What I've learned...so far

I've followed tons of different fitness programs.  Over the following few weeks I'm going to try to summarize some of the programs I've followed and what I've learned about myself following these programs.  There are a few things however, that are universal to all programs.  I'll go into more detail on these points later on.

1.  Your diet is almost as important as your program.

2.  Your program is almost as important as your diet.

3.  Supplements won't fix your problems.

4.  You need to know what results you want before you start a program or diet.

5.  You have to follow the program!

6.  You don't need a lot of equipment to get in great shape.

7.  The only excuses are the ones between your ears.

8.  Write down everything!

This might be the most important one.  I have fitness journals going back over 10 years.  I can look back at these journals and see what programming I was following, how much I weighed, what my maxes were, etc.  This is extremely important for several reasons.  You need to know if you are making progress.  You need to be able to look for trends to see what works and what doesn't work for you.  It keeps you motivated.  If you aren't tracking something, anything, you will fail.  I'll write a much more detailed post later on about the importance of tracking workouts.  For now get a notebook of your choice and a pen and start writing things down.

9.  Write down what you eat.

I wish I had figured this out and done it a long time ago.  Diet can have a huge impact on your results.  I didn't pick this habit up because it can be a real pain in the ass.  There are lots of free sites on the internet now that make it very simple to keep track of your diet.  All you need is a computer and a small scale to weigh your food.  After a while you won't have to way everything because you'll have a good idea of how much you are eating just by looking at it.  This will even work in restaurants when dragging a scale along in impractical.  You can use measuring cups to determine how much you are eating but they don't work as well in my opinion.  Not everything fits well in a measuring cup.  Frozen fruit comes to mind.

10.  Don't quit.

17 May 2012 Crossfit Workout

17 May 2012

RX

Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Power clean, 10 reps
15 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

Scaled

Five rounds for time of:
115 pound Power clean, 10 reps
15 Wall ball shots, 15 pound ball

18:00?  Forgot to stop the timer so that's the best guess.

Power cleans are starting to get better.  Need to work on the landing though.  It feels like my lower back is a little over extended when I catch the weight.  Also need to work on catching it with my shoulders and not in my fingers.  My fingers could get a little painful when the weight starts getting a little heavier.

What is the optimal training model for strength and mobility?

Long title.  Longer question.  I'm not going to pretend to have the answer either.  I believe that like most things fitness related, there are multiple answers and models that will fit one person but not another person.

My goal is to find the best model for me.  I have been looking for the model that will give me the best blend of strength, agility, and endurance.  It's a hotly debated topic and there are several philosophies out there.

Over the next few weeks I hope to summarize many of those schools of thought here.

Stay tuned!

Eating Right

I've been following a new to me diet for about three weeks now.  It's called the "Primal Blueprint" and was developed by Mark Sisson.  You can find his blog over at marksdailyapple.  I love his blog and so far I love his diet.

My experience has been very positive so far.  I haven't had a slice of bread in three weeks.  No bagels and peanut butter for breakfast in all most as long (That was hard for me to give up.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.)  I'm eating a lot more meat and a lot more vegetables and fruit.

My occasional heartburn is gone.  I don't have as much knee and foot pain when I get up in the mornings.  My energy levels have been very good.  I think this week has been the best for energy so far.  I don't have the mid afternoon coma anymore (You know what I'm talking about.  Eat lunch. Go back to work.  Feel like a nap the rest of the day.

My energy level this week is what surprises me the most.  I'm in the national guard and the last weekend was a three day drill weekend.  I'm usually exhausted after one of those weekends but I feel great this week.  I don't know how else to explain it except that the diet is really working.

My only complaint so far is I've been pretty hungry.  It hasn't been near as bad this week but it's still there.  I think I'm probably under eating a little bit and still not eating enough vegetables.  I'm still learning how to eat like this so I'm not to worried about it right now.

I'll keep you updated on the progress I make.  I'm reading Mark's book at the same time so I'm sure that I'm making mistakes and still have a lot to learn but I'm okay with that.  I usually analyze everything to death before I do something so it feels really good to just jump in to something.  I'm really enjoying the journey.

Breathing is exercise too.

Don't believe me?  Try this the next time you go for a walk around your neighborhood.

Don't think about anything but your breathing while you walk and walk at a slow relaxed pace.  Take a long, slow, deep breath in through your nose.  Make the breath as deep as you can make it and then hold it for two steps.

Now let the breath out slowly through your mouth but make a ssssss sound through your teeth.  As you let the breath out tighten your core muscles as tightly as you can.  One you have forced as much air as you can out take two steps before you repeat the process.

How did it feel?  I bet you don't make it very far breathing like this.

So how does knowing that breathing is exercise too help you?  You have to make effective use of breathing during your workouts to maximize all the energy you have stored up in your muscles.  If you aren't breathing effectively you will fatigue more quickly and it will take your body longer to recover between workouts.

Later I'll make a post on how you can use breathing to strengthen your core and increase your energy every day.

How to break in a pair of Merrell Barefoot Trail Gloves

It's true.  I do do dumb things.  They don't seem dumb at first.  But after much thought coupled with a little pain the error of my ways becomes perfectly clear.  So I don't really suggest you break in a pair of Trail Gloves this way.  But I hope you enjoy my little story about how NOT to break in these shoes.

First start by wearing some very thin socks for this break in.  You'll understand in a minute.

Step 1:  Spend 8 hours on your feet teaching middle school kids.  Make sure the floor only has a thin layer of non-padded carpet over solid concrete.

Step 2:  Go to golf practice and walk nine holes with the varsity.  Make sure you don't take any clubs out of your bag because you want as much weight in it as possible.  You don't want your players to think your soft or old.

Step 3:  Go home and change into some running clothes.  Make sure you change your socks because you don't want to run with wet socks.  Take you socks off.  These shoes were made to be worn without socks.

Step 4:  Run a couple miles at a slow pace.  You don't want to push it to hard because you want your feet to get used to being in minimalist shoes.  8:00 to 8:30 per mile pace should be about right.  To much to soon and you could injure yourself.

Step 5:  Whine and complain the rest of the night and all of the next day to your significant other about how bad your feet and calves hurt.  Don't worry, you probably won't get any sympathy from said significant other. At least not from my significant other.

And there you have it.   A perfectly broken in pair of Merrell Barefoot Trail Gloves.  Your feet will be perfectly broken in too but who cares right?

In all fairness, these shoes don't need to be broken in.  I love these shoes.  I don't think you need me to give you a long drawn out review of THE shoes.  There are plenty of those on the net all ready.  I will tell you that you need to work into these shoes a little at a time if you are used to going barefoot all ready.

I actually "broke these shoes in" back in April.I have worn these shoes to work multiple times now.  I've played golf in them a few times.  I've also gone on multiple runs in them.  The more I wear them the more I like them.  In fact I'm planning on buying a pair of the tough gloves as soon as the budget allows.

If you've been thinking about getting a pair of these I say go for it.  They ran true to size for me without socks on but a 1/2 size small with socks on.

A True Minimalist Shoe Test?

Jason over at Barefoot Running University (a great blog if you haven't read it) has a very interesting post about the possibility of shoe companies submitting their shoes for independent testing.  If you are a believer in minimalist shoes and want to see how they really stack up against "elite" running shoes read this article and get the word out.

http://barefootrunninguniversity.com/2011/06/07/dr-craig-richards-a-call-for-independent-shoe-testing/