This is very similar to the All Basic Muscle Groups workout; nothing fancy, just added in biceps and triceps focus. Full body, hitting multiple muscle groups. I perform one set of each exercise to failure, using heavy weight--modified HIT principles. Upper body exercise sets have a rep range of 10-12 and lower body has a target range of 20. I will continue to post some of my workouts as I go along. I have 26 workouts I rely on; each one is slightly different depending upon how I feel or if a particular body part needs a bit of attention. I finished my workout with sets of roman chair for abs.

This morning's workout left me with a feeling of accomplishment. Ran three miles afterward. I only work out with weights on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I will continue to post workouts as I get time. You can always track my workouts here. Enjoy.

Full body, compound movements, hitting multiple muscle groups at once. I perform one set of each exercise to failure, using heavy weight--modified HIT principles. Upper body exercise sets have a rep range of 10-12, lower body has a target range of 20, and bodyweight exercises (pull-ups and push-ups) have a target of 25 reps.

This is a slight modification of the Men's Health Marine Corps Workout over at Military.com. I like this workout because I can use dumbbells, barbells, sandbags, and/or kettlebells. All of the exercises are compound movements and target more than one muscle group. I can get through this workout, gushing sweat, in about 35 minutes. I capped this workout with sets of hanging leg raises and incline sit-ups.

When I'm not "feeling it," this is the workout I turn to... It gets me me motivated and sweating, especially the clean and press and front squat to press.

I will start posting my favorite workouts as I get time. You can always track my workouts here. Semper Fi.

Full body, compound movements, hitting multiple muscle groups at once. I perform one set of each exercise to failure, using heavy weight--modified HIT principles. Upper body exercise sets have a rep range of 10-12 and lower body has a target range of 20.

This is one of two "all dumbbell workouts" I have in my roster. I like this workout because it forces me to compensate for being off balance during reciprocating exercises and, being an all dumbbell workout, I am forced to control the unintensional movements of the dumbbells--using more muscles to keep the weights moving on the desired path. I finished this workout with a few sets of roman chair for abs.

I will start posting my favorite workouts as I get time. You can always track my workouts here. Enjoy.

Full body, compound movements, hitting multiple muscle groups at once. I perform one set of each exercise to failure, using heavy weight--modified HIT principles. Upper body exercise sets have a rep range of 10-12 and lower body has a target range of 20.

This is my only kettlebell workout, though I sometimes substitute a kettlebell for a dumbbell in other workouts. I received an adjustable kettlebell handle as a gift a long while ago and have been happily using it ever since. There are a number of adjustable kettlebell handles out there, but few go up to 80+ pounds; so my version keeps my workout challenging. I finished my workout with incline sit-ups and hanging leg raises for abs.

I will start posting my favorite workouts as I get time. You can always track my workouts here. Enjoy.

Another favorite workout. At one point, I only had 8 workouts that I was using with regularity--3X a week. As I found new workouts or customized, I started adding and moved away from numbered workout naming.

Full body, compound movements, hitting multiple muscle groups at once. I perform one set of each exercise to failure, using heavy weight--modified HIT principles. Upper body exercise sets have a rep range of 10-12 and lower body has a target range of 20. The first exercise in the list is lumberjack squats. I *love* these. They aren't in the database of Fitness Builder, but the app allows for custom exercise additions. I finished my workout with a few sets of roman chair for abs. Only one workout, of the 26 in my list, take longer than 35-40 minutes. So my workouts should only take a bit over half an hour.

I will start posting my favorite workouts as I get time. You can always track my workouts here. Enjoy.

This is one of my favorite workouts. Full body, compound movements, hitting multiple muscle groups at once. I perform one set of each exercise to failure, using heavy weight--modified HIT principles. Upper body exercise sets have a rep range of 10-12 and lower body has a target range of 20. I will continue to post some of my workouts as I go along. I have 26 workouts I rely on; each one is slightly different depending upon how I feel or if a particular body part needs a bit of attention. I finished my workout with a set of 3 planks for abs.

This morning's workout left me tired, sweat-drenched, and happy. I will start posting my favorite workouts as I get time. You can always track my workouts here. Enjoy.

Thought I would list my morning workout details. I follow HIT principles of one heavy set to failure for each exercise. Most of these exercises involve body weight or combination exercise with weight. I use PumpOne's Fitness Builder app on my iPhone for tracking and creating workouts.

Mixed Bodyweight and Iron Workout
Exercise	Description	Rep Range
Pull Ups	Standard dead hang pull up, no kipping, all the way down and up.	20
Kettlebell Sumo Squat	Heavy kettlebell squat to failure.	20
Bench Dip	Triceps love this! Sometimes I throw a plate on my lap for added weight.	15-20
Moving Ball Push Up	Simple push up on a soccer ball, changing sides with each rep.	20-30
Dumbbell Lunges	Classic walking lunges with a dumbbell in each hand.	12-15
Dips	Great exercise for upper body.	15-20
Dumbbell Squat, Curl, and Press	Combination exercise that works legs, biceps, and shoulders.	12-15
Dumbbell Turkish Get Ups	Great full-body exercise.	10
Plate Pick Up Overhead Lift	Another combination exercise that hits a number of areas.	15-20
Plank (Abs)	I like doing high and low plank, alternating--no rest.	2-3 minutes.

I will start posting my favorite workouts as I get time. You can always track my workouts here. Enjoy.

I have lost 55 pounds since the end of May 2009. This is just a follow-up to my previous weight-loss post. I thought I would include more data and updated pictures. Since the last post, I have lost another 10 pounds. I am about where I want to be weight-wise. If you look at my favorite foods chart, you will notice there are still a sizable number of junk foods on the list. I was hoping to have more fruits and vegetables represented, so my next goal is to have more fruits and vegetables at the top and chips and candy at the bottom or gone.

Loseit.com added more features to both their iPhone app and their website, reports being the most interesting and the source of my graphics for this post. From analyzing my data, it is apparent that December was a bad month for me. Though my exercise was fairly consistent, I consumed too many calories and I had weight gain of a couple of pounds. Once I hit my goal of 155, my BMI will be 25; still "overweight," but I will be happy with that result. If I dropped to 150, my BMI would be "normal" at 24.2. At the moment, my weight is 156 with a BMI of 25.2. My waist is ~31 inches and my height is 5'6". If I lost too much more weight, my wife would kill me because we would have to replace my wardrobe again and that would be too much on the budget. :-)

From my favorite exercises chart, you will see that weightlifting and running are my primary activities with calisthenics being the third. I substituted the calisthenics activity for recording yoga sessions in the Lose It iPhone app, because I didn't feel the yoga activity setting accurately reflected real caloric expenditures. I only added in yardwork, house cleaning, and snow shoveling when I was performing particularly hefty projects around the house. My favorite apps for helping me lose weight and keep it off are: Lose It, Run Keeper, and Fitness Builder. The combination of the three of these apps have helped me to easily lose weight and track my workouts. That's it for now, I will post more around the anniversary of starting my diet--end of May-ish.

Tomorrow is the beginning of my 16-week training schedule for the Ocean Drive Marathon, scheduled for March 28, 2010. I plan on following this schedule for the next 16 weeks. The schedule includes only weight training and runs, but I may switch a weight training session for a bike ride or add in a yoga session--depending on the weather or my mood. My marathon schedule is a mash-up of the Hal Higdon novice schedule and the Runner's World "Less-is-more" marathon plan. Essentially I took the 3-day running idea from Runner's world and modified Mr. Higdon's novice schedule--dropping rest and run days and adding weight training. It isn't much different than what I have been doing for months, so it won't be much of a challenge--except increased mileage of course. :-) I will update this page, striking completed workouts, as I move forward. I have no idea how many distance runs I have completed since 2002, but this is pretty much the schedule I have followed for all of them--except in 2004. In 2004, I only weight trained once a week and ran in excess of 100 miles a week for almost 7 weeks straight. My 2004 schedule (for the St. Louis Marathon) was about 35 weeks long and not an abbreviated 16. This will be my first full marathon since 2006. Wish me luck.

Update (2/17/2010): Registered for the marathon. I know it's before my first 18-miler and I am breaking my own rule of not registering before I complete first long training run, but I am feeling pretty confident. I might even set my sights on breaking my previous PR of 3:31, set in 2004 at the St. Louis Marathon.

Update (3/28/2010): Finished marathon. Time: 4 hours exact. No record breaker, but I'm happy.

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	Weights	4 mi.	Weights	3 mi.	Weights	5 mi.	Rest
2	Weights	4 mi.	Weights	3 mi.	Weights	9 mi.	Rest
3	Weights	5 mi.	Weights	3 mi.	Weights	10 mi.	Rest
4	Weights	5 mi.	Weights	3 mi.	Weights	7 mi.	Rest
5	Weights	6 mi.	Weights	3 mi.	Weights	12 mi.	Rest
6	Weights	6 mi.	Weights	3 mi.	Weights	13 mi.	Rest
7	Weights	7 mi.	Weights	4 mi.	Weights	10 mi.	Rest
8	Weights	7 mi.	Weights	4 mi.	Weights	15 mi.	Rest
9	Weights	8 mi.	Weights	4 mi.	Weights	16 mi.	Rest
10	Weights	8 mi.	Weights	5 mi.	Weights	12 mi.	Rest
11	Weights	9 mi.	Weights	5 mi.	Weights	18 mi.	Rest
12	Weights	9 mi.	Weights	5 mi.	Weights	14 mi.	Rest
13	Weights	10 mi.	Weights	5 mi.	Weights	20 mi.	Rest
14	Weights	8 mi.	Weights	4 mi.	Weights	12 mi.	Rest
15	Weights	6 mi.	Weights	3 mi.	Weights	8 mi.	Rest
16	Weights	4 mi.	Weights	2 mi.	Weights	Rest	Marathon

I have lost 45 pounds since the last week of May, approximately 20 weeks. That is about 2.25 pounds per week. I started at 211 pounds and now weigh 166 pounds, at 66 inches in height. My initial weight loss goal was 170 pounds or a loss of 41 pounds. When I reached the first goal, around the second week of September, I decided to create a new goal of 165 pounds. Now that I am very close to the second goal, I have decided to push my weight goal to 160 pounds. This new goal will probably do two things: put me closer to an optimal BMI and probably let my ab muscles show through a bit better. My weight loss was not difficult and did not take a long time. I was already exercising and eating the right foods. The problem was that I was eating way too much. Instead of staying within 1500 calories or so, I was shoveling in 4000 or so calories per day. I kept wondering what the hell am I doing wrong!? I was exercising with frequency and intensity, but was only gaining weight and/or hovering around 215.

In the middle of May, the executive director of our department told me about an iPhone app named Lose It. It is a free application that measures calories (expended and consumed), plans weight loss/gain/maintenance, and plots the data over time. I downloaded the app and added a couple of other iPhone apps to aid me in my endeavor. I wanted a good way of keeping track of my running, biking, and weight lifting, so I downloaded Run Keeper and Fitness Builder too. I use/d Run Keeper to keep track of my hiking, biking, and running. I have written before about my struggles with rheumatoid arthritis, so I had to hike and bike before I could start running. Run Keeper was the perfect tool for managing all of my data and helping me to translate that data for Lose It. I use/d Fitness Builder to track all of my resistance training, from free weights to machines to kettlebell workouts. I created 19 custom workouts in the app and kept track of every rep and every set while working out in the man-cave (basement). A great number of my custom workouts were based on information that came out of Dumbbell Training for Strength and Fitness by Matt Brzycki and Fred Fornicola. Again, I would track my time spent lifting and move that data into Lose It for a more accurate calorie count. I also used Google Calendar as a tool for keeping a simple record of workouts, type, and distance (hiking, biking, running) at a glance.

The pictures attached to this post are not doctored. The "before" picture shows me the night before I started tracking calories and the "after" pic was taken today after returning from a short 4.5 mile run out at Ridley Creek State Park with the wife and dog. You might notice that the before pic was taken with my old first-generation iPhone and today's pic was taken with the new 3GS. Run Keeper required GPS to track location when I was hiking, biking, or running.

The reason I picked 170 pounds for my first goal was because the Marine Corps has height/weight standards and 170 was the upper limit for my height. Being a former Marine, I wanted to fit within those standards--even though I have been out of the Corps since 1994. When I reached the 170 pound goal, I realized I could do better and adjusted my goal to meet a more ideal weight. Another motivational aid was to subscribe to magazines, blogs (RSS), and Twitter feeds that focus on exercise. My subscriptions include Runner's World, Men's Health, Yoga Journal, Flex, and various blogs/Twitter feeds from professional figure competitors, runners, and bodybuilders. Whenever I didn't feel like hitting the man-cave at 6 AM, I would open a Flex magazine and leaf through for motivation. When I didn't feel like getting out and running in the rain, I would get on Google Reader and peruse a few blog feeds by athletes. You get the picture. I kept motivated even when I wasn't feeling it.

To be quite honest, losing the weight was not difficult. Yeah, I gave up a lot of sweets for vegetables, but it wasn't terrible. With the three iPhone apps, motivational reading material, and seeing the pounds fall off, it was really easy and happened much faster than I had anticipated. One thing that I did, which I haven't talked about, was visiting the doctor regularly. Because of RA, I was seeing a doctor every few months anyway; but with the weight loss goal, I visited a nurse for well-visits a few times over the past couple of months for added safety. I highly recommend making a well-visit before, during, and after your own program. It makes a difference and will probably keep you from doing something you may regret later.