Jan 14, 2013
Lose 2 inches from waistline (measured at navel), hopefully reducing body fat % to less than 10% in 8 weeks (1/6/13 – 3/3/13), while maintaining or increasing strength
Target (guesstimate) – 165.0 lbs w/ 30.75” waist ~ 9.5% bodyfat
Body
Weight: ~167 lbs (1/06/13 – 167.0 lbs, 1/07/13 – 166.8 lbs, 1/08/13 – 167.4 lbs)
Bodyfat per http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/: 14.2% (32.75” waist at navel on 1/08/13)
Bodyfat per skin-fold test: 10.7% (8 mm at suprailliac site on 1/08/13)
Bodyfat per Navel research method: 12.46%
Average Body fat: 12.45%
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It’s probably a bit ambitious to think I can be in the best shape of my life at 35 years old, but that’s my goal for 2013. I don’t want to feel like I ‘peaked’ at 18 and that I’ve been on a downward slide since then. In reality though, it’s not much of a stretch to say that it’s true. About 8 weeks ago, I had a ‘breakthrough‘ and started to reverse the trend. I got back to the basics in the gym and changed my diet. Suddenly the internal drive that motivated me to push myself throughout my teen years and early twenties was back. Some days, I feel like it’s only a matter of time before I break though the strength plateaus I’ve been hitting for years.
Getting old(er) is a weird feeling. Sometimes my mind tricks me into thinking that I can do anything that I’ve done in the past. It doesn’t matter if I did it 10 years ago. One thing that I’ve noticed is that I don’t recover as quickly as I did 5 years ago. For example, I used to do a standard 3 sets of 8 reps on bench press. I’d do each set to failure using the same weight of each set. If I do a set to failure now, I can only get 6 or 7 reps on the next set, even if I extend the rest period between sets. If I try a third set, I’ll often loose another rep.
After changing my diet and workout routine last fall, I started to approach my personal record (PR) for barbell bench press. The situation reminded me of a signature I saw on a car forum:
“Not as good as I once was, but as good once as I ever was.”
When I first started thinking about my fitness goals for 2013, I initially wanted to just break my 1 repetition max (1RM) for Barbell Bench Press, Dead Lift and Chin-ups. Even if my stamina/recovery isn’t what it once was, I thought that if I could get my explosiveness back, I’d be happy. Here are some PRs as I remember them. These were set when I was 18 years old and weighed 155 lbs, unless noted otherwise:
| Strength: Barbell Bench Press: 275 lb estimated 1RM (230 lbs x 6 reps) Dead Lift: 370 lb estimated 1RM (315 lbs x 6 reps) Body Weight Chins (14 yrs old, barely 100 lbs): Body weight x 20 reps |
I’m confident these ‘raw’ numbers’ are attainable, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I’m not really comparing apples to apples here. To truly be as strong as I was at 18, I’d need to reach the same strength-to-weight ratios. This makes the challenge much tougher. Here are the numbers I need to reach, assuming I weigh 170 lbs:
| Strength: Barbell Bench Press: 275 lb 1RM = BW x 1.77, so the target is 300 lbs Dead Lift: 370 lb 1RM = BW x 2.39, so the target is 405 lbs |
Thinking about my goals more, I started thinking, “wouldn’t it be great to be in the best shape of my life?” To be able to say this, I’d obviously need to add a cardiovascular element to my goal. Here are some numbers from my junior year in high school,
| Cardiovascular: 1 mile run: 5m20s 800m run: 2m18s |
and some numbers from the one time I had my body fat checked ‘professionally’.
| Body fat % Body fat %: ~8.5% (as a 155 lb, 23 year old. 7-8mm average with fat calipers, 3 site check) |
It’s going to be tough, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m ~15 pounds heavier and nearly twice as old. I’m dealing with some aches, pains and injuries that I didn’t have at 18. My body doesn’t hold up to the running well. Despite this, I’ll give it my best shot. After all, isn’t that part of the challenge?
Better today than yesterday; better tomorrow than today.
This entry is not meant to serve as advice to anyone in any way. It is just a way to log what I have done. I do not claim any of the theories/methods/techniques/philosophies/systems/ WhateverYouWantToCallThem as my own ideas. I just found them online and anything posted here is assuredly inferior to whatever source I got the idea from. If you are thinking about trying Intermittent Fasting (IF), LeanGains (LG), or Reverse Pyramid Training (RPT), go to the source. Conduct your own research and/or contact Martin Berkhan or Andy Morgan for a personal consultation. There is lots of free information available about all of these subjects, written by people that are much more knowledgeable than myself.
Since initially reading about LF, IF and RPT, I can see errors in how I interpreted or understood the information, and at times, simply misread it. I have also found more websites and blogs explaining the ideas in different ways, as well as re-read much of the information I used to create the plan below. As a result, I have revised my thinking on some of the information posted here. On my next cutting phase (I plan on doing this again, from 01/06/13 to 03/03/13), I will do things differently.
During the summer of 2012 (May – August), I was hiking nearly every weekend, working out 3-4 days per week and doing my best to eat healthy.My weight was down to 174 lbs and was relatively happy with the way I looked. Near the end of August, my wife and I had our first child. Six weeks (and lots of fast food) after our child was born, I found myself at 186 lbs. After a few weeks of intense cardio and being hungry all of the time, I got down to 180lbs. The weight wasn’t coming off fast enough and I was having a hard time restricting calories. Free time was also becoming scarce and I knew I would not be able to spend as much time doing cardio in the future. A few weeks prior, I had read about IF and LG. I decided that this was the perfect time to give it a shot.
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01/07/13
Here are my baseline numbers as 2013 gets started. These are the things that I hope to improve on over the next 12 months.
| Strength: Cooper Strength Test: 55 pushups Barbell Bench Press: 200 lbs x 10 ~ 265 lb 1RM (measured 12/26/12) Dead Lifts: 255 lbs x 8 – Estimated 1RM of 315lbs (measured 12/26/12) Squats: 155 lbs x 8 ~ 192 lb 1RM (measured 1/07/13) Weighted Chins: BW(168 lbs) + 49 lbs ~ 230 lb 1RM (measured 1/07/13) Dips: BW x 18 (measured 1/3/13) |
| Cardiovascular: 1 mile run – 7m45s (measured 1/03/11) 1.5 run (VO2 max) – 12m22s (measured 12/30/12) – Estimated VO2max is 43 ml/kg/min (fair) Resting Pulse Rate: |
| Body weight and body fat %: Weight: ~167 lbs (1/6/13 – 167.0 lbs, 1/7/13 – 166.8 lbs, 1/8/13 – 167.4 lbs) Bodyfat per http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/: 14.3% (32.75” waist at navel on 1/8) Bodyfat per skin-fold test: 10.1% (8 mm at suprailliac site on 1/8) Bodyfat per Navel research method: 12.46% Bodyfat per Jackson/Pollock 3 Site: 9.46% Average Body fat: 11.58% Lean Body Mass: ~ 148 lbs |
Here’s my log: 2012 Hiking Log
01/02/13