Iggis first eight week cycle.

[lowrideriggi]

FIRST EIGHT WEEK CYCLE
Iggi’s Diary.
Between Christmas and New Years of 05 I had an epiphany. I am 52 years old and horribly unfit. I was short of wind constantly, had no flexibility and numerous aches and pains. I snored loudly when I slept, woke up tired and had borderline hypertension.

In short, my physical health was going bad at an accelerated pace.

This early impending death sentence didn’t happen over night. I was reaping a harvest of 12 years of physical neglect.
The sad thing is before this personal retrograde in health I was a competitive power-lifter but a back injury in the gym turned me into a lazy coward. Instead of fighting back from the injury I gave in to pain and fear and played dead.

Enough! Start over now!


This is the base I gave myself to start with. I wore 44” jeans fastened UNDER the gut. So trendy among men of my generation.
Age: 52
DOB: 7/31/53
Height: 5’ 11”
Weight: 278 lbs.

The Diet.
What I’ve done for now is reduce my caloric intake and eating healthier. I eat more living food and have about eliminated processed foods altogether. My portions are about palm size eating three meals a day. This is nobodies plan or program but mine.

Week One.
I didn’t start with a scientific plan. I just got on the treadmill and started walking.
30 minutes at 2.5 miles per hour. It was the best I could do. At the end of week one my speed had increases to 3.0 mph max.
I stopped drinking soft drinks altogether and drink 3 liters of water a day.
I also stopped drinking two pots of coffee a day, now I drink green tea.

Week Two.
The foundation of my program is cardio. During these winter months the treadmill will work fine but cardio first and foremost. This week I began taking vitamin and herbal supplements and added an abdominal workout at the end of the cardio. Man was my gut sore. Max speed on the treadmill 3.0 mph but increased the incline by a few degrees.

Week Three.
I started fooling around with some light weight dumbbells while I walked on the treadmill. Curls, arm extensions, french curls, zotmans, ect. This helped work on my coordination and my upper body.
One thing I realized early on was I was in such poor physical condition that I was going to have to train to get into good enough condition to train. Some of you will know what I mean.
Treadmill: 30min.X 3.2 mph.

Week Four.
Time to put together a proper weight program. I used my old Gold’s Gym Training Encyclopedia and compiled a six day program including weight training in the first five days and cardio in all six. No more juggling dumbbells while on the treadmill.
First keep a training log. Check.
Allow one day of rest for each muscle group before working it again. Check.
Don’t be so dogmatic that you can’t refine and change the routine as needed. Check.
One thing that shocked me was how weak my legs had become. When I was power lifting my legs were my bread and butter. I started my warm up for the legs and doing half of what I planned burned my quads to the ground.
I was a little over ambitious. I think the term would be “atrophy from none use”.
We will soon fix that!
Treadmill: 30min X 3.3 mph

Week Five.
Working and refining.
The only problem area is my right shoulder. Pain in the joint with certain movements. I will have to work around it.
Treadmill: 30min X 3.4 mph

Week Six.
Working and refining.
My appearance is changing. People are starting to look and ask questions. Better still, I’m feeling much healthier. Practicing some Pilates on Saturday.
Treadmill: 30min X 3.5 mph. The good thing is that now the cool down part of my treadmill routine is at a faster pace than I could walk in week one.

Week Seven.
Working and refining.
Right shoulder still a problem.
The wife’s acting a lot sportier lately. What’s that all about?
Treadmill: (slight change) 2 miles X 3.6 mph

Week Eight.
This is the last week of the first cycle. I’m not lifting heavy enough to take a break between cycles. So it’s right back to work for me next week.
Monday night I twisted my right knee at welding class. I was fabricating a dumbbell rack of all things. I have no idea what happened it just went ”twang” followed by much pain. So I hobbled around the rest of the night like grandpa on The Real McCoy’s. No sweat, I’ll work around it. The knee will get better. Of course Satan ran all the gloom and doom messages through my head.
“You’re too old for this!”
“You’ll have to give up the weights and the cardio now that you’re hurt!”
“Give up your goals, your injured. Take it easy on yourself!”
“Hurt while building exercise equipment. Tragic irony or poetic justice you tell me!”
Nope. I’m not accepting any of those suggestions. I will win! The knee will heal.

Laid off the leg routine Tuesday. I did treadmill for 2 miles. Right knee a little puffy but no real problem.
Right shoulder has good days and bad days but the bad days are getting fewer and farther apart.
Thursday was leg day again I laid off the lunges but did three sets of half squats. The knee should be ready to go Monday.
Saturday just finished my cardio. It’s been 8 weeks of light work. It took me this long to get in shape enough to tackle the heaver weights.
Time to weigh in.
Weight: 245lbs.
Mathematically that’s a loss of 33lbs. The qualifier is the original weight of 278 was recorded off a doctor’s scale. The 245 was off my bathroom scale which I believe the bathroom scale tends to be more flattering.
That’s fine; all I want is a baseline. The fact remains I did make progress.
I now ware 40x32 jeans with the belt across my navel rather than under the gut.
I am happy with my results but I’m not a fool. I know that your biggest gains come early on. It’s the last five pounds that take the most work. Like a racer trying to shave that last half a second off his lap time or when your power-lifting, cycling to your next all time max, that extra five or ten pounds. That’s when the work begins. That’s when you see what you’re made of.

I will include some pictures later.

iggi