Monday, February 26, 2007

Strength from Unusual Places

Trainer Jason Ferruggia has the first part of an interview today with the Underground Strength Coach himself. I mentioned the Underground Strength Coach the other day.

Here's one of his best quotes: "Eventually, people get bored of doing the same old stuff or training in the gym all the time! Training outdoors in the fresh air kicks ass!"

Amen.

Become an Athlete

It's never too late to take up, or go back to, a sport.

Today's L.A. Times has a story about four people who later in life went back to a sport they took part in during high school or college. 60-year-old Richard Dessert started wrestling again. His most prized possession? A badge with his name and the word "athlete" that he wore at the U.S. National Wrestling Championships last year, the Times says.

Taking up a sport is a great way to stay in shape over the long haul because competing gives you a goal.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Kick the Routine Out of Your Routine

Last week I switched my Saturday cardio routine to the hour-glass drill. But after doing it just eight times last week, I was bored with it. Doing it a few times is fine, but running through it eight times isn't.

So this week I took a play from the NFL Combine and added the L drill, which meant I ran five hour-glass drills and then five L drills. The result: I was more engaged because I knew my workout would change halfway through. Check out this Men's Health article to get the lowdown on the L drill.

Go Swing a Sledgehammer

My best friend has told me over and over how she thinks she gets a great workout by simply doing yardwork on the two acres she lives on in the country. Now she's talking about more than just digging up weeds. She chops wood and hauls bags of grass seed, among other things. And if you saw her, you'd quickly realize that she's right.

Now comes more evidence that serious outdoor work does constitute a workout. Today's New York Times has a story about Nick Swisher of the Oakland A's, who put on 20 pounds of muscle over the off-season by doing things like swinging a sledgehammer. Swisher went to a place called Edge Athletic and Fitness Center in central Ohio. Edge specializes in training that's "more like Rocky in Russia, running through Siberia and hitting sides of beef," its owner, Bill Fry, tells the Times.

There are others who preach this approach, including the Underground Strength Coach. You have to love its simplicity, and the idea that hard yardwork will do more than give you a great-looking lawn. And it shows that there always are ways to keep yourself interested if you're looking for new ways to work out.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Train Like Tomorrow's NFL Stars

Tomorrow the NFL begins its annual combine in Indianapolis, where hopeful draftees will run through drills like the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle run and bench press. You can watch it on the NFL Network (if you have a cable company other than Time Warner, which is what I'm stuck with).

According to the schedule, the real stuff begins Saturday morning, when tight ends, kickers and offensive linemen start running drills.

It's killing me that I won't be able to watch -- there are few places you can find this much athleticism on display.

But the combine's drills are good for more than just future pro cornerbacks. They're good for us. As Men's Health pointed out a while back, becoming proficient at the combine's drills will help you in plenty of sports beyond football.

And think about this -- the 20-yard shuttle run or the L drill could easily become your interval training.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Yet Another Reason to Lift

I was trying to catch up on some reading over the last few days and came across this in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (the November 2006 issue): A study says "older men can complete a high-intensity resistance exercise program resulting in spikes in testosterone that may attenuate age-related muscle and bone mineral density loss." The testosterone spike from heavy lifting, something approaching 80% of the one-rep max, was similar for young, middle-aged and older men.

So go lift some heavy weights.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Surfing and Sex

I love it when I find stories of older people who are still active. They make me believe that my quest is possible.

So when I was cleaning up today I found a couple of pages I tore from Surfer magazine last year -- an article about Doc Paskowitz, who still surfs at 85. As I note, I don't completely agree with everything he says, but when someone can still do what he does at his age, it's at least worth considering what he has to day.

He had five simple rules for living a long, active life.

"1. Keep Your Weight Down. Stay slim, trim and elegant. Get to be about 15% body fat and stay there the rest of your life. An easy way to check if you're not at 15% body fat is to pinch-an-inch anywhere on your frame. If it's an inch or over, you're too fat.

2. Fat Makes Fat. Forget all the crap you're hearing about carbohydrates. Concentrate on fat. ... The longest-lived people on earth eat only about 40 to 50 grams of fat per day. If you're like most Americans, you're eating four times that amount. (I don't agree with this one completely, because I do believe that excess carbs are a big problem.)

3. To be Alive, You've Got to Eat Life. Throw it on the ground. If it grows, it's first-class food; if it doesn't grow, it's not. You can't grow Ritz crackers, potato chips or French fries, but a grain of 3,000-year-old red wheat found in Tutankhamen's tomb sprouted when planted. Green leafy vegetables, grains, beans, peas -- these are living things and they make up the bulk of what most people on earth eat -- a lot of fruit and vegetables and a little meat -- the universal meal. (Again, I don't completely agree with this one, mainly on the issue of meat.)

4. Move, Move, Move. Movement is life-like. Movement is life. But you have to give your first priority to the big muscle of the lower extremeties. It's not enough to just arm-paddle. The great exercise of all is walking, brisk walking. I never walk less than 20 minutes a day, though I often walk much, much more than that. I can do it even when I feel lousy. (As you know by now, I'm a big believer in intervals, which you could do while walking.)

5. Surf, Surf, Surf -- as much as you can. Not just for exercise and fun but also for recreation. It's easier to understand the word "recreation" broken up; it's "re-creation." Every time you paddle out, you re-create and re-inspire yourself. You only die once but you have to worry about living each and every day of your life. We did only when we stop living."

By the way, here's what Paskowitz says he does for fun -- surfing and sex.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Shaking Things Up

It's time to change my Saturday cardio workout. I try to do this every four weeks for a couple of reasons. First, it makes it more interesting. Second, it challenges my body in different ways.

There was a time when it was hard for me to come up with new routines. In hindsight, the main reason wasn't so much a lack of imagination as it was a lack of material. In other words, I hadn't been exposed to enough different routines, or even pieces of routines, that I then could put together into a new routine.

But as I've read more and more, and seen more and more in action at Velocity, I've begun to put together a portfolio that I can draw from.

So today I'm going to try a variation of something I read in the March Men's Health -- the hourglass drill the magazine says the University of Connecticut basketball team uses. You sprint in a diagonal line from one corner of the court to the other, then shuffle along the baseline to the opposite corner, sprint from there again in a diagonal line to the far corner of the other baseline, then shuffle back to your starting point.

I don't have a basketball court -- just a yoga studio at the gym. So I'll probably run through this three times in a row before resting, and then do it again. I figure that'll leave me gasping for oxygen.

As with all my cardio, it'll include a quick warm-up and cool-down and I'll be in out in less than 30 minutes.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

A Calorie-Burning Machine

I believe I'm a living example of our ability to boost our metabolisms even as we age.

Granted, my belief isn't based on science. It's based on the fact that I'm hungry almost all the time, which means I eat constantly. But I'm not gaining weight and in fact have lost a couple of pounds recently. Losing weight isn't my goal, so I need to either cut back the intensity of my workouts or eat even more, and I'll probably choose the latter.

But it makes sense that with everything I do, I have, as Marco at Velocity says, turned my body into a calorie-burning machine.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Powerful Motivation

OK, I'll admit it -- there are days when I don't feel like working out.

That's saying something, considering that fitness has basically become a hobby for me. Today is one of those days. I simply feel sluggish, which means it would be easy to stay home after work instead of changing and heading to the gym.

But I'll go. I know I will. And here's why -- working out has never failed to make me feel better. There's that simply sense of accomplishment I get from having done it. Then there's the knowledge that I'm doing something to improve myself physically. Finally, it makes me feel better mentally, more alive, more focused.

With benefits like those, I'd be crazy to skip a regular workout.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

A Better Warm-up, Part 2

Just as with lifting, you want to run through a warm-up before cardio that prepares you for what you're about to do. And that's exactly what I did yesterday before my cardio work. (My cardio involved running an arrow drill -- sprint five yards to the top of the arrow, shuffle about five steps to the left side of the arrow, back to the point, then shuffle to the right, back to the point, and then backpeddle to the start -- three times in a row with a minute rest between each set of three. There were seven sets of it, followed by three of a bodyweight circuit, both from the latest Men's Health. Then I was done, all in less than 30 minutes with the warm-up included.)

So I do things like jumping jacks, skipping, lunges and high-knee running in place. A warm-up like this also stretches the muscles, but does so in a dynamic manner instead of static manner, something Bill Hartman explained not too long ago. Experts believe that static stretching, the kind where you stretch and hold a muscle, can actually weaken the muscle, something you obviously don't want before a workout (it's fine afterwards).

Here's a great video from the James Madison University Strength and Conditioning Program showing a dynamic warm-up. It's fairly easy to do modify many of these so that they work standing in place, which makes them easier to do in a gym.

As we get older, injury prevention begins to become even more important. And dynamic warm-ups can play a big role in helping you stay injury free.

Friday, February 9, 2007

A Better Warm-up

I've heard this far too many times: A trainer walks up to a client and asks, "Have you warmed up yet? No? OK, jump on the treadmill."

I heard it again last night at the gym. Then the trainer took his client to the bench press.

What's so bad about that?

As Craig Ballantyne once wrote in his blog, warming up on a treadmill gets you ready to run on a treadmill. In other words, your warm-up should get you ready for what you're about to do. And running on a treadmill doesn't get you ready for the bench press.

Before upper-body work, you'll want to do moves like arm circles and stick-ups (check out the picture of Craig for this one, and it starts with the arms lower down). Even pushups work, especially if you throw some variety into them with, say, the T pushup (without the weights for the warm-up).

One of the absolute best resources is a manual and DVD from Bill Hartman and Mike Robertson called Inside-Out: The Ultimate Upper Body Warm-up.

And this type of warm-up won't add any time to your workout. But it will do a better job of protecting your from injuries.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

More from Less

Jason Ferruggia, who I've mentioned before, has a great post today that anyone who lifts weigths or is thinking about doing so -- and everyone should fall into either of those camps -- will want to read. The basic idea is that you can get more from less, which is great for anyone pressed for time.

Can You Get Faster?

Today's New York Times has a story about college football players getting ready for the NFL Combine this month. The combine, of course, is the event where the players run through various drills for NFL scouts and coaches. It can make a big difference in where they end up in the draft.

Within the story there's a debate about whether speed can be taught. The trainers at Parisi Speed School in Fair Lawn, N.J., where the potential draftees are training, say yes. So do the people who run Velocity Sports Performance. (Velocity centers across the country train plenty of players getting ready for college and pro sports, as well as regular folks like me.) The president of the Super Bowl champion Colts disagrees, saying, "Fast guys run fast," the Times reports.

Here's what I know: I've learned at Velocity that your running technique can make a difference. I feel faster when I run sprints. Am I? I don't know. I was never timed before my training at Velocity. But does it even matter whether I'm faster if I feel like I'm running more fluidly, more efficiently? I don't think so if the end result is that my workouts have improved.

To learn the right way to run, you can go somewhere like Velocity or look around for articles that have been written about it. Men's Health has at least two pieces on it: "Smarter Cardio" and "Hit the Accelerator."

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

The New Cardio Plan

Once upon a time I didn't think anything of all the people plodding along on the treadmills and ellipticals at the gym. Hell, I often was one of them.

Then I discovered intervals. Thanks to the high priests of intervals like Craig Ballantyne, Alwyn Cosgrove and the trainers at Velocity Sports Performance, I began to learn about what interval training can do for you -- because your body works so hard during the intervals it must do more after the workout to make up for it. So your body burns calories long after the workout is done. This is what Ballantyne calls "turbulence" and Cosgrove calls "afterburn." In contrast, during steady-state aeorbics, such as a 30-minute run at the same pace, you burn calories during it but not so many afterwards.

The other benefit: You're done in much less time than a traditional cardio workout. So last night at the gym I climbed on the VersaTrainer, basically a stair machine that's completely human powered, and knocked out eight 30-second intervals with 1-minute rests in between. Throw in a warm up and cool down and I was out of the gym in about 20 minutes.

Trust me -- it was a tough workout. After each interval, I was gasping for air.

Intervals can take many forms, everything from bodyweight work done in circuits to sprints. The idea is simply a burst a speed for some period of time followed by a slower pace or rest. It's catching on, too. The L.A. Times recently wrote a story about it.

For me, they've cut my body fat by about four or five percentage points over the past several months, while my weight has stayed the same, meaning I've gained muscle.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Work Ethic

My father always taught me that no matter what you're doing, do it as well as you can. So when he put me to work on the shirt factory floor as a teenager, I worked as hard as I could.

It's always important to take that same work ethic into workouts. What's the point of doing it half-assed anyway?

Think about this: Peyton Manning practices with the same intensity that he plays. "Peyton practices like that every week ... like it's the Super Bowl," coach Tony Dungy said, according to SI.com's Peter King, after Manning ended a 2-minute drill with a touchdown strike.

And Manning, of course, just won the Super Bowl.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

One of the Best Exercises Ever

I love the deadlift, which says a lot considering what it did to me once.

It's one of the best exercises because it works nearly everything, especially the often-overlooked posterior chain, which includes the glutes and hamstrings. You get power for nearly every sport from the posterior chain. Some of the best trainers will tell you that the deadlift is a great move to include in your training -- but only if you do it right.

And that's what I once didn't do. Well, actually more than once. When I first started deadlifting, I didn't understand well enough how to do it. Looking back, it's fairly clear that my core wasn't strong enough either. So one night at the gym, with what most would consider a modest weight, I went to pull the bar up and could've sworn I heard a pop from the left side of my lower back. I could barely straighten up enough to put the plates up and walk out of the gym.

My biggest problem was that I was rounding my lower back on the pull, a common mistake.

But it didn't stop me from deadlifting, after a break, of course. Simply put, the benefits were too big to walk away from. So I worked with Marco Ferdinandi, the sports performance director at Velocity Sports Performance in Manhattan, on my form. With each pull, I concentrated not on how much I was lifting but on my form. I worked on my core more than I ever have, too.

Today, I felt great after my last deadlift. The weight I'm pulling is still awfully modest compared to many guys, but I'm moving up.

If you want to try it, wikipedia.org has a good explanation of the move, and at T-Nation.com Eric Cressey has a great article on it.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Winning at 40

Gail Devers won the 60-meter hurdles last night at the Millrose Games in New York's Madison Square Garden. She's 40.

OK, I know that track and field has had its share of issues with performance-enhancing drugs. But let's go with the assumption that she's clean, and no one is suggesting otherwise now. If that's the case, then she's certainly a stellar example of how it's possible to maintain, or even improve, your athletic performance as you age.

She also indicates that she has no plans to retire. "My grandmother lived until she was 98 1/2,'' Devers said, according to Tim Layden's column today on SI.com. "I'm going to live a long life.''

Friday, February 2, 2007

Sweet Rest

Today is an off day, no workouts, which is good. One area where I could probably do better is rest. Yep, rest is crucial. It gives your body time to adapt to the stress you've put it through during your workouts. And that's when it improves.

So as important as it is to train, it's just as important to makes sure you don't overtrain, something that can take many forms. Jason Ferruggia, one of the nation's top trainers, wrote about this recently.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Youth and Vigor

I had to run by the grocery store tonight after the gym. As I waited in line, the man in front of me turned, looked at me standing there in shorts, and said, “You aren’t cold?”

“It’s not so bad,” I said, which I meant -- it was only in the mid-30s outside and there was no wind. I wasn’t cold. Plus, I was also wearing a fleece jacket over a sweat shirt.

“I wish I had your youth and vigor,” he said, adding that he was like an old man, bundled up in layers to protect himself from the cold.

But here’s the thing -- I’m hardly young. I’m 42. And he was hardly an old man. He was 50, maybe.

So what was the difference? I’d like to think it’s my approach to health and fitness. I care deeply about both, and work hard at both. Working out and eating well have become my hobby over the past 10 or 15 years, which means I’ve learned a lot along the way. I’ve learned by training with some of the best -- mainly the folks at Velocity Sports Performance in Manhattan -- and digging through articles and blogs written by some of the sharpest and most innovative minds in fitness, from Adam Campbell at Men’s Health to Alwyn Cosgrove, who runs Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, Calif.

So my thought was that others might be able to learn from what I’ve learned. No, I’m not an expert. But I do know a lot. And maybe people can see things that work for me and give them a try. Or maybe they can be exposed to the thinking of some of these great minds through my training and nutrition.

That’s my goal with this blog. Then there’s the greater goal, which is to never become the old man the guy in line at the grocery store said he’d become. I believe that’s possible. I believe that with proper training and nutrition, you can always have the youth and vigor he talked about, regardless of your age.