Tomorrow evening I'm leaving with a bunch of awesome people on a trip to the Allagash! We're planning on canoeing the whole thing I believe. We did that last year. If not, we'd do some hiking instead, so no matter what, it's a win-win situation.
Anyway, I could explain over and over again how epic it will be, but I could be wrong, and that's better for an after the fact post. So, me being a fitness dude, will talk about the fitness aspect of canoeing!
If you have ever gone canoeing, you know know it will work your back. Makes sense too, 'rowing' exercises work the back. What do you do when you canoe? You paddle. Paddling is pretty much a row. When you canoe, you also move the lower back a lot. This is like a dead lift. After all, you don't get much of a lower back workout with you do a pull up or row. You do when you do dead lifts and canoeing.
The bad side of canoeing. It's likely that the average canoeing person isn't strong or flexible enough to keep a straight back while canoeing. People tend to bend their back, which puts extra strain on the spine. I had a little bit of not-so-good soreness last year. This year, my back is much stronger, and I believe I'm more flexible. So I'll try and keep good posture for most of the trip!
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Changing it up...
I was doing more research on the training I'm doing right now. The German Volume Training, incase you didn't read that post. It works with a 10x10 lifting scheme. I was reading about it and it all sounded good: gain mass and burn fat, best of both worlds! Right? Not really. When I thought I gaining mass, I thought of getting raw power. Apparently, from what I've read, it doesn't give you much power actually. More endurance (which is ok) and fluid in the muscles. You get extreme soreness from the workout, but that's from all the acid build up. You gain weight quickly, but you'll lose the pumped up muscles quickly too. If your main goal is to build showy muscles, then I'd say GVT is good after 3-5 months of heavy training.
Why did I look for high rep workouts in the first place? Because they tend to be easier on the tendons, unlike heavy weight. So my shoulder should be fine with the 10x10 scheme! Not really, actually, the added volume can be pretty hard on the tendons. It's easier at first, but doing the same motion almost or a total of 100 times within 20 minutes puts strain on the tendons. Another reason I wanted a light weight program was because I have limited weights. Max out at 155, not including the bar. That's a pretty light weight for squats, dead lifts, and maybe bench press if you're into benching.
I decided that I will probably work up with something like 5x5 or 3x8-12 until I max out the weights, then find a good high rep program... but I might stick with the GVT with the legs. I think my legs respond better to high reps, and I'd quickly max out the weights using a 5x5 or 3x8-12 plan.
Another up side to stopping the high volume training is that it will take less time. I did 3 exercises per workout, that would be one hour of lifting, without breaks between exercises. That's a bunch of time. I might do 3-5 exercises per workout instead, and with less volume, it'll be less time. With some more time, I could work on my running and/or my handstand and lever work!
I might bring back the GVT sometime when I max everything out, but that should take a long time, because I plan on getting a weight belt ($27) for dips and pull ups. My main goal is to improve bodyweight power (not pushup max, that's endurance), so gymnastic stuff, weighed dips and pull ups, and some kind of leg exercise should eventually take over.
If my main goal is to work on bodyweight power, why don't I only do that? Well, because I'm not very knowledgable in gymnastic training I can't really focus on that... because of that, weight training combined with some bodyweight exercises is more effective for my current sports.
I don't really want to be gymnast-only person. I like the combo of weights with body weight. So we'll see what I eventually end up doing in the long run.
Why did I look for high rep workouts in the first place? Because they tend to be easier on the tendons, unlike heavy weight. So my shoulder should be fine with the 10x10 scheme! Not really, actually, the added volume can be pretty hard on the tendons. It's easier at first, but doing the same motion almost or a total of 100 times within 20 minutes puts strain on the tendons. Another reason I wanted a light weight program was because I have limited weights. Max out at 155, not including the bar. That's a pretty light weight for squats, dead lifts, and maybe bench press if you're into benching.
I decided that I will probably work up with something like 5x5 or 3x8-12 until I max out the weights, then find a good high rep program... but I might stick with the GVT with the legs. I think my legs respond better to high reps, and I'd quickly max out the weights using a 5x5 or 3x8-12 plan.
Another up side to stopping the high volume training is that it will take less time. I did 3 exercises per workout, that would be one hour of lifting, without breaks between exercises. That's a bunch of time. I might do 3-5 exercises per workout instead, and with less volume, it'll be less time. With some more time, I could work on my running and/or my handstand and lever work!
I might bring back the GVT sometime when I max everything out, but that should take a long time, because I plan on getting a weight belt ($27) for dips and pull ups. My main goal is to improve bodyweight power (not pushup max, that's endurance), so gymnastic stuff, weighed dips and pull ups, and some kind of leg exercise should eventually take over.
If my main goal is to work on bodyweight power, why don't I only do that? Well, because I'm not very knowledgable in gymnastic training I can't really focus on that... because of that, weight training combined with some bodyweight exercises is more effective for my current sports.
I don't really want to be gymnast-only person. I like the combo of weights with body weight. So we'll see what I eventually end up doing in the long run.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
FIRE!
Well, not a real fire, but close enough. Yesterday evening us Clarkes had the Donahue family over. I made 'best ever burgers', jalapeno poppers, and habanero poppers.
I cut up the peppers a while before they arrived 2 or 3pm. I did it bare handed. jalapenos? No problem. Habaneros? My hands burned (and so it all the skin I touched with my hands) until around 9pm. My thumbs still hurt a little today. That's just one sign to how hot these peppers were.
Jessi couldn't make it when the rest of the Donahue family did... but Jolie tried 1/2 a habanero popper. I ate one and her other half, because she didn't think she could handle the heat. They
were stinking hot! I had to drink a few glasses of milk. It finally faded.
When Jessi arrived she tried a habanero popper. She tried one. Then Jolie, not wanting to be beat by her sister, ate another one. Jessi, doing the same ate another, beating Jolie again. I then ate the last one so I wouldn't be beat either. It wasn't nearly as hot. I think some of my taste buds were burnt off. It was pretty awesome. I love the thrill of hot food!
The Donahues stayed until about 11:15pm. It was a pretty darn fun evening, full of fellowship, food and laughter!
I cut up the peppers a while before they arrived 2 or 3pm. I did it bare handed. jalapenos? No problem. Habaneros? My hands burned (and so it all the skin I touched with my hands) until around 9pm. My thumbs still hurt a little today. That's just one sign to how hot these peppers were.
Jessi couldn't make it when the rest of the Donahue family did... but Jolie tried 1/2 a habanero popper. I ate one and her other half, because she didn't think she could handle the heat. They
were stinking hot! I had to drink a few glasses of milk. It finally faded.
When Jessi arrived she tried a habanero popper. She tried one. Then Jolie, not wanting to be beat by her sister, ate another one. Jessi, doing the same ate another, beating Jolie again. I then ate the last one so I wouldn't be beat either. It wasn't nearly as hot. I think some of my taste buds were burnt off. It was pretty awesome. I love the thrill of hot food!
The Donahues stayed until about 11:15pm. It was a pretty darn fun evening, full of fellowship, food and laughter!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Soccer and Biking
So this past Monday was my first soccer practice. It was a tad cold, but fine once you started running. We had a scrimmage near the end of practice and my team won, 1-0. My hammy ached, but besides that, it was a great practice!
I had games planned for Tuesday and Thursday, but the team we were going to play against cancelled because they didn't have enough players. So on Tuesday we had practice instead. My hammy still ached, but this practice was even better than the first practice! We had a scrimmage mid-practice, my team won, 3-0. Pretty fun!
I worked for Claire, our neighbor the yesterday. I got up early this morning to work before the heat hit. I got to her house at 6:15am, worked for 2.25 hours, then went home and washed some dirt off my face and ate a second breakfast. After breakfast I got ready to bike, and biked 10 miles to Leavitt. When I was almost there, coach Richards (track coach), who I was going to meet at the track drove by me... going the wrong way. I thought, whatever, she'll be back soon.
I was a few minutes late (got there at 10:08), I was supposed to be there at 10:00. No one was there so I just rehydrated and stretched a tad. Jackie, a track team member of mine, showed up at 10:15ish. We talked for awhile and when it was 10:35 we decided that if coach didn't show up at 10:45, we'd just do our own little workout. I brought my ab wheel that I got for my birthday from Casey, so I planned on using that for part of my workout!
Coach did arrive. At 10:40ish. She unlocked the shed so that we could use blocks. I usually start off my left leg, but my hammy was still aching, so I started with my right instead. Coach gavee a few tips, and while she talked to Jackie, I used the ab roller on my knees. I tried using it wide stance standing, but my hip flexer Charlie-horsed. So next time I try it standing wide stance I'll make sure my legs are well stretched and feel fresh.
After doing a little bit of block work and ab there I biked 10 miles back home. This time it was hot! On the way there, it was probably in the 70s or low 80s. On the way back it was in the high 80s or low 90s. Pretty darn hot with the humidity and sun.
I finally arrived home, showered and ate lunch. After lunch did a dump run and a few other various chores. I now am off to make buy some cleats, then watch Colleen's game!
I had games planned for Tuesday and Thursday, but the team we were going to play against cancelled because they didn't have enough players. So on Tuesday we had practice instead. My hammy still ached, but this practice was even better than the first practice! We had a scrimmage mid-practice, my team won, 3-0. Pretty fun!
I worked for Claire, our neighbor the yesterday. I got up early this morning to work before the heat hit. I got to her house at 6:15am, worked for 2.25 hours, then went home and washed some dirt off my face and ate a second breakfast. After breakfast I got ready to bike, and biked 10 miles to Leavitt. When I was almost there, coach Richards (track coach), who I was going to meet at the track drove by me... going the wrong way. I thought, whatever, she'll be back soon.
I was a few minutes late (got there at 10:08), I was supposed to be there at 10:00. No one was there so I just rehydrated and stretched a tad. Jackie, a track team member of mine, showed up at 10:15ish. We talked for awhile and when it was 10:35 we decided that if coach didn't show up at 10:45, we'd just do our own little workout. I brought my ab wheel that I got for my birthday from Casey, so I planned on using that for part of my workout!
Coach did arrive. At 10:40ish. She unlocked the shed so that we could use blocks. I usually start off my left leg, but my hammy was still aching, so I started with my right instead. Coach gavee a few tips, and while she talked to Jackie, I used the ab roller on my knees. I tried using it wide stance standing, but my hip flexer Charlie-horsed. So next time I try it standing wide stance I'll make sure my legs are well stretched and feel fresh.
After doing a little bit of block work and ab there I biked 10 miles back home. This time it was hot! On the way there, it was probably in the 70s or low 80s. On the way back it was in the high 80s or low 90s. Pretty darn hot with the humidity and sun.
I finally arrived home, showered and ate lunch. After lunch did a dump run and a few other various chores. I now am off to make buy some cleats, then watch Colleen's game!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Epic Weekend
I would describe my weekend in detail, but that would take hours. Instead I'll just sum it up!
On Thursday I played soccer with some local soccer dudes. Pretty fun.
Friday, had an epic birthday party full of Ultimate and great friends. Oh, and some great food too! Practiced some handstands off and on. Superb day.
Saturday: got up real early. Made breakfast, ate and then spent the day at the Este's house. Biked with Kenan. Got owned. Played some volleyball at Elayna's graduation. Pretty cool day.
It was a grand weekend, as you can tell... but I like to mainly write about fitness on here. So I'll write about my handstand work.
On Friday I did a core workout. A bunch of bent leg raises on a bar, some windshield wipers on a bar, a few L-sit holds, cliff hanger planks, one-arm-one-leg planks, and weighted side planks. I followed that with handstand work against a wall. Not the best order of exercises, because to get good at a skill (handstand) you should be pretty fresh. Not exhausted.
At my birthday party Micah was practicing handstands on the field. I tried some too. We didn't have a wall, so I couldn't stay up as long... but I stayed up freestanding longer than most, if not all of my freestanding(ish) handstands next to a wall. So I might start training for the handstand without the wall. We'll see how that goes!
I did my German Volume Training on Monday. I worked my back. So I did dead lifts, pull ups and some assisting exercises. Dead lifts felt unsafe on my lower back by the 7th or 8th set (I used a light weight)... so I won't be doing 10x10 on the dead lift. I'll probably alternate 5x5 and 3x8-12 with the dead lift, until it gets too heavy for my weights then I'll increase the reps and/or the difficultly of grip. Pull ups killed me during GVT. Trying to keep slow movement with 10x10, makes pull ups real hard. I only reached 53 out of 100. Most of my sets were below 7 reps. Yeah. Have to work on that...
On Thursday I played soccer with some local soccer dudes. Pretty fun.
Friday, had an epic birthday party full of Ultimate and great friends. Oh, and some great food too! Practiced some handstands off and on. Superb day.
Saturday: got up real early. Made breakfast, ate and then spent the day at the Este's house. Biked with Kenan. Got owned. Played some volleyball at Elayna's graduation. Pretty cool day.
It was a grand weekend, as you can tell... but I like to mainly write about fitness on here. So I'll write about my handstand work.
On Friday I did a core workout. A bunch of bent leg raises on a bar, some windshield wipers on a bar, a few L-sit holds, cliff hanger planks, one-arm-one-leg planks, and weighted side planks. I followed that with handstand work against a wall. Not the best order of exercises, because to get good at a skill (handstand) you should be pretty fresh. Not exhausted.
At my birthday party Micah was practicing handstands on the field. I tried some too. We didn't have a wall, so I couldn't stay up as long... but I stayed up freestanding longer than most, if not all of my freestanding(ish) handstands next to a wall. So I might start training for the handstand without the wall. We'll see how that goes!
I did my German Volume Training on Monday. I worked my back. So I did dead lifts, pull ups and some assisting exercises. Dead lifts felt unsafe on my lower back by the 7th or 8th set (I used a light weight)... so I won't be doing 10x10 on the dead lift. I'll probably alternate 5x5 and 3x8-12 with the dead lift, until it gets too heavy for my weights then I'll increase the reps and/or the difficultly of grip. Pull ups killed me during GVT. Trying to keep slow movement with 10x10, makes pull ups real hard. I only reached 53 out of 100. Most of my sets were below 7 reps. Yeah. Have to work on that...
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Need a New Reason to Get in Shape?
If you don't think you need to keep your body healthy (fit), think again. If you don't care about your health, then don't exercise and eat junk food... I doubt you don't care about your health, but anyway here's another reason to keep healthy and fit...
Check out 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. -ESV
Your body is a temple of the Lord. Keep your temple in good shape, and don't put wasteful things in it: such as bad fats and processed sugar. Oh, and why not build up and strengthen your temple while you're at it?
Check out 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. -ESV
Your body is a temple of the Lord. Keep your temple in good shape, and don't put wasteful things in it: such as bad fats and processed sugar. Oh, and why not build up and strengthen your temple while you're at it?
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Eating Beats Exercise
If you know me, you know I love exercise. Exercise is great for your health, your athletic ability, and can be fun. In my opinion, exercise is very important in life. Living longer, having more energy, performing better and looking better is pretty awesome... and exercise helps with that! Note what I said: "helps with that" I didn't say "does that". Why? Isn't exercise the way to get rid of fat, increase muscle, and feel better? It sure will help, but by no means will it do all that by it's self. What do you need then? Nutrition. Proper Nutrition.
Today Dad, Colleen and I were watching a video about the Daniel Plan. It seemed like a pretty good diet and lifestyle changer. I just wanted to mention something one of the speakers mentioned. He said that many people follow the SAD diet: Standard America Diet. I found it pretty funny, but sadly kind of true.
In America we have Burger King, McDonalds, and many other fast food places to eat at. A ton of the food we can buy at super markets are processed, chemical filled and/or pretty fatty or sugary. None of that is good for you. I'm going to talk about eating healthy in this post... and what not to eat.
To start this off I'll use an example: let's say you have a car that runs on gas, like your everyday car. If you fuel it up with gas, it should be fine driving. Now, what if you dilute your gas with liquid plastic, sugar, and grease. Will your car still drive well? I highly doubt it. A car is way simpler than the human body, so obviously you won't just need one super food to keep going. I'll talk more about what to eat soon enough... right now I'll tell you what NOT to eat!
Alrighty. This is the part you hate, I'm going to tell you not to eat some stuff. The food I'm going to tell you not to are addictive and every where. First thing: don't eat at fast food places. These are all pretty terrible. Grease, chemicals, and maybe-it's-meat aren't good for you don't eat that. Subway is fine, just try and stick with their healthier foods.
Next: don't eat donuts. Yeah. They're great looking, great smelling, taste great, but man, they're bad for you. Pretty much sugar and flavoring. Actually I'm not even sure of what is in donut. Usually if you don't know what's in a food (unless you don't know all your veggies) it's not very good for you.
Sugar. Don't eat that. If you drink coffee, tea, iced tea, lemonade, etc, try to taper off the sugar. It's bad for you! Sugar can give you fat, loss of energy, and from what I've read/heard, it's also bad for your brain and digestion. According to the Daniel Plan guys, a ton of diseases and sickness can be partially due to eating habits. I'm not a professional, but I agree. While I'm on the sugar topic, don't drink soda. Soda is terrible for you. There is so much sugar (or really fake-and-bad-for-you sugar) in soda. Have you ever noticed how soda makes you feel bad afterwards? Yeah, that's because it's bad for you. You might get an energy burst from the caffeine and sugar, but that will taper off, and leave you even more tired. Believe me, I know. If you know me, you know I have tons of energy. I rarely drink soda. Coffee is much healthier than soda. It tastes pretty bad for some people, but it's better. Tea beats coffee and soda, so trying to get caffeine from that would be better. Better yet? Try and get off of caffeine, it's pretty much a addictive drug that isn't TOO bad for you.
Ok. I'm still on the sugar rant... You must know by now that sugar is pretty darn bad for you. It's bad for you in so many ways that I really don't want to write it all out again. So try and cut most, if not all sugar out of your diet! Here's how: don't drink soda, sugared coffee or tea, Kool-Aid, milkshakes (the wrong kind), and any other sugar filled drink you know of. Don't eat donuts, cake, cookies, pies (sadly), syrup, ice-cream, candy, etc... any thing really sugary! I still have trouble not eating pie. I doubt I'll break this habit for a long time, because I love pie! Luckily, most fruit have a healthy (natural) sugar in them, so next time I make a pie, I'm going to try to cut out most, if not all the sugar.
Ok, so it may be really hard for you to get out of the habit of eating those foods. I know, I did it for many of them... serval times. A huge help was: honey. Honey isn't great for you... but it is good in moderation! Why else would God have His people eat honey and milk all the time? It's good for the immune system, and not as fattening or unhealthy as processed sugar. Still, it's good to not eat too much honey, Proverbs 25:27: "It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to one's own glory." When I have tea, I put honey in it. It tastes pretty good! How about syrup? Honey can replace that. Not quite as good tasting, but much better for you. I've replaced the sugar in some recipes with honey, tastes slightly different, but I like it!
Trying not to eat dessert? That's a real tough one. When someone offers you cookies that they just baked, not only does it smell and look great, you feel bad not eating their cooking. I still have trouble saying no, but if I think of all the negatives of sugar, I can usually say no. If it's a pie, well...I fail at saying no, unless I'm sick.
What happened with me was that once I took 2-4 weeks off (lost around 5 pounds, by the way) of sugar and then I tried having a dessert again. It literally felt like it was burning my throat. The sugar was too sweet for me. At first I got mad because I wanted to eat it, but then I realized: if sugar doesn't feel good as I'm eating it, then I'm less apt to eat it, thus it will be easier to avoid sugar!
So pretty much, the longer you're off of sugar the easier it gets to stay off it! The less sugar you eat, the better you feel. So why not sacrifice a few minutes of increased pleasure for a longer, better, healthier life!
Ok. I've ranted for a pretty long time about sugar. Now on to fat. I have more trouble in this section of my diet, because many meats with high protein, have high fat. I love meat and protein, so it's pretty hard to avoid the fat. Before I get into more detail, I'd like to tell you that there are good fats, just like there are good sugars (sugar in fruit and honey). If you haven't researched much about health and/or fitness then this may be a surprise to you. I don't remember all the bad fats, but I think they're mainly omega-6's and omega-12's. The good fats are omega-3's. These fats are found in fish. I'm sure they're found in plenty of other foods that I can't remember or ever heard of, but the best source I know of is fish. Fish oil is good for your joints, brain, and heart. So eat your fish and/or take fish oil. Anyway, what to avoid: Hot dogs. Not only are they fatty, but I bet you don't really know what they're made of. Neither do I, but I know it's bad for you. You should also avoid hamburgers. Yes, sadly. They're really fatty. Luckily they usually are real meat, so you get protein out of it, but the fat is pretty darn high. I still have trouble saying I shouldn't eat hamburgers, because they're high in protein and my metabolism is so fast I barely get affected by the fat. I'm sure that when I get older, I'll need to have less hamburgers because of all the fat.
Hamburgers? Well... actually most hamburg. It's quite fatty. This is a very sad fact in life, because hamburg is amazing. If you buy the expensive/less fatty hamburg and drain most of the fat, it isn't too bad. It has some up sides, like the protein, but shouldn't be eaten too often. If you have to eat hamburg to fill yourself so you don't eat dessert, then by all means, have some. Some fat is better than some sugar!
Ok. I'm getting a little long winded, do I'll try and shorten my reasonings for the next few foods.
Pizza. Pizza is greasy. Greasy means fatty. A lot of the pizza is not-that-great for you, but the grease is the worst. Try to avoid pizza. It is highly unlikely you'll be able to avoid all pizza, so to make it much better for you pat down the pizza with a paper towel. Boom, there goes a ton of the grease!
Sausage... sausage is great. Tasting. It's pretty fatty too. Avoid it. If you can't avoid, or love it too much cut down on it some and wipe it down with a paper towel to get rid of some of the grease.
Ok... many people will really hate this: don't eat bacon. Bacon is probably the fattiest food I know of. It's so bad for you... just don't eat it! Luckily for me, I don't really like it. If you can't stop eating bacon, at least cut off the flabby fat and wipe it down. That should decrease the fat greatly. Sorry folks: Bacon is bad.
French fries are really good... but really bad. Don't eat them if you can. Home made fries aren't as bad, but you have to wipe them down so you're eating less fat. The same goes for chips.
I hate to say this........ but chicken wings are bad too. Really greasy and fatty. I love them, but they're still pretty bad.
If you have a really fast metabolism (like me) then the above foods (besides fries and bacon) shouldn't be too bad... but the average person should try to eat less of these.
Notice, I didn't say chicken breasts. Why? Because those are actually quite low in fat, and higher than all of the above in protein! Chicken breasts are probably the best non-fish meat for you!
Ok. Now that you cut out most of those foods, what should you eat?
If you are really good, you won't be eating those fatty foods. If so, you might be lacking protein. Chicken breasts, beef jerky (the fat has been dehydrated and now is gone), peanuts, peanut butter (homemade is best), beans, eggs and fish are great sources of protein. Protein shakes aren't as good, because they have sugar in them. They are good for immediately after a workout because they are easily digested, thus feed your muscles quickly.
I mentioned above that there are some good milkshakes. The good ones are protein shakes, and fruit shakes (or smoothies). Pretty much a good dessert is a fruit, not sugar, based food. Fruit is sweet, and good for you!
How about carbs? Are bread and pasta the best?! No. Not really. All natural, whole grain bread is the best bread in my opinion. White is terrible. Wheat is ok. The more processed it is, the less your body gets out it. Jack LaLane once said: "If man made it, don't eat it." That's pretty good advice if taken right. Of course a human will prepare your food, but not 'make' it. Humans make the chemicals in some of the foods we eat. Humans aren't as good at making food as God is, so natural food always wins.
Pasta is pretty good for you, but not prefect. Veggies are much better carbs. A mix of pasta, veggies, and bread is a really good carbo load. Bread and pasta are heavier and less healthy, but get you energy faster. Veggies are pretty much the best thing for you, and they have good carbs!
Now, it's really hard and expensive to eat healthier. You pretty much have to go really natural... but look at it this way: you'll save money in medical bills! Eating healthier makes you healthier, thus less of a need to spend money on medical stuff!
To sum this post up I'd like to challenge you. Because I bet you that almost all of you won't actually eat healthier after reading this. I challenge you just to take nearly all your sugar out of your diet for one month. One week will do nothing, because you can't break bad habits in one week. One month isn't that long, so if you don't think you can handle it, just count down the days. It only took me a month see how great it is to be sugar free. If you have fat, you'll likely lose weight, granted you don't load up on fat and too much carbs. I'd recommend weighing yourself now, and at the end of your month of no sugar. You also could measure your waist. You won't lose much weight, unless you run and do a little strength training. So try running/walking briskly 2-4 days a week along with your sugar freeness and see how you feel. If you want, add 1-2 days of weight training. You should lose weight. If you're really good, cut out a lot of the fat too. You'll lose weight quickly then!
Alrighty, so I just said you'll lose weight if you do all that healthy eating, so what if you want to gain weight? If you're under weight or a skinny guy wanted to put on muscle eating health is still for you. If you're under weight, you probably just need to eat more. Fat won't be good to get, so eat protein and carbs and you'll gain some muscle to balance your body out. Same goes for skinny guys. Lift, eat, and sleep. You'll need to eat more if you lift, and even more if you want to gain muscle mass. You'll need plenty of sleep too, because that's when you actually build muscle. Eating fatty or sugary foods will help you gain weight... but that weight is going to be fat. You don't want fat. Eat loads of protein (chicken, fish, eggs, peanuts, beans) and carbs (tons of veggies [one of the best is broccoli], bread, pasta) to gain muscle. You don't need go run much to gain muscle, but running will keep your fat percentage low and keep your heart strong. So do both.
Yeah. So eat healthy. Try not eating sugar for a month, start now. Or you'll never do it. Have fun!
Today Dad, Colleen and I were watching a video about the Daniel Plan. It seemed like a pretty good diet and lifestyle changer. I just wanted to mention something one of the speakers mentioned. He said that many people follow the SAD diet: Standard America Diet. I found it pretty funny, but sadly kind of true.
In America we have Burger King, McDonalds, and many other fast food places to eat at. A ton of the food we can buy at super markets are processed, chemical filled and/or pretty fatty or sugary. None of that is good for you. I'm going to talk about eating healthy in this post... and what not to eat.
To start this off I'll use an example: let's say you have a car that runs on gas, like your everyday car. If you fuel it up with gas, it should be fine driving. Now, what if you dilute your gas with liquid plastic, sugar, and grease. Will your car still drive well? I highly doubt it. A car is way simpler than the human body, so obviously you won't just need one super food to keep going. I'll talk more about what to eat soon enough... right now I'll tell you what NOT to eat!
Alrighty. This is the part you hate, I'm going to tell you not to eat some stuff. The food I'm going to tell you not to are addictive and every where. First thing: don't eat at fast food places. These are all pretty terrible. Grease, chemicals, and maybe-it's-meat aren't good for you don't eat that. Subway is fine, just try and stick with their healthier foods.
Next: don't eat donuts. Yeah. They're great looking, great smelling, taste great, but man, they're bad for you. Pretty much sugar and flavoring. Actually I'm not even sure of what is in donut. Usually if you don't know what's in a food (unless you don't know all your veggies) it's not very good for you.
Sugar. Don't eat that. If you drink coffee, tea, iced tea, lemonade, etc, try to taper off the sugar. It's bad for you! Sugar can give you fat, loss of energy, and from what I've read/heard, it's also bad for your brain and digestion. According to the Daniel Plan guys, a ton of diseases and sickness can be partially due to eating habits. I'm not a professional, but I agree. While I'm on the sugar topic, don't drink soda. Soda is terrible for you. There is so much sugar (or really fake-and-bad-for-you sugar) in soda. Have you ever noticed how soda makes you feel bad afterwards? Yeah, that's because it's bad for you. You might get an energy burst from the caffeine and sugar, but that will taper off, and leave you even more tired. Believe me, I know. If you know me, you know I have tons of energy. I rarely drink soda. Coffee is much healthier than soda. It tastes pretty bad for some people, but it's better. Tea beats coffee and soda, so trying to get caffeine from that would be better. Better yet? Try and get off of caffeine, it's pretty much a addictive drug that isn't TOO bad for you.
Ok. I'm still on the sugar rant... You must know by now that sugar is pretty darn bad for you. It's bad for you in so many ways that I really don't want to write it all out again. So try and cut most, if not all sugar out of your diet! Here's how: don't drink soda, sugared coffee or tea, Kool-Aid, milkshakes (the wrong kind), and any other sugar filled drink you know of. Don't eat donuts, cake, cookies, pies (sadly), syrup, ice-cream, candy, etc... any thing really sugary! I still have trouble not eating pie. I doubt I'll break this habit for a long time, because I love pie! Luckily, most fruit have a healthy (natural) sugar in them, so next time I make a pie, I'm going to try to cut out most, if not all the sugar.
Ok, so it may be really hard for you to get out of the habit of eating those foods. I know, I did it for many of them... serval times. A huge help was: honey. Honey isn't great for you... but it is good in moderation! Why else would God have His people eat honey and milk all the time? It's good for the immune system, and not as fattening or unhealthy as processed sugar. Still, it's good to not eat too much honey, Proverbs 25:27: "It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to one's own glory." When I have tea, I put honey in it. It tastes pretty good! How about syrup? Honey can replace that. Not quite as good tasting, but much better for you. I've replaced the sugar in some recipes with honey, tastes slightly different, but I like it!
Trying not to eat dessert? That's a real tough one. When someone offers you cookies that they just baked, not only does it smell and look great, you feel bad not eating their cooking. I still have trouble saying no, but if I think of all the negatives of sugar, I can usually say no. If it's a pie, well...I fail at saying no, unless I'm sick.
What happened with me was that once I took 2-4 weeks off (lost around 5 pounds, by the way) of sugar and then I tried having a dessert again. It literally felt like it was burning my throat. The sugar was too sweet for me. At first I got mad because I wanted to eat it, but then I realized: if sugar doesn't feel good as I'm eating it, then I'm less apt to eat it, thus it will be easier to avoid sugar!
So pretty much, the longer you're off of sugar the easier it gets to stay off it! The less sugar you eat, the better you feel. So why not sacrifice a few minutes of increased pleasure for a longer, better, healthier life!
Ok. I've ranted for a pretty long time about sugar. Now on to fat. I have more trouble in this section of my diet, because many meats with high protein, have high fat. I love meat and protein, so it's pretty hard to avoid the fat. Before I get into more detail, I'd like to tell you that there are good fats, just like there are good sugars (sugar in fruit and honey). If you haven't researched much about health and/or fitness then this may be a surprise to you. I don't remember all the bad fats, but I think they're mainly omega-6's and omega-12's. The good fats are omega-3's. These fats are found in fish. I'm sure they're found in plenty of other foods that I can't remember or ever heard of, but the best source I know of is fish. Fish oil is good for your joints, brain, and heart. So eat your fish and/or take fish oil. Anyway, what to avoid: Hot dogs. Not only are they fatty, but I bet you don't really know what they're made of. Neither do I, but I know it's bad for you. You should also avoid hamburgers. Yes, sadly. They're really fatty. Luckily they usually are real meat, so you get protein out of it, but the fat is pretty darn high. I still have trouble saying I shouldn't eat hamburgers, because they're high in protein and my metabolism is so fast I barely get affected by the fat. I'm sure that when I get older, I'll need to have less hamburgers because of all the fat.
Hamburgers? Well... actually most hamburg. It's quite fatty. This is a very sad fact in life, because hamburg is amazing. If you buy the expensive/less fatty hamburg and drain most of the fat, it isn't too bad. It has some up sides, like the protein, but shouldn't be eaten too often. If you have to eat hamburg to fill yourself so you don't eat dessert, then by all means, have some. Some fat is better than some sugar!
Ok. I'm getting a little long winded, do I'll try and shorten my reasonings for the next few foods.
Pizza. Pizza is greasy. Greasy means fatty. A lot of the pizza is not-that-great for you, but the grease is the worst. Try to avoid pizza. It is highly unlikely you'll be able to avoid all pizza, so to make it much better for you pat down the pizza with a paper towel. Boom, there goes a ton of the grease!
Sausage... sausage is great. Tasting. It's pretty fatty too. Avoid it. If you can't avoid, or love it too much cut down on it some and wipe it down with a paper towel to get rid of some of the grease.
Ok... many people will really hate this: don't eat bacon. Bacon is probably the fattiest food I know of. It's so bad for you... just don't eat it! Luckily for me, I don't really like it. If you can't stop eating bacon, at least cut off the flabby fat and wipe it down. That should decrease the fat greatly. Sorry folks: Bacon is bad.
French fries are really good... but really bad. Don't eat them if you can. Home made fries aren't as bad, but you have to wipe them down so you're eating less fat. The same goes for chips.
I hate to say this........ but chicken wings are bad too. Really greasy and fatty. I love them, but they're still pretty bad.
If you have a really fast metabolism (like me) then the above foods (besides fries and bacon) shouldn't be too bad... but the average person should try to eat less of these.
Notice, I didn't say chicken breasts. Why? Because those are actually quite low in fat, and higher than all of the above in protein! Chicken breasts are probably the best non-fish meat for you!
Ok. Now that you cut out most of those foods, what should you eat?
If you are really good, you won't be eating those fatty foods. If so, you might be lacking protein. Chicken breasts, beef jerky (the fat has been dehydrated and now is gone), peanuts, peanut butter (homemade is best), beans, eggs and fish are great sources of protein. Protein shakes aren't as good, because they have sugar in them. They are good for immediately after a workout because they are easily digested, thus feed your muscles quickly.
I mentioned above that there are some good milkshakes. The good ones are protein shakes, and fruit shakes (or smoothies). Pretty much a good dessert is a fruit, not sugar, based food. Fruit is sweet, and good for you!
How about carbs? Are bread and pasta the best?! No. Not really. All natural, whole grain bread is the best bread in my opinion. White is terrible. Wheat is ok. The more processed it is, the less your body gets out it. Jack LaLane once said: "If man made it, don't eat it." That's pretty good advice if taken right. Of course a human will prepare your food, but not 'make' it. Humans make the chemicals in some of the foods we eat. Humans aren't as good at making food as God is, so natural food always wins.
Pasta is pretty good for you, but not prefect. Veggies are much better carbs. A mix of pasta, veggies, and bread is a really good carbo load. Bread and pasta are heavier and less healthy, but get you energy faster. Veggies are pretty much the best thing for you, and they have good carbs!
Now, it's really hard and expensive to eat healthier. You pretty much have to go really natural... but look at it this way: you'll save money in medical bills! Eating healthier makes you healthier, thus less of a need to spend money on medical stuff!
To sum this post up I'd like to challenge you. Because I bet you that almost all of you won't actually eat healthier after reading this. I challenge you just to take nearly all your sugar out of your diet for one month. One week will do nothing, because you can't break bad habits in one week. One month isn't that long, so if you don't think you can handle it, just count down the days. It only took me a month see how great it is to be sugar free. If you have fat, you'll likely lose weight, granted you don't load up on fat and too much carbs. I'd recommend weighing yourself now, and at the end of your month of no sugar. You also could measure your waist. You won't lose much weight, unless you run and do a little strength training. So try running/walking briskly 2-4 days a week along with your sugar freeness and see how you feel. If you want, add 1-2 days of weight training. You should lose weight. If you're really good, cut out a lot of the fat too. You'll lose weight quickly then!
Alrighty, so I just said you'll lose weight if you do all that healthy eating, so what if you want to gain weight? If you're under weight or a skinny guy wanted to put on muscle eating health is still for you. If you're under weight, you probably just need to eat more. Fat won't be good to get, so eat protein and carbs and you'll gain some muscle to balance your body out. Same goes for skinny guys. Lift, eat, and sleep. You'll need to eat more if you lift, and even more if you want to gain muscle mass. You'll need plenty of sleep too, because that's when you actually build muscle. Eating fatty or sugary foods will help you gain weight... but that weight is going to be fat. You don't want fat. Eat loads of protein (chicken, fish, eggs, peanuts, beans) and carbs (tons of veggies [one of the best is broccoli], bread, pasta) to gain muscle. You don't need go run much to gain muscle, but running will keep your fat percentage low and keep your heart strong. So do both.
Yeah. So eat healthy. Try not eating sugar for a month, start now. Or you'll never do it. Have fun!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Grand Weekend and the End
This past weekend was amazing. On Saturday morning Shannon and I helped Mr. Rob move metal and ashes because his house burnt down recently. We helped him until just past 2pm. After that we headed to the Estes, washed up and then stayed at the Estes for a hour or two for Joel's graduation and graduation party! We played some volleyball, ate, and talked. Shannon and I had to leave at 5:15, so it was cut a little short. Why did we have to leave? Because we were heading to Ben's graduation party! Ben lives in Massachusetts, so it was nearly a 3 hour drive. The ride was a little boring, yet fun, because Shannon and were pretty goofy. We arrived a little before 8:30pm and talked with the VanDyke family. We then slowly went off to bed.
The next morning we got up, ate, went to Adult Sunday School and then to church. After church we helped set up for Ben's party. We finished around 2:45 and the party started at 3:00. At the party we saw some Deerwander folks, met some of Ben's friends, ate a Tom of food, played volleyball and just hung out and talked. After the party faded out (around 8pm) we hung out for a bit, played four square and relaxed until around 10pm. We then brought the last guest home (Jenny) and went back to the VanDyke's. At the VanDyke's we joked around and read some of Ben's graduation cards. We all were quite tired, so once we got the energy to get out of our chairs, we went off to bed.
The next day Ben, Shannon and I went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast with Jenny and Tina. We all were a bit zombie-ish, so the conversions were a bit off and funny. We left because Jenny and Tina had to go to school. We went home and did some chores, and then played Catan. We played a pretty cool version. I don't remember it's name, but had something to do with the sea. Still, it was pretty darn cool. After/during Catan we ate lunch: pulled pork and various salads. Ah, Heaven in a mouth full.
After lunch we played quite a bit of volley ball... it was almost time to leave... but then Shannon got a call from Dad asking if we could pick up Mom on our way home, so we just got 2 more hours of time at the VanDyke's!
We played a little more volleyball. We took a water break... during which Shannon threw a cup full of water at me. Of course, I returned the favor. It slowly turned into a full fledged water fight. Most of the Vandyke boys joined (3 of them), Joanna (spelled right?), Mr. VanDyke, Shannon and I also joined. At first it was cups of water, then water bottles, then water coolers... We fought with those until we realized we were getting the wall covered in mud. So we paused.. until we found a hose. Then we could fight without muddying up the wall! We wrestled, sprayed, dumped water all around. It was so much fun!!! I'd say it was probably the best water fight I've ever had! It even got pretty intense. I got kneed in the chest with my body weight and someone on my back. That hurt quite a bit, but didn't stop me. We continued the fight for probably over a hour. It was epic. Shannon and I then we on our 2.25 hour ride home. We both just started laughing randomly just remembering events of the past weekend. We arrived at home a little early, so we went home before we picked up Mom. Dad's tennis was cancelled, so we actually didn't have to go, he did.
For the rest of the evening I just relaxed and showered... I went to bed around 9:30, and woke up around 7 this morning. That brings me to today: the End
I finished my school off for the school year last Friday. My blog is considered school. So I will be blogging less. I enjoy some of this writing, so I will do random posts here and there. I might blog quite a bit, but who knows! So, if you read my blog daily, you may just want to check it weekly, or you could be wasting your time. After all, couldn't you spend that time running or swimming is the nice summer weather?
The next morning we got up, ate, went to Adult Sunday School and then to church. After church we helped set up for Ben's party. We finished around 2:45 and the party started at 3:00. At the party we saw some Deerwander folks, met some of Ben's friends, ate a Tom of food, played volleyball and just hung out and talked. After the party faded out (around 8pm) we hung out for a bit, played four square and relaxed until around 10pm. We then brought the last guest home (Jenny) and went back to the VanDyke's. At the VanDyke's we joked around and read some of Ben's graduation cards. We all were quite tired, so once we got the energy to get out of our chairs, we went off to bed.
The next day Ben, Shannon and I went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast with Jenny and Tina. We all were a bit zombie-ish, so the conversions were a bit off and funny. We left because Jenny and Tina had to go to school. We went home and did some chores, and then played Catan. We played a pretty cool version. I don't remember it's name, but had something to do with the sea. Still, it was pretty darn cool. After/during Catan we ate lunch: pulled pork and various salads. Ah, Heaven in a mouth full.
After lunch we played quite a bit of volley ball... it was almost time to leave... but then Shannon got a call from Dad asking if we could pick up Mom on our way home, so we just got 2 more hours of time at the VanDyke's!
We played a little more volleyball. We took a water break... during which Shannon threw a cup full of water at me. Of course, I returned the favor. It slowly turned into a full fledged water fight. Most of the Vandyke boys joined (3 of them), Joanna (spelled right?), Mr. VanDyke, Shannon and I also joined. At first it was cups of water, then water bottles, then water coolers... We fought with those until we realized we were getting the wall covered in mud. So we paused.. until we found a hose. Then we could fight without muddying up the wall! We wrestled, sprayed, dumped water all around. It was so much fun!!! I'd say it was probably the best water fight I've ever had! It even got pretty intense. I got kneed in the chest with my body weight and someone on my back. That hurt quite a bit, but didn't stop me. We continued the fight for probably over a hour. It was epic. Shannon and I then we on our 2.25 hour ride home. We both just started laughing randomly just remembering events of the past weekend. We arrived at home a little early, so we went home before we picked up Mom. Dad's tennis was cancelled, so we actually didn't have to go, he did.
For the rest of the evening I just relaxed and showered... I went to bed around 9:30, and woke up around 7 this morning. That brings me to today: the End
I finished my school off for the school year last Friday. My blog is considered school. So I will be blogging less. I enjoy some of this writing, so I will do random posts here and there. I might blog quite a bit, but who knows! So, if you read my blog daily, you may just want to check it weekly, or you could be wasting your time. After all, couldn't you spend that time running or swimming is the nice summer weather?
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Let's Be Realistic...
First off, I'd like to say: tomorrow is my twin's birthday! She's turning 17! Now doing some complex algebra, trigonometry and a tad of physics you should figure out that it might just be my birthday as well.
Anyway, this post is about being realistic. I think I chose a quite unrealistic goal for this year: a planche. I've done some work on it and realized: this is going to take more than a year, maybe more than two years. I have decided to put that in the back of my training scheme because of this. I will do a little bit of work on it, but not too much. So, what's a better goal? A handstand. Not one of those cheating feet-on-the-wall hand stands, but a real, free standing one. This will still take a ton of practice, but no where as near as much as the planche. I've also decided to work on back levers, front levers, one hand pushups and maybe the flag pole to build some more core strength which will help with just about everything. I would explain all these exercises in detail, but I'll save that for a different post, for now I'll talk a tad more on goals.
So, have you set some goals? You better have. Goals keep you more motivated and make training fun! I'm not here to tell you why to set goals, I did that in an older post, go and try to find it if you haven't read it yet.
So, you've set a goal. Is it too unrealistic? Is your goal some thing like: lose 50 pounds this year? Gain 30 pounds of muscle this year? Do a planche this year? Run a marathon this year? Do 100 pullups this year? Well, the first one I doubt is very healthy. You'd have you loose nearly a pound a week. Lots of salads and running... The second? That's a huge stretch. If possible, you'd need perfect dieting, resting, and lifting. You'd probably gain quite a bit of fat with it from all the meat and carbs you'll need to eat. The others? Really tough things to do. So let's be a bit more realistic.
Losing 10-30 pounds of fat. That's more realistic. 1/2 a pound a week, or 2 per month. That's pretty easy if you eat right. You might not even need to run much!
For gaining weight? 10-15 pounds. That's a good goal. Eat a lot of protein, use big lifts (squat, dead lift, pull ups, and bench press or weighed pushups or dips) with a decent amount of weight, and rest. Should be good. Your endurance might suffer, because running might take away some of your lifting gains.
As for athletic tricks (if you want to call it that): slowly build up to harder and harder tricks. Aiming for something like the planche will be demoralizing. Training for one thing for 1-3 years can become depressing when progress lags. Handstands, levers, and other easier 'tricks' help build up to a planche anyway. So why not do them?
Anyway, this post is about being realistic. I think I chose a quite unrealistic goal for this year: a planche. I've done some work on it and realized: this is going to take more than a year, maybe more than two years. I have decided to put that in the back of my training scheme because of this. I will do a little bit of work on it, but not too much. So, what's a better goal? A handstand. Not one of those cheating feet-on-the-wall hand stands, but a real, free standing one. This will still take a ton of practice, but no where as near as much as the planche. I've also decided to work on back levers, front levers, one hand pushups and maybe the flag pole to build some more core strength which will help with just about everything. I would explain all these exercises in detail, but I'll save that for a different post, for now I'll talk a tad more on goals.
So, have you set some goals? You better have. Goals keep you more motivated and make training fun! I'm not here to tell you why to set goals, I did that in an older post, go and try to find it if you haven't read it yet.
So, you've set a goal. Is it too unrealistic? Is your goal some thing like: lose 50 pounds this year? Gain 30 pounds of muscle this year? Do a planche this year? Run a marathon this year? Do 100 pullups this year? Well, the first one I doubt is very healthy. You'd have you loose nearly a pound a week. Lots of salads and running... The second? That's a huge stretch. If possible, you'd need perfect dieting, resting, and lifting. You'd probably gain quite a bit of fat with it from all the meat and carbs you'll need to eat. The others? Really tough things to do. So let's be a bit more realistic.
Losing 10-30 pounds of fat. That's more realistic. 1/2 a pound a week, or 2 per month. That's pretty easy if you eat right. You might not even need to run much!
For gaining weight? 10-15 pounds. That's a good goal. Eat a lot of protein, use big lifts (squat, dead lift, pull ups, and bench press or weighed pushups or dips) with a decent amount of weight, and rest. Should be good. Your endurance might suffer, because running might take away some of your lifting gains.
As for athletic tricks (if you want to call it that): slowly build up to harder and harder tricks. Aiming for something like the planche will be demoralizing. Training for one thing for 1-3 years can become depressing when progress lags. Handstands, levers, and other easier 'tricks' help build up to a planche anyway. So why not do them?
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Bench It!
I never have had a weight bench, so I never bench pressed much. Bench pressing isn't that grand, but it'd be nice to do it some. I kind of gave up on benching because Smith Machines were the only safe benching system I had access to. Dumbbells were too wobbly for my weak shoulder, so I couldn't do those either. I did pushups instead. I haven't gone heavy with pushups in while, because I was still letting my shoulder heal. It's feeling much better now, and so I'm going to slowly get pushing movements back into my training.
Anyway, back to the plot! I also wanted a bench so that I can use the rack on the bench to do semi-heavy squats. The reason I couldn't do this before is because to get the weight from the floor, to over my head and on to my shoulders with a heavy weight was pretty much impossible and dangerous. With a rack (about 4-4.5 feet off the ground) I could just bend over, put my shoulders under the bar and grip it. flex my back, and lift. There we go, I now I have a weight on my shoulders! I might have to strengthen my back to go heavy, but that's fine, because I want to strengthen my back anyway! But I still need a bench.
Guess what? I now have a bench. How? My friend: Mr. Donahue. He was at his local 'transfer station'. He was at the part where people put perfectly fine things, but they just don't want it anymore. He saw a weight bench and thought of me and grabbed it! He called my dad and then we arranged to meet yesterday afternoon. We picked it up, had a short visit with the Donahues (that's really rare, usually it turns into at least a hour), and headed home! I was excited. When we got home I had to do some other chores before I set in up. I finally got to set it up, and took off a small part of it because of the limited space in my room. I cleaned my room and rearranged part of it. My room is much cleaner, but kind of smaller now. But that's fine! I got a bench! I'm pretty pumped about this. Incase a Donahue reads this: Thank you Mr. Donahue!!!
Anyway, back to the plot! I also wanted a bench so that I can use the rack on the bench to do semi-heavy squats. The reason I couldn't do this before is because to get the weight from the floor, to over my head and on to my shoulders with a heavy weight was pretty much impossible and dangerous. With a rack (about 4-4.5 feet off the ground) I could just bend over, put my shoulders under the bar and grip it. flex my back, and lift. There we go, I now I have a weight on my shoulders! I might have to strengthen my back to go heavy, but that's fine, because I want to strengthen my back anyway! But I still need a bench.
Guess what? I now have a bench. How? My friend: Mr. Donahue. He was at his local 'transfer station'. He was at the part where people put perfectly fine things, but they just don't want it anymore. He saw a weight bench and thought of me and grabbed it! He called my dad and then we arranged to meet yesterday afternoon. We picked it up, had a short visit with the Donahues (that's really rare, usually it turns into at least a hour), and headed home! I was excited. When we got home I had to do some other chores before I set in up. I finally got to set it up, and took off a small part of it because of the limited space in my room. I cleaned my room and rearranged part of it. My room is much cleaner, but kind of smaller now. But that's fine! I got a bench! I'm pretty pumped about this. Incase a Donahue reads this: Thank you Mr. Donahue!!!
Shall I Train Like a German?
So, I've been doing some research on high volume/light weight training. Heavy weight builds more muscle and power, which I want... but light weight has a much lower chance of injury, and with the weights I have at home, I can't go heavy on things like squats and dead lifts. So what did I find while researching? A German training plan, called: German Volume Training.
It uses pretty light weights. The reps and sets are 10x10 with a rest time of 30-90 seconds per set. That's pretty light weight to do all those reps. Actually, part of the plan is pick a slightly too heavy weight and not complete all the reps, keep track of all my reps and sets, and then once I can do 10x10, then increase the weight by 5% and repeat the process.
I've read up on it, and this plan is supposed to help burn fat and put on a lot of muscle, granted if you eat and rest right. Some of the reviews of GVT (German Volume Training) said that they "Put on 11 pounds in muscle in 6 weeks!" or "One test subject put on 28 pounds in 11 weeks!". These are obviously fake, or the test subjects put on a ton of fat or used steroids. Because, it's only naturally possible to put on 1-3 pounds of muscle per month. Also, imagine putting on that much weight in 2-3 months. You'd get major stretch marks and I doubt it'd be great on the heart. I saw some more realistic reviews, like: "10 pounds in 12 weeks!" Still, unlikely, but much more realistic. I doubt I'll put on 10 pounds of muscle if I train this way over the summer. I only gained 8-10 pounds from last year, so I doubt I'll gain much more over the summer... but who knows! I actually wasn't training that well last year. I just got 'beginners gains'. Which pretty much means: no matter how you lift, you gain something.
I will more likely gain around 5 pounds with GVT. Over the summer I also plan on running and biking a lot, so I'll probably lose some fat. It will seem like no weight gains, but probably I'll still see some good muscle and strength gains.
Anyway, I'm going to try GVT with a bunch of exercises, and taper off the ones that don't seem to work. If exercises like dead lifts feel unsafe, I might just stick to 3x8-16 or 5x4-6 for those. I'll probably start off with a really light weight on most exercises, just so I can make sure my form is good and I can progressively add weights.
I'm not sure if you remember my post saying that legs usually respond best to 15-25 rep range (light weight for most exercises). Well, doing 10x10 should be a killer leg workout, because it's similar to light weight: high volume! I have a feeling they will respond well and gain strength, which will be very helpful in soccer!
It uses pretty light weights. The reps and sets are 10x10 with a rest time of 30-90 seconds per set. That's pretty light weight to do all those reps. Actually, part of the plan is pick a slightly too heavy weight and not complete all the reps, keep track of all my reps and sets, and then once I can do 10x10, then increase the weight by 5% and repeat the process.
I've read up on it, and this plan is supposed to help burn fat and put on a lot of muscle, granted if you eat and rest right. Some of the reviews of GVT (German Volume Training) said that they "Put on 11 pounds in muscle in 6 weeks!" or "One test subject put on 28 pounds in 11 weeks!". These are obviously fake, or the test subjects put on a ton of fat or used steroids. Because, it's only naturally possible to put on 1-3 pounds of muscle per month. Also, imagine putting on that much weight in 2-3 months. You'd get major stretch marks and I doubt it'd be great on the heart. I saw some more realistic reviews, like: "10 pounds in 12 weeks!" Still, unlikely, but much more realistic. I doubt I'll put on 10 pounds of muscle if I train this way over the summer. I only gained 8-10 pounds from last year, so I doubt I'll gain much more over the summer... but who knows! I actually wasn't training that well last year. I just got 'beginners gains'. Which pretty much means: no matter how you lift, you gain something.
I will more likely gain around 5 pounds with GVT. Over the summer I also plan on running and biking a lot, so I'll probably lose some fat. It will seem like no weight gains, but probably I'll still see some good muscle and strength gains.
Anyway, I'm going to try GVT with a bunch of exercises, and taper off the ones that don't seem to work. If exercises like dead lifts feel unsafe, I might just stick to 3x8-16 or 5x4-6 for those. I'll probably start off with a really light weight on most exercises, just so I can make sure my form is good and I can progressively add weights.
I'm not sure if you remember my post saying that legs usually respond best to 15-25 rep range (light weight for most exercises). Well, doing 10x10 should be a killer leg workout, because it's similar to light weight: high volume! I have a feeling they will respond well and gain strength, which will be very helpful in soccer!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Week Off and Cross Training
So, after running in track for a couple of months my legs need a rest. My legs take a toll after a couple of months of sprinting on tar coated in 1/4 inch of rubber. Because of this, I'm taking a week off of running to let my joints rest.
After training hard for a while you should take a week off, unless you have planned rest days and easy days.
Running on tar can also slowly injure your joints. Running in it for a month or two is usually fine, but only running on tar can cause knee injuries, hip injuries, lower back injuries, etc... pretty much any joint impacted from running. This doesn't mean you always have to take a week off every couple if months.
It'd be better to run on something not as solid, like; sand, grass and packed dirt because those are easier on the joints. Running on tar is fine, as long as you don't over do it... same goes for most things! It'd be best for you to cross train, actually. Biking and running, swimming and running, biking and swimming, or all three together is a good way to cross train. Cross training is easier on the joints, and if you injure your shin (shin splints) while running, you can still bike or swim! If you hurt your shoulder swimming, you can still bike or run. If you get hurt in biking, well, I'm not sure what you can do.
Another thing that's good about cross training is that running hits all of your legs pretty hard, while biking hits the upper legs more than running does. So if your quads are lacking, biking could help you out! Swimming is a whole body exercise. I'd say it's the best for you, but the hardest to do a lot of to actually get fit. If you live near a beach or have a big pool, then by all means, make that your main sport. It works your legs, arm, abs and back. Biking barely hits the back muscles. Running kind of does, but no where near as intensely as swimming would. Running mainly uses the back for stabilizing. The back is only out gunned by your legs, so you'll be hitting pretty much all your big muscles quite well when swimming. A problem with swimming is that is the fact you can drown when you get tired, unlike running or biking. So you have to be more careful with swimming.
Biking can be extremely useful. It can bring you places without spending gas, and gives you a good quad and cardio workout! It's by far the easiest out of the three main cardio sports. I doubt biking alone will keep you fit. Also, it can develop the quads faster than the calves, so running could feel awkward and hard after only bike training.
Running. Running beats them all. Why? You can do it anywhere, it's tougher than biking, helps with nearly all sports and requires nearly none or no equipment! Barefoot running is an option that doesn't even require shoes.
So, pretty much, do them all. Swimming is the hardest, running you can do the most and is the best for most sports, and biking is the best for injury recovery and can bring you places.
It's summer time: have fun outside and get fit!
After training hard for a while you should take a week off, unless you have planned rest days and easy days.
Running on tar can also slowly injure your joints. Running in it for a month or two is usually fine, but only running on tar can cause knee injuries, hip injuries, lower back injuries, etc... pretty much any joint impacted from running. This doesn't mean you always have to take a week off every couple if months.
It'd be better to run on something not as solid, like; sand, grass and packed dirt because those are easier on the joints. Running on tar is fine, as long as you don't over do it... same goes for most things! It'd be best for you to cross train, actually. Biking and running, swimming and running, biking and swimming, or all three together is a good way to cross train. Cross training is easier on the joints, and if you injure your shin (shin splints) while running, you can still bike or swim! If you hurt your shoulder swimming, you can still bike or run. If you get hurt in biking, well, I'm not sure what you can do.
Another thing that's good about cross training is that running hits all of your legs pretty hard, while biking hits the upper legs more than running does. So if your quads are lacking, biking could help you out! Swimming is a whole body exercise. I'd say it's the best for you, but the hardest to do a lot of to actually get fit. If you live near a beach or have a big pool, then by all means, make that your main sport. It works your legs, arm, abs and back. Biking barely hits the back muscles. Running kind of does, but no where near as intensely as swimming would. Running mainly uses the back for stabilizing. The back is only out gunned by your legs, so you'll be hitting pretty much all your big muscles quite well when swimming. A problem with swimming is that is the fact you can drown when you get tired, unlike running or biking. So you have to be more careful with swimming.
Biking can be extremely useful. It can bring you places without spending gas, and gives you a good quad and cardio workout! It's by far the easiest out of the three main cardio sports. I doubt biking alone will keep you fit. Also, it can develop the quads faster than the calves, so running could feel awkward and hard after only bike training.
Running. Running beats them all. Why? You can do it anywhere, it's tougher than biking, helps with nearly all sports and requires nearly none or no equipment! Barefoot running is an option that doesn't even require shoes.
So, pretty much, do them all. Swimming is the hardest, running you can do the most and is the best for most sports, and biking is the best for injury recovery and can bring you places.
It's summer time: have fun outside and get fit!
States
Last Saturday was States: my last track meet of the year.
The meet was in Mount Dessert Island and we had to be there around 8:30am... so the bus had to leave at 5:30am, and us athletes had to be at the bus by 5:15am. So to shower, get a good breakfast and finish getting ready I had to get up at 4:15am. I got up at 4:20am, showered and while still in zombie mode made some oatmeal, toast and my drinks for the day. I took my oatmeal out of the microwave and bumped the bowl against the handle of the fridge... guess what happened next? Oatmeal all over the floor. Yeah, big bummer, had to wash thar up, then make another bowl. So from then on I was rushed to get things and eat. Shannon woke up around 4:55am to bring me to the bus. We left just after 5am and got there around 5:20am. Most of the team was really tired and goofy because of the tiredness, so it made for a pretty fun and funny bus ride. Also, there was less than 15 people on the bus, so everyone had their own seat and extra seats for bags. I took a 15-30 minute nap, but that's it. Most of the time I just talked with my team. The bus ride was over 3 hours. I don't remember how long it was exactly, but it was long.
Once we got into the middle of nowhere, the signs were pretty fun to read. Really randomly named stores...
We arrived around 8:40am. I was in the first event which started at 10:30am for guys, so I had a little bit of time to just relax, use the restroom, eat a little and wake myself up. My event was the 4x800. Our team was pretty slow. I was the fastest on the whole track team at the 800, but I didn't even qualify for the 800 this year in KVACs, let alone States. Our 4x800 teams PR this year was 10:04.16. I wasn't on the 4x800 team this year because I had other events I wanted to do, so I replaced one of the slowest guys on the 4x800 team. Coach knew I had the fastest time, so she put me as anchor: the last guy. I was pretty nervous, because at KVACs our anchor ran by himself because all the other teams finished when he started. Luckily, we were put in the slow heat, so it wouldn't be as bad.
We started off in 7th or 8th. I think we briefly hit 6th, but fell back to 7th or 8th during most of the event. It was pretty windy, so a good strategy was to tuck in behind someone and let them take the wind while you trail them and beat them in the last 100-200 meters. When I received the baton there was a guy around 50 meters behind me and a guy 50 meters in front of me. Tucking in was going go to be a problem... So I decided: I need to catch the guy in front of me. 50 meters, not bad, right? Wrong. It was 800 meters, so he had to fun 750, I had to run 800 to catch him. He was running a pretty good pace, probably a 2:20 pace. My PR this year was a 2:15.xx... So I had to run pretty fast to catch him. So I gave it my all. First lap, I closed down the gap by at least 25 meters. This my friend, is where pain sets in. Have you ever tired to nearly sprint 1/2 a mile? It's tough... but I really, really wanted to beat that guy. We reached the 200m left mark. My lunges are in fire. I hamstrings are on the brink on giving into charley-horsing. My quads start numbing. My form was failing. Then I remembered: pump your arms harder, and your legs will follow suit. I did just that... just too early. I did it at the 120m mark, the edge of the turn: right where the wind was the strongest. That was my mistake. I hit the wind, along with the dreaded wall. I couldn't slow down. I had to beat that guy, I was less than a meter behind! I was pumping my arms as fast as I could, which probably was actually quite slow, but I kept with it. My mistake was getting to me now. My energy was failing me, even my biceps and shoulders were getting that numb feeling. My form probably looked like a baby giraffe, but I couldn't do anything about it. 50 meters left: I pass him, but he has more power left. I'm still pumping, feeling like death. I then see in the corner if my eye: his spikes, his knee, then most of his body. I literally, couldn't move any faster and he beat me, by less than a meter. We both nearly fell over. Then shook hands congratulating one another on each others races.
That was probably one of the closest 800 meters runs I've run. I put so much energy into it. I could barely walk afterward. I just sat for a while, then walked slowly down to our tent. I had to eat and drink slowly because I felt like throwing up. My hamstrings were now charley-horsing, and in a ton of pain. Nothing pulled, just extreme use. Brandon gave mr some BioFreeze. I never tired something like it before, but apparently it's like IcyHot. Not sure how it works, but after rubbing some of it on my hamstrings. It felt amazing, but weird. It really loosened up my legs. Don't ask me how, but it was amazing.
Coach came over to talk to us a little while later. She gave us our times, all but one of us PRed! I ran a 2:11.87! My lifetime PR was 2:13.xx! Guess the urge beat a guy 50 meters in front of me really helped my time. I was pretty happy with that. Also, our team's overall time was 9:38.98! That's a 25.18 second PR I believe! I looked at the time and the guy who beat me beat me by 0.43 seconds. That's pretty darn close for a 4x800 meter race!
My next event was was the 4x100. So I had some time to recover, relax and eat. I wasn't 100% for the 4x100, but I don't think I could have been 100% for awhile after running that 4x800. My start went well. I was in lane 4, passed two guys, but my hand off was bad. The guy I handed off to was going too slow, and I missed his hand, luckily because he was going too slow I had time to put the baton in his hand, but by this time we lost the lead I made.
That race didn't go so well. We placed pretty poorly, and our time was barely faster than the fastest 400meter runner.
I had even more time until the 4x400. So I just hung out with my team, relaxed, ate some and drank a lot.
Jordan is our fastest 400 meter runner. He placed 3rd at States with a time of 51.85. He was already doing 4 events, so he couldn't do the 4x400. I was the next fastest with a PR of 55.95. Brandon was the next fastest with a time around 57 seconds... He ran the 200m dash, and then his hamstring that was hurting earlier this year started hurting again, so he didn't want to risk re-pulling his hamstring, and so couldn't do the 4x400 either. Ben was our next guy. He didn't have any problems, so he could run it. The only problem was thar his time was around 58 seconds. Isaiah ran it as well, his time is around 59 or 60, which isn't that fast for guys, but ok. Also, Brent was our next guy on the list. His PR was a 1:06. I started it off... I was the fastest on our relay team, but I only held 7th out of 8. We fell to last pretty quickly. That was a pretty humbling race.
After the meet we packed up and the bus left. I was going with my parents, so I waited around because they went to the wrong bus, because our bus moved.
We drove for a couple hours, stopped at the Hughes for a short visit. Then went off to Bath to pick Colleen up at Anna's house. Closed my eyes and relaxed, couldn't quite sleep, the car was too cramped for that. We got home a little before 11pm. I showered and slept. I fell asleep so fast... I woke up after 8am, so I kind of had to rush to make break fast and shower before church. We left a tad late.
On our way we saw that our steams were over flowing. They were a couple inches over the road. A road we usually take to church was blocked off because the tar was destroyed from the water. So we were pretty late.
After church we headed home. It was still pouring. We drove threw a few newly formed steams... then an older steam was over the road for about 30 feet, and was pretty deep. We didn't dare cross that one, so we took another detour to get to our house.
After a few hours we went to Leavitt's graduation. That was pretty cool, but really long. I saw quite a few of my friends graduate though! It was another pretty adventurous ride on the way home.
So this brings me to today. It's still raining, but no where near as bad. There probably is still quite a few blocked off roads due to damage, but probably only a few or no over flowing streams.
The meet was in Mount Dessert Island and we had to be there around 8:30am... so the bus had to leave at 5:30am, and us athletes had to be at the bus by 5:15am. So to shower, get a good breakfast and finish getting ready I had to get up at 4:15am. I got up at 4:20am, showered and while still in zombie mode made some oatmeal, toast and my drinks for the day. I took my oatmeal out of the microwave and bumped the bowl against the handle of the fridge... guess what happened next? Oatmeal all over the floor. Yeah, big bummer, had to wash thar up, then make another bowl. So from then on I was rushed to get things and eat. Shannon woke up around 4:55am to bring me to the bus. We left just after 5am and got there around 5:20am. Most of the team was really tired and goofy because of the tiredness, so it made for a pretty fun and funny bus ride. Also, there was less than 15 people on the bus, so everyone had their own seat and extra seats for bags. I took a 15-30 minute nap, but that's it. Most of the time I just talked with my team. The bus ride was over 3 hours. I don't remember how long it was exactly, but it was long.
Once we got into the middle of nowhere, the signs were pretty fun to read. Really randomly named stores...
We arrived around 8:40am. I was in the first event which started at 10:30am for guys, so I had a little bit of time to just relax, use the restroom, eat a little and wake myself up. My event was the 4x800. Our team was pretty slow. I was the fastest on the whole track team at the 800, but I didn't even qualify for the 800 this year in KVACs, let alone States. Our 4x800 teams PR this year was 10:04.16. I wasn't on the 4x800 team this year because I had other events I wanted to do, so I replaced one of the slowest guys on the 4x800 team. Coach knew I had the fastest time, so she put me as anchor: the last guy. I was pretty nervous, because at KVACs our anchor ran by himself because all the other teams finished when he started. Luckily, we were put in the slow heat, so it wouldn't be as bad.
We started off in 7th or 8th. I think we briefly hit 6th, but fell back to 7th or 8th during most of the event. It was pretty windy, so a good strategy was to tuck in behind someone and let them take the wind while you trail them and beat them in the last 100-200 meters. When I received the baton there was a guy around 50 meters behind me and a guy 50 meters in front of me. Tucking in was going go to be a problem... So I decided: I need to catch the guy in front of me. 50 meters, not bad, right? Wrong. It was 800 meters, so he had to fun 750, I had to run 800 to catch him. He was running a pretty good pace, probably a 2:20 pace. My PR this year was a 2:15.xx... So I had to run pretty fast to catch him. So I gave it my all. First lap, I closed down the gap by at least 25 meters. This my friend, is where pain sets in. Have you ever tired to nearly sprint 1/2 a mile? It's tough... but I really, really wanted to beat that guy. We reached the 200m left mark. My lunges are in fire. I hamstrings are on the brink on giving into charley-horsing. My quads start numbing. My form was failing. Then I remembered: pump your arms harder, and your legs will follow suit. I did just that... just too early. I did it at the 120m mark, the edge of the turn: right where the wind was the strongest. That was my mistake. I hit the wind, along with the dreaded wall. I couldn't slow down. I had to beat that guy, I was less than a meter behind! I was pumping my arms as fast as I could, which probably was actually quite slow, but I kept with it. My mistake was getting to me now. My energy was failing me, even my biceps and shoulders were getting that numb feeling. My form probably looked like a baby giraffe, but I couldn't do anything about it. 50 meters left: I pass him, but he has more power left. I'm still pumping, feeling like death. I then see in the corner if my eye: his spikes, his knee, then most of his body. I literally, couldn't move any faster and he beat me, by less than a meter. We both nearly fell over. Then shook hands congratulating one another on each others races.
That was probably one of the closest 800 meters runs I've run. I put so much energy into it. I could barely walk afterward. I just sat for a while, then walked slowly down to our tent. I had to eat and drink slowly because I felt like throwing up. My hamstrings were now charley-horsing, and in a ton of pain. Nothing pulled, just extreme use. Brandon gave mr some BioFreeze. I never tired something like it before, but apparently it's like IcyHot. Not sure how it works, but after rubbing some of it on my hamstrings. It felt amazing, but weird. It really loosened up my legs. Don't ask me how, but it was amazing.
Coach came over to talk to us a little while later. She gave us our times, all but one of us PRed! I ran a 2:11.87! My lifetime PR was 2:13.xx! Guess the urge beat a guy 50 meters in front of me really helped my time. I was pretty happy with that. Also, our team's overall time was 9:38.98! That's a 25.18 second PR I believe! I looked at the time and the guy who beat me beat me by 0.43 seconds. That's pretty darn close for a 4x800 meter race!
My next event was was the 4x100. So I had some time to recover, relax and eat. I wasn't 100% for the 4x100, but I don't think I could have been 100% for awhile after running that 4x800. My start went well. I was in lane 4, passed two guys, but my hand off was bad. The guy I handed off to was going too slow, and I missed his hand, luckily because he was going too slow I had time to put the baton in his hand, but by this time we lost the lead I made.
That race didn't go so well. We placed pretty poorly, and our time was barely faster than the fastest 400meter runner.
I had even more time until the 4x400. So I just hung out with my team, relaxed, ate some and drank a lot.
Jordan is our fastest 400 meter runner. He placed 3rd at States with a time of 51.85. He was already doing 4 events, so he couldn't do the 4x400. I was the next fastest with a PR of 55.95. Brandon was the next fastest with a time around 57 seconds... He ran the 200m dash, and then his hamstring that was hurting earlier this year started hurting again, so he didn't want to risk re-pulling his hamstring, and so couldn't do the 4x400 either. Ben was our next guy. He didn't have any problems, so he could run it. The only problem was thar his time was around 58 seconds. Isaiah ran it as well, his time is around 59 or 60, which isn't that fast for guys, but ok. Also, Brent was our next guy on the list. His PR was a 1:06. I started it off... I was the fastest on our relay team, but I only held 7th out of 8. We fell to last pretty quickly. That was a pretty humbling race.
After the meet we packed up and the bus left. I was going with my parents, so I waited around because they went to the wrong bus, because our bus moved.
We drove for a couple hours, stopped at the Hughes for a short visit. Then went off to Bath to pick Colleen up at Anna's house. Closed my eyes and relaxed, couldn't quite sleep, the car was too cramped for that. We got home a little before 11pm. I showered and slept. I fell asleep so fast... I woke up after 8am, so I kind of had to rush to make break fast and shower before church. We left a tad late.
On our way we saw that our steams were over flowing. They were a couple inches over the road. A road we usually take to church was blocked off because the tar was destroyed from the water. So we were pretty late.
After church we headed home. It was still pouring. We drove threw a few newly formed steams... then an older steam was over the road for about 30 feet, and was pretty deep. We didn't dare cross that one, so we took another detour to get to our house.
After a few hours we went to Leavitt's graduation. That was pretty cool, but really long. I saw quite a few of my friends graduate though! It was another pretty adventurous ride on the way home.
So this brings me to today. It's still raining, but no where near as bad. There probably is still quite a few blocked off roads due to damage, but probably only a few or no over flowing streams.
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