4 Week Mark: Training part 1

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines day and extended weekend to those lucky enough to work for the goverment. First a confession. I went out to dinner for Valentines day and I had a wonderful steak dinner. Unfortunately, I caved in and had a piece of cheesecake for desert! doh! Then of course guilt got the best of me and I ended up doing an extra hour of cardio on friday. Was it worth it? Nope! it was a horrible tasting piece of cheesecake. Let that be a lesson, if you are going ot have a cheat meal make sure you know its good in advance!


Moving on, I would like my next set of posts to be a response to the numerous requests I have had pertaining to my training routine. Over the next few days I will go over my current workout schedule along with some helpful tips. Please note that everyone is different and what works for me may or may not work for you. I also make sure to change up my workouts on a regular basis so this is simply just one of my varied training setups.


During my current dieting phase I am training on what I call the "A.B.C.D. split". Its four completely unique workouts that over a seven day week allow you to hit your whole body once. This type of routine allows you to pay extra attention to each body part as opposed to trying to rush through multiple body parts in one day. Its also important to note that I believe a weight lifting workout should last between forty five minutes and an hour and fifteen minutes. In the past I had expiremented with longer workouts but they would lead to over training or at the very least "lazy" workouts that ended up being wasteful and inefficient.

For those of you who do not want to read through the detailed descriptions I have also provided a summary of the workout at the bottom of this blog.


My first workout, workout A, starts the week on monday with total chest training. Generally, I spend a few minutes warming up my shoulders with some rotator cuff excercises. In the past I have had to deal with numerous shoulder and elbow problems and I know that some of those could have been avoided if I properly warmed up.


My first real chest excercise is the flat bench press. I normally work out with a workout partner so I prefer the freeweight method over a machine but if you are training solo then I would recommend a bench press machine if available. In my opinion the freeweight bench flat bench press is the best overall chest excercise as long as you have a workout partner or a personal trainer to spot you. I highly recommend against doing this excercise without a spotter. I also prefer a really wide grip. The wider your shoulders are the wider your grip should be for optimal results. You will notice that going with a wider grib will make the excercise much harder, but in the end you should notice better results. If you are really tall or really wide in the shoulders you may find it hard to get a wide enough grib. For this you may want to look for specially designed bench presses that are shaped to be about 20 to 30 percent wider. Spectrum here in Santa Barbara has such benches, but im sure other locations do as well. I also do not believe in full range of motion when it comes to the flat bench. I generally go down until my elbow hits parrallel to my shoulder level. I found that going any lower tends to put an unnessary strain on the shoulders and the additional benefit to the pectoral muscle development is not worth the chance of injury.


After a proper grip and form I find it imporant to emphasize the importance of warming up. Most injuries during this excercise occur when people dont take time to warm up the chest muscles and rush to increase the weight with sloppy form. I generally do two light sets of twelve repetitions to warm up. After my warm ups I tend to continue with three more sets increasing in weight while maintaining proper form. If I cannot complete eight reps at a specified weight I generally go down to a weight that allows me this rep range.


My second excercise is the incline bench press depending on the day I rotate between doing this excercise with a barbell or dumbbells. With the barbell you will have easier stability and will generally be able to push more weight. With dumbbells you will be able to go down further and get a better stretch. As with the the flat bench I generally do not drop the weight all the way down to my chest while performing this excercise with a barbell. How deep you go is a matter of personal comfort. I prefer to do a slow repetition and feel for the moment where the chest is stretched out to the max and I sense the shoulders take over. At this point I ease up and start to press up.


With the incline press I am already warmed up from my previous excercise so i generally only do one set followed by two to three sets with increased weight. Again, my rep range is strictly between 8 and 12 reps during most occasions.

My third excercise is the decline press. Personally, I prefer to do this on a free motion press machine, but you can also do it with a barbell, dumbbells or on a hammer smith machine. Unfortunately if you are tall you may have trouble fitting comfortably in a smith machine and some decline benches tend to feel a bit "off" as well. The nice thing about a free motion cable machine is that it allows you to sit up straight while maintaining constant pressure on the muscles creating an atmosphere that is both effective and comfortable. I dont know how many times I have gotten up dizzy from doing a set of heavy decline press from all the blood rushing to my head. Not too fun.

Similar to the previous excercises I will start with one light set followed by two to three heavier sets. You may notice that most of my exercises tend to be a warm up set in this manner. I do this intentionally during dieting. Whenever you put your body in a caloric deficit you will generally be weaker and more prone to injury. During these phases I prefer to stick to more conservative workouts.

For my fourth excercise I like to do the pec deck or pec flys as some people know them. This excercise can be done on a pec machine or with dumbbells lying on a flat bench. I personally prefer to do this excercise on a pec deck machine at the end of my workout. Because you are on a machine your stabilizers dont have to work as hard and therefore you can push your chest to your limit without worries of injury. Since it is traditionally my last excercise I will do a "burn out" on this exercise. As before, I like to perform three to four complete sets. The difference being with the repetitions. I start with a moderately heavy weight and attempt to do 15 to 20 repetitions. My second set i will slightly increase my weight and push it until I cannot complete any additional repetitions. Generally this will fall in the 12 to 15 rep range. My third and fourth set I will go to failure except that I will have my workout partner assist me in completing 3-4 extra "forced" reps. This allows me to make sure that I work my chest as hard as possible while still maintaining a safe environment during my diet phase.

Finally, I like to finish my workout with some core training. My favorite tool for abdominal training is the balance ball. Here I will simply do ball crunches for 3 sets with 25 reps per set. The key here is to focus on the contraction at the top of the crunch. It is easy to rush and cheapen the excercise. Take the time on this excercise and you will feel a huge difference. After the crunches I will lay down and raise/hold my legs up at roughly a 30 degree angle for a count of 30 second. Its much harder then it sounds. As you get better you can continue to increase the count to 45 seconds and then 60 seconds.

Workout Summary:

Intended for two people.
Estimated completion time: 45 minutes to 1 hour

Excercise 1: Flat bench press
2 warmup set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8-12 reups

Excercise 2: Incline bench press
1 warm up set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8 -12 reps

Excercise 3: Decline press
1 warm up set 12 reps
2-3 sets 8-12 reps

Excercise 4: Pec Dec
1 set 15-20 reps
1 set to failure
2 sets to failure + 3-4 forced reps with partner assist

Optional:

Core abdominal training

3 sets crunches on balance ball 25 reps

3 sets leg elevations 30 seconds each

Join me next time as I go into detail on my diet time workout "B" and as always feedback and questions are greatly appreciated.

Being Sick - and "Emotional Eating"

Today I wanted to touch on two subject that are no fun while dieting; being sick, and eating. Allow me to go into some more detail.

It's never fun to be sick, but when you are on a strict diet and training program it hits you even harder. Ever since Sunday night I have been feeling under the weather. On Monday I went to my usual cardio sessions and tried to eat normally but by the evening I was down for the count. On Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping. I was only able to get one meal into my stomach. What was worse is that my sleeping schedule got completely messed up. Hence, here I am at 3:30 AM writing a blog. Sadly, it was the only productive thing I have been capable of doing since Monday. My best bet is to rest up some more and hope I can get back to training. Under normal circumstances being sick for a day or two would not be a problem, but with all the pressure I have put on myself to get in shape I feel like every moment counts. I am also focusing on getting back to normal meals as soon as possible and drinking lots of water. At the very least taking in protein shakes and some oatmeal to get me back on my feet for some real training! If you get in a postion where you get sick in the middle of a training program do your best to stay calm. Its easy to get down on yourself for not being able to keep up with your normal diet and training. The most important thing at that point is to get healthy then you can worry about your diet and training. Remember, while recovering form sickness your body is under tremendous stress as it works on getting healthy. Trying to "tough it out" will often times make your situation worse rather then better.

All this talk about being sick makes me want to bring up another topic. I am speaking of "Emotional Eating". If you are one of those lucky people that choose to starve when you are depressed or stressed then this post may not be for you. I am talking to everyone else , like myself, who is cursed with the every day temptation of "Emotional Eating". If you suffer from it, then you know exactly what im talking about. And sadly its never "Emotional Eating" of cellary or yams. Its always sweets and fats. Its also the arch nemesis of dieting.

Complicating the matter more is mother nature. Even though its hard to tell sometimes, it is winter time in Santa Barbara. A time when we get our once a year rain/flood, and its cold enough to where you actually have to put on some clothes when going outside. The inhumanity! In fact, studies have shown that winter time and the "Holidays" are the most stressful time of year for people, even in Santa Barbara. Everyone is getting sick, people are stressing out over traveling, family, and relationships. Its even said that a very high percentage of break up happen right after the Holidays. And we just got over the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years hurdle. I think they should add another Holiday after new years called "OMG I Survived Day". All of this combined with the fact that most people put on weight over the holidays puts a tremendous stress on people. High stress leads to unhappiness and, you guessed it, "Emotional Eating".

The real question is how do you deal with "Emotional Eating". I have been a victim of my taste buds for years. What makes things worse is that the bigger you get the bigger your cravings become. The bigger you become the worse these emotional binges hurt you. As you can see its a snowball effect. Luckily there are things you can do to cut back on the damage that your emotional eating has on you.

The first thing that you can do to help out is make sure you are well fed. What i mean by this is make sure you schedule three to five meals daily regardless of your cravings. If you have a eating schedule you are less likely be be caught "starving". There is nothing worse then feeling like you are starving and then being hit with EE (emotional eating).

Second, make sure you drink lots of liquids. Water is preferable, but i truely believe you need to drink whatever you can make yourself drink. The only thing i would note is that you may want to make sure to keep the sugars low or you will be inviting a case of EE rather then fighitng it off. When you are properly hydrated your body will feel more "full". Since your mind can't tell the difference between appetite and hunger and so most over eaters often are simply dealing with an over abunder appetite that isn't being dealt with. By controlling your appetite with water intake you can start to listen to your hunger pains rather then your appetite cries. If you are still having trouble keeping track of things then simply make sure you have a healthy meal planner every 3-4 hours, this should keep your hunger pains at bay and also make sure your metabolism is working at its peak potential.

Finally, make sure you have healthy "emergency" alternatives for your EE session. The truth is that emotional eaters will always be emotional eaters. You can see how if you are starving (point one) and dehydrated (point two) and a case of EE hits, then you have almost no chance of surviving without eating bad. Especially since we never seem to think straight under emotional distress. We see that McDonald's drive through and head right in. It never ends pretty. So lets assume that you are working on point one and two as mentioned. The last safety net for protecting you will be your emergency meals. They have to meet three criteria. First, they have to be quick and easy to make. Second, they need to feel like they are at least a little bad. A stick of cellary will never quality. Finally, they have to be healthy. Duh! It sounds harder then it really is. Trust me, from a scale of 1 to 10 in "food preparation" competancy I am probably a 3 and even I was able to find some quick EE fixes. Here are two personal favorites that you may never have tried.

1. Cottage cheese a la yummy : This one is simple, take 1/2 to 1 cup of regular or low fat cottage cheese. Take 3 packets of splenda. Take a spoon and mix the three packets of splenda into the cottage cheese. Vuala! You have cottage cheese that taste like a desert. It may sound weird, but it really takes away the bitterness of the cottage cheese and tastes almost like a dieters cheesecake (yes I know im stretching here). I told you it was going to be simple!

2. Oatmeal fruity crunch: For this you need two ingredients. First you need basic uncooked oatmeal. I normally measure out 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Second, I recommend Smuckers Simply Fruit. It comes in tiny little jars for about $3.50 but its worth every penny. Its basically a jam, but its all fruit. Unlike jams, it has no sugar added so you get a very healthy fruit based fast acting sugar that compliments the slow acting oatmeal perfect. Take about 1-2 table spoons and put it in a bowl with the oatmeal. At this point you need to mix the two up. Keep mixing with a spoon until you have no simply fruit clumps left. The consistancy should be semi thick and you need enough simply fruit so that there is no dry oatmeal left. It should be an almost cookie dough consisteny. Now you are ready to eat! This is a great meal for people that traditionally dont like oatmeal. With raw oatmeal you dont get that porage consistancy and the meal tastes really sweet so it comes off like a treat. Try it out. Best part is just like my first recommendation its quick to make and requires absolutely no cooking skills to make. Enjoy!

Theres one more thing I want to say before I finished with emotional eating. You have to remember that eating habbits are something we have developed over our lifetimes. Its not easy to change your diet around, and its especially hard to deal with stress coping mechanisms like emotional eating. If you fail and eat bad from time to time don't beat yourself up. If you can resist that burger or ice cream bar every other time or even every third time then you have made progress. Do your best to be prepared and in time you will make improvements. Those little improvements add up to real progress over time. Remember, even small steps forward move you in the right direction!

A Quick Note and Thank you!

I am not quite ready to roll out my next progress blog as of right now, but i could not help myself but write a quick thank you for everyone who has been giving me such motivational support in person, over the phone as well as via email. The response from my ad has been nothing short of astonishing. I greatly appreciate and welcome all your kind words and stories. I never thought i would get this level of support from our great little community. Thank you so very much. I will do my best to not disapoint anyone, including myself, in my battle of getting back to awesome! I look forward to giving you continued updates on my progress as we enter the next week of the project.

Heck, if the Giants can win the Super Bowl then my task should be no problem , right?