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.

Reader Q&A: Should Kids Workout?

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.

Great Abs Workout

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.

Freeweights or Machines, Which Is Better?

Colin writes in:

I started working out about 6 months ago and I’m feeling great.  I have a question, which is better, freeweights or machines?  Also, is it true that people who use freeweights get injured more?

Hello Colin, congratulations on your 6 months of working out.  You’re past the hardest parts.

I think I answered a similar question a few months ago but since I couldn’t find that article myself, I guess I’ll answer this again.  If any reader manages to find the original post, please link it in the comments.

As for your question.  Let me handle the second question first.  Yes, free weights do pose a greater injury risk.  First of all, it’s easier to injure yourself through simple mishaps such as dropping a weight on your foot or falling down, things that are nearly impossible when using a machine.  In fact, my only gym injury in 6 years happened because I dropped a dumbbell on my head.  Second, because your body isn’t confined to a limited range of motion, there is a greater chance to stress muscles and joints in an inappropriate manner while working out with free weights.  For example, if you try to do dead lifts incorrectly with free weights, you can strain your back or your legs.  Doing back exercises with a machine is much safer since your range of motion is limited.

However, that said, I am still a big proponent of free weights and believe that they are superior to machines in a number of ways.  When you work out with machines, you are limited to a very specific set of motions and muscles.  For example, when you do a back exercise on a machine you are only working out the back muscles, nothing else.  When you do a similar back exercise with free weights (dead lifts for example) you are working out the back but you are also recruiting the leg muscles, shoulders and upper arms in a variety of ways.  Yes, the back muscles are still the ones being worked out, but you’re also seeing benefits all over your body.  In other words, working out with free weights is a more “natural” way of working out.  You’re doing motions that your body does normally, only with weights.  Where as machines limit you to a very narrow motion.

The key is good form.  If you have good form, you will minimize your injury risk and maximize your free weight workout.  Good form means control and isolation of muscles.  It means you lift the weights with the muscles you’re trying to work out, recruiting other muscles only for stability, and you control both the speed and the range of the lifting motion.  If you don’t have good form and you have no desire to learn good form, you should stick to machines.  You’ll get a better workout and you won’t injure yourself.

Stop Using The Escalator!!!

The picture you see here is a relatively well known one but it never fails to amaze me. People avoiding the stairs and riding an escalator up to the gym. The first thing that went through my head is “wow, those people are pretty dumb” but the next thing I thought of is “Why is that escalator there in the first place?”

We all know that we have an obesity epidemic and we all know that the leading cause is the crap we eat and the amounts of it that we consume. However, the second leading cause of our ever expanding rear ends is our unwillingness to get off those rear ends and move around a bit, and that’s not just true at the gym parking lot.

Our Bodies

First of all, let me be the first to admit that I sometimes fall prey to this too.  That is, I sometimes avoid instances where I can be physically active because I don’t notice them.  I’ve become so accustomed to this culture of ours where physical activity has become something to avoid that I forget how much I enjoy and appreciate it.  I say this because I don’t want you to feel as though I’m yelling at you.  I’m trying to encourage you to change your behavior by making you see it for what it is.  I’m not better or smarter than you and I’m wrestling with the same issues you are, but I hope that I can help you a bit by teaching you what I’ve learned through my own struggles with weight and health.

Part of the problem is our culture.  We have been taught to think that a life of luxury is a life of comfort.  A life where other people do things for us and where we need to do very little for ourselves.  We tend to think of an active lifestyle as a “blue collar” life fit only for those who are poor or uneducated.  If you’re educated then a healthy lifestyle is one in which you work out once a day for about an hour at a time.  Now this is a generality.  There are many people for whom an active lifestyle is filled with many activities, only some of which are performed at the gym.  However, those people are probably not reading this blog.  They’re out there somewhere hiking or camping. 

You and I unfortunately, are not those people, at least not yet.  You and I haven’t quite accepted physical activity into our lives, which is why we’re still struggling with our weight and our health.  So what I want you to do is think back for a second. Imagine our ancestors in whatever forest, prairie or mountain they lived on. Look around them. You probably see them hunting for food, gathering materials for clothing and tools and performing the other day to day tasks of life in the stone age.

Now look closely. Do you see that stone age guy in the back on this bowflex machine doing knee curls? What about that woman in the furs doing bicep curls using a mammoth bone and two rocks? OF COURSE NOT! That’s because people back then didn’t work out. They didn’t jog for fun nor did they go to the gym. The only sprints they did was when a saber toothed tiger was chasing them!  Our daily workouts are a substitute for their active lifestyle and a pretty poor substitute at that.

Rather than being active all day, we sit at our desks most of the time, go to the gym for one hour and call ourselves active.  Unfortunately, that just doesn’t cut it. Being physically active means taking every opportunity to move rather than taking every opportunity to avoid moving.

Examples

• Those people on the moving sidewalk at the airport? They’re avoiding being active.  I know how tempting it is to ride those things.  I’ve been there too.  You’re carrying the bags, you want to get to your gate and sit down already.  However, your body needs that walk.  It needs to carry things.
• Called up your neighbor recently? Why not walk over and talk to them instead?  I know it’s convenient to pull out the cell phone and just call, I’ve done it myself on many occasions.  However, we need to teach ourselves a new way.  We need to start telling ourselves to stop avoiding activity and start seeking it out.  That question for the neighbor is an opportunity to walk.  It’s good, not something to be avoided.
• Got a ride-on lawnmower?  Why?  How about enjoying the day and the chance to walk around your lawn for a while.  I’m not asking you to use one of those push mowers, just to walk behind a motorized one.  Trust me, you’re not going to pass out and you may even find yourself enjoying the experience.  I know I do.
• Touring a new city? Don’t take that Segway tour, or the tour bus.  Walk around those streets, talk to the locals, see the sights close up.  You’ll feel tired but you’ll also have a much better experience.

Our culture is based around avoiding effort. Dirty house? Get a cleaning service! Yard needs work? Hire a gardener! Hungry? Order food delivery from the internet! Everything can be done for you so that you never have to get up off that couch. Which leaves you plenty of time to complain about never being able to lose weight (or save money). We spend our lives paying for ways in which we can avoid activity and then wonder why we’re fat and out of money.  And again, I’ve been there myself.  I still find myself there sometimes.  Just the other day I found myself at the local hardware store looking at my lawn and thinking “boy, it sure would be easier if I hired a gardener”.  Then I remembered that I wanted to be healthy.  I wanted to be active.  I also remembered how much I liked the smell of freshly mowed grass and the feeling of looking at my lawn and knowing that I did a great job making it look pretty.  So I put my wallet back in my pocket, got out the lawnmower and got to work.

How about you join me?  How about we all start doing this together?  Let’s stop avoiding physical activity and start welcoming it into our lives.  Let’s seek out physical activity in all parts of our lives, from the office to our hobbies, from the lawn to our family time.

So how about we change this?

• Take one item in your life which is currently powered and make it unpowered. For example, I am going to stop trimming my hedges with a power trimmer and start using normal muscle powered sheers.
• Stop using escalators and elevators.  Ok, those of you who work on the 40th floor may still want to use an elevator, but if you’re at the mall and need to get to the pretzel shop on the 2nd floor food court, how about climbing the stairs? If that sounds like too much effort, you probably shouldn’t have the pretzel…  :)  As for me, I’m going to stop using the car for any trip less than a mile and start using my legs and bike again.  It’s summer time here in California and I love walking.
• Stop using the phone and internet for everything. Got a coworker or neighbor you need to talk to? Stand up, walk over, say hello and talk.  I’m talking to you Pete!  You’re going to see me knocking on your door more often

Whatever it is, stop avoiding physical activity and start welcoming it into your life. It will keep you healthy and put a few extra dollars into your wallet in the process.

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EDIT - The first version of this post was much more negative than I intended.  Thank you to those of you who sent in feedback about this.  I know I sometimes get preachy, but I had no such intention here.  I hope you forgive me for my lapses and keep working with me as we journey together towards a better life.

Is Improvement Necessary?

When I first started working out, I couldn’t lift anything other than the bar and I couldn’t run for more than 5 minutes at 4.5mph.  That’s pretty bad no doubt about it.  Slowly but surely I improved to the point where I can lift a respectable amount of weight and maintain a 6.5mph pace for over an hour without feeling tired.  I’m very proud of these accomplishments and I’m happy with the way my body performs these days, but now I wonder, should I keep trying to improve?  Should I keep pushing myself to lift more, run faster, go longer?  Is there a point to improvement beyond a certain level?

Let’s take weight as an example.  Clearly there is an “ideal” weight that I should be aiming for.  This weight should not be too high nor too low.  Once I get to it, I should stop trying to change my weight and just focus on maintaining that level of weight.  It’s a bit difficult to figure out that ideal weight but with the help of a doctor, a trainer or any of a number of websites, you can come pretty close.  So in terms of “improving” my weight, I know exactly what I need to do.

Unfortunately, workout performance isn’t quite the same thing.  I am running today at 6.5mph.  Should I try to improve?  Will there be benefits from improvement?  Will those benefits be worth the effort needed in order to improve?  This isn’t as clear as the weight issue.  Theoretically, performance can always be improved but realistically there’s going to be a point beyond which I cannot progress.  Also, what’s the point of running at 6.6mph compared to 6.5mph?  Sure, I’ll be running faster, but is there any benefit to my body?  My heart rate and blood pressure are excellent.  Will improving my cardio performance help my body?

What about weights?  If I bench press more weight will it really help me?  I already have very good muscle tone and I’m lifting a considerable amount of weight.  Will trying to improve that improve my health or will it just increase my risk of injury?

Purpose

As I was struggling with some of these questions, I noticed a few things.  Look at the way in which I phrase these questions.  “Will doing X improve my health?”  That’s important because it clearly shows what my goals are.  I didn’t say “will doing X help me win the race” or “will doing X give me bigger muscles”.  I am concerned with health and that’s it.  I’m not trying to imply that winning races or building muscles are bad goals, I’m simply saying that, for me, the goal is health.  We all have our own reason for working out and recognizing those reasons is important when it comes to making decisions.  Without knowing WHY we workout, we’re going to make bad decisions about HOW we work out.

Let’s take the running question as an example.  I have no intention of becoming a competition runner.  I don’t need to run very fast nor am I looking to beat some specific time goal.  I run because I enjoy running and because I want to keep my body in shape.  So my decision on improvement should take these factors into consideration.  Will improving my speed improve my health?  The answer is yes but only slightly and only up to a certain point.  Improving my endurance by running for an hour at 6.5mph as opposed to 5 minutes at 4mph was clearly a huge change.  Improving from this point will only provide me with a marginal health benefit at best.  Plus, at a certain point, I might actually be decreasing my overall health since training at these levels might increase my risk of injury.

Deciding where to stop improving is harder then deciding when to stop losing weight.  There is less science around the “optimal” performance level.  So I’m going to use a few factors to decide this.

• Personal comfort - I want to run at a good pace but I don’t need kill myself.  So speeds that are too high for me to enjoy my run are out.
• Injury Risk - I have no desire to go through the repeated and frequent injuries that high end athletes go through.  With running, I want to minimize the impact damage to my legs.
• Cardio Performance - I do want to keep my heart rate and blood pressure in a good and healthy range.  That means working out hard but it also means not working out too hard.  A heart rate above 85% to 90% of max is not good.

With all this in mind, I’ve decided that my current running speed is fine but I would like to go for a slight improvement.  I have no desire or need to go faster or longer but I think moving up to 7.0mph would give me a better health benefit without any downsides.  So I’ll keep working on some improvement in my running speed.

Weights

For weights I am making a similar decision with similar considerations.

• I like the feeling of lifting more weight.  There’s something very primal about it.  Yes, it might be shallow and vain, but that’s ok
• I am getting to the point with several exercises where increasing weight might increase the risk of injury.  For example, I can already feel the strain on my joints when I do something like overhead triceps extensions.
• In terms of health benefits, there’s very little else that I can gain from more weight.  I already do enough weight, enough reps and enough times a week.

So I’m going to try and improve in a few specific exercises where I think I can still benefit from improvement, but for the most part, I’ll keep my weight levels as is.  I might sub in some new exercises just to keep things interesting and to keep my body challenged, but I’m not going for as much raw improvement as I was before.

You!

Are you trying to improve?  If so, why?  That’s not a joke.  I honestly want you to know WHY you should be improving.  What are your goals?  Do you need to improve in order to achieve them?  In what ways?  Make sure your goals are aligned with your plan or else you’ll find yourself lost along the path.

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Remember, a bit of time spent upfront thinking about goals will save you a lot of bad decisions down the road.

Trying Out Bikram Yoga

I’ve been wanting to try out yoga for a while now. I’ve always heard that it’s a great combination of workout and stretching with some meditation elements thrown in. So when a friend invited me to try Bikram yoga, I jumped at the opportunity. Of course, I did run away from the first class I was supposed to attend with her, but that’s another story. This morning, at 5:30am, I showed up for my lesson of Bikram Yoga.

For those who are not aware of it, Bikram Yoga is similar to other yoga in that practicioners go through a variety of poses.  Some of these poses resemble stretching while others are pretty intense resistence bearing exercises that come very close to being a weight workout.  The only differences with Bikram style yoga is that it’s done in a room heated to 105f degrees.  That’s slightly lower than sauna temperature if you’re trying to do the math.  According to the originator of this style, the heat is conducive to both the physical and mental aspects of the exercise.  I’m not so sure about the mental part but the heat definitely had me straining physically.

The Poses

I’m not going to go through a description of all the poses but I will give a few examples.  About half the poses fell into a category I would define as intense stretching.  Things like standing straight up with your hands reaching above your head and then bending to the right at the hips.  Many of these poses were quite difficult and required much more flexibility than I have.  However, I can see how, with time, I could achieve the same level of flexibility a few of the other students had and that’s encouraging.  The second category of poses were what I would define as load bearing exercises.  For example.  Stand up straight, reach your hand forward and then slowly bend at the knees.  When you are in a position resembling a seated one only with no chair beneath you, hold that position for ten second.  Essentially this is a slow motion squat with the hardest part held for a lengthy period of time.  Doesn’t sound like much compared to my usual dumbbell squats but believe me, it’s challenging.  Especially when you have to do these things on one leg.  Post workout, my body felt like I had just gone through a moderate weights workout.

The Heat

This aspect is unique to Bikram Yoga and is not shared by other yoga styles as far as I know.  For me, it was a bit difficult to stay focused on the poses because of the heat.  I sweat a lot and the heat combined with the exercising had me dripping sweat by the 10 minute mark.  The last 30 minutes were uncomfortable for me as I stood there dripping sweat but trying to focus on my breathing.  However, the first 60 minutes did feel good, possibly due to the intensity of the heat.   I’m not sure to be honest, but it was a very different feeling to work out in this intense dry heat and, until I got to the point where I was totally soaked, I was enjoying it.

Is It Worth It?

For me, the answer is no.  The cost of a yoga class is around $10 to $20 and I can get the same benefits at the gym or on the track.  Still, I’m glad I tried this class.  It was an interesting experience and taught me some good lessons about my body and stretching.  For someone with less inhibitions about spending money or for someone looking to work on flexibility, this class would be very valuable.  Also, if money is an issue, you can find a variety of yoga instructions online or in book format.  All you need to practice them at home is a mat and some patience.

If you’re in the South Bay, this is the yoga studio that I took the class at:  Bikram Yoga San Jose

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Next up on my list of workouts to try?  Spinning!

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