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Every once in a while I like trying out a new way of working out. It keeps my workouts interesting plus it lets me try new things. As with eating, I believe that variety in exercise has many benefits.  However, variety is not what today’s post is about.  Instead, I’d like to tell you about the workout I tried out on Wednesday and how much I liked it.

The Need For Continuous Improvement

If you’re a long time reader of 60 in 3 and have read some of my past series like the 4 day workout, you’ll know that I prefer to do sets of about 10 reps (repetitions).  That means I do an exercise like squats ten times.  I usually use weights that I know I can lift for those ten reps, but I try to pick something heavy enough to be challenging.  That means picking weights that I don’t think I can do for many reps than those ten.

In the past, I’ve been increasing the weights I use at a slow but steady pace.  This reflected the improvement in my overall fitness level.  For example, when I started working out I could barely bench press the bar on its own, about 45lbs.  These days, I usually bench press around 150lbs for my reps.  Unfortunately, I just haven’t been able to improve any of the weights I do for the past few months.  In fact, I was feeling as though I had reached a sort of plateau and that further improvement was impossible.   In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing.  Everyone has a point past which they cannot go.  Our bodies have limits and it’s good to know that limit.  However, I felt like I should be able to lift more but I simply couldn’t take that next step forward.

The Blowout Workout

I happened to mention this to a friend over the weekend, and he suggested I try out a new kind of workout.  He called it the Blowout Workout but it’s also known by other names.  Essentially, the blowout workout means you do half the repetitions with about 25% to 50% more weight.  So if I normally did ten bench presses with 150lbs, on Wednesday I tried to do 5 bench presses with 180lbs.

At first, this was a bit intimidating.  I was having enough difficulties with 150lbs, did I really want to try out this much more weight?  Yes, it was just five repetitions instead of the my usual 10 but that’s a lot of weight!  But I tried it anyway and I’m really glad I did.

The Results

I was able to do the five reps with the extra weight on each and every exercise I normally do.  In fact, in many cases I kept going and did 8 to 10 reps.  It was like my body had always been capable of this kind of performance but I was holding back for some reason.  All it took was a willingness to try.  I had convinced myself to try out the higher weight by telling myself that I was just going to do five reps instead of 10 and once I tried it, it just wasn’t that bad.

Breaking Through Self Imposed Limits

All this time, I was perfectly capable of exercising at a much higher level than I was.  So why didn’t I?  I’m not sure of the answer but I think it’s because I had convinced myself that I just couldn’t take a little more extra weight before the current weight became easy.  Well guess what, the current weight was never going to become easy until I tried something harder.  It was only when I challenged myself with something more difficult that I noticed how easy my current workout had become.

This is applicable in more than just weight lifting by the way.  If you’re trying to do something that’s a bit challenging, don’t just raise the bar a little, raise it a lot!  Challenge yourself way beyond your comfort level.  Maybe you won’t achieve 100% success, but that big jump in difficulty will make that little jump you were trying to make seem a lot easier.

Try It Out For Yourself

If you’re interested, the Blowout Workout is a very easy idea to implement.  Take every weight you’re using right now and increase it by at least 25%.  Now try to do five reps.  If you can do more, that’s great, but tell yourself that your goal is just the first five reps.  That will keep your focused and make everything seem more doable.  My only warning is that you need to be careful. You may not be used to this much weight and having another person around you to make sure you don’t do something silly is probably a good idea.

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Trying out new things is great.  Trying out things you think are impossible is even better.  It will make the things you think are possible but difficult seem very easy.

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Maybe you read 60 in 3 in the morning, right before you head to work. Maybe you read it in the evening before you go to sleep. You might even read 60 in 3 during the day, while you’re at work. Whenever you read this article, it’s still a good time for your ten minute workout. Yes, that’s right, you’re going to get up and workout regardless of time of day and where you are.

Lunges - Start with the lunge, one of the best exercises ever invented. If you don’t know what a lunge is, click on the link and you’ll get instructions complete with a video courtesy of Cooper’s guns. One note, we’re not going to be going as fast as the guy in the video. We’re going for a 5 by 5 rep. That means it takes you 5 seconds to go down and another 5 seconds to come back up. So while the guy in the video takes about 2 seconds to complete a lunge, you’re going to take 10 seconds.

Deadlifts - We’re going to follow the lunge with the deadlift. Again, click on the link if you don’t know what that is. Unlike the video, we’re going to do this with no weights. We’re also going to use the 5 by 5 rule again. So stand up and then slowly bend at the waist for 5 seconds until your fingers dangle down and hopefully touch the ground. If you can’t touch the ground, that’s fine, just try. Then take 5 seconds to straighten back up.

Leaning Press - Keep going with the press. Now the video shows a man lying on the ground doing these. We’re not going to do that. This is supposed to be a workout you can do anywhere and lying down at work is probably not acceptable. So instead of a lying press we’re going to do a leaning press. All you need to do is lean forward against a wall and then press yourself back into an upright position. Again, take 5 seconds to go forward and 5 seconds to push yourself back up.

Trunk Twist - Now lets work out that core for a minute with the trunk twist. It’s a very simple exercise as you can see from the video, and when you slow it down with the 5 by 5 rule, it becomes even more effective. Make sure you have some room around you since you don’t want to hit anything as you swing those arms; trust me, I’m talking from experience

Squats - And we’re going to finish it up with the squats. From a standing position start bending your knees until you reach a squatting position. Now stand up. Rinse and repeat using the 5 by 5 rule to make sure you slow it down.

A Note On Weights

This is supposed to be a quick workout that you can do anywhere. It’s halfway between a workout and a warmup routine and isn’t supposed to be very challenging. It’s just supposed to get you up off your butt and doing something physical. However, if you want to increase the difficulty a bit, feel free to hold something in your hands while doing this. I just did this routine while holding my laptop in my hands.\

Medical Disclaimer

Again, I’m not a doctor, nor do I know your specific medical issues. If you have some kind of problem, don’t be silly and attempt this workout. For example, if you have a serious back issue, don’t do the deadlift just because “that guy on 60 in 3 told me to do it!” Know your body’s limitations and check with a doctor before you do something dumb.

Time

5 exercise, 10 reps each at 10 seconds per rep. That’s less than 10 minutes. If you’re at work then think of it as a break that will make you more productive. If you’re at home, think of it as something a bit more productive than catching up on that last episode of American Idol or checking out new pictures on cuteoverload.com.

Not A Workout Substitute

Again, this is supposed to be a simple workout / warmup. It’s not a substitute for a real workout.  This is something you do in addition to a regular workout.

Repeat

Don’t just do this once.  You need to keep active all through the day and if you have a desk job like me then you should do something like this at least once every two to three hours.  So bookmark this page and then come back to it every two to three hours.  Make this a habit.

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Our bodies were designed with regular physical activity in mind.  They are not meant for sitting behind a desk for 8 hours.  Make sure you break up that monotony with a quick workout.

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Ok, so the pirate workout is a bit of a joke, but for those of you inquiring about my health, turns out everything is ok and I will not need to wear an eyepatch. Seems like I managed to scratch the surface of my cornea and that scratch got infected. So there was a whole lot of pain but nothing that can’t be fixed and no permanent damage. I’m staying indoors today because the medication makes my pupil dilate and that means that bright lights hurt a lot, but I should be ok by tomorrow. In fact, after my follow up appointment tomorrow, I’ll have a few things to share with you about my latest medical experience.

In the meantime though, being cooped up at home reminded me that I have some new home gym equipment which I haven’t mentioned on 60 in 3.

Soft Weights

Being a bit accident prone (my injured eye was caused by a clothing accident. Don’t ask!), I’ve been looking for weights which are softer and less injury causing. I’ve also been looking for something I can throw around much like a ball but with greater weight. In short, I was looking for a Medicine Ball (also called a kettle ball or kettlebell although those are slightly different).

What Is A Medicine Ball?

A medicine ball is a ball, usually made from rubber, with a handle on the side. The ball contains a weight on the inside which makes it far heavier than your normal rubber ball. In terms of usage, the ball can be used just like a dumbbell.

What’s So Good About A Ball?

• Softer - That’s great for people who injure themselves frequently like me. I can drop this on my foot and it’s far less likely to break a toe than an equivalent weight dumbbell.
• Built in handle - The handle on the ball makes gripping easier. You can put it around your wrist and not focus as much on the gripping of the weight.
• Maneuverable. Because of the strap plus the shape of the ball, it’s easier to do some exercises without banging yourself with the weights as you would with a dumbbell.

What’s Not So Good About A Ball?

• Weight is not adjustable - You need a different ball for each weight, unlike some adjustable dumbbell sets where you can add or remove weights to suit your need.

Can These Replace Dumbbells?

No. Both dumbbells and balls have their place in a home gym. However, I do think these are great to have for some exercises. They’re relatively cheap which means you can get a couple of sets for a low cost. I’d recommend getting some of the lower weights in these rather than dumbbells and then working out with both.

Is There A Recommended Brand?

I got mine from Ball Dynamics, the same people I got my exercise ball from. I’ve found them to be reliable and very competitive on prices. You can find their website here. As usual I would like to note that I am not affiliated with Ball Dynamics in any way. I don’t get paid to recommend them or any other product on 60 in 3.

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I like trying out new things, and these new balls were a lot of fun. The exercises are similar to dumbbells but different enough to keep things interesting, plus the cost was very low. Give them a shot, maybe you’ll find something that you like.

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It never fails, get three people together in a gym and ask them to discuss their workout and inevitably the conversation will eventually turn to machines vs. free weights. If you’re completely clueless about this argument, it comes from the fact that some people prefer free weights like dumbbells and barbells while others like to workout on specialized machines that offer a narrow range of choices for exercises per machine.

In fact, most gyms are set up to have one area in which people work out on machines and another area in which people use free weights. for beginners, this can be a little confusing. After all, it seems like these two options are identical. I can get on a machine and do some curls or I can use dumbbells. I could use the leg press machine or I could do some squats. What’s the difference?

Form Is Better On Machines

As I’ve said before many times, form is very important when you workout. You want good form in which you slowly and gradually move the weights around. You want to primarily use the muscle group which you intend to workout. That means if you’re doing curls, you shouldn’t be swinging your entire body around trying to lift those weights.

For the purposes of good form, machines are better. Machines force us to have good form by stabilizing our whole body. For example, when I do a curl on a machine, I’m sitting and my upper body is relatively immobile due to the various supports on the machines. That means it’s only my biceps which are doing the work. With free weights, I’m free to swing more body parts around which could contribute to bad form. In fact, you can see that if you click on the free weights curls link here. The person working out is swinging back and forth, which is bad form. By way of comparison, look at these machine curls here. You can see that the whole body is much more stable and only the biceps are working. Do free weights have to mean bad form? Not at all. It’s very possible to achieve good form with free weights, but it’s somewhat easier with machines.

Muscle Recruitment Is Better With Freeweights

What the heck is muscle recruitment? It’s that thing your body does when you lift something and need to maintain your balance. Think of it this way. When you do a squat, you’re lifting a weight up with your legs. Your leg muscles are doing most of the work lifting straight up, but your body also recruit quite a few smaller muscles groups to maintain stability, to keep you upright and to prevent you from falling over. If you did the same exercises with a machine, less of your body would be involved.

Muscle recruitment is a little like form. It means more muscles are involved in the exercise than just the ones you wanted involved. The difference is that bad form means you’re making things too easy for those primary muscles. You’re replacing the work they’re supposed to do by doing it with other muscle groups. Muscle recruitments means you’re adding more work which is being done by other muscle groups.

Take a look at a free weight squat here, vs a machine press here.  Both have very good form and in both, the legs are doing the same amount of work.  However, with the free weight squat, the user is also recruiting other muscle groups to keep himself upright and stable, which the machine press does not do.

Less Injuries With Machines

By their nature, machines limit the potential for injuries.  You’re not going to drop a weight on your foot, you’re not going to move your arm into a weird position and tear a tendon and you’re not going to find yourself pinned to the bench with too much weight on your chest.  Machines are in fact safer to use since they limit the range of things you can do.

More Accurate Progress With Machines

It’s easier to measure progress with machines since the movements and weights are always the same.  For example, if I use the example of the machine press vs. the squat I showed above.  The machine press is easy to adjust for less or more weight, but what about the squat?  My body weight ranges up or down a few lbs every day.  Since I’m also lifting my body weight, that could make things harder or easier.  Also, as you lose weight, exercises with freeweights could feel easier because you’re lifting less weight.  Finally, you could adjust your form or grip to make things harder or easier, something that’s more difficult with machines.  For example, if I’m doing a bench press, a narrow or wide grip on the bar could make things harder or easier.  With a machine press, there are places for you to grip, which means you always grip in the same spot.  All of these things combine to make machine workouts more precise.

Even Workout For Both Side With Free Weights

With machines, you typically workout both sides at the same time.  For example, when you do curls, you’re doing them with both hands at the same time.  This is not always true, but in general, that’s how most machines are set up.  That means one side could be doing more of the work and you might not notice it.  In fact, many people, when doing two handed exercises, will let their dominant hand or leg do most of the work.  With free weights, and specifically with dumbbells, it’s impossible to let one side do more of the work.  So you end up with a more even workout for both sides.

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So have we solved the argument?  Well, not really.  Personally, I’m a free weights fan.  However, I believe that most people who are new to the gym start out with machines before they use free weights.  That will help you learn good form and how to avoid injuries.  In the end, the best workout is the one you feel comfortable with.  The differences between free weights and machines are relatively small and both are far better than not working out at all.

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My wife suffers from the occasional migraine. It used to be much worse but after some recent medical treatments, things have gotten better. In fact, the migraines seemed to go away. So she finally felt confident enough to start exercising.

She started slow. A pilates class, a yopa class and some aerobics classes. Nothing too hard or strenuous. Since those seemed to go well, she figured something a bit harder might be fine too. So she signed up with a personal trainer and tried a session of weights and resistance training. For the next three days, she suffered from horrible migraines.

She proceeded to do some research online and found out about exercise induced headaches, something I was completely unaware of. It seems like some people will get anything from mild headaches to serious migraines following any sort of strenuous exercise and that weight lifting is particularly common as a cause.

After seeing her struggle with the pain and feeling helpless to help, I thought I would share what we found with all of you so that we could help prevent this pain in others.

Ways To Avoid Exercise Induced Headaches

• Stay hydrated - No need to overdo this with those huge bottles of water. However, drink a bit of water between each one or two sets of exercises.
• Warm up and cool down - Don’t just start and stop high intensity workouts. You need to start slow and end slow to give your body a chance to adjust.
• Try to stay away from a lot of high impact exercises - That means elliptical is better than jogging and swimming is better than almost anything else.
• Avoid bent over exercises - One of the suspected causes of exercise induced headaches is blood flow to the brain. So be careful with any exercise that has you bend over like dead lifts.
• Talk to your doctor - There are some medications that could work. Since exercise induced headaches seem to be related to blood flow, medications that constrict blood flow might help. Please do NOT take any medications without first consulting with a doctor.

For additional information, check out the following links:

USA Weekend

Relieve-Migraine-Headache.com

Drew Baye’s high intensity training

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That’s all we’ve found so far. Hopefully, once my wife feels better and returns to the gym, I can give you a bit of an update on how well these tips helped. One thing to note, she was doing fine with her aerobics and pilates classes, some of which do involve light weight lifting. So it’s not all exercise which causes this.

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How many times have you canceled your workouts because you were going out? How many times have you cut them short because of some social appointment? Have you ever gotten in your car to drive to the gym and then decide that you simply have something else to do or somewhere else to be? If you have, then you’re not alone.

I used to do this on a regular basis. It was never intentional, I simply have a busy life and things would pile up. I had appointments, meetings, friends to see, family to have dinner with and in the middle of it all, my workouts were relegated to a lower priority. I knew that I needed to work out but when faced with the choice of going to the gym or going to hang out with friends, I always chose to avoid the gym.

Then I discovered a quick and simple method to avoid this problem, my calendar.

Schedule It!

I’ve been using calendars for years. I have one for work through Microsoft Outlook and one for personal activities on Google Calendar. Because I hate forgetting appointments, I put every single activity on these calendars. Meetings, dinners, conference calls, movies with friends, they all go on my calendars. That way I avoid scheduling conflicts where I accidentally book myself for two different events at the same time plus I can set reminders. These reminders pop up ahead of the event and remind me that I need to do something.

Unfortunately, even though I’ve been using calendars for years, I never thought to actually schedule my workouts. The gym was something I did in my spare time, right? So I just assumed I would find some time for it everyday. Well, guess what? I didn’t. Until that is, I started seeing the gym as an important activity that I shouldn’t avoid, and that’s when I started scheduling it.

Gym Appointments

If you don’t use any kind of calendar, I would recommend starting. It’s a very useful organizational tool that comes in quite handy in all areas of your life. I use Google Calendar which you can get a free account for right here. Because it’s online, I can see my schedule from any computer. Google Calendar also allows me to share my calendar with other people. So I can put appointments on it which my wife sees. For you readers out there in a relationship, giving each other visibility into our calendars has been one of the best relationship tools my wife and I found! But since this is a fitness blog and not a relationship blog, I’ll stick to telling you about my scheduled workouts.

Schedule a recurring appointment. This is an appointment that occurs multiple times. Any calendar will let you do this. You can set something up like “every weekday between 3 and 4:30pm” or “every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between noon and 1pm.” Whateveryour gym schedule is, set it up with a specific time and day. Now just follow this schedule.

Stick To Your Schedule

You have no idea how much this little tip helped me. Putting my workouts on my calendar increased my success rate (the percentage of times I was supposed to be at the gym and actually went) from somewhere in the 50% to above 95%. I still miss the occasional workout but it’s usually due to serious issues.

Extra Tips

• Think about letting people know about your gym time - Some people will respect gym time and some will not. I have my gym time on my calendar as “Personal Quality Control”. My wife and friends know what this is and they respect that. I’m also honest with those coworkers who ask about it and I let them know that this time is important to me. I have no problem meeting with them during this time but they better wear their gym clothes to this meeting and be ready to sweat. Everyone else simply sees an appointment on my schedule and assumes that they shouldn’t schedule meetings for this time.
• Add others to your gym appointments - One of the best benefits of a gym partner is the extra incentive to actually show up. It’s easy to skip the occasional workout when it’s just you. It’s not so easy when someone else is counting on you to show up. So schedule you gym appointments and then see if anyone else wants to go with you.
• Don’t forget the commute time - Make sure your gym appointment includes enough time to get to and from the gym.
• Not too late - Late night workouts will sometimes cause sleep issues. Try to finish your workouts two to three hours before your bed time.
• Make it regular - Try not to change your workout schedule too often. A regular day and time really helps you get into the gym habit.

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Your workout time is just as important as any other meeting. In fact, it may be more important than most since I can’t think of too many conference calls I’ve attended lately that can prolong and improve my life. Why not treat it like the important appointment it is and get it on your schedule?

UPDATE - One of my readers sent me in a link to the schedule application they like to use. I looked at it and it seems like it has some neat features. So I figured I would add a link to it here.

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On Friday I shared with you a little trick for measuring when you’re working out too hard while doing cardio.  But what about weight lifting?  How do we know when we’re working out too hard, not hard enough or just right?  Well, for that, we have the 20% rule.

What Is The 20% Rule?

The 20% rule says that if you can do 20% more reps then you are then you’re not working out hard enough.  If you can only less than 80% of the reps you planned on doing then you’re working out too hard.

What Does That Mean?

Let’s take the average person who does 10 reps per set.  20% of that is 2.  Well, if you planned on doing 10 reps but you can easily an extra 20% (12 reps) then you’re probably not working out hard enough.  Maybe you need to rest less between sets, increase the weight or work on your form.  Whatever it is, you should increase the difficulty.  On the other hand, if you planned on doing 10 reps but you can barely do 8 and no more, then you’re probably working out too hard.  Perhaps you should rest more between sets or lower the weight you’re using.

What If I Do More Than 10 Reps?

Some people don’t do 10 reps only per set.  For example, I notice that most women prefer to use lighter weights and do 15 or 20 reps per set.  No problem, the 20% rule still works.  If you aim for 15 reps than you should be able to do between 12 and 18 reps.  That’s 20% on either side.  If you’re aiming for 20 reps then you should be able to do between 16 and 24 reps.  Again, that’s 20% on either side.

Does It Work For 5 Reps Too?

Sure, just aim for 5, which means between 4 and 6 reps.

Use For Improvement

The 20% rule is a great way to see if you’re ready to improve your workout.  If you get to a point where you can easily do 20% more reps than you planned for, then you clearly need to increase your weight.  The opposite is also true, if you’re wondering if it’s time to increase the weight you work out with, try doing 20% extra reps.  If you could easily do it, then yes, you’re ready to add a bit of weight to your workout.

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Always have a goal in mind.  Know how many reps you’re planning to do and aim towards that number.  Just keep in mind that your body doesn’t operate at the same level 100% of the time.  Sometimes it needs a bit more rest and sometimes a bit less.  So aim for 100% but be ready to do somewhere between 80% and 120%.  If you find yourself consistently outside those limits, perhaps you need to change something.

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