"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Confucius

Actually in this case the journey started with a slightly longer hop, namely a car ride to a music festival this summer. I can't remember which one it was - this year we made it to Trowbridge (highlight The Waterboys), Wickham (highlights Richard Thompson and Seth Lakeman) and Beautiful Days (highlight The Levellers, of course). They were all great.

Anyhow, it was summer, there wasn't much news and the newspapers had run a feature of Blair and Cameron wearing their swimwear and looking not entirely lean. (Actually I thought Blair didn't look in too bad a shape for his age, but Cameron needs to leave that bike alone and get some serious exercise.) We had the radio on in the car and this came up as a phone-in topic, leading by natural progression to the subject of man boobs.

At some point a fitness expert called in to the show, to make the point that man boobs were just excess fat, laid down in middle age along with the expanded midriff. He then stated that the mistake that most people make was to do lots of cardio in an attempt to tackle this problem. This didn't work, he claimed. Rather than losing fat, cardio exercise just resulted in muscle wastage. What you should do instead was to do weight training exercises of the major muscle groups. This would raise your metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more fat as a consequence.

Now this wan't exactly what I wanted to hear. All my attempts to keep my weight down in recent years had been based on doing cardio on my rowing machine. 2006 had been a good year for this thus far, as between January and July I'd been managing to do about five cardio sessions a week. Granted I hadn't lost any weight but at least it had been stable. By August I'd lapsed, but was planning to get back to it after the holiday season.

So, was this right? Time to start googling.

"If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilisation."
Gerald Weinberg

Speaking as a programmer myself I just love that quote.

Anyway, with my goals written I was able to set about reading the rest of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Essentially it has four cornerstones - Goal Setting, Nutrition, Cardio and Weight Training. Nutrition gets the lion's share of the content, but then there's a lot to say about that subject.

The key thing is that these four elements work in tandem to produce a result that's greater than the sum of their parts. And that is the answer to the chap on the radio in this post who claimed that cardio caused muscle wastage. Well it might, if done in isolation. But if done as part of a programme that also includes good nutritional practices and weight training then it won't.

Having four cornerstones seems comforting somehow. The concept of four walled constructions seems to have served the building industry pretty well, notwithstanding the Pentagon and the London Gherkin. Mind you if modern day house building techniques get any flimsier than at some point they're going to have to resort to a honeycomb structure. That way they'll get the benefits of low weight combined with high strength and rigidity and so be able to stand up to an onslaught of woodpeckers.

“Exercise: you don't have time not to”
Anon

Well, perhaps the word gym conjures up an image a bit more grand than the reality in this case. In our back garden we have a wooden built structure which we refer to as 'the office'. The previous occupant built it for that purpose, but I've never used it as such despite the fact that I work from home.

Over the years we have used it for storage of my band gear (I play in a barn dance band), my windsurfing gear (which I haven't used in four years), garden furniture and general junk. I've now cleared out just enough space to accomodate my rowing machine, my partner's son's weight bench and weights and my newly acquired lat pulldown machine. I'll be blogging further about these bits of kit in the days to come. At some point I also want to add a hyperextension bench.

When I say 'just enough space', well it really is extremely tight. For example, I have to shift the weight bench out of the way to do a standing exercise such as a barbell curl. But for all that I'm really happy with it. It's a lot cheaper than a gym membership and I also save on all the travelling time. I can have the radio on the station of my choice, I don't have to queue for the next bit of equipment and I can grunt and groan on that final, blood-vessel bursting rep without disturbing anyone other than a few sparrows.

“Once I was a forty pound weakling. Now I am two separate gorillas.”
Viv Stanshall

I do my weight training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at about 7:15, an hour after I get up. I start with a few gentle Pilates stretches then do five minutes on the rowing machine to get myself warmed through.

The weight training regime that I'm currently on is a full body workout. After Christmas I'll be changing this and going to a two-day split regime. It goes like this, with all exercises done for three sets, one minute rest between sets.

Chest - Bench Press, 6-12 reps
Shoulders - Side Lateral Raise, 6-12 reps
Back - Cable Rows, 6-12 reps
Triceps - Lying Tricep Extensions Across Face, 6-12 reps
Biceps - Barbell Curl, 6-12 reps
Quads - I've a real problem here, I'll talk more about this next time
Calves - Standing Dumbbell Calf Raise, 10-25 reps
Hamstrings - Leg Curls, 5-8 reps
Abs - Crunches (Legs up on bench) - as many reps as possible

If you are interested in more details for these exercises then this site is a great resource. It has over 300 exercises with descriptions and a short video clip, categorised by the main muscle groups.

As I mentioned last time, finding a suitable exercise for my quads is a bit of an issue. The problem is my knees. I think this probably goes back to when I had a motorbike accident about 30 years ago.

The left knee is the worst. It's fine for normal getting around. However if I stand on my left leg and attempt to do a squat then it starts to twinge as soon as the degree of bend away from a straight leg reaches about 45 degrees. So the normal weight training exercises for the quads such as squats and lunges are out of the question and leg extensions also seem to set it off. In particular I don't want to risk damaging my knees further as, at the moment, they are fine on the rowing machine. It's hard to do cardio without fully functioning legs.

So, at the moment I am doing partial one leg squats as shown on this page. I do them with a 10kg dumbell held on the side that's not over the step and I do three sets of 15 reps. For the step I use a Reebok Stepper (bought from eBay for £5.00, well pleased with that) on its lowest setting. It's not ideal but its better than nothing.

Christmas is nearly upon us. Normally I'm not too easy to buy for and this is made worse for my beloved by having a birthday that falls just eight days after Christmas Day. This year though it's been easier with stuff for my home gym topping the list. Here's what I have requested from Santa and the Birthday Fairy:

Kettler Vital Back Trainer - for doing hyperextensions. I'll blog about this bit of kit when I've had a chance to test it out.
Marcy Spotter Catchers - so I can do bench presses without the fear of dropping the bar on my chest.
Cable machine attachment for doing cable rows and tricep pulldowns.
Cable machine single hand handle.

That should keep me quiet for a while and they'll all get pressed into service when I start on a two-day split weight training regime in the new year.

Merry Christmas everyone.

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.

In my Shoulder Pain post I mentioned that I was getting some discomfort that could be related to my rotator cuff and that I was thinking about buying The Ultimate Rotator Cuff Training Guide. Well I have now bought this.

The ebook starts off with some sections on anatomy and the pathology of rotator cuff problems. My thought is that these could have been a bit more detailed, but I suppose they tell you as much as you need to know. It then goes on to talk about the role of posture and how performing certain weight training exercises badly can cause rotator cuff problems.

However the heart of the matter is the exercise routines that are provided. The first of these is for maintenance of a healthy shoulder. The second, which is most of interest to myself at the moment, is for the rehabilitation of an injured rotator cuff. This is a progressive six week programme with exercises performed three times a week. In addition to rotator cuff exercises there are also exercises for scapular stability.

So I'm now doing these exercises and for now all other weight training on my chest, shoulders and upper back is on hold. I'll report back on this periodically. All in all, the book costs less that a single visit to a sports physio, so if the exercises do the trick then it will be worth the outlay.

Update 7th April 2007: to see the concluding post on this topic please click here.

As I mentioned a few posts ago I've now joined a gym so that I can use their cardio machines. I still do my weight training in my home gym.

Anyway, when you spend 30 minutes at a stretch pounding away on the elliptical it gives you plenty of time to be watch the other gym members going through their paces. For example, there's the chap who sets the weight on the lat pulldown machine so high that he literally gets his whole body pulled up on the recovery, then uses his body weight to get the next rep started.

However, there's one thing which I see absolutely no-one doing and it's something which is absolutely critical to a successful weight training programme. I've not a single person keeping a training log.

Whether you are looking to build strength or whether you want to build muscle bulk the key thing is progression. You should always be looking to do one more rep or to move up to a new weight once you have reached your maximum number of reps for that exercise.

Now clearly there will be some days and some exercises where your not at your peak and you can't manage this. However you should always be able to look back through your training log and see that you have made some good progress over recent weeks. If that's not happening then it's probably time to switch to a different exercise for that muscle group to get you out of the rut.

If you've ever been to a gym I'm sure you will have seen the cradle devices that they have for doing abs exercises. I wanted to get one of these for my home gym, as I think they help in ensuring that you do your crunches in good form with your neck properly supported. My back is in good shape at the moment, but I have had trouble with it in the past, so I'm keen to look after it.

I checked a few fitness equipment sites and was surprised to see that the version that you tend to see in the gyms costs over £100. I suppose they get a lot of use and so need to be suitably heavy duty. I wasn't intending to spend that much but by searching a bit further I found the Weider Crunch Trainer which is a much more reasonable price. I bought mine from here.

It seems to work perfectly well, really no different to the gym versions. It also comes with a booklet and also a DVD showing then different exercises that you can do with it. These are all variations on the basic theme of upper abs, lower abs and obliques exercises, but they are graded according to how advanced you are.

My new weight training regime is starting to bed in now, so this is a good time to tell you about it. The concept is that I do alternating heavy weeks and light weeks.

The heavy weeks are designed to build muscle strength. The focus here is to do primarily compound exercises, which is to say those that engage more than one muscle group. Heavy weights are used with a small number of repetitions, typically in the range 4-6. I tend to do four sets, starting off with a weight a couple of notches back from the maximum that I managed last time. Rest intervals between sets are long enough to allow a full recovery, typically 2-3 minutes. Progression is through increasing the reps up to 6 then increasing the weight.

The light weeks are designed to build muscle bulk, or hypertrophy as it is known. I use 8x8's here, which involves light weights, isolation exercises, eight sets of eight repetitions and short rest times. The weight should be chosen so that it feels easy for the first few sets but really tough by the time you reach the last few. Progression is initially through reducing the rest times, starting at 50 seconds then dropping by 5 or 10 seconds each week. Once you get down to about 20 seconds then it's time to increase the weight.

It's taken a while to get this organised, finding the right exercises and the right weights. However I think it will be a good programme and I intend to stick with it for at least the next three months.

You don't get to my age without having a few aches and pains and in my case it's my knees that are the weakest link. However I've found a few things that help.

First of all I take two 400mg Glucosamine Sulphate tablets every day. The tablets that I use also contain Chondroitin Sulphate, MSM (MethylSulfonylMethane) and Vitamin C.

Secondly I try to find exercise methods that don't stress them too much. I used to do my cardio on a rowing machine, but I find the action of elliptical trainers seems to be much more kindly to them. I've also adapted the way in which I use the ellipticals. I'm slightly knocked-kneed by nature so to compensate for this I stand with my feet slightly splayed. I use an action which gives me the sensation that my knees are going outside of the vertical line, but when I look down they are moving pretty much straight up and down.

Finally I have re-introduced deadlifts and stiff-leg deadlifts back into my weight training regime, with the hope that having more strength in my quads and hams will be good for the knees. I'm doing this progressively, being quite careful with the weights. So far, touch wood, I seem to be able to do this without causing any knee pain.

My first post for a while, as I've been struggling recently with back pain. A couple of Saturdays ago I was doing my weight training regime in my home gym. In the process I managed to rick my lower back doing seated cable rows, probably as a consequence of too much weight and poor form.

For a few days it was stiff and sore but it was making some progress using the exercises from Robin McKenzie's excellent Treat Your Own Back, plus taking walks using an upright posture. Then it turned for the worse, with intense sciatic pain going right the way down my left leg.

Now two weeks and four osteopath visits later it's (fingers crossed) back on the road to recovery again. The week after next we are off to Kefalonia for two weeks holiday. Maybe after that I'll be in a fit state to start thinking about getting back into the gym. With some trepidation I stepped on the scales yesterday, but was quite relieved to find that I hadn't regained too much weight, so at least that's something.