“The MisFits” – Vicky Hallett and Lenny Bernstein - have a nice article in the Washington Post on the value of pedometers.  As small as they are, they can nonetheless have a big impact on the results of a walking program.

…buying a pedometer is not the first — or second, or third — piece of advice you typically receive when you turn to someone and say: “I really need to get in shape, but I hate exercising. What should I do?”

But it probably should be, says Dena Bravata, a physician and senior research scientist at Stanford who analyzed 26 studies of pedometer use and found clear evidence that people who have them get more exercise, lose weight and lower their blood pressure. In fact, the decrease in blood pressure was equivalent to results achieved through much more expensive interventions that involve doctors and pharmacists, she said. And in a relatively short time, many people were able to lower their body mass index enough to move from the “obese” to “overweight” category.

“What we found was, on average, that wearing a pedometer increased people’s physical activity by about 2,000 steps per day,” Bravata said. “That’s equivalent to about a mile.”

…As a rule, people overestimate the amount of exercise they get. Keeping track can be eye-opening. Falling short motivates people to find ways to walk more, Bonin says.

“I have walked the corridors of this building many a night, trying to work off my last steps,” says Bonin, whose goal is 10,000 steps a day, or about five miles.

A pedometer is a simple way to set goals monitor your progress.  Even for something as basic as walking, this sort of accountability can be invaluable.  Most models are quite inexpensive, and readily available at most sporting good stores (although if you own the latest iPod Nano, you already have one – a pedometer function is built in).

One… more… week… to… go…

Gonna make it to the finish line, but I can tell I’m ready for a training break.  I know the feeling: when I come back home after a workout, and feel drained emotionally as well as physically, it’s time.  The workouts themselves are going well, but lately, it’s been hard to reach for that extra “ooomph” needed to power out those last 1 – 2 reps in the last set(s).

So much of lifting is mental… it takes focus and determination – and lately, I’ve had a tough time summoning both. 

At any rate, this was the first of two “Power Boost” weeks, where the majority of exercises are focused on developing explosive power.  Admittedly, most of these were kind of fun – there’s a joyful aspect to plyo work, thanks to all the hopping and jumping around.  It also induced some muscle fatigue, however, which made this week’s 100 rep “Punisher” sets particularly excruciating.  There were Punisher sets for triceps (rope pushdown), back (seated machine rows), quads (walking lunges) and shoulders (dumbbell lateral raises).

We did the shoulders and quad Punishers earlier today.  I’m shredded.

I will say this for the program, though - my shoulders and upper back look harder and more chiseled than they did at the start, so – like it or not – the high volume and overall pounding have done me some good.  John has some pec and leg development going on, too.  So – while I’ll be glad when we’re done – I’ll also be glad we went through it.  I could see myself doing a version of this again, although I’d be inclined to make some exercise substitutions, as well as make it shorter (i.e., 6 weeks vs. 9).

We did the last “Strength Max” wave workout today and I’m really feeling it.  The emphasis was on doing 3 sets x 6 reps – but this week there was only 2 minutes rest per set.  We also had to do a couple of drop sets in each workout.  These were tough, as each drop set was performed on the third set… with legs and arms that were already fried from the first two sets.

Today’s workout focused on quads and shoulders… I’m whipped.

Nonetheless, these last 3 weeks were actually my favorites – I thought they were pretty productive.  Not surprisingly, I’m also a little more tired after workouts now, than I was in the earlier weeks.  It’s a good thing that there are only two more weeks left to the program, and these will have a different emphasis (”Power Up”) – I’m juuuust about ready for a training break.

This was a continuation of the “Strength Max” wave of the the program.  The changes this week involved a) doing 4 reps /set (vs. 6) at a 3-0-1-0 tempo; and b) performing a different superset for each workout.  The supersets were tough to do, as each one was placed towards the end of each workout, when we were starting to tire.  The muscle groups hit by these were triceps, upper back and shoulders.

The “Play Heart” (cardio) workouts are going great – I was able to increase my intensity a bit this week.  Unfortunately, the weather kept us largely indoors and confined to the machines (treadmill and elliptical).  We went shopping today for some cold weather workout gear, however, which will make it easier to do outdoor cardio (and/or Prowler workouts) as long as it’s dry.  The time change is a pain, though, as it’s going to be getting dark an hour earlier… it will be tough for John to get home in time for outdoor workouts during the week.  We may be stuck doing weekends only.

We’re 2/3 of the way through… 3 more weeks to go.

This was the first week of the “Strength Max” portion of the program.  It felt good to be doing heavier loads again.

This week’s innovation was the addition of “Punisher” sets.  These are 100 rep exercises!  You start with a load you can do a max of 30 – 40 reps with, then squeeze out 100.  Obviously, this takes more than one set to accomplish, but the idea is to minimize the intervening rest periods… each “rest” was only about 15 – 30 seconds.

Naturally, the 100 rep sets are at the end of the workout, right when I’m tired and ready to hang it up for the day.  The Punisher exercises we did this week were 1) calf presses (leg press machine); 2) reverse curls (EZ-bar); and 3) seated leg curls.

“Punisher” is a good name for this… doing 100 reps really, really burns.  I was ok with the calf presses (they hurt, but my calves are quite tough, and can take a LOT of abuse), but I’m still aching from the other two.

We didn’t get any Prowler workouts in this week - we had either John’s work schedule or the weather (rain) to contend with.  Admittedly, we had a chance yesterday (it was Saturday AND sunny), but blew it off, since we were both sore from our upper body workouts.

C’est la vie.  We’ll pick it up again next week, weather (and John’s schedule) permitting.

I’m rather glad this week is over!  This was the last week of the “Muscle Up” (endurance) phase, and doing all those slooooooowww 3-0-3-0 sets was tough.  But we got through it, and the good news is that there aren’t any more sets that use tempos this slow.

Another challenging twist this week was circuit sets.  These were similar to tri-sets, although there were short rests between the exercises (1 minute between the three exercises in the set; 2 minutes between sets).  Each workout featured one – for chest, back and shoulders.  Even worse, the chest and back circuits were followed by 6 sets of tricep and bicep exercises, respectively. 

I thought my arms were gonna fall off when we were finally done.

We also kept up with our a.m. cardio (Su/M/W/F) and got a Prowler workout in (it was rainy this week, so one session was all we could manage).  I added a couple of 10 pound plates to the weight stack for my first lap (from our driveway to the neighbors, and back), but ended up taking them off for subsequent laps – going up 20 pounds was a bit too much.  I’m going to stop at Sports Authority tomorrow to pick up some 2 1/2 and 5 pound plates, so I can increase weight in smaller increments.

The good news is that my weight is holding steady… but it’s still hovering around 123 lbs.

Next week: the “Strength Max” workouts begin!

This week’s routine continued the trend from last week: once again the number of reps dropped and the tempo of each rep increased. In addition, some rather murderous drop sets were introduced: sets of 12, immediately followed by 10 reps (20% drop in weight), then by another 8 reps (with another 20% drop in weight).

Yes, this was kinda painful. It was only done for two exercises in each workout, but that was more than enough for me.

John is still struggling a bit with finding the right weights to start with. This is less of a problem for me – although I did “miss” on my barbell shrug weight. I chose 135 pounds, which I figured would be just about right for me, given the slowish 3-0-1-0 tempo… but I miscalculated. My shoulders handled it just fine, but the weak spot was my grip… I had to (briefly) set the bar down twice towards the end of my second set, as my fingers were starting to ache (note to self: bring straps next time BB shrugs are in the line up).

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This is a seriously heart-pounding workout! I had to laugh the first time John tried it… he was breathing hard, but had just enough breath to gasp, “And I thought I was pretty fit!” The thing teaches you what your limits are, pretty quickly.

It may not look like your idea of a good time… but it is kinda fun.

The second week of the Challenge is behind us.  It wasn’t too different from the first, although there was a shift to fewer reps and slower tempos.

I’m starting to enjoy the different “Power Boost” plyometric exercises.  I’ve done plenty of plyo moves before, although my ex-trainer typically put them AFTER the traditional strength training moves.  Nothing like doing – say – several 30 second speed sets of weighted bench jumps while your legs are still shaking from squats, leg curls, walking lunges and calf presses, eh?  I got a lot out of it (including a few bruises), but it was NOT fun.  By contrast, the “Challenge” puts the plyo moves first.  Thus, although the intent is serious, the  jumping and hopping around has a playful aspect to it.  It’s energizing, and a nice way to start a workout.

We introduced the Prowler into our “Play Heart” routine, this week… that sucka’s a howl.  We picked up some 45 and 10 pound plates for it over at Sports Authority to add resistance.  With just the right amount of weight, pushing it around is a whole body workout.  I’d say it’s almost comparable to a deadlift in the number of muscle groups involved (the difference is that it doesn’t do anything per se for grip strength).  Sure does get your heart rate up, too… Good stuff.

The neighbors think we’re nuts, though.  We push it back and forth on the street in front of our house (we live in a residential area without much traffic), so we’ve attracted a few stares and questions from passersby.  But this doesn’t bother me, though - I’m used to having people watch me work out.

The good thing about doing this program is that it’s making me look at areas I’ve slighted in my previous workouts: agility, coordination, functional strength/endurance.  I wouldn’t want to train like this in perpetuity, but so far, I’m liking the change.

I got the call today from the freight company – the Prowler that I purchased for John’s birthday (10/8) will be here tomorrow.

What’s a Prowler?  LOL!  It’s a “functional fitness” conditioning tool: a heavy sled that can be pushed along the ground.  It’s going to be integrated into our “Play Heart” workout activities.  Check it out at the beginning of this vid:

Looks like some fun, eh?

John and I started the Alpha Male Challenge program this week.  Although we’re both veteran gym rats, there are elements of this program that we haven’t done for a while, so it was a good change up.  It also left us a bit sore, but that’s par for the course.

We continued with our usual early a.m. cardio routine for the “Play Heart” requirement.  We’ll be adding in other, more “playful” activities as we go along (like using the Prowler – lol), but figured the current routine was good enough to begin with.  Since he’s a corporate warrior, John was able to follow the suggestions in the book for his “Work Heart” points, but since my “office” is at home, I had to improvise.  I got my points by jumping rope, doing calisthenics, and hooping at intervals throughout the day.  This is stuff I often do anyway, as it helps perk me up (I can only sit in front of the computer for so long…).  So, nothing really new on this front.

The weight sessions were another story, however – I haven’t done whole body workouts in a long time.  The first “Wave” of the “Alpha Wave Training” emphasizes muscular endurance, so there are a lot of 20 rep sets… with only 1 minute rests between them.  Needless to state, there was a certain amount of guess work involved in choosing the weights, although I pegged it pretty well.  John had a tougher time with this – he frequently started too heavy, and had to lighten up as he went along. 

Despite the intial fumbling around, the workouts moved along at a pretty good clip.  We’re working at “Level A”, so there are 30 sets per workout.  That’s a fair number of sets, but it still only took about 75 minutes (including the dynamic warmup).

One downside of the “Challenge” is that my workouts are now tied to John’s schedule, rather than my own.  This means hitting the gym between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. during the week - definitely not my preferred time.  But it does help to have a workout partner/spotter around for this sort of workout, so I’ll manage.

All in all, it’s a challenging workout – I was definitely feeling it at the end (hell, I’m still feeling it NOW… time to go put my feet up for the night!).

According to this NYT discussion of current research, the answer may be yes…

For some time, researchers have known that exercise changes the structure of the brain and affects thinking. Ten years ago scientists at the Salk Institute in California published the groundbreaking finding that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells. But fundamental questions remain, like whether exercise must be strenuous to be beneficial. Should it be aerobic? What about weight lifting? And are the cognitive improvements permanent or fleeting?

…Why should exercise need to be aerobic to affect the brain? “It appears that various growth factors must be carried from the periphery of the body into the brain to start a molecular cascade there,” creating new neurons and brain connections, says Henriette van Praag, an investigator in the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging. For that to happen, “you need a fairly dramatic change in blood flow,” like the one that occurs when you run or cycle or swim.

The kicker is that it may need to be fairly intense, aerobic exercise – the kind that most people aren’t currently in condition to do.  But, it’s certainly possible to train up to it. 

As noted elsewhere on the blog, there are benefits to higher-intensity exercise that have NOTHING to do with weight loss (as desirable and beneficial as that may be)…this adds to the list.  Thus, it’s as good a reason as any to turn up the heat in the gym, even if you’re happy with your current weight.

It’s cross-posted here on the Brinkzone.

Review By Will Brink and Elissa Lowe

If you’d rather not plow through a long review, we’ll give you the short version up front: if you’re a man, the Alpha Male Challenge is a must-read… whether you’re a couch potato who hasn’t exercised in years or the proud owner of a six-pack.

It’s also worth a read if you’re a woman: there’s useful info here for both sexes. And – let’s face it – you’re in a position to inspire and encourage the men in your life: husbands, boyfriends, family, friends and colleagues alike.

Yes, the Alpha Male Challenge is that good – and as professional fitness writers, we’ve seen what the market has to offer. It’s rare to find a book as comprehensive as this one is.

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It’s 20 years old!

I almost never attend aerobics classes (I like to move to my own beat, not someone else’s), but these days, I’m 100% for anything that gets people moving on a regular basis.  Step aerobics was one of the first popular alternatives to traditional aerobics, and – after all these years – it’s still hanging in there.

Found this ab circuit workout by Vince Del Monte on Facebook. Looks wicked…

A while back, Lisa wrote a post on finding the motivation to work out, which she aptly subtitled, ”getting going when you don’t really feel like it“.  Truth is, it’s often a struggle… there’s a certain amount of trial and error involved in getting energized, and finding ways to make your good intentions stick over the long term. Nonetheless, whatever gets you going, it surely helps to be part of a community of like-minded folks, and to have tools at your disposal to track your progress.

I think that’s why running appeals to so many people: it’s not hard to find others who share your interest; not to mention there are some pretty cool tools available, as this article in Wired, on the Nike+ program/site, makes clear. 

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According to research from Northwestern University, aerobically unfit young adults (18 – 30 years of age) are at increased risk of developing diabetes in middle age.

Most healthy 25 year olds don’t stay up at night worrying whether they are going to develop diabetes in middle age. The disease is not on their radar, and middle age is a lifetime away.

As it turns out, many should be concerned. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have found that young adults (18 to 30 years old) with low aerobic fitness levels –as measured by a treadmill test — are two to three times more likely to develop diabetes in 20 years than those who are fit.

The study also shows that young women and young African Americans are less aerobically fit than men and white adults in the same age group, placing a larger number of these population subgroups at risk for diabetes.

“These young adults are setting the stage for chronic disease in middle age by not being physically active and fit,” said Mercedes Carnethon, lead author and assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School. “People who have low fitness in their late teens and 20’s tend to stay the same later in life or even get worse. Not many climb out of that category.”

The study will be published in the July issue of Diabetes Care.

No surprise, really, since it’s well known that aerobic fitness has positive effects on insulin sensitivity.  Activity – even without weight loss – helps reduce disease risk.  Thus, there are good reasons to exercise, apart from simply trying to lose weight.

When I was a kid, I was definitely no athlete. That didn’t keep me from being dragooned into my high school’s swim team, however. My older sister – who graduated just before I showed up - had been a star, and I was expected to uphold the Pratt family honor.

Not!

Ok, I wasn’t a total boat anchor, but let’s just say Vanessa’s swimming fins were a little too big for me to fill. Nonetheless, the team practices dramatically improved my cardiovascular fitness…although I didn’t realize just how much until the semester fitness tests were given in gym class.  I surprised myself (and probably everyone else – including the teachers) by finishing waaay ahead of the rest of the class in the dreaded “6 minute run” (I was a non-runner, yet finished only 1/4 lap shy of completing a full mile in the allotted time – without actually trying very hard).

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Some years back, my husband lost close to 50 pounds – and he’s kept it off too.  Nonetheless, he still has about 10 pounds of jiggly stuff left that’s been hanging tough.  It’s been a struggle…sometimes he manages to put a dent in it, and then – if he takes his eye off the ball – it comes right back.

My prescription?  Despite his good habits, he’s still not active enough to carve it off.  While he gets to the gym 4 – 5 days/week, it’s usually after work, when he’s tired and longing to get home, so his workouts have generally been shorter than they could be. 

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Oh noes!  I’m getting another fitness toy!  But I couldn’t resist after seeing this demo of the Quad Blaster that Marc David posted over at Facebook.  I have a variety of upper body and cardio toys that I use at various times, but nothing much for lower body.  This should be a worthy addition to my arsenal.

Looks wicked, too…dying to try it.