It has now been nearly a year since I started at my work gym, and I’ve been able to work out 2-3 times a week. Some weeks I’ve been able to exercise 4 times, some weeks none (due to illness or crazy schedules). I weigh myself nearly every time I change to exercise, and about once a month I use their body fat calculator machine thingy. The most depressing part about the last year is that my weight and body fat haven’t changed significantly–I’m still 185, and 18% body fat, give or take. The best part about he past year is that through either gentle peer pressure, or general positive encouragement, all but one of the folks on my team have joined. A couple of guys seem to look to me for guidance in lifting and exercise in general, and I don’t mind answering their questions the best I can. The unfortunate part for them is that right now, I’m really not sure what I’m doing.

I know the basics. I know how to execute a number of lifts. I know how to design a super-set (or circuit, or straight sets) based whole-body workout with undulating periodization. But what I don’t know how to do is get results over the long term. Yeah, I can improve my strength in a lift over a couple of weeks, but I don’t ever feel like I’m building muscle. I’ve tried a number of programs and variations to the best of my abilities, but since that first 6-8 months of real progress (newbie gains, as they’re called) I’ve hardly budged in anything significant.

Though I enjoy exercising, I’ve become apathetic in my programming. I used to print out a sheet with my routine, sometimes even penciling in target weights, prior to a workout. Now I just take a blank sheet with me, and compose the routine on the spot. Sure, I keep in mind all the basics that I’ve learned, so I’m not completely aimless at that moment. But I don’t know what I’m doing week-to-week.

I think the biggest problem for me is that I don’t really have a solid goal in mind other than “gain muscle”. So what I thought would be a dream opportunity–working out 3-4 days a week with easy access to all kinds of equipment, without having to get up early or lose time with my family–has turned into something I just do. I like doing it. I just wish the results were more obvious to me.

A few other random bits: one of the trainers/employees of the facility commented to me one day that I must have been a trainer in a past life. When I asked for clarification, she explained that they (multiple trainers) had heard me talking with folks about exercise, and that my advice and information was spot-on. This was nice to hear. It was good to know that I wasn’t being a total idiot in counseling my coworkers. I asked the trainer to please correct me if I ever said anything incorrect, or gave poor advice.

We’ve got a guest trainer at the gym right now: Andy Katzenmoyer. He teaches a “LIFT” class twice a week. I was able to take that class today. It was an interesting departure–he had designed a 6 exercise whole body workout, and after a “power warm-up” we broke into groups of three to start lifting. Andy then wandered around providing advice, helping with form, adapting exercises to individual needs, etc. I couldn’t help but brown-nose a bit after we were done with all our sets 45 minutes later: “OK coach! What’s next?” He probably saw me as a pissant who should have pushed himself harder.

And maybe that really is my problem–perhaps I’m not pushing myself hard enough. Exercising has become comfortable, routine (pun intended). I’ll try to take Andy’s class again next week and work hard enough so that “What’s next” is the furthest thought from my mind.

“Oh, weighted dips? Um, well we’ve got the dip assist machine over there.”
“No, I want to add weight, like with a dip belt.”
“Hrm, um not really. But if you want to be creative, you could put two benches together and put some plates on your legs.”
“Oh, I suppose. Aren’t those called ‘bench dips‘, or something like that?”
“No, that’s what I do. Those are dips.”
“Ok. Thanks.”

My current max workout weight on dips is body weight plus 75 pounds on a belt around my hips. After supporting my legs on one end, I’d have to put like 100 pounds of plates on my thighs to get that load on my shoulders.

I’ve turned into a gym rat–I walk into a brand new (very nice) facility, and the first thing I ask about is a piece of equipment they don’t have. If I get a membership (I think I’m moving to a not-so-close building soon, so I might not) I’ll have to buy my own dip belt.

I started with the Fitstart program in February. Looking back on it now, its an adequate program for its goals–to be easily applied to a majority of the population, and help newcomers feel comfortable with a wide range of equipment. I met someone a couple of weeks ago who had a very different experience with the Fitstart at her YMCA, and she was working (as a volunteer) to improve it. I have the e-mail address of her daughter, so I really should follow up to see how its going.

Shortly after I finished Fitstart, I started designing my own routines based mostly on free weight movements. I took inspiration from a number of books along the way. I would have used the routines proscribed in the books, but I didn’t feel comfortable with either squats or dead lifts, and those were a significant component of most of the books I read. Instead, I’ve substituted lunges, Bulgarian split squats, and leg presses to get the lower body workout. Nearly a year later, I’m ready to pay a trainer at the Y to help make sure I’m using correct form on squats and dead lifts. I haven’t set an appointment yet, but I’m gonna. Really.

Below is a plot of the number of workouts I’ve completed in each month of 2008. My goal is to work out 3 times per week with an occasional week off (so an average of 10 per month). Some times that is tough. I was away from home a lot in June and July. I don’t know what my excuse is for August.  I just know we had a great summer.

November’s number includes three workouts while we were in Vermont–on three of the days were were there, getting a little twitchy, I decided to do pushups and lunges. I was able to do 100 pushups on two separate days, and 80 on another. Since it only took 4 sets and about 30 minutes to get to those numbers, I was pretty pleased. December was rough, what with the holidays, and a little personal surgery.

Some accomplishments of note:

• In September, I mentioned some early frustration I’d felt with the lat row exercise. I’d peaked at 90 lbs in mid April. In the September post, I’d moved the cable row (an equivalent exercise) to 140. The last couple of times I’ve done the cable row, I’ve done a set at 160. That’s an impressive stack, if I do say so myself.
• I started doing chin ups in mid May. At that time I was using the Y’s assisted chins/dips machine, with about 40 pounds of assistance. I was able to do three sets of 8. Now I’m doing chin ups unassisted, and 2-3 sets of 8-9.
• I started doing dips in mid may. At that time I was using the Y’s assisted chins/dips machine, with about 40 pounds of assistance. I was able to do three sets of 10. Now I’m doing dips with 40 pounds ADDED. Today I was able to do 3 sets of 6-8.
• In May I started doing lunges with 2 30 pound dumbbells.  Now I’m using 2 55 pound dumbbells.
• A couple of years ago I spoke to my doctor about some lumps that had developed on my legs. They were big enough to be seen if I was wearing shorts, but they didn’t hurt or have any discoloration. She told me that since I used to have very muscular legs, that they were due the atrophying of my quadriceps (I forget the name she told me). Those lumps are now almost entirely gone, and only I can tell where they are by touch.

One of the frustrations I’ve felt in my reading is that there isn’t much attention paid to age effects. I know I’m not a young buck any more. I know that the most significant gains will be experienced by men in their late teens to early twenties. But at 38, can I still expect to experience strength and muscle growth? I’m making strength gains, but frequently I’m left to wonder if those are due to muscle growth, or due to neural adaptations (learning how to make use of all the muscle fibers). The biggest evidence I’ve got for not gaining muscle, despite the gains described above: no weight gain. At the end of Fitstart, I weighed just over 180. The last couple of weeks (even with the holidays) my weight has been the same. Is it unreasonable for me to expect to have gained a few pounds of muscle after nearly a year? Or am I stuck simply fighting the effects of a desk job and sarcopenia?

Theo is a big guy. He outweighs me by 70 pounds and most (OK, a lot) of that is in muscle. Since I started lifting weights, he and I’ve talked about what I’m doing, and how his work outs compare, etc. I don’t mind telling him the weights I’m working with because I know he’s stronger than I am. Its really not a big deal. I don’t feel like I’m competing against him–we’re just sharing common experiences.

Last weekend at our kids’ family birthday party, Theo and I were talking about lifting, and I mentioned the progress I’d made recently on dips–that I could do body weight+45 pounds. He was impressed and confided that he didn’t think he could do a single dip. We then worked out that he has 70 pounds on me, and I quickly figured there was no way I could do a single dip with 70 pounds strapped to my hips.

Today was a 4×4 day (four sets of four reps) so the weights tend to be the heaviest I lift. I looked at the dips apparatus and thought “do I dare even try one dip with 70 pounds?” The preivous time I had done 4×4 on dips, I had completed 4 sets at +45, failing to make the last rep in the last set (so I did only 15 total reps at +45). Twenty five pounds sounded like a big jump, but I convinced myself that I would try to complete just one.

I stepped up, strapped the weight around my hips and got into position, elbows locked. Much to my amazement, I was able to complete 4! I was astonished. The next set I backed the weight down to +50 and got through it without too much difficulty. I decided to really push myself on the final two sets and completed them both at +60. So, thats 4 at +70, 4 at +50 and 8 at +60. Wow.

I sent Theo a text message to brag a little: “4 dips @ BW+70!”

His reply: daaaaamn hercules

At 23:20

Fresh Air host Terry Gross: Now he has the kind of muscle in this film that you usually need steroids to get, and his character does shoot steroids in order to get his muscles. So what did he do to get the muscle legally?

Aronofsky: He worked really hard. Since it took a year and a half to raise the money [for the movie] and he knew about it for that long, it was ultimately about two years he had to start thinking about it. He hired this really hard core trainer, this former Israeli commando who was a former cage fighter–the guy just took no BS. He lifted twice a day and drank about 7000 calories a day and was always walking around with one of those shakes. The thing is, Mickey’s dad, his real dad, was actually a Mr. New York, a body builder. And so I think he’s always been kind of a gym rat, so he’s in that culture.

So, here I thought was at least partly an answer to my earlier question: is it possible to really build muscle after 35? The answer is (anecdotally at least) yes, if you workout twice a day, have a hard-core-cage-fighting-commando personal trainer, and have the genetics to support it. I guess for me that means, no, No, NO.

Then I went looking for pictures of his great transformation. First a picture of him in the Wrestler, released in 2008.

I then went looking for comparable shots in recently previous movies.  I couldn’t find anything for Stormbreaker (2006) or True Crime: New York City (2005), but I did find this shot for Sin City (2005)

If anything, I think he looks bigger in Sin City. Perhaps that was after a long stint of body building to get in shape. OK, that’s probably likely. Maybe then he took a year off, then started training for The Wrestler.

I think the result is that Rourke was already built for the part. Gross’ question implies he’d made a huge transformation, but in fact he was already primed to looked pumped.

I started with the Fitstart program in February. Looking back on it now, its an adequate program for its goals–to be easily applied to a majority of the population, and help newcomers feel comfortable with a wide range of equipment. I met someone a couple of weeks ago who had a very different experience with the Fitstart at her YMCA, and she was working (as a volunteer) to improve it. I have the e-mail address of her daughter, so I really should follow up to see how its going.

Shortly after I finished Fitstart, I started designing my own routines based mostly on free weight movements. I took inspiration from a number of books along the way. I would have used the routines proscribed in the books, but I didn’t feel comfortable with either squats or dead lifts, and those were a significant component of most of the books I read. Instead, I’ve substituted lunges, Bulgarian split squats, and leg presses to get the lower body workout. Nearly a year later, I’m ready to pay a trainer at the Y to help make sure I’m using correct form on squats and dead lifts. I haven’t set an appointment yet, but I’m gonna. Really.

Below is a plot of the number of workouts I’ve completed in each month of 2008. My goal is to work out 3 times per week with an occasional week off (so an average of 10 per month). Some times that is tough. I was away from home a lot in June and July. I don’t know what my excuse is for August.  I just know we had a great summer.

November’s number includes three workouts while we were in Vermont–on three of the days were were there, getting a little twitchy, I decided to do pushups and lunges. I was able to do 100 pushups on two separate days, and 80 on another. Since it only took 4 sets and about 30 minutes to get to those numbers, I was pretty pleased. December was rough, what with the holidays, and a little personal surgery.

Some accomplishments of note:

• In September, I mentioned some early frustration I’d felt with the lat row exercise. I’d peaked at 90 lbs in mid April. In the September post, I’d moved the cable row (an equivalent exercise) to 140. The last couple of times I’ve done the cable row, I’ve done a set at 160. That’s an impressive stack, if I do say so myself.
• I started doing chin ups in mid May. At that time I was using the Y’s assisted chins/dips machine, with about 40 pounds of assistance. I was able to do three sets of 8. Now I’m doing chin ups unassisted, and 2-3 sets of 8-9.
• I started doing dips in mid may. At that time I was using the Y’s assisted chins/dips machine, with about 40 pounds of assistance. I was able to do three sets of 10. Now I’m doing dips with 40 pounds ADDED. Today I was able to do 3 sets of 6-8.
• In May I started doing lunges with 2 30 pound dumbbells.  Now I’m using 2 55 pound dumbbells.
• A couple of years ago I spoke to my doctor about some lumps that had developed on my legs. They were big enough to be seen if I was wearing shorts, but they didn’t hurt or have any discoloration. She told me that since I used to have very muscular legs, that they were due the atrophying of my quadriceps (I forget the name she told me). Those lumps are now almost entirely gone, and only I can tell where they are by touch.

One of the frustrations I’ve felt in my reading is that there isn’t much attention paid to age effects. I know I’m not a young buck any more. I know that the most significant gains will be experienced by men in their late teens to early twenties. But at 38, can I still expect to experience strength and muscle growth? I’m making strength gains, but frequently I’m left to wonder if those are due to muscle growth, or due to neural adaptations (learning how to make use of all the muscle fibers). The biggest evidence I’ve got for not gaining muscle, despite the gains described above: no weight gain. At the end of Fitstart, I weighed just over 180. The last couple of weeks (even with the holidays) my weight has been the same. Is it unreasonable for me to expect to have gained a few pounds of muscle after nearly a year? Or am I stuck simply fighting the effects of a desk job and sarcopenia?

When I wrote my blog post, I didn’t have any idea what could cause the variation. I figured it was something about our bodies themselves. As it turns out, bacteria that thrive in our intestines likely cause significant variations in the amount of calories we can extract from food. Of course the research is still new, and it was done on mice, but it still looks very promising.

Biologist Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis became quite well known a few years ago for a group of very skinny mice in his lab. The mice were skinny because they had no bacteria in their intestines. Gordon had kept them completely bacteria-free. If a bacteria-free mouse eats, food passes right through the intestine, significantly undigested.

So without bacteria, the mouse can eat and eat and eat and never gain weight. But when Gordon exposed the mice to “this big, bad, dirty world,” as Gibson calls it, the mice suddenly turned their food into more calories and gained weight. So bacteria matter. Apparently, they can digest food far more efficiently.

So researchers now are focusing on learning more about the 500+ species of bacteria that live in our guts and what impact they have on all kinds of stuff in addition to digestive efficiency: “stomach ulcers, … asthma, hay fever, allergies and eczema”. It is entirely possible that an anti-biotic could be developed to kill some of the more efficient food digesters, allowing food to pass through less digested, and allowing the person to lose weight while eating full meals. It really could be the magic weight-loss pill so many have been seeking.

Except now, when I’m in front of a mirror. I keep trying to tell–am I bulking up? My wife, lovely woman that she is, tells me “Yes, rowr!”. I can see some improvements. I feel some sense of accomplishment with what I’ve done so far. And I can definitely see improvements in the amount of weight I’m able to move around the YMCA.

But why this need to check myself out every time I pass by the bathroom sink? Is it just pride in the work I’ve done? Where is the line between pride and vanity?

Pride: 1: the quality or state of being proud: as a: inordinate self-esteem : conceit b: a reasonable or justifiable self-respect c: delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship

Vain: 4: having or showing undue or excessive pride in one’s appearance or achievements : conceited

Ah, no wonder I’m confused. Its all in the level of pride: do I have a reasonable self-respect, or excessive pride?

One of the exercise (ok, body building) websites I occasionally read puts it this way: in the end we all want to look good naked. Exercising, and weight training in particular, are means to that end. Some writers would add “for as long as possible” since there is a strong belief that strong bodies last longer (I’ll be honest I’m not sure about research that supports that belief). So, is the desire “to look good for as long as possible” and watching for the results of that work pride, or excessive pride?

At this point, I think it is just pride. But its a weird feeling to admire the work I’ve done so far. But again, I’m not sure vain people ever realize that they are vain. To them it seems like a reasonable amount of self-respect. To those around them, they seem vain. So I’ll have to be judged by those around me. What say you?

The biggest difference between then and now is that I’m not currently doing much with the weight machines, being convinced that free-weights are better for me to reach my goals. I still do a number of cable based exercises because they allow a freer range of motion. One exercise that I’ve been doing on and off for much of that time is the cable lat row. I’ve been progressing very well: 4 months ago I felt like I stalled at 90 lbs; now I’m able to do 140.

I noticed that the last time I did the machine bench press, my top weight for a set of 10 repetitions was 225 lbs. That was several months ago primarily because of my switch to free-weights. Last week I did dumbbell bench presses at 120 lbs total (60 in each hand), and that was about a much as I could handle without risking a bloody nose or a concussion. The contrast (225 versus 120) got me to thinking–had I lost strength, or was there that much difference between free-weight and machine weight?

So yesterday at the end of my workout (which didn’t include a bench press exercise) I got back on the bench press machine. I did sets of 5 repetitions increasing weight each time until I got to 250 lbs–the full stack of weights on the machine. My last set of dumb bell bench presses (a week ago) were sets of 5, and the max weight I could do then was 120 lbs.

Now I understand why some weight machines don’t have weight measurements on the plates, only plate numbers (e.g. 1,2,3…). The stack may weigh a certain amount, but the work done by the levers, pulleys, chains, etc is probably far less. I used to be irritated by the machines that didn’t have a weight, because I wanted to know real mass! I can’t brag “I turned it up to eleven on the leg extensions today!”

But at least now I can tell someone I can bench press 250! I just have to hope no one asks me to do it with a barbell.

I got her started on an eliptical while I did the same as my warm up. I had told her that she could only spend 30 minutes total on the cardio equipment since she hasn’t really be doing any consistent exercise. I wanted her to give that a try, and hopefully avoid injury. Since she wanted to do eliptical, bike and treadmill, she decided on 10 minutes each.

When she moved to the bike, I started on my weight program. After she was done on the bike, I was in the middle of dumbbell bench presses. She was delightfully impressed that I could press 60 pounds in each hand. After I finished my third set, she asked about the poster that was over the mirror opposite me. “Is that what you looked like in high school, daddy?” Its a black and white of Schwarzenegger posing on a beach from his early body building days in the 1960s. I told her it was Arnold Schwarzenegger, to which she replied “Who’s that?” As I took a minute to explain she responded “It looks like a computer graphic!” Um, no. It’s a very real picture. And no, I didn’t look like that in high school.

After she finished on the treadmill, she went home while I continued my workout. I love seeing what other people are doing in the free weight area. There were several guys (and a few women) who are practicing/training for power lifting. There was a 60ish year old man working his butt off on a routine. I hope when I’m that age, I’m as ripped as he is. And there was a guy whom I assume is a football player, lifting weights with a harness attached to his head (exercising his neck). At that point I thought “There are so many cool ways to exercise, I should never get bored.”

Toward the end of my routine, a group of about 15 mentally handicapped folks came in. As their caretaker was trying to heard them onto the bikes, one of them headed over to the flye machine (like this one). She sat down with a grin on her face and started wiggling the handles, counting and giggling. She got to about 15 before the caretaker lead her to the bikes.

So, although I’ve got a ways to go in my own workout goals,  I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.