What Happens When You go to The Gym 261 Times

I started tracking my visits to the gym when I was in the Dominican Republic last December. I am not sure that anyone decides to start working out when they are in a resort, but I am a believer in not waiting till January to embark on a new years resolution goal. Starting at times when it might be perceived as being more difficult, means that it is going to be easier to follow through in the long term when things are easier. Besides, what is really that difficult about going to a gym for an hour?

So the question is what happens when a person goes to the gym 261 times for about 9 months? All of us are familiar with you tube videos that show a person’s transformation in 8 weeks or less. Other videos on you tube promise amazing results if you take product xyz for a week, or they say something like “just to this one exercise for shredded abs”. I was very pleased with my results but I was also disappointed. I have seen some amazing results, but I did not end up being the Greek god that I wanted to become.

The positive was evident in many ways. Yes, I do look physically much better including gaining some muscles in places where there were none. My chest sticks out much further than my stomach and I feel much stronger. Performance wise I have gained a significant amount of strength by more than doubling what I can push or pull in some exercises. I can honestly say that I am not tired or dragging in the afternoon. The mental fog that I used to have is gone and this has been replaced by what I would call mental resilience and clarity. It is also nice to come home and to have the extra energy and motivation to get a few things done, rather than just wanting to sit on the couch exhausted.

Physical fitness is indeed an investment in my future. Just like compound interest a person sometimes does not see the results until well into the future.

The negative was that I wanted more gains in terms of physical appearance. Although the loose skin around my waist is tightening up, I was dreaming of that chiseled 6 pack. The kind of abs where you can look at them and count 1,2,3,4,5,6, and if you watch Batman Lego maybe there is a 9th ab in the middle (lol). I think I look way better than I was at the start, but I am surprised that no matter how much fat I shave off, there always seems to be a little bit more somewhere. In March I was at a body fat percentage of 11.4% which I think is good, but I am thinking that this has to be 9% to get the results that I want. I don’t think I am doing anything wrong. Results are after all a positive thing. If I want better results then I need to increase my fitness time as I believe that I am giving a good effort when I do exercise with good consistency. It’s all about how badly I want to see stellar results.

Now conversely the bigger question is what the result might be if I had not done the 261 days in the gym. What if I had just done nothing extra in terms of physical exercise? Or, what if I have eaten more calories than I needed for 261 days and done no exercise? These are very scary questions indeed. In some ways it’s like doing a financial investment. We don't always get the returns that we would like, but a low or moderate return is better than not financially investing at all.

Physical fitness is indeed an investment in my future. Just like compound interest a person sometimes does not see the results until well into the future. With this in mind I will keep on investing, and at the end of the year I will see where I end up with over 300 days invested by the end of the year.

How to Do 1000 Push Ups

I did 1006 push ups on Monday! My previous record was 780 push ups in one day. I remember a few years back I had done 320 push ups in one day and I considered that to be epic. I remember it vividly because I was so stiff I could barely move for days after that. This was a barrier breaking event for me but as I researched push ups on the internet it was nothing epic. A 60 year old guy by the name of Rob Stirling has done 3,264 push ups in one hour!

I’m not saying that my push ups were of stellar quality and to be honest I am not a fan of quantity over quality. I believe that 100 quality push ups is better than 1006 speedy push ups. The biggest question then is why did I do 1000+ push ups? You see it’s not about pushing my physical limits but about pushing my mental limits. It’s about believing that I can do more. How can I excel if I don’t believe that more is possible? At 61 my brain sometimes tries to say “you can’t do this, you're too old. You can’t get rid of that last bit of fat around your belly because you are too old”. Believing that I can is essential for fitness success. Reading about the 60 year old record holder for push ups also confirmed that I don’t have to be 20 to excel. Like any sports team, there has to be a belief that one can win. Olympic medalists do not win gold medals by thinking that maybe they can achieve their goal.

It’s not about pushing my physical limits but about pushing my mental limits.

As Darth Vader said in the movie Star Wars, “I find your lack of faith disturbing”. I listen to people all the time that tell me they are too old to achieve more physically. They work out but they don’t really believe they are going to succeed. I have a friend who does 2 push ups a day and she is in her twenties. I say that’s a great start. She just has to believe that she can do 3 and then she can keep on going from there! I can see that she has trouble believing she can do more. I can see the mental barrier. To do more a person has to break that barrier. If she could do one push up in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening she would break those limitations of thought and then in her mind she will always know she can do at least 3 push ups!

Is 1000 push ups all I can do in a day, or is 100 push ups the most I can do in a row? Absolutely not! I will continue to move forward by breaking mental and physical barriers.

Jacked 60-Year-Old Shatters Guinness World Record for Most Push-Ups in One Hour

Stepping Up My Game with Macro Tracking

After two or three years of tracking what I ate each day by writing it down I finally decided to use an app. I initially resisted this because the apps I had tried seemed cumbersome and a real pain to figure out. This was part of the reason, but previously I was tracking calories only plus looking at the scale. This made sense to me as I believe that there is a correlation between the calories I consume and how much I weigh. If I was gaining weight over a period of time then it made sense to cut my calories. I also tracked how many minutes I exercised or walked because exercise burns calories and it fits into my paradigm of thinking.

Another reason I decided to start using an app was to step up my game. As I focus on muscle gain and fat loss I need to have an idea of how many carbohydrates, how much fat and how much protein I am burning. Performance requires consuming these macros in the correct ratio. I try to get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight as everyone seems to agree that protein is important for building muscle. The correct ratio is whatever works best for my body, so if I don’t track my macros I can’t learn. I need to see the relationship between my macros, how I am feeling and how I am performing in the gym. The app I use also tracks fibre, some of my vitamins and other items including sodium and sugar. It was too hard to manually add up my maros. Performance requires tracking and what gets measured gets managed.

Performance requires tracking and what gets measured gets managed.

An app is also my accountability partner. I have come to understand over time that most people including myself don't understand how many calories or macronutrients they consume. I am just guessing, but I don't think that many people understand why they are overweight or why they can’t lose weight. By tracking what I am putting in my mouth this levels the playing field and makes it hard to consume more than I need. Yes, that’s really what this is about. Tracking calories is not about denying myself the joys of life. Tracking calories including macros is about figuring out what my body needs, and also it’s about tweaking what I am consuming so I can become better, stronger and leaner.

At work today they asked me if I wanted an ice cream blizzard. That’s about 1000 calories for any large blizzard and 370 calories for the Tim Hortons Muffins and 280 calories for the donuts that a few people told me to help myself to. That’s about 1600 calories in just snacks. Imagine if I had not had any self control or if I did not have my accountability partner!