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About 6 weeks ago, I embarked on a 4 week workout plan, MWF at noon, over at Nutri-Sport / Full Potential Training with Ryan and Bill. My goal was to cut body fat in preparation for the HyVee Triathlon. The workout plan was a cardio centric lifting circuit. Week one consisted of various exercises that employ numerous muscle groups simultaneously and the plan was to do 12 reps at your max weight for each exercise. Then, simply repeat the circuit for at least 30 minutes. Results were high heart rate and about 5-6 times through. The following weeks dropped the reps down to 10, 8, then 6 in the final week. I'm proud to say that two things happened during this workout plan:
- I dropped from 16% to 14% body fat in 30 days and dropped about 3lbs. That translates into keeping all muscle mass and dropping fat only. This also translated into having to drop another pant size and poke new holes in my belts (forgot to buy one with the new shorts/pants).
- What seems to happen with this kind of program is quick strength gains. I was amazed to find that I was pushing around far more weight than I ever had before. Moving back into a more traditional pyramid lifting program with rest between sets made my previous "max weight" on dumbbells seem like warm up weight. Unreal. I'm excited to get into a "single body part per day" scenario when I'm back from my post Triathlon vacation.
I'm not sure what will happen to the HyVee Tri if Gray's lake continues to be a flooded out mess. My fear is that the entire race would be called off. I'd find it difficult to be disappointed since I've been on a life changing quest for physical fitness vs. just training for one thing.
When I moved to Iowa:
- Weight 250 lbs
- Waist 44
- Body fat 32%
Now after 14 months of lifestyle realignment
- Weight 223 lbs
- Waist 36
- Body fat 14%
Net results are a GAIN of 20lbs of muscle and a loss of 49lbs of fat. I really hadn't done that math before today. In my own world, I'm the biggest loser. Anyone that knows me understands that this has not been through strict "dieting" or "will power". This has been about making the right choices...most of the time while not forgetting why we do this in the first place. It's also been about exercising hard in the winter when everyone else is eating Sees Candies and Rum Cake.
My family is to be commended for sticking by me as I try to find the balance of exercise/family time/etc. The pendulum has swung wildly in both directions over the last year or so and my beautiful wife has accommodated me. Thank you and I love you.
So what's the next challenge :)
Congrats Doug! Those statistics are impressive. Wish I could say that my body fat dropped so dramatically. After hundreds of miles running, I still hover near 30%... Damn that ice cream/pizza/beer... :)
Anyway, I heard today that (with the exception of the elites) the Hyvee Tri will be a dry-tri... 10K run, 40K bike, 5K run. Best of luck to you. Without the swim, I'm tempted to "tri" it.
Posted by: Art Dinkin | June 11, 2008 at 11:44 PM
Great job! Those are really impressive stats! I will see you on Sunday bright and early! For ideas on what to do next, you should check out my blog. That question is what started my strange quest for more adventures!
Posted by: Dave | June 19, 2008 at 05:16 PM