Posts Tagged ‘losing weight’

First off, I would like to apologize for not getting yesterdays post out. I was at a festival that ended much later than it was supposed to. It’s actually normal for things to start amazingly late here in Miyakojima, but I still haven’t gotten used to it. To be totally honest, there wasn’t much to post about. I did about a 10 minute warm up routine along with a 30 minute workout. Mostly focused on upper body strength. Sets of push-ups, pull-ups, and various sit-ups. Thanks to a tip I picked up in the workout program I am using, I am getting a much better workout out my my sit-ups.

We have all done sit-ups at some point in our life. In high school, I was able to do nearly 90 sit-ups in one minute due to my small size. Did I have a six pack? Far from it. I used my momentum and lightness to make my body go back and forth quickly. I had to be in decent shape to do that many per minute, but it really didn’t take much strength at all.

For the last several years I have been using a balance ball to do sit-ups. It definitely does a much better job than a regular sit-up, but after several days on the ball I usually stop getting the burn. So what’s the big secret?

It’s in making them as difficult as they can possibly be. The biggest difference for me has been to really squeeze my abs at the peak of the crunch and even hold it like that for a second or two. It makes your ab muscles contract much harder than they are used to. Our bodies tend to shy away from pain and so when we do a workout, the body tries to get through the hard parts as quickly as possible. A sit-up is much more effective done slowly.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s actually quite substantial. If I can get the maximum result out of each exercise, I can spend less time working out and get better results. I would much rather do 10 difficult sit-ups than 50-100 easy ones. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Diet

As I promised, my diet has not changed. Not to say that I am eating fast food everyday (I rarely eat fast food), but I am by no means counting calories or going without. In addition to the three meals I eat everyday, I generally tend to have snacks and deserts. Today I had ice cream before lunch and yesterday was pudding.

Now for anyone who is really serious about losing weight or getting in shape this isn’t the smartest thing to do. Keeping a very balanced diet and knowing how many calories you intake makes a lot of sense. The program I am using actually has full details on choosing a meal plan to best suit your workout. It would help you achieve your results quicker and make sure you are burning more calories than you are taking in. I have no idea. I could be taking in more than I burn and have no progress after 30 days. I guess we will see if there is any visible difference when I post pictures tomorrow.

The challenge was to see if I could get fit without following all the rules. If I can achieve it in 30 days, then someone who does a full workout and changes their diet should be able to do even better.

Today is the 2nd day of the Getting fit. I woke up quite sore after completing a short, but intensive workout yesterday. I am actually quite impressed not just with the fact I am sore after the workout as that may just mean I was out of shape. What surprised me was how many places I was sore. Even though I did just a short workout, the majority of my body is sore.I am especially sore in my lower abs, an area I have always found difficult to target, so apparently the program I am using seems to be pretty effective so far.

The interesting things to note about the second day is the lack of energy after exercising. My body is not used to two days of intensive workouts. I may need to increase my calorie intake or spread the calories out more over the day. I will see how my body adapts over the next few days and then take it from there.

Since I was a little tired yesterday after my workout, I didn’t go into to much detail about the different type of equipment. I wanted to do that now in case anyone is interested in purchasing it themselves.

The Balance Ball

A balance ball is nothing more than a big ball full of air. However, it allows you to do a number of exercises. Since the ball can move, it requires a umber of stabilizer muscles that improve your strength. I have been using a balance ball for several years, and it is one of the most universal pieces of equipment I have ever used. With it you can do everything from stretching to muscle building.

The Iron Gym

The Iron gym is a pull-up bar I happened to see advertised on TV when I visited the US during the holiday season. It allows you to have a pull-up bar anywhere you have a door. A pull-up bar allows you to do not only pull ups but other exercises for your midsection and back. If you have a place you can put up a bar that will support your weight, then there are a lot of ways to create your own pull-up bar. Due to the typhoons down here my house is made of concrete and it is quite difficult to put anything into the walls. Being able to put it up and take it down also makes it extremely useful for taking it with you and just keeping your house clean.

The Perfect Push-up

The Perfect Push-up is basically a handle on a rotating table. Since the handle moves, it forces you to use more stabilizer muscles therefore giving you a better workout. It also allows for your arms to bend in a more natural movement. This was something I purchased on sale here on the island and have been quite pleased with thus far.

Stretch Bands

Stretch bands or exercise bands are also a very cheap and effective means of exercising. They can allow for a great work out because unlike a normal weights you have tension in both directions. This forces you to use more muscles and gives you a better workout.

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