Weekend Reading

There is a great article about the SWAT workout that looks great. I am sure that anyone who tries this out is going to be able to trim fat and gain muscle.

Go Over there and check it out. ->The SWAT Fitness Plan

It is a circuit based plan that is designed to condition your entire body.

Conditioning isn’t about how many push-ups you can do,” says Orlando-based swat commander Tom Stroup. ‘It’s about preparing for everything else you do in life.” In his line of work that means anything from rappelling down office buildings to bailing out of speeding boats. For us civilians, being conditioned means we can lug a 70-pound backpack all day or skin up that powdery slope — and have energy left over when we’re finished. Stroup’s SWAT workout (swatworkout.com) builds cardiovascular and muscular strength in one intense 15-minute routine. Interval workouts burn calories faster than your average cardio workout, and the high reps tone muscles and abs.

Yoga Exercises

Yoga exercises strengthen your body and make it more flexible. Yoga also calms your mind and gives you energy. In active sports or strenuous exercises, you use up energy. In yoga classes, students report that they feel tranquil after a class, yet have more energy. Slow and steady motion is the key to going into or coming out of the postures. You hold a yoga pose for several seconds or even minutes and give attention to full, quiet breath. Your yoga instructor will always encourage you to relax as the exercises are being done.

You gently place your body into yoga postures. Done correctly, there’s very little chance of injury or muscle stress. A particular asana is not repeated dozens of times, nor are you ever encouraged to push yourself too much.

A yoga session is designed for balance. You stretch to the right and then to the left. You bend back and then forward. You learn to recognize when one side is stronger or more flexible than the other. Thus harmony and balance are achieved with yoga practice.

People of all ages can practice yoga exercises. They are easily modified to meet your needs and physical condition. Don’t be put off by the difficult looking postures you may see in a yoga book. A skilled teacher can adapt most asanas by using chairs, cushions, even a wall or other props. A yoga practice can be tailor-made just for you. If something is really impossible for you to do, just forget it. Never compete with yourself or others. Yoga is a stress-free but powerful way to exercise.

Yoga is good for increasing your flexibility and relieving stress, but it doesn’t take the place of aerobic exercise. You should still do regular, aerobic exercise, which increases your cardiovascular fitness, helps you lose weight, and, for people with non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes at least, improves blood glucose control.

My Initial Training Schedule

Well it seems that my schedule and that of the trainer that I have used before are not going to mesh. So I think that I am going to take a stab at making up my own schedule and plan for the beginner stages. The beginner plans that I have read and seen over the years are not that complicated. Basically you use the beginner stages to train you muscles on how to workout and make the movements.

I am going to be hitting the gym 3 days a week, and like every other person out there I am going to pick Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Monday will be Chest and Biceps, Wednesday Back and Triceps and Friday will be Shoulders and traps.

You may have noticed that I am not doing legs. This is on purpose. What I didn’t mention is that I am going to be starting my running at the same time. I think that my legs are going to be sore already so there is no need to over train them.

As for the specific movements, I am not sure what I am going to do. It really is going to depend on what is busy at the gym when I go there. I am going to be doing as much free weights as I can.

For my running schedule I am going to get 3 days of this in too. I think that the best would be Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I am not sure exactly what this is going to entail but I am sure I will figure that out easy enough. There are a lot of great websites for runners.

I am going to be doing my training in the mornings. This is a two fold reason. One is that I am getting up later and later and that means I get less done every day. The other is that the gym is usually packed in the evening after work and even later on into the evening. The morning however, it is nearly empty.

I am going to stick to this schedule for about 4 weeks. By that time I should be able to get into and talk to my trainer friend and set up a specific training schedule that will be tailored to my goals.

Discipline I don’t have

I have added a relatively new blog by a Toronto personal training and lifestyle coach which as it is continually updated has some really great tips.  If I was closer to TO I might even look her up.

But her most recent post about going out on the town, and her very strict diet, by choice, is something that I can’t do, even while I am trying to lose weight.  Basically when she is out on the town she is sure never to slack off on what she eats.  So she will not even eat fries, and when she does she thinks that she has failed. 

This is a very bad thing for people that are just starting a diet and they used to eat a lot of crap.  To someone like this, if they felt "bad" about every time that they eat something they like but is not on the list they are doomed to fail in the long term.

When I am on a "diet" and I use this term lightly because all it means to me is that I am consciously changing what I am eating to get a result, whether it is to lose weight, have mre energy, etc. But I still have a day, or meal that I can eat what I want.  This is a once a week thing that I know is comeing, but I can change depending on what is going on.  So on a Friday after work we go for beer and nachos, or maybe on game day we will have fish and chips, or burgers.  This is a meal that I keep track of, but I don’t count it as a failure. 

One high calorie meal every once in a while will help you lose weight if you are on a low calorie diet.  A low calorie diet will help you lose weight but it may also slow your metabolism, so that means once you reach your goal and figure that you can eat again, you will only bounce to your old weight.  Eating one high cal meal will lessen this jump. 

For this example, I think that she is always eating right which is something that we should all strive for, but I think that it is no easy to go from "good old home cooking" to eating right in one step.  So if you go out with friends I say eat up, if you feel like it, and if you do don’t lose sleep over it.  Just don’t go out often

As for the dislike of beer?  Well to each their own, but I LOVE MY beer, but at least she buys the local stuff, there is nothing like drinking the local micro

Cheers,

Jeff

Time to Kick myself in the Ass

The time has come to kick myself in the ass and get back into the gym.  I have started to see signs of my decline, sure I am being active getting some good excerise 3 times a week, but being winter, that is all of the excercise that I am getting.

To add some incentive, I am going to be posting daily updates to how I am doing.  These will be posted here, and I will NOT be posting these on the homepage as they will not be useful to most of my readers.  I will be doing a monthly update on how I am feeling though.

The post will have a little note on what I did that day, with a summary of my gym and my morning weight and a moving average over 5 days.

 

Lifetime Fitness: On Your Way to a Healthier You

Many people end up abandoning perfectly good fitness programs and weight-loss regimens before they even lace up their sneakers.

Why? Because in a world filled with fast food, instant messaging, and a five-second disease-tracking device, anything without a quick payoff goes against the grain of the typical American instant gratification ethic. While it would be nice to actually drop inches in just a few days like what most miracle ads proclaim, managing weight and losing weight through physical fitness is a slow and steady process that takes time and commitment.

Setting weight management goals for yourself can be a good motivator. Gradual weight loss, for those people who wish to shed off some extra pounds, is usually the safest.

That is why health and fitness experts had come up with the idea of lifetime fitness in order to teach people set realistic goals. These lifetime fitness programs generates dietary regimens that cut your normal calorie consumption for your weight by 500 to 1,000 per day, so will burning the same amount with exercise. In turn, this will definitely encourage healthier weight loss.

Lifetime fitness teaches you how to maintain a physically fit body at the same time enjoy and live a happy, contented life. It gives you the chance to strike a balance between the two (exercise and diet), and make exercise, be it team sports, cycling, or walking, something you will truly enjoy.

That is why lifetime fitness embodies the concept that making a long-term healthy lifestyle change is essential to keeping the pounds off once they are gone.

To know more of the advantages and benefits that lifetime fitness can bring, here are some facts that you need to know:

1. Lifetime fitness programs offers you the most comprehensive and wide-ranging fitness and health encounter with quality services, in which the customers will feel gratified.

These fitness programs provide you the right method in maintaining health, build up and encourage your competence, and take care of your family’s physical fitness as well.

2. Because the goal of lifetime fitness is to provide you with long-term achievements as far as physical fitness is concerned, these programs utilizes numerous fitness equipments that will tone and manage your health and the different parts of your body.

There are fitness equipments that will give your cardiovascular system a lift. You can also opt for some sports facilities that will provide you with an alternative way of being physically fit.

3. Lifetime fitness programs and centers also provides nutritional products such as food supplements that will aid in the formation of good blood cells and tissues thereby making your body at its pink of health.

Lifetime fitness centers and programs also provide you with up-to-date fitness magazines that do not only give substantial information about fitness and health but inspirational stories as well. These articles will give you an insight on how to make you life balance and how to live a life that is healthy and fit.

Indeed, staying fit and healthy can be a long and winding road and there are instances wherein you may find your enthusiasm fading occasionally. Nevertheless, with the comprehensive programs provided by lifetime fitness plans, you can start heading back to the right track of a healthier you.

2008 is a New Year

Wow, I am glad that the holidays are over.  The pic is representative of my eating habits for about the last 3 weeks. Alas the gluteny has now come to an end, I am back to my own homestead and away from the homeland where a cup of tea is ALWAYS accompanied with a couple biscuits, oat cakes, squares and cookies.  I should note that the old ladies are the worst, you can’t say no and if you try they force feed you.

But now, I am not too worse for wear about 5 lbs heavier and a little softer but I think that I did better than most years.  Tomorrow though is the beginning of another year, the first day is always a write-off, and I am going to start it right.  My clock is set, the coffee pot is set and I am going to be off to the gym before I go to work.  I have even set up a meal plan that will get me through the week without too much work.

I hope to have more time now that the holiday season is officially over, I have a few great ideas for the site and just need the time to make them happen.

Cheers and Happy New Year

Gym Hacks

I was wondering around the interweb today and found this cool site, Real Women’s Fitness and especially the post called 26 Gym Hacks You Probably Don’t Use There are a number there that are very smart, and guys don’t think that you can’t learn anything from a “Women’s” site, there is a lot of great information on there.

1. Trainers are worth the money
If you have been at the gym for a long time and still aren’t seeing much progress you should spend one session with a trainer and get their advice and opinion. This could save you time, effort and a lot of emotional energy.

Deservedly number 1! This is something that I think that most men don’t do, they think that since they read Mens Health and of mags, or was a High School athlete they don’t need a trainer. WRONG, most of these guys know what they are doing and as long as you make sure to see that they are accredited they are well worth the time and money. And most gyms will have discounts that you can apply when you start at the gym.

9. Machines are NOT meant to make it easier
When you get on a machine do not get on with the idea that it is easier to do that free weights. It is not supposed to make it easier to lift, it is supposed to help you target a certain muscle group. You still need to work hard.

I talk to a lot of friends who say that they like machines because they are “easier”. Well the reason why I use machines is that I want to push HARD, and if I don’t have a spotter a machine is very safe.

10. Repetition range means “until failure”
If you get one of those workout cards from your gym and it says “Dumbell Curls - 4 Sets of 10 Reps” it does not mean pick any old weight and just do 10 casual reps. What it means is that you should carefully select a weight that will cause you to “fail” at 10 reps. In normal speak this means that you have chosen the ideal weight if you can do 10 reps but no more. If you just do 10 reps with any old weight you are not going to make progress.

NO comment needed, this is important and something that when I am lazy at the gym will just use the weight I used the last workout and not up the weight.

20. If you don’t know, ask
The trainers are always wandering the floor like lost children. Quite often I wonder why they are even there. If you don’t know how to use a machine then go up and ask. They will be thrilled that someone actually talked to them and it might save you an injury.

At my gym it seems that this is VERY true, however there is one that I go to that they have very stuck up trainers, but that is only at one of the nearby franchises.

24. Early morning free breakfast
If you ever want a free breakfast some gyms (especially women’s gyms) offer a free breakfast of toast, fruit and a cup of tea. Go and do your workout and then have a bite before you head off to work. Perfect.

I wish that my gym does that, I am pretty sure that I would be going to the gym much more often in the morning.

And what is it with the Women’s Gyms getting the perks?

Anyway, browse the site, there is a lot of great stuff to find around there.

Plan how to reach goals

Now that I have a goal I have to figure out a way to reach it. Like I said one way is going to be posting my progress on a monthly schedule, but I think that another good way is going to be to post a weekly roundup of what I did on the training side every week. I will then be able to use this to find out where I have to get better at and where I should be spending more time.

I will also be keeping a VERY detailed diary of what I am eating. I even got a new notebook just for this purpose. I am going to make sure that I have it with me at all times. This will help me monitor what I am putting in myself and hopefully if I have to write down that second piece of pie, maybe it will make me think twice about it.

My Goals - Have to Start Somewhere

I have a few short term fitness goals that I have been having a hard time keep up with. So to help myself out I think that I am going to post them here and then make sure that I give everyone a monthly update.

My first goal is to bring my overall weight from my current 250lbs to 225lbs. This is something that I feel that I can accomplish within 4 months.

The bigger goal is to run 5km. This is going to be tough for me since I have never been that fond of running, or even jogging. But I think that it is completely doable. While the weather is not too cold I am going to be doing my running training out side, and I have found a great podcast to help me get out there and running. It basically tells you want to do and has a training schedule.

A couple of other goals that I have is to eat less processed food and more local fresh food.

The final goal that I have is to reduce the waistline. Working in front of a computer for a living makes this HUGE. I am young and yet I have a gut. I want to change the trend NOW and not wait till I get out of breath walking up the stairs of my apartment and have a doc telling me I can’t eat bacon anymore. NEVER, and I LOVE bacon.