In line with my New Year’s Resolution to Improve, I’ve been doing some thinking about just how pivotal the role of reading was in the improvements I saw in my life last year. The old saying “Knowledge is power” proved to be very true for me in 2009. The more I read and learned about the pillars of (what I believe to be) a balanced, healthy life, the better I felt. And, among all of the hectic disorganization in my life at the end of 2009, there was a serious lack of reading going on. So as part of my Resolution, I am going to catch the reading bug and dig into knowledge and information with a vengeance. Additionally, I am going to share what I’m learning and thinking about with you as it comes.
Today I came across an article from Men’s Health highlighting 100 Fitness Tips. (You can find the full list here: http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/100-best-fitness-tips/) I’ve picked my 10 favorites and included them here in no particular order, along with some reasons why they are favorites. NOTE: I’ve never received professional fitness training. I am just enthusiastic about it and try to learn as much as I can. So take what I say with a grain of salt and know that better info is likely available out there.
1. Don’t work your ab muscles every day. Your abs are like any other muscle. Train them only 2-3 days per week. I’ve read in multiple sources that exercise is essentially damaging muscles with the intent of getting them to re-build and/or grow. For that reason, a day of rest is important for giving muscles the opportunity to repair. In addition, I’ve read that exercising 3 days a week is enough to keep your resting metabolism in a state of near-permanent elevation – meaning more burn, 24/7.
2. Drink a pint, get ripped. In a new study, beginners who trained to failure then drank a supplement immediately afterward gained 5+ pounds of muscle in 8 weeks. In 2008 I focused on more exercise, but not on integrating nutrition into it. Big mistake. Muscles need materials to re-build with – protein, carbs and fat alike. In 2009 I got into the habit of downing a protein shake and a meal after working out and it improved my results noticeably; downing a protein shake before working out helped even more. Now I’ve reached a point where if I don’t have something available to eat before working out, I don’t work out.
3. Lose your weak spot. If you don’t like an exercise, start doing it. You’re probably avoiding it because you’re weak at it. Case in point for me: Pull-ups/chin-ups. I work out at home, primarily with dumbbells. This makes really challenging my back muscles difficult. Several months back I picked up one of those pull-up bars that affixes to a door frame, and if there’s one exercise that makes me feel like a weakling, it’s pull-ups. If I can successfully do 10 of those things by year’s end, I’ll consider it success.
4. Keep your stats, see amazing results. Every 4 weeks, measure a variable – waist size, body fat, bench press – that equates to your end goal. In the spring of 2008, I realized my weight had dropped from 200 lbs to 175 lbs in a matter of roughly two years. I wasn’t happy, and made gaining weight my measure of success. I ate more, then focused on eating more protein, and began lifting weights regularly. Now my weight is back up to 200 lbs and I want to shift my focus to body fat. If I can arrive at a combined 200 lb weight with 10% body fat by year’s end… well I may just stop wearing clothes around the apartment because of how good I will feel.
5. Pick up your pace. Increase the speed of your strides – not their length – to get faster. Your foot should always land under your body, rather than out in front of it. I first got a sense of this running a treadmill sometime a few months back. I thought, “Here is this fixed, small area for running, yet I can increase or decrease speeds.” The next time I ran on the street I imagined having only a few feet to work with, and it made it much easier to build up speed without getting winded. If only I’d known this as a kid playing little-league baseball.
6. Eat meat and grow. Eat meat – 4 to 8 oz. every day – to grow more muscle. See #2 or #4. Eating is a big part of being fit. One caveat here: it doesn’t necessarily have to be meat because there are other good sources of protein, but it’s hard to pack the protein punch that meat does per serving size. If red meat isn’t your think, there’s also chicken, turkey, fish and pork. Mix it up and enjoy.
7. Manage your middle. Do your ab exercises first. Your abs and core get worked during other exercises focused on the legs and arms by helping to keep you balanced and stable. If you wait until afterward to do abs-focused exercises, they may already be tired and make the exercises less effective. I’d rather target them first and maximize the workload and then move on to exercises where they are playing more of a supportive and less-stressful role.
8. Exercise one arm at a time. Do a set of shoulder presses with your left arm, then do a set with your right. “You’ll get higher quality sets than if you work both arms at the same time.” ‘Plateau’ is a word I’ve heard a lot relative to fitness in the last year. Namely – your muscles want to become efficient and streamlined, and do less work. So if you do the same exercises in the same order day in and day out, they will lose their effectiveness with time. Better to keep your muscles surprised by changing things up every few weeks – mix up the amount of weight you use; the number of reps you do; the angles at which you hold the weights; the grips you use; or whether you use one arm, both arms, or alternate.
9. Squat for a six-pack. Do squats and deadlifts… to build your abs. These two main exercises force your abs to do a significant amount of work to maintain your posture. I read somewhere that in order to have a six-pack, an average male needs less than 12% body fat. And in order to burn fat, it’s really helpful to focus on the large muscle groups – legs and back – that require the most energy to work. It takes 250,000 crunches to burn 1 pound of fat, so it’s probably best to perform a mixture of ab exercises and others like squats, lunges and pull-ups (ugh…).
10. Build real strength. Don’t use machine weights exclusively… My friend Tony is one of the fittest guys I’ve ever known and he would probably take this a bit further and recommend not using machine weights at all. Machines teach your body to be strong for very constrained movements – front, back, left, right. By using weights like dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls or even simply your own body weight, you can challenge your muscles with movements that actually reflect the movements you make in daily life – whether it’s playing sports, sprinting to catch a bus or loading groceries.
