The Glade 4.0

My wife has been doing a military-style fitness class called "Boot camp" these past couple months. She's been trying to get me to go for a while, but I've been extremely resistant. Not because of the fitness part, but because of the "military" part.

I grew up on an air force base. I spent 4 years in ROTC (where I got to witness the seedy political underbelly of promotions and purposeful missed promotions firsthand). And my father was a very strict military-father who also was a closet smoker (so he was on an even finer edge at home). Needless to say, I have deep-rooted issues with military authority figures shouting commands at me.

Apparently, the instructor my wife sees goes against the norm as far as the boot camp instructors go. He's more about the encouragement aspect rather than the humiliation aspect. After hearing about how he's tough, but nice, for the past several months, she eventually wore me down.

I started my first day yesterday.

She was right, he's tough but also very supportive. I didn't have any issues with him, and I was expecting at least a few minor twinges. The first week for every PT is called Hell Week and you must wear a 30 lb vest for the duration of each session that week. The thing that really killed me were the pushups I had to do at the very start.

I had to keep a food log starting last friday of everything I ate. I got 10 pushups for everything bad on the list. Which included those 12 blazin' buffalo wings I posted about in General. I did enough pushups to the point of muscle failure, where I physically couldn't lift myself up anymore. (I still regret nothing!)

I figured, going in, that it's less about the results and more about the effort. So mentally I was giving it 100%. Though I reached muscle failure for a lot of the exercises, I never stopped trying. And usually at that point he'd assist me or give me alternatives.

In that respect, I feel good about my first day. I am pretty sore, and I am sure tonight will also be zero fun for my body, but I figure that once the "shock" to my body is over I'll be far more stronger and energetic as a result. So it's the end results that are keeping my spirits high. I knew that this week would suck. But, it didn't suck as much as I was preparing for. So that's good.

I am going to be combining this exercise program with low carb diet again (though carbing it up a bit right before workouts). So I am curious to see how things will end up a few months from now.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Sounds good. This is fairly similar to my experience with Crossfit. It's hard but highly focused on encouraging each other.

Forgetting about the actual work out stuff, it's a very good model. As you found out, your wife went and liked it then encouraged you to try.

Also much easier to stick with it if you enjoy it. Good luck!

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Thanks Dash!

My last day of hell week was yesterday. So, no more 30lb vest!

It got grueling the last few days since my body felt like it hasn't had enough time to recover.

But I can tell it's getting better. I felt far less "dead" Thursday and Friday. And based on what I observed with my wife, it will continue to get better.

Cross fit sounds great as well.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Well today was the first day after hell week, which meant no more 30lb vest. Already I am seeing some striking changes in my body. Last week I felt like hell and my muscles could barely move (it took me 4 days before I could straighten my arms, and they still only go about 95% before being a bit sore). I barely had the energy and the ability to move around after each workout.

Today I am getting over a cold and I still feel waaay better than I did any single day of last week. I'm hardly sore at all, even though I worked equally as hard. The work-outs are already starting to feel easier (possibly due to being 30 lbs lighter, but I feel a bit stronger already too). And I am far more full of energy after a session.

I assume it will only continue to improve.

Between this and the re-diet I am already down 6 lbs. Though it's been fluctuating as my muscles get inflamed (I was at +3 lbs at one point). It will probably continue to roller-coaster up and down as I lose fat and gain muscle, since muscle is more dense.

Oh, and I was measured today. The readings said I was hydrated pretty well. What I didn't mention was this was after a liter and a half of Coke Zero. Take that, science! (but yes, I do normally drink a lot of water as well... just not today)

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Yes if your experience is anything like mine the DOMS will go away fairy quickly. Or at least greatly reduced. I laughed reading that because I remember my first few weeks of "Oh god, cant move"

Work hard and make sure you pay attention to recovery: eat good food and get your sleep.

As for weight, I'm not sure where you started off but for me I notice I gain weight when I go back to working out after a long layoff. At least that was the case 3-4 years ago when I first started back up.

So dont let the scale throw you necessarily if that happens. When you say "measured", like for bodyfat or.. ? I was going to suggest taking a couple of measurements for reference as you progress. Just gut, neck, arms, chest, maybe legs too if you want. Or take pictures so you can see the changes.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Both bodyfat and size of chest, arms, legs, etc. And I did take a "before" picture.

Thanks for the advice, Dash!

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Last day of Bootcamp is today. I am a little sad to go but the cost is not feasible to continue, for now. CrossFit is something I am going to try (it's about 1/3 the price) and will be doing a free class on Monday. It sounds like it will be of a similar intensity workout that I have grown accustomed to, so that's good.

It's amazing the difference six weeks can make. I am still astounded by it. Seeing where I was (in terms of strength and endurance) my first week compared to now is a night and day difference. The hardest workouts I do now leave me only mildly sore the next day and still ready to go for more. I have far more energy than I've had in a long while. And I'm motivated to continue to be active; I took my road bike into a shop to get a major tune up and I plan on riding it all summer (something I haven't done in 10 years).

My weight hasn't changed a whole lot, but I really think it's due to more muscle mass being added to my body while losing fat. My body fat, according to the magic scale, has continued to drop.

When I was dieting before, I found there was a certain threshold that I'd hit where I wouldn't lose much as easily. If folks ever hit that, I think the next step is adding exercise to the diet. It seems to be the key for me here.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

This is definitely true.

The way I've come to understand it, muscle is the fuel for the fat burning engine.

I've plateaued on my weight loss after losing ~50lbs. Even eating next to nothing at all results in very little progress. In the process of losing 50 lbs, I've lost a lot of muscle off of my frame.

What I've found is, when the weight loss stalls like this, even doing a small amount of exercise that uses large muscle groups makes a huge difference.

A few days of taking 20 minute walks (hills and/or stairs when possible) will dramatically improve my results. Sadly, this usually causes me a lot of pain and discomfort because of the bone on bone situation I'm in with my lower back. I'm determined to work though it until I reach my weight loss goals though.

I'm really tired of being fat.

Plateaus are normal. I broke through my recent stall just this past week. After having dieted for a couple of months straight I took a 2 week break. Diet breaks or refeeds supposedly let your metabolism ramp back up and restore your ability to lose.

All I can say is it worked for me. I was at 189-190 for almost a month. I took a 2 week break, didnt over eat but ate well and whatever I wanted within reason. I went up to 193, and as of today I'm back to being strict for a week and down to 186.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe