Body Evals #1

One of my goals was to maintain my body weight below 180 lbs through the winter. It helped that Philadelphia experienced a warm to mild winter and that I spent 3 weeks, which is about a quarter of the season in hot climates, (see earlier entries). My other goal began as a question; one of those, I wonder ifs... the if, was whether I could achieve a 3:1 ratio of of lean muscle mass to body fat. I have a scale that kinda-sorta measures that, but it's not precise and I'm not completely honest with the input. Nonetheless, using what I use the way I use it, I hit 3:1 and indeed surpassed it very slightly a few days towards the end of March.

In the videos I uploaded on my FaceBook page I attributed the fat burn to long steady-state walks. It's a long story as to how I figured this out, finally believed it and subsequently added it into my routine. Today in fact, I opted for walking over lifting because my numbers had gotten into the red zone. (Again, another story.)

Asian smackdown tour 2002

I was also curious to know what 3:1 looked like - it was time to take some evaluation shots, so I thought I'd post them up and critique and compare... if I can.

To our right, a blast from the past, 2002 or there abouts and I think this was taken with film and then later scanned in and digitized. At this point I was already six years into my Fitness Renaissance. I'd gotten down below 200 lbs.

3-30-2016Just under 180 lbs, 3:1 Ratio, <15% body fat

                     To the left, an updated eval shot. The stats are in the caption. The lighting is different so it makes it a little difficult to see much of a difference. Even if there's no visible difference I'm okay with that too. Living 14 years and not changing (for the worse) is fine with me. That belly is still a bother though.

Okay, so let's get right onto some better shots. First, check out the back. I am not simply trying to get ripped back here, but strong as well. I really want to strengthen what I call the upper-upper so I can train like the other kids... you know, pull ups and planges, handstands and such.

The back is actually ripped!! And one thing that

looked odd to me, in this pose anyway, I actually

look, skinny... and back dimples seem to be trying

to make an appearance. 

If only the front was as ripped. Stubborn belly

fat is why I'm walking when I'd rather be lifting.

But, we got to do what we must for the results we

want. My right side is still.. and will probably always

by much more jacked than the left - I am very

obviously right-dominant. Otherwise I cannot

say that I am displeased by these results. 

I think the take home points from this evaluation shoot... is that I am still making improvements, if not muscular gains.. "at this age" and I'm not letting the senescence boogieman scare or worry me into taking it easy or slowing down. Fortunately there's no one in my life advising me to do this. 

One of the benefits of my antisocial loner lifestyle - the worries and statistics of outside voices don't reach my psyche. 

And that, my friends, is the first body evaluation post of the year. I may do a few more. I want to keep my weight at 170 - 175, keep body fat at 12 - 13%, muscle up to 82 - 85 lbs of muscle (and I may be getting greedy here) and whatever that ratio will be, (close to 4:1) I'll be good there. It's a big challenge and I wonder the same as I did when i was going for 3:1... is it possible and what will it look like on me. 

Cheers.