![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Today I met with a personal trainer just to get an independent look at my progress. I know you can get blinded to your own shortcomings, so I wanted to see what she thought of what I was doing.
As I told her, my biggest obstacle to gaining more muscle is dietary. I simply don't eat enough protein. I eat a lot less than the average Canadian adult. I suspect my stomach is tiny, because I get full very fast. So I find it difficult to get enough protein into me to make my muscles grow. She offered some advice on how to correct that, in terms of meal proportions. She wants me to divvy my meals up 50/50, with half complex carbs, and half protein. Ok. I'm willing to give that a go and see what happens.
She asked what my usual workout routine is, and she looked astonished when I told her. "That... that covers everything. It's pretty much ideal." So I guess the exercises I've chosen are good ones. I know I think they are.
I told her my asthma often made it difficult for me to finish my workout in a timely fashion. I get tired quickly, when my asthma troubles me. She suggested interval sprints on the treadmill. I don't tend to get exercise-induced asthma, so I'm going to give it a shot. At the very least, it will help with my running. So today I did an easy 10-minute set of intervals as part of my warm-up. 30 seconds running at 6.5 miles per hour, and 30 seconds off, for a total of ten minutes. That's only 5 minutes of running. It was easy. Too easy. I'm going to increase the speed next time I'm in.
She also gave me some exercises calculated to strengthen the arches of my feet, when I told her about my bad foot issues. That being said, my feet haven't bothered me in months. I suspect they might be better. I sure hope so. In either case, strengthening my feet will not hurt.
She suggested I work more with the negatives with my calf raises. So when I have my foot fully extended, I return to starting position over five seconds. I cannot do this with my current load on the calf raise machine (430 lbs), so I lowered it to 270 lbs. I think I'll alternate the lower weight with the higher ones every other workout, just to mix it up and keep my muscles guessing.
She also suggested I shuffle my exercises around when I come in, so my body doesn't get used to doing everything in the same order. Usually, I do three sets of a particular exercise before moving on to the next one. This time, I finished one set, then went on to a different exercise. It felt confusing. I found myself getting tired on exercises I don't normally get that tired on, and less tired on others. Interesting....
She wants me to check in with her in a couple of weeks so she can see how I'm doing with it. I think that's a good plan. I'm gonna get bigger. Yup. It'll happen. Rarr!
As I told her, my biggest obstacle to gaining more muscle is dietary. I simply don't eat enough protein. I eat a lot less than the average Canadian adult. I suspect my stomach is tiny, because I get full very fast. So I find it difficult to get enough protein into me to make my muscles grow. She offered some advice on how to correct that, in terms of meal proportions. She wants me to divvy my meals up 50/50, with half complex carbs, and half protein. Ok. I'm willing to give that a go and see what happens.
She asked what my usual workout routine is, and she looked astonished when I told her. "That... that covers everything. It's pretty much ideal." So I guess the exercises I've chosen are good ones. I know I think they are.
I told her my asthma often made it difficult for me to finish my workout in a timely fashion. I get tired quickly, when my asthma troubles me. She suggested interval sprints on the treadmill. I don't tend to get exercise-induced asthma, so I'm going to give it a shot. At the very least, it will help with my running. So today I did an easy 10-minute set of intervals as part of my warm-up. 30 seconds running at 6.5 miles per hour, and 30 seconds off, for a total of ten minutes. That's only 5 minutes of running. It was easy. Too easy. I'm going to increase the speed next time I'm in.
She also gave me some exercises calculated to strengthen the arches of my feet, when I told her about my bad foot issues. That being said, my feet haven't bothered me in months. I suspect they might be better. I sure hope so. In either case, strengthening my feet will not hurt.
She suggested I work more with the negatives with my calf raises. So when I have my foot fully extended, I return to starting position over five seconds. I cannot do this with my current load on the calf raise machine (430 lbs), so I lowered it to 270 lbs. I think I'll alternate the lower weight with the higher ones every other workout, just to mix it up and keep my muscles guessing.
She also suggested I shuffle my exercises around when I come in, so my body doesn't get used to doing everything in the same order. Usually, I do three sets of a particular exercise before moving on to the next one. This time, I finished one set, then went on to a different exercise. It felt confusing. I found myself getting tired on exercises I don't normally get that tired on, and less tired on others. Interesting....
She wants me to check in with her in a couple of weeks so she can see how I'm doing with it. I think that's a good plan. I'm gonna get bigger. Yup. It'll happen. Rarr!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-01-27 03:04 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-01-28 02:48 pm (UTC)From:When I started doing crossfit, they (or at least some gyms) promote the "paleo diet with zone diet portions"... paleo being lean meat, lots of veggies, some fruit, nuts & seeds with no dairy, legumes, gluten/grains or sugar. Zone diet breaks down each type of food (some paleo and some not) into blocks of protein, fat or carb that should be balanced ideally at each meal.
I kept a food log for two months and tried to do the zone block method, too... after a few weeks, you have a pretty good idea of how much of what to eat... crossfitters/weightlifters? tend to add more (good) fat and cut back on the carbs since it can be challenging for many to eat 10 cups of lettuce or other low glycemic carbs in one sitting or the like to balance the protein and it may be slightly more optimal for their workouts, too...
What I've been doing more recently is trying to get a minimal amount of protein a day (based on what the zone diet said I needed for my activity level and approximate lean muscle mass (they have a calculator on zonediet.com, but you have to register to have access to it). For you to bulk up, you probably will want to have more protein and healthy fats for higher calories anyway... and probably the less paleo-approved carbs too to get your calories up to something more than what you're burning for all the exercise you do...
Hope this is helpful. A lot of my reading of late talks about how much diet impacts overall health and fitness just as much and maybe even more than how much or what exercises you're doing, too.