On metrics...

The bad news is, I'm weighing in a little bit heavier than I'd like to, lately. I got up to around 185lbs earlier in March, which was a bit worrying.

The good news is, my body fat % is reading at 17% by skinfold test. That's down from 33% in May 2009, which I choose to interpret as good news.

The moral of the story, I suppose, is that one metric isn't necessarily enough to gauge progress.

Next up: 10K training updates. That is, unless I die of a massive coronary before my next blog update. Time will tell.

[183.0]

Reset!

With the aforementioned test done, I can turn some attention back to Project Spite.

While reading a magazine today, I saw an article that talked about how Masahiko Kimura apparently did 300 push-ups and trained judo for 5 hours every day.

I thought to myself, "I can do that. I should start doing 300 push-ups every day."

Then, I read the Wikipedia article about Kimura, which states that during the height of his training, he trained judo for 9 hours every day, and did a thousand push-ups.

I thought to myself, "I should start doing 300 push-ups every day."

... starting Wednesday.

Primum non nocere

I'm writing the LSAT on Saturday, which has meant that I've diverted some martial arts and gym time to practicing.

Ergo, my fitness goal this week has shifted from "muscle development" to "control the backslide." I did not help myself by eating a delicious carrot muffin this morning but, hey, you can't win 'em all.

Back to it next week, I promise.

(PS: Confirmed that 205lbs on the bench is a reproducible feat, by accomplishing same on Tuesday evening. This is very nearly 115% of my body weight, and I'm happy with this number as a starting point. w00t.)

[181.0]

New Record!

205lbs on the bench.

Whoooooooooooooooooooo!

[179.6]

Push Day!

Alright, so:

One problem that I used to encounter around resistance training was that my gym visits weren't consistent enough to maintain a decent split around body parts. I would rotate between chest and back days, almost totally neglecting my arms and legs on a regular basis.

Thanks to Jay, I'm onto a much simpler program that fits into my otherwise busy fitness schedule. "Push" day is as follows:

Bench Press ---> work up to a single max set of 5 reps*
Dips ---> 3 sets x 8-10 reps
Shoulder Press ---> "
Tricep Pushdown ---> "
Single Leg Squat ---> "
Pistol Squat ---> "
Back Extensions ---> 3 sets, each to exhaustion
Supermans ---> 3 sets, each to exhaustion

(Today, just to be sassy, I threw in some weighted calf raises. Why not?)

And just in case any of my 3 blog readers were wondering, my Bench Press 5-rep max is 195lbs on a Smith Machine. Now you know.

[180.4]

Maybe This Year Will Be Better Than The Last...

In related news, I am showing my age by dropping a fairly huge Counting Crows reference in the title.

I did have a particularly long and awful December, which accounts for my going off the grid for a bit. My fitness plans got derailed, and I wasn't able to work out as much as I would have liked.

Thankfully, however, a well-timed stomach flu coincided with Holiday Overeating Season, so I managed to only gain 4 pounds. And since I've been lifting more at the gym (going into 8 weeks of a 'muscle development phase', Jay says) I'm not overly concerned about a tiny backslide at this point.

Gym is PACKED with the New Years Resolution crowd right now. I hope they'll thin out by mid-February ("thin out" has a double-meaning here, I suppose).

Last week was very successful in terms of my training goals. It went a little something like this:

Monday - Jitsu
Tuesday - Gym with Jay
Wednesday - Judo
Thursday - Gym ("Push" day)
Friday - Jitsu
Saturday - Rest day
Sunday - Gym ("Pull" day)

This was ideal, and I'd like to keep it up. Here's hopin'.
(Subsequent posts will detail the push/pull split, but suffice it to say that I'm happy with the concept so far.)

[178.4]