I wish I could say I've made enormous progress at the gym, but I'm uncertain if there was actually any made.
By my measurements, my arms, chest, waist, weight and body fat composition are almost no different today than they were a year ago: I've added a half-inch to my chest, hips, upper arms and neck, but that's it. My percentage body fat was flat, as was my overall weight.
Despite the absence of changes in volume, I am stronger: my weight stack has increased over the year, especially the leg days.
Part of the problem was a shoulder blade injury in early summer which has kept me from doing a lot of back & shoulder exercises until lately. I'm not quite back onto my usual routine, but am not far off. Carpal tunnel issues still come up periodically as nearly everything I do has some component of gripping, lifting or pushing with my hands. That wouldn't be so bad except for the vast amounts of typing I do through the course of my day for work, among other things. Pacing and patience is required.
In December, I began modifying my gym routine: instead of three sets of 12 reps for most exercises, I'm now doing eight sets of eight reps with slightly less weight. The theory is that I'm still working muscles to exhaustion but emphasizing volume for each exercise rather than absolute muscle strain. In theory, this should also build up some muscle volume for visual aesthetics; I gladly admit that I'd like to look as good on the outside as I feel on the inside, and I have received some appreciative comments from time to time, noting that my workouts are making a visible difference.
This morning, I spent $99 for a DEXA scan. It's a head-to-toe pencil x-ray scan: lay down on the scanner bed while the x-ray emitter in an arm suspended over the table zips side-to-side as the arm itself travels the length of the bed. While these scans are most commonly used for measuring bone density --mine is 1.362 g/cm^2, a high level of density-- they are useful for measuring body fat. Indeed, it is the gold standard for measuring fat and can indicate percentages of body fat in various parts of the body.
From the scan, can say that my overall body fat is 25.1%. My goal is to get that into the 18-20% range, although that will take some work: clearly, everything I've been doing thus far isn't getting me anywhere. My current weight is 183.7 lbs: 176.8 lbs of tissue, 44.4 lbs fat, 132.4 lbs lean, 7.0 lbs bone mineral content. 32.6% of that fat is in the abdomen/belly area, 21% in the hips/pelvis --this is a relatively normal distribution, apple-shaped rather than pear-shaped. The arms have about 20.2% fat, legs 19.5%, trunk (chest+abdomen) 29.9%.
My arms and legs are fairly well balanced with nearly equal distributions of fat, bone & muscle in each. My left torso is slightly more developed than my right, probably a result of favouring my left side through the summer while my right shoulder was injured, but the difference isn't statistically huge.
In short, yeah, I have fat to lose. Losing a bit more than 5% of that fat would achieve my 2016 goals, a total of about 10 lbs off my current weight. Alternatively, I could gain 30 lbs of muscle while holding the fat stable, thus reducing the percentage fat to the same 20% level --which seems relatively unlikely although not an unworthy goal.
One of the major points I've come to appreciate is that I don't eat enough protein to get the muscle growth I'd like. In effect, I'm putting in the effort on the weight floor but not supporting my body's attempts to meet my demands. I'm not a professional weightlifter so a moderate goal of 1g per pound of lean body mass (gods, I hate mixed measuring systems, but that's the rule of thumb here) is appropriate. I now have DEXA proof my lean body mass is 139.3 lbs so I should be getting about 140g of protein daily. How hard can that be?
Well, there are six grams of protein in an egg, 38g in a cup of diced chicken, 8g in a cup of milk (interestingly, soy milk is exactly the same: 8g), 23g in a 3oz portion of steak. In short, yes, 140g is achievable but it's gonna take a huge amount of eating. About two dozen eggs or a quarter of diced chicken *daily*. And it would take still more if I really wanted to beef up.
At the moment, I have no idea how I'm going to do this: I've set aside some time this weekend to figure out how I could possible eat this much protein. There's probably going to be a lot of whey protein supplements in my future... any advice on this is welcome.
This weekend, I'm also going to revise my workout regimen, partly to shake up my routine a bit, and partly to stretch myself into areas I haven't ventured. My chest development lately is pretty good, but I want to work the upper chest more aggressively for a more balanced appearance. My legs are plenty strong so I don't feel a compelling need to keep hammering them more than the squats & inverted leg press work I already have, especially since a leg workout gets incorporated into many of my other full-body exercises. I anticipate fewer barbell and more dumbbell workouts in future, pushing for better balance and internal stabilization. And I need to get my neglected back & shoulders back up to par without re-injuring myself. The project never ends.
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