Fitness Update, Week 6

I can hardly believe it – I have managed somehow to keep a 3x per week fitness regime for 1.5 months!

This is the most consistent I've ever been with a fitness regime, so I'm going to share the things that I believe made this time different, and the learnings I've had so far.

Living 5 mins from the gym

When we still lived in Singapore, the closest I ever lived to a gym was a 10-minutes walk from 1 North Bridge Road to the Virgin Active at 1 Raffles Place. That regime went down the toilet after 3 weeks.

This time, by sheer happenstance, I found a great no-nonsense gym near our apartment in Düsseldorf, Germany. How near? 5 minutes. And I think it's probably the second biggest reason why I've managed to keep the routine so far.

Less time commuting means less time planning for the trip to the gym. Five minutes is so short, it could be the time someone spends walking from one end of a building to another.

I now plan to keep lifting for the rest of my adult life, which means I'll probably need to always find homes that are 5 minutes from the gym if I don't want to mess it up...

The biggest reason it is sticking

I am working out consistently because I am telling myself stories. In fact, it's not even plural stories. I've just needed to tell myself that one story to convince myself that I must go to the gym.

There's a joke I heard somewhere that I've since told a few times. To a runner, going out for a run involves 2 steps:

1. Put on clothes
2. Get out and run

How many steps does it take for someone who hates running to go run? (i.e. me?)

1. Put on shorts
2. Put on t-shirt
3. Wear socks
4. Put on shoes
5. Tie shoelaces
6. Find the keys, phone, earphones
7. Check the weather forecast isn't shit
8. Double-check the weather outside the window
9. Stretch upper body
10. Stretch lower body
11. Get out and run

In my case with getting strong (i.e. lifting in the gym), telling myself a story has transformed me from Person B to Person A.

Not going to lie, I'd been tempted to skip one of the last 18 sessions. One time it was because I slept late and woke up pretty tired. Another time it was because I was stressed at work and wanted to not use my 9am-10am time in the gym but on work (bad idea; don't ever do that trade!).

Not breaking my streak wasn't a strong enough motivator. I would have gladly broken my streak – which only I was keeping track of – to skip going to the gym to do the same 3 exercises that day.

The thing that has worked – and it works immediately – is retelling myself the story of why I'm trying to get strong.

I remind myself that I'm doing this to be a defender of my family, being of Asian ethnicity living in a foreign land where I look, think, and sound different.

But not in the abstract sense. I remind myself of the incident where one among a bunch of young german men, slightly intoxicated, ruffled my hair as they all walked by me, sniggering. And how it happened within a few minutes walk from my apartment. And how I knew I didn't stand a chance against them, but I will next time, if they did something like that to my daughter or wife.

This, I honestly believe, is the reason I continue to happily hit the gym 3 times a week.

The generalisable lesson here is this: Look back at the emotional moments in your life and feel what you felt. See if one of these stories could be the one you keep telling yourself to motivate yourself to actually do the thing you want to do.

Strength vs Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy is when your call gets physically enlarged due to physical strain.

For the first 4 out of 6 weeks, I'd been doing strength training. I didn't realise it then. I just followed a reader's recommendation (read My new workout routine).

Then, one late night YouTube video made me aware that bodybuilders train to hypertrophy, which makes sense, because it's about muscle size for these folks.

So I asked myself: am I training for strength, in which case I should do powerlifting, or am I training for muscular size, in which case I should do hypertrophy like the bodybuilders?

I still don't know what I'm doing or what I want. But I think I want a mix, with a lean towards muscle size. Why? Given a choice, I would like to deter aggressors (big dude scary) rather than fight them and try to win (one punch man).

So from week 5, I made a change to my regime.

Old regime, which is kind of powerlifting:

• 5 sets of 5 reps
• Weight: ~90% of 1RM (1 rep max)
• 1-3 minutes rest

New regime, which is kind of hypertrophy training:

• 5 sets of 8-10 reps
• Weight: ~70-80% of 1RM (1 rep max)
• 2-4 minutes rest

The results?

I've seen greater gains in muscular growth in the last 2 weeks than in the first 4 weeks.

Surprisingly, I found that I could basically do 8 reps of the same weight that I was previously doing 5 reps. I guess this means I have been under-training.

Anecdotally, with hypertrophy, I leave with muscles feeling more pumped and by the next session, I come with greater lingering fatigue from the previous session.

Growth in muscles, power, and confidence

Growth of my body musculature has been remarkable. I haven't grown a lot in size but I've grown a lot in power. Power in the sense of tightness of my body. The ability of my body to handle heavy loads in everyday life like grocery bags and a toddler.

This growth in power has increased my confidence when talking to people in general. I know I can hold my ground better in case things go south.

Resting longer means lifting more in a session

Learned; rest time means recovery time and recovery time directly affects lifting power. Proven with squats today. 3 mins rest and I struggle with last 3 reps. 4 mins rest after that and I did 8 reps with minimal struggle.

Moral: increase rest time if you feel like you need it.

Better Form vs Higher Weights

Lighter weights on bench press works my chest muscles better than heavier weights.

This is enough proof to me that form wins. Always prioritise form.

Reducing creatine intake

Creatine intake - I've been apprehensive. I have a bag with a 3g scoop and I've taken one scoop pre-workout a couple of times. I take them 20-30 mins before the workout. I did feel more power during the session.

Although I trust the research that says creatine doesn't hurt one's health (or cause hair loss), I'm still apprehensive to take it regularly because it feels unnatural. Where am I supposed to get extra power in the form of creatine if I'm trapped in a dangerous situation? I'm not Popeye who can pull out a can of spinach from nowhere.

Unlike protein, which is easy enough to find in a regular modern diet, and which our bodies store and build up over time as muscles that can do things, creatine does something like hijack power transmission to my cells.

So I'm laying low on it. Not intending to buy another bag any time soon.