During the week I managed to get in 2 kickboxing classes and then the dojo was closed on July 4th. On my own I hit up some kickboxing on the heavy bag for about 2 hours and some bike riding for about 2 hours. Nothing serious went on this week.
Take The 100 Pushup Challenge
Introducing the 100 Push-up Challenge
Push-ups are regarding as one of the best tests of physical conditioning. Whether you are an athlete, a powerlifter, an olympic lifter, a martial artist, or a recreational fitness enthusiast… virtually anyone can benefit from this type of training. Not only will it give you a goal and a plan to follow for a couple weeks, but it will also vary up your training and target a type of exercise that you might not normally use.
Push-ups Are Great for Martial Artists
I know for sure this would benefit me, because in kickboxing class we are doing all kinds of one arm sideways pushups and such. As luck would have it, I am about to start a new contract next Monday, so I’m going to need to work out a schedule around my new job. In this case I want to start lifting every Tuesday and Thursday morning before work.
Not sure how the 100 Push-up Challenge will fit into that… I don’t think it will, but I do think I’m going to take this program into kickboxing class and see if the instructors want to work it into their program. It might be a little too complicated to explain to a whole class, but I’ll show it to them anyway.
Will You Take the Challenge?
So, let me know if you’re going to take the 100 Push-Up Challenge. I’d love to know how everyone fares on the program. I have plans to use this concept to create a brand new challenge of my own, which I will reveal in the coming days. The new challenge will be something harder than push-ups, but easier than lifting weights. It will be something men, women, and children can do; but it will also be something that you can really brag about.
Stay tuned…
Mulberry is An All Natural Solution to Help Type 2 Diabetics
 Mulberry |
According to a statement recently made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, drugs designed to help control Type 2 diabetes, like the well-known prescription medication Avandia, should be subjected to more rigorous safety reviews to ensure they don’t raise the risk of heart problems. Take the following information with a grain of salt though, as I am NOT a medical doctor. Any stupid decisions you make, you make at your own risk.
Maximize Gains by Training to Failure and … Not Training to Failure?
Many people, when they start lifting weights, believe that training to failure on every set of every exercise is the key to growth. This is one of the biggest weightlifting myths, and one that is nearly impossible to squash unless you educate yourself on exercise physiology.
What Exactly is Failure?
Failure is weightlifting is defined as the inability to generate the force required to complete the full range of motion for a single repetition. Many people, experts and trainees, fall on both sides of this debate. Some coaches insist on leaving a couple reps in the bag, stopping well short of failure to avoid stressing the central nervous system (CNS), while others recommend taking each set to that last rep. In order to get to the bottom of it, we really have to examine the science behind the theory.
Training for the Week of 6/23 – 6/29
Posted June 30, 2008 in Workout Logs 2 Comments »
This week was a very healthy week for kickboxing and for eating. I am really starting to fall into the zone, eating healthy protein rich foods, and avoid untimely carbs and unnecessary high-fat snacks at night.
Diet
I am frequently eating eggs, cheese, protein bars, tuna, and chicken. Occasionally I have a McSkillet Burrito for breakfast, ramen noodles for lunch, and a couple cheese balls for a snack. For the most part I believe I am eating well. If I had more money, I would definitely buy more chicken and other healthier food to eat during the day, but for now I have to suffice with a can of tuna and a bowl of ramen during the week when I’m in the office.
Training
Thai Kickboxing: 3 days, 1 hour per session.
Mountain Biking: about 3 total hours spread throughout the week.
Weightlifting: 2 sessions with the Powerblocks for a total of about 45 minutes.
Next Weeks Goals
Maintain kickboxing sessions, although there will be no kickboxing on the 4th of July. Add in two legit weightlifting workouts. I want to actually go to the gym and do some full body training. They will be light workouts so I can get back into the swing of lifting.
I plan to maintain the same general dietary strategy, which is to say “no” to 90% of the unhealthy food I encounter. Ramen will still be consumed, as will McSkillet Burritos for breakfast. When I decide to go hardcore, these two foods will be phased out.
How to Recover From Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
Posted June 26, 2008 in Medical, Question of the Week, Weight Training, Workout Routines 19 Comments »
This question of the week is a question to me, rather than a question to you. Let me know your thoughts on the subject after reading the article.
Let me tell you about a recent conversation with one of my friends over IM. This guy used to lift with me back in college, but he’s working on his own business right now and hasn’t touched a weight in almost a year. So the guy goes out and gets a gym membership and starts training again last Monday.
This is how the conversation went down…
my weightlifting friend: yo wtf
friend: my muscles hurt
friend: so bad
me: bwahaha
friend: chest and tris are killing me
friend: since Monday
friend: I can barely move
me: nasty
me: don’t push it so hard the first week back foo
friend: I can’t help it
friend: and I didn’t push that hard
friend: I just did as much as I could
friend: which is not as much as it used to be
me: yeah
me: you prolly did negative reps
me: and pushed out every last rep out of every set
me: and tried to use the weights you used to use
me: haha
friend: haha
friend: whatever I did
friend: it sucks ass
friend: what can I do to recover faster?
The Healthier My Lifestyle The Better I Feel
Hey this is a blog right? Well here is a personal post for any who are interested. Over the course of the last month I have really stepped back and tried to examine all the bad habits in my lifestyle. One by one I have started to weed out such things as:
- Eating the wrong foods or too much food late at night.
- Working instead of exercising.
- Watching TV instead of exercising.
- Having an extra Captain’s and Diet when it’s not really necessary.
- Staying up too late, then…
- Getting up too early without enough sleep, or…
- Sleeping in and getting up too late, thereby wasting the morning.
- Blowing off taking my vitamins.
- Pumping myself up on energy drinks, then taking double doses of melatonin to fall asleep at night.
- Choosing Doritos or candy over fruit or low fat meat.
Hey Pencil Legs! Turn Those Calves into Cows
Calves are a weak spot for most weightlifters and athletes. Your average male weightlifter doesn’t put the same effort into his legs as he does into his chest and biceps. Well I am here to tell you that it’s actually easy to develop some meaty ass calves as long as you’re doing your foundation exercises.
Calf Physiology
Bones and Joints
The lower leg is comprised of two long bones, the tibia and fibula. The tibia is the larger of the two and is located toward the middle of the lower leg. The fibula is the smaller bone and it is located on the outside of the lower leg.
Actos Decreases Conversion of Insulin Insenitivity to Type 2 Diabetes by 81 Percent
Posted June 11, 2008 in Medical 1 Comment »
With the amount of starchy, sugary foods on the market today, we can never be too careful about our insulin sensitivity. Consuming too many high glycemic foods can decrease insulin sensitivity so much that we can develop adult-onset type 2 diabetes over time. Diabetes is bad in so many ways, causing (for example) heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and threatening the health of extremities.
Now there is hope for prediabetics (those with a high level of insulin insentivity). A new study presented on June 9 during the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco, has shown that people in prediabetic state were 81% less likely to convert their insulin insensitivity to type 2 diabetes when treated with a drug called pioglitazone, brand name Actos®.
Exenatide Study Brings Good News for People with Type 2 Diabetes
Posted June 11, 2008 in Medical 1 Comment »
If you are one of the more than 21 million people in the United States and an estimated 246 million adults worldwide who have diabetes, specifically type 2 diabetes, here is some excellent news for you. There is a new drug called exenatide, which when given weekly injections over the course of a year, has lowered glucose levels in diabetics and has assisted with weight loss, as shown by a recent study.
If you want to know how to treat insulin resistance so that it doesn’t develop into type 2 diabetes, read this article on how Actos decreases conversion of insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes by 81 percent.
Exenatide, aka “exenatide once weekly”, appears to also improve fasting plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin (A1C) when administered twice a day using a product called Byetta. Byetta is the version of exenatide that is currently available on the market.
Dr. John B. Buse, director of the Diabetes Care Center and chief of the division of endocrinology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill said in a prepared statement…
Digg Killed Project Swole
Posted June 9, 2008 in Business 4 Comments »
Recently I have succumbed to a couple of front page appearances on the popularity website Digg.com. Though I had the WP-Super-Cache WordPress plug-in enabled, my server crashed. Twice. The problem is that my sites have been hosted on shared servers, and the CPU resources (and possibly memory) were consumed, crashing the systems.
First I had to move from Host Gator to The Prime Host, and now I’ve had to move from The Prime Host to one of my friend’s VPS systems hosted at HostForWeb.com. Now I’m looking into getting a dedicated server over at eSecureData.com and loading up the software manually. Whatever it takes to keep the Digg gators at bay I guess.
Unfortunately Project Swole does not make any money, so I might institute a PayPal donations button here shortly, although I don’t expect anyone to actually use it. I don’t want to add any additional advertising to the site though, so I’m going to have to figure out a way to support this. Not quite sure what I’m going to do yet.
So anyway, if you plan on sticking with Project Swole through all of this Digg mayhem then I thank you immensely. Although I am extremely busy with my personal life right now, I am definitely going to try to keep posting regularly. The information should still be worthwhile, as I plan to tackle more specific and hardcore topics than stuff like “10 Ways to Diet Better“. If you stick around long enough, you are in for a treat.
That’s it for now, I’ve gotta get back to work.
Technorati Authority Experiment
Posted June 7, 2008 in Business No Comments »
The goal of Project Swole is not just to publish useful content for people interested in health, fitness, and nutrition, but also to proliferate that information throughout the Internet. Browsing Digg the other day, I came upon a site conducting a link experiment. I have no idea what this has to do with Technorati, but just because I’m curious as to how far it will spread, I am going to jump on the bandwagon and track it.
What the Heck Am I Talking About?
The stuff I am supposed to post is as follows:
10 Ways You Can Stop Dieting and Change Your Lifestyle Eating Habits
When you look into the mirror what do you see? Perhaps you see a cupcake. Perhaps you see a pear that can talk. An apple maybe? A watermelon? Or perhaps you see walking toothpick. No matter your aesthetic malady, if it can be fixed with diet and exercise.
So often I’ve seen folks try to diet by immersing themselves in fad diet strategies. They use Atkins, Weight Watchers, South Beach, The Zone, Hollywood diets, Low-Carb, Low-Fat, the list goes on and on. Read some reviews of a couple fad diets. The problem is that when dieters go off fad diets, 90% of them gain back whatever they lost and sometimes more! I want to address that issue and provide some tips on how you can generally eat healthier for the rest of your life, rather than abusing fad diet after fad diet.
Starting a new diet or exercise program should not be taken lightly. If you are severely overweight, severely underweight, and/or have any medical conditions, you should always consult your physician prior to drastically changing your eating habits and performing significant weight bearing tasks. Now I would like to outline a number of basic rules for building the foundation of your new dietary plan.
Rule #1 – Permanent Changes
I avoided using “The Diet” as a subtitle of this section for a reason; this is not a diet. I repeat, we are NOT starting a new diet here. These are the permanent changes that need to be made to your lifestyle eating habits. From now on when I use the word “diet”Âť I am referring to your lifestyle eating habits. For example, right now you might say that your diet consists of Coca-Cola, donuts, cheeseburgers, and ice cream. In the future you will say that your diet consists of Crystal Lite, beef jerky, lean beef and chicken, and a protein bar.
Read the rest of this entry »
One Small Victory Reported in the War On American Childhood Obesity
After a 25 year increase, it seems that the percentage of obese or overweight children has plateaued. This news offers us some hope that perhaps the future of America will not be riddled with diabetes and heart disease.
One expert, Dr. David Ludwig, has commented that even though he is encouraged by these findings, “it is still too soon to know if this really means we’re beginning to make meaningful inroads into this epidemic. It may simply be a statistical fluke.” Another expert maintains that there is at least a small level of optimism about these results.
Study Results
Poll Results: Squatting to Parallel vs. Squatting to the Floor
The results are in for the April 4th’s Question of the Week: Squats to Parallel or Ass-to-Grass? 45% of you said we should be squatting only to parallel, and 48% of you said we should be squatting ass-to-grass, ass-to-floor, ass-to-ankles, or whatever you might call it.
My initial vote went for squatting to parallel or just below. Now that the voting is closed though, I am going to qualify my answer. I think squatting to the floor under a maximal effort load is probably a bad idea. If you are going for a 1-3 rm pr, you should not be squatting to the floor. I just feel that this is one way to destroy your knees and possibly injure your back if you’re not careful. However, I am of the firm belief that squatting all the way down can definitely be beneficial in conditioning drills.
There’s no reason we can’t bodyweight squat to the floor. Nor is there a reason we shouldn’t be able to descend to the floor at the bottom of a jump squat. Many exercises and many functional movements in life depend on us being able to squat to the floor, either to pick something up, to get out of the way of a projectile object, or to prepare of an earth shattering vertical leap.
Let me just leave you with the idea that you should not be squatting 800 lbs to the floor. This is dumb. But definitely pick up your Atlas stone from the floor. Definitely bust out some super wide grip dynamic deadlifts off a box. Bang out 200 bodyweight squats, all the way down to three quarters of the way up (don’t you dare lock your knees out during bodyweight squat sets). Work those knees and strengthen those hips!
Off Topic
One more thing. I have been reading more and more about CrossFit. This type of training really interests me, and I will blog about it much more in the near future.
Why Dieting Makes You Fatter – Popular Diet Reviews
There are so many fad diets out there these days. When you want to lose a quick pound, it’s hard to know where to turn. This is just a short review of popular fad diets, and a solution to the fad diet problem.
Fad Diet Principles
Many diets promote certain principles that will make you fatter. Super restricted calorie diets will only slow down your metabolism so that when you start eating again you will balloon right back up. Liquid or juice diets tend to follow this idea. High carbohydrate diets will just bulk you up with carbs and will negatively impact your insulin resistance over a long period of time, possibly leading to adult onset type II diabetes. Zero carbohydrate diets will leave you with no energy and nasty protein bi-products floating around in your system. Plus when you go back to eating normal, the increased carbs will be stored as fat right away and you will balloon back up again.
Proper Diet Principles
From now on your diet refers to the way you eat on a daily basis. Instead of going on a diet, you will change your daily eating habits. You will increase your protein consumption, decrease your fat and carbohydrate consumption, eat 5 small meals, and drink a gallon of water a day. These four actions will inherently function to both reduce your daily caloric intake, increase the calories burned by the metabolic processes in your body, and control your cholesterol. It is your responsibility to exercise 3-5 times per week for 45 minutes, and eat fewer calories than your body uses in a day.
Popular Fad Diets
Medifast – Read a great review of the Medifast Diet at DietsInReview.com
Low Carb Diet – The basic concept of a low fat diet is to replace the simple carbohydrates in sugary and starchy foods, with high protein, high fat, complex carbohydrate foods. Low carb dieting forms the basis for most successful personalized weight loss diet strategies. A-
Atkins Diet – An extreme version of the low carb diet that sets a limit on the amount of carbs in a day to 20 grams coming only from fibrous sources. This is generally considered to be a moderately dangerous diet, which should only be followed for a month at a time. C+
Low Fat Diet – Since fat has significantly more calories than carbohydrates and protein, this diet aims to keep calories low and eliminate harmful trans fats and saturated fats from the diet, opting to eat mostly carbohydrates instead. The low fat diet craze is single handedly responsible for the rise in Type II diabetes in Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. F
Zone Diet – Read the rest of this entry »
Increase Your Max Bench Press By Stretching Your Calves
Posted May 21, 2008 in Weight Training 3 Comments »
I am in the midst of finishing up a large web development project for a client, so I am taking a couple days off from posting. My next useful Project Swole post might come Thursday but will probably come in on Friday or over the weekend.
A Quick Tip for Bench Pressing
If you are trying to hit a bench press PR (for reps or for weight), try a new approach to preparing for the set. Horizontally stretch your back for 20 seconds. Then stretch your biceps, hamstrings, and calves for at least 15 seconds each before the set. Avoid stretching your chest, shoulders, or triceps. I know it’s weird, but it really works.
Also, if you have a lifting partner or someone else is in the gym, ask for a spot. There’s no need to exhaust yourself on the lift off.
Peanut Butter Protein Ball Recipe
Posted May 19, 2008 in Recipes 12 Comments »
On the way out the door to a meeting or an appointment, you feel a twinge of hunger. You really need to grab a quick snack, but you are sick of fruit and protein bars. The solution is simple: grab two peanut butter protein balls and you’ll be good to go for the next 2-3 hours.
The exact ratio of ingredients will depend a little on the kinds of protein powder and peanut butter you use. I used a low carb, French Vanilla flavored protein for this recipe, but other flavors work fine as well; in fact I think next time I will try chocolate.
Some natural peanut butters have more or less oil than average, so you might need to increase or decrease the amount of protein powder based on your PB. You can choose to use the vanilla extract or the additional ingredients. I would advise experimenting.
The Recipe:
Black & Blue Entertainment’s Cage Fight “The Beginning” a Success
Posted May 18, 2008 in Martial Arts 2 Comments »
I went to an event last night called CageFight MMA “The Beginning” in Bedford, NH. Initially I mentioned it in my article about Black & Blue Entertainment’s first ever professional cage fight event. It went really well for their first gig. I believe one of the fighters in the main event broke his hand a week out from the contest, but they still put together a good show.
Update (5/19): Here is a link to a Play-By-Play summary of the CageFight MMA event.
My girlfriend Gayle and I with Roger and Barbara Woo
The half owner of Black and Blue Entertainment, Roger Woo, also owns Team Woo, a professional MMA team. Three fighters from Team Woo ended up fighting, two of them won and one lost, but the dude he fought was clearly jacked even though he was only 5’4, 160lbs. Otherwise, there were fighters from ME, NH, and MA representing a total of 13 different teams.
Some of the Team Woo guys.
There wasn’t too much blood but most of the fights were pretty good. There were definitely some kicks to the face, some knock outs, and some submissions; everything you’d want to see at a cage fight. There were also plenty of women including two svelte little ring chicks.
I would post the official lineup, but I was too preoccupied watching the fight to remember to write down the fighters records, who won or lost, and how they won. Apparently I would not make a good reporter. Next time I shall be better prepared.
Update (5/19): Here is a link to a Play-By-Play summary of the CageFight MMA event.
From what I understand, Black and Blue Entertainment will be hosting 4 shows a year. The next event will be on August 16th, so I will be posting those details as soon as I know more. You can bookmark the CageFight MMA homepage at CageFightMMA.net.
Update (5/19): Here is a link to a Play-By-Play summary of the CageFight MMA event.
Increase the Number of Pull-Ups You Can Do By 50 Percent in One Day
Pull ups are hard, but they are one of the few true tests of strength. I say this because some powerlifters can bench 600 or squat 800, but they also weigh 300+ and can barely manage 5 pull ups. This is one of the few exercises where you can measure relative fitness by comparing the ratio of the number of pull ups completed to bodyweight. Some of you might get mad at me, talking about powerlifters training for strength rather than endurance, but the fact of the matter is that when I was powerlifting I could still do 15 pull ups at 195 lbs.
Now, let me take you back to high school gym class… the year was 1993, I was 15 years old. Mr. Buatti the gym teacher, who happens to bare a striking resemblance to Coach Buzzcut, called my name to stand up in front of the class and do an many pull ups as I can. The football jocks each knocked out from 10 to 20 and the wiry tough kid with only 3 fingers on one hand completed 14 of them. I got 3. It was humiliating.
Now we come back to the present. Recently I started doing pull ups again after a year layoff. On my first set, I got 5 reps. A week later I was up to 8 reps. Just yesterday I did a set of 11 reps. But I want more. I’ve done 18 pull ups before; I’ve also done 5 pull ups with a 45 lb plate hanging off a belt. So, how can I get back to that place? How can you get to that place?
