smiled shyly at me as she passed, then proceeded to turn two recumbant bikes so they faced one another.

Her sister was younger, but bigger than she. The younger, dark haired sister was "fixing her jams" - getting the music in her MP3 player just right before she climbed up on the bike facing her brown haired workout partner.

Dad followed last. He is a mountain of a man, built like a power lifter and at least an inch or two taller than my 6-feet 4-inches. We have shared a workout station from time to time, and he is very strong. Also very kind and patient. I have counted him lifting 20 reps of the entire 200 lb stack on the cable pulldown, then trotting across the gym to help his wife with her dumbells. Every thing about him, from his powerful legs to his solid, broad face says strength and gentleness.

He gave the girls a quick, "OK, let's go." and they started cycling. Dad checked their leg extension to make sure that they didn't have their seats too far back. Then the girls started chucking the ball back and forth, pedaling and playing catch at the same time while Dad circled like a lion protecting cubs on a sunny afternoon. If one of the sisters slowed down, he would encourage them. If they got too rambunctious with the ball, he would settle them down with a quiet word. And once he chased down a toss that slipped through the older girls hands and rolled to the reception counter.

While the girls pedaled and laughed, his eyes moved from their faces to the consoles of their machines - using both to monitor their progress and condition. The younger daughter reached 1 mile first, and her workout was done. The game of catch was over, but she and her father waited patiently while her fading but determined sister completed her own ride, her dad softly coaching her to the end.

Those girls got a gift today. The gym is full of men and women who come to make themselves better or to get away from the stress of work and family for a while. This father had something much more important to do. He was helping his girls with love and patience, allowing them to be kids and to play while pressing them to do their best. When that girl was pedaling alone, after the game of catch was over, I could see in her face that she was not going to quit. And I could also see that her Dad was not going to walk away, no matter how long it took her to finish. Her father is teaching her to stick to her guns and keep her eyes on her goal. She was tired, but she was not distracted. Her face told me she was strong and quietly determined to do her best .

Just like her Dad.

Peace,
Pennsy

Rebranding the Fat Man: If It Ain't Broke, Break It

I got tired of my old blog layout. I chose it when I started blogging because it looked classy and sophisticated like leather elbow patches. More and more though, I found it restricting and a little pretentious for my current state of mind. I'll leave Pennsyltuckian in the old template for nostalgia's sake, but I want to try this cleaner look for a while.

I've also added some features that Blogger made available. Blog rolls after my own musings will point you toward some of my favorite writers and sites. And I've eliminated some of the toys like the Digg link that only served to clutter up the screen.

I've stuck an Amazon thingee at the bottom. I'll dump it if it bugs me too much.

The biggest change I've made is to the name of the blog. "Fat Man Running" is not nearly as original as I thought when I chose it. Guess I should have done a Google search first. My body is changing, and I'm going to speak a little more respectfully about it.

I think that's all the rearranging of cyber furniture for today. Turning the corner on the first half of a good year feels like an appropriate time for a change. Especially one that's so positive in spirit. We'll see how it works out.

Happy Independence Day, y'all.

Peace,
Pennsy

Beating Back Boredom

I love the gym and working out, but there are just a few things about my current program that bore me. This isn't intended to be a negative post, just an interlude to consider some stumbling blocks and what I intend to do about them

Doing the same routine for too long
My experiment has been a good one. I think there's value to building a routine and committing to it for an extended period. It has been a great success in terms of body composition and strength gains, but man am I ready for a change. Sunday will be the last day and I already have my next routine planned. I don't think I'll ever get stuck in a rut with my workouts. My attention span is too short!

Crunches and Pushups
I hate these exercises. I don't much like rolling around on the floor and... Oh whatever. I don't have any excuses. I just hate them. And they are critical to my success. I need to improve my overall core strength and these are two of the best ways to do that. Did I mention that I hate them? They bore me. If I don't do them the very first thing out of the locker room, I never do them.

I want to find a way to make them interesting. Maybe I can invent some sort of a game to entertain myself. I just know I have to keep doing them. And by the way, I really hate crunches and pushups.

The workout software I bought really sucks
This bums me out. I had been using a FileMaker database that I developed. I didn't want to get bogged down creating a bunch of reports for it, so I thought I'd just buy one. The one I chose is called Open Fitness and it really sucks. The list of disappointing things about it is long and a little boring in its own right. I find it to be sloooow, badly organized, difficult to customize, and really limited in the way it generates reports. Simple functions require half a dozen mouse clicks and window switches. It won't export data. It doesn't support basic functions like - oh, I don't know...Cut and freaking Paste! I went back to the site to look for an upgrade, and there is an online version that looks like it may be better-built. Great. I could bite the bullet and subscribe. Then I'll just export all those time gobbling entries into their slick online system.But dig this answer to my simple question about how to do that. (At least the email response from the folks at workoutware.com was prompt and courteous. I wonder how the guy wrote it with a straight face.)

It is not possible to export your entire workout history in one step, but it is possible to export individual workouts, routines, and other records. To do that, just get an OpenFitness.net account if you don't already have one...a free one will work if you just want to try it out.

Then, in the Open Fitness desktop, select the workout you want to export and click the 'Share' button. Choose to send it through OpenFitness.net to an individual and enter your OpenFitness.net user ID. Once you finish, you should find the workout in your private messages on OpenFitness.net next time you log in. You'll be able to click on the workout and import it into your OpenFitness.net account from there.

So if I wanted to move all the data I have painfully entered from their wonky desktop version into their pay as you go online version I could do it, but only one day at a time. And only by negotiating about a dozen different steps for each workout. Bogus.

One last rant, 'cause the conversation itself bores me more than pushups. Here's a quote from the site.

Open Fitness tracks all your fitness activity and monitors your progress, just like a personal trainer would. In fact, it was designed by a certified personal trainer! Open Fitness takes all of the guesswork out of fitness, so you can make the most of your time in the gym!

I'm thinking that maybe this certified personal trainer should have hired a certified software engineer. And while the program doesn't slow me down in the gym, it sure does take a lot of my time at home. Open Fitness is a lame, half-assed piece of junk and stumbling through it bores me. I've been using it for a month, and I think I'm going back to my old faithful home-made jalopy instead. I'm not spending any more time or money on it.

On the Other Hand

Did I mention strength gains? Yesterday I set new personal bests at the power cage in squats and deadlifts, the granddaddies of compound full body strength exercises. They have really been the focus of my efforts over the last few weeks, and the work is paying off. If I can get my bench and clean & press rolling too, I will have established the core of my strength training routine. Assuming I don't die of boredom during a set of crunches first.

Peace,
Pennsy

For a time waster that I don't find boring at all, subscribe to dmotivation.

Pennsy's Gym

This is not an advertisement. It is an act of thanksgiving. These folks are helping me to change my life, one rep at a time. I'm adding their video to my layout - you'll be able to find it at the bottom of the page whenever you need it.
Peace,
Pennsy

PROMATX Health Club

How Strength Training Improved My Property Value

Last night was a recovery night, so I did not go to the gym. Instead I went out to the yard to tackle a project I've been putting off -- clearing some out of control shrubs that I can't see but my neighbor can. So the whole adventure started with this altruistic tone that just made me feel so contented and full of myself.

I donned my big blue anti-poison-ivy zip-up mechanic's overalls, pulled out my leather work gloves, and started digging in. From a three foot wide strip along the side of my house I removed several trees that had sprouted accidentally. These included an oak, two maples, and numerous red-buds. I chopped out about a quarter of a mile of grape vine that some genius must have thought would look great tearing the downspouts off the corner of the house. I also pulled out some old leaves, dead ivy, and several light beer cans upon whose origins I chose not to speculate.

The project involved bending, lifting, squeezing stretching, sawing, chopping, sweating, kneeling, and lots of other real world movements that I have been avoiding because they always made my back ache, my arms weak, and my head spin after an hour or so.

But I didn't hurt at all. I wasn't out of breath. I broke a good sweat, but after all I was wearing overalls on July 1 in Kentucky.

I even helped my neighbor push his dead Isuzu out of the driveway.

Squats, curls, deadlifts, rows, oblique twists... I've been lifting weights because I want to be stronger and healthier. Somehow I never made the connection that those things would follow me when I left the gym.

This shouldn't have been such a surprise, but it was. It isn't pretty - not yet - but my body is becoming more useful to me and to the people I care about. AND one side of my house now looks like the building is actually occupied. I have a feeling that the folks next door just got a lot more enthusiastic about my gym membership.

Tonight I'll take on the front hedges, a mere warm up bout for this weekend's epic Independence Day Battle of the Backyard.

Anybody want to buy an old easy chair?

Peace, y'all.
Pennsy

Edward Scissorhands photo from dvdbeaver.com