What Chuck Does

Cardio Calisthenics Kicked My Ass

I’ve decided to incorporate a set of Cardiovascular Calisthenics into my week. While browsing the web I came across a site called www.iwantsixpackabs.com where the author suggested a certain calisthenic-type resistance training for getting a six-pack.

I tried it. I got my ass kicked.

Here’s what I did:

A1: Slow Pushups
A2: Body Squats

B1: Stationary Lunges
B2: Pullups (substituted with Total Gym pull-backs)

C1: 8-Count Body Builders (see above image)
C2: Plank

A1/A2, B1/B2, and C1/C2 each correspond to a single set, also known as a “super-set”. For example, you would do the A1 exercise and A2 exercise back-to-back without rest. Then you would rest 1 minute and repeat. You do this a total of 3 times. So you wind up doing 3x A1/A2, 3x B1/B2, and 3x C1/C2 all with 1 minute rest in between supersets.

Here are my reps per exercise:

Slow Pushups - 27/20/17
Body Squats - 20/20/20

Stationary Lunges - 15/15/15 (per leg)
Total Gym pull-backs - 15/14/12 (I did pullups the day before)

8-Count Body Builders 12/10/10
Plank - 30/30/30 seconds

The total routine took about 30 minutes. By the time I got to the 8-Count Body Builders, I was dripping in sweat (worked out indoors). The suggested time duration for Plank was 45 seconds but I could only do 30 seconds. By the end of 30 seconds I would collapse on the ground and put my head in my arms gasping for air. Inevitably the 1 minute would go by super fast and I’d start the 8-Count Body Builders again out of breath. I have not worked out with this kind of intensity in a long time. The 1 minute rest in between sets is very difficult to maintain with the level of intensity of these exercises.

At the end of the workout I could see how these exercises could produce massive gains resulting in a nice six-pack. It’s possible that my abs were tired from the day before but yesterday really pushed the limit. The website says to do this workout 3x a week every other day.

Today I’m going to try some HIIT with running… should be interesting.

7 Truths You Should Know About Your Body

1. There’s no such thing as localized fat loss. Actually there is, it’s called liposuction. Sorry, but all those crunches will not remove the fat from your midsection. You can not choose where you lose fat. Your genetic blueprint is what determines where you lose fat. Suffice it to say; when you go into a caloric deficit you start burning fat. That fat can come from anywhere and everywhere.
2. You can not gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. This is practically a basic law of physics. To build muscle (protein synthesis) you need a caloric surplus. To burn fat you need a caloric deficit. Obviously you can have a caloric surplus and a caloric deficit at the same time. Therefore you can not l lose fat and build muscle at the same time. Now there is a caveat where beginner bodybuilders will experience a small gain in strength/muscle at the start of their fat loss program, but that is short-lived.
3. You can not lose fat without losing muscle. When you go into a caloric deficit your body looks for energy to burn. Simply put, there are two main stores of energy that your body can burn; fat and muscle. Your body will want to burn both and you can not stop that from happening. What you can do is minimize the muscle loss through a high-protein diet and resistance exercise.
4. You should not be working your abs everyday. Your abdominal muscles are made from the same muscle fibers as all the other muscles in your body. They do not differ in composition or structure so why would you treat them any differently from any other muscle in your body. Give your abs rest between days that you work them and you will be rewarded accordingly.
5. You can not change your bone structure. Furthermore you can not change the anatomical variances that occur from person to person. For example, some people have a cleft in their chin. You may not. No matter how much fat you lose, you STILL won’t have a cleft in your chin. There’s a reason why the cosmetic surgery is so highly sought after.
6. No two people are the same. You see that disclaimer on every ad? The one that says “Results may vary”. You may be doing the same thing someone else is doing. You may be eating the exact foods prescribed in the exact quantities. But quite possibly you will not achieve the same results. Remember, no two people are the same and the genetic blueprints our bodies use to make changes are as different as bone structure and other differences. Results will vary from person to person. Your results may be better or they may be worse. What you should learn is how to adjust to overcome the differences.
7. Skipping breakfast leads to weight gain. When you skip breakfast (or any meal for that matter), your body keeps your metabolism low to prevent caloric expenditure. This happens because body goes thinks you are starving/dying and therefore goes into “preservation mode”. The best way to kick start your metabolism in the morning is by eating a large breakfast to tell your body to wake up and producing the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight. - Source

Well Rested

After yesterday’s bout with narcolepsy while working out, I decided to turn-in early. I was in bed by 10:15 but didn’t really fall asleep til about 10:30pm or so. But I got a solid 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep in last night and what a different a night makes! I feel awake. I feel present. For the most part I feel “reset” which is what I’ve needed after last week’s bout with food poisoning and all.

“The National Sleep Foundation in the United States maintains that eight to nine hours of sleep for adult humans is optimal and that sufficient sleep benefits alertness, memory and problem solving, and overall health, as well as reducing the risk of accidents.^[8] A widely publicized 2003 study^[9] performed at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine demonstrated that cognitive performance declines with fewer than eight hours of sleep.” - Source

I’ve always been a huge proponent to getting enough sleep. Much of this is due to my personal inability to deal with sleep deprivation. I’m one of few individuals that I know who is capable and willing to forfeit leisure time for sleep. Admittedly I have slept poorly since I’ve stopped surfing 3 weeks ago; the bachelor party, Larry’s b-day, and Catherine’s friends staying over, while extremely fun have each played a part in disruptive weekend sleep. As such I have had to constantly attempt to make-up lost sleep on the weekdays.

Sleep is also functionally important to me because it allows me to grow new muscle which is critical in my endeavor to shed fat and increase muscle mass:

“Non-REM sleep may be an anabolic state marked by physiological processes of growth and rejuvenation of the organism’s immune, nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems… Wakefulness may perhaps be viewed as a cyclical, temporary, hyperactive catabolic state during which the organism acquires nourishment and procreates.” - Source

Getting more sleep is probably the second easiest thing that one can do to improve his/her quality of life. (The first is drinking more water). Now go to bed already!

Adjustments to Google Docs

Some of you know I track my physical results pretty intensively in the documents that are linked on the right of my blog. Today I’ve made a few adjustments to both:

The Physical Activity and Caloric Balance has been adjusted to reflect a few realizations.

1. Adjusted the per minute rate for physical activity
2. Incorporated BMR calculator
3. Reordered the worksheets to flow in order of calculations

I’ve rewritten parts of How I Calculate Calories… FAQ to reflect the calculation changes that I’ve made above and to be more consistent with the logic within the worksheets.

These are pretty substantial changes that affect the way I calculate the caloric balance on a daily basis. Previously I was using “band-aid” remedies to adjust for why I felt I was not losing weight when the spreadsheet specifically said I was calorically negative throughout a whole week. For example, I would decrease the per minute rate for certain physical activities or I would cut the daily caloric needs to reflect my lack of weight loss. With the deduction of BMR from the per minute physical activity rate, these band-aid solutions should no longer necessary and I can stick with the cold hard numbers as generated by the formulae.

My hope is that the model created by the spreadsheets can accurately reflect what I am experiencing on a week-to-week basis with my actual results. If this is effective then I may publish this workbook to the public so that others can use this too.

Results Discussion

I decided to graph out my results for the past 3 weeks. From the first graph, it’s obvious that there was no real weight loss until the last 7 days. The second graph shows the correlation between hydration % and fat % from the Tanita scale.

The above two charts show a few things. It first shows the obvious relationship between weight and fat % over the last 3 weeks. But it also shows what I hope to be a shift in fat % versus weight. The fact that the data does not support an “explicitly” negative relationship reflects that there might be a slow but existant decrease in fat % over time while holding weight constant.

The same can be said about weight vs. hydration. It’s obvious that when you increase hydration %, that weight would increase. However the goal also exists that if you hold hydration constant that the weight would decrease over time if we’re losing fat.

Much of the data is inconclusive. There are several reasons for this. First of all, there aren’t enough data points for a high enough “degree of freedom”. Secondly, I haven’t performed the proper multiple regression necessary to fully analyze the results. Actually I have (below) but I would be hard pressed to actually explain the results properly. The important thing is that the Significance F for the model is 0.01. Our model comes out be:

Weight = -161.34+4.71(F)-4.07(H) where F=Fat% and H=Hydration%

With this model I can hold hydration constant and plug in different values for F to see what my predicted weight would be. For example let’s start with the assumption that at 12.8% fat I’m 62.3% hydration (as suggested by past data points) where weight = 152.5 lbs. If I want to know what my weight would be for 11% bodyfat, I would plug in 11% for fat and 62.3% hydration. The model suggests that I would be 144 lbs. This confirms my belief that I’d have to lose many pounds to reflect a 1% loss in body fat.

This is just the beginning of my analysis as there are obvious improvements to be made on my fronts! Stay tuned.

Course Correction

I feel fat.

I know it’s only a day later that I stated that I feel stronger and bigger.

Well, I feel fat today and for sure I’ve gained fat.

Body dysmorphic disease aside, I know this because when I grab the lard around my waist, there’s more to grab.

I’m making a couple changes as a result of this discovery:
1. I will decrease my caloric intake to less than 2,000 calories on days I don’t do a cardio session.
2. I have downgraded weightlifting from 3.4 calories/minute to 3.1 calories/minute to reflect the lack of intensity.
3. I will do 3 cardio sessions a week.

This is entirely necessary. I need to make a push. I must meet The Final Four!

Basketball Sleep - Part Two

I suppose this is why you don’t play basketball 2 hours before going to bed. We played 6 games last night, losing the first 3 by devastating blowouts did not help. We later redeemed ourselves by winning 2 convincing games back to back but then dropped the 6th in a 21 point game. I’m not too worried about the 6th game though because most of it was in good-ole-fashioned fun, just relaxing and messing around.

Having played 6 games and sat out two (or three?) meant being at the courts for almost 3 hours even though actual time played was only an hour or so. I didn’t leave until just before 9PM. That combined with the intensity of the games don’t help my cause when I’m trying to get shut-eye hours later. So here I am at 4:30AM tossing and turning, physically weary but mentally awake. My GrindAlert says I’ve been bruxing tonight even though with my semi-state of consciousness throughout the night, I didn not notice the alarm going off (more on GrindAlert later).

In retrospect however, I’ve slept lightly at least a couple of nights in the last week. Part of this was due to the bachelor party and staying up til 6AM playing poker. I guess this past Friday and Saturday aren’t helping the cause either.

I guess I’ll write for a bit and try to go back to bed later.

Muscle Math and Fat Figures

I feel bigger. I look bigger. I am definitely stronger. But based on my spreadsheet I have neither gained (nor lost) any weight. Last week I took in a calculated 921 calories less than I burned. That’s good for about 1/4 pound of fat. But based on my spreadsheet, there has been no change in my body composition. My fat content if normalized for hydration and weight, have been the same for the past 2-3 weeks.

I’m confused.

I’m not sure how I should feel and what I should push for. On one hand, I haven’t reached my 10% fat goal. On the other hand I am hesitant to dip any lower in weight for fear that I lose more muscle. I like having my muscles and I’m afraid of what I might look like if I get any leaner. Larry measured me at 7.7% bodyfat 1 week ago with his fat caliper. I’m guessing my true bodyfat percentage is somewhere between in the 9-13% range (with the calipers results on the low end and the scale on the high end). Then again the reality is that it’s very hard to count calories and measure fat with any degree of accuracy. Too often, I’m guesstimating on the calories in my food and combined with the estimates of the physical activity (caloric expenditures), it’s just too hard to accurately pinpoint a 1/4 lb gain or loss.

But I don’t feel fatter. I just feel stronger and bigger.

Part of this is due to the NitroTech. It’s weird but I’m convinced it’s a low level steroid. Click here for full thread. As an addendum to that post, I have found that I lift a LOT harder when I’m on NitroTech than when I’m not.

How much leaner should I go? If I include 2-3 cardio sessions in this week and hold my caloric intake constant from last week, I’ll definitely drop a half pound. For me, an hour of running yields a dramatic and almost immediate effect on my abs, so much so that I immediately feel thinner and leaner.

With all of this said, I MUST stay the course and will continue to make my final push into the 10% range. It’s only 5 weeks until the wedding so I can’t let up now. There will be plenty of time to build muscle after the wedding when I start bulking up. Don’t fear change.

Affliction - Cycle of Conditioning

I wanted to post this diagram first for future reference. Don’t worry about the stuff written in pencil, just take a look at the core diagram.

Click here for larger version.

Abs Gone Wild!

This is mainly a post about abs, but I already know that it’s going to encompass several topics so bear with me.

I am not officially doing Larry’s “6-pack Challenge”. To my knowledge only Dai and Larry are doing the challenge. I have however adopted a variation of the challenge where I want to drop below 10% (according to my Tanita scale) and basically be “ripped”.

This is what I’m working with so far:

Basically, under perfect conditions my abs look pretty good. Perfect conditions consist of good lighting, flexing, getting the right angles etc. But under “real-world” conditions, my abs aren’t going to look half as good. This is why I’m still trying to make gains in shedding fat, and working out. I’m also eager to find out if I can ever get the 5th and 6th pack to make a cameo appearance. My goal is to have my abs look so good that at any given time, I should be able to take off my shirt and show off my 6-pack.

In the process of trying to take pictures of my abs, I learned a few things. It’s really hard to take good pictures of abs by yourself. In order to control lighting you basically have to shoot indoors. But since there isn’t much light indoors, you have the added challenge of proper exposure without using a flash (flash washes out the abdominal definition). So I push the ISO to 1250 or 1600 which has the side-effect of increased noise. Then since I have to see how I’m posing, I have to shoot into the reflection in the mirror. This makes every shot basically 2x as far as I’d like. I could use a zoom lens, but that exaggerates small movements and vibrations thereby making it harder to shoot handheld. Then there’s the challenge of staying still for the exposure, while flexing as hard as possible. To make matters worse, I have to keep my hands and the camera out of the way so it doesn’t screw up the lighting.

But the results from my little photoshoot are pretty good. While there’s still work to be done, I will use these pictures as inspiration to stay the course and push for more gains.