As predicted, I woke up pretty sore yesterday (day 4 was yesterday but I am a day behind in my writing). Cable flyes really seem to hit my inner chest more than my other exercises (though, as you might know, there is no “inner chest” in reality – it’s a perception).
Day 4 was another travel day but the flight was pretty short. Should I pack a meal for the flight or not? I decided not.
Before I tell you if that was the right choice or not, I wanted to share with you a question I got from a reader/customer because I think it will inspire you and help you progress smartly. It comes from Jorge Ochoa:
Hello darrin
i am new in this stuff of fitness and muscles, but all my life i wanted to be more muscular, i am a man of 39 years that my weight before starting your program was 150lb now after a month is 159 lb but my fat goes from 16.9 % to 12.3 % in the same time i am 5.11 1.80cmt
my question is, i do the warm up, the exercises and then cardio and i finished so tire, what can i do???
He then gives some details of his workout (I believe he’s using my FullBodyAttack program) and then ends with this question:
i am doing the right things, or you should think that i have to change something???
What do you think? Should he change anything? [p.s. of course, I got his permission to share this]
The correct answer is NO, he shouldn’t change anything!!!!
He dropped 4.6% bodyfat AND gained 9 pounds of muscle. In ONE FREGGIN’ MONTH!
Now, I don’t care who’s program you are using – mine, your own, or some other routine you bought. That’s incredible progress. [Disclaimer - only beginners can see this kind of progress and even then, this is exceptional.]
So what lessons should you take from this?
a) He tracked is progress. If you don’t track it, you can’t have any objective evidence about effectiveness.
b) He didn’t know what amazing results he was getting – he had no experience so he didn’t know his results were already astonishing. That’s why you need peers/mentors to help you get a reality check.
c) He was actually considering changing his routine. Now, as I said in (a), he just didn’t know. But you are probably not making as much progress as him. And so you are probably thinking you need to switch your program. Most likely, the answer is no, you don’t.
What is realistic for progress? Well, it depends on a million factors but generally, if you are shooting for fat loss you might be able to lose 2 pounds of fat (not muscle folks, fat) a week in the beginning and then it will slow to 1 pound a week. For muscle gain, you might be able to gain 1 pound of muscle a week for the first month or two, but after your first year, you will be lucky to gain 1 pound of muscle a month. And for highly trained individuals, progress is slower. Even on the BEST programs.
So, don’t get frustrated if you see slow progress. We all want to progress faster. But as long as you are making progress, keep the faith.
Now, on to my Day 4 Experience.
Day 4 Workout
Another lesson in flexibility here, but this is premeditated flexibility. Normally I would have done a leg day, then take a day off. But I have a real treat planned for Day 5. I’m really, really excited but you’ll have to wait to hear about it until it’s done. Needless to say, it involves legs and so I didn’t want to go into Day 5 worn out.
So I treated Day 4 as a recovery day – I did a brisk 1 mile walk, then a slow 1 mile run, then another brisk 1 mile walk. Just mobility and calorie burn. (By the way, science has shown that running 1 mile, walking 1 mile, and jogging 1 mile all burn about the same calories (around 100). How can this be? you ask. Well I guess it’s just how we humans were designed for foot travel. But here’s the key – the faster you run, the shorter your workouts. So if you have 30 minutes available to you, in that fixed you could run 3 miles [300 calories] or walk 1.5 miles [150 calories]. Note that these are approximate – there are slight variations in calorie burn, and fat vs. carbs that are burned, but let’s not get too complicated here.]
I was also planning to do static stretches (which I never do before lifting – I only do dynamic stretching then) but I ran out of time. I did a little stretching at the airport but that can be embarrassing…
Day 4 Eating
Not a great day, I’m sorry to say. I started off great: 4:30 am I had protein+skim milk w/ protein powder, plus the rest of my strawberries. Then 2 hrs later for second breakfast I had a big glass of milk to finish it off. But no fruit or veggies.
For first lunch, I hit the breakfast buffet (again) and ate similar to what I ate on Day 2 but just a little lower in quantity. Because my body was still on east-coast time, this first lunch was around 10:30 in the morning.
So far so good right? Generally balanced, low calorie, clean eating.
But remember my decision to not pack a lunch for the airport? Bad move.
As I entered my gate area, I passed a TJ Cinnamons. Smelled pretty good.
But I got there with enough time to buy a meal so I resisted. However, this was a small airport and the lines for “real food” were super long. So I wandered over to a different gate area. Same thing. Oh, and to get to the other gate area I had to pass TJ Cinnamons again. (You can probably predict where this is headed…)
I remembered that I had a cucumber in my bag so I ate that. Whew. That helped but by this time I was really, really hungry. And I now was near boarding time and had to get back to my gate. And that meant passing TJ Cinnamons yet again…
So I broke down. I bought a delightful little (actually, huge) cinnamon roll with icing and pecans, plus a milk (I knew I needed some protein to slow down all that sugar).
And it was bliss.
I didn’t get the calorie content of that “meal” but I’m sure it was over 1000.
So I made a mental note to myself: that can’t happen again. Eating junk is fine, but I need to plan that ahead of time. This was not planned.
For dinner, I ended up having just one meal (instead of two) because that second “lunch a la cinnamon” was heavy. My dinner was a baked chicken breast sandwich, with tomato and onion, and I ate the bread it came on but substituted the fries with broccoli. I also had a nice bowl of filet mingon chili which was really yummy. Plus I treated my self to an adult beverage.
So, a weak day for me on Day 4. But Day 5 is going to be killer. Stay tuned…
Just starting out with weightlifting? Want to get bigger muscles this winter?
Get my full-body lifting routine here: FullBodyAttack!
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Tags: diet, traveling workouts
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November 14th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I notice you use a lot of protein powder. I have done so in the past, but it’s pretty expensive. Any suggestions for people on a more limited budget?
Also, don’t you lose the “thermic effect” of the protein this way? I’m sure it is a good way to get complete, lean protein into your system quickly, but it seems to bypass the benefits of increasing your metabolism. . .
November 14th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
@Gene – excellent and correct point! Protein powder (even mixed with milk) is not as good as chicken breast, egg whites, etc. You do lose the thermic effect (where your body burns more calories just to digest the food – some foods take more energy to digest, thus leading to the concept of “negative calorie” foods like celery that require more energy to digest than are actually contained in the food itself).
That said, and hopefully I’ve said this elsewhere, that protein powder has two amazing (and powerful) advantages:
a) portability (as in my current case where I’m using more of it than usual due to travel)
and
b) in the magic window around your workouts, whey protein in liquid (especially if the liquid also has some sugar added) delivers protein to your muscles faster than regular food and so improves muscle recovery slightly better than regular food
Note that in (b) I say “slightly”. When you are already doing 90% of the right things with your diet and workouts, then small things like that matter. For most people who aren’t yet at the 90% or more level, it’s not important enough of a distinction. (If you are still eating potato chips every day, then THAT’S the thing to worry about, not which source of protein is best.)
So excellent observation and I love the chance to get deeper in explanation. Does this help? Does anyone else have questions on that front?
November 16th, 2009 at 11:30 am
I’m enjoying these stories too. Those places like TJ Cinnamons & Cinnabons are very seductive. All the pretzel places like Auntie Anne’s & Wetzel’s are too. Good call on getting milk – in addition to getting some protein, it just tastes “right” with that kind of food.
And filet mignon chili is pretty dang awesome stuff.