November 2006 - No Myth Fitness

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No Myth Fitness - November 2006

Neither Six-pack Nor Six-Pack

November 30th 2006 11:45

I was reading a ill-advised comment in some fitness magazine the other days. You know the kind, with their glitzy headline teasers on the cover about shaping up for summer or how you can burn more calories every day(There's usually some assurance that you can do it without any sacrifice.). In future days I will be providing my readers with a guide to muscle and fitness magazines. For now I was struck when one the magazine's writers suggested that there was no point to the kind of exercise that cannot yield an abdominal six pack for summer on the beach.
I've got a problem with the thinking that apparently lies behind a comment like that. In my opinion a six pack of abs is a pretty remote possibility for the average person. If you have a small number of programmed fat cells and your body naturally adds muscle pretty fast(five pounds a year) you might be able to come up with a six pack say by mid-summer for those of you in the southern hemisphere. I won't comment on what kind of exercise the magaziner suggested was the only way to get to the holy grail. I will say that if you are endowed as I outlined above you can probably do it using his pet exercise. Odds are, though, that the genetically gifted are looking pretty good as it is and the motivation for six pack abs isn't that high for them. Yeah, if you can get them, go for it. If you are a more normal human,though, I think we can get a little value out of this fitness bravado.

Lets say you would like to look better and you live in North America where summer is months away. Let's set some reasonable goals. Lets say that you want to have a chest which measures larger than your waist, men. What's it going to take? First, a diet that makes sense, not some phoney " you can eat anything you want" diet myth. Lose a pound a week for 20 weeks and you will be able to hold your own on the beach. To get that chest bigger will depend on how fast you adapt to weights. If you are a little puny, it will be harder, but get a good workout regimen going and when you are ready adaptationwise start putting a little more emphasis on your chest and back. Ab work is only worthwhile if you are serious about diet. The idea that a million sit-ups can shrink your stomach is a myth.What you would end up with is immense abdominal power and a coating of fat over it. Diet makes the stomach smaller and abdominal workouts shape the muscles. (Here's a comment that reveals my radical side: get on a squat program now and by summer you'll look fit. I double- dog dare you.)

For ladies the motivation task is a little easier. There is always that bathing suit that you are hesitant to wear to the beach. A reasonable diet will make that task less odious, but some methodical weight training will add the shape that dieting can't. In fact, what harsh dieting, running, treadmilling, or 5 a week aerobics may do is shrink the areas you would just as well keep as they are and do alot less than you hope with the areas that you distress you. Refer to my "Fit Women" post and read it. You can go all out with weights and in a few months there will be a firmer more attractive you in that bikini.
Once again we come to the scariest word in fitness-lifestyle. If it is important enough to you to be in shape on the beach, you have to subordinate some things to that goal...like eating sugar and starch and lying in bed on Saturday morning. It means that rather than phantasizing about a six pack of abs, you might want to pass up the six pack you buy every so often. Neither a six pack nor a six pack is the reasonable approach to fitness and looking good. Your servant, as always.

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A Vision of Death: I Try Yoga

November 29th 2006 11:49

I showed up at the gym on the hottest day of the summer determined to "get out of the box" to "expand my comfort zone" etc. ad nauseum. After four decades of lifting weights and having ridden a bicycle about 50,000 miles in my younger days I thought I knew fitness and I wanted to try something I had admired from afar for a long time: yoga. I knew that I was out of my element, but I really had no idea what would transpire: a vision of my death and good dose of humility.
I tried to be inconspicuous as I grabbed a generic mat provided by the gym. I kept my head lowered in newby self-abnegation, as the veterans strolled in with their customized mats and lithe bodies. I took off my shoes and felt really strange being barefoot in the gym. I reminded myself that I wasn't going to drop a weight on my foot-this was yoga. I made sure I showed respect for this ancient art, but it wasn't like it was tough like doing squats or something.
The teacher entered. As I waited unsuspectingly, she prepared her music and then asked if this was anyone's first time. I sheepishly lifted my hand slowly until she acknowledged me. At that point began the worst hour of the year and one of the most signal bad hours of my adult life.
We started with some simple things like raising our arms over our heads and holding them there. I wouldn't have thought this would be hard. There weren't any dumbbells in my hands,after all. Oh, was I wrong! I soon wanted to put my arms down, but we didn't. I started to sweat; we descended to the mat and began a dizzying array of stretches and movements from the floor to standing up to back to the floor. I discovered that the simple act of reaching down with both hands to grab one of my ankles and holding it was agony. My sinuses weren't used to being upside down and I started to get woozy. With woozy came sick to my stomach.
Eventually we got into a pattern which combined various leg positions on the mat punctuated by a position the teacher referred to as "downward facing dog." I couldn't believe how many times we seemed to return to this. I found myself standing in a jackknife position with my hands on the mat and my rear up in the air. I was sweating the sweat of impending expiration now and my head was spinning. I soon become distort the "downward facing dog" into "downward facing hog" as my shoulders gave out and I began to root my nose on the mat with porcine affinity.
At last we started the cool down, except for me. I began to panic. I was so sick I was afraid I would never reach the car to go home. Then I looked around as we lay on our back on the mat to quiet ourselves. There were the expected young profoundly flexible women there but there were also several who had at least ten years on me and they were dry and at ease. I sat on the mat at session end and tried to determine how to get to my car. I slowly rose and walked with tiny steps ,looking to neither the right nor left. Every step filled me with joy. I might make it to the car.When I got home I felt better-after two hours!
What did I learn? I relearned what I already knew. The body is a marvelous adaptive mechanism. It will adapt to the activity it is asked to perform. There is no such thing as overall fitness. You body is what you ask it to do, if and only if, you follows its rules and let it adapt overtime and yet make it keep adapting by intelligently ramping up your demands. Yoga is cool, but I gotta go slow. Slim is cool and so are big muscles, but you gotta go slow and learn how to do it right. Your servant, as always

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The Scariest Word in Fitness

November 28th 2006 10:55

You go to the gym and "haul the big iron" or you run several miles or you go through a one hour yoga session. You grab your stuff and leave the gym. That's when the reality of life hits you. If you remember that you have half a pizza at home and think you can finish it off or if you stop off for a couple of beers before home then you are at war with yourself. If you stay up late too many nights and skip the gym because you are too tired then you are at war with yourself. Or should I say your desires are at war with each other.
The way you live when you are not in the gym(or on the track etc.) is as important for your fitness as the time you spend exercising. If you do either improperly you can bet that you will never get the most out of either. So, what's the most terrifying word in fitness? Lifestyle.
If you are an exerciser and you still like to engage in the lifestyle of your inert friends, you are working at cross purposes. People who are working at cross purposes are doomed to be dissatisfied. If you don't integrate your life better you are going to feel like you have wasted your exercise time and missed out other fun things you could have done while you were wasting all that time exercising. People who try to exercise and still face the temptations of having a good time with food, drink and late nights can descend into a funk into which the lazy and happy-to-be-flabby just don't fall. Is there an answer? Yes,but you probably won't like it.
A couple of weeks ago I ran into an article by a man who is super rich from writing ad copy. He has taken on some would-be writers as their mentor. One of these novices complained to him that he was not progressing as he thought he should be. The master writer responded by somewhat paradoxically suggesting that the beginner was trying to do too many things well to be superior at any one of them. Good point.The master told his apprentice to set aside the next couple of weeks and immerse himself in studying techniques and more writing.
What was the essence of this advice? Hierarchy. If you do not seriously sit yourself down and decide what it is that you want the most, the desire machine in your head will pump out things by the minute you will want to eventuate. Some of these will be perfectly valid and some will border on the licentious -eat, drink and be merry. Some will be long term and some short term. For sure, they will all be swirling around the decision making center in your head and will win a certain amount of your volitional battles. If they win too many, you will become a battleground of conflicting desires none of which will be satisfyingly fulfilled. With hierarchy you prime yourself to pay heed to the most important at least most of the time. Rember my axiom:"You are your lifestyle".
The toughest thing in the world is too prioritize your desires, but I believe that that process is the key to having your endeavors come out as you wish. If getting into better shape is a chief objective, admit it and put it on the top of your hierarchy. Your servant, as always.

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Cesar Millan: Dog and Human Trainer

November 27th 2006 10:49

My heroes are experts who set me straight on some aspect of human endeavor about which I have an interest. I have found in my search for knowledge(Dare I say wisdom in the post -modernist world?) that in every area I will eventually run into someone who actually knows what they are talking about. They are individuals who so cogently and succinctly explain their fields of expertise that I have a "eureka" moment.
One of these heroes is Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. I have a few dogs relaxing by the fire now as I write and for this reason I took notice of Cesar's television show on the National Geographic Channel. Cesar runs the Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles. His show is about how to get your dog to be a balanced canine who does not bark too much, bite, or otherwise screw up his life and thereby yours.
Since I watch religiously, I have seen Cesar perform incredible feats. He routinely tames an aggressive dog in minutes. His presence is like that of a Pied Piper for canines. They are putty in his hands. If you have a dog who isn't what you want, give a look to Milan's books and/or dvds

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My Dad:Farmer and Diet Guru

November 26th 2006 10:48

My dad worked in town during the day, but his passion was for farming. We thus had a variety of animals around our house, but beef cattle and sheep dominated the place. My dad's real calling though was diet wizard. The problem was that he was an expert on weight gain, not weight loss.
Farmers make money on beef cattle that have attained a suitable weight and the faster the better. Range -fed beef will get there eventually but, if my dad was in a hurry, he fell back upon a proven technique. A promising steer was chosen from the herd and placed in a small pen, where he could walk around but no long strolls or wind sprints. (Yes,a kind of like a human sitting in an office all day.) Dad wasn't going to let exercise slow up the process of weight gain.
What he did next was simple but effective. He proceeded to feed this lounging steer a steady diet which was almost totally comprised of complex carbohydrates. That lucky beast was liberally provided with corn and oats which Dad supplemented with hay. Steers are not exactly programmed for abstemiousness, so everything that came into his pen that guy gobbled up. Dad's steer probably laughed at his peers in the pasture with all their exercise and high fiber diet

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Uphill Spints? Ouch!

November 25th 2006 14:45

I was just reading an interesting article by a famed diet guru who suggested that the perfect exercise might be uphill interval sprints. My first reaction is that he has got to be kidding. Is there anything more difficult than sprinting? Add uphill to it and you have something for only the most hardy exercise fanatics preferably who are simultaneously genetically suited to running.
I am not genetically suited to running and most of you probably aren't either. If fitness depends on your affinity for running most of you will never be fit or even close. I watch people who jog past my house. It is absolutely none of my business what they are doing or think they are doing. However, I think they are wasting their time if they really are trying to maintain or improve fitness. Many are moving so slowly that I could keep up with a brisk walking pace. One woman I see is gaining weight by the month even though she apparently covers a great distance. Is that really what she wants?
Listen, there are people who are born runners and if that's you, I envy you. If it is not you and you are 35 you are making a mistake if you start serious running from scratch. In my opinion you will garner the following results: You will tear down you muscles to the extent you run. Lots of running =lots of muscle loss. Those muscles eat calories like crazy and you won't have them anymore. You will also be putting tremendous pressure on joints. That pounding is not innocuous. If you are overweight you are just going to do damage in capital letters. I won't suggest that you are probably decalcifying your bones, but that's what I suspect. Finally, you won't stick with it. The excuse machine in your head will fire up the first time you feel tired or sore. Pretty soon you won't be doing anything

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Don't Wait. Weigt train.(This means you.)

November 22nd 2006 13:55

If you want to train with weights and don't have a clue how, you are better off than you think.Why?Because I am going to help you get started right and that is half the battle.
Let's assume you have a gym in mind and are willing to join.The gym will give you a complimentary training session. Take it and learn how everything works. Ask lots and lots of questions. This will not be the right time to be shy. If you haven't used weight machines much they can be intimidating, but about two workouts will completly cure that. Make sure the trainer gives you an exercise for every body part- that includes legs(front and back) and calves. Any gym has machines for your whole body. Learn to use one machine for each part. Do no more than that.
Soon I will discuss the relationship between a weight training workouts and cardio equipment workouts. For now don't finish your training system and then try to walk a treadmill,for instance,for awhile. You are either out of shape or in no shape to stress your system. Believe me, your system will feel the stress of muscle exertion, even though your mind says you haven't worked that hard. The first weight workout seems easy to most people, but it will get harder faster than they think. Error on the side of conservatism and do the machines for each body part one time and go home

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Home Gym or Gym Home? Part II

November 21st 2006 15:55

In the last installment I made a case for home training. Let me reiterate. If you can't stand the thought of a gym, get on the net or make a voyage to the local sporting goods store,get yourself going on a machine or a video and get into better shape. This is something you and only you can do for yourself.
Nevertheless, in my opinion it is better to get yourself a gym and get in there than to try the home gambit. Let's face it: you are probably not going to train at home. I'll admit it. "I'll just workout at home" is a myth. You won't. Joining a gym is the very best way to get in shape. Let's talk about it.
There are all kinds of gyms. Ladies, in my neck of the woods there are women only gyms. If being around a bunch of sweaty men who you are convinced are leering at you is more than you can take, seek out a women's gym in your neighborhood. They usually have all the fitness equipment you need- weights, elliptical steppers, treadmills, and bikes- and a whole panoply of aerobics classes. They may offer yoga and martial arts too. You can go there and get fit in a kind of privacy. They will probably have a trainer who is a woman and she can teach you weight training in a way that an insensitive male can't

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Gym Home or Home Gym

November 20th 2006 12:17

"I really want to get into shape,but I just don"t know how to begin." Sometimes this is a valid question and many times it is passive aggression for, " I don't really want to do the work of getting into shape,so I use this pretext."
Lets assume you are really ready to go and genuinely don't know how to begin. O.k., The first question is what kind of exercise and where. If you're out of shape, I am going to assume that you don't have an activity that is a passion that you can rely upon to get you back in shape. So, lets talk.
If you don't know what to do, you have the following question to answer: Gym Home or Home Gym? There is a pretty good argument to be made for either working out at home and some good reasons for joining a gym

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Two Day Bodies

November 18th 2006 15:39

Here is the scene. Its Monday after work. The gym. The weight machines are filled and the aerobics floor is packed. The exercises bike area looks like the peloton of the Tour of France and the treadmills fill the air with their hum. Now compare Friday after work. The gym floor is populated by a few stragglers. There isn't an aerobics class. You can pick your favorite piece of equipment. The reason for this contrast is obvious. The herd has bought into the three days a week myth.
The myth begins with standard trainer advice."Three days a week is a good system. You don't want to overtrain."This is 100% true for the "lose a few pounders" that constitute the vast majority of a gym's population. The not very serious will never train more than three days a week. In fact the blight on Fridays demonstrates that the half-hearted will never work out consistently for more than 2 days a week. That is precisely why the three day a week approach is for the not-so-serious. If you buy into the three day system, you"ll be lucky to get two real days of training in a given week. Friday isn't going to happen. The bon vivant in you will easily vanquish the Spartan most weeks. Plus, if you work in the day you'll be in the gym at the wrong time. The mob will make it hard to train.
Ask yourself, is fitness important to me? If the answer is yes, then go ahead and consider yourself serious and make a commitment to darken the door of the gym on Tuesday, Thursday, and even Saturday. Don't spend an two hours on Monday and Wednesday. Spend 30 minutes five days a week. If you work out five days a week for 30 minutes you will build muscle and stamina no three (really two) days a weeker can ever dream of. Remember your body will become what you ask it to be . It will just as readily become a five day body as it will a two. Five day bodies soon develop muscles and fitness, two day bodies don't.

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Fit Women

November 18th 2006 15:32

This is a blog about everyday human beings who want to get into shape and would like to do it minus the hype and mythology that permeate the fitness world. That probably includes you, Ladies!
In my 40 years in the gym I've gotten very frustrated with what women believe about weights and fitness. The myths are so many I don't know where to start.
Actually I do. The most outrageous myth that women have bought into is the "I don't want to lift weights and get big" whopper

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