You plus one pair of dumbbells plus 15 minutes equal fitness
I was recently contemplating one of the most common excuses I hear as to why people don't exercise. Of course that exercise is lack of time, followed closely by lack of equipment. So I wondered what would be the minimum investment one could make in time and equipment. Time wise, 60 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous exercise seems to be a general, but not unanimous consensus. For equipment of course, that would be zero dollars, using nothing but body weight. For some reason however, people just seem to regard calisthenics as not worthy, and feel the need to use some type of equipment to get the job done. The most basic piece of equipment is a single pair of dumbbells. Many guys already seem to have a pair or two stashed away in a closet or in the basement, unused. I see these at yard sales and flea markets all the time for about a buck. Many of them are of very light pink type, but I also see pairs of 10 - 15lbs as well. So with one set of 10 -15lbs dumbbells in mind, I tried to figure out how to use these in a way that would meet the criteria of a fitness based workout in 15 minutes or less. During my research I came across a site, Shovelglove, that certainly offers one possibility using a sledge hammer instead of dumbbells. Much of what follows is largely the result of my adapting his concept for a sledge hammer and putting it to use with body weight and dumbbells with the idea of achieving a minimum passing score on a physical fitness test. The site itself is worth a read, particularly the part about the trap of progress, and Urban Rangering. Oddly enough, or perhaps not so, he too is a software engineer.
Off the top of my head I came up with the following list of exercises. When I began thinking about this, I had in mind a "daily dozen" that would be done on most days of the week. I ended up going for ten. The first four exercises are kind of "required" to make this work, but the rest are substitutable with what ever you may wish to do. Do this four or five days a week and get on with the rest of your busy life.
Jumping Jacks
Push -Ups
Sit Ups
Deep Knee Bends/Hindu Squats - with or with out weight
Upright rows
Over head press
lunges - with or with out weight
Curls
French Press
toe touches/Stiff leg dead lift
In starting this workout do each exercise for 10 reps, or as many as you can, which ever is less. Do each rep of each exercise at a brisk but deliberate pace, the idea is not to rush, but to keep moving. After completing an exercise, take a couple of deep breaths and move immediately to the next exercise. Once you are able to confidently do 10 reps of each exercise and move to the next after a breath or two, add 2 reps to each exercise. The last rep should be a challenge but not so hard that you might not get it. Don't add reps every work out, and don't add reps on any exercise until you can add them to all exercises. This way you only have to remember one number. Keep doing this till you are able to do each exercise for a full 50 reps. If 50 sounds like too many, start with a more modest goal, like 20 or 25. After you get there decide if thats good enough, or to go further. If when starting out you struggle to get ten or fewer push-ups, getting to 20 or 25 and hanging out there for a while is not a bad idea. For guys over 40, 30 good "Army" push ups would be sufficient to pass the push up test. A good way to get an idea of where you stand is adultfitnesstest.org. If you pass, go back and re-evalutate once a year. The key is, once you are fit, there is not a lot of benefit to pushing much further. You may just want to ride the plateau and enjoy the view.
Note - Why 50? Generally speaking, 50 is the minimum macho number for doing push ups.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Average Guys Diet Revisited
Its been about a year since I last blogged for Average Guys and I think I'm over due. A lot has happened in the past year, and I am still dealing with some of the fallout of these changes. Along the way I kind of lost sight of what I was trying to convey. Recently however one of my office colleagues had a health issue. He's an Average Guy, and its guys like him who need this advice more than most.
Way back here I laid out the template for the Average Guys diet. Today when I look at it again, I think it stands up pretty well. That's not to say that its perfect, it isn't. Or that in light of today's economy that some changes and variations couldn't work just as well. Now, having read over it again I will say this.... If you can still afford to eat according to the original plan with out limiting your selections to hamburger and hot dogs, by all means feel free, and use these updates as needed or desired.
Generally speaking, the most expensive part of any higher protein, lower starch type diet is meat. My original recommendation was to divide your body weight by 10 to get the amount of meat/eggs/cheese your are supposed to eat everyday. In our cheap eating model you are going to divide your weight by 13 and round down any remainder. So in this case our 210lb guy would be eating 16oz of meat/eggs/cheese a day instead of 21. Since we are taking away 5oz of meat we need to add something back. That my something my friends is beans. Navy black, kidney, garbanzoand lentils, etc... Yes, the musical fruit. I can hear the paleo purists howl already, too bad. Beans have gotten humans thru some pretty tough times in history, and likely they will do it again. Both canned and dried bean will work, with dried being the most economical, but most time consuming. Four our example guy, since he is reducing his meat by 5 ounces, he is going to add 1 1/4 cup of beans , (.25 Cup per ounce of meat), to his daily plan. So chili con carne, sausage and bean casserole, even baked beans are back on the menu.
In doing this you no longer get to count beans as a vegetable however. So in dividing your weight by 30 to get veggie servings, our average guy would be eating 7 servings of mostly non-starchy vegetables.
Fruit servings are still weight divided by 70.
Still eat an ounce of nuts, nut butters or seeds everyday.
Add at least two tablespoons of fat from olive oil or real butter to you plan. This is important when eating the beans and vegetables to aid in digestion.
As before, the above are minimums that are too be eaten every day. If eating all of this you still want a biscuit or something, go for it, just don't stuff yourself to do it, and don't do it everyday. A serving or two of dairy is good if you digest milk. Plain whole yogurt or kefir is always a good choice, especially mixed with fruit. The plan isn't perfect and you shouldn't worry about perfection. The idea is to be on track most of the time, with allowances for special occasions and real life situations.
Way back here I laid out the template for the Average Guys diet. Today when I look at it again, I think it stands up pretty well. That's not to say that its perfect, it isn't. Or that in light of today's economy that some changes and variations couldn't work just as well. Now, having read over it again I will say this.... If you can still afford to eat according to the original plan with out limiting your selections to hamburger and hot dogs, by all means feel free, and use these updates as needed or desired.
Generally speaking, the most expensive part of any higher protein, lower starch type diet is meat. My original recommendation was to divide your body weight by 10 to get the amount of meat/eggs/cheese your are supposed to eat everyday. In our cheap eating model you are going to divide your weight by 13 and round down any remainder. So in this case our 210lb guy would be eating 16oz of meat/eggs/cheese a day instead of 21. Since we are taking away 5oz of meat we need to add something back. That my something my friends is beans. Navy black, kidney, garbanzoand lentils, etc... Yes, the musical fruit. I can hear the paleo purists howl already, too bad. Beans have gotten humans thru some pretty tough times in history, and likely they will do it again. Both canned and dried bean will work, with dried being the most economical, but most time consuming. Four our example guy, since he is reducing his meat by 5 ounces, he is going to add 1 1/4 cup of beans , (.25 Cup per ounce of meat), to his daily plan. So chili con carne, sausage and bean casserole, even baked beans are back on the menu.
In doing this you no longer get to count beans as a vegetable however. So in dividing your weight by 30 to get veggie servings, our average guy would be eating 7 servings of mostly non-starchy vegetables.
Fruit servings are still weight divided by 70.
Still eat an ounce of nuts, nut butters or seeds everyday.
Add at least two tablespoons of fat from olive oil or real butter to you plan. This is important when eating the beans and vegetables to aid in digestion.
As before, the above are minimums that are too be eaten every day. If eating all of this you still want a biscuit or something, go for it, just don't stuff yourself to do it, and don't do it everyday. A serving or two of dairy is good if you digest milk. Plain whole yogurt or kefir is always a good choice, especially mixed with fruit. The plan isn't perfect and you shouldn't worry about perfection. The idea is to be on track most of the time, with allowances for special occasions and real life situations.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
And The Results
Wt 216 - down 7.5 lbs total
Waist 41.25 - 2 inches lost
Thoughts on the process.
If I were to get a "do over", I would not cut my carbs as low or as fast. Coming off a carb laden holiday season my metabolism was probably similar to what many modern folks' metabolism is like all the time. Rather I would record what I ate for 3 or 4 days prior to starting and then cut my carb intake by half, eliminating junk food and adding a little good fat for two weeks. If, for instance, I was eating 300g carbs on average, I would cut to 150g for two weeks. Then I would cut to 80g for two weeks. If at 80 for two weeks I was able to lose weight and felt better, I wouldn't necessarily go any lower. If however I wanted a little faster weight loss, or wasn't seeing results yet, I would then cut to 60g carbs. Prior to the recent popularity of Low Carb diets, few people ever found it necessary to eat fewer than 60g carbs to obtain satisfactory results. Now days however, there seems to be a contest to see who can eat the fewest carbs. I'm not sure that eating fewer than 60g carbs is required, at least for physiological reasons, unless you have uncontrolled diabetes or epilepsy. In my opinion, it may also contribute to the drop out rate associated with low carb diets.
In the area of training.
Once a week slowburn training does indeed produce results, however, I remain unconvinced that once a week is better than twice a week. In fact I would say that twice a week is the better option, unless you only have one day a week to train. As to the slowburn method itself, I found it an interesting challenge. After four weeks its difficult for me to say if it produces better results than a more traditional rep cadence or not. All I can say with certainty is that I was lifting more weight after four weeks of using it then when I started.
Moving on from here ...... At this point Mrs D and I are planning on continuing with Low Carb. She is having success at keeping her carb level about 40g and I am going to stay at 60g. We both feel well, and are seeing steady reductions in our weights, and measurements. She is planning on continuing with the routines from the TNT Diet plan, and I am going to do something else, though I haven't quite decided what. I will no longer be posting daily, but I plan to post at least twice a month with updates and food porn. Happy Low Carbing!!
Waist 41.25 - 2 inches lost
Thoughts on the process.
If I were to get a "do over", I would not cut my carbs as low or as fast. Coming off a carb laden holiday season my metabolism was probably similar to what many modern folks' metabolism is like all the time. Rather I would record what I ate for 3 or 4 days prior to starting and then cut my carb intake by half, eliminating junk food and adding a little good fat for two weeks. If, for instance, I was eating 300g carbs on average, I would cut to 150g for two weeks. Then I would cut to 80g for two weeks. If at 80 for two weeks I was able to lose weight and felt better, I wouldn't necessarily go any lower. If however I wanted a little faster weight loss, or wasn't seeing results yet, I would then cut to 60g carbs. Prior to the recent popularity of Low Carb diets, few people ever found it necessary to eat fewer than 60g carbs to obtain satisfactory results. Now days however, there seems to be a contest to see who can eat the fewest carbs. I'm not sure that eating fewer than 60g carbs is required, at least for physiological reasons, unless you have uncontrolled diabetes or epilepsy. In my opinion, it may also contribute to the drop out rate associated with low carb diets.
In the area of training.
Once a week slowburn training does indeed produce results, however, I remain unconvinced that once a week is better than twice a week. In fact I would say that twice a week is the better option, unless you only have one day a week to train. As to the slowburn method itself, I found it an interesting challenge. After four weeks its difficult for me to say if it produces better results than a more traditional rep cadence or not. All I can say with certainty is that I was lifting more weight after four weeks of using it then when I started.
Moving on from here ...... At this point Mrs D and I are planning on continuing with Low Carb. She is having success at keeping her carb level about 40g and I am going to stay at 60g. We both feel well, and are seeing steady reductions in our weights, and measurements. She is planning on continuing with the routines from the TNT Diet plan, and I am going to do something else, though I haven't quite decided what. I will no longer be posting daily, but I plan to post at least twice a month with updates and food porn. Happy Low Carbing!!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Day 30 of 30
So here it is the end of my 30 day self challenge. I was actually compliant for all 30 days, no cheese steak binges or sneaking of to Jake's burgers for a milk shake. I learned a couple of important things during this experience. Eating on a schedule can keep you on track. Their were times I didn't keep to my schedule and let my self get hungry, these were dangerous times, and threatened my compliance. Rather I ate on schedule, hungry or not, and never had an issue with being tempted by the random goodies that float about in real life in an office. Second, get enough fat. If you cut your carbs below 50g, you will need to make a conscious effort to add fat to your diet, at least in the beginning. A plain boneless skinless chicken breast with steamed vegetables will starve you. I mean this in both the figurative and literal sense. Avocados, sour cream, butter, coconut oil and olive oil are your friends. Don't be afraid to liberally apply them to any and all foods you eat.
eggs with cheese
sausage
berries with cream
coffee with cream and splenda
1 tbs udo's oil
multi-vtamin
200 mg magnesium
99mg potassium
home made vegetable soup
chicken breast
apple sauce
sour cream
mixed nuts
wine
cheese
Taco Salad
200mg magnesium
99mg potasium
Milk
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Day 29 0f 30
Today has been a much better day. I actually got a full nights sleep. I upped my carbs from 40 to 60, and the difference was rather remarkable. It took me by a bit of a surprise how much of an impact 20 carbs could make. Apparently it broke the "deep" ketosis into a lighter version, and my mental status is much improved. Aside from being sick for a couple of days with a virus, my physical energy has held well, but my mental energy has been lacking. I have attributed this to lack of sleep, but now, I think that 40 is just too low for me personally. One more day to go for this challenge. With out knowing the final stats yet, I'd have to say, its been a positive experience.
Scrambled eggs with cream cheese
bacon
berries with cream
coffee with cream and splenda
multivitamin
2000mg vitamin d
1 tbs udo's oil
99mg potassium
steak with butter
mixed vegetable with olive oil
unsweetened applesauce
mixed nuts
Grilled Chicken Breast with Avocado
tossed salad with blue cheese and bacon
iced green tea
200 mg magnesium
99mg potassium
probiotic
milk
peanut butter on LC toast
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Day 28 of 30
After the past few days I feel much better today. I still feel like my head is going to explode every time I sneeze or cough, but that is an improvement.
eggs and sausage
berries and cream
coffee and cream
multivitamin
1 tbs udo's oil
2000mg vitamin D
99mg potassium
pork chops
home made vegetable soup
sugar free jello
peaches
mixed nuts
saute cod with bacon, butter, lime and green onions
broccoli and cheese
seafood chowder
200mg magnesium
99mg potassium
milk
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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