The Charles Atlas Method: End of Week Three

I'm still plugging away at the Charles Atlas Method, trying to chisel my pale, flabby body into something recognisably human.  Attentive readers will have noticed that I have skipped a week.  I should be at the end of Week 4, but for a while there I came down with some nausea and flu-like symptoms which set me back a bit.  I'm back on track now, and ready to talk about some exercising.

But first, some photographic evidence!

 

 

I'm not sure that any differences are coming across in the photos, but I certainly feel different.  I'm not exactly popping out of my skin, but I've noticed that my chest and shoulders are a bit firmer and slightly larger.  I started by doing 15 of each of the exercises from lesson 1 at morning and night, and have increased the number by 5 each week.  Tomorrow I'll start doing 30, and by the end of the twelve weeks I should be doing 70, by which point I expect to be shattering glass at a hundred paces with just a flex of my biceps.

I started doing Lessons 2 and 3 a week ago.  Whereas Lesson 1 is done all through the twelve week course, the other lesson cycle in and out every fortnight.  At the end of next week I'll drop these two lessons and start doing 4 & 5, and then in a fortnight I'll progress to 6 & 7, and so on.  I'm not sure what good a mere two weeks will do, but I suppose I'll find out.

Lesson 2 is about nutrition, and I have to say that I was dreading this one.  I am basically fuelled by chips, chocolate, Coca-Cola and apathy.  I held out a vain hope that this course would be old-timey enough that nothing would be mentioned about soda.  After all, Atlas did have to explain what a push-up was.  No such luck.  Soda is mentioned specifically, and so my life-giving nectar must be abandoned.  The rest of the advice is common-sense stuff.  Eat lots of fruit and vegetables.  Vary your diet.  Avoid white bread, white rice and white sugar.  Don't eat too much candy, chocolate, or fatty foods.  Drink a load of water.  I'm not sure how wise it is to be following nutritional advice that's older than my dad, but it sounds above board to me.

That said, I haven't been doing very well.  I spent a few nights over at a friends house, so there were a couple of trips to Nando's and McDonald's.  There was Wrestlemania 31, which involved lots of snacks and beers.  There was a 40th birthday party.  There was a George Clinton concert.  Basically, life has been making it very difficult for me to eat healthily, and I am particularly weak-willed in this area.  I definitely need to strive to do better.  I'll never kick the Coke and fast-food habit entirely, but I know that I need to cut down.

Lesson 3 is also about food, in a roundabout way.  More accurately, it's a whole chapter about constipation.  Charles Atlas seems to be very fixated on the subject, and discusses it at length.  The various troubles that it causes don't really bear discussion here, but don't think that Atlas doesn't spend a good seven pages going over them.

He does have some practical advice, though, which may or may not be useful.  He advocates drinking a glass of warm water and lemon juice every morning upon waking, and I've been doing this.  I happen to like lemon juice, so it's no big deal to me.  I'm not certain if this has affected my bowel movements at all, but it may have been responsible for the somewhat unpleasant and explosive clean-out of my system that I experienced a few nights ago.  Or it could have been the Nando's, it's hard to be sure.

Atlas advocates avoiding spicy food, and at this point I'm about ready to reach out across the barrier of time and slap his head in.  I love spicy food.  Nando's is my favourite restaurant, I love a good curry, and a good salami, and a good chilli...  This is going to be a tough couple of months, if I actually follow the advice given.

He also writes about chewing your food thoroughly, so that it's already partially digested by the time it hits the stomach.  I'm trying this as well, but Christ-on-a -bike it takes a long time to eat a meal.  I don't have a lot of patience, and I'm basically always looking to finish my meals quickly so that I can get to more interesting things.  I've tried to slow down, but it ain't easy.

There are a few exercises in Lesson 3, intended to strengthen the insides of the abdomen to prevent constipation.  Needless to say, I won't be providing any photos.  There are only three, and they all involve various stretches.  They're not too strenuous, and make for a nice break between the chest and shoulder exercises from Lesson 1.

In a week I'll be back to talk about Lessons 4 & 5, which will see me working on my six-pack and my back muscles.  I've got a bit of a recurring back problem, but hopefully that won't impede my progress too much.  I already have enough of a problem with my lack of willpower, and there's a Coke in the fridge right now that's calling my name...