Fitness update

I didn't make much progress this week, but I think I am newly motivated to get into shape.  Yeah, I think I say that every week and every week I slip a bit further into chunkitude, but I'm serious this time.  Heh.  I think I now have a good tool since I bought a book by this guy when I was poking around on Amazon.  I highly recommend it and I don't want to exaggerate, but I think it'll turn my life around because I always feel better when I'm in better shape and I think this book will help me get there.  I read through it already and he has some interesting ideas on fitness which match my experience.

Firstly, he emphasizes high intensity strength training over low intensity aerobics or cardio.  He claims there are studies showing no heart benefit to cardio over strength training.  He also points out that low intensity exercises only help us become more efficient at those exercises.  Let's say you jog three or four times a week.  You're going to improve, but what's happening is you're becoming more efficient at jogging rather than becoming stronger.  Your body will shrink muscles not in use which is not really the point unless you're training for a road race.

He also gives some good information on nutrition which is mostly in line with the South Beach Diet.  He advocates eating a lot of protein every two to three hours.  You should eat just fruit, vegetables, protein, eggs, nuts, seeds, fish and maybe dairy.  It's kind of like a paleo diet and you adjust the caloric intake based on whether you want to get lean or build muscle.

My goal is to get to ripped and to reverse some of the trends of aging so I'll focus on his program of strength training for a couple of hours a week.  It doesn't sound like it'll be enough, but the impact of a high intensity exercise lasts long after you finish it in contrast to a low intensity exercise which is easy to recover from.  I have probably mangled the theory so read the book for yourself.  It's only $10 and all of the exercises can be done at home with just your body and sometimes some household supplies.

He breaks the exercises into four groups: push, pull, legs and glutes and core.  You can mix and match or focus on one group a day.  I think I'll focus on one group a day since my plan is to pick and choose different exercises each day.  I don't want to do the same pull exercises on every pull day, for example.  He has enough variations for me to use muscle confusion which is essential to preventing plateaus.

Anyhow, I think I have the tools needed to reverse the pathetic body fat trends of the past few months.