I’ve been writing from the perspective of bodybuilding over 40… heck, far too close to 50 for my comfort.  But, as time marches on, you can join the parade or be run over by it.  I choose to not be run over.  So, here I am, working out again, getting in the best shape of my life lifting weights, at 48 years old.

In my 30s, I lifted weights regularly, but apparently wasted a lot of time.  I did full body routines, and although I got some benefit, I can’t help but think, “what if I knew then what I know now?”  But I won’t dwell on that.  It’s not productive.  What I take away from that experience is that there’s a lot of new or recent research that doesn’t get a whole lot of coverage in most of the muscle magazines.  (Actually, I stopped reading them a looooonngg time ago, except while burning time in an airport newsstand waiting for a flight.)  Fortunately there are some guys who studied kinesiology and as a result, know the new material and are selling courses on the Internet.  It is from these courses I re-learned how the human body responds to physical demands placed on it.  Really.

I can vouch for the general theories because I tested them on myself.  I am somewhat surprised, honestly, that I am making the gains I am.   And, I have to admit, I regularly stack the deck against myself by not getting enough sleep, not eating six small, well planned meals a day at regular times, and not maintaining a regular enough workout schedule.   If I want to see how far I can take this, I have to work my schedule and commitments to address these “enemies” of progress.  But that’s more a “bodybuilding” goal than a commitment to being in shape.

Today, after writing the most recent bodybuilding over 40 post, I got to work out, starting at 6:30PM.   It was perhaps the latest start since I began this “experiment” in late May.  It was the second workout with weights that are perhaps too heavy for me for the five by five workout routine of compound exercises.  I had increased my weights in a fit of frustration of not sticking to a good schedule.  Since I had done a full workout with these weights, I didn’t want to “go backwards.”  Being late in the day, the weights all felt heavier than they were upon the initial lift.  I was hungry.  I was somewhat tired.  I didn’t want to wait until Monday for the next workout.  I’ve broken that tendency and habit, and don’t feel like going back there.

But, despite it all, I finished in under 90 minutes.  Not that I’m patting myself on the back, but it occurred to me that I am doing supersets of compound exercises now using weights that are very close to my old one set maximum weights.  However, I might be pushing too close to the edge of failure.  I’ll stick with these weights until I can complete this in 60 minutes.  I don’t want to hurt myself and wreck progress.  I do have the tendency of getting muscle knots in my right shoulder and trapezius, a leftover from breaking my collarbone umpteen years ago.  That, coupled with near failure on the last set, can lead to bad form, jerky motions, and torn cartilage.  No thanks. I might rethink the military press weight, though, as I reflect on that.

Since it’s mid-August, and I started about mid-May, I’ve been on this path for three months.  I did not have 20 or 40 or more pounds to lose when I started.  I had been living a somewhat sedentary lifestyle, though.  Getting my “wind” back was tough, but it came back.  I looked for any sign I was “packing on 40 pounds of lean muscle” on my scale, but have stayed in the 185 pound range.  Now I wish I had done a body mass analysis and learned what percentage fat I had.   The reason?  My post-workout pump today surprised me again.  Again, I looked larger than I’ve ever been.  I jumped on the scale…. about 185.  You’re kidding, right?  No.  So my percentage fat has to be dropping as I’ve obviously built muscle.

On one hand, it’s taken me perhaps two months to “get back in shape,” whatever that means.  At three months, I’m still going, improving my fitness level.   And, instead of just getting skinny, I’m getting stronger and more muscular.  One more oddity: after a year, my alopecia (big bald spots that “forced” me to shave my head) is fading.  The biggest bald spot had remained unchanged since two different dermatologists blasted it full of some steroid or another a little over a year ago.  My hair was thinning, and I’ll keep it short, but the biggest bald spot is easily less than half as large as it was before I started lifting weights.  Could this be a benefit of forcing my body to release its own growth hormone?  It very well could.

I know I can carry my three year old around without thinking twice about it.  That’s my motivation.  I can carry my five year old, or toss him in the air as he howls with laughter.  That’s my motivation, too.  I can undertake any repair, construction, or landscaping project without worrying about hurting myself because I haven’t lifted anything heavier than my laptop in years.  I don’t fear a heart attack from shoveling snow.  My commercial lawnmower weighs almost 500 pounds.  You get the point.

What does “back in shape” mean to each of us?  At 25 years old, it might have meant having a great body to attract and meet someone special.  At 35 or 45 it might mean just being able to walk the dog without getting winded.  It might just mean a healthy blood pressure.  One aspect of it has to include the strength of our heart muscles and avoiding diabetes.  If you could get into the best shape of your life now, no matter what age, why wouldn’t you?  Could it be fear of failure?  It would require effort….  Is that it?  It can’t be a fear of the time commitment.  I’m proving it doesn’t take much time for the basic mechanisms to work.  True, I didn’t start with an extra 40 pounds of fat to burn, but I am 48.  The biological mechanisms work.

I have read great workout routines that take even less time and still get you to hit the right intensity to build muscle and burn fat.  I signed up to a bazillion mailing lists and have been getting information from several other authors and trainers besides Vince DelMonte.  They all have been saying similar things about muscle building being far better than low-intensity “typical” cardio exercises like running for getting in shape, and most have degrees in kinesiology.  There are some interesting exercises and routines.  I’ll gather some routines for bodyweight routines for muscle gain and fat loss, and post them in the not-too distant future.

Bodybuilding over 40…
I am sure glad I landed on Vince DelMonte’s info when I did. I recently did a few searches on “bodybuilding over 40″ and browsed a couple of “supplements are awesome” sights. The only bodybuilders over 40 I could find in my quick check of any discussion of age and bodybuilding had been bodybuilding since their early 20s. Granted, I found a few impressive guys, over 70 even, who were big and ripped… but had been doing it for 40 years, obviously with gifted genetics.

I did feel a bit self-conscious when I used the term “bodybuilding” to describe my efforts. After all, I don’t own a speedo and I’m not going to shave my chest or my legs… but I am working hard on building muscle. I’m not just toning. I’m lifting. I’m not just doing a few sets of bench presses and squats to maintain my current muscle mass. I’m going through a routine, increasing weight and intensity, to grow.

I guess it was a bit of a sanity check that led me out into the big, bad world of relentless nonsense on bodybuilding. One blog post written by some pro bodybuilder talked about weights to use if you are over 40 and going to start training again… I could swear I read “for the bench, pick a light weight, about 225lbs, to re-introduce yourself to training.”

I can’t even imagine trying lifting my old maximum workout weights… especially doing supersets of compound exercises. But I started light, and built up some endurance, and strength, and am making great progress. It’s not about “benching 200″ which was a high school taunt… (I can’t remember what my old max bench weight ever was, because I was doing inclines for the years I tried the Mentzer routine.) It’s not about the weight, or the reps, it’s about building muscle. If I can do it with a 10 pound dumbbell, doing the crazy shoulder superset at the end of my workout, that’s what it is.

If you’re thinking about getting back in shape yourself, go for it! Start with really light weights… maybe even “just the bar” so you can get your form down and ease into it so you don’t hurt yourself. There’d be not much worse than getting all psyched up to start building muscle again and have to stop because you hurt your shoulder, for example.

I’ve been healthy, not gaining much weight, no hypertension, etc, so it was a lot easier for me to get back in to a routine. Still, it took me four weeks to get to three times through DelMonte’s superset routine. So if you’ve not done any exercise lately, make sure your doctor clears you, and start fast walking or biking to get your heart used to beating hard. Then, I’d do the routine I started with, and go once through it. When you change your old training method from “waiting around until I recover as much as possible to do the next set of the same exercise” model to the superset model, your body will change quickly.

Tomorrow, if I don’t actually get the sore throat bug going through my family, I’ll start the second week of 4 by 10. Need some sleep too, so with that, I’m off for tonight.

It turns out that I had forgotten a few details when I started this routine on May 18th. I had combined the content of two of DelMonte’s free videos to create a compound exercise full body routine.

What I had forgotten was the number of reps/set, rest, and number of supersets per week.

I think my inability to get through more than one superset during that first week threw me for a loop. My old habits included doing a set, and then waiting until I was good and ready to do another set.. of the same exercise. Blasting from one exercise to another with only 60 seconds rest was just something I hadn’t done. Ever. And, make no mistake, when you try it with compound exercises for the first time, you’ll find it’s tough too.

It took me about four weeks to catch on that the routine required changing the number of reps/exercise and supersets done every two weeks. I think there was also a promo around that time that consisted of a 12 week, transform-your-body-contest open to anyone purchasing the program. Since I thought this free video workout was a 12 week program at three supersets of 15 reps per exercise, I’d say I mixed them all up.

So, here’s what it’s supposed to be:
3 sets of 15 reps/exercise for two weeks
4 sets of 10 reps/exercise for two weeks
5 sets of 5 reps/exercise for two weeks

For the exercises… a couple of caveats first:
I work out in my basement, and I’m tall enough that I can not do a standing military press without hitting the ceiling. I also own a Hoist home gym that has a weight stack for pulldowns. I otherwise don’t have a good place for pullups/chinups.

Deadlift
Flat barbell bench press
Squat
Bent over row
Clean
Seated dumbbell military press
Plate Chopper
Pull downs
Dips
Reverse Incline Leg Raises

And this, dear readers, is a killer weight lifting routine.

At the end of the routine, I have more often than not added oblique crunches, two or three sets per side. I’ve also added one pass through a shoulder superset with really light weight a few times. My shoulders have always been a weak spot in my mind.

Check out proper form, and review the rest/repetition info in these free workout routine videos.

Again, if you’re just getting back in shape, be careful! Even with very light weights, you will be shocked at how hard you work to do a superset if you’ve never done one. Don’t give up if it takes a few weeks to get do three supersets of 15 reps per exercise. This workout routine will rapidly transform your body.

For those getting back in shape: I’d suggest getting to the point or fitness level where you can do three sets…. THEN consider yourself “starting” this workout routine, doing two weeks of sets of 15 reps, then going to 4 sets of 10, then 5 of 5.

Let me know how you do!

It’s only been ten weeks since I started this?  Time both flies and stands still.

Yesterday, Monday, marked the beginning of the 11th week of lifting according to the workout routine I posted previously.  My first workout was May 18th.  Here I am ten weeks later… Am I back in shape?  Yeah….  That’s a bold statement… but it’s true.

Last week I started on Monday doing five sets of five with heavier weights.  When I got to the body weight exercises at the end, I pushed for 10 reps on dips and incline ab raises.  I had mentioned that doing 50 dips in day and living to tell about it was something I’d never imagined I’d be able to do.  Truth be told, the next day I suffered  knots in my right shoulder and trapezius that prevented me from lifting last Wednesday.  I could not get my shoulder loose enough to move through its range of motion without sudden twinges of pain.  When I tried my first set of bench presses, I lifted the bar off the rack, and felt dangerously close to a twinge that would force my arm to collapse.  I took the day off, but I was really annoyed.

I had broken my right collarbone somewhere around 1991.   As my collarbone healed, it wound up about an inch shorter than my left.  I think the slight difference leads to nearly perpetual knots in my trapezius muscles in my neck and under my right shoulder blade.  I stretched a lot and was flexible and mobile enough to work  out Thursday and Saturday.  You can actually see the difference between my collarbones in the pics below.

Because I was somewhat concerned about the spasms and knots, I did not push my weights higher at any point this past week. I did try to do Thursday’s and Saturday’s workouts in less time. Because I had some serious business to discuss with my wife, I began Saturday’s session too late… 90 minutes before the time we were to be at our friend and neighbor’s house for dinner.  I had no choice.  I had to push myself on the time between exercises and sets.

It was the first time I completed any of these workouts in one hour.  And let me tell you, that was DIFFICULT.  It took me an hour to stop sweating. Even though I hadn’t increased my weights, I hit a new peak of intensity shortening the workout.

So enough of me talking about progress.  It’s time for pictures.

I’m stalling.  I’ve resisted….  It feels a bit weird and self-doubt creeps up… But, if anyone is ever going to believe me that Vince DelMonte KNOWS what he’s talking about, I have to bite the bullet and just get on with it.

My wife took these pictures Monday night.  It was late, she was focused on having to get on the road at 6AM for a meeting, not on directing me on a photo shoot.   I had to manipulate lighting in Picassa so you can actually see me. We’ll update them with pics we take in daylight.

We took a vacation in January 2009.  Pics from that trip will have to suffice:

Actually Me in Jan 2009

Also me in not so great shape at 47 in Jan 09.

Since I never really imagined I’d be posting pictures of myself… I didn’t take any “before” shots as I started the routine.  So, these are photos from January 09, when we were on a cruise vacation.  Since I didn’t do much in the way of physical activity between then and May 18th when I started, this is a good enough approximation for… well… me.

Ok, so my wife admitted to being camera-challenged.  She was distracted by her preparation for an important meeting early the following morning (this morning if you’re reading Tuesday).  It was late at night.   I had wanted to take these pictures right after my workout Monday so I could be a little more “pumped up.”   How vain.  I know.

Have you ever putting pictures of yourself  on line?  Posing?  After only ten weeks trying to get back in shape?

Enough disclaimers.  Here goes nothing:

Some progress for 10 weeks of lifting.

Why didn't the flash work? Who knows?

We’ll get better pics up soon.

And one more just because…..

After ten weeks of the "six week workout."

Because the camera was taking literally 20 seconds when the flash was on, all the shots taken with the flash were blurry.  So, I resorted to Picassa and lightened up the non-flash pictures so I could see them.  I’ll replace these at some point soon.

I know I had to post pictures so I’d be the least bit credible.

If you’ve read any of my earlier posts, you’d remember I did no big extra diet modifications, still eat pizza with my boys on Friday nights, and have indulged a few times since I started this “journey.”   Frankly, I’m amazed at how well DelMonte’s guidelines have proven out.

Sure, I don’t belong on bodybuilding dot com or “steroids R us” websites, but this is progress for ten weeks.  How big can I get?  I don’t know.  I’ve been skinny my entire life.  Some of my cousins are big.  Maybe I have more potential than I was ever able to understand.   After this week, I’ll take a week off, I think, and start up a new routine and use even more information contained in the full blown course.

Time to cook the boys dinner!  Enough for today!

Workout Routine Changes

As I’ve written previously, I wanted to change my routine to make it a little easier to get back in my bodybuilding over 40 groove. My first week I cut my weights and did two supersets of ten reps per exercise. I also substituted standing cable rows for the bent-over barbell row. My secondary goal included not hurting myself in the process.

The routine seemed a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. At first I thought it was due to those three weeks of relative inactivity when I was down with headcolds, and I’m sure that contributed, but that couldn’t have been all. I suspected the bike rides I started doing regularly sapped energy too. It turns out I was wrong.

Workout Intensity

I finally made it to my goal of four supersets of 10 reps on Friday, Oct. 16. The week after I only managed one workout on Tuesday (frustrating!). This past week I actually got three full workouts in on Monday, Weds, and Fri… I also worked progressively harder to get the four sets done more quickly.

Over this past summer, I had gone through a similar period where I spent weeks reducing the time to complete the five rep superset workout after I had increased the weight I used on all my exercises. It’s this approach I took with this phase of four sets, increasing intensity of each workout as I reduced the time from about an hour and twenty minutes to an hour and ten minutes.

Weightlifting Routine Comparison

I was trying to understand why I felt so wiped out after four supersets. I took a look at some numbers and was pleasantly surprised.

When I was doing five supersets of five reps, I was squatting 170. I reduced the weight approximately 25% to 130. Although I reduced the weight by 25%, when compared to my 5 supersets of 5 reps routine, four supersets of 10 reps is actually more “work.”

In physics, “work” is defined as being equal to force required to move a mass at a constant speed times the distance that mass is moved. In a vertical lift, it is, for the most part, equal to the weight of the object under study (mass x force of gravity).

Let’s look at my squats: In this example, everything can be simplified because I’m doing the squats the same. The vertical distance the weight moves in each rep is the same. In an effort to just see the impact of the weight change and the repetitions, we can call the distance moved “one Bob squat height.” That’s about 2 1/2 feet if you’re trying to be specific, but it’s not required. We’re just looking at the difference in energy required to move the weight in each workout scenario, with the weight as the only variable.

The formula is actually: W=FxD….
For one set at 170 pounds: W=170*1*5 (five repetitions = 5 times “one bob squat height”) =850
For one set at 130 pounds: W=130*1*10 (10 reps through the same distance) =1300

Looking back at the four supersets, and focusing just on my squats:
The difference of 450 between each set x 4 sets = 1800
That difference alone is a little more than the energy required for two 5 rep sets of squats! (2×850=1700).

(I’ll have to refer to my “ancient engineering texts” to brush up on the subject if anyone wants to know the exact units, but in metric units it would be Newtons, and in Standard units it might actually be a fraction of horsepower.)

So it turns out I’ve been doing more “work” in the four set workouts than I had in the 5 by 5 workouts given the weights I used and have been using most recently. That explains a lot! I had been down on myself because I had been struggling with my last set of dips. When I was doing the 5 by 5 workout, I did 10 reps of dips in each superset. I couldn’t understand why I felt so depleted at the 40th dip versus the 50th I had done in the other routines. I obviously exerted far more energy by the end of my fourth set of ten than I had by my fifth set of five.

I now have to look at the weights I used for each of the exercises, for a similar percentage comparison, but I’m confident I didn’t reduce any weight enough to just “break even.”

It looks to me like I’ve accomplished my goal of returning to my pre-break intensity and then some! Now I’m looking forward to results.

Re-starting Your Bodybuilding Over 40 Routine

In light of my experience, my “official recommendation” would be to ramp back up in a similar fashion if you’ve been forced to take a break.
-Reduce your weights by 25%
-Increase reps per exercise.
-Start with one or two supersets, depending on your fitness level, and work to complete them with 30 seconds rest max between exercises, 90 seconds between sets.
-Add the third and fourth superset as you are able.
-Cut yourself a little slack, but don’t make excuses for reduced intensity.

Remember, the higher the intensity, the greater your body’s response will be. That will be in the form of growth hormone production and metabolic rate increases. These will lead to more muscle mass and faster fat metabolism. Intensity is a function of many factors. Given a fixed number of repetitions and sets at certain weights, reducing the time to complete the routine amplifies intensity.

Of course, be careful, get a doctor’s approval if you haven’t exercised in a long time!

Bodybuilding Obstacles Had Taken Their Toll

It has been a full three weeks since I worked out last. Back-to-school for the kids came with the requisite colds. I got one immediately and after a week, had a definite relapse. For two and a half weeks I did nothing. Last week, I started moving again riding my bike by myself. Then I took a couple of bike rides with the boys in the bike trailer Friday and Saturday, each time in a bit of a sprint. So I got my heart pumping and out of breath enough to clear out my lungs.

Weightlifting Routine Progress

My progress had been pretty good. Before the break, I got the five sets of five rep routine down to 50 to 55 minutes. In my post where I essentially whined about Bodybuilding Over 40 Obstacles I noted that I had raised all the weights for all the exercises out of frustration, and that the routine was taking a full hour and fifteen minutes as a result. It was tough… and I almost hurt myself.

I maintained the same weights for a few weeks and recorded the exact time I finished various sets. When I began recording the time, the first superset had taken just eight minutes, the second, ten or eleven, with the fifth taking nearly 20. Just before I got sick, I was finishing the second, third, and fourth sets exactly ten minutes after the end of the previous set, and twice did so for the fifth set as well. I had vastly improved my aerobic capacity as I tried to shorten the workout each time I did it. Pushing through five sets trying to keep to that schedule kept the intensity peaked. I ended each workout drenched in sweat and gasping for air.

Re-Starting a Bodybuilding Routine

Surely I’d be setting myself up for failure if I tried to do the exact routine in the same time as I had before the break. So I decided to ease back into the workout habit. I vacillated between starting a six-week cycle with two weeks of three supersets of 15 reps, and three or four sets of ten reps. I settled on three sets of 10, moderate intensity (lower weights, not freaking about the “schedule”). I got two done.

I’ve read a few accounts on one of the “steroids is great” web sites, and laughed cynically to myself when reading the “what’s your favorite exercise?” section. Mine? Sleep. There, I’m busted. Every single exercise in the superset hurt a little more than I expected it to. I didn’t feel like working out, but I pushed myself to do something. With perfect timing, one of the boys got hurt playing outside just as I finished my first set, and I had to play dad. I almost didn’t go back for my second…. it was dinner time. For some unknown reason, I decided to get through one more.

It turns out that two sets of ten at a moderate pace was enough to start back up. I guess I didn’t lower my weights all that much, and approached failure at the tenth rep most of the exercises… I feel every muscle now, and am thankful I didn’t push myself for the third because I would surely suffer tomorrow. Maybe I will anyway. I’ll let you know.

So, in conclusion, if you are forced into a break in your routine, I’d strongly recommend changing it up a little, like reducing weight and increasing reps, and plan to ramp back up to your previous intensity. Move through the supersets at a moderate pace.

Even though I wasn’t completely gung-ho about lifting today, I’m glad I did. It’s going to take a successful week or two before I set some ambitious goal for myself.

One other thing worth noting: I changed my bent-over row to a standing cable row exercise. I get a better squeeze on my lats, and less lower back strain. Doing the cable row while standing engages a lot of muscles to keep you standing without excessive stress in any one spot, like lower back.

Maintaining Bodybuilding Focus

It’s hard enough to focus on bodybuilding workouts with the level of effort required to get real results. Add in the constant drone of voices of anxiety on the news, and it looks miraculous that you can even focus on working out and taking care of yourself at all. Life is generally hectic for everyone. I don’t know of anyone who would disagree that stress levels are up or that everyone’s general anxiety level is higher every year.

Back to school times introduce variables to those of us who are parents.

Unavoidable Workout Routine Disruptions

My least favorite element of back-to-school times is that these wonderful institutions of learning sometimes appear to be nothing more than enormous incubators, harboring mutant variations of viruses to which I should have developed immunities long ago. But, without fail, despite my level of fitness and physical conditioning this year or the last two, I’ve gotten a cold within a week of my boys going to school here in CT.

I can’t work out when I have a cold. I’ve not been able to work out for over 10 days. My last was a good workout Friday evening, 9/18. That week and the one prior, I had only managed to get two workouts in each week as our family adjusted to school schedules and the resultant adjustment anxiety in the kids that disrupted everyone’s sleep.

But, I will prevail. I am getting better after a mild relapse, and miss working out. I need to stay in shape for my sanity now. I might mix up my routine at this point, so I don’t have to get frustrated if my performance isn’t what I think it should be… The great thing about maintaining the same routine is that you can really measure progress. The downside is that you can come to expect too much of yourself.

I might have to think about a new goal…. New pics in three months? 10 pounds of mass in three months? I have to think about this. I want to keep making progress.

What motivates you to keep working hard to build muscle?

Time and Obligations

I have to confess:  Once I posted pictures of my progress bodybuilding over 40, I took a few days off at the ten week mark, as we had several family things planned.  The timing was right.  I felt a little guilty, but that passed quickly.   Starting back up has been difficult, and like when I started, my workouts have been preempted by life.

My wife has had to travel more, as a few projects came due in her job, and the two little guys, a.k.a. Captain and Kid Chaos, have had some great days… if  by “great” you normally assume whining, fighting, time-outs and crying….  Also, while I wait for the next consulting contract to kick in, I’ve been doing the Daddy Day Care thing, and teaching Kid Chaos to use the potty, and that it is not ok to wear a portable bathroom to nursery school.   It’s a perfect storm of a little separation anxiety from their mom, the big change of potty training, leading to their requiring more attention and my finishing a large, drawn out masonry project in the family room (fireproofing the new wood stove hearth and the wall).

Taking that hour to hour and 15 minutes for working out, a little recovery, and shower just has been tough.  Either the window came too late in the day, when the boys had to eat, or altogether impossible.  As a result, I have not been able to keep the three workouts per week schedule for a couple of weeks.

That’s starting to really annoy me.  I can tell how bad it’s annoying me by looking at how I hit the last workout, on Wednesday (“today” is Saturday.. I hope I finish this post today.).  I haven’t focused enough to revise my routine.  I figured I’d do the five by five workout routine a few more weeks.  Frustrated by my lack of consistency, I increased my weights in nearly every exercise.

Duh.  I had only increased the weight on only one or two exercises at a time previously, and felt the additional intensity.

That made for a difficult workout.  The only thing I hadn’t increased was plate choppers.  If you don’t know what the plate chopper is, check out the free workout routine video.  The hardest part about increasing weight on this odd-looking, but brutally effective exercise is holding the weights.  Adding five pounds to the fifty I’ve been doing holding two 25-pound plates requires a different grip on the plates.  I tried Olympic plates, as the sizes were closer, but their edges were sharper.  I tried moving my grip from the widest grip on the plates, but barely held the five pounder with my thumbs as I reached the top of the motion.  As light as five pounds may be, a five pound plate hitting your head from any height would hurt like… well, a five pound piece of steel hitting your head.  It’s a distracting thought.  I’ll obviously have to work out some solution as I stay at 50 pounds.

Meanwhile, I had increased my squats and deadlifts.  Assuming my Olympic bar is 40 pounds (I have yet to verify this one… is it 50?), my weight for these two is up to 170.  Is powerlifting in my future?  No.  But when I started, I struggled with two 25 pound plates on the bar, for a total of 90.

My bench is up to 160.  Bent over rows with palms up is up to 120 (I think… again, how much does that other bar and collars weigh?).  Overhead press (seated) I’m finally using fixed 50 pound dumbbells I bought 15 years ago thinking I’d get huge after recovering from my broken collarbone (an obviously unrealized goal I had then).  They might be too heavy, as I feel near failure on the third, fourth and fifth superset, but I’m not going backwards.  My pulldowns are up to the 16th plate on the stack.  I have no idea how much they weigh.  15? 20 each? It doesn’t matter, in that it’s one more plate than I did the previous workout.

Dips and incline bent leg raises have stayed at 10 reps each, since I’ve been raising all my other weights.

I got through it.  I had to dig deep for the motivation during the last set.  But I lived to write about it.

Coming completely full circle on one of the theories we set out to test, the one about burning fat lifting weights, I have to tell you I still have not paid enough attention to my diet.  When my little guys ask me to have ice cream with them, I don’t think I’ve refused yet. … Ok, I’m busted. I use their dessert as my excuse.  They don’t have to ask.  And I haven’t ditched pizza night either.  Yes, I pay attention to how much… three or four slices of pizza instead of six, two scoops of ice cream.  Despite this, I am still getting leaner.  It’s crazy.

The other crazy thing about this new-to-me compound exercise theory is that my biceps have never been larger, ever, and I have not done a single bicep curl.  Yet, I’m building my biceps.

Even though I started this post complaining about time and obligations interfering with my “bodybuilding” effort, the compound exercise approach is amazingly efficient at building muscle and burning fat.

I have to set a new goal for myself.  Maybe more pictures in another 10 week period.  I’ll have to think about this one.

I’m pretty sure I’ll have to pay attention to diet to keep this kind of progress going.  We’ll see.