I wasn't going to post, but opened my computer and the Blogger page was still up from the 2nd when I started this.
Just here to say that things are going good (whew - a whole 3 days in). I walked an hour Monday, went to martial arts (60 min), walked 15 min during lunch on Tuesday and then 60 min on the elliptical after work. Today, I walked for 60 min.
I'm feeling great; Tuesday I was super hypoglycemic by the time I made it back to the apartment... nauseated, faint headache, general sensation of uneasiness. I'm not worried about toeing the line to over training, but understand it could be very easy to do given the amount of physical activity I have participated in during the past several months, or lack thereof.
Cardio has been basically non existent, not to mention, I have never done solid 1 hour bouts of structured cardio. Classes sure, martial arts sure, but never 60 min on machines - I never saw the benefit in doing that much cardio for the sake of doing cardio. It makes sense for me now considering my PA has drastically declined since beginning a desk job (which I happen to really enjoy - the only downside is the lack of PA... well, they could pay me more too, but I'm okay with waiting until I've earned it).
Anyhow, I'm seriously considering joining this martial art school because I know the effect it has on me physique-wise.
Stay tuned, the next post will be a pic from day 1 followed by a recap of the week 1.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Monday, January 2, 2017
About me
This comes somewhat out of order, but refer to the first post regarding stream of consciousness.
I decided if someone were to read this it would be important to share a little about myself.
I grew up overweight and not extraordinarily athletic, but was always trying to best my older brother, Alex, and that created a fierce competitive spirit within me.
Following an incident with a car that left me with a compression fracture at the L3 level, I took up martial arts. I trained for the better part of 7.5 years (15-22 y/o) while earning my Associate Degree. At 22 moved from my hometown to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Upon the completion of my degree (Dec '14) I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and then quickly to Apex, NC where I earned the position of Club Director at a local fitness facility. Following, but very close to, the anniversary of my start date (Jan '15), I resigned to pursue physical therapy school.
I had 2 prerequisite courses to take along with the GRE and completion of volunteer work to be an eligible candidate. I took one course that spring while earning the remainder of my volunteer hours and another course during the first summer session at Wake Technical Community College. I rounded out the summer with the GRE and completed my PT school application as the deadline neared.
That brings me to where I am now: the worst physical shape I have been in nearly 13 years (things only went downhill in the last 6 months VS. a slow progression to worse health over the full time frame).
Not terribly out of shape, but roughly 6'0, 215lbs, 25% body fat. All of which is in the realm of what is considered healthy for an adult male. The kicker is that, for the first time in my life, I remain sedentary during the working hours of the day, which leads me to consider how my risk for cardiovascular-related diseases has increased disproportionately to how my body composition has changed. Put simply, my numbers have went up, but my risk for heart disease has likely increased even more.
Even still, that's neither the primary reason for this, nor among the first several. I like to be active, sleep well, challenge myself, be outdoorsy, look and feel great, and inspire others if through nothing else than the display of discipline paying off. The notion that 'if I can do it, others can too.'
Alright.
These first two posts are longer than what I intend to write going forward, but I felt it important to briefly describe my plan, and to write this post in order to give readers insight to my background.
Best!
I decided if someone were to read this it would be important to share a little about myself.
I grew up overweight and not extraordinarily athletic, but was always trying to best my older brother, Alex, and that created a fierce competitive spirit within me.
Following an incident with a car that left me with a compression fracture at the L3 level, I took up martial arts. I trained for the better part of 7.5 years (15-22 y/o) while earning my Associate Degree. At 22 moved from my hometown to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Upon the completion of my degree (Dec '14) I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and then quickly to Apex, NC where I earned the position of Club Director at a local fitness facility. Following, but very close to, the anniversary of my start date (Jan '15), I resigned to pursue physical therapy school.
I had 2 prerequisite courses to take along with the GRE and completion of volunteer work to be an eligible candidate. I took one course that spring while earning the remainder of my volunteer hours and another course during the first summer session at Wake Technical Community College. I rounded out the summer with the GRE and completed my PT school application as the deadline neared.
That brings me to where I am now: the worst physical shape I have been in nearly 13 years (things only went downhill in the last 6 months VS. a slow progression to worse health over the full time frame).
Not terribly out of shape, but roughly 6'0, 215lbs, 25% body fat. All of which is in the realm of what is considered healthy for an adult male. The kicker is that, for the first time in my life, I remain sedentary during the working hours of the day, which leads me to consider how my risk for cardiovascular-related diseases has increased disproportionately to how my body composition has changed. Put simply, my numbers have went up, but my risk for heart disease has likely increased even more.
Even still, that's neither the primary reason for this, nor among the first several. I like to be active, sleep well, challenge myself, be outdoorsy, look and feel great, and inspire others if through nothing else than the display of discipline paying off. The notion that 'if I can do it, others can too.'
Alright.
These first two posts are longer than what I intend to write going forward, but I felt it important to briefly describe my plan, and to write this post in order to give readers insight to my background.
Best!
Ramping up
At the turn of the 20th century (or the 19th - i'll find out later) a female author coined the phrase "stream of consciousness" to describe a writing style that had little to no planning. As it suggests, the author simply writes on a topic, or number of topics, off the cuff, so to speak. That is what I intend to do here.
Using this first post to lay a foundation, I plan to keep these updates short for two reasons: 1) the subject matter may not interest very many, and 2) it's primarily for me anyhow. The idea is to update this blog once per week, adding relevant photos and videos as I see fit, and to journal a fitness progression over a 12-week period beginning today, January 2nd and ending around the last week in March.
I will conclude this post with a summation of my plan:
I intend to walk 1hr/day, 5-7 days per week. The only resistance training I plan to do are a variation of body weight exercises including, but not limited to the following: body weight squats, sit ups, push ups, pull ups, planks, lunges, etc. The resistance exercises will be completed with muscular endurance as the primary target (eg 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps, all large muscle groups, 3-4x/week).
In addition to the above, I will add in more physical activity at my convenience to include riding my bike on my lunch break, and walking 10-15 minutes each morning.
As for nutrition, oatmeal w/ banana in the mornings followed by a mid morning apple at work. Lean protein and a vegetable for lunch followed by a mid afternoon snack/protein shake later, and another lean protein and vegetable for dinner. Minimum 100oz water daily. Pretty simple and straight forward.
It is not my M.O. create an exercise and food diary, but rather to track my adherence to everything above and chronicle my progress. Cheers.
Using this first post to lay a foundation, I plan to keep these updates short for two reasons: 1) the subject matter may not interest very many, and 2) it's primarily for me anyhow. The idea is to update this blog once per week, adding relevant photos and videos as I see fit, and to journal a fitness progression over a 12-week period beginning today, January 2nd and ending around the last week in March.
I will conclude this post with a summation of my plan:
I intend to walk 1hr/day, 5-7 days per week. The only resistance training I plan to do are a variation of body weight exercises including, but not limited to the following: body weight squats, sit ups, push ups, pull ups, planks, lunges, etc. The resistance exercises will be completed with muscular endurance as the primary target (eg 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps, all large muscle groups, 3-4x/week).
In addition to the above, I will add in more physical activity at my convenience to include riding my bike on my lunch break, and walking 10-15 minutes each morning.
As for nutrition, oatmeal w/ banana in the mornings followed by a mid morning apple at work. Lean protein and a vegetable for lunch followed by a mid afternoon snack/protein shake later, and another lean protein and vegetable for dinner. Minimum 100oz water daily. Pretty simple and straight forward.
It is not my M.O. create an exercise and food diary, but rather to track my adherence to everything above and chronicle my progress. Cheers.
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