Working to Stay Lean ~

[CrankFate]

48 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Nicely Done - 

Super glad to hear your arm is on the mend.

A-Jay

Thank God. The excercise thing, is one of those things that years ago I’d never think I’d be doing even more than fishing. You got some years on me, but hopefully when I get there, I’ll be in half as good a shape as you....

[CrankFate]

Switched gyms a few months back. Went to go workout around 7:30pm yesterday only to find out they close at 8:00, barely got in a half hour.

 

 

[A-Jay]

4 hours ago, CrankFate said:

Switched gyms a few months back. Went to go workout around 7:30pm yesterday only to find out they close at 8:00, barely got in a half hour.

 

 

I hate that - 

A-Jay's Home Gym has Very Flexible hours.

A-Jay

While this early March northern Michigan winter weather continues to be frightful, I’m doing my thing. 

This one came in right at 60 minutes including the warm-up.

 I’m getting there.

A-Jay

[CrankFate]

22 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I hate that - 

A-Jay's Home Gym has Very Flexible hours.

A-Jay

While this early March northern Michigan winter weather continues to be frightful, I’m doing my thing. 

This one came in right at 60 minutes including the warm-up.

 I’m getting there.

A-Jay

I had a home gym for about 4-5 years, but it was sold off and converted to a home office and I joined a gym. It was definitely more convenient as far a hours of operation.

[A-Jay]

1 minute ago, CrankFate said:

I had a home gym for about 4-5 years, but it was sold off and converted to a home office and I joined a gym. It was definitely more convenient as far a hours of operation.

Yea - I've trained at home on & off for many years (in several different places - Military, moved a lot)

Most times It was for rehabbing an injury.

Once I was good to go - it was back to the gym.

US Coast Guard always has very High-speed facilities available - especially the last 10 years or so.

This one is suitable for what I need now - 

A-Jay

[Jcj90]

6 hours ago, CrankFate said:

Switched gyms a few months back. Went to go workout around 7:30pm yesterday only to find out they close at 8:00, barely got in a half hour.

 

 

I goto la fitness and they close at 8 on weekends 

[CrankFate]

6 minutes ago, Jcj90 said:

I goto la fitness and they close at 8 on weekends 

Going to Retro now. Also 8 on weekends. But it’s only 1/2 mile away.

[Oregon Native]

10 hours ago, CrankFate said:

I had a home gym for about 4-5 years, but it was sold off and converted to a home office and I joined a gym. It was definitely more convenient as far a hours of operation.

I like to stay active too ..... but looking at those weights on the floor I almost pulled a muscle...!!!

Well done in your pursuits..

[A-Jay]

After an unscheduled but needed off day, I’m glad to be back at it.  One thing that was kind of a bummer, after watching the video back, I realized I skipped the last set of D/B rows – what a slacker.  Not a fan of that. 

Going to keep my logbook in my face going forward to eliminate that action.

 

Also, I'd like to apologize in advance for the inadvertent "mooning".

A-Jay

[A-Jay]

Wish I could say that I’m always super fired up to train, but that’s just not the case. 

This one took a ton of mental drive to complete.  Might not have been my best effort but was definitely a whole lot better than blowing it off.  The first day of spring is next week – certainly doesn’t look it around these parts.

 

A-Jay

[CrankFate]

3 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Wish I could say that I’m always super fired up to train, but that’s just not the case. 

This one took a ton of mental drive to complete.  Might not have been my best effort but was definitely a whole lot better than blowing it off.  The first day of spring is next week – certainly doesn’t look it around these parts.

 

A-Jay

You just gotta do it. On the days when you just get it done, but it felt impossible to get the motivation to get started it usually feels the best when you can say “I got it done” afterwards.

[A-Jay]

10 minutes ago, CrankFate said:

You just gotta do it. On the days when you just get it done, but it felt impossible to get the motivation to get started it usually feels the best when you can say “I got it done” afterwards.

Yup ~ You know what it's like.

The odd days when it feels like a battle just to walk into the gym; today was one of those.

I'll sleep, eat and be ready for the next one.

A-Jay

 

[A-Jay]

Felt pretty good about this one; certainly more rested & a little less stressed out.  Makes a big difference overall, at least for me.  Been doing these total body deals now for almost 5 weeks.  That means it’s just about time to change it up.  The next one will be my last total body workout until we get some open water & I’m fishing again.  That’s still looking like it’s at least 4 or 5 weeks away anyway.  In the meantime, I'm going back to a more traditional style of training with straight sets/reps and a 3-day split routine. 

 

A-Jay

[Joshua van Wyk]

Right now I'm working out 6 days a week. Mondays I do lower body, Tuesdays I do upperbody, Wednesday lower body again, Thursdays upperbody, Friday lower body, and Saturday upperbody, and abs every day. What do you think of this? I'm trying to build mass.

[A-Jay]

5 minutes ago, Joshua van Wyk said:

Right now I'm working out 6 days a week. Mondays I do lower body, Tuesdays I do upperbody, Wednesday lower body again, Thursdays upperbody, Friday lower body, and Saturday upperbody, and abs every day. What do you think of this? I'm trying to build mass.

3

@Joshua van Wyk

What do I think ?  Sounds like you're working really hard and you're pretty serious about it.

I'll also say it is simply unrealistic for me to offer any useful or even safe advice without any other info - most everything I can offer will be in the way of what works for me and why.

How that applies to your situation, and your training is something you have to figure out.

 But here's what I think. . . . . 

 When my objective was to be bigger, the only thing that worked was to get stronger.

Stronger muscles are bigger.  That meant I needed to Eat several small well-balanced meals a day - every day - without missing ANY.  Getting plenty of sleep - at least 7-8 hours a night.  Every Night. So basically, I needed to live like a baby.  The human being repairs & grows ONLY during deep restful sleep.  Not in the gym and not at the dinner table - during sleep.  

 I would construct my weight training to a three-day split where I was in the gym 3 days and off 4. 

I would use the big lifts - compound movements that involve major muscle groups with very minimal isolation exercises.  Squats, Deadlifts, Rows, chins, Over-head Shoulder presses, bar curls, tricep extensions, and a moderate amount of balanced core work.  

I'd be in & out of the gym in 70-80 minutes - Max.  I can either workout hard or workout long but I can't do both.  

Long workouts make me good at doing long workouts and short intense workouts make me strong. 

 

 Back in the day - I did the Building Mass thing.  Looking back, I got too fat - every time.  Because I thought that I needed to eat big to get big.  I was very wrong.  Clearly, I needed to eat 'enough' but extra body fat never contributed to my strength which is what made me bigger (still does).  Body Fat is such a waste of time - your body will grow extra skin to accommodate it - and later while you can 'lose the fat' you can not lose the extra skin (at least not without medical intervention) - it just hangs there - forever.  As we age, we shrink.  Just part of life and the way it is - but not all the skin you've purposely grow - that's just hanging out - everywhere. 

 

Finally, there's SO much information out there (not all of it good), a guys head could explode trying to figure out whose advice to follow - who to believe?  What I've offered here is totally super basic - and pretty safe.  

  If I were you And if you've not done so already - check out Jeff Cavaliere at ATHLEAN-X.  Better yet, sign up, get a membership and give yourself an opportunity to be as successful as you can be - he covers it ALL. He is highly educated, has tons of real-world experience, and is doing for the right reasons.  I wish so badly there was this type of info available for me 40 plus years ago - I am certain I'd have not injured myself so much doing so many things wrong.

A-Jay

[A-Jay]

Knocked this one out and it felt pretty good.  While I enjoyed this style of training it has run its course.  Four weeks went by fairly quickly and although I have just now started to get comfortable with it, it’s time to change it up again. 

  After a couple of days off I’ll be switching back to a more traditional style of training.  A 3-day split that will see a legs, push & a pull workout each week.  I plan on running this one until open water.  Then I’m hoping to be able to switch back to total body training once I start fishing again.  Getting sufficient food & rest to support the workouts while spending hours on the water has always been a challenge for me.  Workouts will need to happen before the fishing as I’m always pretty toasted after. 

 The saga continues.

A-Jay

[Joshua van Wyk]

On 3/18/2019 at 5:53 PM, A-Jay said:

@Joshua van Wyk

What do I think ?  Sounds like you're working really hard and you're pretty serious about it.

I'll also say it is simply unrealistic for me to offer any useful or even safe advice without any other info - most everything I can offer will be in the way of what works for me and why.

How that applies to your situation, and your training is something you have to figure out.

 But here's what I think. . . . . 

 When my objective was to be bigger, the only thing that worked was to get stronger.

Stronger muscles are bigger.  That meant I needed to Eat several small well-balanced meals a day - every day - without missing ANY.  Getting plenty of sleep - at least 7-8 hours a night.  Every Night. So basically, I needed to live like a baby.  The human being repairs & grows ONLY during deep restful sleep.  Not in the gym and not at the dinner table - during sleep.  

 I would construct my weight training to a three-day split where I was in the gym 3 days and off 4. 

I would use the big lifts - compound movements that involve major muscle groups with very minimal isolation exercises.  Squats, Deadlifts, Rows, chins, Over-head Shoulder presses, bar curls, tricep extensions, and a moderate amount of balanced core work.  

I'd be in & out of the gym in 70-80 minutes - Max.  I can either workout hard or workout long but I can't do both.  

Long workouts make me good at doing long workouts and short intense workouts make me strong. 

 

 Back in the day - I did the Building Mass thing.  Looking back, I got too fat - every time.  Because I thought that I needed to eat big to get big.  I was very wrong.  Clearly, I needed to eat 'enough' but extra body fat never contributed to my strength which is what made me bigger (still does).  Body Fat is such a waste of time - your body will grow extra skin to accommodate it - and later while you can 'lose the fat' you can not lose the extra skin (at least not without medical intervention) - it just hangs there - forever.  As we age, we shrink.  Just part of life and the way it is - but not all the skin you've purposely grow - that's just hanging out - everywhere. 

 

Finally, there's SO much information out there (not all of it good), a guys head could explode trying to figure out whose advice to follow - who to believe?  What I've offered here is totally super basic - and pretty safe.  

  If I were you And if you've not done so already - check out Jeff Cavaliere at ATHLEAN-X.  Better yet, sign up, get a membership and give yourself an opportunity to be as successful as you can be - he covers it ALL. He is highly educated, has tons of real-world experience, and is doing for the right reasons.  I wish so badly there was this type of info available for me 40 plus years ago - I am certain I'd have not injured myself so much doing so many things wrong.

A-Jay

Sorry for the late reply, I didnt get a notification that you responded. Thanks for the advice! I've been Following Jeff Cavailiare for almost a year now and I actually bought his ab program, which has made a big difference. Right now I typically eat 4 meals a day every 3 or 4 hours, along with a protein shake after every workout.

[A-Jay]

16 hours ago, Joshua van Wyk said:

Sorry for the late reply, I didnt get a notification that you responded. Thanks for the advice! I've been Following Jeff Cavailiare for almost a year now and I actually bought his ab program, which has made a big difference. Right now I typically eat 4 meals a day every 3 or 4 hours, along with a protein shake after every workout.

2

2

Sweet ~ Then my work is done here.

There is very little that I can add to what Mr. Cavailiare puts out there.

I suppose the exception to that is that I'm close to 20 years ahead of him on this road.

So while he hasn't yet experienced training into his 50's (and in my case soon to be 60's),  I have and am.

It isn't pretty . . .

 

Stay the course my friend and remembering that it's a marathon & not a sprint, can be very beneficial.

A-Jay

 

 

[A-Jay]

Enjoyed a couple of days off, but it felt good to get back at it.

After several weeks of Total Body training, these first few workouts will see me sort of ease into it.  While ramping up the weights a bit this time, the last thing I want to do is jack myself up.  This clip is a small sample of my efforts today.  I’ll be hitting a ‘push’ workout day after tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it too.  

A-Jay

 

[A-Jay]

I was looking forward to this one; so much so that I forgot to do an intro.  The Push workout (specifically Chest, Shoulders & Triceps) is always a fan favorite.   Just like the last workout, I eased into this one.  Applied a solid effort but didn’t want to push it too much just yet.  It’s coming though.

This clip includes the last set of each muscle group along with some on the deck core work at the end.  Next up – We’ll be doing some “Pulling”.

 

A-Jay

[A-Jay]

Still making it happen.

This is the third workout on my 3-day split routine.  

The ‘Pull’ workout focuses on the upper & lower back, biceps, forearms and finishes with core work. Felt good going into & coming out of this one.  Always an encouraging sign.

I’ll probably take two days off between this and the next workout; which is back to lower body (legs) again.

 Eat – rest – repeat.

A-Jay

 

 

 

[CrankFate]

Well at least all that beating the banks has other benefits. Except for a short trip to the supermarket, this is what 4 or 5 hours of rock hopping looks like.

[A-Jay]

   After a couple of quality days off I was ready & motivated to get back at it.  Expectations were fairly high and when this was one done, I think I did OK.  Still taking it semi-slow adding weight to each exercise and hoping I can get stronger, stay lean & not blow anything up.  So far – so good.

 

 I’ve been fortunate in that I have been able to stay consistent with what I need to do to support these workouts effectively.  Eating & sleeping right as well as training smart so as not to get injured; something that I’d taken for granted in years past.  At this point there seems to be a fine line and the margin for error is slim.  Being able to string several months of training in a row is very satisfying.

A-Jay

 

[Hower08]

Dude. Your back has abs I don't understand fhaha. I choose to keepmine protected and padded so they don't get hurt 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, Hower08 said:

Dude. Your back has abs I don't understand haha. I choose to keepmine protected and padded so they don't get hurt 

OK ~ 

 At this point I'm getting pretty close to as 'lean' as I can get without Really getting extreme with my diet.  Not exactly looking to do that.  Like most anything, too much of a good thing often starts to work against us.  And being too lean can actually be a health risk.

So, I'm going to sort of keep training and eating right, with out getting crazy, and see where it takes me.  So far - So good.

#bornin59

A-Jay