Periodization

No, it's not a form of punctuation.

"Periodization" refers to planned variation: you make a Grand Plan for your weight lifting, your goals, and you break a given timeframe into periods, and using some simple calculations only geeks get into, you figure out how much weight and how many reps and sets you should be doing during each period (quarter, month, week, day, whatever).

There's more to this and further complexities but this is what I'm starting with for now. Why? Well here is Mistress Krista's take on it, though note her page caveats that this isn't all there can be to it of course:

For workouts to be consistently successful, intensity and volume should be varied over time. Working with a high intensity and/or high volume consistently results in insufficient recovery, and will eventually lead to overtraining, while working with intensity and volume that is too low will not be challenging enough to stimulate growth.

She's my web-hero, a former overweight married marshmallow sort who metamorphed into a seriously buff, funny, smart, over-educated Canadian with a great website.

***

OK. Usually this process has a 'variation' programmed in, increasing weight or reps differently. The goal is to ensure that at the end of the overall period of time set forth, you will have increased your 1RPM* weight by the desired amount.

*1RPM stands for 'one repetition maximum'. Generally, it means the most weight you could lift but only once. A person generally works out at some percentage of this. The lower the percentage of the weight, the higher the number of repetitions, and vice-versa.

Asleep yet?

There is a calculation you can use to determine your 1RPM, which if you're setting up your periodization based on this number (so it becomes part of the calculation), will affect what you lift and where you end up. For example on the Arnold Press, if my newbie barbie-arms can lift 10# about 9 times before actual pain kicks in enough to prevent much more, the formula would look like this:

weight(#) * (1 + ( {intensity multiplier} * reps) )

The {intensity multiplier} can range from .02 to about .09 depending on how insane intense you are about it and what seems possible for your muscles. The higher the number, the more you'd better either be a beginner (which I am) (which tends to see larger gains than most), or probably doing something unusual and potentially chemically illegal. .03 to .06 is what some consider a 'normal' and 'moderate' range to aim for, and .033 is the number used to calculate a starting 1RM.

I decided to use .060 since I'm a beginner and my starting weight is very low, so my increase should be decent.

On the Arnold Press, using the .060 multiplier, my 10# weight times 9Reps max where I feel I'm starting from, comes out to 15.4# as my 1RPM. That's where I start.

The 12 week periodization spreadsheet I got at Krista's site thanks to Lisa (scroll to bottom to see link), if I follow this training regimen, varies my workout from 8 to 13 lbs, reps from 6 to 12, and sets from 3 to 5, depending on the week. At the finish of the 12 weeks, if I keep it up, allegedly I will be up to 16.94# as my 1RM for that exercise.

Genius readers will observe that this is a mere 1.54 lbs 1RPM increase. I noticed this too. I thought at first maybe the math didn't well apply to the pitifully small weights I'm starting with, but I think it's normal. That number isn't really what you're lifting, it's a beautiful on-paper number. It's low because there's only a low repetition reached at that point.

I will be starting with lifts at 10# and ending with lifting 15#, which is a 50% increase over the course of 12 weeks, which actually isn't bad at all. Once I can do the 15# for more than 6Reps (that's why the 1RPM number is small, is because the 15# is only at 6Reps, a low number), my 1RPM will be a higher number. Then I could start again.

I'm not really sure of all the logic of this. I mean... well I'm just going to do it and see how it works out.

***

I have a chronic insecurity about having no idea what the hell I'm doing, combined with an understanding that if anybody can hurt themselves overdoing things it's me, full owner of the 'Anything worth doing is worth overdoing' motto.

Finding an outline that lets me put in what I'm doing and calculates stuff for me, for an allegedly safe and gradual and varied workout, a methodical approach to an increase in capacity, sounds good to me. It's still 'my' workout; where I am now, the exercises I choose, etc. And I can vary the details like the intensity of the plan if it seems necessary.

So far I've had two weeks of workouts and each week has morphed into something new before it came around, but it's worked out ok. I think I found this periodization stuff at a good time to pick a good starting place for the next 12 weeks.

***

Either that or I just want someone else to tell me what to do.

All Circuits Connected

Well I did it. Six days in a row I did a planned weights workout, starting at only 3# and working up with the dumbbells I have to 10#. Some days didn't seem hard, and some seemed overwhelming. I split each body-part up into two pieces: shoulders the 1st and 4th day, torso the 2nd and 5th day, arms the 3rd and 6th days. Lower body was supposed to go with arms but since they are all knee-bending exercises I can't do, for now I am just working on a sort of 1/3-kneebend "hold" isometric-style exercise as often as I can remember to do it. I learned what I needed to: what kind of weight is right for me, what I can do and can't, etc.

Next week I'm revising the approach. I'm doing all of one body part on a given day and then not working that body part again for a week. So I'll be working out 3 days instead of 6. The tiptoe/abdomen/kneebend "holds" and the exercise bike should be daily I hope.

I made up an exercise today. It was just messing around but it was so hard -- instantly made me notice the effort, similar to compound exercise 'impact', that I decided to add it. I've no clue what to call it. I call it the butterfly because my arms bent with elbows out feel like wings sorta. You take a single barbell, place it vertically right in front of your heart, with both arms holding it palms facing outward, one hand above the other, arm-elbows level. Actually you hold it just like you do a Flag if you're marching in a parade or something. I tried it lying down, in my bench's recline, and sitting vertically on the edge of a flat bench. You push the bell out forward, or, you raise it straight up -- two diff exercises. Depending on the body position it seems to hit diff muscles. It really got me with 10# so I'll be doing that from now on. Eventually I'll figure out exactly what muscle that hits. I actually suspect it might hit more than one. Either that or I was just tired out from all the previous stuff.

Somewhere there is probably an encyclopedia of weight lifting forms that has that. I'd like to know the real names of both forms (pushing out and up), I just don't know how to find them.

Today I finally used the 'Bean' in the way the ad sold me on it: lie on your back on it, legs bent at knee and feet on floor off the end (mine a bit spaced out), and then just 'rock' slowly forward toward your feet (like sitting up) and back (pushing up with your toes). If you hold your stomach in tightly during this, you can feel the muscles as you go through the rocking motion, that start from the groin-area obliques (part of the stomach muscles) and grow all the way up to the abdomen and a tiny bit of back. It can be done to fit whatever the person can do... it does work those muscles, but only as hard as you can hold it, push it, push the duration, etc. That was the example that caused me to dish out three $25 payments for that blow-up sucker! (Course my version holds up to 800# and has handles and is extra-wide -- the regular size is not that much.)

Then today, I was frustrated. I was not dripping sweat, I was not in pain, and I really felt like I must not have done anything at all, and I'd have done something else but it would have screwed up my recovery times no matter what other exercise I chose, so I decided to kick back. It was hard though. I really want to 'feel the burn' and the sweat and so on, haha!

My cage (a Weider pro 400, which is not that good of one, but I'm a girl-beginner so I'm unlikely to out-use it) sits unassembled in the corner. My housekeeper told me she couldn't do it because she didn't have a manual, but then said because she couldn't find the hardware. I found the hardware. Tomorrow I hope I can figure out how to put the thing together. It took both of us last time, years ago. I bought it for the sole purpose of having something to hang onto on both sides while doing kneebends, which I won't do quite yet, but it has a chin-up bar on the front, and I'd like to partly-hang from that, plus it's messing up how cool my room looks with that mess in the corner! I'd like to get a barbell so I can do a few recline moves with it and I'd like to have the safety of the cage in that case. Not like I'm doing massive weight but still. I think it would FEEL cool. Priorities! ;-)

Hot damn. I think I like this working out stuff. I still consider cardio a curse, but I LOVE THE WEIGHTS!


Music for the day: STYX Greatest Hits. Renegade and blue-collar man rock!

First Steps on the Road to Somewhere

Finally! I can finally (again) say "I lost 100 lbs!"

I can't find my bleeping sewing tape measure to take my measurements. Probably some kid stole it to play with it. Hmmn, I wonder which of my only child that could be, since she will insist it's not her if I ask. ;-) I want to get a body fat measurement (using the measurement method linked on the sidebar) as of now so I can use that as one of my main "measures of change" (as opposed to weight).

Yesterday I did the shoulders #1 group (upright row, seated rear lateral raise, arnold press, front lateral raise). I think 8# is enough to start. I'm so embarrassed. I mean really, that's just pitiful! But what the hell. You gotta start somewhere. The Seated Rear Lateral Raise was kinda hard, my body gets in the way, I can 'sort of' do it. I'm just going to keep doing it. I suppose eventually it'll get more elegant. For the moment I feel kinda like I'm doing some bizarre variant of the bomb drill where kids crunch up under their desks.

Today I did the torso #1 group (bent-over row, fly, side bend, incline shoulder raise). That was harder than the arms. Actually I thought the bent-over row was going to do more for my leg muscle than the ones I was supposed to be working (as in, it wasn't the weight, it was the time taken to lift it that was a problem for it!). Nice, though. By the time I was finished with the group, I was breathing kinda hard and sweating a little, and I had to rest between the row sets. And this was with the first two (3 and 5 #) being way too easy, and probably 8 as well, next week I'll start at 10# for all the torso group and see what the true max should be.

Gods I love free weights. I had kind of forgotten how much. I used to love just working so hard and sweating and feeling the muscles so clearly. I was so young then it seems like a million years ago. Which I guess about 22 years nearly is, in a lifespan.

I can see I need to get a couple more dumbells of >10 lbs. I do have dumbells you can put plates on, and at higher weights I'm sure that's good, but it's sure a lot easier to just pick up what you need. I gotta be sure and get the metal kind from now on, not the coated kind I got for 10#, because I have fractional weights that'll magnetically stick to the ends if I need between-weights.

Besides. Those coated dumbells make me feel like some dumb chick in "shape" magazine who would talk about toning... in designer pink spandex. Puhleeze.

Well my food has sucked, though today is looking to be slightly better. For a few days I just barely ate, didn't feel like it, and then yesterday, my first day to really make an effort, I was so totally swamped at work I didn't even have time for a potty break let alone food. If it wasn't for the high-protein/low-carb slimfast, I would be seriously up a creek for ingesting anything at all. I know it's imperfect, it's processed, it's not food, but it beats not eating. Do the best you can with where you are, and live to do better another day.

I came up with a menu for next week though, and a shopping list for it, which I wouldn't be able to afford if I didn't already have chicken and hamburger in my freezer. I'm going to see how I do actually eating 6x per day. 2 are slimfast, 1 is a big cobb salad for dinner, so only 3 are actually something to make -- and the food is the same the whole week. It's a lot cheaper that way, a lot easier to prep all or partly ahead of time. We'll see. So far, aside from the SF and cobb salad, the three meals for the first week are red mexi-chicken mix, burger with blue cheese mixed in it (quick on the foreman grill), and 3eggs/2oz Soyrizo in the late morning. I have other options but I'll try those week after next.

If I can keep that menu up for the week, the nutrition count numbers are just awesome for me, the protein is very high which I really want, and all of them can be at least partly pre-made, so it's superfast to grab 'em. I even have enough room in my numbers that I could have a chocolate protein muffincake, plus a mocha (get this: 100% Kona coffee, made in a french press, with some 24% butterfat cocoa, and some half&half... sound good? :-)), and still have my numbers be fine. Yay.

Is it fair to get chocolate and coffee and STILL lose weight? I say yes. Getting insanely fat on starvation response is like getting poorer the harder you work. It's just profoundly unfair. So I figure I deserve to be able to eat really WELL and lose weight. In some bizarre way, this seems like a proper balance.

Tomorrow is arms and legs on the weights. Wish me luck on the legs. Right now just my body weight is generally too much for lower body work without a machine. But I'll work it out... eventually I will be there. I have faith in myself.

Start Where You Are

Although I no longer weigh 482 pounds, at 390 for the moment I am still not exactly a perky little penguin. I'm still in the blue whale category. It's easy to beach me; getting up off the floor is easier said than done. Getting ON my exercise bicycle is a workout all its own. I can't do even one situp, even one pushup, not even one regular leg lift. If I did jumping jacks my entire house would shake and my breasts would probably put out an eye on the rebound.

I can, however, bitch and moan well enough to prove I'm fully alive, and since I'm alive, there's no excuse for not getting off my butt and starting to exercise some. I've lost enough weight that I can at least MOVE and BREATHE finally. Thank God for an eating plan that bears zero resemblance to the food pyramid that half kills me every time I put a 'whole grain' in my mouth.

To make sure I knew what I was doing (Virgo x4 don'tcha know), I set out to investigate basic weight lifting forms. What are they, how could they be combined properly, etc.

I made a simple spreadsheet that lists the group of basic free-weight exercises that I am starting with. It names them officially, describes them briefly (my own words), gives an official explanation, tells you what muscles it works, and what kind of exercise it's considered, and even gives you a hyperlink to a visual demo of someone doing that exercise so you can see exact form!

It's free. Click on the image below to download it. (Which I had to turn sideways so you could see a sample of a part of it.) It's in Excel format. Excel or Open Office (which is free on the internet and works for all computer platforms) can open this.



OK, I'll be honest: up until now, I've had a problem getting my act together for a decent workout. There's no excuse. I have a few free weights. I have a weight bench. I have a room that I deliberately made into an exercise room. I have a radio, TV, and DVD to entertain me, in case 15 minutes of ripping muscle fibers were not fascinating enough. I even have a ridiculously expensive exercise bicycle there.

So in my exasperation with myself, I have decided to create a simple little plan that starts out insanely easy. Dainty, even. For fragile flowers with parasols, if you will. The kind of plan that I could not possibly find even one small reason to complain about the hardship of. The kind of plan that works even if the only weights I had were soup cans. And gradually builds up.

While it may seem like a waste of time to start deliberately small, what I am actually working to accomplish here is the HABIT of doing something. And remembering what it is I'm supposed to do.

I'm going to officially start this June 1, simply because the reptilian part of my brain loves matching things, marching bands and starting stuff on Mondays or at the beginning of a new month.

o0o

I'm supposed to be on a carb-cycling plan, which I'll be detailing on my other blog, The Divine Low Carb, as soon as the back of my brain finishes working it out and I hear the little DING! that says it's done.

Lately my eating has sucked and been the usual: barely any eating at all. Yes, ultra low carb and low everything because I'm not hardly eating. It's so hard for me to make myself eat, mostly because I'm too freakin lazy to feel like getting up and preparing/cooking which you just HAVE to do on a good eating plan. I need to be eating many times a day, 3 hours apart. Not only is this what is most conducive to weight loss, but I need so much protein for my body mass that I pretty much have to operate that way (since I don't want to go over about 38g of protein at any one time). I'm hoping the eating plan and the exercise plan gradually come together in a truly useful, healthy behavior pattern.


June 1 goals:
A: 30 seconds at 30 RPM on Level 1 of the lifecycle, twice.
B: 3# weight, 8 reps, 2 sets, GROUP 1 exercises from the worksheet.


Group 1 are: upright row, seated rear lateral raise, arnold press, front lateral raise, counter pushups (likely to be 'counter leans' to start with!)

Now if I can do this stuff at 390 pounds and being brand new to much moving at all, surely anybody else out there who does not already have a workout plan could manage this. Use no weights if it's that new, or soup cans or anything else if you don't have any.

If any others are interested, I will make a shared google spreadsheet others can share with me, with a row for each of us and each of the exercises across the top, so you can enter your daily (or weekly) workout weight/reps. Would it help encourage you to do it if others were doing it with you? Surely if I can do it, anybody can!

Send me email at theDivineLowCarb@gmail.com if you want to join me. I need some kind of email address in order to tell google to give permission to share the spreadsheet. If you want a free google mail address, let me know and I'll invite you to one.

o0o

No matter where I am today, I have to start where I am. A month from now, a year from now, I will be in a different place. I'm going to be a month, a year older anyway, right? The only question is, do I choose to keep getting older while wishing I was healthier, or do I do "a little something each day" so that when I am a year older, I'm a whole lot healthier?

PJ
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