Well, unforeseen events won’t let me finish my experiment any time soon. What a bummer. I injured my shoulder playing indoor soccer a few weeks ago. It was so bad, I couldn’t even lift my arm into position to hold a barbell for squats. So, I had to take a pretty significant break from lifting. Unfortunately, that put my timetable for finishing the experiment well into outdoor soccer season.

That just won’t work for me, as the program I was on had significant leg work three days per week. Doing all of that work combined with 3-4 days of soccer would just equal massive overtraining issues. There’s just a limit to how much stress you can place on your body, especially if you’re looking for significant strength gains. There wouldn’t be enough rest time, and rest time is one of the most important parts of a good lifting regimen.

However, I did start a new routine that I will detail soon. Been doing it less than a week, and I already love it and hate it at the same time.

-Drew

Well, I finished the first part of my experiment. I ate, and ate a lot. I tried to count the calories, but I probably missed some here and there, and ended up recording less calories than I actually consumed. My main goal was to hit 225g per day of protein, which is about 1.5g per pound of bodyweight.

That part of the experiment was a success, but the eating was just as difficult as the lifting, if not more so. Forcing yourself to eat when you aren’t hungry never feels good. And many times, I ate junk food just to up the calorie count a bit.

As far as calories burned, that was even tricker to calculate. I definitely had to estimate there. I can’t wear a heart rate monitor when playing soccer (for safety reasons), and recording your heart rate during weight lifting sessions rarely produces an accurate calorie burn count.

So, both my calories consumed and calories burned were off. However, it is abundantly clear from the before and after photos and measurements that there were definite changes.

On to the numerical results:

My measurements changed a lot in the upper body, but hardly any in the lower body. That was a bit unexpected, I must say, considering I ended up moving a lot more lower body weight than I usually do. However, I suspect that the relatively high weights I was using in my previous program on just one leg helped build a lot more muscle than I knew.

Chest:

Started at 38 inches around, ended at 40 inches around. That’s significant gain not only in the pectorals, but also in the back muscles.

Waist:

Started at 32, ended at 34. Ouch.

Shoulders:

Started at 46, ended at 47.

Arms:

Started at 14 inches, ended at 14.5.

Legs:

Started at 25, ended at 25.5.

Calves:

Started and ended at 17. No change.

So, there were some fairly good increases in some areas, while others remained unchanged. However, as you will see from the percentage increases below, the gains in inches did not correspond with the gains in strength. Even though my squats and deads went up the most, there was no change in muscle mass for the corresponding muscle groups.

Now, keep in mind that I calculated my starting “max” weights extremely conservatively, so the poundage and percentage increases might be a bit overstated. However, they definitely exist and went up significantly.

Bench:

20% increase, +30 lbs

Squat:

25% increase, +42 lbs

Row:

22.5% increase, +35 lbs

Military Press:

22% increase, +25 lbs

Deadlift:

26% increase, +60 lbs

What now?

Well, now I’m going to take a week or so off from lifting to let my body recover a bit. I’m a little beat up from all the heavy lifting. I’ve already begun to significantly cut my caloric intake. I will keep the calories to a reasonable level, and cut my daily intake of protein to around 120g per day.

Then, I will continue on the program to see if I can continue to gain strength and size on fewer calories and less protein. Hopefully, I will cut out all this excess fat I gained. Looking good for summer starts early! Plus, competitive outdoor soccer starts in just a month and a half. Time to up my power to weight ratio.

-Drew

Still haven’t been able to update the blog as much as I want, what with papers due for grad school and the holiday season. But never fear, the experiment is still going strong.

I haven’t missed any of the lifts on the schedule, even when I felt like I was too tired to be at the gym. So, that’s good. I was out of town for an extended period of time, but found a gym there and was able to stay on schedule. My diet has still been filled with excess empty calories, like pies, cakes and cinnamon rolls. While I was out of town, it was exceptionally difficult to get to 225g of protein per day, so I didn’t quite hit that goal for that time period. But, since I was still able to hit all my lifts, it didn’t negatively affect my lifting.

Fat accumulation has not been as high as the calorie counter says it should be. That tells me I’m still either under-reporting calories eaten, or underestimating calories burned. I still have pretty good ab definition, despite eating nearly 3,500 to 4,500 calories per day. Certainly nothing that a couple of weeks of 1200 calorie days won’t take care of.

That’s all I’ve got for updates, but I promise more articles will be coming soon. That’s not a New Year’s Resolution; it’s just a statement of fact.

*- Speaking of New Year’s Resolutions, I can’t be the only one that both loves and hates them. I love the fact that people want to get in shape, but I hate the fact that I’ve never met anyone that actually followed through with their weight loss or fitness goals simply based on a resolution. It’s one thing to set a goal for the year if you’re already a frequent gym-goer, but it seems to be entirely different if you are perpetually inactive.

*- If you can’t do push-ups, you shouldn’t be benching. If you can’t do a prisoner or body-weight squat, you shouldn’t be trying to squat. Work on flexibility and some core strength and then try to start working on the weights.

*- Beware of misinformation. It comes in many forms. If you aren’t sure about whether or not to take a certain supplement, don’t simply look to internet discussions to get your information. They can be valuable tools to point you in the right direction, but if you want to avoid wasting your time and money, look at the underlying science and accompanying studies. Good science will tell you far more than anecdotal evidence.

-Drew

Sorry for not updating in a while. Just haven’t been able to. But, the good news is that I’m largely done with this semester of grad school, and there’s a new workout music mix coming soon!

So far, my experiment is going well, but as I’m just into the 4th week of the program, I’m just now getting back to my previous maxes in each lift (per program design).

I’ve been eating like a horse — close to 3,500 calories per day. I’m not entirely sure what my average estimated calories burned is, because FitDay seems to be screwing the calculations up. However, I have gained little, if any fat. So, either I’ve been overestimating calories consumed, or somewhat underestimating calories burned. I’m not too worried about it right now, though, as my lifting is right on schedule.

On to the random thoughts:

5. Any piece of exercise equipment that claims to cut the time you have to exercise won’t do what it claims. Shake weights, ab machines, and the like, I’m looking at you. Workouts are supposed to be hard and demanding. Easy shouldn’t be a word that you use regularly when describing your regimen.

4. How anyone can get a workout done while listening to the music they pump through the speakers at regular gyms? I heard a Michael Bolton song in between songs this afternoon. Thank God for iPods.

3. It never ceases to amaze me how many people completely skip their warm-ups and cooldowns. Tip: If you don’t have time for a proper workout and a proper cooldown, you don’t have time to work out. Period.

2. If you want to be good at something, you have to train for it. There’s only so much progress you can make with general fitness preparedness. If you want to be good at football, your workouts must resemble what you’ll be doing on the field. If you want to get good at long distance running, you’re going to have to suck it up and run long distances. Your training should mimic your goals.

1. If you’re not having fun at the gym, you’re doing it wrong. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, and it won’t be the last time: It is imperative that you find something you enjoy when trying to stay fit. If you don’t like running, don’t force yourself to do it. Find something else. If you don’t like lifting weights, do something else. If you don’t like either of those things, find a sport you enjoy. Human beings are genetically programmed to enjoy doing physical activity. You just have to find out what you like.

Have you ever just done a long sprint after a long period of inactivity? I love the endorphine rush it gives. So amazing. I know that it is impossible to capture that kind of euphoria with every workout, but you should at least leave the gym feeling good about what you just did.

-Drew

If you do any amount of cursory internet research on gaining muscle and getting bigger, you’re likely to come across this saying: “If you want to gain muscle mass, eat 500 calories above maintenance!” Well, I’m putting that wisdom and advice to the test.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll be honest — I really hate talking about this stuff. Not because I dislike it, but because it seems to be largely pointless. Popular internet myths have so pervaded the fitness realm that it is nearly impossible to convince someone that the way “they’ve always done it” isn’t necessary.

Well, that’s not entirely true. If you have something revolutionary or cult-esque to sell, it can be easy to convert people (like the Cult of Carbs Are Evil). In comparison, this kind of stuff is relatively boring. But, it can have a large impact on your everyday routine, as well as your wallet.

For this particular post, I’m going to focus primarily on proteins and amino acids, rather than other concepts like “carbo-loading” for endurance events. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you been stuck in the same weight range for a while? Can’t figure out how to increase your lifts? The solution isn’t to just give up or try another exercise. Increasing your lift is a lot easier than you’d think!

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One of the most common things you’ll see when people start hitting the gym often is feeling the need to start training more. This may be because you’re just starting out and are seeing some great results. So, you want to spend more time in the gym, and do more exercises to make the gains even better. Or, maybe you’re an experienced lifter and the gains are starting to come more slowly. Naturally, you want to increase the workload and lift more and more often. Is this the right thing to do?
Read the rest of this entry »

This is something I’ve been hearing a lot lately. People do a good job of eating healthy. They stop eating out so much. They choose lower-calorie foods. They eat lots of fruits and veggies. But they still aren’t losing a lot of weight. Some even gain weight! What’s going on? Read the rest of this entry »

How many times have you heard this? “If you want to lose weight, eat a lot of small meals, very frequently.” I don’t know about you, but when I hear that, mostly what I hear is “eat . . . lot . . . meals.” The “small” part is there, but only in the background somewhere. But the truth is that meal frequency has no effect on how much you weigh, or your metabolism. Read the rest of this entry »