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Sorry for the lack of weekend update yesterday, I happened to be out most of the day and came back exhausted, which is actually the topic of today’s post.

Every weekend I try to find fun physical activities to do which don’t cost much money, are really enjoyable and provide a good amount of exercise.  Well, this weekend I found a perfect such event, fishing!

What We Did

Sunday morning, at about 4am, my wife and I left our house and drove to Half Moon Bay.  That’s a town about 30 minutes from our house with a beautiful harbor and lots of sport fishing charter boats.  We joined my sister in law, her husband and about 13 others on a boat called the Tigerfish.  We launched at 6am and 3 hours later, we started fishing.  We stayed out for hours and only came back at about 6pm.

Cost

Each person needed a ticket which cost about $80.  Each of us also needed equipment rental which was another $30.  Add in gas and you have total cost of about $120 per person or $240 for both of us.  Sounds a bit steep, but keep in mind that we also brought back about 30lbs of fish fillets which we would have to buy at the market for about $150.  So total cost is about $90 for two people which isn’t too bad for a full day of fun for two adults.  We could further lower that cost by having our own equipment and by catching bigger fish, but we’re amateurs. 

Oh, and as a bonus to all of this, we got some amazing looks at whales and seals.  Seeing a whale literally jump out of the water 20 feet from the boat was incredible!

Fishing as Exercise

I always thought of fishing as a past time.  You cast your line and then you go to sleep.  Maybe lake fishing is like that (I really have no clue so if you’re a fisher, let me know), but relaxed ocean fishing?  Hell no!  First it was 8 hours of being out there constantly trying to steady myself as the boat rocked back and forth.  Then came the wind which is not the warmest thing in the world and even with a good jacket your body is going to burn some calories staying warm.  However, the real exercise was in the fishing.  Yes, it’s A LOT of work to cast that line, reel it in (either empty or with a fish) and do that over and over and over for hours.  My arms hurt, my back hurt, my legs hurt and my fingers were numb from exertion.  Was it a weight lifting workout?  No, but it was a really good day of physical activity.

Bonus Fish!

As a bonus to that exercise, we got lbs and lbs of fish.  Fresh fish we caught ourselves.  Unprocessed, no chemicals, not fried and not shipped thousands of miles to get to our market.  It’s fresh, it’s tasty and it’s all ours.  So we got a day of exercise AND a dozen meals worth of fresh, organic fish.

Notes

First of all, as many of you know, I am a bit of an environmentalist.  Also, some of you may also know that salmon fishing has been canceled in California due to a population collapse.  So I was a little worried about what we were doing and its impact on the world around us.  Before we went fishing, I did some research.  I picked a captain that was known for environmentally friendly habits like not overfishing certain spots and not going after prohibited fish.  I also checked with the Monterrey Bay aquarium to make sure that the fish we were going to catch were being fished sustainably. Everything checked out good.

But Wait, Aren’t I A Vegetarian?

Actually, to be more accurate, I’m a healthy eater.  That means I usually try to minimize the amount of meat in my diet, especially processed meat, and since processed meat is most of what you find in stores, that means I usually just tell people I’m vegetarian.  It’s just easier to explain.  By the way, I also try to limit non meat processed products in my diet but that’s a whole different post.  So yes, I will eat some fresh meat, if it’s healthy, non factory farmed and sustainably raised, which this fish is.  I have no moral issues with eating meat and I believe it can definitely be part of a healthy diet.

So Is Fishing For Everyone?

No.  There can be a lot of reasons why fishing is not for you.  Maybe you’re sea sick or you have a moral issue with killing living creatures.  Maybe you live in Phoenix, Arizona and have no oceans near you or maybe you think it’s a bit too expensive.  All of these reasons could be valid.  All I want you to do is to start thinking of weekend physical activities in a different light.  The weekend doesn’t have to be about BBQ’s where you over eat or movie marathons where you sit on your ass for hours.  Fun activities can be healthy.

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Anyone got a good recipe for cod fillets?  I have about 40.

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Pull ups, like push ups, are another one of those exercise that people associate with army movies but not with fitness. I’m not sure why though, they’re one of the best upper body exercises ever invented. Unfortunately, unlike the push up, you do need some specialized equipment to do a pull up, namely, a pull up bar. However, enough gyms and playgrounds have these that I thought the pull up would be a good exercise to highlight for the day.

How To Do One

It’s easy.  Simply grab on to the bar above you and pull yourself up slowly.  That’s all there is to it.

Variations

Pull up variations are mainly around hand placement and head movement.  For example, are your hands spaced far apart or close together on the bar?  Are your palms facing towards you or away from you?  When you move up, does the bar go behind your head or in front of it.  You’ll hear some arguments from the people who love pull ups about which style is best and which is hardest.  Personally, I think they all rock and which ever one you like the best is the one you should do.

What Not To Do

The trick to good pull up form is to keep your lower body still.  If you’ve ever seen people who do a pull up while rocking back and forth then you’ve seen someone doing pull ups with really bad form.  Swinging your lower body is a way to cheat a bit.  You’re generating momentum as though you’re on a swing which helps your arms lift you up.  Sorry, but that’s poor form.  The point here is not to swing, it’s to pull up, so keep that lower body still.

Tips and Tricks

If you can’t even do one pull up, don’t despair.  Most gyms have weight assisted pull ups that will let you gradually increase the weight.  The machine basically pushes you up to some degree, which relieves your arms from the strain of pulling your entire body weight up.  If you don’t have access to a machine, take a look at this great video which shows an improvised weight assist pull up using just a pull up bar and a resistance band.

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Pull ups aren’t just for people in boot camp, they’re for anyone interested in upper body strength, which I think is all of us.

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I’m working from home today, which gave me a chance to try out a Mexican restaurant down the street that I’ve really been looking forward to.  Since my wife and I rarely go out to eat anymore, meals like these are a bit of a treat.  Mexican food especially is something I really enjoy.  It is generally healthy, inexpensive and I really like the flavors.  Unfortunately, the meal wasn’t quite as good as I had hoped.

Food Good, Other Stuff Bad

Don’t get me wrong, the food was great.  It’s just that I became aware of just how unhealthy some restaurant habits are.  As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought out a pile of chips and salsa.  Even though I know I shouldn’t, I found myself munching on them while I looked at the menu.  This kind of mindless junk food eating is something I would never do at home.  Yet here I was, consuming empty calories while trying to decide what to order.  Why do restaurants do this?  Because junk like chips is cheap and they fill you up so you feel more satisfied.

Second, the meal itself (I ordered the veggie burrito) was filled with mostly rice and very few veggies.  Again, why do restaurants do this?  Because rice is cheap and fills you up just like the chips.  So the majority of my “healthy” burrito was actually empty calories from rice.  Add in some sour cream and you just took what could have been a healthy meal and turned it into crap.

Lesson Learned

I guess my lesson is to not go to generic Mexican restaurants like these.  There are plenty of other Mexican places around that don’t do this.  Plus I could have just refused the chips and ordered my burrito with no sour cream (although I wonder what they would have done had I asked for no rice).

A more important lesson is that when I turn over control of what I eat to someone else, I’ll end up eating things that are less than ideal.  The people at the restaurant are not concerned with my health, they are concerned with their profits and that means making me feel full so I come back.  They have no incentives to put out a lot of expensive fresh vegetables and a lot of incentive to serve me cheap filling food like rice and chips.

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Next time my wife and I go out, I’m going to be a bit more careful about where we go and what I order.

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One of the nice things our new house came with is garage which included a fully carpeted and lit room which the former owners used as an office. Now that we’ve cleaned up the garage a bit, I’m thinking of turning this space into a gym for those days when I work from home. At the same time, we’re still looking to minimize expenses which means I’ve been trying to think of cheap ways with which to furnish a home gym. Here’s what I did:

What Workouts Are You Planning To Do?

This is the first thing you need to consider when creating a home gym, what workouts are you planning to do there?  For example, if I’m never going to do cardio at home then why do I need a stationary bike?  If I plan on doing cardio but there’s a really nice running track close by then maybe I could use that instead.  In other words, don’t just go shopping for equipment based on “oooh, that looks neat!”  Actually figure out what kind of exercise you’re going to do first.

My list of home exercise was:

• Body weight exercises like pushups
• Resistence training
• Light cardio
• Stretching

Make A List, Check It Twice

Once you know what sort of exercise you’re going to do, the next logical thing is a list of the gear you’ll need.  Keep it simple, that makes it more reliable and cheaper.  You don’t need a $600 bowflex when a pair of $20 weights will do.  The weights are far more versatile and they won’t break as fast as that overly complex bowflex.  Based on the exercise list I wrote up, I made up the following gear list:

• Dumbbells that can go up to 80lbs on each side.
• Jump rope
• Weight bench
• Punching bag (just because I’ve always wanted to try this workout)
• Running shoes for home (my usual pair stays at work)
• Exercise mat

Go Cheap Where You Can

Now if I was going to buy all that at retail, I would probably end up spending about $600 to $700 dollars.  Not too bad but considerably more than what I wanted to spend.  So now I needed to get creative.

• A trip to goodwill netted me a really nice exercise mat for $5.  This thing was in almost new shape.
• I already had dumbbells, I just needed some extra weight plates for them.  I managed to get those from Freecycle.  There’s nothing special about weight plates, they’re just metal disks with a hole in the middle so I wasn’t really concerned with their condition.  Still, the ones I got are great.
• Weight bench I also found on freecycle.  The one I got is in good shape and looks brand new.
• Jump rope came from our swap meet over the weekend.  My wife and I had a lot of extra stuff after our move so we came up with the idea of a swap meet party.  We put all the extra stuff on the drive way and then invited neighbors and friends over to bring their own unneeded things and take away anything they wanted for free.  We got rid of a lot of our stuff and I ended up with a new jump rope.
• Punching bag I’m still looking for.  I saw one on Craig’s list but it was snagged before I could get it.
• Running shoes I ended up buying.  This is the one area that I don’t want to skimp on so I went to the store and bought a pair of good running shoes for $70.

Total cost for my new home gym is under $100 (I’m including some money for gas to go and pick up the freecycle items).

Resources

• Craig’s List - Plenty of free and cheap stuff here if you know where to look
• Freecycle - Rather than throw stuff away, list it on freecycle and see if anyone wants it
• Goodwill - You buy cheap (gently used) stuff and your money goes towards a good cause
• Swap meet - Setup your own just like we did

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A home gym doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.  In fact, I would argue that the expensive home gyms are usually the ones that end up collecting dust or being used as expensive storage racks.

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We had our house warming party last night and it was a lot of fun.  It’s always great to have plenty of friends and family around you.  I’m a little tired today due to lack of sleep, but I’ll make up for it tonight.

So without further delay, here are some articles I thought you might find interesting:

Speaking of sleep, here’s an interesting study of sleep apnea.  I think a lot of guys out there tend to write off their snoring as natural, but it really isn’t.  Snoring can be a warning sign of sleep apnea which is a serious and dangerous issue.  I know because I struggled with sleep apnea for years.
@Medical News Today

From Almost Fit, we have this great article about getting people to cook.  I’m a recent convert to this cause but I know find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with it.  Cooking at home is healthier, cheaper and a lot more fun.
@Almost Fit

I talked about company fitness challenges a while back.  Well, here’s yet another article that talks about the productivity gains companies can see when they pay attention to their employees health.  Remember, your employees are your most valuable assets so there’s good reason to take care of them.
@Industry Week

From Modern Forager we have this piece on the 100 calorie snack packs you see popping up all over the place.  Guess what, 100 calories of crap food is still crap.  Why not grab a piece of fruit instead?
@Modern Forager

And we’ll finish things off with Fat Man Unleashed who’s had just about enough of his scale.  I couldn’t agree more.  Obsessive and frequent weigh ins do nothing other than frustrate and destroy motivation.  Wave goodbye to the scale and focus on other measurements of health and fitness.
@Fat Man Unleashed

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I read about this on Get Fit Slowly and liked the idea as a way of introducing people to working out. You can find out more about the program here:

Hundred Pushup Challenge

The Basics

Essentially, it’s a 6 week program that challenges you to do 100 pushups. It includes gradual training routines that increase in difficulty every week and are tailored to different fitness levels.

Does It Work?

Sure. It seems pretty straightforward. However, keep in mind that it’s not a complete workout. This site really focuses on just pushups, and while pushups are a great exercise, they leave out quite a few muscle groups. So this is a neat way to change up your workout for a few weeks, but it’s not really what I would recommend for a normal routine.

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No, that guy in the picture has nothing to do with the 100 push up challenge.  I just saw the pic on flickr and really liked it.  Talk about getting your family involved with your workout….

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One of the most frequent questions is a variation of “am I working out hard enough?” It’s usually something along the lines of “am I doing enough reps?”, “am I lifting enough weight?” or “am I running fast enough?” Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this. Everyone is different and what’s “hard enough” for me may be easy or impossible for someone else. Fortunately, there are a few guidelines.

Weight / Reps

Everyone has a different idea on what is a good weight and number of reps. Some people will do five reps with a lot of weight and others will prefer twenty reps with a light amount of weight. I have heard people claim that lower numbers of reps are good for building bigger muscles while higher number of reps are good for building tone, but I’ve seen ZERO evidence of this and no reliable research. If you know of any, feel free to send it in or add it to the comments. In the meantime, I’m going to assume that five reps are just as good as twenty assuming you lift sufficient weight.

Actually, I’m going to go one step further. I think you should vary the number of reps you do from day to day. Go light weight, high reps one day and high weight, low reps the next. I do this all the time, starting my week with a workout that uses ten rep sets and average weight on Monday. On Wednesday I do a workout with a low number of reps (around 7) and a high weight and I finish it off on Friday with a high rep (around 15), low weight workout. It keeps things interesting and challenging.

Still, what is the right amount of weight? Well, that’s something you’ll need to workout for yourself, but here’s a good rule. If you can consistently do two more reps that you intended to, then it’s time to increase the weight. For example, on Mondays I use ten rep sets. If I can lift my target weight 12 times, that means I should increase the weight. So if I intended to do 170lbs dumbbell presses and I managed to do 12 of those then I should probably increase the weight because my body is telling me “hey, this is easy! I can do extra reps here. Better crank up the weight and keep me challenged!”

By the way, the opposite is also true. If you find yourself consistently falling short at least two or three reps before your target number, you may wish to consider lowering the weight. Also, notice that I say consistently. Everyone can have an especially good or especially bad day once in a while. That’s not a reason to change your workout plan. However, if you do find yourself over or undershooting your rep goal multiple weeks in a row, it may be time for a change.

Cardio

I think I’ve spoken about this in the past, but I can’t find the old article to link to, so if this is a repeat for some of you, my apologies. Cardio is supposed to elevate your heart rate. So the best way to see if you’re working out hard enough is by measuring your heart rate. Your heart rate should be at around 60 to 80% of your max heart rate.  Max heart rate is calculated as 220 minute your age.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit hard to measure heart rate while you’re running so here’s a quick short cut. Elevated heart rate means faster breathing, so we can do a rough estimate of our heart rate by seeing how hard we’re breathing. Try the following, sing out “Mary had a little lamb, his fleece as white as snow”. If you can get through that whole line without taking a breath, then you’re not working out hard enough. Alternatively, if you have to take a breath in between each word then you’re probably working out too hard. You can also try the conversation trick. That is, if you can easily hold a conversation while working out, then you’re not working out hard enough. If you can barely say a word, you’re working out too hard. You should be able to talk, but only in short sentences and with breathing in between sentences.

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Also, if you’re able to casually read a book, peruse a magazine or do your homework, you’re NOT working out hard enough. Yes, I’m talking to you on the stationary bike!

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