Training while at the loft

Something that’s been on my mind more and more recently, is how I’m going to approach training when I’m at the loft. I’ll no longer have access to my own personal gym, so it’s going to be quite the profound change to life…

Also – the loft will necessitate a number of changes – commuting to work, no lunches at home, etc… and I was thinking of something that may work out really well.

I liked the gym around the corner from work… it looked good, but I didn’t like the ‘gayness’ of it all. Working out at off peak times would help placate that… so I’ve been thinking more and more about how it’d work if I went to workout at lunch. The first point to consider is feasibility – could I actually take the time to do it? It would mean a 90-120min lunch… but could I offset that with coming in to work 60 mins earlier? And avoiding the rush hour traffic on the subway?

So here’s what I’ve been thinking:

• Cook breakfast at the loft
• Go into work – walk up to Pape / Castle Frank stations and subway into work
• Get into work for around 8am
• Have a mid-morning snack
• Go to the gym around 11.30/12 and come out around 1/1.30
• Lunch (high carb pasta)
• Afternoon snack
• Walk home
• Dinner
• Prepare for the next day…

One thing I know I’ll miss when I move away from the apartment, is lunching. Taking time out at home to have a lunch… and that’s why I think this plan could work out really well! It helps me get better nutrition that’d fit in with my goals of weight gain… I have a break mid-day… I start earlier, so means I can get more work done in the morning… and everything seems to come together.

I’ll just see whether this will really impact work… because I don’t want it to.

Of course, there are a number of requirements here… the most important of which, is that I retain my job at Rogers! If I don’t, then this plan will take many more months to put into action… we’ll see.

Day 63

Cardio’s done. That was pretty easy this morning. It wasn’t too tough to get up this morning… I have a big presentation to HSBC later today, so needed to get up and out! Cardio was good – it went quickly, I was focussed, and while I didn’t push terribly hard, burnt the right number of calories and endured

Last night was interesting… I’m picking my words carefully here – I was ravenous. I got back from work, and I just needed to eat – lots and lots and lots. But the good thing was, I wanted to eat good things – not bad. So I got a half chicken from Swiss Chalet – which I didn’t completely eat… but also got a side of fries – I wanted to try one or two. Funny thing – I opened up the fries, looked at them, the smell hit me – I could only manage to have about 2 before it almost made me sick! They were so fatty, greasy, soggy. They were not good. I can’t believe I used to down them! Good – positive change though

And this ravenous state is teaching me something… that the body’s telling me one of two things:

1. It’s cold outside, and therefore it wants to develop a thicker skin (in contrast to the fact that I’m trying to get rid of fat)
2. It’s ready to grow again… it’s ready to fill those muscles up again

I think it’s a bit of both – but this is a good sign… I need to be wanting to grow when I start growing. And in fact, this links in quite nicely with something I read recently… that one of the best times to ‘grow’ is when you’ve been cutting for a while – the body’s ready and eager to start sucking up those calories and build muscle – that’s why footballers can grow so quickly in the build up to their season.

So this has got me thinking about how I want to approach Stage 3 of training. My expectation is that I’ll want to lose about 10lbs of weight in Stage 3 (as opposed to ~25-30lbs in Stage 2). I’ve noticed a great loss of muscle in Stage 2 (but without the sustained decrease in strength that you’d normally expect). So I’m almost considering upping my calorie intake (good calories) by 500cals a day, which should maintain the muscle, while still allowing me to lose fat. I’ve got some great plans that I can start to follow – so we’ll just see. I’m not convinced of any approach yet – let alone what training plan I’ll do (I need to look into that). It’s still going to be a cutting phase – I’m going to follow the guidelines I set up a few weeks ago. But with regards to nutrition plan, supplements and training – they’re still all TBD.

Day 61

Cardio this morning. Went well. Pretty achey getting up this morning though! I’m guessing the aches are from both the snowboarding (the pain’s settling in LOL) and the chest / tris from yesterday. Not bad aches, just makes getting out of bed in the morning that bit harder :s

Decided to try and different program on the cross trainer today – did random – and it pushed me. I haven’t worked that hard on the x-trainer before, and the fact that it was random kept me more focussed on the exercise, rather than drifting away… so the 30 mins went pretty quickly.

On a sidenote, I’ve been spending some time thinking about Mr Kenney… and was looking at his profile yesterday, and I think there was a new pic up… and what’s interesting is that I think it shows quite a nice progression for his body… and because I love showcasing pics… here you go – the comparison:

Either physique is amazing. I’m not going to complain about either – in any way shape or form. My only comment is that this kind of physique is where I’d like to be. Although – what I don’t have right now – is context around his weight / bodyfat. I know he won’t be that heavy (perhaps 160-170?) and his bodyfat will be below 10%, it needs to be. But it’s a goal. It’s something I can visualize.

Next Stage Goals

So the next stage in training is the one after I come back from Costa Rica. Things are still up in the air with regards to how long it’ll be… there are a lot of things that will determine that… will I have a job at Rogers? Will I have time off between Contract and Full Time? Even if I do have the time off, will I have sufficient money to be able to pay for the trip? Many questions left unanswered at the present moment.

But – in any case… let’s assume Stage 3 of training is going to go from Jan 4 through early April. That gives me another 3 months of mostly uninterrupted training – it’ll have to be interrupted in late Feb when I move into the loft.

As discussed a while back, since I’m going to be snowboarding (hopefully a lot) come Jan/Feb, it’ll be stupid for me to entertain a mass gain cycle… that’ll have to come after April…

So my goals for that period should resonate around maintaining the fat loss (especially after whatever I may gain in Costa Rica), and then maintenance and posture.

I think my goal of 20% bf is entirely reachable by Dec 23… in fact, I think I’ll be able to achieve it by next week. If I really focus, maybe I’ll be able to go a bit lower than that, but I’m going to take it one step at a time – no getting ahead of myself

OK – so back on track… goals for Stage 3… well, as discussed, I’m still going to be quite active next stage, so mass gain is out. Also – it’ll be a transition period. Having made 20% bf, I’ll need to push forward and prove I can continue / maintain… so here’s what I’m thinking:

• Continue cutting. Goal 15% (loss of 10lbs) – Stretch Goal 12% (loss of 15lbs)
• Minimum weight = 160lbs. I don’t want to go lower than 160lbs. There’ll be nothing left of me at that point. I’ll be too skinny. 12% bf would level me off at 160lbs
• Continue to 15 / 12% and when there, start a maintenance phase which would include a posture improvement section

Timing wise, if I can get to 15% (12%) by end of Feb, that’ll be a nice transition for me moving into my loft. That’d give me 8 weeks of training. At about 2lbs per week, that’d allow me to lose 16lbs – in line with the goal of 12%. Then – once I’ve moved into the loft, I can start training at my new gym (wherever that may be), have a personal trainer who can help me with determining what to do about posture for the month of March, before I leave for my potential holiday… and when I come back, start more of a mass gain cycle.

That sound good… so a brief summary:

• Jan – Feb: lose 5-8% bodyfat / weight in region 160-165lbs
• Mar: move to new gym, have personal trainer, focus on maintenance and posture
• April: holiday
• Mid-April: Stage 4 – move into mass gain