My Original Weight Goal was to get my weight below 170 pounds. If I cheated and just starved a bit I could most likely make it but for Now I am quite pleased with my 175 that I weighed in at a few days ago. 

The Next one was not a goal but just a way to see another example of how the diet and exercise was working. My Waist has gone from 38 1/2 inches down to 35. My clothes are so happy about this. Many of them were being ignored at the old waist size.

In the pushups department my goal was to get to 50. I tested it about a week ago and I was at 38. I think I will get over 40 for sure but I think 50 will be a bit our of reach. Remember these are perfect form pushups. However I am pleased that I have doubled the output that I started with. 

The next test i gave myself was Chin-ups. Last week I tested myself and got 12. I am hoping for 13 when I test again, maybe 14 if I get lucky but I do not see myself squeezing out 2 more than that to get to 16. Still a big improvement from the beginning. 

The last one is going to be interesting. I set the goal of running a 5k in under 22 minutes. The last one I ran was a few weeks ago and I got it done in about 24 minutes. I will push as hard as I can on this one since I think I have the best shot at accomplishing this one over the others.

Overall even though I may not make any of the goals I am still pleased that I am in such better shape. Now I will be thinking of the next goal that will help to keep me motivated. I will get you the final results when I retest in a few days.

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I am completing my preparations for the Ultramind Program. I went out and Purchased all my vitamins. I purchased them at whole foods. I have to be honest I skipped a few of them. First off the Probiotics were a bit too far out of my budget (unlike elective eye surgery). For a month supply it was $90.00. I will be trying to take some during the 6 week program however. Probiotics are “good” bacteria that is designed to greatly increase the efficiency of your intestinal tract. 

In Total I spent about $80.00 for most of the vitamins the program called for. Some of them were just slightly different but the person in the vitamin department assured me they were the equivalent. He also found it humorous that I had my book with me and I think I bored him to death talking about it. He was right about taking the fish oil frozen. I laughed at first until I took one and then burped up nasty fish taste for about 6 hours. So I also recommend putting your fish oil in the freezer!

By this time next week I will be well into the program. I am closing in on my February 28th deadline for my resolution goals and I think I am on track with all of them but perhaps the push-ups. 50 perfect ones is harder than I anticipated. I am still improving but at this point I am planning on using my probiotics money on anabolic steroids. Just kidding. 

My Scale weight was down again this time to 180! I will be retesting my 5k and chin-ups this week as well.

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This is from Page 56 of his book. He states that as a society we currently make 17.5 billion pounds of High Fructose corn syrup and we each eat an average of 66 pounds per year. He goes on to say that it reacts with proteins in your brain and forms a plaque called advanced glycation end products that can gum up your brain leading to dementia and cause major damage to your cells.

During the early parts of the New Years Resolution stuff we talked about 5 things we can give up. If you recall they were all about empty calories, foods that are high in calories but do not give anything back in the form of vitamins or minerals. After reading the book we should have just said High Fructose Corn Syrup!

The other component to get rid of is trans or hydrogenated fats. These can be found in most foods that come from a factory. Dr. Hyman tells us that they damage cells, increase inflammation, and interrupts our normal brain functions.

So with the 5 things we covered earlier, Candy, French Fries, Soda, etc, we actually covered these 2 areas. so if you have given them up, keep at it! Both Dr. Hyman and I are very proud of you.

I am getting very anxious to start the program and will update you as soon as I get started!

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First on the Chin-ups I was able to get 10 with great form today. I am hoping to be able to work more on these in the coming weeks. The first few times I tried, I still had some pain and pressure in my head from the Spinal Meningitis.

My Pushups have increased to 27 which is great since I have not been working at them that hard.

I continue to put in some running miles mixing up the length and speed at which I run. I have done about 24 miles now in January. That may not seem like a lot but I have not done any distance running since I trained for a marathon in 2000 (which was not pretty). Once I finished that I was burnt out on running for 8 years I guess.

My Scale weight I will check again tomorrow morning but regardless of what it says my clothes are fitting much better. I checked my waist a few days ago and it was 37 inches. 

I will keep you informed every week or so as to the progress. Please let me know how you are doing with your goals and if I can help you out in any way. If you are having any pain symptoms that have started to give you problems? If so lets talk about them. I will be adding an injury treatment and prevention section to the blog soon but if you need help now please ask.

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First is the weight loss goals. I said I would weigh in each week just to keep you updated but keep in mind this can be very dangerous. During the process of training your weight can fluctuate several pounds. There are many factors that will influence it. 

First is water. s your body learns to assimilate the larger amounts of water you are drinking, inconsistency in this can be real costly. If you establish a constant intake of water, then forget on any particular day, your body will start to store the water which will in turn raise your scale weight. If you have started doing any weight training or if you have been following the strength workout, your muscle tissue is becoming more dense. This also means it will weigh a little more. 

Just with these 2 factors alone, you may not have lost much weight at this point. Please do not panic if this is the case. Losing weight is a long journey if yo do it correctly. It is easy to lose 5 or 10 pounds, just do not eat or drink anything and go sit in a hot sauna for 8 hours. If you survive, I promise you will be much lighter on the scale.

Also I wanted to address soreness with you before I forget. It used to be that everyone believed soreness came from a buildup of a chemical called Lactic Acid in your muscles. As it turns out, recent studies have proven this to not be the case after all. The soreness comes from the damage that is caused to the muscles during intense exercise. Lactic acid is a fuel source the muscles use to provide energy to working muscles during exercise. 

When you work out hard enough you will start to experience a burning sensation in the muscles. This burn can happen during a set of pushups or running a mile or any other form of exercise that pushes your muscular system hard enough to begin creating very small tears in the muscle fibers. The soreness then begins as quickly as 8 hours following exercise but usually it will take until the next day or even the day after that to experience the soreness. The is what is known as DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). 

So in regards to your exercise regimen, you need to pay attention to soreness. If following a strength routine you are sore the next day, it is in the best interest of progress to wait until the soreness has been eliminated before trying a similar routine. Without waiting for the soreness to leave your body you can overtrain the muscular system which will lead to injury. 

I do not want to get more complicated than this right now, there are some very specific techniques and strategies you can use in regards to building the perfect muscular system for your particular sport. We will cover these in later posts in the philosophy section.

For now just use the basic rule of waiting for your soreness to either be gone or significantly reduced before doing that style of workout again. This will allow you to complete heal the muscular system between workouts which will lead to better long term results with a significantly reduced potential for injury.

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I wanted to give you the last workout for you to be working on. This one is just like the first quick one. It is designed to help improve the overall efficiency of your muscular system. This will make everything else you do more beneficial to your body. You will burn more calories, improve your flexibility, and  create a more productive stride. 

My recommendation to you is to alternate this one with the first routine each day. As I have mentioned before, if any of these exercises cause discomfort, stop doing them immediately. It is always wise to consult your physician before starting any exercise routine. If yo have any questions about the exercises, let me know.

1. Wall Sit – 1:00 min (Sit with your back against a wall with your hips and knees at 90 degree angles)

2. Active Bridge – 30x (Lie on your back with your knees bent so your feet are flat on the floor. Now squeeze your glutes and lift your pelvis off the floor, then lower it back down)

3. Lower Spinal Floor Twist – 1:00 min (Lie on your back with both legs straight below you, now bring your right leg up into the air with your hips and knees at 90 degree angles. Now keeping your right shoulder on the ground, reach up with your left hand and pull your right knee down towards the floor)

4. Pelvic Tilts – 20x (Lie on your back with your knees bent so your feet are flat on the floor. in this position, arch your lower back off the floor without lifting your hips, then do the opposite as you press your lower back into the floor without lifting the hips.)

5. Hip Lift – 30 seconds each side (Lie on your back with your knees bent so your feet are flat on the floor. Now place your right ankle onto your left knee. Without using your hands, press your right knee as far away from you as you can. Now hold this position)

6. Cats and Dogs – 10x (From your hands and knees, place your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. From this position, arch your back up into the air and lower your chin towards your chest. Now keeping your arms straight, arch your back down towards the floor and lift your head up.)

7. Hero Squat Clappers – 20x (From a kneeling position, place your arms straight out in front of you with your palms touching each other. Now bend at your waist and knees, keeping your shoulders over your hips and as you lower the hips, pull your arms straight out to the sides. Once you have gone as low as you can, raise your hips back to the starting position as you bring the palms back together.)

8. Standing High Knee Lifts – 20x each leg (From a standing position, place your hands on your hips. Now lift your right knee up into the air keeping your right foot directly underneath the knee and your toes pulled up. Pull it up as high as you can, then lower it down and repeat with the left leg.)

9. Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch – 30 seconds each side (From a kneeling position, place your right leg out in front of you so your foot is out in front of your knee. From this position Slowly lean into your left hip and squeeze your glutes on that side until you feel a stretch through the front of your left hip. Keep your shoulders up tall.)

10. Kneeling Pullovers – 20x (From a kneeling position,  place you hands down at your waist and interlace your fingers,  twist your palms so they are facing the floor and slowly lift your hands up over your head without bending the elbows. Then lower them back down, try to not move your torso.)

11. Full Squats – 10x (From a standing position, place your feet directly under your hips and make sure they are pointing forward. Now place your hands behind your head. From this position, slowly bend at the hips and knees as you lower your hips towards the floor. Go as low as you can while still keeping your feet flat on the floor and your back relatively straight. Now slowly return to the starting position and repeat.)

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February 28th is the big day for all of them.

Now I will be seeing the short term progress by doing a weekly test on each of the areas. I will update you after I have done each of the tests so you can see the progress that is being made.

I will be working over the next few days to get you the second routine to be doing each day.

So you should have everything you need to get going. You have your diet to follow. Just follow it for the time being. If you would like another and you find it to be working for you, go to dietaccess.com. From there you can change it up and keep going. If it is not working for you then try something new. Stick with your same major components. First, the water. Second, the foods that have no nutritional value must go. Beyond that there are hundreds of diets to choose from. To be honest they all work. It just is a matter of does it work for you?

You have your daily routine to help improve the efficiency of your muscular system. This will impact everything you do in a positive way. It will help you to burn more calories, it will make it easier to gain strength, and even help to improve your running.

Now as far as the training goes. Continue to practice your pushups and chin-ups.

Follow this routine every other day to help you out. If you are unable to get to a gym to do chin-ups, there are alternatives that I have found that work pretty good. Check out the P90X Chin-Up Bar. It is fairly inexpensive (about $70.00 with shipping) but it is the best home Chin-up product that I have seen.

1. Pushups – As many as you can (we covered form on this on the test but remember to keep your body straight. If it is too hard from your toes, do it from your knees)

2. Big Kneeling Arm Circles – 20x (from your knees, place your arms straight down by your waist. Now keeping your torso still, make a large rotation forward from the shoulder, Keep your arms straight the entire motion. Now rotate them backwards

**Now Repeat the previous 2 exercises for a total of 2 sets

3. Crunches – 30x (Lie on your back with your knees bent so your feet are flat on the floor. Now place your hands behind your head. From this position you are going to contract your abdominal wall as hard as you can. Make sure that you are not concerned with the height of your crunch. Focus more just on the contraction. Keep your elbows back and your chin off your chest as you go up. Now slowly release the contraction in your abs until they have completely relaxed. Form is vital on this move so take your time to do it right)

4. Straight Arm Bridge – 20x (Sit down on the floor with your knees bent so your feet are flat on the floor and your palms down at your sides with your fingers pointing towards your heels. In this position, contract your gluteus (butt) muscles as you raise your hips as high off the floor as you can. Once you have gone as high as you can, slowly lower your hips back down to the ground. Keep your arms as straight as you can the entire duration of the repetitions)

**Now Repeat the previous 2 exercises for a total of 2 sets

5. Chin-ups – as many as you can (grip the bar so your palms are facing back towards you. Make sure they are approximately shoulder width apart. You also want to start with the arms full extended. Now avoid momentum if you can as you pull your chin up above the bar, on the way down, use control and make sure that your arms return to a perfectly straight position.)

6. Kneeling Overhead Palm Twist – 30 Seconds (from your knees extend both of your arms straight up over your head. Now keeping them straight, twist at the shoulder until your palms come in contact with one another. Bring your hands directly over your head and keeping your neck relaxed, hold this position.

**Now Repeat the previous 2 exercises for a total of 2 sets

7. Prone Arm Lifts – 20x (Lie down on your stomach with your legs straight. Now resting your forehead on the floor, place your arms straight out to the side so that your thumbs point straight up into the air. Now keeping your neck as relaxed as you can, raise your arms straight up into the air and back down)

8. Cats and Dogs – 10x (From your hands and knees, place your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Now from this position, arch your back as high into the air as you can and tuck your chin to your chest. Now do the opposite, drop your back towards the floor and look up towards the ceiling. Continue to move up and down keeping your arms as straight as you can)

**Now Repeat the previous 2 exercises for a total of 2 sets

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I do not prefer to do it this way but for the benefit of accuracy i decided to do the test this way. The main difference between a treadmill and truly running outdoors is that when outside the sidewalk is not moving towards you. This increases the amount of pressure that goes into your joints. Many treadmills (including mine) have a flex deck where the belt you are running on is on a flexible platform. This is designed to help eliminate a lot of the pressure into the joints but now you are running on an unrealistic surface. 

However, it is a decent alternative especially if you live in a very cold area that makes running outside in the winter challenging.

The Treadmill I used is a Nordic Track C2150. It is a decent home one that my wife and I purchased a few years ago. I also broke the test up just a little bit. I did the first mile as a calibration for my Nike Plus program. If you have not checked these out, they are a great little toy to help you chart your progress and even do goal setting. I purchased one awhile back and have barely used it to this point. I am excited to work on my 5k goal for many reasons, one of them is so I can use this fun little toy.

 
You make these fun little guys that you can post on your facebook or myspace or even in a blog! That way people can keep track of how you are doing. You can also choose to keep it private if you want as you can see in this example.

If you have not seen them, it works with your ipod nano. You plug this thing into your ipod and then you have a sensor that goes into your shoe. You must be wearing the Nike running shoes that support the product but there are now many different shoes to choose from so it is not hard to find one that will work for you.

I personally like the Nike Free. They are designed to let your foot do what is most natural for it. I do not like when shoes are designed to force your foot into a certain position. Shoes that force a certain amount of pronation or supination or a very harsh forced arch support can be very hard on the feet. If you currently do not have any issues in your feet, your best bet is to get a neutral shoe such as the Nike Free.

Feel free to check out www.nikeplus.nike.com. It is a fun way to get started on a running goal. I really like the site and makes your goal setting a little more fun and interactive.

Once I finished my calibration I finished the remaining 2.2 miles. I was glad I did not need to walk at any point but i was getting real close at the end. My official time for the run was a 29:12. That is about as bad as i expected but hey, its a start.

So tomorrow I will go over some training advice with you for how to keep working at your goals. Keep up with your water and your food choices. If you are following the diet, keep up the great work!

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The hang is simply you holding your chin above the bar for as long as you can. It may only be a second or two but it is a starting point. If you are unable to hang from the bar there are several other modifications you can add to the exercise, however, these will eliminate the accuracy of a test. So for the test let us just stick with the chin-ups or the flexed arm hang.

The test is to do as many chin-ups as you can keeping your body straight and not pulling your knees up to your chest. Make sure you come all the way down each time to the starting position with the arms completely straight before going back up. Also make sure you are going slow and using control.

My result on this test was………….8! already 1/2 way to my goal!

Tomorrow we will start quite a bit of new information. I will be doing the 5k. I am so thankful to be healthy enough to do it finally! It will be a great start to the new year!

Happy New Year everyone!

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For the pushup test, it is important to try and have someone watch you. Remember back to the original goal, I said perfect pushups. Well what does this mean? It means pushups done with excellent form. 

Look at the pictures. I included both a full pushup and a kneeling pushup.

The form is the key. If you are unable to do more than 2 or 3 full pushups, start with kneeling for the first phase of your Resolution goals. This has always bothered me when people refer to kneeling pushups as girl pushups. Honestly there is just good pushups and bad pushups. If you are a guy who can only go about half way down in a full pushup, drop to your knees, its not an ego thing its like everything else I talk about, an efficiency thing. If you only are able to go half way down you are limiting the amount of muscle fibers you are using and also creating tightness in your shoulders.

The key to your pushups is going all the way down. Your chest must touch the ground for it to count. No Excuses. If you are unable to get to the ground doing a kneeling one, fine then make it even easier and put your hands on the edge of your couch and start from there but please always find a situation where you can get full range of motion in the move. 

Obviously if you have pain symptoms that are made worse by this exercise, please do not do it. I will give you an alternative instead.

Look back to the daily exercises we started a few days ago. On this routine is an exercise called clappers. Please use this as your exercise to replace pushups if you are unable to do any form of a pushup without pain. Here again is the pictures that demonstrate how to do it.

So do as many pushups as you can from whatever position works best for you. Now here is the key, you ned someone else to watch you do it and let you know when your pushups are no longer perfect. When is your back no longer straight is the main one to watch for. I will be having one of my fellow trainers count for me.

Good Luck on the test, after I get through the chin-ups and 5k, we will discuss ways to work on improving all 3 tests while losing weight! In the meantime, when you finish your daily workout routine, do a set of pushups just to practice!

Oh and I am sure you are curious about my pushup test. I made it to 17 before I lost my form and my back started to drop. Only 33 to go to get to my goal!!

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