Stronger Than Ever - Buff DM #3

  I am very sore today.  

My back is cracking bark; my legs shaking steel; my chest whines as I stretch, and my arms feel heavy.  Sleep calls, and rest beckons.  But I must persist.  I must exist.
  And this pain is beautiful.  I cannot wait to feel it again - knowing that I just pushed my body as far as it could go, and I'm still standing.  I will rest, grow, and heal, ready to do it all over again.

Every time I do one of these entries, I like to come at it from a reflective state.  A LOT has changed in my life plan and routine, and I want to share the lessons learned from the journey so far.  

Intermittent Fasting (IMF)

  Intermittent Fasting (IMF, for short) is a process of extending your fast to force your body into burning its stubborn fat stores.  Very basic understanding being that the longer you are fasting, the more fat your body can burn as food, as long as you are staying active - thus telling your body to KEEP all that muscle tissue, and get rid of the excess.
  I did this for the whole of 3 months.  I would stop eating by 7 or 8pm, and start eating around 2:00pm the next day (18-19 hour fast).  Days 1-4 almost drove me nuts, but day 5, my body acclimated.  I got used to, and okay with, the feelings of hunger driving at my stomach - which was, for me, a heavy fear.  I hate feeling hungry.  Through this, I actually enjoyed the feeling, at least in the beginning.
  Here's the kicker, though: this didn't work for me.  I didn't lose weight, and all I ended up being was MORE TIRED, and less inclined to exercise on an empty stomach.  What I DID learn, however, was that I didn't NEED a lot of food in the morning.
  Nowadays, I have a muscle milk yogurt smoothie in the morning (under 200 calories)...and don't have solid food until about 1:00.  With a strict regimen of water and exercise throughout the day, I started feeling my best again.
  My diet changed dramatically, as well.  Less carbs, more veggies, more protein (and fish, yay!), and more (yes, more) water.  Soda doesn't taste right anymore, so it's out completely.  Juices I haven't touched since my gall bladder ran away.  Ice cream is a rare occasion, and most meals I skip dessert altogether.  My tummy is very happy...and as of this morning, I can see my abs.  
Let me repeat.  For the first time in nearly 25 years.  I have abs.  

​Booyah.

Lift Test - Machines On The Boat

  My home gym is not very extensive.  I have a bench, a curling barbell, a straight barbell, and a set of dumbbells from 25-40 lbs.  Add in a dip station, pull-up bar, and a punching bag, and that's it.  The majority of my weight training is free weights and (no spotter) chest presses with control over weight - my toughest workout days are majority bodyweight; tons of pushup variations, squat variations, and many grips of pullups.  Kickboxing once or twice a week, and running twice a week...and I'm doing well for myself.
  Recently, my wife and I found ourselves back on a cruise ship.  The Anthem of the Seas - a "high-tech" vessel with a robotic bar, wave pool, bumper cars, and a teens-only extravaganza deck.  They also have a Vitality Fitness Area, with rows upon rows of dumbbells all the way up 80 lbs, and a plethora of machines for any manner of exercise.
  Our first night on the boat...I took 2 hours to myself and lifted as much as I could on every one of these machines.  It's a powerful thing to be able to report the following:
Chest Press: 170
Leg Press: 350
Shoulder Press: 160
Tricep Pulldown: 65
Lat Pulldown: 150
Bicep Pulldown: 110
...and then many others that I failed to record.  It was also great to happily curl 55 lb dumbbells.  
​I'd never have space for such things, but it's a great ego boost to know that it's working.  ;)

MSM (Meditate, Stretch, Move)

  This remains from the last big Buff DM post, and I'm still doing it.  Starting my day with 5-10 minutes of meditation, then stretching, and making sure that I move.  I need to spend more time on my feet than on my seat.  :)

Taming The Beast Inside

  I am not someone that suffers from anxiety, at least not overtly.  But some may think I do based on the state of my fingernails.  Since the age of 6, I have been biting my nails.  I've been fighting it since that age as well, and every victory is short-lived as the habit "finds a way."  Long story short, the habit has found its way into nearly every facet of my life.  It sucks.
  I'm not a nervous dude.  I just have a lot of energy, and a lot of my passive thoughts are centered on productivity, creative thought, composition, and story-telling, not-to-mention a fair amount of energy dedicated to HOLDING ONTO those cool ideas...which makes me fidget.
  This need to move manifested itself early on in my psyche as The Beast.  A creature I would try to lock away and keep caged even as it infected the land around it.  The best practice was to let it out, acknowledge its existence, then work to slowly purge it from my life - location by location.  But he's a tricky fella.  
…until the boat.
  Throughout the 7-day cruise, I didn't touch my nails once.  I watched them grow for the first time since my childhood.  They look great.  Still.  It's a struggle back on land and surrounded by my usual stressors, but I'm fortified with a lot more this time.  A huge part of that Beast died on that boat.  And he ain't coming back.  

Symmetry

  Hey.  Hey you.  Yeah, you on the chest press.  How many squats have you done?  No, seriously, HOW MANY SQUATS HAVE YOU DONE!?
...That's what I thought.
  I've always loved pushups.  I love upper body work in general.  It makes me feel strong, which undoubtedly adds to my desire to do it.  You know what doesn't make me feel strong (at least not right away)?  LEG DAY.  Squats, leg presses, lunges, split squats...all those circuits and super sets.  Ugh.  It HURTS.  
  But here's what it's doing.  It is ensuring that we don't get chicken legs holding up our gorilla torso.  It ensures my third goal in this hot mess: SYMMETRY.  It is more important to look proportionate and feel good, than to bench triple my bodyweight.  Bench-pressing a car is all well and good, but I need to be able to run and fight and squat that car, too.  Plus, a symmetrical body is exponentially more attractive to EVERYONE.  Nobody wants to gawk at 10-inch biceps only to be disappointed by toothpick legs.  And the better I look, the better I feel, the better I can do my job.
  So.  NEVER SKIP LEG DAY.  EVER.  Or trunk work.  Or butt work.  Every inch of us is beautiful, and should be treated just as well as our favorite parts.

In Closing - The FORGE Beckons

I am the strongest I have ever been, and I hope to be able to say that each time I do an entry here, but I want ALL OF YOU to feel as awesome as I do now.  So, I've been talking it up here and there, but filming has finally begun, and with the advent of a fitness center under our control (wink, wink), it's time to build up The Forge: Level Up Fitness for the Athletic Nerd.  Bodyweight exercises with Milestone progression, actual attributes for yourself as a D&D character, and a boss fight every tier.  Let's get to work, nerds.

See you at the table.  And maybe the gym.
-Adamus