Today I concentrated on more specific muscle groups. I worked out my calves, forearms, triceps, and abs. Since there were only 4 exercises, I finished today’s workout a little quicker than Wednesday’s. This does not mean I slacked on the intensity though. I went through each rep with the same amount of speed and pushed myself just as hard as I did during my 1st workout.

I started out by working my calves. I got on the seated calf raise machine and pushed up slowly while counting to 5. After making it up, I paused for a second and slowly brought the weight back to the starting position. After 5 reps, I could feel my calves warming up. I completed 2 more reps. Shortly after, that all too familiar burning feeling engulfed my calves, lighting them up. I did 2 more reps while in searing pain. I continued breathing quickly and pushed out 1 more rep. My calves felt like they were about to explode. I slowly brought the weight back down. As soon as I stopped, I felt this rush of relief in my calves. I tried to get up and go to the next machine, but my calves were numb. I fell back down.

I sat for around 20 seconds and then hobbled over to a flat bench. I started doing barbell wrist curls for my forearms. I got through 4 before I felt my forearms start to burn. I kept pushing – 3 more. I felt like my forearms were about to ignite. I completed 1 more rep. Then I dropped the dumbbell on the floor and moved on to triceps.

For my triceps I did 1 set of close grip bench presses. This was probably the most painful of all today’s exercises. I did 5 before I felt the burning feeling come on. Then I pushed through 3 more. More pain. Pushed up 1 more while breathing like a madman. I tried to complete another rep, but I couldn’t move the bar back to the starting position. I was stuck half way up, so I just put it back on the lower pegs and slid out from under it.

Abs came next. I got on my knees, grabbed the pull down rope, (normally used for tricep pull downs) and held it just behind my head using my arms. I then slowly started bringing my chin closer to the floor and proceeded to do crunches. I completed 9 reps. This proved incredibly effective as well as incredibly painful.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, this workout is not meant to be easy. It’s brief and it’s infrequent, but it’s painful. You really can’t fathom how painful it is until you try it.

Although my complete workout today only lasted 7 minutes and 8 seconds, I feel exhausted. I’ve been trying to give it my all, so hopefully it produces the results I’m looking for. We will just have to wait and see what I’ll look like on August 02, 2009.

After weighing myself this morning, I made a green smoothie and headed to the gym. I met with my trainer and after a brief greeting, he started measuring my body’s muscle groups. As soon as he was done, he walked me through the workout, pre-adjusting the Nautilus equipment to fit my body type. Then he measured my resting heart rate at 60 bpm.

I was starting to get excited. I thought the workout would be challenging, but nothing I couldn’t get through. At the time, I didn’t fully appreciate why the workout only takes 10 minutes. I mean there must be a catch, right? Well, there is. The intensity is hellish!

The first exercise was the chest press. I got on the machine and pushed up slowly. This took about 5 seconds. I then slowly brought the bars back to the starting position, taking another 5 seconds. I was so busy concentrating on doing each exercise slowly, I didn’t think about anything else. I didn’t even count the reps. Luckily, my trainer did.

I did 5 reps and as I struggled with the final one, I could feel my chest burning. This was only the first exercise. I wanted to quit, but my trainer encouraged me to breathe and give it all I could. Meanwhile, my body was screaming at me to stop. I took a quick breath and continued to push against the bars and moved them up about 2 inches. My trainer urged me to keep going. After seeing me freeze in place, he told me to lower the weight back down SLOWLY. Even though I felt like my chest was about to explode, I did as he said.

We moved on the lat pull down machine. The machines were right next to each other, so my rest time was around 15 seconds. As soon as I got on, I started the lat pull downs and felt relieved that my chest was no longer on fire. After 3 reps on the lateral machine, I realized this was going to be a repetitive process. The pain had returned and was now in my lats and back. There was no escaping it and I barely completed 5 reps.

I moved on to the shoulder press – more burning pain. I completed 5 reps on the shoulder press.

The biceps came next and I felt somewhat relieved. I’ve done slow reps for biceps before and I felt they were easier to do than some of the other exercises. I did 6 complete reps. After biceps were done, we moved on to the leg curl machine. The leg curls proved difficult, but I got through the set, finishing 4 reps. Then we moved on to the leg press machine.

The leg presses proved to be the most challenging for me. I work out my legs once a week and it’s usually a light workout. The leg presses were anything but light. Doing the reps on this machine proved to be the most painful out of all the exercises. After completing my set of leg presses (a total of 6 reps), I could barely walk. I just sort of wobbled over to a chair. I had given it all I had and now I felt light headed. I sat down in the chair next to the leg press machine. My trainer measured my heart rate again and it was 140 bmp. I felt like the room was spinning. Since the intensity of the exercises is really high, most people throw-up their first time. I was not to be the exception.

It happened shortly after I stood out of the chair. I had gone into the bathroom to throw some water on my face and while I was standing over the sink – I felt my stomach kick up some of the smoothie I’d had for breakfast. I regurgitated about a handful of it. I then lay down on a bench and rested for 5 minutes. This made me feel somewhat better.

My total workout time was only 9 minutes and 26 seconds, but due to the brief rest time in-between exercises, this workout was truly horrendous. You may think I’m exaggerating – I want to assure you that that is not the case.

There were times during the workout I wanted to take it easy, but I couldn’t slack off because as soon as I did – I would hear my trainer say, “Slower” or “Push it, come on.” As the exercises progressed, I felt like my heart was jumping out of my chest – I could feel the adrenaline all over my body. The fight or flight response at its finest.

Welcome to high intensity!

For my second experiment, I’ve decided to get into top physical shape by exercising. I haven’t been to the gym since the middle of May and I’ve put on some weight. Apparently I’m not the only one. If you don’t already know, our nation has one of the highest obesity rates in the world and each year we’re getting fatter. Fast food, SUVs, and TVs have all played their part in shaping our bodies. Although I am not obese, I’m not as physically fit as I’d like to be – that’s why I’ve decided to get into shape. I’m not only doing this for myself, I’m doing it to inspire you to start your own fitness program. 

Now I know that you may think exercising takes up too much time. Time that you can’t take out of your busy schedule. Well I’m here to tell you that I intend to lose as much fat and gain as much muscle as possible by only working out 20 minutes a week (only 10 minutes for the first week of July), for a grand total of 1 hour and 30 minutes this whole month. That’s right, a grand total of 1 HOUR and 30 MINUTES of exercise the WHOLE month.

The exercise program I will be experimenting with this month is called High Intensity Training (HIT) and it packs a whole workout into just 10 minutes. This form of strength training was first popularized by Arthur Jones (founder of the Nautilus machines) and the premise behind it is that exercise should be brief, infrequent, and intense.

This may sound like your typical infomercial, but there’s nothing easy about this workout! The exercises may be packed into a short time span, but they are unimaginably brutal. Each one involves using multiple muscle groups at once. I will be doing 6 different exercises per workout, one set of each, until I reach complete muscle failure. While doing the exercises, I will do each rep slowly (10 seconds from start to finish). After completing as many reps as possible on one exercise, I will move on to the next exercise with only a very brief rest period inbetween (15-30 seconds).

Aside from whey protein, I will NOT be using any suplements during this experiment. I’ve decided to use whey protein because in order to gain muscle and lose fat I need to increase my overall protein intake. Since I don’t want to constantly be stuffing myself with food throughout the day, I figured whey protein was the best way to go. Whey protein is easily absorbed by the body, it can be prepared in seconds, and it tastes great.

Having given you the premise behind the experiment, I’ve decided to post the pictures I took of myself on July 1, 2009. These were taken before my first workout. After finishing the experiment, I will post the results and also go over the lessons I’ve learned. For now, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves – and yes, I’m in my boxers.

I also took measurements of various muscle groups before I started my first workout and I’ve posted those below. I will be taking my measurements again on August 2. I’m waiting until August 2, because I want my body to recover from the workout I’ll be doing on July 29.

Measurements

These measurements were taken on July 1, 2009 before my first workout.

Neck: 14 5/8 inches

Chest: 38 1/4 inches

R Bicep: 14 3/8 inches

L Bicep: 14 5/8 inches

Waist: 34 3/4 inches

R Thigh: 21 1/2 inches

L Thigh: 22 inches

R Calf: 14 5/8 inches

L Calf: 14 3/8 inches

I also weighed myself in the morning before eating breakfast.

Weight: 175.2 lbs.