365 Days of Fitness
readtime ~8min
The Proof
| Day 1 @ 180 lbs | Peak weight @ 210 | Day 365 @ 195 lbs |
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The Background Information:
My favorite thing about New Year’s Day is how culturally acceptable it is to stay in the entire day nursing yourself back to health from the madness you put your body through the night before. My second favorite thing is that fresh clean-slate feeling you feel on the day after where you begin to methodically plan out your year. You organize your priorities, and get serious about all the things you were supposed to get serious about the year before. The past is the past; this year is different. 2018 is going to be the year you secure that promotion, take that trip, or finish that writing project. And if the apocalyptic crowds that funnel in the gym during the first few weeks of January are an indicator of anything, it’s that 2018 is also the year you have decided to get in shape. Great. Maybe it is.
For my entire life I struggled with New Year’s Resolution Syndrome. I would commit myself entirely to something, and go all in for up to six months at a time and then stop all at once. Of course, there was always a reason. There had to be. I had a long break from school, had to study for finals, maybe I would get into a new relationship and neglect making time for the gym. Something would happen that hit the reset button for me.
In August 2014 I transferred to a new college, and experienced that unmistakable clean-slate feeling that accompanies my favorite drinking holiday. Only this time I decided it was going to be different when it came to fitness. I decided that I would dedicate the next 365 days to an experiment of getting into “really great” shape. There was just one glaring obstacle that I faced coming out of the gate: I didn’t know anything about fitness.
The next day I started working out, and the day after that I picked up my first book on fitness. I could write my own book about what I learned along the way, however very few people would probably read that, so I’ll trim the fat and leave the meat below.
The Workout
The following is the exact workout I used for the entirety of the experiment. One caveat is that in order to incorporate cardio I signed up for the school’s club Water Polo team, and practiced with them about three times a week for about 2.5 hours on average. Besides that I also did the following:
Day 1: Chest & Triceps
30 pullups
Flat Bench Press: 3 X 6
Incline Bench Press: 3 X 6
Decline Bench Press: 3 X 6
Dumbbell Press: 3 X 6
Overhead Tricep Extension: 3 X 8
Tricep Pushdown: 3 X 8
Ab circuit
Day 2: Back & Biceps
30 pullups
Deadlifts: 5 X 5
Lat Pulldowns: 3 X 8
Dumb Bell Rows: 3 X 6
21's: 3 X 21
Plate Loaded Lat Pulldown: 3 X 6
Day 3: Legs
30 pullups
Back Squat: 5 X 5
Leg Press: 3 X 8
Incline Calf Raises: 3 X 20
Standing Calf Raises: 3 X 20
Hamstring Curls: 3 X 8
Ab circuit
Day 4: Shoulders & Traps
10 pullups, 20 wide grip pullups
Overhead Press: 5 X 5
Arnold Press: 3 X 6
Dumb Bell Shoulder Press: 3 X 6
Lateral Raises: 3 X 10
Front Raises: 3 X 10
Barbell Shrugs: 3 X 10
Facepulls: 3 X 8
Ab circuit
Ab Circuit:
Planks 3 X 60 seconds
Side Planks 3 X 60 seconds
Cable Crunches 20 X 3
Russian Twists 3 X 25
Day 5: Something Fun
Most weeks I would work out an additional day by doing an activity I enjoyed. I swam laps, went for a hike, or played a few games of pickup basketball at the gym. I liked having this as the last day, because it usually landed on a weekend and gave me the excuse to do something I wouldn’t normally do. Over the course of the year I got much faster at swimming, learned what to bring for long hikes the hard way, and figured out how to be a half decent center in a pickup game.
Diet
Dieting was a bit tricky for me mostly because of my circumstances and lack of discipline regarding sugar and alcohol. I was in college with a small budget allotted for food, so for the first nine months I pretty much ate and drank whatever I wanted and generally consumed about two meals a day. The only things I knew for certain was that chicken was to be eaten as much as possible, and that I needed to drink one protein shake a day. Although I saw moderate results, the experiment would have been much more effective had I stuck with a more well rounded diet from day one. Once I had bulked up to 203 pounds I decided to get serious about diet and followed two fundamental rules.
The first thing I did was calculate my Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) which was the total amount of calories I expended in a single day. Mine turned out to be somewhere around 2950 calories a day. I then used this figure to base my goals around. If I wanted to gain weight I would eat more calories, and less if I wanted to lose weight. I used an app called “Myfitnesspal” to track what I was eating, and continued to do so for the last 3 months of the experiment, and for many months afterwards.
The second thing I did was calculate exactly how much protein I was supposed to be eating. If you’re like me, and your objective is to gain muscle than you should be eating around 90% of your weight in protein. So for me at around 203 pounds, it was somewhere in between 160-180g every day, an intimidating number to be sure. However, I was able to reach this on a regular basis by drinking two protein shakes a day and eating chicken and fish, and carbs for almost every meal.
I didn’t cut anything out necessarily, but rather tried to be more mindful of what I was eating whilst keeping my TDEE and protein goals in mind. And having to log any poor diet choices in Myfitnesspal, usually supplied me with enough guilt to keep me away from whatever that food was in the future.
Parting Thoughts
I do not claim to be any kind of fitness expert or guru, nor do I have any kind of formal education in kinesiology. What I can say is that I’ve devoted countless hours into doing research, and conducting experiments that have proven to be effective. Below are some fitness tips that I’ve found to be especially important along the way.
Diet is as important as exercise, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat ice cream. One universal truth of fitness is that diet is a key component to being fit, and it is. Getting your diet sorted out has enormous benefits across the board whether your goals are weight gain or weight loss. Most of the time when people hear the word “diet” they assume it means they’re doomed to eating salads for the rest of their life, and that is false. As long as you’re consistently meeting your TDEE and protein goals, I believe it is okay to reward yourself with the occasional treat or cheat meal. Most unhealthy things aren’t harmful with careful moderation, and sometimes you just really want chocolate, or a beer with your dinner.
There are no replacements for compound lifts. Trust me. I’ve tried. I spent years at the gym avoiding free weights, because I was too intimidated to learn proper form, and being frustrated at my lack of results. Here’s the truth: There are no replacements for compound lifts. Deadlifts, Bench Press, Overhead Press, and Squats are your best friends if you’re looking for the fastest results and the strength to go with it.
Cardio. I don’t think it’s 100% necessary to build a great physique, but it’s certainly recommended if your goals align with losing weight or getting down to a low body fat percentage. 30 minutes 3 times a week goes a long way over time, and it doesn’t have to be running. Personally, I hate running; it’s why I signed up for Water Polo. You can get results without it, but you’ll get them faster if you do it. And if the zombies come early you’ll be able to outrun like 98% of the American population.
Injuries suck. A couple months after I finished this experiment I partially dislocated my shoulder doing incline dumbbell presses that took me out of the gym for about 3-4 months. Not long after I fully recovered from that I tore a few ligaments in my foot and suffered a grade 3 sprain during a pickup basketball game. Injuries can be so demoralizing, especially when you feel like you’re making great progress, but most of the time it’s only temporary. If you do suffer an injury it’s important to take care of your body. Give it time to recover. Don’t push yourself and risk making it worse. The good news is that muscle memory is not a myth. You will work back to whatever point you were at much faster than it originally took to get there. So stay positive and get back to training only after you’re ready to be back.
The last thing I’ll say is that over the course of learning about fitness I discovered that I absolutely love helping other people do the same. Being able to be a source of information for people who want to get started, but don’t know where to start is something I absolutely love doing. If you have any questions or comments regarding this feel free to check out the contact page and shoot me a message. I promise to get back to you as soon as I am able!