A fitness post.

This may be of general interest, I thought I might post an entry about fitness. I've been into some form of fitness since grade 8 when I started wrestling and moreso in grade 9 when I started playing contact sports - namely rugby and football. I've picked up a lot along the way and I think it might be useful to provide some of this info for my friends and any other interested readers.

I obtained most of this over the summer of 2005 when I moved away to Ottawa and decided it was time to drop a few pounds. I will post a before and after although I am acutely aware of how embarrassing both of these pictures are.

This is the best before picture I could find, it's from the Winter of 2004 - I was about 185 lbs (at 5'7).



Here's a really embarrassing after shot I took of myself in August 2005 after around 4 months of exercise and dieting - I was around 153 lbs.





Here's what I did in terms of workouts:

I used the following four-day split:

Day 1: Chest and Triceps
Day 2: Back and Biceps
Day 3: Shoulders
Day 4: Legs

I tried to get to the gym 5 or 6 days per week which wasn't too difficult as I found a gym right across the street from my office. I would leave work at 5 and work out until around 6:45 every day.

Sample workout:

I usually did 4-5 sets of each exercise (15, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps) with increasing weight each set and 60-90 seconds rest between sets.

Day 1 -

-Bench Press (overall strength and mass)
-Incline Dumbbell Press (upper chest)
-Flyes (inner chest)
-Dips (lower chest, shoulders, triceps)

-Rope Pulldowns (good way to start your tricep isolation)
-Over-the-head Presses (any tricep exercise with your elbows straight up supposedly hit all three heads of your triceps)
-Skullcrushers (same as above)

Day 2 -

-Lat Pulldowns (V Shape)
-Seated Row
-T-Bar Row
-Deadlifts
-Bent Over Row

-Barbell Curls
-Hammer Curls
-Dumbbell Preacher Curls

Day 3 -

-Military Press with Dumbbells (deltoid mass builder)
-Lateral Raises
-Bent Over Lateral Raises (rear delts)

Day 4 -

-Hamstring Curls
-Quad Extensions
-Standing Calf Raises
-Seated Calf Raises
-Squats (with a rack)

I did abs twice per week and as you can see didn't quite get to the six-pack. I would choose 3 from the following set and do 3 sets of as many as I could.

-Fitness Ball Crunches
-Hanging Leg Raises
-Oblique Crunches
-Kneeling Rope Pulldowns
-Bicycle Kick

Cardio:
This was probably the most important part for me as I was trying to cut fat more than anything else. I did manage to increase my strength in every lift though - this probably sounds braggy. My max bench press went from 155 lbs when I weighed 185 lbs to 205 lbs when I weight 155 lbs. Anyways - cardio:

Everyday to and from work was a 4 km bike ride. Three days a week before lunch I would jog for 30 minutes and on weekends I would go for long bike rides (2 hours +). The city was beautiful and it was summer so it wasn't hard for me to keep up with the cardio.

Diet:

My diet was pretty gross and I don't know if I could ever eat as strictly again. I tried to eat 200 g of protein per day and consume around 1500-1800 calories per day in order to lose weight.

Sample Day (which was every day - boring):

Breakfast 7:30 AM - 3 egg whites scrambled, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter, one protein shake

Snack 10 AM - 1 package of plain instant oatmeal with frozen blueberries on top

Lunch 12 PM - Extra lean ham sandwich with fat free cheese on whole wheat bread and a diet coke

Snack 2 PM - Can of tuna with relish

Snack 4 PM - Protein shake with milk

Dinner 7 PM
- One broiled chicken breast, whole grain rice, steamed broccoli OR
- A lean cut of steak with sauteed onions, mushrooms, baked sweet potatoes with brown sugar, broccoli OR
- Whole wheat pasta with lean meatballs and a salad OR
- Fish and some combo of above stuff

Snack 9 PM - Cottage cheese with blueberries

I drank lots of water and coffee all day. I also supplemented with a multivitamin (important when dieting) and Glutamine (for muscle recovery). Also I never dieted on weekends - I think you need to have your cheat days to keep your sanity as well as keep your body from adapting to the diet.

Now I'm not saying this is the way to go but it might be a good starting point. Everyone is different and you need to try different things to get the results you want. Anyways, thanks for reading this boring post.