Day 58: Another 500+

Right really quick post today. Left the house at 5.30 am this morning as I needed to go to the office for meetings which lasted all day. Got back in at 18:15, kids to bed, talk to my wife, have tea and I am now going for a workout. I will not go too intense today as I only had my tea an hour ago and as nice as it was am not keen on meeting it for a second time today!!!

Will post again if I can today but otherwise.

Until tomorrow....

Day 57: Another day another 500+ calories...

My neck is still a bit tight but I have had the go ahead that it should be OK to do some weights so that will be target for the latter half of the week. Today however it was another cardio session and I stayed true to my mini goal for the next 2 weeks and blasted another 500 calories.

Today's Workout

It was straight onto the treadmill today for the HIT sprints. This is performed as varying speeds at intervals of 1 minute. You can adjust the speeds to your own fitness levels.

I did the following:

1 min at 6 kph
1 min at 12 kph
1 min at 14 kph
1 min at 16 kph

Then it was on to the following:

1 min at 6 kph
1 min at 13 kph
1 min at 15 kph
1 min at 17 kph

This was performed 3 times in a row and then a final cycle of:

1 min at 6 kph
1 min at 12 kph
1 min at 14 kph
1 min at 16 kph and then the 21st minute. Each time I perform this I always add in the 21st minute just to ensure that I push it slightly further each time. The last time I did this it was 50 seconds at 17kph and 10 seconds at 18kph. Today it was 40 seconds at 17kph and 20 seconds at 18kph, that just over 11 mph for those that prefer.

I was shattered after that 21 minutes and needed a good stretch to keep the muscles loose. Next was the stationary bike, 10 minutes in 5 minute intervals at an effort level of 6 and 10 keeping around 100 rpms at EL 6 and 90 rpms at the EL of 10.

Then finally the elliptical cross trainer for 5 minutes at an effort level of 12 keeping around about 140-150 spm.

That burnt around 538 calories for today. Then it was home for a nutritious tuna salad. I hope to get to the gym tomorrow but I have a trip to the office so will be back late. Fingers crossed as I want a good BF test on Wednesday when I have my stats taken.

Well that's all for today folks.

Until tomorrow....

Day 56: My very first workout

I woke up on Saturday morning with a crick in my neck. Not sure if that means anything to everyone but basically it's when you sleep in an awkward position. I don't think you pull a muscle but it is more like it is knotted. Anyway this morning it was still really stiff and twinging so I decided to do a cardio workout rather than risk doing any damage. I will talk with my personal trainer tomorrow and then decide whether and when to start the weights back up again. The cardio though was fine and my neck felt good afterwards possibly even it had loosened up some what.

Back to the Beginning

So today to keep in the vein of mixing it up I thought I would go back to the very first workout that I started with. This was back in 2005 and I kept a complete log of all the times that I clocked up. Back then I knew very little compared to what I do now but I was surprised looking back that I actually started my journey using a form of HIT. My routine back then was always the same 2 miles on the treadmill (3.2km) as fast as you can followed by some weights. Today I just performed the run though. Each day back then I would try and beat my previous time by 1 second or more if possible. A lot of days I achieved this, some days I missed out but it was something to aim for each day.

I thought it would be fun to see whether I could get close to my old times. I went to the gym not remembering my last time. Did a 5 minute warm up and then set the treadmill up for 3.2 km (2 miles). I knew it would need to be quick if I was to stand a chance so as soon as the time started I punched the speed straight up to 14kph. This is where is stayed and the minutes started to tick by. Funnily enough the first mile is the toughest. Once you have that under your belt you know you are not going to cave so you dig in and keep going. It stayed at 14kph until about 2 minutes from the end and I increased to 14.5kph and then on the last minute increased to 16kph (I think). The 2 miles came in at 13 minutes and 49 seconds which I was very pleased with . An average of 2 consecutive sub 7 minute miles.

I checked when I got home as I thought I had cracked it but my best time previously was 13m 21 seconds so I was not far away. I certainly did not push it to the max so I think I could have it in me to crack that time in the near future. Stay tuned to see if it does happen!!!

However that was not it ohh no. My mini goal over the next 2 weeks is to burn at least 500 calories in the gym each day, so during my final 2 weeks I will expend at least 6000 calories in the gym. Next was the stationary bike for 15 minutes at 5 minute intervals with the following effort levels, 6, 10, 6.

Finally it was the elliptical cross trainer for 10 minutes on an effort of 12 keeping the spm at around 140 -150. It was a tough workout but I felt good off the back of last week and I hope that I have now managed to kick my cold.

Wednesday it will be time for the next stats day. Even if I do weights now this week it will not be until after the BF test as I do not want them to influence the readout. So there is still all to play for. Last week I was still floating around the 13.5% mark but I was still not sure how accurate it was so lets see this week.

It was great to see that everyone posted up their pics today, I will get around to giving comments to you all tomorrow I hope. For the time being congratulations to everyone for shredding for another week.

Until tomorrow....

Day 55: A lovely day off....

Rest day today and what a lovely rest day it was. A trip to the shops where the boys got see two of Santa's very real reindeer live and in the flesh, they really enjoyed that and what was even better was that it was a surprise, we were not expecting to see them!!

Then it was the school Christmas fete this afternoon so they completed the set and went to visit Father Christmas who was minus two reindeer of course! We all had a great time and apart from all the walking around and trying to keep warm (very cold here again) not a bit of exercise in site.

Day 30 pics taken cropped and sent for posting on Adam's tomorrow.

I saw this today in the Daily Mirror paper in the UK and thought it quite interesting!! Everyone says that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and should also be the largest. How about this for a BIG breakfast.

Fresh chilled grapefruit with creme de menthe
Porridge with whisky, demerara sugar & milk
Devilled kidneys
Creamed smoked haddock in puff pastry
Assorted fruit jellies
Fried fillets of sole
Bacon, eggs, sausage, tomato, fried bread, apple, mushrooms and Countess Morphy's croquettes
Toast and scones with homemade strawberry jam
Cold meats & game pie
Scotch woodcock
Fresh fruit
Tea or coffee with chocolates

Yes that is 12 courses, 4000 calories and £80. This is a real Victorian menu that is being offered from the 14th December at Warwick castle. Anyone want to join me, thought it may be a nice reward meal???

Until tomorrow....

Day 54: Getting the fun back?

So back to it again today, whilst all you people in the US enjoy your busiest shopping day of the year the rest of the world has been hard at it!!! I hope you all had a great thanks giving yesterday and great day today.

As I said yesterday it was going to be a longer run today and it is the first time I have run for 40 minutes in the gym for a long time and I have forgotten how much I enjoyed it . I have really been sticking to my training plan to the letter over the last 6 -7 weeks and maybe I have lost some of the enjoyment because of this so I think it is that time to mix it up a bit especially with the final 2 week push coming up.

Today's Workout

40 minutes on the treadmill, first minute at a nice walk in the park of 6kph and then up to 12kph for the remaining 39 minutes. To try and stop the body from reaching a steady state which results in a drop in calorie burn I stepped the speed up every 9 minutes to 14kph for 1 minute. Total distance was just over 8km in 40 minutes and 564 calories burnt. I felt fantastic afterwards too. Didn't want to push it too hard today and this was just right. I also really enjoyed it. I used to do this kind of routine all the time but have not done so probably since I started doing the various HIT routines. I need to practice what I preach a little more and start to pack that variety in to my workouts again.

I then followed this with about a 10 minute ab session. I felt really good all afternoon today and still feel great so it seems to have done the trick. It is my scheduled rest day tomorrow which even though I have had about 3 or 4 this week I will still adhere to. Then it is back to a mammoth 2 weeks to see me through to the end of this goal and hopefully hitting 12% BF and that will mean a loss of 6% BF during this session.

I shall then have a week off with probably some very light exercise, may swim for a few sessions and then I will have about a week or so until Christmas!!

I will get my picture taken tomorrow for the weekly shred and over to Adam as I will have no time on Sunday. Keep shredding, Alex, Bec, Christy, Debbie, Diane, Dougal, Joni, Lilla, Lynda, Massimiliano, Michael, Miriam, Sammy and last but by no means least Suzette only 39 days to go.

Until tomorrow....

Day 53: Easing back in!

Back to the gym for the first time in 7 days!! I have been exercising just not in the gym for a change and the last few days I have not been feeling great so I have not been training.

Today's workout was not an intense one and neither will tomorrow's as I really want to make sure that I shift this bug this time. I did 5 minute warm up on the treadmill followed by a mixture of different upper body weights for around 10 minutes. I then moved onto a 20 minutes ab session incorporating some lower back too.

Felt really good but despite the lack of intensity was still pretty warn out. Tomorrow will a nice long run, not the usual sprint this will be a 40 - 45 minute run at a moderate pace.

I need to get back to peak for the start of next week!!??

Well as of next week the 2 week countdown begins. That's the remainder of time I have left in order to hit my 10 week goal which was to lose 6% body fat. That means I need to get down to 12%. Last time I measured I was 13.5% ish so there is still all to play for. So it will be another 14 day shred for me. Really concentrating on getting rid of that last 1.5% BF as that then just leaves 2% to reach my ultimate goal, one which I have been trying to reach for some time now.

2 weeks and counting.

Until tomorrow....

Day 52: Busy busy busy

Not much to say today and I want to keep it brief as I want to get to everyone's blogs to catch up and post comments.

Still not feeling 100% so laying off the gym again today. Gonna make sure I get rid of it this time. Still eating clean though and thinking big.

Thanks Sammy for the tips, time to update the blog and make it a look a little nicer. All depends on time though but hopefully soon.

That's it as I said tonight is a catch up with you all.

Until tomorrow....

Day 51: I'm back from beyond....

Wow, 4 days away and it feels like a lifetime. For 4 days no car, no Internet connection, no DVDs, no gym, what a life we now lead and have we become too spoilt??

I was only in Scotland but my Dad is still very much in the past, not even a dial up connection in site! I had hoped I may be able to piggyback a nearby wireless connection but there were none, maybe an Internet cafe, no chance and as a last resort connect using my phone but alas it is new and it did not hold any of the WAP connection details and there was no Internet connection to get them sent from!! So no way to blog!! First 4 days that I have missed.

Got up there Friday to a very cold and drizzly day. It brightened a bit later but I decided to grin and bear the weather and go for a run, only took shorts and vests for the gym so prepared for a cold one. I thought I would run to the neighbouring town which I have not been to for a couple of years. No idea how far it was so set off with MP3 in full swing. Wow it was cold!!! and wet and getting dark!! Still I kept going, the next town was a lot further than I remember, nice and hilly too. It's been a few months since I have run outside and I was surprised at the pace I kept especially with the hills.

Made it to the next town and turned around to find a very stiff and very cold breeze against me, was getting much darker by then and more moisture in the air. Just had to get back now. Still kept pace with a nice sprint finish and a respectable time of just over 39 minutes, only trouble was I didn't know how far it was. Fortunately we were driving there that evening to eat so I clocked the milometer to see how far and it came out around 5 - 5.1 miles round trip. Averages at about an 8 minute mile which I am very pleased with especially due to the hills and the cold.

Apart from this and lots of walking that was it. I went to the gym for a workout but was turned away. No induction, no workout. even though I had my electronic gym key with me to prove I am a member they would not let me in. And of course no appointments for inductions.

We are constantly told to keep fit and slim down but remember to make an appointment to do this first!!!!

I know I could have worked out at my Dads place but to tell you the truth I was actually really enjoying all the walking I was doing and I was doing way more than usual and it felt like quite a nice change. I actually had a few aches from the run too, first time outside for a while coupled with not having run this distance for a while but it felt really good none the less.

So back home now, but again I am not feeling great, I really cannot believe this. I stayed away today from the gym as I really felt lousy again. Not really ill again but itchy eyes, bunged up etc etc, not a great idea to push 110% down the gym. I really need to get rid of this once and for all.

Nutrition wise I have been quite good lately, all moderation. My Dad and I had a few meals out but I went for reasonably healthy options but I did have a couple of puddings but I still felt like I was keeping below my maintenance with all the extra walking.

So finally after trawling through a 100+ work emails this morning I took a break and got a chance to catch up with RTP, wow what has he been up to and where was my protective red blob over my face??? First impressions were *&$T as despite most of you seeing my pic on MSN I had not asked Adam to reveal, but then I did not ask him to cover again either!! Either way after a few seconds shock I thought hey, if someone sees me what the hell, you only live once, how mad can my wife get, well pretty mad actually but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!! So I am now available for all to see, trouble is it means I'll have to smile and shave now!!!

Everybody's weekly accountability looks amazing and I will get around to posting on everyones blogs, got a lot of catching up to do though. I have all your blogs on RSS feed so I will read them first and then come commenting.

Thanks for all the well wishes and looking for me coming back, really did miss you all and couldn't wait to catch up on everything!!!

Well I hope to be well enough to lift some weights tomorrow and get back into the swing of things.

Until tomorrow....

Day 46: Weekly Accountability

Really quick post tonight as I have to go pack for my 4 day trip. Pictures have been sent to Adam. Will try to blog over the next 4 days but only if I can blag a connection somewhere, otherwise I will talk to everyone on Tuesday.

Gonna find a gym or just go running so will still be shredding hard.

Managed to get my workout in today despite work and everything else going on. Upper body weights. 15 reps x 3 sets of supersets. 6 exercises in total.

OK keep shredding everyone, cannot wait to check all the pics Sunday or Tuesday when I get back.

Until tomorrow or Tuesday....

Day 45: To blog or not to blog?

Really quick post tonight, it's 10pm and I have just finished work again today! After tomorrow I am away for 4 days so I don't know whether I will blog yet. I am gonna try hard to but really don't know where I will get a connection.

Pics will be going to Adam to tomorrow in light of this.

Tonight's Workout

In between work and family (you know what it's like Suzette!!) I managed to push off to the gym for 45 minutes and get my HIT sprint cardio and abs in which looked like this:

1 minute at 6 kph
1 minute at 12 kph
1 minute at 14 kph
1 minute at 16 kph

Next comes:

1 minute at 6 kph
1 minute at 13 kph
1 minute at 15 kph
1 minute at 17 kph

which is performed 3 times in a row and then repeat the first cycle again. Then you guessed it the dreaded 21st minute. Last time I ran it all at 17 kph before I was ill. Today only 50 seconds were run at 17 kph!!! Because for the last 10 seconds I pushed it for the first time ever to 18 kph which for all you mph people is 11.2 mph.

It felt great to get up to this new speed.

Then came the abs, about 15 minutes which pretty much killed me. Then home to cook tea and soon to go to bed. Take care all, I will post briefly tomorrow as I have got sooo much to do tomorrow night before I go and I gotta be up at 4.30 am Friday to go catch my flight.

Until tomorrow....

Day 44: Real Time Chat...

Well I think I have most people added to MSN messenger now which is great and have already had some chats with Christy, Joni and Dougal which was real nice. Much better in "real" time. My pic all be it not great quality is viewable when I am online so all those who are really interested just log on and have a chat!!

Another early morning start followed by a whole day training people then back home in the rain, see my wife and kids for an hour or so, kids to bed and then down the gym for 45 minutes.

Today's Workout

Lower body supersets today, hopefully very little aches tomorrow, time will tell.

10 x barbell squats
10 x lunges

Got through 3 of these until a very kind and thoughtful member of the gym strode in and took over the weight rack so I then adapted the remainder of my workout to use the machines.

15 x lower back machine - 4 sets
10 X squat machine - 2 sets
10 x leg extension - 2 sets

Felt great afterwards except for my left quad. Whenever I do lunges I get this pain in my left quad in the left side just above the knee. It feels like someone is sticking lots of knives into me muscle. As soon as I stop it stops, kind of like pins and needles but using knives!! My PT has never heard of this before, any suggestions???

I guess it would be a good idea to stop them but there is no after effects that I suffer from it is just during the workout!!

Right gonna go to bed now as I have been up since 5am and did not sleep well last night.

Until tomorrow....

Day 43: Personal Training Day & Comments

Time is flying past, day 43 already. It was my PT session today and also time for some stats. I am not going to go into the usual detail this week as I still think things are a bit up and down and I do not want to get too tied up in the numbers. I was 14% BF today which is actually down on last week which is great news but I had a heavy weights session yesterday which could have skewed the results. The main thing is I am back in the groove giving it 110%, I am thinking positively and I am going to succeed in reaching my goal.

I will go back to analysing my BF in weeks to come as this is the only way I can be sure I have reached my goal and I will reach it!!! Thanks everyone for your comments, especially you Dougal, appreciate it mate, I know I was over analysing things and it was I guess more for new people to the blog than for myself and also to keep myself accountable.

A general comment to everyone or anyone reading, if you post a comment today would you check the next time you visit to see if I have commented on that or is it better to reply back to your comment in your blog?

So as I said today was my PT session and a hard session it was today. A hard cardio session with lots of variety:

PT Session Workout

Run
2 km on the treadmill in 10 minutes, and this was roughly, 1 min at 6 kph, 1 min at 10 kph, 1 min at 11 kph, 1 minute at 12 kph, 1 min at 13 kph, 4 minutes at 14 kph and 1 minute at 16 kph following by a quick warm down jog.

Row
Next it was onto the rowing machine (concept 2 rower). I used the highest setting today (10) and set the distance to 3000 metres. Averages about 1m 51 secs / 500 metres which is around 28 strokes per minute and this brings it out to just over 11 minutes for the full 3000 metres. A good 2 minutes rest was then had. If you have not rowed before I highly recommend this. It is an amazing full body workout especially on a high setting. However it is also a killer!! But as with all high intensity sessions they burn huge amounts of calories, and this was estimated at around 250 calories for 11 minutes.

Abs
Next was a 20 minutes ab session, comprising of a whole host of different exercises, from utilising the fitball and weights for extra resistance, then onto the mat for some planks and full sit-ups. A few others as well and I have yet to find names for these. Again this was made tougher by the row before hand.

Bike
And we are no finished yet, next was the stationary bike for 8 minutes (why 8 minutes???) because I had 18 minutes of my PT session left. So 8 mins on effort level 6 I think it was at around 100 rpm.

Elliptical Crosstrainer
And finally the crosstrainer for 10 minutes, effort level 10 averaging around 145 spm. A great finish to the workout.

This was just what I needed to get back into it. The whole workout burned around 750 - 800 calories which is great. Could still feel the weights session from yesterday so that it is good to see it is still working and the row today I can certainly feels in my upper back now.

Lower body weights tomorrow when I get back from the office, another early start so I get to see hopefully another great sunrise. A good clean day with regards to nutrition getting ready for my weekly pic!! I will need to send mine early to Adam as I am going to Scotland for 4 days, Friday through Monday to see my Dad. Looking forward to some nice hilly runs while I am there. Anyway poses some problems with blogging, I will hopefully find a way but don't want to risk the pic so will send this early.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Until tomorrow....

Day 42: Equilibrium

I am going to get or try to be a bit scientific in today's post but it does relate back to my goal. I wanted to touch more on something Joni mentioned in one of her recent posts. I have always stated it like it is and if I have not been eating well or training well I have said so but I really wanted bring it to the forefront again as I know that many others have posted about their problems with binges etc. I had major blowout last night!! I stated yesterday that I was going to have a few drinks and I did, which then lead to a few bags of crisps, which then lead to ice cream , chocolates etc etc.

I am great believer in moderation and variety and this the first big blowout I have had in about 17 weeks now. I am not proud of it and offer no excuses but it does beg the question why now, what caused it to happen when it has not happened for such a long period....

Equilibrium (3 definitions)

1. bodily balance: a physical state or sense of being able to maintain bodily balance
2. emotional stability: a mental state of calmness and composure
3. situation of balance: a state or situation in which opposing forces or factors balance each other out and stability is attained

Above are 3 slightly different definitions of the term equilibrium, there are many others but I thought that all of these were key to getting in shape, bodily balance, a positive mindset and stability.

I think that my body has been knocked out of equilibrium, maybe it was the illness, maybe it was a couple of days of not eating that clean due to illness. I think however it was down to being too strict. Everyone's body is different and over the past 6 months I have spent a lot of time as you all have tweaking workouts and nutrition and learning to listen to my body. Over the past 2 weeks we have all put 110% into the group shred and I went all out during this 2 weeks and pretty much forgot a lot of things that I shouldn't have. Yes I trained hard and ate clean but I did not afford my body or mind any breaks and I think it was this that has knocked the equilibrium.

Personally I thrive on variety and moderation and my body reacts well to this, the give and take of good foods and bad, training and rest. There is nothing wrong with eating clean 100% of the time but I have found time and time again that this does not work best for me and eventually you have a major set back like last night.

So today was a new day and I have re-adjusted my mindset. Tomorrow is a new week and I will get back to my basics and hopefully get my body back to it's equilibrium. As I said there are many other definitions of this term and I am not meaning that my body is going to stay static or remain unchanged as is one such definition.

As I said, I am not trying to make excuses for this but such is life, very rarely are things straight forward or do they run to plan. The important part is how we deal with these situations. I really beat myself up about this when I woke up but that wasn't going to change anything.

I got my Sunday chores completed and then headed down to the gym for a hard workout. I now have some catching up to do as I will complete the 10 weeks with the rest of you and I will continue to hold myself accountable through the good and the bad.

Today's Workout

Supersets were back today. This is the first weights session since I was ill and it felt great, the usual 5 minute warm-up on the treadmill:

Barbell Bench Press x 10 superset with
Seated rows x 10
4 sets

Standing shoulder press x 10 superset with
Wide grip lat pulldown x 10
4 sets

Close grip barbel bench press x10 superset with
Upright row x 10
4 sets

1 minute rest between exercises and then straight on to the next.

My head is now clear and I will get back to give and take with regards to my nutrition. My workouts will remain tough but I know when to rest up. Another personal training session tomorrow.

Until tomorrow....

Day 41: Just Chillin'...

Rest day comes around again. Feeling good after my first session back after illness but my appetite is insatiable at the moment. Really finding it hard not to go too overboard. I am taking in more calories than normal but I am sure my body is still recovering.

I am going to have a drink tonight, I still plan to have one every now and again. As long as you know what you are putting inside yourself and what effect it will have. I will do a good weight's session tomorrow at the gym and some more hardcore cardio sessions next week.

Ended up swimming for a short time today as the boys were feeling a quite a bit better today.

Until tomorrow....

Day 40: Back in the saddle!

Woke up this morning feeling good, most of my cold has passed now so it was back to the gym today. Not a full blown workout but almost. Felt good to get back to it but at the same time it was nice to chill out and recover for 3 days also.

Some fantastic messages flying around to and from everyone, two great videos to watch also, thanks Joni & Adam.

Today's Workout

Back to my basics today, I was certainly not going to attempt Adam's cardio session today so went back to the following:

1 min at 6 kph
1 min at 12 kph
1 min at 14 kph
1 min at 16 kph

I run this once and then again after the following:

1 min at 6 kph
1 min at 13 kph
1 min at 15 kph
1 min at 17 kph

I run this 3 times, so 5 cycles and 20 minutes. No 21st minute today, why I hear you say. Well, after the first couple of cycles I good feel my chest tightening. I want to keep moving forwards so I am happy to drop the intensity down for a few days until a complete recovery is made. I still got my heart pumping.

Then came a 15 minute ab session which felt really good. Have not done an abs session for about a week now.

Rest day tomorrow but it is the weekend so no doubt it will be an active one, although maybe no swimming as the boys are both really full of cold now!! Wasn't me honest gov!!

So the next date for the diary is the 18th Nov when we will start are weekly accountability. Until then keep training, I and I am sure everyone else will keep popping around everyones blogs.

Until tomorrow....

Day 39: End of Group Shred....Day 365 for Adam...Congratulations mate

14 days of hard shredding all finished...? I don't think so. This is the start of something much bigger. I for one plan to make some BIG changes over the next 10 weeks and want to help encourage everyone to continue either what they have started or to keep up what they are doing.

I am feeling much better today although I did not train again today. Today I have had my proper cheat. A very rich slice of chocolate cheesecake for pudding this evening. Talk about feeling guilty for eating it, but then I thought no, I have trained really hard and this is not a lapse in weakness this is planned and tomorrow I will get back to the gym and return to training hard and eating clean. I have had a few couple of days to recover and will train tomorrow and then have my usual rest day. Re-invigorated I will continue on to reach my ultimate goal.

The highs, the whole 14 days have been a high, getting in the workouts, taking the photos, blogging, commenting it has all been great. And one person made it all possible. Thanks Adam...

The lows, not sure there have been any, I was disappointed not to have seen the GS out whilst training but I know that I have given it 110% throughout and will continue to now that I am fit again.

I can't wait to see how everyone get's on now over the coming weeks. We have all started something now and the possibilities are endless and I hope everyone continues to achieve their goals.

So I have had my cake, eaten it and with having had a couple of days off I think it will probably do my training even more good.

Until tomorrow....

Day 38: Still all bunged up :-((

The penultimate day of the first ever Adam Water's group shred. I can't believe that I am not going to be able to workout to finish it off. BUT do you want to here something really strange.....in the past 2 days I have not had a workout but I really feel that I am still losing bodyfat. I am still eating relatively clean but probably taking in more calories than I would normally but then I find that my body needs the extra to fuel the immune system.

Whether it is this effect, my body is burning the fat as it is more active fighting the infection I do not know. Any comments?????

My Pledge to You All

Tomorrow is the final day. Take some pics in the morning and send them off to Adam and then it will be the continuation until 7th Jan 2008 and I will make a promise now that I will visit each and everyone of your blogs everyday and I will post comments at least twice a week, if not more.

Well, I am going to sign off now, I have had a great time over the last 13 days so far and now consider you all as friends even though we have never met. I look forward to the next 10 weeks until the launch of next group shred. Keep up the great work everyone. Just think what your day 83 pics will look like when GS 2 goes live!!!!

Until tomorrow....

Day 37: A tough decision...

It looks like I have caught a flu / cold bug whilst I was visiting Massiliano's blog last week!!!! I had a 5am start today and dosed myself with paracetamol all day. I have been thinking the whole time in the office, do I train tonight, don't I???

Well it was a tough decision but I decided against it. I could have managed to do it but I think it would have taken too much out of me and caused a delay in my recovery. I am not bed ridden by any means and I think that due to my fitness levels and eating clean I will get rid of this very quickly. I hope I will be able to get my final training session in tomorrow but if not life goes on and I will live to fight another day.

It would have been easy to go and train tonight but it is tougher to listen closely to your body and when you need to take rest. I am taking this good advice from previous comments / blogs by Suzette and Christy, thanks ladies.

No training today but pics will be submitted and I will certainly see the shred out, hopefully with a workout tomorrow.

Take care all of you and train hard for the final couple of days, some good times are ahead I think.

Until tomorrow....

Day 36: Why do I enjoy cardio so much??

Really quick post tonight as I have been working all day and half the evening now in between watching fireworks with the kids and I have to get up at 5am tomorrow to go to the office so have to go to bed soon.

Today's Routine

I entered into Adam's cardio routine again today. Boy this was hard again, it goes a little something like this:

1 minute at 6kph
2 minutes at 16 kph

Repeat for a total of 10 times (30 minutes) and then do your dreaded 31st minute. This time it was 50 seconds at 16kph and then 10 seconds at 16.5 kph. I managed to control the throwing up impulse this time OK but I must admit that I was really close to passing out this time!!!! Believe me this is such a tough workout. I was ready quit at 15 minutes but kept going thinking no 31st minute today but when I got there I went for it and then I had to push the last 10 seconds but man you don't know how hard this is until you try it. If you have the fitness levels to sustain 16 kph for 2 minutes then I would recommend seeing how far you can get through this as it is certainly an experience!!

Please only enter into this with extreme caution and if you are unsure please consult a personal trainer in the gym. This stresses all parts of your body, lungs, legs, knees and heart. If you are unused to running at these levels then wear a heart rate monitor and get a PT to watch your session.

So why do I enjoy cardio so much?

Last session I nearly threw up, this session I nearly passed out so why do I (we) do this? For me it is all about pushing the boundaries of my fitness. I will reach my goal, it may take less time than predicted, it may take more but I will reach it. In order to do this to keep things interesting I have to keep pushing myself.

Now I have not watched Adam's video for today yet so I am not sure how he has answered my questions but I am not going to make this kind of cardio session the norm as I believe it is too stressful on your whole body. I think it is great for a shred or for a once a week session but on a regular basis I think it could (my opinion) do more harm than good as this is as intense as it gets, for me at least. But the same would go for anything if you are pushing yourself to such intense levels for sustained periods of time. On a regular basis it will take it's toll on your whole body, immune system included.

I still love my cardio though and it gives you a great measure of real world fitness progress if that is part of your goal.

Bodyfat Measurement

It gets stranger!! I can see more positive changes in my body since last Monday than I can from the previous Monday yet according to today's reading my BF is 14.4%!!! I agree with Suzette's comment yesterday, sometimes you have to take the numbers with a pinch of salt. I do not know why they are yo yoing suddenly, they have been very consistent all of the time recently. Don't get my wrong I am still really pleased with the above reading and in a way am more pleased with this than the 13.1% from last week. Why? Well as I said last week I could not see the progress in the real world that was being shown electronically so was concerned!!

Anyway I will continue to monitor, I have no choice as this is the measurement for this challenge as I move towards 12%. I will explore this further when I have more time but any comments suggestions are all welcome.

I know comments are also sparse but I have been to a few blogs today and will get to the rest tomorrow, I may not leave comments but I am still watching. Please do not come disheartened by it. As soon as I get any time it is filled with blogging.

Until tomorrow....

Day 35: Keep the faith....

That was a fantastic rest day and sooo what my body needed. I had a good chill out, nice swim which really sorted the remaining aches out in my legs. I ate clean all day to counteract the lack of a workout but boy is it getting hard now. I am planning a great meal for next weekend after the shred has finished. Also starting to get some cravings now as I have been eating so clean. I suddenly thought yesterday I have not had a crisp for over 2 weeks. I love crisps, I really could eat them all day and used to have 2 - 3 bags a day!!

I think it will be very important to indulge when the shred is over but carefully. Even though the shred will be over I will have around 3 weeks left in my own personal challenge so I will have a week of eating clean but not as clean as the last 2 just so that my body has a chance to get rid of all it's cravings and so I do not go into starvation mode and then it will be a final 2 week shred to get to my 10 weeks goal!!

Today's Workout

As I said the final aches went with my swim yesterday, or so I thought! Another hectic pre warm-up ironing, lots more this week as the kids were back at school so there were about 7 sets of uniforms!! Usual 5 mins on the treadmill to warm-up and then it was the dreaded lower body supersets...

Squats first and at the bottom of the first squat the aches came straight back. They were hard work but reassuringly not as hard as the first time! The workout was:

3 sets of 15 reps:

Barbell squats supersetted with dumbbell lunges
Barbell dead lifts supersetted with dumbbell step-ups

So this time there was only 30 rest between exercises rather than 1 minute, but all 3 sets rather than 4 but 15 reps instead of 10. The weight was lowered slightly to take into account the higher reps.

Made it through and could still work, did some additional lower back machine sets just as extra 2 sets of 15 and then called it quits.

Had another swim this afternoon which seemed to help my legs somewhat. Cardio tomorrow and only 3 more days of training left before my final photo!!

Ohh before I forget I had my BF rechecked today and it would seem my fears were correct about the false positive reading. It measured an average of 14% today. I am kind of pleased about this in a way as to lose that much BF and see very little change in my body was a little worrying. I think it must have been the weights that changed it! I will still be re-doing my stats officially tomorrow though so stay tuned.

Keep up the amazing work everyone, I am still checking on you all just have very limited time to comment at the moment. You are all doing fantastically though.

Until tomorrow....

Day 34: Ahhh the weekend and a rest day

Just been round all your blogs and left comments, I know they have been sparse this week, work is intense at the moment and I get about an hour in the evening to blog and leave comments, so I do apologise. Whenever I get time I go checking, I may not have time to leave comments all the time but I do check up almost every day. So remember that you are being watched even if there are a gap in the comments!!

Just chilling out today, swimming later but apart from that I am just going to let my body mend. Last week was really intense, it was great and I am looking forward to the final 6 days and to what is in store for us all in the future!!

Considering we are all on a pretty similar journey it is quite amazing to see how everyone blogs in such a different way. I know for the most part they are probably very much based upon us as individuals but we all concentrate on slightly different areas and when you add them all together and combine them there is such an abundance of fantastic information, insightful quotes and motivational articles, more than enough for anyone to pick up and start their own physique transformation or fitness drive.

As it is my rest day I will be eating super clean today to ensure that I get the most from it. That said it is about time to go and make the kids and I some lunch and then it will be off to the pool in an hour or so.

Back to the gym tomorrow with another killer set of lower body supersets. Now my legs have still not fully recovered so I will be interested to see how I get on again. I will hope that I will not suffer as much this time round as the muscles have had their wake up call and know what is going on this time around.

I hope you all have a great weekend, keep it clean, and look forward to Thursday.

Adam, BIG day for you and no doubt there will be something slightly different on your anniversary. Keep shredding.

Until tomorrow....

Day 33: HIT from HELL

It was party night last night and I said that I would have no more than 2 pints and 1 plate of food and I stuck to my word doing just that. It was not the healthiest meal I have ever eaten but it was my only cheat meal for 2 weeks! I was careful though, I could have gone crazy with it all but I held back and kept thinking group shred!!

My legs are not painful anymore but they are still aching considerably so it was a real conundrum today. Do I give Adam's new HIT run a go or just do my usual??? I had to to one or the other as today is cardio, the one I do is pretty tough anyway so hey may as well take Adam's little challenge and see what it is like.

HIT From Hell

I asked my PT to set this up yesterday just incase I wanted to do this today so it was available on my gym key when I got to the gym today, I had compared it to my current workouts and I knew it was gonna be harder and tougher.

Did a lot of stretches first especially my quads as they were still aching. I am not sure if I did exactly what Adam does but this is my take on the instructions he left:

1 minute at 6 kph
2 minutes at 16 kph

this gives you 1 cycle and it needs to be repeated a further 9 times to give you a total of 10 cycles and a total of 30 minutes.

As usual though there is a 31st minute (after all I got the 21st minute idea from Adam in the first place) which is used to make sure that each workout increases from the previous. The 31st minute was also run at 16 kph which means for minutes 29, 30 and 31 you are running at 16 kph, for all you mph fans this is 10 mph, 3 minutes solid at 10 mph!!!

Well, if any of you have read the comments on Adam's blog for today you will see I posted up there how tough it was and boy it was tough.

Just to clear things up, yes I really had to concentrate in the last minute as I was extremely close to throwing up, I was fine as soon as I stopped, but running at that speed and breathing so hard does that to you. It was really tough, the last minute felt like 10 and I can safely say that if I had not had ALL of you behind me that I wouldn't have made it through that final minute.

So I made it I am still alive, funnily enough my legs were not aching straight after, I covered 6.6 km in 31 minutes and burned almost 500 calories, not bad for 30 minutes work I thought. Hopefully this will get rid of some of the more stubborn fat.

Rest day tomorrow and unlike last week when I wanted to workout during it, this week I am going to use it to the max. My body really needs a rest tomorrow, I have shredded to the absolute edge this week, 110% as I think everyone has and as a consequence most of my body aches tonight so it needs time to mend and repair ready for the final days next week, it will leave 4 more days of training for me as I will not get to the gym until late Thursday so will have to have submitted my pics by then!!

I'm beat now, I'm off to chill and check some blogs.

Until tomorrow....

Day 32: Pain...1 month old!!!

Pain

Well the pain today is a lot more in my legs, certainly pain today rather than an ache but I still did my 5 minute warm-up on the treadmill and then went into the supersets. Today it was 3 sets of 15 reps of each:

Barbell Bench Press
Low Row

Standing shoulder press
Wide Lat pulldowns

Close drip bench press
Standing row

All with 30 seconds rest in between.

1 Month Old

Can't believe I have been blogging for an entire month, it doesn't seem like that!! Thanks for all your support guys and girls.

As I said short post today as it is party time soon. I will check everyone's blog tomorrow and give more comments and update you further on the HIT run that Adam challenged me with, well not exactly challenged, asked whether I fancied trying it!!! Check the comments on Adam's blog from yesterday.

Take care everyone and I will post more tomorrow.

Until tomorrow....

Day 31: The toughest workout in 6 months

So I awoke this morning again quite surprised (seem to be a lot of those this week) at how little pain I was suffering in my legs. Yes they were heavily aching, I certainly knew I had done a hard workout yesterday but they were not painful!!

So it was time for the gym, legs felt good by this time having been up and around all morning. Remembered to get my BF re-checked and then it was time for the HIT incline run.

HIT Incline Run

For those of you who are not familiar with this one, it is the incline that changes at 1 minute intervals rather than the speed. This is all performed at constant speed of 10 kph:

1 minute at 1% incline
1 minute at 3% incline
1 minute at 6% incline
1 minute at 10% incline

As with the sprint HIT you repeat the above 5 times which gives you a total of 20 minutes.

So this is the picture, a few stretches and then it was off, felt OK at 1%, not bad at 3%, 6% pretty good, 10% here come the jelly legs!!! Back down to 1% again, this is gonna be tough. So it continued minute by minute. So came the 20th minute and I was thinking OK this is it nearly there. BUT as most of you who regularly read know I always put in a 21st minute. Well maybe because of the tough workout yesterday I will let it slide today, my legs are really dieing here? Not sure if I can go another minute

So I used a shreddi mind trick.........accountability. I thought what I am going to write in my blog tonight, will I get away with 20 minutes or will someone spot it? Well regardless of that I want the best I can get from each session when I workout so I dug in for the 21st minute. Not only is there a 21st minute but the purpose of this is to always better your previous attempt even just by a small amount, well on Sunday I ran this at 12% so today I cranked it up to 13%, this was such a killer but I kept thinking about now, my accountability to you guys and also to myself, I made this commitment to Adam that I would shred hard for 14 days and I am going to live up to my word, as I suspect you all will and are currently.

The 21st minute ended and I was destroyed, I can safely say that due to the lower body weights the day before that that was my hardest workout in the last 6 months. So the run was over. I had a couple of minutes to catch my breath.....that's not the end of the workout merely the first half.

15 minute ab session

So I caught my breath and then grabbed the fitball and medicine ball and started the fitball crunches and oblique crunches along with various other no name exercises. Finishing with the forwards plank for 1 minute and then 2 side planks for 30 seconds a piece. I was exhausted but as I said a few posts ago also exhilarated!!!

Party tomorrow night!! So it will be a really short post tomorrow, it's my wife's end of year party, free bar, free party food....mmmmmm. I have saved all my cheat meals for this and next week to have in this one evening. So I will limit myself to 8 pints and 3 plates of food. Yeah right!!! But seriously, I am going to have 2 pints and not a drop of alcohol more and some food but I will go for the healthy food there and watch the portions. I have not had a cheat meal since the shred started and I will not have another after this until it ends. Moderation, that's the key and I have not drunk any alcohol for over 3 weeks now which for me is amazing!

Oh yes before I go, nearly forgot my BF re-test? Well it averaged out this time at .... wait for it.....13.2%!!!! So it looks like (and I still can't quite comprehend it) that the stats were correct!! I managed to lose 2.4% BF in 5 days!!!

Until tomorrow....

Day 30: It could have gone 2 ways today....

So I decided that due to my great results yesterday and the fact that I felt unwell I would reward myself with a few days rest and relaxation, few nice meals and fully recover, after all I lost over 2% BF so I can east a few cheat meals???

Well before you all post how arrogant I have been above, this is the first way that I could have started my blog today and one of the outlooks I could have taken on this whole process.

Hopefully all of you that regularly read this will find the first paragraph hard to swallow as it is indeed not the outlook I take on this whole process and indeed life. I had a 5.30 am start to drive 90 minutes to the office today and felt good after a nights sleep, after 8 hours or so I had another 90 minutes home, kids tea, eldest to football, wife picked him up, meanwhile I had the youngest in bed asleep so then it was time for the workout.

So in short, I could have taken the easy route, I had a good set of results, I was under the weather, but it is all about perseverance and continual improvement, daily accountability to quote Adam.

Now if had I been really ill that would have been a different story. As has been stated in several other blogs you do need to be able to respond to when your body does indeed need rest and if you are fighting an infection that is manifesting some bad symptoms you need to let your immune system deal with it, rather than burning all your energy at the gym otherwise it will just take much longer to recover.

Feeling Better

So as I am sure you have gathered I am feeling much better today. Don't know what happened yesterday but it knocked me for six but with no lingering after effects!!

Apologies if anyone was expecting BF stats part 2 but I was halfway through my weights when I realised duh! As I said yesterday it's not a time I would recommend to do a BF test during or after weights as it does seem to effect the reading quite dramatically.

So I think I may wait now until Sunday, as Friday is cardio and Saturday is rest.

Supersets Lower Body

If you are are not sure what supersets are then please refer back to my Day 25 post.

So today I thought was going to be quite straight forward and not too hard.....wrong!! As you may have noticed in my blog I do not really do many weights on the lower body. My way of thinking is I work this part of my body doing all the running, cross trainer etc etc. I was recommended to train my legs hard so I am trying it out. I did some testers last week but this was the real thing, 4 exercises that was it!!!

10 x barbell squats
10 x dumbbell lunges

1 minute rest after the 2 exercises then repeat 3 more times, a total of 4, then...

10 x barbell deadlift
10 x dumbbell step ups

1 minute rest after the 2 exercises then repeat 3 more times, a total of 4

Well before I was even halfway I was really feeling it and was initially worried about my HIT incline run tomorrow. Now having completed it I will just be happy if I can walk down the stairs in the morning unaided. To say I am sore is an understatement, I am having flashbacks to Adams video yesterday. But this is indeed what it is like when you engage new muscles in an activity they are not used to. It shows that it worked!!

On another note, I was squatting 70kg today which I thought was quite light but there were 3 other guys training on the free weights tonight and we were all talking. These guys lift much heavier than me on the upper body but do almost no cardio. They made a comment about the last time they did squats and not being able to work and then they were all having a go in my rest periods. I was amazed to see that they struggled, one of them was all over the place just in doing 10 reps and I did 4 set of 10 with the lunges in between. So they were spending all their time in the gym working back, chest and arms and literally nothing on there legs. I was really surprised!!!

So another hard workout today which felt good and I will see how I am in the morning, I am still going for the incline run no matter how much it hurts, even if I just have to crawl real fast on the treadmill.

Well it's getting late now and I need some sleep so I am gonna visit all you blogs and then fall unconscious somewhere, hopefully it will be my bed!! Keep shredding guys, day 5 has finished so we are now a third of the way there.

Until tomorrow....

Day 29: Stats day....two massise shocks.....

I have to start by apologising to Christy. Sorry for taking so long to post today. I have been feeling progressively worse all afternoon and was not sure if I would get the stats in today, I was just going to post something like please tune in tomorrow but I am feeling a bit better so here goes....

So going back to yesterday's post there were 2 things planned for today, firstly my BF stats and then secondly to measure my heart rate during my HIT sprint run.

Body Fat History

81kgs & 17.9% BF (19-Sep-2007) 14.49 kgs fat
80kgs & 17.2% BF (26-Sep-2007) 13.76 kgs fat
80kgs & 16.0% BF (03-Oct-2007) 12.80 kgs fat
79.5kgs & 15.9% BF (10-Oct-2007) 12.64 kgs fat
79kgs & 15.5% BF (17-Oct-2007) 12.24 kgs fat
79kgs & 15.4% BF (24-Oct-2007) 12.16 kgs fat

The goal is 6% BF loss in 10 weeks, 5 weeks (halfway) had me to 2.6%. This week has been no holds barred eat clean and shred hard (where have I heard that before?!?).

Sooooooooo today's stats and the first massive shock.

Today's Stats

78kgs & 13.1% BF (29-Oct-2007) 10.21 kgs fat

I could not believe this and to tell you the truth still do not. I did take 3 separate measurements and they were all identical. The week that I lost 1.2% above I could visually see a difference but this time I could not. Also there has been only 5 days since the last measurement. I am going to get additional measurements in the week to confirm today's reading and think it will verify this is wrong.

So what could have happened?

I have been drinking lots but it is possible that I was dehydrated today and this can effect electronic readings, this is one possibility?

I did a really heavy upper body workout yesterday and with handheld measurements I have proven (not on this blog but in the gym) that your BF measurement can dramatically change if you have performed a hard weights session, however this was one measurement before and another straight after. Is it possible that my workout from yesterday is still influencing my BF reading today? This I cannot answer, but I will be at the gym tomorrow evening (providing I am feeling better) and I will take another reading.

Also I am looking in a mirror when looking for changes but fat is stored all over the body so it is entirely possible I have lost it from say my back!

Just going back to the stats though, assuming this is true, I have lost 1kg of body weight but have lost 2 kgs of BF. So I must have also put on 1kg of muscle. Now don't get me wrong I was really pleased to see this but to have done this all in 5 days is just a bit too amazing. I have had false positives before without knowing it and they can be a bad shock when you realise that they were wrong and can really knock your motivation.

So Stats day will continue into Tuesday and maybe Wednesday....

Then my second massive shock

I wanted to get to the gym early today to do my sprint HIT run before my personal training session. As I said yesterday both my PT and I were curious to what my HR reached during this. I thought based on previous runs that it would exceed 220 bpm.

Today's Workout

1 min 6kph
1 min 12 kph
1 min 14 kph
1 min 16 kph

then

1 min 6kph
1 min 13 kph
1 min 15kph
1 min 17kph

repeated 3 times and then I final cycle of:

1 min 6kph
1 min 12 kph
1 min 14 kph
1 min 16 kph
and then comes the dreaded 21st minute, and today this entire minute was run at 17kph.

So any guesses to what my HR reached, I was shocked, it only reached a maximum of 188bpm. I was expecting this to be much much higher based upon the final 2 minutes and was really pleased as to how much my cardio fitness has come on in 3 years of stopping smoking!! My ultimate goal is not some much a physique transformation but I know that I will get it by reaching 10% BF but my fitness is what I am looking at overall so this was just amazing today. What was even better was that by the end of the 1 minute warm down my pulse was already back down to 160 and falling fast.

I had about another 1 -2 minutes before starting a gruelling 25 - 30 minute ab session, this was following by some stretching and then 10 minutes on the elliptical cross trainer. So all in all this was a BIG workout today with hopefully (TBC) some fantastic stats.

I will keep you posted and I am really sorry for the lack of comments on everyones blog today but I have really been feeling awful this afternoon, not sure what it is, there is a nasty viral infection going around the town currently so I am hoping it will not effect the group shred any.

Again I hope you all are shredding as hard as me and are putting in that little bit extra to see some amazing results.

Take care everyone and I will hopefully come see all your blogs tomorrow and enthuse you all!!!

Until tomorrow....

Day 28: A natural high...

The clocks went back in the UK last night so I went to bed usual time last night as I new the kids would have no regard for this and to be sure they were up at 6am new time but they were good and snoozed for a bit, then I got up around 7.20 and made them breakfast and tucked into a big bowl of cereal myself.

Next an hour or so of pre gym warm-up ironing!!! Then it was time to get down the gym.

RTP Group Shred

Before the routine another round of encouragement for all the RTP group shredders, Day 3 of 14 and everyone is doing an amazing job. Thanks for all the great comments and words of encouragement.

Supersets Supercharged

I really wanted to make up for yesterday so I did my usual 5 minute warm-up on the treadmill and then is was straight into it. There was no rest between groups of exercise and then 1 minute between sets i.e. bench press then seated rows then 1 min rest then again:

10 x barbell bench press
10 x seated rows
1 minute rest then go again 3 more times

10 x standing shoulder press
10 x wide grip pull downs
1 minute rest then go again 3 more times

10 x close grip bench press
10 x upright rows
1 minute rest then go again 3 more times

I then did 2 sets of 10 of ez bar bicep curls and 1 set of 10 dumbbell flys, this was the bit extra, I just couldn't help myself!

Natural High

I get this almost always from intense exercise. I come away from the gym with a great feeling, even though you are warn out form the routine you have this buzzing feeling that invigorates you and you still feel full of energy.

Change to Stats Day

Well due to personal reasons stats day is changing and will now be Monday's. I am gonna be very interested this week as I will have lost 2 days worth of fat burning and one of the days was a rest day. So tune in tomorrow for the new BF stats. It's gonna be an intense cardio and abs session tomorrow with my PT. I am gonna get down there early so that I can do my sprint cardio HIT session. I'm going to wear a HR monitor tomorrow as both I am my PT are curious as to how high my pulse gets to by the end of that 21st minute. I'll let you know tomorrow!

Until tomorrow....

Day 27: A very painful rest day....

That was tough....tougher than any day in the gym. Day 2 of the RTP group shred and it is my rest day. I was pretty sure I should honour my rest day and everyone has agreed with that.

I knuckled down and ate as clean as I possibly could, I have stayed active all day, hoovered the whole house, been swimming with the kids, shopping in the village, up and down the stairs!!!

But tomorrow I will get my chance when I have the start of my new routine, I think this week I may taylor the cardio days slightly just to give it some more punch, but I am going to be pushing it to the max for the next 6 days until that next rest day. Look in over the week because I am going to take the cardio to a whole new level....

To the other 16 group shredders (Bec, Massimiliano, Josh, Joni, Flashback!, Suzette, Christy, Dougal, Diane, Debbie, Miriam, Michael, Sammy, Katie, Lynda, Alex), way to go for day 2, and here is looking to day 3.

Until tomorrow....

Day 26: Cardio and Abs, Day 1: Group RTP Shred

14 RTP Group Shred Kick-Off

WoW what a day. I nearly forgot to blog with everything that has been going on!!

Firstly:

Adam, I am sure everyone will join me in saying thanks for bringing everyone together this is massive. Thanks for all the support past and present and the best of luck to you finishing your shred and completing your 1st year of daily accountability and fingers crossed another sixer!

I have had the day off today as my wife is working and it is half term so have been out and about with the kids but it is has also meant I have had some extra time to visit most peoples blogs who are participating in the group shred, sorry if I have missed you, let me know and I will come knocking. It looks like most other people have been doing the same.

Today I have been blown away with all the support and kind words from you all, Christy, Sammy, Debbie, Lynda. I wish you all the best and will continue to look in daily on your blogs, period!! I hope you find my blog useful and please, if there is anything I can help with or anything else you would like to see included just let me know.

Motivational HIT Cardio Incline Run

Well I managed to get to the gym when my wife was on her break and I made it count today, I was so stoked with all the support. I went back to the HIT incline with a vengeance, here is today's:

21 minutes on the treadmill, 10KPH at all times:

1 min at 1% incline
1 min at 3% incline
1 min at 6% incline
1 min at 10% incline (last time I did this is was 9%, but your support sent this to 10% for each cycle...thanks)

I repeated this 5 times, that makes 20 minutes. The final minute is always added to increase from the last time , this is the minute you wave goodbye to the pain barrier, grit your teeth and make it count. So today I pushed the incline for the whole 21st minute up to 12%. Boy I was pleased to see the incline reducing when the time ran out, but I felt energised.

20 Minutes Ab workout

Then it was a 20 minute ab workout, again normally it is more like 10 but today I took it to the max. Weighted fitball crunches and side obliques, forward plank, side plank, leg raises, and about 3 others which I have yet to find a name for. Well, by the end of that 20 minutes my abs were done

Tomorrow is supposed to be the rest day but I am really stuck as to whether to rest. Normally it is a really important day and much needed time for the body to mend and repair so that it can live to burn the fat more efficiently another week. BUT should the body be rested in the midst of a shred, not sure....Any ideas?

Well I will sleep on that one. Good luck again one and all and if your not joining in I hope this is giving you the inspiration to start your own fitness journey.

Until tomorrow....

Day 25: RTP Group Shred & Supersets Upper Body

RTP Group Shred Countdown

It is currently early in the morning in Osaka, current base for RTP.com. In around 14 hours or so the first public group shed pics will be posted on the RTP site and mine will be included (10 people doing in the public shred). There are also a number of people (9 I think) doing a private shred, the only difference is that they will post the pics on their own blogs.

So please show your support by using the comments in this blog and also by going to RTP.com, the link is in the Blog Links section on the right and supporting everyone who is taking part. This is not a group competition, each person including myself are using it to either kick off a new start or to add additional motivation to are existing routines.

We are also joining in this to show are support for Adam, this 14 days are the last 14 in his Mission 3 and will see out the first year of his RTP blog, so we are showing are appreciation by joining in with him....Good Luck Adam.

Supersets

I tested out the new routine today as there were some new exercises for me and it went well. I reckon there will be a few aches and pains tomorrow!!

So what are supersets...supersets are essentially two exercises performed back to back that target opposing muscle groups, namely one agonist and one antagonist muscle group. Examples of such muscles are the biceps and triceps, hamstrings and quads, and chest and back

I will go through the exact routine's from Sunday onwards when I start in earnest. I will see how this goes but I will give it 110% focus over the next 2 weeks. I have to admit that I am still slightly skeptical about the drop in cardio but we will see what the results are like over the next 2 weeks.

This, I think is what it is all about, trying new methods and see if they work. Remember we are all different, so it may work for most but not for you and this is what can be most frustrating when you are trying to improve your fitness or lose fat. There are very few 100% guarantee's only opinions, recommendations, techniques and it is then down to you to try them, evaluate, tweak until they work for you or until you move on and try something different.

And remember just because you got great results in the first 3 - 4 weeks does not mean they will last forever, the body will adapt and in my experience generally quicker than you think so keep it guessing and change your routines, nutrition regularly.

That's it for me today, remember to check this blog and the RTP blog over the next 14 days, tomorrow is Day 1, it's going to be an interesting 2 weeks.

Until tomorrow....

Day 24: It's Stats Day again....(Week 5) Halfway!!

Well continuing from yesterday's blog, this week has not been great from a nutrition point of view in the evenings that is, the temptation got me 3 nights in a row. This is the first time in over 14 weeks though so I am quite pleased that I have gone this long and also that it was not an all out binge, it was an evening pudding.

The main thing is though that I have not fallen off the wagon, you do need to kick back at times in moderation or you will end up having an all out binge or just get fed up and stop all your efforts. I believe it's about moderation.

Historical Measurements

81kgs & 17.9% BF (19-Sep-2007) 14.49 kgs fat
80kgs & 17.2% BF (26-Sep-2007) 13.76 kgs fat
80kgs & 16.0% BF (03-Oct-2007) 12.80 kgs fat
79.5kgs & 15.9% BF (10-Oct-2007) 12.64 kgs fat
79kgs & 15.5% BF (17-Oct-2007) 12.24 kgs fat

The goal is 6% BF loss in 10 weeks, 4 weeks had me to 2.5%. So I have already held my hands up to a not so great week nutrition. My new routine kicks in for earnest tomorrow also so I will be very interested on what effect this has, more weights and less cardio!!!

Today's Stats

79kgs & 15.4% BF (24-Oct-2007) 12.16 kgs fat

So at the halfway point I have lost 2.6% BF which equates to 2.33kgs of pure fat which is 5.1 pounds. I have also put on 0.25 kgs of muscle, not much but it is going in the right direction. Hopefully the second half of the 10 weeks will see a difference. It will be interesting...

Today's Workout

Well I was going for something very different today but unfortunately the treadmills in the gym could not handle the job. The Bruce Treadmill Test calls for an incline of 22% and the gyms despite being very good can only manage 15% so my PT set-up one of the Wellness internal programs. Feel free to have a go at the above if you have access to a treadmill that can handle it, just Google the test name and you will get the details.

Basically it is a test which measures your VO2 Max, go to this link for more information on VO2 max and a nice table to tell you where you place:

http://www.runningforfitness.org/faq/vo2.php

VO2 max is: VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen in millilitres, one can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight.

So basically the more O2 you can utilise per minute per kg the more intensely or longer you will be able to exercise. My VO2 max came out at just above 47, and I am in the 30 - 39 age group category. Next week I shall try this without talking and paying more attention to the intervals that are set. This test was conducted on a stationary bike but there are various different tests which can be found here:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm

After this there was about 20 minutes of abs and then 10 minutes on the treadmill varying the incline and then the speed. So overall it was a fun and informative session today.

Go ahead give it a try.

Weight supersets tomorrow, confused about supersets, read tomorrow for a full explanation.

Until tomorrow....