Evolution Of A Fitness Revolution
I didn’t set out to create a whole ‘nother way to get into the best shape of your, excuse me, my life, oh no, I was simply looking for a way to be free of chronic morning lower back pain. And, I wanted to be able to touch my toes again, without bending my knees.
Beginning The Battle Of The Bulge
Some background first, what happened to cause me to go from a relatively fit 185 pounds in 2008 to a rather corpulent 225 pounds in 2011?
Simple, a bad Economy and double digit Unemployment. No jobs to be had for people with my skill set, at least none I could find. When you can’t find gainful employment, of any kind, you look for other sources of Income.
Internet Marketing looked promising, so I set out to learn all I could about marketing online. I had a plan of putting together a Fitness Site where people could get what they need to stay or get in shape.
I searched the web, dug deep, and found the Information I needed, too much, too soon, located the tools I needed to learn to use, and finally, the right training to put it all together.
The problem? TIME!! So much to learn, then master, before you can even START to market online, I started to skip a work out here, a work out there, not enough time, I’ll make up for it next week.
Three years later, call it Jan. 1, 2011, I have all the knowledge, tools, and training to build my dream Fitness Site, I’m excited, I’m so excited I start telling the fat man in the mirror all my plans, plans too long-delayed from lack of training.
I stopped dead in my tracks, “The FAT MAN in the mirror? How, WHEN, did I get FAT??
It’s amazing what you can overlook when you’re focused on something else. I skipped too many work outs, but I kept up my strength training. I was actually stronger than I am now, but not by much. I had to be, with me lugging 50 pounds of fat around every where I went.
What to do? No way anyone would believe I know squat about getting in or staying in shape. Most every one dreams about having Six Pack Abs, but no one wants that kegger my former four pack had ballooned into.
New Years Resolution, LOSE WEIGHT!!
I lost weight, ten pounds worth.
Then I found it again, plus five more.
I went from 210, to 200, then up to 215, not good. Work Harder, Eat Less, and do more Cardio!
Down to 199 pounds, back up to 220 pounds. OMG, what happened to the easy way I used to stay in shape? I never had this much trouble controlling my weight, before.
By January 1, 2012 I was 225 pounds, a year of attempting to lose weight gained me fifteen more pounds. Some thing had to give!
When it is apparent you can’t reach your goal, find new steps, don’t change your goal.
I made a Mental Shift, I stopped trying to lose weight, I always seemed to find it again, anyway, with extra to go with.
I set a weight goal of 150 pounds on January 1, 2012, bare in mind that I was not trying to lose weight, not any more. I simply chose to weigh less, way less, haha.
Since I couldn’t in all good conscience promote Fitness related products looking the way I did I kept on promoting Internet Marketing products, and had occasional bouts with Writer’s Block.
Researching Writer’s Block I found an interesting technique, 30 to 45 minutes of intense work on a specific subject, then ten minutes on anything else.
Okay, so I write for an hour, by a timer, set the timer for a ten-minute break, and go to the Living Room to kill ten minutes. My eyes fell on my under used elliptical machine, I thought about High Intensity Interval Training, and hopped on.
I did 30 seconds at setting 4, 30 seconds at setting 6, 30 seconds at setting 8, finishing up with 30 seconds at intensity 10, for a total cardio work out of 2 minutes.
I did that three or four times a day, five days a week.
That was May of 2011, not sure of the exact day, but by June 15, 2011 I was down to 185 pounds.
40 pounds dropped, or lost, for lack of a better term, in just under six weeks left my face with loose folds of skin, even though I was not as fat any longer my face looked fatter, and I couldn’t wear the pants that fit when I weighed 190 three years earlier.
I kept up the elliptical/writing work out up for another month, but no more weight came off.
There my weight stayed, the mid 180?s, until May of this year, when I finally got around to starting the stretching and calisthenics regimen I had designed in February.
Winning The Battle Of The Bulge
By May 25, 2012 my weight was down to 172, a lot of life was happening at the time so I didn’t actually notice my clothes getting more comfortable, fitting better.
Thirteen pounds dropped in three and a half weeks, unnoticed. I was shocked, after over a year of fighting with my weight 13 pounds almost melted off, by making just one small change.
What change? About 20 minutes a day of stretching and light calisthenics, a lot less effort than I would have thought possible, but, there it was.
Had I not come down with a major chest, head, and sinus cold in the beginning of June the testing of my Fit-N-Fifty System would already be completed, but since it’s kind of hard to exercise when you can’t breathe I was stuck in a holding pattern, so to speak. I did my Core Work Out most mornings, but had no strength for resistance training. My strength dropped, I lost muscle mass.
By June 30, 2012 my illness had run its course, I could breathe again, and my strength was coming back.
The first three weeks of June I continued my Morning Core Work Outs, went back to my weight training schedule of two Upper-Body Work outs a week, and felt something lacking, something missing from my schedule.
Not something I used to do, and stopped doing, no, I felt a lack of something else I should be doing.
Riding my Mountain Bike past the Local Elementary School turned Day Care Center I discovered what I was missing, Chin Up bars!
I added three or four fifteen minute trips to the School to hang out on the Monkey Bars, to give myself about a four-hour work out schedule for the week, not day, WEEK.
Well, I got a taste of my Misplaced Youth, found my body growing stronger, faster than I thought it should. I wanted MORE!!
The fourth week of June I devised what I call my Max Blast Chest Work Out, eight to nine minutes of almost pure agony that will pump your chest up to greater size and definition.
I also designed a Defined Shoulder And Arm Work Out to really carve out your/my guns. See the difference in the pics on the About Page.
The Evolution Of This Fitness Revolution is ongoing, who knows what changes the Future will bring?
STAY TUNED,
Michael Cole