It’s my birthday today, 52 years old. As with many people it’s also the first day back working after the Christmas and New Year festivities. Not much of a way to spend your birthday you might think, but actually I’m quite happy about it. It’s been a good break, but it will be nice to get back to the old routine again.

Those festivities have certainly taken their toll on my weight and my girth. I’m three pounds up on my pre-Christmas weight and my body fat is up by 1%. I’ve missed a few weight training sessions, but I’ve kept the cardio going, so mostly it’s down to too much of the wrong kind of food and too much alcohol.

The consolation is that, having been on the program for the past three months, I’ve got a bit of leeway to spare. If I hadn’t been on the program then I’m sure that my weight would have now hit a new record high. In a few weeks of eating well and exercising well I should be back on track and pushing towards breaking through 14% body fat.

New Year, so this is a good time to spice up my weight training programme. I'm now moving on to this two day split routine:

Routine 1 (Mon/Fri Week 1, Wed Week 2)
Traps - Dumbell Shrugs
Lats - Pulldowns
Lats / Middle Back - One Arm Cable Rows
Lower Back - Hyperextensions
Quads - One Leg Partial Squats
Calves - One Leg Calf Raises
Biceps - Barbell Curls
Biceps - Alternating Dumbell Hammer Curls

Routine 2 (Wed Week 1, Mon/Fri Week 2)
Chest - Dumbell Flyes
Chest - Bench Press
Shoulders - Dumbell Shoulder Press
Shoulders - Side Lateral Raises
Triceps - Triceps Extensions
Triceps - Triceps Cable Pulldows
Hamstrings - Leg Curls
Abs - Crunches

I'll let you know how I get on with it.

The latest addition to my home gym is a Kettler Vital Back Trainer. As far as I can see, this item isn't available from UK suppliers, but there are a couple of German retailers who target the UK market and I purchased it from here.

The purpose of the device is to enable you to do hyperextension exercises for the lower back. If you follow the link above then you can see an animation with the product in use. So far I'm very please with it. It's reasonably priced, but good and sturdy. It also folds away when not in use, which is a real boon as I am desperately tight for space in my home gym. The height of the thigh pads is easily adjustable with a single steel pin.

I used to suffer from quite frequent back pain a few years ago. In recent years it's been much better, helped by some things I learnt by doing Pilates for a while. However I still get a bit of stiffness in one of my sacroiliac joints. Early indications are that the hyperextension exercise really help with loosening that up.

This TV programme has been fascinating viewing this week. Challenging though he found the assignment, I have to say that he picked an easy target. This was a Foundation Trust, in good financial state. My wife works for an NHS Trust that has a significant budget deficit and if he really wanted a challenge then he should of picked on of these. If he thought staff morale was low at Rotherham then that's nothing compared to the state of affairs brought on by the constant threat of redundancies and nit-picking, short-sighted cost reductions that save hundreds here whilst costing thousands elsewhere.

In any large organisation there are always problems in getting anything done. Different departments have different vested interests and these are rarely aligned with the overall goals of the organisation. However, in any normal hierarchical organisation you can always resolve conflicts by escalating up the management chain to a sufficiently high level. In practice you rarely have to do this, because no-one wants to be on the losing side of such an exercise and so compromises eventually get reached. However in the NHS where the reporting relationship of the clinicians to the trust management seems to be nominal then this sanction doesn't apply.

Notwithstanding the billions that are poured into it, the NHS overall does a good job. Nevertheless I think the wise thing is to keep out of their clutches as best you can. Eat well, exercise well, stay healthy.

In response to my New Year's Resolutions post, 'Beer Belly' writes:

I resolved to lose 50 pounds this year by eating better, drinking more water and exercising.

Thus far I have only managed to:
1. Drink more water
2. Dust of the treadmill - That was New Year's resolution 2005

Half way through January and I have not lost even an ounce nor have I really considered taking the time to get on the treadmill.

Well it's scant consolation, but I'm sure you're in good company. One other factor that I didn't mention last time is that in early January your fridge, freezer and cupboards are still full of lots of nice things that got bought for Christmas and the New Year, but not yet consumed. That makes any 'eating better' resolution really hard, as there's just too much temptation.

Another problem with 'eating better' is that there's too much conflicting advice on what's good for you and what's bad for you. The nutritional approach of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is mostly about getting your calorie intake right and getting the right ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. In addition you'll understand the important differences between the types of carbohydrates and fat. It's all straightforward stuff and explained in terms of the underlying science. The caolorie intake will also be more than for your typical diet, so there's no need to starve yourself.

Did anyone else see this on BBC2 last night? I'd watched the first programme the previous week and thought it was borderline OK, but I don't think I'll trouble with the rest of the series.

There are a lot of important, contentious issues in the area of nutrition. As such I think it's criminal that this programme wasted time on questions such as "Does what you eat affect the taste of your semen?" and "Do women eat less on a first date if they fancy their dinner partner?". This is dumbing down of the first order and coming so soon after the news of the future increases in the BBC licence fee it made me quite angry.

So, I switched over before I got to hear the result of "Can fruit smoothies taken over a two month period improve your sperm count?". At least that was a reasonable line of enquiry. Can anyone please let me what the outcome of that experiment was?

I seem to have hit a bit of a snag on the weight training front. Last Friday whilst I was doing my Routine 2 (see Split Weight Routine ) there was a bit of stiffness in my left shoulder as I attempted the Dumbell Flyes. Then the same shoulder was quite sore whilst doing Bench Presses.

Some research on the internet suggests it might be a Rotator Cuff injury. Normally I would be due to do Routine 2 again tomorrow, but I've got an appointment first thing, so I'll give the weight training a complete rest. The next time for Routine 2 will be next Monday and by then I will have changed the routine to try and address the problem.

I've found rotator cuff exercises on various sites, but some of the advice is a bit conflicting and some of the exercises look as though they might do more harm than good. Having had some good success with one ebook I might try Brian Schiff's The Ultimate Rotator Cuff Training Guide. It's a bit pricey, but if it does the trick then it will be worth it.

As I mentioned last time in my Shoulder Pain post, I had an appointment first thing on Wednesday. That appointment was an induction session at the Fitness Centre at my local university. I've signed up so that I can get the use of a wider range of cardio machines. Luckily for me they do an off-peak membership at very reasonable rates and it's only ten minutes drive away in the car.

Thus far I've been doing all of my cardio on my rowing machine. I wanted to ring the changes a bit, as your body adapts to any form of exercise and you need to find new ways of challenging it. Furthermore, the variety reduces the risk of overuse injuries.

In particular I wanted to get access to an elliptical trainer, as the motion of these devices is quite gentle on the knees. The university has Precor ellipticals and these are really nice to use. Compared to the rowing it seems to be much more straightforward to get my heart rate up to my target zone (135-142 bpm) and to keep it there.

The Sunday Times reports this week that increasing numbers of men are resorting to cosmetic surgery to reduce their man breasts. Apparently the number of operations nearly doubled in 2006 to around 4,000.

Now I don't suffer from this affliction, but I think I'd have to have some pretty major body image concerns before I would be willing to go under the knife for something like that. Any form of surgery has its risks.

The consultant plastic surgeon that they interviewed added "This technique is not appropriate for the obese. It should be reserved for very specific areas of fat in an otherwise fit person". So, there's your answer, the first port of call should be an attempt to lose these items through improved nutrition and exercise, just as offered in Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Man boobs are just surplus fat, so you should be able to lose them in the same way as I am shedding my spare tyre. Plus you'll get all the other health benefits that come with the programme and avoid the costs of the surgery.