Go to work… out

 

Today I was carless (the Rein-mobile is at the mechanics, he has a fever) so if I wanted to go to the gym I would have to go on foot. My gym is about a 30 minutes walk from home. BUT! Earlier today, I had a really bad lunch meeting, with lots of breaded, fried stuff, and frankly more gluten I had in the past month. And I wont blame the gluten or say «it wasn’t primal food» for my bellyache, because it was the volume. I ate until full, then ate, and ate, and ate some more. And then I had dessert 😛

Also, I was on a funk today. You know that kind of day. You just want to lay on the couch. Everything fitness related seems like a chore. Oh, and I have a cold for like 3 days now.  And my car is at the mechanic, so I had to walk to the gym if I ever wanted to do  any workout. And it’s freezing here (snowing in some areas, not here tho).

But something drove me to pack my gym bag, walk half an hour to the gym, workout for 90 minutes, then walk back home, while feeling the funk the whole time. I figured out what miracle was happening in the walk there. And I came up with a way to share it with you.

You’ll see, today the alarm clock went off as it does every morning at 7 AM. Did I feel like sleep some more? Until 12 PM? SURE! But… I have a job, and probably you have one too, so you understand. You can’t say «Mmmmfff, I just don’t feel like working today, I’ll just stay in bed». Your boss would disagree with that strongly. So, you get up, shower, and go to work.

And some days are nice at work, and you even enjoy them; but other days… you hate it. Your boss yells at you, or a costumer or client yells at you, or a co-worker yells at you…. ugh. And you just can’t say «Fuck it, I’m living early today because I had a bad moment with someone (at 11 AM) because… well, your boss would disagree with that strongly.

Why do we wake up so early and sleepy? Why do we torture ourselves getting up before sunrise? Why we stay in our workplace until 5 PM??? Because we need the paycheck. Because WE KNOW that if we do the work, the paycheck comes at the end of the month. You don’t have to enjoy it everyday, you just got to DO IT and the paycheck will come. So you do it. Period.

 

And this is why I still went to the gym today, funk and all. Because I’m following a program that is proven. I had seen what it has done for others. Heck, I’m only 3 weeks on it and I’m already seeing unexpected results. So, I know there’s a very good prize at the end. I know there is a reward at the end. And I want it. I want it bad. Just like I want my paycheck every month. And to get that prize, I just got to do the work… outs. Just like work, and I don’t need to enjoy it everyday. I just have to DO IT. Enjoy it or not, hate or not; if I do the workouts, the prize will come.

I want the results, so I did the job. I worked out for 90 minutes. I disliked every single one of them. But I did it anyways. And felt great afterwards, like «Thanks God that is over». The same thing I said after I left my workplace at 5 PM. I’m sure the paychecks are on their way. Both of them.

It’s the end of the month.

Adonis Index Program

 

So, the program whore is back. Don’t get me wrong, I was doing quite well doing workouts on my own for like… err… like two full weeks. But I couldn’t resist doing this program, since I wanted to do it for about two years!

I love the guys behind this program, and I had been following their work for a few years. I added them to facebook, even. They’re very wise, fitness like. They don’t just talk and talk and talk about fat loss and muscle building and have a crappy body themselves (I’m lookink at you, Lyle), but they do look amazingly fit and muscular and found their methods and programs in real science. What’s not to love? Why didn’t I jumped in earlier in their program???

THE THING COSTED $200 DOLLARS BACK THEN. Ands it used to cost almost freakin’ $500 dollars. YIKES, DOUBLE YIKES!!!

But, before I talk any further, let me give the quick recap. They found their whole program in the «Adonis Index», or the golden proportion that is Phi, or 1 is to 1.618. The Golden Proportion is present in nature as

and they say this Golden Proportion makes the perfect male body. Wait, what??!?!?! It totally sounds like a fad. Until you learn that this proportion was a must in earlier sculptures, like the David…

or the Vitruvian Man…

 

 

Artists had been using this Golden proportions to make their sculptures beatiful since ever. Because this proportion just looks nice. And healthy. Sure, any women loves broad shoulders and a narrow waist (and if you are a lady and say «I don’t», actually you love your husband/boyfriend, not his actual figure). It’s a primal thing. Broad shoulders and narrow waist in a male is just sexy, or calls respect (depending what swings your boat). So, this program calls you to try and achieve theat same Golden Ratio on to yourself, loering your body fat in the middle and building muscle in your upper body.

I don’t know, it made sense to me, and I was pulling out my wallet to buy this when I saw the price tag… $200 dollars! With tears falling down my eyes (but manly tears, do notice) I went to the future, (I was in a  before Adelle time) and sang at the top of my lungs «Nevermind I’ll find someone like yoooooo-ooouuuuu!» –> enter The Hollywood Physique program. I bought that for ust $47 and trained it with excellent results. It does work, and if you want to buy it, do so! It really works. But since I am me, I got bored after a year, and wanted something new.

Recently, I stumbled into the same Adonis Index website again, and I was very excited to the fact that the price went down quite a bit (two monthly payment of $39.95). My Mastercard never went out of the wallet so fast!!

DO NOTICE: I’M NOT AN AFFILIATE. I DON’T EARN A SINGLE PENNY FOR ANYONE BUYING THIS PROGRAM. I JUST LOVE THE AUTHORS, THE WORK THEY SPREAD FOR FREE AND THE WHOLE IDEA.

I  shot some progress pics that will do as «Day 1» pics. Here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

If you have been following for a while, you’ll see that I’m rocking maintenance, and maybe (M-A-Y-B-E) gained some broader back and a little shoulders in the last months. But that’s about it, if you ask me. Let’s see what happens.

SPECIAL NOTE: I fucked it up. I was supposed to hit SAVE, not PUBLISH. So, I published a draft. Damn it. I’ll finish the post later on this week, hopefully tomorrow (since I know the draft is up and embarrasing me). Bare with me here.

SPECIAL NOTE NUMBER 2: I added the missing pics. All good now.

For all your troubles and understanding, here’s a potato:

A better approach to lifting weights (for me)

For so many years, I had been lifting the same way: progressive overload. Wich is the way to go, I think. It means that every workout (or eventually, between sessions) you need to exert yourself a little bit more than before. One more rep than last session, a few seconds less of rest than last week, a little bit more iron in the bar than last month, and so on. For this to happen, you need to keep a journal, and eventually you build a huge archive of this over the years.

So, everytime before the gym, I look at what I did last time, and write a new «exercise plan» in the journal. One more rep on the squat, add more weight to the military press, or whatever. Then, I write the new plan again on a post-it and take that with me to the gym. When I’m back home, I correct the journal if I didn’t managed to finish some exercise, or took a long break during the set, or whatever.

After years of doing that, dude, I am sick of it. I really am. Everything came down to numbers. To planning. I’m tired of it.

When I knew I was facing (minor) surgery 3 weeks ago, the first thing that popped in my mind was «Fuck it. I’m skipping the weights all week, because.. what’s the point?» I was going to lose my «momentum», my numbers. I’ll had to start all over again with lower weights. With less reps. So I skipped a week BEFORE the surgery. Because to me, it was worthless.

This two weeks recovering after the surgery gave me time to think. Besides building the square foot garden, I also came to some peace with this subject. I realized I can never win to my expectations about muscle building, and that I don’t need to anyway.

I look at the buffed guys at the gym, some of them openly juicing (yet, they don’t sell it) and I think that’s too much muscle. They don’t look athletic, they look… what’s the word? Just too much. I would have stopped building muscle long before if I were them, yet they keep juicing, keep going to the gym 5 days a week, because they want MORE. MOOOAARR!!! I also want to get more muscle (natural way only, tho), but the point is, when is it enough? When you get to a certain centimeters/inches of biceps? A certain PR in the squat? I believe (and this is my opinion) that is NEVER enough. Because you’re never too skinny, or too muscular, or too defined, or too hot, or too healthy, or get too much ass, or too much anything. SPECIALLY when you are anal about it and keep a journal and try to beat your own records. You have this goal of improving yourself always, but no real «goal». No «If I get there, I’ll be happy and just enjoyed it for the rest of my life with the least possible effort» point. No. Is 15% body fat your goal? Meet that goal, and I bet, I bet you’ll want to go for 14%. And then, would you be happy? Or you’ll try for 13%??? 12%??? All the way down to 8%???

Squat half your body weight? Your body weight? Double your bodyweight???

Again, I’m talking about my point of view here. Trying to always improve the numbers in my lifting journal sucked all the fun from it. It happened slowly, but dude, it sucked ALL the fun. It got so bad, that I skipped a whole week of perfectly good time to exercise, because I was going to lose some numbers anyway because of the surgery.

The time out let me think about this, and I get to this conclusion, or epiphany if you must: I ALREADY MET MY GOAL. I went from 90 kilos and 30% bodyfat to what I am now. I feel fit. I look fit. But my workouts are no fun. And they should be fun, if not, why keep doing something you don’t enjoy? It doesn’t make sense. I need a change!!!

Scroll up and look at the pic I chose for this post. There’s a woman, about 50 years old, exercising with just a bar. She’s obviously fat. But she’s doing it right. She’s fighting osteoporosis with that, and keeping her hips healthy. I’m now in my early thirties. I want to keep being young, feeling fit, and healthy for the rest of my life, so I can enjoy it. Just like that woman, I wanna do it right. And enjoy my health, not punish myself with numbers and inches of biceps. I want to have a fit, healthy body and that’s it. End of the story. That’s my final goal. And guess what, I think I already met that goal a fucking year ago!!!!! So this last 12 months I had been struggling with what, exactly? Farts from ghosts???? Numbers on a spreadsheet????

So, I came out with this new plan. 10% journal driven, boring weight lifting. 90% fun, almost non-written-in-the-journal workout. Say what, again? OK, picture this: 1, maybe 2 boring weight lifting sessions per week, journaled, old fashion. The rest of the time? I’ll just have fun!!! I’ll say «OK, today it’s 200 push ups» and just do so! No matters how much breaks I need to do, or how long it will take me. 200 bodyweight squats during the day? 80 burpees next day! Sprinting for fun! I haven’t posted a progress pic for a while… why not take my shirt off, record myself doing 100 chinups (even if it takes me 2 hours or more!), youtube it and kill two birds with one stone. If I get really, really crazy, maybe even take a day off, or two??? Maybe give that abandoned kettlebell a swing or two?

I really wanna get away from this structure of tuesday-thursday-saturday lifting with plans and journals and shit. I want this to be fun. The way it’s supposed to be!! If muscle building or fat loss happens, so be it!!! But I have met my goal, and anything from this point and beyond is a BONUS!!!!

January’s report

I’m going to try to make a summary of every month of everything fitness related from now on. So, for january, 2012:

– Vacation week was spectacular! Lots of sun, red skin LOL, and fun. But the eating was… not perfect. I did eat stuff with gluten, and rice, and potatoes. But… I managed to eat 2 times a day, wich I think it helped, and not every meal was non primal. Also, lots of walking and swimming. And dancing. And booze :$. And cheap carbs at the beach.  Somehow, even with not perfect eats, I managed to came home even leaner than I left my house 😀

– In the sun deparment, I took sunbaths all vacation week long, and then some other camping days during the weekends. I used 30 factor sunblock only in my tattooes, and in the rest of my skin a 15 factor oil SOMETIMES. Mainly, I was in the sun without anything on my skin. Yes, I got a little red, but not that much. Up to this day, still no skin cancer.

– Up to this year, young chileans (45 years old and younger) have really catched up with getting tattooed. Now, everybody has ink. I saw a lot of sleeves. But for some reason, the same heavily tattooed people made a «WTF!!!» face when they saw my piercings. One little girl, around 14 years old, just ask me at the beach as we crossed paths: «Did those hurt?» And I answered her with a smile «Those are nipple piercings. Of course they hurted like a bitch!» She laughed.

– Chin-ups are in a plateau. Or I feel a light workout to easy, or I can’t finish a harder one. I took a test yesterday, and I can do 11 consecutive, full ROM, slow chin-ups in 1 set. So I went back to the 20 pull ups program (but I’m doing it with chin-ups) and started another week for the 11 reps. It felt too easy. It’s like I can’t get this program right. Sigh.

– Push ups are a different story!! I did 100 ALMOST consecutive push ups yesterday!!! GO ME!! OK, I did took like, 5 rests. The first one was like, 2 seconds. Just a pause to get my mind right, at 45 push ups. Then another rest, maybe 4 secs. Then, another for 5 secs. The fifth rest was like 8 seconds. And then, I finished 100 push ups. WOW.

– And I’m getting really good at dips. Full body weight, triceps focused dips in parallel bars. Last workout I did 5 sets of 12-14-10-10-14 reps. Triceps were pumped to the point that I had a hard time getting the lock opened with my key at the locker room, because my whole arms were shacky. That’s a good sign.

– Also, I had a carb binge just two days ago. Cake as the offending item. Today, I ate right. Lots of meats, veggies and oops 2 servings of red wine. SOOO GOOOOOOD!!! And nowm enjoying beer 😀

So that’s for January. Next week I’m posting new progress pics! See ya there.-

I shall not give up

Let’s go back to a week ago. I was taking antibiotics, so I couldn’t drink any beer, so I decided I also was going to follow an hipocaloric diet for the week. Because starving yourself now and then could help you to lose weight permanently.

Wait, what? Excuse me, but that’s the yo-yo diet you’re talking about! If you starve yourself, you’ll gain all the weight back again and then some!

Well yes, and no. As Brad Pilon said (in a different post I couldn’t find ((dammit!!)), but I remember the words) saying that «dieting» way below your daily calorie intake for some time is useless because when you go back to your regular diet you gain it all back is like saying spending less money for some time so you can pay your credit card debt is useless because once you start using your credit card again like crazy you’ll regain all the debt back and then some.

Since the dawn of this blog, I had been losing fat (and gaining a moderate amount of muscle) permanently. Yes, I have seen loooooooong plateaus, and I’m far from perfect at eating or exercising, but I haven’t regain fat at all. Maybe the scale could have seen some ups and downs, but since I don’t weigh myself we’ll never know. But every now and then, I keep my calorie intake way way low and then I get back to my regular eating patterns. Think of it as the boost you use in Mario Kart (the mushroom thing), it makes me go forward a little bit faster in the fat burning thing, and when I start eating normal again, I just keep my previous momentum.

But I digress. Last week, remember? I was on antibiotics, not drinking beer, and I decided to make a little fat burning boost and go 800 cal/day for that week. Hell yeah, because I’m hardcore like that.

I went to the gym, and the first exercise was CHIN UPS. I’m currently following the 20 pull ups challenge (but with chin ups, not pull ups) and I did a total of 6-5-6-5-6 (new personal record, or PR). Great!

Then, it was time for PUSH UPS. Yes, I also follow the 100 push ups challenge. This time was 23-28-23-23-33 push ups. But, the last 33 push ups was, uuh, too much. I hit 20, and collapsed. Dammit!

Then, 4 sets of 11 SHOULDER PRESS reps. I couldn’t finish set 2. I was underslept, underfed, overtrained and undersexed too, and I just hit a wall. I said FUCK YOU, GYM! and left. I took a week off.

I needed it. I was sooo tired.

I went back today. Started with the fucking push ups that won over me last time. I finished the 23-28-23-23-33!!! Then, chin ups: 7-6-5-4-max (was 5 chins). Shoulder press was a bitch, but I did it! Also did some more shoulder work, biceps and triceps, all PR’s!!

So, my point is: it’s OK to take some time off the gym now and then. You’re not going to get fat again for skipping a week. It’s a rest week (not a binge week, mind that!). After you rest, you can go back and kick some serious ass. Even if yopu failed the last time. Recover, and own it a week later!!!

– Rein.

Getting my mojo back

Apparently, I’m now a woman  with a 21-day menstrual cicle. Yes, you read that right.

In a previous post I told you about me going into the «Hollywood Physique» program (details here). Well, part of the program is working your ass off your 3 weeks and rest one week. The dude that wrote it told me I was risking overtraining while on this program. Actually, he wanted me to reach overtraining. He wanted me to cry while driving to the gym at the end of the 21 first days. Then I will have my 7 days vacation off the gym and all will be better again.

«Ha!» – I said. «Sorry dude, I’m just too hardcore to overtrain on your little program».

«Just beware»… he said.

«Nope, I’m too manly to skip the gym dude! I’ll show you!»

FASTFORWARD 2 WEEKS —> And I go all EMO on my reader’s asses. OK, fine, he was right. Jeez!

I swallowed the jagged little pill, anyways. I realized the funk I was getting was all part of his plan. OK, OK, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me go back a few days ago.

After writing that last emo post, I had a haircut. My hairdresser said to me «Look at you! You’re just so skinny! Looking good tho!» and she grabbed my biceps in that last sentence. Then I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I do look different in just 2 weeks! Like the shoulders got (somehow) to look wider. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still a skinny underweighted little fuck, but now I’m a skinny underweighted little fuck with some shoulders!! How did that happened? The straws I like to call legs also are getting a little more meat to them. Yes, they’re still straws, but… thicker straws.

So I logged on the Hollywood Physique website again. I re-read everything. Then I got it. The funk is all part the plan. This dude actually wants me to overtrain after 3 weeks. So those emo feelings were part of his plan. He said it was going to happen. I just didn’t think it would happen to me!

So, whenever I feel like not working out, I remember that I’m trying to overtraining myself! I’m trying to punish my body so hard that I cry while  drive to the gym. It’s not really a physical overtrain, but a mental one. I know next week is «no workouts but eat your bodyweight in meat and eggs week» so I just need to wear out my hot bod for a few more days.

Now don’t give me that look. I know overtraining is bad. PLANNED overtraining in the other hand, with a planned 7 days of rest after it… is a different story. Plus, just 3 weeks in the program and I’m already seeing results? Me likes.

So, expect me bitching and crying every three weeks for the next few months. Oh, what? Pics or it didn’t happened? Well, I’m very shy about taking my pic shirtless so… OK OK This freakin’ blog was build on shirtless pics of myself, I know, but if you read a few months ago my camera was stolen 😦 I’ll get to progress pics soon enough. See you soon!

Week update: tattoo and belly bug

As you may (or not) know, I got my first tattoo this monday. It’s a statue of Eros on my left calf. I got to say, I was pretty lucky this first week of healing. Absoluty NO crusties, NO blood, NO scabs, NO ink leaking… my skin was a little sore, but minimally.

But today (Saturday) I woke up to this image:

Flakes all over the place! And some disgusting man-leg hairs regrowing as well. That’s the mother recipe for itchingness. But still, not THAT itchy. Go figure.

In other news, Tuesday’s night I assalted the fridge. I was looking for something paleo friendly, and I found a burger. YUM! Heated it on the microwave and eat it. Next day, I learned that the meat was on the fridge for at least 5 days. Then the stomach cramps begun. Then, the repeated visits to the little boy’s room. And more cramps. And more bathroom visits. Oh God.

I wanna be classy, so I’ll put it this way: I missed weight training the whole freaking week because I didn’t wanted to push myself hard and have an… accident. You get the idea, I hope. Ugh. FML. Stomach cramps every 5 minutes… dehydration… FML.

This Friday I went to Body Combat class and felt well most of the time, but by the end of it I felt like I was shacking my body too much and felt like throwing up. Luckly, I didn’t. Saturday morning I felt better, let’s see how Sunday will feel like…

Then again, I feel good. Tommorrow I want to hit the weights again. So I guess this pic summarize both of those feelings:

Hot dude. I would hump myself! (kidding)

I also cooked some Filled Chicken Breast. I’ll get to work for that post tomorrow!

I scare the crap out of myself

OK, a little intro first. This community, the weigh loss/health community is mainly dominated by women. There, I said it. The men are minority. And the men who actually hit goal weight, yet keeps on blogging, are a minority inside the minority. And the men who struggle with muscle gain, BUT having our minds already fucked up by previous fat gains (we started blogging as fat dudes), are even less. I think I can count 4 guys like that in my reader. Me included.

So, you’re a dude.  You were fat, but you lost the extra weight. Now, time to bulk because non of us wants to be just skinny, we want to look more muscular as well. And to look muscular, you need to lift weights and eat a little bit above maintenance – or a lot above it. Just eat more, but don’t start to get fat again. Simple, on paper.

I had lost a lot of weight, and now I’m what a like to call a «Skinny Fuck». In my mind, my legs are normal; in the mirror, I see straws. In my mind, my arms are a little bigger than average; in the mirror, I have straws for arms. I have «Twiggy» written all over my face. I hate it. My height is 5′ 61» (1.71 meters) and weight 132 pounds (60 kilos first thing in the morning after peeing).

And still, yeah, I keep on weight training. I add one more rep almost every workout. I get stronger. A stronger skinny fuck.

But the idea of eating over my calorie «confort place» scares the living crap out of me. I’m skinny, yet I don’t own a pack of six abs. Maybe, if I flex, a some sort of 4-pack? So I’m torn between wanting to eat above maintanence for muscle gain, and wanting to undereat for fat loss. One day I feel on one team, the next I feel on the other team.

So, now that summer is almost over, I said fuck it. Let’s eat more, and exercise less. Yes, I said LESS. Less cardio, same weight lifting, more sleeping and naps. And let’s eat a lot, but real food, #primal foods. (Wait, did I just add a hashtag there? WTH?)

I had write this very same post before. Then, a few days later, I panick about growing a belly again and go back to low cal. I hope, the story doesn’t repeat itself. Stick to a plan other than low cal, goddammit!!

So the actual plan: weights 3 times per week. Bodycombat 1-2 times per week. Swimming 1-2 times per week, but not for calorie burning; only for technique purposes. Eat more than I do now, only real food. Meat, veggies, fats, fruit and eggs.

OK. Here I go.

Active Sunday&Monday with a Plank Challenge

Whoa! What a Sunday! I woke up early and after having a cup of a much needed Java I started a fire for a BBQ.

The meat was great! I invented a sauce for it: EVOO, vinegar, lemon juice, black peppe, garlic powder and Dijon mustard. It was GOOD.

After that I went to the public pool and let me tell ya, WOW. I’m not talking about the pool from the Y, where I count laps and wear funny googles. This is the pool where I spend all my summers while growing up. Thousands of memories in a body of water. And there are certain distances I could never swim in there because point A was so very far from point B. Except this Sunday I swam from point A to B and back to A!!! I’m getting better at this swimming thing 😀

After that I hit the weights and after that I recorded a little video. It started with Josie recording herself doing a plank. Then Susan did a video with a longer plank. One thing lead to another and bam! now everybody is planking their ass off LOL Anyway, enjoy my very first english spoken video post:

On Monday, I thought «Well, what if all the swimming and lifting wore me down yesterday? What if I can do a longer plank?» So, I tried again:

Yeah! Now I need to work on my form. I’m not done planking yet!

Working out again, after being sick

Ugh. Tuesday I skipped my workout because I still felt dizzy from my ear inflammation. Luckly it wasn’t an infection, but still. What ARE infected still? My eyes. I need to put some drops every 4 hours, wich freaks me out everytime!! EYE don’t think I can take the drops any longer, and yeah, bad pun…

So, Wednesday was a «OMG! What are those bumps in my groin? Oh relax, you just grow a pair» kind of day. Even with the nose running, even with the mild discomfort in the ear, even with the cough and the itchy eyes, I went to the gym for some weight lifting. It was a nice upper body workout of pecs, shoulders, arms and forearms I like to call…. «Workout C». And yes, there is an «A» and a «B» as well. And no, I’m not groundbreaking at naming stuff, obviously…

After the lifting (wich went suprisingly well) I showered, put the swimsuit and off to the pool I went. The flower-ish smell of fucking CHLORINE reminded me of the eyes’ infection situation and some part of my brain said «Oooooohhhh  crap, I forgot about that!» Decisions, decisions… Go back, or just put my thight googles and *literally* just jump into the pool?

Another part of my brain said «Dude, worst case scenario, the chlorine actually desinfects your eyes». I decided to trust that voice. Yes, I know, but I said I decided!!! The pool is 25 meters long, and I swam 125 meters in about 15 minutes. That’s 5 times crossing the pool. 3 of those were panicky, drowny and unpleaseant. The other 2, however, were more relaxed and enjoyable. I guess it’s practice, practice, practice!!! And the chlorine didn’t get anywhere near my poor eyes. So I called it a win.

In other news, I finished my super-uber muscle growth experiment, all supported with broscience. The results were… amusing. I took the pics and measurements, but due technical difficulties (freaking USB port of camera burnt and started to smoke, HOLY CRAP!), that post was delayed until, I don’t know, tomorrow? Just need to get my hands on a netbook with an SD card reader. Bear with me.

So, quick recap: WITH A COLD, WEIGHTS, SWIM, HOLY CRAPPY SMOKES.