You are here: Home / Archives for Exercise

Workout routine: A money back guarantee on exercise

October 25, 2011 by · 1 Comment
You will never regret getting out the door

You will never regret getting out the door

How about this, I have an idea so good about exercise that I will give you a money back guarantee that I am right. All you need to do is send some money to my Paypal account and if I am wrong I will send your generous donation back to you. <crickets chirping>.

OK so it looks like no one is taking me up on that offer, so I am going to have to give up this little gold nugget for free.

So tonight I was getting ready to do my workout routine for my CrossFit Endurance marathon training and I ran into a problem I often have. When I do my workout routine at night I am much less likely to actually do it. For me it is so much easier to choose not to exercise at night than it is in the morning. After a long day of working it is easier to use the day as an excuse to not work out.

As you can see by my CrossFit Endurance marathon log (Day 8), the good news is in the end I did the workout that was scheduled.

As I was standing outside between my first and second set of 1200m runs I was thinking about my workout routine, and I realized something, I was enjoying it and was glad I was out there and that got me thinking, how would I have felt if I did not go out the door for my workout routine tonight?

That is when it hit… I have thought it before, I have said it out loud many times before, but it was time to share this priceless nugget with the public. So now after all this buildup are you ready to make that deposit to my Paypal account? No… damn well you cannot blame a guy for trying.

There have been many times I have debated whether to exercise that day or not. There has never once been a time where I chose to exercise and I regretted the decision. Almost every time I ended up not working out I almost always regretted it.

How is that for words of wisdom? Priceless? Yeah probably not, but I can assure you it is true and if you made that deposit to my Paypal account and you later disprove my theory I will gladly return it.

If you ever debate if you should do your workout or not you will never regret doing the workout, but if you don’t go you will almost always regret it.

Photo Credit

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , , , , ,

Stop the excuses, they smell like…. well you know

October 23, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Exercise, better than the alternative

If you are a busy professional and a dad it is so easy, maybe too easy, to use time as an excuse to not exercise. As a busy professional, all you need is a 20 minute workout and no matter how busy you are you can find 20 minutes.

This is a picture I saw about a week ago. What fit’s your busy schedule better? An hour of exercise a day or being dead 24 hours a day?

Exercise, better than the alternative

And the best part is you really don’t need an hour a day unless you are after a swimsuit model body. How about just being in good enough shape to make you more productive, add to your quality of life and maybe even add a few quality years on the back side?

Also how about getting and staying in shape for your wife or girlfriend because they deserve it? How about doing it for your kids so you have more quality time to play with them? For a busy professional a 20 minute workout just four or five days a week is enough.

A week ago I started a CrossFit Endurance marathon training schedule. In the first seven days of my 13-week program there was one day I spent working out more than 30 minutes in a day and that one day included a CrossFit workout in the AM and a run workout in the PM both of which ran about 20 minutes. Nothing a busy professional even needs to consider doing unless they are also trying to train for something like a marathon or atriathlon.

For a 20 minute workout you don’t need to join a gym or buy expensive workout equipment either. There are many at home workouts you can do. Just remember high intensity is what is important with your at home workouts. A 20 minute high intensity workout is better and much quicker than a one hour slow jog or cardio workout.

Try a 20 minuteanaerobicworkout, then the next day try a one hour slowaerobicworkout and you will realize quickly that the 20 minute workout is the way to go.

Burpees, sprinting, air squats, against the wall hand stand pushups, jump rope, pullups, sit-ups or planks, just take a few and go for 20 minutes. Grab a jump rope, do 100 jumps, sprint 200 yards, do 20 burpees and sprint the 200 yards back to your rope. Now repeat this sequence two more times as fast as you can. This and other at home workouts you can come up with done with high intensity will get you and keep you in shape.

Here is another one I saw this week.

Get off your butt and get going

How do I know it can be done? For years I was a busy professional who was way too busy for exercise. It was not an excuse, it was my reason why I could not do even a 20 minute workout. After all, I was way too tired after my busy day for any at home workouts.

I also recommend you don’t wait until the end of the day to get in your exercise. If you need to, set you alarm clock 30 minutes earlier in the morning. The chances you actually will do your at home workouts is greatly increased if you do them first thing in the AM before your busy day starts than if you wait until after the work day.

As someone who now makes sure I do my 20 minute workout the first thing every day, I can assure you the small investment you make in time will be more than rewarded with results. You will have more time. You will be more productive. You will have more energy for your work and your family. You may even learn to like it.

Now stop the excuses and get off your butt and have fun.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , , ,

Productive marathon training schedule: Take 2 with CrossFit Endurance

October 18, 2011 by · 4 Comments
phxmarathon

Busy professionals often tell me the biggest reason they do not work out or exercise is they do not have the time. I am going to help show how CrossFit and the CrossFit Endurance marathon training schedule can fit into anyone’s schedule.

The greatest part of CrossFit workouts is they do not take much time at all. There is no reason you cannot be in and out of the gym in 20-30 minutes. And with the high intensity workouts just 2-3 times a week will get you and keep you in shape if also combined with a good diet.

Earlier this year I announced I was going to try and use the CrossFit Endurance philosophy and their marathon training schedule to run a marathon with minimal training time. I was going to avoid the one hour run 2-3 days a week and the long 2-3 hour runs on the weekend. The problem? I tried to do it on my own without the real knowledge of what a CrossFit Endurance program should really contain.

Well now that I get my regular CrossFit workouts from CrossFit Foreverstrong in Chandler , I am ready to take the challenge again.

With 13 weeks to go before the Phoenix Rock-N-Roll Marathon, the gym is launching an organized CrossFit Endurance marathon training schedule for anyone who wants to give it a whirl.

What makes a CrossFit Endurance marathon schedule special or different? It is the time and effort required to complete the program. We will be running 3-4 days a week, and we will probably never run more than 10-13 miles for our long run before the race. For marathoners who are used to a standard marathon training program this sounds insane, but it has proven to work for thousands of people.

The biggest difference for a CrossFit Endurance marathon training schedule vs. a traditional marathon training program is most of my training will be anaerobic training not aerobic exercise.

Studies demonstrate that the adaptations caused by anaerobic training are similar to high volume endurance training, however, this adaptation comes at much lower training volumes! (Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans. J Physiol. 2008 Jan 1;586(1):151-60. Epub 2007 Nov 8. )

Yes, you can get a good aerobic workout with CrossFit Endurance by taxing you anaerobic system. So instead of putting miles and miles on my legs and body, I will be doing a lot more sprinting and CrossFit strength training.

Also, if you want to follow my CrossFit Endurance training program more closely it will be update here on my ” Productive Marathon Training ” page which can be found in the navigation bar above.

Here is the FAQ from CrossFit Endurance if you want to learn more.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , ,

October challenge update

October 16, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Can I master the double under?

Can I master the double under?

So a quick update on my October Challenge. Days 1-13 went well. I stayed on track so after the first week I could do 100 consecutive single jumps. Then I started working on my doubles and the first three days were good.

Although on the first day I noticed a small problem. I had jumped rope so many times the week before that my shins were killing me by the end of the first week. After a couple days of working on my double unders, which included hundreds of jumps, they were getting worse. It was just to much jumping.

So I have stopped my challenge, or at least I plan to modify it. I will be jumping rope just 2-3 days a week and will continue working on the double unders on those days. It may effect me reaching my goal before the end of the month, but I have a bigger goal I will be talking about tomorrow and I don’t want to risk further injury of my shins.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , ,

Productive workout routines for the busy dad

October 13, 2011 by · 2 Comments
Productive Workout

Productive Workout

One of the reasons I started this blog was to talk about how you can be healthy and get in good productive workout routines that don’t take hours a day in the gym.

Below is a picture of the workout routine today from my CrossFit gym. Talk about a productive workout. This workout only took me 19 minutes to do, and when I was done I felt like I had spent an hour in the gym getting my butt kicked by a personal trainer or like I had just run for an hour at an almost max pace.

See, you don’t need to spend hours in a gym to get a good productive workout. There is no reason your workout routines should keep you busy for hours a day. You should be in and out so you can get on living your life and spending time with your kids instead of times with your gym mates.

Another reason I find the CrossFit workout routines so great is because there are people there in your face cheering you on and pushing you. Turst me, today there were many times where I wanted to take a longer break from the workout and just rest. But Zee was there in my face pushing me and telling me I can’t quit. They get you in and out and make sure you are getting a productive workout.

Trust me. When you have only four more push press lifts left, and you feel like you cannot do even half a one, it helps. Remember, productive workouts are possible in a few minutes a day. So stop making excuses like you don’t have time. I didn’t have time either, but I learned to make it.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , , ,

October challenge update: One bite at a time

October 10, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
One bite at a time

One bite at a time

I thought I would give you a little update on my October challenge. A quick recap, I am horrible at jumping rope, and well, double unders…. I am really horrible. If I can do one double under that would be an impressive accomplishment. My goal was to make incremental improvements this month and on the last day of the month do 25 consecutive double unders.

I started with doing 20 consecutive singles the first day and increased by ten a day until I got to 100. Yesterday I was supposed to do the 100, but I was not around all day so I missed my first day. Today I went for 100 and for the first time since the challenge started I actually completed the day’s goal on the first attempt. I would say on average it took around 4-5 attempts to reach my goal most of the days.

So tomorrow I start my double unders. My goal tomorrow is to do two consecutive double unders, something I have never done and something I think will be a lot more challenging than even the 100 singles in a row.

Two things I have learned from this challenge so far. 

  1. When you take a big goal and break it down into baby steps, it becomes very manageable. On the first day I could barely do 20 consecutive singles. I believe it took me four attempts before I could complete those 20. Today I did 100, something I could never have even thought about just ten days ago. Like they say, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
  2. Jumping rope is a killer exercise. No, seriously. When is the last time you tried to jump rope 100 times in a row? Trust me, it is a workout! And the best part, for $5 at Wal-Mart you can buy a good jump rope and do it in your back yard any time you want.
Photo Credit g2223060

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , , ,

My October Challenge Day 2

October 2, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Double under attempt, day 2

I announced yesterday that I was taking up a challenge for the month of October. I wanted to master the jumprope double under. Well today is day 2. Yesterday I did my 20 single jumps in a row on my third attempt then did my single double under the second time I attempted it and was done that easy.

Today, well today was a little different. I got up early and went for  2-hour hike at South Mountain. Then as soon as I get back, legs already tired, I grabbed my rope. My first attempt at 30 singles I ripped off 26, damn so close. Just enough to get me winded a little. Well finally on like my 5th attempt I hit 33 singles in a row. My attempt at a double under, well not as pretty. I eventually got it, but look at the image below to see the carnage.

Double under attempt, day 2

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , ,

A challenge for October

October 1, 2011 by · 3 Comments
Can I master the double under?

Can I master the double under?

Over the last couple of months I have made an attempt to make sure I hit my Chandler Crossfit Gym at least four times a week. While I am getting better at most of the exercises, there are two that still get me every time. Double unders and pull-ups.

One thing I have learned from lots of attempts at jumping rope over the last two months is how amazing a workout jumping rope is. Go ahead and grab a rope and do 100 single jumps.

Quick home workout tip:
If you want to get your heart rate up with a quick workout do 25 singles, 10 burpees and repeat this four times. This is a great quick workout you can do at home.

We all know what pull-ups are, and maybe I will use November to improve those, but this month is all about double unders.

What is a Double Under
A double under is when you swing a jump rope under you two times for every one time you jump. When you do crossfit and you cannot do a double under, you are punished severely with the amount of singles you need to do. Earlier this week when we had to do 30 double unders, for us who could not do them, we had to do 120 singles.

I suck at jump rope. When I get going I ‘may’ be able to rip off 20-25 singles in a row, but rarely ever more than that. So this month I am going to jump rope every day until I master it.

The Plan
Starting October 1st I am going to jump rope until I can complete 20 singles in a row and one double under. Every day for the first nine days I am going to increase by 10 singles until I get to 100 consecutive singles.

Starting on October 10th I am going to try to complete two double unders in a row. Then every day for the remainder of the month I will add one more consecutive double under. If I stay on track ,then on October 31st I will do 25 consecutive double unders. Yeah, I know the math comes out to 23 consecutive, but I am going to set the goal for 25.

Sound easy? Then come along and join in with me.

Image credit

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , , ,

Real running – How I overcame a lifelong injury problem

September 29, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Running is not new to me. I ran cross country and the 1600 and 3200 for both winter and spring track in high school. I ran 5k and 10k races in the 90s and I have run two marathons. One thing that is new to me though is injury free running.

I have started and stopped running dozens of times over the last twenty years. Part of the reason I have stopped running so many times is injuries. I have always been considered a heavy over-pronator. Through my whole life, good running stores have taken a look at my running stride on treadmills and videos and put me in stability shoes to help me compensate for it. As long as I can remember I have run in the Asics GT-10xx and 20xx series shoes. While I still had injury problems in those shoes, they did tend to treat me better than most shoes.

Over the last couple of years I have started running again no less than four times. I do enjoy running, but it never lasts because I have the same injuries over and over and over. No matter what I have done, I could never shake shin splints, knee pain and other lower leg injuries.

That is, until I discovered real running. It is amazing how proper form and proper footwear can can fix everything.. and can do so basically overnight.

I remember the first the first time I heard my friend Tyler Hurst talk about barefoot, or almost barefoot running. I thought he was crazy. OK, he is crazy, but I thought the idea of running almost barefoot with a minimalist shoe was either for the crazy people asking for injuries or elite athletes with perfect form.

What I have learned over the last few months of reading more is we were basically sold a bill of goods. We have been told and sold shoes with stability and motion control built in for years. Each year the technology gets more advanced, and each year we see more, not less injuries. Look at the elite athletes, you will notice most of them over-pronate too, but with proper form, they avoid injuries in racing flats.

After watching the video below and a few others by Brian Mackenzie, I decided to give it a shot.After allwhat’s the worst that could happen, I get shin splints and end upquittingrunning again? That was going to happen anyway.

My first move was to buy a minimalist running shoe. I decided to get the Sauchony Kinvara. The shoe weighed half of what I was used to, had little elevation change between the heel and toes and has zero support. Not a true barefoot shoe, as Tyler I am sure will point out, but a much better shoe than what I was used to running in. I also picked up a pair of Merrell Trail Gloves. These were much closer to a true barefoot shoe.

The first week I had the Trail Gloves we went for a six mile hike. I will let you know right now, that was a mistake. Our bodies were designed to walk barefoot. The heel and the toes being on the same level while walking is what our bodies were built for and used to for millions of years. But over the last few decades that is not what my body became used to. So the next day, probably closer to the next three days, my calves were on fire. No matter how much ice I applied, they hurt.

Don’t make the same mistake as me and jump right into these shoes with exercise and long hikes. Wear them around a lot and let your legs get used to them and build up those muscles. This is why I recommend doing as I did, and get two pairs of new shoes. One a racing flat type shoe like the Kinvara, and another a true minimalist shoe like the Trail Glove or New Balance Minimus or Minimus Trail.

Over the last couple of months I have worn my Trail Gloves as my every day shoe. When I run I alternate between the Kinvara and the Trail Glove. This allows my body the chance to get used to them. I highly recommend you do the same. Don’t jump right into a minimalist shoe and start running. Take your time.

The other factor is form. Switching from being a heel striker to a mid-foot striker was not easy, it took work and a lot of concentrating on form while running. But it has made a huge difference. Here is how I explain it to the cross country team I coach. Take your right foot, put it in the air a few inches off the ground in front of you and fall forward. What happens? The heel digs into the ground and stops you from falling forward. It acts as a brake. Now take your same foot, put it directly under you a few inches off the ground and fall forward. What happens? You fall on your face.

Now what makes more sense, when you run do you want your foot to land and catch you, or do you want your foot acting as a brake?Every timeyou land out in front of your body with the heel striking first your foot acts as a brake. Not only does this slow you down, it sends shock waves through your legs. No wonder I was always injured, with my heel striking it was like I was slamming on the brakes in my car over and over. Eventually it is going to make your body take a beating.

I have been running now for two months with proper form and proper shoes. The last time I ran for two months without injury may have been high school. It feels so great to be running again and not worrying about icing my shins or knees every night when I get home.

There is a lot out there on proper running form and minimalist shoes. They can explain it a lot better than I can. If you run with injuries and are tired of it, I recommend you go out there and do the research like I did. I think you will come to the same conclusion.

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts
Filed Under: Exercise ·

Not just hiking, night hiking with the kids

September 21, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
DSC00076

Before I start, if you follow this blog for productivity tips I have a doozie in store for you with my next post. If you have not already done so go ahead and sign up in the email update box on the right side. You are not going to want to miss this one. This one new way of working has saved me more time during the day and made me more efficient and productive than anything else I can ever remember doing.

And one of the reasons I try to be more productive is to spend more time doing what I love with those I love most, which leads into tonight…..

Ahhh what a night. One of the great things about living in the Phoenix metro area is there are plenty of outdoor opportunities. Since moving here I have taken up hiking and we go as a family as often as possible. Of course one of the problems is if you want to go hiking during the summer you usually need to go around 5 or 6 in the morning to beat the heat.

When we do activities with our kids most people schedule those activities for weekends. Trips to the park, golf frisbee, hiking, playing ball, we usually do these activities, when we do them that is, on weekends. Well today we decided to take a hike, at night.

Anna, Rachel, Sarah

My daughters Anna, Rachel and Sarah decided to join me on a hike at South Mountain tonight. We took off on the trail around 6:15pm. The sun was just setting on the west side of the mountain, we were heading up on the east side.

The temperature when we took off was around 98 degrees. That may sound hot for you East Coasters, but trust me…. 98 after the last two months is like a cool fall night. It did cool down to 90 when we completed around one hour and 15 minutes later.

Girls on top of first hill

By the time we were halfway done it was completely dark out, but there was enough natural light and lights from the city to keep the trail lit well enough to see. I am trying to remember if I ever went night hiking before, my first reaction was no, but now that I think about it I did go once. I remember seeing the city lights come up over the hill when I was in the valley. But I don’t really remember more that that. One thing for sure, I don’t remember enjoying it as much as I did this time. I am guessing the reason is because this time I was with the family.

I am hooked now. The sights and sounds of a night hike are so different. It is so quiet and peaceful and you can actually see stars which we don’t see much when we are in the city. I had so much fun and we got a good workout. We had two elevation changes of over 400 feet and covered 2.1 miles in just over an hour. We took it fairly easy as I didn’t want anyone twisting an ankle, but in the end it was a good workout with the greatest company I could imagine.

Coming down

I can assure you we will be back out there again before too long getting more exercise as a family. Beats sitting around watching TV and playing video games any day!

Not very good at taking night pictures

 

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Exercise · Tagged: , , , , ,
« Older Posts