Look! Another Post!

Well, well, well. Here I am posting again! Who knew I'd have anything else to say? Certainly not me.
For those of you wondering, and you know who you are, I've settled on a workout plan. I know, I know, you were very concerned . Anyway, since I have discovered spinning (quick side note on spinning, never thought I'd like it, but it's the fastest 45 minutes of the day) I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate it(spinning) into my weekly plan. Another quick side note, you are thinking about your workouts in weeks/months, right? In order to get the most out of your workouts and meet your goals, you need to think of your daily workouts as part of a weekly puzzle.
Any way, I've been using parts of about 3 different plans and throwing in some cardio and some abs and some general all over lifting and some specific body part plans and blah, blah, blah wandering aimlessly, shocking i know.
So, I sat down today and did exactly what I would tell you to do, set some goals and then formulate a plan to meet those goals. The goal setting has been the hang up for me. I'm not trying to lose or gain weight, I'm not training for anything specific (triathlon, 5K, etc) so what's my goal? So, how did I get here? I read. I knew reading would get me into trouble eventually. Anyway, I read fitness magazines and books, always trying to see what is new and exciting in the world of working out. And I tend to be my own guinea pig. So, largely what I've been doing is flopping from plan to plan. Changing a plan every 4 weeks is a good idea, changing every week is not. So here is the plan for the next 4 weeks:
Day 1 Chest workout
Day 2 Back workout
Day 3 Cardio (spinning) and abs
Day 4 Shoulder workout
Day 5 Arms workout
Day 6 Cardio (spinning) and abs
Day 7 REST

Because I plan to work out 6 days a week, I can focus on one main body part each day. I am not working the same body part 2 days in a row, which allows me to lift either heavier or more reps because the body parts will get time to recover. I moved the arm workout away from the chest and back workouts so that I don't over worm my triceps which get used in most chest and back exercises. If necessary I'll lighten the triceps load on arm day. At this point I think spinning will be enough workout for my legs, if I feel the need I can always add in a leg workout. On days other than cardio I will do 20-30 minutes on the arc trainer, 1/2 as a warm up.

So, what's your plan? How many days are you going to work out next week? How long do you have to work out? What are your goals?

Thats all for now, but I'll be back,

I'll see you at the gym

My Workout's Stale!

So, you've been working out, regularly, right? Right? But, sometimes you get bored. Then what? On a side note, those were some seriously bad sentences, grammatically speaking. Any way, what I should have said is, "I'm getting bored with the cardio portion of my workouts" part of my problem is physical, I still have some pain in my heel/achilles tendon when I run or play basketball more than once a week, I'm too impatient to sit on a bike long enough to burn the calories I want to burn, so I climb on the arc trainer for 20-36 minutes depending on the workout every time I am at SNAP. And suddenly I'm having trouble getting motivated for that part of my training. Lift? Sure. Abs? No problem. Circuit training? love it! But I feel like I need to do the cardio. So, what to do? Find another way. Fortunately for me, SNAP in Chatham has expanded and are now offering "fitness on demand" classes. Push a couple of buttons on a touch screen, climb on a spin bike and 45 minutes later I've had a great dose of cardio. I had never done a spin class or even been on a spin bike before, so it was a little uncomfortable at first. Within a few minutes I had figured out how to adjust the bike, I followed the very peppy person on the screen, I was pedaling in rhythm to the music. A great cardio workout. You just never know what will happen when you step outside your comfort zone. When I first started working out, I felt out of place, like everyone was looking at me wondering what that fat guy was doing working out. Oh, and I sweat a lot, did then, do now. Once I decided I was going to do my workout to the best of my ability and not worry about what anyone thought my workouts got much better, that helped inspire me to stick with the eating plan.

So, what do you do when your plan gets stale or boring? Change it! Most "experts" will tell you that you should change your workout every 4-6 weeks. Sometimes little changes can make a big difference.

I am planning to post again before the weekend, until then,
I'll see you at the gym (or in spin class)

The Illinois State fair

It's Fair Week! What does the fair mean to you? For me the fair means a Vose corn dog. Maybe a pork chop on a stick, lemonade shake up, etc. So how do you eat healthy at the fair? That's a tough one, right? Yes it is. The pork chop is grilled, it's probably 2 servings of meat, I'd guess 400 to 500 calories. Just about everything else is either fried, full of sugar, covered in sugar or all of the above.
So, what should you do? I'd say you go to the fair. Once, twice max. Enjoy, but don't go crazy. The danger in the fair is that it could lead you back to bad habits. Going off the reservation once in a while is not a problem (once a week is not once in a while, more on that later) the real danger in indulging is that feeling that the corn dog will make you feel guilty, then you'll beat yourself up and decide that as long as you've already "blown the week" you might as well stop at McDonalds on the way home, and tomorrow for breakfast and, well you get the idea. The week is not blown, you haven't fallen off the wagon. Side note on the fallen off the wagon thing, at some point in our history did they make recovering alcoholics ride a wagon every where they went? That's one of those sayings that even though it makes no sense, I know what it means. Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program. It will not hurt you to have one day a week where you consume "extra" calories, stop dancing and read on. Seriously, one higher calorie day will keep your metabolism going, I'm not talking about 5000 calories, I'm talking about a little pizza, or pasta or whatever you feel like you are missing out on. Once you have reached your goal weight, it's ok to eat pretty much anything within reason. Track your weight, as long as you keep up your workouts, you didn't think I was going to let you stop working out, did you? And you don't gain weight, you're doing it right. Right for you will likely be different than right for anyone else. The only way I could lose weight was to be really careful of my diet, track everything, and obsess over 35 cal bread as opposed to 50 cal bread. Now that I am at my goal weight (YAY!) and have maintained for almost 2 years I don't worry about every calorie as much. I look at my general diet on a daily or even a weekly basis. I stay level by really controlling 2 meals a day. Breakfast is 300 calories, lunch is typically 300-400 calories, that gives me some room to eat a couple of snacks and a bigger meal in the evening. That's what works for me. You'll have to figure out what works for you. My general goal is to try to pick foods that will add up to about 1200 calories a day not including my "big" meal. Remember that I'm on maintenance, I could not, and have not lost weight on this plan.

For anyone out there counting, here is my list of fair food:
1 Corn dog
1/2 deep fried brownie yum, yum
1/2 order of river fries
3 glasses of wine (approximate) it was a tasting

I promise the next post will include some fitness tips.

And a side note to my editor, I'm getting old, I don't always remember what year it is. I feel good that I was only a year off on the date on my last post. I'm glad I have someone paying attention and keeping me in line.

I'll see you at the gym.

Back to WORK!

It's Sunday August 14th, 2010. Tomorrow is Monday August 15th, why is that important? Because tomorrow it's back to work. I know, i know, nobody will shed any tears for me. I had the whole summer off. I haven't had to work since the Friday before Memorial Day. Boo hoo, rough life I've got going here. But, as everything does, this return to work got me thinking. What are the diet/fitness challenges when you don't have a set schedule? The challenges are exactly what you'd think they are, it would be very easy to slack off on the diet, or ease up on the workouts. After all, you can stay extra long tomorrow, right? You can eat a little more, after all you can work out as long as you want, right? Wrong. At least for me. I do best when I have a routine. I probably started my workout between 9:30 and 10 am 90% of the days this summer.

Now that I'm headed back to work, my routine will have to change. Up about 6, out the door at 6:40. Work work work have some lunch, work work work, head to work out, then home, have some supper etc, off to bed . Lather, rinse, repeat. My routine is to workout on my way home, once I get home the chances I'm going back out to the gym are slim. Ooh a rhyme. Anyhoo, that's what works for me. It may not work for you, what's important is finding a routine that gets in enough workouts that becomes just a part of your daily/weekly routine.

I have rambled enough for now, I'll hit diet and workout in the next few posts. My goal is to keep the posts shorter, but post more often.

Adios for now.

Where Have you Been?

Where have I been?

Incredibly, only one person has asked, and she knows where I am. It's possible I should change the focus of this blog to something more entertaining, compelling or useful. Or use it as a sort of journal and not worry about who reads it. That last one seems about right. If I only blog for myself, am I talking to myself? More importantly, am I answering myself? So far this is just rambling, seems about right.
I should probably go back and review the past year so we (I?) can start fresh. Sounds like alot of work, I'll do it later. For now I should really get to the gym. I took yesterday off, I feel the need for a workout. I'll be back with two things, an update on the workout and a recap of the year.

That's it for now,

I'll see you at the gym.

OUCH! My Knee!

I'm having a little problem with my knee. Not a new problem, but a problem that has steadily gotten worse over the last 6 weeks. I've had some "catching" some grinding, some stiffness etc in my left knee for awhile. About 3 1/2 weeks ago it started to get worse, so me being me I decided that would be a good week to play some full court basketball. That caused some swelling and stiffness in my knee. I of course tried to ignore it, worked out the next day. No problem so far, but the day after that (Saturday) and no I wasn't in the park and it definitely wasn't the 4th of July. Any Chicago fans out there? Anyone? Bueller, Bueller? OK, just me I guess, anywayas I was leaving SNAP on Saturday I started ti get in my SUV, I pivoted on my left leg, my toe caught on a rock (pebble) in the parking lot. It was like someone shot me in the knee, since it was safe to assume a sniper didn't shoot me I assumed my knee had "caught" again and would be ok by the time I got home. Not so fast my friend, my knee got worse as the day went on. I finally, grudgingly went to prompt care. They took an xray, and suggested I get an MRI, which I did about a week later. The original diagnosis was a meniscal tear. Which was confirmed by the MRI. I went to see an orthopedist who recommended surgery. Fortunately the rest of my knee looks sound, I have a little arthritis (big shock) but no other damage. So, I will be having arthroscopic surgery on my left knee on Wednesday morning. Unless they run into something unexpected I should be as good as new in a couple of weeks. So that's alot of really specific stuff about me, how does this apply to you? Hopefully it doesn't. but if you have an injury what should you do? Man up and keep training, ignoring the injury? Probably not a good idea. Injuries need time to heal. Stop working out until your owie feels better? I don't recommend that either. Remember how hard it was to get your workout routine started? It's even harder to get it re-started. Try to adapt your workout so that you don't aggravate your injury. Go to the Doctor, go to Physical Therapy, ask your PT what you can and can't do, then follow their guidelines.

That's all for now, but seeing as I will likely be couch bound I'll bet there will be more ramblings later in the week.

I'll see you at the gym

He Made It, and much much more!

The title sounds exciting, doesn't it? Call now limited time offer! Now that I've got your attention.
I made it. HIT training is tough. In my case it was made a little tougher by a creaky knee (more on that later) So, what did I learn? I learned that by the end it was more of a MIT (medium intensity training) circuit. I did the same thing that many others have done, I just got through it. The workout beat me up to the point I couldn't go as hard as I wanted. In short, I overdid it. I was teaching my body that 3/4 speed/intensity is what I wanted. Only it isn't what I want. Ever. If I'm going to work out I want to go hard. What I've told others, and what I already know is you cannot do a high intensity full body workout everyday. Our bodies need a chance to recover. That's why one of the first questions a trainer should ask is "how many days a week are you going to work out?" If the answer is 3-4 times a week, you should be doing a full body workout everytime. If you are going to work out 5-6 times a week (even I take 1 day a week off) you should have 2-3 workouts that work different muscle groups. Have an arm day, a chest/back day and a leg day. You can do some cardio every day, you can work your abs every day.
Okay, so you've been working out for awhile, you've lost some weight, you are getting in better shape but, you have hit a plateau. Now what? I was looking through a fitness magazine and saw a short article about plateauing (is that a word?) I'd give the magazine credit, but I don't remember which magazine it was. Anyhoo, the question that was asked is "are you teaching your body to adapt to going 1/2 to 3/4 speed during cardio?" Our bodies are incredible machines, our body can adapt to decreased fuel (lower caloric intake) by slowing down it's metabolism. Our bodies will adapt to an increases workload by developing the muscles that are being used the most. So, after our body adapts to our workout/diet how do we get it revved up again? A couple of things might help, first EAT! that's right eat a little more once in awhile, keep your body out of starvation mode by having a higher calorie day once a week or so. Don't go crazy and eat 3 Double Quarter Pounders, a 5 gallon bucket of fries and a giant Coke. But do take in about 50% more calories than usual. Here is the disclaimer to that plan, if you have been struggling with your diet, are already eating more than is ideal for your goals, you don't need a high calorie day. This plan is only for those of you that are very diligent with your food intake. 2nd, change your workout. Take a week (or 2) and do completely different types of workouts. More weight fewer reps, less weight more reps, dumbbells instead of machines (or vice versa) if you are working out 5-6 times a week, make every other day abs and cardio only. If you are working out 3-4 times a week work a specific muscle group each day instead of a full body workout. Break up your cardio. Instead of 1 15:00 cardio session do 7 2:00 high intensity sets whether you are getting your cardio on a treadmill, an elliptical a bike or whatever. I've started partnering my cardio with my abs. For example, 3:00 as hard as I can go on the elliptical, then 100 crunches, 2:00 on the elliptical then 50 crunches with butterflies and so on until I get in my 15 to 17 minutes. This setup does 2 things for me, I don't get as bored doing my cardio and I work harder on the elliptical because I know it's only 2 minutes.
The moral of todays story is, change it up to keep making progress.

Thats all for now,

I'll see you at the gym