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Should High School and College Students Avoid Most Nutritional Supplements?

May 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Gal’s Note – I recently posted up a page with various products that I use and received a question about supplements.  As a rule, I avoid the various “exercise” supplements because I would rather work on my body the old fashioned and natural way.  However, I received this little guest post at around the same time and thought it was very appropriate.

Should High School and College Students Avoid Most Nutritional Supplements?

Nutritional supplements are used by a large number of high school and college students, especially athletes. One of the major problems of these supplements is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates dietary supplements as foods instead of drugs. Unfortunately, due to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), passed in 1994, supplement manufacturers are not required to demonstrate efficacy.

Consumer Reports stated that supplement manufactures can actually launch products without any testing. They just have to send the Federal Drug Administration a copy of the language on the label. Consumer Reports also states that the DSHEA makes it the responsibility of the FDA to prove that a supplement on the market isn’t safe. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition, Work Out Tagged With: , , ,

What’s Wrong With My Workout?

April 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Megalos GymI 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.

  • Four days a week
  • 30 minutes of weight training
  • 60 minutes of cardio [Read more...]

Filed Under: Gyms, Work Out Tagged With: , , ,

An Effective Way To Improve Your Workout

November 3, 2010 By 1 Comment

Sir Winston Churchill, The Roaring LionI 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.

Filed Under: Gyms, Personal Trainers, Time Management, Work Out Tagged With: , , , , ,

Step 4 – Lifting Some Weights!

September 27, 2010 By 1 Comment

Rubber Weight SetSo if healthy eating is 40% of leading a healthy life and being active is 30%, what’s the last 30%?  Well, if you ask me (and if you’re reading this article then you sort of are) resistance exercise makes up a good 20% of the remainder.

What Is Resistance Exercise?

Quite simply, this is exercise in which you struggle against some kind of resistance. For example, when you’re lifting weights, you’re struggling against the resistance of gravity pulling those weights back down. Resistance exercise builds your muscles and, as such, I believe it’s far more important than cardio.  Muscles not only help you burn calories, they’re also the basic way in which you move around (ok, so ligaments, tendons and bones also help but resistance exercise improves those too!)  This is especially important to keep in mind as you get older.

Somewhere around your 30′s, your body starts losing muscle. It gets eaten away by disuse and neglect, leading you to that awful place where some older folks find themselves where they can barely move. If you want to avoid this place, you’re going to work out and you’re going to do it with resistance exercises.

By the way, the most common form of resistance exercise is in fact weight training. However, it’s not the only kind. Rock climbing for example is a great form of resistance exercise which challenges your muscles while also giving you a decent cardio workout. Heck, even helping a friend move some furniture could be a good resistance workout but I somehow doubt that you’re helping friends move three times a week. And yes, that’s how often you need to work out those muscles, three times a week or more. That means that three times a week you need to do something that challenges your strength in every part of your body. Three times a week or more you need to do something that leaves your muscles sore and your body screaming “no more!”

If you want a good sample workout, here’s a link to my 4 day work out routine.  It’s a basic routine that will work every part of your body and it can be easily modified to be more or less days.

Relax, this won’t turn you into a body builder. Three or four hours a week of weight training is not going to turn anyone into a body builder, but it will give you great muscle tone and a body that’s going to look fantastic in that swim suit :)

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Next week we cover cardio exercises and that will be the last part of the 60 in 3 reboot.  After that, we start working out!

Filed Under: Building Muscles, Exercise, Work Out Tagged With: , ,

Speed Workout

June 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Exercise, Time Management, Work Out Tagged With: ,

Reader Q&A: Should Kids Workout?

May 13, 2009 By 6 Comments

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.

Filed Under: Gyms, Reader Q&A, Work Out

Great Abs Workout

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Disclaimer

  • This abs workout is NOT guaranteed to get you six pack abs.
  • This abs workout is NOT guaranteed to trim inches off your waistline.
  • This abs workout is NOT guaranteed to take two sizes off your jeans within the next week

All of these things have more to do with weight loss than they do with an abs workout.  If you want to lose weight, lose inches and show more muscle definition, you need to lose weight, and that’s all about eating right and being more physically active.

What this workout is designed to do is to strengthen 50% of your core, by which I mean your abdominal muscles.  The other 50% is your back muscles and I’ll deal with those at a later date.

Why?

So if this workout doesn’t give you six pack abs, why do you care?  Well, first of all, that’s a bit misleading.  This workout does help tone the muscles that show up as part of your six pack.  However, they won’t show up until you lose weight, hence the disclaimer above.  More importantly, this workout does strengthen your core, which is a part of your body that you rely on for almost every movement.  Take a moment to really notice what muscles your body uses.

Are you breathing?  Well, you’re using your core muscles.  Walking?  You’re using your core muscles to stabalize your upper body.  Doing push ups?  You’re using your core muscles to keep your body rigid.  Running?  You’re using your core muscles to stay upright and balanced.  There’s almost no complex movement that your body does which does not use the core muscles, which is probably why they’re called your core.  That means that you need to strengthen these muscles or else suffer poor performance in pretty much every thing else you do.

Sounds like an exxageration?  It really isn’t.  Your abs and lower back are your foundation.  They are quite literally the core of every complex movement your body makes.  It all starts right there at the center of your body and you need to pay a bit more attention to it than just doing some crunches.

Let’s Start

Start with the basics.

This is called a V up.  It can be done with an exercise ball, with weights on either legs and / or arms or with just body weight.  Either way, you need good form.  Look at how this woman does her V ups.  She’s really controlled in her motion and takes her time.  She pauses all the way at the top to allow some strain to build and then slowly releases it as she moves back down to the resting position.  Excellent form all the way around.

Work the Sides

We’ve worked the center, now we work the sides with some trunk twists.  Again, check out the form.  This guy is doing them a bit faster than I would recommend but notice how controlled he is.  Also note the slight pause at the end of each movement.  Great way of working out the obliques and staying in that crunched position means your whole abs muscle group is being worked out.

Let’s Get Creative

Why stick with regular crunches when you can do reverse ones?

You can do this one with straight legs too if you want, but it’s slightly easier on the joints to do it this way, with legs folding as you raise them.  I like this one a lot better than regular crunches since it puts less strain on my neck and works out more of my abs.

Yoga Finish

And finally, if you have a bit of time, yoga can be a great way to finish out an abs workout with a bit of stretching.  This video is umm… slightly more artistic than your usual workout videos, but it’s a great example of a yoga abs workout.  Note that this workout can actually be quite challenging if you do it slowly.  Also, this is a great example of amazing form and muscle control.  Even if you’re not interested in the spiritual aspects of yoga, this is a great example of abs in action.

Filed Under: Building Muscles, Exercise, Work Out Tagged With: , , , ,
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