From fit to fat to fit
gregladen | April 9, 2011... Continued ...
First, if you don't know what you are doing, really, get a trainer and tell the trainer you are serious and that the trainer should be serious or they're fired. Make sure you get a good trainer. Tell the head trainer that you want a good trainer. Ask around about who is a good trainer. Seriously, a lot of trainers suck. You don't want to pay for a bad trainer.
Then, work with the trainer for a few weeks, with the stated goal being to learn to use the machines and free-weights properly. If the trainer resists and wants you to have a different longer term goal that…
gregladen | April 9, 2011... Continued ...
... as in "no pain, no gain."
Special sets are a way of working your muscles that produce more spectacular results. It is a good idea to not do this until you've gotten pretty good at doing the exercises properly and your body is used to this sort of work.
There are three kinds of special sets that I know of, and they can be combined. Giant, super, and breakdown. I often confuse Giant and Super, so this definition may be reversed, but it hardly matters.
In a Giant Set, you do an exercise, wait one minute (or some other time, depending, but usually a minute) then you do it…
gregladen | April 9, 2011... Continued ...
The above discussion applies only to the muscles mentioned (chest, back, shoulder, various leg muscles) and ignores "The Core." People define the core differently, but it usually consists of the abdominal, obliques (a kind of abdominal) which are together often referred to as "The abs" as in "hey, dude, my abs are ripped"; the lower back (which we pretend to be one big muscle) and perhaps your hip flexors. Maybe your hip flexors are in the "lower body - pull" category. Your choice.
Core is important. Just like rotator cuffs (which are technically part of the core as well…
gregladen | April 9, 2011... Continued ...
At the scale of a stint of several days of working out ....
A given exercise is normally not repeated for two days in a row (see later discussion for exceptions.) Since some exercises involve two muscle groups, you must plan carefully. For instance, don't do a chest press on one day and triceps the next day, because the chest press also used your triceps.
A good way to conceptualize the organization of your routines over several days is like this: Divide your body into two sets of muscles, using one or the other of these two schemes, or some combination thereof:
Scheme…
gregladen | April 9, 2011... Continued ...
I had promised a few pointers regarding using the gym experience to become fitter or maintain fitness. Do not use my advice without consulting a doctor first. Everybody who does anything should do so only on advice of a doctor. I wonder if anyone has ever done that (consulted their doctor). I imagine the doctors must be pretty busy with this sort of thing. Anyway, what I have learned from Lenora, books, and experience:
You should do exercises in a certain order, and this order can be conceptualized at different scales of time.
The very first muscles you should work on,…
gregladen | April 8, 2011... Continued ...
Everything was looking up. I was going to get back into shape. I was already making progress. Then, just as I was starting to go to the gym very regularly, it happened.
I was walking to class, carrying an exam I was planning to give, and it was cold. I had parked my car in the usual spot. When I use a parking lot on a regular basis, I like to develop a pattern as to where I park the car, so when I go to find it later in the day, I can use the same pattern to find the car. This usually requires that I opt for a location farther away from the entrance than average.…
gregladen | April 8, 2011... Continued ...
All good things come to an end. But then if you work hard enough, you can get them back.
Like I said earlier, I returned from South Africa in similar or better shape than I left in. And I kept that level of exercise up for a long time, and kept in shape for a long time. Over the years, I had a couple of friends I'd go to the gym with on a regular basis. Amanda and I formerly did that quite regularly, but we have slacked off a bit.
But eventually, life got the better of me, and I started to slack off and go to the gym less and less often. Then, I got a job that actually did…
gregladen | April 8, 2011... Continued ...
Funny Thing Two and Funny Thing Three....
Second funny thing: BFF Stephanie and I were working in the free weight area of the Kimberly gym one evening. There were a lot of people there. Then these two meaty looking guys came in and tossed a big rubber thingie on a bench. One of the guys then proceeded to unpack the rubber thingie, and it was some kind of shirt or jacket, much like (yet different from) a wet suit. So Guy One starts to put the jacket thing on, and Guy Two is helping him, but it seems to be several sizes too small.
Photo by Flickr user Sum_of_Marc.
These two…
gregladen | April 8, 2011... Continued ...
Obsession can be a good thing. And I'm not talking about some dumb-ass perfume.
The Augrabies Ultra. 250 kilometers over five days. My field buddy was doing that every year.
Stuck in the field without a gym for three weeks was going to be tough, but I worked out two ways to stay in shape. First, every time we were in a city with a gym, Lynne got me into the gym, and my field crew usually came along as well. Lynne knew all the gyms and all the people who worked in all the gyms, and generally had the ability to make things happen. This mainly occurred in the city of…
gregladen | April 8, 2011... Continued ...
When it comes down to it, it is all a matter of just how hard you are willing to work. Then, you start with that and work harder.
This guy had it easy.
I got my six free sessions, and then I paid for a lot more. In the end, I've paid less for cars I've driven for years, but it was worth it. Having never been part of the "workout" culture, having never gone to a gym before, I found Lenora's training to be invaluable.
We were efficient. I would arrive at the gym way before hand and do all my warm-ups. I'd do my post-workout stretches after the session, as well as selected…
gregladen | April 7, 2011... Continued ...
When working with a personal trainer, the first thing you have to do is to calibrate. Then, if the trainer does not crank it up to a higher level, she's probably not worth her fee.
Lenora is the best physical trainer that ever existed, bar none.
By this time it had become clear that I was joining this gym with a life membership. I'd lay out a few hundred bucks and be a member for about $50 a year forever after. That may seem like a lot and these sorts of things are not always good deals. But part of my motivation for choosing the super-membership was to put the money down…
gregladen | April 7, 2011... Continued ...
Back from South Africa and with some time on my hands, I was hell bent on keeping the promise I had made to myself to get back into shape. For most people I know, this would mean eating better and going to the gym more often. But for me, it meant eating better and going to a gym for the first time in my life.
Photo by flickr user JerryOneLife
I went to an elementary school with no athletic program. In Junior high, there was a minimal program but the other students I hung out with and I had figured out how to skip gym. Always. I did not attend high school. I did not attend…
gregladen | April 7, 2011... Continued ...
I started out walking a good six feet behind her, to avoid the sand she was kicking up and the occasional thorn-lined branch that might swing back in the wake of anyone walking through the African Bush. We were traversing open country in the Kalahari, in an area sealed off from people owing to the presence of unfriendly lions and other dangers. We were doing this in part because we both felt like we had been locked up for days and needed some freedom; We needed freedom from confinement, freedom from the people we were with, freedom from patronizing park employees, freedom…
gregladen | April 7, 2011
Photo by flickr user gato-gato-gato.
Did you ever watch cattle? I mean, really watch them, for a few hours? Mostly they just sit or stand around munching on grass, chewing their cud, or snoozing. But every once in a while a handful of them will stand up and point in one direction. And they may take a few steps in that direction. Then a few more will join them. And once a critical mass has been reached, the whole herd will just go. Domestic cattle, wild African cape buffalo, whatever. This is what they do.
And as the cattle do, so do bloggers. And one day one, then another, then another of…