Category: Exercise

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Staying fit by varying your workouts

Sure, sure, Tony Horton and his P90X program have made “muscle confusion” a buzzphrase, but the fact is, as Tony readily acknowledges, that the idea of muscle confusion has been around for years.

For example, in P90X we do 3 weeks of varied workouts, a week of recovery, 3 more weeks of different workouts — same muscles, different moves –, a week of recovery, and 3 weeks of workouts that mix the 2 sets of moves.

Why is it so important? I mean, I’m not a bodybuilder, so why do I need to worry about muscle confusion?

Well, I figure it this way: If I am going to put the time into being fit, why not go ahead and get fit the best, most efficient way I can? And, let’s face it, running every day is not my style. Too boring.

Plus, I want to be generally fit. If my goal were to run fast 10k races, I would run. But I don’t need to be able to fun faster than the rest of the world, I just want to lower my fat level and have an overall stronger body.

So I’ll cross-train and keep my muscles confused.

I have told the story before of the distance runner who used to fail the fitness test when I was in the Air Force, because the fitness test was done on a stationary bike. Once he added bicycling to his distance running, he was able to pass the test.

Beyond just engaging in different cross-training activities, though, the principle of muscle confusion also tells us to switch it up by working our muscles differently.

I use muscle soreness as a test. If I get to the point where I notice I am not sore (or not as sore) as I should be, that’s a reminder to switch it up. I tend to do the same routines for 3 or 4 weeks, then take a week of recovery, then change things up for another 3 or 4 weeks.

Switching up a routine to create muscle confusion can be as simple as reversing the order of the moves.

For example, try doing Steve’s Chest and Back for 3 or 4 weeks as part of your workout plan, then, after your recovery week, keep it in your plan, but reverse the order of the moves. You’ll feel it!

Muscle confusion is the basis for cross-training, and it’s the reason I engage in resistance training, do aerobics, and practice yoga. It takes a lot of different kinds of activity to build a body, and, for me, anyway, doing the same thing all the time is too tedious.

So, relieve the tedium and reach your general fitness goals by varying your workouts on your way to a better body!

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High fat diet – Day 8

It’s day 8 of my high-fat diet, which consists of 70% of calories from fat, 20% from protein, and 10% from carbs. See more here at my original post on the subject.

How do I feel?

Hmmmmmm…. Mixed bag.

I feel great in that my allergies are not bothering me at all right now, at a time when they should really be flaring up along with everyone else’s, with the mountain cedar hitting San Antonio quite forcefully. I attribute my allergy resistance to the lack of grains in this current eating plan, because I noticed this same phenomenon during my 6-month hiatus from grains back in 2010.

However, while the allergies are held at bay — and that is great, lemme tell ya — I do feel a bit run down.

According to the experts I trust on the subject, this is a normal reaction as my body adjusts from running on carbs to running on fat. The adjustment period lasts around two weeks.

It’s this adjustment period that has always foiled me in the past when I tried to eat low-carb.

However, the difference this time is that I am also eating low (but enough) protein and focusing on getting enough fat for fuel. I have to say, I feel so much better on low-carb this time than I have in the past. I am not even tempted to give up yet, and, in fact, I’m very interested to see what will happen with my body after the transition.

Experiments like this are fun for me! Everyone’s body is different. Some people can handle a lot of carbs. I’m not one of those people, so I’ve been trying to eat low-carb for years, but it never worked out for me. This time it may.

I’ll keep you updated on my progress. Now I gotta go do Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.

 

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Can’t make it all the way through your workout? GOOD!

People tell me, “Man, I tried Insanity. I got like two minutes into it and I knew I couldn’t do it.”

Well, of course you couldn’t!

Could you sit down at a piano and instantly play it the first time you saw it? NO! Could you visit a foreign country and immediately speak the language without having been exposed to it before? NO! You have to work at it, learn, practice.

It’s the same with an exercise program.

QUESTION: How much are you going to improve your body if you choose to do a workout that you can easily complete the first time you try it.

ANSWER: Not a whole lot. If your body can already do the workout, you would, at best, maintain your current fitness level.

In order to improve, you have to work harder than you are accustomed to working.

That’s what I love about Insanity. I have been doing the Insanity workouts for about a year now — not straight through, but off and on, coupla times a week, along with other stuff — and there is still not one of them I can get through without extra breaks. Not one.

I hope there will come a day when I don’t need extra breaks, but until then, I will keep doing Insanity and taking those breaks, knowing that my body is inching closer and closer to the time when I’ll be able to do “Pure Cardio” all the way through without stopping!

I will never forget the feeling I had the first time I made it through Tony Horton’s P90X “Plyo” workout without taking any extra breaks. Not only did I feel great about having completed it, but I also knew that I wanted to stay in good enough shape to complete it. And that keeps me going.

So choose a workout program that challenges you. You’ll not only improve your physical fitness, but you may also find that you are driven to work even harder.

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Insanity with weekends off

I love Insanity. It’s my favorite of the 3 programs I’ve done. (The other 2 are Tony Horton’s P90X and The Asylum. I’ve also worked out a lot with the One on One DVDs, but that’s not a program, per se.)

I wanted to start 2012 with a round of Insanity, but I wanted the weekends off, so this post is about what I’ve come up with.

The original Insanity is a 9-week program. This is 10 weeks.

My Insanity-with-weekends-off program includes all the high-work days that are part of Insanity, but, to compress the schedule while taking weekends off, I leave out all but the first and last fit tests, as well as some of the low-work days.

Trust me, though, I’ll get plenty of work during this program, and so will you, if you choose to follow it.

Here you do, day by day, with weekends off, if you start on a Monday.

WEEK 1

  1. Fit Test
  2. Plyo Cardio Circuit
  3. Cardio Power & Resistance
  4. Cardio Recovery
  5. Pure Cardio
WEEK 2
  1. Plyo Cardio Circuit
  2. Cardio Power & Resistance
  3. Pure Cardio
  4. Cardio Recovery
  5. Plyo Cardio Circuit
WEEK 3
  1. Cardio Power & Resistance
  2. Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs
  3. Plyo Cardio Circuit
  4. Cardio Recovery
  5. Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs
WEEK 4
  1. Plyo Cardio Circuit
  2. Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs
  3. Cardio Power & Resistance
  4. Plyo Cardio Circuit
  5. Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs
WEEK 5 – RECOVERY WEEK
  1. Core Cardio & Balance OR Yoga
  2. Cardio Recovery OR Yoga
  3. Core Cardio & Balance OR Yoga
  4. Cardio Recovery OR Yoga
  5. Core Cardio & Balance OR Yoga
WEEK 6
  1. Max Interval Circuit
  2. Max Cardio Conditioning
  3. Max Recovery
  4. Max Interval Circuit
  5. Max Interval Plyo
WEEK 7
  1. Max Cardio Conditioning
  2. Max Interval Circuit
  3. Max Recovery
  4. Max Interval Plyo
  5. Max Cardio Conditioning + Cardio Abs
WEEK 8
  1. Max Interval Circuit
  2. Max Interval Plyo
  3. Core Cardio & Balance
  4. Max Cardio Conditioning + Cardio Abs
  5. Max Interval Circuit
WEEK 9
  1. Max Interval Plyo
  2. Max Cardio Conditioning + Cardio Abs
  3. Max Recovery
  4. Max Interval Circuit
  5. Max Interval Plyo
WEEK 10
  1. Max Cardio Conditioning + Cardio Abs
  2. Max Interval Circuit
  3. Core Cardio & Balance
  4. Max Interval Plyo
  5. Fit Test

I am just starting Week 3. I see myself substituting some Ultimate Power Yoga routines during Week 5, the Recovery Week, but we’ll see how it goes. I love me some yoga and doing Core Cardio & Balance over and over (which is what the original Insanity calls for) is pretty boring.

You may notice that the first month I put Cardio Recovery on Day 4 each week, instead of splitting the workouts in half by putting it at Day 3. That’s a personal preference, because I like to work hard, have a milder day (not that Cardio Recovery is that easy a workout, but it does take a day off from cardio), then another tough day, then 2 days off. If you want to put Cardio Recovery on Day 3, go for it.

During the later weeks, I do go 2 cardio days, recovery day, 2 cardio days, because those later cardio days are tougher than the ones during the first months.

Two weeks in, this seems pretty great. I am looking forward to finishing it up, because I am using this as a lead-in to my first time through Tony Horton’s P90X2.

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Fitness 2012 — how’s it going?

Many people — perhaps you, too — set fitness goals for 2012.

If you are like most people, your dieting and workout regimen started out great! You were enthusiastic, eager to shed those pounds and unveil a new, thinner you.

The first few pounds came off easily as your body got used to the initial shock of decreased calories and increased movement. But after the 4th day, you’d plateaued, and all this hunger and exercise didn’t seem worth it any more. Then the weekend arrived and your friends were all going out for pizza and beer….

And here you are.

That’s okay!

You have not failed … yet.

Taking the weekend off is fine. The problem many people have is getting back into the fitness program on Monday. Back on the diet. Back into the exercise.

Being fit is not easy, it takes effort, sticking to a program.  We’re adults, we can do that, right?

  • Have you decided that you need to get off that blood pressure medication? Then you need to get fit!
  • Have you decided that you are sick of being out of breath after one flight of stairs? Then you need to get fit!
  • Have you decided that carrying around those extra pounds makes you look like a fat tub of goo? Then you need to get fit!

You had already come to one of the above — or another more personal to you — conclusions only a few days ago. Was your resolve so weak that here we are 7 days later and now you are thinking, “Well, really, it’s okay for me to be fat / have high blood pressure / gasp for air / [insert your own challenge here]”? I’m guessing you are not thinking that.

So get back on it.

If you stick with it, you can create a new, fit lifestyle for yourself, a lifestyle where it’s weird if you have dessert after a meal, where it’s odd if you skip a workout, where it’s strange if you eat that whole pizza by yourself.

You can create a lifestyle where you feel good about the way you look and feel. As they say, ain’t nothing to it but to do it.