Week 19 - Update - Mark's Road to Newcastle

Day 133

End of Week Nineteen – 1 December
1.1kg (2.4 lbs) weight loss

Total weight loss, to date
24.7kg (54.5 lbs / 3st 12.5 lbs)

That’s 22.5% of my starting body weight
Muscle Mass increased to 75.8%
Fat Mass dropping to 20.2%

Last Friday was the second week of my new routine. A 7am start in the gym for the JD Burn class, once again led by Matty the PT, followed by a stint on the treadmill. This week’s Burn class consisted of… SkiERG, Ball Slam, Dumbbell Clean & Press, Mountain Climbers, Step Ups, Squats, Wall Sit

“Smashed the burn today mate well done 👍”

Thanks Matty! Not bad for only my second gym class!

On Saturday, ParkRun #6 was, once again, another cautious outing for the calf. Despite a good 45 minute session on the treadmill the previous day, and despite doing stretches when I got out of the car, my calf decided this wasn’t going to be a good day. It started niggling me as I walked to the clock tower, the ParkRun meeting point. I messaged Coach Ken and said “Alas, I’m not going to do today I don’t think.” but his advice was to go slowly and see what I could do.

In the end, I hobbled around for just one lap, 2.5km, and dropped out. Disappointed. Gutted. Ken reassured me that I had achieved something, it was better than nothing and that getting out and doing one lap was “still a win”. It just didn’t feel like a win. Thanks Ken for your time last weekend. You helped me to reframe everything, and whilst my motivation was never at risk or reaching my goals ever in doubt, I did need “picking up” after Saturday morning.

Sunday evening and back in the gym and back on the treadmill again to see how things were. I was able to do a 45 minute stint at a slower pace. I reported back and Ken instructed me to rest the leg on Monday morning. “Less is more when it comes to an injury”.

With the calf injury in mind I messaged Matty on Saturday and asked that we move to three PT sessions per week. This would allow for more upper body work, something we had planned to do in the new year anyway.

Monday – PUSH DAY
Press-ups, bench press, dumbbell bench press, shoulder press, dumbbell fly, tricep pull down

Tuesday – LEG DAY
Barbell Squat, dumbbell lunges, hyperextensions, leg curl, core exercises

Thursday – PULL DAY
Barbell Row, TRX Row Superset, Seated Machine Row, Lat Pull Down (pyramid set), Dumbbell Fly, Bicep Curl Machine (amrap), Core

Following on from last weeks video of my 37.5kg bench, Matty wanted to video my barbell squat on Tuesday. We’ve only worked on this a few times during the month, so following 8 reps with just the 20kg barbell and another 8 reps with 30kg we ended up with 40kg as my working set. This video was taken on my third working set of 8 reps. Still much work to do, but from where I started this is ok! This was whilst being acutely aware of my right calf and wearing the compression sleeve.

I did receive a very negative comment after I posted this to my YouTube channel which did knock me a little bit. However, from a starting point just 3 weeks ago, I have made good progress. I am working on improving form with Matty but we are both pleased with where I am at right now.

Thursday was my bi-weekly torture/deep tissue massage session with Andy the Sports Physio. Painful but worth it!

Regarding the right calf, I’ve been resting it during the week and wearing a compression sleeve during Tuesday’s leg session. This definitely helped.

Every Monday I post a new “Motivational Quote” for the week.

It's Not About Being The Best. It's About Being Better Than You Were Yesterday

Body Composition

Key metrics (muscle mass, fat mass, lean mass, visceral fat index and water mass) all continue to track in the right direction with everything now, quite literally, in the green! These all plot year-to-date monthly averages.