The Screaming Viking

I’m on a down swing in my workout routine.  I’m not seeing big results on the scale and things are getting to be monotonous.  I realized the other day that I was using the balance scale incorrectly…once I started using things correctly it added 12 pounds to my overall weight.  I still lost 2lbs last week…but seeing the number go up instead of down was just a killer.  I had passed what I considered quite a milestone, only to see it “taken away”.

The weekend was rough, in 4 days I got 2 workouts in for 40min each…I just had no motivation.  I think a lot of it comes from not seeing the drastic results now like I was before.  My clothes have fit pretty much the same for quite a while now, the scale went up (actually went down…but the psychological effect was “up”), and I’m getting irritated about not being able to eat whatever I want.  My knee is also turning into a larger problem.  It pops and snaps now anytime I straighten it out.  I wouldn’t call it painful yet, but there is a sensation from the pop.  It’s very similar to when you pop your knuckles, only it happens all the time.  It is a bit concerning.  I am holding out hope that I can drop weight and rehab it a bit, but more and more that seems like it’s only delaying the inevitable.  Surgery is seeming more and more like a foregone conclusion.  I think there’s been too much weight on it for too long.  Hopefully I can drop weight and build strength back in the knee quickly enough that it doesn’t impact the other one.  I’m hoping to have a doc look at it the beginning of next year and if something needs to be done to it have it worked on in the spring.  I don’t want to struggle with crutches on the ice, and I want to make sure I have a solid healthy foundation to try and work through the down time. Read the rest of this entry »

As of the Thursday weight in I had dropped 70lbs.  I’m basing this on the readings from the balance scale which I believe to be accurate.  I had a 4lb loss over the course of a week (Thursday to Thursday).  I credit this largely to the livestrong site.  I came in quite a bit under the line they established for me, so maybe I should have been down more but without the site I wouldn’t be as aware of what I’m putting in my mouth and how it relates to the daily workouts.  My goal was 5lbs and I hit 4…so I’m good with that.

The weekend didn’t work out so hot for me.  I had a good time, but I consumed a bit too much and didn’t work out as much as I would have liked to.  I got 30min in on Saturday, but the elliptical was quite a bit different than the one I’m used to.  The one’s at snap seem to simulate a cross country skiing type motion but the ones at the hotel simulate a running motion.  I couldn’t get the motion down and didn’t really get the work out I would have liked.  I also credit this new motion for putting stress on my knee that I wasn’t used to.  That along with the plethora of steps at the sporting events really fubar’d my knee.  I didn’t work out on Sunday, I was lazy…all my fault.  Can’t blame anyone or anything else.

I posted on fb about the couple of nagging “hurts” (I can’t classify them as injuries yet), my wrist and my knee.  I can’t do much about my knee, but I can help my wrist a bit.  I blogged a little bit ago about those lifting gloves I bought with the wrist straps.  Before I started lifting I tightened up the straps and made sure it came across the part of my wrist area where my hand would rest on the straps while I’m working out.  To my surprise, this helped immensely.  I didn’t even notice any twinges at all.  I pushed 275 for 8 reps this morning.

I need to rededicate myself to this workout routine.  I’ve been getting a solid work out in each day, but my two a days are not happening.  My goal this week is to hit 2 a day every day.  We’ll see how it goes.

What tools are sufficient for measuring progress while working out?  Do you use a tape measure and record circumference of various parts of your body?  That’s certainly a valid check depending on what your goal is.  I think most people can agree that the scale overall is not the best way of measuring your progress…but it’s another valuable tool.

I have been using the gymtechnik website to track workouts, and it’s pretty good overall.  I had tried their BB app, and it was slow and shitty.  I ended up subscribing to the site though so I could track my workouts the way I wanted to.  The free options only gave you the ability to track one work out a day, and with me doing multiple work outs with multiple exercises I needed the pay setup.

A guy at work turned me on to the livestrong.com website.  This site allows you to track your workouts to some extent, but the strength of this site is how it guides you along your path.  When you setup your profile you put in your height and weight, chose your activity level and then tell it what your goal is.  I said “lose 5lbs a week”.  The site told me I would be able to consume 1307 calories and lose 5lbs a week…

1307 calories sounds like a ridiculously low amount to eat during the day, and when I started adding up what I do eat it blows that number out of the water.  The other side of the site though is your workout routine.  You enter what you’ve done (bike, elliptical, treadmill, lifting…etc) the time and so forth and it figures out what kind of calories you would burn during your fitness routine or you can free form it.  From a simple equation using your calories consumed and your calories burnt it shows you your calorie balance for the day.

What sucks about the site is there is no way to track individual exercises.  On the gymtechnik site I am able to track how one session of lifting or cardio compares to another…there’s no real good way to do that (that I can see) on the livestrong site.  If it had that feature, I could see myself using it exclusively.  The way it stands though, I’ll be using both sites until my gymtechnik subscription expires.  At that point I’ll probably track my weight training in a spread sheet.

I don’t think this site is “accurate” as far as the numbers are concerned.  I do think it’s ball park…but there is really no way to measure with any amount of certainty what it is telling you.  What it is doing for me though is making me more aware of what I am consuming on a daily basis and how that relates to my goal and my workout routine.

We’ll see how it goes, free to try and it’ll keep 45days of data.  If it seems helpful to me I’ll pay for a year subscription.  It’s worth helping them out a bit with some scratch if it helps me out.

After a couple of months of workouts, I would say that things are coming along even a little better than expected.  One of the problems I’ve run in to is which scale to consider “authoritative”.  The one at snap says I’ve lost 80lbs…that seems a bit high to me.  I went up to the work out room at the office and stepped on the balance scale and it shows me being down by 60lbs.  It seems to me that the balance scale should be a little more accurate than one that relies on springs.  In any case, the numbers are going in the proper direction.

I’ve changed my workout routine a bit based on some stuff I’ve read online and the way I’ve felt after working out.  I missed lifting a couple of times and I noticed that when I came back to the gym I felt stronger and was able to get a better workout in.  I read some about lifting for weight loss, and in the 7 day regimen it had 1 day of heavy lifting and 1 day of light lifting.  This didn’t seem quite right to me, so I decided to modify things a little bit.  I am lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday…with Monday’s and Friday’s being “power” lifting days, Wednesday is a “wight lifting for fat loss” day…longer reps, less sets at lower weight.

According to my workout calendar I’ve been doing Mon, Wed, Fri for 3 weeks and the adjusted power lifting/weight loss routine for a week.  Monday and Friday felt really freekin good…and Wed was just O.K.  I’ve never really got much out of the high reps, less weight/sets routine.  Studies say it is the way to go for weight loss, the main goal being to get your heart rate up and keep it up.

I’ve also been doing interval training on the elliptical…OMG that is a bitch.  I’m soaked afterwards and my legs are jelly for a couple min…so it must be doing what the Dr ordered.  I jacked that up to lvl 10 and do a round of weight loss on lvl 10 afterwards.  I’m hoping to hit 40min of interval here shortly.

I’m toying with stepping in to the octagon in 18 months…we’ll have to see how this training goes…but I’m hoping to look like this when I do…