Well it’s now been 14 days since I decided to try working out every day for 30 days straight.  I have not missed a single day of working out so far which I’m excited about and I’ve actually found it a lot easier to work out every day than when I used to try to work out the traditional 3-times a week before.  So if you’ve tried working out 2-3 times a week before and found it hard to stick with it, you might want to try working out every day instead, it might actually be easier.  It sounds a bit counter-intuitive since it should be easier to work out a few times a week than EVERY DAY, but it isn’t, at least not for me.

The one thing I am kicking myself for not doing is measuring my body fat % on the first day of working out.  I didn’t record what my body fat % was on May 29th when I started, but I know that it was 27% as of April 1st, 2006 and I do know that my weight was 186lbs on both dates.

One really weird thing that happened is that as of yesterday (2 weeks later) I now weigh 190lbs and my body fat % went down to 21.5%.  Someone can correct me on these calculations but does this mean that I’ve lost 10lbs of fat and gained 14lbs of muscle (including water)?  That doesn’t sound right according to other people I’ve asked who told me it takes like a year to gain 10lbs of muscle, but here’s how I’m doing my calculations:

April 1st
186lbs with 27% body fat = 50.22lbs of fat I’m carrying around (yuck)

June 11th
190lbs with 21.5% body fat = 40.85lbs of fat I’m carrying around

So, doesn’t that mean that between April 1st and June 11th I’ve lost 10lbs of fat (50lbs - 40lbs = 10lbs loss, no?).

So now, based on my body fat %, if I lost 10lbs of fat in that time I should be weighing 176lbs (186lbs - 10lbs of fat), but I’ve actually gained 14lbs in that time (190lbs total weight now), so where did that 14lbs come from?

I know that since I’m taking creatine supplements and I’ve been drinking lots of water I must have gained some water weight as well so perhaps that 14lbs is a combination of some muscle and water from the Creatine?

If anyone knows how this stuff works let me know.

Anyway, besides the calculations it’s been a good experience so far.  Working out on the Bowflex machine has been pretty easy.  It’s very easy to switch between the different exercises and to move through them very quickly.  I thought it would take me 45-60mins per day to do my workouts but I’m almost always done in about 30 minutes per day.

So far I like the Bowflex a lot and would recommend anyone starting out to get one if it’s an option for them.  It allows me to do a great variety of exercises without having to switch all these weights around all the time.  I used to only use free weights when working out but I like this thing now.  It’s very easy to push yourself and your muscles really hard because you’re not worried about having to lift the weight off yourself if you can’t lift it as in doing free-weight bench-press without a spotter for example (not a good idea). 

My only complaint so far, if you could call it that is that for my lower body workout I have to switch cables between the squat attachment and the leg attachment which takes a few minutes but it’s a small price to pay.  It’s also a lot less risky doing squats with a bowflex machine than with real weights and feels the same way in terms of effectiveness from what I’ve seen so far.

My cardio workouts, done on a treadmill have been a lot more challenging for me than weights.  I’m trying to push myself to go past the comfort zone and I have no problem doing it with lifting weights but I find it harder to push myself when it comes to running on the treadmill.  I don’t know why but my mind is my worst enemy on there always trying to get me to quit, to slow down, to cut the run short, to give up etc.  It’s like I not only have to be on the treadmill and run for 30 minutes, I also have to listen to the stupid excuses my mind tries to give me to stop and give up during that time.  Music…actually, LOUD music has been my saving grace there.  Yesterday I tried to run for half the run without music and it was MUCH harder to do.

Anyway, I’ll have more details on my progress soon and more details on my experience with the Nitrotech / Celltech supplements from Muscletech as well.  So far I give the Bowflex 5/5 stars, I’m yet undecided on the supplements, and I hate the treadmill
-Paul

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