2008 Post-Mortem #1: Weight Training
2008 Post-Mortem #1: Weight Training
Late last year, after the debacle of trying to buy a pricey board game for my birthday, I decided instead to invest in my present and future health and took my refund and started a new hobby: weight training.
My goals weren’t particularly high:
- Improve my physical fitness.
- Reduce my waistline.
- Get stronger.
- Grow arms, shoulders and a chest.
As I’ve mentioned any number of times: I’m a geek. I know I’m a geek (though not always a Geek in Good Standing). As such, I’ve never looked like George Clooney, never had sixpack abs, never had particularly broad shoulders, and while my long fingers would kill you at schoolyard “mercy” games I’ve always been an easy mark when armwrestling. Hell, I weighed only 130 lbs (60 kg) when I started college–and I was 6′ 1″ (185 cm). “Ectomorph” hardly begins to describe me.
So, yeah, I didn’t dream big dreams. I kept my goals manageable. (And promised myself that no matter what happened, I would never become an amateur bodybuilder and/or photograph myself nearly naked [I had a friend who did both of these when he turned 40; he sent me the pictures before I knew what he was doing; you should never do that to your friends]).
This is my review of my first year’s progress.
What Went Right
1. I’m on track with my stated goals.
My overall physical fitness has improved considerably. My waistline is about the same as it was–but the paunch that hung over my waistline is much reduced. I’m measurably stronger (I have the log sheets to prove it). And my upper arms, shoulders and chest have filled in noticeably (noticeable to me and my wife, anyway; remember: no pictures).
In addition, my legs show a nice, new definition in the muscles, and (for the first time in my life) I have a non-bony back.
2. I kept up the schedule.
I worked out 5 days a week this entire year, missing only a couple weeks early on due to illness and one week I deliberately took “off” back in October.
I do my workout in the morning, after eating breakfast. It takes about 35-40 minutes on average. The most grueling day (currently Monday) takes longer than the average, and usually requires at least 3-5 minutes of rest afterward (dead lifts are great for the lower back, but are exhausting).
So far, it’s been a great way to start the day.
3. It didn’t cost me a lot.
The initial investment in equipment was rather more than I expected:
- adjustable weight bench with walk-in rack and spotter bars.
- barbell
- cast-iron free weights in the 10-lb, 5-lb, 2.5 lb varieties
- a handful of cast-iron dumbbell pairs
It all adds up (especially since I decided–for good reasons–to go with 2″ Olympic-style free weights and bars). But, once you have them, they don’t exactly wear out.
Over the year I added:
- EZ-curl bar
- 2 dumbbells (that you add weights to)
- more free weights as I needed them
- a few more cast-iron dumbbell pairs
And last week, celebrating my 40th birthday (sorta), I bought:
- ab slant board
All told, though, it still cost less than paying for a health club membership for a year (and certainly less than I’ve invested in third-party components for Project Vee). And I still have it all for next year’s use.
4. I haven’t injured myself.
I’m a guy doing weight training on his own, by himself. As such, I have to be very careful.
So far, so good. 
Seriously, I try to be conscious of what I’m doing any time I’m handling the free weights, dumbbells and barbells. My father’s back went out on him when he was younger than I am now, and I want to avoid that.
For the same reason, I’m very conscious of my form when doing exercises. I want to improve my physical condition, not brag about how much I curl, press or squat. (OK, fine, I’ll brag a little: 45 lbs [per arm], 100 lbs, and 200 lbs, respectively, in 2 sets of 10 reps.) And if I think I’m “cheating” on an exercise, or just being sloppy, I’ll scale back the weight involved. Results (and remaining injury free) matter more than bragging rights.
For example, a couple months ago I noticed my forearms were remaining sore for 2-3 days (I called it “wrist splints”; I’m sure there’s another name for it). So I started paying closer attention to my bicep workout, and discovered a couple of places I could improve how I was performing the exercises, plus I scaled back the curl weight a bit. Those changes have made a difference.
5. I’ve learned a lot.
I haven’t just blindly followed a workout plan I found somewhere on the Web or in a book. I’ve read up on weight training and fitness throughout the year, and tweaked my workout based on what I’ve read and what I’ve experienced first hand. I’ve added exercises to fill in gaps that I saw, and dropped at least one exercise because it was having an adverse effect on my shoulder joints.
What Went Wrong Not As Expected
Nothing really went wrong in my weight training (I refer you back to the lack of injuries). But there were a couple of things that weren’t expected.
1. What do you mean I don’t look like Arnold already?
It seems that working out 5 days a week, every week, for an entire year produces merely “significant” results. Not so much “dramatic”.
I can see two main mitigating factors:
- Because I’m working out alone and trying to avoid injury, I don’t push myself to the extreme. I do strive for progress every week, but I’m not willing to put myself at risk to do it.
- I haven’t dramatically changed my diet, either in content or quantity. Except for breakfast, which is very different now–and much bigger (my daughter commented the other day that I eat “two breakfasts”)–than any other time in my adult life, I haven’t changed what I eat.
I have no doubt if I changed one or both I would speed up my progress. Currently, though, I don’t plan to do either. Because I like being (reasonably) pain free, and I don’t want to pay even more for groceries than I already do. 
Or, as my wife likes to point out: It took me years to get the body I had at the beginning of 2008, so I should be patient.
2. I was how skinny?
Sure, I knew I was thin, but I had no idea I how skinny I was (for a guy with that much middle) until I was a few months into the year. In my own mind, I was … more or less … “normal”. I was wrong. Sure, my gut had expanded as I went through my 30’s and I had added a new chin or two, but the rest of me had remained pretty much as thin as before.
That’s another reason I think I don’t obviously show the results of nearly a year of effort: I had a lot of filling in to do.
Conclusion
I plan to continue my weight training into 2009 and beyond. The daily workout is a part of my life now, and I even enjoy it.
My goals for next year remain much the same as they were this year:
- Get fitter.
- Get stronger.
I’m looking forward to both.
-David
Notes
This is where I found my original workout plan:
Though I’ve changed the specifics quite a bit, my workout still looks a lot like Mark’s Workout Plan to Build Muscle.
This is my primary reference on the exercises I do:
ExRx’s Exercise & Muscle Directory has been incredibly useful to me.
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