Motivated by the infamous South Park story of beefcake, I have been working on serious muscle building recently.
Even though there is no such magic nutrition that makes you strong in a day, I’ve been working out at the gym and taking protein and creatine supplements. The results are already showing. As I started squatting with a little more weight than my own body weight, I started to feel more comfort and control when I do bike tricks like manuals and bunnyhops.
Around the end of last year, I was working out about twice a week at the rehab room of the hospital where I had just underwent knee and ankle surgeries. However, the recent revision of the health insurance act limits the rehab period to 150 days maximum. So, I have switched to “Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Kitayell.” It is a nice place with lots of free weights and serious trainees, at a reasonable 500 yen fee per visit.
My current menu includes squat, bench press and side raise with free weights, calf raise on machine, and chinning and crunches with my own weight. Now I can squat with 80 kg weight for 8-10 reps, but I’m kind of keeping it mellow because I’m not super confident with the experience of only a month or two. Also I really can’t push it to the limit as I don’t have enough friends to spot me on that. Bench press is hard for me, and did only 4 reps or so at 60 kg yesterday. Guess I should use lighter weight next time and focus more on the form.
I know some people hate to do anything extra than the very thing you want to do, which is to simply ride, but there is no denying that such extracurricular activities help you quite a lot. Muscle building for bike riding, skateboarding for snowboarding, studying industrial designs for designing bikes, you name it.
Besides, all that focus on muscle building is good for your health since it keeps you aware of nutrition. Like they say, you are just what you eat.
Beefcake!