Reaction to First Benchmark Results
I have increased/ improved my stats in all categories that we are testing ourselves in. My weight has increased but that was expected. More on that in a minute.
The following improvements were made:
Amount of Sit-Ups in One Minute: A 24% increase
Push-Ups (total before stopping): 17% increase
Squats (total before stopping): 17% increase
One mile run: Reduced my time from 13:08 down to 12 minutes (which was my goal for now). A note on this…… I ran the mile in high school in under 5 minutes (for PE class testing). I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to do that again but….. we’ll see. At 46 years old I think I would be happy with an 8 minute mile. 🙂
Flex: Improved my flex (while sitting on the floor- the ability to bend over and touch my toes). On the first test in November I could bend over and reach 5″ from my toes. This time I was only one inch away from my toes. This one was important to me. It shows that things are “tightening up” around my mid section. The mid-section caliper measurement (percentage of body fat) showed this as well. My mid section reading was 28 before and now it is 25.3. That’s about a 10% decrease.
Lower body fat measurements were also noted at my arm and around my neck. My neck measurement went from 17″ down to 16 3/4″.
Now, about the increase in weight…… I gained 4 pounds in two months.
I will give the ROM Machine people some credit here. They have been available for consultation every step of the way since we acquired their machine. They specifically said that there would be an increase in our weight in the first few months of doing these workouts. This is also noted in some of their promotional materials. Think about that for a moment….. A fitness company that actually tells the truth about the results you will see. Anyway, they explained that what is happening is that you start building muscle first. And muscle weighs more than fat. The great part is that muscle starts “eating away” at the fat if there is regular/ consistent working out of the muscles. I hope my muscles have a big appetite. Lol. Weight loss is expected in the next few months. My goal is to lose 20-30 pounds.
Some final notes……
I haven’t really changed my eating habits through any of this. In fact, the recent holidays may have been, umm, shall we say somewhat “detrimental” to my fitness efforts. Kind of hard to curb your appetite when food is one primary focus around this time of the year. So that makes me even more happy with the results I’m seeing. Add to that the fact that we’ve missed many days of working out on the ROM Machine due to being out of town….. And we’ve still gotten some good results.
I’m really getting convinced this fitness program is working. The ROM Machine does what they say it will do. Even when four minutes a day is all that’s required. The bottom line is that I truly am feeling better. That’s what it’s always been about for me.
To Good Health
Marco