So, I'm working out with this woman whom I variously call Arnold, Nancy, or Big Girl (sometimes even Mega-Girl, though this one is newer, and I'm not sure it will stick. For the record, her real name is Nancy Arnold). She's 8 years younger than me and 4 inches taller. She has an extensive background as an athtletic trainer and is currently in stage 2 (building lean muscle and shedding fat) of readying herself for a bodybuilding competition.
For some godforsaken reason, I've decided to try to match her.
She's been quite the education.
Recently, after The Big Girl revealed her nutritional regimen to me, I realized that I was abusing my body by pounding it without properly replenishing it. In some ways, although we had made great progress in Stage 1 (bulking), I felt I was losing ground. I just was not able to recover, certainly not like her. Sometimes, after a leg workout, I'd be sore for a week. At the end, I started to lose weight. Little nagging injuries started to pile up. The list of exercises I could just do, let alone improve at, was going down (neither list was declining dramatically, mind you, but there was decline).
All together, these were signs of overtraining. So, over Christmas, I'm on a week's rest.
However, before Christmas, I decided to take a page out of Arnold's book and focus on nutrition along with a slightly different way of organizing the workout. WOW! It made all the difference. Nutrition alone cured 70% (maybe 100%) of what was ailing me. Here's what I am doing differently now:
- A daily multi-vitamin. For most people, this is just common sense.
- Glucosamine, recommended by Nick Evans, M.D. in his book, Men's Body Sculpting. Your joints take quite a pounding. A lot of my nags were joint related. They've all improved (somewhat dramatically, I might add) with this joint wonder supplement that I now refer to as "God's little pill".
- Liquid protein right before and after lifting, as also recommended by Evans (with no additives like Creatine, yet). This REALLY helps with recovery. If you are going to lift heavy weights on a regular basis, you must do this. It's just too hard to get enough protein otherwise.
- An energy bar after 45 minutes in the weight room. Evans recommends this for men. Arnold had remarked in her blog that I tended to fade at the 1 hour mark. I'm not sure if women need the energy bar. Their expenditure profile is different. I know it takes Arnold's engine a while to rev up, and then it just goes and goes.
- Cardio after weights. I'm an old guy (45, Arnold is 36), and I need my cardio. Trying to keep up with America's Youth (another Arnold nickname) is good, but I cannot totally sacrifice my future for it. Cardio after weights allows me to retain weights intensity while continuing to maintain the old cardiovascular system. With my new feeding strategy, I'm noticing no cardio drop off.
I should point out that Nancy and I discussed most of this as I was deciding to implement it. I call it my industrial nutrition regimen. Nancy, in her disciplined way, has been doing this sort of thing for a couple of years now.
I think I did not realize how tough her training regimen was going to be. You have to give her a lot of credit for being able to keep on training at this level as she powers past her mid-thirties.
I also give her credit for paying attention to her training partner. I see her giving the same care to her clients and now understand why she is so popular as a personal trainer.
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