Motivation? Priceless July 8, 2008
Posted by jackdrew in Fitness.add a comment
I generally like to be a creature of habit, no surprise there. But when it’s come down to exercise, I’ve been pretty lax over the past few years. And, to my chagrin, I recently found myself falling into the old habits and had to squish them quickly. I spent two weeks solid where I didn’t go out even though they were BEAUTIFUL mornings for jogging (my current exercise routine is to get up at 6am and jog for nearly an hour). And when I found myself sleeping away the mornings and not getting up, I said “so what?” I just couldn’t get the motivation to get up.
I needed to find that motivation and find it quickly to overpower the need to hit the snooze button. But finding that motivation took a little while. Why?
Well, I’m not a self-hater. My self-esteem is very healthy, thank you very much. I think some people would agree I’ve no need of help in that department. And that squashes one of the biggest motivators you can use on yourself: Hating yourself. “I hate the way I look so I’m going to get fit”. “I’m ugly.” “I’m fat.” Whatever. I’m just not that into image to hate myself to the point where I feel the need to change.
The doctor’s been trying to guilt me into wanting to see my children grow up. I hate to break it to him that my relatively fit father died of cancer at the age of 52 and he never smoked or drank. So, basically, God has stepped in and showed me with His glowing hand that life is a big dumb ball of luck and the only deciding factors in it are where you are when the big bouncy ball comes through and squashes you.
So, what have I found to be my best motivator?
Guilt. But a rather special type of guilt. Money guilt. I purchased myself a new pair of sneakers to go jogging after I made sure I would stick with it for a month. After that, I waited until I was with it for 2 months before I decided that the Chocolate Phone I have was an inadequate mp3 player and bought myself the fanciful Sansa 4GB Clip to pour hot liquid metal into my ears while I bounce around the town in the morning. I purchased a few new running shirts and shorts that are made of special sweat-absorbing material (which, my friends is complete crap—my undies are still an ocean when I’m done). So, for your enjoyment, I’d like to present to you my motivation when I cringe at the alarm at 6am.
New running shoes to cushion my guilt-laden soles: $45.
New mp3 player to bury the guilt-ridden voices in my head in an avalanche of 80’s metal: $75.
New clothes to wipe away the sweat of guilt: $40.
Getting fit : priceless. (But my wife has the receipts, if you’d like to review them)
-Jack
PS – http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ —- AWESOME!!!! (Thanks to my friend George for pointing that one out)
My morning run this past week has been a total of 3.3 miles in just over 42 minutes. I just projected out that I could hit 4.1 miles tomorrow if I labor myself around one more block. Try it out, it’s probably one of the neatest uses for Google Maps (aside from seeing your car in your driveway). Oh, and I’d just like to add in that Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” is the best album to jog to that was EVER made. (especially up hills) If you don’t think so, you must be Kip Winger.
Is There a Trainer in the House? June 21, 2008
Posted by Mike Oliveri in Fitness.1 comment so far
I had a good run tonight. I’m repeating Week 3 of the <a title=”Cool Running” href=”http://www.coolrunning.com”>Cool Running</a> <a title=”The 5k running program” href=”http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml”>Couch-to-5k-Run Progam</a>, and as I burned through the first 200-yard stretch tonight I thought I was toast. I got my head right by the end, though, and pushed through the last 400 yards and stacked on a few extra yards for good measure.
The problem is my right leg is killing me. My left’s a little achy, but my right is hurtin’. It might be shin splints, but I’m starting to worry it’s skeletal rather than muscular this time around. Each impact brought a zap of pain, so I started concentrating on the way my foot hit the track. I’m not 100% sure, but it feels like I’m landing flat-footed and rolling onto the ball of my foot a little too quickly.
I’ve read a few sources discussing the proper stride, but my question is how do you <em>train</em> that stride. I try to alter my stride on the track, but it’s tough; I keep falling back into the bad habit. That makes me wonder if I’ve got tight muscles or screwy joints that are preventing me from doing it right. If so, what should I be doing to correct this?
I let an ingrown toenail get out of control a decade ago, and I dealt with it for far too long by limping around. Then I did it again with the other foot a year or so later. That screwed up my gait for a long time. I caught myself walking on the outside edges of my feet and not rolling off the front of my foot, and I’m worried this may be a lingering problem.
So, again, any trainers in the house?
Educate Yourself June 3, 2008
Posted by Mike Oliveri in Fitness.Tags: fad diets, mens health, muata kamdibe
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Face it: most fad diets are bullshit.
In the last two jobs I’ve worked, I’ve had co-workers try this diet and that in hopes of losing weight. Oftentimes it will work for about a month, then they’ll gain the weight right back (and sometimes more). They don’t look into why the diet works, or how the diet affects the body, they just change their eating routine and hope for the best.
This weekend I read about Muata Kamdibe, a college professor who lost 133 pounds over four years through eating smart and exercising. An important lesson I picked up is the way he researched the way food and exercise affects the body, and he used that rather than following strange diets that may affect the body different ways for different people. In fact, he tried the Atkins himself before stalling out on it and looking into why it does or doesn’t work.
My tome of choice is Men’s Health. It’s full of articles and tips on food and exercise, and none of it has anything to do with bizarre and/or limiting eating routines. It keeps me motivated and gives me ideas to shake things up in my own routine.
Whatever your source, definitely educate yourself. Food’s important for the body, but don’t neglect to feed your mind. Brain food is the real fuel for fitness.
Goals and Tending To Them May 23, 2008
Posted by jackdrew in Fitness.add a comment
Just wanted to throw up a quick note saying that I hit the 45 minute mark last Wednesday!
I’ve been quiet about it because before it, I hadn’t jogged in nearly two weeks due to weather and the fact we’ve been pouring a lot of sweat into the house. But last week, I finally got out and hit 45 minutes and it’s been that ever since.
Warmer weather slides ever nearer, folks! Hang in there and keep it up!
(Later I’ll post an interesting note about mp3 players, playlists and how they affect your pace.
-Jack
Two Left Feet April 15, 2008
Posted by Mike Oliveri in Fitness.Tags: calf pain, karate, muscles, pain, running, stride, walking
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Does anyone else worry about their stride?
It’s hard to imagine something as simple and intuitive as walking or running can be so difficult. I’ve known my stride is a little screwy for some time, and there are two reasons for that: 1) I have a slight tilt to my pelvis, which makes it appear as though I have one leg shorter than the other ; 2) problems with both of my feet resulted in my walking on the outside edges of my feet. I try to correct it when I think about it, but it often takes conscious effort. When I run, my thoughts frequently stray.
I think my gait contributed to a problem I used to have before I started karate. When I walked longer distances or tried to walk fast, the muscles along the outside of my calves would tighten up. If I pushed through the pain, they’d tighten up so bad that the pain would last for hours. Stretching helped a little, but there were times I could barely extend my foot.
As I said, this improved with karate. Four months after I started, I walked a good two miles or so with my family and some relatives. Most of them walk considerably faster than I, and I’m used to falling behind and sometimes having to stop and stretch my calves from time to time (thus falling behind even farther). Instead, this time I was at the front of the pack. Even carrying a load from a picnic. I attributed the improvement to a loss of weight and an improvement in leg strength, and it hasn’t bothered me since.
Until last night. My calf muscles — on the back side — were a bit sore from moving furniture all weekend, but I went out for my run anyway. A little more than halfway through, I started to feel the familiar sting along the outside of my calves. By the end of my run, they had tightened up pretty good. Not as bad as in the past, and not bad enough to put me on my butt, but plenty irritating.
It’s got me wondering if it’s more than just my stride. I try to stay hydrated, and I take vitamins so I can’t imagine it’s a magnesium or calcium deficiency as suggested here. I may have to re-evaluate my pre-workout stretching and see if that makes a difference.
If not, I guess it will be time to chat up my doctor or chiropractor, or perhaps an orthopoedist.
Dawn of the Damned Early March 26, 2008
Posted by jackdrew in Fitness.4 comments
Dawn – The Jersey Shore
I haven’t seen the sun rise in about 10 months. I’d thought I’d bid sunrises adieu. After spending the last 4 years getting up at 6am every morning to drive an awful long time to work in the dark, I moved closer to my job (15 minutes away) so I could change my schedule. Sleep in a bit. I figured me and 6am, we were past all this.
I figured wrong. The alarm clock ensured this in its usual snobby way this morning.
I got up, hopped into my sweat pants and hoodie (the fat man’s equivalent of the little black dress–and man, am I sexy in it!), slid on my atrociously undersized running shoes (that I hadn’t worn in 5 years–the last time I had any exercise program) and stepped out into the brisk 45 degree morning air. Kicking on “Ceremony” by New Order on my Chocolate phone (who needs an iPod when you’ve got a cheap knock off that doesn’t work right in your pocket? [God, I gotta buy one of those] ), I took my first few steps into the waking dawn … and remembered just why I loved exercise so much.
The world didn’t exist as I proceeded to walk around my neighborhood this morning. 45 minutes of brisk walking (hey, I said I hadn’t done anything in five years, give a guy a break) and I was alone, just me and my own puffy self and New Order to urge my feet along. I was able to take that time to step back from my busy work schedule and organize my thoughts. By the time I was done this morning, I knew exactly what I had to do when I got into work and pretty much had my meeting schedule done (in my head). Interesting side note: my day at work went incredibly smoothly today. Not something I’m used to. A big part of it was getting organized during this morning’s walk.
OK, so I didn’t so much as start the Couch-to-5K program. But I got up, and I got moving and I didn’t stop for a donut. Tomorrow I start the program and I have a good feeling I’ll stick with it. Why? What the hell else am I going to do at 6am? Sleep?
Overall, I’m really excited to start up again and get exercising. My doctor recently put me on blood pressure medication due to EXTREMELY high readings. With exercise, I’ll be able to bring my weight down and subsequently bring my blood pressure down, too. It’s been long enough allowing my eating and laziness to rule over my weight. Time to sweat.
Tomorrow – Workout 1 – Week 1 (according to the Couch-to-5K Running Plan)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. (Then I’ll keep walking for another 25 minutes to hit the 45 minute mark)
On the phone: “New Order – Singles”
Weight: I’m thinking 218 … wishing … I’m wishing 218 (I’ll find out tomorrow when I start weighing myself)
All Systems Go March 24, 2008
Posted by Mike Oliveri in Activities, Fitness, Workouts.Tags: cholesterol, doctors, nikeplus, physicals, running
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I had quite an eventful day today, health-wise.
I started with a visit with the doctor. They called it a “get acquainted” visit, but it turned out to be a simple physical. They took my weight, blood pressure and pulse, then the doc and I chatted about family history, risk factors, my personal history, and so on. He felt my neck and sinuses (lymph node check?), pushed on my gut some (I tried not to giggle), checked my lower legs (presumably for adema), and of course he listened to my heart and lungs (no murmurs – guess my secrets are safe).
The nice thing about losing over 50 pounds in two years and attending karate classes for the last year is I didn’t have to worry about him ragging on me for my weight. “Keep it up” is much better than “You really need to do something about that gut, Tubby.” We both agreed I need a cholesterol screening, and I just found out a local hospital’s Wellmobile will be at an area fitness center in the morning. I’m there.
I told the doc about the running program and he gave me the thumbs up. He says it’s good that it builds up to the 5k slowly because too many people try to run 3-4 miles their first time and can’t figure out why they’re so fatigued, why their blood pressure shot sky high, and why they’re overcome with aches and pains. A program like this will not only keep someone from getting discouraged, it will ensure they run safely and protect their health.
Which, I guess, is kinda important.
So tonight I started running: 60 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking, repeating for 20 minutes. It went well, and you can read more about it here. The Nike+ receiver on my iPod nano says I did 3km and burned 330 calories in 25 minutes. Not too shabby.
Troy ran today as well. Read the comments on the last post for his experience, and we’ll see if we can’t nudge him into a full post. Tomorrow, my friend Jack joins the blog and the running program as well.
That makes three of us. Who’s next?
An Insight Into Advanced Class March 18, 2008
Posted by Mike Oliveri in Activities, Fitness, Workouts.Tags: calisthenics, classes, karate, kata, martial arts, push-ups, shuri-ryu, sit-ups
1 comment so far
At my karate dojo, our Tuesday night advanced class is rather intimate (read “small”), so our sensei has turned it into more of an intense workout class than an educational class. This helps boost the attendance a bit those nights, gives the attendees a little more advanced instruction, and most importantly gives us a really intense workout to up our general fitness level. Given I leave those classes sweaty and sore, I thought I’d give you an insight into what those classes are like.
Keep in mind, this is the third class of the evening and I’ll typically attend all three. Basic class, which is predominantly white belts, isn’t too tough, and generally amounts to a warm-up for the more advanced students in attendance (most of us attend to help with instruction). We do 10-20 push-ups or 50 or so snap kicks, then work simple punching and kicking drills and maybe a Taikyoku punching exercise.
The next class is aimed at yellow, blue, and green belts. We typically do 20 push-ups and/or crunches, or we do as many as 100 snap kicks. The push-ups are often what I call slow push-ups, where we lower ourselves, hold it for a second, then come back up. We run a lot of kata in this class, and in Shuri-ryu, if you’re running your kata correctly and with power, one kata should leave you out of breath. We run our kata at least three times, then move on to learning and practicing our other techniques. On Thursdays we sometimes include kobudo (weapons) or sparring training and tack a half hour onto the end of the night for sparring. Tonight we did a lot of wazas in yellow/blue/green class, which are combinations of techniques. I ended up working up a good sweat before the advanced class.
Which brings me to the advanced class itself. Advanced class is normally intended for purple belts and above (our style goes purple, three levels of brown, and then black), but our dojo is the smallest of the Academy of Okinawan Karate schools and we don’t have a lot of purple or brown belts. So, again, it’s opened up to be more of a workout.
Here’s a breakdown of a typical class:
Tension Kata – A tension kata is simply a kata run with muscle tension. Think of it like a yoga or tai chi routine, only we also tense every muscle in our body and include a breathing exercise with each technique. Purple and brown belts have specific tension katas such as Sanchin, but the rest of us will turn one of our own katas into a tension kata. If a regular kata wears you out, a tension kata nearly destroys you, but it does great things for your breathing and strength.
Push-Ups – Lots and lots of push-ups. We might do ladders, where we bend over, touch the floor, crawl out to push-up position, do the push-up, and reverse back to a standing position. We might do “spider” push-ups, where we have our feet wide instead of together. We might do knuckle push-ups or (try) fingertip push-ups. Tonight, we did a few different kinds: Japanese push-ups, where we bend over and touch the floor, then dip down low as if crawling under a fence and return; Swiss ball push-ups, which, as the name suggests, are done on a Swiss ball (these really challenge your core for balance); dumbbell push-ups, which look a lot like dumbbell arm curls only you’re pressing the dumbbells to the floor and doing a push-up rather than standing (hell on your delts); and triangle push-ups, which is simply putting our hands together to make a triangle (hell on your forearms) for the push-up.
Abdominal Exercises – Typically sit-ups (aka curl-ups) or crunches, but we’ve done sit-ups where we start from the usual position and have a partner hold our lower legs, then we do the sit-up and keep going until we’re standing. (I’ve done 3 on a good night.) Tonight we got off the hook.
Kicking – At least 100 when we do front kicks, facing the mirror so we know all 100 go higher than our belts. Tonight we did about 70 side kicks.
Stretching – We practice a lot of kiba dachi, or horse stance. In our style, we shoot for nice, low stances, so the goal is to bend the knees and get the thighs parallel to the ground. Tonight, we held that stance for 30 seconds at the close of our tension kata. Then we did the frog, where we get down in our lowest horse stance, hold our ankles, shove our knees out with our elbows, and hold for 30 seconds. Finally, we did a round of stretching on the stretching machine.
Techniques/Instruction – We do still work in some instruction. Tonight, more concentration on ippons and taezus, which are combinations of techniques. Sweat, sweat, sweat.
Cram all that into an hour and it goes pretty quick. I find myself wishing the clock would move even faster while I’m in class, but after we bow off I always feel great (if exhausted and sore) and I’m glad I stick around.
That’s the great thing about the martial arts: if you find a good school, it’s like getting a combination gym membership and education. Once you get through the white belt material, things really open up and it provides a lot of variety in both your in-class and home workouts. It’s a lot more fun than pushing heavy things into the air over and over or hiding out in the garage with the weight machine.
Another Reason to Stand Up! March 17, 2008
Posted by Mike Oliveri in Fitness.Tags: articles, desk exercises, movement, sedentary, sitting, standing desk
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I was clearing out some old bookmarks today and discovered this article about a University of Missouri-Columbia study that found if you spend most of your day sitting down, your metabolism slows down and your risk of disease goes up.
In other words, it’s not just important to get that 30 minutes of activity 5 days a week, you have to spend more time up and around in general or you’re going to have problems.
I’ve kicked around the idea of getting a standing desk myself, but I’m not sure it’s necessary (or that my bosses would go for it). While I do spend the majority of my day jockeying a keyboard, I’m a one-man tech support team for three buildings, 75 teachers, and 600 students with a total of 250 computers and seven servers. I often have trouble calls that get me dashing off to one place or another, sometimes for something as simple as plugging something in but sometimes I end up tracing a cable or climbing into a drop ceiling.
Even if I did have a straight office job, though, I’m sure there’s something that could be done. Hand-delivering documents instead of emailing them is one way to keep moving. Or walking down to someone’s office (or cubicle) rather than picking up the phone or chatting on an instant messaging client. I’m lucky enough to be able to walk home for lunch every day, but there’s no reason anyone couldn’t do a few laps around their building or campus during lunches. Heck, I’ve even seen a few office buildings up in the Chicago suburbs who have their own small park and walking track. If you’re waiting for a response from someone, get up and stretch out. Pound out a few desk exercises like incline push-ups or imaginary jump rope. Sure, you might get some funny looks, but so what? Those looks will change if it helps trim a few pounds off of you.
There’s no question the human body is built for movement, so get off your butt and accommodate it! You’ll feel better for it.
The Weight Loss Scare March 14, 2008
Posted by darkfluidity in Fitness.Tags: health scare, motivation, racquetball, temptation
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There are scare tactics which may work amazingly well in getting a person motivated to begin a program. For example, high blood pressure runs in my family, I’ve been on medication for years, I’m not 40 yet and I started the medicine in my 20s. But motivation to start and motivation to stick with it are two different things, and I’ve discovered that sometimes it’s easy to get distracted. A day goes by, then two, then a week, during which you make lesser choices, you fail to make the better choices, you skip workouts or go for that extra cookie.
I really think this will be a good place to help. I’ve had another recent scare, about which I’m not prepared to speak, but it confirms that I really need to lose some more weight. My top, ever, was just shy of 250. My best, as an adult, was just above 190. When I started going to my new doctor here in northern Florida, I was closer to that top, in the mid 240s, and definitely not where I should be.
As of this morning, my scale says I’m 230. This, primarily from making better food choices, bagging lunch more frequently, less chocolate (my kryptonite), but I haven’t yet managed to sneak more exercise into the routine. Which I desperately need to do.
My goal for March: break 230. My goal for April: break 225. The only way I’m going to do that is to do things. Jeff V and I started playing racquetball a few weeks ago, with the intention of playing every Wednesday. A fantastic way to exercise and not feel like you’re exercising. However, we only played the once. I’m a bit less in-shape than I’d been, and it’s been a few years since I’d played with any regularity, and he beat the crap out of me. I held my own for a few volleys, but never for a whole game. We are supposed to play again. I wonder, though, if perhaps I wasn’t enough of an opponent for him. {wicked grin}
