My 3 Workout Rules

I hesitate to list a bunch of rules here with questionable authority. The internet is filled with such lists. Moreover, with so many different health opinions and fitness goals to wade through, one person's rule may be another's blunder.

So I'm giving you something basic. These are my rules. Follow them or nor. They work for my ongoing goals. Most likely, with or without adaptation, they can work for yours too. One day I may adapt them again, myself.

1. Never have more than 1 consecutive day without a workout
2. Workout at least 5 days a week
3. Always workout on Monday

That's it. Well, it's not everything. There's a lot involved in how I workout, not to mention proper nutrition and rest. Some of you might be wondering about the rest, given that I workout at least 5 days. That's where the types of workouts I perform matter. I'm not performing full-body, super-heavy-lifting workouts 5+ days.

What I am doing is consistently working, and continually improving. And these rules help me do that. Maybe they'll help you too.


Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

Fit People Aren't Hunting Werewolves

Photo by Naypong

"Wow!" people tell me. "Your body transformation is remarkable!" I can tell that much already, since they're making remarks.

"Tell me," they continue, "how you've done it. I want to do the same thing."

Usually, they don't mean this. What they really mean is, "I want to know where you bought your silver bullets." They want to shoot werewolves more than they want to overcome.

Truth be told, I don't blame them. When I was mired in the misery of my former lifestyle that made me so overweight, I felt helpless to get better. Even though I actually knew what to do, the thought of making the right changes overwhelmed me. Until I made them.

Now, egotistical as I am, this isn't to hold myself up as the paradigm for getting in shape. It's a series of observations, starting with one from a conversation I had yesterday.

Unidentified Individual: I want to do what you did. Tell me your secret!
Me: I just eat well and workout.
Unidentified Individual: Oh. Well, never mind. I'm not doing that.

It got me thinking. We all want the metaphor I've used above, a special weapon that destroys fat and builds muscle. If it's not a magical juice elixir, or a ultra scientific gadget that exercises for you, it's hard to get excited.

Eat good food and do hard exercise? Go sell crazy somewhere else.

People that are fit already know that it's that simple, and that difficult. They have found a way to make this a part of their lifestyle. Fit people make their health a priority, and life rewards them for it.

They know other things too, none of which are silver bullets. But these are things that they've figured out along the way that have helped them.

Photo by Danilo Rizzuti, 

They're called crash diets for a reason
Don't find yourself in a wreck. Find a healthy eating lifestyle.

They're called workouts, not easyouts
Do something hard. Your body will thank you.

The workouts need to change
Don't do the same workout every day. Progressively make them more challenging.

Maintaining is a just another word for backsliding
Constantly strive for the better you. Get stronger, faster, and fitter.




Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

Ask the Superheroes about Fitness

Recently, I caught up with the superheroes at Comic Con, and asked some questions about their fitness plans. The results were less than stellar.


S300H: Hulk, what can our readers do to get stronger like you?
Hulk: Hulk the strongest one there is! Hulk smash your readers!
S300H: Um, okay. Any other advice?
Hulk: LEAVE HULK ALONE!





S300H: Wolverine, what would you say the secret to your fitness success is?
Wolverine: I'm the best there is at what I do.
S300H: Great. Can you be more specific?
Wolverine: I'm into musical theater. Did you see Les Miserables?
S300H: Maybe. A bit. Er... what does that have to do with fitness?
Wolverine: Nothing, bud. But I outsang the Kryptonian, didn't I?





S300H: This is a disaster
Captain America: It doesn't have to be. Never give in.
S300H: Cap! I'm so glad you're here! Would you be willing to share how you transformed so quickly into a fit powerhouse?
Captain America: Gladly. I can't pretend to understand the details, but I'm told it's something called CGI.

I wanted to ask Batman some questions too, but nobody saw him for the entire convention. I heard he vanished into the shadows, but I'm thinking that was just an urban legend.

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

3 Handstand Observations

Last night, doing a 5 second handstand,
which felt like 10 seconds.

I'm questing towards proficient at handstands. This is part of a larger goal to perform planche pushups, but more about that later.

Currently, I can hold a freestanding handstand for about 5-10 seconds, although the average is probably closer to 2 seconds. A ton of the attempts fail quickly. With a wall to tap against as needed, I can hold one for much longer, but I feel like this doesn't help me learn the balance properly.

Recently, I've discovered three things that have dramatically improved my stands. Take this as a self discovery story, and not as definitive advice.

1. Practice more
   This should be a given. Here's the difficulty though. If you don't know how to do them, handstands are hard. If you're not used to peforming them, they tax the muscles too. This is a good thing though, as strength and balance are the key reasons I'm learning them. Well, and also because I love to play.
   
   A few days ago, I committed to doing a minimum of 25 stands a day. Not attempts. Actual stands. I'm viewing this like I did juggling when I taight myself that. I never got better until I practiced consistently.
   
2. Finger placement
   
   The internet frustrated me almost as much as it assisted me in this. Multiple guides said the balance is really in the fingers. While I'm sure instructions exist though, I never found one a site that explicitly explained HOW to use fingers for balancing.
   
   Eventually, I read to press the four corners of the palm onto the ground, and press with your fingertips. This helped but it still didn't seem to cover the whole picture.
   
   I went back and watched a video by breakdancer Simon Ata.

   

   Simon's hands during handstand

   His calisthenics abilites astound me. For some reason, the video he posted of his workout routine is no longer on his page, and it's with hesitation I post another link, since it's not on his. You have to see this though: Simonster.
   
   I noticed when he moves into handstands, his fingers curl up. Once I tried pressing as described above, with arched fingers, I felt the balance.
   
   
3. Press down
   
   It seems non-intuitive to me. If I'm standing on my hands, how can I press into the ground? Think about it. Stand up on your feet. Now press your feet into the ground. See what I mean?
   
   Nevertheless, when I focus on the act of pushing, my balance improves. Additionally, if I start to lose my balance, if I bend my arms ever so slightly, I find that I can usually remain upright for much longer. This will help when I progress to handstand pushups.

By the way, that's part of the progressions I'm using to get to planche pushups. Handstands, to handstand pushups, to planche pushups. That's not the only progressions though. I'll post about them when I'm closer to the actual goal.

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

I Kicked Your Chest In The Pool

Let's talk about gym etiquette, but in a way it's rarely discussed. The internet is filled with common advice like:

• Don't hog equipment
• Wipe down your equipment
• Put your weights back
• Don't shave naked

And it's needed. You know this if you've been to the gym. Maybe not the last bullet point, but if you spend enough time in my gym's locker room you'll eventually know why I included it anyway.

But there's another important piece of information certain gym goers need to know about. You see, my gym has a lap pool.


If your gym also has one, it probably has a sign similar to ours:

"Lap pool is for lap classes and swimming only."

I've seen variations on this in other locations, where the pools are designated for laps only during certain times.

Either way, let's talk about what lap swimming is not. If you are engaged in the following activities, you are not swimming laps:

• Canonballs
• Splash contests
• Water Wrestling
• Kissing
• Going further than kissing
• Just hanging out in the middle of the freaking lane

I've encountered several people that apparently think these behaviors, and several others, constitute swimming laps. To be fair, one of the couples engaged in kissing and more were getting a pretty good workout.

If I see you working out on, let's say the bench press, I don't go tap dance on the bench in between your sets. It's rude, it's distracting, and it's not what the equipment is there for. Also, I don't know how to tap dance.

But these people don't feel the same about my workouts in the pool, that I pay for monthly to use. Not only do I have to wait, or politely ask people to get out if they're not doing laps, but I sometimes find them horsing around in my lane after I've started my laps.

My philosophy is that I should not have to alter my workout because somebody else is misusing the equipment. So when I see them in my lane, I do not alter my strokes one bit. This means I almost always end up hitting or kicking them with part of my stroke.

And I swim hard. So it hurts.

After that, I'll usually ask them not to interrupt my workout.

This situation improved, up until recently, when I kicked someone again. Hard. Not any harder than I was already kicking the water before he jumped into the pool right in front of me, but hard.

Which brings me to this.

If you're an 18-ish year old male, with short cropped brown hair, and you received a kick to the chest while practicing your canonballs, it was probably me. If, immediately following this incident, you received a brief explanation about what the lap pool is supposed to be used for, I know it was me. And, I suppose, an apology is in order.

You can leave that apology in the comments. I'm waiting.

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

Pfft. Who Needs Rest?

According to countless magazine articles, fitness blogs and health related youtube videos, there are two secrets to fitness that nobody knows about.

The truth is, if these secrets show up all over the place, they're not really secrets. They're just ignored. Take me for instance.

I actually understand that mastering these simple tricks will help anyone in their fitness goals- whether those goals are loosing weight, building muscle, or gaining strength.

But it's so hard.

The Moment this Doctor made a Hitchhiker's Guide
reference, I was hooked.

The first "secret" is sleep. The body needs sleep to regenerate. Even the 10th Doctor, otherwise known as "My Doctor," needed sleep after he regenerated. Well, that and a good cup of tea. My personality is so much like that incarnation, I should take his sleep habits to heart.

The Doctor can regenerate in seconds, but still needs rest afterwords. We take 7-9 hours a night to regenerate.

Unfortunately, I'm more like the 12th Doctor. Um... very mild spoiler here for anyone that hasn't seen Doctor Who, Season 8, Episode 1, "Deep Breath."

He didn't understand the importance of a bedroom. The very idea made him incredulous. "You mean you've got a whole room for not being awake in!?"

My thoughts exactly.

Without sleep, our bodies won't produce growth hormone. Growth hormone maintains or bones, reduces fat storage, and builds our muscles. That's just some of the benefits.

"You mean you've got a whole room for not being awake in?
But what's the point? You're just missing the room. And
don't look in that mirror, it's absolutely furious!"

Lack of sleep leads to obesity, fatigue, and if you're really good at not sleeping, hallucinations. At least two of those are bad side effects.

I'm getting better at the sleep portion, but I mentioned two secrets didn't I? The other goes hand in hand.

Rest days.

I hate them.

Really. My current workout goals are a mix of strength and skill. I'm working on handstands, and handstand pushups, with the goal of eventually being able to do a back lever, and planche pushups.

I rarely take rest days. I've come to (incorrectly) view them as wasted days. Now, I usually have a light day that consists of just swimming. But it is a rarity that I don't do a workout of some kind.

For instance:

Don't do this workout everyday. You'll look
more like a dead soldier, not a Spartan.

Monday, I did the 300 workout. Tuesday, I did several pushup variations, for a total of 225 pushups, plus handstand practice. Wednesday, I did a killer combo of bodyweight and free weight exercises for about 40 minutes. As good as the workout was, I only did about half of the intended reps.

Why? Because I'd been pushing my body too hard for too long. Ever since I completed the 300 workout, I've thought that every "hard" day should have the same intensity. Some of them can, but pushing your body that hard 3-4 times a week has consequences. By Wednesday, my body finally told me to give it a break already.

These aren't secrets. Chances are, you know that the body needs time to rebuild the muscle fibers that were torn down. Tissue damage is repaired, and the body grows stronger. But so many of us fall into the trap of "more, more, more."

I've been trying to do "more, more, more."

But without rest, my performance becomes sub-par. I risk injury. And I actually impede my success, rather than guaranteeing it.

Yesterday, I didn't work out. I practiced a few handstands, but not for any substantial amount of time. And today? I feel fantastic.

I'll hit the gym hard tonight. And next week? I'll take another rest day.

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

No More Diets!

Working out plays a tremendous role in fulfilling those health related goals, but there's an old saying, "You can't outrun your fork." A true healthy lifestyle consists of proper nutrition, as well as regular exercise.

This is where many people think, "Uh-oh. That means I have to go on a diet, doesn't it?"

Please don't. In fact, can we abolish the word, "dieting," once and for all?

Temporarily starving your body is one of the worst things you can do, both for weight loss, and for overall health. Crash diets never focus on the root issue. Slashing your calorie intake, and giving up certain foods for 30 days may result in temporary loss. Still, one of two things are likely to happen. Either you'll find yourself giving into cravings during the program, or at the end of it you'll go right back to the behavior that made you diet in the first place.

There's a better way. Whether you want to lose weight, or bulk up on muscle, the key to success is making lifelong changes that promote the body you want. To that end, here are three ways you can begin practice healthier eating today.

1. Make Incremental Changes

What if I told you that today you had to give up all sodas (diet or otherwise,) limit your consumption of all grains, cut out liquid calories, only eat meat that is grass fed, and for goodness sake- stay away from sugar? Oh, and you'll be skipping desserts, passing on the chips, staying away from processed foods, and so on. And so forth.

Admit it. You'd look for a different to blog to read, wouldn't you?

Depending on your goals, and individual needs, those would be great nutrition choices. But, if you actually tried to make all these changes at once, chances are at some point you'd fall off the wagon.

Incremental changes are easier than drastic ones.

So what if I asked you to make one healthy change today? Then make another one next week. And another the next. You'd be much more likely to succeed.

So look at this list, pick a change, and start it today. Congratulations. You're already improving your health.

2. Eat Real Food

If you're already looking to eat better, then hopefully you're reading nutrition labels on food. Even without changing anything about your lifestyle, being aware of ingredients is a fantastic start.

It doesn't matter yet if you don't know the difference between High Fructose Corn Syrup and Maltodextrin, here's a general rule. The less ingredients, the better.

As you make those incremental changes in step 1, be moving towards eating less processed, and more real foods. Real food includes meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, eggs and so forth.

Eating this way gives your body the protein, nutrients and good fats that it needs, regardless of your overall health goals. Just as importantly, it limits the things present in so much of the food industry that destroy your goals, such as artificial ingredients, refined grains, carcinogens and sugar. Speaking of which...

3. Limit Sugar

Sugar is addictive. After all, it tastes great. Not only that, it sets off a chemical reaction in the body that ultimately leads to pleasure. When we eat sugar, the pancreas releases insulin to regulate it. That balance is hard to match though, which leads to too much insulin. That results in a sugar crash.

How does the body react to this crash? It wants more sugar.

Here's the issue with that. The body uses sugar to do two things- for energy, and to store fat. In excess amounts, all the body can do is use it for fat.

This leads to a swarm of health issues including obesity, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.

Limiting your sugar intake will help you make great strides towards true health. This is where reading nutrition labels comes in handy, because the food industry hides it's amount of sugar by wording it several ways. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but sugar can also be listed as High-Fructose corn syrup, Glucose, Maltose and Lactose.

Another way to quickly check is to read the amount of sugar grams on the nutrition label.

There you have three easy ways to begin a healthy lifestyle, not one of which includes dieting. Eating healthy may include lowering your calorie intake, but it never means starving. 

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

Don't Make Weight Loss Your Goal

Go to a gym, randomly choose ten people, and ask them a question. Really. I'll wait.

Here's the question: What are your fitness goals? Chances are, they're going to say, "to lose weight." I did this last night, and 9 our of the 10 gave me a variation of the weight loss goal. Some had a specific ideal weight, while others just wanted less of them to go around.

The tenth person's goal was to complete a workout without being bothered. So maybe you shouldn't do this after all. Guess I'll have to write myself a post on gym etiquette next.

I'm going to propose a better type of goal. Not that weight loss is a lousy one, but it's limiting. This doesn't even begin to address the fact that building muscle is essential to overall health, and how muscle weighs more than fat. Moreover, even with a specific target weight in mind, it's vague. That makes it an unlikely goal to meet.

I'll prove it. Go back to the gym and ask those same people for their phone numbers, so you can call them in 6 months and ask them whether or not they met their weight loss goals. We both know what will happen if you do this. You'll be asked to leave the gym. (I learned that one that hard way.)

But if you did follow-up, most of them would still be over their "ideal weight."

What's the better way? Performance related goals.

When I started out, I had a hodgepodge of goals. "Lose weight," was a big one. I also needed to lower my blood pressure, and get rid of my belly fat. Fortunately, I followed an excellent plan and began to see some of these results. That's about the time that the workouts became easy. When your workouts are easy, it's time to change them.

Had I not refocused my goals, I guarantee you I'd be on my way back to obesity already, and all in the name of "maintaining."

Instead, I decided to continue my transformation. I want to be stronger. Quicker. More agile. And that means performance related goals.

I learned about the 300 workout, which I mentioned briefly before. Here's a great article from the good people at Nerd Fitness that discusses it in detail. Here's the breakdown.

In 30 minutes or less, perform each of these exercises, which will total 300 reps. Take as many sets as you need, but remember the time limit. You don't move to the next exercise until you've completed each of the allotted reps in the prior one.

• 25 Pullups
• 50 Deadlifts with 135 lbs
• 50 Pushups
• 50 Jumps onto 24 inch boxes
• 50 Floor wipers with 135 lbs
• 50 Single-arm Clean and Press with 36 lbs Kettlebells (Each arm. Ugh)
• 25 Pullups

And yes. I keep thinking there's no way you have to do 50 kettlebells with EACH arm. And you do.

I took several weeks, alternately working on these exercises individually, and then putting them all together to see how far I could get in 30 minutes. The effect is cumulative. 50 box jumps wears you out, but it's nothing compared to doing them after 50 deadlifts, 50 pushups and 25 pullups.

Finally, I managed to complete it in 29:40. Nobody even looked at me funny when I cried out, "THIS IS SPARTA!" That's because I waited until I got into the empty pool area to yell it though.

What's my point? I pushed myself much harder than I had been, prior to finding a performance related goal. I got stronger, faster and more agile. I still don't look like King Leonidas, but maybe it's because I don't have a beard.

I continue to do this workout once a week, and hope to cut down on the time. But I've moved on to different performance based challenges that will build on this one. I also still have appearance based goals. There's not much belly fat left, but it's still there and I want it gone. But it's through these challenges that I will accomplish that.

What are your performance challenges and goals?

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

Regenerating. Time Lords, Eat Your Hearts Out

My Regeneration

In the universe of Doctor Who, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate. His body undergoes a transformation, causing a complete physical change.

This generally happens when he has been injured, or otherwise gone through enough bodily stress to warrant a new self. Time Lord's like the Doctor can do this automatically when their body needs it, or they can trigger the change on their own.

Think about it. How marvelous would it be to build a new body from scratch.

I have good news. You can do exactly that. Unless you're a Time Lord, it's a slower process for us humans (and if you are a Time Lord, I'd love to see your Tardis,) but we do it every day. 


In April of this year, the doctor told me I had to go on blood pressure medication or drastically change my lifestyle. Notice, that's "doctor" with a little "d."

I generally don't tell people how quickly the transformation took place for me, because frankly, even I find it ridiculous. I'm not sure what my April weight was, but sometime before that I weighed in at 250 pounds. At 6'0, that's a bit too much, right?

Today I weigh 188 pounds. And what's more, I gained muscle and can do things with my body I couldn't dream about before. Well, I could dream. But that's all.

How did I do it, you ask? You did ask, right? Even if you didn't, plenty of others have.

`1. I Eat Healthy

You've heard this plenty of ways. "You can't outrun your fork." Combine that with, "You are what you eat," and you're on the right track.

I don't diet. I put good food in my body. Yes, to a certain point, weight loss can be about calories in < calories burned. But weight loss and health aren't always synonymous.

I'm not on the paleo diet, but it's close. I don't eat gluten, and limit all other grains. My food consists mostly of meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries and olives. There are exceptions, but not many.

The human body really does regenerate. And it does so with the food we put into it.

2. I Enjoy My Workouts

This wasn't always true. At the beginning, it felt too hard. I couldn't move. I perceived through this. As my fitness improved, I found the things I loved doing.

For me this includes swimming, one of the best full body workouts out there. It also involves a variety of free weight and body weight exercises.

You may not enjoy them at first, but the sooner you find the fun exercises for you, the sooner the transformation can begin. And you may find, as I did, that things you hated before are fun- once you can do them.

3. I Get Stronger. I Constantly Improve

Early on in my training, I came across the 300 Sparta Workout. I'll blog about that in the near future. It's a workout designed by Mark Twight, the trainer responsible for getting the actors in shape for the movie 300. He is quoted as saying, "Appearance is a consequence of fitness."

When I read that quote, I thought he was mad. Appearance was one of the number one reasons behind me getting fit, at the time.

I understand it now. I still have some appearance related goals. But, even as specific as they are, they're too broad to do me any good. As I've adapted my goals to be, well- goal oriented, I've found even greater success. "I will learn the butterfly stroke." "I will complete the 300 workout challenge." I will do accomplish this, and I will accomplish that."

Those goals don't happen overnight. Or rather, if they do, you've set the goals too low. The goals should work towards making you better each time.

Every week, I try to improve. Every workout. One more set. Five more pounds. Ten seconds quicker. When I push myself that way, I find I'm capable of more than I ever thought.

I'm capable of regeneration. And so are you.

Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.

New Beginnings

I maintain another blog, thewritescott.blogspot.com, about my passion for writing. You couldn't tell it by how often I've failed to update the blog recently, but I still write. One of my life goals is to become a successful professional writer, with success defined as "paying the bills through writing."

It's not my only passion. Every time I decided to start another blog post over there, I found myself constructing yet another fitness related metaphor revolving around writing. In fact, I almost wish I'd started with that dual theme in the first place, but that was 60 pounds ago.

Rather than trying to pigeonhole the two ideas, I figured I'd just start another blog. Sure, I'll probably occasionally write about fitness over there, just like writing may come into play over here. But rather than divide the focus, the internet now gets a new blog about healthy living. Just what it needed, right?

In a nutshell, I'm one of those people that knew what to do to be healthy, but I let myself go. Badly. I looked like Doogie Howser ate William Shatner. After a few wake up calls, I changed my lifestyle in a big way. I'll share that story shortly.

Yeah. I'm also a nerd. Well, a geek really. It's kind of implied in the blog's title, and you can bet that Doctor Who will play into my next post.

Since getting into the best shape of my life, I've been ghost blogging health, workout and fitness articles through blogmutt.com. It's been fun.  It's been marginally profitable, to the point that I can officially declare myself a professional writer now. However, it's ghost writing, and I want to be able to tell the world, "Hey! Look at me! I'm the one that wrote this!"

Here goes. *Ahem* Hey! Look at me! I'm the one that wrote this!

Until next time. Keep transforming. Keep regenerating.