You know I have been talking about training a lot this week (and I have some good examples coming your way, too) so there’s no need to switch it up now and talk about something else. I think I hear something—wait, I think it’s a dead horse being beaten in the back room. Poor fella.

Ok, all kidding aside, Bertha is back in the gym and we need to hit her up for some more stuff.

I have been focusing on switching up your training and providing your body with some much needed fuel for change (that’s what switching up provides) so that you can either increase your fat burning or move through a plateau. I have already spoken of using confusion or demand and within demand I spoke of tempo. So I have put some stuff out there for you to sort of chew on and I am going to add to it today with functional training.

This is really being addressed to my major “gym-heads” who just can’t seem to walk away from the 3, 4 or 5 day splits.

I love a good split, you love a good split, everyone at some time in their lives has really enjoyed a good split but for the love of all that is holy…DIVORCE THE SPLIT. Ok, I’m sorry…I’m back now. Took a sip of water and walked around a bit. ;o)

Changing up the way you work out between full body and body parts is a great way to add to your training tool box without having to think too hard. Now say you are not ready to fully adopt the full body routine and giving up the split almost gives you hives. How about adding some functional moves between your current split to add a new dimension of caloric burn to your workout? Bodyweight exercises and functional based moves add a level of intensity that is not always present in every weight workout.

Say you are doing a push/pull circuit. Let’s take a vertical push and vertical pull routine. Although you can kill yourself in it, you are not going to burn as many calories as you would if you moved your entire body. BUT, you are not willing to give up your back and shoulder day or your chest and shoulder day and etc. SO, let’s have some fun with those days instead. Take your OH Press/Lat pull down superset and make it a tri-set by adding on a set of burpees. First, you just added a “wind-sucker” to your set so you’ll be sucking wind in no time. Two, you just added another demand to your shoulders so you’ll be feeling that. And three, you’re going to round out the look of the body because functional moves use every muscle, not just this little itty bitty one over here when you move your arm like so.hehe I’m being a wise guy but what I am saying is that functional exercises round out the muscles by hitting them from every direction. You are not frontal plane only or sagittal plane only. You are all 3 planes of motion depending on the move and that’s what we’re really shooting for isn’t it?

Moves such as transverse lunges, burpees, pike push ups, weighted bridges, split jumps, unsupported rows with movement, rotation of any kind and so on can be strategically placed in your workouts to add difficulty, a cardio deficit and variety. Now that boring split isn’t so boring anymore and you are hitting every part of your body without giving up your split or sacrificing too much extra energy. Make sure that the exercises you add do not add much in the way of time. While I want you to experience something new with your workout, I am still a huge advocate of ‘get in and get out’. If you make a 40 min. workout into an hour plus because you added too much stuff in, that’s not cool.

So Bertha has now learned to lift a bit heavier, slow it down a tad and add a functional component into her splits for an added benefit. Soon we’ll be tackling that loose skin on the belly… OH BOY!;o)

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I wish I could listen to music all the time. I mean everywhere I go. Never turn it off. I would jam all the time.

I’d have to change up what I listen to and all (you ever listen to one too many dance beats and want to hit yourself over the head with an anvil?), I don’t want to get sick of genre or anything. But I do want to be submerged in music. It has energy…fun…optimism…wreaks of creativity and most importantly, rhythm (aka tempo).

Everything in life has a rhythm. I know what you thinking right now and I just laughed out loud thinking it too, “Oh no, I don’t and you do NOT want to see me dance.” That may be true but you do have a natural rhythm about you. When you get up, when you go to bed, when you eat and etc. It’s inbred into your system and can take an act of God to get you to change and at times it is necessary to change. If I sent you to the weight room right now without thinking about what your goal was and I handed you a weight and said, “Go”, you would most like lift at a certain rhythm/pace that you have been forever. There is no reason to change. The move will feel familiar to you; the speed will feel familiar. You could trace your movements in the dark.

Now on the one hand, that’s good stuff. Who wouldn’t want to be that confident in the weight room? On the other hand, that’s a huge problem. Your body is tired of you. Bored with you. Knows all about you and has moved on. You are like John and Kate to your body—so yesterday’s news.

I promise I won’t start on my ‘you need to lift heavy rant’; instead I will help you to gain more out of your lifts than you may be now.

A simple weight lifting tool that can make an exercise go from bearable to pukeable is Tempo. It is one of my favorite things to play with and can give you the most gains. Here is a perfect example of when tempo is a gift from Heaven:

Side raises. Love them or hate them they are a great burn. If you are lifting a weight that is nearly impossible to go up from (say you can do raises with 15’s, 20’s would KILL you) then you need to find a way to make them harder. Tempo will do this for you. So what is it exactly?

Typically written as 3 numbers, but can be written as 4, tempo will show up on a program like this: 301, 211, 3111, etc. What does it mean? The amount of seconds you are to lower the weight, pause at the bottom, lift it and then pause at the top. This is great stuff when you want to convey to someone that the lift should be powerful—not slow. You would have them perform it at a pace of 201 or 211. If you wanted it done explosively, then you would denote that as 20X or 31X.

Why would you ever want to do this? Well, to beat your own arse obviously! Take a walking lunge. Feel free to just aimlessly walk around the gym for a while with some weights in your hand and call it effective. The first time you did it, it was. Now, a year later and in the middle of your plateau—not so much. How can you take an effective move like that and make it fresh again? Start the walking lunge with a BB on your shoulders and in the standing position. Step out and *quickly* sink into the lunge (you almost look like you thought there was a step there or something and missed it—but don’t fall;). PAUSE for 1 full second. In fact, say the word pause. Shift all of your weight to the forward leg. Push your heel into the floor and lift yourself up on a count of 3. Your tempo for this move is now 311. I call these Moonwalks and they hurt like heck. Go heavy while doing it and you cannot walk the whole gym like you used to. You should be able to do 6 to 8 of them. Walk on only one side at a time and you’ll really hate me.

So here it is again: 2210

Lowering the weight 2
Pause 2
Lifting the weight 1
Pause 0—this one is often left off of the count

To give you an idea of how fast you are lifting now, you most likely are lifting at a tempo of 101 right now if not very heavy, 102 if heavier. Adding a second onto the lowering and a pause at the bottom will change how many reps you can do and will most likely shorten it. Try it next time you lift.

Tempo has been around for a long time. I, myself, have been writing programs with tempo for ages and during that time I have gotten a good amount of feedback about it. There are 2 common threads that you will hear about tempo: it’s complicated and it’s hard to think about speed, form, etc. all at the same time. In other words, it detracts from the lift. I beg to differ on the first one, can understand on the second one. This is just another tool in your toolbox. It shouldn’t define you any more than it should limit you. Try it and see how much it changes your lifts but don’t get all wigged out about it and throw a weight across the gym. That could get you in jail and then you’ll have nothing but time on your hands to learn tempo there. Use some common sense and ease into it slowly by just trying to vary the speed at which you lift. When you feel good about it, begin counting. Soon you will be kicking your own behind and thinking you are the mack. Hey, whatever gets you going, you know?

Tempo really is an easy way to increase demand without having to add more weight or cut out any more cals. If you are signed up on my blog, I will be sending out a program this week with ways for you to try this out (sure, when I learn how to use the function…bwahahaha). You’ll get to see how tempo really feels and you’ll have a great template to follow when you want to add it in on your programs. I am going to use all basic exercises so you won’t need a glossary to figure out the moves. Feel free to email me at jodiojo@comcast.net if you have any questions or just reply off of the blog blast. Looking forward to hearing how you do…

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Back in the day, and I mean back in the day (cuz man I’m old;), I used to troll the internet for training and nutrition information. Not so much the theory, because I hope if you are starting out in this field you are getting your theory from books first and people second, but for down in the trenches information. I looked for the kind of stuff you won’t find in a text book but more from the guys at the gym who really have changed their bodies—not just talk about it. Since you were limited to the folks at your own gym in terms of exposure, I was smart enough to know there were a whole lot of other people out there who had some good knowledge to share, too. Back then it was much easier to find than it is now simply because there were less people on forums giving out erroneous information than you have today. Now you have folks who become mayors on forums and take it over with some of the most outlandish info you have ever read. I had to give up reading that stuff about 5 years ago and I haven’t looked back since.

There is something to be said for experience. A perfect example of that are grandparents. Are they not the most unbelievable information resource available to you? At one point in your life you probably bled them of everything they know about “the homeland”, their mothering stories, how their labors went, how granddad fed a family of 8 on a salary meant for 2 and so on. You can look up all that info in a book but it’s not going to tell you what 75 years of their lifetime can.

So that brings me to this post. I recently read a book (which is funny for me to say that because right now I am averaging 2 books per week) on nutrition for athletes that completely made me wanna kick some body’s behind. Let me preface this statement by first saying it was a well written book with some valuable information so the theory wasn’t the problem. My issue with this book stemmed from a ton of theory but no application info. I HATE THAT! More importantly, he actually says in the book that this is a one of kind book (I beg to differ) and no one else is addressing this issue (he isn’t either) and he’s going to tell you how to do it (but he doesn’t), yadda, yadda, yadda. The book left me wanting to schedule an interview with him so I could pummel him into the floor with application questions because that’s what I wanted to know.

So, in the interest of ‘wanting to know’, there will be a few posts this week that discuss things that happen when dieting or the result of dieting that no one else is ever going to tell you. This is important stuff so come with an open mind because I am most likely going to tell you things that are contrary to everything you may be reading about on the ‘Net. Some will be nutrition related and a lot will be training related because it’s just as important as nutrition. So let’s start with some definitions, explanations and statements that need to be qualified:

It’s 80% diet and 20% training: Yes…for the folks who have a high bodyfat and are new to training. But if you are lean (1st definition: lean = 18-20%) wanting to be leaner (leaner = anything below 18%), training is everything. Why? Because you have already cleaned out your diet and you’re not going to have this miraculous drop from food.

Let me set up this scenario for you:
Bertha has been dieting steadily for 2 months. She has lost about 12 pounds and is a decent body fat now (18%). She loves her size but what Bertha wants now is to lose more body fat, tighten up her bum (it’s at her ankles) and fix the loose skin on her tummy (she could hold fruit with it). Her diet is on point and she sticks to it religiously (meaning she has cheats when she wants and is on track at least 90% of the time) but she is not satisfied with the results so far.

Bertha trains 4 days per week, does cardio 5 days per week and yoga one time per week. So far everything looks good and you’re thinking, “Well Bertha just needs more time dieting and she’ll be fine” right? Well let’s see…flash forward 6 months. Bertha has now lost an additional 4 pounds and is 16% bodyfat and if you look at her you think she looks great. In fact, she does! But Bertha wants more because her bum still touches the floor and her tummy still looks like an accordion only she can’t diet any harder. What more can she take out of her diet? Should she drop her cals to the point where she is starving? Wait, it must the be the fruit. Let’s take all the fruit out her diet? Umm…no. How about those pesky starches? I knew brown rice was bad. Umm…no again. Ask her what she’s doing in the gym.

What causes your body to burn body fat (forget weight) when it doesn’t want to? Confusion. Keep your body guessing and it will keep burning. Once you become stagnant in your eating and your training, your body becomes comfortable. It knows what you’re doing, when you’re doing it so it is not going to give you more than it needs to no matter how badly you want it to. Also, demand. This is a trickier one to master than confusion because it takes a bit of savvy and trust on your part—both of which elude the frustrated dieter. Lastly, resolve. Beyond elusive, downright scarce when talking about dieters, resolve is when you may try something unconventional but smart (raise cals, cut back on cardio, etc) to kick start the process again even though you think it will make you blow up like a tick on a dog.

Confusion: The hot topic right now for everyone and typically written as metabolic confusion. Read this as interval training, Tabata method, circuits, crossfit, kettlebells and any other kind of “kick-my-butt-until-I-feel-as-if-I-could-puke” training methodology that promises major fat loss when you do it. Does it work? Yep! Should I do it all the time because it works? Nope!

There is a time and a place for everything and confusion is a great weapon in the arsenal to be used in two scenarios: you have a ton of weight to lose (read that as 15 pounds or more) or you have only a little bit to go (no longer can measure your progress on the scale, it’s all about the mirror). If you are outside of this window, see demand. Why? Because you cannot burn the candle on both ends for too long so this will stall you after about 3 to 4 weeks if you are in between. And if you are in between, you’ll need more time than that.

Demand: I always start here because this is where most women fail themselves. Demand means you are asking more of your body than you were before, only you are not going to feed it more so it’s going to have to go into your reserves to help you out. This has nothing to do with increasing cardio. In fact, quite the opposite. This is all about as my girl Heather puts it, “grunting, farting and spitting” in the gym. LIFT HEAVY. And I mean heavy. And when I say this I do not mean low rep only. I mean whatever rep range you may be lifting at, make the last 2 reps feel like death! Lift with intention. Lift like you mean it. TRACK what you lift b/c if you have not raised the weight in some time, I’d want to know why. I cannot tell you how many times I have had a conversation where I am trying to “diagnose” the plateau and I found out that the client is not lifting heavy. Not because they haven’t been told, but because it’s either hard, boring, hard and boring, scared, nervous, don’t have a spot, need a trainer, yadda, yadda, yadda.

If you are worried about injury, get a trainer. If you can’t lift it to use it, get a spot. If you just can’t get into it, get over it. But no matter what, GET TO LIFTING HEAVY. If you have been using the same weights long enough that you recognize the wear pattern in the handle, then that’s a problem. Can’t go up in the weight because of the huge jump with db’s? (15# db to 20 db# is a big jump) Buy platemates! These are 1.25# magnets that you add to your weights. I don’t care if you hold a 15# and a purple 2#’er with it—GO UP IN THE WEIGHT. Like my rant? You should hear it live, it’s even more animated.

No such thing as an easy program, you just didn’t want to kick your own arse that day! As all of us fitness professionals always say, make every rep count.

Resolve: This is when experience kicks in and you need to find someone who can speak some sense into you. This is much harder to sum up so it might get its own post, but basically you went one step too far and now you need to back up. To do this, you are going to have to trust food is not the enemy and endless motion is not the answer. This needs a post. I’m on it.

So what is Bertha to do? Change up her lifting. Start by lifting a small car and progress to a van when she feels like she has the hang of it.;) Do not increase cardio, do not cut cals, just lift like you mean it and you will begin to see changes again. You know there’s more to it and we’ll get to it, I promise.

We’ll be kicking Bertha around for a couple of posts. There are other things we can help her with like, true plateaus, body weight exercises and their benefits, using fat to change your body, etc. Tons of things no one ever tells you but you should know.

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Lately there seems to be a push to bring everyone back to nature…and honestly, it’s quite refreshing.  Now I cannot say I am totally sold on this yet but it has my learning antennae up and on.  The following is just a brief synopsis of the different ways you can take food or training back to nature.

Barely There

The first push out there and the one with the most steam is the barefoot running craze.  I am eyeballing this one like a son of a gun.  I know many that have tried this but they have been on treadmill and to me that’s not much of a stretch.  What I want to know about is the person who went running on the Charles in 40 degree weather with no shoes on–can I get a report on that? 

I know about Vibram Five Fingers and have thought about trying them out (I will do a full review if I do) but I have not ventured there yet.  Right now I am living vicariously through my clients and friends to see how they handle the winter time.

Geico to the Rescue

The next push is to eat like our ancestors do.  I can definitely get on board with this type of eating and thinking when it refers to eating foods in their natural state.  I have been saying this for years and truly mean it:  the more natural that you can eat—the better you will feel.  But eating like our ancestors takes it one step further by eliminating all grains, potatoes and dairy and focusing more on meat, fruits and veggies. 

I am not pro-paleo diet as a 7 day per week prescription for your food but I can see it having its benefits at least 3 to 4 days per week.  My biggest issue with the diet is eliminating oatmeal.  I can’t.  I’d cry.  Maybe if I went through extensive therapy and mind control I could do it, but not right now.  Everything else is easy for me but I would need counseling for the oatmeal.

Your Backyard is Your Gym

Lastly is the go-into-the-backyard-and-grab-a-big-rock-and-squat movement.  This one has been around the longest for me and frankly, I think it’s hot.  I love the idea of going into my back yard and lifting something outlandishly heavy, blowing out my back, ripping a good outfit—that’s matching none-the-less—most likely breaking a few nails, scaring the neighbors but releasing some major tension all during the process.  Ahhhh.  How about showing up at your kids favorite park and doing something ridiculously embarrassing on the remote end of the park so that your 11 year old never speaks to you again.  Mmmm, love it!

Training like a beast can be fun if you have the right equipment—nature!  Bodyweight exercises, rocks, tires, sandbags and etc. make for some really fun training if you dig that kind of stuff and can really make your friends and family talk amongst themselves.  The best thing is to let them see you go wild like that, grunting and all, and then 2 hours later you have the hottest outfit on with the best makeup application.  Ah yep, perfection for me.  Who would ever know?

Well, I will keep an eye on the trends and let you know of any good ones hanging around out there.  If you run into any in the mean time, let me know in the comments below.  Stay focused!  Woop Woop!:o)

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Ok, we’ve all hit it.

It’s inevitable.

The dreaded weight loss plateau.

What in heaven’s name do you do now? 

If you’re like most women, you panic!  [Picture Gotham City burning; the Bat signal on the clouds; nothing but mayhem below—you get the idea!]  You start googling everything under the sun.  Here are some classic examples:

how to break a weight loss plateau

how to add intensity to cardio

how to lose 5 pounds in 5 minutes

hacksaws and their effectiveness (I see we’re getting desperate here)

It’s right about now when all rational thought tends to leave your mind.  You can no longer be trusted with your own exercise program.  You are as volatile as Elizabeth Lambert on a soccer field with a sea of pony tails in front of her.  Basically, put the keyboard down and back away slowly. 

Let’s be smart and think about this.  What causes a weight loss plateau?

1)       You’re in a rut. 

Have you been doing the same routine since the gym opened 3 years ago?  Seriously, when’s the last time you changed your workout?

2)       You’re too chicken to raise the weight.

If you have been lifting the same 10 pound weights since you can remember, it is time to make your exercises harder.  You must gradually increase resistance so you can keep challenging yourself.  Now, if you do this and you realize you can lift a car by yourself or one of the stones in a strongman competition, I would venture to say that that is not your issue.  At that point, you need to keep reading for other ideas.

3)       You do the same intensity workout day in and day out.

Your idea of an interval workout is leaving the remote by the tv and standing up in between commercials to change the station.  You need to branch out and add some hutzpah to your routine!  No matter who I talk to about this, I always find someone that knows this to be true but still doesn’t actually *do* it.

4)       You’re a hamster stuck in a wheel.

Now you’re the opposite of 3.  You are so neurotic about your exercise, you are doing plyos on Mon., Wed. and Fri., marathon training on Tues., Thurs., Sat. and Sun., Yoga on Wed and Sat, Jujitsu on Mon. and Thurs., Rock climbing every other weekend, bootcamp Tues. and Fri. and etc.  You have more going on than a bingo hall on a Friday night.  Less is more in this case.  Back it down and you’ll lose 5 pounds right away.

5)       You’re starving.

Have you pushed the cals so low you don’t even realize you’re biting your nails for extra protein?  When’s the last time you took a break dieting?  Every woman is on some kind of diet at some time in her life.  Have you been on one just a wee bit too long?  Do you count everything that you eat?  Or measure everything?  Have a hard time letting go of the structure?  Believe it or not, if you walk away from this for a week or two, you’ll probably break the plateau.

There are countless reasons for weight loss plateaus, these are just a few, and all of them are frustrating.  Before you make any rash moves, take two minutes to be as objective as you can possibly be about your program.  Keep track of how you are feeling and how you are doing with your program so you can spot trouble before it happens. 

Keep in mind, three things have to be the same for 3 weeks in a row to constitute a plateau:  bodyfat, pictures and weight.  If you are only checking one of those, it is not a true plateau!

It’s time for me to start a new series.  I have not decided on what it is going to be but I have kicked the idea of a weight loss plateau around.  Just know, another series is on the way very soon and like the ones before, will be very informative. 

Ok, get to the gym and start raising that weight!!:o)

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Ok…so it’s national “I-need-to-get-some-stuff-off-my-chest-week”.  From annoying time changes/cold weather to just as annoying fitness gurus, I clearly have some repressed issues that need to surface.  In comes my recent gym experiences. 

I love my time of the day to work out.  It’s my time.  No one else’s.  So, my kids…they have to wait.  My husband…he’s number 2 at that time of day.  There’s not much that gets in the way of my workout once it’s decided upon and planned…until I get to the gym.  THEN, there is a TON of stuff that gets in the way.  Here are just a few:

1)       My Ipod:  I have sacrificed many a work out because I either forgot this at home, did not charge it or had an earplug malfunction.  I cannot even imagine cutting through the gym to the bathroom without my ipod never mind doing a full cardio workout without it.  In fact, doing cardio without music is like shaving your legs with a butter knife.  Sounds plausible but who would ever try it?

2)       A hat:  Hats are vital items in the gym.  Nothing speaks of “get out of my way, I am on a mission” more than a hat.  You can avoid ALL unnecessary eye contact, ANY thought of human contact and even seeing or noticing friends if you want to be that cut throat.  They MUST be standard issue baseball hats that fit down to your eyebrows easily and comfortably.  You know you have a good one when you walk into a piece of cardio because you just didn’t see it at first.  Hats can prevent awkward moments with other gym goers who want to share too much information in between sets or keep you from having to acknowledge the lurker on your left who wants to cut in while you’re working out.  Hats are a must.  The only thing more effective is a shirt that you are wearing that smells like 2 day old laundry.  There’s another keeper right there!

3)       Water:  Yes, hydration is important and keeping up on your water while working out is essential.  Being dehydrated can be the difference between a great workout or an ok workout.  But that’s not what makes water an irreplaceable item in the gym.  No, water’s importance is much like that of the hat:  it’s a great distraction!  Someone asking you something that you know you don’t want to be a part of?  Drop your hat and take a swig while walking with a purpose.  You’ll look so involved, no one will think twice about it.  Get this timing down, though.  If not, you’ll end up drooling on yourself and still have to talk to the person at the end.  Not cute.

4)       Gloves:  Now you may not be big on these but I am.  I have found these to be the handiest things ever.  For one, I don’t have to come in contact with the equipment.  Nowadays, I feel like I could catch a bad case of the hoolie goolies if I touched just the right thing in the gym.  I actually look forward to the Swine Flu b/c they at least know what that is.  I would be the sad sap who gets something that would provoke a 90 min. special from Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN so much so that my hands would turn a funny color and itch or something.  Who knows!  So gloves are great for keeping that from happening.  But they are also great for looking important.  You ever just want to raise your gym status for kicks and giggles?  Throw on some gloves and do some outrageous exercise while making some good grunting noises.  You’ll immediately pick up some fans.  However, if you have #2 on and #3 in your hand, you’ll never know so just take solace in knowing that they are there.

5)       Gym widget/pass:  this is the little gadget that gets you into the gym.  You need to have this.  If you do not know why, forget it one time.  Depending on the gym you go to, you may be mistaken for a convict and they may do a cavity search of you at the front desk.  It totally depends on the staff that day.  You could also luck out and get the chick who doesn’t want to look up and acknowledge you so she lets you through with no issue.  You never know.  But why risk it?  Because if you are that unlucky to get the gatekeeper, it’s going to be a rough go until you get in.  There’s usually the cavity search followed by some face recognition software and then occasionally a bit of DNA match up with fingerprinting.  By this time, though, you’ve lost all patience and have put on your ipod, pulled your hat down, taken a swig of water and walked out without need of your gloves!  It’s a shame.

If you have your favorite item, do share.  I am not a towel girl or a journal girl so I did not include those.  But if you are, let me know—I’d love to know.  In the mean time, I’m going to get my stuff ready for the gym in the morning.  It’s time to be incognito again!:o)

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Before I delve into the annoying world of fitness, I need to laugh about how many folks were taken aback by my snow shoeing!haha  I promise that if I do it I will tell you all about it.  Yes, I know it is cold out there and yes, I know I hate the cold.  But I will give it a go all in the name of fitness and I will report back as soon as possible with details…hehe.

As for whatever you are doing in the gym right now—knock it off!

Honestly, if you troll around the web long enough and begin to read all the training articles out there, no matter what you are doing right now (and it could be the latest and greatest thing) you are doing it ALL wrong and you are awful just for breathing.  In fact, you are a fitness waste that is destined to spend the rest of your life behind the times in leotards and Richard Simmons shorts.  Why you got up this morning is beyond belief—give it up, you suck.

I have no idea how this is supposed to motivate me to want to try whatever it is that they are pushing but this seems to be the norm for so many fitness folk that I am almost wondering if it really is an effective way of marketing one’s self.  Maybe I will try it next week in a post.  I’ll tell you about the newest thing out there and how you are less than human because you don’t know how to do it and not only that, you are archaic because what you are doing is SUCH a waste of time (yes, because working out is silly—whatever) and why aren’t you more efficient and why haven’t you burned 700 cals in 10 min. and then *continued* to burn cals for at least another 20 hours while maximizing your potential to sell real estate to pigmies in Africa who are recovering the best unknown workout recovery secret…(pant, pant, pant).  When did fitness become this full of overbearing folks with heinous agendas? OY!

Here’s my deal…  Workout.  Now.  That’s it.  I don’t care what you do, just break a sweat.  If you decide that your cardio for the day is going to be laundry and you walk up and down 2 flights of stairs with a laundry basket about 8 times, so be it!  If you think shop lifting in Walmart is the way to go and then being chased through the parking lot by undercover cops for cardio is appealing, just wear a heart rate monitor—it’s all I ask.  Say you decide to live on the edge and go for something new so you take up swimming…indoors…in the fountain at the center of the Burlington Mall…and you find a lot of change…GOOD!  Buy some new workout gear with it!  I don’t care what you do as long as you do something!!

If you want to split hairs and talk about optimizing and etc, save that for when you’re feeling perfect.  There’s about 2 weeks out of the year when we feel that way.  The rest of the time we’re just trying to get it done and hope that nothing gets in our way lest we don’t make it to the gym that day.  YKWIM?  So I’m here to cut some slack for you folk out there who are feeling like you are not doing all that you can because you keep reading how you are doing it all wrong:  tell them to go blow it out their backside and start counting everything under the sun as a workout including yelling in traffic, pacing because you have to go to the bathroom and running out of time! 

Stand up for yourself and don’t get bullied by these crazy exercise folks!  Almost started feeling bad about myself because I worked out for an hour today…what a waste of my time.  I could have worked out for 7 min. and maintained a high EPOC for 23 hours and then dropped 10 pounds before breakfast!   Instead I chose to “make myself fatter” by doing a complex or 2 and finishing out with some cardio…SHEESH!  Who knew?

Whatever you choose to do, I am glad you are doing something!  Feel free to let us know about it if it is something unique.  Have fun!:o)

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So I casually mention in my post yesterday that if I end up having to go inside for a workout that I may do either a kettlebell workout (I own 6 of them, getting ready to get another pair soon) or a complex.  I didn’t go into any detail about either of them because I took for granted that you would know what they are all about.  I got a few questions about the kettlebell workouts (do I really like them and do I think they are effective—yes to both) but I got much more about the complexes.

What are they? 

They are a barbell workout designed around 4 to 8 exercises that are set up in a way so that they create a flow of movement around the barbell.  All exercises are big muscle movers and major windsuckers so you are fully out of breath by the time you finish.

Isn’t that a circuit?

Umm…no.  Any time you say the word circuit I cringe.  Honestly, I have visions of women in regular clothing moving from machine to machine sans sweat who are there solely to pass time in between rounds of bingo next door at the church hall.  Once the outer square and overall are done, they’ll go back in for round 2. 

What’s the catch?

The catch is, you cannot put the barbell down once you start.  So you do each exercise separately and complete all reps before moving on to the next exercise.  This is killer!  You must choose a weight that is challenging to the weakest movement and then go for it.

I’m Confused…

Ok…here’s a great complex:  Overhead press, overhead squat, back squat, front squat, bent over row and Romanian deadlift.  Perform that with a barbell and do 7 reps of each exercise.  Once you start with the OH press, DO NOT PUT THE BB DOWN until you have gone through each exercise at least once.  Do this for 4 sets of 7 reps each.  Rest 120s between each set.  Remember to bring a puke sack with you, you’ll  need it right about the time you hit the 3^rd set and you’re doing the back squat. OY!

This is cardio?

Heck yeah!  Again…try it before you question.  It’s also a great way to maintain muscle without having to kill yourself.  AND…IT’S FAST!!!!!!!! 

Please try this out and let me know how you do on it.   I love complexes and I know you will, too!

Ok, I’m off to find a guest blogger for Tuesdays because I just can’t seem to find any time to post on this day!:o)

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The clocks have been pushed back, it’s colder in the morning, it’s dark out at 4pm in the afternoon…HELP! I’m losing my workout mojo again!

Honestly, I loathe the winter time.  If I could move to Florida (and know that when I came home from work my house wasn’t blown away in a hurricane or taken over by flying cockroaches) I honestly would.  I would love to be able to work out outside all the time.  I love the sound of nature, the difficulty of an outdoor workout and the freedom from the time ticker on a cardio machine.  But alas, I live in New England and it is that time of year again.  It is time for me to become creative and find something that gets me going when I don’t want to do anything but curl up in a ball on the couch with a Snuggie (no, I don’t own one yet but I am obsessed)! 

One of the most successful things that I have found to work for me is to change my cardio based on the seasons—or at least time intervals of weeks.  This helps tremendously and keeps me from getting in a cardio rut.  If you have the luxury of being able to do this—do it! 

Right now it is windy and unpredictable so my workouts have moved to the street where I will either bike now or hill walk.  I live in the hilliest area of my city and I love it.  In the summer it was all about field workouts and track workouts because the grass was conducive to direction change (no leaves on the ground) and great traction.  The winter is now upon us almost and I am considering my next outdoor adventure:  snow shoeing.  Yes…snow shoeing. 

I have never done it but I am really looking forward to trying it.  Not sure if I am going to or not, but it is a definite possibility.  I want to stay outside.  I am not a long distance runner—I am a sprinter by DNA—so that’s not really appealing to me and biking becomes dangerous once the snow falls.  So I am left with no choice other than to become really creative with my cardio if I want to stay outside for the majority of my workouts. 

Now if you know me you know that this is going to last until the first real cold day and then I’ll be over it faster than you can say 9-10 cardio!  Then I’ll hunker down to a nice kettlebell workout or a heavy complex and use that for cardio til it thaws out. 

No matter what your weapon of choice is, find something that brings out the kid in you.  Nothing stresses me out more than looking into the eyes of the drones on the elliptical machines in the gym who have been sucked into the land of mindless cardio.  There has to be more to life than that and I am punking you right now to find it.  Man up and get out there and find a great cardio alternative!…and then come back and share!  WOOP WOOP!:o)

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You ever have one of those days when you just “got nothin’”?  Do you force it in the gym or do you know how to adjust your training?  How in tune are you with your body and your goals to be able to change things up at a moment’s notice?  The robot mindset has got to go.  Read on…

 I get lots of questions all the time about people’s training: when they should train harder or how to get stronger and etc.  And if you have ever been unfortunate enough to ask me whether you should train or not when you are sick, you know it can be as painful as performing a bikini wax on Sasquatch—really, don’t ask! 

 People can talk about common sense and intuition and all that jazz but I want to talk about your goals.  Are they really that important that you lose all sanity and consider hacking up a lung on a cardio machine or tossing an 8 pound weight around because you can’t imagine lifting anything heavier?  Really?  No, really?  And do you really have to ask someone if you have to work out or not?  The fact that you look like the poster child for the H1N1 vaccination is not enough of a deterrent for you; no you have to go and do that work out because your paper says so.  See, it says it right here, “Legs on Monday.”

At some point in your training you are going to have to take responsibility for your results…because they are your results.  No matter how good your trainer is, the results you walk around with are yours.  You did the cardio.  You ate the food.  You lifted the weight.  Yes, we guide you and we love to do it, but we are only with you 1 to 3 hours per week and we guide your plan from afar the rest of the time.  If you have any trainer worth their salt then you should be learning as well as you are doing.  We honestly don’t want you as clients for life that just aimlessly move from exercise to exercise in the gym. (Well the paper said leg press 3 X 10 and the machine was broken so I just skipped it.  OY VEY!)  Instead we want you to own your program and all that comes with it.  If you feel like crap—back it down!  If you feel like a hero and it’s an off day, switch your schedule around!  Start listening to your body and all that it tells you so you can help us to help you more.

I’m not saying add in extra volume or begin to make up a new program, I’m saying if you are scheduled to work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and you feel like crap on Wednesday but Superman on Thursday, then switch it up!  Change what you do when you need to so that you have ownership of your results!  Also, if you already know that Thursday is going to be a draining day in work and Friday’s workout is psychotic, change it around ahead of time.

I wish I could predict how you are going to recover from a work out or an activity.  I wish I could look at you and say, “By the 3^rd week you will be ready to progress to the next level.”  Umm, I can’t do that—but you can.  So let’s take this one step further.  What happens if you are on a program that has you upping the intensity the same week that you are moving from one place to another?  Do you really think that you can increase your volume/intensity that week and then on Saturday and Sunday successfully move a bed, 2 couches and a dining room table up two flights of stairs?  Think again killah!  You’ve got another thing coming.  Or better yet, Hercules, you do it but then find yourself on the injured reserve list by Sunday and cannot imagine why.  Now all of the gains you made are out the window because you are now couch bound for 2 weeks.

It’s not that hard to stop and think about what you really want out of your training.  A hot body.  More strength.  Visible muscles.  Basically you want a return for your effort.  You know how I feel about the machine we call the body and how we need to respect it or it will demand that respect from us in a most unpleasant way.  So knowing your goals, your restrictions and knowing that we are entering into the flu/holiday/busy season, all I’m asking is for you to work with us fitness professionals and try a tiny bit of self regulation.  Pull out the common sense, warm up the notion of taking responsibility, shake out the desire to get some real results and become proactive in your life!  Own your training, ya hear me?

With that being said, do you think I should lift tomorrow?  I’m awfully tired…;o)

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