It was a very busy week work wise last week and I was totally shattered by the weekend. Admittedly, I didn't do much running last week, but I still stuck with all of my weight workouts, despite my freezing cold garage, and did quite a bit of cardio work on the punch bag too.
One thing that I've been doing for a few months now and I'd highly recommend is working out barefoot. The theory behind this one is that when working with weights, you need to have a solid, supportive core structure, from your chest and abs, down to your legs and feet. Working out barefoot actually helps to develops muscles in your feet while you workout the other muscles in your body, so in a way it doubles your workout just by taking your trainers off. It makes for stronger feet to support the rest of your body.
I guess this is the way caveman would've trained back in the day, walking and running barefoot. Ideally, if you like to run, running on a soft surface barefoot would be the ultimate way to strengthen your feet, but unfortunately that environment isn't available to everyone.
Try working out barefoot for a week and see how you get on. I found it tough at first, but months later, my feet honestly feel stronger for it. I can feel the difference, especially in squats, lunges and calf raises. Trainers squash and mould your feet in an unnatural position, going barefoot allows them to breathe and be free they way they should be.
Monday 29 November 2010
Monday 22 November 2010
Injury worry
Got this niggling injury worry since the run on Saturday which is almost literally a pain in the ass.
It's just below my left buttock and I can feel a pull or a stretch on it when I use my left leg. Annoyed about it because I haven't had any injuries since starting this blog.
Got a weights session later today so I can work around it, but tomorrow is run training, so it needs to be ok for that. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow.
Saturday 20 November 2010
5km Race Update
Had my latest monthly 5km race today and to be honest, I went in to it with an already defeated attitude. I changed my running training regime throughout this month because I was disappointed with my October result and I didn't really take it too seriously, which put me in the frame of mind that this month's run was already going to be a write-off.
Surprisingly enough, I did better than what I thought I would. I clocked in at 27.37 today, which is 27 seconds off my personal best and better than October, so a pretty decent result for me I think.
July 5km - 34.02
August 5km - 30.22
September 5km - 27.11
October 5km - 28.23
November 5km - 27.37
I still really need to work out a good pace because once again, I put my foot down from the start of the race and burnt out by 2.5km. After that I never recovered and was unable to get back to the speed I had originally.
I'm toying with an idea for next month. It's really long winded, but it could work! If I jump on a treadmill at a 12kmph speed, I could listen to random music until I find a track which is the same speed as the pace I'm running. Once I've done this, I can pick out tunes of the same speed, get on my decks and make a mix of about 25-27 minutes. That way, when I run my next race, I can try to stick to the same pace for the whole race.
Long winded, but could work!
Surprisingly enough, I did better than what I thought I would. I clocked in at 27.37 today, which is 27 seconds off my personal best and better than October, so a pretty decent result for me I think.
July 5km - 34.02
August 5km - 30.22
September 5km - 27.11
October 5km - 28.23
November 5km - 27.37
I still really need to work out a good pace because once again, I put my foot down from the start of the race and burnt out by 2.5km. After that I never recovered and was unable to get back to the speed I had originally.
I'm toying with an idea for next month. It's really long winded, but it could work! If I jump on a treadmill at a 12kmph speed, I could listen to random music until I find a track which is the same speed as the pace I'm running. Once I've done this, I can pick out tunes of the same speed, get on my decks and make a mix of about 25-27 minutes. That way, when I run my next race, I can try to stick to the same pace for the whole race.
Long winded, but could work!
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Workout while watching TV
If you wanted to, doing some light working out while watching TV can be very beneficial.
It doesn't have to be anything intense, but if you're watching TV for half an hour or even more, you could do some body weight exercises like squats, jumping jacks, press ups, crunches, stretches etc.
If you want to up the game up, use some light dumbells, tins of beans or bottles of milk for resistance.
I'm about to watch the England game and as it's a friendly, I'm at home watching it so I'll be going for press ups and stretches throughout the game.
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Business as usual
Just got out of the gym, went for a run. Hopefully I'm back in the swing of things.
The next 5km run is coming up. More details on that later.
Respect to @donnyrax on Twitter too, he's enjoying the old peanut butted on wholemeal bread vibe!
Monday 15 November 2010
Reflection
This past week has been an interesting week for me, generally not for good reasons! I managed to undo a lot of hard work and graft that I put in October to lose 6.5kgs this past week. I did only TWO days of exercise out of six and ate junk FOUR out of seven days. Effectively, I feel like I'm going backwards and I just don't know why.
It's funny because last week was a week where lots of people spoke to me/contacted me about my blog too. I didn't realise so many people were reading it! One common thing they mentioned to me was how different I'd look in a years time from starting this blog and how they were looking forward to seeing a different me.
I felt a bit crappy when I heard that because here I am, just trudging along, going from one month to the next, a little bit of exercise here and there, not really pushing myself. In my head I feel like when people see my next June or July, the only difference is I'll be a few kilos lighter than I started.
That's not what I wanted when I started this blog. I wanted to push myself as far I as I could and I wanted this to show physically after a year, be that with t-shirt filling arms or a six pack or a bigger chest.
At the moment, it's not happening and I don't feel like I'm making good on the challenges I set myself. That's why I need this post now to take a step back and really see where I am with this challenge. Writing it down and putting it out there will be better than just going over it in my head.
So as a recap, here's what I wanted to achieve in a year (I only have six months left!) and here's how I'm getting on:
5km Runs
The idea behind this was to run an official 5km race every month in order to improve my stamina for a larger goal at the end of the twelve months. I've made good on this so far as I started in June and have run every month, as well as having my place booked on several other runs up until February.
Things were going great until I hit a plateau last month. Each month, I managed to improve my running time, starting with approximately 35 minutes and getting it down to 27 minutes, only to clock in at 28 during my last run in October.
This hit me hard because I really trained hard for that run and was so certain I could get down to 26 minutes. I've totally altered my training for my November run, but I'm not confident that I can break the 26 minute barrier this month due to my pathetic, lazy, almost exercise free week last week.
The good thing is that I'm going to keep going and I'm booked up months in advance. Of all aspects of the challenge, this is the one that I'm proud of the most.
The Splits
After getting back into Kung Fu following a ten year gap, I realised after a few weeks I wouldn't be able to stick it out because of long term work commitments. I have a punch bag at home and still continue to practice my moves on it as it still always works as a good cardio session.
One thing I took away from it that I still wanted to achieve and knew I could work on is performing the splits. I was always more into my kicking than punching in Kung Fu, so I added this challenge a few months ago to the Twelve Month Mission because it would be useful for my kicking and would be great for warm up/cool downs. It's also beneficial just to keep the body supple and flexible.
To be honest, I've got nowhere with this so far. I do stretch a few times a week, but after reading many articles about the splits, you need to be doing at least two sessions of stretching a day. One here or there won't do jack.
This is something which is more than achievable in the remaining six months, but there's lots of work to be done there. I'll get started on that tonight.
Six Pack
I'm one of the many millions of people who know exactly what to do to get a six pack, but don't have the discipline or drive inside me to do it. This attitude MUST change.
When you see these models on the cover of magazines with their abs out, believe it or not, they're not always like that. To get abs, you generally need to get your body fat to roughly 8% or below. These models will be about 10% and when they know they've got a photo shoot or an appearance, they'll up the protein and working out and cut out the carbs for a couple of weeks to get their abs more defined.
Point is, I have a long way to go to get to 10% body fat. During October, I managed to lose 6.5kgs, but my body fat % is still quite high. I went down from about 25% to 23%. If we say for arguments sake I can drop approximately 2% a month, I'd be on target for a six pack in the middle of next year. That would take a lot of work and discipline and is just speculation, because as you may know already, the more fat you take lose, the harder it becomes to lose the remaining fat.
It seems unachievable, but as I said, that's not the attitude. This challenge may not happen, BUT I'M GOING TO GIVE A DAMN GOOD TRY.
Hundred Press Ups
This is something that admittedly I've dipped in and out of. I downloaded an app for my phone which helps you to achieve a hundred press ups in a row in about six weeks. I am now attempting it for the fourth time. Each time I seem to do it, I get to around the fourth week and then get too 'busy', meaning I have to start from scratch. I'll tell you now, I'm into the fourth week of the programme (again) and I'M NOT giving this one up this time.
Soon enough I should be able to complete this challenge and once I have, you'll get the video evidence up here!
Three Peaks Challenge
This is going to be culmination of the Twelve Month Mission. All the hours of weight lifting, all the running, all the stretching for flexibility, all of the correct eating for energy and muscle growth, everything will be brought together for The Three Peaks challenge... trekking on a mountain in England, Wales and Scotland in 24 hours.
I'm going to have to dig in and pull out all the stops for this one. I WILL do this. I have made the enquiries, got the costing together etc and it's looking like it'll be in mid July.
I feel a whole lot better getting this off my chest. I'm motivated following my miserable week, I've got all my food and protein shakes for tomorrow and I'm going to do some stretching and press ups before I go to bed this evening.
I thought I finally got a grip of this in October, but then I made major lapses last week. It has to stop now.
Time to up the game.
It's funny because last week was a week where lots of people spoke to me/contacted me about my blog too. I didn't realise so many people were reading it! One common thing they mentioned to me was how different I'd look in a years time from starting this blog and how they were looking forward to seeing a different me.
I felt a bit crappy when I heard that because here I am, just trudging along, going from one month to the next, a little bit of exercise here and there, not really pushing myself. In my head I feel like when people see my next June or July, the only difference is I'll be a few kilos lighter than I started.
That's not what I wanted when I started this blog. I wanted to push myself as far I as I could and I wanted this to show physically after a year, be that with t-shirt filling arms or a six pack or a bigger chest.
At the moment, it's not happening and I don't feel like I'm making good on the challenges I set myself. That's why I need this post now to take a step back and really see where I am with this challenge. Writing it down and putting it out there will be better than just going over it in my head.
So as a recap, here's what I wanted to achieve in a year (I only have six months left!) and here's how I'm getting on:
5km Runs
The idea behind this was to run an official 5km race every month in order to improve my stamina for a larger goal at the end of the twelve months. I've made good on this so far as I started in June and have run every month, as well as having my place booked on several other runs up until February.
Things were going great until I hit a plateau last month. Each month, I managed to improve my running time, starting with approximately 35 minutes and getting it down to 27 minutes, only to clock in at 28 during my last run in October.
This hit me hard because I really trained hard for that run and was so certain I could get down to 26 minutes. I've totally altered my training for my November run, but I'm not confident that I can break the 26 minute barrier this month due to my pathetic, lazy, almost exercise free week last week.
The good thing is that I'm going to keep going and I'm booked up months in advance. Of all aspects of the challenge, this is the one that I'm proud of the most.
The Splits
After getting back into Kung Fu following a ten year gap, I realised after a few weeks I wouldn't be able to stick it out because of long term work commitments. I have a punch bag at home and still continue to practice my moves on it as it still always works as a good cardio session.
One thing I took away from it that I still wanted to achieve and knew I could work on is performing the splits. I was always more into my kicking than punching in Kung Fu, so I added this challenge a few months ago to the Twelve Month Mission because it would be useful for my kicking and would be great for warm up/cool downs. It's also beneficial just to keep the body supple and flexible.
To be honest, I've got nowhere with this so far. I do stretch a few times a week, but after reading many articles about the splits, you need to be doing at least two sessions of stretching a day. One here or there won't do jack.
This is something which is more than achievable in the remaining six months, but there's lots of work to be done there. I'll get started on that tonight.
Six Pack
I'm one of the many millions of people who know exactly what to do to get a six pack, but don't have the discipline or drive inside me to do it. This attitude MUST change.
When you see these models on the cover of magazines with their abs out, believe it or not, they're not always like that. To get abs, you generally need to get your body fat to roughly 8% or below. These models will be about 10% and when they know they've got a photo shoot or an appearance, they'll up the protein and working out and cut out the carbs for a couple of weeks to get their abs more defined.
Point is, I have a long way to go to get to 10% body fat. During October, I managed to lose 6.5kgs, but my body fat % is still quite high. I went down from about 25% to 23%. If we say for arguments sake I can drop approximately 2% a month, I'd be on target for a six pack in the middle of next year. That would take a lot of work and discipline and is just speculation, because as you may know already, the more fat you take lose, the harder it becomes to lose the remaining fat.
It seems unachievable, but as I said, that's not the attitude. This challenge may not happen, BUT I'M GOING TO GIVE A DAMN GOOD TRY.
Hundred Press Ups
This is something that admittedly I've dipped in and out of. I downloaded an app for my phone which helps you to achieve a hundred press ups in a row in about six weeks. I am now attempting it for the fourth time. Each time I seem to do it, I get to around the fourth week and then get too 'busy', meaning I have to start from scratch. I'll tell you now, I'm into the fourth week of the programme (again) and I'M NOT giving this one up this time.
Soon enough I should be able to complete this challenge and once I have, you'll get the video evidence up here!
Three Peaks Challenge
This is going to be culmination of the Twelve Month Mission. All the hours of weight lifting, all the running, all the stretching for flexibility, all of the correct eating for energy and muscle growth, everything will be brought together for The Three Peaks challenge... trekking on a mountain in England, Wales and Scotland in 24 hours.
I'm going to have to dig in and pull out all the stops for this one. I WILL do this. I have made the enquiries, got the costing together etc and it's looking like it'll be in mid July.
I feel a whole lot better getting this off my chest. I'm motivated following my miserable week, I've got all my food and protein shakes for tomorrow and I'm going to do some stretching and press ups before I go to bed this evening.
I thought I finally got a grip of this in October, but then I made major lapses last week. It has to stop now.
Time to up the game.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Back to bad habits...
I've had an absolutely awful past two days. Absolutely awful.
After losing 6.5kg in October and starting off strong in November, I haven't worked out since Monday and have had two, massive, chocolate and takeaway infused binges on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
I ate well today, have made my food for tomorrow and have set my alarm for 6am so I can get up and hit the weights and punch bag hard. Will let you know how I get on.
After losing 6.5kg in October and starting off strong in November, I haven't worked out since Monday and have had two, massive, chocolate and takeaway infused binges on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
I ate well today, have made my food for tomorrow and have set my alarm for 6am so I can get up and hit the weights and punch bag hard. Will let you know how I get on.
Tuesday 9 November 2010
Cinema food ban broken
I know I'm only supposed to binge once a week and following a big one on Friday last week for Diwali, that should've been it for the week. But it wasn't.
I took my wife out to dinner on Sunday, not because I wanted to go, but genuinely because I wanted to treat her. To be honest I didn't feel too bad because I'm still knocking off the weight and keeping up with exercise and feeling good about it. One thing I am disappointed about and regret through is I broke my self imposed cinema food ban!
As I'm a regular down at the cinema, I always used to get a Ben and Jerry's sundae with Phish Food, Caramel Choo Choo, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and white chocolate polar bears. Basically about two days worth of fat and sugar in one go. I said I would stop buying any food at the cinema until the end of the year.
Although this Sunday I managed to tone it down with just two scoops and not a sundae, I sill regret doing it because I'd lasted five films and was doing so well.
Great. Well I'll start again now. I think I should treat it like the weekly binge because I'll go mad without it. Instead of saying I'll go without it until the end of the year, I'll change tactics and say that since I already went five times without a sundae, I'll try and make it to seven, then ten etc. We'll see what happen from there.
Saturday 6 November 2010
Mad Binge Yesterday
Mad binge yesterday for Diwali, put on about 1.5kg. Back on track now today though, going for a run in a bit and will get on with the press up challenge too.
Hoping to get out of the 80kg territory and back into the 70kg zone this month.
Thursday 4 November 2010
The brilliance of peanut butter
Peanut butter is a great thing to eat when you're looking for a quick snack. If you've got a few hours until your next meal and you feel a bit peckish, have a little spoon full of the stuff or spread it on some wholemeal bread. It's high in protein so gives you a little protein hit.
Beware though, it can be a little fatty so opt for wholemeal or low fat varieties. Tesco do a 25% less fat version and Sainsbury have a 33% less fat one.
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Leg Exercises
When you're working out with weights or doing resistance training, I'd recommend making sure you do some leg workouts rather than focussing on certain muscles.
Leg exercises can be difficult to do, so many people neglect them, but working them out can be hugely effective.
The legs are the biggest muscles in our bodies and working them out requires extra energy and results in more calories used, which is never a bad thing.
Try to incorporate leg exercises into your workout, including squats, lunges and calf raises. You don't have to use weights, just try it with your body weight. They're tough, but rewarding, and also contributes to working your full body out, rather than certain muscles.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
New Arms Programme
Started a new weights programme that focuses on the arms yesterday. I'll be doing it three times a week and it's based on two exercises for triceps, two for biceps and six full body exercises, including squats, pull ups etc. To incorporate variety, the number of sets and types of bicep/tricep exercises change every two weeks.
It's an eight week programme and since I started it yesterday, I should have my last session on Christmas Eve (right before the massive Christmas blow out!!!).
I'm still a beginner to weights, so I won't be adding a huge amount of muscle to my arm, but eight weeks should be sufficient to get more strength and to make a slight difference visually.
I managed to get through the whole workout pretty easy yesterday, but that's because I think I set my weights too low. The next session is tomorrow so I'll up the weights to put more stress on myself. As I'm doing the session three times a week, I should be seeing an increase in the weight I'm using regularly too.
It's an eight week programme and since I started it yesterday, I should have my last session on Christmas Eve (right before the massive Christmas blow out!!!).
I'm still a beginner to weights, so I won't be adding a huge amount of muscle to my arm, but eight weeks should be sufficient to get more strength and to make a slight difference visually.
I managed to get through the whole workout pretty easy yesterday, but that's because I think I set my weights too low. The next session is tomorrow so I'll up the weights to put more stress on myself. As I'm doing the session three times a week, I should be seeing an increase in the weight I'm using regularly too.
Monday 1 November 2010
November Weigh In
FINALLY!!! I'm finally making some progress on this weight loss thing. Finally!!! I weighed in this morning at a 'slender' (lol) 82.3kg, so here's how things are so far...
1st June - 79.5kg (12 stone 7.3lbs)
1st July - 85kg (13 stone 5.4lbs)
1st August - 85kg (13 stone 5.4lbs)
1st September - 84.1kg (13stone 3.40lbs)
1st October - 86.8kg (13 stone 9.36lbs)
1st November - 82.3kg (12 stone 13.44lbs)
How about that for impact?! I'm very pleased with myself with this 4.5kg weight loss, but I'm even more chuffed because I know my 'actual' weight is a little less than this. If you check yesterday's post, you'll see I've actually lost a total of 6.5kg over the month of October. It went up slightly at the start of the month to 87.3kg because of my trip to Amsterdam and finished in with a weigh in of 80.8kg yesterday.
The reason I'm up this morning is because yesterday was my blow out day of the week. I had a family function so it involved lots of samosay and Coke, followed by pizza later, chocolates, more samosay. Trust me, if you're trying to lose weight, you need these days otherwise you'll go mad.
I know I can get back to 80.something kg in a few days so I'm not sweating it. I'm just so happy that I've shifted a huge chunk of weight. It's most definitely same again this month. I'll be starting another mini challenge with my cousin and again, I'll give details of that later, plus I'm starting a new weights regime today which focuses on arms, I'll let you know how I get on with that in the week.
1st June - 79.5kg (12 stone 7.3lbs)
1st July - 85kg (13 stone 5.4lbs)
1st August - 85kg (13 stone 5.4lbs)
1st September - 84.1kg (13stone 3.40lbs)
1st October - 86.8kg (13 stone 9.36lbs)
1st November - 82.3kg (12 stone 13.44lbs)
How about that for impact?! I'm very pleased with myself with this 4.5kg weight loss, but I'm even more chuffed because I know my 'actual' weight is a little less than this. If you check yesterday's post, you'll see I've actually lost a total of 6.5kg over the month of October. It went up slightly at the start of the month to 87.3kg because of my trip to Amsterdam and finished in with a weigh in of 80.8kg yesterday.
The reason I'm up this morning is because yesterday was my blow out day of the week. I had a family function so it involved lots of samosay and Coke, followed by pizza later, chocolates, more samosay. Trust me, if you're trying to lose weight, you need these days otherwise you'll go mad.
I know I can get back to 80.something kg in a few days so I'm not sweating it. I'm just so happy that I've shifted a huge chunk of weight. It's most definitely same again this month. I'll be starting another mini challenge with my cousin and again, I'll give details of that later, plus I'm starting a new weights regime today which focuses on arms, I'll let you know how I get on with that in the week.
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