Four Week Challenge #01: Rapid Muscle Growth, Final Results

This post will wrap up the progress and results for the Four Week Challenge.

Click here for an explanation of the Four Week Challenges.
Click here for Part 1, and an overview, of this Four Week Challenge.
Click here for Part 2 of this Four Week Challenge.
Click here for Part 3 of this Four Week Challenge.
Click here for Part 4 of this Four Week Challenge.

Last Week’s Progress

A week ago, I planned three rock climbing trips over a period of 12 days. The first of those trips was last weekend, so instead of being worn out and sore for the first rock climbing trip of a series, I decided to drop that workout. Given that one of my goals was to remain consistent with this for four consecutive weeks and my priority of rock climbing, I don’t feel bad about it. I got from it what I wanted to, and the sacrifice is well justified given my priorities.

On Tuesday, I did maintain incremental progress with my weight lifting.

And now, onto what you’re waiting for…

The Results

I have made public all of the data I collected during this project. This includes every exercise, nutrition consumption, and fitness measurements for every day of the experiment. Click here to download the spreadsheet.

Body Fat Percentage

While I had originally been recording my body fat percentage with body fat calipers, I was getting very inconsistent results and decided to stop recording it halfway through.

It should be noted, however, that visibly, my body fat percentage has significantly decreased. If I had to guess based on some rough measurements, it would be in the range of 2-4%.

Body Weight

My actual body weight went from 159.5 to 157.5 pounds. In the first two weeks, I was seeing significant decreases before actually increasing in mass. As my body fat percentage decreased, I’m assuming that muscle mass increased.

That said, I really wish I had gone for hydrostatic measurements for body fat percentage and hospital body weight measurements.

Body Measurements

My greatest increases were:
Shoulders: Increase of 1.75 inches
Chest: Increase of 1.56 inches
Biceps: Increase of 1 inch.

Exercise Improvements

While I certainly didn’t gain 34 pounds of muscle mass like Tim Ferriss, I actually saw much greater progress here than I had realistically imagined.

From 06/05/2006 to 06/26/2007…

Alternating Pullover: From a ‘broken’ set of ten with 15 pounds to a full 10 reps at 30 pounds.
45 Degree Prone Curl: From a two sets of 5 reps at 15 pounds to 10.5 reps at 30 pounds.
Flyes: From 12 reps at 25 pounds to 15 reps at 35 pounds.

What You Can Learn From This

If you’ve started on your own regimen and stick with it, you’ve already taken the biggest and most important step toward improving your health.

While I certainly didn’t eat poorly before starting the diet (extremely high protein + carb reduction), merely recording the nutritional information of everything I ate made me so much more aware of what and how I was eating before. While I don’t expect to continue as strictly as I have been, I do know that my diet has forever changed. I feel like I have a lot more energy and I’ve also seen that with greater amounts of protein, I can gain muscle mass. Others seem to be reporting similar experiences.

As an experiment, why not record the nutritional information of what you’re eating every day? You may be surprised.

While I’ve often developed a habit of rock climbing regularly, 2-3 times a week, sticking to an exercise regimen has always escaped me. Perhaps because it’s not “fun” like climbing is, perhaps I’m merely avoiding the short-term pain. Whatever it is, I’ve never stuck to one like I have this one. What I’ve learned is what it actually takes to stick with a difficult workout regimen for an hour a day, two days a week.

I’ve also learned the positive benefits of what can be gained through the short-term pain. Having been through it and having a much more real point of view, I’ve begun developing a climbing-specific regimen incorporating exercises as well as climbing “drills.” Without this experiment, I never would have been able to design something like this.

What are you trying to accomplish with your own physical fitness? Do you know, based on significant and accurate experience, the best way to design a system suited to you and your need? If you “think you know” because of research, or what someone told you, or because of a “common wisdom”, and haven’t actually stuck to something like this, you’re just blowing smoke up your own……… You get the point.

Summary

So, 34 pounds of muscle weren’t gained. 4% body fat probably wasn’t lost.

This means that either there’s something significant missing from Tim Ferriss’s account, or that some people are more conducive to gaining muscle mass.

I honestly don’t know which it would be. Perhaps it’s both.

All was not a loss, however. Significant knowledge and experience was gained, which is the purpose of these experiments. I now know what’s needed to gain muscle mass. I now know what it’s like to stick with an intense diet and exercise regimen for a single month - I know I can do it and if I need to do it again, I can…heck, I could do it for longer if I really decided it was worth it. I’ve also been able to push my body in ways that I don’t get from climbing - this led to a great climbing trip this past weekend in which I felt stronger in more ways than ever before.

So, as final words: If you sincerely wish to make a change in your health, research different exercise and diet plans and try them for one month. It might not be the final solution, but what matters is that you know what your capabilities are and what kind of progress is realistic for you.

And in that, there’s nothing that is more powerful.

I wish you the best of luck.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.