Monday, day 1 of week 10

Im dead tired, so I'll make this quick. I did the week 10 routine today, and it was actually really intense doing it like Arnel layed out, which is to try and do only 6-10 reps and 3-4 sets, then only 2 sets of the last 4 exercises. I was strict with the 30 seconds or less between supersets and it really had me goin! The towel pullups were suckin, I think my towel was ripping, so halfway through them i changed to regular pullups...no biggy. I also do pushups durring my warmups now, so since this weeks routine is pushup intense my chest and arms were dead afterwards! As soon as I finished I jumped on the treadmill and did my interval. It wasnt as intense as the previous weeks since last week I didnt really get a good HIIT in at all, but I still did 4 rounds. 2 at 10mph and 2 at 9mph, and ran for almost 2 miles and 20 minutes total. I think I burned 49 carbs and like 280 calories.

Tuesday night I will go to the gym again and hit those heavy weights again, cant wait!! Ive been keeping my weight steadyish the last few days, which has been around 159lbs to 157.5 lbs, so hopefully the weight lifting will curb the sudden weight loss thing. Im still losing fat around my gut though, I think Im down another quarter inch or so from last week.

Friday, day 6 of week 9

Well I went to the gym last night for the second time this week. Did the same routine as tuesday, which consisted of some supersets that I created myself. Still having an issue with the treadmill at the gym though, so I ran at 7mph for 10 minutes and then did some interval training on the stairmaster, which surprisingly made me sweat like crazy. It wasn't that hard but it just really got me breathin heavy and sweattin alot. Overall I was pretty happy, and I feel pretty good with the slight soreness from the gym workouts. Today Im not as sore, so when I get home I will do my HIIT. I havn't had a descent HIIT all week, since Ive been using the gyms treadmill, but Im not too worried.

Im still losing weight too. As of this morning I was 157.5, which brings my total weight loss since I started to 20 lbs exactly. The number itself sems a little low for my taste, but Im pretty happy with my bodys look right now. Im not getting the skinny scrawny look that I was afraid of, and my chest looks to me to be descent sized, and my arms and legs dont look scrawny, so we will see. I still have most of my fat left right on my lower stomach and back, but its slowly being eatin away. I can tell though that Ive lost some fat on my butt, it feels harder and not so squishy. I have been eatting a little more protein than the last 8 weeks since I have started the weight lifting, and somedays I have 2 protein shakes instead of 1, and I have been eatting more wheat bread and other complex carbs.

I hope to have some good results to report on my next picture posting, which will be on week 11, but Im not getting my hopes up. I dont really expect to see much of a change.

Wednesday, day 3 of week 9

I know its technically thursday but screw it, I gotta post this now and get it out of the way. Well I went to the gym Tuesday night after work to start my first day of heavy lifting and weights, and man did I forget something about lifting weights.....THEY'RE HEAVY!! I did pretty good though, I started with my warmup that I have altered a little bit to make it more intense, my body was getting too used to it. So now I can only do 4 sets of the warmup as opposed to the 8 I was doing, and it gets me sweattin! So I did that first in a small warmup area, and to tell you the truth I felt like an idiot sortta. I mean, everybody in there is all laying around, stretching, quiet, slowly doing ab stuff,...and then theres me kickin my legs up and doin burbees and jumping jacks and pushups and straight jumps.....it was a bit embarassing,....at first. Once I started sweatting I thought, what the hell are these people doing here? Dont you go to the gym to sweat and workout? So I told myself screw em, let em look and think whatever they want, Im not there for them.

So then I went to the weight room and started. I pretty much covered all the major muscles and did it while creating my own little supersets. It went pretty good, it took me over an hour and a half to do the routine I made up. I was really tired too. I tried to do my HIIT afterwards but the treadmills dont work like mine, they are very hard to manually change speeds while running fast, so I will have to see if I can program them. otherwise I will have to keep my HIIT to my house, which is fine too.

Then today I got home from work and did my week 9 resistance. It went pretty good, but Im a bit sore from the weight lifting,....WHICH I LOVE!!! I havn't been sore feeling in weeks!

The new schedule I have come up with, and will try next week will be something like this:
Monday-resistance, HIIT
Tuesday-weight lifting, long distance run
Wednesday-resistance
Thursday-weight lifting, long distance run
Friday-resistance, HIIT
Saturday-OFF, (maybe HIIT if needed)
Sunday-OFF

If anyone has any suggestions as to my weight lifting, or has some good links to exercises please hit me up! Thanks again guys, and you all keep up the great work!

HALF WAY THERE!!!

Monday, day 1 of week 9

Well, let me get todays workout out of the way before my pics. It went pretty good, I changed my warmup a little bit and made it more intense, which actually made it to where I could only do 6 sets of the warmup instead of 8. It was nice to do something different. The workout went pretty good today, I did all the week 9 routine, pretty much ended up doing 20 of everything for all the sets and supersets. The explosive pushups were a bit tough towards 14 and on!! Did really good with everything else, and I actually liked the staggered pullups, what I did for those was I had one hand facing towards and the other facing away, and then I switched them. It was a cool way to do them, it gave me a different feeling burn. Im not too sore, except my abs, from using the resistance band during ball crunches....Oww! But overall I feel pretty good, no soreness, which is good because tomorrow will be my first day of heavy lifting. I plan on doing my warmup, then the heavy lifting, and then finish with my HIIT. Im interested to see if people will stare or say anything when Im cranking the treadmill up to 10 and 11mph, since most people at the gym just cruise.

Ok, with that said, here are my halfway pictures with a little side note for some:

Total weight loss as of today, 18 lbs, total inches lost off of gut, 4 1/2"

Current weight-159.5 lbs

Current gut measurement-35 3/8"

Here are some other pictures from my halfway point I took:

Heres how I've been keeping track of my gut measurement. Just a simple piece of paper and a tape measure. I have always measured from the same spot since day 1, right below my belly button, which happened to be the biggest part of my gut and lovehandles.

If it weren't for this piece of paper, proving that I was changing.....I probably would have quit before I ever even got to week 3. But Im still here!!!

Saturday, day 6 of week 6

No workouts to report on, heres why.....One reason is work, I worked all day yesterday and was too tired at the end of the day to do my last resistance day of the week, and then today I was going to do both the resistance and HIIT, but, I started working on my entertainment center and just had to finish it! I build my own furniture by the way, incase your wondering. So tomorrow, my day off, I will go ahead and finish out week 8's routine and get my last HIIT in for the week 8. I will also be posting my halfway pics on Monday, which will be the beginning of my second half of my 16 week journey. I have lost a little bit more around my stomach these past 2 weeks and am really pleased with my results so far.

When I start week 9 I will be incorporating some of my own workouts to help boost my results for the final 8 week stretch. I joined a gym on thursday and will be including some heavy weight training into Arnels program, so I will have to change my workout schedule a little bit. I have decided to include the heavy weight lifting because I want to bulk up a bit while losing the fat using Arnels program. I dont want to lose all my fat and then be a little skinny twig. My current weight is 160 lbs, so Ive lost 17 lbs so far, which is plenty!! I do want to get the ripped look, with a low body fat %, but I also want to add muscle. So I will still be doing the exact same workouts that you guys are doing, but I will also be lifting. So please, wish me luck!!

I hope everyone is getting great results like I know some of us are, and if you think your not getting any results, just keep going!! If you are workong out and eating right, the results will come! Good luck all, talk to you again when I post my halfway results on Monday!

Thursday, day 4 of week 6

Just a quick post here, I did my resistance last night when I got home and it went pretty good. I was pretty tired from being at work all day, but once I was into my warmup I got into it. It took me about an hour. I wanted to do my HIIT right after but it was 11pm when I was finished, and I didnt feel like being up for another 45 minutes. So I just did a really good HIIT today, heres what I did:

2min at 3mph, then
1min at 4mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
5min at 7mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
2min at 3mph, then
1min at 2mph.

I ran about 2.65 miles, burned a total of 68.4 carbs, and 401 calories, and ran for a total of 25 minutes.

2 more days till I get to my halfway point!! Hope everyones training is going good!

Tuesday, day 2 of week 8

I'll keep this short and sweet. I did my HIIT today and heres what I did:

2min at 3mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then
3min at7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
2min at 3mph, then
1min at 2mph.

It was a god day, I ended up running about 2.125 miles, in 20 minutes, and burned 340 calories and 55 carbs. I work all day tomorrow so I will have to do my workout after I get home at night, which I hate doing. I will try to add another HIIT too since it will already be late and I will not have to worry about finishing in a certain amount of time. Wish me luck!

Oh, the knee feels great today too, I picked up some gluocosamine tablets and started taking them today, so hopefully that will help me out.

Monday, day 1 of week 8

So a quick update here....I wasn't able to do the final set of the week 7 routine this weekend. My knee was just needing a break. So I took it easy and worked in the garage finishing my entertainment center, which is lookin pretty good! It seemed to help because my knee felt pretty good today, which was a good thing since it was my first day of week 8! I started the workout with the intention of doing my HIIT after the routine, but it took too long. I did really good in the routine today, or at least I felt like I did good. I had alot of energy with taking those 2 days off, so I was ready to go today. The ball and chair pushups were pretty tough, so I got thru 15 reps of those, and then 15 of the 1 leg ball squats, each leg. Then I used the chair instead of the ball for the 1 leg raised pushups, which I did 10 for each leg raised, then the 1 leg ball rolls I did 20 each leg. I dont have the same pullup bar as Arnel, so I did regular palms out pullups, which I did 8 the first set, but was able to do 10 the next 2 sets, followed by 30 seconds of the wall sitting squat, which actually hurt alot more than I thought! Then I did 20 of the upright row with the black bands, and 20 of the ball calf raises each leg. I finished the routine with 20 of the bicep curls with the black and blue bands, and then 20 of the ball knee lifts.

I feel pretty good now, and the knees holding up, so thats good. Im really hoping for some good pictures at my halfway point next week, and I think they might be pretty good because I have actually been able to notice some changes in my obliques now in the mirror, which is really getting me excited!! I used to joke that if you grabbed my love handles and closed your eyes, it felt like a nice "d" cup sized boob, without a nipple...but now...I can only pinch the little bit of fat that is left!! Its great!!

Keep it up you guys.....most of us are almost half way there, so its all downhill from here...well...downhill in terms of how many more weeks we have left! Uphill in terms of how much more intense the routines will get...CANT WAIT!!!!!

Friday, day 5 of week 7

Well I didn't do the HIIT last night, my dang knee again, so I saved it for today. Of course, when I woke up my knee was killing me, but after breakfast it just went away...this knee thing is the wierdest pain thing I have ever had, it just comes and goes. I wish it would just GO!!! But after a hard day of yardwork, I got ready and did my HIIT day, heres what I did:

2min at 3mph, then

2min at 7mph, then

1min at 10mph, then

2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then

2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then

2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then

2min at 7mph, then

4min at 6mph, then

2min at 4mph, then

2min at 3mph, then

1min at 2mph.

Heres a picture of my treadmill showing my finishing stats, not too bad!!!

Nice, just over 2.5 miles, burned 69 carbs, burned 400 calories, and ran for a total of 25 minutes. Knee did fine....but I did have a serious tight calf muscle when I finished!!! Thank God for tiger balm!!

Thursday, day 4 of week 7

I didn't post yesterday for 2 reasons, one I didn't do anything. I had to work and my knee was killing me, so I took a rest day. And two, because as much as I like keeping up on the posting, its getting a little old, its lost some of its coolness that it had when I first started it. Plus it eats up a bit of time. So I will probably be posting maybe 2 times a week or so, I dunno, we will see.

So today I did the week 7 routine for the second time, and actually got it done sooner than the first time. I broke up some of the exercises into 2 or 3 sets that equalled 30 reps total. Except the pullups, I had to do as many as possible until I finally reached 30 reps, but I didn't have to use the elastic bands this time!! Yeah me! It helped by doing the pullups second, instead of last, deffinetely. I will do my HIIT when I get home tonight so wish me luck.

Keep it up everybody, your ALL doing great work!

Tuesday, day 2 of week 7

I am surprised to say that I am sore from yesterdays Spartan training day. My biceps are a little sore, my abs, and my butt. So I guess it wasn't just a "get you tired fast" workout afterall.

Today went good, heres what I did:

After stretching and warmup....
2min at 3mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 3mph, then
1min at 2mph.

My totals when I was finished was 20 minutes running time, 58 carbs burned, 335 calories, and 2.3 miles. Im watching my time now and Im getting down to about an 8.5 minute mile, which Im happy about cause I used to run like a 7 minute or less mile in highschool. I'll keep you posted as to my minute per mile average as the weeks go on.

Thanks for the great comments all of you, Im really glad to hear positive remarks. I will be trying extra hard to give you all a good "half way there" stats and picture post when the time comes at the beginning of week 9. Thanks again!!


Doug

Monday, day 1 of week 7

Well I guess I'll start off with my pics, since this is the beginning of week 7, and I have consistantly been posting pics every 2 weeks. So here they are!

Here's a comparitive shot from week 1 to now:

My stats as of today are:

Weight-164 lbs (a loss of 13.5 lbs)

Gut measurement- 36-7/16" (a loss of 3-3/8")

Its insane how much better I feel today compared to week 1! I feel better, I have a ton more energy, I sleep better, I do other things better...wink wink!! But seriously, I feel great, and alot of people are noticing now. I get at least 1 or 2 people a week telling me I look great, or if Im working out, and its nice to hear. I still look in the mirror and get a little frustrated with how slowly my stomach is dissolving away but I know it will take more time. And I am really happy with my progress so far, especially when I look at the pictures of what I looked like in week 1!!! YUCK!!!! Ive also been reading up a little and I know that for your six pack to really show, you need to get your body fat percentage somewhere between 10% and 4-5%, depending on your body type. So I know I have a ways to go yet, but I WILL GET THERE!!!

Well on to week 7's routine...the first Spartan home workout. Honestly, I watched the video a couple times and started to think that it wasn't going to be that hard. Boy was I WRONG!! I was surprised at how difficult it was to do some of the things in the routine 30 times. I allowed myself 30 minutes to do the routine, which gave me 3 minutes per exercise, and at 30 reps thats only 10 reps per minute average....piece of cake, right?! NO. The staggering pushups were hard sort of, I had to break them into 2 sets of 15, and my explosive pushups weren't very explosive. I maybe got my hands an inch or so off the ground with each push. Some things I had no problem with pumping all 30 reps out real quick, but some I did. Then I got to the pullups, and I was dead, so I wont lie, I did do all 30, but I had to use the elastic bands to help. I was SO tired by the time I got to the pullups I just didn't have anything left in me.

I think I will break the routine up next time into 2 sets of 15 reps each, so I dont get burned out too quick. Use my experience as a tip if your not at week 7 yet. Hope everyone else is still rockin, keep it up guys...and girls (Pie!).

Carmina Burana - O Fortuna

START THIS BEFORE READING END OF FRIDAYS POST!!

Friday, day 5 of week 6

I didn't post yesterday because I worked all day and was going to do my interval when I got home, but, my knee was bugging me alot last night. Still not sure what I did, its the wierdest thing! It will hurt one minute and then fine the next. The pain isnt unbearable, but it is rather annoying, so we went for a family walk for about 45minutes plus, which was nice...beautiful breezy night!

So today, my knee felt ok, so I did some stuff around the house and got ready to kick my ass hard!! I did my normal warmup, then I hit the resistance routine with some fire!! I stopped timing myself and just set a certain number of reps to acheive, like some of you guys have also done. So heres what I did for my circuit:

25 standing chest press with all 3 bands
18 linear stability jumps
25 standing rows with red and blue bands
18 one leg box stepups (each leg seperate)
18 tricep bench dips
50 feet walking distance of walking lunge with 25lb dumbell
25 tricep extensions with black band (each arm seperate)
25 alternating toe touches
25 bicep cable curls with blue and red bands (each arm seperate)

Each exercise took about a minute, real close, and to do the whole thing took me about 12 minutes each time. And again, like the other days, I completed a total of 4 circuits with no more than a 1.5 minute break between circuits. Then after I was done with the routine, I took a 2 minute break, had a bit of water, and started my interval training to make up for not doing it last night. Heres what I did:

2min at 3mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1.5min at 3mph, then
1.5min at 2mph.

I finished off with a bit of stretching for my calves afterwards, they were very tight and hot. BUT CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??!!!?! I did 4 rounds of 9mph! And that was after the resistance routine!! I was so frickin excited with myself...after I finished the 4th round of 9mph I was a total dork and put my arms up like Rocky and yelled out "YES, I DID IT!" Stupid I know but I was exstatic. And to tell you the truth, it wasn't that hard. I mean, I was very tired, but everytime the 2minutes of 6mph was up it was like my energy had come back, so I kept doing the 9mph's and ended up with 4 of em. Small victories I guess, even though I may only win some of the battles with my gut, I WILL WIN THE WAR!! Not even the knee will be able to stop me!!!

SO HERES WHERE YOU SHOULD START THE VIDEO AT THE TOP IF YOU HAVNT YET

In conclusion, I just wanted to say to everyone,...we are doing it!!! No matter what anyone else says, no matter what anyone else thinks, no matter how stupid your friends might think this program is,...WE ARE DOING IT!!!! THE BATTLE WITH OUR FORMER OUT OF SHAPE SELVES IS SLOWLY CREEPING TOWARDS THE END, DAY BY DAY, WEEK BY WEEK, WE ARE DOING IT!!! WE WILL NOT SUCCOME TO THE PAIN IN OUR MUSCLES, WE WILL NOT SUCCOME TO THE TAUNTS OF OUR PEERS, WE WILL NOT SUCCOME TO THE INNER VOICE IN OUR HEAD THAT SAYS WE WILL FAIL, ...........

WE ARE DOING IT!!!!!!



THERE'S NOTHING THAT CAN STOP US!!!!!

Wednesday, day 3 of week 6

First off, let me start by saying this, I have so much respect for for Arnel in accomplishing his own 16 week program. The reason I say this is because Ive heard him say before "now you guys now the hell I had to go thru!" And he's right, as much as I love it AFTERWARDS, this is hell! I did my resistance today and added an interval day after I was finished. I didnt do the same speeds that I did yesterday, but I still did pretty good for just completing the resistance training, heres what I did:

Stretched, and then my normal warmup

4 circuits of the advanced level week 6 routine (60 sec per exercise with no brake inbetween each exercise, and a 1 minute brake inbetween circuits

Then onto the treadmill:

2min at 3mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
1min at 9mph, then
2min at 6mph, then
2min at 3mph for cooldown

For a total of 15 minutes running time, burned 38 carbs, 220+ calories, and ran a distance of 1.5 miles, all again at the 2% incline.

Now I dont want you to take this the wrong way, and it is not meant to be a downer in anyway shape or form, but, THIS WAS A HARD, HELLISH DAY!! I cant tell you how many times I wanted to just stop, and how many times I sat and argued with myself about if I was too tired to keep going on or not. If you could here the fight with myself in my head you would think I was mad. Its sortta funny now, but at the time it was really trying!

Let me say this though, I really LOVE week 6, ....Im not sure if its cause I told myself to push harder doing this weeks program or just the routine itself, but this is a hard week. I was sore on tuesday for the first time in like 3 weeks, especially in my calves and ribs and lower abs. Im assuming thats a good sign. And the soreness made yesterdays interval really tough, which didnt help since I uped my speeds. But I really felt it today with combining the 2, and Im feeling it now as Im sitting here typing to you. I dunno, I guess Im just really thinking about whats in store for us in the coming weeks, and how Im really getting a little frustrated with not seeing the results I want to see, but I will be pushing on. Actually not seeing the results I want is whats making me madder and forcing me to push harder and harder. Plus week 7 is the first Spartan training week, I cant wait!!!

Tuesday, day 2 of week 6

THIS ONE WAS FOR ALL YOU GUYS THAT KEEP PUSHING ME ON!!!

Today was a GREAT interval day! I am really feeling it right now though...heres what I did today:

Started with my usual warmups and stretching, then I thought I would try something different, so I did 10 pullups palms towards me, good ones too!! All the way down and all the way up, they were smooth and percect, I was really stoked cause I had no problem doing them, it was awesome. Then I pumped out 40 regular nice clean pushups, again, I was happy! Then I did 30 of the squats from week one, with minimal burn in my legs. Those killed me by number 10 in week 1! Then I did some crunches. After all that I jumped on the treadmill and did the following:

2min at 3mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
1min at 10mph, then
2min at 7mph, then
7min at 6mph, then
2min at 4mph, then
2min at 3mph, then
1min at 2mph.

I was very happy with the 3 rounds of 10mph, it was very hard to do. The first was ok, then I got really tired half way thru the second burst, and I didnt think I had it in me to do the 3rd, but I pushed on and thought about how great it would be to write you all and tell you that I actually did it, so I did! My final results were 2.5 miles ran, 397 calories, 68 carbs, and 25 minutes total running time. Again, all running was done at a 2% incline (grade).

I just wanted to add something, I check up on alot of you guys and I must say that alot of you started this competition in much better shape than I was in, so I know that if I can push myself to my extreme, so can you guys! Some of you already look as good now as I hope to look in another 10 weeks, like Sam, Hulse, JJeagle, Abdominator, and others. So I just wanted to maybe give you an extra push towards putting up some of your own personal bests, dont slow down, dont give up!!!

KEEP PUSHING ON, PUSH HARDER, AND KICK SOME ASS!!!!

Monday, day 1 of week 6

So my knee got an extra day off with not doing any interval training on saturday, and then yesterday as my normal day off, which really helped out alot. It was really buggin me on saturday but I wrapped it when I went to bed and took some ibuprofin. I did the same thing last night just to make sure, but it didnt bug me as bad on sunday. I didnt sit around all day either, we were up and around early morning (early for us) and got all ready for a day out in the desert shooting. So I did plenty of walking and climbing all over the place to setup and reset targets all day, and I had no problem and really no pain. I was releived, cause week 6 is very leg intensive!!

So today I started with my normal warmup routine and stretching, then went over the routine for week 6 one more time and then got to work. First off let me say that I REALLY LIKE week 6! This routine got me sweattin like mad!! Even my legs were sweating!!! I found this to be a high intensity routine, well layed out, and really did a good job of hitting all major body areas, like biceps, triceps, quads, back, shoulder, stomach, calves, and glutes. I thought it was a great workout. I did the advanced level like in weeks 4 and 5, so I did each exercise for 60 seconds with no break in between, and only a 1 minute break in between circuits, and I completed a total of 4 circuits.

I dont know if its because I took the extra day to rest or not, but I felt really energized in todays high intensity workout. I was worried that taking the day off would of killed my energy and drive to do well but once I started I couldnt stop! I was running out of time at the end of my 3rd circuit but I said forget it, I had more energy to burn off so I pumped out 1 more final circuit. It took me almost 13 minutes total to complete a circuit. But man I feel great right now, and my muscles feel invigorated and loose.

People at work and some freinds have been commenting on how good Im looking and that they can really notice a difference. Ive gotten alot of good compliments too on the changes in my arms, from my girlfreind and others too. Im still trying to get rid of the gut though, thats my main goal. I swear it must be the last place your body burns fat from cause my arms and legs dont have much fat left on them to burn, but I still got plenty on the ol belly! I will be kicking up the interval training this week to try and attack some of that stubborn fat cause like I promised, I have to post pictures again next week! Wish me luck!!