My first day back in the gym was Saturday, two days ago. I had meant initially to go every day after that, but I hadn’t counted on getting in as good a workout as I did that day.

I’ve always had the top-level membership to my gym, so I didn’t realize that if you have a lesser membership, there are times that you’re actually restricted from using the gym. This is FANTASTIC!!! because people that have no reason to pay more can’t even show up until like two hours after I get there.

This is useful because my workout style is similar to my socialization style, which is to do whatever I feel like doing whenever I feel like doing it. I have to stop and “feel” what I need to work on next and then when I get that direction, I hop on that machine and knock it out.

So, Yeah.. Two days ago, I overdid it and I was out of commission yesterday. In fact, I didn’t want to go to the gym this morning either, but I was like “**** That! You’re Going!” and I dragged my ass to the gym.

Walked in the door, hit the scale, 177 lbs, similar to Saturday. Put in some work, drank some water, weighed in at 176. Way later, I hit the scale again, and this trainer goes “That scale’s off. You have to use the one in the locker room.” :/

I was like “Thanks a lot, dude! :D”.. Walked about 30 steps to the other scale and immediately weighed in at 170, which is what I’ve been saying this whole time.

Started out doing isolation machines this time. Last time, I concentrated on my staple machine, Weight-Assisted Dips & Pull-Ups. That’s really actually a finishing machine for me because it fills in the blanks. Anything upper-body you didn’t hit during your isolation workout is going to be stressed by doing supersets of pull-ups & dips.

Since I was just starting up again, I went straight to that machine on Saturday. This time, I started out with close-grip pulldowns. I was still pretty stressed from my last workout, so I wasn’t pulling any serious weight, but I definitely did enough to stimulate my system.

I ended up super-setting those with cable pressdowns for triceps. This is basically the same thing as doing my staple machine, but with different grips and as far as triceps, you’re rotating your forearms instead of pressing straight down for dips, so you get way more tricep isolation. The dips work a large percentage chest, depending on how far forward you lean, and I like to get my LEAN on.

Actually, I lean when I’m doing tricep pressdowns also, once I get to actual heavy weight. Back in the day, I used to push the entire stack with a 25 lb weight attached to the stack. When I felt like showing off, I’d place the pin in the lightest weight, probably ~30 lbs and get a chick that weighed around 105 lbs to stand on it while I worked out haha :D I’ll let you know if I get back to that status. ;)

After that, I did dumbbell shrugs.. Again, with relatively light weights for me, since I’m just getting back into this now. I maxed out at 60 lb dumbbells when I normally use 90s. Any heavier than that and they’re practically impossible for me to pick up off the floor and since I’m not using wrist wraps, I can’t grip them very long either.

Next was something I shouldn’t have done when I did, but it was what I felt like doing, so I did it. Decline Bench Sit-Ups. Ugh! :( I did a couple of sets of those and I felt… disconnected. I can’t really explain it, :) It’s like basically your abs are used in exercises where you don’t even know they’re working. Once I stressed them, I felt instantly less able to do other exercises, haha.

Of course, that means that I went back for several more sets during the two hours I was in the gym. :/

Eventually, I hit my weight-assisted dips/pull-ups super-sets with an embarrassing amount of weight assistance! :D

That’s one of the things about the gym. You have to get past “Pride”. You have to do what you know YOU have to do to get the workout you need to achieve the look you want. If you’re doing dips and it’s obvious to some chick that passes by that the weight stack is offsetting 90% of your bodyweight, you have to eat that. :D You won’t be very impressive to her in the gym, but when she sees you with your shirt off at the pool, she’s gonna be sweatin’ the technique! >:D

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I’ve been planning on doing a few different shows for quite a while now. Just about everything is in perfect position… however, before going forward, there’s an important consideration… scaling.

My friend Tyme White is always yakking about scaling. “How does it SCALE?” “That’s not going to SCALE!” blah blah blah blah blah…… Unfortunately (fortunately?) she’s right IF you’re looking at your show being a success from when you’re still in the early planning stages.

The way I’m going to define scaling for the purpose of this article is the ability to grow your show, social site, whatever. Just GROW it. Increase your membership. Increase your viewership. Improve your google rank. Get more people interested. Receive more UGC (User-Generated Content). Get more page hits…..

The reason scaling is important… Rather, the reason that YOU should consider your project’s ability to scale is that you might be broadcasting to a niche market. Let’s say, for instance, you want to make a show about DiY Clothing (DiY = Do it Yourself). There are only going to be a certain number of people interested in making their own clothing. A segment of that population watches videos on the internet. A segment of that population will be aware of your show. A segment of THAT population will like your show and recommend it to other people and/or come back and watch it again. A segment of THAT population will become ‘passionate’ about your show and become your core fans.

Threadbanger.com => Rob & Corinne, Justin & Marissa

I remember when I became aware of / fascinated by the concept of scaling. I was hanging out in Bed, Bath & Beyond…. I know, I know. It wasn’t my fault. Blame it on Dan McVicar. :/

Bill & Dan

Anyway… I’m hanging out by the checkout line, and there’s this endless stream of people slowly making their way to the register to pay. So I start imagining how many people are passing me, and it occurs to me that it’s A LOT! :D Then it occurs to me that more people passed me in the last 5 minutes than the total number that subscribe to my show in iTunes. :/ THEN, it occurs to me that if I stood there all day, the number of people that passed me would be greater than the number of people that subscribe to many popular, established internet shows. What I took away from that contemplation was that even if you’re considered popular within your own space or echo chamber, there are still more people to reach…. A LOT more people.

One of the most successful internet video shows that I’m aware of is Rocketboom. In 2006, each daily episode was being downloaded ~300,000 times. Even with numbers like that, comparisons were being made to cable television shows, not network shows, which count their viewers by millions. Recently, this show called “Quarterlife” got booed off the stage for ‘only’ pulling in 3,860,000 viewers on NBC… Obviously more than ten times the daily Rocketboom viewership.

Of course, none of this means anything to people that are expressing themselves by putting video on the internet and have no interest in numbers, stats, revenue-sharing, sponsorships, etc. For those that do care, and whose show’s future may very well depend on scaling, it’s important to consider the “what if?” of potential success.

Actually, before you figure out whether your show is scalable, you need to figure out if your show is SUSTAINABLE, which is an entirely different issue. For the most part, there are no “seasons” in internet-show-biz. It’s a new week… You need a new show. Period. Whatever your cycle is… daily, weekly, monthly… you need to come up with a concept that you can produce consistently and deliver on a regular basis. If you can’t do that, scaling’s useless because your viewers will drift away due to lack of output on your part.

So, do like Tyme does… “Ask NOT, Will it Blend?… but Will it SCALE?”

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