Feeling Good is Hard to Quit

I woke up with a cold yesterday and still went to the gym. I didn't feel bad until last night. This morning I dreamt I had strep, but luckily, the sore throat was just some morning gunk. And after I put my kid on the school bus, I'm off to the gym.

I do 45 minutes on the elliptical and a nice 5.0 miles. I feel good. It's a back and biceps day and it's Friday which gives me extra incentive to work out hard because I'm such a slacker on the weekends. My friend B yells at me that I shouldn't be losing any more weight, that I should cut waaaay back on my cardio, to say, oh, 10 minutes. And I scoff! Because if I can't get good and sweaty, then I don't feel properly warmed up and then I don't feel good. Exercise is my drug!

"You shouldn't be weighing yourself after your workout."
"Why not?" I ask.
The scale's on the way to the shower and I'm always wearing the same thing, a towel. so there's no hiding from any ugly truths, there's no excuses (like, oh, it must be my extra heavy sneakers today, or I have my cell in my pocket). There's only, ooh, maybe I shouldn't've had seconds and thirds last night. Besides, I always weight myself at this time, after my workout, after sucking down a bottle or two of water. At least I'm consistent, and consistency is the key to an awful lot of things.
"Because you've just sucked down a liter and a half of water. How much does that weigh?"
I shrug because I don't think a liter and a half is going to skew my weigh in.
Then she adds, "I can't believe you don't have to run off to the rest room all the time!"
I shrug. I can't believe she works out and doesn't get sweaty. She barely drinks the half liter bottle of whatever mix she put in her water bottle. 

My right elbow is bothering me from doing the 10 close grip chin ups I finish my stretch/side-kick routine with, so I opt to do traditional machine rows and pull downs today. The neutral (palms facing each other) grip is great on my tiny wrists and dysfunctional shoulder, but it's wreaking havoc with the inside of one elbow.

I do a set of 12 reps with 75 lbs to start, then do another 3 sets of 15 reps at 90 lbs, pulling the handles to my chest with my back rigidly straight. I've finally seen my back, and it needs work. I do another 3 sets at 105 lbs but can only eek out 8 reps. Maybe I'll put on a little size. While I'm happy with the diamond shape of my traps, considering I don't recall doing movements specific for it, it's the rather sparse lats that bother me. From one angle, all I see are ribs. I don't think you should see your ribs from the back.

The pull-down station already has a standard bar attached so I do 12 reps at 90 lbs for 5 sets, trying hard to resist the urge to move the peg to 105 lb. It's such an ego boost to move your own weight or more! My elbows are my weak link on this movement so I give my arms a break and do a few machines: 2 sets of 25 reps at 50 lbs on the side-twist-ab station, 2 sets of 25 reps at 90 lbs on the seated lower back press (like doing hyper-extensions in a seated position), and about 125-150 reps each (I tend to lose count after 100) of twisting situps and leg kick-outs. Towards the end I can feel my abs burning, but it feels distant and not all that unpleasant. 

Feeling pleasantly sweaty again, I gingerly try 5 sets of stiff leg deadlifts at the Smith machine with just the 45 lbs bar. I know I could add weight but really, what I want to see is what part of me (if any) is going to be sore tomorrow. Then I grab a 30 lb barbell and do bent-over-reverse grip rows. I feel lopsided as I stare at my form in the mirror. My arms don't quite track the same as I try to keep my elbows close to my body as I draw the weight up to my navel. But I feel my lats for the first time, and I'm excited. I do 5 sets of 15 reps. I want to see how I'll feel over the weekend before upping the weight. Dumbbell rows are something I used to do, but as with flyes and dumbbell presses, my spine and shoulders are too flexible and I tend to inadvertently slide out of alignment which become rather painful and tiresome.

Naturally, having done all that pulling motion means that biceps are next. But that's another post.

My Super Heroes of Old

I guess they call it the Fitness Olympia now after the super-freaky over-muscled "women in chromosomes only" winners took over the Ms Olympia stage. I completely lost interest in bodybuilding after Lenda Murray took the crown from 6-time winner Cory Everson. But my heroes go further back.

Go to Google and look up Lynn Conkwright, Clare Furr, Sharon Bruneau. I've included a few images I grabbed off the web. I actually met Clare Furr once and had her autograph a color photo I kept on my fridge for the longest of time. She was so wonderfully nice and gracious.

Lynn Conkwright

Clare Furr

Sharon Bruneau

The one thing I realized today is that I actually am a tiny person. I feel like I have big arms and big legs, but really, as tomorrow's post will show, I'm pretty small, and have a lot of work to do. Egads! I had no idea! Luckily, tomorrow is a back and biceps day, and I have a few new exercises I want to try out in my new routine.

Keeping Things Fresh

It's been little over a year since I started working out and I've modified my routine a few times, deleting exercises that were either causing injuries or just weren't working for me. Everyone's different so it's important to pay attention to what your body is telling you, and then make the proper adjustments. For example, I used to do dumbbell presses after flat bar bench pressing. I got up to 35 lb dumbbells (each) but I noticed that my back and shoulder blades would knot up painfully afterwards -- requiring my husband to try and massage out my knots and then click my back back into place. I was dislocating my chiclets (a bit too flexible) just doing routine dumbbell presses. But not a problem with flat bench presses. So I replaced the dumbbell presses with decline bar presses. No flyes for me either -- same problem! You have to do what works for you, but you have to pay attention.

This week I've decided to modify my split routine once more: M & Th are chest/delts/triceps and Tu & F are back/biceps. I do abs every day (M-F). I do cardio every day (M-F). Sometimes I go to kickboxing on Tues or Thurs. I went last night. So today I did legs. I haven't done legs in years. And I have my reservations about doing them. First, I have really bad knees. Just genetically bad knees that hyperextend and don't put up with any impact shock so no jogging, no running, no jumping jacks, no biking, no downhill skiing, no zumba. Heck, I don't do any of the jumping around in my kickboxing class, but I've got a pretty decent roundhouse kick for smacking the heavy bag. Second, I like being able to fit into my size 0 pants (even though the waist is a bit too loose) and my thighs are big enough as is. Third, I don't want to hurt myself and put myself out of commission.

So on my first day of legs, I did 45 minutes of cardio at a moderate pace and only got 4.7 miles on the elliptical. Then I went to the stretch cage and stretched, and did a bunch of low-med-high side kicks, followed by another round of stretches, ending with me climbing up the cage and eeking out 10 close grip neutral grip pullups. By now, I've soaked my hoodie through and I'm trying not to drip all over the floor. I always carry a 1.5 liter water bottle and usually finish it by the end of my workout. I don't know how people can work out and not rehydrate!

Then I use the seated leg curl machine for a set of 12-15 reps at 45 lbs, 60 lbs and 75 lbs. I don't like the lying leg curl. Perhaps I don't like having my butt up in the air, but it's more likely that since I've got fairly short calves and long thighs (a traditional southeast Asian body type), I just don't fit into the machine properly.

Then off to the barbell rack and I gingerly take a light weight (30 lbs) and do 3 sets of Romanian deadlifts, which is basically bending over with a straight back and dragging the barbell up your thighs from under your knees as you stand up and arch slightly. The barbells rests over your hip bones at the end. It's not very challenging so I move onto the 40 lb bar and do 3 more sets (12 reps). It's suppose to be a hamstring movement. I'm not feeling it but maybe I'll feel it tomorrow so I'm not going to push my luck.

Instead, I opt to do 3 sets of pistol squats for 6 reps. 6 reps per set is all I can manage before I feel like I'm going to fall over. Pistol squats are basically one leg squats. You hold one leg out (you can support it with your hand) and push up on the remaining bent leg. It helps a lot if you're flexible and can squat down so that your butt is virtually sitting on your heel. (That's probably a southeast Asian thing too.) Hold your leg up as you stand up, and keep your balance. Then switch legs. It's a bit hard on my knees but not as hard as doing regular squats which I won't do. I don't do lunges either.

There's a few sets of situps and leg raises and machine side curls -- all abs. But like I said, I do abs and stretching everyday (M-F). Then I'm done and I spend 10-15 minutes stretching with emphasis on hamstrings, back, shoulders and neck. This is probably the quickest workout I've ever done but I'm starving and can't wait to shower and head out to my car where I can suck down a protein drink. Once I get home, I'll probably make myself a really strong cup of Irish breakfast tea with a bit of honey and a wee splash of milk so that it looks like muddy coffee. And maybe some eggs on toast!

Some Current Views

Damn, I wasn't expecting to look quite so scrawny.

I took all these photos a few days ago, and damn it's difficult to shoot self-portraits without a good setup. Well, one of my goals was to develop shoulders and I have them now, so I'm pleased. But it's been a lot of hard work: before or after bench press (3 times weekly), I do front raises, lateral raises and inclined rear flyes with a pair of 15 lb dumbbells — usually 5-6 sets of 12-15 reps each. No one wants huge triceps and biceps hanging off of coat-hanger shoulders.

Shooting into a mirror means you catch the distortions from the mirror as well, but you get better control of lighting. It seems to be a toss-up. I look a lot bigger shooting into a mirror. It can be very amusing! I have one of those home model digital scales that purports to use electrical resistance to determine your body fat percentage. My scale is lying to me, saying I'm 106 lbs and 20% body fat.


I'm hoping that one of these days I'll be able to see the 6-pack abs I know exist under that thick layer of subcutaneous fat. I think a lot of Asians have thicker skin and more subcutaneous fat, giving us that very smooth look that's not so great for muscular definition. I need to drop down to 17-15% body fat minimum to see anything vaguely like abs. I do admit to being recently pleasantly surprised at the increased vascularity in my tiny forearms. That's never happened to me before, but I'm quite happy about it. I'm going to credit 3-5 sets of bicep curls (12 reps) with 20 lb dumbbells twice weekly. Sometimes I follow or precede with 3-5 sets of inclined curls with 15 lb dumbbells, dependent upon whether an incline bench is available. I hate bothering people, asking if they're done yet so I'll go do something else and come back later.

The triceps are okay. I used to lift weights when I was in college about 30 years ago, so I remember when I had striations on my "horseshoes". My main concern these days is being strong enough to knockout pushups during the cardio kickboxing class I take sporadically, and to be able to increase my bench press. At least once if not twice a week, I'll use the Smith machine and eek out 3 sets of 8-10 reps at 135 lbs. Which is pretty damn good for a middle-aged woman who weighs 107. But I'm not sure I quite believe the Bodybuilding.com calculator that projects I'd be able to do a one-time lift of 168 lbs based on those stats. After all, I still got these tiny hands and wrists with horribly flexible joints that sprain and dislocate at the most inopportune moments.

Disbelief?

OK, it's easy to dismiss my claims, especially with no before and after photos so here's a photo taken last June. I'd been working out at the gym for two and a half months and only dropped 2 lbs.

Here I am at a whopping 126 lbs, which for someone not quite 5 feet tall, is well, chubby.

This is Worth Watching

I got this from the Bodybuilding.com site. It's totally awesome and I don't use the term lightly.

On a less impressive note, I managed to take some progress photos of myself. Damn it's hard to take self portraits of any reasonable quality!

The Magic Number

I used to use cardio as a 10 minute warm-up but looking back, I see that it was pretty worthless. Since last August, I've done either 45 or 35 min elliptical workouts paced fast enough to register roughly 4.5 to 5 miles. Now that's a warm up. Sweat is pouring down my face when I step off the cardio area.

If you're reading or chatting, you're not moving fast enough. A few months ago, a woman asked me how I dropped so much weight, I told her that my "magic number" was 5 miles. I saw an Aha! moment on her face although she laughed that her friends would have to rescue her when she fell on her butt trying to run five miles on the treadmill. However, I've seen her recently, and she looks good! She's lost weight! Her skin looks clearer. She smiled that knowing smile at me, and I think she's found her magic number. It might even be five miles.

For a while I was doing five miles five days a week — that's about 25 miles a week. Thank goodness for non-impact elliptical cross-trainers, otherwise my knees would've fallen out ages ago! I do have to credit the free cardio music downloads I've gotten from Shape magazine http://www.shape.com/fitness/playlists. The right music helps my pacing when I'm hauling butt. Shape.com provide a new cardio workout playlist for free every month that can be downloaded to your own MP3 player. I confess that I'm completely anti-social when I'm working out: I've got a hoodie on to keep my hair and sweat to myself, my iPod is plugged in, and I have my eyes closed because I'm bopping to the beat. I also like to check out RunHundred.com. I got his link from Shape.com and I've enjoyed listening to music samples and reading some of his postings: http://www.runhundred.com/five-things/

Yes, there is another magic number. That's the one on the scale. Contrary to what diet experts used to say, it's best to weigh yourself every day, at roughly the same time, wearing the same clothes (or sans clothes). I don't work out on weekends (yes, I do have a life!) and I've already resigned myself to the fact that I will be heavier on Monday than I was last Friday. But it's an incentive to do the week correctly, and if I'm really good, I'll actually manage to drop weight anyway, and either maintain or gain strength. But I can only gauge the latter with how much I can lift, and for how many reps, and how I feel afterwards.

The magic number on the scale is 107. Today I'm 107.2 and my gym rat girlfriend B tells me it's too low. Never mind that she's an inch taller than me and 10 lbs lighter. We have different frames. I'm a bigger girl than she is. If she didn't work out, she'd be scrawny. If I didn't, well, all you have to do is look at that photo from June 2011. I'm thinking maybe 107 isn't the magic number. This is getting into dangerous territory. Again, the dilemma: go for it, or be happy with what's been achieved?

Just do it!

I did my 45 min of cardio and didn't quite make 5 miles today. I've been a bit tired lately since I've hit my goal weight. But I've decided to just "go for it". So I've changed my MWF routine slightly to accommodate some slight repetitive stress concerns. For the last few months I've warmed up on a flat bench (right after cardio) with a pyramid set of reps: 15 reps with just the bar (45 lbs); 15 reps with a pair of 10 lb plates (65 lbs); 15 reps with another pair of 10s (85 lbs); then 50 reps with just the bar (45 lbs). I'm looking for endurance and stamina as well as strength.

But after a while, the shoulder and elbow gets sore. Tendinitis can flare up. Especially when I hit the shoulder machine right after for 3 hard sets of 12 reps at 50 lbs. Then I go to the stretch cage and toss some "side kicks" in various combinations (high, middle, low, low-middle, middle-low) at the cage bars. I heel dip and flex and end this by climbing up the cage and trying to get 10 neutral-grip chins before heading back toward the machines and free weights. For the real workout. This has all been "the preamble". But this week I change things up just a tad and flat bench a straight pyramid: 15 reps bar; 20 reps pair of 10s; 25 reps pair of 20s (85 lbs).

Monday I got 3 sets of 10 reps at 135 lbs (that's a bar with a 45 lb plate each side) on the Smith machine. I've been stronger. My weakness are my tiny hands with equally tiny wrists and fingers. Seriously. I wear a size 3.25 ring (that's equivalent to the hand size of a 9 yr old). These are my weak links and there's nothing I can do to make them bigger and stronger. Today I do decline benches because as a small woman with a small bust, the last thing I need are incline benches which make the upper pectorals loom over "the girls" -- a peculiar and disconcerting profile. Declines will at least work to fill out the lower pectorals, as well as stress the delts. Delts, triceps and abs are also on the agenda today.

The Dilemma

I've reached the goal weight I set for myself when I joined the gym last year, a day after my 51st birthday. I had spent 6 mos getting depressed (and fat) after getting laid off from work and spending every morning sitting in front of my computer, fruitlessly looking for a new job. Decided enough was enough, and joined the gym with the modest goal of losing 10 lbs. At 128 lbs, I really needed to lose more than that, but I didn't want to set the bar too high, with the emotional state I was in at the time.

I didn't make much progress the first several months, losing only about 2 lbs. Then I realized two things about myself. I watch too much TV. And when you watch TV on the cardio machines, you don't get a very challenging pace going. Second, I was ravenously hungry by the time I got home, and would stuff myself with "nutritious" food like organic cereal and fruit, etc. No wonder I wasn't getting anywhere!

My husband suggested I keep a protein shake in the car so that I could refuel right after my workout. I looked for a lactose-free, pre-mixed beverage and after several taste-tests, settled on the "marketed to seniors" Ensure High Protein. That was in July. By September 2011, people were looking at me differently. I was still a whopping 122 lbs but my body started to change shape. I bought new gym clothes to celebrate.

By the Holiday season I'd dropped to 115 lbs and started to get worried about undoing all my hard work so I stepped up my cardio from 30 min daily to 45 minutes. I have horribly bad knees and other joints but I can do the elliptical without any problems. If I bust my butt, I can eek out over 5 miles in my 45 min workout before heading onto the free weight floor.

Now it's April and my body weight is fluctuating between 106 and 109 (men don't have to worry about these monthly hormonal fluctuations!) but I'm really happy with my weight, and the way I fit into clothes (need new ones!). So the dilemma is, do I keep going to see how far I can get or do I pull up the reins and try to institute some sort of maintenance plan?