Experiment Detail

Liza Cunningham I like it! Clearly we need a photo feature so we can see the progress.

Aug 10, 2009

Brock Tice First attempt at doing the lifting today:
Lats @ 155
Centered lats (?) @ 155
Leg lifts @ 115
Delt dumbell raise @ 25
Bicep curl on lat machine @ 75

Aug 11, 2009

Matthew Cornell I love your experiment, Brock. "tight-muscled feeling" - I know just what you mean. I get it after mountain biking, and it feels good. Strong.

Sounds like a good workout. I'd love to hear your commentary as you go along - how it's feeling, any support we can give, etc.

Freak on!

Aug 11, 2009

Brock Tice I thought yesterday, because I didn't feel sore, that I had done something wrong. Not to worry, feeling sore from lifting today. Crazy that one set can make me feel like I've done a bunch.

Aug 12, 2009

Matthew Cornell Maybe you're superman. I guess not ;-) You will be, though.

Aug 12, 2009

Liza Cunningham Interesting! So you do one rep at your max?

Aug 12, 2009

Brock Tice Liza: Yep that's the idea. The plan is by Tim Ferriss, who is himself really into metrics and experimentation: http://tinyurl.com/geek2freak

Aug 13, 2009

Liza Cunningham Brock: I heart Tim Ferriss, that is super cool. This is a great experiment. Look forward to hearing how it goes.

Aug 13, 2009

Brock Tice Liza: Ah, I misunderstood the instructions a bit, because I'm normally not a 'lifting' guy. Looked back a bit. It's one *set* of about 10 *reps* to failure. If you can do more than one set, you're supposed to up the weight.

That's good, because today I almost maxed out the machines trying to fail in a single rep. :)

Aug 13, 2009

Brock Tice Mostly did single-reps today. Now that I know I shouldn't be doing that, I'll revise it on subsequent workouts and try to do up to 10.

Lat pulldowns: 175 (up 20)
Central lat p: 175 (up 20)
Leg lift: 145 (up 30)
Delt db raise: 20 (down 5, need to rest delts longer)
Biceps on lat: 75 (no change, rest longer)
Back leg lift: 85 (new)
Weighted sit-up: 3x 45 (new)
Dumbell shrugs: 2x 110 (new)
Barbell shrugs: 2x 140 (new)
Tricep pulldown: 55 (new)
Dumbell press: 70 (new)
Bicep curl: 35L, 40R (new)
Rows: 25 each side (new)
Tiptoeing (calf raise?): 2x 110 (new)

Took about 25 minutes.

Aug 13, 2009

Brock Tice Started a 7-day free trial at a local gym today. Much better choices in machines, so most of today isn't directly comparable to what I've done so far. Combined with my corrected understanding that I should be doing up to 10 reps for each exercise, I feel more 'worked out' today.

Lat pulldown: 3@165
Central lat pulldown: 3@165
Leg lift: 9@137.5 (need to go up next time)
Seated leg press: 12@225 (need to go up next time)
Deltoid raise: 5@70
Biangular inclined press: 2@112.5
Biangular chest press: 3@125
Bicep curl: 3@80
Chest press: 5@105
Ab isolation: 11@150 (need to up it, awkward machine)
Tricep extension: 9@50 (need to up it)

Tomorrow I'll go check out the local community rec center and see how their weight room compares. If it's not adequate I'll start a monthly membership at the gym.

Aug 17, 2009

Matthew Cornell Keep it up, Brock, esp your observations on how it feels

Aug 17, 2009

Brock Tice I am so very sore today! Also, I was having a little trouble walking yesterday. The problem with working your quads to failure is that you need them to stand up. :) Anyway, feels like I worked them pretty well, so I'm happy.

Aug 18, 2009

Matthew Cornell If you can't stand up, I don't think wondering whether you got a workout is a problem! Time to recalibrate the workout.

Aug 18, 2009

Brock Tice Muscles are less sore today, but the insertions hurt. Waiting till tomorrow for the next round.

Aug 19, 2009

Brock Tice First day lifting at the rec center. Not all of the same machines available, and unfortunately the weight increments were different than at Ballyk, but I think I've settled on a set of exercises for future comparisons.

Lat pulldowns: 5@160 (down 5 pounds, up 3 reps)
Central lat pulldowns: 4@170 (up 5 pounds, up 1 rep)
Leg extensions: 8@150 (up 12 pounds or so, down 1 rep)
Bicep curls on lat: 2@20 (up 1 rep from a week ago)
Leg curl: 6@90 (up 5 pounds and 5 reps from a week ago)
Weighted sit-up: 6@50 (up 5 pounds, 5 reps)
Tricep pulldown: 6@50 (down 5 pounds, up 3 reps)
Tricep rows: 5@25 (up 4 reps)
Calf raise: 10@200 (machine vs dumbells, not comparable)
Seated leg press: 6@200 (down 25lb, down 6 reps, I think the machine adds friction or weight vs the other, felt very different)
Chest press: 4@120 (up 15lb, down 1 rep)
Shoulder press: 5@100
Inclined press: 4@100
Low rows: 5@150

We'll see how I feel tomorrow. Muscles are getting noticeably bigger. It'll be nice to be doing the same things on the same machines going forward.

Aug 20, 2009

Brock Tice I was happy to find on waking up today that I'm hardly sore at all. I guess my body just had a bit of a rude awakening last time. This is good, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to climb between resistance training workouts.

Aug 21, 2009

Brock Tice After a brief drop, my weight has started increasing, despite my burning significantly more calories than I consume every day. The simplest explanation is that I'm gaining muscle mass (and perhaps losing fat, can't tell without body fat measurements, which are very inaccurate anyway).

This is only possible because most of the weight in muscle comes from water. Unless my measurements are way off, it's impossible for me to be adding non-water mass at this point.

Aug 21, 2009

Brock Tice I created a google spreadsheet (which I've embedded in the description for this experiment, if you want to see it), and created a 'score' metric. The score for each exercise is reps times weight. The idea is to get some sort of number on how things are going, mostly by looking at the aggregate score over time.

Aug 24, 2009

Brock Tice My score was up almost 19% yesterday. However, my leg presses were way down. I realized that if I'm going to work muscles to failure, I need to cut things that rely heavily on the same muscles. So, deltoid dumbbell raises, inclined press, leg extensions, and tricep rows are out. Those groups are worked by shoulder presses, chest presses, leg presses, and tricep pull(push, really)downs. As such, I'm going to edit my scores going forward to ignore those exercises.

Aug 25, 2009

Brock Tice Score up 7.8% today! I definitely feel like the longer break between Thursday and Monday gives me bigger improvements on Monday, but we'll see if that continues to be the case. It was definitely the right choice to drop the extra exercises. My leg presses are back where they should be.

Aug 27, 2009

Brock Tice I graduated up to the next weight levels (10 lbs) on several exercises today. I've now maxed out the leg press machine at the rec center. I'll just keep upping the leg press reps as much as I can, shrinking the pause between them as much as possible. Once I max out the machines for the rest of my exercises I'll have to find another place to go.

My score was only up 1.5% today, but I think that's an artifact of my scoring system, one I knew about from the start. For instance, if I "graduate" from 6 reps @ 150lbs, but can only do 4 reps @ 160 lbs, my score will actually drop despite my getting stronger.

My wife put her arm around my waist yesterday and then stopped to squeeze my sides in an approving way, so I'll take that as a positive indicator. I'm definitely looking better to myself as well. Looking forward to my next day of lifting Thursday.

Aug 31, 2009

Matthew Cornell > maxed out the leg press machine at the rec center

That's is completely awesome.

> wife stopped to squeeze my sides in an approving way

Another measure of success!

Enjoying the progress, Brock. Thanks for sharing.

Sep 01, 2009

Brock Tice Score's up 1.5% again, despite this being my day with only two recovery days beforehand. Add to that that I went rock climbing (hard!) yesterday and biked to and from the climbing gym. Dear Zeus does my core ever hurt today, between the climbing and lifting.

I was continuing my diet goal of keeping calorie intake 300 or so below expenditure per day, hoping to burn fat while gaining muscle. I'm coming to realize as I get really, really hungry that that's not tenable while doing this level of lifting. As such I'm allowing myself roughly equal calories in and out every day. I continue to max out my safe (doctor-calculated!) protein consumption every day. Don't want to ruin my kidneys.

For reference I'm burning about 2800 kcal on days when I don't work out, and 3200-3800 on days that I do. Biking to the gym, climbing, and biking back (roundtrip 9 miles) really helps boost that. I'm using FatSecret to track, as they have a really awesome app for my Android phone.

Sep 03, 2009

Matthew Cornell I'm enjoying hearing about your experiment, Brock. Impressive workouts! All I do is aerobics every other day (1-2 hours) and keep my eating in control (measured by weight).

Sep 04, 2009

Brock Tice Missed Monday's workout due to Labor Day, but I shoveled a bunch of dirt this weekend so I'm sore nonetheless. Going to enjoy the extended recovery and lift again on Thursday, back on the normal schedule.

Sep 08, 2009

Brock Tice Score actually dropped a little today. This is a result of (a) graduating up weights in several exercises, (b) maybe going a week between lifting sessions due to labor day, (c) maybe a hard day of rock climbing yesterday, and (d) possibly not consuming enough food. I'm going to have to work hard to keep my calorie intake high enough, because I think it's making me stall out.

Sep 10, 2009

Matthew Cornell > going to have to work hard to keep my calorie intake high enough

Most of us have the opposite problem! Interesting..

Sep 11, 2009

Brock Tice Woohoo! 36% improvement Monday from my last time, a 32% improvement from my top score. I think my strategy of consuming more calories is starting to work. I'm also sore again for the first time in a while since I started this project.

It's been over a month now and the results have been great. I'm sticking with this for at least another month to see where it goes.

Sep 15, 2009

Matthew Cornell > It's been over a month now and the results have been great. I'm sticking with this for at least another month to see where it goes.

I'm curious to know when the experiment ends, and when a lifestyle change (or not) begins.

Sep 16, 2009

Brock Tice I'm starting to think the experiment's going to end when I can see my abs, and after that I'll cut back to maintenance mode or something. :)

Sep 16, 2009

Matthew Cornell > when I can see my abs

Interesting! Calls to mind cultural values around health and beauty...

Sep 17, 2009

Brock Tice Up 5.7% today. Still felt a little sore this morning, so I don't know that I was recovered enough (!) given the big gains I got Monday. I may have to go to once per week, or a less 'convenient' schedule (i.e. every 4 or 5 days rather than twice per week).

When researching this style of exercise I did read that as the weights went up the recovery times would go up disproportionately (more). That seems to be happening.

Perhaps I need a new experiment. "Try lifting once per week instead of twice."

Sep 17, 2009

Brock Tice Delayed post of last Tuesday's results (schedule off due to family emergency).

Made a 4% improvement despite feeling kind of weak from a cold (I think that was why?).

Will be lifting again today. (Results continue to be posted in the spreadsheet.)

Sep 28, 2009

Brock Tice Up 10.9% on Monday!

Sep 29, 2009

Matthew Cornell Any before/after stats so we can appreciate how far you've come along? You look good in the t-shirt!

Sep 30, 2009

Brock Tice Oh hai triceps! Just noticed them last night. Nice! Will post logs and stats comparison soon.

Oct 06, 2009

Brock Tice After an injury and some travel, I finally got back on the horse. It had been just over a month, and on most exercises I only lost 1 rep (yay!). My log spreadsheet has now been updated as well.

Nov 10, 2009

Matthew Cornell MC Glad you're back!

Nov 11, 2009

Brock Tice I'm closing this out. I know it works. I was going to re-start it, but I've decided to work on weight loss and getting my eating habits back in check first. Once I slim down to where I used to be I'll start on the muscle building again.

Dec 31, 2009

Liza Cunningham Congrats on finishing this experiment. Overall would you say it was a good exercise program? And do you have an eating program you will try as an experiment?

Jan 01, 2010

Brock Tice Thanks, Liza. This exercise program definitely worked well and quickly for building strength and muscle size. As for the plan going forward, no specific program. Controlled intake and sufficient exercise, probably running. I've done calorie in/out tracking plenty before, and I've stuck with a relatively low-carb diet since I lost a lot of weight on Atkins years ago. It's just a matter of getting things back under control. This is something I already know to work pretty well from a lot of experience. There was a time, when I didn't have a car and biked everywhere, as well as rock climbed 2-3x a week, where I didn't have to track so closely what I ate. Unfortunately I can't sustain that level of activity right now.

Jan 01, 2010

James Ledoux This is a great test. Good luck and will follow along. I'm attempting to lose weight now but will likely this when I'm down to my ideal weight.

Jan 06, 2010

Matthew Cornell Good experiment, Brock. Congratulations! Huge kudos for your big effort. Any plans for a write-up? Wait, you already did one, did you? [On a TTL note, I'd love to create a community convention where people blog about their completed experiments, sharing insights, lessons learned, and recommendations. Not hinting, just thinking ;-)]

29 days ago

Brock Tice I did, http://virtuallyshocking.com/2009/11/06/my-trial-of-the-geek-to-freak-weight-training-technique/

28 days ago

Matthew Cornell Doh! I forgot. I'll play the Stress Card.

22 days ago