By the Numbers

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Day 54. HRV: 5, BP: 108/65 - 54 pulse, 103.4 Kg, 8.5 Hrs sleep.

Scale is stuck at the same number for 3 consecutive days and HRV is a bit erratic suggesting something is going on.

I had a few cups of coffee and an oatmeal, blueberry, nut, yogurt, protein powder breakfast before deciding not to go in to work today. I tried a workout closer to a meal and it went well. 12 minutes of rower gave me 3097 Metres at a 1:56/500 m pace. The stationary bike was 20 minutes at 88 RPM at 382 Watts with 2 one minute 530 Watt intervals and the elliptical was 20 minutes at level 5 at 68 RPM including 2 one minute intervals at level 6. I also managed 2 sets of my resistance exercices with 12 push-ups, 24 sit-ups, 12 curl/press per arm at 35 lbs, 5 by ten seconds each side bird dog plus a bunch of practice goblet squats. I'm maxed out at the curl/press reps but have room with everything else.

Cardio machine calories was 623 at heart rate average/max of 150/166 with an HRR of 64. I was able to go harder than yesterday and didn't experience any lack of energy today.

Weather was minus 19 C this morning but it should finally warm up to something allowing more outdoor activity. That will be helpful by making walking much more palatable.
 
Day 55. HRV: 4, BP: 108/63 - 50, 103.4 Kg, 8.5 Hrs sleep.

That's 1 red, 3 yellow and 3 green HRV readings in the last 7 days which is an unexpectedly poor showing. Nevertheless it meets my criterion for a workout.

I did a now regular combined 52 minute cardio on the 3 machines with a 1:56/500 m rate for 3094 metres in 12 minutes and the other two machines at 20 minutes each with intervals. The workout was surprisingly easy today averaging 145 heart rate with a max of only 160 reached only in the last interval and an HRR of 58. 590 Calories for the duration is my lowest heart rate based figure for a 52 minute workout to date. Just about the entire bike segment was below the average indicating to me that it may be time to once again increment the cadence on the bike and under 160 is my standard for upping cadence on the elliptical machine. I managed 2 sets of all my planned resistance exercises also as planned. Given that Harvey gave me a day off this week with a below 3 reading earlier, tomorrow's usual rest will be replaced by a workout.

I just had my 4th consecutive day at 103.4 Kg which is a bit annoying. Yesterday lunch was a Filipino shrimp, noodle, pea pod, onion concoction dropped off by a neighbor that Spice and I shared. Dinner was an exact duplicate of the ribs/Brussel sprout/quinoa meal from before. After today's standard oatmeal based breakfast, Spice brought home 2 teriyaki beef noodle bowls and we split one for lunch.

Spice cooked up a beef roast as we were expecting company tonight but company has cancelled due to illness. I foresee lots of roast beef sandwiches in the near future. I believe she bought croissants to make beef dips for tonight as well. She also picked up a dessert. I may be stuck at 103.4 Kg even longer. I also haven't pestered my son for a racquetball game since I need to make up a workout tomorrow. Also, the weather is finally fine for skating tomorrow so I'm looking forward to an outing as well.
 
Ice will happen after coffee and cake today LaMa. The thermometer actually says 0 for the first time in many weeks.

Day 56. HRV: 8, BP: 109/66 - 51, 102.5 Kg, 8 Hrs sleep.

Although this is my scheduled day off, I had taken one earlier this week due to a low HRV and today's HRV gave me a full speed ahead so off to the dungeon this morning.

Rower was 3078 Metres for 12 minutes at a 1:57/500 pace followed by my recent usual bike/elliptical 20 minutes each. The result was 603 Calories with max and average heart rates of 162 and 148 with a 60 HRR. I managed 2 sets of all my resistance work and am ready to increase push-ups beyond 12 and sit-ups beyond 24 starting tomorrow with the next 4 weeks. That will include a couple set of goblet squats with the very low weight of 35 lbs. I can barely manage the 12 curl-press reps of 35 lbs per arm so that won't be going up just yet. I'm adding side planks in accord with my borrowed back book. Where I had difficulty with sets of 5 push-ups when I started, 12 is doable with room to spare so I'm happy with the progression. I'm curious why it remains so difficult to manage the curl-press that had otherwise followed the push-up reps. Perhaps because the push-ups involve a reduced weight whereas the other exercise has been with a constant weight?

I didn't post the neighbor's lunch noodles from before but here they are.View attachment 25244
Roast beef last night as shown in the picture below was with a butter croissant. I had another full croissant with beef and only one is depicted. There was also the one serving of sweet potato fries shown. In addition I had a slice of tiramisu and a glass of red wine after dinner.View attachment 25243 This morning I had an apple and a banana for breakfast together with the nuts that usually go into my oatmeal - 10 almonds, 2 walnut halves, 2 pecan halves and a pair of somewhat smaller than usual Brazil nuts with a couple cups of coffee.

I was surprised at the morning weigh in loss given the croissants, tiramisu and wine so I did it twice and got the exact same numbers. The monthly weight progression from the Garmin app was as follows:
View attachment 25242
This shows a monthly average of 105 Kg for the last 4 weeks and the previous 4 week average was 109.3. When I switch the app to showing the weekly averages since Jan 1, I get the following numbers:

Week 1: 111.3
Week 2: 109.9
Week 3: 108.5
Week 4: 107.5
Week 5: 106.5
Week 6: 105.7
Week 7: 104.4
Week 8: 103.3

Using the scale percentages times the total weight loss of 8.89% I can determine fat loss of 12.46%, an increase of 4.70% in muscle mass, an increase of 1.77% in bone mass and my hydration percentage has gone from 48.3% to 50.6%. Scale TDEE went from 3282 down to 3068 Calories. Looked at another way, I started with 33.41 Kg of fat and have 26.65 Kg remaining which is a loss of 14.88 Lbs. I started with 40.73 Kg of muscle and lost 4.13 Lbs of muscle so I'm at 38.85 Kg now. Supposedly I also lost a pound of bone mass but that is probably a scale error that is affected by inaccuracies in the other readings. The miscellaneous body mass is supposedly down by about a pound as well. Regardless of the accuracy of the composition numbers, they continue to head in the right direction.

Casting about the web with Google, there seems to be a consensus that losing 1% of your fat per week is a high end to target and, assuming the scale is anywhere in the ball park, and assuming further that bone and miscellaneous mass shouldn't have gone down by 3 pounds together, it is probable that I have lost at least 1.5% of my total fat per week. Going just by the average weekly weights, and I started with more and ended with less, I've maintained a loss of 1 Kg or 2.2 Lb/week for the past eight weeks which is also at the upper end of recommended loss rates.

I haven't bothered to find my measuring tape yet but when I do, I'll update those numbers. With all that done, I'm ready for my next 4 weeks.
 
Finally got a skate in. The Garmin doesn't have such an activity so I called it biking, skipped the heart rate monitor and turned on the GPS.
View attachment 25245
I took a couple photos. There is a main oval and a path that is the single red line to the bottom right and back that has 3 interconnected oval loops.
View attachment 25246
You can see a colored segment between the loop nearest the main rink and the next loop. The photo below shows the view looking to the right of the top 2 photos with that coloured segment.
View attachment 25247
If it were a bike activity, it would have been 200 Calories. I've talked Spice into joining me tomorrow.
 
I would assume skating to burn more calories than biking, but I can´t say for sure. The track looks so nice!
 
Day 57. HRV: 10, BP: 103/66 - 51, 103.2 Kg, 7.5 Hrs sleep.

Lunch yesterday was a couple small bowls of chicken noodle soup augmented with carrots. Cake and coffee at my folks was two small slices of a hazlenut loaf my mother baked plus a slice each of the tiramisu Spice had bought and of black forest cake with sour cherries. Dinner was two mugs of clam chowder and I also had 5 pieces of liquorice allsorts.

Spice fried up an egg with a couple bacon strips, a croissant and a half avocado and I supplemented this with my typical mix of nuts. Several cups of coffee with 2% milk as usual also.
View attachment 25254
I failed to manage 12 of the curl-press reps so did 3 sets of 10 instead. Sit-ups are now 30 per set and pushups are 15. I've added a 2.5 lb weight to the hands for the bird dog. Side planks have started but I'm putting the weighted squats off until after dinner. The cardio duration for rowing is now 13 minutes and the elliptical cadence is upped to 69. Intervals are unchanged and biking remains as it was as well.

Cardio heart rate was 146/161 average and max and even with the additional minute total duration and increased elliptical intensity was still only 610 Calories and an HRR of 56. The rower indicated 3265 metres at a 1:59/500 m rate.

I believe I need to change something in order to improve my curls and presses. I'm reluctant to add any weight until I can hit 20 reps. Although it probably goes against conventional wisdom, being maxed today at 10 reps doesn't leave room to add weight. I believe I could curl more weight so I will try dividing the two movements and lighten the press weight until I can see something change. I'm open to suggestions here.

Ultimately, I'd be good with 3 sets of 50 push-ups, 3 sets of 60 sit-ups or some back friendly variation, 45 total minutes of cardio and undefined goals on the other resistance exercises once I get to a maintenance body fat percentage below 20%. Based on the way things are proceeding, I may need to target 92 rather than 95 Kg and gain a bit more muscle.
 
20 reps in a single set is too high to achieve any more than endurance. Although age does mean moderating intensity more, 20 is still to high.

building up muscle mass puts your re target at 8-12 normally, 15 if age is a factor, strength reps are 5 -8, lower for experienced lifters
 
I appreciate your input Tru. I suppose going from 5 reps to 12 with the same weight, albeit only 10 reps today, in eight weeks is still a significant improvement. Since it's not triggering DOMS, perhaps I should just double the number of sets to increase volume.

I suppose 50 push-up sets are silly from that perspective as well. Nevertheless this will be one of my 2018 goals.
 
Second what Tru says. I rarely do more than 8 reps. I'm rarely ABLE to do more than 8 reps if I have programmed/set my weight correctly. I'm generally in the 3 to 5 range.
 
I regularly read articles at T-Nation website that confirm what you and Tru say. I don't disagree with the science.

But. I'm not that well defined in my goals. When I was strapping younger fella working 4 month summers while pursuing post secondary education, I worked as a masonry labourer. There was a new hire who was 6' 2", 220 lbs who announced he worked out and was looking for a physically demanding job. He was really well built and looked strong like bull, but he dragged his ass off the job site at the end of the 2nd day and never came back. He said the work was exhausting and harder than he could take. He couldn't begin to keep up with me or others in passing blocks, pails of mortar and concrete up the scaffold or peeling rows of 13 bricks off the top of a pallet and walking them to where they were needed and placing them near the ground.

I had my strong man nephew hired by a masonry contractor a couple years back when I was in my 4th year as Health and Safety manager of that company. He also couldn't take the grind of the work. Some of the toughest hardest working people I've known can't do any of the lifts that the big boys can do, but I've honestly seen them do double and treble the volume of work in a day and manage it day after day.

I had a run as a masonry labourer when I turned 40 after bailing on a career. We worked out of town on a 14 day cycle with 12 hour shifts. I was lead operator so started 1/2 hour before the rest of the crew to get mortar mixed and on the boards and cleaned up at the end of shift with everyone else. I rode my bicycle to and from the jobsite every day. It included a 2 km long steep hill in the morning so the commute added 35 minutes in the morning and 25 minutes in the evening. We worked 11.5 days straight on each turn around.

I knew a few smaller and lighter guys who could do that work but I never met a very well muscled fellow who could do that job. They may exist, but not in my experience.

I'm not saying I want to get a job as a labourer. It's just that I have enormous respect for the toughness and tenacity that goes with stamina. Unfortunately I can no longer lay claim to either the strength or stamina available to me when I was younger. Fortunately I don't need it. I am however faced with what seems to me to be an either/or focus. No doubt there's tons of room to work on both absolute strength and stamina but at this point, I'm not fully clear on what 'mission accomplished' looks like.
 
Size does not mean they are strong lol, some of the most impressive competitive lifters are in the lighter weight divisions, most bodybuilder (size and aesthetics) have not got the strength to match the size, most powerlifters and weightlifters hate being compared to bodybuilders. T-Nation is all about bodybuilders and bullcrap supplements.
 
I do ignore the supplement advertorials but they do have lots of articles on strength and they push the low rep ranges that you advocate. Many of the article contributors have decent credentials and there is some basic information on food and form.

In any event, there is not a great deal of information on the web that I trust fully so I check multiple sources and look for well researched and documented studies.

While I agree that size doesn't necessarily imply strength, my nephew competes very competently and successfully in strong man. Perhaps his inability to perform on the job site is laziness? I've seen him press a 200 lb dumbbell but a few hours of 50 lb pails tended to wear on him.

I think my reasoning was based primarily on the fact that I've never felt particularly strong but I could always get as much or more work accomplished than people who were apparently stronger than I was.

I am well prepared to accept the truth of what you say Tru.
 
I certainly agree it could be lazyness for some, and for some young people it is thinking manual labour jobs are beneath them. Being a competitive lifter helped my 19 year old son get work along with being willing to anything available, having an employee that knows how to lift correctly cuts down on workers compensation for lifting injuries aquired on the job, at the beginning almost all of his work was manual labour outside in tropical heat, after proving himself he is now training as a brewer.
 
Part of the Strongman issue might be an endurance thing. A lot of those guys train to lift REALLY heavy weight like....one or two times. Ask them to do anything more than 10 times and they're gassed. My brother had that issue when he was training Strongman exclusively. That's part of why he quit. He hated feeling on the verge of a heart attack anytime he did anything for more than 30 seconds.

......it could also be laziness.
 
Cory: It may be down to the fact my strong man nephew weighs 340 at 6' 4"and he burns a great deal of energy just moving himself. It may be a bit like firing up a train to deliver a letter a distance of a mile when a bicycle courier is more efficient and can get the job done easily and quickly. He's impressively strong but not terribly efficient. I'd definitely like more muscle volume and strength but still want to be able to dig over a garden, clear a driveway of snow, carry and lay 90 Lb sidewalk blocks and chop wood for a few hours. I also like to be able join my buddies when they go on a 2 1/2 - 3 hour bicycle ride.

Day 58. HRV: 10, BP: 108/66 -49, 102.8 Kg, 7.5 Hrs sleep.

Slow getting up this morning and I have a lunch planned with the Nerd Herd at a fast food place called Harvey's. The workout will take place later today. I started the goblet squats at 35 Lbs yesterday and did 2 sets of 10 going very deep. I am well aware it's a laughable amount but it is only out of beginner caution. I had planned several weeks ago to do both dead-lifts and squats three days a week and pushing more weight and having more rest might be the key to quicker progress but I'm reluctant to stray too much from my slow progress methodology. Bottom line, I expect to keep on doing 2 sets of 10 reps 6 days a week and gradually build the weight over the next couple months. I've also added a very few flights of stairs carrying a dumbbell up and down in alternate hands and starting both ups and downs on alternate feet. At this point, I'm just using the 35 Lb dumbbell. This is a relatively low range of motion on the quads and is designed to work as a bit of a suitcase carry lateral spine stabilizer exercise. I don't want to change too many parameters at one time so I am better able to track what I may need to cut back on should I start hurting something.

For example, last night in bed, I could tell my knees had been worked and I want to ensure I don't injure those. There was a time a few years back when I played racquetball with an energetic safety officer in his late 30s. I was beating him regularly and his plan was to run me into the ground. He'd offer to play more and more and we were doing 3 hours at a time. I wouldn't let him win but after a couple months, my knees got to the point that they ached badly in bed if one just touched the other. It took many months but I believe they recovered fully. Straight leg dead-lifts may yet be in the cards if I push the squats too quickly.

Yesterday lunch was some sea weed wraps filled with regular canned tuna, cucumber and carrot dipped in soy sauce made up by Spice. She plans to make these with rice as well in the future.
View attachment 25268
For dinner, we split one of the rice/ginger beef/noodle bowls she bought for takeaway earlier this week garnished with some fresh carrots and cucumber. Later Spice I had a licorice tea with 5 Licorice Allsorts which went together rather well.
View attachment 25267
I'll update workout stats after they are done later today.
 
Day 58 early evening workout. 13 minute row at 1:56/500 m pace for 3340 metres followed by 88 cadence on bike and 69 on elliptical with 2 one minute intervals of 20 minutes on each. With a significantly harder row effort I still only got 604 heart rate calories with a 146/162 average and max rates with a 61 HRR. I still have room to up the cadence on the bike at the current resistance levels so I'll try 89 tomorrow. Once I get to 90 RPM on the bike and 70 on the elliptical, I will concentrate on upping the number and intensity of the intervals.
View attachment 25270
I did the resistance work with sets of 15 push-ups, 30 sit-ups and even managed the full sets of 12 curl-press at 35 lls/dumbbell plus stairs, 35 lb goblet squats and a few flights of suitcase carry stairs with the 35 lbs plus bird dogs and side planks.

Lunch at Harvey's was a burger plus a single onion ring and dinner was shredded cauliflower with oyster sauce that looks a lot like rice with soy, a lamb chop and pea pods.
View attachment 25269
Tomorrow's dinner will be pizza with grandson and family at ours.
 
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