Today is my birthday. Number 44. Forty-four magnum, I’m calling it. Like Harry Callahan’s hand cannon. “Do you feel lucky?” I do.

For this double-quad birthday post, I’d like to revisit my fitness efforts one more time. The last time I mentioned my exercise regimen was back in November last year,  when I showed my “final” results after the P90X and Insanity programs. Well, I’ve kept up my exercises, but I’ve dropped to working out just three times a week instead of the hardcore six times a week. I’m just in a maintenance mode, now. I’m happy with my fitness level and my physical appearance, so I just want to stay like this. I don’t need to buff up like a bodybuilder.

Forgive an old man showing his bare physique one more [last] time.

[And forgive the terrible lighting in these pics. Sheesh. Opening the blinds of the big front window just caused harsh shadows. Using the flash just washed out on my pale skin -- too embarrassing to use for this post. I thought I could improve on the bathroom shots. I failed.]

Anyway. Something I’ve never mentioned before is that I have a pretty severe case of arthritis. My spine, let my show you it:

This image is my lumbar spine, seen from my left side. Note the solid black cartilage space between the bottom vertebrae. That’s well-developed arthritis. That’s what pain looks like.

This MRI image was taken back in August 2007, almost four years ago. I posted about the experience, but I never came out and said what it was all about. I’ve never talked about having arthritis, here, because I didn’t want you readers thinking of me as some decrepit invalid. I’m only comfortable mentioning it in this blog, now, because I can post the fit pictures with it.

Four years ago, I went from a general doctor to a specialist to find out why I was so regularly having back pain. I always got out of bed achy and groaning in the mornings. I often, (at least once a year), “threw out my back” when doing heavy work.

X-rays and MRI photos showed the answer: pretty well developed arthritis. I was rather stunned. I mean, I was just turned 40 years old. Arthritis is something senior citizens have. The doctor told me that the disease had been developing in me for a while.

“But doc,” I said, “I was doing martial arts several days a week, just a few years ago. I earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.”

“You were fit and strong from the martial arts,” the doctor explained, “and that keeps the pain away.”

Core strength and flexibility, like I had while doing TKD, is the best — really the only — way to overcome arthritis without drugs or surgery. In the years after last doing any good and regular exercise, the arthritis caught up with me. That’s why I was starting to feel the disease as pain.

The doctor explained that there is no way to fix, cure, or repair arthritis, but I could keep it from getting worse by getting back into good and regular exercise. But I had to be careful and mindful of how to do exercise properly; I had to protect my back because with arthritis, it’s easier to injure, and any injury is more painful.

I may have be having pains getting out of bed then, but worst case scenario if I didn’t get back into good and regular exercise would be that one day I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed at all. Knowing how bad my back hurt sometimes getting out of bed then, I understood what that meant.

So I got back into good and regular exercise. Well, sometimes and sort of. I was on again and off again with the exercise. At my worst, I was never really “fat.” I was overweight, yes, but I’m also 40+ years old with a sedentary occupation. I and everyone with whom I ever conversed about body weight considered me average and normal for a 40-something family man. My middle was getting thicker, but my belly never plumped over my belt.

As for my arthritis, very few people knew I had it. I ran and jumped and played with my kids like all the other dads around — more than some dads because I wasn’t fat and completely out of shape like some men my age. Only when getting out of bed in the mornings, or maybe getting up off a sofa or chair after an hour or more sitting around, did I make any groans of discomfort. My inconsistent efforts at exercise at least kept me out of severe pain from normal activity. I only took any kind of drug for the pain, (usually just ibuprofen, but rarely something stronger), when it was particularly bad.

Every once in a while — once or twice a year, about — I’d do something to “throw my back out.” I’d pick something up wrong, twist or jump bad, or just sit too long in an uncomfortable position. It was Arthur Ritus letting me know he was truly moved in for the rest of my life.

When I started thinking about picking up the P90X workout, I honestly didn’t even think about needing it for arthritis control. But I was reminded by a person who loves me that I need to remember my back problem and not do something careless to hurt myself. Starting a regular exercise regimen is a good idea, but going extreme and permanently injuring myself would be just plain dumb. Good advice.

I completed the three-month P90X regimen with not a single back problem. I continued the P90X for another couple of months, and then completed the two month Insanity program, and still had no problems with my back. My core strength and flexibility was better than ever. I’ve been in close to peak physical fitness for a 40-plus year old for a year, now. And I’m still going strong.

Only once did I hurt myself during any of these workouts. Fortunately, (and maybe ironically), it happened during this maintenance period I’m keeping up, now, (not during the first/main rounds of the programs). I got a little cocky and rambunctious during a power jump routine, and lost the proper form and control. I woke up the next morning in back pain. I had to take four weeks off from working out to recover. Frustrating, that was. But after the healing time, I got right back into my exercise routine, and I make sure I keep the proper form and control when doing my extreme maneuvers.

* * *

So, I’m 44 years old today. Forty-four magnum.

Booyah! :-)

And my birthday party, next weekend, will be a wonderful nerd-fest.

Bullgrit

The last time I posted about my workout regimen, I was afraid I might not be able to complete the Insanity workout. Well, I pushed through, and I’m now “certified insane.”

Oh my God! Insanity is hard. It’s not even fun, it’s so hard. The P90X workout was extreme, but Insanity is just brutal. After each P90X workout, I felt good, on an endorphin high. But the Insanity workouts are sheer punishment to be endured; afterward, I was just completely worn out. But there is no denying that it can make you fit, super fit. Both regimens work well for getting real fit, real fast. (If you’re interested in learning about them, go look them up. I’m not selling or representing for the company. I’m just a very satisfied customer.)

See these pics for my results:

The thing that really surprised me the most about this whole process was how much fat I had on my body. I knew I was a bit overweight; I figured I could loose at least 10 pounds, maybe even 15 pounds. But at the end of my first 13-weeks round of P90X (the 1.0 pic above), I had lost 18 pounds of padding. I could tell I had more to loose, but I thought maybe just 4 or 5 more pounds.

After finishing about 8 weeks of a second round of P90X (the 1.5 pic above), I had lost a total of 24 pounds — 6 more beyond the 1.0 round. I was astonished at how much fat I had apparently been carrying around on my frame. I never thought I was 20+ pounds overweight. But still, I could tell I had a little more fat to shed to find my six-pack abs. But I seemed to have hit a plateau in my fitness climb; I went some weeks without loosing any fat weight.

I really, really wanted my six-pack abs. A simple desire to “get into shape” became a hard drive to get ripped; it had become the object of my mid-life crisis. Some men buy a sports car, some men pick up a girlfriend, some men run off to “find myself.” My MLC took the form of wanting a hardbody — a body as good or better than the one I had at half my current age. I wanted to be able to keep up physically with my young sons. I wanted to be able to run, jump, and climb faster, easier, and for longer, (without it costing 6 million dollars).

So in hopes of breaking my plateau with P90X, I started Insanity. Taking on a regimen of straight cardio did, indeed, overcome my plateau. In the 9 weeks of Insanity, I lost another 15 pounds for a total loss of 39 pounds. Look at those pics above, again: the “P90X 1.5″ pic is 15 pounds heavier than the “Insanity 1.0″ pic. That floors me. When I was at the “P90X 1.5″ stage of my effort, I would have thought 15 less pounds would make me just skin and bones.

In the couple of weeks since finishing Insanity, I’ve lost another 2 pounds just because my metabolism is much higher revved than it used to be. Human physiology just amazes me.

I’ve lost 41 pounds of fat. Forty-one pounds! That’s three to four times more than I expected. And I’m not skinny — I’m lean. P90X and Insanity are not “just” weight-loss programs, they’re full body fitness. Hell, half of the P90X regimen is weight training to build muscle mass.

I feel freakin’ fantastic! I don’t want to sit on the sofa and watch TV, anymore. I want to move. I want to run, jump, and climb.

But I feel kind of weird about all this. At my core, I’m a nerd, a gamer geek. Have I turned into a jock? Well, I’m still not particularly interested in sports — watching or playing. I still like to read comic books, play RISK, and watch Star Wars.

I don’t have any urge to throw a ball, but I do enjoy push-ups. I haven’t a clue what the infield fly rule is, but I do know how many carbs I need in a day.

I want to play Dungeons & Dragons, but I don’t want to consume the Mountain Dew and Doritos that stereotypically go with a game. I’ll buy a comic book, but I’ll also flip through a fitness magazine for a couple minutes.

Well, whatever strange culture mutation I’ve become, I kind of like it. I’m having a great mid-life crisis.

Bullgrit

My birthday present to myself this year was to be a set of six-pack abs. After finishing P90X, back in May, I had lost 18 pounds of middle-age padding, and had toned up my muscles to a level they hadn’t been in for many a year. But I still had a layer of padding that hid the muscle tone of my midsection. It wasn’t a pooch or spare tire — my stomach is flat, now — it was just a layer.

I went into maintain-mode with P90X for four weeks. Instead of 6 heavy workouts a week, I dropped to 3-4 a week. During those maintenance weeks, I lost another 5 pounds of padding, (for a total of 23 pounds lost). These numbers astonished me — I would never have thought I had 23 pounds of fat to loose. I didn’t feel really fat. I just felt middle-aged.

But after those 4 weeks of maintenance, I could see a bare hint, a shadow of where my six-pack abs would be. In the right pose, I could imagine those muscles showing through the last little layer of padding. I was so, so close.

I decided to pick up the regular routine of P90X workouts again. I had the proper diet worked out, and had been following it during the maintenance weeks, so surely the last thin layer would burn off quickly with the full-on workouts.

I lost another pound in the first week of the second round, (for a total of 24 pounds), but then for the last three weeks, no weight loss; no visible difference that I can see in my midsection. Frustrating!

Three weeks of working damn hard physically, keeping to a proper diet, (with only very rare misteps), and no fat loss to see. One theory is maybe that my muscle increase and fat loss ratio has reached an equilibrium — I’m gaining muscle weight at the same rate I’m loosing fat weight, so the scale doesn’t change. But if this were the answer, surely my ab muscles would be showing clearly by now?

Is my problem the curse of an over-40 body? What the hell!?

Bullgrit

I finished my P90X regimen last weekend. Even though I had to push out other things from my life, (like blogging and gaming), to make time for the workouts, I did thoroughly enjoy the whole effort. And boy, was it effort.

P90X is tough, it is intense, and it requires a real adjustment in daily life. Especially eating habits. Working out was the easier part of the whole thing, because it just required physical exertion for 1-1.5 hours each day. The diet took attention every hour of the day.

I’d do well on my diet for 3 or 4 days, but then I’d screw up and eat something I shouldn’t, or eat more than I should. My boys’ favorite restaurants are CiCi’s pizza buffet, Golden Corral buffet, and Moe’s Mexican food. We’d go to one of them at least once a week, and I’d blow my diet right out.

Plus, I like going out to a restaurant for lunch once or twice a week, and sitting down for someone else to cook, serve, and clean up while I just read a good book and eat the food. I continued to do this during P90X, but I’d have a salad or something that seemed low calorie and low fat. It wasn’t till the last few weeks that I really started checking food nutrition information carefully.

I went online to the sites for my favorite lunch-time restaurants, and I got a shock. What I thought had been good choices when eating out, was actually just as bad as any of the obviously bad choices. One salad that I had been eating once every week or two actually has over 1,000 calories and 60 grams of fat! I shit you not. My base diet was 2,000 calories and 40 grams of fat per day. So even when I thought I had been doing well, I was totally screwing it up.

But, despite the epic failure at following the P90X diet, I did manage to loose 18 unneeded pounds of padding. My muscles are firmer, and I feel absolutely great. I’m fit and solid.

I’m no underwear model, but clothes fit better, (I’ve had to buy new, smaller jeans). I have more energy, and playing with my boys is easier, with less exhaustion afterward. And apparently, judging from the pictures, my posture has improved.

Don’t laugh at my farmer’s tan.

No, I don’t have a six-pack. Although, I bet if I had managed my diet better, I would have the ripped abs. But, I’m still working on everything.

I’m moving from working out every day to working out 3-4 times a week. I’ve got a better understanding and grip on my diet now, so I think I may still slim down a bit more. Maybe the abs will start showing through soon.

Bullgrit