March 2nd, 2012: Well, this is day 61 and I’m caught in the predicted weight eddy at 305, and this is after being sucked up 3 lbs into it – it’s a whirlwind to test my resolve. Still following everything to the letter and still motivated-don’t worry.
Today is a post about exercise.
We all know the three variables of exercise, right? Duration, Intensity, and Frequency. I wish to add two more related variables – 1) fun, and 2) imagination
Duration: I try for 30 minutes of exercise daily, and by exercise, I mean cardio. Cardio = exercise, anything else is just supplemental to me.
Intensity: For 2/3 of the workout I like to be able to talk to my 2-year old, one sentence at a time, without losing my breath, while on the treadmill. The last 10 minutes I try to push the envelope to where I can no longer say more than one word at a time.
Frequency: I try for 6 days a week. I usually skip Tuesdays for some reason, but not always.
Fun and Imagination 1: I only download in-concert songs to my i-pod for the treadmill and I pretend I’m at the concert in the crowd, or even better, on-stage rocking out on lead-guitar with my Stratocaster or Les Paul . I have gone through entire workouts and forgotten I was even working out!
Fun and Imagination 2: I imagine myself to be about the size of a marathon runner and to have that ease of motion. I’ve got to do this, I can’t imagine what I really look like when I run. When I look in the mirror (not while running), I feel as though I might leave tracks in pavement or crush the innards of my treadmill.
My hardest workouts are at the boxing gym, once or twice a week, where it’s hard to imagine anything when you’re getting punched in the face. Once I saw myself on-camera boxing, and when I got punched in the stomach, the ripples didn’t quit rippling for the rest of the round. It looked like a bowl of Jell-O aboard the Space Shuttle on lift-off. When I countered with my own punch, the bat-flap on the underside of my right arm fluttered like clothes on the clothesline in a stiff breeze. I’m working on imagining myself looking a little different than that when boxing.
Then there’s Yoga. See yesterday’s post. Yoga is my new friend/enemy.
I also lift weights at work for about 30 minutes Monday-Thursday, but I don’t think it really helps me other than blowing off steam. I don’t work too hard with that, just like 3 sets of 10 reps and stuff, with only enough weight to show these younger punks what’s up.
Wow, what a boring post, but I guess now you can picture what I do when I exercise. Meet me at the treadmill every night (except Tuesday) at 5:30 pm and we’ll go to the concert.
March 2nd, 2020: In 8 years, if a program hasn’t evolved, it’s not a good program. A good program changes with the days and the times of the world, and the days and the times of the user. I will caution you that regarding my psychological profile, I’m still the same dude. I’m the very same person upstairs as I was in 2012, and I still walk a fine line between success and complete failure. I’m still on edge knowing the diet-destruction demons are just waiting for me to stumble. But when it comes to the nuts and bolts of the program, I’ve adapted, polished, and fine-tuned what works well for me. Again, though, I believe that a good program is always a work in progress.
When I think about what I’m gonna do for exercise on any given day, I still address the variables of duration, intensity, and frequency, but they aren’t always my priority. In fact, most of the time I start by manipulating the fun and imagination variables. If my exercise doesn’t fulfill some sort of entertainment need for me, it may be too hard to get going on it that day.
That day is every day. Barring death or joint replacement surgery or the recovery from either of those, I exercise every single day. This means sweating – a lot, and spending at least a few minutes of the session breathing so hard that I get tunnel vision.
As they address in the movie Zombieland, rule #1 is cardio. I’m not running from zombies, but I always have to be ready to escape the diet-destruction demons. As such, a weight-loss program not heavily favoring cardio is not one I’ll endorse. Seems like people either hate cardio or love it, not many in- betweeners (the people who don’t really like it, but do it anyway). Sometimes it’s tough to get going when every joint aches and my muscles seem so tight…
…but then those magnificent endorphins…
I’ll let you in on the mechanics of the program as I use it, of course. This isn’t some secret, it’s just a lot of info that needs to be condensed prior to consumption.
