9 of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard about fitness

Man, where did the week go? It's already time for another Friday Fun post. Anybody who is a gym goer or talks a fair amount about fitness with people will inevitably hear some absolutely ridiculous things. The following nine usually have a dual effect on me...first, I start to laugh b/c I think the person is joking; then, I cringe when I realize that, most times, they are not.

• Squats are dangerous / bad for you
• I can't work out because I hurt my knee / ankle / shoulder / wrist / earlobe / left nostril / etc.
• I don't need to lift weights, I'm just trying to get lean 
• Sister to the above bullet...I'm doing a ton of cardio so I can get lean
• I just want to tone up, I don't want my muscles to get bigger
• I haven't been working out because I've been traveling so much
• I don't lift weights because I'll get too big
• I just did an awesome two-hour workout!
  
• Where's the Ab Roller?

Leave a comment with your reaction or additions!

9 observations from my day as a stay-at-home dad

This past Saturday, my wife was out for the day, getting her CPR / AED certification, which is required to sit for the personal training certification test she'll be taking in a couple months. She left the house at 7 am, leaving me with my (not quite) 3-year-old son and my (not quite) 1-year-old daughter. We were due to meet at my in laws' at 5 pm that night for dinner. For those of you who don't love math...that's 10 hours of me being outnumbered.

Gulp.

Not to spoil the ending, but everything turned out just fine. Everybody is intact (although my psyche is a little questionable!) and a great time was had by all. I'm not going to bore you with details of everything we did all day, but in the ensuing few days, I've made some observations...

• It is possible to get a workout in (thanks to the fact that my daughter is still in the napping stage), but...
  
• Holding a 60-second plank gets a lot harder with the unexpected addition of 30 pounds of boy on your back 20 seconds into it
• The "no spoiling kids / you don't get what you want unless you ask the right way / no, you can't have another pop because you just had one / etc." guy...yeah, he ran for the hills pretty quickly
• Rainy days are very, very bad
• Having an iPhone with some toddler apps is very, very helpful on rainy days
  
• There is a kind of exhaustion caused by mental exertion that no physical activity can match (and, they were both angels most of the day...I can't imagine if they had had an "off" day!)
• My son is smarter and funnier than me
• I will be able to deny my daughter nothing. And, it won't even be close
  
• Laughter is magic and my kids are friggin' hysterical (OK, I knew that already, but Saturday was a wonderful reminder)
• Even though it was tough at times, it was one of my favorite, proudest days ever (And, yes, I was still very relieved when I got the call from my wife saying her class got out an hour early!)

Any similar experiences? Or totally different? I'd love to hear 'em in the comments section.

No excuses,

Jesse

PS - full disclosure...in addition to my wife's class ending early, I traded a couple hours of my manual labor helping a friend frame his basement in exchange for his wife entertaining my kids!

Friday Fun: 25 things you may or may not care to know about me

I'm starting a new category of posts called Friday Fun. As the name implies, these will be a little more light-hearted in nature (although I try to inject humor in most of my posts) and may or may not be related to fitness. In starting to write this post, the thought struck me that perhaps the 8-year anniversary of 9/11 is not the best day to do something as fluffy and inconsequential as what you are (hopefully) about to read. But I think the right thing for us all to do today is to spend time remembering, but also healing and moving on.

So, please join me in remembering all those we lost, praying for some level of comfort, strength and peace for all their loved ones, and thanking all the service men and women, rescue workers, civil servants, volunteers and everyday people who put the needs of others before their own.

OK, on to the first Friday Fun post. Originally, this was going to be a post about my "favorite" excuses people use for not exercising. But I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so I'm not feeling terribly creative. So, in the true fashion of a PR professional, I'm going to..."re-purpose" content. That's right, you get to enjoy something copied and pasted!!!

Those of you on Facebook likely remember the "25 things about me" craze from earlier in the year, where people listed 25 random things about themselves and then "tagged" their friends to do the same. Well, here are mine, for you unfortunate bastards that didn't get it the first time around...

1. I generally don't throw in with having heroes or idols, but I worship my wife and kids.

2. I have two tattoos (and want more). You win a prize if you can guess what and where they are. Disqualified if you already know.

3. My wife says when my son reaches dating age, I'm going to buy him condoms and when my daughter reaches dating age, I'm going to buy a shotgun. She's right on both counts.

4. I'm OK with the occasional double standard. (See #3.)

5. I love to cook and I'm damn good at it.

6. Modesty is not my strong suit.

7. I think people get way too wound up about way too many things. Relax.

8. I used to be a type A personality. (Now, I'm a B/B+)

9. San Francisco is my favorite place in the world. (Although, Chicago when the weather is good is a close second.) Massachusetts is WAY down on the list.

10. That said, you can't beat Fall in New England.

11. I didn't drink until I went to college, but quickly made up for lost time.

12. I've never smoked pot in my life, but have no problem when others do. In fact, I think it should be legalized.

13. I've never smoked a cigarette in my life, but really don't like when others do. In fact, I think they should be criminalized.

14. Being a life-long Yankees fan living in Massachusetts satisfies two intense desires: to be fiercely loyal and to be a contrarian.

15. I don't understand why, when in an argument, people get frustrated because I'm convinced I'm right. Of course I am. And you are convinced you are. That's why we're arguing.

16. I have a hot temper, but carry very few grudges.

17. I have been playing golf way too long to still be so mediocre.

18. I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I've read each of the books too many times to count and seen each of the movies at least 3 times.

19. I've been in love with my wife to some degree or another since I met her in high school. She would have nothing to do with me back then, though.

20. My kids have me wrapped around their fingers. I'm sad if I can't get home before they go to bed. Leaving them to travel for work? Forget it. I'm nauseous and depressed for days before I leave.

21. I don't mind confrontation at all. If I'm being totally honest, I enjoy it ever now and then. My wife says it makes her start sweating when I confront people.

22. A shuffle mix on my iPod would be a random musical experience indeed.

23. I am a freak for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Halloween doesn't do it for me at all. (I mean, come on, basically we're teaching kids to beg and/or extort.)

24. If I could only ever watch sports, Top Chef, Iron Chef America and This Old House, that would be OK.

25. I hate myself for doing this list. For those of you tagged, I apologize.

Measuring strength and fitness gains

Hopefully, some / most / all of what I've been saying about my approach to fitness and training makes sense, is hitting home and is believable. But over the weekend, I decided that I needed some way to measure my progress and prove to you that my approach (again...high intensity / short duration training sessions for strength and conditioning that is applicable in daily life) is working. So, starting today, I'll be regularly sharing with you my performance on two key body weight movements: pullups and pushups.

Measurement method


I'll be tracking the maximum number of pushups I can do in 10 sets, resting 45 seconds between sets and the max pullups I can do in 5 sets, again resting 45 seconds between sets. (One note on this: I'm doing pullups on a beam in my basement, so I can't actually wrap my hands around it. Overall, I like this because it's challenging my grip more and making me functionally stronger, but I likely could get more pullups on a standard bar.)

Baseline performance (September 6, 2009)


- Pushups: 171 total in sets of 40, 25, 15, 15, 16, 13, 12, 13, 10, 12
- Pullups: 25 total in sets of 8, 5, 4, 4, 4

Every month, I'll post an update showing my progress.

The other measure I am going to begin watching is body fat percentage. I plan to buy a monitor soon and will share the baseline measurement with you all then. Over the last several months, I have been using the body fat tracking feature on our scale, but I don't know how accurate that really is (on our scale, you can step on, get one reading, get off and back on immediately and get a different reading, so...). Right now, I'm around 20-21 percent, which for a male my age (35) falls between the "good" and "fair" categories depending on what chart you look at. My goal is to get to 15 percent.

(I think body fat reduction will be my biggest challenge because it is so dependent on nutrition. While I already eat reasonably healthy, I definitely still have work to do in limiting processed foods. I also have a true Renaissance man's weakness for red wine. Nutrition isn't something I've gotten into a lot yet, but it's coming.)

Look for updates on my results in the future (again, the point is to prove that what I'm espousing works, not impress you with my numbers!). Better yet, why not join me? Establish your own baseline (and share in the comments if you are comfortable) and track your own progress. Remember, the baseline numbers don't matter at all - it's the dedication and hard work you put in to improve them that counts!

No excuses,

Jesse

6 great ways to get "accidental exercise"

Clearly, I'm a big advocate of high-intensity training sessions to improve strength, conditioning, overall health and appearance. If I had my druthers, this wouldn't be necessary because I'd be living a consistently active lifestyle like generations before us. But sadly, most of us these days are confined to 8-10 hours a day at a desk, so we're not naturally in good shape from hunting, gathering, farming and building our own shelters.

But we CAN lead more active lifestyles that will contribute to our overall fitness almost by accident. Starting today, try the following 6 no-brainer ways of getting accidental exercise. (These are really, really convenient...I'm not even going the whole "bike to work instead of driving" route...)

1. Whenever it's an option, take the stairs rather than the elevator (yes, you've heard this a million times, but I bet you don't do it)
   
2. Rather than wasting time, gas and patience looking for the closes possible parking spot, find the one farthest away and WALK (yes, you've heard this a million...well, you know)
   
3. Stand up! Standing up burns one more calorie per minute than sitting. You can go extreme with this like I have and use a standing desk rather than a typical office desk / chair set up. I was having neck pain from all the sitting (which, during the course of the day invariably became slouching...). I'm only a few days into this experiment, but the neck pain is gone and I'm finding myself more energized, focused and productive. Oh, yeah, and I'm burning 500 or so more calories at my desk. I don't expect everyone to go this route, but get out of the damn chair more!
   
4. If you're just doing a quick trip to the grocery story, carry a basket rather than pushing a carriage
5. Instead of loading up on bags when carrying in groceries, take two at a time and do more trips
6. When your kids want to be held, use them as your resistance to do curls, upright rows, swings, presses. You're getting some exercise and they'll have a blast (in fact, from my experience, you'll have a hard time getting them to let you stop!)

OK, I really wanted this post to be SEVEN ways, but a beautiful day calls, so leave a comment with your favorite to round out the list!

No excuses,

Jesse

The future of fitness training (or "Why your gym - and its trainers - suck")

I have been planning to do a post talking about why most commercial gyms and the personal trainers - or as my wife and I have always called them "rep counters" - that work at them suck. Yes, this is an over generalization. I'm OK with that.

Then I came across this post on Alwyn Cosgrove's blog from Thomas Plummer. And, you know what? I'd really struggle to say it any better than this.

Granted, this is a fitness business coach / expert writing to fitness professionals, but it is all based on what consumers are demanding.


Give it a read and let me know what you think.

No excuses,

Jesse

Sample upper and lower body strength routines

In my last post, I provided an overview of my current training split and gave you a brief, but intense sample routine to improve your conditioning. Below are examples of workouts I use on my upper and lower body days. Again, those are separate days right now, per my training split:

Saturday - conditioning
Sunday - strength / power, upper body
Monday - rest / active recovery
Tuesday - strength / power, lower body
Wednesday - conditioning
Thursday - strength / power, upper body
Friday - rest / active recovery

While conditioning days are really focused on getting the heart rate up, I'm not exactly lallygagging on strength / power days. Each pair of exercises is performed as a superset (one exercise immediate after the other, with no rest between) and then I rest approximately 30 seconds between supersets. For now, let's focus on two options for how you group your supersets (there are more, but we'll get into that down the road).

• Option 1 - pick two "opposing" movements, such us upper body pushing (for instance, overhead press or chest press) and upper body pulling (such us pullupus or rows). If you choose this option, it's best to pair exercises that are working in the same plane. So, you would pair overhead presses with pullups and chest presses with rows.
• Option 2 - use your second exercise in each superset is really meant as an "active recovery" which, in this case, means I'm using different muscles than the primary ones being trained in the first exercise. For me, that usually means some ab or posterior chain work - gotta do it anyway, might as well get it done efficiently!

Typically, I go with Option 1 on upper body days and Option 2 on lower body days. OK, on to the samples...

Upper body sample routine:

3 rounds...
1A) 1-arm db press x 4-8 reps
1B) pullup x max reps

rest 60 seconds after completing all three rounds

3 rounds...
2A) db floor press x 6-8 reps
2B) bent over db row x 6-8 reps

rest 60 seconds after completing all three rounds

2 rounds...
3A) cheat curl x 4-8 reps
3B) db shrug x 8-12 reps

2 rounds...
4) 60-second banana (just hold the banana position for 60 seconds, don't do the rocking)


Lower body sample routine

3 rounds...
1A) sandbag Zercher squat (you can also use a barbell, log, keg, whatever) x 8-12 reps
1B) hanging knee raises x max reps (make sure to get that butt up!)

rest 60 seconds

3 rounds...
2A) deadlifts (use a dumbbell, barbell, sandbag, your kid, whatever) x 4-8 reps
2B) kneeling cable crunches x 10-15 reps

rest 60 seconds

2-3 rounds...
3A) some type of hip mobility movement x 10-12 reps
3B) db swings x 10-12 reps

In what should now come as no surprise, you should get through these routines (including warm up!) in 30 minutes or so.

No excuses,

Jesse