Just find it's rather distracting taking pics all the time though that's an essential part of charting progression. Chopped up whatever was on the phone for the above which I reckon pretty much sums things up
No, its definitely not some earth shaking transformation or social media influencer type commercial posting with a title like "How to gain 50 pounds of muscle mass in 10 months" or "Losing 200 pounds in 1 year". Physical aesthetic was one of the main initial motivation to get back into fitness but as things progressed...
...my long term personal fitness SMART Goal has been changed and remained since penning it down as:
To minimize the possibility of being a burden to anyone in time by maximizing on fitness and good nutrition on a daily basis from now on.
What follows is a really monotonous wordy account on making these life-changing decision(s)..
A journey of many things learned. Mistakes made leading back to ever more researching and discovery by the day.
Hopefully someone reading might find useful bits to take away in their own health and fitness journey.
Wakeup Call(s)
Boxing Day 2019 ...was asking myself from the reflection...
"What's that "abomination" in the mirror"
"That's right! It's ME". Never been heavier and rounder in my entire life... a burgeoning rotundness at 80kg and waistline of 34". It may seem normal to many but I was really feeling the years of neglect both physically and mentally. The sight of myself was a mental violation in itself. I have finally come to the dreaded "dad's bod" phase in life...
Sure I was cycling and running in the last 20 years and even got down to enduro-races and ultramarathons but nothing was consistent. Relied on the physique built during younger days and a naturally good stamina, I could still go heads on with some people half my age in the trails or tarmac. But yet, I could feel, everything is getting chipped away with age and time...
However it was only another few months later before I got back to jumpstart my life by running ...
...in Apr 2020.... when Work-From-Home started due to the Covid pandemic.
No one knew at that point how long it would last but was telling myself... "It's now or never, start doing something and be consistent this time..."
Two years later, this Apr came my second wake up call. Definitely shed off quite a bit by now. ~12.5kg to be exact after a mileage of ~5500km and generally eating well/ healthy with slight caloric deficit for 2 years.... Apr 2020 to Apr 2022.
... but that's when I learned of the term, sarcopenia. Nothing new really, all along have been watching older folks shrink as they age but just never thought much of it until now and how it would relate to myself.
Then the realization suddenly dawned that I was only another month away from 52 , so hell yes I am now a part of these "old people" I had been referring to up until now!
...09 Apr 2022- Mounted the pullup bar in the doorway. Installed years ago but hardly utilized... Tried to pull and totally freaked out when I couldn't even do ONE proper pullup! It's more than just a far cry from my hey days with double digits in the 20s and 30s
Pull up has always been special. Fond memories spanning more than 40 years... from literally zero to hero- rushing to the pullup bar during primary school rather than the tuckshop when the recess bell rang. Another classmate and I had decided one day we will master it after seeing another skinny kid from the class next door bouncing up and down rather effortlessly.
Couldn't remember how long it took us by now, but probably over a span of 9 months when we both finally were able to clear our chin over the bar for the first time? From there I continued pulling daily as we parted ways after primary school. I was the Godlet of Pullups in secondary school and in the army, never missing a day of pullup, rain or shine even after starting to lift weights at the gym at 16...
Sat there for the next half a day thinking what went wrong while various thoughts were revolving within the confines of the brain. Tried to justify that presently my cardio is pretty good from the past 2 plus years of running. Indeed at some point it is pretty impressive even if I say so myself... But it doesn't change the fact that I can't do a a single proper pullup now.
~20 Apr 2022 Did a stock-take of equipment at home and decided to train with what's available. No gym membership. Calculating the timing of going and getting back from gyms.. it just didn't make sense. With a full time job back in office now and my kind of traveling schedules that would surely be soon to follow with the re-opening.
Knowing only too well-- committing to going back to the gym will be Go-Big-or-Go-Home. No wussy hamster pacing on some treadmill for 30 mins and calling it a day. Then there is the unbearable thoughts of jostling for equipment with a thronging crowd in the gym! Sharing space with a bunch of sweaty people in a room... Nah.. No Thanks.
So I decided on a garage-style training. Only issue, staying in some cramped up apartment in a metropolitan city, my living room will also have to serve as the "garage" now. Have to make some adjustment to my decade long Minimalist lifestyle...
Dusted the bench, de-rusted the plates and fixed up the dip bars that were wasting away in storage...
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| The dodgy tricep pulldown pulling setup and the 5kg weight vest were the only 2 things added on in the next couple of months. |
The Start...
Had no inkling what I had to do or even where to begin. Raking the brain hard trying to recall things done in my teens and twenties in the gym...
Without a long bar, dumbbell press for chest were about the only major compound exercise possible. Followed by shoulder presses and raises, bicep curls and overhead tricep press.. Just a few fundamental exercises involving weights... Body weight wise, I did NO pullups (yet). Just dips, pushups and whatever I could remember using dumbbells.
Trying not to skip any day was difficult in the beginning. Muscle endurance strength simply wasn't up to par.
Often time in the first month, the mind was just saying to quit and acquiesce with the natural aging process... that all these weakening in life is simply inevitable.
While in a way we know that is true-- but WE CAN ALL DO THINGS TO SLOW IT DOWN.. so the middle-finger-sticking me kept defying the other me in the head.
Then there was this "fear". Unfounded, but somehow recalling the first day when I can't even do one pullup probably had a deeper psychological impact than I realized. Kept telling myself it would be just conditioning until ready to mount the bar again - as an excuse not to even go near the pullup bar!
Kept finding a ton of other reasons too -- the pain in the shoulder was an annoyance to deal with when trying to to do any pull exercises or do bicep curls... It was a rotator cuff and proximal bicep tendinitis issues at the same time, both on the left.
So there is some truth but the real blockage to just jump up and hold the bar was a mental incarceration manifested from my own "fear". The fear that after grabbing the bar, I am still unable to do a proper rep.
Kept fighting this for ~2 months and persevered largely with weight training using just dumbbells. Putting ego aside and started really light initially to work my way up. I was feeling like a total noob and klutz every evening. Dumbbell bench press was the greatest indicator of where I was, progression. Did lots of rotator-cuff recovery exercises with resistance bands too.
The irony was at my age now, muscle mass actually rebounded quite a bit and gained much faster than when young! Have written previously this is attributed to having more information to train effectively and good nutrition plus proper rest nightly now. In comparison to younger days, I was buying protein powder based on what's advertised in bodybuilding magazines. Just trying to follow exercises touted and said to be good without any proper research of my own. Sleep were more often than not short changed, never mind about being regular. All my extra time were spent in a billiard salon; honing the other interest of mine then. Nutrition?... yea sure can eat a lot in those days but without discrimination and not knowing much about nutrient balance. The follies and ignorance of youth!
If only I knew as much then as I do now... Anyway,
2.5 months later, 25th Jun 2022 , I went out to find a pullup bar and did 4 ok reps which kick started the tracking of my journey on this blog... Reckon I have to eventually start somewhere and that 4 reps really boosted my confidence!
Yes, I was too afraid to do pullups until now but had "discovered" things like planche, muscleup and handstand-pushups in the last few months which were prematurely identified as my "goals" to come from watching tons of Youtube video of impressive calishtenics athletes. Not knowing that most of these exercises would require at least months if not years of training to perform.
There was a little more confidence regained too ... dumbbell press that started out shakily with 35lb per side has reached 52lb and I was attempting 63lb with my quick adjustable Nuobells next.
Training started shifting away from weights to more calisthenics especially once the "daily" pullup routine began in Jul.
"Daily"-- is defined as each day with workout but the tiredness still left many gaps in the first month of logging.
Started keeping 2 logs by now... one mainly numbers on an Excel file and the other on this blog included a monthly reflection since Jul.
Updated: Monthly Log snapshot in numbers
Excel neatly sums things up to give an overview in a quick glance, much like my daily sales tracking spreadsheets at work, letting me respond quickly to changes and set or re-set intermediate goals.
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| Jul tracking on Excel- first full month log |
What started out as unfounded apprehension quickly escalated in numbers- for the pullups. Reaching the first set with double digit of 10 pulls on 21st Jul, felt like some grand achievement. A set of 10 consecutive pullups has eluded me for more than a decade by now... if not longer.
The 40 pullups jump-start on 2nd Jul was probably the hardest day to complete. In retrospect I was truly overcooking it. Took everything out of me the following day and I was only doing crunches and nothing else, upper body was simply too sore. The 40 reps were split into 2 sessions of 20 which took 16-17 times mounting the bar that day ! Pathetic!
Next was setting more realistic goals... 20 total in a session per day, while working my way to lesser and lesser sets to complete and aim for double digit pull/set etc. Basically it was chopping things up into bite size pieces/ waypoints, gain consistency before moving on, be it in total volume or max rep/ set
Pullups, dips and pushups (almost all as diamond pushups) forms my Daily Trinity of Upper Body Training right from the beginning. The AirSquats and DragonFlag came later in Oct, hence nothing was recorded in Jul. The days with specific body parts indicate apart from the daily fundamentals, it involves weight training as well.
Aug was the start of the "conditioned" month, increasing and re-setting intermediate goals every few days, except for the 15in1 set max rep which while took a while to achieve. Then in the midst of the zealousness, I strained the right elbow... Medial Epicondylitis or aka Golfer's Elbow. Still I pushed on to hit the first 1K pullups/mth.
The strength conditioning improvement were seen in other exercises like pushups and dips. From sets to failure at 9-14 reps for the diamondsPU after completing dumbbell press... it went on to become straight 20 or more reps before failure. Straight sets from fresh were maxed out in larger numbers.
Similarly with dips... started with 10-15 per set and work up to 20s and 30s. Somehow for someone with less than stellar shoulder proportions and shoulder injuries, my dipping was relatively strong. I took notice and began to use dips to train chest further by making every rep going down deep and back to full extensions. Dips also helped in my rotator cuff recovery somehow...
The road to 6 packs...
Another genetic bonus for being an ectomorph, the top portions of my rectus abdominus has more or less always been there all my life... and in a large part I have attributed it to all the pullups and whatever bar-time I spent on those metal rods in earlier days. Hated sit ups which till today I still do not believe in and thus hardly ever did those except when in the army when it was mandatory for the physical fitness proficiency test.
Hence I am quite certain popping the washboard has little to do with sit ups.. a bit of a misguided thought as I thought that extended to all other abs exercises.
However, upon dabbling further into calisthenics and seeing others do dragon flags, front levers and human flags and various forms of L-sit, it dawned on me that whether exercises work or not-- these guys have some serious looking 6 packs to hold themselves up. More often than not it also came with well defined obliques.
Went right into a dragonflag with no flipping idea what it entails.... only to FAIL, spectacularly if I must add, into a "caterpillar-flag" back in May 2022.
Kinda like pullup, I had another mental block and never tried it again. But at the same time the mind was moving in a new direction to firm up on the abs.
August-- was asked by colleagues to conduct workout sessions after work on Thursdays. Given that the other session of the week by another colleague focuses on HIIT and other more vigorous work, I thought having a slower pace with more stretching and an abs focus session would be complementing.
Though I must admit this whole planning had some "selfish" inclinations on my part. Had to force myself to jump start my own abs training-- by doing so, like it or not, there will be one day a week that I will have to forcibly include into my own program.
Whatever objectives or intention there was-- this actually rolled into a much bigger effort by coming up with different exercises. It was continually refined and changing to make things as effective and do-able for everyone (as fitness level, mobility and flexibility was across a broad range of people). Something I touched on in Oct Reflections. By which time my dragon flag was at least up to par... or so I thought...
To further up keep with more intensity of the abs regime, L-sit Chin Ups were added in my daily training since Nov. A multi-pronged exercise. L-sit part is for the abs but using Chin Ups instead of Pull Ups because I find I was not up to par due to the lack of upper back strength to hold the L sit when at full arm length extension. Chin up is also a good way to work the biceps further to more bicep curls later on (yes, there is still a bit of niggling at the elbows and shoulder when doing curls). Doing slow controlled L-sit Chin Up is like the best of all worlds combined...
But the most important thing I came to realize about having the definitions in the midsection and I mean more than just the 6 packs.. includes the obliques and back cores (ie your lower back) is NUTRITION... more on that below. No proper nutrition equals no six packs.
Progression: From "caterpillar-flag" in May, to proper hyper leg extension in Oct and finally-- Hyper-extension "Touchdown" in Nov 2022
Legs work
From upper body muscle groups to abs-- got it covered by now.
Legs? Yea, especially since I'm not running much anymore, the thought has always been at the back of the mind....
Added AirSquats and some days will do Goblet Squats -- Squatting became part of the daily menu a couple weeks before the DragonFlag in Oct. In the beginning when the DragonFlags were added- I superset them with the squats on most days.
Can definitely add on Bulgarian Split Squats, Pistol Squats and others-- but by now (Oct/ Nov) I have learned and mentally reinforced the importance of being sensible and not try to do too many things at once... This is another pitfall for many when they try to get into a regular fitness lifestyle.. Too many things and too many changes all the time.
Progression and sensible addition is a long road. This is one never ending journey and one I hope not to see an end to, unlike most other things in life. So let's savor one at a time.
For the lower legs, thankfully genetics is there again for me-- with some help after years of Chi Running... its just maintenance with body weight calf raises and lots of soleus pushups while sitting down now. Having said, proper calves training is one of the few things I miss about not having a gym with all the weights necessary to train them. But I'm already planning up some thing for the calves while typing here.. Those will be incorporated for 2023 routines.
(Update: 30 Dec 2022 -- did my first longer ride in over a year, 55km from home to Changi Coastal and back--surprisingly felt nothing on the quads and used good ol' Coastal Road as benchmark to my older ride data-- speed, cadence and everything is still on par despite not having ridden for so long - I can only think it's from the positive effects of doing regular squats these past few months...
Food and Nutrition
At the same time I was getting deeper into researching nutrition and interested in getting back a full 6 pack. Wasn't looking to body building competition kind of ripped which really isn't unsustainable for long and rather unhealthy as it is putting the body into a severely strained metabolic state.
Just wanted to be "beach-lean"
Like most, I was stuck in the "stubborn" area from the navel down. Not too shabby but more tuning work needs to be done.
Having long known for that aspect-- it really boils down to nutrition more than anything else. At the same time all the suggestions on my social media and Youtube were directed towards keto diet for some reason...
After reading much of it from different angles, many things does make sense but I just wasn't quite convinced to go all out in changing my diet like that. Our modern diet and even the recommended ones are simply too carbo rich. Keto on the other hand is way high on fats which in my opinion actually is a very restrictive diet.
Started with reducing carbohydrates even more than the past 2 years, especially starchy carbs. Already been mostly refined sugar-free for few years prior, the rest now was cutting down on snacks after dinner. Not a lot but I do eat some from time to time.
With this change it means having to go with less "useless" calories. Normal rice was changed out to basmati instead of the usual Thai Fragrance grains. Cut down to maybe just 3-4 times a week. Rest of the time its either no main carb fillers like rice but replace with soba or quinoa instead. Rice wasn't the problem, it was "quitting" noodles that's more difficult but slowly over time....
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| Seafood Paella using basmati grains-- a weekend meal |
While not going super high on calories from fats like what a keto diet would suggest, I ramped up on protein. Reckon that if I really had been low on carbs and the body somehow needs more (certain parts of the brain and some parts of heart muscle can only utilize glucose), gluconeogenesis from protein will still provide enough in this pathway not to go into any kind of metabolic dysfunction. I'll also have protein supplement in the day, usually mid-morning and or during/post workout with protein powder, creatine monophosphate, BCAA and sometimes with yogurt added.
More red meat is added back into meals. Yes with that comes saturated fat of course. But by now I am also not subscribing to the typical "healthy" diet of low saturated fats, less red meat mantra promoted by most.
Frankly, all our recommended daily diet proportion are typically outdated or skewed because of our modern diet. Its just too vast a topic here so will have to leave it to another day.
But by and large, meals are simple as they have always been for the past few years. Only the proportion of macro nutrients are being tweaked and roughly made sure I'm not into caloric deficit like the last 2 years while focus on running and trying to lose weight.
Packed most of my lunch to work since going back to office in Feb. In terms of nutritional profile, they are pretty much similar to dinners...
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| The most ballistic month till date for number of times "chin-above-the bar" |
Dec- Lived with the on and off pain and started off with another work trip to Paris. No pullups but this time I made sure everyday was a work-out day be it at the hotel gym or in the room.
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And finally it caught up to me after ~3 years... COVID. Full vaccinations and booster did jack-off to prevent an infection... Positive on the day of touching back down in SG and totally zoned out for the next 72 hours.
There was only one thing one the mind... how to catch up to my final fitness SMARTGOAL of 5000 pullups.. It became the biggest battle so far. The FINALE for 2022. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone just recovering from sickness... but I did it with measured logic by easing in the numbers and tested my cardio/ HR and other observations before the full onslaught to complete the goal on 28th Dec 2022. More rambling on that is in my Dec Reflections. but here's the summary log of the past 6 months strength-training journey
And thus a closing to Training 2022... on to 2023 now.
Yes 5015 pullups in 6 months since tracking....
from not able to do a single one in Apr
