Mike v 3.0: Better, Faster, Stronger

Starting information

2010-03-22T13:34:00.000-04:00

As part of this project, I’m going to be making more of a concerted effort to read up on standard nutritional and exercise advice. I’ve obviously read some about these things in the past, but there’s a lot of misinformation out there. Undoubtedly, some of what I think I know at the start is wrong. Still, let’s see what I think I know about these topics to begin with:

Things I think I know about diet:

The most important consideration is calories in – calories out. If it’s a negative quantity, weight will be lost; if it’s positive, weight will be gained. % breakdowns of protein, carbohydrates, and fat are much less important than total caloric consumption.

A pound of fat is 3500 nutritional calories (which are kilocalories in a strict scientific sense, but for the purposes of weight we refer to them as calories). A daily deficit of 500 calories is thus sufficient for a pound of fat loss per week. This is near the limit of what can be maintained over the long term without triggering the starvation response.

A larger number of smaller meals is the ideal.

When trying to lose fat or gain muscle, it is critical to increase protein intake to prevent muscle loss, up to around 30% of calories.

Too high of protein intake over the long haul can lead to organ trouble, as the kidneys in particular work to detoxify the amino acid excess.

Consumption of dairy products does seem to lead to a higher amount of fat loss than a calorically equal diet without dairy products. I do not believe the reasons are well known.

Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are preferable to processed/juiced ones, as they contain the additional fiber and what nutrients are stored in the sections left out of the finished product.

A serving of meat is 3 oz. This is smaller than the typical hamburger patty. Most people eat far more servings of meat than they realize.

Beware too strict of a diet – it tends to set people up for failure, and many people when they fail stop making any effort. Instead, aim for sustainable, long-term better choices, and accept that there will be days or even weeks where you don’t follow your own guidelines.

Most vegetables, other than beans and potatoes (which must be cooked) are better for you either raw or steamed. Fresh and frozen are roughly equivalent in nutrients; canned varieties lose some of their benefit. Stewing and boiling vegetables can leach out many nutrients if the broth is not consumed.

Most meats are healthiest baked or grilled. Poaching and stewing are also perfectly acceptable. Frying should be kept to a minimum, with the possible exception of very high heat, low cooking time, minimal oil frying like using a wok.

It is impossible to spot reduce fat. Fat deposition is different among different people, but generally follows the LIFO policy: last in, first out.

Things I think I know about exercise:

Proper form is more important than weight used or repetitions performed.

Skeletal muscles need at least 24 hours of rest before substantially challenging the same ones again. This includes the abs. Sometimes, 48 hours can be needed. For smooth muscle, changing the type of exertion can allow daily activity, but you should leave a day in between doing the same general type of activity.

Higher weight with fewer repetitions leads to mass. Lower weights with more repetitions leads to definition. For adding weight, look for the most weight you can maintain proper form with for 6-8 repetitions. To tone, look for 12-15 repetitions.

Stretching is better performed after exercise than before; loosening up joints prior to exertion can lead to hyperextension.

Your body will adjust to anything done at the same intensity repeatedly. If you want to keep improving, you need to change something: the exercise, the weight, the speed, the distance, the grip, etc.

For the ectomorph, focusing on large muscles in multijoint exercises (eg the bench press, the pull-up, the deadlift, the squat) will yield far better returns than focusing on smaller muscles in isolation exercises (such as the bicep curl).

Week 1 in review

2010-03-22T00:41:00.001-04:00

Week 1 in Review

Whether or not this week was a success depends on how I view it. I did a good job tracking things, I went down roughly a pound (156.6 according to the scale this morning), and I established a baseline in fitness in a couple of exercises. On the other hand, I didn’t work out as much as I should have, and a few of my days were less than stellar food choices.

Things which went well this week:
Attempting to get back into the swing of things running has been going nicely. 20 continual minutes of running, followed by 4 of walking, and 5 more of running, put me well ahead of the plan on Wednesday.

Wednesday also saw me hit the gym and try out the bench press and the chin-ups to see what my current capacity is. Plugging the bench press numbers into this site projects a 1 rep max of 155-157 pounds. That’s a relatively small number, but should prove useful given how many workout plans suggest that you work at a certain % of your 1-rep max.

When the gym closed earlier than I had planned on Saturday, I wasn’t able to do the cardio I had planned on. However, I realized that working in one of the taller buildings on campus gave me a convenient substitute: the 198 stairs from the basement to the penthouse. According to this, one stair is roughly 0.11 kcal going up, and 0.05 going down; in other words, 1 calorie per 9 stairs going up, and 1 calorie per 20 stairs going down.

Things which I should improve:
My food choices were questionable on Wednesday in particular. Days in which I have multiple lab meetings and/or seminars seem to lead to unhealthy food that I rarely purchase for myself. Most realistic solution: plan for particularly healthy breakfasts and dinners on such days. Even better solution: limit my consumption of the less healthy options presented.

Problems which cropped up this week which were not entirely my fault:
Migraines. The job of a grad student is relatively flexible, and two days this week I had bad enough headaches to go home as soon as I had done what work couldn’t be put off without harming the data. I sat in a dark room until I felt better, rather than hitting the gym. I haven’t had migraines this bad since high school – since then I’ve been averaging somewhere around 1 every 3-4 months. I’m hoping this week was an anomaly on this.

Things to keep in mind for next week
Saturday will almost certainly be a day of unhealthy food – it’s a once-a-month gaming day at a friend’s house, the last of which involved mostly junk food and pizza. I don’t want to make a big deal of not partaking, so I will instead a) make sure I eat before I go over, and b) make sure my other days of food choices are correspondingly healthy.

If I avoid the migraines, I want to work out more often this coming week than I did this past week.

What I think I need to work on, and why

2010-03-15T13:00:00.002-04:00

In thinking about what I want to improve, it only makes sense to also explain why this is helpful.

Cardio function. The way my brain works, cardio function is the best overall indicator of fitness. It's what will let me play the sports I enjoy, take the stairs, go for a hike when the weather's nice, etc. I'm fine with the walking and stairs bit already; my current problem is endurance for anything more strenuous than walking. I have exercise induced asthma. Without my inhaler, I can last about 15-16 minutes into a run before I get black spots in my vision, which is a sure sign of anoxia. If I try to run further than this, a few minutes later I will feel like a sheet has been wrapped so tightly around my torso that I can't move my ribs. With my inhaler (a preventative albuterol one), I still end up stopping my run due to my breathing become labored, but in a way that doesn't make me feel like I'm about to die. Because of this, the sports I've done most often in my life have either been sprints (which are over before I gasping), or are sports with lots of small stops built in (tennis, volleyball, fencing, etc). Long distance running is bad for me; soccer and frisbee are even worse. I'm turning to running from 1 to a handful of miles -- with my inhaler -- as a way to improve my endurance, give me a wider option of sports, and because it's one of the most universal and least equipment-dependent ways to assess cardio function.

Upper body strength. My current muscular development is highly disproportionate. Unlike many men who have worked out for several years, it's my lower body that's overbuilt compared to my upper body. Specifically, my arms and shoulders seem to be the weakest link in my system. They're the muscles that give out first on just about any exercise, even ones that aren't supposed to be primarily targeting them. For instance, I can't hold enough weight with my upper body to challenge my legs and rear when doing squats, so I turn to the leg press machine. I'm also interested in doing more swimming, and this will benefit greatly from improved upper body strength.

Vertical leap. This one is purely recreational. I enjoy volleyball, but I can't seem to work out the timing for my spikes. I know that I should be able to jump high enough to spike with a downward trajectory -- I can jump high enough to block spikes from men several inches taller than me -- but it's just not working. If I can add an inch or two to my vertical leap, it'll let me swing with a more downward momentum, instead of always having to aim for the baseline.

Flexibility. Our flexibility naturally decreases as we get older, and this is a large part of what leads many elderly people to be somewhat crippled. My hamstrings are ridiculously inflexible, and have been my whole life. But if I can improve them now, they might not tighten up as much as they would otherwise, and I'll have more range of motion when I'm older.

Posture. I don't have any back problems. Yet. But I know that lots of people develop them in their late 20s and 30s. If I can balance out my back and my front, so that my natural resting position is properly aligned, I will reduce the chances of developing a bad back.

Visible muscle This is two-fold: vanity and convenience. It's vanity because I do honestly want to be more attractive, and I think adding 10 or so pounds of muscle would help with that. As far as convenience -- it is legitimately difficult for a thin but not short man in a small city in the US to find clothing that fits. Finding a 36L suit turned out to be literally impossible in my city; I had to buy 1 of the 6 available 38L suits (found among the 11 different clothing stores I tried) and have it taken in. Size small shirts and sweaters inevitable sell out faster than any other size. Adding some visible muscle to my chest and shoulders would probably mean I could find clothing more easily.

Lower body fat This is both functional and vain. It's vain because if I'm going to be thin (as my genetics pretty much mandate -- I can be either generally thin, or possibly a thin guy with a gut), I'd like to at least get the consolation prize of having nice abs. It's also functional in that I know my father's metabolism gave out in his 30s, and adding fat to your belly is quite bad for you, health-wise. By paying more attention to what I eat, I will be less reliant on my freakish genetic metabolism to keep me thin, and thus keep down the risk of heart disease and diabetes and all the rest.

First pass at the goals

2010-03-15T12:49:00.000-04:00

I have a number of goals in mind for what I'd like to get done by the end of this project. Here are some rough outlines, grouped in a way that makes at least some sense to me as a starting point.

Performance:
1. Run a 5k in under 25 minutes
2. Run a mile in under 6 minutes
3. Be able to do 100 pushups
4. Be able to do 20 pull ups
5. Be able to bench press my body weight for a set of 6 reps
6. Be able to touch my toes without bending my knees
7. Lower my resting heart rate to 60 bpm or less
8. Increase my VO2 max to 50 (mL / kg / min)
9. Achieve perfect posture
10. Make my strength proportional

Appearance:
11. Lower my body fat to < 10%
12. Add visible muscle to the chest
13. Add visible muscle to the shoulders
14. Add visible muscle to the upper arms
15. Round out my rear end

Let's get the ball rolling

2010-03-15T12:05:00.000-04:00

Introducing the Mike 3.0 Project:

     I turned 29 last week. For a variety of reasons – some more legitimate than others – I’ve not been spending as much time in the gym as I would like the past few months. I’ve also put on a few pounds of fat; it’s unclear whether that’s been from inactivity, poor dietary choices, or a slowing metabolism. But I’m recovered enough from the medical reasons to take a fresh lease on my exercise. I’m also reasonably bright, and have read a decent amount about exercise and nutrition over the past few years to have the idea that I can make some positive changes.

     I’m currently on physical build 2.0 in my life. Build 1.0 lasted from about when I first have memories to roughly 24-25, when I was best described as “emaciated famine victim.” I then put on about 20 pounds of muscle (which is utterly ridiculous when you see how little I have to show for it now; I was insanely thin) in about 2 years…and then hit a plateau. Now, after being relatively inactive for several months – and not taking my exercise or diet as seriously as I should have for several years – I’m ready to take the next year to see what I can make of myself.

     I want to up this to build 3.0. I’m giving myself a year to do this; that way, excuses like “This week isn’t normal because I’ve got a friend’s birthday party” can’t enter into the system. If those things come up often enough over a year to matter, then they are normal, and I need to deal with them.

     I have some performance goals in mind. For example, I want to be able to run a 5k in under 25 minutes (which I know is slow, but I do have asthma, so that will mean something to me). I want to be able to do a single mile in under 6 minutes, consistently – I’ve only ever done that once. I want to improvement my flexibility so that I can touch my toes without bending my knees. I want to get my posture such that my default, natural resting state is proper, not hunched over. But those are pretty boring. Let’s look at the appearance ones now.

This is me at the start of this project:

For those who want numbers:

Height: 6 foot
Weight: 158 pounds
Waist: 30.75 inches
Wrist: 6.5 inches
Chest: 36 inches
Rear: 36 inches
Shoulders: 43.5 inches
Bicep: 13 inches
Thigh: 21.75 inches
Calf: 14.25 inches
Forearm: 10.5 inches

The sport where I match the build most closely at the moment is probably long distance running.

     My ideal build: diver. Toned, visible muscle, lean, balance between upper and lower body development, no vascularization. I’m thinking that a weight of 165 and a body fat of roughly 9-10% is the target; we’ll see (assuming I get there), how much it needs to be adjusted. Divers are also hot, in my opinion. Much hotter than I am. Now. But that doesn’t mean that it will always have to be so.

     I have no idea what that will translate to for the other measurements. Anyone who thinks that they can come up with what that will mean for any of the standard body dimensions guys measure, leave a comment. I’ll be happy for the input.

The current game plan:
1) Make an appointment with a personal trainer. This will let me get my current fitness level evaluated, including a caliper-based measurement of what body fat I’m starting with. My home scale claims 11.4%, but it’s based on electrical impedance, and I would not be surprised to find out that I’m really more like 14%. Also, I will get his/her expertise on judging my form when executing certain exercises. I’ve found I need to modify some from the standard advice (eg I can’t keep my weight on my heels when squatting without falling over. I assume it’s better to shift some weight to my toes than to change the angle of my torso, but I’m not actually sure of that.); and there are a few exercises I would like to do but want to be coached on how to do the correctly so I don’t hurt myself (eg: deadlifts). Finally, I can get him/her to help me design an exercise routine that meets both my performance-based goals (such as achieving a respectable 5k time and improving my hamstring flexibility so that I can touch my toes) and my appearance based ones, while taking into account my particular strengths and weaknesses.
2) Record my food consumption. I’ve said before that the only way to know how to properly change your diet is to know what you’re already consuming.
3) Meet with a nutritionist. One of the advantages of being a student at a giant university is the number of available resources. I’m betting I can find a nutritionist who can help me figure out what’s best for me in a realistic, long-term-sustainable way of altering what I eat to meet my goals.
4) Read and summarize standard advice. I live in an area with a great library system. I can go through both books (such as Fitness for Dummies) and magazines (such as Men’s Health), both for exercise and for nutrition, and see what advice is consistent and what is contradictory. I plan on looking at some of the major internet resources too, such as RealJock and the Well Blog at the NY Times. I will also make an effort to examine the major lifestyle diets out there – things people claim to be able to sustain for a year, not just a couple of weeks – and see what in them makes sense.

The questions for you:
1) How much detail do I tell the trainer? I’ve never had an in-person personal trainer session in my life. And, realistically, I will not be able to afford one on a consistent basis. I will be purchasing a package deal of a handful of sessions, which I feel will give me enough time to be evaluated, have my form checked, and get some workouts designed. Obviously, (s)he’ll need to know my long-term performance goals and the time-frame I’m looking at to achieve them, how often I can work out and for how long at a stretch, etc. Do I also include appearance goals? If so, do I bring a picture of the kind of body I want?
2) How realistic do you think this project is?
3) Is there any particular book/exercise plan/diet plan/internet resource you suggest I should look at? I won’t take anything as gospel just because someone on the internet suggested it, but some of you have had results under specific plans, and others might be curious enough about something to want a summary of it, but not yet curious enough to go through the hassle of reading the primary source yourself.