Lots of Thoroughly Exhausting Workouts

Pardon the delay in updates; it was purely because I couldn't remember the workouts off the top of my head. But today I made a point to bring my notebook from the gym bag to the computer. Before we hit all of them, and there are many, it's time for the requisite update. After a celebratory week or two of being bad, I've actually managed to lose another pound, which I'm not exactly happy about, but not too worried either. Also, I lost my blood-donation virginity last week. I had a fun time with that and felt fine during the whole thing. Of note, I went to the gym over lunch that day instead of after donating. I also drank around 60 fl. oz. of water before donating throughout the day. It was nice to feel no ill effects except for getting really really winded doing little things like crawling around on the floor with the dog. How's about some workouts? Before I start, there could be a lot of new exercises in here, if you want a video demo, head to Crossfit - Exercise Demos and find it on there.

Filthy Fifty

50 reps of the following:

1. Box Jumps, 24"
2. Jumping Pullups
3. Kettlebell Swings, 35 lbs.
4. Walking Lunge
5. Knee-to-elbows
6. Back Extensions
7. Wallball shots, 20 lbs.
8. Burpee
9. Double-Unders - jumping rope, passing the rope under you twice per jump

Complete each exercise before moving to the next one.

Our first workout is the official version from Crossfit. Thanks to my lingering achilles issue, some of it had to be adjusted. In addition, we had a bit of a time constraint that evening, so we halved the workout. Achilles corrections were: box steps instead of box jumps, pullups instead of jumping pullups, and I skipped the double-unders entirely. My time for this one was 27:52 and it was a real struggle. The nice part of this workout is that you can be certain there is no more working out you can do after it. My wife joined me in this routine, but she insists on not recording times. Suffice it to say that we were both destroyed by this workout. It was great.

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

1. Row 250m
2. 25 - Pushup

I thought this was going to be simple, I admit. What's a few pushups and rowing? Man, was that ever stupid to think. Actually, the rowing was nothing compared to the pushups. I managed a meager 5 rounds through this one before time expired. My only defense is on the pushups I was going all the way down, chest on the floor, picking my hands up off the floor and putting them back down, then pushing back up. Try pushups that way before you jump to any conclusions on my pushup skills. Hint: they're evil.

For time, using a bare 45 lb. bar where appropriate.

1. 10 - Pullup
2. 20 - Burpee
3. 30 - Push Press
4. Row 400m
5. 50 - Snatch
6. 60 - Situp
7. 35 - Clean and Jerk
8. Run 800m

Well hello there, grip-killer. Seriously, I had to take breaks in this one because my forearms were just dead. Also, Achilles is still injured so the run was replaced with more rowing. In fact, someone was using the rowing machine the first time it came up, so I ended up doing 1200m at the end of the workout, skipping ahead to the snatch. I couldn't hardly hold on to the handle while rowing. It was even suggested I just stop. But I wasn't about to stop during the last exercise! 27:14 was my time on this one. It was such a great feeling of accomplishment to finish this one and rolling off the rowing machine onto the floor in exhaustion was my reward. I highly recommend this one.

7 rounds for time of:

1. 3 reps - Power Clean, 115 lbs.
2. 4 reps - Handstand pushup

This one was actually easy. Too easy in fact. I finished it in 8:04 and was kind of disappointed by it. Next time I'll increase the weight on the power clean substantially.

3 rounds, 15 reps per exercise, for time of:

1. Right-arm Dumbbell Snatch, 35 lbs.
2. Situp
3. Left-arm Dumbbell Snatch, 35 lbs.
4. Toes-to-bar

This one started easy enough. The one-armed snatch was interesting to do since it was my first time. Situps were blah, just like normal. But then the evil of Toes-to-bar struck. I'd done these a bit, just playing around to see if I could, but this was my first time with them in a workout. They are hard, but you do get to feel a bit like a circus performer or gymnast while doing them. This was the workout I did before donating blood. Since it was done during the same time of day as usual, maybe that contributed to my poor time. Still, 25:44 seemed decent for this one. I liked it.

Erin (modified)

5 rounds for time of:

1. 15 reps - Dumbbell Split Clean, 35 lb. dumbbells
2. 12 reps - Pullup

This was my first real workout after the donation and my goodness did it suck. I had to sit a fair amount to avoid blacking out. Also, I am not a fan of the dumbbell clean. It just didn't feel as powerful as a standard clean. The split landing was causing me some issues too, largely because I never practice it. I'm getting better at pullups, though. I managed a streak of 10 on my 4 round. Encouraged by that, my final round consisted of streaks of 2, 2, 1, 3, 2, and 2. Still, 60 pullups plus all those cleans in 37:02. It was a disappointing time for sure, but I'm pleased with myself for finishing because of the issues I was having.

Aside from the one workout up there, these were all great, thoroughly exhausting, and sometimes fun to watch. One note, man do my hands hurt after most of these. Blisters and callouses are nothing new, but I've had to start shaving down the callouses to keep them from getting pulled off by the pullup bar. Fun? This concludes the massive workouts update. See y'all next time!

Victory!

Yesterday started much like any other day: woke up, got mostly ready, took the dog out, ate breakfast, took the dog out again, finished getting ready, forgot to put on a belt, didn't notice until about 3 hours later. The finish to the day wasn't foreshadowed in the slightest. In fact, with having two separate Thanksgiving celebrations, I completely expected to have a setback. After work, and working out, I hit the scale, got it balanced and literally, aloud, asked it, "Really?!" I hopped off, reset it, tried again. Really. Really, really. At the start of week 48, I finally achieved my goal weight. The one I set back in January.

Thanks to the injured Achilles, the wet floor in the locker room, and the workout -- which I'm teasing again and will describe a bit later -- I did not get to jump for joy. Instead, I went to find Trainer Dean to tell him the good news, but alas he was nowhere to be found. So I headed home wondering what the next step is. First and foremost, I need to add some more calories to my diet to make sure I don't lose any more weight. After that, I'm going to talk to a nutritionist to get help with making a maintenance diet. Ok, enough with the bragging, how about that workout?

1. Deadlift, 225 lbs - Rep scheme 21, 15, 9
2. Wall-walkers - Rep scheme 9, 6, 3

Of note, that's not a tutorial video, but does contain two people demonstrating the concept.

For me, yesterday was a heavy day. For those that have been at it, they probably would have finished that workout in under 5 minutes. I, however, am not very good at deadlifts and 225 lbs is a heavy weight for me. The wall walkers were kinda fun. I just knew I looked like a ninja doing them. 43 minutes 19 seconds later, I could barely stand, my back and abs were completely dead, and I was done. That was a great heavy day. Maybe over 75% of my max deadlift wasn't good for such a long workout, but how else will I get stronger? Really, I probably should have gone with 60% of my max for that.

My rosy feelings toward that could be related to the victory mentioned above. Summary time. 48 weeks, 34 pounds lost, using the tried-and-true techniques of exercise and eating less. Hit up the blog archives to see the actual diet I used and many more workouts that I used along the way.

Joining in on the fun

Wow, it seems like it was just yesterday that I was blogging about my injury and fun stuff like that, but it was actually two days ago. My shoulders are still quite shot from the workout I mentioned at the end of the post. It really was too much weight to do so many push presses, but I got stubborn...and 45 minutes later I finished it. The only problem related to the achilles was with rowing. Oddly enough, it was the little board you push against that was causing the issue. Occasionally my heel about hit that and hurt a bit. Other than that, it was a thoroughly exhausting experience. One that didn't really prepare me for the interesting experience of yesterday's workout.

During the usual communications between my wife and I, she indicated wanted to workout with me. After I told her of my plan for it to be a "core day" she was still up for it, so I was mentally perusing my notebook of workouts to choose one that wouldn't have too steep of a learning curve. After I gave up on that, Trainer Dean provided a nice one for us. One that require a little teaching before we started, but it was doable!

Core Workout #3

21-15-9 rep scheme, for time, of:

1. Overhead Squat
2. Russian Kettle bell Swings
3. Knees-to-Elbows

With the workout listed to the right, I got the opportunity to teach some of the exercises Dean's taught me. Now, I'm certainly not a great teacher, but I had an absolutely giggly star pupil. My wife is an overhead squat natural. She even managed one rep, out of one attempt, to get the bar. I was ever so impressed, such that I bragged about her to Dean after I'd finished my workout and stretching. Kettle bell swings went just about as quick, though I had to do them at the same time as her for the giggles to subside. She rocked the 25 lb kettle bell easily. A natural. On to the actual workout impressions.

This one really hit the upper abs hard, possibly a bit harder than it should b/c I was doing the knees-to-elbows slightly wrong. Really, the first set of overhead squats was cake. Kettle bells wind me as they're supposed to. And those knees-to-elbows were rough. Then second and third sets just sucked, as they were supposed to. With the abs rather destroyed from the first round, overhead squats we much harder. The kettle bell swings are just a torture device anyway but didn't really present much more than a breathing and grip challenge. I think that's their point though, so they were effective. All-in-all, it was a great core workout. I finished in 19:19.

Oh yeah, updates. We're in week 48 and the weight is steadily 1 lb. away from the goal. Maybe today will be different? Doubt it. But I will be much more diligent about the diet starting next week if I don't get it by the end of the week. I have a plan!

Somehow, a sports injury was unexpected

To start with, how's about a little progress update. Since last time, I made it up to 8.5mph for my mile runs, the knee was feeling great, the feet were a little blistered, and my weight was still stuck 1 pound from my goal. I set some new personal records: 115 lb overhead squat, 140 lb front squat, and 160 lb back squat. I invented a sort of hybrid between a kipping pullup and a butterfly pullup, completely because I was simply trying to string together a few kipping pullups. It was going great until I strained my achilles. It happened in the final ¹/₁₀^th of a mile in a workout. In 3 steps it went from fine to STOP!. Naturally, I was left with a sore foot and questions as to what sort of working out I could do while it recovered.

That night, I iced my heel for 4 rounds of 20 minutes with a 10 minute break between each round. That sucked and I was such a baby about it. I even used crutches to navigate the house. The next day, I decided I should go to the doctor (mistake). He said that I "probably" strained one of the ligaments in my foot and prescribed for me: Aleve. Great work doc. So that didn't help and wasted lots of time and a few copays. Fret not, for there was hope:

Enter the all-powerful Todd, aka another one of the trainers at the gym. He recommended a few things: warm up the muscle with biking or the elliptical if it would allow, stretch it very gently (stopping if there is any pain or discomfort), and use the foam roller on the lower calf, called the Soleus. After literally 15 minutes, I could hardly tell I'd hurt it. Praise be to Todd...and other bad puns were made after that. I found him the next day to thank him profusely for such valuable advice.

Next bit of advice, there are very few exercises that needed avoiding with the achilles issue. In summary, avoid anything that requires you to push off with your toes/ball of the foot. So no running, no box jumps, no burpees, etc. But really, that eliminates very few exercises. So how about some workouts that can be done with an annoyed achilles?

Fran

For time, 21-15-9 reps, for time of:

1. Thrusters at 95 lbs.
2. Pullups

The first one is "Fran", listed in the tip box. That one was difficult, mostly because I kept getting my hands out of position, placing them in position to do a front squat. Well, and the relative heavy weight I was using for the thrusters. Of course, the ever present worry of hurting my achilles kept me on my toes heels. Given how much of the leg exercising world is "push through your heels," as long as I did it right or even moderately right, the heel was just fine. I experienced no issues whatsoever with the achilles. The blisters on my hands are a different story. That many pullups are killer on the hands.

Push Press tutorial.

Today's workout is shaping up to be another nice one for the achilles. Rounds of 20-15-10-5 of 135 lb Push Press with a 300m row preceding each round; all for time. It'll be another day of remembering to push with the heels. Should something go wrong with it, I'll post an update to this.

When routines attack! (Changes to the routine)

Let's start with the usual smattering of updates. It's now start of week 45. I'm a single pound away from my goal. Since last update, I've had a nice break down at the lovely beaches of Orange Beach. It was cool for the beach; the water was cool but bearable. The population of jellyfish was not. So I got lots of time playing in the sand, and enjoyed some nice heated-pool swimming. Also, 4th anniversary celebrations took place, so there was nice (read: fatty/tasty) food consumed for a good portion of that week. With all that, the fact that I didn't lose ground is a major victory to me. Also, in an attempt to toughen my feet up and allow my knee to get used to running more, I'm running every workout day, increasing the speed by 0.5 mph each week. I hit 8 mph yesterday for the first time.

On to the more interesting stuffs. So last training session, I walked in and Trainer Dean had a big grin on his face. That always translates into an interesting (read: exhausting) time. Imagine, if you will, a burpee with a barbell in your hands for it. That'd be a pushup on the bar, then either a Clean & Jerk or Snatch. Today was the Clean & Jerk version.

The workout, counting number of reps for score: Power Clean & Jerk down into a pushup on the bar, 10 minutes. Follow that up with a mile sprint on the fan bike. The pushup, thankfully, was the easy part. Clean & Jerks are always an exhausting endeavor, and putting a time constraint on them didn't help. I managed 23 reps in the alloted time. Then the evil bike of doom loomed soon...other double 'o' words would be great here... Moving on, the fan bike was unkind. 3 minutes and 5 seconds of frantic breathing later, I was done. Back tired, legs tired, arms tired, and even the abs weren't happy. Great workout.

If you've only got 15 minutes to completely exhaust yourself and hit all those major muscle groups, try this. You'll hate it, but only because of the effectiveness. I'm probably gonna try the Snatch version today.

We're Going to Overtime!

If you already know what I'm writing at least part of this blog about...neat! How'd you do that? Anyway, yesterday marked my assessment after the 40th week of this fitness trip. During it, which by the way is simply a combination of standing on a scale then having electrodes taped to you for maybe 20 seconds, I learned a few things that I frankly did not like. First, though, I was 2.5 lbs from my goal weight, which is a record low (I'm still heading to overtime to finish). But that pretty much ended the good part of the experience.

Let's start with the accuracy of the machine. It has a +/- 5% margin of error. That's rather huge. Rather than consider where this machine is, I'm just going to take the information at face value. So, the previous readings had me sitting at 17.8% body fat and having lost 4 pounds of muscle in the six months since my initial assessment. Also, I was 20 pounds lighter. This time I was only 10 lbs lighter than I was 4 months ago, but I assumed, wrongly, it was because I was bottoming out on reasonable fat loss. Instead, now my body fat percentage is down to, drum roll please, 17.2%. Yes, a 0.6% reduction. I found that result troubling. Because with a 10 pound drop and only a 0.6% reduction in body fat meant I lost mostly muscle. In fact, roughly 8 out of the lost 10 pounds were muscle. So I quickly turned the discussion to why.

The readers of the blog and several web crawling bots for search engines know that my workouts recently have been more gymnastic in nature, doing exercises with body-weight resistance. These are great exercises to get stronger and trim down. Essentially, the body will adapt to doing such movements and exercises by making them easier over time. This can happen by making you stronger and/or lighter. Seems my body picked "and." Of course, I think even with the lack of muscle I'm stronger now. In retrying some previous workouts, I've done better in every case. One in particular, I beat my previous time by nearly 8 minutes.

With the end of the weight portion of my goals coming very close to an end, it's time to pick a new goal. Mine is now to get to 10-12% body fat while maintain my weight. That means lifting heavy again and keeping my protein intake up. But before I end this post, I'll put in one last workout that caused a considerable amount of sweat to drip onto my glasses.

This one is called "Dumbbell Hell," and each exercise you will have a dumbbell in each hand. Four rounds for time of the following: 8 manmakers, 10 shoulder raises, 15 lying down leg raises, and 20 push presses. There are two that need a little explanation. A manmaker is accomplished by getting into a pushup position dumb bells in hand and on the floor. Adjust the position by spreading your feet about shoulder width apart. From that position, do a pushup, then a one-armed row with each arm. That's one manmaker (though there are many variations of this move). The leg raises are accomplished by first laying flat on your back, arms extended like you're making an 'I' on the floor, dumbbells in hand. Keeping your feet together and legs straight, raise your legs until they're just past perpendicular with your body, then lower them back to within a few inches of the ground. That's a single lying-down leg raise.

This was a toughy. I used 20 lb dumbbells for this one. The manmakers are actually kinda fun. It kinda feels like you're training for some sort of MMA fight. The shoulder raises were too heavy to do completely correctly. That's more weight than I'm used to, so I had to add a bit of a kip to it to complete them. The leg raises...had to learn the hard way pull a bit with those hands under the dumbbell. It really helped. Finally, the push press. Take an easy move and do 20 of them for time and suddenly they get hard. I finished in 22:23. The relaxing collapse to the floor afterward was well-deserved.

Updated: 2 Posts in One Week?!

Update

The stretching has actually had a noticeable effect on the knee. I ran for the third time in a week and actually experienced no pain!

Yes, two. I've recently been on a kick of posting my workouts, so here are two more...after another lovely introduction and maybe some color commentary from Steve (there is no Steve, it's just a name I find funny and can't figure out why). This week, I've shared a bit about that pesky IT band that's been causing me problems for a while now. I'm on day 6 of stretching that thing twice a day, and I really can't tell a difference yet. Qué será, será. I wasn't expecting overnight success with it, and haven't noticed any regression or anything, so I'll stay the course with the stretching for the next several weeks. Also this week, I'm now under 3 pounds from my goal! Barely. 2.75 to be precise. The weight loss has slowed way down so close to the end. Slacking a bit with my workouts has been a problem that I'm attempting to solve this week. Enough rambling, on with the workouts.

The first is a full body workout that is just cruel in its construction. Starting with 10 reps of each exercise, and increasing by 10 each round, do 5 rounds of Pushups, Situps, and Body Squats for time. But wait, we're not done!. Separate each round with a 1/4 mile run. This work out is so deceptive because you can practically coast through the first 3 rounds like you've done nothing. Then, out of nowhere (not really), round 4 hits. 40 pushups sucks, 40 situps is a nice break, 40 body squats takes away any remaining breath, then the running. Ugh! And there's one more round after that. If the grammar police in your head hates the sentence with the 40s in it, I'm referring to the act of doing 40 of that exercise. Feel free to reread that sentence, placing "The act of doing" before each if it helps you.

Exercise demos:

1. Overhead Squat
2. Back Extensions
3. One-armed Russian Kettlebell Swing*

* - Links to a tutorial series about using kettlebells. Number 7 is the one-armed tutorial.

Next, we have the killer core workout. For a quick reference, your core is not just your abs, but rather all the muscles that hold up and stabilize your torso. This one is an AMRAP in 20 minutes workout. Each round consists of 5 Overhead Squat, 12 situps, 10 Back Extensions, 5 One-armed Russian kettlebell swings per arm. This one was brutal in two spots: the overhead squat and the back extensions. Situps and kettlebell swings are nothing compared to those two. I only made it through 5 rounds of this before it was suggested that I stop. The concern was that I wouldn't be able to move the next day (today actually). Fear not, for I can move! But seriously, you'll feel this in your lower back real quick.

That's all I have this time. These two workouts were good ones, the first as a whole-body, sweat-inducing sessions, the second as a targeted wear-out session. Enjoy.

Possible Solution to Knee Pain While Running

Ok, so we know flexibility is vitally important for over strength and fitness. It helps prevent injury, reduces stress on joints, all kinds of nice things. It may even buy you that pony you've been asking for since you were 4. But I found out this week that flexibility, poor flexibility at that, may be the source of my knee pain while running.

Let me set the stage with a little background into the problem. When I'm running or walking a long way, eventually I'll get an annoying pain along the outside of my knee. This will usually go away after I stop for a while and there's never any swelling or inflammation that I can see. Browsing the interwebs like I do pointed to a few sites that finally were able to clear it up. The problem is not in my knee, it's my Iliotibial Band, aka the IT Band.

Fitting, I know, for the IT guy at work to have IT Band issues, right? Sheesh. So this particular piece of you runs along the side of you from your hip to your knee. When, as in my case, the band is too tight, the friction of rubbing back and forth along the side of the knee causes pain after a while. Through a clever use of foreshadowing, you do, in fact, rightly know that flexibility is the answer to fixing this problem...provided you'd rather not have surgery.

IT Band Stretch

Sitting on the floor, legs straight out in front of you, cross the injured/annoying leg over the other, and pull your knee as close as you can to the opposite armpit

If you are currently among those that experience this kind of pain, you've got a stretching regimen ahead of you. Running Times has a lovely article on many stretches to help this problem. I've highlighted the stretch I use in the tip box. Plan on warming up and stretching at least 2 times per day, especially before and after running or walking. This won't be a quick fix--and I'm only on day 3 of it so I can't tell you just how long to expect--but barring an actual doctor's advice or intervention, this could help.

Start of week 40 is today, we'll see how the weight looks tonight.

New kinds of tired

I'm thinking there must be some part of me that enjoys being "that" kind of tired. You know, the kind where you can't quite justify all the effort required to sit up straight. Or put another way, the kind where the personal trainer manager commends the trainer on a job well done. It sucks, as it should, but man was it a good workout.

Exercise demo

Power Snatch

The workout is as follows, as many rounds in 15 minutes of: 10 box jumps, 10 power snatch, 10 situps. I'd never done box jumps, literally jumping up on a box, so I was rather excited to try it out as an exercise. In general, I enjoy jumping and find it relatively easy to even repeatedly. The problem is that these easy things get you winded, then the power snatch goes from hard to worse. Of course, the 10 situps at the end of the round were a nice break before hitting up box jumps again.

I was doing the box jump onto a 20" box. I never really had a close call on the jumps. It was just a test of how quickly and safely I could jump on and off the box. Then the 65 lbs I was using for the power snatch started rather heavy. In fact, that's the heaviest I've ever used in any snatch. Adding the deadlift before the actual snatch move makes the lift a little easier because the weight is not stationary at the start. After three or four rounds, though, my favorite part of it was simply dropping the bar and watching it bounce away comically. It should be noted I was using rubber bumper weights designed such a thing.

I nearly finished 5 full rounds of this in the 15 minutes. Nearly means I'd just finished the 8th sit up. I finished the round outside the alloted time though because I wasn't about to stop with 2 to go. After that, my butt was successfully and sufficiently kicked.

It's a good workout for those days where you have very little time but want to barely walk out of the gym under your own power. I look forward to incorporating it into the rotation.

Speaking of that, it's now the middle of week 39 and I'm 3 pounds from my goal. Looks like I'm going to miss it by a few weeks. These last few pounds have really been crawling off slowly. It's likely a very similar rate that they started creeping on. 3 more pounds, just 3 more pounds.

The fastest way yet to get completely exhausted

Yesterday's workout had all the makings of not being too terrible. Or maybe I built it up in my head that way because I had to go cut the grass afterwards. Regardless, I was quite mistaken, but happy about it. I'd been meaning to do more of a full body workout for a while now, and I was not disappointed. I was sucking wind, dripping sweat off my glasses, and so thoroughly exhausted at the end of it I just stayed on the floor for about 5 minutes before doing anything else.

Over-the-bar Burpee

Burpee Demo. The over-the-bar part comes in by simply jumping over the bar you used for power cleans.

The workout itself is rather basic, but this is just a front, don't let that pretty face fool you. It involves rounds of Power Clean (which is the combination of deadlift to hang clean) plus Over-the-bar Burpees. 5 rounds, for time, and a {15, 12, 9, 6, 3} rep scheme for the rounds. I happen to be fairly bad at both exercises, so it was especially fun.

I learned a few things during this adventure. The primary lesson is that the more fatigued you are, the better your power clean form becomes because most of the muscles you could use for cheating the move are tired. Next, the proper starting position for a burpee is not a locked-out pushup position. Rather, start in a crouch with your arms locked and knees bent and pulled up next to your elbows. You essentially imitate a dog's sitting position but with your butt off the floor. From there, kick your feet out while simultaneously dropping your chest to the floor. Oddly enough, this uses a lot less energy that slowly lowering yourself from the pushup position. Oh, the things we learn out of necessity.

Even after learning such lessons, Rounds 1 through 4 were brutal. By Round 5, I was so thoroughly ready for it all to be over, I did a full Power Clean and Jerk to end the Power Clean round, and finished the last burpee with a nice half twist...so I could land facing the conquered bar.

New Milestones Reached!

Progress is a wonderful thing and has revealed itself in two ways this week. I've crossed under the 170 pound mark! Next, I've conquered level 14 on the Elliptical! That was thoroughly exhausting, so thoroughly I was too tired to stretch for a good 10 minutes after finishing. Speaking of stretching, yesterday I achieved putting my palms on the ground in the standard toe-touch motion. Massive achievement for my flexibility. A bit of workout restructuring has gone into my workouts of late, too.

I mentioned a few posts ago about changing how I just work out. I've put together a few successful and a few unsuccessful workouts since then. The ineffective workout consisted of rounds of isolation exercises: fly, skull crushers, and shoulder raises...possibly one more.

Absurdly effective works mostly include some variation of pushup, pullup, squat, and situp. One of them was five rounds for time of each exercise, with a time limit of 25 minutes for the whole thing. I finished in 24 minutes after considerable prodding from my trainer. Another effective one was for reps pushups and pullups, again 5 rounds. I got 177 and could barely move after it. Generally speaking, before I start these rounds, I'll generally do some sort of power lift, squat clean or squat snatch. The jury is still out on yesterday's work: squat snatch, then rounds of bench press, pullups, and situps. I think it could have been more effective, but I'll have to play with it a bit more to get it right.

Running technique is still winning. My instructions were to essentially pick my legs up a bit like I was marching highstep and place my foot down, ball first then let the heel touch lightly afterward. Make sure not to keep calf flexed the whole time otherwise you'll end up with the same terribly sore calves that I keep earning myself when I screw up the technique. With all that in mind, I ran again only to have a leg cramp only 12 minutes in. Still, it's a work in progress and hopefully I'll get it figured soon.

Video Capture with MultiSampling in DirectX for Mortals (C#)

For the last 10 days, I've been tasked with fixing the company graphics engine's video capture component. I have enough DirectX experience to know that it exists, what it is, and what it looks like. But I have enough programming experience to be able to decipher just about any code in a language I can read. Thanks to Google, my former co-worker, Brendon, and my Italian heritage for getting me through this. Now, let me show you what might help you along this path.

There are a few things that should be mentioned before we get started: Fraps is an awesome tool that does this exact thing most likely better than I did it; We could not use Fraps in this case because the requirements for the video were that it have a constant, predefined frame rate; and the Direct X documentation is horrible in some cases. Also, I'm going to assume you can get a frame rendered. If you can't do that much, start somewhere else, then come back once you have that down.

So, Direct X has your RenderTarget and you want to save that info. And all you really want is for the InvalidCallExceptions to quit popping up and ruining your day with the message, "There is an error in your application." The technique I used was a combination of threading and copying the RenderTarget to an OffScreenPlainSurface in system memory.

I created an object called SurfaceCollector to handle collecting copying the surface into system memory and getting the GraphicsStream from its data. For every frame that came into my capture object, I copied the surface to that OffScreenPlainSurface and then queued the operation, SurfaceLoader.SaveToStream to run in its own thread. This allowed for the renderer to start working on the next frame while this was being stored to the video. I had another thread running to take the ready-to-use streams and save them to the video.

Copying proved difficult because I made the mistake of following Direct X's documentation. Since we're multisampling, you can't copy it directly. You have to create another RenderTarget without multisampling. Call StretchRectangle to copy data to the non-multisampled RenderTarget, but you must pass in a Rectangle that is the size of your surface; the documentation says you can pass in null, but C# won't allow structs to be null... Then you can call GetRenderTargetData to get the non-multisampled data into your surface in system memory.

The relevant code (slightly modified from my original to make it more relevant):

Create a Queue of the following object:

private class SurfaceCollector
{
    private        Surface        surface = null;
    private        Boolean        done = false;
    private        GraphicsStream stream = null;
    private static Rectangle      screenRect = Rectangle.Empty;

    public SurfaceCollector(Surface s)
    {
        //Set the screen rectangle if it's not already
        if (screenRect == Rectangle.Empty)
        {
            screenRect = new Rectangle(0, 0, s.Description.Width, s.Description.Height);
        }
        Copy(s);
    }

    /// 

    /// Copies the rendered surface to a non-multisampled surface
    /// then to an OffScreenPlainSurface in system memory.
    /// 
    /// 
    private void Copy(Surface s)
    {
        Surface tempSurface = Device.CreateRenderTarget(
            s.Description.Width,
            s.Description.Height,
            s.Description.Format,
            MultiSampleType.None,
            0,
            false
            );

        Device.StretchRectangle(s, screenRect, tempSurface, screenRect, TextureFilter.None);

        surface = Engine.Instance.Device.CreateOffscreenPlainSurface(
            s.Description.Width,
            s.Description.Height,
            s.Description.Format,
            Pool.SystemMemory
            );

        Device.GetRenderTargetData(tempSurface, surface);

        tempSurface.Dispose();
        tempSurface = null;
    }

    /// 

    /// Retrieves a GraphicsStream from the surface, call this method before accessing the Stream property.
    /// 
    public void GetStream()
    {
        try
        {
            stream = SurfaceLoader.SaveToStream(ImageFileFormat.Bmp, surface);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            //Handle your errors gracefully
        }
        done = true;
    }

    /// 

    /// Signals if the thread is done retrieving the stream
    /// 
    public Boolean Done
    {
        get { return done; }
    }

    /// 

    /// If a successful call to GetStream() has occured, return that stream,
    /// otherwise return null.
    /// 
    public GraphicsStream Stream
    {
        get
        {
            if (done)
                return stream;
            return null;
        }
    }

    /// 

    /// Frees all resources used by this object.
    /// 
    public void CleanUp()
    {
        if (surface != null && !surface.Disposed)
        {
            surface.Dispose();
            surface = null;
        }
        if (stream != null)
        {
            stream.Close();
            stream.Dispose();
            stream = null;
        }
    }
}
  

And the QueueProcessor Thread

private void ProcessQueue()
{
    while (true)
    {
        //Thread is done, break the loop
        if (waitingToClose && queue.Count == 0)
            break;
        while (queue.Count == 0 || !queue.Peek().Done)
        {
            //To prevent deadlock, check to see if we're waiting to finish
            if (waitingToClose)
                break;
            Thread.Sleep(25);
        }
        //To prevent deadlock, if we've left the previous loop and the queue is empty, we're done.
        if (queue.Count == 0)
            break;

        SurfaceCollector collector = queue.Dequeue();
        try
        {
            CaptureFrameFromGraphicsStream(collector.Stream);
        }
        catch (Direct3D.Direct3DXException ex)
        {
            //Handle your errors gracefully
        }
        finally
        {
            collector.CleanUp();
            collector = null;
            GC.Collect();
        }
    }
}
  

CreateFrameFromGraphicsStream() is a little too tied to the code base for me to put it here, but there are techniques all over the web for that part. It calls another method, AddFrame(). The technique for this is also all over the web.

I really hope this helps you in your endeavors.

Another "Your Doin' it Rong!" and a killer workout

If I hadn't established such a pattern of it, it would've been surprising when I screwed up squats again... But yesterday, personal training day, I decided what I really wanted was for the trainer to give me a good workout. It was way, way, way, way, way too good.

Tip

For a proper squat, go down just past parallel, no more than that!

Before I get to the workout, I want to address squats, again. As any regular reader of this blog knows (and I don't know if such a thing exists), I've been having trouble with squats since switching shoes. It could have been happening the whole time, the shoe switch definitely triggered something. Yesterday, during the workout, Dean told me I was going down too far in my squats and that once I got down there is where I was losing my balance. Interesting. Why did that never occur to me? So I had him call out when it was time to go back up. Result: didn't fall over at all, and only once was there even a bit of concern.

On to the killer workout. This will take up to 30 minutes, but if you last that long I commend you. The workout: 5 rounds, for time of:

1. 7 Heavy Front Squats
2. 0.5 Mile Bike ride
3. 12* Sit-up Slams

*though the real workout calls for 15

The heavy front squat is just that, a weight you can really only do 7 or so of in a set. The half mile bike ride, also self-explanatory, but go as fast as you can. Sit-up Slams take a bit of explanation. All it requires is a bit of flat ground and a medicine ball, preferably one that won't hold it's shape upon impact. Start out by laying down on the floor with your legs straight and your arms straight behind your head with the medicine ball in your hands. Essentially, you'll be in the shape of a lower case 'i.' From there, bring the medicine ball over yourself like you're trying to throw it at your feet (don't let go yet) while simultaneously bringing your feet in quickly to stand up. This needs to be a quick motion, otherwise you'll fall backward and have to try again. The real objective of this motion is to go from laying down to standing with the medicine ball. Once you're steady on your feet, raise the medicine ball over your head and slam it into the ground as hard as you can.

As mentioned, the goal of this is to go for time. You do 5 rounds as fast as you can. I made it, literally, through 2 rounds and had to stop for a long while to recover. Ugh. But hey, not bad for getting lifting and cardio out of the way in like 12 minutes or so, huh? If you try this routine, let me know how it goes, and if I was just being a wuss for stopping after 2 rounds ;)

Week 32 update

Quick update on progress. We're in the home stretch now. 5.75 pounds to go. Even some of my new pants are getting a bit loose :) In case you're wondering, though, the temptations for both recreational eating and overeating are still there. I'll probably have to work on these two things for a long time to get them under control.

On the falling-on-my-butt front, those stretches I mentioned a few posts ago are really helping, but only if I do them before I attempt squats. I even managed to land a few squat snatches. The bruise on my butt is there to remind me that not only did I not land some, I fell in a spectacular way! Seriously, I was really just attempting to get the form down so I was using the bar plus the 10-pound bumpers. The deadlift portion went fine, but when I pulled for the snatch, the bar went way out in front of me. So when it arrived overhead, it wanted to keep going. I stopped it, but the force required to stop it sent forward at a fairly alarming rate. Also, conservation of momentum kicked in and backwards I went. I fell, I slid, I rolled, and then I laughed at just how loud that crash was. Ego bruised, I took a bit of a break before trying again. More technical issues to fix...

If you're doing those lifts, or any for that matter, tighten those abs. I'm terrible about that, but it helps with stability.

Other ways to work out

If you've not heard of Cross Fit, they have an interesting take on exercise. It's rather similar to the P90X commercials you've probably seen on TV. They have a rotating schedule of exercise and rest days that seems to number in the dozens; each day is something different. The problem I have with Cross Fit is nothing with their philosophy, which I think is sound, but their price. To be a Cross Fit member, one must pay a bunch of money (read: single class college tuition). It has its benefits, naturally: They have instructors, facilities, and even competitions between members. I have a gym membership, a trainer, and I fairly often compete with myself, so what from Cross Fit to apply to my own workouts?

Checking out their "Workout of the Day" (WOD), they do a lot of different exercises and measure it a lot of different ways. Sometimes, it's the usual max reps at a given weight, or max weight. Other times it's for time, or count how many rounds you can do of a small circuit of just a few exercises. Now we're on to something.

Usually, I've simply gone for completing my circuit at the cost of time. Ask my wife, my workouts have been getting longer and longer. Sadly, I've only added one exercise to the mix, but it has to be separate from the others. Also, those stretches that I mentioned a post or two back take a lot of time. As fun as it is to be at the gym for 2 hours a day, it's a bit time consuming. So, if I continue to do roughly 30 to 40 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of stretching, that leaves a large window to get done in under 2 hours.

I've decided to change up my routine a bit to be more accommodating of this goal. Do 3 rounds of my routine, 1 set per exercise, with a rest period in between, and go for time. If I'm not actively seeking to better some metric, it won't get better. Previously, it's just been for completing the sets at the heavier weight. Maybe this new method will get me done in the gym quicker, getting just as much work done in a shorter time.

I see no problem with mimicking good ideas. We'll see how this works for me.

Do or do not, there is no try ~ Yoda

A nicely quotable bit of wisdom, but it's only true in binary outcomes, such as Pass/Fail, or Win/Lose. Only a portion of what we do, when broken way down, comes to a binary outcome. Thankfully, the rest of the world measures degree of effort/success. That is what I want to address today: How hard are you willing to try at something?

For me, if it's something that I can compete at, my philosophy is: I will try harder than you. You may beat me with natural talent, better skill, or whatever, but I will try harder than you. I know that regardless of outcome, I did everything I knew how to do to accomplish the task including asking for help. For example: in one of my math classes in college, I literally got another corresponding textbook and did all homework problems from both it and the class's textbook to ensure I got a good grade. Another: yesterday at work was an over-lunch meeting, which I attended and watched everyone eat pizza knowing that my food was waiting for me in the fridge. I happened to be sitting next to one of the people that complained about how easy it is for me to lose weight compared to her. She had pizza...and complimented my diligence.

The majority of my dieting/getting fit experience has been a test of how hard I am willing to try. Am I willing to barely finish my cardio every single time thanks to increasing the resistance/speed/etc.? Am I willing to stretch for 20 minutes after workout? Am I willing to workout even if I'm tired? As it turns out, yes. It's absolutely exhausting, painful, blister-inducing, and working. It's working without the need for "miracle" pills, trendy diets, or more elaborate means. It's working and satisfying because I know my efforts have led to this success.

Of course, sometimes efforts fail, even when you try your hardest. If you're willing to try your best, you have to accept that sometimes it is just not meant to be and learn from it. I learned in school that my future will never be in algorithm research and development. I studied, I read, I did the homework, but no matter what I did, I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I did "so well" at it I got the unfortunate honor of repeating the class. I kept trying; I passed the class; but did not further pursue algorithms in my course work. I learned one of my limitations, so all that effort was not wasted. It just pointed me in a different direction.

Lastly, if you're not willing to try hard, then accept that diminished effort for what it is. Only lament a failure for the fact that you weren't willing to try, not because you failed at it. That's a lesson I have to relearn from time to time. Did I try my best at X? No? Then how can I justify being upset by it? So then I get to explore the wildly more informative question: Why didn't I try my best? Oh, Mr. Achilles Heel. Nice to see you again. Why am I always surprised when you show up?

Next time you think about what you want to accomplish, ask yourself how hard are you willing to try to do it?

Week 30 Update

Can it be that I've been at this for 30 weeks already? Jeez. Doesn't seem that long honestly. My weight started migrating down again, thank goodness, setting a new record low just yesterday at 172. That's 26 pounds lost in 30 weeks. So, I have 10 weeks to lose those final 7 pounds. Given the recent pace, that might be an optimistic goal...

One recent problem I've encountered is squats. Not one specific kind of squats either, but rather all squats. The comical problem I'm having is that I keep falling backward while doing them. This, as you may have guessed if you're a personal trainer with knowledge of how I learned them, is a result of switching shoes.

I mentioned last time that I got those funny looking Vibram Five-Finger shoes. They're not just for running, but for lifting too. They're flat, and the lack of cushion means more power gets sent into the floor rather than dissipated. I learned to squat wearing -- in my opinion the most comfortable shoes available -- New Balance 992s. These have a wedge in the heel like most all shoes. I had been accounting for that wedge when learning to get back in my heels for squats. Now that the wedge isn't there, I'm still going back that far, but it's now too far. Therefore, I spend a lot of time getting myself up off the floor.

Even more time has been spent doing body squats. In fact, instead of my usual "leg day" exercises, I've been exclusively doing body squats. Slow, focusing on form, up and down and up and down and get up off the floor and up and down... It gets a little tedious, then the remaining 25 minutes just creep by. Oddly, flexibility is one of the factors that make this exercise easier. Trainer Dean showed me a few stretches that really helped get me back on the right track

The first one stretches the inner thighs. For this one, start out by laying down on the floor with one hip right up against a wall (that you can put your feet on without getting in trouble). Turn 90 degrees so that your butt is up against the wall and place both feet together flat against the wall as close to your body as you can get them. Now, place your arms, elbows out, between your knees. For 8 seconds, push your elbows against the side of your knees while simultaneously pushing your knees against your elbows. Then, for 8 seconds, push your knees out using both your elbows and your legs, keeping your feet flat on the wall. Move your feet a few inches apart, and repeat. Keep doing rounds of this until you're in an actual squat stance. Of note, this is exhausting on the hips. Also, immediately after I did this stretch the first time I was able to squat properly. Your mileage may vary, but it was a marked improvement for me.

Hamstrings time! For this one, you'll need either your gym towel or some rope. Lay down on the floor with your feet together. Holding the rope with both hands, bring one knee up toward your chest, and arch the rope around the middle of your foot. Choke up on the rope, leaving 4 to 6 inches of rope between your foot and your hand on either side. Now, keeping your hips against the floor, attempt to straighten your leg, pushing with the heel, while pulling hard on the rope. Your leg will shake doing this, it's normal. Hold it for 8 seconds then bring your knee to your chest for a few seconds. Repeat this 2 more times, then do the other leg. This particular stretch was incredibly effective on me. In a normal toe touch stretch right after doing this the first time, I was able to reach more than an inch further. Not bad for a single stretch.

Increasing flexibility and practicing will fix my squat. Now, it's on me to do just that.

It's high time I learned how to run

I believe I've regressed a bit...with running. One thing I never really knew until spring semester of my senior year of high school is that I am a fast runner. Not blistering, football player competitive, mind you, but fast considering my training...consisting of nothing at all. I was the fast guy on the flag football team, usually charged with running down their fast guy with the ball. Then, graduating from college meant that flag football ended, along with my excuses to run like that. Combine that with the programming lifestyle, and things get forgotten. Thus we have where we are today.

As mentioned previously, my knees would hurt when I ran. Especially when I ran for extended periods (ok, maybe like 5 minutes). Conflict! I want to run; I have fun running fast; I'm terrible at distance running; my knees hurt when I do it. With the help of my personal trainer, Dean, we're ironing out most of the bad parts about my running.

So, to fix the knees hurting, I had to work on my technique. Specifically, I have to avoid what they (the people who invent these terms) call "heel striking" or landing with my heel first. I've mentioned that before, but it was important to reiterate. In addition to the change, I've purchased some shoes to help with it. They are Vibram FiveFinger shoes. These promote the barefoot style of running in a seemingly brutal way: they have no padding. They have rubber on the sole to protect your feet, but they run just like you're running on whatever surface you're on.

With those, the knees are fine but apparently my calves are convinced they should rebel. Oh my goodness, this switch in technique has killed them. Dean recommended stepping down the time running and work my way back up. That worked fine until 25 minutes. With that, one calf stayed sore for over a week. Thankfully, I realized I was being stupid.

I relearned a valuable lesson...warm up before you run! Why, why, why did I forget that? Anyway, now my running consists of 5 minutes of very brisk walking before I run (4 to 5 mph on the treadmill). With that change, that obvious, obvious addition, my calf woes have been virtually eliminated. Plus, I can literally run an extra time per week. Lesson learned.

As for running for longer, it goes back to two things I've learned with my cardio: pacing, and breathing. I really have to focus on slowing down, especially for the few minutes until I'm in my rhythm. Now we're on to breathing, big deep breaths and pushing that air out so I can get enough back in. I try to pace it with my steps. In for two steps, out for two steps. If I get winded, in for one and out for one for about one minute. That gets me back in control so I can keep going.

After all this, I've gone from barely finishing the 3/4 mile lap around the neighborhood, to nearly 3 miles nonstop. If you're out to learn to run like I am, focus on technique first. The increased time and distance will come. Warm up first, run correctly while you're going, then stretch when you're done. You'll be good to go.

How I Justify Drinking My Sweet Tea

I got to thinking about it one day and wanted to see if my sweet tea recipe was really better than drinking a coke, both by volume and by how much I'd normally drink of it. I needed to do a little bit of math to help with this project, but math isn't the worst thing ever, right? So, what do we need to know?

Let's start with the hard parts: Calories per gram of sugar - between 3.5 and 4 (source). How many grams of sugar are there in a cup? From the same source as previous, approximately 200. Now we're primed for some math.

Normally, I like between 16 and 20 fluid ounces of whatever it is I'm drinking. Personal preference, I'd call it. And having consumed far too many 20 oz. cokes, I can attest that it's exactly what I want almost every time. Ok, so according to Coca-Cola, a 20 oz. coke has 65 grams of sugar and 240 calories. Given that many of my meals with this diet are right around 240 calories, it seems rather silly now to blow an entire meal by simply drinking a coke, plus not near as filling.

My sweet tea recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar per 3.5 quarts of water (and a gallon sized tea bag with Lipton or Luzianne being my brands). But, how does that compare to a coke? With 32 fluid ounces per quart, 3.5*32 = 112 fluid ounces per brew. Sugar per ounce would be 200 / 112 = ~1.785 g/oz. So, for a 20 oz. serving of tea, I'm looking at roughly 35.7 grams of sugar. Taking the worst case of 4 calories per gram, 20 ounces of my sweet tea is just under 143 calories.

So, I save myself 97 calories aka nearly 6 minutes on the elliptical by simply drinking tea instead of coke. Conversely, if I want to indulge, I know I can pay it off with 6 extra minutes on the elliptical. Neat :)

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't first mention that this is the recipe my mama taught me, so props and thanks go to her. And now, the recipe:

Recipe: Sweet Tea

• 1 Gallon Size Tea Bag (or 4 single serving tea bags)
• 1 Cup of Granulated Sugar
• 3.5 Quarts of Water

Boil at least 1 quart of water. Remove from heat, add sugar and tea bag. Let rest for 10 minutes. Remove tea bag and stir while adding remaining water. For stronger tea flavor, use more tea bags.

Temptation...

So, the diet's been going for a good while now, 6 months in fact. I've seen nice steady progress up until the last few weeks and the "plateau of motivational destruction." During that time, we've had lots of cakes, cup cakes, homemade ice cream, cookies, and other extra foods all in the house. And they're good too, my wife's an excellent baker...which tends to be a problem. So, how do I deal with the temptation of all these?

Tip

If you've used food as a reward, find a new reward.

Part of the dieting process is psychological, learning enough about your thought processes to find why you're not at the weight you want to be. For me, it was that I would use food as a reward. For example, we'd celebrate virtually every significant accomplishment with a "nice dinner." So now I've had to replace that reward with a fun activity like watching a movie or playing a game. Now that I've got the reward part, it's time to apply it.

Oh those tempting cupcakes, how good would one be right now? Quite! But, as mentioned, is it worth 12 minutes on the elliptical for something I'd eat just to eat? Nope. Sometimes that's not enough though. Rewarding myself for good behavior had to become my staple. "Great job, me! Here, watch this movie you like!" Yes, this is exactly like training a dog. Who ever said that it could only apply to dogs? I'm trying to correct my own behavior, so why not reward myself when I do the good thing? Makes sense to me.

Needless to say, .

Kidding. With the recent influx of tasty treats in the house, I've gotten some good game and movie time in. Of course, I've slipped up too, which could explain my recent plateau. I realize that I've given no direct advice on reducing temptations, because I honestly don't know how to reduce them. However, I do have one piece of summary advice:

Temptations will always be around, so reward yourself when you don't succumb to them.

Finding Motivation during a Plateau

So for the last three weeks, I've been stuck at the same weight. Just like in anything else, this is known as hitting a plateau. Great. I work my butt off for 3 straight weeks with nothing to show for it. Naturally, I start to question what I've changed and what I should change to get things going in the right direction again. Then again, maybe it's just one number that's not changing...

I know exactly what I've changed. In my diet, I went from having a double serving of a protein shake for lunch (240 calories) and almonds as a snack later (85 calories) to a meal that didn't leave me feeling terrible every day by the time I got to the gym. Now, it's 4 oz. sliced turkey breast (116 calories) and 6 fl. oz. fruit-on-the-bottom greek yogurt (140 calories) for lunch, and a banana (~125 calories) plus some peanut butter (~95 calories) as a snack. That is approximately a 151 calorie per day gain. But, I also increased the number of days at the gym by 2, one being cardio-only. Averaged over a week, that should actually result in another 1000 calories lost. There is potential that I'm taking in too much protein and not enough fat, so I may have to make some additional changes to my diet to make sure I'm not hindering myself. Also, let's not forget that dinners could be the problem. Lazy cooking (aka, reheating pizza) could have easily put my entire diet plan off.

Looking at the numbers, though. In the time I've been in the plateau, I've increased the weight attempted on bench press (both dumbbell and barbell), incline bench press, shoulder raise, triceps extensions, and reverse fly. I've also come much closer to completing my current weight on front squat and overhead squat. Also, I'm completing the full 30 minutes of level 13 elliptical with more regularity. One thing is that I've had to eliminate pull up, hang clean, and hang snatch from my routines while my neck has been sore, coinciding quite nicely with this plateau. Maybe we're on to something here.

Regardless, I'm still making progress in some areas, so it's not time to try anything drastic. I let my progress, weight or otherwise, be my motivator. As long as I'm making progress, I'm not going to worry too much. Though, maybe the lazy fare needs to be better for me.

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 8)

In my last post I mentioned one dieting tip, and I'd like to put out a few more, along with some of the principles that companies like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig use.

Let's start with those principles. It's long been accepted by the fitness and nutrition communities that 3500 calories lost will cause you to lose a pound. Also, eating more often keeps your metabolism high. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, etc. all use these principles to help you lose weight. They will absolutely work if you follow them strictly and are only after losing weight. Most of them will tell you that you can expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week. They design their diets to hit that mark. If your body needs 2000 calories a day to function, they have tests to determine this, then taking in 1500 calories per day will result in losing a pound a week. These same companies try to get you to eat more often along with the caloric reduction, usually 4 to 5 times per day. My guess is they do this to try to ensure their success because they probably assume you cheat regularly.

Rather than recommend simply starting one of these for weight loss, I'm going to address one thing that these companies don't really specify but that happens. Weight loss is not fat loss, but that's generally the true goal of people participating in these programs. Your body is not going to take that caloric debt and do nothing about it. It is going to pull those calories from somewhere to ensure its survival. But it's not going to be completely discriminant when it does. Sure, it'll take fat, but it will also take muscle. Would you really like to be less fit as a result of dieting? I know I wouldn't.

Increasing my fitness level was my goal when I started my journey. I did not want to lose muscle due to losing weight. That's where resistance training comes in. Building muscles and strength is the way to good fat loss. Muscles need fuel to work, and they get that from the food you eat and the fat you have. I went with the philosophy of eating nearly enough to fulfill my calorie requirements and exercising to about a 500 calorie loss. I have averaged losing nearly a pound per week during this diet and only 4 of them have been muscle (which probably wouldn't have happened if I didn't do so much cardio). I'll stop there with dieting technobabble and get on to the tips

The first tip is incredibly important regardless of your motives, measure what you take in (even if it's just noting the nutritional information on the label). For example, I know I eat 4 ounces of turkey breast and 6 oz. of greek yogurt for lunch. This will help you know how much you're eating and where you can cut back if you need to.

Have a daily calorie goal. If you're trying to lose weight, make sure you get enough to not feel sick or lightheaded. That level depends on the person, so there's no general number I can tell you.

Colorful food is both more visually and mentally appealing, watch your favorite tv chef and see what they do for presentation. Not everything has to come in some shade of brown or green. More appealing food is easier to say yes to. Brighten up that salad with some nice yellow squash, orange carrots or mandarin oranges, red tomatoes, maybe even some red onions or cabbage. Conveniently, fruits and vegetables come in lots of colors, are low in calories, filling, and full of those vitamins we need. Use a variety of them in your meals to help you be more excited to eat food that's good for you.

Fat is not a bad thing to be avoided at all costs. But, like everything in life, moderation is key. Also, vegetable fats are better for you because they much more digestible. Saturated fat, which comes mostly from animals, is not digestible and is one to keep to a minimum. In fact, the name "saturated" tells you that it's not digestible. The level of saturation refers to the number of available hydrogen bonding points. A fat that is saturated has none available, so our stomach acid (hydrochloric) can't bind to it and break it apart. In summary, get your fats primarily from vegetables and nuts, and eat lean meats like poultry and fish.

Eat only when you're hungry, but whenever you actually get hungry. If you get hungry every 3 hours, don't just sit there and starve, have something ready to eat and eat it. I keep almonds around for stacks between meals, a little over a handful is about 85 calories and enough to tide me over until lunch or dinner.

Have a cheat day once a week. Don't go insane and drink a tub of warm shortening or anything, but designate one day per week to get those guilty pleasures in. It's a whole lot easier to stick to a diet if you don't have to give up everything cold turkey.

Final tip, to keep your grazing (defined as eating when you're not hungry) to a minimum, think of how long it will take you to burn off those extra calories. If you will put in the extra work, have that extra snack. Personally, I look at it in terms of minutes on the elliptical. So I look at the can of Mountain Dew and think, "Is this really worth 10 extra minutes on the elliptical?"

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 7)

So, I've been over what I've done exercise-wise and why, now let's address the changes I've made in life to positively affect it's quality, fitness or otherwise.

First, let's address more of the common knowledge that people gloss over. You've been taught it since you were little--ignoring it then and today--but it's all quality advice. Eat your fruits and vegetables, drink lots of water, get plenty of sleep, and go outside and play. Oh how many influential people in my life told me that stuff. It's probably the best advice you can impart in 15 seconds...well aside from the occasional "Duck!" but that's situational at best. Applying this advice is the hard part.

Palatable salad dressing tip: get your favorite, high-fat dressing on the side. Compose your bite then dip it in the dressing.

Eating fruits and vegetables is hard in busy schedules. Usually we get some veggies through salads at restaurants, those are easy, but it's side dishes to restaurant meals where I get my veggies in. I try to get as many veggies as possible with my meal. Also, I eat them first. I figure, if I'm not as hungry when I get to my inevitably-worse-for-me dinner, I'll eat less of it. But what about getting more fruit?

This has been a tough one for me. I absolutely love most fruit but rarely eat any of them, so I had to make a real effort to get them. A banana a day gives me a ton of lasting energy, so much so that I can't go to sleep within 2 to 3 hours of eating one. Plus they keep for 5-7 days without any special effort. Other than that, I've recently taken to a diet that has me eating some Fruit-on-the-bottom Greek Yogurt. I'll address that more in the next post.

Water. Great tasting, smooth and creamy, and enticing are all phrase I don't use to describe water. But, I learned a fair number of things about water and being thirsty. If you're that bored, look up how your body uses water and in how many ways. Until I started drinking water regularly, I couldn't tell when I was thirsty at all. Of course, I didn't exercise and was rather inactive, so maybe my case isn't that unique. Today, I focus on drinking lots of water. Usually 32 fluid ounces between lunch and workout, then more with and after dinner as I get thirsty. The neat thing about being that hydrated is I never really need any water during workouts. Water also plays into getting plenty of sleep.

Oh sleep, how much I wish I was doing that right now. Moving on. Sleep is something most of us get far too little of too. This stems from being busy people and simply choosing to stay up rather than listen to our bodies when it says it's bed time. One other major factor in it is caffeine. In my efforts to get more sleep, I have no caffeine after lunch. Instead, and I mentioned it played a role, I only drink water once I'm done with lunch. Next, I listen to when my body says it's bed time. It really is a neat thing that your body can say when to sleep, and sleep is easy to achieve during that time. Once that sleepy feeling goes away though, it's a lot harder to go, isn't it? Think of that biological clock that we all have. It says "go to sleep" then it moves on to the next step "maintain current state." So, if you go to sleep when it says to then you'll stay asleep just fine. If you ignore it, you'll be able to stay awake easier than fall asleep. So, I've been trying to follow what my body says in that regard. I do fairly poorly at it, but I do try. When it's time to get up, I get straight up and get moving. To help with that, the alarm clock is across the room. I have to get up to make that noise stop. Then, since I'm already up, I stay up.

Playtime when I was little involved the swimming pool, the woods, bicycles, front and back yards, etc. Of course, I was a skinny little kid with a tan. High school through college and beyond, playtime became movies, computer games, and watching TV. With that, I changed into a rounder individual with no tan. Part of my fitness goal was to occupy that leisure time with time outside playing. Jumping on the trampoline, running, bicycling, swimming, and hiking are all perfectly acceptable ways to get back outside. Work takes up most of the daylight hours during the work week, so that's what I try to do on the weekends. Nothing like a little sunlight to make the day seem better and happier.

Next, vague dieting tips and my diet.

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 6)

Stretching is uncomfortable, to put it lightly. Contorting in weird positions that usually make it hard to breath is simply not fun, nor does it seem all that challenging. It is, despite the negativity, extremely important.

I'll start this whole thing off with a link, again to Trainer David's Youtube page, but specifically: Pre & Post Workout Stretching

I won't cover what he does in his video for a variety of reason, including eliminating redundancy and the fact that he's the expert. I just want to talk about my stretching routine and how it's helped me. Back when I started all this, I couldn't touch my toes and didn't know how to stretch properly. After each workout, I was extremely sore and tight. This was all because, as the internet meme goes, I was "doin' it wrong." I'd stretch cold, first thing, go work out, then leave. I was always sore the next day, and I never got any more flexible. That's now changed, largely thanks to that video.

I've probably mentioned this already, but my routine goes like this: cardio, stretch everything, lift, stretch the muscle groups used during lifting. Since starting that, I now grab the back of my foot just to prepare for stretching. I took his advice, combined it with what I've learned of myself to reach my current technique.

What I like to do is stretch to two separate levels. This came out of two things: learning that there's such a thing as a "stretch reflex" and a desire to get the most out of stretching. The stretch reflex does about what you'd think, when you stretch a muscle the stretch reflex causes it to contract in response. That's generally why that initial reach is more comfortable than holding the position. So, what I do is reach to a point where it is mildly uncomfortable then wait for the discomfort to subside, then really stretch. Both points are held for 10 seconds. Those last 10 seconds are uncomfortable, and hard to maintain, but so effective. I've progressed such that I can fold my fingers over my toes with ease, and as the point I wait before really stretching.

Finally, I want to address the foam roller that Trainer David uses in his video. That little invention is like having your own personal masseuse. You control the pressure and placement and only ever have to pay one time. Back sore? Roll it. Legs sore? Roll them. I highly recommend picking one up. In addition to how Trainer David uses it, use it immediately if you notice soreness while working out. It can really help out with next-day soreness. Of course, use it then too.

Up next, quality of life changes

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 5)

Ok, cardio. This part of exercising has been the worst for me. But, it's also where I've made the biggest improvements. I started off only really capable of using the recumbent bike for half an hour at level 1 (keeping in mind these levels only really mean something relative to the bike model in question). After a few weeks of burning nearly 300 calories, I looked over as someone was getting off the elliptical and saw they'd burned 50% more than me in the same amount of time. I was annoyed and felt like I hadn't been using my time in an efficient manner. The next day, I tried out the elliptical for the first time and found out that it wasn't going to be easy. I was able to get about 20 minutes before I was breathing far too hard to continue.

Tip

Your heart rate getting too high will exhaust you. So scale back the resistance, and you can go longer

It was all a learning experience for me. Learning how long I could go before I was exhausted, or before my knees would hurt, or before I'd blister my feet, or my calves would rebel. The first thing that I learned was to keep my pace constant. This allowed my heart rate to get up to a workout level, but not dip and spike like it would if I were taking breaks. Next, breathing was an issue. Given that cardio is working your cardiovascular system (heart and lungs), finding a good breathing method allowed me to sustain my efforts longer. In through the nose, out through the mouth, in tempo with my right foot and making an effort to expel as much air as possible while exhaling. That gets me enough air to keep going. Finally, I focus on not checking the clock. There is nothing worse than looking down to see you've got another 22 minutes to go.

Tip

When running, try to land closer to the ball of your foot than your heel, like you would if you're barefooted.

Running. Running to me is really fun but is awful. When I started my exercising adventure, I had knee issues when running. It would either hurt on the side or bottom of my knee. Luckily, knowledgeable trainers are around and clued me in on a very important part of running: TECHNIQUE IS IMPORTANT.

Running with your heel hitting the ground first causes knee problems. "Why?" I'd have you ask. Great question, I'm glad I had you ask that. Think of your skeleton for a bit. In your leg, you have a few bones that connect to your knee, the tibia and the femur. If you land on your heel, the heel is aligned with the tibia and femur. That means that all of that impact is absorbed by bone. Now, imagine landing with the ball of your foot. The impact compresses your foot down and your calf muscle flexes to absorb much of the impact. Then, your knee is bent slightly so your quadriceps and hamstring absorb more. Sounds better, right? It is. Do this and your knee problems while running should greatly diminish, at least they did for me. Of course, the first several times you try this your calves will hate you. But they'll forgive you in time, and your knees and even hips will love you.

To close out the cardio section, I'd like to talk about pacing in your exercise of choice. As mentioned earlier, my preference is to aim for a constant pace in whatever I'm doing in order to keep a constant heart rate. On the Elliptical, I shoot for between 65 and 70 rpm. On the bike, 70 to 75 rpm. On the rowing machine, 27-30 strokes per minute. On the treadmill, I simply put it on one speed and go. Currently, that's 6 mph. With a constant pace, I increase the resistance on the machines to push myself. For example, my current setting on the Elliptical is 13. Pretty much each time I can barely finish it, but I am finishing. Level 12 used to be like that, so I'm getting better.

Next up, Stretching.

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 4)

I'll stop with the vague info for now and get on to some specifics about my personal journey through what I've described. Along the way, I'll provide a few tips as they occur to me.

Tip

Bring a notebook with you and record everything (exercises, reps, sets, etc.) to track your progress.

At the start of 2011, I weighed about 200 lbs. and was really quite sick of it. I'd learned from Trainer David all I needed to learn to get me started. I had my notebook ready, bought some workout clothes and signed up for the gym. When I got there, as mentioned previously, they measured my fitness and here's what they got:

1. % Body Fat : 24.2%
2. Fat Weight: 47.9 lbs
3. Lean Weight: 150.1 lbs.
4. BMI : 27.3

I started doing my workout from college which took probably 75 minutes, but amended it once I got to work with the trainer. Now, each of my lifting workouts take around 30 minutes doing about the same number of exercises, but pairing two together that work different muscle groups. Here are my workout as they stand, organized into routines.

Routine A

1. Hang Clean
2. Bench Press
3. Reverse Fly
4. Shoulder Press
5. High Row
6. Fly
7. Triceps Extension

Routine B

1. Hang Snatch
2. Push up
3. Lat Pulldown
4. Shoulder Raise
5. Incline Press
6. Supine Pull up
7. Dip

Routine C

1. Body Squat
2. Exercise Ball Crunch
3. Front Squat
4. Plank
5. Deadlift

Routine D

1. Front-to-side Lunge
2. Exercise Ball Plank
3. Overhead Squat

I'm still working on that last one; I'm thinking I'll add leg press to it. I don't want to add another core exercise to it because of how strenuous Overhead Squat is on the entire core. I alternate weeks on what order I do these, but the order is either A, C, B, D or C, A, D, B.

Now, let's talk directly about how these routines have affected my weight. Thanks to a request, I present you a graph of every day I recorded my weight (through June 14th).

As you can see, during nearly every week my weight fluctuates by 3 or so pounds. But, there has definitely been a downward general trend. Some of the longer gaps are from breaks due to soreness, illness, or external factors. I find I weigh the least at the beginning of the week, and that weight show me my actual progress.

That covers the lifting portion, up next: Cardio

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 3)

Fitness is a funny thing. Every trainer, every expert, etc. has a slightly different opinion what to do and how to do it. For example, current research shows that the popular mindset of low-weight + high-rep lifting helps to build size and keeps from building size. Great, huh? Some of it is not as contrary, though. If you've ever watched a P90X infomercial, they talk about muscle confusion. As I understand it, this principle talks about not having a set routine every workout so that your muscles will develop general fitness instead of getting very good at a few set movements. It seems like the experts all like that idea, so I went with it.

In addition, they seem to agree that a combination of resistance training and cardio is best for fitness. Good fitness will lead to weight loss, therefore I had my plan. A combination of cardio and resistance training that varies day to day.

Every workout, I start with cardio. 30 minutes of cardio to be exact. Typically I hit the Elliptical machine, but I also hit the Treadmill, Stationary Bike, and Rowing Machine. One thing my trainer said to me about cardio is to keep pushing myself, whether it's for distance, time, or some other metric. I wanted to keep my time the same, distance seems to vary from one machine to another, so I can't get a consistent apples-to-apples comparison out of them. Therefore, I record the number of calories the machine says I burn. I find it is a good measurement of how hard I feel like I've worked. So there was my goal, to keep pushing the calorie count in 30 minutes. I do this by keeping a consistent rpm on the elliptical or bike, and ramping up the resistance level. On the treadmill, I increase the speed.

For resistance training, I alternate between working chest/arms and legs/core on subsequent days. I have two routines for each set. Monday I'll do routine A, Tuesday routine B, etc. Each of these contains body-weight exercises (pushups, pullups, situps, dips, etc.), and lifts (bench press, front squat, etc.).

Routine goes vaguely like this:

1. Cardio
2. Stretching nearly everything
3. the daily routine (a, b, c, or d)
4. stretching the areas that I worked that day

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 2)

I knew a few things going into all this:

• I was eating too much
• It took me a while to put on the weight, so it would take a while to take it off
• It takes a loss of 3500 Calories to lose a pound

Armed with that knowledge, I made a few changes to my lifestyle that some might think are weight-loss secrets, but they're not. They are the truths you've known for a while that you've been refusing to accept.

First change was to actively try to eat less. Could I go to a restaurant and eat the 2/3 pound burger? Sure, easily. Did I need it? No. I could be perfectly satisfied with the 1/4 pound burger. How about ordering the small spaghetti rather than the large? Also I try to eliminate unnecessary caloric intake, like getting water with meals rather than soft drinks. Finally, I virtually eliminated red meat and fried foods. This was a very significant change in my eating habits, but continues to work well for me.

Second, I had to establish a realistic time frame for all this to happen. So a little math told me that a loss of just 500 calories per day will allow me to lose 1 pound per week. I wanted to lose 35 pounds, so allowing for a little wiggle room, I set my sights on 40 weeks for this project.

Next, I got help putting together a workout regimen using a single 30-minute personal training session per week. This was a two-fold help to me. The obvious part is that I had a professional assisting me and making sure that I was exercising properly. The other part is directly related to my own psychology. I love to perform and I hate to waste money. So by having a personal trainer track my performance, I could perform, showing how much better I was getting. At the same time, I was motivated to keep going because I don't want to just throw money down a whole and get nothing out of it.

In part 3, specifics on the fitness part.

My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 1)

Good afternoon to you. Today I'm going to talk to you about losing weight, in general, and as it applies to me. I shall start at the beginning...of this year, 2011. After having looked in the mirror and hating what I saw for a while, I finally decided to do something about it. Then, nearly a month later, I did something about it. I found I was not motivated enough to actually exercise at home. There were too many distractions and too many fun things I would much rather be doing than exercising while I was at home. I'd even purchased some home equipment. It is still doing its job of staying put and being heavy quite nicely. So, I joined a gym.

This gym, like most from what I hear, sets you up with a lipid profile test, body composition test, and a fitness test. What I saw in those results was stuff I already knew. I was overweight, out of shape, not getting hardly any exercise, and eating rather poorly. Armed with the knowledge of my own poor shape, I set out to change it following some of my own contrived advice, facts I'd learned, and great advice from the staff at the gym.

In part two, the changes.