"If you are going to be an artist be a complete one or die in the attempt"
Cezanne
Muscle Marathon Year 4
In August of 2012 I passed the half-way point
of my marathon. I have completed 208 weeks of six days a week training with 156 weeks left to go.
For the past four years I have been concentrating
on the physical directing all my efforts toward gaining control over the health
of my body. I feel I have accomplished
that. So now, after four years of
intense training, I believe it is the time to ease up on the physical and begin
to explore more seriously my inner spiritual self so that, at the end of my
marathon, hopefully, I will have found a balance between the physical and the spiritual.
In order to help with the spiritual I thought it
would be a good time to go to the source of my marathon inspiration; China. I was inspired to start my muscle marathon by
China’s Shaolin Monks (along with the Marathon Monks of Japan) so I decided I
should make a pilgrimage to China - a spiritual journey if you will.
In October my wife and I took a two week trip
to China. It was a wonderful and mind opening trip. But there is too much to talk about here in
this blog up-date. If you are interested
I have a detailed account of this trip to China on my web site. Go to, www.maestrogaxiola.com and click on, “China – Spiritual
Journey.” There you can learn more about
my trip and see photos of my interaction with China’s Buddhists Monks.
Here
is an update on the physical side of my marathon
Weight and diet
I have had no trouble maintaining my
bodyweight within a range of 157 -159 pounds all year. Because I have tracked my food consumption
every day (calories and protein) for the past three years I pretty much know
how much I can eat daily to maintain that weight and still have enough protein
to build and maintain my muscles. I did
however cut back on my protein intake by 25 grams because I think after four
years of intense training I have made the bulk of my muscle gains and I don’t
need as much protein anymore.
Now my
training has leveled off and is more or less just for maintenance with the
possibility that I might get a little more muscle definition. I have a routine that is comfortable with
just enough weight resistance to work all my muscles satisfactorily. I think
the gains I have made over the past four years are proof enough that a rigorous
weight training regimen with a high protein diet can result in larger muscle
mass at an advanced age. More
importantly it is also beneficial to one’s health; at seventy-six years of age
I still take no prescription drugs of any kind.
Routine
My routine is basically the same as it was
last year except for a few minor changes. I felt I still needed to work on my
posture so I changed my training routine a bit putting more emphases on upper back,
traps, and deltoids. Unfortunately I got a little over zealous and tried a few
new exercises and as a result I tore a shoulder and bicep muscle. I quickly went back to my regular routine,
but I had to work with very light weight weights for a while until things
healed up a bit. I still have some
discomfort in my shoulder and right bicep but I am able to use full weights
again.
That’s the problem with old bodies they don’t
allow for any variety unless you take it very very slow to start. I remember when I first tried to do dumbbell
lateral raises I thought I could use 25lb dumbbells. But after a couple of days my shoulders were
so damaged I could hardly lift my arms.
It took months before I could do them again and when I did I had to
start back using 5lb dumbbells and work my way up.
As for my routine, in order to keep from being
repetitious, just go to Year 3 for all the details. If you want to know more about my marathon
philosophy go to Year 1
Summery
My marathon is part of my artist’s life now and
with it a new image has emerged. It has
been a slow but deliberate image change from cowboy artist to physical/spiritual
artist. It hasn’t been easy because I
spent forty five years promoting and living with the “Maestro” cowboy image. But the transition is sincere and I am
comfortable with things as they are now.
In order to make the transition more acceptable to others I incorporated
my new image into my website while still maintaining some of my old cowboy
image. Most of my friends, with the
exception of a few, have accepted this new image and understand the philosophy
behind it.
With three more years to go on my marathon I
am looking forward to what may lay ahead for me physically and spiritually as I
strive to become a more complete artist.
Be sure and check in next year (March 1, 2014) to see how things are
going.
