Badass weight workout #1

I've got to say, I love these new workouts. They're relatively quick, they're broken down into three distinct sections which makes them feel less intimidating, and they make me feel really wrung out and virtuous by the end. I'm including the first one below, but a quick note re: the three sections first.

The first section in all three workouts is a power move -- it involves big muscle groups and about as much weight as you can handle, with as much recovery as you need between sets. The second section is a mini-circuit, using weights that are still a bit heavy but manageable enough to move through quickly; you get 30 seconds of recovery between each set. The third and final section is an all-get-out, go-for-it, swapping interval that's more about cardio than weights -- with just 15 seconds of recovery between sets. The end result? A weight workout with plenty of cardio that involves fast- and slow-twitch muscles to burn fat and increase metabolism while adding lean muscle (at least, hopefully that's what's happening). Regardless, these workouts are fun and I'm going to miss these when it's time to change up my routine.

Badass weight workout #1

1. Power move: free-weight squats

5 sets of 5 reps

As much recovery as you need between sets

Do some experimenting to see how much weight you can handle -- this should be at the very edge of what you can manage for 5 sets of 5 reps. Make sure your feet are spread far enough apart and keep your weight on your heels. Come down to a count of 4, getting as low as you can without sacrificing your ability to get back up, and come back up to a count of 2. For reference, I'm doing 105 pounds plus the bar, which weighs 45 pounds: 150 pounds altogether. My awesome husband Mike, who is doing these workouts with me, is doing 185 pounds altogether.

2. Mini circuit: bench press on the physio ball, single-leg squats, lat pulldowns

4 sets of 10 reps each

30 seconds of recovery between sets

• Bench press on the ball

Choose dumbbells that are heavy but allow you to do the movement efficiently and correctly (I do two 30-pounders; my husband does two 45s). With the weights in your hand, sit on the ball and slowly slide down until only your head and shoulder blades are touching it. Bring the weights overhead with straight arms, touching the edges together at an angle so there's a triangle of space between them. Lower arms to a 90º angle, tightening your shoulder blades as you go to keep the movement focused on your chest.

• Single-leg squats

Grab two dumbbells at a weight that's significant enough to feel the difference while you squat (I use 15s, hub uses 22.5s). Holding the weights at your sides, stand on one leg with the other foot resting on a bench behind you. Try to keep all the weight on the standing leg. Your posture should be upright, straight up and down, as if you're standing on two legs. Drop down into a squat, bringing your hip back and keeping weight on your heel -- not toes. Your knee should be somewhere between your ankle and your toes, not over your toes. Push your hips forward as you come back up, and keep your abs tight the whole time. Do all ten reps on one side first, then switch to the other.

• Lat pulldowns

Again, choose a weight that feels challenging but doesn't impact good form. This is a tricky move because it's easier to let your arms do all the work. Hands should be a bit more than shoulder width apart on the bar, fingers facing away from you in an overhand grip (or what I like to call "bicycle grip"). Before you start pulling the bar down, it's important to rotate your shoulders down and bring your shoulder blades together. You should feel the movement primarily along your back and lats before you bend your elbows. Bring the bar to your collarbone, bringing your chest out to meet it.

3. Cardio meltdown: alternating jump thrusts and angry medicine ball throws

5 sets of 30 seconds each (10 sets altogether)

15 seconds of recovery between each set

• Jump thrusts

Grab a soft medicine ball, not too heavy and not too light (we like the 10 pounder for this). Stand up, holding the ball at chest level. To begin, drop to a squat, set the ball on the floor in front of you, throw your legs back so you're in plank position (I have to do this one leg at a time but it's optimum if you can do them both simultaneously). Shoulders should be above your hands, which are still on the ball. Jump back into a squatting position with flat feet, then come straight up with a flat back and raise the ball overhead. Go back to starting position and repeat as many times as you can in 30 seconds. These are meant to be quick and totally blast your heart rate, so go for it!

• Angry medicine ball throw

Use the same ball, or one that's a bit lighter. Start in the same position as you did for the jump thrusts. Raise the ball overhead with bent elbows, then throw it down HARD so it bounces back up. Use your arms, core and legs to make the throw. As it bounces, catch it, bring it back overhead, and keep going, doing as many as you can in 30 seconds.

Whew!

Nearly 3 months later

What happened? I completely fell off the exercise blog horse. It's not as if I haven't been exercising -- I have. But feeling excited and motivated about it, like I'm moving toward a goal? Not so much.

When I left off in July, I was upset about tight pants and a body fat percentage increase. I got rolling with a new weight training program, started watching my calories a bit more (and I will say a bit, I didn't do anything too radical), and soon I was feeling much happier with my pants. I don't know if I actually dropped weight because, as I mentioned earlier, I don't weigh myself at home.

Then I went on vacation for 10 days and had a milestone I'm not particularly proud of: I took more rest days than I've ever had in at least the past five years. I pretty much did nothing other than lounge on the beach, read, nap and overindulge in every way. (Well, I did attempt one big swim in the lake -- got totally seasick after less than half an hour and then had to go lay down for an hour to recover.) That wasn't my goal when we headed out of town. I had a big idea that I'd swim or do yoga every single day. My hope was that if I completely avoided weight-bearing cardio, my plantar fasciitis would resolve or radically improve by the time we got home.

No such luck. Even after 10 sedentary days, my foot was still hurting every day. And somehow I just hadn't been able to motivate myself to exercise. I really missed being able to run, that's for sure. Without that, I felt lost, aimless and just not very excited about moving my body around. And since I'd managed to make my pants comfortable again, I didn't feel particularly compelled to get active.

Getting on the ball again after we came home was hard. The first time I went back to the gym, it just felt weird. I was gigantically aware of how easy it would be to simply end the "fitness phase" of my life, go back to the way I used to be, stop organizing my day around my workout. But somehow there was a seed of something inside me that pushed me to start up again. And, after a week or so, I was back in the rhythm -- making an automatic assumption every day that I'd be exercising, and arranging my day to create space for that to happen.

Fast forward to now. My foot is still problematic. I tried a 5-mile run a couple weeks ago, not because my foot was feeling healed but because NOT running on it didn't seem to be helping, so I thought perhaps running on it wouldn't make it worse. (I realize that's terrible logic, but I really wanted to take a run -- actually, it's more accurate to say I really wanted to see if I could still do it.) The run felt great and my time wasn't terrible, I averaged about 10:40 per mile, but I did pay for it the next couple days with lots of hobbling and burning spasms in my foot. No more running since then. But if anything, the experience was helpful because it propelled me to make an appointment with a sports podiatrist. Maybe talking to and getting a treatment plan from an expert will make a difference -- and help me take better care of the problem. (Because, it must be admitted, I've read all kinds of stuff about how to improve plantar fasciitis and I've been pretty half-assed about it. I just want it to get better without a lot of ice or massage or stretching. I know that sounds ridiculous but isn't it also kind of human?)

So, stay tuned on that. In the meantime, I'm still doing the 3x weekly weight training program that I got from my fave trainer in July -- I'll post those workouts next. And I've also started taking Zumba classes a few times each week, which are totally silly but a great workout and I'll post about those separately, too. So it's all good and I'm feeling generally happy with how I look and feel ... but I still really miss that feeling that I'm working toward something.

One thing that I'm hoping will help with that is resuming regular blog entries. And the other, gigantically bigger thing is that I'm finally going to start pursuing personal trainer certification. Over a year after making the decision, I know which organization I want to go with and what the costs are. Now to find the money for the materials ... hopefully I'll be posting lots more about this soon.

NOW they tell me ...

Turns out that my suspicion about my pants getting a little more snug wasn't all in my head: I have gained about 5 pounds. I don't know the exact number because I don't weigh myself at home and look away when my doctor weighs me during my annual check-up ... I tend to get really freaked out about any number over 150, even though I'm almost 6 feet tall and pretty muscular these days (more on that later). I'm basing that estimate on my weight in January, when I had a hydrostatic body fat percentage test and the number was included with the results; I couldn't help but look.

How do I know I've gained some weight now? I let my favorite personal trainer at the gym weigh me yesterday. And here's the story behind that: you may remember that SuperAthlete J and I embarked on a 16-week weight training program in the early part of the year, with the goal of adding lean body mass. It went well, but I came away thinking that the program (which SAJ had found online) was geared pretty directly toward men and missed some key muscle groups. After completing the 16 weeks, we took a weeklong break from weight training, then put together a new 16-week program of our own. We had to make some guesses about which exercises to do and which muscle groups they targeted, but overall we felt pretty good about what we'd come up.

However, I still wanted to check in with a trainer at the gym to make sure we weren't working the same muscle groups two days in a row -- or missing something important. But before I had a chance to schedule an appointment, we had to put our weight program on hold while SAJ focused on her badass half iron man training. Wanting to be prepared when SAJ was ready to pick back up again, I scheduled an appointment for earlier this week. (By the by, SAJ completed her event last weekend and was, no surprise, a total stud.)

Here's where things begin to go awry: after I showed our program to A, my fave trainer, I mentioned that I felt like I'd gained some weight and wanted to take it off. He looked at me knowingly and said, "Well, it's notoriously hard to add muscle without adding fat." He went on, "If you're not really strict with your nutrition, it's pretty impossible to avoid increasing fat while you're building muscle. You need a lot of calories to add muscle, but they have to be the right kind." So that's why all those body builders are always eating giant plates of plain chicken breast and steamed broccoli, I realized. I thought back to my diet over the past few months: lots of indulgences there -- which I felt like I was earning with my weight training! It was then that I started to understand how sorely wrong I have been.

To see where things stood, trainer A suggested that I get weighed and have him do a less-reliable-but-better-than-nothing bioelectric body fat measurement. I agreed, with trepidation. And that's when I discovered that I've gained roughly five pounds. The good news is that I did add a bit over a pound of muscle ... the bad news is that I also added about four pounds of fat.

According to the hydrostatic body fat percentage test, my stats were as follows in January:

Pounds of body fat: 37.1

Percentage of body fat: 23.1

Pounds of lean muscle: 123.1

(Yes, I realize you can add up a couple of these numbers and know my weight, and I'm working on becoming comfortable with that.)

According to the bioelectrical impedance test that A gave me this week, here's where I am now:

Pounds of body fat: 41.6

Percentage of body fat: 25.1

Pounds of lean muscle: 124.3

Not the direction I wanted to be going when I started lifting weights with SAJ in January, needless to say. Of course, some of this gain may be chalked up to indulging with food and drink. And I also haven't been able to run thanks to plantar fasciitis -- although I have tried to make up for it with equal amounts of cardio time on the elliptical trainer, stairclimber or bike. But after talking it over with trainer A, I believe that the weight training program was a pretty significant contributor to the gain. Which is frustrating, because although I'm happy about increasing my muscle mass, I wasn't driven to do it like SAJ was. I was more along for the ride while she crusaded to increase her lean muscle ... and now I've got tight pants to show for it. Boo.

So, now I've got to get started taking off the fat. How to approach that? Trainer A says, no surprise, the first and most important element is nutrition. Exercise can help maintain a loss, but to lose weight, you've got to pay attention to calories. Reducing my intake to 500 below what I burn in an average day will help me drop about a pound a week. (3500 calories = one pound, say the experts.) I had a resting metabolic test a while back -- probably too long ago to be totally trustworthy, but it's better than nothing -- and it told me that my body burns about 1500 calories a day at complete rest. In other words, if I laid around on the couch all day, I would still burn 1500 calories. If I add light activity -- such as the kind of stuff I do on a rest day from exercise, when I'm just going about my daily life -- I can add about 350 calories to that base number. On an exercise day, I can add approximately another 700. So, that means that on workout days, I'm burning about 2550 calories. Knocking 500 off that doesn't seem so bad ... I know a lot of diet plans that keep people at numbers like 1,500 or even 1,000 calories a day. I'm not positive I'm understanding all of this correctly so I'm going to confirm with trainer A and update as needed after that.

Cardio is the second leg of the weight-loss stool (that sounds gross, but you know what I mean). Trainer A says cardio should take priority over weights -- so I am moving to a plan where I'll do weights three times a week and cardio six. On my weight days, I'll aim for my usual 60 minutes of cardio. On non-weight days, I'll try to increase the cardio duration to more like 90 minutes -- or longer, if I can squeeze it in.

The third leg is weights. Not a progressive program like the one SAJ and I did -- the last segments of that, where we were piling on heavy weights and doing very few sets/reps, were probably the contributing culprits to my tight pants problem. Instead, trainer A is recommending a series of workouts that use lighter weights and go at a fast pace so they increase my heart rate as well. I learned the first one from him yesterday and let me tell you, it was a killer. I'm looking forward to the next two, and I will post all three of them here when I've got them under my belt.

So, lesson learned: working to increase muscle will probably also lead to increased fat -- unless you're willing to really manage your nutrition (i.e., calories and fat intake). Although I'm dismayed that I need to lose some weight, I'm excited to embark in this new direction and feel happy that I've got something to work for. Now I just need to find a workout partner because I'm guessing this will not be up SAJ's alley ... but you never know! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Women's Health highlights, May 2010 issue

OK, it's two months after the fact but I've got to say: I love Women's Health magazine! And that May issue was jam-packed with interesting, helpful info. Here are my fave tidbits:

• From the Jillian Michaels cover story -- top training tips:

1. Change up your workout routines as often as possible to keep seeing results. If you stick with one thing, you'll plateau. This is totally in line with a study I recently read about that said women who did shorter and less frequent high-intensity intervals-based cardio workouts lost more weight than women who did longer, more frequent steady-state cardio workouts. I've been putting that into practice on the elliptical trainer and stairclimber at the gym, building in five one-minute sprints, with a minute of recovery time, in the middle of the hour-long workout. I've also been doing longer intervals -- five minutes at a higher heart rate, five minutes at a lower one.

2. Increase the intensity. Jillian suggests working out at 85% of your max heart rate. (Max is 220 minus your age. That makes my max 178; 85% of that is 151. Wow, is that right? I work out above that all the time.)

3. Do cardio intervals between weight training sets. I love this idea! I'm going to try jumping jacks, jump squats and/or mountain climbers between sets.

4. Buy a heart rate monitor. Already got one, so I'm good there. But Jillian suggests using it to track calorie burn and comparing the burn different activities. I'm not sure if my Garmin tracks calories burned when the GPS feature is turned off ... which makes it not so useful on the elliptical. I'll have to check into that.

5. Eat three meals a day, plus a snack. Jillian thinks the currently popular "5-6 small meals" plan is bullshit.

6. Eat Greek yogurt instead of regular. I'm already doing that so again, I'm good there. But this recipe Jillian suggested sounds good:

1 cup uncooked quinoa rinsed and drained

1/4 cup whole flaxseed

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix and spread on a baking sheet, bake in a 375º degree oven until lightly browned. Let cool, crumble and add 2 tablespoons to half a cup of nonfat plain Greek yogurt along with fresh berries. Drizzle honey on top.

7. Increase veggie intake. Duh.

8. Try coconut milk. It's healthier than rice milk and has more calcium and Vitamin D than regular dairy.

• The magazine had an interesting article on whether being overweight is bad for you (depends on how overweight and what your fitness level/diet/lifestyle are like). It also said that more doctors are looking beyond BMI for a gauge of health. They're using these indicators:

1. Blood pressure in a range of 90/60 to 120/80. (I don't know mine, but it's always fine when I go to the doctor.)

2. Resting heart rate of 60-100 beats per minute. (I took mine yesterday morning and it came in at 156. I'm going to try to do it regularly to get a general sense of where I'm at.)

3. Cholesterol: LDL below 100, HDL above 50, VLDL under 40, triglycerides below 150. (I have no idea what any of these numbers mean, let alone where I fall.)

4. Fasting blood glucose of 70-100. (See #3, above.)

5. Waist-to-hip ratio of 0.6 to 0.8. Here's how to check it: Wrap a measuring tape around the narrowest part of stomach, then do the widest part of your hips and butt. Divide the first number by the second. (I have done this yet but will plan to soon!)

• How yummy does this pesto popcorn recipe sound? Put 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large, deep saucepan (6 quarts or so). Turn heat to medium, add 3 kernels of popping corn, and cover. When kernels pop, remove the lid and add 1/2 a cup of popping corn. Cover. With the lid on, shake the pot. Cook, shaking occasionally, until the popping sounds stop, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon minced garlic in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook garlic until soft and golden, about 2 minutes. Pour popcorn into a large bowl, then drizzle the olive oil over the popcorn, straining out the garlic pieces. Toss popcorn with 1/2 cup chopped basil, 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. Yum!

• Two more easy, yummy-sounding desserts:

1. Easy affogato: 1/2 tablespoon Kahlua, 2 tablespoons hot espresso, 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt. Place the yogurt into a serving dish. Stir liqueur into the espresso, pour over the yogurt.

2. Blueberry-almond turtles: 7 tablespoons bittersweet chocolate chips, 1/4 cup dried blueberries, 1/4 cup sliced almonds. Microwave chocolate in a glass bowl for 60-75 seconds or until melted. Stir in blueberries and nuts, then drop 5 rounded tablespoons onto parchment paper. Cool in refrigerator until firm.

Thoughts about rest

I just read another interesting article about the importance of rest and downtime:

http://running.competitor.com/2010/05/training/workrest-balance_10083

It was perfect for me because I've been doing a lot of thinking about this topic lately, pretty much ever since I simultaneously took a break running and lost my weightlifting partner. For the most part, I've just been floating along -- still working out, of course, but without defined goals, a structured program, or the sense of purpose that I'm used to.

And what I've noticed is that, without a program or schedule to adhere to, it's all too easy to slack off -- to shave 10 or 15 minutes off a workout, reduce the number of sets or reps, cut out a section of a weightlifting routine, or skip exercising altogether. I confess, it's been hard to motivate myself to get to the gym now that I'm not actively working toward something.

But I've also made an important realization about myself: I don't know the difference between slacking and moderation. I've gotten so accustomed to constantly pushing and building that I don't really know how to slow it down and take a step back without feeling like I'm being lazy. The article I linked to above expresses really eloquently the importance of rest, recovery and downtime -- and I am the first to pay lip service to those things. In my head, I know that they're an important element in any training cycle (and again, I love how the article's author wrote about it).

But the problem is that slowing down never feels right to me. I never feel like I've earned it. And I'm always worried that if I slow down too much, I will lose fitness and gain weight -- that I'll be right back where I started from when I first became interested in fitness six years ago.

I wish I could offer a nice pat conclusion to this. Instead, all I can say is that I'll keep trying. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I'll try to keep it in mind. Even today, with a packed schedule, an aching heel and five consecutive days of exercise behind me, I feel torn about the idea of taking a rest day. I'm not sure if I will. I'd been toying with the thought of skipping my rest day altogether this week, just because I haven't been running or working as hard on my weightlifting. Is that wise? I don't know. It's just like I said: I can't tell the difference between moderation and slacking. And I think it would be good to figure it out, or connect with someone else who can.

Barefoot running injuries

Just read an interesting article about barefoot running injuries being on the rise:

http://running.competitor.com/2010/05/features/the-barefoot-running-injury-epidemic_10118

The facts aren't in on whether barefoot running is actually causing the injuries or if the epidemic is coming from more runners trying barefoot running (more participants = a higher number of injuries).

But the article does make some compelling arguments for the idea that barefoot running can lead to an increased risk of injury. The injury that's most commonly seen in barefoot runners is plantar fasciitis, so of course that got my attention. According to the article, plantar fasciitis accounts for less than 15% of all running-related injuries, but over 90% of all barefoot-running-related injuries. That's certainly food for thought. It also made me remember that I first really started noticing my heel pain after I took a Zumba class at the gym -- and did most of it in my bare feet. Interesting.

It also points out a serious flaw in the chief argument of the book "Born to Run" -- that human beings are made to run long distances. And, by extension, that the best way to do that is in bare feet. The article quotes an expert who says, "If we say everyone is built to run barefoot, we should also say that everyone is built to fly a fighter jet without glasses. Except we don't all have 20/20 vision." In a nutshell, he's pointing out that we're all different -- each with our own strengths and weaknesses. We're not necessarily "born to run," or at least, not born to run barefoot. We can correct our vision with glasses, and can correct issues that impact our ability to run well with the right footwear.

Another reason to keep my shoes on my feet. But also to make sure they're the right ones: the article is very clear that the wrong shoes can also lead to injury, which makes me wonder about the purchase I made last fall ... I never feel quite right when I'm running long distances in those shoes. Could they have contributed to my plantar fasciitis? More thoughts on that to come.

Back in the saddle, right back out

I tried a run yesterday, I just couldn't resist. SuperAthlete J had an 8-miler on her schedule and asked if I wanted to join her for all or part of it. My foot was feeling so much better and I've been missing her so much -- so I agreed with the caveat that I had no idea how far I'd be able to go since I'd have to stop if my foot was hurting.

We agreed on a course and set out -- and my goodness, it felt good to be on my feet like that again. My heel felt a little sore but not painful, so I thought it was safe to trot along. At the crest of our first hill, I did notice a sharp twinge, like everything in my heel had tightened up all at once, but it dissipated after a couple strides and I let it go.

The remainder of the run was uneventful -- as far as my heel was concerned. My breath and endurance were another matter. Funny what a difference just a couple weeks can make. And please bear in mind that I've continued my cardio workouts: I've been on a machine at the gym for at least an hour, six days per week, ever since my last attempt at a run. Still, I definitely noticed a reduction in my conditioning. I had to take some walk breaks on our first major hill. And, by mile 4, I was suffering from what SAJ and I call "the jelly legs."

SAJ and I agreed that she'd continue to the turnaround while I took a break. I'd pick up again when I was ready and rendezvous with her at our favorite bathroom stop, about half a mile away. After a minute of walking, I felt much better and starting running again -- a bit more slowly to try to conserve energy. I made it to the rendezvous point with no trouble and headed inside for a pee break and some water. But truly catching my breath also gave me a chance to realize that I'd developed a nice chafing rash between my legs, not to mention an assortment of blisters. Boo.

I could only assume that the chafing was coming from the weight I worry I've gained since I stopped running. Sweet SAJ assures me that it's because I was running in shorts for the first time this year. Jury's out on that one. We were both in agreement on the blisters, though: it was my first run using the Superfeet inserts -- on a hot day, with thicker socks than usual. My feet just didn't have enough room to move around, and were rubbing inside the shoe in new and unusual ways: thus the blisters. To add insult to injury, my heel started to twinge a bit.

With that third strike against me, I elected to continue on for just another half mile, then split off from SAJ and walk a shortcut route home. Although I felt like a wiener, I think it was the right thing to do. I ended up with a total distance of 7 miles, and I'm guessing I walked slightly less than one of those. Not bad for someone who hasn't taken a run in more than two weeks -- and who last ran 6 miles about a month ago.

My feelings of quasi-victory were short-lived, however: my heel started hurting almost immediately after I got home. I iced it up the wazoo and wore the sock to bed last night ... but had a very gimpy situation on my hands when I got up this morning. It's gotten better over the course of the day but I do think this is telling me that I tried running again a bit too quickly -- or perhaps I went for a longer distance than was advisable. It's back to the elliptical and stairclimber for me for another little bit ... hopefully I'll be able to giving running another shot soon (or at least before it becomes impossible for me to run three miles at a stretch).