Speed Workout

Like many of you, I often find myself with little time, space or gear for a real workout.  I’m stuck in a hotel room or at home.  It’s night and I don’t want to go out plus it may be cold or raining and I have no desire to go to the gym.  Still, you want to work out, you want to feel like you moved your body.  You want a good resistance workout plus something that will get your heart racing like a set of sprints.  Still, No weights?  No treadmill?  No problem!  Here’s my speed workout for those interested in maximizing their use of time and space.

The Disclaimer

Note - All of these exercises are done as fast as possible.  We’re talking pushing yourself to the max here, no rest in between and no slowing down between sets.  Also, most of these sets (unless a number is specified) are done to break point.  That means you keep doing them until you can’t do a single more rep.

If you have any kind of medical problems, this may not be the workout for you so please consult with a doctor before you try something strenuous like this.

The Workout

• Pushups - Do as many as you can as fast as you can.
• Lunges - Again, as many as you can and fast.  Be careful on this to maintain good form but keep going as fast as possible.
• Sit ups - There are a variety you can do here.  My favorites are the standard ab curls but feel free to substitute your favorite here.

30 second break

• 50 jumping jacks
• 20 dead lifts

60 second break

START OVER!

You’ve just done one “circuit”.  Guess what, now you do another!  Keep doing circuits, each time doing the push ups, lunges and sit ups to the point of failure.  Keep going and don’t let up on the speed.  Each of these circuits will likely take you around 4 to 7 minutes depending on how many reps you can do.  Try to do 5 circuits of the whole thing.  That means 20 to 35 minutes of all out exercise which will get your heart pounding and your muscles aching.  That’s it, that’s all there is to this speed workout.

Details Details

If you look at the exercises, you’ll see that they work out all the major muscle groups from legs to chest and everything in between.  Since you’re doing all these to failure, you’re going to give your muscles a good workout.  At the same time, you’re going to get a kickass cardio workout because you’re going fast.  By the end of the second circuit (or even the first), your heart will be pounding!  Again, don’t over do things and hurt yourself.  I don’t want any 60 in 3 readers getting heart attacks as they workout :)  Know your own limits and stay below them.  However, done right, this workout is a great little combo of resistance and sprints which will leave you exhausted in a good way.

What’s A Good Goal?

Answer - A good goal is something you can barely achieve in the time specified.

Notice some important things.

Can Achieve

If my goal is “I want to win the next ms. America contest” that’s a pretty bad goal.  As a 35 year old man, I really doubt I could be Ms. America.  So that’s lesson #1, a good goal has to be achieveable.

Barely

A good goal is something you need to strive for and try really hard.  If it’s easy, it’s not a good goal.  If my goal is to get to 220lbs then that’s a pretty bad goal, since I already weigh 221.  Losing 1lb is meaningless and easy.

Time Specified

A goal with no timeline is meaningless.  I want to reach 180lbs.  Really?  When?  Is it next month?  That’s not achieveable and so it’s stupid.  Is it within the next ten years?  Also meaningless.  Is it by Dec 31st, 2009?  Well, now we’re talking.  That’s achieveable but it’s tough, which makes it a perfect goal.  I would have to push myself to achieve this but I think I could do it.  Alternatively, I could say my goal is to reach 215lbs by end of June.  Again, tough but achievable.  Notice how the numbers change with the timeline.  Something that’s impossible in the short term could be a good goal in a longer time frame.  Alternatively, something that’s easy in the long term could be tough but doable in a shorter time line.

The Magic Three Parts

So remember, when setting your goals:

• Achievable - If it’s not doable, it’s not a good goal.  It may be nice to day dream but those day dreams are meaningless as goals unless there’s a way to make them come true.
• Tough - A good goal must challenge you.  It must not be easy.  It must be hard and push you right to your limits.
• Time based - A good goal must have a deadline.  This deadline will in many cases determine if the goal is too tough or too easy.  Without a deadline, a goal is useless.

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What are your goals and their deadlines?  Would love to hear them through the comments.  Feel free to include non fitness related goals if you want to share.

Living A More Active Life - Part 4, What Are You Going To Do This Weekend?

For the past few days, I’ve talked about ways in which you can be more physically active.  We talked about work, errands, house work, fun activities and so on.  So how do I translate all of this into my day to day life?  Well, let’s take a look.

Today - Friday

I commuted today using a combination of bike and train.  At work, I plan to take a walk outside at around 1pm, right after lunch.  That will let me unwind a bit and recharge for the next few hours of work.  When I get home tonight, I have about 30 minutes of yard work to do, mainly a bit of pruning.  I’ll spend another 30 minutes or so cleaning up the house.  Depending on what time I get home, my wife and I will probably take a walk outside with our dog.  Weather is beautiful outside today and there’s no reason not to be outdoors enjoying it.

Tomorrow - Saturday

In the morning, we’re going to walk over to the farmer’s market and do a little vegetable shopping.  We actually buy most of our fruits and vegetables at the local produce store, but the farmer’s market is still a fun morning activity.  If any of my friends happen to be reading this, why don’t you give me a call and join me?  I also need to do a bit of grocery shopping which I’ll do by biking to the nearby supermarket.

Unfortunately, I need to be in the office tomorrow since we’re preparing for a big customer, which means another bike / train commute.  Should be home by 6 or 7pm when I’m going to do a bit more yard work and then relax with my wife.

Sunday

Sunday is when I’m going to do all the yard work I should have done on Saturday.  Need to mow the lawn, dig a few ditches and do a lot of weeding around the vegetable beds.  I don’t use chemical weed killers since I prefer to do the work myself.  It’s healthier and more active.

In the afternoon, we’re heading up to a picnic with some friends from school.  It’s at a park in the east bay and should be a lot of fun.  We’re going to take our puppy and this time she’s going to get tired before I do!!!  On the way back, we may stop in Berkeley and stroll around a bit. We both love that city and walking through some of the down town areas is always fun.

Doesn’t Sound So Bad…

Other than a Saturday afternoon at the office, that’s not such a bad weekend, is it?  It’s not like I’m out exercising every morning, nor am I missing out on anything fun.  I’m going to spend time with my wife, see friends and enjoy the beautiful San Francisco bay area.  I’m also going to get some errands done and work on the yard, which I love.  However, if you actually look at all of these physical activities, they really add up.  I’m going to bike a total of about 20 miles this weekend, walk another 8 miles or so, do a lot of physical work in the yard and top it off by playing with a hyperactive puppy in a park.  When you compare that to my old weekends which I would spend watching TV and playing video games, the difference is like night and day.  I’m getting a lot more done, I’m healthier and more physically active and I’m also a lot happier.

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So what are your weekend plans?

Whole Body or One Body Part At A Time; Which One Is The Better Workout?

A few months ago I talked about my four day workout.  At the time, I was splitting up my routine to work one or two parts of the body per day.  Since then, I’ve changed my routine to work my entire body each time I work out.  I’ve had a few questions from readers on which style I found best.

Whole Body Workout

A whole body workout means just that, work out your entire body.  It’s 24 different exercises and I usually do 1 set of each for a total of 24 sets.

Body Part Workout

The body part workout works one or two individual body parts per day.  I would typically do abs and back one day, legs the second day, biceps and triceps the third day and chest and shoulders the fourth day.  You can do different splits but it’s still the same idea.  I would usually do 6 different exercises and 4 sets of each one for a total of 24 sets.

Advantages of the Whole Body Workout

• Speed - I get through the whole body workout faster even though it’s the same number of sets.  This is because I don’t have to rest as much between sets since I’m not constantly working out the same body parts.
• Schedule Flexibility - With the whole body workout, if I miss one day, it’s not as bad.  I still workout my whole body on other days.
• Variation - This workout keeps me more interested in the workout since I’m doing a new exercise each time.

Advantages of the Body Part Workout

• Targeted - You’re working out a specific body part every day and you’re really targetting that part.  I seemed to be getting a better workout overall when I was consistently doing a body part workout schedule.
• More Rest - After doing an abs and back workout, you have a week before you workout that area again.  That lets you rest that area and allows the muscles to recover.

Which One Do I Recommend?

Well, it depends on how serious you are about your time in the gym.  If you have at least three or four days to spend and a good amount of time on each of those days, you should probably go for the body part workout.  You’ll get a better workout for each body part and you’ll see better results.  However, if you’re like me and you’re trying to juggle working out into an otherwise very busy schedule, I think the whole body workout is a better option.  It guarantees you that you workout all your muscles equally, it’s quick and you’ll still see good results, if not quite as good as those of the targetted workout.

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There’s really no right answer here.  Neither workout is clearly better or worse than the other.  Try them both and stick to what works for you, but don’t be afraid to change things up and try something new once in a while.

Biking, A Healthier, Cheaper and Cleaner Commute

Before last year, the most common reason I would hear for not working out was not enough time. People were busy, they had things to do, places to be and people to meet. No one seemed to have time for working out even though they knew it was important. These days, things have changed a bit. All of a sudden, it’s not that people don’t have time, it’s that they don’t have money. The gym costs too much, exercise equipment for the house is too much money and no one can afford a personal trainer.

Well, those things may be true, but health and fitness do not have to take up a lot of time, nor do they have to cost a lot of money. To illustrate this example, I am going to use my commute to work.

First, The Cost Comparison

I traveled around 2000 miles on my bike last year. I spent around $10 in maintenance. The previous year I spent a bit more since I also tuned it up so I’m going to use an average yearly cost of $20. That means my bike costs me an average of $.01 a mile to operate. That’s a cent per mile that I’m on the bike.

My car is a 1999 Infinity Sedan. It’s not a gas guzzler but it’s also not the most efficient of cars. It gets an average MPG of around 25. With today’s gas costing about $4 in California, that means a cost of 16 cents per mile. I also spent about $500 in maintenance last year and drove 10,000 miles. That’s an additional 5 cents per mile for a total car cost of around 21 cents per mile.

By the way, I’m not including calculations for the purchase price of the car, which was much higher than the bike obviously, or the lower healthcare costs I incur by being in shape. Those are just a bonus. The above figures are already good enough to illustrate my point.

My Old Commute

With my old house and office, my commute was about 5 miles or a 10 mile round trip. So doing the math, commuting on the bike cost me around 10 cents while commuting in the car cost me $2.10. That’s $2.00 saved every single day. Actually, it was a bit less than that since gas prices weren’t so high back then but it was still around $1 saved every day.

Commuting on the bike took me about 20 minutes each way while the car commute took around 10 minutes each way. So yes, I was spending 20 more minutes per day on my commute. However, I was getting a decent workout and I was enjoying myself far more than spending 20 minutes in traffic.

My new commute

Since we moved homes and I moved jobs, my new commute is about 20 miles each way. In the car, this would cost an average of $8.40 every day. Yep, that’s right, with current gas prices, I am paying $8.40 every single day just to get to work. My alternative is to take the bike to the train station, take the train and then ride the bike from the train station to the office. This means 10 miles per day on the bike for a cost of $.10 and a train ticket. I buy a ten ride ticket which works out to about $5 per day’s worth of commute. Total cost is $5.10 which means I save $3.30 per day.

Time wise, the car would take me 45 minutes each way due to awful traffic. The bike / train commute takes around 1 hour each way. At first that sounds like I’m losing 15 minutes each way for a total of half an hour each day. However, please consider that time on the train can be productive. For example, this entire post was written while on the train this morning. I could also read a book, do some work or just nap. Whatever it is, it’s a lot more stressful than 45 minutes of stop and go traffic. So both time and money wise I come out ahead.

So What’s The Point?

Some of you might be saying “woopty doo! You saved a couple of bucks and a minute or two here and there. Who cares? This is too small to be significant.” However, you’re missing the point. This isn’t a blog about time management or personal finance and so the money saved and time not wasted are nice, but they’re not the point. The point is that I got a workout and I did it while saving money and not wasting time. Every single day, even if I don’t go to the gym, I am getting 20 minutes of solid physical activity and I didn’t have to spend an extra cent for it! In fact, I saved both money and time by doing it this morning.

Now this doesn’t apply to everyone equally. Some people have commutes where public transportation or biking is not possible. Others may not enjoy biking as much as I do. Still, the point is that you can get more physical activity into your day without spending extra cash. That day out to the movies with your friends? Why not make it a day out to the park with a frisbee? It’s a lot cheaper and more fun. That fancy dinner with your wife or husband? Why not wrap up a picnic and go hiking? Cheaper, healthier and far more romantic. There’s so many options out there that are both cheaper and healthier that money should never be an excuse to not be fit and healthy. In fact, money can be a motivator towards fitness.

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Stop thinking about health and fitness as things that use up money and time. Done right, living a healthy lifestyle can save both time and money.

NOTE - corrected my math based on Alex’s comment below.  It’s a good thing my stats teacher didn’t see me fail basic division.

Back To School

As some of you know, I recently started graduate school. It’s a part time program, which means I spend 1 weekend out of every three at school. Each one of these school weekends consists of a Thursday, Friday and Saturday during which I’m in class for 12 to 14 hours. I’m finding the schoolwork challenging but enjoyable and in general, I love being back in school, but my health is suffering.

The Problem With School

Actually, there’s more than one problem with school. First is the constant food. Starting from breakfast and lasting all the way to the end of the day, we are constantly surrounded by food. Apparently, the program administrators have decided that food makes people happy, which is true. They have therefore made it their mission to make sure that a student cannot turn around without hitting finding some kind of snack. Some snacks are healthy (fruit bowls are great!) and some are not (brownie bowls not so great) but even if all the food options were healthy there would still be too much of them. To make things even worse, the food is always high quality and very tasty. Yes, that does in fact make things worse since it’s harder to resist.

The second problem with school is the schedule. I am in class from 7am to 8am on average. Sometimes a bit more and sometimes a bit less. After class there is socializing to do, homework to catch up on, school books to read and of course, work to catch up on (all the students maintain a full time job while going to school). With all these time requirements, I’m finding it nearly impossible to work out.

The First Weekend

The first school weekend was two weeks ago and it didn’t go very well healthwise. I think I gained about three lbs and I felt really bad when I got home. I knew I had overeaten for four days and spend those same four days completely inactive. My body felt it and I was stressed out by it.

The Second Weekend

This past weekend I started finding solutions. First of all, I decided to get out of the classroom more often. We get a 10 minute break in the middle of each three hour class. Rather than spending those breaks in class snacking, I decided to take a walk around the campus (The UC Berkeley campus is amazingly beautiful by the way). On some of these walks I invited fellow students along, since socializing and making friends is part of the school experience. I also did mini workouts during some of the walks. Nothing special, just a few stretches, lunges and sqauts.

Second, I made time for real workouts. Yes, I had to sacrifice a bit of my socialization time, but I felt much better. Also, next school weekend I intend to find a workout partner so that I can workout and get to know my fellow students at the same time.

Finally, what really helped with the food being more aware of it. Rather than mindless eating, I paid attention to what I ate and how much I was piling on my plate. I usually don’t have to do that as much since my eating habits are relatively healthy these days. However, surrounded by so much food, I had to be more aware of when, why and how much I was eating. I constantly used my rules for eating to make sure I was eating healthy and not too much.

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I’m looking forward to school, it’s an incredible opportunity.  However, I don’t want to spend my school weekends stressed out about my health.  Spending just a little bit of time on being healthy should make this whole school experience far more enjoyable.

One Thing At A Time: How To Properly Set Goals

I usually link to interesting articles on my weekend roundups. However, I happened to find one article that I thought deserved a bit more discussion. It’s from the New York Times and discusses the limitations of human willpower.

Specifically, the article makes the point that our will power is limited. If we try to use it on something like fitness, we might have less of it for things like finances. Here’s the exact quote from the article:

The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others.

Multitasking Often Leads To Failures

It’s an interesting assertion and one that has a lot of applicability to fitness and health. I know that I can’t focus on more than project at a time. When I try to do too many things at once, I end up overextended and usually fail at all of them. For example, I recently decided to try and expand my interests. So I picked up some language tapes and tried to learn conversational Chinese. I also started music lessons, something I’ve always wanted to do.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t devote enough attention to either of these pursuits and so I ended up doing badly on both. I never had enough time to practice the new words or notes that I learned and my progress was slow from lesson to lesson. Then I decided to focus on just one thing, the Chinese lessons, and delayed the music lessons until next year. All of a sudden, I was making much better progress.

The Big Bang Theory of Fitness Rarely Works

A similar thing happened when I first started working on my fitness. I wanted to accomplish everything the first week. I had an exercise plan, an eating plan, a plan to cut down on sodas, a plan to jog more and a plan to come up with more plans. It was crazy. I split my will power and focus among so many things that there was no chance of me being successful at any of them.

It Takes a Month To Form a Habit

A few miserable weeks later, I started with a new approach. I made gradual changes, one or two at a time. No big bang theories for me. No more trying to do everything at once. Instead I picked one or two things and worked on them until they no longer seemed like work. Remember, it takes at least a month for something to become a habit and you need something to become a habit before you move on to the next thing. I waited until a change had become ingrained into my life before moving on to the next change I wanted to make.

Prioritize Your Goals

There are probably a few things you want to do. Some of them may be health related and some may not. They all require focus and attention, which means you can’t do all of them at once. What you need to do is be selective. Make a list of the goals you want to accomplish and the things you want to do. For example, here is my list:

1. Save money by eating at home more
2. Get rid of excess furniture and clutter in home
3. Get my graduate degree
4. Eat more vegetables
5. Learn another language
6. Learn a musical instrument
7. Start a hiking blog
8. Start a movie blog
9. Get a promotion at work
10. Weigh 200lbs
11. Run marathon

These aren’t in order of priority and I don’t think I could easily prioritize them since they’re all so different in terms of time requirements. However, I can already see a few that I simply don’t have time for. For example, #3, 7 and 8 are all long term goals that require quite a bit of work. I just don’t have the time right now to work on an extra two blogs since a lot of my time for the next two years is going to be devoted to school. #5 and #6 are similar in that they’re learning a new skill. I doubt I can do both at the same time so one of them will have to go.

So after looking at all of these things, I can cut down my goal list to the following:

1. Save money by eating at home more
2. Get rid of excess furniture and clutter in home
3. Get my graduate degree
4. Eat more vegetables
5. Learn another language
6. Get a promotion at work
7. Weigh 200lbs
8. Run marathon

Now if I do #4 and #8, that probably means my weight will go down. So let’s remove #7 since I’ll be working on it through other goals. #1 and #4 are related, so why don’t I just combine them into one goal that will be easier to follow.

1. Prepare at least two vegetable base meals at home per week
2. Get rid of excess furniture and clutter in home
3. Get my graduate degree
4. Learn another language
5. Get a promotion at work
6. Run marathon

So now I have 6 goals. It’s still a lot but, since each of these is different, I can probably manage these as is. When school starts, I might want to cut back my language lessons but we’ll see.

Try It Yourself

This isn’t a hard exercise. Just write down a list of very specific goals. They can’t be too general like “I want to be healthy.” Instead, they need to be as specific as possible. Then take a look at your list. Is there a lot of overlap? Are there goals that can be combined? If you have too many similar goals, you’ll never accomplish them all. Make sure you pick a few that you can work on at the same time. That means you shouldn’t pick two goals that have the same time requirements. For example, if you pick two goals, both of which require you to go to some kind of weekend lesson, you probably should eliminate one of them.

What you end up with should be a short list of goals or things to do. Each of them should be unique and there shouldn’t be much overlap in terms of requirements from you. Now you can start detailing each of these goals with specific steps you need to take.

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It’s easy to write down a bunch of things you want to do. Unfortunately, trying to do them all at the same time is a sure way to set yourself up for failure. Pick your battles and your goals. Do a few things, do them well and make them into a habit before you move on to something new.

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