21st Century Digital Boy

Great piece at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/health/13muscles.html about weight lifting. 2 very interesting points:

Others go to gyms, where they may be intimidated when they venture into weight rooms filled with people grunting and straining and machines that can seem daunting. Those who do try to lift at the gym can end up using weights that are not heavy enough to fully stimulate their muscles.

I (finally!) realized that I don’t lift enough actual weight; I was incorrectly connecting grunting and straining on X pounds, not realizing I needed to be lifting X+Y. It’s intimidating but I’ve had a lot better results.

While women often say they are afraid they will bulk up, this fear is unfounded, Dr. Kraemer and others say. Acquiring muscle mass requires testosterone levels that women don’t have. Instead, the toning that many women say they want comes from lifting heavy weights.

Josh Hillis is fond of pointing out “hot == strong” and that women won’t generally get bulky from good training. It seems to be entering the mainstream now …

I’m sorry, I can’t stop bragging, but I finally got around to making a before/after pic:

August, 2005. Close to 300, 2XL shirt, 46″ waist.

Today, April 2008. 170, shirt size M, 32″ waist.

Apparently push-ups are still relevant. So I dropped and did 31 before feeling like any second someone was going to walk in to my office. That’s only “good“, I think had I not felt incredibly dorky - and done a lot of upper body work this morning - I’d have done better.

Did 180# deadlift this morning, 20 reps. I weight 168#. So yay, more than my bodyweight.

It’s not some stellar amount of weight, obviously, but it’s a big milestone nonetheless.

(My median bodyfat has dropped to about 13%, which is pretty good, too.)

IRONY ALERT: 180 was too much; I sprained something.

For reference purposes, part deux of fitness ramblings; vaguely apropos as the gyms are no doubt filled with people starting their resolutions. (Mine is appropriately packed)
Continue reading ‘How I work out’

People assume I don’t eat much. It turns out, I eat all the time. And by all the time, I mean, “ALL THE GODDAMN TIME”. I’m practically never not eating.
Continue reading ‘What I eat’

Example here.

I hear this shit from time to time: do more crunches and you’ll get a six-pack. Um, no: I already have one, hidden under a layer of fat.

Short, high-intensity cardio isn’t as effective at fat-burning as staying “in the zone”, which is I guess why sprinters are so porky.

Women should stick to cardio to prevent bulking up: which assumes that the simple act of picking up heavy things and setting them down again, over and over, is all it takes to put on muscle mass.

Did a PFT this morning; scored 149, which puts me in tier 3, the lowest, by one fucking point. One more sit-up, one more pull-up, a few seconds off the run, and I’d be in tier 2; low, but tier 2 nonetheless. A bit of a recent personal best, doing 3 miles in 26:30. Previous 3-mile was 26:55 a week or so ago, so I’m making pretty good progress.

On the plus side, though, it means in a week I’ll be in tier 2. I joke that I’m physically 19 again; not entirely true, but I can at least hold my own against those fucking kids. (Calculate your score here.)

A little more time, and I’ll be at or under my age group’s probability for lung cancer, and it’s likely greater than 85% of lung volume lost to smoking will be recovered. Then 2 years or so after that, I’ll be at or under my age group’s probability for heart disease.

I worked out the other day after looking at this, that I have about 15k days left in my life; all things being equal, I’ll die at age 76, in 2049. The more I think about that, the more I think, it’s worth all this. I can push that number higher.