Danny's Getting Fit: Journal Entry #1

This will be a on-going series of journal type blog posts, interspersed with my other musings. The focus here will be on my personal mission to get fit.  With these entries, I hope others might benefit from my experience.

So with that 411, let the fitness journey begin.

Danny's Getting Fit-Day 1
Actually it's day 15, but for the purposes of theses posts, let's call it day 1.

Normally I do not go by Danny.  I go by Daniel.  It was a conscious choice I made as young man, after falling in love with Elisabeth Shue (aka Ali Mills) in the Karate Kid.  Remember-Daniel with an I, Ali with an L.  But I go by Danny whenever:

a. I'm drinking beers with my band mates (hasn't happened for about 18 years now)

b. I need the encouragement because what I'm doing really blows and I don't want to do it anymore, as in--"Go Danny!  You can do it!"

So for the purposes of getting fit, I will hereby refer to myself as Danny.  Because let's face it, working hard at getting fit requires A LOT of encouragement.

Next you should know that I have hired the services of a personal trainer.  Why did I do this?  I mean lifting weights isn't too hard to figure out.  Push down on bar.  Move heavy plates.  Repeat.  After months of working out at the gym and reading different "how to" books and blogs and such I wasn't getting any fitter or stronger.  I invested in a professional who promised to teach me:

1. How to get stronger and more conditioned
2. How to eat right to stay stronger

He went on to say that it's up to me but if I really wanted to do it, I could have washboard abs and a Daniel Craig physique, to which I naturally responded, 'Hell Yeah!' without having a clue what it would take to get washboard abs and a Daniel Craig physique.

I must confess, having a professional trainer explain to me the do's and don'ts, the why's and why nots of this and that makes a HUGE difference in the results.  Yes, it isn't cheap.  Perhaps for the cost of a personal trainer I could drive around in a much nicer leased car.  To that, my wife smartly pointed out when I brought up the subject of cost, "sure, you can drive your out of shape self around in a nicer car.  Sounds like a good plan."  If sarcasm doesn't translate well in a blog post, please note, she was being sarcastic.

For these posts I'm going communicate what work I did, what gains I made and my nutrition plan.  I'll try to keep them short and sweet so they're easily consumed.

I have three weight training days.

They are:
1. Pushing days: bench press, seated military press and triceps pulldown
2. Leg days: squats, leg lifts and hamstring curls
3. Pulling days: lat pull down, seated row and biceps curl

We do a different abs workout each day that works a different set of core muscles.

I'm told we break it up this way because it will maximize building muscle and give me a full body workout over the course of three weight training days.

I run 4x a week.  2x I run right after lifting weights because I'm told I've burned all the glycogen in my muscles and an aerobic work after weight training is automatically a fat burning workout.  So 20 minutes at a slow pace, say 10 min. miles, is the equivalent of a 40 minute run at the same pace.  More bang for my buck!  The other 2 runs are interval runs and I'll write about those on interval days.  By the way, intervals blow.  Really hard.

Today was leg day.  Leg day is my least favorite day because it hurts immensely.  By immensely I mean, I wish it would end before it began and I would denounce my love for Elisabeth Shue, God and Country if it would.  That of course is only in the heat of the moment.  The good thing about leg day is I don't have to run after.  So here's a breakdown of today's pain/gain:

Smith Squats
I keep a workout journal.  I think it's a must have so you can visualize your progress.  The first day I did Smith Squats as they're called, my max weight was 140 pounds for 12 reps on 9/2.  Today, 9/16, I did 180 for 10 reps.  That's a really substantial jump in a short amount of time.  And you know something, I felt a lot stronger today then the first time I did it.

When I lift, I try to do 15 reps. at each weight.  There is benefit to failing.  There is massive benefit to failing.  But more on later in another post.

Leg Extensions
I managed 115 for 12 reps. today (9/16).  When I started my best was 110 for 10.  YEAH FOR ME!

Leg Curls 
I got 115 for 10 today (9/16).  When I started my best was 110 for 10.  So again, YEAH FOR ME!

I'm eating six meals a day and soon will experiment with carb cycling.  More on  nutrition to come, but to keep this as compact as possible I'll tell you that today I plan on cooking chicken breast (cut up) mixed in with Jim Beam teriyaki sauce (low sodium is KEY, but more on that later) and tons of veggies.  For lunch I'll have rice with it.  For dinner, I'm just going to have the mix.  Why?  More on that later too.

This is an education for me in fitness and healthy eating.  My trainer, Jean-Paul Cafarella C.P.T. (603) 557-4767 says that I can get "ripped".  And I believe him.

That's it for today.  I hope you found this interesting and useful for you.  Leave me a comment and let me know.  I'll continue the journal so that we can motivate ourselves to a fitter us together.