Day 2 – Resistance Training, Cardio, and Nutrition

Published on August 18, 2025 by Aaron Groover

INTRODUCTION

Day 2 of this fitness transformation program, just like Day 1, is also about creating a baseline from which to understand the starting point of the subject’s current fitness level, including performance metrics and health metrics. Day 1 started with cardiovascular performance, and Day 2 also has cardio built in, but has added resistance training, which the test subject hasn’t done any in at least the past year.

Mobile applications create the structure of the tracking system, and each performs its own function as well as integrates with other applications to create a cohesive structure form which to base data collected in a way that is useful to continued progress. After the second day, the exercises were performed, nutrition tracked, and subjective observations were recorded to add data to the body of work, where we are exploring the following hypothesis: Is the structure of this program sufficient enough to be able to effectively replicate daily and provide enough scientific evidence to make inferences about how human performance can be reliably improved in the majority of clients in a similar age group?

METHODS

The methods section is divided to 3 parts: fitness performance, nutrition and supplements, and health metrics. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses are performed and detailed within the data collected by the mobile apps before, during, and after exercise. Some data are continuously collected all day, such as glucose, and all night, such as sleep. Subjective analyses include mental health questionnaires and journals which record opinions on results and subjects answering of questions that do not fall within the quantitative parameters. Quantitative analyses include most everything else, including times such as length of time an activity is performed, and units such as outcome measures such as calories or weight measures such as grams. Each of the tests are outlined below along with a description of what it measures and why it is important to the research project.

Performance

Walkfit is a mobile app that contains the cardiovascular program of choice for this project as well as the performance goals, and the test subject’s actual performance compared to the goal. It was used today as the sole workout; no resistance training was performed today.

Everfit is a mobile app that contains the resistance training program of choice for this project as well as the performance goals, and the test subject’s actual performance compared to the goal. It was not used in today’s workout; no resistance training was performed today.

Glo hosts Yoga and Pilates-style trainings for daily use to provide stretching, core engagement, and body weight work. It is used as an adjunct program to facilitate another dimension of fitness: overall flexibility and mobility improvements.

Nutrition and Supplements

MyFitnessPal is the nutrition tracking app that will be used for the duration of this program. It has all the possible tracking features one would need to create and maintain an excellent nutrition program.

Lingo Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) is installed on the test subject’s right triceps, and continuously tracks blood sugar all day long, and provides meaningful data on how foods eaten and exercise specifically affects blood glucose levels. Data provided by Lingo’s mobile app allows the user to make informed decisions on what foods to include with daily meals for specific outcomes.

Currently, the test subject is on the following supplements (subject to change):

• Vitamin B12 5000mcg: Due to low concentrations on last blood screen. 30 days only, almost finished.
• Qunol CoQ10 100mg: circulatory Health, generating ATP
• Nordic Naturals Omega-3 690mg: cognitive performance, joint health, heart health, immune support
• Vitamin C 500mg: Immune System Health
• Creatine 20mg: Energy production, cognitive performance, muscle contraction, recovery boosting

Health Metrics

Fitindex Body Composition Scale is being used to monitor body composition metrics. The Fitindex Digital Tape Measure also keeps track of circumference measurements as well. Both sets of data are input into the Fitindex app and can be measured as often as needed and provides trends in data to show changes between points of time.

Apple Health connects to the Apple Watch as a data collection device and the Apple Health mobile app as a data storage and display center. Many metrics such as oxygen use and cardiovascular data are collected among many other parameters of physical health and stored within the app, and other apps contribute their data for seamless integration in one location. It also provides alerts if any preset metrics fall out of range so immediate action can be taken to stabilize the subject’s health in any situation.

Summary

While at first it may seem like there are a lot of tools being used, and most programs don’t require such in-depth instruction or complicated means, this program aims to collect data on as many data points as possible to provide the most complete body of work possible for a transformation program. Transformation is more than just improving physical health and performance, but changing the way a person thinks about their health is the only way to maintain results for the long term, so attention and care must be placed on mental health and emotional stability during this long period of what can be perceived as stressful, painful, and otherwise unpleasant feelings that are experienced during a program of this nature. So space is created in this program for plenty of time and energy to be spent on introspective topics designed to fortify the mind and create mental toughness and emotional resilience as part of the overall journey.

RESULTS

Fitness Performance

Treadmill Walk via Walkfit

Action	Steps	Distance	Time	Calories
Goals	6000	3.1	60 mins	370
Actual	12981	6	93 mins	931

Resistance Training via Everfit

Exercise	Set 1 (Weight/Reps)	Set 2 (Weight/Reps)	Set 3 (Weight/Reps)
Dumbbell Incline Press	20/26	25/13	30/6
Pec Deck Fly	70/7	70/10	60/9
Lat Pulldown	85/15	100/10	100/6
Barbell Biceps Curl	30/13	30/10	30/15
Triceps Rope Pushdown	30/14	30/7	20/10

Yoga/Pilates via Glo

The first yoga/pilates work will be performed over the weekend, when a complete rest from the resistance and cardio training occurs.

Nutrition Metrics via MyFitnessPal

Glucose Monitoring via Lingo

Average Daily Glucose	Lingo Count: (Goal: Under 60)
95 mg/dL	49

Body Composition via Fitindex

Weight 203 lb	BMI 29.7	Body Fat 27%	FF Weight 148.2 lb
Subcut. Fat 23.3%	Visceral Fat 12	Body Water 52.7%	Skeletal Muscle 47.2%
Muscle Mass 140.6 lb	Bone Mass 7.4 lb	Protein 16.6%	BMR 1821 kcal
Metabolic Age 51

Subjective Interpretations

There were a few more exercises programmed into the resistance exercise portion of today’s workout, but the subject stated that he felt like he was going to have trouble recovering if he did any more. We covered the major upper body movements for the time being. He states he has trouble with the tendons in his elbows when he first begins working out. We will see how he feels and how long it takes to recover from this workout, and the weight and reps might be a little too high to start out. We needed to cover shoulders and abdominals as well as hit the back more thoroughly. This is a good starting point, and we will determine if we need to pull back more so we can have a complete workout.

Also, we are not programming legs yet, because he states his legs grow faster than his upper body, and we are getting significant workout through the treadmill work. We will continue to experiment with what works for him, keep what makes a difference, and discard the rest.

DISCUSSION

Exercise Prescription

For fitness performance on day 2, the focus was on resistance work. The intention was to create a baseline data collection from which to start on resistance training. The overall goal for the subject’s strength training is to be able to do significant performances on body weight exercises, and to create a musculature that will support his active lifestyle well into his golden years. He is already 46, so gaining strong muscle is of the most clinically significant goals of this program. All exercises and intensities will be chosen with this goal in mind. Intensity can be increased in predictable margins, risk of injury is low (and injuries that might occur will heal quickly), and energy can be effectively produced by the body due to mitochondrial growth and repair or sloughing off of damaged organelles.

Nutrition Prescription

The test subject’s target calories per day are 2,130 kcal, which is calculated by multiplying his weight (202 lbs.) by (13) and subtracting 500. [202.3 x 13 = 2629.9 – 500 = 2129.9 or 2,130].

Macronutrients are calculated as follows:

Protein is the most important factor to get correct for optimal recovery during times of intense exercise, so we calculate that first. [202.3lb = 91.95kg. Estimated 1.75g per kg to start, may increase as resistance work increases. 91.95 * 1.75 = 160g (rounded to the nearest whole decimal)]. 160g per day, or 30% of the total daily intake of food should be protein.

Fats are the next, and they should just be around 50g per day, and at 2,130 kcal per day total, 47g of fat come out to 20% even. So this is where we start our fat intake.

Carbohydrates take up the remainder of the intake, which is 50%, or 1,065kcal, which at 4 calories per gram, equals 266g grams per day of carbohydrates.

This second day, the test subject still ate much less than the daily total, which is still okay to start, but in order to have energy for the entire day, and for the body to have all it needs to recover properly, the total food intake should be closer to the recommended totals. While a large deficit might encourage faster weight loss, it could come at the cost of muscle tissue being lost in the process which not only keeps the muscles form strengthening but also from being able to repair, making recovery periods take longer. On this day, the subject actually didn’t eat dinner, and if this meal was included, then the target number of nutrients would have been consumed.

The Lingo glucose monitor kept a running total of all of the movements of glucose levels throughout the day, and came out with an average total of 85 mg/dL, much less than the recommended <117, which is excellent. The Lingo count was 31, which is recommended to be <60 which is also very good. Improvements can be made to stabilize the blood sugar even further. The count represents how how of a spike occurred and for how long, and a total of those counts all day is considered the Lingo count. This is the main area where glucose monitoring is useful for non-diabetic exercisers; less spikes equal better metabolic health and less likelihood of storing glucose as fat.

Body composition readings are input into the chart in the results section. All of the readings can be improved, either by decreasing or increasing the numbers, depending on what reading it is. One of the main goals of this program is to improve health as well as performance and looks. As health improves, so will the body composition numbers. These will continue to be added into the results each day so we can see how these numbers change over time, and compare it to the work being done within this program. Compared to Day 1, Day 2 numbers were the same or slightly improved. Trends can be seen in the app, and the trends will be published once every two weeks.

CONCLUSION

This program takes advantage of periodization in an attempt to group goals into sensible action plans. The periods are as follows:

Microcycle: 1 week increments, 52 microcycles in the complete program.

Mesocycle: 12 weeks or 90 days, 4 mesocycles per year. Each mesocycle will contain one week of scaling back to active rest before next cycle begins.

Macrocycle: 26 weeks, 2 macrocycles total. First macrocycle is about dialing in all aspects of health including, strength, size, fitness, nutrition, flexibility, balance, etc. The second macrocycle will have a specific focus to be determined at the end of the 26-week mark.

Each day will contain similar content as this post. Things will change as the needs of the program arise. All data is being recorded in tracking apps, and information published on this blog are summaries to see progress in a digestible form.