He's going to pump..... You up!

My favorite fitness social media site, Fitocracy.com has teamed up with biggest fitness icon of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Together they have created something called the 1% Challenge.  Together they have created 5 workout routines (so far) that take about 15 minutes each.  There are strength and cardio as well as equipment and body weight routines. Where does the 1% come in?  15 minutes is roughly only 1% of your 24 hr day.

I've talked about Fitocracy before but adding in these routines takes it up a notch.  Your not just blindly trying out exercises to see what works, though that's not always a bad way to begin.  All of these routines have video tutorials which is great for beginners who aren't sure of correct form.  In preparation for writing this post I watched a couple and I would even recommend them to people who know the exercises.  There are some good tips on how to keep your form all the way through the routine.

My favorite Routine is B or the Body Weight Circuit.  These means you can do all the exercises without buying any equipment going to the gym or even being at home.  If you live out of a suitcase you still don't have an excuse for not doing these.  Once again this is a great routine for beginners because it's much harder to injure yourself with no heavy objects around.  If this gets too easy you can always up your repetitions or jump over to the intermediate body weight routine D.

To ease myself back into working out and make sure I don't injure myself like I did last time this is how I'm starting off.  Personally I have added in some crunches and side planks but as with any exercise routine only do what feels comfortable to you.

//Actuator//

First Injury: Keep your head up

So I have now had my first fitness related injury.  It's one of those things that you really shouldn't be proud of but I am anyway.

 I was hoping to avoid that for a little bit long but I suppose it's good to get it out of the way.  Still not 100% sure what I did to cause it but the chiropractor is fairly certain it was because of bad form.  Now I admit I am not 100% on when I'm lifting heavy but I try very hard to keep as close as possible for as long as possible.  However when all you want to get are those 2 last reps in, your focus becomes keeping that weight from falling on your head instead of keeping perfect form.

Sorry to those "do or die" types but if I'm hurting I'll say so.  This hurt like hell and kept me out of the gym for a while because every time it would feel a little better I would push through the pain and aggravate it again.  I say it was a neck injury but I had pain radiating from the spine and all over my right shoulder and upper back.  Apparently this is a common enough injury that when I finally went to my chiropractor, he recognized it pretty quick.  All I had to mention was that I have been lifting heavier recently to get that "ahhhhh" reaction.

The human body is able to withstand tremendous amounts of weight. Even without developing your muscle with the intention of lifting, the back and more importantly the spine are designed for it. Studies have even shown that the curves in our spine allow us to support 10 times more weight than if it was straight.  That being said, we have a tendency to try and get our back under the weight.  Even in the movies you will see someone trying to push upward while bending their head forward with the strain.  However doing this straightens the natural curve in the neck and subjects your neck to undue stress. The point being the when you are doing heavy lifts, especially shoulder press of any kind, be sure to keep your head up.  Sitting here typing this posing like L, probably isn't helping any.

(Warning next part isn't so fitness related just an observation)
The solution?  A couple trips to the chiropractor will straighten it out if they don't scare you to death first.  They try this in multiple ways first the try and electrocute you with those contacts they put on your back.  And if you like me you try and handle as much voltage (or whatever) as you can cause we are manly men and we can take it.  But then they leave you alone in the room and you feel your muscles start to contract in ways they never have before and by the time they come back you've either become a contortionist or your dead.  Next they act like pedophiles.  You have to take your shirt off so they can rub oil on you (if they don't really need to do this someone let me know cause mine did) and rub your back down with the excuse that "you need to be loose".  Then they lay your cheek on their hand and tell you to relax.  This is the time when they have given up on you and decide your a threat and try to SNAP your neck clean off.  Just like this. Some how after a couple of times doing this you feel better and get to go back to working out like an idiot or learn so you never have to see that horrible man again!

As always I hope I was helpful.  If you like these posts or if you would like me to cover a topic feel free to leave a comment and let me know.  If you really think they are worth someone's time share them around.  I hope to have some of these topics recorded on my YouTube channel as well so come check me out there if you have not already.

/Actuator/

Ab Myth - it's not muscle it's fat!

I have heard some of the craziest things in the world regarding abs.  One of them being he's not strong he's fat. Granted this is the exception rather than the rule.  Many people think that you can target belly fat by doing tons of ab workouts.  That is only going to work if you already have an extremely low body fat to begin with.  You will build your abdominal muscles and there are some fantastic benefits to that, but there won't be anything visible. This is why many of the Strength competition guys look like they have extra belly.  It's really just a small layer of fat over the muscle.  Also for people that are trying to gain a lot of muscle, also called 'hard gainers', consuming enough food to grow muscle without gaining a little fat is extremely difficult if not impossible.  Did you know the guys and girls you see in bodybuilding competitions are normally weaker during competition than the rest of the year?  That's because they eat more to pack on the muscle and then eat less and do more carido to have the lowest body fat possible to compete.

 

Let's break this down a little though.  For those of us not entering a strong man or body building competition any time soon, the logic is much simpler.  If you have enough willpower to keep working those abs to the point where you can see that area getting bigger, you are still working out more than the average American. More muscle also means you burn more calories so if you have not been increasing your calorie intake you should be loosing weight. The best way would be to work on all muscle groups evenly.  Even if you could get just your abs and nothing else, would you really want to be as over balanced as this guy? 

 

My personal experience with this was in high school.  I wasn't athletic and didn't participate in sports but I did get into kickboxing.  It was mainly cardio but we did plenty of crunches, planks, and pushups as well.  However not giving a damn about being healthy (as teenagers normally don't) I finished every workout session off with a Mountain Dew and anything that I was burning I was eating more to compensate.  Not on purpose, just because I was hungry more often. Point is my abs were getting bigger but my body fat percentage wasn't going down any.  My aunt noticed that I was filling out and told me I needed to slim down.  I explained my situation and she laughed at me.  She told me that I was silly and working out tighted up the fat.  You are allowed to laugh all I could do was sit and stare at her dumbfounded. Point is that you can get bad information from anyone even if they mean well.

Granted you are talking to someone who sill doesn't have defined abs so feel free to believe what you will. However if you want the lowdown from a professional here is my favorite article on the subject.



/Actuator/

Pictures by sumoman.co  CC-BY

Crazy Abs (not in a good way)

I have heard a lot of interesting stories around abs, who has them, how to get them, even how to fake them.  Thought I would share some of the crazy some of the serious and some of my theories.

So let's start with the truly crazy:
Implants: Yes skip the work outs, skip the gym, and the healthy food. Don't worry they can make it look real with abdominal implants under your skin.  That's right 30 minute abs just got real. If I know you and you just considered this don't tell me.

I only have a few issues. This requires you to be put under which means you might not wake up. Yes I know how often this is done and how it hardly ever happens but why take the chance when it's not life threatening? Next, if you don't have definition already or if you gain weight this is going to look horrible. I personally think plastic surgery should be saved for burn victims and people born with deformities.  Large breasts attract my attention, I'd be lying if I said otherwise, however as soon as I even think the they are fake I'm not interested.  If you are crazy enough to try this you probably would like to know that just about all muscles can be implanted so you look like this guy.  But in all seriousness if you decide to get these please rearrange them into a smiley face and send me the picture.


Etching: Ok I hate to admit this but this option gives me pause.  Personally I could never do it but...... well you decide.  Etching is another form of surgery.  From the limited research I have done the concept is a form of selective liposuction that targets the fat pockets around the abdominal muscles. This is for those people that work at the gym 3 hrs a day and eat right and still can not quite get that definition.  For sustained results you have to continue to go to the gym.  While I still personally disagree, I have less of an issue because these people still have to put in the effort.  If you have never done a sit up, or leg raise, or side bend then it doesn't matter how much fat they take off you still won't have anything to show for it.  That being said I still consider this unnatural and could never do it personally.

Abs in a Box:  I really shouldn't be surprised by this one but really?  Have you ever seen the far side comic with the guy that has ab definition tattooed on.  I was really hoping to find a picture of that.  Please send me the link if you find one but I found this instead.  Damn near the same thing Abs in a Box is a semi-permanent stain that you put on to give the impression of curves in the right places.  I also think this is stupid but can you imagine the people that buy this thinking they have a true quick fix?  Honestly unless you are a makeup artist the possibilities for screwing this up are endless.  And, because it "works so well" it's water resistant.  So if you get carried away and paint the Mona Lisa on your gut, it's going to be there for a while.  I do see how this would work for super models and makeup at photo shoots.  As a matter of fact it makes me feel ever so slightly better about myself know that these "perfect people" have help. My last comment on this, dumbest tagline ever. "Paint away Flab" then they show women that are already super skinny and just add definition.  if you have any flab this isn't going to work.

I don't know if it makes me feel better our worse that these things are actually available out there.  Better that I am willing to actually work to get abs or worse about humanity that people think this is a viable alternative.  None of these things will make you stronger or healthier and without serious effort none of these things will make you look better.  Save the thousands of dollars you were going to spend on surgery and buy a gym membership and start eating better.

/Actuator/

Meal Plans?

An article on one of my favorite sites explains how you should be breaking down your diet on a good workout plan.  So I thought I would give it a shot and at least compare what I am doing to what I should be doing. Here is the link if you want to try it out for yourselves.

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/how-to-create-a-bodybuilding-diet.html
So here’s how it works. Use the calculator here to determine how many calories you should be taking in per day. This is a common calculation and worked out the same for the My Fitness Pal mobile app.  Next you break down the calories into 30% protein, 50% carbs, and 20% protein.  (Yea I was never a big fan of Atkins either) turn the calories into grams (use the site) and then divide each one by the number of meals per day.

For me that was 2500 cals per day
Protein 750 = 187.5g
Carbs 1250 = 312.5g
Fat 500 = 56g

At 6 meals per day (which is about what you should be doing to keep your metab up and gain more nutrients from what your eating) My Per meal is

P 31.5
C 52
F 9.3

What I like best about the article is whether you buy into the numbers or not there is a nice long list on the best places to get your healthy Proteins, Carbs, and fats.

Based on this it looks like I’m getting what I need from the right areas but I’m over doing it it the fat section and not getting quite enough in the protein area.  Considering the new workout routine I’m trying this might be an issue.  Another interesting fact is that fat slows down the digestion process so the meal/snack/supplement you have after a workout should contain as little fat as possible.  Point being that while you might feel nice and manly after pumping serious iron at the gym your not helping yourself by having a big steak.  My issue is that I mix my protein with skim milk that has less fat in it but it’s still there.
I also did some research on body fat percentage and was told that once a week was not to often even though my gym says once a month. hmmmm  Wonder they are just tired of seeing me shirtless?  Oh well.  I also found that the caliper system isn’t the most reliable and changes dramatically when you change who is performing the test.  My last test said 14% and the one before that 17% only a month before but with a different person.  I didn’t even bother tracking it.  At least if you stay with the same person you know what direction your going in.  So my new and more precise goal (for now is to gain weight while lowering body fat percentage or at least keeping it the same.  Once I bulk a little I can break out the Insanity videos again and slim down in a hurry.  At least it worked that way last time.

/Actuator/