Muscle-building Monday

According to hundredpushups.com, here are your push-up choices: Good Form Push-ups or Alternative Push-ups. Check out the link for a definition and pictures.


Thanks to everyone who emailed me with their initial number of push-ups to participate!!! Okay people -- here's the starting line-up:

CM -- 40
RC -- 57
ML -- 2
MC -- 30
CC -- 23
KB -- 7
AM -- 8
NE -- 10
TH -- 20
BH -- 15
AF -- 10
KS -- 15

For all of you listed above, go here with your initial push-up number and follow the specified column you belong in. This is your workout for week 1. Follow the number of sets, reps, and seconds of rest between sets. Don't forget you need a day of rest between your days of push-ups. If you do anything different, you're changing the workout (not recommended). On that page, you'll see to your left a column. In that column are the different weeks listed. Clicking on those weeks (links) will give you that specific week's workout. October 6 is our final test.

"Admission" is still open...until tomorrow, Tuesday August 19 (you'll have to do your initial amount of push-ups today and start the program tomorrow). The program is 3xs/week for 6 weeks. You can do your sets MWF, TTHS, or a different combo where you've got at least one day of rest in between push-up days. Make a post or email me (see the top of the blog page) if you're interested...and make sure to give me your initial amount of push-ups to fatigue (without stopping)!!

"Lift" Well!!! (ha ha -- couldn't resist.)

Committed

I watched Michael Phelps do the unthinkable this week swimming in the Beijing Olympics. It was amazing! He's ripped and built like a machine; and yet he seems pretty down-to-earth. He was so committed to swimming; so committed to winning the gold in all eight events. That commitment is what brought him to this record achievement.

During his moments of glory, when the cameras would focus on his mom, I really did have to choke back tears. How many practices did she drive him to? How much time did she spend helping him, supporting him, paying for lessons and coaches? How many meets was she involved in? What strong commitment (and true love for her son) on her part.

What are you committed to?

Americans seem to have a reputation for being lazy. Ugh! I hate laziness, except for that occasional lazy Saturday or rainy day. A break is always nice and rejuvenates me to continue going. (Except for in laundry. If I get a break from my laundry routine I don't want to go back to it. But alas, clean underwear is a necessity.)

I've decided to re-commit myself to a couple things. I'm re-committing to putting my kids first throughout the day; no more whopping bouts of "me-time." This will be easier to do since Kindergarten and preschool start very soon, and I can schedule my "me-time" during that time. I'm also re-committing myself to my health. Sure, I exercise, but it's almost chaotic in the sense that I don't follow the same routine consistently. I get bored very easily with exercise, which sometimes allows me to shrug it off completely.

And BONUS: it's not New Year's Day. I hate New Year's resolutions. I never keep mine when I make them at the beginning of January. I'll keep them if I make them 1/2 way through December, or at the beginning of February. But the beginning of January??? Come on, I'm still recovering from Thanksgiving, Christmas Parties, Birthday, Christmas, Anniversary, New Year's Eve....time to NOT add something new here. :)

I'm curious about what you're committed to. Will you tell me?

Accepting the (push-up) challenge

I've decided to do it. I'm following the Hundred push-ups training program. I'm starting on Monday 8-18. I can do my 3 sets of 12 reps, but I think I want an actual challenge. In the past I've steered clear of push-ups. They intimidated me. So I'm going to look push-ups in the face, stare them down, and train to be able to do more.

Anyone else want to do this? Or has anyone already done this?

Book review -- Escape Your Shape

Escape Your Shape; How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder by Edward J. Jackowski, Ph.D.

I appreciate the comments left on my earlier post about this book. In summary, Dr. Jackowski has decided any body can be described as one of four shapes; hourglass, ruler, cone, or spoon, and each shape has a correct way to exercise. (I'm guessing spoon has replaced pear, but where did the apple go?)

Anyway, in his experience if you want to "escape your shape" you've got to do what sounds to me like spot reducing. For instance, if you're a spoon (bigger in your lower half, smaller in your upper half) Dr. Jackowski says you should avoid any exercise that would build muscle in your lower body and concentrate on building muscle in your upper body while burning fat. For this particular shape he gave an example of a woman who could build muscle in her lower body faster than her body could burn fat, hence his reason to not build muscle in her lower body until the fat was gone. This would help her "escape her shape." Once the fat in her lower body was gone, she could then carefully build muscle throughout her body, keeping in mind to keep her upper body in proportion with her lower body.

He has designed different exercise programs for each body shape (found in the book), emphasizing lower weights with high repetitions. Personally, I would be bored following his program for my body type, but that's me. I love a challenge in lifting weights. I could see how a novice could fall in love with this book and, if followed exactly, could find desired results.

Despite my feelings, Escape Your Shape is easy to read and quite motivating (I was almost ready to get out of bed at 11:30pm to start a workout). I do give props to Dr. Jackowski for getting the message out there that not every workout is for every body. I would recommend Escape Your Shape to the novice exerciser looking for a concrete path to follow. As a side note to that, I think anyone can get the results they're desiring if they've got constant help from their observant personal trainer. OBSERVANT is the key word.

Muscle-building Monday

Sorry for my absence -- I've been "playing" with my recent house guests.

Hiking mommy-style:

Grab a 25 pound baby, a baby carrier/backpack to put him in, a couple diapers, some wipes, water, snacks, and never forget the bug spray and sunscreen. Find a mountain with an elevation starting at 8100 feet, and start hiking up a dirt path for 2 hours. Did I mention dragging a 5 and 4 year old along too??

This will build your muscles any day of the week AND remind you of muscles you didn't realize you had. Fortunately when you're already in good shape, you won't be feeling it the next day. It will be unfortunate (and pretty sore) if you don't fall into that category*.


(*If you aren't in good shape I'd loudly scream in your face not to try this activity.)

Eight weeks

What were you doing eight weeks ago? Go look at a calendar to remind yourself if you've forgotten.

What are you doing eight weeks from now?

Eight weeks ago you could have started one of my exercise programs, and by today you would have already seen results. So why not start now? Eight weeks from now you'll be really glad you did.

Send me an email at thinkwellactwelllivewell@gmail.com and let me know you want to get started. It'll be the best $20 you've spent this month!

***I design a specific program for you, your abilities, your access to equipment/gym/home gym, keeping in mind your desired results.***

Right/wrong ways to exercise for a body's shape?

I picked up a book today at my library, "Escape Your Shape" by Edward J. Jackowski, Ph.D. His philosophy is that because all bodies are various shapes, all bodies need a specific/type of workout according to that shape.

I've only read the first 4 pages, and I already have an opinion (probably not the best way to start a book!). I have two questions for you before I continue:

1) Our bodies may be genetically inclined to store fat in certain areas, but are our bodies also genetically inclined to build muscle faster/better in certain areas as well?

2) Say there's a woman who is clearly heavier in her lower body than mid or upper body; do you keep her from strength training her lower body so she doesn't build up more muscle, making her lower body even bigger? (*Now, I know she's not going to bulk up like a body builder by doing 3 sets of squats 2-3 times/week, and I'm totally aware that more muscle = more calories burned. I'm curious as to what you all and Dr. Jackowski have to say about it.)


Please let me know your thoughts/answers to these questions! I'll post a summary of the book when I'm finished reading it.

Muscle-building Monday

Try this three times this week:

Dumbbell chest flies

Lie on your back on a bench (or a stack of 2-3 standard sized bed pillows if you don't have a bench), arms straight above you (perpendicular to your or towards the ceiling) with a slight bend in your elbows. Palms should be facing each other while holding your dumbbells.

Take two seconds to open your arms to your sides until your elbows are just about parallel to the floor, pause, and take two seconds to bring your arms back to the starting position.

Make sure you are using your pecs/chest muscles to do the lifting. Otherwise you may strengthen the muscle in your arms instead and see no results in your chest.

Do 3 sets of 12 reps, medium weights, rest for 60 seconds between sets.

One variation is to mix up your second counting. Take one second to open your arms and three seconds to return to starting position.

Happy lifting!

Positioning counts!

Here's the scenario: Two guys are attempting to build their chest muscles. They lift the exact same amount of weight, do the exact number of repetitions and sets. After a couple months, Guy A develops a really strong chest; very defined pecs. Guy B doesn't get a defined chest; instead his arms are chiseled. What happened?

Positioning, folks. Positioning counts. Where you put your hands on the barbell, what your back does (arches or stays put), where your shoulders are -- all of this counts in your lift. It's very likely Guy A concentrated on using his chest muscles to complete his lifts, keeping his shoulders down and not letting his lower or upper back arch. Guy B really only used his arms in his chest lifts, probably raised his shoulders when trying to lift heavy weights when they should have been stationary, and I'm guessing his back was moving too.

Concentrate on what body parts are supposed to move throughout your specific lift, and what body parts are intended to be stationary. You'll get the definition and build muscle where you originally wanted it, and not elsewhere. (That's a time consuming and big "oops" to fix.)

If you understand at this point, go ahead and stop reading. If not, here's another example. When you come up from doing a squat, you're supposed to "push through" your heels to stand; do not use the balls of your feet to stand. There is a difference.

When you use your heels, you get the burn in your glutes that you're supposed to feel. When you use your whole foot or the balls of your feet (if you haven't fallen over yet) you feel it in your calves and quads. You're not supposed to feel it there, but it'll strengthen those muscles instead of your glutes -- when your aim was to strengthen your glutes in the first place.

I just see too many people not concentrating on form or positioning, and they're wasting their time! (I do help them when I can.)

(Obviously there are some times when you can move your position to change the angle of muscle you're working, but I'm not referring to that right now; maybe later.)

Carpe the weight!

There's something about getting up in the morning and knowing I get to lift weights that day. I guess I can understand why a bunch of guys in the weight room smack talk each other and lift more than they should in front of a mirror (and I'm pretty sure they're not using the mirror to check on their form). It's invigorating and addicting knowing you can lift something someone else can't. And on top of that, you've got definition showing off muscle that allows you to lift something someone else can't.

I love it.