Workout

I settled on a workout plan. I decided I'll try the Occam's Protocol stuff from 4HB for the rest of January and see how it goes. Because this means significantly less time spent lifting, it leaves me time for a full 25 minute cardio session.

Today I did the 25 mins of run/walk and covered 2.68km (3.5-5.5 mph).

I also did the exercises to determine my starting weights for Occam's. Workout A is two exercises only:

1. Close grip pulldowns - 115 lbs x 4 reps (to failure)
2. Shoulder press - 65 lbs x 4 reps (to failure)

According to Tim's formula this means that my starting points are 85 lbs for the pulldowns and 40 lbs for the shoulder press. You do only 1 set to failure with this weight, at 7 or more repetitions. Then you bump the weight by 10%.

Workout B on Thursday!

Workout

No cardio today. All weights, plus tried some new stuff at the gym. Good times. Here's how it went down:

Dumbbell flys - 2 x 8 @ 20lbs
Dumbbell curls - 2 x 8 @ 20 lbs.
Alt. Shoulder Press - 3 x 8 @ 15 lbs.
Tricep flys - 2 x 8 @ 10bs
Lat Pulldowns - 2 x 8 @ 70 lbs

New:

Leg press - 3 x 8 @ 110 lbs
Bar curl - 1 x 8 @ 40 lbs
Chest press - 1 x 8 @ 40lbs
Tricep pushdown - 1 x 8 @ 25 lbs

Stomach/Core:
Sit up
Crunch
Twisting Situp
Plank
Steve Nash medicine ball thing

Obviously I'm still auditioning exercises. Next week, the plan is to start to settle on a routine or 2 and start tracking weight.

Some Early Observations

Two things that I've noticed early on in this little experiment:

1. I feel like a whale. For some reason my stomach feels bloated as hell. Not like I'm full after eating, just big and round. This may be because my gut is big and round. I don't know; it's weird. It's just a feeling I guess.
2. I'm breaking out. Not like Jay-Z broke out, but breaking out as in blemishes/pimples. I haven't had an appreciable occurrence of either in recent memory. This morning I counted 1 full on zit and 3 blemish kinda things, that might be pimples someday. wtf?!

The weight is not exactly sliding right off, but some headway is being made. So I'll stick with it and see what happens from here.

Cardio vs. Strength Training

If I want to lose a little weight and body fat, should I run or lift weights? My Internet research seems to boil down to this:

Sayeth the weightlifters: "Are you nuts? You should lift weights. You'll build muscle, which everyone knows burns more fat than, er, fat. If you're more muscular, you'll burn fat even when you're just sitting around. If you run, you'll lose fat and muscle. Then, you'll just be a skinny fat guy. You know, all bones and concave chest, but with a big gut. Yuck."

Sayeth the runners: "Ridiculous. The only way to lose weight is to burn calories. The only way to burn enough calories to make a difference is to run, fat boy. If you lift weights, sure you'll be strong, but you'll just be a strong fat guy. Have you ever seen those Scottish guys that pull trucks and throw logs on TV? They're pretty strong, but not exactly the lean and well defined body type, if you know what I'm sayin'."

Sayeth the P90X guys: Grrrrrrrr! <make the X sign with both forearms>

Who's right?

Workout

25 mins, internal walk/run (3.3-3.5/5.5-6.0). Max HR 168. 2.5 km distance covered. Still a fraction of what I could do when I was training for the 5K. My cardio capacity has really, really suffered over the past year.

Strength training is getting better though. I need to do some baselining here, but my basic routine is:

1. Dumbell Flys - 3 of 8 @ 20 lbs
2. Pulldowns - 3 of 8 @ 70 lbs
3. Alternating Shoulder Press - 3 of 8 @ 15 lbs
4. Curls - 3 of 8 @ 20lbs
5. Tricep Pushdowns - 3 of 8 @ ?? (haven't added this yet...probably about 15 lbs to start)

Need to add legs obviously. And I have a core/stomach workout that I'm mixing in too.

The issue now is the need to start separating cardio and strength workouts. If I do 25 minutes of cardio, it leaves me time for only an abbreviated version of the above. Usually I can get through 1 or maybe 2 sets of each, with some half-assed core mixed in (crunchs, plank, leg lift).

Protein Bars

So, somewhere in the 4HB, Tim says that I should be trying to get some protein, preferably within 1/2 hour of waking up. The only way that's happening with my schedule is with nutritional supplements. I just don't have the time in the morning to cook eggs and waking up my wife and kids at 6am isn't an option. So, protein bars to the rescue!

Last week, I stopped in at GNC real quick and grabbed these four tasty treats. All are peanut butter flavoured in some way, on the premise that if you have to choke one of these down, it better taste good. For me, that means peanut butter.

Up first, the BioX Xtreme Protein 32 Peanut Crunch. BioX is a Canadian company, which is good. Google lists their website as "possibly compromised" which is bad, but probably won't affect the taste of the bar itself. Hmmmm, looks like a peanut butter cup. Tastes like a protein bar. A little metallic. Extra points though for throwing the rice crisps in it; actual crunch is a good thing. In fact, a little more would be welcome. It's a big bar and a little tough to get through in one sitting. I can only get down half of it. Saving the other half for after workout later this morning.

Next up: Atkins Advantage Chocolate Peanut Butter!

Supplement Baseline

I've been taking the following supplements every day for about 2 years or so:

Multivitamin - Centrum Forte
Omega 3 - Jamieson Omega Select - 1000mg
Vitamin D - HealthyOrigins D3 - 2400IU

So far, so good across the board, but thinking I may add to these as the experiment continues.