Now that I have my target weights, all future workouts are based on a “target number of repetitions”. Simplified, the system is thus: if you hit the number of repetitions, you maintain the same target weight for the next workout of that exercise. If you surpass the target weight, you increase the weight by 10 lbs. However, if you don’t make the target number of repetitions, you leave the gym immediately to continue recovering.

Close-grip Supinated Pull-down

This workout was done with the revised target weight, as I miscalculated the target weight for the initial workout. To eke out a few more repetitions, the dashed line in the table was a short rest.

Shoulder Press

Same routine here: revised target weight, rest between “sets”.

Totals

Bioelectrical Measurements

Hydration was controlled by drinking 1500 mL (500 mL in Jess’s case) of water within 30 minutes of waking without food intake. Measurements were taken within the following 30 minutes.

Caliper Measurements

Measurements were only taken using the dominant hand (my right) and of the non-dominant side (my left). No averaging took place. Body fat percentage calculated using this calculator, provided by the ACE.

Tape Measurements

Measurements were taken at the widest location per body part, with the exception of the waist. Bicep measurements were taken with the arm held parallel to the ground, bent at a right angle. It’s important to note that Jess took her own tape measurements last week, while I took all measurements this week.

Progress

Remember: The first round of workouts in Occam’s Protocol are all about finding a “starting weight” for the Protocol.

Chest Press

As with the first Workout A, that last round is the “actual” workout. This time, however, my math is already correct. Since I didn’t complete a set of five repetitions at 150 lbs, I calculate my “starting weight” for the chest press at 70% of 130 lbs – 90 lbs.

Seated Leg Press

This exercise was a bit more interesting. If I had pushed myself, I could have made it through the initial repetitions at 270 lbs. Instead, though, I stopped myself because it was taking so long to break, and I was under a good deal of strain. Mind you, I’ve never done weight training before. Because of this, I took the 70% of 270, arriving at 190. Even still, I wound up pushing through 20 repetitions under 190 lbs before stopping myself for the same reason: while I might have been able to push through, I really needed to get to work.

The first round of workouts in Occam’s Protocol are all about finding a “starting weight” for the Protocol. This “starting weight” is calculated as 70% of the highest weight that can be lifted for five full repetitions.

Close-grip Supinated Pull-down

That last round is the “actual” workout. Notice, however, that 120 is 70% of 160 lbs. This is incorrect. Since I didn’t complete a set of five repetitions at 160 lbs, what I should have started with was 70% of 140 lbs — only 100 lbs.

NOTE: While the available machines do have fine adjustments in increments as small as five pounds, I’ve elected to start with only the gross adjustments, which have an increment of 15-20 lbs.

Shoulder Press

Here we have the same problem, which actually resulted in my inability to complete a single (5/5) repetition. While at the gym, I assumed it was exhaustion. It was only after reviewing this data that I found my error.

Bonus: Aftermath

After the workout, I decided to go to work for a few hours. While initially I felt fantastic, within two hours I had visited the bathroom several times due to digestive discomfort. I may have overdone it.

From then on, however, I have to admit to a large increase in well-being: I’ve been more productive and energetic, both at home and at work. My sleep hasn’t improved, but that’ll have to be another challenge…

Totals

Bioelectrical Measurements

Hydration was controlled by drinking 1500 mL of water (1000 mL in Jess’s case) within 30 minutes of waking without food intake. Measurements were taken within the following 30 minutes.

Caliper Measurements

Measurements were only taken using the dominant hand (my right) and of the non-dominant side (my left). No averaging took place. Body fat percentage calculated using this calculator, provided by the ACE.

Tape Measurements

Measurements were taken at the widest location per body part, with the exception of the waist. Bicep measurements were taken with the arm held parallel to the ground, bent at a right angle.

Before we discuss the initial “weigh-in”, I feel like clarifying an unfortunately common misconception: tracking changes in body weight is not enough. Sorry, Biggest Loser. If you’ll remember back to my previous post, a change in “body weight” is not a part of our goal: a body recomposition totaling 20 lbs. More specifically,

1. Jess wants to lose 20lbs of fat.
2. I want to gain 20 lbs of muscle.

Neither of these relies on the weight of the entire body. If I gain 10 lbs of muscle and gain 10 lbs of fat within the same period of time, my total body weight is the same. Therefore, we need to know a little more. We need to both define and know our “body composition”. For the sake of the wager, body composition can be tracked with two numbers:

Body Weight

It may not be conclusive, but it is useful.

Body Fat Percentage

The “special sauce”. This is the percentage of that weight that comes from fat and fat alone.

Using these two numbers we can, in turn, define “body composition” as Weight of Fat + Weight of Other Stuff. Since neither Jess nor I can be considered “growing” in any traditional sense, being in our twenties and all, odds are really good that the only “Other Stuff” that should be changing in any period of time shorter than several months is muscle. Therefore and finally, we can re-write our goals and get to measuring!

1. Jess wants to lower Body Fat Percentage. (Notice no mention of Body Weight. Other Stuff could get heavier, after all.)
2. I want to increase the weight of Other Stuff. Because of this, I want Body Fat Percentage to stay the same while increasing Body Weight.

Whew. After all that, on to business: Everyone knows how to measure Body Weight; how do we measure Body Fat Percentage?

For this, we used three tools:

Bioelectrical Impedance (BI) Scale

As long as our hydration is consistent from week, BI is useful for tracking changes in Body Fat Percentage. Perhaps obviously, this scale provides our Body Weight measurements as well.

Measuring Tape

While not directly related to either of our core metrics, we will be measuring “Total Inches” as an aside. “Total Inches” = Circumference of Upper Arms + Circumference of Waist + Circumference of Hips + Circumference of Thighs.

Calipers

These provide a second measurement for Body Fat Percentage. They give Jess the creeps, so this measurement will be strictly for Yours Truly.

In 4 Hour Body, Tim talks about utilizing the minimum effective dose to trigger muscle growth. Fortunately for those who don’t own the book, he published this concept on Gizmodo, too:

The minimum effective dose (MED) is defined simply: the smallest dose that will produce a desired outcome. … Anything beyond the MED is wasteful. To boil water, the MED is 212°F (100°C) at standard air pressure. Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it “more boiled.” Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive. … In the context of body redesign, there are two fundamental MEDs to keep in mind:

To remove stored fat, do the least necessary to trigger a fat-loss cascade of specific hormones.
To add muscle in small or large quantities, do the least necessary to trigger local (specific muscles) and systemic (hormonal2) growth mechanisms.

Knocking over the dominoes that trigger both of these events takes surprisingly little. Don’t complicate them. For a given muscle group like the shoulders, activating the local growth mechanism might require just 80 seconds of tension using 50 pounds once every seven days, for example. That stimulus, just like the 212°F for boiling water, is enough to trigger certain prostaglandins, transcription factors, and all manner of complicated biological reactions. What are “transcription factors”? You don’t need to know. In fact, you don’t need to understand any of the biology, just as you don’t need to understand radiation to use a microwave oven. Press a few buttons in the right order and you’re done.

He further describes this procedure as “Occam’s Protocol”, an oscillating pair of workouts done to-failure, triggering the necessary biological mechanisms required for rapid muscle growth. According to the book, 2.5 pounds a week is the goal – as long as I can get enough to eat. Going along with his assertion that I “don’t need to understand any of the biology” (because I don’t), I’ll assume that goal is reasonable for me, too.

2.5 pounds per week it is. If my math is right, that gives Jess 8 weeks.

And so it begins…

A week ago today, Monday 9 Jan 2012, my wife Jess and I started a wager of impossible odds: the first person to finish a 20-pound body recomposition wins dinner on the other’s dime. The financial intricacies of “who’s dime is who’s” aside, this becomes interesting when we throw in a little history (just a smidgen, I promise):

My wife’s target recomposition focuses on fat loss. In a manner that’s seemingly common with a lot of women, she has had no success in doing the same previously through changes in diet (including the Caveman Diet) and regular exercise.

Mine, on the other hand, focuses on muscle gain. While strength gain has come and gone, I’ve maintained a relatively consistent weight since leaving college three years ago, even through regular rock climbing and piling on caloric intake well in excess of my norms.

Enter 4 Hour Body. It’s a great read by a great writer, Timothy Ferriss, and the second of his “4 Hour” series. In Body, Tim breaks down the systematic changes required to “hack” your body into changing in a particular manner.

With the body hacks understood and in place, the bet/experiment is on…