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I’ve been lax about updating here, but that doesn’t mean I’ve slacked off (as much) in the real world. I’m still pushing forward with my pushups, still rowing, and still using the elliptical. The latter two have been a bit less regular than I’d like, but it is what it is. Soccer season has started. We have three kids playing and are coaching one team (plus helping with another) so the week is much more fragmented than normal.

Anyway, the point of all of this is to simply report that I’ve hit a plateau of sorts when it comes to pushups. I ran headlong into Week 5 and haven’t been able to make it through. I went through it (Column 1) in full the first time and fell short by a few reps on the max round each time. In hopes of rectifying this, I went back and added in my dumbbell routine on my pushup days (in the evenings following all other exercise). I also decided to repeat Day 1 a couple of times. I finally managed to complete it this past Friday, but that was by taking longer than the prescribed breaks, and a whole lot of struggling.

With that (minor) success in the back of my mind, I decided to tackle Week 5 again starting yesterday. Sadly, it didn’t go as well as I had hoped. I actually made it through, but I cheated by stretching the breaks and I ended up making it through the final thirty by raising my hips and arching my backside up for a brief respite on two different occasions (once at 20 and again at 25 reps). While I didn’t break down and touch the ground with anything other than my hands and my toes, I can’t help but feel as if I cheated.

Anyway, I’m sure I’m being too hard on myself, but it’s not much fun to get stuck in a rut and keep repeating the same thing without any real progress. Kinda reminds me of this…

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

- Benjamin Franklin

Perhaps the days of rapid progress are over with. Maybe I’ve come so far so fast by simply training the muscles that I already had. Assuming that I’ve reached my “natural” limits, perhaps I’ve slowed down because I need to start growing additional muscle to proceed any further. Who knows.

Like I said, it’s not a whole lot of fun. But what’s a guy to do? I think I’ll start by mixing things up a bit to see if I can break through. I’ll probably continue with the prescribed pushup workouts, but get a bit more creative with the dumbbells in hopes of making some progress.

This week, I’m embarking on Week 5 of the one hundred pushups challenge.

Required: 30/24/22/20/30+

I breezed through the first 30, had no problems with the next 24, started feeling it in the 3rd set (22), and managed to make it through the 4th set (20). Throughout the early sets I stuck tightly to the 60 second breaks, but I ended up taking an extra 30 seconds prior to the final set. I managed to make it up to 24 in the final set, but couldn’t squeeze out any more. But still, that’s 120 pushups.

Actual: 30/24/22/20/24

Looks like I’ll be repeating Week 5 again next week.

Over on my body weight log page, I noted that I’m 6′5″ and (currently) far from what I would consider “fat.” Nonetheless, I could stand to lose a few pounds, so I thought that it was high time that I formalized a goal. My approach thus far has been to simply focus on leading an overall healthier lifestyle, figuring that weight loss will be a natural byproduct of any changes that I make.

Back in March, when I first started getting serious about getting back in shape, I weighed in at 245.2 pounds. I was probably a bit heavier at the very beginning, because I didn’t buy a scale until about two weeks after I got back into it. As of this morning, I weighed 233.8 pounds. That corresponds to a loss of 11.4 pounds as a result of simply increasing my activity level.

So where do I want to be in the long run? As of right now, I’m shooting for 210 pounds as a longer-term goal. This corresponds to a BMI of 24.9, which would put me back into the “normal” range. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of one size fits all numbers like BMI, but 210 is a nice round number, and getting below 25 sounds like a decent goal.

How long will it take me to get there? It’s hard to say. At my current rate, we’re probably looking at a year or so. I’m sure I could get there considerably faster if I made weight loss a primary goal. However, I just don’t have a real sense of urgency about this — as long as I’m consistently headed in the right direction, I’m happy.

Long time, no write… We’ve been quite busy around here, and I decided that it would be best to focus on things like actually working out as opposed to simply writing about working out. The most noteworthy occurrences over the past couple of weeks have been a short, end-of-summer beach vacation and then the kids started back to school earlier this week.

Body weight

I missed my most recent Monday weigh-in, as we were on vacation. Prior to that, I was holding steady at 234.6 pounds. I’ll have a better idea where things stand on Monday morning.

Hundred pushups

My pushup performance is improving slowly but surely. When last I wrote, I had finished Week 3, Column 1. Since then, I successfully complete Week 4, Column 1. However, I struggled enough that I decided to drop back and repeat Week 3 and Week 4, though I jumped up to Column 2.

This strategy worked out quite nicely, as I made it through Week 3, Column 2 on my first try, and I also experienced my first 100+ pushup workout. I then proceeded to Week 4, Column 2. Once again, I successfully completed the prescribed workout, though my schedule was a bit out-of-sync due to our beach vacation.

I ultimately decided to do Week 4, Column 2 a second time, and… I just completed the third workout of the week, and felt quite good. I outperformed the prescribed number every day, including an extra 10 pushups on Day 2. For the week, I did 300 (!) pushups. Details for all recent workouts can be found on my 100 pushups log page.

Food

Still nothing to report here. I’m mainly keeping this section in for future motivation, but I haven’t done much in terms of modifying my diet.

Other exercise

I’m still struggling to accommodate rowing and pushups at the same time. I’m trying to limit my rowing to strength training days so I get a true rest in between workouts, but things don’t always work out this way. Ideally, my strength training days would include pushups, rowing, and some dumbbell work. The interceding days involving either the elliptical or nothing at all.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it’s been working out, so my rowing has been suffering. It’s not all bad news, though, as I’ve increased my use of the elliptical over the past few weeks. Of course, while we were on vacation, everything went out the window. I stuck with my pushups, but didn’t do much else. Of course, we spent a lot of time in the ocean, so I got a good bit of unintentional exercise swimming in the surf, boogy boarding, etc.

Time is a key aspect of most fitness routines. While my ergormeter and our elliptical both have built-in timers, when I’m doing other things (such as the 100 pushups routine) I have to keep time on my own. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done…

Over the years I’ve grown dependent on my cell phone and computer clocks. That means I don’t typically wear a watch, and I’m away from “real” clocks more often than not. Unfortunately, neither my cell phone nor my computer has a second hand, so it’s hard to time things with any level of precision.

So… What do I do?

For starters, my cell phone is a Palm Centro, so I have the entire universe of Palm-compatible applications at my disposal. After a bit of digging, I managed to find an excellent little freeware application called “Stopwatch.” As the name suggests, it’s a very simple little electronic stopwatch that’s just perfect for timing breaks between sets, etc.

Second, for those times when I’m working out near a computer (like when I’m doing pushups at work) but don’t have my cell phone handy, I rely the web-based Online Stopwatch. Here again, this is a very simple (and free) electronic stopwatch that’s perfect for timing various aspects of my workouts.

Of course, both of these options have their limitations (e.g., not everyone brings their cell phone when they go running, and pretty much nobody hauls along a computer). Nonetheless, they can be quite handy under the right set of circumstances.

A few weeks back, I wrote about my personal workout rules. Rule #1 was to never skip more than one day in a row without doing some sort of exercise (typically rowing or elliptical), whereas Rule #2 was to always finish what I start (barring injury). Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way and I’m not always able to abide by Rule #1. What with four kids, a full time job, and a side business, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day get everything done.

As much as it bothers me, I occasionally have to throw up my hands and skip my exercise routine on consecutive days. The good news is that I’ve found a workaround of sorts that allows me to do this without getting too down on myself. Whenever I slack off more than I should, I try to double up soon thereafter. This typically means hitting the elliptical in the morning and then adding in a rowing session in the evening.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not a fitness-obsessed lunatic. It’s just that exercising makes me feel good, and not giving myself an out helps keep me on track. So… If I know in the back of my mind that I’ll be making up for any missed workouts, I’m less likely to slack off in the first place. And by making up for lost time, I also keep myself (mentally and physically) on a roll.

Here’s a quick look at my fitness exploits this past week:

Weight

As usual, I started out the week by weighing in. For the second straight week, I weighed 236.4 pounds. I’ll be interested in seeing what tomorrow brings. I suspect it might be up a bit, as lived it up all last weekend and early in the week with friends from out of town. On top of that, I slacked off a bit on the workouts (more below).

Hundred pushups

I survived all three “Week 4” workouts this week, though Day 3 was a bit rough. For the week, I did 217 pushups. Once again, I stuck to the prescribed 60/90/120 second breaks. The nitty-gritty details can be found on my hundred pushups log page.

Given that I’ve been languishing way back in Column 1 since the last exhaustion, and that I barely made it through the week, I decided to skip the exhaustion test this week and repeat Weeks 3 and 4. There’s no real reason for this beyond a gut feeling that I need to build up a stronger based before moving forward. In the interest of continuing to push myself along, I’ll be bumping myself up into Column 2.

Food and drink

Not much to report here. I packed my lunch a couple of times this week and hit the cafeteria for fish (albeit fried) on Friday. Dietary changes haven’t figured very prominently into my plans thus far. Time will tell if that changes.

Other exercise

I got off to a slow start this week cardio-wise, as we had friends in town and I missed both Sunday and Monday. I got back on track Tuesday with a 1 km warmup row and 30 minutes on the elliptical. I then worked in a 7 km of rowing on Wednesday plus some free weights afterward (plus my pushups earlier in the day). I skipped Thursday and then really hit it on Friday with a 30 minute elliptical session before work, my pushups around mid-day, and then 7 km of rowing plus free weights at night. No formal exercise Saturday, though we spent a few hours at the pool.

Oh, I almost forgot… Saturday night I spent some time playing Wii Sports — I’m still undefeated against the computer in boxing (not really a huge accomplishment) and have now worked myself up to “Professional” level (1000+ points).

Well, it’s official… According to a recent report from the CDC, the obesity rate (i.e., the fraction of population with a BMI of 30 or more) in the United States has increased to 25.6%. This report makes the nationwide push to reduce obesity rates to less than 15% by 2010 almost laughable.

Overall, 45 states saw an increase over two years ago. This fittest state in the country is currently Colorado, though even their 19% obesity rate represents an increase since the previous survey. Three southern states (Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee) led the way with adult obesity rates in excess of 30%.

For the record, I currently fall into the “overweight” category, though I’m well on my way back into the normal range, and don’t have too much further to go.

[Source: newsday.com]

The other day I ran across the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), which is a test that all soldiers in the Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard have to pass twice a year. The APFT is made up of three components (pushups, situps, and running) and performance standards vary by sex, age, and enlistment status (new recruits vs. active duty).

Here’s how it works:

The test sequence is the push-up, sit-up, and 2-mile run (or alternate, aerobic event). The order of events cannot be changed. There are no exceptions to this sequence. Soldiers are allowed no less than 10 minutes, but ideally no more than 20 minutes, to recover between each event. Under no circumstances is the APFT valid if a soldier cannot begin and end all three events in two hours or less.

Performance on pushups and situps are both based on the maximum number of reps that you can pump out in two minutes, whereas the 2 mile run is simply a timed event. Your performance in each area then gets converted into a score, with a minimum score of 50 on each event required to graduate basic training, and a minimum score of 60 per event required for active duty personnel.

Standards for a guy like me

Here’s what a 37 year old guy like me would have to pass the test…

Pushups: 24 for basic training, 34 for active duty (chart)

Situps: 29 for basic training, 38 for active duty (chart)

2 Mile Run: 19:30 for basic training, 18:18 for active duty (chart)

Hmmm… Looks like I’d be able to serve. These aren’t exactly high standards.

Height and weight requirements for new recruits

In addition to the above fitness requirements, they also have weight restrictions based on your height, as well as percentage body fat requirements for all new recruits. In this case, the requirements differ slightly for those that have or have not previously served in the armed forces.

In my case (6′5″ with no prior service) I’m limited a max of 236 pounds, which is right about where I am. As far as % body fat goes, my limit is 28%. Again, not exactly high standards.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve started doing my pushups at work. The benefits are twofold. First, doing this provides me with a nice break during the day to clear my mind and get my heart pumping. Second, it allows me to squeeze in my pushups earlier in the day such that I have more time for the balance of my exercise regimen during the evening — this typically involves rowing (or elliptical) and/or dumbbell work.

While I realize that I’m fortunate in that I don’t have to dress up for work, and I have an office door that I can close when I need privacy, I’m sure that I’m not the only one that squeezes in a bit of exercise at work. What about you? Do you plop down for some pushups (or situps) in the middle of the day? Or do you sneak out and go for a run at lunch time? Any other tips for squeezing in some exercise will on the job?