Get Back

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a fitness update.

Look at the top of the page.

You’ll notice a new addition to the logo. Eye of the tiger. That’s going to be present for all fitness posts. Deal with it.

I think it’s perfect.

I spent the first few months of the year phasing out back exercises and phasing in running. I want to focus on the first part of that for now because I’m really in the preliminary portion of getting back into running.

Back exercises

Now that my upper body muscles are growing, getting the feeling for how much to lift and what exercises to do are two critical things for me to tweak. As you probably know or can amass, the muscles in the back could be some of the biggest muscles in the body. I’ve actually spoken before about how I went about training these muscles in 2011.

I started the first quarter of 2012 using the same routine, and I was able to lift pretty heavy for both exercises for four supersets of 10. Not surprisingly, my lats responded well. Too well.

Basically any progress I made to losing my midsection was offset by the growth of my lats. So I’m fitting in the same shirts I was six months ago. I’m just a whole lot more muscular, especially around the lats and shoulders. Luckily, my pant size has gone down four units (2 sizes) in that time, so I know what I’m doing is working.

To get an understanding of what growing lats can do for you, growing these muscles takes skinny old Bruce Lee and transforms him into this:

I’ve backed off on back exercises to lead to more dramatic, or at least noticeable, losses around the midsection.

Now, instead of doing an alternating superset circuit of two exercises for four sets, I’m doing just four sets of 10 repetitions of just one exercise. I’m alternating between the seated row and the dumbbell bent over row with a moderate weight. This gets coupled with bicep exercises on the days I get to these muscle groups in the rotation.

I see the increasing amount of lean body mass as a major benefit. To maintain lean mass, I’ll need to intake more protein, and if I’m keeping up with the cardiovascular exercise, I’ll need more fuel in the form of carbohydrates. That means I don’t have to feel guilty about eating out so much.

As long as I can get to a point where I can reasonably maintain my shape with consistent diet and exercise and also live practically at the same time, I’ll be happy. I think I’m making progress toward this.