get fit

I don’t know how, but right arm’s rotator cuff muscles hurt. It’s really cutting back on my workout routing. It even hurts when I run. And all the Halloween candy hasn’t helped either. My doctor put me on a program to strengthen the muscles, so I’ll start that today. Just when I was making some real progress, too.

I’m accomplishing two goals at the same time… I lost 10 pounds by exercising and lifting weights, and so now I have a 34-inch waist and I can finally bench press my own body weight.

I was using one of the machines to do it and I only did three reps, but next time I’ll do it proper on a bench with a barbell and go for the full 10. I can’t wait! I’ve always wanted to be able to do that!

I’ve modified my goals of how I define “fit” for me, and here’s my progress so far:

• Run a mile in 7 minutes: Probably accomplished, but I haven’t timed it. I can run a 5k (a little over 3 miles) in under 26 minutes, so I think if I go to a track and time 1 mile I should be able to do it.

• Bench press my own weight, 10 reps: Almost there! I did 3 reps on a machine today. I’ll probably be able to check this off in a week or two.

• do 30 chinups in a row (biceps): I can’t even do 1 clean one. I’ve been practicing on the assisted-machine but I need about 50 pounds of help to do 10 clean ones in a row.

• do 30 pullups in a row (lats): I can almost do 1 clean one, and need about 30 pounds of assistance to do 10. But getting closer.

• have a 34-inch waist: DONE! Losing 10 pounds and doing 15 minutes of ab work every other day did the trick!

After a few days of focusing on this goal, I’ve increased my max pushups from the mid 30’s to 45. Awesome!

I once read an article in a fitness magazine called “Are you a REAL man?”, and it listed several things that they said a real man (a fit man) should be able to do.

Here’s my version:

• run a mile in 7 minutes
• do 100 pushups in a row
• do 30 chinups in a row
• do 30 pullups in a row
• have a 34-inch waist

What I like about these goals is that I’m not specifying how much I should weigh. I used to think that if I dieted and exercized to lose those “last 20 pounds” that I would be able to do these things. But now I think it’s the opposite—by training to do these things, it will cause my body to lose weight. (And even if I don’t lose any weight, that’s ok… i’ll probably have a better muscle/fat ratio, and thus I’ll be fitter.)

• run a mile in 8 minutes
• do 30 pushups in a row
• do 3 chinups (in a row)
• do 3 pullups (in a row)
• have a 36-inch waist

Not bad. The upper-body strength will be key. And abs to get my waist down. Running should be taken care of by the 5k’s that I run 2 or 3 times a week.

I hope to be able to accomplish this by the end of 2006, but hell, I’ll be happy if I ever accomplish this one at all!!