Many of us have post workout routines that we feel are important for our fitness. From stretches and yoga to meditation and even meals or protein shakes, the things we do after our workouts are just as important as what we do during them.
The reason? Fitness is 20% about what we do in the gym and our exercises, 80% about what we eat and put in our bodies, but 100% mental. The post-workout routine is filled with these mental and physical exercises and practices that remain critical to our fitness success.
What can we add to our post-workouts for better fitness and for stress relief? Surprisingly, one answer is blogging. Why? Because it combines some of the mental tasks above with habitual practices that make your workouts more productive and help you keep track of the things you want and need to accomplish. Starting a blog, choosing a domain and website host and designing your site are all pretty easy. Once you get going, blogging can be addictive just like exercise.
How does post-workout blogging help improve your workouts? Here are a few ways. (more…)
People decide to hit the gym for various reasons. The majority do it to keep fit and healthy, others try to lose weight, and others for personal reasons which include health reasons. After you set your goals, such as aiming to shed a specific number of pounds of weight or achieving certain levels of body strength, you may feel highly motivated, but the motivation may be short-lived. To achieve your goals, you must be consistent doing workouts and check your diet.
Getting yourself to the gym or your working-out place is the most difficult part of exercising. So, what is the secret to get yourself motivated to go for the workout?
The following are some steps to keep your motivationalive:(more…)
I always tend to find workouts at the gym very stressful when visiting at peak hours. There are so many people grunting and grinding, dropping weights and chattering. I really can’t concentrate on my own workout when noise is all around me. It increases my heart rate and makes me nervous and uncomfortable. Yet because of work schedules, I often find that the only time I have to visit the gym, is during the peak hours, along with everyone else.
This is where my cell phone comes in to save my day (and sanity); I simply plug in my headphones and turn up the volume for 45 minutes until I am safely out of the gyms doors. I know this is sounding terribly unsocial of me, but the gym at peak hours isn’t a calm social gathering to me, its prime purpose is unwinding and letting go of the days stress.
In cold weather climates, many runners log a large number of kilometers on the treadmill, and most of them complain that treadmill workout is rather boring. If you have the same problem and want to beat boredom while running on a treadmill, try the following tips. They will certainly make your treadmill running more fun.
Run with friends
If you have a friend who also trains on the treadmill in the same gym, you need to get her/him next to you. This way you will likely motivate each other as well as provide distraction in order to make your workout more efficient and faster. You do not have to run at the same pace with your friend(s).
TBT: This is a post I wrote back in May of 2007. These were my thoughts on motivation, prioritization, and how to make the most of your training. It pretty much all still holds true.
Priorities
We all have priorities in life. Some of mine include finishing the move into my new house, running a successful website development business, keeping my girlfriend happy, spending time with my son, staying strong and healthy, and not getting fired from my day job. What are yours? Can you list your top 5 and assign priority values to them? I have done this, and what I have found is that staying strong and healthy continues to drop below those tasks that involve either family members, or putting lOOt in the bank (or more accurately giving lOOt to bill collectors).
How can we reprioritize in order to keep our gym goals intact?
I don’t want to get small or weak or fat, and neither do you. In my time, I have seen too many men with joint, neck, back, or hip issues, or perhaps they are just overweight with big pot bellies. Years ago I swore this would not be me. So, how can we redirect some of that focus back into the gym? How can we, when faced with working 14 hour days in order to make a million dollars by age 40, still exercise? Where can we draw some of this motivation that I am talking about. I have a couple suggestions that you could try, some of which I am testing out right now.
Get a lifting partner that will show up on time for each workout. Find someone that isn’t going to talk about his/her friends, or work, or a party, or kids… find someone that wants to FOCUS on training when it’s time to train.
Tell others about your plan (blog about it?). If you tell others what you plan to do with your body, you will hold yourself more accountable for your own progress. After all, no one wants to be embarrassed by failure.
Realize that you aren’t good to anyone else unless you are healthy. If you are always tired, hurt, or sick, you are no good to your family or co-workers. Suck it up and get healthy!
Sometime in your life, you will need to be strong. Perhaps something will fall on you or a loved one. Perhaps you will need to move the contents of an entire house by yourself. Maybe you will need to fight off an attacker, or push a car out of the snow, or rescue someone from a burning building. No matter what the aggressor might be, you will inevitably need to be strong for one reason or another. Why not prepare for it before it’s too late.
Find some good ass lifting music. I personally prefer Static-X, Pantera, Avenged Sevenfold, Staind, Godsmack, Powerman 5000, Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, System of a Down, Disturbed, Nickelback, Type O Negative, Evanescence, Tool, Rage, Soundgarden, Audioslave, Incubus, Queens of the Stone Age, (Hed) P.E., Megadeth, Motley Crue, Stereomud, Lamb of God, Ill Nino, Sevendust, Faith No More, Hatebreed, Mudvayne, Shinedown, Taproot, Theory of a Dead Man, Foo Fighters, and Three Days Grace, just to name a few.
My Solution
I have a son that I want to inspire to be strong and healthy. I have a girlfriend that, quite frankly, I want to impress with visions of a Greek God, feats of strength to rival Hercules, and the skill to defend her from predators. These abilities prove to her that I am a male worthy of mating… frequently, if you catch my drift. I have this blog that visitors will be reading, and I don’t want to embarrass myself with failure. I have a business to run, and I want prospective clients to be wowed by my dedication to life and ability to multi-task. Finally, I want to get in better shape, faster, than the guy on Better Body Journal, for he is one of my nemeses in this game of strength.
Find your solution and make your own motivation. Formulate your goals, and make it happen!
A wonderful, inspirational video by Arnold Schwarzenegger – powerlifter, bodybuilder, actor, ‘governator’, and millionaire. This is the man who walked the walk well before he ever started talking the talk.
“Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
The original purpose of this video was as a graduation speech at USC. Someone took 5 of the most important minutes of this speech and added subtitles, which you can view below.
Six Rules on How to Be Successful
Trust yourself
Break some rules
Don’t be afraid to fail
Ignore the naysayers
Work like hell
Give something back
You can also view the full 25 minute video and video transcript here: 6 Rules for Success
We all have hectic schedules. That is just how our modern society is. Finding time to take care of ourselves sometimes takes a backseat.
Of all daily activities, fitness is often the priority that is sacrificed first when the going gets tough. If you have desire to get or stay fit, you can do it. There is always a way if there is a will.
Here are some ideas to help squeeze in some exercise that will not have a light impact on your schedule, but will also help you burn fat throughout the rest of the day.
Plan your workout: Write it all down, and know exactly what you are going to do, and how you will get it done.
Circuit training: Work the whole body and get the heart rate rocking by doing one set of exercise for each body part with no rest. When you have completed all, rest for one minute and do it again. Twenty minutes is not an unreasonable goal here.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Sixty minutes on the treadmill will drive anybody mad. Vary your speed every minute, working from a jog (slow/medium intensity) to a full sprint or at least 90% max intensity. A good rule of thumb is to maintain your sprint for 20-30 seconds, then reduce to Every five minutes, drop back down to the slow speed again. Twenty to thirty minutes of this will do the trick.
There is no excuse to slack off on exercise. Project Swole has just given you two workouts that when alternated will whip your body into shape in no time at all. Think about it, if you do this six days per week, you only spent a grand total of three hours out of your busy schedule for the whole week.
Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15 years, and was told by his doctors that he would never be able to walk on his own, ever again.
He stumbled upon an article about Diamond Dallas Page doing Yoga and decided to give it a try — he couldn’t do traditional, higher impact exercise, so he tried DDP YOGA and sent an email to Dallas telling him his story.
Dallas was so moved by his story, he began emailing and speaking on the phone with Arthur throughout his journey – he encouraged Arthur to keep going and to believe that anything was possible. Even though doctors told him walking would never happen, Arthur was persistent. He fell many times, but kept going.
Arthur was getting stronger rapidly, and he was losing weight at an incredible rate! Because of DDP’s specialized workout, he gained tremendous balance and flexibility — which gave him hope that maybe someday, he’d be able to walk again.
His story is proof, that we cannot place limits on what we are capable of doing, because we often do not know our own potential. Niether Arthur, nor Dallas knew what he would go on to accomplish, but this video speaks for itself. In less than a year, Arthur completely transformed his life. If only he had known what he was capable of, 15 years earlier.
Do not waste any time thinking you are stuck – you can take control over your life, and change it faster than you might think.
Hopefully this story can inspire you to follow your dreams – whatever they may be.
The most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, but you might have noticed in years past that declaring a commitment to this end rarely results in a comprehensive plan that will actually help you to reach your goal. Perhaps you sign up for a diet program and even attend a few meetings before getting too busy to go. Or maybe you take advantage of Obama care and see a doctor. Or maybe you join a gym and shell out major money for access to equipment that you never end up using.
Whatever you have done in the past, you can make 2013 the year you turn it all around.
The trick, in many cases, is not to put such an emphasis on the number you see on the scale, but rather to address your health and fitness in a way that provides you with other forms of success. So here are just a few things to consider when setting your goals for the coming year.
First and foremost, forget about weight!
Okay, so there is a lot of hubbub circulating about the obesity rate amongst adults and the concurrent rise in heart disease, diabetes, and more. But these aren’t necessarily a byproduct of your weight so much as your lifestyle.
What you really need to address is not the readout on the scale, but rather the bad habits that brought you to this pass.
While classical music may help you to focus during work or study (or put you to sleep at night) and metal or alternative might get you through your daily commute, these genres don’t necessarily lend themselves to improving your exercise routine. This begs the question: are certain types of music better suited to working out than others?
For most people, the answer is an emphatic yes. But which types of music will best suit your particular needs when it comes to pumping up your exercise routine? There are a few things you’ll need to consider before you settle on a genre, an artist, or even a specific song title to add to your playlist.
Match the Music to the Movements
The first thing you’ll like want to address is the type of exercise you’re doing since various musical styles will apply to different forms of activity. For example, a person who takes the dog for a long walk around the park every evening after work may choose to listen to oldies that they can sing along to, while those who go jogging might prefer club music or techno because the tempo helps them to keep up a certain pace.
They may even plan an entire playlist to help them speed up and slow down periodically. But it could be that neither of these types of music lends themselves particularly well to a relaxing yoga session, which could require a soundtrack of new age, atmospheric tunes, sans lyrics. As you can see, the type of workout you choose to do could dictate suitable genres of music.
Motivation. It’s the silent workout partner that every successful diet or muscle building program must have to succeed.
When you build a workout plan you probably spend a lot of time deciding what supplements to take and what routines will do you the most good. It is just as important to build a motivation plan to help you power through the plateaus and lulls that are part of reaching fitness goals.
It’s not this easy, but these 10 basic tips will get you started in your quest to accomplish your strength and bodybuilding goals.
The basics have always and will always work best. You can build a core workout routine with just squats, deads, bench, overhead press, pull ups / chin ups, dips, and situps. Rows and curls can be added as needed.
Find what works best for you and keep doing it until it no longer works. Start with the basics, optimize for your personal needs, repeat until you plateau.
As long as you are making progress, stick with your routine. No need to change workout routines every month just because you don’t want to plateau. If your routine is working, stick with it UNTIL you plateau.
Strength is greater than bulk. If you are strong you have nothing to prove and it is easy to get bigger. If you are big it’s tough to get stronger and strong guys will tell you “well, at least you LOOK strong.”
Three months is the minimum trial length before you can pass judgement. Six months is even better. What I’m saying is, you need to stick with a plan for 3-6 months before you can say it does or doesn’t work.
Free weights rule.
Excuses will hold you back for your entire life if you let them. Stop making excuses, stop reading and researching, stop thinking. Just do it!
You will become your environment. If you want to be weak and small, surround yourself with weak and small. If you want to be big and strong, hang with those guys, ask questions, and take advice from those who have accomplished what you want to accomplish.
You have to really want what you think you want. If you REALLY wanted to be strong, you’d be strong by now. So change your mindset today. If you really want to be something, you have to want it more than anything else.
Eat to grow. You have to eat if you want to get stronger. You have to eat if you want to get bigger. If you’re not getting bigger or stronger, eat more food. Especially protein.
This dude Hannibal (no relation to Lecter) does some pretty sick moves on the bars. There are bunch of videos like this on YouTube, but this one is short and sweet.
When I am in the gym or in the dojo, I make every attempt to bring maximum intensity and pure focus. Throughout my life this is the attitude that I have known to foster success. As an example, most of the local gyms tend to blast Britney Spears music or perhaps some Justin Timberlake. These folks rolls up into the speakers babbling about love and dancing with their crooning voices and loose hips. Well I am not training for love. I am not training to dance. I am training to either lift more weight than you can comprehend or to knock your head off if you threaten me.
Some inspiring lyrics from some rock groups that know how to bring it…
“Yeah! You push it! Yeah! You push it!”
– Static-X
“Heavy! I want it Heavy!”
– Disturbed
“DIG! Bury Me! Underneath!
Everything that I am!”
– Mudvayne
“Get this or die! Get this or die!!
Get this or DIE!!!”
– Slipknot
So what exactly is your point?
When you are training you need to be in The Zone. Not the Zone Diet, not the Phantom Zone, and definitely not the Game Zone. Too many folks saunter into the gym with Britney Spears’ intensity. They walk up to the dumbbells, sigh, and hit the same number of reps, sets, and weights they’ve been using for the last 5 years. These are the same folks that won’t squat because it hurts their back, they won’t run because it hurts their knees, they won’t use a barbell because it hurts their hands! I feel like saying, “pick a spot on the ceiling, focus on it, grab the bar, do your set, THEN worry about the condition of your fingers”. Your back hurts? Spend a couple minutes figuring out how to rehab that thing back into working condition… then squat! Knees hurt? Try interval sprints, try the elliptical, try kickboxing!
The guy to avoid at all costs
Late in the evening when I’m trying to finish up my super-set so that I can get in one more exercise before the gym closes, I have to listen to, “I like to exercise late because there isn’t really anyone here to watch me. Maybe if I was in a bit better shape I wouldn’t mind so much, you know?” NO! I don’t know, buddy! I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about! I like it when other people are working out around me. Guys like me start up unspoken competitions with other similar athletes. We watch intently to see if our rivals hit their deadlift max this week. We check out the shredded guy’s calves to see if ours are still bigger. But there’s one thing you don’t need to worry about: we do not, under any circumstances, watch YOU. In fact I don’t really care what you do because you add absolutely nothing to my training, but please move away from the decline bench so I can finish my last set of weighted decline sit ups!
Today’s Lessons
Focus on the task at hand and nothing else.
Strive to set a new personal best or personal record each time.
Avoid those that do what you don’t want to do.
Avoid those that don’t have what you want to have.
Surround yourself with those that do have what you want to have.
Use the environment (music, video, pictures, quotes) to keep you on track.
You need to want it more than anything else in the moment
If you want to make progress you need to DIG! You need to want it HEAVY! You need to PUSH IT!! Eat what you know you need to eat. If you don’t know what to eat, read and learn. Lift more weight every single workout no matter what. Kick harder today than you did yesterday. Jump higher! Do more situps! Get in that zone so you can block out the rest of your life, so that the only thing you see right now is that bar on the floor or the heavy bag, and you know that today, right now, you’re about to lift 5 lbs more on this exercise than you’ve ever lifted before, and hell if you can get an extra rep you’ll do that too. Know that you’re about to jump rope for 5 minute straight without it getting caught on your feet. Know that you are about to knock that heavy bag right off the damned ceiling! Get IN that zone, because it’s time to DIG!
“Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing.”
