New Leaf: Incremental Increase
July 13, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Castle, Fitness
Tags: 300, abs, bmi, fat, gym, happiness here i come, new leaf, the pain
One of my goals is to have abs like the ones painted on the Spartans in the movie 300. Then I can go around half naked on my segway wearing a red Spartan like cape and a bad ass helmet like King Leonidis. Oh yeah.
This last trip to the gym I upped the number of reps as well as adding a new set with more weight.
I did a total of 120 crunches.
4 sets of 20 - 80 lbs
2 sets of 15 - 100 lbs
1 set of 10 - 110 lbs
That last set of 10 at 110 lbs was tough, at first the thing didn’t move when I tried. Thankfully the gym was mostly empty because I’m pretty sure the sound I made was a grunting, growling, swamp-thing type scream as I willed my body to repeatedly lift the weights.
I also added a new machine that works my man boobs. I was feeling pretty weak from the ab cruncher so I only did - 1 set of 15 - 90 lbs
After taking a shower, I was too weak to dry off. So completely wet, I’m now weighing in at 181 lbs making my weight loss to about 24 lbs of fat. Which puts my BMI at 24.5, within the normal weight according to the body mass index calculator. I still have what looks like a deflated bicycle tire around my waist, but I’m getting there.
New Leaf: The Pain
June 18, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Fitness
Tags: abs, fat, gym, new leaf, the pain
I’ve been hitting the gym about 4 days a week I think. Same routine, I hit the bike then the treadmill. The amount of time varies, but nothing any more exciting than what I’ve already posted about.
Yesterday I decided it was time to try another machine, something to work my abs. All the machines really look like medieval torture devices, but eventually I found one with pictures on it, that looked like it should work the abdominal muscles. Now someone left the machine on like 140lbs of weight. I climbed into this contraption and tried to do a crunch. It was a little much to start out on. I massaged my ego by recalling the phrase “low weight. high reps”.
So I put the unit on 80lbs and did four sets of 20 crunches. Then one set of 10 crunches at 100lbs. I think that was pretty good to start.
Next I moved back to the usual machines, 40 minutes on the bike of eternal uphillness and 10 more minutes on the treadmill.
This morning I was in for a surprise, as I woke up and tried to sit up I felt an unusual and confusing pain. My abs were on fire. Getting dressed this morning proved to be unpleasant. My shoulders and triceps are a little sore as well.
