buffbear
Today I received permission from the hospital to join the gym at Pueblo Community College. I’ve been wanting to get back in the gym for some time, to develop and stick to a consistent training routine, but it’s been a challenge with my other hospital obligations. I like to train first thing in the mornings, before doing anything else, but I have groups on Wednesday and Friday mornings that I may not be able to get out of to train.

At first I was thinking I’d just train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, but that was before I remembered I have group Friday mornings. Rather than rely on the staff to give me permission to get out of group, I’m modifying my training plan so I can do it consistently. I’m going to start lifting Monday through Friday at lunchtime. This has several benefits.

First, it will allow me to get up and go to the “office” (Starbucks) to attend to any pressing needs like finding a job, answering emails, etc. And it will allow me time to eat breakfast before training. One of the reasons I like to train first thing in the morning is that I’m doing it in a fasted state, which accelerates fat loss. However, by eating breakfast I’m fueling the body for more intense workouts later.

The focus of my training will be to add muscle. In the past I’ve focused more on fat loss, but since summer is now over and I won’t realistically be able to do many more bike rides outside in the mornings, I’m adapting my focus to something I haven’t done in a long time – adding muscle.

When I was younger, I was an avid amateur bodybuilder. I used to live in Venice Beach, California, and trained at the same gym as my then-idol Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’ve even met him a few times. So, going back to the basics, what makes me feel great, I’m focused on hitting the iron for mass’ sake. I want to get big again – but leaner this time. I used to have pretty impressive size: 17.5″ arms, 48″ chest, 36″ thighs, 18″ calves. My friends called me “The Nimitz” because my back was so big you could land jets on it. I miss those days. 🙂

Now, given that I’m a lot older and my body’s metabolism has changed since those days, I have to adjust my expectations a bit. It will take time to get back into form. Gone are the days of being able to blast the bod hard one day, fully recover overnight, and hit it hard again the next day. So I’m going back to what has worked for me in the past: I’m going to train one body part a day and add cardio after lifting. So Mondays I’ll lift chest, Tuesdays will be back day, Wednesdays will be shoulders, Thursdays I’ll lift arms, and Fridays will be leg day so I can have the weekend to recover. Lifting one body part a day has the advantage of not taking too much time, so I can add 30 minutes of cardio after I lift and still get out of the gym in about an hour. For cardio, I’m going to do intervals on the elliptical.

Bottom line is that I need to get into a regular, daily routine so I can stick to it. I do much better when my time is scheduled rather than wide open as it has been lately. This training plan will add a much needed element of structure to my day. And it will provide me a break from the long hours I’m spending in the office, invigorate the bod, and refresh the mind. All good stuff!

Normally I would post this on my fitness blog but I don’t have access to it at the moment. I’ve also decided to consolidate my online presences a bit, and add more depth to this site than just poker. 😉