Getting in shape on the way to 40

Stop working out your forearms!!!

penfold187 — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:16:41 +0000

Now, I don’t mean you should not use them, but I myself am guilty of having done this early in my workout hobby. Skinny little me, can’t even benchpress my own weight, and yet I’m spending concerted time and energy doing forearm specific exercises. Why? Because I saw other gym-rats doing it. Because on the muscle-mags I was raffling through at the 7-11 had 3 page spread on how to “Blast your Arms” just about forearm exercises.

I was reminded of this when I saw a fellow gym member just last week sitting and doing forearm only exercises. I’m not a close friend of his, but he has always appeared to be a nice guy. Maybe in his 20s, and about 50 lbs overweight. And it almost broke my heart! I mean, I have reasonable forearms, and with the exception of spending about 8 weeks doing injury recovery from an elbow issue, I have never, ever done a forearm iso-exercise. Hell, I use Vers-Grips to assist me for heavy lifting! So arguably, I should have sad little forearms… but I don’t! And I know that there is no need to add them at this point… for the simple reason that my trainer (and fitness guru) Christian Finn has never had forearm specific workouts in ANY of his recommended workouts! Arguably, if you really wanted to put extra work in, I wouldn’t use lift straps for most lifting exercises, but over the year I have realized that when I’m doing pullups, I don’t want to have my grip/forearms getting tired to stop me from being able to increase my back size and strength!

Now, I’m trying to “look good” so size is slightly more important to me than pure strength, lets get that out of the way. I am a very poor low ability rock climber, and maybe my muscle weight and poor grip strength is hurting me from being a better climber… but I’m not concerned about that enough to trade off! So ask yourself, what are you in the gym for? If you are like me you want to gain a little muscle, and more important, shed that fat so you can SEE that muscle! Compound excersises against larger muscle groups, worked with little rest between sets, is how I got from 168lbs in Feb 2010 to 150lbs in Sept same year with increased strength.

When in doubt, go to www.thefactsaboutfitness.com . Christian Finn cannot be beat I believe (if you care that what your trainer is telling you is stuff about muscles, and strength that has been proven through scientific study, not what happens to work for one genetically (or chemically) gifted weight lifter.

What turns you on (in the gym)

penfold187 — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:10:33 +0000

I have heard (and read) many things about gym ettiquete: Don’t grunt, its not polite. Don’t wear sleeveless shirts, girls aren’t attracted to that anyways. Etc Etc
For me, making sure you use a towel (or additional t-shirt) to cover the bench or back of the seat you are using so you don’t leave your sweat all over for the next user, and being polite to all is all that counts.
See my picture. You might ask, why do I look like some 1980′s wrestler? I will answer you: #1) I get a lot more air circulation across my skin, to help cool down between sets #2) Seeing my muscled ripple and bulge help keep me mentally pumped up! – I’m a monster! I’m Arnold and Goldberg in my mind! Maybe I’ve got issues (never said I was perfect) but seeing the pending results (and past results) of my hard work is exciting to me, makes me happy, so what do I care what anyone else at the gym thinks?

PS- I’ve made, and kept, some great passing friendships with many other consistant gym goers over the weeks and months where we are always seeing eachother. And with most people going to the gym being a “here today, not coming back next month” a brother/sisterhood is forged between those die-hard gym rats.

Me at the gym today, October 7th, 2010

17.7% body fat at 39 years of age

penfold187 — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:44:02 +0000

So, my pic below was taken about one week before I gave myself an early 39th b-day present. I went to a facility where I got my body fat measured using hydrostatic measurement (dry then fully submerged weight measurement. has been the gold standard for the past several decades) – My trainer Christian Finn (see my links to thefactsaboutfitness.com) guessed my body fat composition to be between 16 and 18% when I sent him that photo, before I got measured

What’s next? While I arguably could cut my body fat faster by just dropping weight, and then add muscle after through “bulking” techniques, I’m very happy “In the moment” – I haven’t written down a single lbs amount of my workouts. When I go to the gym, I know what body parts I want to hit, and I know the general numbers my different routines have. When I’m full of energy, I push hard and enjoy it! When I’m off my sleep a little, I push throught it, and enjoy just being at the gym. A big change for me mentally has happened over the last few months… kind of snuck-up on me. One I stopped worrying about how much weight was on the bar, and started feeling/ listening to my muscles. It was kind of Zen. When I would do a sled-press, I would zero in on my quad muscles- watch them widen then extend, feel the muscles moving. Visualize the fibers in the muscles contracting, and relaxing… might sound weird, but it is wonderful!

My goal? I want to lose more body fat. I think it would be great to be at 10% by my 40th birthday, BUT in my new “headspace” I’m not going to be charting my day to day or week to week body changes. I’m finally in a place where I love where my body is, and I love the workout that is continuing to give me strength and energy and fitness and physique ( it doesn’t hurt the old ego that 20 something at the gym have stopped me to ask for general tips… that was very self-gratifying!) Oh, and spending time with that special someone who is not afraid to give you positive feed-back on your current body composition: that doesn’t do anything but help cement positive reinforcement to the good you are doing for yourself

18% body fat

penfold187 — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:33:48 +0000

17.7% body fat, (right after workout, so I'm all pumped up!)

On the grind/ in the fold

penfold187 — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:30:53 +0000

Since my last post, I have been in a really good mental place. Since June I didn’t have to count my calories or hit the scale or use the calipers on a daily or even weekly basis. I guess after about a decade of training, something inside my brain changed, and the following things happened:
1) Food turned from mostly “pleasure” to mostly “fuel” in my mind.
2) The workout itself became fun, not just thinking and concentrating on the outcome
I have to give credit to my use of the BodyBugg as the turning point for my diet. Over the past several years I was eating a light breakfast, good lunch, sensible dinner, and then eating cold cereal, or ice cream, or toast or ? off my counting sheets. Only cheating myself, but still. For whatever reason (I’m cheap??) spending that $200.00 for that little armband/watch I made the mental decision to count EVERY SINGLE DARNED CALORIE. And my night calories was killing my best efforts to lose weight/fat. So I changed my habits, and over time, I re-wrote what being hungry meant. Being hungry used to feel “empty”, emotionally. After I saw the changes in my musculature (more visible) my mind saw a little hunger as being “healthy”. I knew I had to eat, but I was only hungry, not “empty”

Whoops! forgot to post for last 10 months!

penfold187 — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:24:55 +0000

And no great excuse, like I was having a baby (nope, not this time)
I didn’t stop working out, but my eating habits were not helping me. In hindsight I realize it was my evening ritual of overeating on an almost nightly basis that was really stopping me from obtaining my goal of lowering by weight by fat loss. Finally, after the New Year, I looked into, and bought, a used Body Bugg (or BodyBugg, whatever)
Got it used, locally, through Craigslist, for less than I would on ebay. And through some resourcefulness, (and the fact I bought it with the wrist-digital display) I was able to save myself an additional $70 for the first year “subscription” that you would have to buy from Apex to monitor your caloric consumption.
Long story short, on Feb 1st I was 168lbs, today I am just under 160 lbs. Losing just under one lbs per week. My body fat (as measured using calipers I also bought) has dropped from 26% to 21%. My target is 150lbs, which was what I had precalculated was where I would reach 15% body fat (IF I lost only fat and no lean weight)
My workouts have been good, as I have been gaining strength in most areas. And I can fit OK in my 29″ waist pants (my 30″ were feeling a little tight some days before I started seriously cutting my food)
I’ll post my NEW eating habits and plan next time- and plan on posting pics when I reach 150… which I’m hoping I’ll do before June 1st.

Gotcha!!! Now the actual “After” pictures

penfold187 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:29:16 +0000

Actually those were taken on the same day, about 30 minutes apart, before my 12 week push, but I wanted to make a point about in pictures used in diet or exercise advertisements, lighting, “pumping up” (exercising to inflate muscles) and a little baby oil can seem to change anyone! And here are two taken the evening of June 1st, one looking “frumpy” and un-flexed, and one you would see in an ad for “after”. I’m actually feeling pretty good about where I am, but I want to continue my diet of more closely watched carbs, and increased fiber intake. New deadline: July 4th!

Taken 6/6/09, 7pm

Taken 6/6/09, 8pm

Before and After – Take 1

penfold187 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:10:58 +0000

Ok, as promised, here we go! Starting way back in March, and then culminating on June 1st:

Before!

After!

Pics taken… so?

penfold187 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:36:22 +0000

Ok, so I’m weighing in at 161 lbs, and just under 18% body fat (not sure if that’s accurate, because my post 12 weeks ago stated 167 and 18% fat, and the pics I think show SOME loss of body fat and / or trading fat for muscle…) What? You mean my $60 home scale might NOT be accurate for body fat??!!?!?!

Judgement day!

penfold187 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:35:39 +0000

June 1st, my deadline set waaaaaaaay back in March, 12 weeks ago. I know I didn’t get where I wanted, but more important, I learned about where my body is regarding eating and exercise. I will be taking my “After” pics tonight, and hopefully posting them (gulp) before the end of the week.
My best news to myself, I’m giving myself until July 4th weekend to see “how low I can go”, as I have decided that I am tired of not losing the weight I wanted, and the issue was my diet (mostly carbing out poorly on comfort food at night), so I feel more “serious” about my eating, and that was only started last week. I also started supplimenting with creatine for three days now (10mg per day, and I skipped the weekend, so I don’t think I’m fully “loaded” yet)