Tag: weight

The Fitness Masochistic Paradox

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness, Motivation

I’m thinking that getting bulky was exceptionally easy for me.  However, getting lean is an entirely different story.

It seems that there’s a reason why people are always wanting to give up when they are attempting to lose weight on shows like “The Biggest Loser”.  Losing weight takes a lot of discipline!  The reason why gaining weight was so easy for me?  It took consistency and dedication, but no discipline for me.

I would eat whatever I wanted to gain weight.  I’d eat a lot, and gaining weight just depended on me lifting weights at a progressive overload.  Of course, I didn’t care as much about the cardio because I was trying to get big!  That’s not to say I didn’t do cardio to minimize the fat gains.  It just wasn’t top priority, and it was a lot more challenging.

Doing cardio and eating clean?  That sounded brutal.  I’ve done it before, and I honestly thought it sucked.  Oddly enough, that could be because I get addicted to crap foods and not because eating clean is actually horrible.

It does feel like a mission, though, and while bulking required the consistency, cutting is requiring a lot of discipline.  I am doing my best to develop the discipline needed to lose weight, and honestly it feels like some weird masochistic effort.  That is, I’m inflicting all of this pain on myself in the moment during my training and I’m depriving myself of the crap foods.

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..the crap I used to eat provided by FreeImages.Com

So why do I call this masochism?  I like doing it!  It’s a challenge.  I’m putting myself into challenge and I’m going to come out of this a lot stronger than I was when I started..

It’s a paradox because it may be hard now, but it only gets easier as I continue to push myself and succeed at my goals.  Before too long, I will be bigger, faster, stronger and as lean as can be!  I believe I can achieve my goals through a little pain and hardship now…

and you can too!

My mile times are speeding up, I’m eating fewer calories, and I’m beginning to feel like a healthy individual.  Progress is, as always, a matter of consistency and discipline.  I’ll keep grinding, and I hope you do too.

How To Work Legs Like An Instagram Star

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

“Dude, how much do you bench?” This is by far the most overrated question that anyone who works out has heard.

For some reason, a majority of people only think about upper body workouts like the bench press and bicep curls. While there is nothing really wrong with this, it does give us evidence as to why so many gym goers are top heavy.

So what happens when a man decides to ditch his bro bible and live in reality where training legs is of equal importance? Cory Gregory happens! 

Cory Gregory, for those of you who don’t know, started the popular squat every day challenge and has had tremendous success! He is an example of how hard work pays off. For today’s post, we won’t talk about any of that.

We’ll talk about something more amusing, and that’s when your top heavy bros still won’t train legs. So here is what you can do to not train legs, but still look like you do on Instagram:

 

Take a selfie!
 
First, you have to take a selfie! You can’t actually be looking at yourself in the mirror; that would be creepy. This is how you let people know you’re doing squats, but as soon as you take the photo you can re-rack the bar.

Here’s an additional tip:  Don’t let people know that the bar is empty. Keep the photo up close and let people imagine that you’re squatting 405 while holding your phone. Better yet, just lie and say you are!

 

Take a picture of the heavy weight you’re doing

Or better yet, take a picture of the heavy weight you can’t really do! Put it on Instagram with a caption like “I love leg day xoxo” or “Leg day 😍” and people will know you’re serious. 

…well, they’ll BELIEVE you’re serious.

So keep calm and train legs, or just lie and say you did. Either way, this was completely for humor and I hope you enjoyed today’s post. 

Kick Your Last Month’s Butt

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

If you can set for yourself at least one goal each month and succeed at that goal, then you are taking baby steps that will add up to giant achievements in the future. Take the time to track your results, be consistent in your training, have a plan, and do your very best while not getting discouraged if you fall of the wagon now and then. You can, and will succeed. Get it done. Beat your old records and make improvements every month.

Here is my body fat chart. I update it every sixth day of the month. Here are my results. You can do the same, maybe better. Again, I’ll say it this way, believe you can do something and do it. Get it done 😉

  

A Wonderful Day To Work My Back. Always Have A Plan.

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

I have a schedule where

Monday – chest, triceps

Tuesday – back, shoulders, biceps 

Wednesday – Legs

Thursday thru Saturday I repeat Monday thru Wednesday.

Today, being a Tuesday, is my back and bicep day and I plan on killing it!

I’m going to do chin ups, dead lift, bent over rows, bicep curls, preacher curls, and hammer curls!

The point in this post is to note that it’s great to have a plan. Always have a plan. It helps you set goals and will make it easier for you to get a set amount done before you quit. This being said, having a plan will get you results. Try it and see.

Weight Lifting Journal 8-3-2015

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

This is a log that I will do consistently to monitor my results publicly.  I recommend you do the same, but it’s up to you.  The reason I recommend it is because it can show you how consistent training works and will give you more incentive to not quit.  This is my log, or you could say it’s my weight lifting journal.

So Far..

I started lifting weights three months ago when my girlfriend at the time dumped me.  I was 205 lbs at the time and I had been extremely sick with a Crohn’s Disease flare-up.  The best way I could describe my physique at the time was ‘fat-skinny’.  I wasn’t really fat, but I had no muscle.  Hovering around 18% body fat and very low amounts of muscle was a bad combo.  It’s to be expected though, because I was recovering a lot from being in the hospital.  Due to being in that horrible state and thinking I was heart broken, I decided to start working out and gain some control over my life.

As I stated before I was 18% body fat and 205 lbs.

My beginning lifts in some of my favorite workouts were this:

Squat – Non Existent

Deadlift – Didn’t try it

Bench press – 135 x 5 reps

Dumbbell chest press – 40 x 5 reps

Bent Over Rows – 95 x 5 reps

I couldn’t do a single pull up or dip with good form.

Now, it has been three months since everything felt like it went wrong in my life and my results are this..

I am now at 16% body fat and I weigh 230 lbs.

My lifts today are as follows:

Squat – 225 x 5 reps

Deadlift – 275 x 5 reps

Bench Press – 185 x 5 reps

Dumbbell Chest Press – 75 x 5 reps

Bent Over Rows – 175 x 5 reps

I can do about 5 pull ups and 5 dips with good form at this point.

As you can see, if you work hard and stay consistent you can achieve amazing results.  I will continue to post these weight lifting journals about once a month along with a new photo.  Eventually, I’ll start adding montage videos of the progress I made.  Thanks for reading.

Fast-Paced Life Can Slow Gainz

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

Today, I went to the gym with the goal in mind of crushing back and biceps. I got there and I talked to my friend who is insanely strong and going to do some bodybuilding competitions early next year.

It’s natural to feel somewhat weak when you’re working out in front of someone who is a lot further along in their physical development than yourself, but I felt a different kind of ‘nudge’. The kind of nudge that was telling me I have been doing something wrong. Although my gains in the gym have been fine, I still lacked in some areas much more than others. My biceps have been my weakest point. I noticed that my forearms were small. I also realized I have been doing the same weight on most of my workouts for a month.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again before I get too far ahead of myself:  THE NUMBER ONE THING IS CONSISTENCY. It’s keeping at it through thick and thin that is most important. However, once in a while you should examine yourself and make sure that you are having some improvement. I did that and I realized I’ve had none in a month.
So I did some thinking and I truly believe it’s a result of too much stress. I’ve been stressed by work and hanging out with friends and having just turned 21 and there always seems to be something going on. Also, I have to think about college. So you’d think that just having stuff on my mind shouldn’t bother me, but it’s more than that. 

When you’re always on the run, sometimes you forget to focus on your direction; sometimes you need to slow it down. My life has been so fast paced lately that I have eaten less and haven’t worked out as hard as I believe I should have. These kinds of things are fine if your goal is to maintain the muscle mass you have, and if you’re a beginner you’ll get stronger anyways…however, after a while working out you need to focus on your lifestyle and shut out the noise from the outside world. Focus on your goals, what kind of training and diet you need, and place it first. Finally, and possibly most importantly, get plenty of rest as your body needs to heal. 

Going through these plans I know I will continue to grow, and if you do the same it is my belief you will too. Done.