This morning I took the YMCA Fitness Assessment. More on that in a moment.
A Night Out
Saturday night, wife and I saw the Bottle Rockets at The Duck Room. It’s a great venue for such a show (very intimate) and it was a fantastic show.
We ate dinner upstairs. We got there about 6:00. Doors opened at 8:00, so we just took our time eating and had good conversation. We both had hot sandwiches and a couple beers. Hers, a French Dip w/ Chimay. Mine, BBQ Beef and Schlafly Pale Ale. Delicious. Then we were talked into (by our perfectly attentive waitress) splitting a piece of Blueberry Pie. The pie was about average. It wasn’t like Grandma’s…but really, whose is? After dinner, paid the modest bill and headed downstairs.
Otis Gibbs opened the night with, in the words of Rick Cornell, “…the perfect mix of wit and grit.” Just Otis and his guitar. He sang earthy, folksy, Americana songs steered slightly leftward. Between songs he told witty stories of his recent tour in Europe - his being mistaken for a homeless man by a TV crew in Germany and his mistaking blood pudding for anything at all like the delightful dessert his momma used to make (”Basically, folks, it’s fried scab.”). I think there is some streaming music on his website there, if anyone wants a listen.
The Bottle Rockets took the stage, kicked off with 24 Hours a Day and rocked right through their closing tune, Zoysia. At some point they were joined on stage by Eric Ambel, producer of The Brooklyn Side and studio guitar player for bands and albums uncountable. Hennemann and Horton brought their A-game, for sure, Saturday night. They absolutely rocked…and the addition of Ambel was just “icing on the cake”.
They played through 21 songs, covering their entire 15 year existence, and threw in a nice cover of Neil Young’s Down By The River. The three guitars on stage took turns tearing up the extended solo section before the last verse, all excellent, none showing up the other. Fantastic.
After a short break, the band took the stage again for a four song encore, one of which is going to appear on their next studio album. Excellent show. If you’re a red-blooded American and you get a chance to see any of the other 14 shows they’ll be playing in this 15 year reunion tour, do it. You will not be disappointed.
Workout
- Back Squats: Warm Up
- 10x @ 135#
- 10x @ 205#
- 10x @ 225#
- Back Squats
- 5×5 @ 265#
- 3×3 Box Squats (12″ box) @ 225#
- Bent Over Barbell Rows
- 5x @ 135#
- 5x @ 155#
- 3×5 @ 175#
- 5x @ 155#
- 12x @ 135#
Measured
Made an appointment to meet with a personal trainer at the gym to conduct the YMCA Fitness Assessment. The Assessment consists of 8 tests.
- Body Weight
- Blood Pressure
- Resting Heart Rate
- Body Composition - taken with some hand-held electrical impedance device
- 3-Minute Step Test - step up and down onto/from a 12″ step at a 1 step/second cadence for 3 minutes. Take heart rate.
- Flexibility
- Bench Press - press 80# 1/second until failure
- Half Sit-Ups - knees-up sit-up position, hands on floor at sides. Sit up until hands move forward 6″ on the floor. Max number in 60 seconds.
I was most interested in the Body Composition test, but did the rest…mainly ‘cuz it was just part of the thing. So, onto the results.
| Measurement | Score |
|---|---|
| Body Weight | 160# w/ shorts and shirt, w/o sneakers |
| Blood Pressure | 117/63 |
| Resting Heart Rate | 66 bpm |
| Body Composition | 9.9%, 10.2% (taken twice) |
| Step Test | 79 bpm |
| Flexibility | “☑” (whatever that means…) |
| Bench Press | 53 reps |
| Half Sit-Ups | 49 |
My blood pressure is a little higher than I’m used to. Could be the squats. Could be the tester. Could be I was stressed this morning (over what, though, I do not know). Anyway, it’s still a fine number. I remain unconcerned.
A body fat % of ~10% is awesome. I’m super-pumped about that.
| Measurement | 1 February 2007 | Today | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body Weight | 185# | 160# | -25# |
| Body Fat % | ~25% | 10% | -15% |
| Fat# | 46.25# | 16# | -30.25# |
| Lean Mass | 138.75# | 144# | |
| (Hat Tip:JB. Thanks for correcting my terrible math.) | |||
I feel like I’ve gained a lot more muscle than 3.75#. I guess I don’t have any experience against which to compare - I don’t have any reason to feel that way - but I do. Maybe my BF% was higher than 25%? Maybe my BF% is lower than 10%? Maybe I’ve only gained 3.75# muscle and about a ton of neurological efficiency. I don’t know. Does anybody out there have any data correlating change in muscle mass to strength changes in multi-joint movements? That’d be cool.
So, those are the results. I don’t really know what they mean, but will be something useful against which to compare myself in 6 and 12 months.
2 Comments
Awesome work, man. 25# and a 15% decrease in body fat are both pretty nice changes over a year.
The step test is impressive to me. My “rest” HR is ~55-60 if I’m just sitting in a chair meditating. 1 step per second for 3 minutes on a 12″ box and my HR would be totally jacked up. No matter what kind of shape I’m in, I always find stairs to be a lot of work.
Perhaps the Master the Met training has turned you into the sort of monster that is at rest climbing stairs?
Your numbers are off:
185*.75=138
160*.9=144
you’re up 6 lbs of lean body mass. Assuming the test is +/- 2% could be as much as 12 lbs.
That’s an increase of: 4-9%
That combined with improvements in technique and neural efficiency your numbers make good sense.
And outstanding work btw!
Bottlerockets will be out here next week. I’m stoked to go see them.
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