A New Man

Let me begin by saying how I truly despise the months of January and February. There is absolutely nothing good to say about the months, but loads and loads of criticisms and bad things. Poor weather, resulting a depression that is hard to get out of when March rolls around.

After football season had concluded from me back in October, I made the decision to do something about it. Usually during the winter months, I really have nothing to do. I have no coaching assignments and once in a while, I have to supervise the boy's basketball games when they play in town. I got out of most my refereeing duties for the middle school games (since I absolutely suck at officiating and I don't take shit too well), so I had to find something to do. I was determined not to sit on my ass like I had been doing for the previous two years. I had decided to get back into the weight room and make something of myself.

I hadn't seriously lifted weights since 1999-2000 when I was still back in college. The previous summer I had seriously considered running again, but that didn't last long due to a poor decision in running shoes. Now, just this last October, I done my research in what exercises I should do, when I should do them, sets/reps, and even went so far into researching which protein shakes I should look into.

I had finalized my workout and I began to hit it up. Starting at 185 lbs., I'm now down to 175 lbs., visibly noticing a loss in body fat -- which is "hell yeah!" I gave up on McDonald's and started to watch what I'm eating. There would be days in which I would just eat bowls of cereal (along with a daily vitamin and a fish oil capsule) and drink four whey protein shakes.

Here's the current workout:

Monday (chest and triceps):

• 4 sets of barbell bench presses (12, 10, 8 & 6), increasing the weight each set. After I had plateaued with a certain weight, now I'm using dumbbells.
• Triceps (10, 8, & 6). I usually do three different exercises, like skull crushers, kickbacks, and cable press downs.
• Incline dumbbell bench presses (10, 8, 6). Again, increasing weights each set.
• Dumbbell flies (10 & 8). These are a bitch and I'm considering dropping this workout. I just feel like I'm not getting anything out of it.
• If I still have energy left, I'll do dips.

Tuesday (back and biceps):

• Bent-Over barbell rows (10, 8, & 6). These suck also, worrying about proper form. I'm considering dropping this exercise as well.
• Dumbbell biceps curls (10, 8 & 6). Single-arm and simple.
• Sit-down cable rows (10, 8, & 6). I simple love these.
• Barbell bicep curls (10, 8 & 6). I just wish we had a "preacher's bench" to do these on, so I'm standing to do these.
• Lat-Pulls (10, 8, & 6). Love 'em! Pull the bar in front of you, hold the pull, and release slowly.
• Some other bicep exercise.
• Dumbbell rows. Love 'em again!

Wednesday (cardio):

• 2.5 miles on the treadmill, 2.5 miles on the elliptical.

Thursday (shoulders and abs):

• Arnold presses (10, 8, & 6). Keep the elbows bent to keep pressure on shoulders.
• Lateral raises (10, 8, & 6). Love 'em. Grunt if you have to.
• Reverse dumbbell flies (or some other variation).
• Shoulder shrugs (20, 20 & 15). Talk about hurting after these.
• Other shoulder exercises.

Friday (cardio or chest):

• Same routine as Wednesday or Friday.

Weekends I rest. As far as protein intake, I usually take in 75+ grams on protein as far as the shakes are concerned, mixed with L-Gluatmine to prevent muscle breakdown. One shake when I wake up, one right before and after my workouts, and one before I go to bed. Obviously, I will intake other forms of protein during my meals or snacks (mainly peanut butter and/or granola bars).

With all that, I've obviously and can feel that I'm stronger. I've put on some muscle mass, but it's not like I'm the new Arnold. I've surprised myself that I've actually LOST weight, but that's all body fat and I've got some noticeably new muscles popping out. Even my students are stunned by the size of my chest and shoulders, but it's no where I want them yet. I don't think my chest has actually increased in size (I've never measured), but I'll take the students word for it.

On the downside, I've done no leg workouts. This sucks, as I mainly blame the lack of leg exercises available in the weight room. I can do squats or calf raises, but then there's nothing to do with the hamstrings (no leg curl machines ... a person just has to get creative). I did a few weeks of legs on Fridays, but I would get so burned out at the end of the week that I simply had no will-power to pull all that off.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm in the best shape of my life and for the past few weeks, I've never felt better. I'm physically and mentally sharp and I've rarely slipped into my normal depressed states that the winter months usually bring out of me. But with baseball season around the corner, I've got to find some way to keep this up. I'm already planning on continuing my workouts after practice is over, committing more time at the school -- which is fine by me since there's nothing to come home to anyway!