Sorry for the delay!

Greetings All,

    I know it’s been a while since my last post.  I have been tearing my hair out trying to get ready for Dragon Con.  I took final delivery of my costume this past week and had a photo shoot in it only the next day.  The shoot was so much fun!  We shot it against green-screen so the photographer can edit them to look like we are truly superheroes.  There was this awesome moment when I slipped a bit and had to go down on one knee to regain my balance.  The woman taking pictures told me my shoulders looked great in that position and I should stay in that pose.  That kept me flying high for the rest of the day. 

    My hair is now dyed the vivid red that it has to be for the costume.  It has been an amusing at work for everyone to see me with the red hair and their reaction to it.  I am also getting the “You’ve lost weight!” comments more than ever.  27lbs worth; I hope they would notice.

    As we are coming to the end of the first major goal (in shape for the last superhero costume for Dragon*Con), my trainer has requested the honor of the last post before the con.  Next week, look for pictures of progress to date and some images from the photo shoot in costume.  I have to warn everybody that after next week, there will be only a monthly post until training resumes in January for the next major goal.

    What is the next major goal?  Well, ambitious as ever, I have set my sites on a 2 year plan that will get me to 235lbs at 5% body fat.  At my height and with my body type, that will be quite a challenge.  However I am a firm believer that the game isn’t big enough unless it scares you a little!

Super-Jerry

First goal is nearing completion!

Greetings All,

Well, the first part of this mad quest is nearing the end.  Dragon Con is now less than a month away and the butterflies are starting to set in.  I have all these annoying questions swarming around in my mind.  Questions like, “Will I look completely ridiculous in my costume?” Or “Will all of this dieting and working out have been in vain?” 

Many people tell me that I have lost weight, but strictly speaking that wasn’t what I was going for.  What I wanted to do is loose fat (which I have).  A few who have seen me in a tank top have said I look bigger and more defined which is very encouraging.  All in all though, I won’t be satisfied until I see what I look like in my costume.

The costume and makeup tests are scheduled for the 18^th of this month.  The photo and video shoot will be the day after.  I promise I will post lots of photos of me in my superhero glory.  The excitement is mounting!

Super Jerry

No Fitness Muppet

Greetings All,

    I was watching some old Sesame Street clips recently, and I began to notice that there was never any emphasis placed physical fitness.  Then I began to think back to all the other Children’s Television Workshop shows and I don’t recall anything there either.  3 2 1 Contact had a short feature occasionally about particular athletics, but nothing that really was fitness oriented.   All the CTW shows had a particular emphasis:  The Electric Company (spelling and vocabulary); 3 2 1 Contact (physical sciences); Reading Rainbow (reading and literacy); Sesame Street (elementary skills); Square One (Mathmatics).  I don’t recall any of those great shows we loved as kids ever delving seriously into fitness.  It’s almost as if it were taboo in children’s edutainment.  With the childhood obesity epidemic on the rise, it seems like there should be a show (or at least a regular segment on a show) devoted to fitness.  Someone needs to write to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation and tell them to fund a kids show for fitness, exercise and kinesiology.  Thoughts?

Super Jerry

Time is short!

Greetings all,

    Well, it’s getting really close to Dragon*Con and the deadline for my first major goal.  After nine months of dieting and working out, we’ll see how well I can pull off this costume.  Of course the quest will not end there.  After Dragon*Con and a short layoff period which will on consist of light cardio and calisthenics, I will be at it again.  I am told that this is how bodybuilders usually balance their year out.  The next long term goal will be to reach 235lbs. at 5% body fat.  That’s certainly not going to be easy, but I am a firm believer in the expression “The game isn’t big enough unless it scares you a little.” 

    As cutting continues, I have to work in all the time for the aesthetics of the costume (hair dyeing, spray tanning, etc.)  The next 5 weeks are going to be quite a challenge.  I will keep everyone posted!

Super-Jerry

The Revenge of Football Camp

Greetings All,

  Well, the fun stuff is over (relatively speaking) and now we are into cutting.  Now begins the intensely involved circuit training.  Lots of cardio; lots of compound movement exercises.  Doesn't that sound delightful?  I feel like fate is punishing me for not trying out for any sport in high school.  Now it's like "The Revenge of Football Camp."  I was an impromptu bookie in high school as well, so maybe this is penance for such opportunism.  Still, many have told me that this is the phase that makes it all worth it.  I dearly hope so.

    I am down to 16% body fat and 209lbs.  The target by Dragon Con is 10%.  I also have to go get waxed (no 40 Year Old Virgin references please) 3 times beforehand.  Let's not forget hair dyeing and spray tanning.  The things we do to pretend we are someone else.  I just keep telling myself "It's worth it! It's worth it!"


Super-Jerry

As promised, here are some progress so far pics:

These were taken last Thursday:

These were taken at the top of April:

No cannon ball if you are over 300lbs.

Greeting All,

    So I went to our local water park this weekend with some friends.  Apparently the park had some sort of discount for guests that qualify as morbidly obese or excessively inked (possibly double for both).  At first I was terrified to take my shirt off but after looking around at that place, the modesty evaporated.  I found myself openly acknowledging the childhood obesity epidemic and I had to actively contain my contempt for the massively obese adults as well.  I don’t want that to sound arrogant, but after only about 6 months of hard core training I have gotten my body fat levels to a much more health level.  Surely people with less intense goals could simply maintain good healthy levels.

    I do wonder what the significant change was from the 70’s when we (Americans) were among the skinniest, to now when we are the fattest.  Some say it’s the availability of fattening fast-foods, but McDonalds, Wendy’s and Burger King have been around a lot longer than that.  Some blame video games and TV; that might be partly true but I certainly doubt that it’s the root cause.  I don’t think that there is any one smoking gun other than apathy.  

    I am starting to learn that fitness is very much self reinforcing.  It feels kinda good when you can start (as my trainer puts it) setting the bar higher.  The real trick is not to become excessively arrogant or vain.  I am using the (very effective) imagery I got at the water park to motivate me on my mad Quest.  I can say to myself that I want better than all of these people have settled for.  Cliché? Maybe, but it seems to be working.

Super-Jerry

PS:  More “progress so far” pics next week

When is the line crossed?

Greetings All,

    I found myself contemplating the other day, “When exactly do you become a bodybuilder?”  Is it technically when you start training like one?  Is it when that’s what everyone perceives you are?  Some scream you are not a true bodybuilder until you step out on stage in a competition.  I honestly don’t know.   

    The same could be said for the question, “When exactly do you become a nerd?”  Is it when you start talking fervently about Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica?  Is it when that’s what everyone perceives you are?  Some say that nerds are just born that way.

    I am told that perception is everything, but can one perception trump another?  If you are a nerd who gets into bodybuilding, do people forget the nerd perception all together?  Vin Diesel (action star extraordinaire) has the persona of big muscled tough-guy, but in real life he has very geeky passions (D&D, computer games, and I am told LARPing). 

    When is it that that line is crossed?  I am going to go with a combination of inward and outward perception.  You won’t be a bodybuilder until people around you see you as such, as well as you seeing yourself as such.  The same goes for being a nerd (not in a derogatory sense).  My problem is when have I successfully blended the two?

Super Jerry

The Charles Atlas Way

Greetings All,

    Has anyone ever read the old Charles Atlas Ads?  They always showed a skinny guy getting sand kicked in his face by a muscle bound bully.  After a pathetic verbal confrontation, skinny guy gets his ass whipped.  Mean while skinny guy’s girlfriend makes incredibly helpful remarks like “Don’t let him hit you,” or afterwards “Don’t let it bother you little boy.”  Skinny Guy then buys Charles Atlas’s book and, apparently in the course of like a week (15 minutes a day), transforms into buff guy.  Buff guy returns to the beach and sucker punches muscle bound bully (whom inexplicably does not retaliate) and wins doe eyed coos from his (oh so loyal) girlfriend.

    What messages can we take from this add?

1.        Crowded beaches always have bullies who want to start a fight.

2.       Girls like you for you until a guy with muscles comes to challenge.

3.       The other guy is less motivated to workout than you are.

4.       Putting on muscle is easy and won’t change who you are at all.

5.       Retribution always works out the way you plan.

    Why didn’t skinny guy just learn how to play the guitar?  If he’s into girls that airheaded, it would have been a whole lot easier.  Or he could have just grow his hair out and become a sensitive ponytail man. 

    As campy and ineffective as it was, I suppose Mr. Atlas could have purveyed his business with worse messages aimed at boys and younger men than “Have muscles, will not be f*cked with”.  Survey says?

 Super-Jerry

The first "Great Reveal"

Greetings All,

    I have my first little therapeutic exercise this weekend.  Some friends and I will be going to a local amusement park and one of highlighted areas will be the water park area.  How’s this therapeutic?  Well, it will be the first time in nearly 15 years since I have appeared in public with my shirt off.  Considering that my costume for the forthcoming Dragon*Con is very revealing in the upper torso area, I figured I would need to get passed the self consciousness.  My trainer says I have nothing to fear because the fruits of my labors are evident.  I on the other hand, pessimistic to the end, envision everyone pointing and laughing.  I know it’s not rational, but feelings aren’t based on rationality.  Still, I am going to do me very best to let such petty fears go and just enjoy myself.  I will get some pics of the experience and post them.  Nobody laugh, please!

By the way:  Here are a few “progress so far” pics from last week’s chest and back workout.

Super-Jerry

"Supernatural" Bodybuilding?

Greetings All,

     So I heard about this organization called the Supernatural Bodybuilding Federation.  When I first heard this title I was a little dumbstruck.  Not being a regular member of the bodybuilding community, I mistook the meaning all together.  I was envisioning a bodybuilding competition where werewolves, ghosts, vampires, zombies, etc. go to compete.  Wouldn’t that be an ugly scene?  The werewolves would probably be trying to tear the throats out of the other competitors, while the vampires wouldn’t be able to get a good pump going (owing to the fact that their hearts don’t beat).  Ghosts might have a bit of trouble with their stage presence considering they are semi-transparent.  Zombies would have trouble with the pose down when their flesh starts to fall off; however they wouldn’t suffer any water retention problem (maybe a little bloating).

    I just wonder if the founders of that organization didn’t realize that their choice of name was ripe for jokes and sarcastic comments.   Come on guys!  We are trying to break the dumb muscle-head stereotype here.  They should change the name to the “Strictly Natural Bodybuilding Federation”.  That way they wouldn’t even have to change the logo.

Super Jerry

It's Prime Time!

Greetings All,

    Dragon*Con is just over 90 days away!  It will be the first exploitation of all this training and working out.  My costume for D*C 2012 will be Prime from Malibu Comics Ultraverse series.  Many (and I mean MANY) people have asked why that character.  The complex answer is I wanted a character that would be a blend of obscure and yet still be identifiable (at least to comic nerds).  I see so many of the same old characters at D*C.  Some are done exceptionally well, others….not so much. 

Cosplay comes with a unique set of challenges: 

1.        What costume is right for you?  If you are 6’6” (which I am not) you are probably going to have a tough time pulling off a convincing Link from Legend of Zelda. 

2.       How well will your costume translate?  There are so many characters in all forms of media that have costumes the really don’t work in real life. 

3.       How workable the costume?  Steampunks find out fast that the dazzling appointments to their costumes make for a lot of effort over time.  Spartans find that they can’t go anywhere outside the host hotels (no shirts no shoes, no service and all that). 

The list could go on for miles.  By the way, the simple answer is I just wanted too, ok! 

     When I go in costume I like to be fully immersed in the character.  If the character requires a different hair color, then I will pay a visit to Ms. Clairol.  I have done everything for costumes from green body-paint to black pomaded hair.  This is the first time I have gone to these extremes in dieting and working out for a costume though.  While it is not the only reason I started this mad quest, it is the most immediate one.  Look for me and the handful of others I have suckered into this crazy hobby in the Dragon*Con parade this year!

Super-Jerry

My "Dorian Gray" Moment

Greetings all,

    It’s amazing how comfortable a person becomes with their physical image.  I am not talking about fashions or hairstyles.  I simply mean the physical shape of their body in the mirror.  I had an interesting experience in this area while training last week.  After some particularly intense shoulder exercises, I was sitting on the bench trying to recover and I noticed my refection (under the lights and with a solid pump going) looked very different than I am accustomed to.  It was the first time that I was able to consciously discern the shadow cast by forming definition.  Ephemeral as it was, I almost felt a little scared because the image was so unfamiliar to me.  I thought of Dorian Gray:  terrified to look at his own portrait.  Later on when I had cooled down and the pump had gone away, my reflection became a bit more familiar. 

    So what did I learn from that experience?  I am still trying to figure that out.  I don’t want to become vain or too proud, but I think I could start to like this image once I get used to it.  For now, it just seems to be a stranger in the mirror working out next to me.

Super-Jerry

Perceptions, Jokes and "The Type"

Greetings All,

    Okay, so I have been working out pretty solid for a little more than 5 months now.  It must be showing because now I am starting to get muscle jokes from my co-workers.  Nothing malicious, just things like “We need Jerry’s muscles” if someone is lifting something heavy.  The other day at the optometrist, an older lady at the reception desk asked if I was a cop or maybe a Marine.  When I asked why she would think that, she said “You’ve just got a really athletic build.”  That was a strange experience.  I have never presented the perception of physical fitness before.  The feeling is an odd mixture of being exposed and being gratified.  I am trying to remain in an objective mindset though.  How much could I really have gained in only 5 months?  It could just be coincidence.

    Another funny thing happened at a very well know PC components store.  I was shopping for a new motherboard and was asked by a salesman if I needed help.  He was dumbfounded when I began asking about chipsets, memory latency, and PCI-E interfaces.  When I asked why he was so shocked at my questions, his response was that I just didn’t look like the type that would ask such in depth questions about motherboards.  Unsure how to react to that one, I just smiled and chuckled flatly.  To be fair, I was wearing my tank-top (seldom a geek fashion) and it was shortly after a grueling arm workout (so I still had a good pump going), so I wasn’t in much of a geek mode.  Still, is there a “type” that should or shouldn’t know about the inner workings of a computer?  I will be returning to this store in a few months (when I put on some more size) to test the perception again.  That should be a laugh.  Maybe I can get my friends to film it.  Stay tuned!

Super-Jerry

Major Milestones

Greetings All,

I have finally crossed a major milestone in my training!  600lbs-15 times on the leg press.  Not as heavy as some others could do, but it did feel like a good solid accomplishment.  Some good friends of mine were on hand to film the event:

There is an alternate view as well:

The road continues on and I endure.  Survivable?  We'll see.  Ask me Labor Day weekend when I have to fit in my superhero costume and look badass.

Super-Jerry

 



The Uber-80's

Greetings All,

    Who remembers the cartoons and comics of the 80’s and 90’s; the ones where the characters were drawn with insanely large physiques?    He-Man, Thundercats, Superman (in that period), X-Men, and many others from that era featured bodies with inhuman proportions.  A friend of mine who is a diehard comic enthusiast/historian called it the “Uber 80’s”.  I guess it’s to be expected when the action stars of the day were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.  The underline message: Big Muscles = Badass.  I do wonder how many bodybuilders today were inspired to get into the sport by watching after school cartoon heroes (or even villains).  

     I can only recall one example when bodybuilding was incorporated directly in a comic book type series.  “Max Rep:  Mr. AstroTitan 2206” featured cleaver storylines that blended bodybuilding and sci-fi.  The strip was run as a feature in Muscular Development magazine for years.  I think it would be awesome to have a full comic book series again that featured bodybuilding/sci-fi storylines.  It would be a great thing to sell in Gold’s Gym for the more geeky among us to read while doing cardio.  All is not lost however.  The amazingly great artist of the Max Rep comic strip, Mr. Lyman Dally, still maintains that universe through the eyes of Max’s female counterpart, Quadra Blu.  I wish there were more sci-fi/fitness stories out there; a bodybuilder type superhero (or just a bodybuilder type protagonist) might inspire more geeks to take to working out (we are not classically the fittest bunch).  I am tired of pretty-boy type supers that do nothing to inspire me to work out.  But alas I must remind myself that the Uber-80’s and 90’s are over and I must wait for the pendulum to swing back.

Posted with permission of Mr. Lyman Dally.

    The heroes and villains today look more like Muscle-Mania competitors rather than the Mr. Olympia type heroes of old.  Today cartoon animators and comic book artists are favoring a more streamlined body.  Movies are in on this trend too.  Endomorph is out and Ectomorph is in.  Action stars like Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds and Brad Pitt are more lean/ripped body types.  What will be next, Rise of the Mesomorphs?

Super-Jerry

Bodybuilding: The vampire conspiracy

Greetings All,

I am suddenly discovering how becoming a bodybuilder is like becoming a vampire.  Let’s compare a few parallels:

1.       Questionable diet

2.       Insatiable hunger

3.       Changes in appearance

4.       Obsessive behavior

5.       Painful transition

6.       Veiny skin

7.       Small community of acceptance

    All these things seem a little too coincidental.  Vampire do seem to consume a very high about of protein (albeit in liquid form) just like a bodybuilder. Most vampires I see in movies or on TV are jacked.  Even Pro-tan makes it so bodybuilders and vampires alike don’t have to go out in the sun.  Vampires and bodybuilders have very odd sleep habits.  And just like becoming a bodybuilder, it’s a very painful transition to become a vampire. 

    I can speak from early experience the way people start to treat you differently feels more like being a member of the undead than a fledgling fitness enthusiast.  Also, Bodybuilders (like vampires) seem to be a close knit group with very little acceptance by the outside world.  Of course there are differences.  Vampires get a stake while bodybuilders get a steak.  And how would it be if bodybuilders could not see their own reflection in a mirror.

    In any case, my daily pattern could be described as being similar to the undead:  Train to the point of death, sleep as if dead, wake with an inhuman hunger, and feed on the living (I am an I.T. guy after all).

Super-Jerry

Yoda: the personal trainer

Greetings All,

    So we have been stepping into the area of heavy lifting.  The lightweight stuff is over.  I am trying to learn all the stuff that goes with bodybuilding, but it's like trying to learn to be a jedi.  My trainer is even spouting out Yoda-like phrases.  I tell him I'll try to lift the weight he puts on the bar and I get "Try not!  Lift, or lift not!  There is no try."  In some cases where my knowledge is incorrect, I must "unlearn what I have learned."  Yoda should have just had Luke lift another really heavy boulder after he couldn't lift the ship.  Then it would just have been a drop-set.   I never once heard Yoda say "C'mon Luke!  Rep it out you must!"
    I wonder if having Jedi's as trainers would even be a good thing at all.  I can just see pumping out some weight that is comfortable and having the jedi master trainer make some cryptic hand gesture and the weight is suddenly 3 times heavier.  Motivation techniques might be a little different with that sneaky little jedi mind trick.  Cardio with lightsabers could be really cool though.  And then you could get a droid to do rub-downs and stretching.  Of course the Sith would never go drug free.
    All I know is that after my latest workout,  my midichlorians are totally spent!


Super-Jerry
  

Mr. Klingon Empire vs. Mr. United Federation of Planets

Greetings all,

    Here a good one to ponder:  Would bodybuilding be more popular in the Federation or the Klingon Empire?  This is a tough one to call for me.  I think that the Klingons would respect the discipline and will power needed to be a competitive bodybuilder, but their pre-judging might be a little messy because they would probably favor tearing the limbs from their competitors.  Also, posing might require an element of hand to hand combat.  Maybe that’s how the IFBB should award pro-cards:  Last competitor left alive at the Nationals gets to go pro.

    When it comes to Bodybuilding in the Federation on the other hand, they might simply not get it.  I never seem to see anyone in the Federation actually just do something just because they want to do it.  Everything they do always seems to have to have lofty altruistic motives.  Doing something for yourself, just because you want to, seems like it would be a totally alien concept (no pun intended).  Now if dieting and working out to extremes was somehow going to save some far off planet with pig-nosed people, they’d be all over it!  But I doubt it would enter the mind of the winner of the Mr. United Federation of Planets contest screaming out “Yeah bitches!!”  He’d probably get vaporized by a phaser from the Romulan judges.

Super-Jerry

Training begins

Greetings all,

    I was reading some bio’s of popular bodybuilders recently and they always seem to start the same:  “I was very athletic as a child...” Or “I started training for football…” I want to read the bio that says “I was a total dork who got the shit kicked out of me all the time, so I put 6 inches on my biceps and broke the slime’s jaw.” 

    The trainer I have hired to help me on this made quest seems to be pretty awesome.  I have even talked him into so geeky pursuits like superhero costuming.  In the weeks to come, I will start documenting my training and dieting.  This all so new,  it should be interesting to see how things progress.  Plus if I drop dead from over exertion, at least there will be a record of my demise. We shall see where the road takes us.

Super-Jerry

The Journey Begins

Greetings All,

    I thought the most logical place to start this blog would be with a little background:

    I was reminded recently of a friend of a friend that was a true nerd.  He loved Star Trek; talked about things in terms of bandwidth; dressed up for the Ren-Fest; and was completely into video games.  He was very much out of shape though (a common malady among my kind).  He decided it was time to get in shape.  His trainer saw potential in him and pushed him in the direction of bodybuilding.  Sounds great right?  Well the problem was that as he got further and further into the muscle pumping world, the more distant he got with his nerd world friends.  He began to act self absorbed and became even a little condescending to his former friends.  He was now too cool to go to any geek events anymore.  Eventually he never spoke to any of his nerd crew at all.  I never knew this person as anything more than a casual acquaintance, but it seemed somewhat slimy to me that someone would cut off loyal friends just because their interests had changed. 

    I am a true nerd myself.  I love Star Wars; I grieved for months when Firefly was cancelled, and I have a DVD of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn signed by William Shatner AND Ricardo Montalban.  I also pride myself on my objectivity.  After hearing that story I began to ask myself, “Can a person co-exist in both the bodybuilding world and the nerd/geek world simultaneously?” 

    I think of stories of people like Henry Rollins who was a geek in high school until a benevolent coach trained him in the ways of muscle building.  I never heard if he retained any of his geek presence and judging by his public persona (which I know is not a very objective analysis) he didn’t.  What about the old Charles Atlas ads?  The ones where the skinny dork gets sand kicked in his face by some muscle-bound bully.  According to the ads, the skinny guys works out, gets muscular and beats down the bully.  They never show if the newly muscular guy still has dorky interests.  Would the girls be so mesmerized by his muscles that they don’t care that all he talks about is Boba Fhet and whether Han Solo is a model for Captain Malcolm Reynolds? 

    So with all these mysteries in mind, I am going to take a hesitant quest through the world of bodybuilding.  I will set aside any preconceived notions about bodybuilders I have and try to learn about their world as much as I can.  I will chronicle my quest in this blog and try to measure my experiences in both worlds.  Hopefully I can combine the best of both worlds and achieve the status of true Muscle Nerd without having to take the ship to Valendor. 

Super Jerry

04-02-12