Focus

Driving to Victoria Park this morning to train our outdoor CrossFit NZ crew, I nearly side swiped a cyclist. It wasn't my fault, he had a pair of iPod headphones jammed in his ears and he was swerving sporadically all over the road without a care in the world.

Now besides the fact that this practice is downright dangerous, he is also in danger of a lack of progress in his fitness.

Why? No focus.

Although not competitive, back in the day I at least used to do a bit more cycling than I do now, so believe me, I know how boring it can be racking up the miles on the bike sometimes.

But with music blaring into your ears (don't deny it - it has to blare because of wind noise...), how can you focus on your workout, let alone avoid being killed my a speeding Auckland driver?

Headphones are even more common in gyms. It's crazy - the gym has its own soundsystem, and everyone else has their own music (again, blaring to overpower the outside noise) and is lost in their own worlds. I understand that some people argue that music HELPS with focus, but I also know many people who simply CAN'T workout without the help of music, and in my mind that creates a potential weakness.

This may sound a little neanderthal, but why not listen to the clank of the weight you are lifting over your head? The hiss of your breath, and even your final rep grunts. Listen to that 'music' for a while and then you might become more aware of the smell of the chalk and sweat, you will perhaps catch the eye of another person working as hard as you, and share a nod and mutual understanding of what it is to test your limits. Hey, feel free to share a look with yourself in the mirror if you need to - just don't hold the gaze for too long ya poser.....

CrossFit vs. Body For Life

The first Body for Life Challenge was held in 1996, and shook up the health and fitness world with its grand prize of 1 million dollars for the person who could make the greatest physical transformation in 12 weeks.

Since then, according to their own publicity 2 million people have transformed their bodies using the BFL and EAS supplements. I myself read the book and watched the movie and was genuinely impressed with the progress that some of these people had made.

Chances are you have tried the challenge yourself, or know someone who has. What were the results? In my experience, everyone I've talked to that has done the challenge tell me that it works really well.........yet they all gained most if not all of their weight back afterwards!!

If a type of exercise or a diet plan is not sustainable long term, then you can't call it successful!
I thought I'd do a little informal comparison between BFL and CFNZ (CrossFit NZ) to see how they stack up.

• Body for Lifers exercise 6 times per week, alternating upper body weight training, lower body and aerobic exercise over and over.
• CrossFitters train up to 6 times a week, varying their routines constantly to keep motivation, intensity and more importantly progress at high levels.

• BFL encourages 6 meals per day, 3 of which are powdered meal replacement shakes.
• CrossFit sticks to real food - meat and veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds, little starch and no sugar. The occasional supplement for convenience but no reliance on them.

• BFL meals are made up of a portion of protein, a portion of starchy carbs and a portion of veggies.
• At CrossFit we make sure you eat your fat! Healthy fat is what humans evolved to utilise for energy, it's the starchy carbs you should be cutting down on. Eat eggs, salmon, avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil, minimise your intake of grains and cereals, bump up the veggie intake even more and you'll feel great.
  

• BFL is a 12 week program.
• CrossFit is for life. The sooner people understand that fitness is not a quick fix, the better. If you can only stick with a good eating and exercise plan for 12 weeks, then you'll never get the body and health that you want. Blindly following a meal plan does not let you understand why you should be eating certain foods and thus enable you to continue eating well afterwards.

It is worth noting that I think the general idea of the 12 week challenge is sound. There are people who completed the BFL and maintained their results. Muscle gain and fat loss is hard! So a short, period of concentrated effort can be a little easier to get your head around in the beginning. But just be sure you put a plan in place for week 13; don't let it all fall to pieces after such a big effort. Educate yourself on how to maintain and even exceed the progress you've already made.

Train like Lance Armstrong

Endurance athletes don't need to lift weights right? It'll make them all muscle bound, heavy and slow wont it?

Guess someone forgot to tell one of the greatest endurance athletes ever........

This picture of Lance was published in the New York Daily recently.

It highlights perfectly a few principles I push regarding fitness training.

Get out of the gym
Lance trains in his garage at home. This way he has no excuse for not being able to get to the gym. It's right there morning or night. Even if you only have a few minutes, you can put them to good use. Avoid the crowds, the boofheads and the queue for equipment. Or why not get along to a nearby park for a workout. The change of scenery and fresh air will do you the world of good.
Hey, I OWN a gym, and I still think it's good advice. We always get our big roller door up for a bit of 'outdoor flow'.

Forget about machines
Lance is swinging a kettlebell in this pic (a favourite tool in our Crossfit NZ workouts), and in the back ground is a squat rack and a glute ham bench. NO MACHINES in sight!! Many cyclists are convinced they need leg extensions and leg presses to build strength specific to their sport; but functional exercises such as squats and deadlifts have much more carryover to sport even they don't resemble the sport at all.

Lift heavy
Sure you're an endurance athlete, but that doesn't mean you need to do hundreds of reps in the gym. Take care of that side of things on your bike, and when you're lifting, lift heavy to build the strength and power that will carry you up hills and over the finish line in front of a bunch sprint.

Workouts that include more time in the anaerobic energy systems will also allow you to cut down on junk miles while still improving your aerobic capacity.

And if those aren't enough reasons for you to lift free weights.......take another look at the six pack you'll get........

Holiday Reading

I love to read. I used to average 3-4 books per week, but with university study and now being in business, it's more like 1-2. Because of that, I've had to think harder about each book, and so the quality of reading material has tended to rise.

These are some of the books I plan on getting through this summer.







Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
An argument amongst nutritionists for years; is a calorie a calorie? Taubes says no, and delves into the misconceptions about dietary fat and health.







In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Unfortunately missed hearing this guy speak at the University of Auckland this year. He promotes the return to the eating of 'real' food, not all this processed garbage so many people live on today.







Tribes by Seth Godin
This guy has a legendary blog, covering all manner of topics relating to business, marketing, customer relations, and worldwide trends.

Bang For Your Buck

I must have written hundreds of workout programs over the years. These programs were for people from all walks of life, and with many different goals, yet more often than not, the same few movements made up the bulk of all the programs.

• squatting
• pulling
• lifting
• pressing

Within those 4 movements and their variations is almost all that is needed to build muscle, burn fat and improve your athletic performance. Only a minimum of extra exercises are necessary to individualise it to a specific desired outcome. These movements give you the most bang for your buck - the biggest improvements for the smallest time investment.

It seems very hard for people to accept this though. The number of times I have spent valuable time putting a program together, only to find 2 weeks later that the client has added bicep curls, lateral raises and leg extensions, because they felt 'it wasn't enough work'. But on many occasions the very exercises I prescribed are getting left out.

Those above 4 movements are DEFINITELY enough work. Exercises derived from them should make up the bulk of your training program if you want it to be successful. I'm talking at least 80% ......and preferably 90%. If you have and energy and time left after training these 'money' movements, feel free to work your guns, or add in some crunches, but what ever you do, don't substitute squats for leg extensions, or pushups for pec deck, or pullups for bicep curls. You know you're just avoiding the real work that is necessary to achieve notable results in your physique.

Are you going uphill or downhill?

Jack Lalanne knew his stuff, even way back then. This advice is still good today......and so damn simple. The hardest part is deciding to do it.

How did 2008 treat you?

Did you gain the muscle you wanted?

Did you lose the fat you said you were going to lose this year?

Did you follow the sensible nutrition plan you stuck to your fridge?

If you made great initial progress at the start of the year, but lost momentum in the last 6 months, what was it that affected your progress?

Here are a couple of ideas of where you could have gone wrong. Fix these and get off to a better start in 2009 as well as maintain your progress through to 2010 and beyond.

1. Not enough emphasis on weight training. If fat loss was your goal, don't be fooled into thinking that that aerobic activity is the only route. You MUST stimulate your muscle mass through weight training, as muscle is the engine that fuel (your fat) is burned in. More muscle = more fat burned.

2. Long slow cardio. While we're talking about cardio, do you really think that reading a magazine while pedalling at 60rpms for half an hour will give you a six pack? Up the intensity with bursts of effort. High Intensity Interval Training has been shown to burn up to 9 times more fat than steady cardio. Try pedalling at >120rpm for a minute, followed by a minute at 70rpm for 10-15 rounds. Once you get fitter, increase the resistance, and decrease the rest period to maintain progress.

3. Keep a food diary
You may have thought that your diet was on track, but the proof is in the written word. Recording every bite suddenly highlights missed meals, poor snack choices, meals that lacked key nutrients such as protein or healthy fat.
Every month, write down your dietary intake for at least 5 days. It'll keep you alert to any slacking and serve as an often needed motivation booster.

With those 3 tools in your arsenal you will kick off 2009 in style and fast track yourself towards your goals. And hey, why not start NOW if you wanted to?

Fat Loss and Fitness: Who's on your team?

There's a saying "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with".
I read it in reference to financial success - the idea being that if you associated mostly with wealthy people, you were much more likely to be wealthy yourself.

I think it works with physical fitness as well. If your family, friends and workmates are living on crappy food, spending their leisure time drinking, smoking and generally living an inactive, unhealthy life, then it stands to reason that you are probably doing the same thing.

And how hard do you think it would be to make a change to a healthy diet and regular exercise, when these same people are constantly tempting you to give up and return to the status quo?

If your inner circle are not the type of people that provide a positive environment, you must consider finding other people to associate with. It's about doing things that fit people do - with other fit people. There's plenty of options. For starters, group exercise programs are a great way to get involved. Fitness classes at your local gym, touch rugby over the summer, running groups, tennis, yoga, dance classes.

At CrossFit NZ we get results because we do the right exercise, the right way. But for the majority of our clients, their results are mainly attributed to the social environment of our group workouts. We've got people who have never exercised properly before, banging out pullups, bodyweight deadlifts, swinging kettlebells and getting in great shape. And they do it while giving and recieving a ton of support to and from the group.

Now you don't have to disown your family and dump all your friends, but if they are not interested in helping you get fitter, leaner and healthier, it's up to you to search out an alternative. Who knows, once you start getting in shape, you may influence your 5 people to do the same!

Thank you for hurting me......

I always have to laugh when after reducing themselves to a pile of quivering jelly on the floor, clients both new and old, once recovered enough to stand, will thank me wholeheartedly for a great workout! No really, the pleasure was all mine! Thanks Mike, thanks Rob for putting in a great effort.

Socialising with clients

Just got home from tackling the King of the Mountain 5km run in Panmure. A few clients also entered and we got together before and after the run for a coffee and a laugh.

There must be so many jobs out there where a person does not interact with others at all.
If they don't have a lot of friends outside of work that must nmake for a pretty lonely existence.

I feel like I've got the best job in the world. Not only do I get to meet a great bunch of people from a variety of backgrounds, but I get to meet their families and their friends; as well as getting to share in the awesome progress they make towards their health and fitness goals.

Next year we're going to do the wheelbarrow event......