Personal Fitness Goals 3/26

About three weeks ago ago I began to lift weights as my primary fitness objective. I pictured myself as bodybuilder with a strength emphasis. I've been training in high rep ranges for hypertrophy and muscle gains, but also spending time on powerlifting lifts and lower rep strength exercises. I will continue to post my progress throughout this project.

Strength: One rep max

Deadlift: Goal - 355 by 6/1/15

 3/1/15 295 lbs,

Squat: Goal - 345 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 315 lbs,

Bench Press: Goal - 245 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 200, 3/26/15 215.

Overhead Press: Goal - 165 by 6/1/15

3/1/15 135, 3/26/15 145

Deadlines 3/26

Two weeks ago I created some deadlines. I wanted to finish my research last Friday, and then finish meetings with people by the end of the month...This didn't happen. I was expecting way to much to be done. A lot of work has been done, I'm proud how much work as been done, but the deadlines weren't reasonable. My mentor and I agreed that we would push back all deadlines a week. That leads be to finishing research tomorrow, and I'm on track to do it. Tonight I'm finishing Powerlifting Training, and tomorrow I will cover agility training. Once those two are finished, I will have Covered 7 different, but connected, topics thoroughly. 

Over break I will be meeting with people to get their workouts and deadlines set and straight. After that its straight into the videos! This project has been moving so fast, but I'm enjoying it and it's about to get to the fun part. 

Original Deadlines 3/11

These were the deadlines I created about a week and a half ago. Since then I realized I was expecting too much out of myself. My mentor and I agreed to move all deadlines back one week in order that I can finish the original amount of research that I wanted to. This Friday I will be done with research and moving on to presentations.

Original Deadlines 3/11

Researching

3/13 - Have finished research for 3 subject’s goals.

3/17 - Finished research for 6 subject’s goals.

3/20 - Finished research for 9 subject’s goals.

Presenting

3/25 - Meet with 3 subjects, present info, agree on meeting times/goals

3/27 - Meet with 6 subjects, present info, agree on meeting times/goals

3/31 - Meet with 9 subjects, present info, agree on meeting times/goals

Videos/Continueing project

Through April I hope to produce 4 or more videos that I think would be helpful to my subjects.

Ideas include: - Teaching Hang Clean

• Creatine information
• Meal timing
• Benefit of mixing routines/shocking muscles
• How much protein do you need and what foods to get it from
• Importance of the pump+ tips/tricks to increase pump
• Scheduling training/Frequency training

5/4 - Last meeting with each person, assess results

Project Conclusion + Presentation

To be determined based upon date of presentation

Explaning the Creatine Experiment

About a month ago I began to take Creatine, which has been determined a safe supplement and approved by the NCAA. Basically all it does is raise your ATP levels. I'm trying to think of ways possible to test its effectiveness. I don't have a large enough sample size to run an experiment that would be recognized as official, of course, but I want to see what I can do partly for practice, and also just because I'm curious. I think my best option is to not use a control, and just ask people how they feel their performance has changed. Without the control, we wont be able to see how they would have progressed without the supplement. It doesn't matter too much for my project though because the goal is to help people move towards their goals, and if it helps one person a lot, then great. But if it doesn't help another person so much, but they think it does, it doesn't really matter as there is no negative or anything we give up by taking creatine.

I'm recommending using Optimum Nutrition's supplement of creatine because they are a very well known and respected brand that is NSF certified. With Optimum Nutrition you know what you are getting, and there will be no "secret ingredients" added.

Meeting Scheduled

I've scheduled a meeting with Coach Parker tomorrow at 7:00. That means that I have to get all the things I need to show him ready tonight. I'm going to have deadlines throughout the rest of the project set because that's what he's helping me with, and what would be the point of meeting with nothing to discuss.

I still want to have 2 people's research done by tomorrow as well. I'm going to start with myself and Htet Pai because we have somewhat similar goals. So far the project is rolling along well, I think I'm going to get a lot done these next weeks!

Starting personalized research 3/8

Each person I meet with tells me their goals, and each goal I group into a category of my research. For example Htet is focusing on bodybuilding, so I'll do research on bodybuilding nutrition. I think for my bodybuilding research, I'd like to meet with a large bodybuilder, who has been doing it for a long time. I consider myself a bodybuilder, but I've seen much bigger and stronger people at the Gyms in Ithaca.

Ive met with 8 people so far. I know have 8 people's goals and they have agreed to what I've asked of them. Now to find out what I want to ask of them exactly. I started that this weekend. By Wednesday I want to have 2 peoples research done. By Friday, 4 peoples research done. By next Friday, 8 peoples research done. The Wednesday, March 25th,  after next Friday I hope to be finished, and begin getting ready for check ups with each person, and starting my first YouTube video.

Making first steps - 3/4/15

I've just started to ask people to be part of my project. They don't have to agree to much, just that they will do the recommendations I ask of them, but it still takes a bit of time to gather 10 people. An example recommendation is Elliott has tight hamstrings, so I'll give him a stretch, and he has to do it after every lower body weight session he does. For the people who are more intense with their fitness or want more help, I'm including in the few experiments I'm going to try to run. I'm going to try to test variables such as Frequency, Creatine supplement, etc.

First two weeks outline

Goals: - Get 10 people to agree to be subjects for my project
- Meet with them and get gather their own goals/what they want to be able to do
- Keep this all organized
- Gather data/helpful info on each person's goals
- By the end of the week, be ready to meet again with at least 3 and set a schedule with them.

The work starts with me asking people to participate in my project. I think 10 is a good number. It will be a lot to manage, but I'll be able to experience more. Once I have these people (I have a few in mind) and have determined their 3 month goals with them, its time to gather data specific to what they want to do. There is so much to do with strength and conditioning, I would learn a lot about stuff I don't need if I studied before having any specific goals in mind. Now I have been known to be disorganized in the past. With 10 different people, I need to be very organized. I think creating separate folders for each person in Google docs would be best. By the end of the week, I should have gathered enough info to create at least 3 people's programs for the next 3 months.

Asking around will take time, class time , researching, and planning for the 3 will take much time. I'm pretty sure that 8 hrs a week will be covered between all these. Also, my own training is part of this project and will be added to the time spent.

The Intro

Dear Reader, 

We all compete in some form or way. Strength is defined as a good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing. When a person talks of strength, they could be speaking of many different ideas. There is mental strength, emotional strength, physical strength , etc.  All are important, and need to be developed for different ways of competition and living. This blog will focus on developing Physical strength, but will also hopefully strengthen all of our different types of strength as well by helping us to understand our bodies better.

I chose this topic for my project because I'm very interested in Sports, powerlifting, and bodybuilding.  Strength is not the top priority for bodybuilding, but it still fits into this project because it involves weight training. Also, I will be studying to become a Physical Therapist next year, and I think that this project will help me learn more about what I will be studying.

Nutrition is also key to build muscle, so I will cover it as well. There are ways a powerlifter's diet differs from an athlete's diet, and also from a bodybuilder's.

There will be two main sub-projects to the whole thing. The first is creating a guideline book, or a youtube channel dedicated to help the next part. This will include many varying tips and ways on how to build build strength, muscle, etc. I have not decided on which (book or video) I'll be using yet. The second part of the project is to bring people onto strength and conditioning plans, watch and help them reach their set goals making sure that they stick to them, and then to analyze the results. Similar to what a personal trainer does, but I will not be helping them in the gym. I will only be making sure they try exercises best for their goals, recommend the correct diet and times to consume nutrients, and other various tips.

Each subjects results will be measured and posted here.

I will also be going through the same process and will post my results.