Archives for August 2008

What fuels your workouts?

Something that I think about all the time is what types of foods I should be eating in order to better fuel my workouts, and to aid in recovery once the exercise is done.

In an article titled “Best fuel for your workout” at MSNBC.com the fitness experts give a quick run-down of what types of foods you should look to eat before and after your reps.

Good food choices to fuel your workout include high-carbohydrate, low-fat snacks such as:

a banana with yogurt;

a whole-wheat toasted bagel with fruit spread; or

a quick bowl of instant oatmeal.

After your workout, it’s essential to refuel your body with a carbohydrate-protein blend, such as:

a peanut butter sandwich;

a small handful of walnuts or almonds; or

a fruit smoothie with some protein powder.

So there are some quick and easy suggestions to keep your diet on track, and your body fueled like it needs to be.

photo credit: Darwin Bell

Don’t forget to not overdo it though!

You don’t want to eat too much food before exercising, because if you become sluggish, nauseated or throw up, you’ve lost that workout.

One last thing. Drink water and eat healthy!

Of course, don’t forget to drink water before, during and after your workout to avoid dehydration.

And remember that eating a low-fat, well-balanced diet the rest of the day will help ensure that your motor is running efficiently both during exercise and at rest.

Is Exercise Sometimes Not Worth the Time You Put In?

By Peter 4 Comments

I’ll sometimes talk with people I know about their weight loss plans, and how they expect to lose weight. When I ask them what they’re doing they’ll give me a report of drastically reduced calories, and a workout plan that involves a few situps and walking once or twice a week. In most cases I don’t think that type of a plan is going to be successful, just for the small amount of exercise they’re doing, and because their diet will cause their metabolism to shut down, and harm their prospects for weight loss.

In an article I was reading today people were having a different issue. They were exercising for too long, using a exercise that wasn’t as beneficial as they thought. One reader of the MSNBC site emailed in:

I exercise every weekday morning in my hot tub, doing 2,000 forward bicycles, 2,000 reverse bicycles, 2,000 frog kicks and 2,000 reverse frog kicks. It takes me almost three hours. Am I doing too much exercise? I’m trying to lose weight this way because I have leg problems that keep me from doing any other type of exercise.

doing leg kicks in a hot tub for 3 hours? Are you kidding me? Who does that? I know some people do have some physical limitations that preclude them from performing some normal exercises, but there has got to be something better out there for this person to do. I seriously doubt they are getting much actual impact from their bicycle and frog kicks!

photo credit: Tigerzeye

The fitness expert answers the question:

There’s a lingering misperception in fitness that if 20 repetitions of an exercise are good, then 200 — or 2,000 — must be better. But sometimes — such as when doing 4,000 frog kicks and another 4,000 bicycles consumes your entire morning — exercise may just not be worth that much time and effort. In fact, you may be pleasantly surprised to know you can restructure your program so that you actually work out for less time and get more bang for your buck.

The person writing in probably needs to look at some other options for their workout plan. Some low impact whole body workouts like swimming in a pool, riding a stationary bike, or something along those lines. Even though they’re exercising quite a bit currently, the exercise that they’re getting really isn’t that helpful – especially since it takes so long to complete.

Sometimes we all need to take a look at our workout plans, and decide for ourselves if the work we’re putting in is worth it. Is our plan well thought out? Will it actually have the result we’re looking for? If not, it may be time to sit down and come up with a new plan of action with someone who knows what they’re doing like a personal trainer at a local gym, or a friend who is a fitness guru.

Set goals, make a plan of attack, and carry out the plan in such a way as to attain positive results.

Have you ever had a workout plan that didn’t work? What was the reason for the plan’s failure?

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100 Pushup Challenge: Week 3(x3), Day 1 (again)

By Peter 4 Comments

Week 3 once again

Today I restarted week 3 of the 100 pushup challenge – again. Lately it seems that every time I try to restart this whole thing we get busy, have nights out and I just can’t find the time to get my workouts in. I think I may start having to get up earlier so that I can exercise in the A.M.

Week 3 day 1 Column 2

Once again I started with 20. No problem. Powered through.

the two sets of 15 weren’t too bad, maybe the rest I’ve had actually helped? The 13 and was harder, but overly hard.

For the last set I made it to 20, and it wasn’t as much of a struggle as it was last time. So Wedensday I move on to day two again.

Looks to be a little harder, but do-able.

How’s your pushup challenge going? Have you given up yet? Still giving it your all? Doing it half-way? Let me know in the comments!

100 pushup challenge for Ipod

If you haven’t downloaded the 100 pushup challenge for your Ipod (or other portable device) yet, you can still do so by subscribing to our RSS feed. The download link will appear in the RSS feed. If you have trouble finding it, please email me through our contact page, and I’ll be happy to help.

If you have already downloaded the file you may want to re-download it as I have corrected some mistakes, and made some updates. Thanks!

Joggers Live Longer?

By Peter 5 Comments

Just when I was looking for an excuse not to go running anymore I stumbled on an article in Time Magazine titled “Runner’s High: Joggers Live Longer“. Ugh.. So – what’s this all about?

That runner’s high may translate into a lot of other long-lasting health benefits, a new report from an ongoing study suggests. Researchers have found that regular jogging, or any consistent aerobic exercise, in middle age and late in life may reduce people’s risk of disabilities and help them live longer and healthier.

The study looked at two groups of people, those who run regularly, and those that never do. Other than that indicator the two groups were relatively similar in their makeup.

photo credit: mikebaird

The two groups were looked at over a 20 year period, and here is what they found:

Researchers analyzed the accumulated data at 8 years, 13 years and, most recently in 2005, the 21-year mark. Not surprisingly, the data showed that exercise was a boon to health. Over the years, compared with the never-exercisers, people who exercised regularly — in addition to running, activities included biking, aerobic dance and swimming — showed improved aerobic capacity, better cardiovascular fitness, increased bone mass, fewer inflammatory markers, less physical disability, better response to vaccinations and even improved thinking, learning and memory. They also lived significantly longer.

The article continued:

By year 19 of the study, 15% of the runners had died, compared with 34% of the non-running control group. Not only did fewer runners die of cardiovascular causes, but fewer died of other causes such as neurological and infectious disorders. At 21 years into the study, the authors reported, the running group experienced fewer disabilities in eight basic daily functions, including walking, eating, dressing, grip strength and routine physical activities — reporting, on average, one mild disability out of the eight. Never-runners recorded one to two disabilities on average, and were more likely to have a complete disability in one of those daily functions. Even as participants approach their 90s, the groups’ disability and survival curves continue to diverge.

So, if you’re not already running, biking, dancing or swimming (or other aerobic activity), it’s time to start. It’s never too late! So get moving!

It’s been a few days without a post

By Peter 4 Comments

I’ve been lazy

It’s been a few days since I posted here on Quick To Fit. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, and my fitness goals have pretty much gone by the wayside. I know that sucks, but sometimes that happens.

At the beginning of last week I got an infection in my eye that caused my eyelid to swell up to several times its normal size. On Monday I couldn’t even see out of my eye. I went to the doctor and they gave me some antibiotics to help kill the infection. That seems to have helped, but I still had a buildup in my eyelid that needed to be drained (ewww.. i know). This morning I went in and they cut my eyelid open and removed it. I now have 2 stitches in my eyelid. Because of the infection, I haven’t felt much like exercising – even though I could have.

photo credit: Luis Fabres

From the middle of the week last week I was dealing with a problem with our house’s foundation. We discovered some mold in our basement a few weeks ago which seemed to be the result of a crack in our foundation. After several weeks of going back and forth with our builder, they stepped up to the plate and fixed the issue. We were happy with that, but it also meant I had to take off work several times in order to be there while they fixed the problem and replaced the drywall. Once again, being there while they fixed the problems took away from time I could have been exercising, and stole my motivation.

Within the past couple of weeks I also had my car broken into and a bunch of stuff stolen, including a digital camera and my Ipod that had my 100 pushups workout on it. Luckily my friends in the blogsphere have stepped up to the plate and provided me with a new Ipod shuffle, and a new camera, however, I just haven’t gotten around to going to the 100 pushups website and downloading the workouts yet. Lame excuse, I know – but there you go.

Over the weekend I went to a retreat with my family at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN. While we were there I had planned on going out running, and getting some exercise, but besides a canoe ride with my wife – all I did was exercise my jaw eating at the all you can eat buffet in the college’s dining center. Ugh.

I’m a bit afraid to see if my weight has gone up over the past couple bad weeks – but I suppose I’ll have to get on that scale tonight to see. Here’s to hoping I can muster up some motivation to get back on the exercise wagon!

Have you had a bad stretch in your exercise regimen, and how did you get RE-motivated to exercise?

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I went mountain biking today!

By Peter 4 Comments

When I got home from work tonight I decided to do something I haven’t done for quite a long time. I decided to go for a ride on my mountain bike.

Once I got on all my riding gear (special pants with cushy rear, bike shoes, helmet), I went to grab my bike. I quickly found that since I hadn’t ridden my bike basically all year, both tires were flat.

photo credit: Arria Belli

I got out my little pump to put some air in the tires. Little did I know when I decided to go biking that I was going to get an entire workout before I even got on the bike! I started pumping, and pumping and pumping. About 10-15 minutes later the tires were full of air – finally! My arms were quite tired.

After the tires were fully inflated i threw the bike in the car and headed down to the mountain bike trails on the Minnesota River a couple miles from where I live.

I jumped on the bike, and headed down the trail. And then I noticed it. My back wheel was wobbling. Not good. I decided to continue riding anyway. I made it to the dirt trail, and headed down it at full speed. There’s nothing quite like heading down a dirt trail with trees on either side of you, inches from stopping you dead in your tracks. It’s quite a thrill, and I never get tired of it. Actually I do remember one time when I caught my handlebars on a tree branch and went flying. That wasn’t fun – so actually – its a thrill when you don’t crash.

I continued on down the trail weaving in and out of the trees, through tall grasses and over little wooden bridges. It’s been a while since I’ve been biking, but since I’ve been running so much lately I wasn’t as out of breath as I expected to be.

photo credit: andy_c

The sun was nearing the horizon at this point, so I started heading back. I made it back to my car just as the sun set in front of me. Not a bad ride – and a good workout. I probably biked about 10 miles in all, going hard the whole time. Now I just have to get that back wheel checked out.

I have got to ride my bike more!

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Exercise in a pill?

By Peter 3 Comments

When I read the headline this morning, I did a double take:

Exercise in a pill? Drugs show promise in mice

Say what?

Exercise in a pill, could this be the next big thing that all of us lazy people have been waiting so long for? You just pop a pill and it’s instant exercise? Here’s what the article on MSNBC.com said:

Here’s a couch potato’s dream: What if a drug could help you gain some of the benefits of exercise without working up a sweat?
Scientists reported Thursday that there is such a drug — if you happen to be a mouse.
Sedentary mice that took the drug for four weeks burned more calories and had less fat than untreated mice. And when tested on a treadmill, they could run about 44 percent farther and 23 percent longer than untreated mice.

Ok, take a step back. It’s only been tested in mice so far.

Just how well those results might translate to people is an open question. But someday, researchers say, such a drug might help treat obesity, diabetes and people with medical conditions that keep them from exercising.

Ok, so this hasn’t been proven in people yet, but it could be some day soon.

Can you imagine the harm this could do to the health and fitness industry? No more need for exercise, just pop a pill and you’re physically fit!

Ok, honestly, this will never happen. They’ll find out some horrible side effect like the drug causes you to grow a third leg out of the side of your head, or something along those lines, and we’ll all have to resort to ACTUAL exercise again. The article ends with a cautionary note:

But Eric Hoffman of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., noted that AICAR mimics only aerobic exercise, not the strength training that might be more useful to bedridden people or the elderly, for example. He also cautioned that it’s not clear whether the new mouse results can be reproduced in people.
Goodyear said exercise has such widespread benefits in the body that she doubts any one pill will ever be able to supply all of them. “For the majority of people,” she said, “it would be better to do exercise than to take a pill.”

Ok, well I guess that means I better go get my exercise clothes on. It was nice while it lasted.

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 5, Day 1

By Peter 4 Comments

Week 5 looks tough!

Well last night was day one of week 5 in my 100 pushup challenge. How did it go?

FAIL!

Ok, it wasn’t all that bad. It was a pretty tough week and I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to make it through the first 2 or 3 sets. After day one it gets even worse where instead of having just 5 levels, it has 8!

Week 5 day 1

So last night I started doing my pushups with the set of 30. I made it through that without too much difficulty (which even a couple of weeks ago would have been a huge struggle). The second set of 24, was quite a bit harder. They were asking me to do a lot more reps than I’ve been doing this whole time, and it is H-A-R-D, hard!

The third set of 22 was a struggle. Around 16 or so I was straining mightily to push myself up. I made it through.

The fourth set of 20 was tough going. I pushed as hard as I could, really struggling after 14 or so. But once again I made it. But at this point, I knew I was not going to be able to finish that last set. I thought maybe I could make 20 – but 30? No chance.

photo credit: bitmask

The last set I started pumping out pushups, and around ten I started to hit the wall. At 13 I could barely get up. And by 15 I knew I was done.

At that point I got on my knees and finished the pushups from my knees, but still I had stopped 15 short of my goal of 30. Bummer.

While it’s disappointing to have had a fail on the first day of week 5, I knew this may happen and it wasn’t a total surprise. I had looked at week 5 and realized that like week 3 they had really bumped up the level of pushups a notch.

Even though I failed, I did over 100 pushups today before I failed. Not too shabby for someone who struggled to push out 10 on the initial test!

So where to go from here?

So from here I think I’m going to take the weekend off, and then restart on monday on week 3, day 1, column 2. I’ll re-do weeks 3 and 4 using column two, and hopefully next time I reach week 5 I’ll be ready!

100 pushup challenge for Ipod

If you have already downloaded the file you may want to re-download it as I have corrected some mistakes, and made some updates. Thanks!

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