Stress and Exercise

Before I get deep into my thoughts and understandings over the subject of stress and exercise, I'd like to announce that I picked up my first set of adjustable dumbbells today.

I picked up a set of Powerblocks (http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3903097&cid=CSE:GoogleProductSearch), the 5lbs-50lbs classic set.  These things are super convenient for $299 and I also bought the stand (~$67) for easier quick-weight selection, as well as a bit of relief on my back from lowering to the floor to pick them up.  I simply slide a bar into the weight selection I want on each dumbbell, and lift the weight off the stand/ground.
They aren't as pretty as the Bowflex SelectTechs, but the ones (SelectTechs) in the store were broken, unlike the Powerblocks.  I'm pretty excited for next week to start up so I can get back to some heavy resistance and test these out, I especially am excited to be able to do strip-sets without having to pause my DVD while I fumble around with the weights.
Now currently the weight only goes to 50lbs (Increments of 5lbs) per dumbbell, but there are a couple of upgrade kits I can buy when I am ready that will increase the weight up to 100, and I think 130 or 120 was the final upgrade kit for them.  They also have a 10 year warranty that I don't feel I'll need to use with them.

Now on to the topic of stress, how you feel, and how to feel better...

Most people tend to tense up muscles in their body when they are stressed out, particularly around their shoulders and back.  You never really notice that you do it, it's similar to when you are in pain you might tighten your fists, or grind your teeth, or tighten up your shoulders, your body does this reactively.
Its not healthy when your muscles do not get a chance to loosen up and relax, it causes pain and in general is just not good for your muscles to be so tight.
The easiest way to alleviate this pain is to get your blood pumping and move your body.  Do some light cardio on a treadmill or go for a jog, or just do some jumping jacks.  When you exercise and your heart starts to move that blood faster, endorphin chemicals (Happy chemicals!) are released and they bring up your mood and help your muscles relax.

For a lot of people it sounds silly, because they might tend to be the people who are often stressed and don't get much exercise in their weekly agenda.  If you 4-6 days of just cardio a week, you'll find that your mood will become more positive on a regular basis, and probably will feel much less tense around the shoulders and back.  This might be a good time to build a new habit and make 45 minutes of time for exercise into your regular daily routine.

The other people, the ones who do have a regular fitness schedule tied in with their daily lives, sometimes you just cant stay motivated.  Stress is like a blanket of suffocation sometimes, you don't feel like doing anything, you don't want to workout you just want to sit and relax (honestly, how often does that sitting and relaxing NOT turn into a pool of stressful thoughts and worry?).
My first suggestion to overcome this is just try to find some kind of motivation to ATTEMPT to start a workout.  Often times once you start it, you feel like you might as well keep going and eventually your finished and feeling better.
My second suggestion, find a friend.  Get a workout buddy, give them a call and let them know you just cant get the motivation to move.  Having a workout partner makes it harder to fall off track, because you share the same accountability and they see you 'giving up' and want you to keep trying.

Basically, feeling stressed breaks your motivation to get moving, but getting some exercise will break down that stress.  Think of it like a headache and Tylenol - You know that if you take it, you still need a good 30 minutes of suffering before it kicks in, but eventually it'll relieve that headache from you - same thing with exercise, you gotta suffer for a few minutes until your body gets into it, and you'll feel good by the end.

Yoga X and being a Coach

Last night I decided to make up the Yoga X I missed on Monday, and will move onto Kenpo or core tonight.  I'm beginning to appreciate Yoga a little more each time I do it.  I get very relaxed, even through all the pain you get with the first 50 minutes of the workout.
I'm  improving a lot on flexibility, and my form in a lot of the poses is getting much better and less shaky.
I've got one more round of Yoga X for the week, and I'm actually looking forward to it now, just hoping time doesn't become an issue for the day I need to do it.

Hopefully by Monday I'll be picking up my new set of Dumbbells, which are an adjustable set of Powerblocks.  I'm picking up a 5-50lb set, and eventually if I need to I will buy the upgrade pack to bring it up to 100lbs.

On another note, I've managed to get a friend to start doing P90X.  If he keeps with it, which I think he will, he seems to be going pretty strong already 3 days in, he'll kind of be my poster-boy of a guy who doesn't need to lose a lot of weight, but is looking to get a healthier and toned body.  Best part about it, is once his girlfriend finishes up this semester of school, she's gonna start up, though she hasn't decided if she'll do the whole thing (I think a little motivation from a few weeks of results will keep her going).  She seemed pretty excited, and like him, she really is only looking to firm up and just generally have a healthier better functioning body - which exercise and proper nutrition will do for you.

I'm a coach and sell products but I'm not trying to sell a product, but first and foremost I'm trying to focus people on their health, letting them sample what the product can do for their health, then they can make a decision if they like the results.
I work in a deli which serves hot food, as well as over-processed meats, I see a ton of people daily that I would like to help, and I reach out to as many as I can, so even if my business doesn't grow overnight, maybe some day I'll get a phone call or a message from someone I reached out to, when the timing is right for them to realize it's time for them to live healthier, and or help others.

Self Improvement

I'm making this a short post, because nobody can explain how to go about improving everything in your life.  Remember my last post of lists?  Jack LaLanne has a nice list for you

Recovery Week

Yesterday was the beginning of my recovery week, and my scheduled workout was to be Yoga...  Didn't do it.

Today's scheduled workout was Core Synergistics, did it, and felt good about it, and because of that I'm back on the bandwagon, will likely do my best to pick up Yoga again on the day which would normally be "rest" day.

The recovery week always catches me off guard in terms of how I feel/how my body reacts.  I'll do a short overview on what the recovery week is and does.
Recovery week is the 4th week of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the program.  During that week the workouts are these:  Yoga, Core Synergistics, Kenpo, X Stretch, Core Synergistics, Yoga, Stretch/rest.  None of these workouts will make you sore the following day.  Yoga is a lot of balance and stretching and cardiovascular work, Core Synergistics is cardiovascular and "core" (Muscles supporting spine) work, Kenpo is just cardio.

The idea of recovery week is to let your body completely heal, but still burn some calories and lightly work all of the muscles to help them force more repairing cells to the tissue (They get lazy when the muscle isn't used much).  During my regular workout weeks, my bodyweight fluctuates almost 10lbs regularily, but when recovery week comes around, my weight flat out drops and stays there.  It's weird, and amazing what the body does when it's at it's optimal rate of restoration/rest, it almost feels like the changes are happening overnight steadily throughout the whole recovery week.

A lot of people wont notice changes or have any changes after those first 3 weeks of hard dedicated workouts, be discouraged and quit before that recovery week hits, and when it does it is amazing.

For me, this recovery week has dropped me down to 185 when hydrated in the morning hours (always check myself in the morning and at night, fluctuation is usually only a couple of pounds).  Even without having a goal of losing a lot of weight, I'm still dropping (and I need to, I've got this skinfat that hangs off my belly and back that needs to go away).

The TRUE double-doubles starts up on Monday, because I'll be incorporating 3 days of cardio X into the schedule, on top of my double resistance days - but i haven't decided if I should throw the cardio X day son my yoga/kenpo/plyo days or not.  That'll be my next experiment.

Keep motivated everyone =)

P90Xperimenting, Bring It!

During this past weekend (was actually my family and I's thanksgiving because of work scheduling issues) I did a little bit of thinking about how the P90X program is setup, both the classic and doubles version.  I recognized the program only works one muscle group on the body more than once a week (except for abs), in all three phases.
 E.G.

• Phase 1 (All of list is going to be Classic)

Monday - Chest and Back + Ab Ripper X
Tuesday - Plyometrics
Wednesday - Shoulders and Arms + Ab Ripper X
Thursday - Yoga X
Friday - Legs and Back + Ab Ripper X
Saturday - Kenpo X
Sunday - Rest or Stretch X

Phase 2 is fairly similar where Mondays and Wednesdays get swapped out for a video that covers similar muscle groups as the previous DVDs, and Phase II has a back section on MWF.  That being said I decided it would be absolutely fine if I changed the phase 1 non-recovery weeks (listed above) to have Mondays and Wednesdays combined together, for a 2 hour total upper-body workout, on BOTH Monday and Wednesday.

When increasing your workload this much there are a few things you have to watch out for.

1. Protein intake - With all the resistance training and muscle breakdown, you absolutely need to be taking in a lot of protein throughout the day, but NOT all at once, as your body can only utilize so much of it at a time through the digestion process.  Try to have 4-6 high protein meals a day to help repair the muscle tissue.
2. Calorie intake - You're working out for 2 hours a day, and muscle building burns a lot of calories, you'll need to up your calorie intake in order to sustain energy throughout the day.
3. Rest - The absolutely most important part of any fitness program is to get 8 hours of rest a night.  Your body does most of its tissue repair when your body is at rest, and goes into overdrive when you sleep. More sleep = less soreness and quicker gains with less recovery time needed.
4. The final thing you need to watch for is over-training.  Over-training can lead to injury, and often times you'll notice lack of improvement in your program because your body hasn't had time to repair between workouts.  Other side effects of over-training can be your body breaking down and you start to feel sick, get congested and have cold-like symptoms.  If it gets that bad, your body is telling you to take it easy and get more rest.

I'm personally going to need to keep a close eye on over-training because there is a lot of muscle breakdown on my new setup.  I'll also be moving Ab Ripper X forward one day, so I do it on days w/ Plyo, Yoga, and Kenpo.

If anyone is looking for a workout schedule that doesn't  take a lot of time out of the day, or general tips on how to improve their results, or just general time management get in contact with me.
Everyone has time to get fit, but not everyone can get past their excuses on why they wont make the time available.

Plyo time!

P90X Round 2 Week 3 (Phase 1)

To begin this blog, I'll do a quick overview of my current progress with Tony Horton's fitness program P90X and some information about the programs expectations and benefits you can claim from it.

Earlier this year, in July I believe, I started the first round of P90X after deciding I felt I wanted to be fit.  I was introduced to the program through my sister and being the awesome sister she is, gave me a discounted rate on the program.  I decided I was going to stick with it, since her husband had already started, and I'm a fairly competitive person that likes to one-up others in physical/realistic challenges.

I had a rough time keeping on track with the program, but I did my best, added an extra week to each phase, and finally hit the final recovery week of Phase 3 (I think my total days on the first round was around 115 or so).  My final results were a drop from a 38 waist pant to a 34, and my weight dropped from 235 lbs to 195 lbs.  I could see the changes and so could everyone around me.

A basic overview of what this program expects, and does for you:


Things it does for you:

• You can get stronger, faster, healthier, and generally more physically fit.
• Increase your energy throughout the day
• Self confidence boost
• Stress relief

Things it asks from you:

• Follow the planned out schedule as best as possible
• Don't overwork yourself, do as much as you can, and move onto the next move
• Eat healthy, there is a guide to give you an idea of what changes you need to make to do this.
• Drink lots of water, and get plenty of rest (At least 8 hours, it'll help with soreness and energy alike)
• Bring all your energy and focus to the workout, this is NOT a get fit quick scheme, you need to work and power through the moves with good form and give your best.  I can guarantee you will see results if you do.

Tomorrow I'll try to remember to put down some thoughts/ideas on my future workouts for the rest of the program.