A Guest Post: Weight Lifting with Scott

With my scale back week, I thought it was a good opportunity to invite a guest poster to share some time. This is part of my mix it up format. As Lisa commented on one of my posts, we running bloggers have a tendency to report a bunch of facts. With that said, I have invited Scott from Forging Ironman to do a little bit over here. Scott has an interesting background and truthfully I made the suggestion as to a weight lifting post. My thinking at the time being that this is pretty much a fitness blog. Scott is not a runner but I think you might like what he has to say. Thanks for stopping by Scott.
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Hi. This is Scott from Forging Iron Man. Rob asked me to write a post on weight lifting for him since I was a bodybuilder before I got cancer. So think what I will do is describe what I did to build a lot of mass. And with the mass came strength. Now that I have been out of treatment for cancer for a year (getting fat), I think it is time for me to go back to the gym, and I will ease myself into this plan. If you are interested in building size and strength, try something like this plan, and let me know what you think of it after three months or so.

Experts recommend you change your plan every few months or so, because your body might get used to it and stop growing. However, after several years of lifting, I came up with this plan and did it with very little modification for eight months straight and I got in great shape. It didn't seem to be losing it's potency for me.

Day One: Chest
Day Two: Back and Shoulders
Day Three: Legs
Day Four: Arms
Day Five: REST

You want to be sure to ease into the plan, because if you haven't been lifting, you will be in lactic acid hell for a couple weeks if you try to just start this full blast. In fact, it might be a good idea to take a couple weeks and lift very light weight and low repetitions for your whole body to get used to work before you dive into the above plan.

My general rule was 4 sets of 10 reps for each lift. Sometimes I pyramided up and sometimes down with my weights. Sometimes I would want to go heavier than I could handle for 10 reps, so I'd end up with a set of only 4 or 6 reps. Conversely, sometimes I would lift lighter than my potential and I would make my last set hit 12, 15, or 20 reps—almost to failure. Between sets, a 1 to 2 minute break is best.

Now each day you should attack each muscle group from all of its ranges of motion and at many different angles. Chest day is a good example. You might think the chest has one exercise—the bench press. Well there are lots of ways to do this. Using a barbell you can bench incline, decline, or flat, and you can also do the same movements with dumbbells. Right there are six different exercises! Then you can get creative and throw in some cable benching. And you don't want to forget the other movement the chest makes, which is pulling your arms in. For this you can do the standard flyes with dumbbells, a pec deck machine, or you can use a cable machine to hit that movement at three different angles—up, horizontal, and down. There are a couple other ways you can nail the chest for mass, but they are hard to describe.

Using this plan, a typical chest day for me would use four of those exercises. I might start with 4x10 of flat barbell bench presses and then go to 4x10 of incline dumbbell presses. By now my chest would be feeling full and I would maybe do 4x10 of flat dumbbell presses, probably lighter weights now because your dumbbell work should always be lighter than your barbell work because dumbbells focus on symmetry and secondary stabilizing muscles like the triceps for bench pressing, and barbell work focuses on brute strength. By now I would feel a great pump in my chest and most likely would feel that I had done all the necessary pressing motions for the day. I would probably finish with a fly motion using a two sided cable machine and lifting my arms up and in to finish the pump. If you add it up, in this sample workout, you've just done 160 repetitions. If you collapse before you can finish that, you should probably focus on lifting lighter for the time being. If you do that and don't feel in the least bit fatigued, you are lifting way too light, and I suspect weight lifting isn't your gift—you should look into running marathons!

Also, I recommend after your workout, get on one of the cardio machines and do only 10 minutes of cardio. Then get home and eat a meal high in carbs and protein (a balanced meal or a protein shake with a fruit blended in) in the "golden hour," which is anytime in the hour after exercise when your muscles need replenishment the most.

I've focused on the chest, but with the other muscle groups, follow a similar plan. With back and shoulders, I focused on the shoulders because they have the most complex range of motion. But don't forget to do some exercises to hit the major muscles of the upper back, which are the trapezius and the latisimus dorsi.

Leg day should be the most grueling, as squats, leg presses, and weighted lunges are brutal, draining lifts. But don't forget to do plenty of quad extensions and ham curls. Then I always loved trying to get a bunch of sets on a calf machine before I puked. The calves are the only muscle group that I recommend breaking the 4 sets of 10 guideline. Those muscles—the gastrocnemius and soleus—need both heavy weights and high reps. I usually sat in a calf extension machine and did 20 reps with my feet straight, immediately went to 20 reps with my feet facing out, and then immediately 20 reps with them facing in. If you can do that, you will Charlie horse up. Once the pain goes away, smile . . . you're growing!

Arm day is always my favorite. Concentrate on doing four different exercises at 4x10 for your biceps, then four different exercises at 4x10 for your triceps. I know, that adds up to 320 repetitions on this day. It is hard but it should give you an insane pump. Try to put a coat on before you leave the gym. If you can't get it on, that means you had a good workout. The biceps exercises will hit the forearms, but if after all that, you want to attack your forearms, you can do a few forearm rolls or something. But don't overdo it!

Having the one day of rest is a minimum. If you are beat at anytime in this training split, don't feel bad to take an extra day off at any time! There is a lot more to bodybuilding, but this is just a basic plan that I found worked wonders for me. If you have any questions for me, go to Forging Iron Man and leave me a comment or email me. I will respond!

Advice for New Runners: No Excuses!

Amy at Runners Lounge has come up with Run With It Thursdays. This week's topic what advice would you give to new runners? Here is my take:

Rob, what advice do you really think that new runners might need. My answer, leave your excuses at the door. When I began running about a year ago the hardest thing to do was to get out there. There is always an excuse lurking out there - I am too tired, I am too busy, I have a full schedule today. Leave all of that at the door. As my former martial arts instructor told me one time that if you look for an excuse long enough you will find one you like. Meaning in short that if want to find an excuse you will. It is hard to make a healthy habit. They say it takes 6 weeks to make or break a habit. I found with running it was considerably longer.

In short, if you decide you want to run three days a week, you just have to do it. Make running a priority not a if I have time sort of thing. Running cannot interfere with American Idol, it has to be the other way around. We also know which one should win right, (go get your shoes). To build the habit takes commitment and that is the hard part. You will always feel better after you run. It does not matter how far you run, what matters when you start is getting out there

How do you find motivation?

When I began running last year, I really needed to motivate myself to get out there. I was really out of shape, obese to be frank, and running hurt. My ankles, knees, and hips squealed on a regular basis. I really needed to mentally push myself to get out there. It wasn't easy. These days, I don't have to look for motivation on getting out there but rather on the finer points.

Back in November, I felt like I was stagnating a bit. I think I had crossed a threshold in my running and I needed to do more but I hadn't realized it. The injuries didn't really help much. When I pushed my base run from 3 to 4 miles I noticed big changes in my abilities. So how do I get motivated these days now that I have increased my work load?

Well it seems that I have been employing a tried and tested motivational method used for centuries. This technique originates in Ireland. Ireland you say, exactly I say. You see what I do is tie an angry Leprechaun on my shoulder before I set out on my run. The Leprechaun, or Mr. O'Toole, will berate me with profanities while hitting me with a stick (or shillelagh) when I don't run fast enough. This is quite similar to Luke Skywalker lugging around Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back (well without the sentence confusion). -- Run you will-- This seems to do the trick without much in the way of added weight.

No really that is how I do it, well not really these are my tried and trued motivational tricks.

1. Right now Dean Karnazes is in the middle of a 50 mile run, I can do 4 right?
2. the Mantra - small hill, small hill or I don't know how to quit, I don't know how to quit -- Well you get the idea.
3. I always feel better after a run than before no matter how bad I am feeling.
4. Set small and consistent goals: At the start of the week I try to set some goals for the week. This is beyond just 4 miles on Monday and 9 on Saturday. Rather, I like to set some time goals for certain runs. I don't always get there but pushing myself to get better keeps me at it.
5. Set big goals: for me this year the big one is the Philadelphia Marathon, 26.2. It is a big goal and I know I have to be very consistent to get there. This makes skipping on runs and giving in to fatigue during a run less likely. Rob if you are going to run 26 you need to be able to do 10 with no trouble, for example
6. Gifting: I am a big kid in many ways. I like a new toy and I usually make this result related. If can do x then I will get a new running top, pair of shoes, etc. This along with the angry leprechaun are usually enough motivation to meet my goals.
7. Responsibility - I will tell you folks the brutal truth of what I am doing. If I slack then I have to admit that. This keeps me going. Oh my what would ... Jason, Nancy, Dave and others think if I gave in now. I don't have much quit in me, but this keeps me more honest.
8. My Scale - I remind myself of my weight when I get out the door. Then I remind myself of how far I am away from my goal weight. Where am I am now -- where is my goal - one angry leprechaun saying things I can't repeat and this gets me running surer than anything.

So if you can't find an angry leprechaun or a sasquatch to help motivate you then these 8 things might help, or not. Maybe you have your own list.

The coming week

This week is a scale back week. I am pushing 40 and have only been running for about a year so I am a bit concerned about how many miles I have logged over the past couple of weeks. That being said. I have decided to do one scale back week for every two long weeks, at least for a while. With a solid 24 mile week last week, I am following this schedule this week:

M: 4-5 miles
T: rest
W: 4-5 miles
Th: 4-5 miles
F: rest
Sa: 4-5 miles
Su: rest

I think this will give my body a chance to recover and keep me fresh. I also believe this will reduce my chance for injury.

What will happen here on my beloved blog during this week? Rob, come on 4 recovery runs do not have the same sort of built in suspense as your other posts. This may be true. What I have come up with is this:

• I have a guest poster, Scott from Forging Iron Man. Scott has made a lifestyle out of overcoming adversity. Although not a runner, his blog is really worth looking at.
• I will post some non-running stuff a couple of times this week. I may do something on motivation. I seem to find it in ample quantities these days without the need to psyche myself up as I did last year (especially in the summer). However, I think I will rethink some motivation stuff and how it applies now. It is different.
• I will also do a post on nutrition. This is my weakness. I will do fine for a few days and then binge. I will make progress but it will be slower than I would like it to be.
• On the weekend, I will post the week in review on the training runs rather than looking at the same thing. I will admit that the winter is a less interesting time to run. It is dark and I run the streets so there is less wildlife to see, beyond the Philadelphia crack head, Philadelphia drunk, or the less interesting Philadelphia pedestrian. So I will give a nitty gritty next weekend.
• In sum, 4 posts scheduled. 1) guest post, 2) motivation post, 3) nutrition post, and 4) week summary.

I will probably keep this type of schedule through the winter. That is 2 weeks of pushing the mileage and talking mainly about that and one week of scale back where I will look at doing some different things.

A Sort of Long One...

I hit the roads this morning as promised. I hit my normal weekend hills and suffered as usual.



1:40:53, 8.30 miles, 12:10 pace, 1580 calories

Mile 1) 11:40
Mile 2) 12:29
Mile 3) 12:16
Mile 4) 12:05
Mile 5) 12:01
Mile 6) 12:02
Mile 7) 12:40
Mile 8) 12:15
last .3 ) 11:39 pace

I think it is fairly obvious where the hills where the really big hills were (miles 2 and 7). Beyond these two miles, I think I was pretty consistent. Given that I was running up a slope that I would be afraid to ride a skateboard down, I think I did ok.

I would have gone farther but I was a bit late for getting my daughter to her Saturday classes. So I had to wrap it up.

In terms of Energy - I started a little low but snapped out of it quickly. I got into a pace I could sustain at the end of mile 1 and worked through mile 2. Then I hit a stride at mile 3 and the hills didn't seem to bother me. Compared to last week I cut some serious time off my run time. Good news.

Make-up Run

I was not able to run last night due to the freezing rain. I like to think of myself as being pretty resiliant but freezing rain is just plain uncomfortable. It is my limit. So I had a make up to do on a Friday night, I have no life so I did it.

4.37 miles, 50:08 minutes, 11:28 pace, 858 calories

Mile 1) 11:35
Mile 2) 11:30
Mile 3) 11:12
Mile 4) 11:36
last .37 - 11:31 pace

I started at 10:30 pm so I was a bit fatigued when I hit the road, I didn't want to be out there and it was tough to get going. To make matters worse, Jupiter is not the only gas giant around this evening. I think my nickname tonight should have been Broccoli Rob - well you get the idea. Thankfully the streets were empty.

Long run tomorrow, yikes.

Getting back at it

Tonight the Captain (my Garmin) and I hit the roads for a little more distance on this up effort week. Next week being a cut back week, I am trying to push it this week. Here is what happened:

1:15:01, 6.60 miles, 11:22 pace, 1310 calories

Mile 1: 11:11
Mile 2: 11:03
Mile 3: 11:16
Mile 4: 11:21
Mile 5: 11:53
Mile 6: 11:30
Last .6 - 11:22 pace

My legs were a bit rubbery from Monday, but I pushed through it. The Captain will not tolerate any slacking off. So even though I wanted to stop early for a cocktail, I pushed through to the end. I would not want to see the Captain when he is angry. I will admit that mile 5 was a tough one, there were some ups as they say. I had to push through the mile to get to some level ground. I have to say that I am happy with this. I do feel like I am becoming a better runner. I can remember a time not to long ago that I strived for a 13:30 mile. Now, I get upset if a post a 12:00 on any run that is not long or hilly.

Good and unusual news: I am not injured in any way. Most people take this for granted. However, I have been a member of the walking wounded for so long that I forgot what is was like to not be hurt in some way. I just figured that exercise meant some injuries. But today, I can now say that my right foot is 100%, my shoulder that I dinged falling is 100%, my chest congestion is gone, hamstring injury is gone, back twinge and hip twinge on long runs also gone, basically I am in the pink for a change. The only thing I have to deal with is a couple of old injuries, the nerve damage in the left elbow I received when I elbowed someone in the fist when I was 20 (it creaks and pops ... could be worse) and a broken right wrist from the military (it sounds like rice crispies on occasion).

Up and coming: I have contacted a couple of folks to guest post. I am not going on vacation or anything. But I thought it might be nice to mix things up.