Cardio Sux

Today was my first day of cardio! That's pretty much how i feel on the left. I kicked my butt with 30 min on the elliptical trainer for 30 min at level 7 and a minimum speed of 7. After that horrible half was finished i went over the the stair climber for 2 min on level 7, then 20 crunches on the ball, and 20 squats on the stairs. I did that 3 times increasing the level on the stair climber by one every time. The next circuit was 20 planks with my feet on the ball then, 20 ball raises with my feet, and last pulling the ball to my rear end with my feet 20 times, for 3 circuits. I finished off with a little running but mostly walked for 45 min, and 15 min of stretching. It was a Chad workout i felt like getting sick at the end of my own workout. Unfortunately this is going to be the hardest phase of the gym for me, but the most important. The whole cardio thing leaves me mentally ruined and my body is really tired. but 1 hour later i feel like i did nothing. When I'm hitting the racks with big boy weights its a tough workout and boy am i sore. My body yells then adrenaline kicks in and i kick it up a notch and feel like grunting, then my body hurts, again adrenaline kicks in..... and it repeats. At the end of the day when i go home I'm a little sore, then i sit for an hour, now I'm really sore. I feel every muscle every joint, that's what the gym means!!! I'm already missing the weights, hey only till the race ( maybe ill hit the big weights on the weekends to keep me motivated ).

Till next time Cardio sucks!

4 Plates!!!!

That's all i have to say 4 plates! squats 4 plates ( with bar 405lb ), been there done that. One more day on heavy weights Sunday upper body, that wont be four plates but hey, that's OK with me ......... for now! Set goals break them time to set more!

That's all folks!

BELT IS COMMING!!!

Yea i know pretty cool huh?! That is a competition spec belt, 4 in tall 10mm thick and way to big around, but its coming and i cant wait.

Today i did upper body just like Monday and Wednesday, today and Sunday. Tomorrow i will be doing lower body as i did Tuesday, Thursday. As of Monday I'm going to try and shred fat for a good 3 weeks. I figure if I'm working hard on my cardio and running, and can loose another say 10 lb of fat it should make it much easier for my 5km run at the end of April.

I'm going to start playing with that incredibly insane workout for p90x or at least get some ideas from it. I got all the disks and have started watching some of them, and those are NOT BEACH BODIES they all belong to navy seals. If you guys don't believe me watch a few min of the videos! I'm thinking of sticking to the stretching, yoga, some of the beginner exercises, and if I'm feeling bold maybe plyometrics. ( i think I'd have to be really brave. ) So this weekend I'm going to take a bunch of that stuff, lots of core, multi muscle / multi-joint exercises, and horrible things like stairs ( 99% of these i learned from Chad ) and put together a workout Chad would be proud of and hopefully fear himself! I will spend minimum 1 hour everyday on this work out and 1 hour cardio on the treadmill or outside ( hopefully) running. On Saturday and Sunday i think ill do some mancercise upper one day and lower another. Boy do i have my work cut out for me! If you guys have some really good ideas or exercises feel free to let me know ( no burpies though, that makes me cringe ) I'm open to all suggestions. Guinna pig me!

Have a good weekend all!!!!

Good week!

Well its been a really good week. I am always pushing my goals, bigger better benches, deadlifts, and squats. I'm starting to find that i want to workout more and more a couple hours at the gym seems short sometime ( sometimes it is when I'm chatting ), or like i didn't get everything i wanted to done. I guess i can chalk that up to being stronger and healthier. My ankle has been buggered up for the last couple weeks so i haven't been running, and my 5.6 k run is coming up at the end of next month. This is starting to make me kinda nervous so i think Monday I'm going to start pushing myself a little more because I'm thinking by the middle of the month i need to start getting myself use to running outside. Unfortunately i am not quite as outdoorsy as Leslie and Chad, I'm by no means a puddle jumper, i don't like getting wet or muddy. Lets hope for some sun and lots of melting. Today i was squatting, deadlifting, and doing some cardio, i felt really good but i think i need to start changing things next week. Next week i think I'm going to push myself to do at least a couple hours a day and push myself to do 2/3 cardio and 1/3 weight training. Like i said i feel stronger and healthier, i want to start trimming down again, and getting more flexible. What this means is i have to dig thru the crap Chad jammed into my head and start on my muscle confusion again. The dreadful things that are going thru my head are things like stairs, lunges, raising the ball between my feet. Oh man maybe its better to be fat....... maybe not! So just push my body till i get ever muscle confused and then i can go back to the things i have learned to like to confuse them again lol!


maybe i can drop another 20 inches in the next 3 months!

Stop thinking fat and get fit!

Time for a belt, for sure!

Today went really well actually, i was really happy. I started working with Crystal today because she has a weigh in on Thursday that shes really pumped for. That started out really crappy as we started with a cardio workout, and Crystal didn't like some of the exercises as she was planning to do those with her Jillian Micheal's work out. So after being frustrated without wanting to express it as i have to live with my wife. I had to regroup and think of something i could do with Crystal that would not be repetitive in her next workout. We started working on a heavier circuit, heavier weight shorter reps. This kinda beat her up and solved the dilemma I was facing. Now shes sore :)

As for me well i had been told if i was going to work out my legs and really build strengthen and endurance, i should burn out my legs or get them close to that point. I started working on the machines to burn out my legs for the first half hour, till they were feeling kinda sore and a little week. I walked around the gym for about 5-10 min stretching them out then went to the rack! I setup the rack to about 2 inches below where i bottom out on my squats and decided to start warming up. I did 3 sets of 20 on the disgusting wall with just the broom handle. I find that this helps me to focus and get into the proper form. I started on the rack with 1 plate and did 15 for a warm up. I moved my way up to another half a plate then dropped reps to 10. I moved up to 2 plates and dropped my reps to 5. From there i worked up to 2 and a half plates and dropped to 3 reps. I kept pushing till i got to 3 plates (yup 3 plates) then i did 3 reps. I could have and would have gone further but still no belt. There doesn't seem to be any suppliers in Calgary and not many if any serious suppliers in Canada. So ill have to order from the States grrrrr.....


I decided since i still had some time i would work on some deadlifts. I started at 1 plate and worked my way up 10 lb at a time with 6 reps at a time till i reached 2 and a half plates. I kept busting my butt and reached 3 plates with 5 reps. From there i worked my way up to just over 3 and a half plates that's 3 x45 + 25 per side and the bar giving me 365lb for a 1rm ( that felt good so good) again more than what i should be doing without a belt. Soon ill have one, once my visa arrives since the last one was stolen at the gym, nope WOW doesn't get to live that one down!

Tomorrow should be a good day i will see what i can get to on the bench!

Till then keep reading and start blogging!

325 and counting

Things are rising well my dead lift weights are rising that is. I went to the gym with my wife for a couple hours today, since i didn't make it to the gym yesterday. I was working on dead lifting and squats today. I worked my way up to 2 plates today in clean squats. I haven't had a spotter in a while so i don't work more than two plates, till i feel really comfortable. But dead lifting i don't need a spotter and i can lift as much as i want without worrying. If i lift clean and strong then there should be no problems. I have a goal of 350 lb by the end of the month so I'm thinking its time for chalk and a belt. I'm going to look for one today so ill let you know if i get one today!

TTYL!

33.97 % of the way there!

Huh? I know your thinking it! Well lets just put it this way my goal is to loose about 78 lb of body fat!

Today i did my work up with Chad to figure out where i have succeeded and where i need improvement, i think over all i did very well. I'm sure i could have done better but like i said i still did very well. Over on the right i have posted ( that sent a shiver down my spine, the fact that i did post what im about to say shiver ) the before and after pictures for the last 3 months. Yes there are differences slight but differences never the less. Below that i have my updates with weight lifting and all the other mambo jumbo, inches, bmi, fat mas etc. Take a look as i will be updating these again around this time in June.

But as for today i stepped on this scale that gives you this big print out telling you everything and way more than you want to know about your body. The couple things i was interested in finding out was FFM change (Approximately 75% of weight that is lost by dieting is composed of fat and 25% is fat-free mass (FFM) [1]. Adding a physical activity program to dietary therapy can affect the composition of weight loss. ) My FFM stayed the same for me that kicks ... well you know. Reason being is probably 25% of the weight i lost was Muscle, but working out the way i did I put that 25% back on again ( in muscle for you funny people ) meaning every pound i lost so far is fat, fat, fat, and oh yea fat! The second thing i wanted was TWB Total body water this includes everything in your body that has water organs blood everything. Mine was exactly the same so that to me means that i kept the variables in the test the same as the previous test! This brings me to the last piece of information i was interested in how much fat did i remove and what is my goal from here on out. Last time i started at 78.01 lb of fat on my body to loose, today i was at 51.51lb of fat on my body to loose. this means i have lost 26.5lb of fat specifically meaning i am 33.97% into my goal just 66.03% left to go lol. Lets get it done!


Boy oh boy that's a heck of a lot of blabbing and technical jargon, thanks for making my life just a little more complicated Chad!

For Better or for Worse?

Hmmmmmmmmm for better or for worse? Everyone likes good news, and no one likes the bad so good news first. It's been a really good week eating has been excellent! Motivation has been really good! Work outs have been intense! (Except for that Chinese food i had today) I went to the gym for a couple hours today and decided to work on upper body. I did a bunch of warm ups and laid down on the rack press and dropped a plate on each side to start off. It felt really good to get back on the free weights. I did a set of 15 core was nice and tight, feet stayed planted, chest was full of air ( probably hot but air never the less) and nice and big. Everything was really clean and easy. So i kept working on my rack press in sets of 5 raising the weight by 10 lb for a couple then by 5 at a time till i hit 2 plates. When i put on 2 plates my mind went for a mindtrip, and i started thinking its heavy now, this is getting heavy. So i took a few minutes and got a drink and relaxed my mind. I laid down on the bench, didn't look at the weight, just the bar, i wound up like a spring, planted my feet and pushed 3 reps up while locked tight and brought them down nice and controlled. Then i said to myself, hey Chad's at 235lb and he wouldn't let me get there so if i just add 5lb on each side that would be good, right? Right I popped 5lb on each side, gave it 2 min and pushed that bar up.................... once................... twice .......................and .............threeeeeeee times. I broke my record and brought myself up to 235lb 3 times rack press. Oh yea baby!!! I spent a little more time on my core ( good core = good press, squat, and lifts ) then about 20 min on the treadmill. Wow that was an awesome work out. I felt amazing, so i walk to the change room to go have a shower if the place didn't smell like urine that is. I got to my locker and found my lock busted off my wallet in the wrong pocket of my jeans, and my visa missing! After such and amazing work out it makes me feel great about my gym when I'm not sure if i can take a shower cause someones pissing on the walls, and someone else is stealing my visa! So there's the bad news! Needless to say i canceled my visa, now i have to give Leslie a new one again! So ill be bringing this up to Robs att this week if i see him. Maybe something can be done about the state of the gym?

We'll see. Till then push, pull, and lift till you drop!

3 plates been there done that!

I think I'm starting to figure out what my problem has been over the last little while. Winter, that's right winter is what my problem has been. Once we started getting good sun as of Thursday and the weather started warming up my energy and motivation levels started to raise. When everything started to fall into place with the weather well my eating is falling into place this week as well. I cant thing of anything i ate that was really bad, or not in line with what is in my nutrition plan.

I went to the gym with Crystal today, she went to step class and i didn't stand a chance with that so i went on my way. I worked my upper body yesterday so i figured i would work my lower body today. I started off with a nice brisk walk on the treadmill for about 15 min, and went over to the man side of the gym. I went to the sweaty, greasy, disgusting, wall and worked on squatting form, ( a wall like that will keep anyone motivated to keep your form so you don't drag your lips on it when squatting try it!) Then moved over to the rack. I was trying to keep my form really good, elbows back, lift get into position with the least amount of steps and no swaying, back straight, keep my knees back behind my feet, and spring back up and lock. I worked my way up to a plate and a half, anymore than that without a spotter i didn't feel was a good idea. Its all about form anyways. I took a few minutes break and started working on dead lifting. I felt really strong today so i worked my way up to 2 plates and did a working set at 2 plates. I still had lots of energy so i thought i would push a little more, so i started working on a 1rm. I got up to my 305 like the last time i lifted with Chad, it felt pretty good and clean so i thought why not and i put 3 plates on. I took a couple minutes to breath and focus on something else other than the weight. I wound up my arms with lots of tension, dropped till my legs burned, taking a deep breath on the way down. I grabbed those 3 plates and pulled them up without a bounce locked admired the weight in my arms for a sec, then i came down, and back up, and down, and back up, and brought it down with control for my third rep. It was a little shaky but i know i could have done more. ( not without a belt for a while ) I also figured as i keep dropping weight ill be able to lift more. I'm pretty happy about my 3 plate lift, ill see if i can post a pic soon! Till then I'm gonna keep working on that core and loosing more weight so i can lift cleanly before getting heavier.


Tuesday is my final weigh in, measurements and photos with Chad for a while come back and check it out!

Training Done?

Well today was the last day with my trainer ( good friend ) Chad. Its getting to the point where my stucco season is about to begin and i need to dedicate my time and money to that. Not that I'm saying I'm not going to focus on the gym, I think ill be focusing on the gym even more. I was thinking I should bring Chad on the work site so he can tell me how to lift my buckets, bags of cement, and other equipment. He could yell at me don't put that cement in the mixer yet hold it, hold it, hold it, good Marc really good! now dump it in! Get another bag! No time for a break you have people waiting for mud! But i think i would only last 1 hour at work maybe 2 if i have Advil! So now comes the challenge to show Chad that he has taught me well, and i can get the wight off, and keep it off. Then next winter i can have him train me to beat all his powerlifting records.


See you around the gym, hopefully you'll see more of me and yet less!

Another session over another goal achived

Today was good overall!

I made it thru another workout with Chad goals were met and new goals have to be set. All my lifting was much better than last week, but reaching the goals i had set didn't feel like a big deal like last time. I think the whole workout was kinda bland, and i think Chad seemed to have that look in his eyes too. It didn't feel like the much anticipated Mancercise today, but I'm sure we all feel like that sometimes. On a good note i did do my 305lb lift today a couple times but not a working set as of yet. I also benched 215 trying to make it a working set but i did not make it a full set either, but i did lift it as a 1RM!

After working out with Chad I decided to try and run for a bit i think i lasted 15 min on the tired mill and only 5 was running, my body would not co operate with what i wanted. So i just walked out for 10 min after and worked on Core. I am really beginning to enjoy working on and testing my core. I got the the point where i felt really stable kneeling on the ball today even after working out with Chad ( that made me feel pretty good ). I worked out on some equipment with the ball and, did 150 crunches, spent 10 min on the ball working on balance. I even tried to get up on the ball ( standing ) but i could only get to the point where i had one foot on, one knee on and 2 hands. I think for the end of March i will set the goal of standing on the ball! You guys can hold me to it!

I think i will run for a while tomorrow if my legs feel good if not Saturday!

Till then everyone eat cheese, lots of cheese, then ill live vicariously thru you!

Nutrition update

Well i went into see Leslie today all being said she seemed fairly happy with everything i have done this week. We talked and i found that she had some good advice and was very supportive with everything we talked about. I have been taking my fish oil ( omega 3 ) and apple cider vinegar and its not getting easier but its amazing for you i keep telling myself, she told me it gets easier and to try and take it with food. I think ill try that more this week, swallow then eat something quick! After it was all said and done we weighed me in at about 272 so that's about 6 lb down from last week. I'm not happy about that because that is where i was at before Valentines day. I cheated for a bad weekend and worked to get things down to fit into a healthy diet bringing me back up to 278 - 279. This didn't really clean up until i met with Leslie and change the way i thought about food and how to eat healthily. Only over the last week I have finally back down to the same weight i was before Valentines. I am really happy as i am noticing a lot of changes happening in the way i feel and crave food.

Tomorrow i will be meeting with Chad, which i have been craving a 300 lb dead lift all week. This is something he made sure i craved as he stopped me at 295 lb last week, but i can hack it maybe he'll let me do it maybe he wont. I want to do bad but not if i lift like i was last week, i want to earn it! So you are hearing me Chad don't give me my 3 plates until i lift with good form!

Today was a really light day as i know Chad is going to kick my butt tomorrow and i want to run tomorrow. So in the advice of my trainer i did nothing. I walked on the treadmill sllllllllloooooowwwwly and felt like a tortoise for an hour, then i stretched out on a ball for about 10 min. Pretty sad huh, but muscles don't grow or heal if you don't rest! Tomorrow i will go hard, really hard, probably like i did Tuesday, and take a light weekend.

To good workouts, good trainers ( Chad and Leslie ), and supportive family ( love you honey )!

Another running success!!

Today was a really good day. I have been squatting with Chad over the last week, but finding the track i needed to be in was really hard. I have felt a person on a unicycle instead of a train on a track. Some of my squats were OK but none were not really good. This week i have really been working hard on form, balance, and a lot of core. It really paid off today I heard lots of " good " and " just like that " today, which is really nice as i have not found that my previous attempts were poor. Then Chad had me doing filler exercises on my core and shoulders. I gotta say it really tore a strip out of my energy level today. Then i missed lunch and my afternoon snack, which sucks cause i really found a huge energy drop before i started running. I know Leslie wont be happy after reading that, but i will make sure i fix that problem on the days i am working out with Chad, and Crystal!

After my hour with Chad i thought i needed to work on my 5km goal coming up in April, so i hopped on the treadmill and was working on intervals walking at 3.0 for 2 min and jogging at 5.0 for 5 min for a total of an hour. This worked out to 10min walking and 50 min of running destroying any of my previous successes. The breakdown is about .3 miles or .5 km walked and 4miles or 6.4 km run. This means i can definitely run the 5k, but this means i can run it almost 2 months ahead of time and i didn't like that. Now that i see what i can do i wish i had signed up for the 10k or even half marathon. Now i guess ill have to work on running 6 plus km nonstop and increasing the speed to help me place closer to the front till the race begins. There will be more races as time goes on and bigger goals to achieve.

I worked on core for about 20-30 min till Crystal arrived at the gym today. I was to burnt to do anything else on my body today so it was a great chance to invoke what Chad teaches me on others. I had Crystal working on her core today, and she was tough! She pushed thru everything i gave her, complained a little but not a lot. She took everything i had to give her and gave herself a little more than i pushed her to give. I am really impressed with Crystals fitness and dedication. I think that working out with Crystal and achieving goals its probably the more fun thing i have done in years, i believe it is bringing us close and will even more so over the next few years and into the future. The best part is i think she will push me more over time and ill do the same with her, but we'll become amazing athletes together!

Tomorrow i get to see Leslie and show her the progress i have made and that's pretty exciting as i have really been working hard to follow Chads guidance and Leslie's Nutrition plan to help me achieve my goals.

To steady progress and amazing results!

Running is improving!

Today was a good day i hung out with my wife alllllllllllllllllllll day.Wow it wasn't as bad as i thought it might be, i might have even said it was fun, just don't tell her or shell be expecting more time together . We started of at church, then off to Amethyst's classes, then finally to the gym. The gym was cool as yesterday i spent all my time on squats and dead lifts, so today i worked on rack lifts for 30 min and after my arms were falling off, Crystal and i spent 30 min on the treadmill. I decided to change the way i was teaching my body to run. I'm going to run for as long as i can without stopping then walk out the rest of my time. Yesterday i ran for 10 min non-stop, a huge improvement from 5 min last week. Today though i ran 12.5 min that's over a mile that means i just need to keep my body going for approx 3 times that to finish the whole 5km running. Its not the goal but its a good start! Sunday April 26th, 2009 seems like a very doable goal. The best thing is that Crystal was right beside me to see me break thru the 10 min mark, when 2 months ago i had a hard time walking to the fridge! After the gym crystal wanted juice so we went to jugo juice. I looked at the menu and thought wwls ( what would Leslie say ). While reviewing the menu i was reading, nope i don't need yogurt, don't need protein shake stuff, so i told my self we don't drink our calories, then i saw the max veg! The max veg is 14 oz of juiced carrots, beets, celery, and spinach. I thought i don't know a trainer that would not agree with that, and i thru in a shot of wheat grass to make sure i got plenty of veggie goodness in me. We took the kids to choir practice and we went shopping while walking around the mall for an hour getting Crystal more Stephen King books so 11 books later i got a work out the the truck! We went and picked up the kids and came home for super, shes a busy lady and boy the day made me hungry. I cooked up the SFL (Simply for life) chili recipe, it hit the spot, and is defiantly making a difference in the way i look at food and how my body is reacting. The weight is not adding back on anymore its coming off again, but i will post that on Wednesday or Thursday after my weigh in.

Till then TTFN, and get your family involved in your healthier lifestyle to make things better and more fun!!!