Bill Cammack » workout

Instant Weight-Loss

Bill Cammack — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:24:14 +0000

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

Plan C! – Skate To The Gym

Bill Cammack — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:31:26 +0000

ok… Here we go AGAIN! :D

The last entry I made in my “Gym” category was back on August 4th. The plan at the time had been to increase my weight by 20-30 lbs. That didn’t work AT ALL and right after that, I got bogged down in work to the point that I wasn’t thinking about or caring about working out at all.

When I started putting my game plan together for 2010, I realized that the area I needed to make the most improvements in physical shape. I’m always in good physical shape because of my parents’ genes, but I used to be in the gym every day and I used to enjoy the soup-up-factor of being in insane shape. It was necessary for sports I used to play and it makes it about a gazillion times easier to pick up chicks when all you have to do is take your shirt off. :)

That was a long time ago. Recently, I started doing dumbbell exercises and I’ve retrieved a decent amount of shape from that, but I’m not going to make any real gains until I hit the gym. Unfortunately, my gym is too far from my house for me to feel like going all the way over there! :D

So I’m talking to Lou yesterday and I tell him I’m going to get a monthly metrocard so I can take mass transit to the gym and he tells me “Stop being lazy. Jog over there. Get your cardio in” (which, I’ve never done cardio because I’ve always been trying to INCREASE weight, not DECREASE it. About the only cardio I get in is marathon sessions hitting the bag.

So I’m like “Nah. I already know I’m not going to do that. :)” So not wanting to let me off the hook, he goes “Take your skateboard!”

So I’m in the process of starting to laugh at that suggestion as I see myself taking my skateboard outside and making my way UPHILL to the gym, when for some reason, it’s suddenly not funny as I’m seeing myself NOT buying a metrocard, but instead, buying my roller hockey skates that I’ve been meaning to get for ages but never bothered to.

I used to play roller hockey every day too, but all the places I used to play started banning hockey and the only spot left was Chelsea Peirs, which may as well have been in Staten Island as far as I was concerned for the amount of time I’d have to spend traveling all the way down there.

So all of a sudden, everything made sense. I went and bought my skates today, which eliminates my excuse for not going to the gym AND actually MOTIVATES ME to skate so I can get my skillz back together. I’m already seeing myself skating just to skate or going somewhere to practice puck handling or visiting different locations around the city to get my Foursquare on or to videoblog.

Of course, that eliminates any potential weight gain.. \o/ C’est La Vie! :D I’m pretty sure I’ll be satisfied with my results by the end of the month. Actually, since it’s already 9 days into the month, I think I’ll give myself until Valentine’s Day, next month on the 14th. I was fortunate and got EXACTLY the skates I wanted, so I’m hyped and ready to go….

Now.. All I need is my workout music…

“Blows your mind, drastically, fantastically.”

~ Bill Cammack | @BillCammack

Plan B!

Bill Cammack — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:06:06 +0000

About two weeks ago, I announced that I was going to try for 190lbs. That plan is SCRUBBED, as of yesterday, haha. It’s not going to work. :D

The first thing I did was overeat. That immediately put me to sleep for a couple of hours, so I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to sustain my productivity with this style. After that fiasco, I switched up to eating a bunch of small meals all day. This works out fine, and at this point, on a scale that I wasn’t using for my previous weight assessments, I’m a consistent 164, which is actually a perfect spot for me to hop back in the gym.

Previously, I had to work my way UP to 164 as my weight ceiling used to be 160. My metabolism’s too high for me to gain or carry extra weight. After I get over a certain level, my body just REJECTS extra pounds. The only way I’m going to be able to get even to 170 is going to be by working out and putting on more muscle mass, because anything else is going to disappear as soon as I change my eating habits.

The reason the goal of 190 is off the table is that I already feel sluggish. I’ve never been overweight in my entire life, so speed’s natural to me, or at least that’s what I’m used to. Being physically heavier gives me more energy and more aggression, but it’s weird… It’s kind of like walking through water. Things are more of a chore to do, haha. I don’t think I’m psychologically interested in that.

However, I’ve already achieved what I actually wanted. If I don’t feel aggressive, I can’t work out properly. There’s no point to it. Now, I have two goals instead of one. Goal #1 is to increase muscle mass & decrease useless weight that I’ve acquired over the last week and a half. Goal #2 is to remove this feeling of sluggishness and replace it with focus and good action. That’s another problem with my attempts to gain weight. I can only do it if I’m not in the gym. I can easily lose four pounds in one day after it took me a week to put those on, so eating more is relatively fruitless. For me, it’s really all about energy & aggression spurring on good workouts.

I’d like to say I’ve finally kicked my weight issue, but I really haven’t. What I’ve definitely kicked is doing it through food consumption! :D

Gym, Day 10

Bill Cammack — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:07:06 +0000

Technically, this is gym day #10, but it’s actually #9, because I just posted on that day, so I haven’t been to the gym since day #8 which was the 13th, 4 days ago.

in 165.2
out 165.6 (water)

Yes, I already took Brian’s advice and I’m not concerned with my actual weight at this point. I’m still going to mark it down for archival purposes.

I still had zero motivation after four days out of the gym, but I felt like going today to see what would happen. It was too cold to go to the real gym, so I went to the bogus gym and got what I paid for.

Of course, there were a bunch of people there, so I ended up waiting around for a couple of the machines, and it was impossible to find a couple of sets of dumbbells I wanted to use, because there’s only one or at the most TWO sets of each, and people take them with them to the ends of #&$*(#& creation to do sets and then don’t bring them back to the racks. :/

I had decided that the only thing I was really interested in today was working towards getting my dips/pull-ups back in order on the weight-assist machine, but without using the weights. The problem with this particular machine in the bogus gym is that there’s no function to change the width of the dip bars. Since I’m a slimmer person, that means that as I’m doing dips, my arms aren’t where they’re supposed to be, at my sides. Instead, my arms are kind of out to the sides as if I’m about to draw two guns in a western movie. :/

Obviously, this means that I’m using more sets of muscles than I’m supposed to, and I’m not getting to isolate my triceps & chest properly during the dips.

The wide-grip pull-ups weren’t that bad, but the close-grip COMPLETELY SUCKS, AND is also too wide for my frame, so I end up holding my arms like a referee right after someone kicks a good field goal. :/

Super-Sets (no weight assist) dips 10, wgpu 5, dips 7, cgpu 4, dips 5. I was aiming at 10 of each. Eventually, I’ll be up to that and then I can start doing dips with added weight instead of having the machine subtract the weight, but that won’t be on this bogus machine, because there’s no way I’ll be able to support extra plates with the wide placement of the bars.
Super-Sets (40 lb weight assist) dips 10, wgpu 10, dips 8+2 (rest), cgpu 6+4 (rest), dips 10. The other thing that’s stupid about this dumb machine is that the numbers on the weights don’t take counterbalancing the weight of the apparatus into account. This means that if you pull the pin from the weights, the platform goes down immediately. The only way to stop that from happening is to put the pin in several plates below “zero”. It would have been SMARTER for them to make the machine calibrated so that you could get a good idea how much weight you’re actually offsetting.
Flies 100, 70, 40. This is the same dumb machine that doesn’t allow you to do flies with your elbows, but insists that you have your hands and forearms involved in the exercise. Unfortunately, the weights don’t match up to the weights on the same machine in the real gym, so it was just guesswork and messing around. Also, the only reason I was *DOING* flies is that someone wanted to use the weight-assist machine, so I was actually just killing time and doing some minor chest work in the process.
Shrugs (two dumbbells) 65×10, 90×6, 90×4 (grip issues), 50×10. It’s always good to do shrugs. I went with the 65s to warm up, then could NOT find two 85s or ANY 80s :/ So I went with 90 lb dumbbells for the heavy section. I knew it was heavier than I wanted to go, but…… So… By the second set with those, I was losing grip on the right side, so I went for a light set to close it out.
Super-Sets (60 lb weight assist) dips 10, wgpu 10, dips 10, cgpu 10, dips 10.
Shrugs (two dumbbells) 65×7

Overall, it was a better workout, but it wasn’t. :) It was more fun, but I got less done. I’m going to end up going to the real gym more, just because I like hanging out there. I definitely would have stayed twice as long. Also, with the wide-grip machine I had no choice but to use, I really couldn’t press the way I wanted/needed to, so it ended up being partially a chore, even though I got a good idea where I stand as far as starting a workout with dips.

Gym, Day 09 (notes)

Bill Cammack — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:21:35 +0000

Reader Brian, from Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia left me some GREAT comments that I just read on “Gym, Day 08″.

Let me first say that THIS is the benefit of self-expression on the (literally) world-wide-web. I can’t explain to you how amazing and incredible it feels to have people reading and responding to my posts, LITERALLY from around the entire world. :D
I can’t explain it because I couldn’t have explained it to myself before I got involved. It really expands your mind and your “vision” beyond localities and territories.

It’s really fantastic that Brian a) read my post, and b) commented. It’s icing on the cake that what he had to say was on-point, thought-provoking and useful. I wanted to be sure to respond in a post instead of just in my comment section.

Brian: “Throw your scales in the river. They are demotivating and often very misleading. Water retention/loss will mask any short term changes.”

That’s what I was noticing, and the reason I started marking in AND out weights. The reason I was paying attention to weight at all is that I stay at a base weight unless I really make a big deal out of consuming extra food (and formerly weight gain formulae and protein drinks). Back in the day, when I would TRY to gain weight, I had to pretty much stand perfectly still not to lose it all back, haha. This was fine down the line, when I wanted to ‘cut up’, but it was a drag for the overall prospect of gaining weight.

This time, I walked in the gym on day 01 @ 162, which was heavier than I had ever been when I was TRYING to gain weight, which is why I was skeptical that I would get any heavier. Ultimately, at this point, weight makes no difference. I’m not a pro fighter, so I don’t have to worry about “weight classes”. Also, I put on size without actually gaining weight. So, yes, this is a good idea… stopping using the scale as some form of judgment as far as progress is concerned.

“Use a tape measure or the notches on your belt. That will give you a far more honest progress report.”

hahaha I had COMPLETELY forgotten about stuff like that, measurements. :) Now that Brian’s brought it up, I can remember actually using a tape measure to judge progress. Of specific interest was biceps/triceps, because there were three areas that basically made up the circumference (front, back, outside, to be non-technical about it), and depending on the exercises you did and how you did them, you could improve on one of the three and see gains on the tape.

I definitely WOULD do that in lieu of using scales, except I’m not aiming at any particular size, so I don’t really need to know that information. I’m aiming at satisfaction, which I’ve already achieved to a degree. A few of my female friends have seen the results and gassed my head up with compliments even more, so that’s not helping me want to get in the gym EITHER! ;)

“And maybe remind yourself that it is all about lifestyle which is a complex interactive system of relationships, work and leisure interests.

The main inputs are exercise and quality food. Your work and leisure interests also count. It counts if you swing a pick all day at work. So does a love of something like mountain biking. It sounds like you donâ€™t really enjoy the gym – like about 98% of the population!”

More excellent points. First of all, I’m working off of “muscle memory”, so I’m just refilling what I had already built, similar to re-inflating a balloon that you already blew up. Second, my daily routine is devoid of manual labor (such as digging ditches and swinging picks!!! :D ), so working out / attacking the bag are pretty much my athletic endeavors. Riding used to be a workout as well, but that’s when I was a lot more aggressive and preparing for trackdays, at the time that I had decided that I wanted to take my riding to that level.

I also used to play a lot of roller hockey. Great for fun, using your mind on the fly and endurance/cardio/stamina.

The reason I don’t “enjoy the gym”… well.. Like I said in a different post, I enjoy the gym for hanging out and the women that show up, but actually lifting, no. I don’t enjoy lifting at this point, because there’s no reason. Nobody starts fistfights anymore, so you don’t have to be prepared for that. Girls these days don’t even KNOW any guys that are in shape, so there’s no physical competition for their attentions. I’m not playing football or rugby or any sport that requires me to have any particular useful strength. So the only reason left to actually work out is so that I get a positive instead of a negative reaction from the chicas when I take my shirt off, and that’s currently a non-issue. ;)

“The mediating process is your total lifestyle and how you give food and exercise a natural place in the flow of your day, including what you enjoy and what you have time for. Experiment with anything that increases your exercise and/or enhances the quality of your diet. It helps a lot if you enjoy the activity for its own sake.

The outcome may be weight loss, but it may not. It takes a lot of exercise and a lot less food to shift those scales.”

More great advice, and you’ve made me aware that I’m working from an ancient understanding of the way my system works… I’m going to take your advice and SEE if I can lose any weight AT. ALL. hahaha :D Now, THAT would be interesting… going directly to ‘cutting’ instead of building first. I still need to re-inflate traps & lats, but other than that, I might go for several weight-assisted supersets (dips/pull-ups), which is really good as an overall body workout and an enjoyable challenge for me as I strive to work out with less and less weight assistance and eventually get to the point where I can do all of my exercises without using the weights at all. hmmmm Yes… that would be fun. I can see if I can get back to doing dips with an *EXTRA* 45 lb plate attached to a weight belt instead of trying to REDUCE MY OWN WEIGHT by 40 lbs haha.

“However, the other outputs are a bit easier to achieve. If you improve your diet/exercise to even a small extent, you will more than likely feel better mentally and shortly after you may even look better as your body tones up a little. These changes can be achieved way before any weight loss.

So how about a quick walk down to the park and be proud of yourself. Do you own a dog?

Good luck,”

Yes. I’m going to get on this, immediately. I’m going to make it FUN instead of a WORKout. I’m going to figure out who wants to go to the gym and when and make hangouts out of it instead of something I’m just doing to prepare for the warm weather.

Thanks again, Brian. Great points, and perfectly timely, as I had reached saturation with going to the gym for the sake of preparation.

Cheers! :D
~Bill

Bill Cammack » workout

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