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