New Programme - MGS

After slightly more than half a year doing Turbulence Training, I felt like I wanted to do something different. Don't get me wrong, TT is fantastic and perfect for anyone - from the newbies to the advanced. But yeah, I'm always looking for something new and I felt that while TT is great, its focus is more on fat loss rather than muscle building.

And I'm trying to gain mass as much as possible.

Enter Muscle Gaining Secrets, which is a brainchild of Jason Ferruggia. I think Mr. Ferruggia's programme is more suitable for me as its focus is entirely on muscle gain rather than fat loss. Yup, I've purchased his programme and tonight was the first time I followed his training plan.

Unbelievably, there were only two supersets to do (which equals to 4 moves). Feeling a little cocky, I thought this was gonna be very easy. Hehehehe... I was wrong. It has gotten me sweating and I definitely suffered - which is a good thing.

Can't wait for the next workout!

Freestylin' II - the result

As planned, tonight was Freestylin part deux. I did the atomic pushups and TRX rows in sets (10 of each x 4 sets). While it was intense, it wasn't intense enough to leave me muttering expletives while flopping on the floor spent. Wanting something more challenging, I proceeded with the TT 2004 workout.

Not a bad workout. I've a feeling I can increase the weights the next time I hot workout A. But then again, nowadays upper body workouts while still challenging, doesn't leave me quite as exhausted as lower body workouts. Lower body workouts always leave me whimpering at the end. Pbthh...

Freestylin' II

The freestyling went really well the other day. The moves I did worked the upper body, core and lower body really well. And this has piqued my interest to do another freestyle workout for tomorrow. I'm gonna do only these two moves for tomorrow:

• Atomic Pushup (Jackknife and Pushup combo done with the TRX)
• TRX Row (Inverted row using the TRX)

The vid of the moves is shown below. But I'm not gonna do it ala 40/40 challenge. I don't think I'm up to that standard yet. I'll do it as a superset.

Freestylin'

It's a workout night tonight but I'm actually not in the mood to follow my TT plan. For a change, I'm gonna fool around with different combinations of moves and me thinks this is a good time to try out Mike Geary's express workout which consists of two basic moves. See below:

• Dumbbell squat & press
• Pullups

But perhaps instead of doing pullups or chinups, I'll change it to chinups with knee ups to work on my abs a bit more. Next I plan to throw in an arms superset:

• Skullcrushers
• Bicep curls

And if I manage not to collapse after the two supersets, I'll finish up with some jackknives AND some dumbbell swings (it remains to be seen though, whether my masochistic tendencies will prevail). Yeah that's about it. I'm just posting this up so I can look it up if I feel like doing my own thing again in future.

The Body and Clean Eating

There was a quiet lull in the office. The slides are done and all that's left is to wait for the meeting which is tomorrow. Bored (being super efficient can sometimes suck), I suddenly spotted and unopened cup of instant noodles. Nearing the time of the month, that cup of noodles suddenly looked pretty appealing although truth be told, it has been left untouched for many many months.

So I took the cup of noodles, went to the pantry and prepared myself an unhealthy afternoon snack. Strangely though, it seems that my body is rejecting the MSG laden stuff. After only a few sips I start to feel dizzy. And the dizzy spell stopped when I gave up eating the noodles halfway through.

Hmm... I guess it's a good sign.

I Finally Bought It

After much contemplating, asking around to the point of being irritating, and further online research... earlier tonight I finally bought myself my first ever mass gainer. Okay, it's not really my first ever. Two years ago I bought Appeton's weight gain milk but it tasted horrendous and put me off weight gain supplements for a very long time.

But tonight I decided I should give mass gainers another go and chose to try out BSN's True Mass. Hence I brought home this big tub of strawberry powder. It has this sweet smell often associated with baking and I had my doubts whether it'll taste okay.

It tasted fabulous. A far cry from that horrible substance I tasted two years back. Now my post-workout nutrition is pretty much solved. Hmm... I am definitely gonna stock up on True Mass during fasting month. It's gonna make a good sahur meal, I reckon.

Rants about kids

Do you know what I love about the school holidays apart from the blissful morning traffic? It is the sound of children having fun at the playground. It is the sight of happy families splashing around in the swimming pool. There's still hope for yet for the children of today.

It kind of annoys me to see my young cousins sitting on their asses in front of the idiot box either watching cartoon shows or playing the Playstation accumulating masses of fat, increasing their chances of getting diabetes and heart disease.

Yes, I understand their obsession with the television. I was a kid too. But we still played outside. We still went to parks with our parents. We still biked around the house compound. It seems to me that nowadays the only exercise that children get is walking around in a shopping mall.

Omigod. What have you done?

This is Asia's first Biggest Loser. Lost a remarkable amount of weight, no doubt. But I bet there's not much muscle mass either. Skinny and frail, he looks so old and lethargic. I bet I can beat him in an arm-wrestling match. Hmm... is it just me or does he look better when he was overweight?

In an interview he said that he works out 8 hours a day on weekdays and 3 to 4 hours during weekends. And he hardly spends time with his girlfriend. On his birthday, his parents bought him cake but he did not take a single bite and ate fruit instead. Funny thing is, he said that his birthday sucked. Wow. What a big surprise.

The Biggest Loser is supposed to IMPROVE a person's lifestyle. Not turn you into some idiot who spends way too much time at the gym. Some contestants, like David here seem to forget that the reason they join the show is to lose weight. The reason why you want to lose weight is to have a better lifestyle. To be healthy enough and have more energy to spend time with your loved ones.

Unfortunately, David didn't seem to think so. 8 hours a day working out??? WTF??? Are you out of your freaking mind? All you'd do is damage your body; not make it stronger. That's what you get when you crown the biggest loser based on total kilos lost, and not percentage of fat loss.

I've a feeling David's gonna gain all the kilos he lost pretty quickly. Or he'll turn into a neurotic anorexic working out 12 hours at the gym like a man possessed. Either way, he's screwed. Unless he gets a proper trainer who will teach him the correct way of attaining and maintaining a proper body,

Carlo should've won.

Is a Gym Membership Necessary?

Should you join a gym? Is it necessary? Yes and no. If you've been sedentary for quite a while, joining a gym may well be the kickstart you need to a more active lifestyle. It will help you start a routine. Depending on your schedule, you should choose a gym that's near your workplace or near your home. Better yet (read: if you have the cash), take the 'passport' package so that you can have access to all the gym's outlets. So you're not limited to only one branch.

For example, I live in Bukit Jalil but work in Damansara. A good option is to get a Passport Fitness First package which allows me to workout at the FF outlet at the building nextdoor during workdays. On weekends, I can hit the FF in Puchong since it's a lot nearer from my place.

But once you're disciplined enough or addicted to working out, having a gym membership is not really necessary. A typical gym membership could cost about RM1,200 - RM1,800 per month. With that kind of cash you can actually setup your own humble 'gym' at home. All you need is a couple of dumbbells, perhaps a barbell (if you're pretty gung-ho), a pull-up bar, a bench, and other optional gym paraphernilia (e.g. TRX). It'll cost about the same or less than a year's worth of gym membership.

You need to renew your gym membership each year. With a humble home gym, you only invest once and you're all set.

Obviously, it's gonna take a lot more moolah to get a squat rack or a smith machine. And if you're living in a pigeon hole like I do, there's frankly no room to place the darn thing anyway. So it's really up to the individual involved.

Some people can workout at home but still have a gym membership simply because they love the environment. Some like me, prefer to workout at home. I don't however, regret joining a gym. It was how I started to get into a routine. And it took me where I am today.

Body Redemption System

Fellow fitness blogger (albeit much much much more famous than yours truly) and certified personal trainer DailyMuscle (DM for short) has recently launched a brand new online product which he christened Body Redemption System (BRS). DM markets it mostly as a weight-loss programme although he did stress that it's not only useful for those trying to lose the excess fat but it also caters for those with different fitness objectives as well. Case in point: me. Trying valiantly to pack on muscles.

Anyway, I mentioned to DM that I have my doubts whether his programme would help me in my quest to gain weight. And guess what? DM has graciously given me access to his new product so that I can check out myself and review it on my humble little blog.

Yeah, DM's a great guy isn't he?

Anyway, BRS's objective is to actually focus on lifestyle change. The equation goes like this:

Healthy lifestyle = great looking body

Those who bought the BRS will receive a lesson a day for 31 days sent via e-mail in PDF format. I actually like this approach because impatient people like me would usually read through the whole thing in an hour or less and then nitpick at which lessons to follow and which to ignore.

By e-mailing us a lesson a day, we're more likely to really read through it and absorb the information more effectively. Well, at least that's what I think. Anyway, today I received lesson number 1. I'm not sure how I'm gonna review BRS yet. Perhaps on a weekly basis. Or maybe I'll make a full review once my 31 lessons are all e-mailed to me.

We'll see. For those interested on the BRS, check out DM's website or go to the BRS website.

The Purchase

Today I finally bought a pair of 10kg adjustable dumbbells. Next up is a bench. But that's gonna have to wait a while. I thought of working out today. I mean, properly workout. But after buying those dumbbells I think I've had enough of a workout for the day.

Lugging a 10kg dumbbell in each hand from the first floor of a shopping complex to the parking lot which is situated at the other end of the premises is a tough job in itself. I was sweating even in the air-conditioned building. Then I had to lug those same dumbbells from the parking lot of my apartment to my cosy little unit. And no, I didn't take the lift. I took the stairs. But I live on the first floor. Hehehehehhe...

So that's it. My workout for the day. Lugging dumbbells. Tough work! Phew.....

Oh and in case you were wondering. Yes, the friendly staff at Fitness Concept did offer to help carry one of the dumbbells to the car. But I refused. Yeah, I can be stupid sometimes.

Feels so good!

Went out with a bunch of friends tonight. The weather's been scorching so we decided to have dinner by the lake which also happened to have a monkey bar. I haven't been working out for some time. Bronchitis the culprit this time. So I stayed away from weights and focused on feeling 'normal' again.

But the monkey bar beckoned me. So I went and did a few pull-ups which left my friends - two of them 7 years my junior, one of them a regular gym-goer very impressed. They couldn't do a single pull-up. Not just yet, anyway. I'm sure if they knew the right technique they could also do pull-ups in no time.

But heck. It sure felt good trumping people much younger than me. Yes, this old lass still has it. Anyway, I learnt how to do pull-ups by watching the video below. Start from inverted rows. From there, you can progress to chin-ups and pull-ups pretty quickly, I reckon. Good luck!