Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Midweek Post

Well, it's officially the middle of the week, so I figure I would update with how my workouts have been going.

One thing I can say for sure, I haven't been this sore in a long time.

So like I mentioned in the last post, starting this new workout was probably going to involve me tweaking it quite a bit. And that's for sure. This is what I come up so far.

Monday
Bench Press 3x10 (40 lbs)
Dumbbell Pullovers 3 x 10 (25 lb)
Barbell Deadlifts (conventional stance)(90lbs)
Neutral Dumbell Bench PResses 3 x 10 (15lbs)
One Armed Dumbell Rows 3 x 10 (15 lbs)
1 Mile Ran (2.0 increase, 5.5 speed)


It was weird, because while I was doing the free weight excercises, I actually didn't feel very tired. I was sweating, but feeling good. Then I hit the threadmill and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a struggle finishing up that mile, and when I got home I had a case of the shakes. Woke up the following morning extremely sore.

Tuesday
Weighted bicycles 3 x 20
Side Leans 3 x 10
Ball Crunches until you can’t do any more and wish you were dead
Incline Sit Ups 3 x 10
2.5 miles ran (2.5 increase, 5.5 speed)


The odd days are going to be the days I concentrate on cardio and abs. Really kicked my ass again

Wednesday
Incline Dumbbell Rows 3 x 10 (15 lbs)
Pulldowns (wide grip overhand) 3 x 10 (90 lbs)
Pulldowns (Close reverse grip) 3 x10 (90 lbs)
Calf Raises 3 x 10
Bicep Curls 3 x10 (15 lbs)
Weighted Lunges 3 x 10
Stair Machine (20 minutes)


Man I tried doing pull ups and couldn't do more than 2. It's pretty damn embarrassing really, specially when some older chick was doing them with no problem. That's why I'll be doing the pull downs on the machines, while trying to do more pull ups.

Well, that's about it. So far, so good. I'm feeling good about the workouts, they're the change I needed. Every morning I been waking up sore, which hasn't happened in quite a while, so that has to be a good sign.

I'll update on Sunday with the final changes I make to my workout.
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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Tube's Exercise Regime For Faggots

Current Weight: 193

So tomorrow,I'm going to start off my new workout routine. It seems like a good time, with the start of the week, and pretty much the start of the month. Today was the last day doing my old workout, and I gotta admit, I kicked ass. Left me feeling great, and I felt motivated throught out it. The trick is going to be keeping it up with the new workout.

It's going to be one that's focused on actual toning up and building more muscle. Credit goes to Cardboard Tube from the PA forums for posting this regime. I'll probably alter/add to it depending on how I see I handle the first week. But without further ado, here's my planned workout.


Monday
Bench Press 3x10
Dumbbell Pullovers 3 x 10
Barbell Deadlifts (conventional stance)

Tuesday
Weighted bicycles 3 x 20
Side Leans 3 x 10
Ball Crunches until you can’t do any more and wish you were dead

Wednesday
Incline Dumbbell Rows 3 x 10
Pullups (wide grip overhand) 3 x 10
Pullups (Close reverse grip)
Calf Raises 3 x 10

Thursday
Swimming for an hour. I'll have to work out the laps and what not.

Friday
Barbell Squats 3 x 10
Standing Military Press 3 x 10
Whatever isolation work I feel like.

Saturday
Weighted bicycles 3 x 20
Side Leans 3 x 10
Ball Crunches until you can’t do any more and wish you were dead

On top of all this I'm going to attempt to do my usual cardio of running for 25 minutes. This usually involves the speed of 5.5 with an incline of 2.0 for the first 10 minutes, increase the incline to 2.5 at for the second 10 minutes and for the last 5 minutes reset it to zero but raise the speed to 6.

I'll report as to how I do with this workout hopefully around the middle of the week.
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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Giving this one more try.

Back one more time. Hopefully for good.

Wow. It's been quite a while since I posted here. Close to a year actually, and that's plain bad. But here I am again, giving it the old college try.

So what brings me back? Why try updating now? Well, ironically enough it's because I once again found myself falling into a funk and asking myself the question of "Is it worth it?". That's a question I found myself asking lately, it echoing in my mind as I drove from work to the gym, feeling too tired (lazy really) to work out. Luckily enough once I hit the gym, got my music blasting in my ears, and sweating up a storm that thought passes. None the less it was a troubling thought that came coming back, and one that worries me.

So I came back here, re reading some of my old posts, and thinking about all the effort that I continue to put into working out/losing weight/living healthier. And I came to a couple of conclusions:

1)It has been worth it.
Sometimes I forget that losing 60 plus pounds is a huge accomplishment, and one that really can't be taken away. I feel better day to day than I used to a year and a half ago, I don't get winded walking up the stairs, and I can actually hang with other people when playing sports.

2)It's a never ending journey.
This is something that I had already begun to gather, but being healthy is a long term lifestyle, a never ending road. I think I had grown complacent, and to keep with the analogy thing, decided to take a nap in this road. Once I hit 200 pounds, I can honestly say I stopped trying as hard as I used to. I think I even gained like 5 pounds for a while there. Luckily since the start of the year I told myself I was going to get to 180 this year, and have re focused on my attempts. I'm now inching closest to my lowest weight ever as I sit around 195, so it's going okay.

So in the spirit of that refocusing, apart from adding an extra day (or two!?) to my work out routine, I decided to start posting here. Can't promise anything, but I'm going to try to update this more frequently, for me, and anyone that may stumble across it. In my next post I think I'll update with more specifics about my work out plans, routine, and just at what level I am right now.


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Friday, September 12, 2008

All the Small Things

Alternate Title: No, I didn't off myself..

Wow, that was a depressing previous post, wasn't it? I guess I'm finding myself in a bit of a funk, and not having my passed through my plateau hasn't entirely helped. Still though, I need to try to at least remain a bit positive.

And how exactly shall I go about doing that? I think the easiest way would be that since the larger picture is depressing me at the moment, I need to look at the small things. The details and events that happen every day of my life, that remind me that I'm on the right track. Things that make me smile or cause me to realize how far I come. So now, in no particular order, and to have something to remind myself about, here they are.

1) I can wear nice clothes
2) I can walk up cardiac hill without dying
3)People comment on my weight loss
4)Running a mile under 9 minutes
5)Feeling just a hint of muscle in my arms
6)Having more energy than ever
7)Having steadily gone to the gym for 6 months now
8)Being able to eat only half of what I used to and getting full
9)Feeling a bit more confident than I used to
10) Seeing the spare tire and gut slowly (And very at that) dissapearing Read more!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Weekend Update

Alternate title: Not my most upbeat post





And here is the rest of it.

Yeah, I haven't updated as much as I promised I would. Reasons are two fold. For one, work and school are keeping me busy (though not to busy to work out thankfully) and secondly and more important, I really haven't had much to update about in the past few days. I'm continuing my workout routines, as well as the push up challenge. I actually been doing each week of said challenge twice, since one week wasn't working out very well for me. Apart from that, there hadn't been much to write about. Till this weekend at least...though sadly enough it's not the happiest of my posts.

Two things happened this week that got me thinking. They where both pretty small really, but I do have a tendency to over think things as it is. So what where they?

First, there was me getting shot down by a girl in a bus stop. Not a big deal for most I'm sure, but one of the biggest flaws I have been trying to work on is my lack of confidence and self steem. It's not easy when for 20+ years I thought of myself as a loser, and one that no girl would even glance at in a good way. So it did take some prodding from myself to try to talk to this particular girl, which I actually have in one of my classes. I started generically enough, asking her how she liked the class, and asking some other random questions. She wasn't rude or anything..but I got the feeling that I was the one keeping the conversation going (a feeling I HATE), and she couldn't care less. So I stopped trying, and felt like an idiot afterwards on the ride to my car.

Secondly was going swimming with the guys yesterday. I actually hadn't gone swimming in years, so it was a nice opportunity, specially with the weather. The problem is my psoriasis. Its something I gotten used to over the years, and luckily enough thanks to some medication, it's not very noticible usually when I'm wearing my regular clothing. Without a shirt though, there's a part on my side that's really noticible, and just looks weird. Then there's a couple of specks here and there along my back. I'm horribly embarassed about them, and actually dread the day when I have to show them to a significant other (Guess there's one good thing about being single..) so it meant wearing a shirt inside the pool.

Then I also noticed that although I'm not as a big and fat as I used to be, I'm still in bad shape compared with my friends. That just made me even more self consious and depressed. And that leads to that voice in the back of my head asking a question that I heard before "Is it worth it?". Is it worth going to the gym after school instead of relaxing a home? Denying myself those urges of pigging out? As much as I love the changes in my life my weight loss has given me, the things that still bother me remain, and seem to be staying for a looong time.

Luckily enough I know better than to listen to those questions. I'm not going to stop working out, as I never want to return to what I used to be. I just wish I didn't have to ask myself that question still.
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Monday, September 1, 2008

I'm not dead!

Alternate Title: Been a while...

Wow, time has really slipped by me. I hadn't realized that it had been some time since I had updated the blog.

With me having fallen sick, and school having started last week, I been kept pretty busy. Luckily enough things should calm down soon enough, and I'll start falling back into a routine, which will make things easier.

Luckily, even as crazy as the first week of school has been, I managed to keep at my workouts, hitting the gym after school, and continuing to push myself. I'm now running my mile at 8:50, which is pretty exhausting but it does feel pretty damn good. Weight lifting and the rest of my work outs continue to keep me going.

It's actually funny, the other day I got a chance to work out with my friend Steve, since he wanted me to check out the gym at his apartment complex. To make a long story short, Steve wasn't able to keep up with me during the excercises. He did less reps, and less weights in all of them. I don't mention this to bring him down, or make me think I'm better than him, but it was just surprising. In gym I was always the slow one, the last one of the pack and struggling hard. It's weird not being that person again, but in a good way.

So yeah, overall everything been going good. I'll update more tomorrow. Read more!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Being Sick Sucks

Quick Random Thoughts


Well, annoyingly enough, I felt sick today during work. Nothing too horrible, just the usual headache and stuffy nose. It wasn't too bad..but I imagine that if I didn't rest up at least for the day it would have been probably gotten worse. Not to mention that I start school next week and I really don't want to be sick for that. So with all that in mind, I took a day off my work out routine. I may return to it again tomorrow, depending how I wake up.

It's funny though, since even when I take a day off exercise for a good reason, I still feel guilty about it. I feel like I'm slacking off, and that I should be working out. Guess that's a bit of my obsessive personality that I usually try to keep in check. Not to mention that my biggest fear is returning to my old weight, and that any day off will just lead to that.

I did kinda lie though. I did manage to do part of my exercise routine: The Push Up Challenge.

Like I mentioned in earlier posting, I'm redoing week 1 since I wasn't very happy with how I originally did. At first I was dissapointed with myself but now I see it was the right choice. This two days that I redid, not only did I do more push ups in the max section each time, but my form has improved. So overall, thumbs up for me. I'm continuing to track my progress in the spreadsheet, so I'll update that as soon as I finish writing this. Read more!