My time to get fit - stage 1 - The beginning.

[RimBlock]

Ok, so I finally got some old pics.

Please bare in mind that I do not have any current pics at the moment, it is not easy putting pics like this up but if it helps others then I will do so. Small childern should probabily leave the room as I will not be held accountable for any emotional scaring that occurs .

I had thought about hiding my face from the shame of the worst pics but as the link in my sig goes to a thread with my wedding photos in it really makes little sense .

I had mainly been tall and slim throughout my life with only one previous big weight gain from office work and fast food prior to 2005. Working on a house rennovation with my father saw me shedding the weight very quickly but then I found another office job.

Sep 2005

May 2006

(the lady in the last one is my wife).

I knew I had been gaining a bit of weight over the years in my early 30's but it was not until these photos that I was truely shocked and disgusted with how bad it got. In my mind I was still fairly skinny, a little extra weight sure but on the whole skinny.
Nov 2008

(note the trunks area has been 'amended' in photoshop as I felt they were a little too revealing for a family forum )

At that point I decided to do something so joined a gym but after a determined start I became quite unwell for a week and then became very busy with home and my planned trip back to the UK to see my family (first time in 2.5 years).

What kicked me in the butt again was all my family and friends telling me how much weight I had put on. That and the holiday photos.

Jun 2009

I will try and get some current photos up over the weekend as I don't want to leave you with the worst images in your heads. I wouldn't want to do that to anyone .

Oh well they are all out on the internetz now. I hope this will searve as a warning to the younger people here that the burger diet will have bad effects if kept up when you are older and hopefully with the next set of pics encourage others to take the plunge.

Cheers
RB

Just noticed, I am wearing the same shirt today as the one in the last two pics and I need to have another button at the top open due to my chest size and that is the only part of me now pushing against the shirt. The shirt size is medium and it is from Ben Sherman so Uk sizes (not Asia sizes), just to give an idea.

 

[RimBlock]

Ok, a couple of quick photos.

Sorry for the quality.

They were so taken Sat morning before the gym so non pumped up. Still far to go but I am pretty happy with the progress in the first 6 weeks compared to the previous photos.

All the results are due to hard work, diet and dedication all of which was made easier by the great advice from the people here. Thanks guys.

Regards
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Thanks Tom,

It is difficult especially with the diet (healthy eating) as my wife can eat more or less anything and still stay slim and trim. She can happily have fast food once or twice a week and not gain. Her yearly company medical also reported desirable / optimum levels for just abount everything (weight was a little underweight). So frustrating . Mind you I get my own back if we go to a fast food place and I tell her to go ahead and I will cook for myself when I get home .

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Great journal RimBlock (what are the origins of that name by the way, or don't I want to know?!). Your logs are very detailed and it's an impressive change so far. Keep going whatever happens!

I'm getting back on it today having not trained since I got married a year ago. I've put on 5 Kg since then and the beer gut has returned with a vengeance. My goal is to look good on the beach next summer!

Haha, the name..... I came on to the WWW soon after it hit mainstream and Hotmail first came online. The problem I found like most overs was that if I wanted to have a single identity I had to choose a name that others are unlikely to choose. Whilst we English guys tend to be able to laugh at ourselves a lot of other nations don't so something unlike 'superstud' would more likely be available. Something not too bad so 'idiot; is out. I just stuck two words together and came up with RimBlock which being unknown to most of the world and not particularly flattering to the rest is likely to be available at just about any site I want without having to add numbers . So any RimBlocks will usually be me. Downside, a bit easier to track .

Thanks for the comments, I am trying to document for me and to help others from the point of someone with no experience just starting out. I am glad others can find it as motivating and helpful. I did the same for photography with the link in my sig although I have not updated that one in a while.

unfortunately (in some ways) today is my birthday and I have ended up eating two bits of cheesecake (my fav) and now I am just counting the amount of work to get rid of it . Back on the diet tomorrow and back to the gym after a good nights sleep (my other issue).

Now if I could also sort out my Achilles tendon then all would be good . Found this which seems to be what is going on.

If life was not so full of change it would be so boring....I sometimes feel like I am living in a soap opera.

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Thanks everyone.

Guess it is the fact that I still have some way to go with the stomach that makes me wary of any thing obviously not good for me. Had a Pizza at the weekend too .

The thing that I am finding a bit confusing is that I am obviously loosing body fat but my measurements seem to be about the same. The stomach (largest point) is still around 40" (hips have gone down though as my trousers can attest too). Chest and arms are around the same as the starting size. I would like to think the fat layer has shrunk and the muscle has grown so cancelling themselves out but I really am not sure.

Would love to see the 'love handles' go too.

Now I am at the good old age of 36 I don't even get prezzies from relatives . They buy for the kids instead .

Oh I did get a Samsung Jet mobile as my youngest threw my SE W902 on the floor and broke the screen. I also got a pair of caterpillar shoes (steel toe capped) as my wife hated me wearing my Vans (the shoe company not the motor vehicle ) as she said they are kids shoes. I had to get the caterpillar shoes as 'a big guy needs big shoes' . I didn't enquie any further TBH . Well the steel toe caps make them heavy so a bit more exercise when walking now . On the downside, my ATI HD3870 card has just died on me. Not got available funds to replace at the moment but also not got any games I want to play so no big loss and can use an old card to keep the PC running.

.....like a soap opera

Gustov,

Happy Birthday.... am I the first to say it .

Really didn't look at my face (apart from fatboy face to now) and I think I prefer it this way too. Thanks for the complements. We know you arn't gay, just very in touch with your manly feelings and not too repressed to express them .

RB

 

[RimBlock]

An update to add a quick link to the thread I started on post workout refuelling here.

Now to go and try and find out what I can get to improve my diet.

Various meals I am having now include (number are KCal / Carb / Fat / Protein);
Pasta with chicken soup (cambells condensed) - makes two meals so 1/2 values - 380 / 65 / 4.2 / 10.6
Pasta with chicken bolognase - 380.00 / 78.00 / 4.00 / 12.00
Smoked salmon and salad sandwich on linseed wholemeal bread (2) - 406 / 34 / 14.1 / 40.4
4 half boiled eggs with 2 slices of toast, butter and 1 tsp sugar - 343 / 7 /26 / 19
12" Subway egg mayo with bacon on wheat bread - 556 / 49.6 / 23.4 / 39.8
6" Subway Wheat bread chicken Teriaki - 320 / 49.78 / 2.4 / 27
Two tuna sandwiches on wholemeal bread with 1tblspn salad cream. - 579.6 / 55.14 / 21.36 / 43.98
Porrige & milk (SS) & rasins spoons 4 289 / 45 / 7 / 13
Beancurd & syrup (2 spoons sugar in syrup) cups 2 244 / 19.4 / 11.2 / 20.2
Susi - Salmon (8 pieces) & Sashimi (4 slices) - 656 / 65.6 / 25.2 / 48.8
Herbal soup with chicken thigh - 270 / 6 / 15 / 30

There is only a small selection of pasta available at most supermarkets and wholemeal is in small bags and very costly. I have not yet seen wild or brown rice but I will look more closely.

Cold Storage are now doing internet shopping with a reasonible delivery time (i.e. outside working hours) so I may give them a try. Having the shopping delivered make life so much easier. I used to do it with Tescos all the time in the UK.

NTUC (Fairprice), Carrefour and Shop&Save still have to catch up.

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Ok, probabily a better lunch today....

Salad (lettuce / carrot / bean shoots / beatroot / egg / chicken / bell pepper / cucumber) plus 100g smoked beef (only had turkey, smoked beef or 20 different types of ham ). Hoping to do the same sort of think for working lunch maybe 2-3 times a week. Beef was bought from the supermarket and yes, the egg was a bit smelly .

Have a couple more questions in new threads;
International delivery of suppliments, which suppliers take international orders (either direct or via VPost) here.

What to look for when choosing a whey protein (Amino acid profiles etc) here

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

yeah one day toull be a s guge as me; )

Haha, will take some time to get that far .

Thanks guys. Comments every now and then do help me to believe that I am not just doing this just because I like the sound of my own voice (well you know what I mean).

The thread is maintaining a good posts to view ratio (currently 61:2018) which gives a good indication of interest but comments make it more encouraging. Makes it worth spending the time for me.

Anyway......

Back to the gym last night. The last six days had various things happening so I have not been able to get down there. Thurs and Fri last week missed, Sat went but no legs to give the Achilies tendon time to heal (no pun intended ). Mon and Tues this week missed but I got there finally yesterday. The Achilies tendon feels a lot better and although it is not completely healed, it is not causing pain during the exercise or after so I am fairly pleased that the rest helped.

Well the gym was hard. Not least due to having a very unhappy (upset) stomach. Everything in came out (the other end, not the same end without being to graphic) within 30 minutes including my very healthy lunch. I did have a shake before going and that was fine but with no fueling thoughout the day (from the time I got up until 4pm) some of my sets were poor. I did finally do my 3*8 for bench on 55Kg. Last two reps were taking 4 secs to get to the top because that is the fastest I could go. Last one had me very red in the face I would imagine.

Lat pulldowns are still killing my hands but 3*8 at 65Kg is now more doable. Last rep on set 3 is still a bit more body movement than I would like.

Shoulder press was weak as was the cable flys. Dumbell rowing is hard but completed 3*8 at 45Kg so I really should up that. Dumbell shoulder press was just upped to 25Kg and hit failure.

Hyperextends with 10Kg are still grimacingly hard as are the standing twists with the cable for left / right core conditioning. I dropped 10 Kg for the squats as I had not done them for over a week, I had just upped to 80Kg last session and 70Kg was hard but doable so I will re-up to 80Kg on Friday. Leg press (45 deg) I upped to 166Kg and that burned badly .

Come today I am aching although it is more a case of muscle fatigue with a little bit of DOMS. I just feel I have no strength at the moment and I have Hiit traning to do for the cardio later .

The only muscle group not to have any significant aches yet is the stomach so I may see about doing some crunches so I can actually 'feel' them again. I wish the gym had a decline situp bench as I used to like them even though I hate crunches .

It was good to get back to the gym again.

RB

 

[RimBlock]

Current weights details. All sets are 8 reps apart from warm up (W/U) set which is 10 reps.

The previous section difficulty is for failure / hard but completed / easy and the advice section is suggestion fro next gym session (i.e. 'Keep' current weight / check 'form' or 'up' the weight)

For free weights barbell I use an olympic bar so 20Kg needs to be added to get total weight.

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

I err did uhum 1 pullup the other day but it was mid session when I was really tired etc etc etc

I am still pulling 102Kg last weighing. I was really surprised how hard it was especially the last little bit. Saying that, it was just before my squats so all the other exercises above the squats in that list had been completed.

I have not yet split the workouts but may do so after I hit the first plateau. Either that or 5*5 so currenty I do all (upper/lower/middle) all at the same session.

I have seen others doing the wide grip chinups but the only machine for that is up with the cardio machine and so is a pain to have to go up to. It also has a fair amount of use so may have to queue for it. Saying that I really must go and have a go on it looks like the kind of thing I would find fun after being able to get a few reps out.

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Just a wee tip that I've found when recording weights - don't record 35kg if you are in fact lifting 35kg + 20kg bar. Just write down 55kg

I think I know your reasoning as I started recording the full weight but, why I now record the weight without bar is because I just halve it to know quickly what plates to put on the bar. When I record progress in the spreadsheet I use, I record the whole weight, just not on the gym sheet I take in for a session.

Regards
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Ignore me, too much alcohol and the only thing that will get huge from that is my belly

Ha-ha, and I thought you were 'talking in tongues'

Thats pretty good for your body weight, I started with 1 then eventually 2 and currently I can do about 6 but other times only manage a few sets of 4. All about the progression I think slow negatives are advised if you're struggling to do 1.

Thanks. I thought it was pretty bad and then factored in my weight and it didn't feel quite so bad. I will give it a go tomorrow and see where I get.

I can do pullups on the smith machine easier as that is downstairs with the free weights. Leaving the smith bar up top is a bit mean though as not to many others can reach . Better remember to lower it next time.

A friend has been going to the gym for 5 months and has seen little weight loss. He runs and uses the cable machines and has improved but the fat is not going. I have told him to record his calories and have offered to get him off the cable machines and on to free weights. I will show him the way and then it is up to him . Should be fun.

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Well I took one of my colleges around the free weights section and went through most of my routine with him.

Teaching is a good way of learning and thanks to the advice here I felt confident in being able to give good advice.

We went through most exercises and although he had been working on cable machines and running a lot, after 6 months the weight was not coming off as fast as expected so I suggested free weights along with calorie counting (for a month or two).

I also managed to up my bench press to 60Kg and only failed on the last two reps of the third set. I only just managed the 55Kg on Wednesday with a very red face for the last rep on the third set. DB rows have also gone up to 50Kg now. Lat pulldowns are not at 70Kg as well. Just have to work on those weights now. I also had one of the guys who works at the gym clearing towels etc asking for advice . Feels nice. The personal trainer I turned down for signing up a package with was also there and kept looking over.

Was a good session and now I ache all over. I was aching from Wednesday when I woke up but now it is doubly so . Must keep the protein up over the weekend.

Going to the gym for some Hiit tomorrow to make up the two cardio this week after missing Mon and Tue.

Have to go and get a Thalassaemia screening this saturday. Thalassaemia is the big genetic disorder in Asia like MS (multiple sclerosis) is in the UK. With Thalassaemia, if one parent is a carrier then there are no serious issues for any children (refered to as Thalassaemia minor) but if both parents are carriers then their children are at risk of developing Thalassaemia Major which has to be treated with full blood transfusions among other things for the life of the patent from birth.

My wife has Thalassaemia but I do not. As our oldest son also has it we need to be tested and registered in a national database if we are found to be carriers. Both my wife and my older son have Thalassaemia minor so it really does not affect them although it could affect my son if he chose to marry someone who was also a carrier.

Bring on the weekend .
RB

 

[RimBlock]

After the weights set on Friday and the Hiit session on Saturday my body has been screaming and swearing at me over the weekend.

I did get a good sleep on Saturday night though and Sunday was much better. My wife had her blood test so we need to await the results adn I was confirmed as not needing one as my standard test which was taken when my wife was pregnant showed now indicators of any problems (low red cell count, red cell size).

Sunday was the day of rest so after his homework I sat with my older son watching Doctor Who (series 1) on one of our BBC VOD channels. The special effects have got much better than in my day of Tom Baker and Peter Davison (??).

I have just checked and found that I have missed 6 cardio sessions over the past two weeks for various reasons so I really need to get back on track with those. I only missed one weights session though. Guess which one I prefer .

My stomach also seems to be rebelling especially if I eat any 'not so healthy' food. I had a chicken / fish bento box (Japanese with rice, small chunks of friend fish, chicken, a spoon of veg and miso soup). I then got a med popcorn and took my son to watch GI Joe (Action Force was a much better name for them) and after had to rush to the toilet. My wife bought some cream puffs and got me to have a couple last night. This morning my stomach is really not very happy. I guess it is my body reminding me to be good on the food front .

RB

 

[RimBlock]

I am not sure what it was,

The previous day I had a pretty bad stomach bug so everything was going through within 30 minutes . I had a good long sleep though. Whatever it was, either Fridays session was super good or yesterdays session was dissapointing.

A number of exercises went down on the number of reps for the same weight, stayed the same or a couple went up but then I class failure as not doing all 8 reps for all three sets with good form. Most exercises I can do 3*8 excluding Bench press, squats and bb shoulder press where failure means not being able to get the weight up any more. I upped the squats to 80Kg and it was very hard...... second set last two reps were bright red, veins bulging from the neck etc. I chickened out on the last set at 6 as I was at that level already. I probably could have done another 1 but stopped at six and then just lost the motivation. On a good note, for the warmup at 50Kg I managed for the first time to do full squats (thighs below parallel) rather than thights just above parallel. I do go deep usually but just not that last 5 degrees to take me just under parallel.

I am hoping my Session on Thursday will be moving forwards again.

Hiit tonight which I am not looking forward to but it really needs to be done considering how many I have missed recently. It is only 20 minutes of hell after all .

For diet, I am currently having salads at lunch with one egg, one chicken breast and 100g of another meat bought from the local supermarket.

I have also got some oat calcium crackers which TBH look more like cookies (Two per pack = 110 Kcal, 5g fat, 14.1g carbs and 2g protein. I am then added a thick layer of peanut butter = 180Kcal, 12g fat, 15g carbs, 7g protein - so a total of 290Kcal with 17g fat, 29.1g carbs and 9g protein). Adding to that one shake before the gym with oats and two after gives as extra 488KCal - 9g fat, 31g carbs and 75g protein for a grand total of 779KCal - 26g fat, 60g carbs and 83g or protein.

Now this seems shockingly high for snacks between lunch and dinner expecially for weight loss but with lunch now coming in to under 300 KCal for the salad with a bit of extra meat and breakfast around the same for oats, semi-skimmed milk and rasins, it is still within the 2000Kcal a day diet.

I do need to reduce the shakes and will look at trying to remove the pre-exercise shake and replace with whole food but it is finding some that is practical for the office and not too smelly. Cottage cheeze may be an option although I hear it is expensive over here. Salmon steak or eggs are a possibility but will have to test the smelly factor carefully.....

Cheers
RB

 

[RimBlock]

Well at the propting of one of my work colleagues I went and did the Hiit training at lunch time.

It was hard and like Saturday I really felt like stopping early but with 6 sessions missed I pushed on and completed the 20 minutes.

My legs feel empty even now, 4 hours later .

Home time soon and some quality time with the kids as I now don't need to go to the gym tonight.

RB

 

[RimBlock]

Ok, I have just done the Hiit session at lunch time for today.

I now know which cross trainers not to use . The one I got today had no heart rate monitor, no intensity change buttons on the poles and so I had to use the buttons on the console, taking one of my hands off the pole to press the + or - button with the pole threatening to bash my elbow whilst trying to concentrate of giving max effort and then the time changes to calories so I have to hit the time button which changes again after 20 seconds so I have to hit it again to make sure I am only hitting the max intensity for 30 seconds.

Well I still came off with my t-shirt soaked so it cant of been that bad.

Just had a salad with 100g parma ham.

I also hate them damn scales, they are back to reporting 104Kg which is what they said 5 weeks ago . Luckily I don't take much notice otherwise I could be very dissapointed .

The pictures look better and I am having slow improvemtns still with the lifts (an extra rep here and there).

Have got another weights session tomorrow.

Happy weekend
RB

 

[RimBlock]

This could be a long post....

Are you sitting comfortably, then I will begin .

So it was the friend of my wife who out of the blue suggested we should see this person who sells a diet program as she had been on it for a while and felt so much better than before. My wife was asking around about places to buy cheaper suppliments rather than the Holland and Barrett type places (GNC) here in Singapore and her friend overheard. SHe offered to set us up with an appointment but at the last minute it was not convenient for us. Ever since then she has been pushing my wife for a date to go and visit and even though I made it clear I was happy with what I have, it was suggested that we take a look anyway.

It was ok as I had my tin foil hat and shoes on (well metaphorically) and we travelled to an office building last Friday where on the 10th floor a company called NuSkin. We were invited in to a room with 4 round tables and a gentleman welcomed us and suggested we go get some measurements done first.

15 minutes later after standing on some bathroom scales with metal pads and holding a metal 'T-bar' connected to the base plate with a cord. It was a Omron Full Body Sensor Body Composition Monitor & Scale same as the one here. (link is Walmart, mods please advise if not appropriate for the forums). The manual is also here. Interesting that it does not say exactly the same as the person at the diet centre.

So what did it come up with (scale given to me for each measurement in brackets).......
Weight 105Kg (Gym reported 104Kg at lunch time)
Height 184cm
Body fat percentage: 29.9 (>26=obese)
Skeletal Muscles percentage: 30.6 (>36=good)
Visceral Fat: 17 (Scale goes to 20 with anything upto / over 10 being a threat )
Number of muscle lines: 2 (1-2=week, 3-4=ok, 5-6=best)
Resting Metabolism: 2131KCal
BMI: 31.7 (>26 = obese)
Calendar age / body age: 36/57

As you can imagine I was not happy .

Then they took me to place my hand on the side of a machine shining a light which is meant to measure the toxins in my body with laser light. I will try and find a link when I get home as I have the report. My results..... yep, typical for a western male. The scale is listed in 4 colour blocks with different shades of the colour per block. My result was 2100. My wifes friend was noting all the results although the other guy was telling her what to write. Hmmm, I thought........

So sitting down at the table again he showed some pictures explaining that there people started the plan and lost XXXKg in the 12 week duration with once a week session (record progress and advice and more pills). The changes were dramatic and more than a bit worrying for such a short period of time. He also went on to explain that the negative results would change pretty quickly as weight was lost.

I then explained that I had been weight training for two months, my diet had radically improved and on request gave a sample days diet.

His response...'Well yes that is very good and I would be encouraging that as well as part of the program but also you have support of selected suppliments and weekly sessions and all for the low price of just over S$2000'.

Jaw hit desk. S$2000 to continue doing what I am already doing and having some extra pills. Of course it took a fair bit of pushing from my wife to get him to say that. She is good at digging to get to the underlying truth........ So what were the suppliments...... well I coan now only remember a few of the 6 items but there was;
Celulite cream to prevent floppy skin with such fast weight loss.
Meal replacement powder for one time a day.
Antioxident tablets.
Fat burning tablets.
Tablets to lock away any eaten carbs and protein so your body is forced to burn fat...........(alarm bells - so you are starving your body by not allowing it to get the fuel from food eaten)......
something or other else........

Offshoot of this experience....... we came out with S$2000 still in our pockets, found out that my wifes friend is training to sell the products and although I am sure her motives were more along the lines of sharing the positive effects she has seen, she would have probably benefited financially from us signing up.

The Visceral Fat measurement is a concern but that is explained by the most fat 'pooling' around the upper waist and so close to the internal organs. Fat loss should reduce this figure significantly.

Oh and the best bit....... my wife also did the same scales test and came out with a higher body fat % than me . She is very slender (pic in this thread and also in the post your girlfriends thread). To avoid a riot she was told even though her age is 33, her internal body age is 27. That cheered her up a bit. The man said it was the machine who told him the age reading but I think he was just activating the male natural survival skills around a woman he has just refered to as very fat....... .

Regards
RB

 

[RimBlock]

So it has been a while and a few things have happened on this journey.

Firstly I have been sick starting the previous Tuesday night, took Wednesday and Thursday off from work and went back Friday.

Due to the illness I stopped the gym for 5 days and only restarted on Monday just gone. When speaking to the doctor I mentioned the Achilles tendon problem and was advised to lay off any leg work at the gym until it heals. Ok, so I knew this but still continued. I will stay off the leg work until next week and then ease back in to it again.

I was just starting to get back to where I was a week previously before the illness hit me. The week was very frustrating with good results the Wednesday then worse results right up to the following Tuesday then sick Tuesday night. I believe I ended up catching a nasty cold from my kids who have been coughing for a couple of weeks.

Even though I am back at the gym I still have a pretty bad chesty cough. If I have a bad coughing session I either end up with a headache or feeling very light headed and with very pale colours in my vision. Why am I still doing cardio and weights with this cough....... well I do not cough when in the gym exercising. It is like the body knows it would be bad to do so I just don't have the need during that time. Like when you have to pee but only feel the ultra urgent need most of the time just as you reach the toilet. Strange but true.

I have changed the cardio to static state so am doing 40 minutes on the cross trainer as HIIT with diminished lung capacity I think would just be a really bad idea. I really had to push to make the 40 minutes and my t-shirt looked like it had been dipped in a bucket of water. I also felt nauseous afterwards which is the first time for that. Exhausted, usually but not nauseous.

The weights just went up a little for a couple of exercises although the lat pulldown seems to be a little worse but mainly due to my grip. Pulling down the 70Kg and then a slow return leaves my fingers very white at the end of the set. I have changed the cable flyers (standing) to bench (flat) dumbell flyers. I tries the bench cable flyers and had great difficulty with 10Kg (standing I was working on 17.5Kg). I changed to get the pressure off my legs and so let the tendon heal. The bench for the cable flyers seems to be in the wrong place for my height and as it is attached to the frame it is not possible to adjust. I like the dumbell flyers much better. The upward stroke is a little 'all over the place' but hopefully the stabilisers will kick in when they strengthen up. I am doing 35Kg per arm on those but only because my left arm is definetaly weaker than my right. With the flyers I feel I could go another 5->10Kg on my right arm. I find the same when I am doing the military press and bench press. It is my left arm that will not go up and causes failure of the set not my right. Hopefully they will align themselves soon. Just goes to show how much stronger my right arm is as it has taken 3 months and still they are not aligned for strength.

Ok, the other thing that has happened since my last update was that my wife booked a massage (me and her, up class place....... no happy endings offered). I had been asking her to book for a while as I wanted to see if it would aid my recovery. My pecs and shoulders were aching after the first session with the dumbell flyers. So in we go. Most people were speaking Mandarin with very little English spoken apart from the lady who took the bookings. My wife had booked a package and each session in the package was 30 minutes and this amounted to a half body massage (yes the upper half). So we both stripped to our waist. There were two beds in the room separated by a curtain and in came the masseuse's. A lady for my wife and a guy for me........My wife has said she asked for a lady for me as well but was told the guy would be best . I am not a big fan of massage as I find it quite painful a lot of the time but thought I would try again now the muscles are actively being worked. Maybe now it would be different. First time massaged by a guy and I really prefer a lady to do it, unless she is a small Thai lady who has just been dumped by her uncaring western boyfriend which I am sure was the case with the last painful massage I had.

To be honest it was fine although trying to arrange my hands so they didn't catch 'anything' when he was leaning over at waist level was a bit of a challenge. He could tell I had a cold by my blocked nose and then started digging in to the top of my shoulders. I swear he was going for the Vulcan death grip until he could hear me wincing. When my wife asked if the pressure was ok I mentioned it could be a little softer. The answer the guy gave back (he only spoke Mandarin so it all had to go though my wifes translation services) was that for a cold he could help but must use strong pressure so I would have to live with it....... He then decided to go back to my shoulder which he had left alone for the last 5 minutes and re-emphasise the awesome Vulcan technique he has acquired with me gurning into the whole for my face on the massage bed (table).

Well to be honest the shoulders was really the only part that was painful. The rest was fine. After he had finished and we were getting dressed I asked my wife why it was only my back and not front / arms worked on too. 'Oh, this is a Chinese massage acupuncture place' she replies, 'They only do your back'. Oh well. She got it worst as the lady was digging in pretty hard to her back and she ended up with a light bruise on her back in one spot. On the good side, the guy complemented my wife on the fact that I seem to have a good set of lean muscle. He is probably used to the fat business types who do no exercise and he looses his fingers in the folds. The receptionist apparently also went a bit 'school girl crush' on me it seems, if my wife is to be believed........ The receptionist was around early 40's and fairly nice. Another confidence booster .

We also had a team member (female) visit our team. She had gone off to work for another group within the bank a while ago. She looked at us, three of us go to the gym although I am by far the most dedicated. Pointing she says, 'You the same, you the same, you" pointing at me with an appraising eye 'have lost weight'. So it seems I am loosing some fat. Another boost..

Well I have until December (beginning) to try and loose the stomach and I think it is the lack of cardio that is making it seem like I am not loosing any fat (or loosing very slowly). If I have to miss the gym it is usually cardio that I will miss. No more. I have to get that back in shape. I want to post some more pictures at the 12 week mark as the first set of pictures were done at the 6 week mark. Two weeks to go and I would like to have made more noticeable loss on the belly by then.

I'll post up my current weights sheet after I have updated it today. My Achilles tendon is feeling better after a weeks rest but I will wait until Monday before doing the squats / leg presses again if it seems to have finished healing.

RB

edit:

Here is the current weight sheet I use.

 

[RimBlock]

Nope you are not wrong.

Comparing the previous weights sheet and the latest one, a lot of the weights have not changed....

The resason for this is that after posting the first sheet I then dropped the weight on most lifts to improve form and worked up again.

Did my 40 minutes on the cross trainer today before lunch and by 20 minutes I was ready to quit...... by 30 minutes I was counting down the remaining minutes...... by 35 minutes I was counting down the remaining seconds....... I made it to 40 minutes......

That was hard. Again my t-shirt was soaked front and back. Sweat was pouring off me from the first 10 minutes. I got my smoked salmon sandwiches (wholemeal with sunflower seed bread and tomato / lettuce) on the way back with a mug of tea (one sugar) and plenty of water.....

2 hours later I am still wasted with wobbly legs. Hopefully the body is burning fat in order to restock the legs with energy.

My breathing was not so good this time but not a major problem.... just another thing I could do without having to work at.

I am also considering moving on to the stronglifts 5*5 training plan as I am not trying to build muscle so much with this body building 3*8 routine especially as I am not eating enough in order to loose weight.

Oh and I really want to be able to practice 'The Bear' (youtube link). I just like the look of it and have no illusions..... I am sure it is very hard but hopefully fun.

Cheers
RB