During the end of the year and the beginning of the next, many set out with good intentions to make change. But alas changing isn’t always the easiest thing to do. This article on The West Milford Messenger website tackles the tricky subject of transforming your resolutions to reality.
This article was timely as I’m working on a 30 day fitness experiment to kick start my fitness in the New Year. More on my goals and resolutiosn to follow.
As you can tell by some of my last few and sporadic posts I’ve had a rough spot in my workouts but am climbing out of it. I’ve been working out 2 times a week with my fit friend Rob in Dallas and Fridays with my trainer Brandon.Have also been playing basketball 1-2 times a week which is my favorite form of exercise.
While Brandon has me focusing on perfect form during my Friday workouts, I’ve done a few old school power workouts Rob during the work week. (Old school - The last time Rob and I worked out regularly I got really strong and was able to put up a max bench of 265 and 275 with minor help)
While I no longer am focused on my bench - I must admit that lifting 225 this AM really gave me a mental boost. 4 plates on the bar just looks heavy.
It was the first time in a long while that I’ve lifted more than my body weight with my upper body - which felt great. (10-11 pounds more for those keeping score!) I don’t plan on obsessing over the bench press though it was nice to recapture some of my raw strength during the past month.
I must admit it would be nice to get strong enough to lift 300 pounds once. But only if it was very all-around functional strength.
So after making much progress the first half of the year, the second half has been a slow decline.
As a recovering workaholic I have to really guard agaisnt letting my work life balance get off. Once I noticed the problem I took steps to find a new job that allowed more time for family and fitness.
My 3 week notice is up and I’m off to a new job. Much closer to home and less stressful.
I weighed in at the start of the week at 214 - 14 lbs heavier than my low earlier this summer of 200. Not good but at least I’ve taken positive steps to halt the decline.
This week’s workouts:
Sunday - 2 hours of basketball
Monday - travel day, off
Tuesday - upper body weights
Wed - 40 minutes of cardio (eliptical and bike)
Thursday - off
Friday - full body weights and basketball
After watching this great demo from TechCrunch 50 I pre-ordered the Fitbit pedometer. The small, wireless device records your movements and uploads data to the Fitbit site for your review. The site offers interesting reports, motivational views, and nutritional logs.
At $99 the device isn’t cheap but encouraging you to move on a daily basis, helping you lose weight, and improving your health justifies the cost in my opinion. The device should ship in December and I’ll be sure to log an in-depth video review when I get my Fitbit.
For more information or to pre-order your Fitbit, visit www.fitbit.com.
I was at a commercial gym the other day and this thought just occured to me: When did the lower leg become such an after thought in the training programs of most members and trainers? Have we just forgotten that we have a whole system of muscles from the knee down?
As far as the average gym goer is concerned I can understand the lack of enthusiasm in the idea of training the lower leg. It’s tedious, uncomfortable, and for those who have hypertrophy goals a very hard muscle to get to grow. But there is nothing worse than a guy who has twenty inch arms and thirteen inch calves. Therefore it is probably a good idea to give the calves as much volume if not more than you give to your biceps and triceps.
As far as trainers are concerned lower leg training of some sort should always be included in a balanced and well thought out program. The whole “functional” training movement is partly to blame for the lack of calve training because of fear that if you isolate a single joint in an exercise it will have no carry over to life’s demands (whatever that means I really don’t know). The ironic thing about that is that people who only believe in “functional” training usually are having their begginner deconditioned clients doing a lot of balance work (Thank you NASM). And in order to have optimal balance you need to have good force output in all of the muscles in the lower leg. So if you have a problem getting someone to stand on one foot well it probably isn’t the “core”. Its more than likely that they have weak gastrocs, soleus, tibialis anterior, peroneals, ect. These muscles do not get enough work to get stronger with squats, lunges, and other lower body multi-joint movements and need to be isolated under load. So no matter what your goal is lower leg training is a must.
After my triumphant post that I’d gotten down to 200.2 I have had a fitness relapse. Between not playing as much basketball, missed workouts with Brandon (my fault), a hectic/delay ridden travel schedule, and a dietary relapse I’ve slid slowly backwards to 205.
But you know what they say about excuses. I guess I like my moderation in moderation. In any event I had a great holiday weekend and am pumped up again.
So expect to see lots more pots over the coming weeks. Logging them here reality helps me keep on track.
As someone who eats lots of restaurant food while traveling for work the website CalorieLab is a great resource. It offers nutritional information for popular foods and restaurants. They boast a database with 500 restaurants and 70,000 foods.
Their menu overviews and detailed food profiles can help you pick out healthy options and avoid common calorie pitfalls.
And after you have planned out your intake, you can check out what activities will help burn those calories via the CaloireLab burned calculator.
Via Lifehacker
Ask Metafilter is a great online site that uses crowdsourcing to help answer community questions. This interesting thread tackles the user quesion about balancing exercise induced hunger versus weight loss.
Head over and join in on the conversation if you have insights to share.
Via Lifehacker
Hello All! I’m off to Oklahoma City today to begin the resistance training specialist masters program. I am so thrilled to get to be a part of this one of a kind program taught by industry leader Tom Purvis. We will be starting this month with the science of resistance training and in the next three months we will be working through application modules for trunk/spine, upper extremity, and lower extremity. But this program hardly ends there. It will demand future trips to Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and back full circle to Oklahoma City for examination. But this one is worth the travel and expense because of the amazing information that will be presented. Can’t hardly wait!
Yesterday I weighed in at 200.2 pounds. For those of you who don’t know me, this is 28.8 pounds lower than my all-time high (low) of 229 that I swelled to last year. This progress was won by slow and steady application of Brandon’s tips - which we shared in episode 1 and 2 of the Talking Fitness podcast.
I still have 20 or so pounds that I plan to lose in the next 6 months but I feel great with my progress this year. (More on this subject in a post next week as I need to get my body fat % taken again to asses my overall progress.)
One key tip was eliminating soda and other sugary soft drinks from my daily diet. As a diehard soda fan, I will confess that this wasn’t easy or entirely pleasant. I’ve worked on IT projects for 2 of the 3 big US soda companies and loved drinking endless amounts of soda while at work.
For those of you finding it a challenge to kick the soda habit, here are a few soda alternatives from the College Being website:
Water: One of the best things you can drink. Too bad it is so boring. Next.
Sparkling Water + Lime: A variation of the above with a little extra zest (literally!). Just get some seltzer and add a little bit of lime. Lime is great for the body and the slight acidity of it helps get rid of a lot of bad things in your stomach. It also helps heal your scars faster. Just make sure you get real sparkling water and not something like tonic water that has a bunch of sugar in it.
Green Tea: Green tea has all sorts of health benefits. It helps you stay hydrated, cures acne, and the Chinese even believe it gives you super powers. It is easy to make, can be consumed hot or ice cold, and is way cheap. Other teas like white tea are great too, but try to stay away from teas like black tea that have a high dose of caffeine (unless you are studying for an exam).
Soy Milk: Not everybody loves it, but it is one of the healthiest and, in my opinion (once I got used to it), tastiest things you can drink. Comes in all sorts of flavors. From chocolate to vanilla to extra calcium (mmm calcium…).
Lemonade and Limeade: Just squeeze one lemon or lime into a large glass of water. Add one or two spoons of sugar, but don’t go over board. Super easy, quick, and healthy.
Other Juices: Juices are a great way to get a lot of needed vitamins into your body. They taste great too. Just don’t drink too much because they contain about 100 calories per serving. [..]
Via Lifehacker - if you don’t already check out Lifehacker, be sure to add it to your list of blogs to read. They offer amazing tips on jacking/improving all facets of your life.