My old addidas shoes were in a horrible state after paintball. The shoe laces were a flourescent orange and what wasn't mud speckled and stained, was worn from age. It was time to get new shoes.

The approach these days is to take images of your walk, your instep and then get you to run on the treadmill. It turns out - courtesy of playing Aussie Rules in my youth - that I pronate very badly on both feet despite having a high instep and an even and straight walking method. I personally put this down to a broken ankle and seven sprains between the ages of 15 and 19.

Watching your ankle and feet when you run is also quite disconcerting. The amount of movement the body does that doesn't look right and how the tendons explode out and so forth. It is a wonder the human body survives the daily punishment that is handed out.

I run about twice a month, and even then only short distances and sprints. I am not someone who will run 5kms daily. I swim often, almost daily, but running I find as boring as used dishwater. Anyway I bought stability shoes. They are very comfortable and will hopefully give good service.

Addendum: I am convinced there is no way to look cool while running. The two bit logo of me running that I use on the site in the top right is a fluke of photography that Sitansu lucked on when he took that photo.

We hit the track again for the monthly 1600m challenge. This time Ari was running with us. He is a College level runner, so pretty quick despite his protestations that it wasn't track season and he wasn't at peak physical fitness. Ari worked out that for me to not be lapped by him I had to do under 6 minutes 20 seconds. As it turned out I just managed to avoid being lapped, but only by about ten metres or so. Ari is the shirtless runner directly behind me (I am the one crossing the finish line). I did a 6:16 for the 1600m which was a nine second improvement on my last time. Ari did 4:51. Which is amazing.

We have all been knocking seconds off our times, myself, Lukas, and Phil have all taken close to a minute off our times since we have been doing this. My first run when we did this was 7:08, so I have done 52 second drop in the space of two months.

Addendum: Joe took the photo.

I measured my body fat this morning before the ab/core workout. This time it had gone down a little more to 9.1%. I don't doubt there is some variance in those measuring instruments but since it is done at the same time each week I am hoping that it is useful in relative terms.

I rarely use dailyburn.com but it is good for charting body weight and body fat. The graph above is from there and includes my body fat measurements from 2007 and early 2008.

One of the interesting aspects of that graph is the body fat is not correlated to my loss and gain of weight. When I was approximately 18% body fat my weight was around 185 lbs. When I dropped to 12% body fat my weight was 164 lbs. I have since eaten my way up to 172 lbs with the goal of hitting 175 lbs. So my 9% measurements have been at the 172 lbs mark.

Update 7.3% Body Fat.

I measured my body fat this morning and it was 7.3% which is the lowest I have been. I am probably low enough that the amount of hydration is having significant effects on the readings. I do an ab/core work out with a physical trainer on saturdays and will take my body fat measurement again to see what the variation is.

I have managed to achieve the dropping of body fat in conjunction with an increase in weight. I am trying to eat my way up to 175 lbs if not 180 lbs. When I had the surgery on my shoulder I dropped down to 165 lbs as I couldn't work out, swim or run; and was very limited in what I could do physically.

I have tried to take my eating up a notch and eat more than I used to. I am also increasing the amount of times I work out so that it all gets consumed one way or another. For instance today I worked out for an hour in the morning, and then at lunch time I went and swam. It means I am constantly ravenous, however, if I skip lunch and dinner, as the quick dip in the graph from two days ago shows, I can lose up to 3 lbs over night.

My body fat has been hanging around the high 9s for a while now. I am slowing gaining more weight, but it is proving a difficult task. I am now seeing a physical trainer twice a week. The advantage in using a physical trainer is that they push you harder than you ever can yourself. Additionally they work over all your muscle groups so you get more consistent and even growth. Usually a person working out on their own focuses on what they are good at and their body knows how to cheat.

We have been doing an ab/core class with a physical trainer for about three months now and our bodies are getting stronger and stronger. So the physical trainer is using repetitions and sequences to tire our muscles down so that at the end we have sore muscles.

I am doing a leg workout on wednesdays and an ab/core workout on saturdays with the trainer. The rest of the week I am doing a mix of muscle groups, mainly though, I focus on chest and arms. It is working out well. I have thickened up recently and am hoping for about two to four more lbs to come from my legs in the next few months. It might get me to 180lbs.

I often say, "Projects always win." By the end of a project the team is tired, worn out, and starting to succumb to illness and stress. Projects tend to be brutal, even the well managed ones hit upon tight deadlines and requirements overreach. Hours and the constant pressure build up, leaving the team tired enough to make rookie mistakes in their code even with the buffers of unit testing.

The best way to fight most of that off is by being fit. Good health, constantly working out, running, swimming etc means you are better able to fight off stress, more capable of avoiding colds and flu and leaves you in a better frame of mind as well.

Our group has been on a fitness kick. One of the guys just trained for a half-marathon and several others have gone on weight loss regimes - successfully too.

The rigors of software engineering and project based production are such that you have to be fit to survive it. Project do win, but being in peak fitness dulls the negative effects of stress, illness, tiredness and fatigue. You have to be fit be a software engineer.

More For all my low body fat and going to the gym everyday I am carrying one of these, a Stye, at the moment. We are in the latter stages of the project and projects always win. Something will get you.

Genetically I have been blessed with thin, spindly, long legs. It means I have difficulty gaining muscle in my legs as they just won't carry that much weight. I have been doing well lately. This is the result.

I only do legs once a week with a physical trainer. I do a lot of cardio such as hiking and mountain biking, but any gain or burn in muscle I get from those is extra benefit.

I normally do multiple calf exercises:

• Calves on Leg Press
• Calf Raise Seated
• Calf Raise Standing

There are different variations of those but as long as the weight keeps increasing - and there is enough food being consumed to support it - there will be muscle growth. One of the things I do at the end of the calf work out is bounce. This is where only a small arc is done and basically I bounce on the machine in a small motion until the calf muscle burns down to nothing.

My arm the other morning after doing cable work at the gym. They are pumped from the work out - but even so, it is a good indication of the progress in my biceps and fore arms.

I spent the winter bulking up by over-eating. Sometimes I would eat up to 5000 calories a day but most days the consumption was about 2500 to 3000 calories. I am dropping that down to 2000 to 2200 calories which was what I normally ate before I started to bulk up.

It has been successful. I put on about twelve pounds in six months or so. Apparently you are limited to growing one pound of muscle a month so there is some fat in that twelve pounds. I am currently dieting to remove those excess pounds of fat.

Before I started bulking up my body fat was always around 9%. Currently it is closer to 12%. This is the extra weight I have gained. I am dropping it back to 8% or 9%. So far I have lost three pounds but that is a bit too fast. I need to drop about a pound a week so that it takes fat and not muscle.

We work out every Wednesday with a physical trainer at out local gym. When our physical trainer competed in body building competition his legs were his best physical attribute. It shows in how he trains us. This was today's routine (I am 6 foot 1 and 187 lbs):

First Circuit 4x

Leg Press

• 12 x 360 lbs
• 12 x 450 lbs
• 12 x 630 lbs
• 12 x 630 lbs

Jumping Squats onto Bosu Ball.

• 12 x
• 12 x
• 12 x
• 12 x

Seated Calves

• 20 x 155 lbs
• 20 x 155 lbs
• 20 x 155 lbs
• 20 x 155 lbs

Second Circuit 4x

Standing Lunges

• 12 x 50 lbs
• 12 x 50 lbs
• 12 x 50 lbs
• 12 x 50 lbs

Sissy Squats

• 12 x
• 12 x
• 12 x
• 12 x

Standing Calves

• 20 x 495 lbs
• 20 x 495 lbs
• 20 x 495 lbs
• 20 x 495 lbs

Third Circuit 4x

Seated Hamstring Curls

• 12 x 150 lbs
• 12 x 150 lbs
• 12 x 150 lbs
• 12 x 150 lbs

The Jumping squats and the sissy squats focus heavily on the quad muscle on the front of the leg. The jumping squats are particularly difficult as they require so much stabilization to occur. You squat down in a crouch, and then jump up and land on an up-turned bosu ball. You then crouch down on the bosu ball and then jump up and back into a crouch. Repeating that motion twelve times. It is difficult and the burn sets in about the fifth squat. The slower the better too.