Tag Archives: fitness

Seeing gains

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It has been 6 years in the making, but Iā€™ve seen some pretty amazing gains in my fitness and strength, especially in the past 2 years. The 4 years before that included gains too, but they were very small. Well, initially I did see a good drop in unnecessary weight, but after the first year my gains were small and hard to recognize. Now Iā€™m seeing the results of my hard work.

The easiest place to notice this is my calves and arms. And why do I notice these two areas more than anywhere else? Because of the way my clothes fit. I have pants that used to fit loosely that now ride up my legs every time I sit down because my calves donā€™t allow my pants to drop back down. And my favourite T-shirts that used to fit loosely are now tight and make me look like Iā€™m trying to show off.

What changed in the last couple years? Why have I seen these gains, when I hadnā€™t before despite working out as hard?

  1. Iā€™ve been taking creatine for a few years now and the required recovery time of my muscles after a workout has decreased. (So has the 2-day later soreness that I barely get anymore other than leg days, which have always been hard for me.)
  2. Iā€™ve increased my protein. Iā€™m probably still not at the recommended 1gram of protein per pound that I weigh, but Iā€™m now over 3/4 there rather than averaging less than half of that daily.
  3. Really pushing to max (hypertrophy). I push myself more working out with a friend, or at school. Not only can I lift heavier when Iā€™m using machines I donā€™t have in my home gym, I can also lift heavier when I have a spotter (and motivator).
  4. Consistency. Iā€™ve said it over and over againā€¦ the most important day in the gym is the day you donā€™t feel like going and you go anyway. These days my workouts are such a big part of my day (even though most are for less than an hour), that I struggle to convince myself to take a day off. Volume matters when looking to increase muscle mass.

I think Iā€™m at my ideal weight now, but I have a goal to gain 5-7 pounds more by the end of this year. The way I see it, I wonā€™t be at this ideal weight 15 years from now if I just try to maintain this current weight. But if Iā€™m 7 pounds more now, I could again be at this ideal weight in 15 years, despite muscle loss that can come with aging.

So, Iā€™ve got more gains to make, and I think Iā€™m on the right path to gain the weight I want. The only challenge is that I might need to buy some better fitting clothing.

The first 100 days

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Real change only happens when the pain of doing something new is less than the pain of avoiding the new thing. I was talking to my buddy, Dave, after our 178th Coquitlam Crunch today and we spoke about the discipline and work that weā€™ve put into fitness, good eating habits, and our social-emotional wellbeing. It comes down to the fact that habits are easier to maintain than motivation, and showing up matters more than any other factor.

It sounds so cliche, but the most important workout is the one you donā€™t want to doā€¦ but still do. Itā€™s a scheduled workout day and you have zero motivationā€¦ do a workout anyway. Your gas tank is empty and you canā€™t imagine doing your workout routineā€¦ go to the gym anyway and do a 20 minute walk in the treadmill.

Probably more than 50% of the times that you drag your ass to the gym, not wanting to go, youā€™ll end up doing more than you expected you would do. But guess what? The other times when you donā€™t do more, when you just barely do the minimumā€¦ these are the workouts that really matter. You showed up! You kept the habit going. You made the next attempt to go to the gym easier. ā€œIf I can get to the gym feeling the way I did yesterday, I can definitely get to the gym today!ā€

ā€œMy advice,ā€ Dave said, ā€œwould be just show up for the first 100 days. Donā€™t expect to see changes, donā€™t even look in the mirror. The first 100 days are about making workouts something you never miss, or monitoring calories and developing good eating habits.ā€

Essentially, the first 100 days are really hard, and they matter the most. I said that, ā€˜Real change only happens when the pain of doing something new is less than the pain of avoiding the new thing.ā€™ Whatever your new habit is, reduce the pain of doing it by making the desired goal mandatory.

You want to go to the gym 5 days a week? For the first 100 days there are no excuses, nothing is allowed to make you miss. You went away for the weekend and didnā€™t work out? You go to the gym every day from Monday to Friday. Exhausted and donā€™t want to go to the gym on Thursday? Too bad, you already missed the weekend, and attendance is non-negotiable.

Will that Thursday workout be a good one? Probably not. But it will likely be more than you thought you had in you, and it was the most important workout of the week. You got there. You kept the streak going. You arenā€™t someone who skips out, you donā€™t make excuses, you maintain your habits. You are a regular who would rather feel the pain of a workout than the pain of letting yourself down.

Just show up for the first 100 days. After the habit is established, then you can look at losses and gains. Then you can reduce fat, add muscle, increase flexibility or enduranceā€¦ or just feel good about yourself because you have developed a great habit that you find easier and easier to maintain.

100 days.

Rain, shine, snowā€¦ to the crunch we go!

Small gains

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Iā€™ve been trying to put on some weight. Five pounds to be exact. Iā€™m actually at my long term goal weight, but I want to be this weight 10 years from now… and at age 57 I recognize that itā€™s going to be hard to both gain and maintain healthy weight in the next decade.

So, a few months back I decided that Iā€™d shoot for another 5 pounds of muscle by the end of this year. And for these past few months Iā€™ve moved from floating just between 5-6 pounds from my goal weight to floating between 4-5 pounds from my goal weight. Not a significant change.

However, I need to remember my journey here. I have spent almost 6 and a half years working on my current fitness journey. Iā€™ve seen incremental changes through that journey. I dropped over 27 pounds of unwanted weight and have then added 12 good pounds. Iā€™ve had less back pain (other than a herniated disk in my neck, unrelated to my training or my usual lower back pain). My back still aches daily, but my days of actual pain have diminished considerably. And Iā€™m at least as strong as I was in my 20ā€™s and stronger (and more flexible) in most areas.

And no, I have not really seen any gains in the last few months, but thatā€™s ok. I feel them coming. I know Iā€™m on the verge of another small jump. The only problem is the gains now are too small to see. But they are here. I just bench pressed my personal best since I was in teacherā€™s college back in ā€˜97-ā€˜98, and Iā€™ve been pushing my leg workouts more than I ever have in the past.

Small gains are being made. More gains are around the corner. And if I stay focused on doing my best instead of worrying about my current progress, Iā€™m sure Iā€™ll hit, and maybe even surpass, my goal by the end of the year.

Paying dividends

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A couple days ago I tweaked my back. I was walking on the treadmill with a weighted vest and afterwards when taking the vest off I felt a twinge in my upper back. I did a light leg workout and was done for the day. That night and yesterday morning my back felt felt sore.

That morning after (yesterday) I did a really slow walk (without my weight vest) and then had a long stretch. Rather than continue with my plan to work out my upper body, I just did a bit more legs, and spent time stretching my back and massaging it on the corner of a doorway. The whole day my back felt tight. It didnā€™t hurt but it felt like I was trying to show off my lats even when my back was as relaxed as I could get it.

Today Iā€™m almost back to normal.

A decade ago if something like this had happened I would have spent a week in pain. I would have had to spend days feeling like a knife was stuck in my back. I would have had to completely stop working out, and I might even have had to miss some work.

This is probably the greatest reward for building a regular fitness regime. I recover from an injury so much faster. My muscles still protect my back by tightening up, but not to the point where they seize. I donā€™t go into a full back crash because I slipped and missed a stair, or because I took off a weight vest in an awkward position.

My back is far from 100%. It will always be a work in progress. But my ability to avoid injury or to reduce the long term effects of an injury are so much better. And I know this is because of the work Iā€™ve put inā€¦ and will continue to put in.

Maintaining good fitness habits has paid incredible dividends to my overall wellbeing and my ability ti keep pain at bay.

Fruits of labour

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I started my current health & fitness routines in January, 2019. Six plus years later I can really see and feel the results. But if I go back 2 or 3 years, Iā€™d have said that progress felt slow. It was.

Slow, and steady, and other than when I herniated a disc and was in pain for several months (unrelated to my working out), always in the right direction. In other words for almost the full 6 years Iā€™ve seen steady progress. Now at 57, Iā€™m the strongest Iā€™ve ever been. My cardio was better in my 20ā€™s when I was training in the gruelling sport of water polo, but even now my cardio is quite good.

My point is that too often we look for the fast results and the quick fixes. Seldom do we accept that healthy progress is built on good habits over long periods of time. The quest for instant results is unrealistic, and often results in inconsistent outcomes or fluctuations between improvements and losses of gains.

Good habits, consistency, and a willingness to keep going even when the results arenā€™t immediately obvious are whet leads to long term progress. In the end the real progress, the real fruits of your labour, are the lifestyle changes that keep you feeling young and healthy. You are on a marathon not a sprint. Work on your habits and routines and the results will come over time.

Coaching brain

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I havenā€™t been a coach in a long time, but I still feel like my brain wants to go there.

Our hot water tank died this weekend and itā€™s being replaced tomorrow. But today I decided to go to the local community center for a workout, swim, hot tub, and then shower and shave so I didnā€™t have to have a freezing shower at home.

My gym workout was probably a total of 45 minutes. There were a couple really fit people in there doing hard workouts. There were also a lot of guys in their late teens or early 20ā€™s working out. They werenā€™t doing anything wrong or dangerous, but I found myself wanting to coach them.

ā€œYou are swinging your body and cheating, using momentum rather than your muscle, lower the weight and go for better technique.ā€

ā€œYour elbows are flaring out, keep them tucked in.ā€

ā€œThat weight is too light, youā€™re doing sets of 12 and it looks like you can do 20. Maybe try a bit heavier weight.ā€

This was my first time in this gym, and of course I didnā€™t say anything. And the reality is that I might have been doing something where someone else could have given me feedback to improveā€¦ Iā€™m in no way an expert. But I really felt like helping out. I just didnā€™t know how it would be taken, and Iā€™m the newbie that just showed up for the first time.

I guess once a coach, always a coach. Sometimes I just feel the urge to help out, and itā€™s hard not to.

Iā€™m back

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Just spent a week at my sisterā€™s house visiting her family and my mom. I managed to get 4 nice hilly walks in, and a casual bike ride, but by far this was the longest Iā€™ve gone without really working out in years. Iā€™ll count the walks as exercise days, but now Iā€™m home and about to hit the treadmill and weights for a nighttime workout session.

Usually I find ways to do way more exercise on holidays. I did do some pushups and leg dips one day, but if Iā€™m honest, I had the time to do that or other body weight workouts on more of the days than I didā€¦ I just didnā€™t do it.

This isnā€™t me beating myself up for taking most of the week off. Rather itā€™s recognition that it can be easy to let things slide if I donā€™t pay attention. At home, my routines make things easy. I wake up, I get a workout done. Itā€™s that simple. On holidays I need to either: build in a routine or make a conscious effort to workout. Or if itā€™s a week or less, give myself permission to have an easy week.

That said, Iā€™m back home and my basement gym is calling me.

Morning walk

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Iā€™m visiting my sister (and mom is visiting too). Itā€™s great to be together with family, and to be somewhere where a morning walk doesnā€™t involve rain gear. My wife and I are continuing our tradition of going for morning walks while on holidays. I love that this little vista is just minutes away from my sisterā€™s house.

Holidays can be hard to maintain fitness habits, and I likely wonā€™t be visiting any gyms while here, so these morning walks are going to be a good balance to offset my sisterā€™s awesome cooking and restaurant meals. They are a great way to start the day with something physical, and with some pretty nice views too!

Effort over output

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On my fitness journey, Iā€™ve learned that building up my strength with certain exercises does not progress evenly. There are times when I get stuck on a weight and canā€™t seem to improve, and other times when I see surprising progress. I hit plateaus as well as peaks. And it can be a bit demoralizing when I hit a peak and then canā€™t replicate it for days or even weeks.

What Iā€™ve come to realize is that the personal bests donā€™t matter, what really matters is the effort. Today I couldnā€™t lift nearly as heavy as I have in the past. For example, in my morning workout I struggled to get 6 reps of 185lbs once (with assistance) on incline bench. Yet I did 3 sets of 7 reps just a couple weeks ago, with no assistance.

However, I pushed myself really hard today. My muscles got a good burn, and I feel like I left nothing in my reserve tank when I did that heavily assisted last rep today. If I tried another rep my spotter would have had to do more work than me.

Effort over output.

Some days getting to the gym is hard. Some days in the gym are hard. Today was hard, but in a different way. Today was hard because I couldnā€™t lift as heavy as I usually do. I felt I needed more rest between sets, and everything seemed more challenging than usualā€¦ and yet I still pushed myself. I put in maximum effort.

So leaving the gym I felt good. I know that I put in the best effort I could, and I realized that it would have been easy to be disappointed if I paid attention only to my strength during the exercises. However it wasnā€™t the strength output that mattered it was the effort inputā€¦ and with that as the measure, I rocked it! I kicked @$$!

Effort over output for the win.

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The script has flipped

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It has taken a few years.

I started my fitness journey in January 2019, and it has occurred to me that over the past year, it has become a challenge to give myself a rest day. It used to be hard to find the time and the motivation to work out. The challenge was wanting to, and doing the necessary work. Now the challenge is allowing myself a rest day.

Iā€™m realizing that while I give most of my body ample rest, (primarily doing just one muscle group in a workout when Iā€™m working under morning time pressure at my home gym), I still work my legs daily with my cardio. My legs are not getting any rest. I need to reevaluate what I define as a workout, allowing myself to skip cardio 2-3 times a week. I also need to take a full rest day more than once every 2 weeks or so.

Iā€™ve gone from it being hard to workout to it being hard to skip a day. And while thatā€™s a script switch Iā€™d like to maintain, Iā€™d also like to ensure that I actually do skip some days. Not enough that it feels easy again, but enough that I feel the benefits of rest between working out.

Still, this is a good place to be! Iā€™d rather be on this side rather than the flip side.