Herein you will find accounts of uncommon bravery and unwavering will as btimby and PeteBDawg attempt to mold their bodies into 10% bodyfat carrying specimens of "man-ness". They have both come a long way, but the most arduous leg of their journey lies ahead...

Seriously, we plan on cutting ourselves down from ~20% to ~10% bodyfat. We have both already cut more than 10% since starting, and we have great confidence that we will continue to see good results. Sunday we will be posting our first official update.

Good luck PeteBDawg!

Good luck, btimby!

"By the ancient laws of combat, we are met at this chosen ground, to settle for good and all who holds sway over our body comps: native ripped-ness, born rightwise to this fine land, or the foreign fat defiling it!"

Hey btmimby,

Our challenge starts tomorrow! Are you ready to go?

Okay, so right after Super Bowl Sunday, here are my "before" pictures for this challenge!

Vitals-

Age- 24
Height- 5'11" (~180 cm)
Weight- 181 lbs (~82 kg)
BF%- estimate 21% (by mybodycomp.com)

goal - 10% by 6/5/05

The goal is very aggressive, and I feel that's important. You don't want goals that are too easy.

I had "technical difficulties" all day yesterday. I will post my pics tomorrow. For now, here is a bit about my stats and my plans.

1. Stats.

26 years old.
6'5", 216lbs.
19% BF, mybodycomp.com, calipers, tanita scale.
2000 - 2200 calories per day. +300 on weight lifting days.

2. Diet

6:00 AM, 45 minutes elliptical cardio 135-150 bpm.

7:30 AM, two servings of egg beaters and 4 strips of thick sliced bacon. Multi-vitamin, cacium 12 oz ice water.

8:30 AM, 1.5oz All the Whey protein shake, 1tbsp metamucil, 1tbsp L-Glutamine, 8 oz fat free milk.

11:30 AM, 1 can tuna fish salad (2tbsp FF mayo, 1tbsp relish, 2 tbsp chopped celery), 4 celery stalks 4 carrots, 1 serving fat free cottage cheese.

2:30 PM, 1 turkey sandwich: 3oz fat free turkey, brown mustard, 1 slice provolone cheese, 2 slices organic 11 grain stone ground bread, 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots, 1 serving fat free cottage cheese.

5:30 PM, 1 serving fat free organic yogurt, 16 (1oz) cashews, 1 cup seedless grapes.

6:30 PM (Sun, Mon, Weds, Thurs), weight lifting. Followed by PWO 2.0oz All the Whey protein shake, 4 tbsp Ovaltine chocolate drink, 8 oz fat free milk.

8:30 PM, 4oz lean meat (whitefish, chicken, roast beef, steak, pork tenderloin), 2 serving veggie (corn, peas, green beans, brocolli, cauliflower, asparagus).

10:30 PM, 1 serving fat free cottage cheese.

3. Weights.

I lift Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I rotate the following workouts:

1. Legs:
Leg Extensions (treated as warmup).
Leg Curls (treated as warmup).
Squats
Stiff Legged Dead Lifts.

2. Chest and forearms:
Flat Bench Press.
Incline Dumbell Press.
Forearm cable curls.
Forearm forward and reverse dumbell curls.

3. Back and Traps.
Pullups to failure (I can do 5 in a row now, and do 5 sets)
Close Grip Lat Pull Downs.
Upright Barbell Rows.
Barbell Shrugs.
Good Mornings.

4. Shoulders and Triceps.
Seated Military Barbell Press.
Seated Military Dumbell Press.
Seated Overhead Dumbell Tricep Press.
Cable (Rope) Tricep Push Downs.

5. Abs and Biceps.
Incline Seated Dumbell Curls.
Curl Bar (EZ-Curl) Curls.
Cable Crunches.
Dumbell Side Bends.

My workouts last about 45 minutes, I do 4 sets of 4-6 reps of all excersizes, I do 6 reps if possible, and the next week I increase the weight, and do 4 reps. In this manner I am able to increase the weight I am able to do, and work to positive failure on each excersize. I am 5 rotations into my 8 rotation plan, at that time, I will take a week off, and then make up 5 new workout plans, I will likely keep the same days and muscle groups, but pick new excersizes for most of my current ones. The excersizes that will stay are: flat bench press, squats, SLDL. Everything else will be changed up for different movements. I will also add calf and neck excersizes, this may require a 6th workout, and a 5th day per week that I work out on.

That is about all I do, except from time to time, I ride my bike on weekends, or go snow boarding etc.

4. Goals.

My goal is to reach 10% bodyfat by 6/5/05. I realize as PeteBDawg does that this is a very aggressive goal, but I feel it is attainable, if I stick to my plan above. I feel confident that I will reach this goal, and I will make adjustments as needed to ensure my success. In addition to this goal, I already have some ideas for secondary goals that I will propose to PeteBDawg along the way. I trust he will do that same.

Reasons I feel I can succeed:

1. I have already cut > 10% body fat by losing over 40 lbs. I need to lose another 20 lbs to drop to 10% bodyfat. This is attainable, as I have proven I am able to successfully cut bodyfat, and retain a large majority of my muscle mass.

2. This past week, I lost 2lbs, and have gained strength. This indicates to me that my body is still willing to shed fat, while allowing me to build muscle, or at least become able to efficiently utilize my existing muscle.

3. I cannot wait to start a bulking program! I will do what I have to do to ensure I can start one as soon as possible!

4. Up to this point, I have allowed myself to indulge to a fairly high degree. This will happen no more, I am going to "tighten my belt", stick to my plan, and really super-charge my transformation!

5. I have learned many tricks in the past 6 months that will help me to stay motivated, and to cut the amount of time needed to prepare meals, and all the work that is involved in transforming my body. I am ready to use these tools to my advantage.

Good luck guys, I think 10% is within your grasp for both of you by June 5. Can't wait to see your progress!

Thanks, slush_puppy!

I'll ape btimby's last post a bit.

Diet is forthcoming; I'm making a few major changes (involving pre-preparing foods for the week), and I need to try them out once or twice more for logistical purposes before I commit to them.

Here's my workout plan, for the record.

Daily: 45 minutes of early morning fasted, steady state cardio (treadmill, about 140 bpm)

Lifting (I do a 4-day split, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, usually, though sometimes different days of the week)

Legs
Squats
Leg Extensions
Lying leg curls
Calf raises

(I used to do SLDLs, but I injured myself doing them two months ago, so I've backed off a bit)

Back, Biceps, and Abs
Deadlifts (classic style)
Bent-over barbell rows
Pullups + negative pullups
Dumbell curls
Weighted, inclined crunches
Oblique crunches
Leg lifts

Chest and Triceps
Flat dumbell press
Incline dumbell press
Dips
Cable flies
Cable pushdowns (thinking of switching to skull crushers - any recommendations?)

Shoulders and Traps
Standing military press
Dumbell shrugs
Lateral dumbell flies
Reverse flies (not sure what the proper name is; I sit in reverse position on the fly machine to work the posterior delts)

My lifting workouts are usually pretty quick, 30-45 minutes tops, with back day being the longest and the most difficult. I still use a 3 set, 8 rep rule, though I've been lifting heavier for shorter sets lately and seeing some good results. Switching to a 4 set rule sounds interesting - did you ever do fewer sets btimby, and have you noticed improvements?

I am looking to mix up my routine a bit, maybe switch skull crushers for cable pushdowns, SLDLs for leg curls again, and rear delt rows for reverse flies, in particular. But my current routine is good because it is efficient in getting me on the less popular apparatus and benches more often, so I work quicker (my gym is crowded). As the weeks go on, I will no doubt try out new things, but I like to do these things slowly. I took a week off two weeks ago and am not looking to take another week off for a month or two.

Goals -

As I said, 10% by 6/5/05. I look forward to the secondary goals, and I intend to propose a few myself. During the summer, my friends and I somewhat frequently hang out at a lake house up near the CT/MA border, and I want to be ripped for the first one of those weekends, in particular. My current job also is generous with Fridays off in the summer, so I want to spend some time down at the shore. I thrive off of good-natured competition with my friends, and the idea of those weekends pushes me forward.

Of course, as you can see, I have skin issues, so "taking my shirt off" has been a mixed proposition for a long time. Still, I already don't feel too self-conscious about that stuff (I used it as an excuse for a long time) - a little bit of a tan makes them look a lot less bad. And I could always go see a dermatologist if that really was what was bothering me.

Reasons I feel I can succeed.

1. I finally found a "before" picture of myself, and am attaching it to this post. I'm the guy in the middle in the Yankees shirt. This is from last May, when I weighed about 220 (already having lost 15 pounds in a year through quitting drinking and starting moderate exercise).

2. I have come a long way very quickly and I don't mind patting myself on the back a little for it. Although, biochemically, what I have ahead of me is "tougher" than what is behind me, personally and psychologically, I think it's going to be a lot easier. The changes I've already made are dramatic; I know I can do this.

3. I am still in more direct competition with a close friend of mine who is in much better shape than I am, but I am closing the gap quickly. Every time we go out, I feel like I'm a little better, a little stronger, a little slimmer, and I do a little better with the women. It's a weekly reminder.

4. I have never gone to a great deal of trouble to time my carb ingestion or limit my dairy (I think I'm pretty sensitive to it). I think these two changes will give me a big boost in the coming weeks.

5. Eating healthily and exercising has become a huge part of my life, and I am not happy if I'm not doing it. It's become a Pavlovian thing, and self-sustaining. These good habits provide me with a lot of personal strength and motivation.

I still use a 3 set, 8 rep rule, though I've been lifting heavier for shorter sets lately and seeing some good results. Switching to a 4 set rule sounds interesting - did you ever do fewer sets btimby, and have you noticed improvements?

No, previously, I did 5x10 reps, this resulted in fatigue. Since lowering my sets, and reps, and lifting heavier, I have noticed great improvements in my gains. I literally went from 0 pullups to 5 in a row (not great, but better!) in 3 weeks. This kind of thing is happening w/ all of my lifts. I have been doing the new thing for 5 rotations (~6 weeks), and previously I was lifting using the 5x10 for a few months. I won't go back, however, I may try doing 2-4 sets x 4-6 reps, but even heavier during my next iteration. I may still stick to 4 sets for specific excersizes, like abs and calves for example, they don't seem to respond as quickly as other parts do. In other words, it is really hard to actually overload these groups.

Here are my pics. I took them last nite. Sorry they are blurry, stoopid camera!

New pics to come this evening. I was in Cincinnati this weekend, and just got home last night. Anyway, Fri., Sat. and Sun. I ate pretty much what I wanted, I was just careful to eat 4-6 times each day. I also did my cardio in the morning at the hotel, and an additional 20 mins each evening before bed to compensate for the somewhat unclean foods. I weigh as much now as I did when I left, so I guess that is a good thing. I will post my pics and measurements after workout tonite. Tonite is chest night, rock on!

OK, this week was a pretty good week. My only setbacks were that while I was out of town, I did not eat completely clean. I would say that I was 80% clean, and I still ate 4-6 meals per day. I also kept up with my cardio (I even did extra 20 minutes before bed each day) to compensate for my 20% bad eating! I also smoked a few cigarettes while at the hotel. I am not sure why I felt it necessary to do this, but I did. Anyway, I have been smoke free since Saturday, and I have vowed not to do this again.

I also added 25lbs to my squat, and 10lbs to my bench this week, so strength is improving. I lost my 2lbs last week, and this week is on track so far.

I made a change to my diet, I removed a serving of fruit, and replaced it with cheese for my afternoon meal, trying to move to a fat/protein, carbs/protein seperation diet. The other thing I started doing recently is using an honest to god PWO shake, I like this, and it makes my lifting days +250 cals. I may also try zig-zagging my calories in the coming weeks to try and keep my progress moving.

I think that is about all I can say for last week. Sorry for the late update, my upcoming weekend looks pretty clear, so I should make the Sunday update. Expect new measurements and their deltas in my next update!

This week was pretty hard. I spent most of it running a conference, and, as such, was scrambling to improvize healthy meals and get my workouts in when I could. It was stressful, but I'm pretty proud that I did manage to stay on task, more or less, and that I snapped right back into the swing of things when the contest was over.

I have problems with my left shoulder when I lift, it frequently shrugs and throws off my posture. In general, my posture is pretty bad, as you can see, especially from the back picture. I've been trying the "Neanderthal No More" stretches, but with my program for this challenge going, I'm not interested in attacking that 100% just yet (maybe a posture challenge is next after this one).

Anyway, any suggestion for a guy who has trouble keeping his shoulders down, especially in chest presses?

PeteBDawg, For chest presses, you may try what I have recently been doing. When I do bench presses or dumbell presses, I arch my back as much as I can. This really seems to get my chest into the movement, and remove my shoulders/triceps. Also, I don't know how you could lift your shoulder when doing it this way.

These pictures were taken on Monday, February 21, but I didn't get a chance to upload them until today.

Fitness is contagious! Yet another one of my friends has caught the fitness fever, and this one has decided to accompany me to the gym 4 times a week. This is exciting and opens up a few options that I am glad to have access to again.

I tried barbell bench presses for the first time in a long time today, making certain to keep my form perfect to avoid lifting my shoulder. You can probably see from my pictures that I've been spending a lot of effort working on my posture. When I don't engage my shoulders too much, it's a lot harder to put up weight, but I suspect that it was overreliance on my deltoids that made me plateau around 180 and go no higher back when I benched regularly. So, this time, I've stepped it way down and am not going to compromise on form. We'll see how that works.

I did something extremely stupid yesterday, though, which will keep me from doing cardio again for at least a day or two. We all have moments where we kind of breeze through things without paying attention, but I advise all of you never to phone it in while doing squats. I accidentally loaded more weight on one side of the barbell than the other yesterday (mistook a 45 for a 35), and managed to screw up something in my right leg, whether it's my hip, my quad, or my hamstring, I'm not sure, and DOMs isn't making it easier to tell, but my cardio was Hell today and I was limping around painfully afterwards.

It doesn't feel like anything serious, just some sort of strain, and it'll probably heal up quickly enough if I ease off on it a bit. I probably won't do cardio tomorrow, and I'll probably cut the deadlifts out of my back workout (as well as anything else that might strain my hip or quads too much, I'll play it by ear), but I see no reason not to drop by the gym and do some pull ups.

The food strategy is going okay, but not great. I feel as if my metabolism has gone way up since I've put on a little muscle; I've eaten a whole lot lately and still lost about a half pound a week, but I can do better. I traveled last weekend and went to a conference before that, but now starts another long stretch of weekends in the city, and since I weathered my last financial crisis and now have some money in the bank, it'll be smooth sailing.

I'm still working with modifications the same basic diet I used to cut from 220 to 175 before my "bulklet"; it needs serious reworking. Maybe with the time I save tomorrow from not working out I'll go through my food and parse it out again. I've had to make some changes to ease up on my food budget (due to a new cheap Thai import in soya oil, which I won't eat, they stopped carrying my brand of sardines at the grocery store, the price on sardines in olive oil rose about a dollar a can at my grocery store, so sardines have been scaled back, and I've tried to replace them with hard boiled eggs with moderate success), but a more thorough overhaul is in order.

It should be exciting!

I had to work last night until midnight. One of our customers is being featured in an online magazine today, and I had to put in place a caching solution on very short notice. So far we are handling the load quite nicely, so I did a good job. However, I was unable to do anything except configure gear last nite (I did work out while compiling software tho!), eat my dinner, and crash.

Anyway, here is my update, pics will come tonite, I have a quiet night at home planned, so I hope that is what happens.

This week has been awesome! I dropped my calories back to 2200 from 2600 (near maintenance), which is where I have been for the last two weeks. I have lost about .5 - .75 lbs per week during this period, but so far this week, I am about 2 lbs lighter than I was previously. I think I have my diet pretty much finely tuned, I really don't know much else I could do besides trying advanced techniques such as zig-zagging or fat/carb seperation. However, my results are very good right now, and I will stick with what I have been doing.

I packed lunches for the entire week this past weekend, and I have prepared chicken cubes for my dinners. I am eating vegetarian baked beans, corn, and other veggies with them. I also cut back on my protein shakes, I now have one PWO on lifting days. I replaced my daily morning protein shake with 2 extra scrambled eggs. Additionally, I am now using unsweetened soy milk instead of fat free milk in my PWO. This provides additional 8g protein and very little (3g) sugar.

My lifting has been strong, and I ended up buying some new dumbells to support my progress (I use hex dumbells, and upgrade as needed). Next week will be the last of my 8 week lifting routine. I will take the week off, and put together a new workout schedule. I am planning on incorporating alot of excersizes I previously had trouble with. This includes chinups and dips. Additionally, I am going to do less sets, and more varied lifts. For example, instead of doing 4 sets of squats and SLDLs, I will do 2 sets each, but add 2 sets each of heavy lunges and calf raises.

My BF% seems to be moving down a percentage point every 2-3 weeks. This is slow, but it is in line with the weight I am losing, and reinforces my notion that I am getting the proper nutrition to lose fat. My readings are now consistantly 19%-20%, whereas when this challenge started I was around 21%-23%.

Fitness is contagious! Yet another one of my friends has caught the fitness fever, and this one has decided to accompany me to the gym 4 times a week. This is exciting and opens up a few options that I am glad to have access to again.

This is great news, it is nice to have support from your friends, and them joining you is even better.

I hope your right leg gets better, it is bummer to get hurt, so far, I have only pulled muscles in my neck, so hopefully I will continue to be lucky. I would offer a small piece of advice, like woodworkers say: measure twice, cut once. I alway double-check my weight after loading it up, I can't count the number of times, I have made a mistake, or forgotten to increase it for a given excersize on a given week. Double-checking is the only way I can be sure I did not mess it up.

Anyway, good luck to you, sorry I am so busy lately, I have way too much going on!

Here are the pics.

Just to let you know, according to my doctor, I have officially pulled my glute (doing squats), which will alter my training significantly. I haven't been able to do much cardio in the last two weeks because of the pain (the lifting I've kept doing, minus squats and deads), but my doc says I should have more success on an exercise bike than the treadmill or the elliptical. Because it's almost impossible to "rest" the glute, especially when you don't have a car, I'm going into physical therapy to help me heal this injury.

This has been a setback, but not a fatal one. I've just got to pick up and keep going. The food strategy is tightening up and will continue to do so until I can figure out a new rhythm to keep it going day to day (the goal there is to eliminate bread, which I have found surprisingly hard to do when brown-bagging it every day).

I get back to doing cardio today and back to morning cardio tomorrow; we'll see how it goes. If I can get back into the cardio, you'll see fresh pictures on Sunday.

Sorry to hear that PeteBdawg. Hope you heal up quick. Stay motivated!

Btimby, that's a great idea about doing less sets and more different exercises. I dropped the 3-4 set style and now I just do 2 sets of a lot more exercise types. I've read that very little extra muscle fibers actually get recruited during the third or fourth set of an exerrcise and if you haven't hit the target muscle completely in the first two sets, a third isn't going to do it either. Instead, doing different exercises will incorporate more fibers over the same set count and you'll be getting a fuller workout. I've been doing that for the last two and a half months and I've seen some really good progress with my lifting.

Great work so far guys, can't wait to see more progress! Hope that butt cheek heals up soon, Pete.

Thanks for the well wishes, guys. I have discovered the joys of the exercise bike and am back on track. I've probably lost some ground, but I can catch back up.

Btimby, that's a great idea about doing less sets and more different exercises.

Yes, I go so heavy on my sets, I have trouble finishing the last two. This is due to fatigue, which does not build muscle. I start lifting again on Monday, and I can't wait! I will post back with results when I try the new method.

Pete,

I would do more arm specific excersizes. Currently, it seems your only doing Bicep curls and cable pushdowns.

I would do at least 6 bicep sets and 6 tricep sets.

I do 2 sets of 3 excersizes. Any three will do.

Just my advice if you feel like changing it up a bit, esp with lossing some excersizes through injury. :)

Other then that, rock on ! :tu:

Thanks, Reno,

I have been looking to mix it up - generally, I've been adding more general back and chest stuff (more different kinds of rows and presses) rather than arm-specific stuff, but you would recommend upping the bicep and tricep sets?

How does this look (3 sets for everything)-

Back, Biceps, and Abs
Deadlifts
Bent-Over Barbell Rows
Seated Cable Rows
Pull-ups
Dumbell Curls
Preacher Curls
Hanging leg raises
Back Hyperextensions
Oblique Crunches
Leg Lifts

Chest and Triceps
Bench Press (barbell when I have a spotter, dumbell or machine when I don't)
Incline Bench press (same)
Decline Bench press (same)
Dips
Cable flies
Skull Crushers
Cable Pushdowns

Leg Lifting is heavily curtailed until I'm certain I'm recovered from my injury.

Shoulders and Traps
Military Press
Lateral Flies
Front Raises
Shrugs
Reverse Fly (machine)
Cable Shoulder Press

Have I added too much in certain places, or is this more on target than before?

Pete,

I would do more arm specific excersizes. Currently, it seems your only doing Bicep curls and cable pushdowns.

I would do at least 6 bicep sets and 6 tricep sets.

I do 2 sets of 3 excersizes. Any three will do.

Just my advice if you feel like changing it up a bit, esp with lossing some excersizes through injury. :)

Other then that, rock on ! :tu:

That looks like a good plan. :)

Not sure what a seated cable press is, but i would look at Arnold presses as an option, i attribute most of my shoulder development to them.

Good idea to leave the legs alone for a while. Nothing worse then making an injury, well, worse. :nod:

This (http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/DeltoidAnterior/CBShoulderPress.html) is the shoulder press I was talking about.

Reno, what's your opinion on the proper form on an Arnold Press? I've been taught a couple of different ways, and different resources seem to say different things.

Do you start out with your palms facing in toward each other or facing your chest? Do you start with the dumbells out in front of you or at your sides? How far do you rotate your shoulders, and at what point in the movement do you do it? Where do your palms face at the top of the movement?

I avoid that exercise because I'm not confident I know how to do it right.

Form wise, go with what feels right, what feels comfortable. When i first started doing them, i started with the weights infront of my chest, seated, palms facing in. Now though, i have the weights start slighty higher, so the top of the dumbells sit at face level. And have palms facing more at each other then towards me. Keep your elbows in. Thats vital. I rotate kind of mid movement, but making sure its all one smooth movement. Really, the point of rotation isnt a point, its all part of the flow, so your rotating as your pushing up rather then pushing then rotating, then pushing some more. The idea being that by rotating your palms, you get a more straight upward push, rather then a push coming in from the side (as with the cable excersize). This is why you should try and keep your elbows in parrelel (sp?) to your body line. Your arms should then follow a striaght line to the top of the movement, where as with the elbows out, the weights go from out to the side to above your head. You couldnt do this movement without beginning with your palms facing inwards (or between inward and facing each other).

Get some lighter weights and run through the motion and feel what is best for you, get the rhythm of the motion right, see what is comfortable. Train infront of a mirror and check your form is good, that the weights are running along a straightish line from floor to celing.

Have fun ! :)