The Chairman's Fitness Challenge Blog

Last night, I achieved one of the small, undocumented objectives of this 52 day challenge - I went for a real, outdoor run.  In public, where others could see me.  I've been doing the treadmill, on and off, for several months, and gotten pretty close to my goal of 3.1 miles (5km) in 30 minutes, but I haven't run outside for years.  Unfortunately, very few sanctioned 5k runs take place on treadmills, so I knew that sooner or later I'd have to venture out and try it on the road.  So, after much gnashing of teeth while studying my neighbourhood on mapmyrun.com, and obsessing over weather forecasts, I just laced on my 6-months-old-but-still-new New Balance shoes, ventured out the front door, and went for it.

Much to the surprise of my wife, I survived this first baby step (actually 1.75 miles of baby steps) in one piece.  I think it went pretty well - nobody pointed at me and laughed; my breathing sounded to me like a transport truck with faulty air brakes, but nobody else seemed to notice.  And it felt GOOD!  (Except for the "I'm gonna die" feelings that coincided with one of the walking breaks).

My time was actually about the same as on the treadmill, even though I took a break or three that I wouldn't have needed on the 'mill.  I think it's absolutely true that you run a little faster on the road, but it also takes some serious getting used to, stressing the cardio system more.

This was a great step for me - I know that I can get in a half hour of cardio without investing an hour and a half when factoring in the drive to the gym, changing, etc.

While running, my mind drifted back to years ago, when I used to take long late-night walks in similar streets, but smoking a half a pack or so to get my heart rate up instead of jogging.  All in all, this seems like a much better idea.

The results that people are achieving through the 52 Day challenge can be pretty impressive - body fat loss, muscle and strength gains, and improved performance in any number of different exercises or activities.  How does such a simple, unstructured program work to help participants achieve their personal goals?
One word - ACCOUNTABILITY. The discipline to, first, set the goals, then sit down every day and assess performance, also serves as motivation to work harder towards them. Although this seems obvious to me, a new study from UNC and the University of Kentucky, looking at eating habits, confirms it scientifically.  (The study was reported in the National Post today - LINK).

An interesting finding of the study is that the self-monitoring (writing things down) is a more effective motivator than peer motivation (ie reporting to a group, working with a trainer, or posting in a forum). That actually makes sense to me as well - I know from experience that I can post all I want, but if without wanting the end result enough, I won't make progress towards it. Posting my progress for all the world to see can be motivating, but it is taking the time to plan, log and track progress that sets the table for results, whether I just track it in a personal logbook or post it up for public consumption.

I think the main value of the 52DC forum is it does provide a framework for that sort of self-monitoring - it establishes start dates, end dates, and some suggested categories of goals; the rest of the process is left up to the participants. It is an ideal way to ensure that each participants owns their own goals and is accountable to themselves to ensure the targets are challenging and well-suited to their own fitness/wellness objectives.

It seems like everyone has a different idea of what "eating clean" means - to some it is about calories, some include fat/carb/protein targets, and for others, just avoiding too many pints of beer over the course of a day makes it "clean".  To me, it's all of the above, and I think dietary goals need to be personal given the complex ways that exercise, food, metabolism, sleep, stress, and all those other variables interact in forming and maintaining the physical self.  Rest assured, for virtually every diet, there are some studies somewhere both proving they are effective and debunking them as ineffective, so it is really about being aware of your own body and how it is reacting to the fuel it is given.   

For the record, my target range is 2200-2400 calories a day, and a 30/30/40 protein/fat/carb split, and two or less drinks for it to considered a clean day.  I will count it as "clean" at less than 2200, but I am also eating up to five meals a day on workout days, so below 2200 doesn't happen too much. 

On a much more basic level, though, I believe more and more that "clean eating" is about food that is as close to its natural state as possible.  I'm not a vegan, and I'm not a proponent of raw eating, but I can sense the difference in taste, and in my own energy level, when I eat natural whole foods as opposed to the ground/processed/enriched stuff that is so widely available.

Tonight, dinner was an air-chilled chicken done on a rotisserie, along with the first farm-fresh asparagus of the season and sweet potato wedges (both tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper - the asparagus was grilled and the potato roasted with fresh rosemary.)  It took a couple of hours to cook, but total effort was minimal - there is nothing difficult about shoving a half a lemon in the back end of the chicken and letting it spin for a couple of hours on low heat!  The food was delicious, and in typical fashion, I was able to stick to smaller portions and feel satred.  Over half the chicken was left over (after feeding three) and we'll have low-fat, high-protein chicken meat for leftovers during the week.  (If we buy the lowest-cost chicken at the grocery store, we're lucky to get one meal out of it and the taste doesn't even compare.  I have really bought into paying a little bit more for the air-chilled, naturally-raised poultry.)

I haven't checked the calorie count tonight, or tried to figure out the split between carbs and protein, but when I cook like this I have no qualms about chalking up a clean eat.

With yesterday's chest/back workout in the books, tonight was a great opportunity to get out of my comfort zone on the CT side and get in a run.  (I should probably say, "run" in quotes, since my treadmill sessions are an ugly combination of running, walking, gasping, and sweating.  nothing like Alberto Salazar, or anything like that...)

After a 5 minute warm-up, I managed to do my benchmark 3.1 miles (5km) in under 33 minutes - getting close to my goal of a 30 minute 5k and well within striking distance to DO a 5k, outdoors, with actual other people, without using a bike or moped, this summer.

I'm not sure if once or twice a week is enough to get there, though.  With two or three spin classes a week, plus three RT's, it doesn't leave much time for running.  Like everything else in life - if I really want to become a runner (instead of a "runner") I need to prioritize it, rather than picking away at it in my spare time.

Tonight was the last workout of week two on the hard-body plan, with chest, back and abs on the agenda.  One of the things I am finding challenging is the wide variation of exercises for each body part on the plan.  Rows are the perfect example.

I am used to doing seated cable rows, varying between wide- and narrow-gripped variations, and maybe a round of DB rows thrown in there once a month or so.  The current routine demands quite a bit more variety - tonight was t-bar and dumbbell rows, both which seem to recruit more of the core than the seated cable variety.  On arms/shoulders day,  there are additional vertical rows, which engage the back as well as the shoulders.  And next week, good mornings come into the picture, hitting the lower back a bit differently again.

I am all for the "large" exercises such as squats and deadlifts, but the way this routine hits muscles in various ways over the three-week rotation seems to be really pushing me.  I am looking forward to evaluating the progress over the course of this program, as it seems like this variation from week to week should be pretty successful in developing strength a little more quickly than I was able to using a less structured routine.

I recently read a book co-written by Eric Heiden, MD, called Faster, Better, Stronger.  Dr. Heiden, for those of you a little younger than me, is one of those athletes who competed at the highest level in both summer and winter sports.  Besides competing in the Tour de France as a world-class cyclist, he completely dominated the sport of speed skating for a time, winning a record 5 gold medals in Lake Placid.  He is now a team doctor for the US speed skating team, as well as being a renowned orthopedic surgeon.  Watching him win race after race in the '80 Olympics is probably one of the first times I remember being completely awed by an athlete. I have not seen much discussion of Heiden's book, which lays out a 12-week program for improving anyone's fitness.

Faster Better, Stronger spends its first two sections presenting some in-depth background on the physiology of exercise and food.  It does a good job of explaining, in accessible terms, the relationship between diet, exercise, and overall fitness, while providing insight into the function of the human musculature and cardio-vascular systems, and how they react to work, diet, and exercise.  Two key takeaways for me included the importance of periodization in your routines (cycling through periods of more- and less-intense workload), and how to REALLY measure how hard your body is working (VOmax, anyone?) and what the various levels of effort mean.  The depth of medical knowledge, and the straightforward way it is presented, is where this book really sets itself apart.  Is any of this information going to be new to those who read magazines like Men's Health?  Maybe not, though I'd think it is more detailed, and delves more deeply into the underlying science, than virtually every other source I've seen out there. And you don't need to be an MD to understand it... 

The final section of the book provides workout routines for the 12-week program - the programs themselves will look somewhat familiar to readers of some of the other fitness books out there, but with the added "twist" of periodization.  All in all, while I have no first-hand insight into the effectiveness of the routines, I found the book presents intelligent and accessible information.  I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about exercise and how the body responds to it.

My venture into circuit training a few months ago demonstrated, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my triceps were very weak.  I couldn't even get into position for a bench dip without collapsing to the ground, and even the overhead tri extension was painful with a light dumbbell or plate.  One of my objectives is to do something about that.

I have been doing assisted dips with hands close and elbows in tight - this seems to be a pretty good way to hit the tri's as well as the chest.  It's tough to keep the elbows from flying out though- and that brings in the chest.  I've dropped the dip and added a couple of isolation moves as part of the Plan  - cross-shoulder tri extension, and the dumbell triceps extension on the bench, are both included in the routine.  I'll see how the strength goes - if it doesn't increase, I may need to add a bit more focus instead of just doing triceps as part of arm/shoulders once a week.

I wrapped up week one of the "strict" hard-body plan on Wednesday with some good soreness in various muscles and some modest weight loss.  (I think the weight loss may have been due to a couple of light-eating "sick days" more than anything else, but at this stage I will take it.)  So it's time to move to workout week #2.

Most of the exercises are familiar, including the hack squat, and the upper-body routines are straightforward, but the leg day looks crazy.  Bench lateral step-ups (which I've never done before), front squats, hack squats, and duck squats make up four of the seven moves.  The duck squats look pretty odd - another move I can honestly say I've never seen in the gym.  I'll give it a go, and I may be calling for a wheelbarrow to cart me out of there after that workout!  I'll be looking at Tuesday or Wednesday for the legs/butt, after doing arms/shoulders on Sunday.

I should clarify, the program calls for barbell hack squats, not the machine-type hack squats I used to do back when I was intimidated by big barbells.  I really don't see the link between them - the machine hack squats never struck me as all that different than the leg press, with the exception of using body weight in addition to the plates loaded up on the machine.

But barbell hack squats - those are a different beast altogether.  I understand they target the quads a little more than "regular" squats, and definitely load up the upper back because of the arm position behind the legs.  I found that they went OK - I did more weight than front squats, and it was pretty much automatic to keep the back aligned upright instead of leaning forward and risking all sorts of nasty damage.  On the other hand, it seemed like my failure mode was in my grip more so than my leg muscles - on the third set, just hanging on was as tough as the squat itself.  In the true test, the next day me legs and butt felt pretty good, a little sore, but my upper back and shoulders felt like they had gone through one hell of a workout.  It took two days for them to recover - just in time for my next chest/back/abs workout.

I'm committed to the hack squats for the next 11 weeks as I work through the Hard-Body plan, but I'm thinking I'll find a place for them in my routine even after the program wraps up.  Especially if my grip gets stronger and I don't run the risk of dropping 200+ pounds on my heels!

As part of the rejigging of my program, I added side lunges to my leg routine today.  I think I tried them once before years ago, but felt way too awkward doing them.  This is an exercise I don't think I've ever seen anyone doing.

Well, under the new mantra of "by the book" I'm going to do them regularly.  Didn't quite have the form right today, but did do two sets of something approximating a side lunge.  Didn't notice anyone pointing and laughing, either, so that's a good thing.

BTW, here's a link showing what it is supposed to look like... http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/GluteusMaximus/BBSideLunge.html

Apparently it targets the gluteus maximus and quads, depending on how far you step.  And there is definitely no downside to a stronger, tighter gluteus maximus, is there?

I took a look through my "program" last night, the Men's Health Hard-Body Plan, and was somewhat shocked to see how far from it I have strayed from it over the past several months. I have been happy with the gains in strength, but I'm wondering if I'm getting the best results for the amount of effort going in.

The "plan" allows (even encourages) substitutions of exercises as long as all the right body parts are being worked, but I'm not doing a great job on hitting a lot of the secondary muscles as recommended. It's been months since I did a curl, for example, and the plan calls for three variants on them during arms-and-shoulders day. I haven't been ratcheting up the weight as frequently either - i've been hitting three sets of ten regularly on some exercises, long pst when I should be increasing. So, as of today, I'm going to be following the "plan", letter-for-letter, lift-to-lift, from this point foward. I'm planning to stick strictly with it for twelve weeks, to see what happens.

Almost.

I'm going to skip the "beginner" phase and jump right to the three sets/round intermediate routine, and I'm not sure I can hit the resting days exactly, but I will still ensure at least 2 days rest between workouts for any given body part, and I'm switching to the three-way split so each part gets hit once per week. It's weird that the beginner and intermediate workouts are almost exactly the same, except for reps.

One thing about the workouts is the liberal inclusion of hack squats, almost every week. I've never really done them, and have primarily been using front squats recently to combat my tendency to lean forward. Even using what I would consider reasonably light weight (usually 135 lbs) I still find myself struggling to stay vertical and underneath the bar. We'll see if the hack squat makes it any easier to maintain great form; I am considering doing very light-weight overhead squats (unloaded bar, maybe?) before my working sets to emphasize the strong, vertical form that is crucial when squatting. Overhead squats are another new thing for me; we'll see how it goes. Tonight is probably going to be arms and shoulders, as per week 1, day 1 of the "plan", so the report on the new squat forms will have to wait a few days.

It's been a while since my last post, but I have not been slacking in the challenge.  I'm on track with the RT's and well ahead on cardio, and in fact put in another 3 miles or so today.  The bad news is, I really had my lower-body weight training scheduled and am procrastinating again.  Blah.  My eating has been pretty sound (except for last Sunday...) too, and I'm seeing indications on the tape measure that progress on the 5% weight challenge is forthcoming as well.  I am down almost an inch on my ab measurement since the challenge started, to a number I haven't seen for quite a while!

All that said, I'm starting to feel that things are generally in a bit of a rut.  I'm back to obsessing about relatively minor things (how many tire reviews on www.tirerack.com does one need to read before deciding on a set of clearly-overdue tires???) and most seriously of all, I realized that my recent campaign to get rid of old/ripped/worn underwear has resulted in my having nine pairs of identical gitch, purchased at different times over the past eight months.  The joe fresh line may be reasonably priced, and nicely made, but would it have hurt to at least get different colours?  This is the clearest sign yet that, after fifteen months, I think I need a vacation.

My workout numbers are hiding a worrisome fact for this challenge - I've hit that rut that makes the commitment a lot tougher to achieve.  Although I'm on track on both the resistance and cardio portions, I've had a heck of a time dragging my but in for a lower-body workout this week.  I've been avoiding the weights, jumping into cardio classes or running on the treadmill to put off the inevitable.

Well, THAT STOPPED TONIGHT.  I got in a good lower-body RT, with big-weight (for me) front squats, leg extensions & curls, and my first sets of Bulgarian split squats of the challenge.  That whole thing about "muscle memory" seems to be a farce, by the way... a few times I almost toppled over during those sets, even at relatively low weights.

With the long weekend coming up, I'm hoping to get in at least two RT's and 2-3 CT's, and keep the diet clean.  I need to ramp up the water intake as well; I stopped drinking water, for the most part, and I'm actually seeing a negative impact from that on my weight.  Less than 2-3 litres of water in a day, and I think the body retains what little does come in.