Project Ripped

After waking up this morning I went out for a cycle on the road bike. I followed my usual 15 mile route and it took me exactly an hour (to the second). The second half of the cycle was extremely difficult as it was in to a head wind. My legs were fairly tired and [...]

At 3:00 am this morning I was awoken by our youngest daughter who needed the toilet. Once I had put her back to bed I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I went down stairs and watched some of the Olympic swimming events. Every one of the swimmers seemed so lean and muscular. By about [...]

I want to thank Larry for his question to me yesterday. Before starting this project I had thought about doing it many times before over the last couple of years and considered what some of the problems or success factors might be. One of the major hurdles to overcome is the seasonal and work-oriented issues. [...]

This morning I looked out of the window and it was pouring with rain. I don’t know where our Summer has gone to but I know that I haven’t had to water our vegetable patch since May! I had planned a long ride but thought I would hold off and see what the weather did. [...]

One of the greatest things I have noticed about the past 7 weeks in the improvement in my immune system. I used to catch every sore throat going and each one would last about a week. The sore throat I had yesterday has gone today – it lasted only one day. First thing this morning [...]

This week is a good example of why weighing ourselves isn’t always a reliable measure of progress. When I hit the scales this morning I was really disappointed as I weighed the same as I did last week. However, when I started taking body fat pinches, measuring body parts, etc. it was clear that my [...]

One of the things I told myself before I started this project was to listen to my body. Today it didn’t want to exercise. I had planned to do two things today but by the time I got around doing the exercise my body gave me signs that it wasn’t ready to do anything. So [...]

For some reason I was extremely stiff when I woke up today. I wasn’t sore in any way but just felt ‘rigid’ in the legs, hips and back. I spent 10 to 15 minutes warming up my body and stretching my muscles and after that I felt ready to take on the day. After having [...]

I was pleasantly surprised not to have DOMS in my legs this morning after yesterday’s run. All of the warming up, stretching and the hot bath must have had a positive effect. I would be lying to say I didn’t feel anything. There is a little soreness in my thighs and shin muscles but nothing [...]

Upon waking my legs were still a bit sore from the run a couple of days ago but I thought I should proceed with the day regardless. I spent 15 minutes on the cross trainer on the interval programme at level 3. My legs were a bit tired for the first few minutes but I [...]