Workout music and custom workout videos

I talked to a friend of mine about workout music this week. The past couple of years I have been more and more drawn to old school metal music when preforming interval workouts and while lifting weights.

My mp3 player has some Iron Maiden, Pantera and a couple of Disturbed albums. All of them rock but after a couple of years of the same tunes I am starting to look around for new material.

My friend mentioned Gamma Ray so I bought "Power Plant" and pressed play.. YES! Perfect! High paced metal with a great sound! I forsee great sessions at the gym in the near future.

If any of you guys/girls reading this have tips for workout music; post a comment and let me know!

I managed to create a poll to see if there is interest to get workout videos made by me for your unike goals. Disregarding the small number of votees there was a positive trend.

If you would like a training plan that fits your goals coupled with clear videos where I explain the program and go through the ABCs, send me a e-mail at; bjorn@bjorngranum.com , and mark the subject line with your name and; web-training.

This is not an automated service. I have to intervju you via e-mails first, give you payment details (I charge via paypal), create your program, run it by you via more e-mails, film and edit the videos that will go along with the program.

The service cost $80 for the first month and $40 for subsequent months. Feel free to e-mail me any questions you might have if this sounds interesting for you; bjorn@bjorngranum.com .

I am still making great progress. I have finished 6 weeks of training and have added 2.6kg fat free mass and 0.7kg fat. That is about 433 grams of fat free mass and 117 grams of fat per week.

My glutes are well rested and I managed to do RDL this week. Tomorrow is squat day! Can`t wait!

By the way... Not sure if I have mentioned it before but I am taking a progress picture after each week. The plan is to create a time-lapse with the pictures at the end of my training-year.

My methods for measuring progress

Just to make something clear regarding the my fat % numbers etc.; I use a ordinary fat caliper and weigh my self every Sunday after a 15 hours fast. I do not keep a record of what I consume in my last meal on Saturday and using a fat caliper is not super accurate.

What I am implying is that my fat gain/lean gain numbers is an estimate. I measure the same spots and use the same tablet for estimating my body fat % every time. I am no proffessor but my measurements show a trend.

This past week gave me a total weight gain of 0.5kg and my body fat % stayed at 8.5% for a total fat gain of 100g and a lean body mass gain of 400g. Measured after a 15 hour fast and a hot bath.

My glutes are still not recovered so I might have to skip squats and RDL this week. We shall see.

Peace!

Mini weights

A while back I made a how-to-video of how I made mini-weights. I plan on stretching the progression on my current program as long as possible before reaching a sticking point on the weights. These mini-weights come in very handy since I now can increase the load by 0.5kg per session if I want.

I made four 250 grams weights and four 500 grams. These along with my gyms 1.25 kg and 2.5kg plates gives me the variables in weight that I need.

I bought bicycle innertubes of two different size, cut off the valve, cut the tube in half, tied of one end, filled it with sand until I got my desired weight (used a small scale to weigh them), tied the other end, tied both ends togather and put some tape on.

The video explains the process in detail:

Old dog learns yet another lesson..

I am borderline handicaped from my tricking-session on Friday. Stupid me did not warm up properly before jumping around on a field 30+ times. Well, yesterday and today I have been properly reminded why I should practice what I preach in regards to warm ups and dynamic stretching before ballistic movements.

Should have dawned on me after jumping 3-4 times on one foot with all kinds of powers pulling me in different directions but nooooo... The; "I am 18 years old again"-feeling blurred my mind.

What I am trying to say is my ass hurts! Or rather; my glutes are hurting along with my entire core. I might actually have to move my strength session to Tuesday because of my stupidness.

Enough of that. I have been on my program for 4 weeks today so I took some new measurements yesterday after 15.5 hours of fasting:

Weight: 72.6kg

Left thigh : 8mm (+0.5mm)

Left sub scapular: 7mm (+1mm)

Right suprailiac: 6mm (+1mm)

Left abdominal: 10mm (+2mm)

Right triceps: 4mm (-1mm)


This sums up to a total of 1.8kg gained, 0.5kg fat and 1.3kg lean mass. I am quite happy with these gains considering the amount of junk I have stuffed my self with over these past 4 weeks. I will continue consuming high calorie foods but will reduce my inntake of sugar (yep, I am a sugar junkie:). In fact, I will try to eat even bigger meals and consume 1-2 gainershakes per day.

Througout this period I have fasted 16 hours on most days but not all. Some Saturdays and Sundays have gone by without fasting, some days I have fasted 14 hours, some days 15.5 etc.

This will probably continue.

Short summary: Things are going according to plan, I am gaining mostly lean body weight and am getting stronger every workout.

Stay cool, and remember; if you like my blog, subscribe, share it with your friends and family! :D

Old dog learns new tricks

Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by flips, spins, handstands etc.

After watching a ninja-movie I went outside, found a field or a place with soft sand and practiced the front flip, cartwheels and the likes. I usually kept practicing until I landed the trick I was practicing.

Lately I have been fascinated by free running- and tricking-videos on youtube. One trick that I always wanted to be able to do is a jump with a flat spin (butterfly twist as I now know it is called).

I searched on youtube and found several tutorials for the butterfly twist and I did not think the trick looked overly complicated.

Today I decided I would give it a go so I went outside and found a field, put my camera up and started practicing. It was great fun and I am proud to say that I actually landed a couple of OK ones before I called it a day.

3 weeks down, 49 to go!

I have changed the title of my blog since it is more fitting to what I am doing.

My approach to building muscle is not the traditional one. One of the "dangers" with trying to build muscle is going overboard with what and how much you eat to ensure enough calories for muscle building. A natural by-product of eating more calories then one spends each day, is gaining fat.

I have always been lean. My set point for fat % is probably no higher then 12% body fat (rough estimate). Because of evolution, we are programmed to store fat if we get to eat more then we need. It packs on our bodies and stays there like reserve rations for when food supply becomes low.

Well, for me, food supply is always high. I have no need for fat reserves and I would not like for my set point to get higher.

Intermittent fasting lets me have a somewhat liberal approach to what I eat and how much I eat. These first 3 weeks of my training-cycle I have not counted calories and I have not stressed with macro nutrient control and the likes.

I have been eating three big meals every day (sometimes two plus a gainer-type-shake), sometimes including chocolate, sweets etc. to get the calories in.

Yesterday I took some fat caliper measurements. I have gained about 0.5kg fat and 0.8kg lean mass in these past 3 weeks. Some might shake their heads in regards to that 0.8kg lean mass gain, well, it is probably mostly fluids (glycogen, water) but I measured after 15 hours of fasting.

Training is going very well! As some of you might have seen from my videos; I started pretty low on the weight and am working my way up. Feels great to move weight around when I am in a calorie surplus!

I will end this with a video of me and my son doing a tabata-workout. A guy that calls him self "ChuckW" over at the rosstraining forum posted a video of himself and his son doing a tabata-workout. This reminded me that I have to include my son more. Anyways, here it is:

Training while on vacation

Me and my family went on a short vacation to Sweden this week. We drove on Saturday and spent 6 days in Skellefteaa.

Since I knew we would be there for most of the week I started scanning the area for a proper gym.. My two strength sessions were going to happen, vacation or no vacation.

The hotel we stayed on had a gym but it turned out to be a useless gym for me; no squat rack, no bench press, no dip possibilities, no chin up bar and no dip-belt, oh well, the search continued.

Luck struck as we were walking down the street to find a resturant; A fully equipt commercial gym 500 meters from my hotel! YES!!

Needless to say I got my lifting on as usual and as planned. They did not have a dip-belt but I found two straps that one can use to do suspended leg-raises with, tied them togather, found a carabiner from a pulldown machine and presto, dip-/chin-belt! Felt a bit like Macgyver.. :)

Fasting and feeding has not been according to plan during my vacation but I have at least consumed more calories then I have been spending.

Filmed Thursdays Romanian dead lifts with my mobile phone but did the classical; "set the phone on its side so the video becomes useless for uploading"-trick. If someone know how I tilt the video in adobe premier pro, please, chime in!

One of my hobbies is disc golf. Did two rounds at my local court last evening. Some nice scenery and a bit of music goes hand in hand when trying to hit those chains.. active meditation.

That is it for this week. Will jot down what I am lifting etc. next week. Stay tuned and spread the word about my blog if you find it entertaining!