Fast and Furious Fitness

Well, there’s that eternal question again: Back off, take a break, or fight through it and continue?

I’ve covered the why’s and wherefore’s of this particular question a zillion times before, therefore, I won’t get into all that today. But, what I will do is provide an example from my own life. A case study, if you like - perhaps some will identify with this as well!

My regular “break day” was this past Thursday (It’s Saturday at the time of typing this). Actually should have been Wednesday, considering that was when I took a break last week, and therefore, that would have been a week (with my type of exercise routine, it’s mandatory to take a break at least a week. Unless your the type who does NOTHING but workout, rest and recuperate - but I doubt thats the case).

Well, I didn’t take the break Wednesday, and neither did I do it Thursday. There were other reasons behind this - main reason being the wife and I had some annoying, but sort of urgent personal work to get accomplished this Friday, which involved a lot of running about the place, so I figured heck, why not kill two birds with one stone.

Thursday’s workout was great, but I was fatigued, tired and irritable all throughout the day. Was DEFINITELY going to make Friday a break day from my regular routine - and did - but unfortunately, had a bad stomach upset Thursday night/early Friday morning. Uh oh, sure shod sign of overtraining there for me. . .

Needed to rest up on Friday, but couldn’t - so spent the day running around from here to there getting paperwork accomplished. And had to wake up early for a client call (overseas) and then on top of that speak with another guy, BEFORE running around all the place. Didn’t eat that well either, to give the stomach a break. And after all that, I thought I should be fit to go, raring to go actually, as I usually am after a break.

But, nothing doing this Saturday. Woke up sore ALL over - hips, thighs, buttocks, calves, upper back, shoulder, and triceps. And it’s the type of soreness nothing is getting rid of - except a massage, maybe. I can barely get 10 squats done, and that’s bad for a guy who routinely pounds out set of 40 jumper squats. Deep breathing won’t help. Heck, NOTHING’s getting the ole engine started today.

Mentally, physcially, I’m just worn out. I know I never take two days off in a row, but today - depsite all my best efforts, the body won’t co-operate. I feel like an old man, and thats when I finally decided to - give it a break again! OK, not a complete break as I did walk around a hell of a lot yesterday, but break from the regular routine nonetheless.

The wife was urging me to get a massage yesterday which I resisted. Ended up we couldn’t get one anyway as the massage center was closed, but she says these things for a reason. Guess she was right - as she usually is.

So today, I’ll try and not feel guilty over the two days off. Going to eat well, sleep well, relax, chill out - everything, except train. And tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll be back, ready to go!

Moral of this story? Well, it’s obvious. The reason I’m sharing it is because a lot of you are likely in similar situations. Therefore, lesson (or perhaps several lessons) to be learnt from this episode. We’ll see if I’m smart enough to stick to what I learnt!

All for now. Of course, this isn’t an excuse to get lazy - if that is what it is - then get FIT - FAST!

Rahul

All,

Today, I’m going to write about one of the secrets to improving in all your exercises. Actually, it shouldn’t even be called a secret the way I look at it - it’s basically the “mind-muscle” link. And, I’m going to explain how I implement it into my exercises, and how it’s helped me - and can help YOU improve in your exercises.

This link is actually one of the most important keys to progress in any exercise, but especially a tough exercise. I find it most useful while doing pull ups and extended arm pushups, and I’ll cover how I implement this principle into those exercises.

First, it’s important to know that each exercise (at least, the ones I recommended) uses the entire body as a whole, but also has a “primary” group of muscles being worked. Usually that primary group of muscles being worked is the “largest” muscle group in that part of the body, and it consequently follows that these are going to contribute the most to improvement in that exercise.

With that in mind, it becomes VERY important to “focus” on the primary muscle being worked. Heck, I should say “focus into”, or “go deep into” the muscle being worked, even if you can’t see it being worked. This will automatically force your body to a) use that muscle all the more actively, and b) focus on form as well, and both of these will result in overall improvement.

Pull ups are an exercise which demand a lot of focus for many people, including me (yes, even me, even after all the training I do). Same goes for extended arm pushups. To get the most out of the pull ups, I focus intensely on the muscles underneath my arms (the lats) and focus on “pulling up” with THOSE muscles, rather than the arms as many people are prone to do. I focus on the back, and really “squeeze” the muscles being worked while performing my pull ups, rather than my arms. And this has lent itself to manifold improvement for me when doing my pull ups.

The same goes for doing my extended arm pushups. The primary muscle groups being worked here are the lower back and the lats, therefore, I focus on keeping a) my lower back straight and tight, b)pushing up with the lower body instead of the chest, and c) really engaging the lats much the same way as I do with the pull ups. And this may sound strange, considering we’re talking about pushups - but for those of you who’ve actually done this exercise in the right way - you’ll know what I’m talking about!!

So - focus on the muscle being worked, and really “get into” it. This one tip will prove to be invaluable when it comes to improving in the tougher exercises. Actually, all exercises.

All for today. Get fit - FAST!

Rahul

Hi,

Something that’s worth keeping in mind while working out is this - working out, at the end of the day, is supposed to be interesting. Challenging yes, but more importantly, interesting, and most of all - FUN in a way. Otherwise, making it a priority and sticking to it becomes that much harder.

And that’s what I’m going to cover today - making your workouts “fun”.

Most of you that are reading this will have some sort of set “routine” on how to work out, i.e. maybe a set number of sets of pullups, perhaps Z number of pushups. Perhaps you just gotta do two sets of squats daily, no matter what. And for everyone out there that has such a routine, and sticks to it -congratulations. Having a routine, and sticking to it come what may is a sure shodden path to success, and also helps build a lot of mental toughness.

But sometimes, just sometimes, it’s fun to break “out” of a routine. And, one of the ways to do this is to simply pick a exercise, and continue doing different exercises (whatever comes to mind, really) in a random order. The key thing here is to keep going for a certain period of time, but not worry so much about how much of this and how much of that is being done. Just do something, and keep going until your unable to go any longer, or for a set period of time!

I don’t advocate this all the time - like I said a routine is imperative to training success, amongst other things, but, this type of thing is good once in a while to keep things “fun”.

And, the results can be downright amazing. I incorporated this into my squatting/pull up routine today i.e. I mixed up different types of squats and pullups (as compared to doing squats first, and pull ups later) - and I ended up doing more of the tough exercises than the easy ones! For instance, I did only 50 regular squats, but ended up doing 15 sets of Sumo squats (15 per leg), and 46 jumper squats!

It feels good - and I went like this for about 20 minutes. Then I took a short breather for three minutes, and delved into my pushup routine. Finished off with a back bridge, and now I’m covered in sweat, and ready for that shower.

Try this for fun sometimes, and let me know how it turns out!!

Rahul

Dear Reader,

You’ve often heard me speak about the benefits of deep breathing, both while working out and otherwise during your normal, daily activites. I’ve posted before about the benefits of the same, and I’m positive that those of you who have implemented what I say have experienced first hand the benefits. If not, well, all I can do is ask you to take ACTION. . .

Anyway, that aside, today I’m going to cover the benefits of doing SPECIALIZED deep breathing exercises during your routine. There’s deep breathing during the exercises, but there are exercise that focus on deep breathing and your core ALONE. I did these today in between sets during my regular leg workout, and let me tell you - I was breathing so hard at the end of it that I almost never made it to the rest of my workout!

The exercise I used today was the stomach vacum. I’ll cover it in detail some other time, but for now, let’s get into a couple (there are many!) of benefits of mixing such exercises up along with the regular ones:

1. Doing these specialized deep breathing exercises along with your regular exercises (without taking lengthy breaks) increases manifold the blood flow to your lungs and muscles. This gives your lungs a better workout, but also make sure that the muscles being worked prior to the exercise are getting “flushed” out pretty well. Thus leading to the second benefit:

2. Better, and FASTER execution of your “primary” exercises (I mixed these up today along with the leg exercises, but you can mix them along with pull ups, pushups, anything - and even though I did them along with my leg exercises, I finished my pushup workout in about 7 minutes - 100 pushups in about 7 minutes, in good form - not bad!).

There are many benefits, and these are just two. If you think this is too simple of a tip - well, TRY it, and you’ll see for yourself.

And last, make sure you focus HARD on the breathing exercises - do not simply treat it as a “break” of sorts. That’s the key to really getting these to work for you.

A bit pressed for time - so signing off for now. In the meantime - get FIT - FAST!

Rahul

Today, I’ll cover those three topics.

First, the stretching part - this is a question brought up by most trainees. Should one stretch before a workout, or after a workout? There are two schools of thought here - many say it’s best to stretch AFTER a workout to avoid injury, and there are some that way it’s best to stretch BEFORE a workout, curiously enough, again, to avoid injury.

My own answer differs slightly - I would say stretch both before, and after a workout. As far as I can see, stretching the muscles has two major benefits: warming the muscle up for major work to come, and stretching the “tension” out of the muscle. So, what I do is stretch “lightly” before a workout, pretty much so I can get warmed up for my routine, and also to “get the blood flowing”. I do gentle stretches, such as the “downward dog” position in yoga (there are ways to make this hard, but I “work” into the position). Or, I might hang for a bit from the pull up bar to stretch my back out. Depends, really.

Then, there are the tougher stretches such as the bridge position, or the sumo squats. These are done either during, or after my workout (once I’m warmed up). Goal there is to stretch and strengthen, rather than just “warm up”.

So, I’d say do both. Or, do just one initially, and work the other one in. As with most training related questions, no “one size fits all” answer to this one!

Now, the “two set max” routine (I call it that but you can call it anything you wish) - this one is a “quick and dirty” workout for the legs (though, you can do this for virtually any exercise), and to a lesser degree, entire body (remember, when you work legs intensely, and breathe correct, your working the ENTIRE body).

- 50 Hindu squats
- 5-10 Sumo ssquats on each leg
- 25 Jumper squats
- 10 jumping lunges (each leg)
- Repeat

So, not a very “complicated” routine, but a great one to get done quickly (shoot for about 8-10 minutes at most), and a great one to get done for those “in-between” days as well, where you need a workout, but maybe don’t want to shatter any records.

And last, but definitely not least, I’ve set the blog up so that you can register, and log into your own account. If you haven’t registered for the blog yet - do so pronto, and you’ll have access to many of the new features I’m planning on adding. A newsletter is at the top of the list, but there are others as well. So again, if you haven’t registered - do so NOW!

All for now!

Rahul

All,

I just realized I’ve been talking about quite a few exercises, but haven’t quite updated the “information” page on the left hand column to reflect all the new exercises I’ve been talking about. My bad - today, I’ll address one of those exercises: The Sumo Squat.

The Sumo squat is an advanced exercise, which will build and condition the hips, inner thighs, glutes, lower back/lower abs simaltaneously in a single movement. This exercise is an advanced exercise “a killer”, so make sure you a) have the basic squat down pat before trying this, and b)loosen your groin/thighs up - VERY important, and you’ll soon see why.

Here’s how to perform the Sumo Squat: -

1. Begin as you would in the regular Hindu squat, except with your toes turned a fair bit more outwards. A minimum angle to shoot for would be 30 degrees, but you can go as far as 60 on this one.

2. Hold your arms out to your sides such that both arms are perpendicular to your torso. Maintain this arm position throughout the movement.

3. Squat down, while maintaing this position. Breathe OUT while squatting down.

4. Explode back up - only, while exploding up, move your right leg, up, and towards your extended arm, so that the side of your foot touches the palm of your hand. In one smooth movement, bring it down again such that it touches the other foot - you should be standing on the other leg during the “up” motion - and return to the starting position.(same angle with the foot position). Squat down again.

Note: The movement should be a “fluid” movement, and not a jerky movement - yet another reason you need to be warmed up pretty well in order to do this one.

5. Repeat this movement on the left leg. That’s one rep.

6. Continue ad nauseam for as many reps you can manage.

Again, make sure you loosen everything up before doing this - it’s very easy to strain (or worse, injure) your groin or other muscles doing this movement if your not “loose” enough while doing it. Also, this may seem like a slow movement, but it’ll have you puffing pretty quick. Try it, and see for yourself!

This one will take some time to master - but when you do - WATCH OUT!

Stay tuned for more information on other “advanced” exercises as well - I’ll be covering them in future posts!

All for now,
Rahul

Dear Reader,

After the squat, and it’s variations, the next exercise that should be in everyone’s routine is the pushup. This one exercise alone will strengthen your entire body from head to toe, and is well worth the time and effort invested in performing the exercise - which, if done correctly, is not a lot of time at all. I get a 100 odd pushups in about 10 minutes or so, and that ain’t a long time to train.

1. Pushups train the ENTIRE body - when done in all it’s variations, pushups train the forearms, fingers, arms, wrists, shoulders, traps, entire back and - gasp - even your legs (thighs, hips, buttocks, and calves). Your feet get work as well, so this is literally an “entire body” exercise.

2. The “pushing” movement involved while doing pushups builds strength throughout the ENTIRE body. Pushups, when done correctly give you a solid cardiovascular workout as well. Try doing a 100 pushups (or, however many sets it takes you to get there) in GOOD form in 10 minutes or less. It ain’t easy. And the deep breathing involved while doing pushups makes you get stronger throughout your entire body.

3. Pushups can be done by virtually anyone, and require NO equipment except your body. And due to the fact that your entire body participates in this exercise, it is often easier to do for trainees that are just starting out, or trainees that are slightly overweight.

You may not be able to do too many pullups - but, the pushups is something just about anyone can work up to.

And NO, pushups are not the “easy” exercise they are made out to be. They DO have major strength benefits. You’d think this would be obvious; the Marines do a huge number of these on a regular basis, and last time I checked, a Marine was pretty damn strong. Likewise for boxers and wrestlers - pushups done in high repititions along with squats and bridging form the basis of their workouts as well.

Pushups give you REAL, FUNCTIONAL strength that just cannot be gotten from other pushing exercises involving weights. And that’s something you can’t beat.

Here is a 10-12 minute workout that’s guaranteed to get the lungs pumping, and the entire body working as a whole: -

- 25 regular pushups
- 20 tablemaker pushups
- 5-10 Reverse pushups
- 10 Arms extended pushups
- 15 regular pushups
- 10-15 tablemaker pushups
- 5-10 reverse pushups
- 10 arms extended pushups
- 10 fingertip pushups

(Information on how to do the exercises can be found on the site - see “information section” for same)

So, about 110 - 130 odd pushups, in about 12 minutes or so. I cannot also emphasize enough the importance of FORM and BREATHING; do either of these incorrectly, and you might as well not do the routine.

And for those of you that are wondering - yes, I’ve used this routine. Used it in today’s workout, as a matter of fact. . .

And if you can do that without breaking too much of a sweat (though I’ll be honest - I don’t know too many people that can), then no problem. Let me know, and I’ll put together a routine for you that’ll have you puffing in on time - and, it will involve nothing other than pushups.

Bottom line - train your pushups hard, and without fail! The rewards you reap in terms of physical strength, conditioning and fitness will be well worth it.

Rahul

Muscle soreness is something most of us have experienced while training. Occurs to all of us, regular trainees, non-regular, the weekend warriors (ouch!) - almost if not everyone at some point.

There are many reasons. Perhaps you had an excellent back workout yesterday, and that resulted in sore traps today (happened to me today, as a matter of fact). Or maybe that hiking program you’ve embarked upon has left “aches and pains in all the fleshy areas”. Could be any number of things, but the thing is that it’s something that’s just gonna happen. No point whinging about it, might as well just accept it.

Question then arises, and it’s one many people have - how to deal with it, and should I train with sore muscles, or take a day off?

My answer (and rememeber we’re dealing with only soreness here - NOT Overtraining or other things) is a resounding YES - DO train. Do NOT simply take the day off due to soreness.

If you simply take a day off due to soreness, you’ll soon find your gains reducing. More importantly though, taking a break at every possible opportunity (and believe me there will be times you dont want to train regardless) cuts the “mental toughness” part of training right out of the equation. Not good. In a nutshell - train hard, and don’t take a day off simply because your sore, busy, don’t feel like it, or any other such reason. Force yourself to think this way, and you’ll build a lot of mental toughness as well that’ll extend into other spheres of your life too.

Here are some simple, but effective techniques that work for me when it comes to muscle soreness: -

1. Do a lighter workout, or do something different. For instance, you may want to skip your bodyweight routine altogether, but climb a steep hill a few times that day. Or perhaps swim for 1/2 an hour instead. Perhaps a game of tennis, or soccer. Do something - ANYTHING - key is to keep MOVING, rather than plonking down on the couch and popping a six-pack.

For those that don’t have access to the above option, modify your workout. There’s nothing wrong with breaking up your 150 squat routine into sets of 50, or if need be, even 25. Slow the pace down a bit and concentrate on the movement (sore muscles tend to make you lose form, which is not good). Key thing here is QUALITY - not quantity. Do 90 pushups instead of 100, and break them up into more sets. It doesn’t matter - just DO something.

2. Stretch your muscles. I generally stretch my muscles after a workout anyway (the back bridge is an excellent one for this); but, if your sore, start off with a few gentle stretches, and incorporate some tougher stretches into your routine as you get warmed up. Stretching “stretches” the muscles (duh), and more importantly, promotes blood flow to all parts of the muscles, thereby helping “flush” the waste out of the muscle faster. Key thing again is form - stretch fully, but not “jerkily” - maintain good form at all times.

3. Massage. This is immensely helpful - and I’m not referring to the “gentle, soothing” massages. I’m referring to have someone literally “wring” your muscles while massaging you (a good indicator is if your yelping at some point during the massage - it’s been done right then!). Think of it as wringing dirty water out of your clothes, and hanging them out to dry in the yard; the same applies to the muscles being massaged.

Massage can be IMMENSELY useful - again though, make sure you go to someone who knows how to do it right, as it’s of vital importance that the technique being used is correct. Wringing your muscles from the “outside in” REALLY HELPS - try it, and see for yourself!

All for now, then. The next time you feel an urge to skip a workout due to muscle soreness, try some of the above mentioned tips, and let me know how it goes.

Get FIT - FAST!

Rahul

All,

It’s amazing - no matter how many times I do an exercise, even if it’s a seemingly simple one such as the Hindu squat, I end up finding new ways of making the exercise more productive. This ties in with what I had said earlier about mastering an exercise and what that really entails, so if you missed that one, probably not a bad idea to go back and read that once as well.

Anyway, that brings me to today’s tip - how to make the Hindu squat a “different” and in some ways harder exercise by really focusing on the breathing and the entire body during the exercise, rather than simply the “front” of the thighs, which are seemingly the muscles that are the most “important” in this exercise. Before the tip though, I will say that your legs need to be in good shape before you try this, so if your just starting out, stick with the regular squat for now and incorporate this one as you progress.

Turn your toes out slightly, or, perhaps a bit [em]more[/em] than slightly. Say about a 30 degree angle, give or take. . . And, THEN perform the Hindu squat. Make sure to keep the form GOOD i.e. hands behind your back as you descend, and make sure the “upward” motion of your hands bring you up rather than just your legs. Keep your back straight as well. Do this, and you’ll find the inner thighs, abs, and even glutes getting involved in the movement. Net result - a better workout for the ENTIRE body! And, this tip will eventually help you get higher numbers as well, as you are using more muscles during the exercises.

And always, breathe correctly - that is half the game right there. Rememeber too that the Hindu squat is NOT an isolationist movement for the thighs or even legs alone - like most of the other exercises I advocate, the ENTIRE body is involved. That can’t be stressed enough.

Something else I found interesting is that there is a direct carryover between this exercise (I’ve spoken about this before I believe, but with different exercises), and the Sumo Squat. Once I really started to work the Sumo squat, I quickly found out how much my inner thighs were lagging behind the rest of my legs. Not any longer, though.

Try this one the next time you squat, and let me know how it goes. I’ve personally added on quite a bit of mass following this routine, and done correctly, you will too!

That’s it for the day - as always, the comment feature is there if you need it.

Get fit - FAST.

Rahul

We’ve all experienced this one. The first thing anyone thinks of (and looks at) when it comes to fitness or fitness related questions is the stomach area (for women, probably the hips and butt). And, judgements are pretty much formed on the “size” of the waist, or perhaps how “wide” the hips are. Correct me if I’m wrong (and I’m wrong many a times on things), but that’s pretty much the first comment I hear from most people when it comes to asking “Hey, does that person look fit or what?”.

This is an erroneous way of thinking, in more ways that one.

First off, let me start off by saying I don’t endorse “hanging butts” and flabby stomachs that ripple like an ocean wave upon being prodded. NO, that is not what I advocate - I’ll be the first one to tell you that core (midsection, lower back, legs, hips, buttocks) training is of paramount importance, and should be on a regular, if not daily basis.

That said though - a “slimmer” waistline isn’t an absolute indicator of fitness. I’ve seen many a person with a solid build as compared to either a “hourglass” figure, or “8 pack abs - that seems to be the latest foolishness going around) that could outperform people in the latter two categories, any day of the week. Think about it - when you train, aren’t the muscles supposed to get stronger, and bigger to an extent? Why then, would the muscles of the core (some of which are the LARGEST muscles in the body and thus have the most growth potential) be any different?

Personally, I’ll take a solidly built, yet flexible and fit waist over one of those “32″ inch waist (24 when it comes to ladies, apparently) any day of the week.

But, don’t just trust me on that one. Look at pictures of the strongest athletes around. Google “picture of Indian wrestlers”, and see the type of build you come up with. Google Paul Anderson, or perhaps Olympic weightlifters, and see what you come up with. In most (heck, probably ALL) cases, you’ll see solid builds screaming of power, but they won’t be the look the media prefers, i.e. the 8 pack or similar look.

We then come to the matter of “how much fat should one have on one’s waist”. Yeah, I know we’ve been hammered by the media into thinking that fat content around the waist should be so low as to see each muscle clearly outlined. Uh, maybe that looks good to some, but that means a ridiculously low body fat content - which is NOT healthy for you either.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not promoting the idea of flabby stomachs. BUT, what I do NOT advocate is starving oneself silly (or working out to the point of puking for hours daily) in order to burn off ALL the fat on one’s body. That look is simply not healthy. That “zero percent” body fat fad is simply that, a fad, and an unhealthy one at that.

Nature didn’t mean for us to be unnaturally thin or have unnaturally low fat content. The grizzly bear is probably the strongest animal on this planet, pound for pound. Add in agile, and FAST (grizzlies can outrun a RABBIT running downhill, of all things) to that list as well. Would you call it “ripped”? Eight pack abs? Probably not. . . Solid? Probably a better definition. I know thats a rather extreme comparision, but it illustrates the point I’m trying to make.

Last, the “8 pack” muscles i.e. msucles at the front of your stomach are NOT the most important ones to train, be it for look, strength or overall fitness. The obliques, and the muscles underneath the “superficial” 8 pack muscles are FAR more important to train, and maintain. And if you train those, the rest will take care of itself automatically.

It’s far harder to get these muscles stronger than it is to do endless numbers of crunches, and follow the latest “diet” fad. That’s a fact, and therefore we hear what “sells” the best i.e. what is the “easiest” thing to “do”. I dont know if the way I’ve put it makes sense but that is how it seems to me.

Long story short, look for strength/flexibility in the waist, rather than concentrating on just reducing the size. That, in my opinion, is a far better indicator of fitness (around the waist area at least) than anything else. Exercise the area regularly, using the exercises I advocate if you so choose to - and you’ll be just fine.

The post I’ve made is probably a bit controversial, so if anyone has any comments or responses, feel free to post them.

I’m off for my workout routine in a bit - so I’ll end this one here. As always, get FIT - FAST!

Rahul