The 90 Day Program - Week 2

I didn’t think Week 2 would turn out well- due to work and social obligations, I ended up only lifting twice that week. That is..teh suck. It didn’t turn out all bad though…

Week 2

• Monday: Light swimming / gym
• Tuesday: Swimming: 8 laps
• Wednesday: Light swimming / gym
• Thursday: Swimming: 11 laps
• Friday: Light swimming
• Saturday: 7 laps
• Sunday: 14 laps

Overall, my general exercise level was good but I felt my lifting could have been better. It turns out I needed the break though, as by the start of Week 3 (Monday) I had significantly more strength and stamina. I think the 3 day upper body weekly workout will have to go back to 2 day upper body.

I also think it’s time to start back on lower body to keep in sync. I’m going to look at sticking to the Monday - Thursday upper, Wednesday - Saturday lower original schedule. With my lasik surgery being this week, and being banned from swimming for at LEAST two weeks following it, I need to compensate for the activity somewhere.

You can view the workout stats / spreadsheet here.

The iPhone bug

I have no shame in admitting that I dismissed the iPhone the first time around. It’s not that I didn’t find it sexy (I did), or that I didn’t think it would be popular (I certainly did). I just knew better than to trust first gen Apple technology. I didn’t even buy a true iPod until last year.

There are probably not a few Mac people that would attribute that to a PC/Mac bias, but in truth I’m very much a current Mac fan. They’ve come a long way since the Apple IIe (the first computer I ever used), but the lesson they hammer home to their customer base is, again and again, one of planned obsolescence and that the customer is always wrong. They have perhaps the most conflicting technology attitude of any tech company to date, teasing developers and users alike with a hybrid open source OS and a closed source approach to hardware. This is a direct inverse to a PC platform of closed source OS and an open source approach to hardware, or even open source OS and open source hardware.

So my primary reason for not buying the first gen iPhone was the lack of 3G support. No, my area doesn’t have 3G, but I do travel from time to time and I enjoyed using it. The real reason for boycotting the first gen iPhone was that it showed from the start that Apple was making no attempt to future proof their phones. If this was an ordinary cellphone it wouldn’t matter, but as this was a mobile data device, expected to use (and require!) a data plan, how could you justify not supporting 3G? The Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes) that I bought at the same time supported it, so it’s not like it was an arcane technology at the time of release.

Moving forward, I bought an iPhone 3G. I’m not ashamed to admit I was there two hours early and #10 in line. It is wonderful, it is awesome, it is 3G enabled, it is GPS enabled. The app store was what really sold it for me, considering my troubles over the last year finding decent Windows Mobile apps that didn’t kill the phone and/or battery. The only question on my mind is- what feature did Apple come up with an deliberately leave off to make us upgrade next year? The ability to run apps in the background? Better battery life? More storage?

Useful iPhone Apps
All of these are free, and in the App Store.

• Mobile Flickr: A handy plugin to post directly to Flickr
• Weatherbug: A good drop in replacement for the limited built-in weather app
• NetNewsWire: An app that ties into newsgator.com to manage / read RSS feeds
• Loopt: A sort of social network app, that locates you via GPS and allows you to “ping” your friends realtime with updates. Friends must also use the Loopt application, and pings come in via text message. You can also use it to search for local attractions with its tie in to Yelp
• Remote: Lets you control your iTunes install on your home network from your phone. Useful for remote controlling music / playlists / etc.
• Shazam: Mimics the Verizon Vcast feature of recording a song and identifying it. Good party trick.
• Box Office: Search and browse local movie listings from your phone, then buy directly from Mobile Fandango.
• Pandora Radio: A plugin for the www.pandora.com streaming audio service.
• BookSearch: I read. A lot. This app will take a title/author/ISBN and search across all major booksellers for a price comparison.
• WordPress: A plugin to update your Wordpress blog, whether it’s a wordpress.com or standalone install.
• UrbanSpoon: A restaurant randomizer. You pick your city, hit spin, and a random combination of 3 choices (area, food type, price) will randomly suggest restaurants. Great for the indecisive crowd.
• Aurora Feint: A Bejeweled-style arcade game, with the ability to turn the phone to roll your blocks around to make new combos. Has a built in RPG aspect where you can buy skills that alter your play style and block behavior. Supposedly offers community play, but I haven’t tried that yet.

The 90 Day Program - Week 1

I’ve decided instead to do a weekly rollup instead of a daily post- frankly I just don’t have the time or energy to keep updating every single day.

Week 1

• Monday: Light swimming / gym
• Tuesday: Swimming: 9 laps
• Wednesday: Light swimming / gym
• Thursday: Swimming: 11 laps
• Friday: Light swimming / gym
• Saturday: Light swimming
• Sunday: N/A

I learned a few things, like swimming before gym tends to turn out badly for me.  While it helps weight loss (I lost ~ 6lbs this week following the above schedule), I think it greatly impacted / negated any gains on gym progress.  I could DEFINITELY tell a difference in strength and stamina by the end of the week.  All workouts were 1.5-2 hours in length.

You can view the workout stats / spreadsheet here.

The 90 Day Program - Day 2 and Day 3

Day 2 was pretty easy,  I hit the pool and swam 9 laps.   They weren’t full “around the pool” laps, just from one end to the other and back.  I guess that’s a total of 18 pool lengths, but however you want to count it is fine.  One thing I did notice is swimming got rid of a lot of my soreness and stiffness.

Day 3 I went off my planned schedule a bit. My upper body was stiff, not sore, so I decided to basically repeat Monday’s workout.  My lower body is pretty built anyway (trying to play catch up with the upper body), so I’m thinking M/W/Sat upper body, and Thurs lower body.   I went swimming for about an hour, then headed to the house to gym it up.

Exercises	Primary Areas	Secondary Areas	Reps
Lying Leg lifts	Abs	Lower Abs	25	25	20
Dumbbell Lateral Raises	Shoulders	Side	20 x 6	15 x 6	17 X 6
Front Dumbbell Raise	Shoulders	Front	20 x 7	20 x 6	17 x7
Lying Rear Deltoid Raise	Shoulders	Rear	15 x 6	12 x 7	10 x8
Incline Dumbbell Bench press	Chest	Triceps, shoulders	30 x 7	30 x 6	30 x 6 20 x5
Bench Press	Chest	Triceps, shoulders	110 x 7	110 x 4 105 x 3	105 x 5   95 x 6
Dumbbell One Arm Triceps Extension	Triceps		15 x 5 12 x 3	12 x 6	12 x 6
Reverse Grip Triceps Pushdown	Triceps		45 x 8	45 x 8	50 x 3 45 x 4
Hammer Curls	Biceps	Forearms	30 x 8	30 X 6	30 x 5
Standing Bicep Cable Curl	Biceps	Forearms	60 x 6	55 x 6	55 x 5

Approximate time: 1.5 hours.

One thing I did notice was an increase in strength on whatever exercise hit a muscle group first, with a sharper decline in weight on reps and the second exercise (compound exercises first, isolation second if at all possible).  I’m not entirely sure if that means I wasn’t quite ready to hit the same areas again, or if I just wasn’t taking enough time between sets.

The 90 Day Program - Day 1

So as a means of starting off, let me begin by saying this is not some hack fitness program off the Internet.  I call it the 90 Day Program because that’s how long I’ve given myself to hit my goals.   It’s not meant for anyone but me, however if it helps someone else by serving as a guideline, fantastic.

So the first thing I needed to figure out was a workout schedule that I could stick with.  When I first started exercising around January of 2008, I would use the excuse of work, social life, whatever to miss workouts.  This was counterproductive.  I needed a schedule where I felt like I was making progress (more than 3 times a week), I didn’t want to big of “rest gaps” (I get lazy easy), and I wanted something that left me social time.   This is what ended up coming together:

• Monday - Upper body
• Tuesday - Off / Cardio (walk, bike, swim, whatever.  Something light / different)
• Wednesday - Lower body
• Thursday - Upper body
• Friday - Off / Cardio
• Saturday - Lower body
• Sunday - Off

This schedule gives me two days between working the same muscle groups, variety (I’m bored easily), and best of all plenty of time on the weekends for social activities.  The important thing for me is that it also gives me “make up days” if  I don’t get enough sleep or I miss a day.

Today was day one, and here’s how it turned out:

Exercises	Primary Areas	Secondary Areas	Reps
Decline Crunches	Abs		25	24	17
Dumbbell Lateral Raises	Shoulders	Side	17 x 6	17 X 6	17 X 6
Front Cable Raise	Shoulders	Front	17 x 8	17 x 6	15 x 8
Lying Rear Deltoid Raise	Shoulders	Rear	15 x 6	15 x 7	12 x 10
Incline Dumbbell Bench press	Chest	Triceps, shoulders	30 x 6	30 x 6	30 x 5 20 x 4
Bench Press	Chest	Triceps, shoulders	105 x 7	105 x 6	95 x 6
Cable Shrug	Traps	Shoulders	75 x 10	85 x 10	95 X 9
Dumbbell One Arm Triceps Extension	Triceps		15 x 6	15 x 5	13 x 7
Reverse Grip Triceps Pushdown	Triceps		35 x 9	40 x 7	40 x 7
Hammer Curls	Biceps	Forearms	30 x 6	30 X 6	30 x 5
Standing Bicep Cable Curl	Biceps	Forearms	60 x 7	60 x 5	55 x 7

Approximate time: 2 hours.  Now… shower/sleep.  I’m pooped!