I've been running

I've been running- well kinda jogging. I went back to what worked for me in the first place. I gave up on the weight lifting for now and I decided to just run. I've been running/jogging regularly again for about a month or so now. I've already gone down 2 belt holes and I only have about 2 to go before I'll be in summer shape.

Not only am I looking better- I'm sleeping better. My heart burn went away. I'm craving healthy food like crazy. I have a ton of energy and I'm getting things done. Man, I forgot how great it feels to not only look like I'm in shape, but to feel like a million bucks too!

P.S.

GO WARRIORS!

Walking on an Incline

Now that it's winter, it's tough to walk or run outside on a regular schedule because bad weather is always popping up. Having a treadmill or a gym membership becomes really beneficial during the cold winter months. When I can't get outside to run, sometimes I run on the treadmill, but oftentimes, I walk on the treadmill for an extended period of time and watch one of my favorite TV programs. I find it hard to run on a treadmill and watch TV because of all the bouncing up and down, so to still burn a lot of calories, I vary the incline and walking speed to give my workout an extra push.

Increasing incline and decline have the obvious benefits of burning more calories and working muscles harder, but there are other benefits. It's been shown that varying your walking/running speed and incline/decline increases the effectiveness of your workout. By maintaining the same speed on the same incline/decline over several workouts, your body becomes used to the workout and is less stimulated, burning fewer calories. By mixing things up, your body is stimulated more during workouts instead of finding ways to cover the distance using less energy.

Check out this article from Family Circle Magazine which outlines a beginner and intermediate 30 minute variable speed and incline treadmill workout.

http://familycircle.com/fc/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/fc/story/data/1161182457015.xml

Cardio Exercise Motivation

When I'm pushing myself during my runs, I think back to when I was much heavier and trying to figure out how I pushed myself so much back then without giving up. Well here are three of the biggest factors that kept me motivated back then:

Music- I remember I had tried to run long before I had lost any weight and all I could concentrate on was my choking and trouble breathing. I thought it was impossible and I gave up. The day I started the journey where I actually lost all the weight I had set out to, I brought along a CD player and listened to music. The CD player ended up skipping the whole time, so I threw it in the bushes and came back for it later.

That night, I went out and spent $10.00 on am/fm radio headphones at Wal Mart. I used these for a good year before I even got an iPod and they worked great. I know it sounds stupid, but I owe a lot of my progress to my $10.00 Wal Mart radio headphones!

Take yourself out of your body- Another big thing that I still do to this day when I'm running is to take myself out of my body. I concentrate on anything but the run. I use the time to think and day dream. It usually takes about 2-3 minutes into the run before I get to this point, but once I'm there, it's 10 time easier to run. It really helps to have zero distractions. Putting the music up loud really helps this because I cannot hear my foot steps and breathing. Running outside at night also helps because it's almost like I'm not even there. I wouldn't recommend running outside at night to everyone though.

Look at yourself go- Think about when you're looking at someone else doing intense cardio at the gym. What do you think to yourself? Wow, they are working their ass off! Well no matter how good of shape they are in, if they're working their ass off and sweating, they are probably feeling just like you feel when you workout, but they keep going. They might be in great shape, but they're running 8 or 9 miles an hour and that's hard for anyone.

Now when you're working out and feeling like crap, look in the mirror or just picture what you look like. You look just like them. You are working your ass off and you should be proud. This makes it a little harder to give up because you want to be proud of yourself and the more you see how hard you're working, the more proud you are!

Keeping your Apple Nike+ iPod Sport Kit Accurate

As we train, more often than not, our bodies change. If you are using a Apple Nike+ iPod Sport Kit to measure your runs, it definitely takes some up-keep to maintain it's accuracy. Here are a few tips that might help:

• Don't Calibrate your Nike+ iPod Sport Kit using another piece of technology that requires calibration. For example- Don't use a treadmill to calibrate your running/ walking speed! Treadmills require calibration themselves, and more often than not, the ones at the gym are not 100% accurate. Instead, go to a standard quarter mile track. You can find one at just about any middle school or high school. Your iPod suggests you calibrate by running/ walking 400 meters which is a quarter of a mile. Stay to the inside of the track, as the inside of the track one time around is one quarter mile. The further from the inside of the track you run, the more distance you are traveling.
• Calibrate Regularly- Unless you've been running the same distance and time forever, you should be improving your walking or running effeciency and recalibrating often will make sure your sensor stays accurate.
  
• Make sure you update your weight frequently so the calories burned value is as accurate as possible.

Apple Nike + iPod Sport Kit Review

Tune your run. Transform your iPod Nano into a personal workout coach with the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. Only $29.00.

This Christmas I got a pair of Nike+ shoes and the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit from Apple. For those of you who haven't heard about the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, it is basically a pedometer that you put in your shoe and it transmits a plethora of data about your walks or runs wirelessly to your iPod. It's an awesome piece equipment for only $29.00, but that's where the Nike+ shoes come in!

When I first looked into the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, I thought the reason it was only $29.00 was because Apple already got you for the $200.00+ dollars you spent on your iPod Nano. I was wrong, and I should have realized it much sooner because accessories for iPods are rarely cheap! The reason they are able to sell this product for so little is because it can't be used with just any shoe. You have to buy the new Nike+ Shoes with a special pocket for the sensor. These will set you back at least $100.00.

This was a pretty clever collaboration on the part of Nike and Apple. In order to use the $29.00 product, you will have already had to spend about $350.00 for an iPod Nano and Nike+ running shoes. I already had an iPod Nano, and I needed new running shoes, so things worked out pretty well for me. If you don't like Nike shoes, or don't want to buy new running shoes, there is an alternative- I think. The following is a link to one blogger's post about how to use the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit without having to buy the Nike+ shoes (I haven't tried it, so I can't tell you how well it works):

http://podophile.com/2006/07/14/shoe-hacker-nikeipod-sport-kit-shoe-mod/

Once I had my iPod Nano, Nike+ running shoes, and the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit together, it was finally time to test it out! I opened the box expecting to find a software CD for the kit, but there is no such thing. When you plug your iPod into your computer, it checks for updates. The most recent update gives your iPod the capability to run the Nike+ Sport Kit. Once I realized that, I put the transmitter into the special pocket in my shoe, plugged the receiver into my iPod and I was ready to go.

Once the transmitter has been plugged into the iPod, you get a Nike+ iPod option on the menu. You click this and at first it asks you some questions about your weight, etc. so it can calculate calories burned. Once that information is entered, it remembers it, but you can always change it in the settings. Now, it gives you three options:

• Basic- it records time, distance, calories burned, & pace.
• Time- you choose how long you want to run and it tells you when you're done
• Distance- same as time, but with a distance goal
• Calories- same as the other two but a specific amount of burned calories is your goal

Once you choose an option, you push a button to start your workout and you're on your way. You control your music and your iPod just as you would normally, but along the way, a male or female voice (you choose in options) gives you verbal updates of your status when you reach different milestones. At any time, if you want to hear your current progress, all you have to do is push a button. That is one of the features I really love. Once you have reached your goal, it lets you know- but it keeps recording data in case you want to keep going. If you want it to stop recording, all you have to do is hit a button.

Another thing I love about this product is the history feature. It stores all the data from your runs or walks so you can see increases or decreases in your times, distances, etc. It also gives your best times and distances and total times and distances from all your runs or walks. As if this isn't enough, once you plug your iPod into your computer, it is able to automatically transmit all of your data to your free Nike+ account where you can look at the data in several different ways. This site also allows you to set several different variations of goals and interact with and challenge other runners from around the world to races.

I have been playing with this thing for almost a week now and I haven't been able to find anything negative about it besides the cost of acquiring the three components to make it work (iPod Nano, Nike+ Shoes, and the sensor itself). One thing I was really worried about was the accuracy of the sensor when it comes to distance. I did some investigating and found that this problem is easily solved by going into the settings and selecting "sensor" then "calibrate". This feature allows you to calibrate both your walking and running pace separately by running or walking a known distance. Once I calibrated it, I checked it's accuracy by walking and running on a few different treadmills at the gym and it turned out to be pretty darn accurate.

The last thing I will leave you with is another article about this product. This article talks about security flaws in the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit that allow stalkers to plot your footsteps from up to 60 feet away, but after reading the article, I'm not really worried. I run in the park or on a treadmill. If someone wants to plot my steps, they're more than welcome to. If they're following me, they can see where I'm running without plotting my steps and if they have hidden their recording device, I will be more than 60 feet away from it for 95% of my run (unless I'm running on the treadmill, but it's pretty obvious what good plotting my steps on the treadmill will do them). Here's the link to the article so you can read it if you care:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72202-0.html?tw=rss.index

All in all, I would highly recommend the Apple Nike+ iPod Sport Kit if you already have an iPod Nano, or are looking into getting one.

A complete full body workout you can do anywhere!

Back when I worked Monday through Friday, from 8 to 5, I could usually always find a solid hour to go to the gym after work. More recently, my schedule has become so varied that it is hard to plan lengthy weight lifting workouts in advance. This has also become difficult because I am not always near a gym.

Recently, while figuring out how I was going to heavily modify my workout while still being able to build muscle, I remembered an article I once read in Men's Health Magazine about how prisoners maintain their bodies now that most prisons do not allow them to lift weights. Within the confines of their cell, with no equipment whatsoever, prisoners are still able to maintain lean muscular bodies by doing one simple exercise. The exercise is called a burpee. As Wikipedia puts it:

The burpee is a calisthenic exercise performed to increase strength and explosiveness. Performed in repetitions it also improves cardio-vascular fitness.

This one exercise works out just about every muscle group in your body using your own weight for resistance. To do a burpee, you only need a space that is a little longer than your body and a little less wide than your wingspan. There are a few variations of this workout used for different sports, but to get the most complete full body workout, I suggest the following version:

(The animation is not exact, but it gives you an idea of the motions. *This is not me.)

• Begin by standing straight up with your hands reaching high above your head.
• Drop down as if you are doing a squat, while bringing your hands to the floor. Place your hands firmly on the floor in front of you.
• Kick your legs out behind you so that your body is fully extended, with your hands holding your upper body above the floor, in the push up position.
• Complete one full push up.
• While keeping your hands on the floor, pull your legs back into your body as you move back in to the squat position.
• Use your legs to lift yourself back up as if you are coming up from a squat, while extending your hands back up over your head
• Repeat without pause.

This workout can be modified several ways to accommodate different exercise goals.

• For beginners, it can be done using a modified push up with your knees on the ground during that portion of the exercise.
  
• To increase intensity and muscle endurance, it can be done in slow motion to make the muscles work harder.
• To add more explosiveness to your leg muscles, you can explode up from the squat position and jump as high as you can off the ground before returning to the starting position.
• For a more intense cardio workout, you can do this exercise rapidly without taking rest between sets.
• To focus on different muscles, you can rotate hand and foot position, such as using a wider hand position on the push ups to focus on your outer chest muscles.
  

For the past few weeks, this has been the only strength training exercise I have done. Prior to that, I had taken several months off from strength training due to my schedule. I can honestly say that I am impressed with the results considering the short time it takes to complete several sets of burpees. It's not going to make you look like a body builder, but it is very effective and efficient for building a healthy amount of lean muscle in all the right places, while exercising your heart and lungs, and working to increase your metabolism. It seemed like every muscle in my body was sore after the first day.

As far as the amount of sets and reps go, it all depends on what you can do. I've read that prisoners do descending sets, which means a set of 10, a set of 9, a set of 8, and so on, with their last set being 1 repetition. When I started a couple weeks ago, I could barely do descending sets starting from 5. Now I can successfully complete descending sets from 10 and I'm increasing that every few workouts.

Frequency? Because this exercise relies heavily on a lot of your larger muscles, it should not be done every single day. I usually do it every other day and take weekends off. When I started, I was resting about 2-3 days in between (until my muscle soreness went away).

This exercise isn't for everyone (knee problems, hip problems, etc.), but it has been helping me a lot, so I thought I would share my experience.