Healthy Living For Smart People
This is week five of my project to get back to a healthier lifestyle. If you recall from a couple of weeks ago, my goals at this point were:
And The Goals Were:
How am I doing? [Read more...]
Julie and I arrived home three nights ago after an amazing two weeks in Croatia (which I highly recommend for anyone looking for a beautiful place to go). I’m tired, I’ve had a miserable weekend because I caught a cold on the flight home but I’m also incredibly happy. The honeymoon showed me just how much I love her and how wonderful our life together will be. However, since this is a health and fitness blog and not a marriage blog, let me focus on a couple of thoughts that occurred to me while I was gone.
First of all, my choices are no longer mine alone. In the past, if I wanted to eat poorly and not exercise that was my choice and the consequences were mine and mine alone. That’s no longer true. My health is now Julie’s concern as well, especially when we’re talking about kids and a future together. The consequences of my choices are hers as well as mine. This is difficult for some people to accept and I can see why. It’s not easy to take responsibility for another person, to be accountable for what they do and to allow your own actions to be dictated in part by them. In effect, it means I’ve abdicated some control of my body, my decisions and my choices to her, just as she’s done for me. That’s a lot to accept but I accept it willingly because it’s part of our commitment. [Read more...]
I wrote a few weeks ago that, now that I have my eating marching orders, I’ll be taking a look at my workout and changing the things that need to be changed. So I took a look at my workout, and then another look and then another. The surprising thing was, I didn’t find anything I really wanted to change.
First, let me give a brief description of my workout routine.
I saw a joke recently about evil masterminds in movies. It went something like this; if you’re an evil mastermind with an invincible fortress, make sure you test your fortress by showing it to an 8 year old kid. See if they find flaws you’ve overlooked. The reason for is the common movie trope of having the kid find some flaw in the defenses that somehow everyone else has overlooked. Now what does this have to do with health and fitness? Quite a bit actually.
I’m an expert on the gym workout. I’ve tried out a variety of workouts over the years, experimented with all sorts of exercises and refined my workout to the point where it’s a masterpiece of time saving mechanics, efficient and yet a complete whole body workout. Seriously, I’m quite proud of just how efficient I’ve become at getting the most out of my time at the gym. And yet…
Enter Kim
Last week I had a chance to work out with someone who isn’t quite an expert. Sure, she’s well read and has been working out for a few months, but she’s not me! (no, I’m not that arrogant in real life). I’m the expert! I’m the one who trains people for a living (well, at least as a hobby) and I’m the one running the fitness blog! So I went into this workout expecting to wow her with my super workout. I figured by the end of our hour together she’d be falling all over herself saying things like “oh Gal, you’re not just handsome but you’re also the most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to working out” or something along those lines. Then we started working out and that’s when it happened, my moment of truth, the moment at which I realized what all those evil masterminds feel like when the eight year old kid picks apart their defenses.
Well, it wasn’t quite that bad but it was a very educational experience. Rather than just sit there and be impressed, she asked intelligent questions. She wanted to know why I did things the way I did. She asked what I might do different. She wondered about variations and alternatives. She even suggested a few based on her reading and other workouts. For the most part, my impregnable fortre – er – perfect workout held its own. It is in fact a great workout and quite effective at doing what it’s supposed to do. However, having someone there who wasn’t afraid to ask questions helped me spot some flaws, make a few adjustments and just think about my workout in general in a way I hadn’t before. Are the changes huge? No, not really, but they’re changes nonetheless and that’s important.
Inspirational Quote Time!
Winston Churchill (the guy in the picture!) once said “to improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often” and I’m a believer in that sentiment. You and your body are not going to stay the same. You age, you change, the seasons change, your lifestyle changes, your schedule changes and your workout should change with all these things. No workout is ever perfect for more than a short amount of time, which brings us to today’s take away lesson.
Keep reexamining your workout. Think about changes to your life and what they mean to your workout. What should you change? What should you extend, shorten or modify? What should you add or subtract? Constantly look for ways to improve your workout and, if you run out of ideas, bring in someone else to workout with you. Listen to their questions, their suggestions and their advice even if you think you know better. Just like advice from an 8 year old kid can save an evil mastermind from an embarrassing defeat, a good workout with a relative beginner can save your workout from becoming stale and inefficient.
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Yes, I do some personal training on the side. If you’re in the Silicon Valley and interested, please contact me via the information posted on the contact me page.
This question comes from Sarita:
I have an 8 year old and a 4 year old. They eat healthy and are very active but I was wondering if they should be working out like I do at a gym. Would it help them?
This question is better asked of a pediatrician. However, I will give you my opinion. You describe your kids as eating healthy and being very active. That should be enough. Kids are kids, they run around, they climb trees, they play games and that’s more than enough physical activity. Regular gym workouts are important only to adults, like me, who spend most of their day sitting in an office. If your kids are already active, then let them enjoy that and don’t drag them into a gym.
By the way, that applies to adults too. If you lead an active lifestyle where you’re running, climbing, biking, lifting and doing other physical things all the time, you probably don’t need a regular gym workout as much as I do. Might it help to have a more structured exercise routine? Possibly, but the benefit you get is probably small for the time you need to invest.
As owner and author of 60 in 3, I tend to get various offers for free stuff. Most of the time they’re for things I’m not interested in. Things like diet pills, weird workout gadgets, energy bars and so on. On rare occasions though, someone comes through with an offer that’s interesting enough for me to look at. That’s what happened to me last week with LA Boxing.
LA Boxing is a string of gyms spread all around the US which specialize in boxing and boxing related workouts. Their PR rep made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. “Come down to one of our gyms and try out a boxing workout. Then tell us what you think.” This came at a perfect time for me since I’ve been thinking about buying a punching bag for my house and I’ve been wanting to try out boxing for a while. So last Saturday morning I went the local LA Boxing gym in San Jose and spent an hour training. Note that this was not some special class that they set up for me. This was their normal Saturday morning class with their regular customers.
First Impressions
My first thoughts as I entered the gym were “huh, this is not what I was expecting.” Maybe I’ve seen too many boxing movies, but I was expecting a run down gym filled with men hitting one another. Instead, LA boxing has just one ring, a few exercise machines and class workout area filled with punching bags. Everything was clean and well maintained. Also, the customer base included a lot of women and children. The ratio of women to men was actually a lot higher than any other gym I’ve been to.
Equipment
Each participant picked a punching bag and had boxing gloves. That was all the equipment necessary. Gloves were provided by the gym if you didn’t have any. I would also recommend hand wraps since without them, you’re going to scrape some skin off your knuckles.
The Workout
I’m not sure what I expected from a boxing workout. A lot of punching a bag I suppose. What I got was very different. We started out with the gloves off doing a bit of calisthenics to warm up. Jumping jacks, push ups, crunches, lunges, jumping squats and so on. Fast sets with the instructor urging us on. After 5 or so minutes, we stretched for 5 more minutes and then the workout began in earnest.
The workout alternated boxing combos with calisthenics. For example, the instructor would show us a 6 or 8 move combo and have us repeat it multiple times using either speed or power. Speed means you punch fast, power means you punch hard. Either way, the workout was very fast paced and much more demanding than I expected. After each 5 minute punching set, Tony (the instructor) had us do 5 minutes of other exercises like crunches, leg lifts and lunges. These sets worked out muscles that the boxing parts of the workout did not.
The combination of boxing and calisthenics had me sweating in no time. Now I’m in pretty good shape but I have to say that I found the workout very challenging. I got caught up in the boxing parts and was enjoying them so much that I didn’t notice how much energy I was pouring out into that bag. By the end, I was sore and covered in sweat. Still, it was a good kind of sore, that kind you get from a great workout.
Notes
Dexterity - This is one of the few workouts that I felt worked on dexterity as well as physical conditioning. The various combos and moves you work on will improve your hand eye coordination as well as your overall agility. That’s a benefit I have not seen in any other workout.
Full Body – I expected a boxing workout to only work out my upper body, but the combination of boxing and other exercises made sure that my whole body participated.
Boxing High – A few weeks ago I spoke about a runner’s high and mentioned that it’s something you can only get when running. Well, now I’ve experienced something new, a boxing high. It’s not the same as a runner’s high but there’s just something about punching that bag. Maybe it’s a guy thing, I have no clue, but wow. I wasn’t just physically tired at the end of that workout, I was emotionally spent as well. Any aggression, hostility or other kind of negative emotion, it all went into that bag. It felt good.
Recommendation
Would I go back? Definitely! LA Boxing is a bit far away from my house but still. I enjoyed that workout so much that the trip back would be worth it. In the meantime, I’m definitely thinking of installing a punching bag in my garage and doing some boxing workouts of my own. If you have a boxing gym anywhere near you, sign up for a class and see if you like it. I think you will.
Thank You
Thank you to Monica and LA boxing for giving me the chance to attend a class. Thank you to LA Boxing San Jose for being my hosts. And thank you to Tony Johnson, my instructor, for an incredible workout. If you’re in the San Jose area, you can contact Tony and LA Boxing at (408)729-5269.
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And thank you to Me-Ander for including a 60 in 3 article in their debut weight loss carnival.
I’ve gotten a few questions from readers on where I work out. For the most part, I work out at a small private gym which is part of my office complex. I plan to go into more detail on this gym on Friday. However, on the occasional day when I work from home or work out on the weekend, I typically go to 24 hours Fitness, a chain of fitness clubs mostly located on the west coast (although there are east coast clubs as well). Why did I pick 24 Hour Fitness? Read on and find out. Then think about your own gym choice.
Convenient Locations
The nice thing about belonging to a chain of clubs is multiple locations. I have one near my office and one near my house. Of course, I don’t really use the one near my office. Actually, I don’t ever use any other club than the one near my home. So is this really an advantage? Yes, I travel a lot but in all my travels I have NEVER gotten a chance to use another 24 hour fitness club. Either the hotel had a good fitness room or there was no 24 Hour Club within range.
So before you get all excited about joining a chain with hundreds of clubs, think to yourself, am I really going to use all of those? Is there a reason why having gyms I can go to in another state is going to help me?
Convenient Hours
Like the name says, 24 Hour fitness is open 24 hours a day. Sounds great, right? I can work out in the morning, in the evening, even at night if I really feel like it. However, let’s analyze this. 90% of the time, I work out at the office, which means I work out during the day. Even when I don’t work out at the office, I work out during the afternoon. If I couldn’t workout during the workday, I would workout either early in the morning (around 6am) or late in the evening (around 7pm). Most gyms, even non 24 hour ones, are open at those hours. So am I really going to use those “convenient hours”?
Price
Ok, 24 Hour Fitness does have a real advantage here. It costs me about $30 a month and there was no sign up fee. the gym at work is cheaper but that’s because work pays for it, so that’s not a fair comparison. I could get access to a free gym via my school, but that’s up in Berkeley, which is about an hour away. Not very convenient. So yes, cost does matter and 24 Hour is pretty cost effective for me.
Free Weights
24 Hour Fitness does have good selection of free weights. Lots of dumbbells, barbells and plates with plenty of equipment to use them on. This is great and I really enjoy this. There are plenty of sets of the more popular weights and I’ve never needed to wait more than a minute or two before getting the weights I needed. Score one for 24 Hour Fitness.
Exercise Equipment
Most 24 Hour clubs also have a very large selection of weight machines. Sounds good, right? However, when I really look at my workout, I notice that most of the things I use are dumbbells. Sure, I use a couple of machines, but even those can be replaced by barbells. So am I really benefiting from the large selection of weight machines? Seems like I could have done just as well at a gym with not much more than free weights. So for me, this is not an advantage of 24 Hour Fitness.
Cardio Equipment
Again, great selection. However, I don’t use stair masters or stationary bikes or rowing machines. Do I really need all this selection? In fact, the treadmills and ellipticals that 24 Hour has are rather old and not well maintained. So when it comes to this crucial part of my workout, 24 Hour is at a disadvantage compared to most other gyms.
Classes
Strong selection of class, but like the weight equipment, I don’t really use classes, so why do I care?
Do you see where this is going?
Why 24 Hour Fitness?
In the end, I go to 24 Hour Fitness because it’s located close to my house, it’s cheap and it has plenty of free weights. I really wish they would improve their cardio equipment but I can make do for now. Note that many of the so called advantages of 24 Hour Fitness (classes, multiple locations, long hours and so on) are not really advantages for me. That’s an important fact to remember. A lot of people choose their gym based on things that don’t really matter.
It’s great that the gym has a sauna but are you really going to use it that frequently? It’s great that the gym has jazzercise classes, but are you going to go to them? Don’t pick your gym based on what the sales person tells you it has, pick it based on what you need. In my case, I was looking for a cheap gym with plenty of weights that was near my house. That’s exactly what I got.
What are you looking for? Are you looking for classes? Good trainers? Cardio equipment? Make a list of the things that are important to you BEFORE you get to the gym and then ignore everything else. I don’t care how shiny and pretty those machines are that you see. If you’re not going to use them then they may as well be junk. Pick your gym based on what it has that is applicable to you, not what it has that looks pretty.
Most of all, make sure that the gym has a location and hours that are convenient for you. The best gym with the best trainers and gear is useless if it’s too far away. Distance means lack of convenience and that will make you not go.
Summary
24 Hour Fitness has A LOT of features. I don’t use most of them so they’re not really applicable to me as decision criteria. However, they do have what I was looking for at a gym and they have it close by and at a reasonable price. That’s enough for me to make a decision. Just don’t make a mistake of deciding on a gym for the wrong reasons.
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Why did you choose your gym? Does it have everything you need? Are you paying for things that you’re not using?
