Fitness and Exercise Blog

I was what seemed like a thousand miles from nowhere in the middle of Afghanistan, during a major battle…

…with nothing but my M-4 carbine and a kettlebell to keep me company! It was the battle of Panjwaii (I’m sure I spelled that wrong) in the early fall of 2006, Kandahar Province, and I was an embedded trainer mentoring a commando unit of the Afghan Army. One NCO and I were at a defensive blocking position along with about 30 Afghan soldiers for weeks with nothing but our HMMWV, our rucksacks, some MREs…and my kettlebell.

Luckily, the expected Taliban hordes did not return to the area after being driven out by our brave Canadian allies, U.S. air power and a healthy dose of the U.S. Marine Corps! Since the enemy wasn’t going to provide the entertainment, I stayed occupied my using my kettlebell to stay in shape. I brought the 50lb kettlebell because I knew it was a great, portable, fitness device that I could have with me anywhere in the world (even if I endured odd looks as I lugged it around!)

Should you buy kettlebells for all your fitness needs? If you do, you will certainly get results However, the most important thing is that you take action and do something positive to change your current fitness levels. Whether you purchase kettlebells or not, the important thing is that you start and effective and high intensity fitness program now, to get results. Kettlebells do have a lot of advantages as they are very size efficient, great for cardio and endurance, as well as strength training and adaptable to literally hundreds of different exercises.

Kettlebells are much more cost-effective than dumb bells as you only really need to purchase one kettlebell to start with, not a whole kettlebell set. One kettlebell can last for a year plus, before you need another one. The single 50lb kettlebell I took to Afghanistan served as my complete gym for the entire deployment and I greatly improved my overall strength and conditioning with only this tool.

What excuses are standing between you and your weight loss or fitness goals? “I don’t have time, it’s my thyroid, I don’t know what to do, I can’t afford it.” In spite of any excuses, the buck stops with you and you alone are responsible for any positive change in your life. Working out can be fast if it is effective. An intense 10 minutes is plenty. A few sets of body weight exercises and some jump rope is a fast and effective workout and you don’t need anything except some floor space and motivation. A small dietary change like ditching the sweets can lead to significant weight loss.

Everyone can get in shape, lose weight and be healthy, there are no excuses. In my case, had the Taliban come rolling down the road, I had to be ready to fight them. You never know when life will throw challenges at you, should you find yourself in a crisis, your fitness level may mean the difference between life and death.

Quick update for you today:
First, if you’re feeling the heat this summer you definitely want to try this cool dessert from my partners at Prograde Nutrition.

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Second, Prograde has ALL of their killer powder products – Meal replacement, Protein and Post-Workout – on sale at 10% off until this Friday, so hurry on over to this one for the coupon code! http://fitkettlebell.getprograde.com/specials.html

Perhaps the best book I’ve ever read on strength training was “Power To The People” by Pavel Tsatsouline. In it he details how to build extremely high levels of full body strength using only 2 exercises, 20 minutes a day and less than $150 in equipment (said “equipment” being a 300lb barbell set, look for sales or buy used.)

The best part is because this is low volume, heavy weight work you do not get very sore (after a short adaptation period, I don’t get sore at all) and don’t pack on much (if any) muscle. You just get crazy-strong. How does it work? Well, it has to do with adaptations in your central nervous system (CNS)…teaching your body to let you tap into more of the theoretical strength you already possess. It is like removing a block from under the gas pedal.

We all know that under extreme duress such as a life or death situation, we can tap into lots of extra strength not normally available to us.  This is because our central nervous system limits the amount of strength available to us under normal circumstances in order to protect our joints and muscle tissue.  In an emergency, our body decides the risk of a ligament, tendon or muscle tear is worth it to deal with the immediate situation.  The problem is, on a day to day basis, the amount of your theoretical strength your CNS lets you tap into is very conservative and only a fraction of what is available.

So, in order to tap into more of this strength, you have to let your CNS know that is what you want.  You do this by lifting heavy weights (with safe and stable form) for low repetitions.

The method is to pick a few multi-joint exercises (2-3) and do them 4-5 days per week. Do only 2 sets of 5 reps per exercise. Right now I just started this program again and I’m using the dead lift and the bench press. The dead lift is basically the king of full body strength exercises and utilizes about 80% of your muscles. The bench press pretty much covers the other 20%.  In the book, Pavel recommends a one arm standing barbell press which really works the grip and stabilizers.  This option also means you don’t even need a bench.

Never go to failure (this just teaches your nervous system to quit) and cycle the weights. So, over the course of 2-4 weeks, the weights will slowly increase so that your last workout is the toughest. Take a week off then start over again backing off the weights a bit and working up to a new personal best. The 1st set of 5 reps is heaviest; the second set should be about 10% lighter.

If you want to get strong and toned without adding bulk, this method is for you. If getting “yoked” (that means big) is your thing, using this method for a month will allow you to add more weights in your traditional bodybuilding routines leading to better gains.

Heavy weights, low reps (5 or less), low sets (1-3), give it a try.

Smart phones (iphone, blackberry, droid etc.) are all the rage now.  Since I just got back from Iraq and needed a new phone anyway, I got an iphone.  I had no idea how cool the apps were!  So, I decided to try out a free fitness app called “Lose It!”  This is a calorie counting and exercise tracking program.

It is pretty easy to use; I just plugged in my height/weight etc. and decided to shoot for 1/2 lb weight loss per week.  It spat out a target of 2328 calories per day.  Any exercise you do gives you that much more calories you can eat that day. So, if a 45 workout burns 300 calories, I could eat 2628 that day and still be on track.  It has an extensive list of exercises and activities to include chores like mowing the lawn.  It doesn’t have anything to really replicate high intensity training like sprinting or kettlebells so I just used high intensity circuit or weight training.  You can create custom exercises, so I created a custom workout for my Tacfit Commando bodyweight routine.

The food tracker is pretty extensive and includes lots of foods and restaurants.  More are added with updates, and you can create your own custom foods for stuff you eat a lot that isn’t in there.

The results?  Well, I have to admit, I didn’t actually care as I was just trying it out.  My starting weight was 187.5.  My first week I was 2600 calories over my weekly budget and my weight crept up a 1/2 lb.  My next week I was 3,000 over. The week after that, 1,600. The next 2 weeks I was 445 under and 318 over respectively.  The end result after 5 weeks is I lost 3 1/2 lbs down to 184, so it actually worked!   That’s an average of .7 lbs/week.

It was a hassle at first to enter everything, but it quickly became a habit.  The inputs, esp. setting up the program, were less than ideal since it didn’t take into account your activity level.  However, a serious user would adjust it to fit them better.  It did give me a good idea of how many calories I am actually consuming and how that affects my weight and to what degree.  I now know my maintenance level is about 2600/day or so and less than that will have me losing.

Surprisingly, even though I was just messing around with it, (not seriously trying to lose weight), it still worked because I started to want to hit the target and liked seeing green bars on the daily graph and not going over.  So, if you are serious about losing weight, I would definitely give one of these free apps a try, at least while you are on the weight loss and or exercise program.

-Brian

I read a great book on body weight strength training this week called “Convict Conditioning.” Yes, that’s right, the routines were developed in prison where, contrary to popular belief, there isn’t that much access to weight equipment and none at all in the 1970′s when the author was first incarcerated.  I’m all about learning from wherever I can and I’ve been on a big body weight training only kick lately, so I didn’t let the title dissuade me.

There is an interesting section where the author observes that in his experience with training lots of people, he thinks training with body weight is helpful for fat loss because the mind and body know that in order to improve on the exercises, you need to be lighter.  This is especially true for pull-ups and handstand push ups, but also very helpful for simpler exercises like bodyweight only squats.  He thinks the subconscious helps to limit appetite and control weight in order to improve performance.

Of course, there are no studies backing this up, but it makes sense to me. The mind is very powerful and sets out to accomplish whatever goals we set for it.  If we tell ourselves we are losers…we will be.  If we think we are worth about $50K a year that is pretty much what we’ll make.  If we set out to improve our body weight only strength, our mind will help us accomplish that goal.  Things aren’t that simple of course…but I do know you will never accomplish anything you don’t believe in!

I’ll end with a great quote from “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, though it is a poem more about finance and life in general, I think it fits nicely:

I bargained with life for a penny

And life would pay no more,

However I begged at evening

When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,

He gives you what you ask,

But once you have set the wages,

Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,

Only to learn, dismayed,

That any wage I had asked of Life,

Life would have willingly paid.

What have you asked of Life?

-Brian

My wife and I went to a concert yesterday and seeing all those people in one place, it struck me how many are overweight…morbidly obese in fact.  Interesting term: “morbidly obese”, it means you are literally eating yourself to death! (A long, slow, painful one at that)

One thing that has always bothered me about the US fitness industry is that it is all about looks.  From the emaciated Hollywood actress extreme on one end to the puffed up muscle-bound bodybuilder on the other.  Funny thing is, neither is healthy though both look “good” depending on your definition of good.  So, since the most important reason to lose weight is for looks (so society says) then a more convenient answer to obesity is to just be happy with “who you are.”

While that is all very nice and swell…it still won’t protect you from that long, slow painful death (and miserable life, especially the last decade).  Trouble breathing, joint pain, skin rashes and yeast infections, diabetes (loss of limbs, blindness), no energy…and heart problems.

I’ve always placed function over form. I work out so my body can perform the way I need it to in a crisis.  I also work out and maintain a healthy weight so I can avoid all the miserable complications I saw people suffer with during the 3 plus years I worked in a hospital.  Better self-image and esteem is a healthy side effect of maintaining a healthy weight.

It’s all about choices.  I don’t want to hear excuses.  That’s one thing I learned in the military (especially combat arms).  Excuses don’t matter when lives are on the line.  Either you accomplish the mission or people die.  It doesn’t matter how hard it is to eat right or how hard it is to exercise (to find the time, the energy etc.) or how nature dealt you a raw deal with genetics or “gland” problems.  Get over it, you’ll either accomplish the mission…or die (early and miserably).

So, if you need to lose some weight, start by making a healthy choice today.  Not because of looks or esteem or to please others…but to start saving your life, you are worth it!

-Brian

P.S. I know it isn’t easy, I get it.  I also know it is much harder for others than it is for me…but you and your family deserve for you to do whatever it takes to get down to a healthy weight.  That doesn’t mean you have to be a fitness model, but you do need to be withing 20 lbs or so of your ideal weight and exercise at least the recommended minimum for heart health of around 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days per week like walking, wii Fit : )  or 3 20 minute sessions of intense exercise like kettlebells, circuit training, calisthenics etc.

We had a chance to try out one of the great recipes last night from Prograde’s healthy recipe e-book (see details below).  Coconut shrimp and also a vegetable red curry (not in the book) to go along with it (ignore the lousy iphone pic!)  I bought the biggest wild caught shrimp in the store (you should avoid farm raised fish, it has higher PCB levels, higher fat and less Omega 3′s, plus dyes and antibiotics).  The recipe said “lightly greased pan” so I used coconut oil which is stable under heat and is full of healthy fats (not to mention it goes great with coconut shrimp!)

Not everything was healthy though, I used white Jasmine rice which is what I had on hand, brown rice would have been a lot better with more fiber…I’m slowly replacing the bad with healthy substitutes.  Anyway, the dinner was fantastic, the shrimp tasted awesome and were low fat…except some of the good kind from the coconut oil ; )

So, make a healthy change today, maybe try out a new recipe!

-Brian

I had a great workout this morning.  I am currently doing an all body weight routine (taking a break from kettlebells) which needs little room and can be done anywhere (I kept doing it while traveling from Iraq in Kuwait and Ft. Lewis.)  It is called “Tacfit Commando” and incorporates joint mobility warm ups with a Yoga cool down and progressively more challenging bodyweight exercises in the middle following the Tabata 20 sec. work/10 sec. rest protocol, which is extremely effective for anaerobic conditioning and fat burning.

Don’t let the title or website throw you off.  Though developed for Spec-ops soldiers, this program is accessible by anyone (I used it with my soldiers who were overweight and out of shape).  Also, from the perspective of a personal trainer, it does an excellent job of incorporating a great warm up and cool down along with using movements that take the body through all 3 planes of motion (for geeks like me, that would be “sagittal,” “frontal” and “transverse”.)  It also has good programming with no intensity, low intensity, medium intensity and high intensity days so you always stay fresh and don’t over train.  I think it is way better than something like P90X which has up to 90 minute workouts! (No thanks, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that kind of time).

Daughter demonstrating plank at age 4

The full workout is only 45 mins including warm up and cool down, and my 5yo daughter showed up about half way through and was doing it along with me.  She was able to do the exercises with ok form having not seen them before and without any coaching from me.  Pretty cool.

Anyway, I’m going to be giving a complete review of this program in the future at www.fitkettlebell.com so stay tuned!

-Brian

I’ve found a great source for all natural supplements like multi-vitamins, fish oil, antioxidants, energy bars etc. I’ve been on a nutrition kick lately since my diet has always been my weak link so I’m slowly fixing it. I’ve been taking the Prograde multivitamins and EFA Krill oil since I’ve returned. I think you’ll be impressed when you check out their website and list of ingredients.  Today only, their anti-aging supplement is an extra 20% off! See below:

Subject: Do Superfoods Prevent Aging?

It seems like everytime you go to the grocery store checkout you see another magazine article on the latest superfood. So when I got this update from my partners over at Prograde I knew I had to share it with you.

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Just how “super” are these superfoods you hear about all the time now?

Are they all they’re cracked up to be?

Or are they just hype?

How many of them do you have to eat?

How often?

Can they really make you younger?

I explain it all right here: http://fitkettlebell.getprograde.com/anti-aging-care.html

Yours in health,

Jayson Hunter, RD, CSCS

PS – Don’t forget, your chance to save 20% on Prograde Longevity ends TONIGHT at 11:59pm EST, so hurry and get your order in now.

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