Weight Training Goals (Part 3 - Why Protein?)

My personal trainer is insistent on making me consume protein by any means possible. Chicken breast, Muscle Milk, even a protein bar post workout would be acceptable to him. Why is this so important?

Without protein you simply cannot build muscle. Carbohydrates are great for energy, the kind of energy to get you through that grueling gut busting workout. But it doesn't matter how much carbs you eat, without protein your body won't have the amino acids to build and repair your muscles.

It's recommended that to build muscle you have at least 1g of protein for every lb of body weight.

Weight Training Goals (Part 2 - How Long)

One of the biggest questions I always have is hong long something is going to take. I'm pretty impatient, so wanting a shorter time frame is always best. I know weight loss can take a while, usually about 1lb for a week, sometimes 2 if you're training really hard but how long does it take to build a lb of muscle.

For the answer, I turned to Yahoo Answers. Here's what contributors had to say:

"It depends on your diet and how often you train. If you train hard and eat at least 1g per 1lb of protein, you can perhaps gain 1lb a month on average (assuming you are female)."

"gaining muscle is all about the diet. resistance training only stimulates muscle growth. there must be a caloric excess in the diet and sufficient nutrients from proteins, carbs and fats. women have less muscle mass then men because their bodies produce roughly 1/10 the amount of test. to insure high test production you need to make sure that you are getting 20% of the daily calories from healthy fats. test production can drop by 30-40% in a woman with a low fat diet.

shoot for 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fats."

Weight Training Goals (Part 1 - Slim Arms)

You've got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It's called perseverance. --Lee Iacocca

When I think about the journey ahead of me, I think about it in stages. Each stage being 10 lbs or milestones. In the case of weight training I used to think of it as something I would get to once I got past the 10 lbs or something.

Luckily, because I was planning at one point to get very serious about muscle building I had thoughts in my head about what I wanted to achieve.

First, slimming my upper arms.

I got this workout from wowbodybuilding.com:

The only equipment you’ll be needing is dumbbells and if you are sitting down, a ball to sit down on. This is performed by hold the dumbbells by your side with your palms facing inward. If you are doing it standing up, picking the barbells up off the floor, make sure you use your legs to help lift the weight. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart to give yourself a sturdy base. If you are sitting down, sit on a big ball, with your back and head straight, and palms facing forward. Seated or standing curl the weight up while keeping your elbows steady at your waist. "As you curl up your palms should begin to face your chest as you lift the weight. After fully contracting the bicep, lower the dumbbell in a reverse manner rotating your hand back to its original position while keeping control. You can also do the curls alternate. This isolates the biceps of each arm making it a good exercise for thinner arms. In this variation of a Dumbbell Curl, you curl the dumbbells alternately, first one arm and then the other, it gives you a better sense of isolation, allowing you to concentrate your energy on one arm at a time. Keep alternate curling until you have completed the necessary repetitions for both arms. To get the best possible range of motion, fully extend and contract the arm. Allow yourself to move naturally throughout this combined arms exercise. Your upper body should be leaning slightly forward when you start. As you curl, your back moves to an upright position. You will be limiting the amount of weight you can use if you try to keep your back totally still while curling. Take note that ultra strict form will actually leave you more susceptible to injury because the movement is not natural. But you should always maintain control over the weight, especially as you lower the dumbbells to their starting position. It is very important that you fully stretch and contract the bicep every time. Do not curl the dumbbell past the point where tension leaves the biceps.

Let's Get Muscular, Muscular

It's not about weight, it's about fitness, and one component of being fit is to have relatively low body fat, because fat is not very efficient, whereas muscle is. --Deborah Bull

Over the past month I've done a relatively good job getting my diet on a healthy track. I've had my alcohol induced slip ups here and there, but nothing very serious. I'm finding, however, that I'm not losing weight as quickly as I'd like, though I do see increased muscle definition.

How many times have you heard that muscle weighs more than fat? For those people who are dieting and working out and hop on the scale and see they've put in all that effort only to gain weight the muscle fat argument is infinitely popular. But is it true?

According to Google Answers muscle is almost 20% heavier than fat but what's more important is the fact that muscle burns more calories than fat. Information on exrx.net details that one pound of muscle can burn 30 to 50 Calories a day whereas one pound of fat burns only 3 Calories a day. So if you replace 10 lbs of body fat with 10 lbs of muscle, you might just be looking at burning an extra 370 calories a day, or basically 39 lbs a year.

That's enough to make me start a weight training routine.

Every Day Is A New Day

It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through. - Zig Zigler

I have a confession. I'm great at starting at horrible at the follow through. A lack of discipline and a short attention span that rivals the lack of inches in my physical height I feel are to blame. Some people build up this great forward momentum, change their lives, achieve great heights and sometimes I wonder, especially when it comes to my physical appearance goals, why I can't seem to make things stick.

But I know the answer. I know it's because I get gung ho about making huge changes to my diet and exercise and start full force forgoing the fact that I actually have to live my multifaceted life that doesn't have room for just one single focus day in and day out. No, I have a company to run, a fiance to love, a family to spend quality time with and friends who actually want me to be present.

These changes I make, I have to be able to not just stick to the diet that I know is good for me and fit in the exercise that I know I need, they have to change the way I live my life and make my choices. They have to shift my paradigm. I have to make changes that work for my life and keep me happy.

I'm good with loose rules and daily goals that don't have to be done by a certain time but I need to set limitations to remind myself not to step beyond the realm of moderation.

I think I've developed a personal diet that I can stick to and tomorrow I'll start to take all of you along on that journey.

Boost Yourself, Don't be an Ignorant Communist

Recently, I've been looking at the differences in people and in myself. In my mind, there are two kinds of people, happy and unhappy. Happiness is generally a choice and in some cases a challenging one but something that each individual is responsible for achieving on their own. It's not your spouse's job or your child's job or anyone else's job to make you happy.

Generally, responsible people, I believe, are happier people. I'm not talking about people who have a lot of responsibilities and feel like they're drowning in them. I'm referring to people who live the idea that they are responsible for themselves and whatever they can control in the world around them. Let's face it, people who think that things just happen to them and they can't control are usually in a downward spiral that they can't seem to climb out of because they don't believe they have any ability to.

But this mentality extends beyond this idea. A lot of those unhappy people who have no control and no responsibility also tend to be those who envy others. Now, envy is a really unfortunate thing, especially if the result of the envy causes the person to want to tear down the object of their jealousy instead of push themselves to achieve what others have that they want.

These are the people who hate rich people. These are the people who hate beautiful people. These are the same people who don't want to put in the work to be rich or put in the effort to take care of themselves to be beautiful and instead would rather have the rich people be poor and the beautiful people be ugly. I call this the ignorant communist mentality.

Having people out there who have what you want should push you to achieve those things that you want, not take it away from those who have it.

Boost yourself, don't tear down someone else.

Is Beer Really That Bad?

One of the often faced problems in the road to health is what to do about those nights out on the town. Since I've got a number of events this weekend that include dinner and dancing on Saturday as well as a wine tasting for a grand opening on Sunday this article from That's Fit drew my attention.

According to Chris Sparling:

"For one, when you drink beer, twenty percent of the alcohol is absorbed from your stomach into your bloodstream; the rest is absorbed by your intestines. From there, the alcohol makes its way through your liver, where it is broken down -- leading to the creation of two waste products: acetate and acetaldehyde. These waste products then signal your body to stop burning fat, while at the same time your body actually starts MAKING fat from another alcohol waste product, known as acetyle CoA. As a result of all this, the more you drink, the less you become able to burn fat -- and, the more fat your body creates from the build-up of acetytle CoA."

According to the triglycerides diet alcohol can inhibit your fat metabolism by 30%. So how much is just enough?

Well there doesn't seem to be any one size fits all answer but generally speaking one glass a day of red wine for women and one to two glasses for men is the upper limit.

Looks like I'm sticking to fermented grape juice this weekend.