10 things you should love about lifting

Spending hours slogging it out on the treadmill, bikes, glidex and stepper might make you sweaty & feel all fuzzy inside, but it’s not getting you anywhere…  Your body & your health will benefit from a switch to a combination of weights and cardio.  Here’s why…

Strength.  Do you struggle with simple daily chores such as bringing the groceries in & lifting the kids.  Developing more strength through lifting will make light work of these chores and will also support and protect your body from injury or pain while doing your thing.

Lose body fat.  Right.  So you’re slogging it out on the stepper but getting nowhere.  Maybe it worked for a month or two?  By now your body’s onto it and doing it with the least possible exertion.  Adding strength training to your routine will improve your BMR, or the rate at which you burn calories.  Strength training also creates an after burn, revving up your metabolism for the following couple of hours, and the rest of the day.  Throw some weights in to increase your basal metabolic rate and transform your body into a fat burning furnace; cardio girl.

Women will NOT bulk.  It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard in the past – it’s not true.  Women’s bodies simply do not produce enough testosterone to produce massive size gains.  Aside from that, our strength ‘limitations’ relative to that of men mean that we can’t lift enough to build.  You’ll just get ’lean’.

Bone Health.  Bones need to be worked on too.  Weight lifting enables bones, which continually regenerate, to grow back stronger & healthier.  Weight training has been proven to improve spinal bone mineral density by 13% over just 6 months.  Banish fragile & brittle bones forever!

Improve your athletic performance.  Want to hit that ball further?  Cycle harder?  Ski better? Hit the weights, improve your strength and improved power will follow.  Trust me – people who are big & strong can hit the ball much further, cycle longer & swim faster than twiglets!

Reduce your risk of Heart Disease.  Weight training improves your cardiovascular health, but not in the way you expect.  Strength training lowers your LDL (bad) cholesterol, increases HDL (good) cholesterol & helps lower blood pressure.  Healthy heart and fit, firm body – what more can anyone want?

Reduced risk of Diabetes.  Strength training may help improve the way your body processes sugars, which helps reduce the risk of suffering adult onset (or type II) diabetes.  Regular training also helps regulate insulin levels, another factor in developing diabetes. 

Improve your brain.  No, it doesn’t make you smarter (well, it might, but that’s just my theory) but it can improve your attitude, outlook and help ward off depression.  A Harvard study found 10 weeks of strength training reduced clinical depression symptoms more than standard counselling.  Strength training also improves self confidence, body image & just makes you happier. 

Exercises!  All said & done, you need to do the right exercises.  Fluffy exercises like triceps kickbacks & inner thigh exercises may give you the fuzzy feeling in your stomach like you’ve done something; but it’s not the best way to results.  Get on the squat train, do some push ups & work your body hard for the best results.  Big body movements with heavy-ish weights will be your friend.

Start now.  Whether you’ve been working away for years and getting nowhere or if you’re a newbie in the gym there is a program that is perfect for you.  Start now  & watch the benefits come flooding in!

The importance of lifting weights

If the mere mention of ‘weights’ conjures up the image of a grunting, groaning, muscle packed meathead, listen up!   It’s not always like this.  And it doesn’t have to be you. 

If you slog your guts out on the eliptical trainer and stepper, have been for months and don’t seem to be getting anywhere, perhaps there’s a little something you’re not doing.  Getting in on the strength training action will boost your results, improve your overall health & step up your self confidence.

Strength training is, in my humble opinion, a vital part of any program and essential to your success.  While most of us know strength training has it’s place in a training program, and I believe it’s an essential part of any program; I can also see where it gets it’s reputation.  I’m going to clear up some myths and tell you why strength training will change your life.

First the benefits.  Strength training builds strong, healthy muscle tissue.  Muscle burns more calories every second of the day.  More calories burned throughout the day means a leaner, more toned you.

By incorportating strength training into your routine you will burn more fat, faster.  Building muscles increases your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) or the rate at which your body burns calories.  Muscle is an active tissue.  It continually requires fuel to live, and to function effectively.  This fuel is in the form of calories that we ingest, or fuel that is stored in your body as glycogen, or fat.  The more muscle you build, the higher your BMR (metabolism) and the more effectively your body burns calories.  Although looking at it daily it might not seem much of a difference, the cumulative effect, of even burning an extra 50 calories per day is huge.  An increase of your BMR by just 50 calories per day equates to 18250 calories per year.  You’re essentially burning 2.02kg of fat every single year – without dieting.

Strength training is also great for your bone health.  Working with weights helps protect your bones from the effects of ageing.  Our bones are an active tissue, continually breaking down and regenerating.  Low impact weight bearing activities (i.e. strength training) stimulates improved bone mineral density (BMD) during the regeneration process.  BMD has been clinically proven to be a major risk factor for osteoporosis – a condition causing brittle, fragile bones as we age.  And men, it’s not just a women’s menopausal issue – this affects you as well.

Joint stability & integrity are also improved through weight training.  Performing a moderate weight lifting routine 2 – 3 times per week will protect your joints by strengthening their surrounding & stabilizing muscles.  Using weights, particularly free weights (dumbbells) forces you to use your stabilizers to control the load.

A prime example is your rotator cuff.  The rotator cuff muscle complex supports and stabilizes your shoulder & makes sure everything is in place.  Performing upper body strengthening exercises, with correct postural alignment & technique develops the ability of these 4 tiny muscles to switch on when the shoulder joint is under stress.  This is a good thing.  It will help stop your shoulder dislocating when placed under stress in unstable positions, such as above the head.

Another significant benefit of a well designed and balanced lifting program is improvement in your postural alignment.  Posture, when we’re babies, is generally speaking, perfect.  As we age, both the mind and body succumb to laziness and adopt the most easily taken path.  Lack of core strength puts you in a C spinal curve when sitting.  It’s no one’s fault that this is the way we all sit, it’s come about through our bodies learning that it takes less muscles to sit like this.  In this scenario, improvement of your core stability through exercises and some lifts will help bring back that natural S curve.

Similar muscle imbalances can be developed through poorly designed programs.  Have you ever seen blokes at your local gym looking like he-man?  Shoulders forward, arms permanently bent at the elbows, upper back rounded?  The majority of these guys have developed a muscular imbalance through repetitive strengthening (and hence shortening) of the anterior muscles (pecs, anterior deltoids, biceps) causing their posterior muscles (rhomboids, lower traps) to become long and weak.

With improved strength, all your everyday activities become easier & less stressful on your body.  From lifting the groceries to gardening to housework, the fitter & stronger you are the easier these chores become.

The weight debate

Body mass is not the be all and end all in this day and age.  Higher body fat percentages are strongly correlated with increased risk of morbidity & mortality and as such can be considered the more relevant issue for general health.  Body Mass Index (BMI) has routinely been used to judge a person’s health.  I personally, think BMI is a great global indicator (mostly for it’s accessibility, the fact that it is unintrusive, it’s easily calculated and convenient), however for assessing individuals on a case by case basis BMI is a load of bollocks.  Someone can be ‘skinny fat’ yet still come into the ‘healthy’ weight range in BMI calculations.  We all know these people.  Little twiggy things that couldn’t lift a pen.  Skinny but lacking any muscular tone or strength at all.  By the same token, someone who has a more muscles and a denser body will easily be pushed into the ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ ranges when they are typically healthier than the skinny fat person mentioned before.  Linford Christie, when he won Olympic medals had a BMI of 32.  Class 2 obese according to BMI. 

Quite often when we train with weights our ‘scale weight’ stays the same, even though your clothes feel looser.  This is because you’re burning fat but at the same time developing more muscle tissue.  Muscle stores energy in the form of glycogen (broken down carbohydrate).  Each molecule of glycogen stored in muscle can hold onto 3 – 4 grams of water.  More muscle = more water = more ‘weight’.  On the other hand, more muscle also means more fat burning & fat loss.  Muscle takes up less room than fat, so all things considered, you might be the same weight, but you’ll be smaller, stronger and healthier.

The Myth!

Ladies, weights won’t make you big & muscular or look like a man.  We simply do not have enough testosterone to pack on pounds of muscle.

Yes, sometimes weights and strength training are intimidating, particularly for inexperienced women – but that’s no reason not to do them.  Ask your trainer for a program that will ease you in gently while still getting you the results you want.

Stay off the scales for a month, start lifting weights & see what happens.

Fat Bastards

I hate fat people.

Not all fat people.  Some are mildly respect-worthy while others just loll about in their lazy fat realm.

One guy at work is like this.  We’ll call him DS.  He actually has the same first name as one particularly spineless fat bastard.  Wow, what a coincidence. 

Anyway, DS.  I officially have a new job – doing the same sort of stuff, except this time I get to play with big machines.  DS is a supervisor at the site that I work at.  He is a fat bastard.  He also seems proud to be a fat bastard.  I believe the term morbidly may infact be an understatement when describing his obesity.  He is at the very least morbidly obese.

So I walk into the office this morning, he’s literally overflowing from the chair.  He doesn’t have a double chin.  I’d say he had about 4, but they’ve all grown into each other and have become one massive one.  He’s got a fat roll at the back of his neck.  So fat that his hair grows on the top of it.  His guts are so huge he struggles to get his arms so that he can put his hands together infront of himself.  He struggles to turn, even when in a seat.  His guts actually rest on his legs when he sits.  In a way I feel sorry for him.  He must be incredibly uncomfortable, all the time.  He must get so hot and sweaty in summer.  Particularly these summers.  And the sweat rash, and smell, and general discomfort.  Ugh.  I’ve certainly seen photos of people fatter than him, I just haven’t met any of them yet.

So this morning I was taking some stretches for the guys.  Very, very minimal activity.  He stood watching; cynically.  I asked him on a couple of occasions to join us, but he refused.  Point Blank.  I understand that he had finished night shift, and his swing for the week.  But I think that it was more laziness that was stopping him than being tired from his 12.5 hr shift sitting behind a desk.  Oh how hard his fingers may have worked.  Somehow I doubt it.

I guess my main issue, with both DS and fat bastards in general is that a little bit of exercise and a little willpower will go a long way towards improving their health, and their lifestyle.  It will also improve their longevity, if it’s not too late.  I (maybe unfairly) see this lack of wanting to change the way they are as laziness.  Or lack of caring.  And yes, I am well aware that some people have genetic or hormonal contributing factors, such as an thyroid dysfunction, however this is a relatively small percentage of the population. 

Genetic factors influence the way you metabolise blood glucose, heavily influences your metabolism, fat storage and hormones; but is this all to blame for our obese society; or is it simply the easy out for fat bastards who don’t care enough about their health and body or are too lazy to contribute 30 minutes a day to getting and staying healthier.  “It’s genetic” is a frequent excuse as my mate hooks into a krispy kreme.  Sorry; but krispy kremes are not genetic.

Attitude towards nutrition and physical activity can influence the weight of people, and that is generally a learnt behaviour – that you get from your parents and family.  It’s not genetic though.  It’s environmental.  Something you can control.  A modifiable factor that is contributing to obesity.  I just do not understand how people who are facing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, blindness, circulation problems, gout and early death can not find motivation to do something about it.  Even if it’s just eating a little less.

I do often wonder how people can possibly think, or say that all fat people are happy.  Some fatties may be jolly, but there is a difference between jolly and happy.  Are they truly satisfied with how they feel and look.  In over 10 years of Exercise Physiology I have never had a positive response to that question.  Never.  I’ve had tears, denials and false happiness – but at the end of the day no one is happy when they are morbidly obese.  No one wants to die early.

Perhaps hate is the wrong word.

Stop eating pies.  Or at least walk to the shop.

PS.  For those that are easily offended, I use the term fat bastard to describe myself.  It’s not saying that all fat people are bastards, I use it cause Austin Powers used it.  And I use it in public on a frequent basis without being punched in the face.

important friend I am

I’m majoring in sarcasm with that blog title.  I had an epic weekend in Vegas, catching up with some mates and being thoroughly hurt and insulted by others.

I’m not going in for the self pity vibe.  I arrived Thursday night, and yes, ditched the car at D81′s place before heading out for a few pints.  A few pints turned into Maccas and a taxi home before falling in bed and sleeping restlessly.  I woke up with a hangover, and a major sinus headache.  Talk about winning combination.  Obviously the plan for D81 and I to go for coffee Friday morning went out the window; but regardless of my hangover or not, there was no intention to ever go out for coffee. 

So Saturday I headed off to K82′s place for an afternoon of telly and some recovery rums; explaining before I left that I planned to take pjs incase I end up sleeping there.  At this stage the hangover had subsided but the throbbing in my cheekbones from the sinus headache was picking up speed.  I had actually planned to go running with D81 and D79 on the Sunday, at about 12; however by this time the sinus headache had a little friend called ‘nasty cough’, so I stayed at home.  Actually, we all did.  Unbeknown to me D81 had pulled out with a sore knee.  So we just all hung about, me mostly with an icepack on my head and an Aspalgin (aspirin & codeine) my constant companions.  Saturday night D81 and the dealer headed for dinner and cocktails (ooh, how sophisticated) while D79 and I stayed in. 

Despite all D81′s previous complaints about noise while she is trying to get to sleep, she rocked on home at about half 11 and set the music in her room to blaring.  Briefly considered if it would be out of line to head on down to her room and ask her to shut the fuck up, considering if it’s her trying to sleep there is little point in watching TV as she asks for the volume to be inaudibly low.  I suppose that I would infact choose the lesser of two evils, and elect to let her have her music loud so as to be spared the gut churning experience of hearing them have sex.  Ugh.  I just do not need to know that.

Valium induced sleep fairly quickly.  That may be my best, long standing pick up, from working in WA.  The pillbox I came home with.  We all were up Sunday morning when I asked if the toe sucking two wanted to go for breakfast.  The dealer asked what I felt like, to which I said ‘meh, something’, so she OBVIOUSLY heard the question and participated in a breakfast conversation.  They both sat on the other couch and then proceeded to up and leave for breakfast with another friend not 10 minutes later.  I was bewildered.  Sunday night I was also in trouble for coughing.  The cough had got worse, and I hadn’t got cough medicine cause I think it’s all only nuked sugar anyway, and I was coughing at night.  Oops.  My bad.  D81 stormed out of her room, asked if I could ‘do anything about that’ and then suggested that I ‘knock [myself] out with valium and just go to sleep.’  Caring, compassionate and friendly.  How does go fuck yourself sound.

This behaviour comes off the back of her saying to D79 that she ‘knows that I have a problem with the dealer, and have always hated her girlfriends’.  Why would any sane, logical person possibly continue to make an effort to talk to or suggest things to someone who constantly says no.  I literally stayed 10m from where she was sleeping, and can confidently say that I spent about 20minutes with her the whole weekend.  I’m done trying.  I find the dealer condescending and conceited and yes, I haven’t really made an effort.  Mostly cause I feel as though I’d rather spend time with D79 than go out and watch them both be self-satisfied and smarmy about their ‘intelligence’.  They really seem to draw energy from their respective brains.  It’s a fucking shame that one of them couldn’t use said brain to figure out that she’s very quickly losing her ‘best friend’.

D79 and I did talk about this, about her constant spending time with her other friends when the dealer was down, rather than actually giving me a chance to get to know her; and apparently part of it is that it’s cause the dealer has only known bitchy backstabbing scene friends.  And D81 wants to show her that you can have a group of friends who you can sit around and chat and ‘bemuse the bartender’ with, without it being backstab-ish or bitchy.  So am I bitchy or a backstabber, or just not ‘scene’ enough for her.  Her behaviour, and refusal to even consider me when she’s making her plans for the weekend continually makes me feel unimportant and that she does not value our friendship.  I guess that she realistically undervalues it, cause this happens every fucking time she gets a new girlfriend and I always put up with it.  I guess that’s something I need to figure out if I’m willing to deal with. 

At the end of the day I’m not staying there, or probably even seeing her next weekend when I’m down.  I’m still really deciding how I feel about the whole thing, but her complete selfishness and self absorption is amazing me.  I didn’t think that it could get much worse than the episode after my visit to the doc over lumps in my neck. 

Apparently it can.

boys annoy me

Boys in the gym I’m talking about.  Not in general.  Although they’re not my most pleasurable subject.

Last night, due to the whole car switch thing, I had to go to the gym after work, not before like I normally do.  This workout, genuienly taught me why I do that, why I make the choice to get up early and work out before work.

The place was packed.  People bloody everywhere.  I had to do 20 minutes of cardio before even getting a look in at the power cage.  I was glad that I was doing program B cause once I got on there I wasn’t getting off.  If I had of left, to do say Bench (program A) I never would have got back on there.  Not only was the gym packed, but it was full of the people I hate.  ‘Tough little guys’ who think they’re a huge, super hot adonis type creature that knows everything there is to know about lifting.  They also probably know all there is to know about roids too – and the negative side effects will never affect them.

The people I’m talking about are generally blokes, 17 – 25, tanned, usually with some sort of tribal tattoo going on on their arm/shoulder, perfectly manicured meterosexual hair (which I also hate) and they strut about in scrappy looking singlets, boardies and volleys.  Not that there’s anything wrong with working out in boardies, or singlets for that matter, but volleys are rediculous.  I used to shout at people for bringing volleys or non-lace up shoes into the gym, and that’s the way it should be.  Volleys do have a place, when powerlifting, or for squats & deadlifts; but these guys are just doing upper body shit.  I don’t understand.

I just wanted to slap one guy with a plate.  He was strutting about on his chicken legs with Imaginary Delt Syndrom, with huge arms.  Ok, his arms were huge, but just his biceps and triceps.  His deltoids weren’t all that huge, not even width wise and he had a massive concave look about his chest.  Obviously he just does bench & it’s variations and curls, and any mentionable variation of that.  He looked rediculous.  And his head looked minature on his narrow shoulders.  He would do a set of flyes or curls of whatever, do them badly then pose in front of the mirror.  It’s not a look that the gym should really have, and it made me think about whether it’s full of posers and roid ragers.  Probably.

It might seem hypocritical and whiny, but I just want to go in, do my workout then leave.  I don’t want to have to look at the testosterone heads beating their chests in some mythical mating dance, to attract girls that just come and sit, watching their ‘man’ do weights.  I think I might dislike those girls more; the ones that have had a complete frontal lobotomy.  I sometimes think it would be interesting to ask if their lobotomy hurt.

So the 5 x 5 B wasn’t too bad.  Even though my legs were tired from the cardio, I don’t feel as though I struggled as much with the squat as I thought I would.  Overhead press is getting tough, even after the 2nd increase.  I look forward to doing this exercise.

Squat – 37.5

OP – 25

Deadlift – 37.5

Pulldowns – NF – 6, 5, 5 @ 37.5

depression

I seem to have hit a low point.  And what a low point it is turning out.

I’m not sure what’s wrong.  I’m not sure if I could even hazard a guess.  I don’t think I would have any idea where to start; or I do know where to start, just I don’t know if that, or these issues, are the major contributing factor of if they’re merely a coincidental side or lesser issue.  I just don’t know.

Over the last couple of weeks it’s been something that’s been constantly there.  I thought that it had something to do with needing some alone time – before the housemates went away for a holiday.  That seemed to do the trick for a bit.  While it was just me it was grand.  I was grand.  I really had a good week and a bit; but then boom…straight back into it when they returned.

Yesterday afternoon was the first time that I’ve really considered depression as a source of all this anger, emptiness, hopelessness and loneliness that I’m feeling at the moment.  I really don’t like to think that I’ve depression; and thinking about it, pondering my life, while on the beach yesterday afternoon I googled it.  None of the signs & symptoms immediately rang a bell with me, but today things seem different.  There’s a whole new light on things, particularly since I cooked an awesome meal for dinner.

Yesterday was terrible.  I was so irritable and temperamental.  I literally could feel an almost overwhelming sense of frustration or even internalised anger.  I was like that all day.  Like I wanted to do something to get rid of the pent-up anger and frustration; perhaps even energy that I had in my system, but there was nothing there that could or would help.  I was washing up and burnt my hand twice on the fucking kettle cause it’s a tiny sink and it’s kept in the wrong fucking place.  I remember shouting ‘fuck’ very clearly and very loudly and I’m sure that everyone outside would have heard it.  I just didn’t care that people heard that.  I wanted simply to go away and not have anyone bother me.  But that wasn’t happening.

Today wasn’t so bad.  I suppose the ginger didn’t whinge as much this morning; and things were a little better at work today.  I don’t know why my moods are so up and down.  Perhaps I’ve bipolar.  I just don’t fucking know.  Anyway, I got sent home from work early, with instructions to make dinner, which I did.  The dinner was delicious.  All was good after dinner just involving watching telly & checking some emails.  On the way to bed I heard the patient get up and do something.  Wondering if I’d forgotten to turn a light off, or the computer or something I went round and asked exactly that.  They both stared blank faced at me & then he said that he got up to shut the front door.  Both of them laughing saying ‘I’ve no idea what she was talking about’ as I turned and walked to the shower nearly had me in tears – I just slammed the bathroom door (unintentionally) and got in the shower.  I felt as though they were laughing at me; not even considering the though behind the question that I’d asked.

It’s so isolating.  All the little jibes directed at me, about me, or about something I do.  It makes me feel alone, isolated and worthless.  Like I’m only here to wash up and cook and for them to have a common ground as someone to pick on or make fun of.  It’s like I can’t take a joke about me anymore.  I think that the only reason that I’m like that is that I feel at the moment as though I need to be a bit on the defensive cause there’s no one else here that will stick up for me.  And there’s not.

I’m not happy.  I don’t want to do this anymore.  But at the moment I feel as though I’ve no choice.  I just have to stick this out until I get the call that I start in a month.  As soon as the testing’s done and my start date gets set I’ll be off – probably just chilling and training somewhere.  But that’s the issue.  I get more training done here than I do anywhere else, the only exception being Vegas; but Vegas is a money issue at the moment.  It’s just more in the lifestyle here.  But, long-term I think the decision about coming here for the FYC is made – I’m going to ask for Vegas, and hope like fuck I get it.  If not, I’m not sure where I’ll go next.

In the shower tonight I was thinking about the isolation thing, and if it is in fact what is causing me all these problems.  I think it is.  I think that being lonely cause I feel like there is no emotional support there is driving my frustration and anger.  I want a girlfriend.  I want someone who cares about me, and I want someone who I can talk to while I know that they will support me, not continually pick at things that I do – and only focus on any mistakes that I might make.

It probably doesn’t help that since their return the ginger porker doesn’t want anything to do with me.  He doesn’t want anything to do with anyone but the patient to tell the truth, but it’s ridiculous.  He takes absolutely no notice of me – today in fact he stopped in his tracks at seeing me on the lounge chair.  The little fucker.  That actually made me feel really bad.  The patient said something to him about not liking me today so I said ‘well, the feeling is mutual’ and was promptly told that it was not a very nice thing to say.

How the fuck am I supposed to react.  Before they went away he was perfectly happy to be around me and now he fucking doesn’t want a fucking thing to do with me.  What am I supposed to feel about that, and how the fuck am I supposed to react to that.  I said to the matriarch today that I can not be bothered persisting if he continues to show no interest whatsoever in communicating with me, or being near me.  She said that was a shame cause he was ok before they went on holidays.  It seems as though the terrible twos have hit – and he’s exploiting every single second of it.

He’s going to end up so spoilt.  His screaming has escalated since he got back from holidays with his parents.  He isn’t hurt, or hungry or thirsty – he’s screaming, and it really is just a scream; a fucking awful scream, cause he wants the patient to pick him up.  And sure as night follows day, that’s what happens.  He seeks out the patient and stands, screaming at his feet.  Initially the patient might say no, but guaranteed within about 20 seconds he’s given in and is bending down to pick him up cooing ‘what’s wrong sweetheart?’ at him.  He’s fucking 18 months old.  He can’t understand, let alone answer you.

More seriously though, he’s rewarding this inappropriate behaviour from the ginger.  Although he might not see it as a reward in terms of ‘here, have this for doing that well’ he’s providing positive reinforcement for the behaviour by providing a positive outcome (attention/being picked up) when the stimulus behaviour (screaming) is turned on.  I think that the Aunt has tried to get the patient to see this, but it’s not working.  They end up having a massive row over it with the patient saying ‘he’s my son, I’ll pick him up whenever I want to’.  It’s just spoiling him; and he’s starting to be a little fuckhead.

It’s basic fucking psychology.  If you reward bad behaviour it’s going to teach him that he gets what he wants when he behaves badly.  And how hard is it going to be to get him to stop when he’s 3.  It’s not going to happen.

my brother. the arsehole.

The title says it all I guess. I’m not sure there’s anything more to say, other than to give reasons for the above statement.

He’s become so hard and seems to have lost his heart. He’s being an arsehole about Christmas. We’re having a massive family Christmas this year. Everyone’s excited about it, me particularly cause it’s my first Christmas at home for a couple of years. I’m excited to get together with everyone and to give gifts and share the experience with everyone.

I’m particularly organised this year and have most of my presents mostly done already. My brother’s getting a book. The exact book that he asked for. He had asked me a couple of days ago what I wanted. Today I sent a text back to him saying that I’d like a Scotty Cameron putter cover. I told him what colour I would like, where you can get them and also how much they cost. Then I sent one saying that if it was too much hassle or if they were too expensive (around about $50 – so not really all that expensive) that he could just get me something else, something smaller. I got a reply saying ‘lets not worry about presents. Can we just buy for M & D and let secret santa (our family-wide, keep the costs down gift giving experience) take care of the rest?’. I sent a message back along the lines of ‘no, that’s not what I or my sister want to do’. It escalated from there. He doesn’t want a present and doesn’t want to give one. I’m not sure if it’s laziness or tightness. It can not, rationally, be tightness when he’s no issue with going out at the weekend and spending $500. I said that I didn’t understand, but thought that it would be difficult to understand the meaning of Christmas, and the gestures associated with gift giving and receiving, unless you’d had one or two Christmases away from the family. That has made Christmas more special to me.

His drinking is also out of control. My sister lives in Vegas, round the corner from him. She can not even get him to come and help her put together her new flatpack furniture. That’s really shit. He didn’t come over cause he was too hungover, when he got there he stayed for about 20 minutes and she said he spent the entire time on the phone. She was ultra upset cause she overheard him talking to his friends about how he’s banned from the Normanby. That isn’t the most upmarket place about, but they don’t ban you for nothing.

I would have thought the ‘getting the shit kicked out of him, arrested, charged and fined’ incident from earlier this year would have taught him a thing or two about respect and not acting up when you’re out. Obviously not.

the f word

I’m told, by my FT 60 that this is to be an easier training week.  I wasn’t really all that sure why cause last weeks’s stats were down on what I considered to be an easier week, although I have smashed my training and body in the last few weeks.  No wonder it’s telling me it’s time to dial it back.

I’m grumpy as anything today and consequently saying the f word quite a lot.  I could eat the face off anyone who annoys me.  And nearly everyone is annoying me in one way or another.  I’m just grumpy.  This girl at work is an idiot.  She’s an idiot at the best of times but today she’s being particularly annoying (perhaps I’m perceiving that she’s more annoying cause of my lowered bullshit tolerance level) today, and she’s doing it on purpose.  FARK!!  Just laziness, and immaturity – she would rather ask for help before looking herself of trying to do whatever it is that she has to do. 

She’s 16, so I guess that explains the immaturity.  She quit school and moved out of home just a few months ago.  Her father also died earlier this year, and I’m not completely compassionless to that; I’m sure that it would be one of the things that I would most struggle to deal with; but that’s no reason for her to leave school.  Her english, and spelling, is terrible.  She really should be at school still, learning to spell and speak english properly.  I cam so close to telling her that she had the english of a 10 year old when she was pronouncing badminton ‘bat-minton’.  Idiot.  She’s a classic case of an occa who needs more education.  She also needs to be corrected when she says the wrong words, like ‘how are yous’.  Yous is not a word.

Anyway, she’s annoying me today, so much so that I needed to come to the other shop to get away a bit.  I think I’m also annoyed at my own performance last night.  I drank too much and didn’t sleep at all well.  Not cool.  We spent all weekend fencing – tearing down one fence and putting up a 6 foot colourbond fence in its place.  It was hot all weekend, and save for little bits here and there we were out in the sun all weekend.  Although I didn’t really do that much work with the crowbar I still felt as though I was tired – and in need of a drink last night.  The frosty beers were good too.

gym rules

I was at the gym this afternoon and greatly unimpressed at the quality of the gym members.  It was full of teenagers.  Ok, so not full of teenagers, but you get the point.  Most of them wandered aimlessly.  The girls doing cardio and the boys, trying to be big strong men in the weights section.  The clientel of the gym I attend isn’t indicative of the sort of gym that I want to attend.  I want to go somewhere where people work hard.  Where people sweat and swear and occasionally bleed – I want to go somewhere where there is passion for what it’s about, for health & fitness, for proper exercise prescription and somewhere that people go to work hard, not to chat on their phones.

One young girl walked past me and looked, judging me from the fact that I am a little overweight and that I wear a mohawk.  She was chatting on her mobile; wandered over to a reclined exercise bike then proceeded to spin her legs, without any urgency on the lowest possible setting.  There was absolutely no intention to work hard.  She wasn’t carrying a towel, or a waterbottle.  She didn’t put the phone down to either set up the machine properly or put in the ‘workout’ that she wanted to do.  Then she proceeded to have a conversation with the girl on the bike next to her; all the while still on the phone.  I could have taken the phone off her and beaten her about the head and face with it.

It wasn’t the fact that she judged me that made me mad.  I don’t care.  She knows nothing about me, she means nothing to me.  She’s just an idiot.  But she was rude and off putting to probably the majority of the members there, and more to the point, taking up a machine doing something virtually worthless.  I just wish that they would get the hell out of the gym unless they’re there to do things properly.

LSD Vs HIIT explained

How confusing right?  Actually no.  There are many ways to do cardio, & all of them have a valid place in any fitness or weight loss program – what sort depends on your goals.

 LSD (or Long Slow Distance) is cardio performed over a longer period at a lower heart rate, generally between 60 & 70% of your Maximum Heart Rate.  It has long been thought to be ‘the thing’ to burn fat & get you to your weight loss goals.

 Then HIIT came along.  HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is cardio performed in short bursts at near 100% effort, with recovery periods in between.  Sounds hard right?  Well, simply put, it is.  Yes, it’s tough, but it’s also a sure fire way to significantly improve your fitness & rev up your results.

 LSD is great for those with bad joints, heart conditions & special populations.  Basically the more overweight & less fit you are, the more LSD would be the right thing to start you off with.  Yes, LSD does burn a greater percentage of total calories as fat, but it takes a long time to get there.  With today’s hectic lives we lead, do we want to be in the gym for any longer than necessary? No.  Didn’t think so.

 HIIT sessions are generally well over and done within 30 minutes – if you can stick it that long.  I said it was tough.  For more detailed reading on HIIT check out Cardio and Programming which is a bit of a summary of a guest blog written on the Robertson Systems website by Mike Boyle.  It’s an eye opening article and well worth a read.

 The maximum intensity bursts increase your heart rate  & intensity and kick up your calorie expenditure.  HIIT also has a greater ‘after burn’ effect than LSD; so you’ll keep burning calories longer.  HIIT pushes your metabolism through the roof and you get super fitness benefits to boot.  HIIT is just the ticket for anyone who gets bored easily, is short of time or likes to push themselves.  Although you’ll burn less fat as a percentage of your total calorie expenditure than with LSD, chances are your total calories will be about the same as, or even above your LSD session.   Just in half the time. 

 The graph below illustrates my point.

 

 

The sessions explained:

LSD Session - 40 minute walk – 4.50km (6.7kph). Average Heart Rate: 62% (121bpm).

Total Calories: 230              Fat Percentage: 50                 Fat Calories burnt: 115

Sessions to burn 1kg fat? 39

 HIIT Session - 30 minutes interval running, 45:15. Average Heart Rate: 93% (181bpm). 

Total Calories: 447               Fat Percentage: 20                 Fat Calories burnt: 89

Sessions to burn 1kg fat? 20

The workout LSD workout was 10 minutes longer, but burnt 217 less calories, despite the higher percentage of fat calories burnt through the session.  Why’s this important?  Weight loss is all about calorie balance – the more you burn the more you lose!  Simple.

So while LSD might be better know, and more commonly recommended for fat loss, unless you have some medical or physical condition stopping you from performing it, interval training is the way to go to achieve better fat loss results.  While the HIIT session used for illustration purposes might have  been extremely tough and only applicable to trained subjects; members of the general public will see greater fitness and fat loss results if a few harder intervals, or hills, are added into their program.  Gradually increase the amount of intervals, or hills in their program until they are performing higher intensity work for approximately a third of their workout time and go from there. 

A cautionary note before you jump in too deep - this is a personal account of two workouts performed by a highly trained client.  This blog is in no way a recommendation of workouts to be performed, or a prescrptive service to members of the public.  Perform all HIIT training with caution; and with a well qualified personal trainer if possible.