I'm Such A Loser

Image by dogwelder via FlickrI think most of you are too young to remember, but back in the 60's and 70's, I remember seeing advertisements in comics for Charles Atlas' Dynamic Tension muscle building system, as well as Mike Marvel's Dynaflex system.

Both of these systems are isometric training. Charles Atlas apparently had better marketing so it was more famous. Mike Marvel, while not as famous, is also a known name (to me anyway).

I was pleasantly surprised to find a full, free copy of Mike Marvel's Dynaflex system available on the internet as I was surfing around recently. That website, Transformatics.com, had scanned the entire Dynaflex system and made it available.

If you also have a copy of Charles Atlas' Dynamic Tension system, you can compare the exercises and see how different or similar they are.

I have also compiled all the pages into a PDF file. If you want it, download it here.

Sorry I don't have Charles Atlas' Dynamic Tension system for download. Even if I had, I don't know if it would even be legal to do so.

As a side note, I know many people frown upon isometric training. What I can say is that "it works". Why?

Way before I had Bodylastics, I had the Steel Bow from Bowproducts.com. The Steel Bow is essentially a modern version of "Bullworker". When I started on my workout back in November 2007, all I had was the Steel Bow. The Steel Bow, or "Bullworker" if you prefer to call it that, is an isometric training device.

To cut the long story short, I lost weight and gained muscle on it. In 2 short months I lost about 6kg or so, and as I stated in a previous entry here, I went from zero pushups to 20+, proper form. In other words, isometric training works. You don't really need weights to build muscle. With the proper guidance and training routine, you can increase your fitness and build muscle/lose weight.

I am sure if you put your mind to it, and followed the Dynaflex system, you will probably improve your fitness too, at the very least. Even if you don't get a "he-man body", you will have already increased your fitness level.

Personally, I'm not following the Dynaflex system right now. I still have my Steel Bow with me, and I also have my Bodylastics. For now, I'm going back on the Steel Bow and following a new 25-step routine which I have discovered in the bullworker forums.

Labels: workout

Image via WikipediaDuring my usual stumblings, I came across this article here. It talks about the one exercise that "rules them all", kinda like Lord Of The Rings :)

Anyway, squats should be no stranger to people who are building muscles. In fact if you go to the various health and body building sites, almost every single one of them advocates that you should never miss doing squats in your routine.

Ok so I have not been taking this advice to heart. However, after reading through that article, it appears I will have to incorporate that into my routines from now on.

For one thing, as almost every website says, the squat works the whole body in one go. Your back and abs tighten to balance yourself, your legs strain to hold up the weight, and unconsciously, you will squeeze and tighten your grip on the bar.

Using my home-made bar add-on to Bodylastics, I am sure I can replicate the exercise here at home with Bodylastics. The normal way Bodylastics advise you to do the squats is to hold the handles at your shoulders and then you do the squat.

However with the metal bar that I have, I could almost replicate the exercise as it would be done in the gym proper.

Now I can't get on it right away and do it right this minute, because today's my "cheat day" and also, I'm going to be drinking tonight at a friend's birthday bash. However, I'll post my thoughts and feelings on this the next time I work out, which should be Sunday or Monday.

Labels: workout

In a followup to my earlier post on the Versa Stick, I mentioned that I thought it was a good idea, and that I'd jury-rig up my own "Versa Stick" alternative to my Bodylastics kit, and see how it works out.

Well, before I go into more details, here's a pic of my jury-rigging:



Yeah I found a metal bar in my home, leftover from a renovation I did a long time back. I never remembered why I kept it around, but I'm glad I did. It's made from solid aluminium or steel, or something, and it's super-light. The black straps you see in the picture are the ankle straps from the Bodylastics kit.

I did a few pull-downs (to work the back) and it felt almost like the gym machine. Almost. As you can see, I already had every band available hooked up, and it still felt "light". I calculated, that with all the bands up, I only had roughly 65 pounds of resistance. In the gym, I was pulling 90 pounds or so.

Now if you don't have a metal bar like mine at home, and you do have a chin-up bar (many people do), unhook it from your doorframe and use it as the "stick" like so:



Personally I preferred my own metal bar over the chin-up bar. As for how it feels, it feels alot better than just pulling on the 2 handles. The only problem now is that I can't seem to find a suitable "replacement" for the bench-press using the stick, to work the chest. Hooking the bands at chest height and standing a few feet away with your back turned still doesn't quite match the feeling since the bands tend to pull you towards the door when you're trying to push the stick away from your chest. There's nothing on your back to stop you from being pulled back towards the door.

So I guess, bench-press replication is still not possible (maybe it is, I just haven't figured it out) even with a stick on the Bodylastics kit.

For now, this jury-rigged stick is used solely for my pull-downs workout. All other workouts are still done as per the instruction booklet provided by Bodylastics.

Labels: Bodylastics, Versa Stick, workout

Among all the websites out there, many of them tell you they offer free tips, but to truly access their in-depth database of knowledge, you will have to become a member (and thus pay membership fees).

Well, fret no more! I stumbled across this website called Weight Training and Weight Lifting Tips, which is TRULY FREE!

It has 2 sections actually. One for those going for weight loss as a goal, the other for people who aim to pack on the muscles. It even has a section solely on diets and nutrition, and exactly what to eat to achieve which kinds of results.

I have actually gone through their tips, and they are for real. They don't tell you to buy xyz supplement or whatever. The owner of the site truly made the website to help people who need guidance on how to achieve their fitness goals.

The website gives you no-frills, no-bs kind of tips. If you want to achieve this, do this. No long stories nor anecdotes about his younger days. It even has diagrams on how to perform the required exercises so you are doing it with the correct form.

I think the best feature of the site is his list of "top 5 power exercises", meaning if you're hard pressed for time, do the 5 exercises which will effectively work the majority of your muscle groups in your body.

Make this site one of your favourites today, and visit it often! I know I do!

Labels: diet, exercise, gym, weight loss, workout

As usual, while out blog-surfing, I came across this article  about a new (to me at least) home-gym alternative called Versa Stick.

I happen to think this is a neat idea.

Why? Because since I have finally been to a real gym for once, I can see how Bodylastics replicates gym workouts. In some cases, Bodylastics has to do it in a totally different manner to achieve the same targetted areas of the body, simply because it's missing a metal/high strength bar. Like for pull downs, chest-press etc.

Versa Stick apparently closes this gap (from what I could glean from the website). It also boasts of over 100 different workouts that could be done with it, just like Bodylastics.

To me, of course, the best of all would be a combination of both Bodylastics AND Versa Stick. From what I could see from the Versa Stick site, the bands provided comes nowhere close to Bodylastics'.

Now after seeing this (and the price of US$79.95, eeks!), I thought I might as well rig up my own "stick" and see if I can hook it up to Bodylastics. In the past I have ordered a few dud home gyms. A couple come with some sort of a metal bar with rubberized grips. I could conceivably turn one of them into a "versa stick" knock-off by hooking Bodylastic ankle-straps to the bar and using it like a Versa Stick.

Or in a worst-case scenario - turn my Steel Bow into the "metal bar" :) There's enough places on the Steel Bow to tie the ankle-straps to, to ensure non-slippage.

I'll write more after I've given this idea a whirl for awhile.

Labels: Bodylastics, Steel Bow, Versa Stick, workout

I apologise for not writing in here for a while.

One of the reasons is - I've taken a break from working out, a couple of weeks actually. I've started to plateau, and it is recommended by many health sites that once you find you start to plateau, you should take a break of a week or two.

Second reason is, I've just finished my contract, and hence, now jobless, and thus can write. In the final weeks leading up to the final day of my employment, there were so many things happening (some which you'd never believe, which can be seen in my main blog here, here, here and finally, here), that I just didn't have much focus on this blog.

As a quick update - 31 March, was my first trip ever, to a gym. Yes, a real gym! Never been to one before in my life. Since I am finally not working, my buddy decided to drag me halfway across Singapore to a gym.

Now, people who read this blog will know I already have Bodylastics, which is touted to be the best replacement for a gym ever. Some people who have used it even canceled their gym memberships after seeing the results they obtained with Bodylastics.

So why am I doing the reverse? Why am I going to the gym now, even though I have Bodylastics at home?

Simple - to see if the people who quit the gym were right.

So what's the verdict? Well the jury's still out on that one. What I can say is that with Bodylastics I couldn't do chest presses. At best only one side at a time. In the gym I could, with the chest-press machine.

The pull-downs I did with the bodylastics had almost the same effect as the machine in the gym tho. Except, in the gym, you could lock your thighs under the "bar" which will stop you from being flung upwards if the weights were too heavy. At home, there's nothing stopping you from being flung off the floor by the elastic bands.

In short, I wouldn't say which is "better" because I'm a rank beginner at this thing. I'll just say the workouts are different, but the areas they target are the same. For me, working on the chest in the gym is easier compared to Bodylastics.

And, Bodylastics wasn't lying about how they replicated almost every exercise available in the gym. The only notable exception so far to me, is the chest-press. In Bodylastics, you do push-ups with the bands behind your back, instead of lying down on a bench and pushing weights up as in a gym.

Labels: gym, workout

Mom knows best, and in this case, it seemed mom knew more than she let on.

Now, we all know that it's good for bones and teeth. Today, I came across this article that shows that it may actually be good for muscles and weight-loss too!

According to the article, the group who consumed skimmed milk after workout, registered greater loss of body fats and packed on more muscle mass. Looks pretty good to me. I must start thinking about having milk handy with me when I workout now.

The other point of interest, which is in the article, mentions that:

As reported in the first phase of the study, the milk drinking group came out on top in terms of muscle gain with an estimated 40 per cent or 2.5 pounds more muscle mass than the soy beverage drinkers. In addition, this group gained 63 per cent or 3.3 pounds, more muscle mass than the carbohydrate beverage drinkers.

This seem to confirm an earlier entry of this blog, which states that soy actually isn't good for you. So I guess this busts the myth that soy contains lots of proteins. I still know many people who tell me soy contains heaps of proteins. When I tell them about the article on soy, they say it's just marketing bull and they're sure soy is a good source of protein.

Ok then, guess I'm gonna go shopping for skimmed milk pretty soon!

Labels: lose weight, milk, soy, soya, weight loss, Weightloss, workout

I had a pretty interesting conversation yesterday with a colleague.

She works shifts, so she's seldom at work the same time I am, or the rest of us are, for that matter. She hasn't seen me in like about 2 months due to the weird rostering of her shifts. So finally I met her yesterday and she commented at how much weight I'd lost in the 2 months she hadn't seen me.

So I told her about my workout routines, what I do, circuit training etc those kind of stuff. Then she commented:

"Wow and I have been going to the gym for 3 years and all I did was to lose 2kg!"

Now doesn't that strike you as odd? It sure did to me.

So I found that due to her weird rostering shift schedules, she is only able to go to the gym to workout once every 8 to 10 days. Because of that, there's hardly any results from her 3 years worth of "gym workouts".

See, from what I understand, you need to tell your body that it's gonna be getting "regular workouts", hence they better start being efficient at expending energy and burning fuel. To the body, "regular" means once every couple of days. 8 to 10 days is not "regular" to the body, more like "infrequent".

Once the body realises it's going to need to burn fuel regularly, it'll "switch gears" into a more efficient (or "easier") mode - burning the fats stored in your body, instead of breaking down muscles to use as "temporary fuel" if you work out infrequently.

So, I am glad I didn't join a gym. Having to "go to a gym" means I need to plan when I need to go, and if work gets in the way, it'll get "postponed". I work out at home, with my Steel Bow and my Bodylastics kits. That means I won't ever miss any of my "scheduled" days for workout, since I will definitely be home at some time of the day.

Even if I'm short on time, ie reach home late, the Steel Bow is great for those "short" workout sessions. You still expend energy and "burn calories" when you're spending 10 to 20 mins going through the Steel Bow sequence. As I have posted before in this blog, I can even do some workouts on the Steel Bow sitting in front of the computer reading emails.

Being able to stick to my workout schedule has allowed me to produce results - visible results.

You should too.

Labels: workout

I just found this video in Youtube, supposedly showing you the fastest way to blast those flab and fats away from your body. I don't know if it works only for ladies or men as well. Logically, it should work for both sexes, since fats gather in bodies the same way for any gender.



Personally I am not doing this workout - I got my own schedule and routine to follow :)

Labels: workout

We Asians, especially Chinese, are at a disadvantage when it comes to health and healthy diet. We eat mainly RICE, which is basically Carbohydrates. The meat and veggies are mainly "side dishes" to go with the rice. So that means, lotta carbs, very little "other stuff".

In the grand scheme of things, that's not good. For losing weight, you need to cut down on carbs, because unused carbs get turned into fats (if I remember what I learnt back in 1998 is still correct). For gaining muscle, you need protein (meat, egg whites etc), not carbs.

So, when we cut down on carbs, we need "fillers"... and that either means more meat or more eggs. Somehow I don't think we'll feel "full" if we ate only eggs.

The past couple of days I have been really cutting way down on rice/noodles. And, since I have been working to muscle failure, I eat alot of eggs and meat. For some strange reason, I don't feel "hungry" per se. It's probably because I ate enough so that the body doesn't trigger any "craving" mechanisms to tell me that I lack something.

To eat like the ang mos, which I think is actually more ideal if building muscles, is gonna be expensive. Then I'd be eating western food most of the time. Yeah well, at least, eat like the ang mos at home. If you eat Western outside, you get all the unhealthy mayonnaise, salad dressings etc. If I cook at home, at least I can cook the meat plain (no oil needed), and the veggies are simply boiled. No extra useless calories.

In any case, my body is aching today, so I didn't even do the circuit training workouts. Guess my original plan has a couple of flaws :p I forgot to take into account bodyaches after the weekend intensive training...

Labels: diet, dieting, eating, workout

I had been thinking, and planning my workouts lately.

While it is a good idea to split the workouts into small bits, ie work a couple of parts each time, I was thinking it would be a better idea to dedicate Sat and Sun to full body workouts - ie Upper Body on Saturday, Lower Body on Sunday.

Then, I rest 1 week. Weekdays, I just do the circuit-training thing on the video. I figure since the circuit training is more for burning fat than building muscles, I can easily hook a "lighter" band in and follow along, and thus won't overtrain my muscles.

I went on this new workout plan last weekend. Saturday was upper body, Sunday was lower body. Now my whole body aches slightly. No, not the "Oh Gawd I can't move, I can't sneeze, I can laugh" type of ache.. but the nice dull ache that lets you know you've actually hit the targetted muscles and worked them to failure to spark off muscle growth.

In fact, I actually used both the Steel Bow and the Bodylastics in my workouts on the weekend. As I said before, Steel Bow feels more "targetted", so for those parts which I can't seem to "get" with Bodylastics, I used the Steel Bow to work those parts to failure.

Labels: Bodylastics, Steel Bow, workout

Last night my back stopped aching. Lats, shoulders etc all were fine. So I thought I'd get back on Bodylastics and get more workouts in.

Lately I've been surfing bodybuilding sites. No, I don't want to look like Arnold Shwarzenegger. I just need to find the right info for building muscles. In the past, I understood that muscles need to rest after working out, and the period of rest is 48 hours.

However, it seems that info might have been incorrect. The websites I saw a couple of days back advocate 5 to 7 days of rest, and it's not just coming from 1 website. So I guess there must be some truth in it.

They said, although you exercise each body part "once a week" for maximal effect, it doesn't mean you workout once a week. You can still workout 3 or 4 times a week but each time you do one or 2 body parts. That way, you will complete a "full body" workout once a week, and each part rests 5 to 7 days.

Also, they advocate the HIT philosophy - High Intensity Training. In simple terms, work your muscles to failure, that's how you force them to grow. Don't need to spend hours too, as long as you achieve muscle fatigue on your workouts, you have achieved "HIT". So with this newfound information, I worked on the triceps and biceps, and a little on the legs.

I plan to do full leg workouts on Friday (now that I'm not drinking regularly anymore on Fridays). So, I pull out the Bodylastics kit, hooked the black and blue bands on (for a total of 42 pounds weight, or roughly 18.5kg) and did bicep curls.

I had planned to do 3 sets of 8.

I never completed my 3rd set.

Man, I have never reached failure that quick before. I love it! On my 4th or 5th rep in my 3rd set, I just couldn't pull anymore.

You can't really compare Isometric workouts (on the Steel Bow) to Bodylastics, since Isometrics are "push and hold" workouts. There's no "failure" to be reached. You just pull or push on the device, hold it, then release slowly and repeat for the required number of reps or sets. Well technically you can reach "failure" on the Steel Bow, if you continue to push (or pull) until you tremble. However the Steel Bow guides advises to use only 70% of your maximum strength, and hold only for 10 seconds. You can actually complete a full body workout on the Steel Bow in under 20 mins, trust me. I once completed a full body workout just watching Maggi And Me on TV with about 5 to 10 mins to spare, and it's a half-hour show!

And, as previous entries have testified, Steel Bow (and Isometrics) work. I couldn't do a single push-up before, now I can do over 20, and this was even before I got my Bodylastics kit. I had gone from 82kgs to 75kgs using just the Steel Bow and its workout chart. As of December 2007, I had completely stopped all the "mindless cardio" workouts too.

What I'm going to do now, is to run another experiment. For the next month, ie Feb 2008, I'm only going to use Bodylastics and its workout plans. No cardio. Let's see how much weight I lose, or whether I gain muscle mass. Hence tonight I will have to do some benchmarking, like doing pushups till I fail. In March or so I'll check and see if I had progressed.

Labels: Bodylastics, Steel Bow, workout

This article here is a must-read.

Yes, here I am reminding myself again that I need rest time between workouts. Can't help it, I just got a new toy, and like all kids (men are big kids you know?) I just wanna keep playing with them!

As an exerpt:

... this is the time that the body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real training effect takes place. Recovery also allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues.

There's more, and you should read the rest of the article.

The "moral of the story" here is that it's actually the "rest days" that actually builds the muscles, not the training days. Those are the days you "damage" them so that they can respond and repair, and build stronger muscles to prepare for your next assault.

My back and lats aren't aching as much today. That means I can start working on them again soon. Yesterday was my "abs and legs" day. So, technically today is my "rest day" before I start on my upper body workouts again tomorrow.

Labels: personal, workout

For those who are new, I just had my first "full" workout with Bodylastics yesterday.

Today, my lats are aching. Good sign.

Well, seeing as I haven't actually worked out in like 3 weeks, I'm amazed that I am not aching everywhere. Just slight tiredness in chest and arms, but shoulders, back and lats are aching. That tells me 2 things:

1. I have a weak back compared to the rest of my upper torso parts
2. I didn't "get" the back and lats correctly when working out with the Steel Bow.

So, I guess Bodylastics, in this case, is "better". However, Steel Bow is primarily an isometrics device, so the types of exercises are definitely different. When you actually sit down and think about it, Bodylastics can also be used as an isometric device - just pull, and hold.

Do I think I've wasted my money on the Steel Bow? No. It got me in shape. It is also more "convenient" in that everything is in one neat package. You don't need to look for doors or windows to anchor it for your workouts. All the anchor points are your own body. I can use the Steel Bow slouched in front of the TV or the PC. I can't do the same with Bodylastics.

The drawback is of course, the lack of supporting material for it. You only get a wallchart, and hardly any videos available on the net to see exactly how each exercise is supposed to be performed. I tried to do the exercises that were supposed to target the lats but it seemed I failed. It's either the exercises were wrong, or more likely, I did 'em incorrectly.

Right now I have dull aches at my lats and my shoulders. Arms and chest are fine, just tired.

Labels: Bodylastics, personal, workout

This morning I woke up unusually early. Well unusual for me, I normally sleep past noon on Sundays.

Since I had time, I decided to finally get the Bodylastics kit out and start working on the chest, back and shoulders, ie upper body workout today. Going through the manual, I pick the few exercises I would like to try today. Some of them involves sticking the "door jam" thing into the door at various heights to work on the different parts of the body.

However, Singaporeans are a little bit more fortunate. I don't have to go hunting for doors. I just looped the "door jam" thing around our plentiful WINDOW GRILLES. Yup, works just the same as if you had to go look for a door and jam it behind the door. Plus, you don't have to worry about slamming the door on your fingers trying to keep the "door jam" at "chest height" for example. In fact, if you're super lazy, forget the door jam. Just loop the bands around the window grilles and pull. If the window grilles ever come loose, complain to the RC! They'll fix it :)

So what's the verdict?

Great! I had originally intended to run through just a few exercises, to work on my lats especially (which the Steel Bow can't really seem to target properly, or was it me not doing it correctly on the Steel Bow?). I just did 3 different exercises for the lats, which to me means 3 sets of 10. That means I do 1 exercise for 10 reps, and change to a new one, so to me that's 3 sets of 10. After this, I was going to plunk myself down in front of the TV and work out on the Steel Bow while watching TV.

In any case, the feeling after coming away from the exercises, was very very nice. I spent like 45 mins doing nothing but muscle building exercises, zero "mindless cardio". My heart rate was right up there as if I had been doing cardio. Arms and back were tingling, like as if I had done full workouts.

I guess now I don't need to do the workouts on the Steel Bow like I had intended. I can just slouch all day in front of the TV now.

Guess tomorrow will be a rest day and then I'll probably start on Steel Bow first on Tuesday before moving on to the Bodylastics for my lower body.

Labels: Bodylastics, home gym, workout

When you were back in the army, remember the feared phrase? Yeah that one, the "Gennermen, you all try to be funny right? KNOCK IT DOWN!!"

(OK if you're a female visitor then yeah it wouldn't apply to you unless you actually signed up for the SAF, but WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!)

I remember that during that time, I learnt a "cheat" to the push-ups. People told me that if I kept my arms close to my body and pushed, it's easier. So yeah, it was.

Back around end of Sept, or beginning of Oct, I couldn't even do ONE of those "cheat" push-ups. I ain't shitting you, not even one! I was THAT out of shape! It was right before I decided to stop being fat and sloppy and get in shape, and thus, the birth of this blog.

Since then, my workouts have primarily been centered around the Steel Bow (the Bullworker clone product which I bought). I haven't actually been following the wall chart faithfully though, but I *have* been working out.

Today, for no reason whatsoever, I thought I might try to see if I could do any push-ups. So, I adopted the "cheat" push-up position, and found that I could easily do 10. Not only that, I could have done more, but I stopped.

So I shifted to the wide-arm push-up position, where it supposedly ("supposedly" because I have not researched this and thus cannot confirm its validity) uses your chest muscles instead of your arm muscles. I easily did 25, and could have gone for a few more but I stopped. However, let's be honest. By the 25th one, my body was starting to "curve" and keeping it straight as per proper push up position was starting to get difficult. I was starting to get tired.

After this, I thought to myself - "damn, the workouts worked!" and not only that, "The Steel Bow works too!".

So there you have it, my own personal proof that the Steel Bow is not a "gimmick" but it actually does help you build muscles. My dad was wrong!! :) Yeah when I was a kid I wanted a Bullworker, but he never got me one because "it's a gimmick".

However, working out and building muscles cannot happen by itself. You need to eat properly to make it happen. In an earlier post, I talked about how people joked that "diet" is to "die with a T". The general perception is that when you're on a diet, you "eat less". This cannot be farther from the truth.

The truth is, when you're on a diet, you're "eating properly" and not necessarily "less". You're now watching what you put into the body, making sure you get the right amount of nutrients your body needs, and no longer just stuffing burgers and cakes down. For OBESE people (ie serverely overweight), diets generally mean "eat less", because they need to get into a calorie-deficit situation for the body to lose fats.

For those typical "slightly overweight" or "with a bit of spare tyre" kind of people, you don't necessarily "eat less". You generally "eat right" to achieve weight loss, in conjunction to your workouts.

Also remember that your body knows itself better than you think. Nature has created an eco-system inside all of us. If you need water, your body makes you feel thirsty. If you need food, your body makes you feel hungry. It is important to keep the following statement in mind. If you continue to ignore these signs and refuse to drink/eat, your body will eventually go into "survival mode". In survival mode, ANY food you put into your body has a higher priority to be stored as FAT.

Why?

Because you have just trained your body that "food is scarce". When it signals you that it is hungry, you still do not put food in. So, the next time food comes in, the body will store it as fats "in case no more food comes".

Ladies, now you know why when you go off your "eat less" diets, you put the weight back on almost immediately eh? Yeah it's because during your "eat less" diets, your body is already storing fats. When you eat normally again, you body has more food to store as fats. Fat + Fat = More Fat.

So logically, does it mean that to counter this, you should put more food in?

Nope, but you should put food in MORE OFTEN. More often doesn't mean "more food". You put food in more often, but each time you eat small portions. Examples - a sandwich, or an apple, etc. If you continue to do this about 5 to 6 times a day for a few days, you will train your body to think that "food is now abundant, no need to store as fat anymore".

Hence, you have those "eat many meals" type of weight loss programs out there. Yes, it's true and yes it works. You still must eat CORRECTLY each time you eat those small portions too. Do not shove snacks or cakes into your mouth.

Another thing to take note is that when you do eat, do not eat until you are "full". You should only eat until you are "not hungry". When you are "full", you have just put in too much calories, and since the body doesn't need that much, it'll store the rest as fats.

So this concludes todays quick tips :)

Labels: diet, Steel Bow, workout

Seeing the "omens" from the previous entry, I think I'm going to run an experiment. Until the end of the year, the only workouts I am going to do are just "muscle building" ones. I will either do very little, or zero, "mindless cardio" workouts.

In fact, I could say I "started" doing just this last night. While working out, I could feel the heart racing, just like I was doing "mindless cardio". Pumping, pushing, pulling... I know any exertion done by the body will induce the heart to pump faster. Some health sites advocate these kind of "cardio workouts" over those "mindless" ones.

However, I think I might have goofed a little last night. While my chest and arms and abs might be feeling "tired" today, my shoulders and back have absolutely none of these feelings. Therefore, I didn't work them as hard as I should, even though the number of reps and sets I did was the same.

Maybe tonight I should just work on the shoulders and back, ie targetted workout. Or maybe not. Working the back and shoulders also involves working the arms, and my arms are tired, and tired means the body needs time to grow the muscles. Also, remembering that muscles typically need 48 hours to rest before you start stressing them again, I guess the ideal time to workout again is tomorrow, Saturday.

Labels: personal, workout

Ok this week is turning out to be some kind of omen, or sign, to me.

As you may recall, I met a friend I haven't seen in 8 months last week. Then a couple of days ago, I met a friend who hasn't seen me in ONE week. Both said the same, or similar things.

The kicker - this morning, I visited my usual noodle stall for breakfast. Well, "usual" before I started working out. I still do eat at the noodle stall now and then even now, but not as often as before I decided to work out. So anyway, the aunty made the noodles, and then said "Wow you've lost weight! Stressed? You need to eat more!"

Ok so she belongs to the generation that says "if you're fat, you're healthy". The thing is, she HAS seen me walking past her stall all these weeks I'm working out. Week by week my weight has gone down, at the time. Now, the weight hasn't budged from 77kgs in 4 weeks like I have mentioned in earlier posts. It seems so coincidental that I keep getting the same or similar comments only now, and not during all those weeks while I was working out.

Plus, the fact that I have almost virtually stopped "fat burning" workouts lately, and only doing muscle building and toning, make this seem very "omen-ish".

Perhaps the signs are trying to tell me that the traditional "fat burning mindless treadmill" type of workout is actually useless, and that my current type of "muscle building, high reps" type of workout actually works better?

Remember, the friend who hasn't seen me in ONE week saw a difference, and in that ONE week, I only did one "mindless cardio workout" while the remainder of the days in the week I only did muscle building workouts...

Are all the traditional fitness information wrong? Maybe just purely "burning fat" is not really effective for long-term weightloss? Hmmm food for thought....

Labels: personal, results, weight loss, workout

Last night I was with another friend who hasn't seen me for just 1 week.

It's flattering, as well as morale boosting, to hear that "You lost weight! You look alot better now!" from someone who hasn't seen me in just ONE week.

I'll be honest here. In the past week I haven't been working out as intensively as previously before I got sick. In fact, I believe I only really "worked out" once the whole week, while the other days were just "minor muscle building" workouts, ie no cardio activity, just working out the arms, chest, abs etc.

In one week, though, I dunno if there's that much of a difference. My weighing scale says nothing has changed - I'm still 77kg, and has been for the past 4 weeks. I've already failed my original target of 69kg by 1 Dec.

However, after getting 2 of these "encouragements" in the space of 4 days really does the morale some good. I think I might finally be able to make this workout thing a permanent part of my life, even if I've reached my goal. I'll continue to do "maintenance" workouts to keep in shape.

Labels: results, workout

Well, I had to psyche myself to start working out again on Monday. 2 weeks is a long time to lay off working out, and, with the added distraction of Hellgate London, I started to get lazy.

But no, I gritted my teeth and forced myself back into the workout. I'm glad I did, because after I did the workout, it felt good again. I was worried that I'd start to get body aches due to muscles aching after a prolonged lull, but thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. All I felt was just "tiredness", if you can call it that, in the arms and chest and legs.

Again, I didn't manage to complete the full workout. I also noticed my strength went down too, because I'd start to get tired only after 2 sets. Also, like all Bullworker clones, the Steel Bow comes with a "Power Meter" and now I am not compressing it as far as I had before I got sick 2 weeks back.

I had thought I'd be depressed this week, but at least SOME things in my personal life kinda worked out.... kinda. So, I didn't fall even further behind my schedule, although I'm nowhere near to keeping it. Getting to 69 in like 4 days is nigh impossible now, because I'm still 77kg now. However, it's shades better than the 82kg I had started out with, so yeah, in a way I'm making progress.

I just have to remember, I can't stop. I need to continue, and to maintain it once I've reached my goal (if ever!).

Labels: Bullworker, Steel Bow, workout

Yay me! I just did a shorter workout routine than normal, just to see if I can make it.

I did :)

I didn't go through the full cycle though. I skipped a couple of minutes of cardio, and I wasn't perspiring that much. I don't know if that's good or bad. When doing strength training on the Steel Bow, I didn't complete the full 6 sets. I just kinda did upper torso and arms, and a little bit of abs.

Well, after laying off for a week, I'm glad the muscles aren't aching, because it would really suck if I were to be in pain the whole day tomorrow. What I *am* feeling is just a dull "tiredness" in the muscles, for lack of a better word, from the workout. It's more than the usual "tiredness" I'd feel before I got sick, but at least it's not aching.

I guess tomorrow I'll try my other usual weekly thing - drinks with the guys, and see if I pass out there :)

Labels: workout

It's been a week since I got sick, and a week and 3 days since my last workout. Dangit, I sure hope my body doesn't ache when I start working out again.

I also have been distracted lately by Hellgate London, and have been playing it. However I only did that because I was sick (still am, sorta), and since I can't work out I might as well get back into gaming.

Tonight I'm going to try to get back into the habit of working out again. It's been more than a week and I think I should have recovered sufficiently to attempt it. I might skip the cardio part though, just do some light muscle building (or 'toning') routines first... if I don't keel over and pass out, then it should mean I'm fit to resume my workouts :)

Labels: workout

Well it had been a busy week for me.

And, I broke away from my regiment more than once. Stepping on the scale this morning was actually like being on a television game show... what's the verdict? Will the results be good or bad?

Well, I didn't lose any more weight, and it didn't surprise me. What surprised me was, I didn't gain any either, even after pigging out! I did manage to grab some time in to do some strength training and a cardio workout in the week, but I am definitely off schedule.

So I guess the minimal workouts I did during the week sort of "maintained" the status quo. Perhaps if I had just totally let go, the weight will come back.

I'm glad it didn't.

Ok next week I gotta make sure I don't get further behind schedule...

Labels: diet, exercise, workout

Imagine to my surprise!

Conventional wisdom says that soy and soy-based food products are generally good for you, containing all manner of nutrients your body needs especially when you're on a diet and working out.

However, this website here says otherwise.

I still don't know what to think, myself. Like all Singaporeans, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry, so from henceforth, I won't consume so much soy-based products. No more tofu (beancurd) for me! Well, not exactly, but you know what I mean.

If this is true, this is yet another classic case of what money can do to alter perceptions of the masses.

Labels: diet, soy, soya, workout

Dang! I was caught totally off-guard.

It so happened that a colleague had tendered resignation, and his last day is this Wednesday. As such, a bunch of guys decided to bring the happy resignee out for lunch.

We totally pigged out there! Fish, mutton, chicken, you name it, they had it there on the table. All 9 of us stuffed our faces.

Well, I guess my "1 day a week of cheating" on the diet and workout program has just been used up for this week... *sigh*

Labels: diet, eating, workout

Sigh...

I'm behind schedule. I was supposed to be doing my workout on Sunday, but got called back to work (&@*&#@^). Then I decided to take Monday off to catch up... and then I got called out for a friend's birthday celebration.

Lotta incoming calories, almost zero outgoing...

Dang, this is gonna put me behind schedule :(

Well at least I got some Bullworker training in - the Steel Bow makes it really convenient to just get a couple of minutes of workout in, even if you're slumped in front of the computer and reading your email.

It's so small, it fits almost anywhere. Doesn't take up alot of room that you need to maneuver around the chair or table. Plus, eversince I switched to the Level 2 spring, I can feel more of the "burn". It actually feels good... :)

Man, I wonder why I had stopped back in 1998... I shouldn't have. The feeling that you get after a workout is actually pleasant. I guess I stopped because the actual workout itself was pretty mind-numbing back then in 1998.

Ah well, here's hoping I can catch up and get back on schedule!

Labels: Bullworker, gym, Steel Bow, workout

Recently I came across a small debate among "fitness experts", regarding whether we should be doing "mindless" sustained cardio workouts, or to do short bursts (like a sprinter).

Now, disclaimer - I am no expert. I just got into this fitness thing lately too. So, you can understand why I'm slightly confused right about now.

Back '98, when I went on my previous training regiment, I did those "mindless cardio workouts", ie I did sustained, 30 mins of "mindless" cardio exercises such as stationary bike, or jumping jacks, or even rode the "Power Rider" contraption. It worked for me then.

At the time, I was led to understand that sustained cardio workouts will trigger the body to burn calories. In fact, any sort of exercise should, but cardio workouts are the easiest to perform over an extended period. In so doing, the body is "trained" to recognise that working out has become a regular thing, and it should stop burning muscles and start burning fats because fats are easier to burn than muscle.

So if my understanding is still valid, then short bursts of cardio workout will not achieve the effects of burning more calories. However, it still will condition your cardiovascular system and it'll be stronger, as stated by these fitness experts.

Perhaps once I've lost the weight I've accumulated over the years, I might think about doing bursts of cardio workouts than sustained cardio. Right now my primary goal is to burn the fat off.

Labels: burst, cardio, cardiovascular, exercise, sustained, workout

Well I must say one thing... I did improve my strength using the Steel Bow. I can now fully compress the Steel Bow while doing the workouts. However, I'm disappointed that my physique changed very little, if at all, during this time :(

As suggested in the instructions, I changed the spring in the Steel Bow to the Level 2 one. I then tried to do just a couple of the workouts. Man! What a change! With the level 2 spring in the Steel Bow, I could only push it to about the "40" mark (out of 120). This is what I need, I think.

After going through a couple more exercises, I could feel the arms getting slightly numb again, like I did in the past. I'm feeling good about this.

I was talking to my buddy yesterday about working out. He's a proponent of free-weights, and doesn't believe in anything except good old fashioned weights, and maybe the elastic bands thing for working out. He pointed me to a website, Bodylastics. I might see about getting that too to complement my Steel Bow workout...

Labels: Bodylastics, exercise, Steel Bow, workout

In first post, I was saying I needed a home solution for workout. To recap - I'm a lazy person. I won't say "Singaporean", because humans are inherently lazy. You can be in any country, and chances are, they'll be as lazy as everyone else...

But, I digress..

Back in 1998, I did mostly cardio... you know, those mindless 30 min running, jumping, Power-Rider-ing stuff, and very little strength/muscle building. This time around I thought I'd really start to put on some muscles for a more "permanent" solution to losing weight and keeping them off. Besides, with a set of muscles I might be motivated to exercise regularly like twice a week to maintain them :)

In any case, I scoured the net for a few home workout solutions, or "home gym" as they like to call it. I then remembered that as a kid, I saw adverts in the newspapers for a "Bullworker" machine. At the time, I wanted to get it but my dad would always refuse, saying they're just "gimmicks".

Well, now I can get one on my own. So I started hunting around Singapore for it. Unfortunately, it seems like no one knows where to get one anymore. I then turned to the Internet, and lo and behold! I found a ton of websites with Bullworker-clones.

I almost bought the BullyXtreme, but the website was too "spammy" and it didn't really give me a good "feeling". Then I stumbled across BowProducts. It was here that I was sold on the Steel Bow (pic below).

Steel Bow

Anyway, I ordered one, and amazingly it took only 4 working days to get from the USA to Singapore! Excitedly I tore the package open, and unfolded the wall-chart:

Yeah I stuck it on my wall... what else do you do with a wall-chart eh?

The package comes with the Steel Bow, 2 additional springs (for intermediate and advanced users, meaning stronger springs) and a workout DVD.

Anyway, it's been a week, and I've been following the exercises on the wall-chart. What I *CAN* say is that my strength HAS increased. No visible increase in measurements yet though.

I hope my investment in this will be worth it...

Labels: Bullworker, burn fat, exercise, gym, home gym, lose weight, Steel Bow, weight loss, workout

One thing about working out - people normally want results FAST and ignore the recommended "recovery" period, which is "once every 48 hours".

For example they'd workout 6 days a week, hoping to keep building up muscles (or burn off calories as the case may be). However, it is also important that you should REST. If you also train for muscle gain to assist in fat burning, then resting is when the muscle growth happens.

I'm sure everyone has gone through this before - the first time you work out, you get muscle aches the next few days. Yeah that's because you haven't been working out, and the muscles aren' t expecting the stress you're going to put them through. Because of this, you have "overloaded" your muscles and they are scrambling to get the building materials from the food you eat to "make more muscle" to handle future loads of this magnitude. In the mean time, they ache to tell you to "lay off dude! Under construction!"

So once you start to exercise regularly, the muscle aches SHOULD go away. Sometimes this confuses newbies (me included) that have been told that "muscle aches are good - means your muscles are growing".

Like all living things, I learned that muscles adapt. Once they "realised" that you're going to work out more regularly, they'll be more adaptive and muscles won't ache anymore. Or at least, not as much.

When they don't ache, it doesn't mean they aren't growing. What it means is that they've adapted and you should let them rest to recover and build more mass. You'll notice this when you start to be able to lift larger loads, or carry the same load for longer periods.

That's the point of this post - to remind me that I need to rest too, to let the muscles recover and adapt.

Labels: burn fat, rest, workout

I'm a typical Singaporean.

That means overweight, more fat than fit, and severely out of shape. Like most other Singaporean males, I cringed at the 4 letters - "IPPT". I drink, eat junk food, play games into the wee hours of the night (well I don't do much of that anymore) and do all sorts of unhealthy stuff. Even gory pictures on cigarette boxes don't put me off.

Well, no more. I have committed myself to a slightly different lifestyle. I did it once before, back in 1998. If I can do it then, I can do it again, now.

Yeah, I went on a training regime back in 1998. I lost 10kg. When I met up with my reservist buddies, they commented on how slim I was. Alas, I still failed IPPT that year.

This is the beginning of a new journey for me.

Technically I started back around 20 Sept 2007. That was day 1 of my new journey - the journey to lose this accumulated weight I have been carrying since 1998 (when I stopped my old journey). That night, I went hunting for my old journal - the one I had written down all the healthy foods, exercise tips and so forth - but to no avail. It's lost. Gone.

Well I have to start over. I have to research all those stuff all over again. However now I have a head-start - I still remember alot of the do's and don'ts I had written down back then. For example, I remember that eating more times a day, but smaller portions each time, is actually good for me instead of the popular misconception that it's bad.

Yes, eating MORE OFTEN will skew your body's rhythm. It'll make your body say "Hmmm food is becoming abundant now, we don't have to scrimp and save and push everything into FATS to store for a rainy day". I'm not kidding. I did that in 1998 and it lost me 10kg.

Next step - to start cardiovascular exercises. I know I have to do this for at least 2 weeks for the body to start recognising that exercise is now regular, and that it's easier to burn stored fat than just the calories I ate that day. I did that on 20 Sept. And, I got a sore body the next WEEK after that.

Yeah, that happens when you don't exercise for years then you suddenly kick-start everything. Your body is suddenly shocked into working.

I only did a 20 min cardio workout and some pushups, bicep curls and some crunches that night. I was then punished the whole of next week with body aches. The week following that, since my body was aching to heck and back, I could only continue on cardio workouts and did almost ZERO muscle building/strength training.

Muscle building is yet another thing I remember from my 1998 journal. Muscles burn fat, even when you're slouched in front of the TV or sleeping. Losing weight too fast without building muscles will make you look fugly. Besides, losing weight without adding muscles won't make the weight-loss permanent. The moment you go off your diet, you start to put on weight again.

Yeah I know, cos I stopped my regime back in 1998 and it happened to me.

This is now 2 weeks since 20 Sept when I started on my journey. I had started out weighing 82kg. Now, at this writing, I've already lost 2kg, almost entirely only doing 20 to 25 mins of cardio workouts every 2nd day. It's considered pretty slow actually.

Now that my body has been conditioned, my muscles don't ache anymore. However I still need a fast way of putting on muscles to help with the fat burning, and doing push-ups, pull-ups, crunches seem like hard work.

Because, like most other Singaporeans, I'm lazy :) I don't want to buy a gym membership and then have to groan and moan about going to the gym. It will end up with me dreading to go, finding all sorts of excuses not to go etc.

So, I needed a home solution....

Labels: exercise, lose weight, weight loss, workout