JP Fitness Forums - View Single Post - Will A. Carpenter

WillACarpenter · 06-16-2009, 05:41 PM

Since there are actually a few people to read these posts, I may as well fill you in on the back story a bit more.

I didn't start college right after high school. I graduated about a year earlier than most people, only because I was really young when I started school, not because I had skipped a grade or anything. I also took a year off and a half off in the midst of college, and wasted my first semester after I changed majors. Mostly because I didn't like the way the communications department was being run...which is mostly fixed now since they've really gotten much better facilities for the place.

Anyway, what this means is that about 3 years ago, in the spring, I was taking two gym classes: Weigh Lifting I and Physical Conditioning. I had PC on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and WL on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. I really got into...too much into it. I would be in the gym six times a week. Twice Monday and Wednesday, once on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and then on one of the weekend days depending on when I worked. (oh yeah, I also worked a LOT at my crappy sweaty kitchen job then)

During that time I wen from about 325 - 282 lbs. and then I just got stuck there. I was over trained, I was exhausted, and my classes ended. I tried going to the gym over the summer, but with being over trained I just needed the time off. Over then next 3 years I finished school, I got a second job that eventually became my only job, and I even started doing stand up comedy for a while. Good times.

Three years ago my cousin (female) had gastric bypass surgery. She was in her mid 30's at the time, she's lost a lot of weight and had a lot of positive results from it. I'm glad she had it done, and so is she. Fast forward another year and a half...

Both of my parents received gastric bypass surgery in early June 2007. They had their reasons of course. My father had many of the typical problems associated with extreme obesity: diabetes, fluid on his legs, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, out of control cholesterol etc. My mother was falling apart at the seams with knee problems and hip problems and evertually a total knee replacement. Think about this if my mom took 5000 steps a day (half of the active amount of steps) with her total weight loss that's 800,000 less pounds on her joints every day!

My parents lost the weight and have kept it off. My fater was cleared for weight lifting about 18 months ago and has kept up a steady routine since. My mother failed to become as active and her muscle atrophy has really cost her. She fell at work around 6 months ago and her shoulder internally looks like a freak show. But she's getting by and a specialist surgeon is at least a bit hopeful. Her shoulder works...she's just in massive pain and can't sleep well.

And then there was me: how do I fit into this new world? where my cousin, both parents (and now another cousin) habe had to go to surgical solutions to their weight problems? Hell my mothers side of the family pretty much all NEED the same type of solution, just none of them have. I have two obese sides of my family, but I'm more active than all of them, I'm in "better shape" even though I'm out of shape as well. Now is the time in my life when I can make the RIGHT changes in the RIGHT way SLOWLY to correct the mistakes I've made, reprogramm myself and put myself on the correct path for a LIFETIME of change.

I know what the number one problem is with people that want to diet and exercise...they see these things as short term solutions to lifelong goals. It doesn't work. I could starve myself to death and lose some weight, but as soon as I go eat a sheet pizza that weight is going to come right back. I knew something needed to be done, but I was too paralyzed to do anything about it. People call the term analysis paralysis, too many options that you just don't know what to do. I spent some time trying to push it from my mind. I focused on school, on getting a better job (that didn't work) on paying down my bills...until one day it happened.

One Saturday night I went o sleep around midnight (I sleep "normally" on Friday and Saturday night, during the days on weekdays) I usually sleep in on Sunday as it's the last time I sleep until Monday when I get home from work...but this day I work up at 3:30am. I felt supercharged. I felt ready to take on the world. There was no denying it. I said I was going to go for a walk, but I knew that couldn't burn up the fuel I had ready to unleash.

I went out to my garage, upstairs to our gym. My dad was into weight lifting and body building pretty much twenty years before it was popular with "normal people". Literally people thought my dad was some sort of freak for wanting to lift heavy stuff back then. I jumped on my rowing machine (somebody tossed out one of those nice Concept 2 rowing machines you see in all of the commercial gyms, I brought it home and lubed it up and it works great) I threw on some angry music. I started doing some circuits. I did something like this:

15 minutes rowing machine

(all of these a couple sets of high reps low-ish weights) (I was out of shape didn't want to go too heavy...some of it probably was at the time)
95 lbs bench press
100 lbs lat pull downs
95 lbs dead lifts
body weight squats
jumping body weight squats
swiss ball crunches

I remember doing some tricep push downs and hammer curls as well.

10 minutes on an exercise bike.

I came back inside and flopped down in bed...I lay there for another 15 minutes before I realized that I just hadn't blown off enough steam to sleep even though I'd spent and hour in the gym. I decided to be at least partically proactive and made a workout playlist on iTunes. I have something aroung 18 THOUSAND songs in my music collection at any given point, so my workout music was a list of...843 songs. This took some time.

I also searched my computer for, and found, the FitDay software I had gotten years before. I set up a profile and poked around and then decided I didn't want to mess with any of the meal logging and stuff, but that I might still use it for other things (I've hardly incorporated it yet, but I will be doing more of it soon)

My dad got excited about this. Apparently he'd finally worked his way up over the past 15 months to the point where he was hitting some plateaus and really wanted his old workout partner back. We work well together especially since we have the same weird body type: narrow shoulders, high waist, long arms and legs. Our only differences come in some of the strengths and weaknesses I get from my mother: extra strong quads and triceps, slightly weaker hamstrings and biceps etc.

After my dad's next workout we talked about me joining him again, how we would work the time into our lives and how we would start up our routine. By the time his next workout came around... I joined him and we haven't missed a day since.

Now that I'm finally getting to some details I'll save the meat for the next post. Keep letting me know if you guys (as in people) are reading this, it helps. I'll post again in about 12 hours when I'm home from work.

06-16-2009, 05:41 PM	#6 (permalink)
WillACarpenter Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Canandaigua, NY Posts: 31	Part II: Moving along the timeline... Since there are actually a few people to read these posts, I may as well fill you in on the back story a bit more. I didn't start college right after high school. I graduated about a year earlier than most people, only because I was really young when I started school, not because I had skipped a grade or anything. I also took a year off and a half off in the midst of college, and wasted my first semester after I changed majors. Mostly because I didn't like the way the communications department was being run...which is mostly fixed now since they've really gotten much better facilities for the place. Anyway, what this means is that about 3 years ago, in the spring, I was taking two gym classes: Weigh Lifting I and Physical Conditioning. I had PC on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and WL on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. I really got into...too much into it. I would be in the gym six times a week. Twice Monday and Wednesday, once on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and then on one of the weekend days depending on when I worked. (oh yeah, I also worked a LOT at my crappy sweaty kitchen job then) During that time I wen from about 325 - 282 lbs. and then I just got stuck there. I was over trained, I was exhausted, and my classes ended. I tried going to the gym over the summer, but with being over trained I just needed the time off. Over then next 3 years I finished school, I got a second job that eventually became my only job, and I even started doing stand up comedy for a while. Good times. Three years ago my cousin (female) had gastric bypass surgery. She was in her mid 30's at the time, she's lost a lot of weight and had a lot of positive results from it. I'm glad she had it done, and so is she. Fast forward another year and a half... Both of my parents received gastric bypass surgery in early June 2007. They had their reasons of course. My father had many of the typical problems associated with extreme obesity: diabetes, fluid on his legs, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, out of control cholesterol etc. My mother was falling apart at the seams with knee problems and hip problems and evertually a total knee replacement. Think about this if my mom took 5000 steps a day (half of the active amount of steps) with her total weight loss that's 800,000 less pounds on her joints every day! My parents lost the weight and have kept it off. My fater was cleared for weight lifting about 18 months ago and has kept up a steady routine since. My mother failed to become as active and her muscle atrophy has really cost her. She fell at work around 6 months ago and her shoulder internally looks like a freak show. But she's getting by and a specialist surgeon is at least a bit hopeful. Her shoulder works...she's just in massive pain and can't sleep well. And then there was me: how do I fit into this new world? where my cousin, both parents (and now another cousin) habe had to go to surgical solutions to their weight problems? Hell my mothers side of the family pretty much all NEED the same type of solution, just none of them have. I have two obese sides of my family, but I'm more active than all of them, I'm in "better shape" even though I'm out of shape as well. Now is the time in my life when I can make the RIGHT changes in the RIGHT way SLOWLY to correct the mistakes I've made, reprogramm myself and put myself on the correct path for a LIFETIME of change. I know what the number one problem is with people that want to diet and exercise...they see these things as short term solutions to lifelong goals. It doesn't work. I could starve myself to death and lose some weight, but as soon as I go eat a sheet pizza that weight is going to come right back. I knew something needed to be done, but I was too paralyzed to do anything about it. People call the term analysis paralysis, too many options that you just don't know what to do. I spent some time trying to push it from my mind. I focused on school, on getting a better job (that didn't work) on paying down my bills...until one day it happened. One Saturday night I went o sleep around midnight (I sleep "normally" on Friday and Saturday night, during the days on weekdays) I usually sleep in on Sunday as it's the last time I sleep until Monday when I get home from work...but this day I work up at 3:30am. I felt supercharged. I felt ready to take on the world. There was no denying it. I said I was going to go for a walk, but I knew that couldn't burn up the fuel I had ready to unleash. I went out to my garage, upstairs to our gym. My dad was into weight lifting and body building pretty much twenty years before it was popular with "normal people". Literally people thought my dad was some sort of freak for wanting to lift heavy stuff back then. I jumped on my rowing machine (somebody tossed out one of those nice Concept 2 rowing machines you see in all of the commercial gyms, I brought it home and lubed it up and it works great) I threw on some angry music. I started doing some circuits. I did something like this: 15 minutes rowing machine (all of these a couple sets of high reps low-ish weights) (I was out of shape didn't want to go too heavy...some of it probably was at the time) 95 lbs bench press 100 lbs lat pull downs 95 lbs dead lifts body weight squats jumping body weight squats swiss ball crunches I remember doing some tricep push downs and hammer curls as well. 10 minutes on an exercise bike. I came back inside and flopped down in bed...I lay there for another 15 minutes before I realized that I just hadn't blown off enough steam to sleep even though I'd spent and hour in the gym. I decided to be at least partically proactive and made a workout playlist on iTunes. I have something aroung 18 THOUSAND songs in my music collection at any given point, so my workout music was a list of...843 songs. This took some time. I also searched my computer for, and found, the FitDay software I had gotten years before. I set up a profile and poked around and then decided I didn't want to mess with any of the meal logging and stuff, but that I might still use it for other things (I've hardly incorporated it yet, but I will be doing more of it soon) My dad got excited about this. Apparently he'd finally worked his way up over the past 15 months to the point where he was hitting some plateaus and really wanted his old workout partner back. We work well together especially since we have the same weird body type: narrow shoulders, high waist, long arms and legs. Our only differences come in some of the strengths and weaknesses I get from my mother: extra strong quads and triceps, slightly weaker hamstrings and biceps etc. After my dad's next workout we talked about me joining him again, how we would work the time into our lives and how we would start up our routine. By the time his next workout came around... I joined him and we haven't missed a day since. Now that I'm finally getting to some details I'll save the meat for the next post. Keep letting me know if you guys (as in people) are reading this, it helps. I'll post again in about 12 hours when I'm home from work. __________________ Will A. Carpenter - The "A" Stands for Awesome! Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth (Mike Tyson)