So Where Were We?

So it's been almost a month since you've heard anything from Skape Fitness.

Despite the impressive and much-appreciated support we received upon starting our little venture, I doubt anyone was lying awake at night wondering what happened to their favorite fitness folks. Still, it mattered to me, and I feel like I should elaborate.

The real world is a cold, uncaring beast, as many of my recently-graduated friends are about to find out. Two months is not a long time for a business to get on its feet, but it is a very long time for a broke individual to go without money. Simply speaking, the business wasn't making enough money for me to support myself, and I had to look elsewhere.

Never even got to put those business cards to use.

So I applied and got a job at Body Structure. They're a great local gym that focuses on long-term lifestyle changes and heavily endorse the mantra of "Exercise is Medicine", which I am very passionate about. It's a great fit for me, and I'm already doing pretty well there, but there was a condition of my employment.

They're launching their own online training service, www.mybodystructure.com, and they very reasonably didn't want a conflict of interest with my online project.

And so, with no small amount of grief, I had to close Skape Fitness Online Personal Training.

That doesn't mean that Skape Fitness with sink to the bottom of an ocean of unused ideas, like so many internet start-ups. It simply means that we must adapt to our situation, and become something else.

Something like a free fitness resource.

In the coming weeks, Darren and I will set to work on making skapefitness.com a free fitness blog and resource that will keep you informed and motivated, just like we set out to do in the first place. Except now it will be solely out of the goodness of our heart, which makes us pretty much like Ghandi-caliber heroes if I do say so myself.

And, yes, the tips of the day will resume.

We'd love to hear your input on what direction Skape should take going forward, and what you would expect out of a free online resource. Let us know in the comments!

Diary of a Fasting Man

So, summer is almost here, and I have a little more jiggle around my waistline than I'd like. However, I'm also training to enter an weightlifting competition. In my experience, I cannot get stronger, at least to any significant degree, while going on an effective diet to lose weight. A caloric deficit just seems to ruin my workouts.

My solution: intermittent fasting. It's a way of eating that has become really popular with fitness professionals recently. I didn't say "diet", because you're eating normal, healthy foods, but only eat them certain times and fast the rest.

Despite it being simple, I don't feel like explaining it because shut up. Here's an infographic that does a better job than I ever could.

To stick my toe in the water, I'm going the one-day approach: Don't eat for 24 hours. From 10 pm on Saturday, May 18, to 10 pm on Sunday, May 19, I can drink water and coffee and green tea to my heart's content, but no food. Indeed, nothing with any calories whatsoever.

This is the log of my experience.


Saturday, 10 pm- Okay, just finished up my last meal for 24 hours.

Liver and Onions.

Liver is supposed to be like..the best food ever for you. It's also, however, a liver. I kind of tastes like squishy pennies, and the whole time I was eating it I couldn't not  think about punching into a cow and ripping out its liver (one of its livers? I don't know cow anatomy) and throwing it in a skillet.

Anyway, fasting isn't looking as bad now.

Sunday, 11: 30 am- This is when I for real sat down to write this blog entry. I have a cup of coffee in hand, and so far no appetite to speak of. Googling "liver and onions" helped. 

However, I've tried not eating a whole day before, back when I was a teenager. I vowed not to eat during the weekends so I could lose weight (because shut up, you weren't a rocket scientist either). I made it 6 hours. 

Today, I'm going to remind myself of why I'm doing this by sitting without a shirt on and looking down at how my fat rolls bunch up and grabbing them while calling myself names before seriously considering whether or not I have medically significant body issues. Huh. 

2:12 pm - Okay, so the first hunger pangs are finally starting to hit. I'm used to eating right as I wake up, so four hours later... yeah, I can feel it. So far, it's manageable. I'll just drink some water and play Xbox to keep myself occupied.


3:51 pm - Starting to feel it now. That sort of weak feeling you get when you're really hungry. Coffee should help. Yeah. gonna drink some more coffee. That'll clear up the jitters. I'm I skinny yet?

Darren kind of looks like a turkey leg.


4:41 pm- coffee has not made me less jittery. Water now.


5:39 pm - Feeling great, actually. Hunger is gonOH GOD NOW THAT I'M WRITING ABOUT IT THE HUNGER IS BACK WHAT HAVE I DONE

So yeah, I don't know if its actually hunger, or appetite. I've found that I'm pretty much surrounded by food, all day, all the time. It makes me wonder how much I would crave food if it wasn't always immediately available.

Something to think about; brain food, if you wTHAT WAS STUPID I DID IT AGAIN


6:27 pm - This is where it starts getting tough. All I can think about is that I know in 3.5 hours I can eat again, and it's going to be a protein shake and a big pizza and breadsticks and a PB&J because shut up, I'll do what I want, no it's not negating any benefits I got from fasting, shut up. Oh my....pizza... it's going to be amazing.


6:50 pm - I'm going to watch how i met your mother and hope they don't talk about food they wouldnt do that would they why would they be mean like that


7:28 pm - Friends are over. They want to play Magic. They don't know my pain. They don't know what I'm going through. So I'm making a point to bring it up every 9 seconds. My pain will be their pain.


8:12 pm -  That pizza is going to be amazing. I'm going to eat it so hard. I'm going to savor it and let it swim in my mouth and whisper sweet nothings to my taste buds before gracefully sliding to its rightful place in my gullet.


8:13 pm - Food is better than sex. I know that now. I know that because I've decided that I'm not actually all that hungry. But the thought of eating something delicious after not eating anything at all for .... 22 hours and 13 minutes is at the forefront of my mind and it isn't leaving.


8: 19 pm - Still there. Yup.


8: 27 pm - There's only an hour and a half left to go. I can't tell if that makes it easier or harder. But I'm going to make it , and I'm not even going to pretend it was all that hard. There are starving kids in the world who have been three days without food and they're thankful when they get a bowl of under cooked white rice for their one meal before the next three days without food.

On a side note, I don't know if I feel good about myself forcing a fast to look better when so many people do it because there is no food to eat.


8:59 pm - Game of Thrones time.


9: 10 pm - Also Game of Thrones time.


9:31 pm - Ordering that pizza online while still trying to watch Game of Thrones. OH HELL YEAH YOU TELL HIM TYRION.


10:00 pm - 

10:20 pm - Ughl....stomach may have shrank a bit during the past 24 hours....normal pizza load not well received...no touch me now.....Am I pretty yet?



The Next Day: 

So, it's done. And you know what? I'm going to do it again. I don't feel weak today, and I don't feel like I need to eat two days worth of food to make up for yesterday. FYI, I normally overeat pizza when it's available to me, so last night wasn't out of the ordinary....except for the fact I got full quicker than normal.

One of the primary benefits cited by intermittent fasting is appetite control, and I can definitely see it. One bowl of oatmeal this morning, and I feel like I could go hours without eating, which is normal for normal people, not normal for me.

The effects? I couldn't tell you. It's been one day. What I'm going for here is a hormonal change, which could take weeks to take effect, especially if I'm only doing one day a week. The most popular methods involve fasting 16 hours every day, eating good food (which apparently isn't pizza) during the 8 hour window. I might progress to that, because 8 hours sounds like a long time to eat. It means you skip breakfast, but that just means I'm eating eggs, turkey bacon, and wheat toast for lunch instead.

All in all, I can see how this works for people. Everything works. There are tons of success stories of people using intermittent fasting, and tons of success stories from almost every other diet ever written. The key is finding something you can do that won't kill you or compromise your health.

I'll try it again next Sunday, if that's any indication.

Flexibility vs. Mobility

These are two fitness terms often used in conjunction with each other, so I'll try to clear up some confusion right off the bat: flexibility and mobility are two different things.

Flexibility refers to the range of motion you can stretch, passively or actively, a muscle before it snaps off the bone and hits you in the eye. More or less.

Mobility refers to the range of motion you can use a muscle effectively.

Here is side-by-side comparison of a female yogi demonstrating flexibility, and a ridiculously photogenic weightlifter demonstrating mobility:

Side note: a google image search for "flexibility" is the closest thing to porn you will see with safesearch still on.

Both of these girls have great hip, knee, and shoulder range of motion. The one on the right, however, is going to stand up with a big weight at the bottom of her position. She is demonstrating mobility. The girl on the left has "gotten into position" by pulling her hip past the point where it ceased being strong for the sake of a stretch. She exhibits great flexibility.

Think of flexibility as a bucket, and mobility as the water you have available to fill that bucket.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I think flexibility and mobility work are both hella-boring. I'll also admit that I get jacked up something fierce when I stop stretching and mobilizing, so I understand that these are the raw broccoli to my weightlifting's tender juicy steak.

And while the two are not the same thing, they are both, unfortunately, important.

Increasing your flexibility changes the resting length of the muscle and makes them less resistant to being pulled to the end of its range of motion. This is usually touted as a great means of injury prevention. And it is....but not by itself. In fact, flexibility without mobility may increase the likelihood of injury by making it easier to get into positions in which you are not stable. 5 gallons of water in a 10 gallon bucket is just a lot of wasted bucket.

Increasing your mobility, on the other hand, makes you more capable of moving effectively through a large range of motion. Look again at the ridiculously photogenic weightlifting lady above: she's not only showing better flexibility throughout her shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles than most people, but she's supporting a heavy weight in a fairly stable manner at the "edges" of her range of motion. That is good mobility.

I know it sounds like I'm trumpeting mobility over flexibility... and I am. But mobility is certainly enhanced by flexibility, and the latter can aid in releasing chronically tight muscles that are the cause of a pantheon of non-weight training related injuries.

So when should you be working on these qualities?

Mobility work should be a staple in your warm up, and not just limited to what muscle groups you plan on working out that session. Hip, knee, ankle, and shoulder mobility work can and should be a daily occurrence. Don't know how? Why, here's a video, free of charge!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L5KVw2Pwic

Flexibility work can be done literally anytime, ever. Before your workout, after your workout, or my recommendation, on a completely separate day from weight training as part of a recovery protocol. Taking a yoga class has become my favorite way to incorporate stretching into my fitness routine. The common myths about stretching before workouts decreasing strength, or stretching after workouts to take advantage of pliability, are largely untrue. But that's another article.

Hopefully you know just a little bit more about these terms than you did before.As always, if you have any questions about this article or any other, please leave a comment or send me a message on Facebook. And if you haven't liked our page at Skape Fitness yet, we're totally not friends anymore.

Go forth, mobilize, and lift heavy things.

Why? And Other Philosophical Conundrums

There is a reason you're reading this blog post instead of looking at pictures of cats, which is what most of the rest of the internet is doing right now. In some way, shape, or form, you care about your fitness, and you're probably taking steps to make yourself more healthy. You are hopefully working out on a regular basis because you see value it provides, maybe you watch what you eat because you know it is key to weight control, and you are at this very moment putting forth effort to further your understanding of fitness. These, good people, are very admirable traits to have.

But why are you doing all these things?

Goal setting kind of takes a back seat to the ins and outs of training and nutrition, but it is absolutely as important. Nobody takes on a new task without having some sort of goal in mind. There was, after all, a reason you first stepped foot on that treadmill or picked up a weight in the first place.

Goals are the foundation of your fitness program, whether you've written them down or not.

Many of us, at this point, are going to the gym for the same reasons we brush our teeth: we know we should, and it's become a habit. There is definitely nothing wrong with this, but wouldn't you like a whiter smile? Wouldn't you get more out of your workouts and diet if you had a specific goal to be your driving force? 

And let us not forget those of us who are on the brink of quitting. Exercise can be very hard, and working up the motivation to go to the gym after a long day of dealing with the rest of life can be even harder. But if your reason to keep going is stronger than the reasons to quit, you'll stick with your program and see results.

Here's your homework for the day, due by the next time you work out. Write down the answers to these questions, and keep them in mind as you work.

...Seriously, get out a pen and paper, it won't take five minutes, and you'll actually get something out of it.

What is your end-game?

This goes beyond wanting to lose weight or look better; it's the foundation for your reasoning to work out, and it could be the hardest to answer. What do you want to ultimately achieve from working out?

-I want to be with my children as long as possible, and exercise will keep me going.

-I want definitive control over something in my life, and my body is completely up to me.

-I want the constant confidence that comes with having a powerful body.

Really think about this one, because "I want to bench 225" is a lame motivator without context. Remembering you end-game is the only thing that will keep you going during the times you really want to quit.

How are you going to get there?

What path will lead toward your end-game? This one is easier, since it's probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about your fitness goals. 

-I want to be with my children as long as possible, so I need to lose weight and be healthier.

-I want control over my body, so I need to go to the gym on a regular basis.

-I want the confidence that comes with a powerful body, so I need to build muscle.

These are the traditional goals, and they're easy to write down.

What steps are you going to take?

This might be the most complicated step. These are your programs, your diet plans, your workout schedule, your mousetraps in the cookie jar; the things you do to be closer to your end-game. This is what personal trainers do, which is awesome because it simplifies this step down to "Do what Justin says." This is a philosophy I recommend to all of those people close to me.

-I want to be with my children as long as possible, so I need to lose weight and be healthier. To do that, I'll start eating 1800 calories a day, and work with my trainer three days a week.

-I want control over my body, so I need to go to the gym on a regular basis. I'm going to make it to a Spin class twice a week, work out on my own twice more a week, and cut out junk food from my diet.

-I want the confidence that comes with a powerful body, so I need to build muscle. To do that, I'm going to work hard during the online program my trainer has laid out for me, and make sure to eat at least 150 grams of protein a day.

How are you going to measure your progress?

You need numbers to back up your progress, otherwise you're just guessing. Many of us ignore this step because we almost always guess in our favor, and that's much easier than confronting the numbers to see if we're on track. Pick one or two good indicators of progress, and measure them weekly, preferably on the same day at the same time.

-I want to be with my children as long as possible, so I need to lose weight and be healthier. To do that, I'll start eating 1800 calories a day, and work with my trainer three days a week. I will measure my waistline every Sunday to see if I am making progress.

-I want control over my body, so I need to go to the gym on a regular basis. I'm going to make it to a Lift class twice a week, work out on my own twice more a week, and cut out junk food from my diet. I've downloaded a fitness journal app, and I'll post the results to Facebook every week for my friends to see. 

-I want the confidence that comes with a powerful body, so I need to build muscle. To do that, I'm going to work hard during the online program my trainer has laid out for me, and make sure to eat at least 150 grams of protein a day. I will gain weight while staying within 2% of my current bodyfat, and I will measure both every Tuesday before my workout.

Pick a S.M.A.R.T. number.

If you don't remember this acronym, it stand for "Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant  and Timely."

Or the same thing with different words, for people who want to be difficult.

This is your short-term goal, and it helps to keep your end-game in sight by breaking things down into doable chunks. There are literal books written about this acronym, but if you've read this far I trust your competency in figuring it out. Just don't be afraid to set lofty goals; falling just short of losing 20 lbs by June is still better than achieving your goal of losing 2 lbs by July, and you'll work harder to achieve the former.

-I want to be with my children as long as possible, so I need to lose weight and be healthier. To do that, I'll start eating 1800 calories a day, and work with my trainer three days a week. I will measure my waistline every Sunday to see if I am making progress. I want to lose two inches by June 1st.

-I want control over my body, so I need to go to the gym on a regular basis. I'm going to make it to a Lift class twice a week, work out on my own twice more a week, and cut out junk food from my diet. I've downloaded a fitness journal app, and I'll post the results to Facebook every week for my friends to see. I will not miss more than two workouts every month, and I will not have pizza more than once during that same month. 

-I want the confidence that comes with a powerful body, so I need to build muscle. To do that, I'm going to work hard during the online program my trainer has laid out for me, and make sure to eat at least 150 grams of protein a day. I will gain weight while staying within 2% of my current bodyfat, and I will measure both every Tuesday before my workout. I want to gain 5 lbs at stay under 12% bodyfat by the time I go on vacation.

Look back over your paper, and see if it puts your goals in perspective. If you've been stuck in a rut for months, just going through the motions without getting closer to the end-game you had in mind when you started, it might be time for a change. Remember your end-game, and always work towards it.

Your goal today: lift a heavy thing. 

To My Mom

For letting me play every sport our little county had to offer

For cooking me good dinners when I didn't appreciate them

For helping give me better Christmases than any kid in my place had a right to have

For giving me no other option than to go to college

For only crying a little bit the first 12 times I went back after a trip home

For thinking I could be a great doctor when I majored in Biology

For thinking I could be a great trainer when I majored in Kinesiology a year later

For going to my first and only bodybuilding competition when it had to be the most uncomfortable time you've ever rooted for me

For being proud of me when I did well

For being proud of me when I didn't

For feeding me when money got tight

For feeding me, period

For liking and sharing and re-posting everything my fledgling business does

For being the best mom I could ask for

Thank you

I love you, mom.

One Week Down, Five to Go

May 10

I finished the first week of my workout program without any bodily injury! (Wild cheers of unrestrained joy reverberate throughout this blog.  So as you read, make sure to imagine this.)

Though completely worn out after my workout, as per usual, I actually felt like I accomplished something today.  I was super sore and I felt like my last five squats should have been deeper, but I actually did something that matters, which is basically this: I did things today that I hadn't been able to do before.

I'm paraphrasing, of course, from something I have read by some fitness author that Justin would probably be able to name instantly.  But that's not the point.  The point is that I finished my workout with only the minor weight adjustments that I had to make from Wednesday, and I did it without tears, hyperventilation, or (sorry in advance for the faint of heart and weak of stomach) violently throwing up.

Two things of note:

1) I did the complex through the first time with bar weight, because I'm still very uncomfortable with some of the more complicated exercises that it involves.  But, after my first time through, I started feeling frisky, so I added twenty pounds, which brings the weight up to 65lbs.  The macho part of me feels embarrassed that that's all I can do.  But, when I really think about it, until a few months ago, the heaviest thing I ever had to lift was my laptop or a Qdoba burrito.  But today I ran through my complex like a boss.

2) I did my 60 squats following the plan to the letter.  That's 30 squats at 95 and 30 squats at 115.  Though I'm glad that no one was watching me do these, I'm proud of them.  Especially the first 25 squats at 115.  (To elaborate on what I said before, the last five were basically half the depth of the first five.)

So, I've had my ups and downs this week, but, all in all I'm proud of what I've done.  I'm also thankful that I have two days to recuperate. And eat.  I'm going to go broke trying to eat as much as I'm supposed to...

But Sunday is Mother's Day, so I'll probably be taking this weekend off from blogging as well.  So I'll talk to you all again on Monday.  As Justin's so fond of saying at the end of his entries, "Go forth and lift heavy things."

7 Minutes of SCIENCE!!

SCIENCE, HO!!!!

I love me some science. Maybe because that's just the in thing nowadays, maybe it's because I work in a profession perceived to be dragging its knuckles and grunting loud noises and I like to break the stereotype, or maybe it's because I'm actually smart.

No one asked you, stock image of laughing business people.

Training is, in large part, a trial-and-error process. Even today, with exercise physiology a rapidly growing field of scientific research, most trainers and fitness buffs rely primarily on personal experience to let us know what works and what doesn't. This is due in part to the fact that some of us are exactly as stubborn and thick-skulled as the aforementioned stereotype suggests, eyeing research like a new form of magic to be feared and distrusted. However, this is also due to the fact that, as a new field, there are a lot of bad studies out there that do little to broaden our understanding of the field.

That's why I love reading the good stuff.

A recent study by the University of Buffalo and published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research looked at the various metabolic differences between traditional methods of cardio, such as walking for long periods of time on the treadmill, and high-intensity interval training, in this case sprinting.

If you're not familiar with high-intensity interval training, let me sum it up for you: Work really hard for a short time. Rest for a short time. Do it again until you're done. (If this thesis-worthy explanation has left you wanting, I'll elaborate in a bit.)

They observed things like VO2 max (a measure of how hard your lungs are working), heart rate, blood lactate levels (a measure of how hard your muscles are working), and total calories burned.

The results? The subjects who performed the interval workouts burned the same amount of calories and trained their cardiorespiratory system just as well, despite spending literally half the time working as the steady state group. Just remember, shorter intervals mean harder intervals; the interval group trained at about 90% of their work capacity during their work intervals, instead of the stead-state group who trained at about 70%. 

Now, what does this mean in practical terms? It means that, scientifically speaking, cardio blows and strength training is awesome. Horray science!

Okay, so maybe a bit more guidance is in order. A great example of high-intensity interval training was provided in a recent article by the New York Times, appropriately titled, "The Scientific 7-Minute Workout". The workout involves simple bodyweight movements, with the only equipment required a chair and a wall, two things most of us have laying around somewhere. The "scientific" part lies in the order of the movements combined with the time intervals.

Since you're continually shifting from upper body exercises to lower body ones, your heart keeps working hard supplying blood to all of the muscle groups instead of just the legs, as would be the case in something like jogging (do not compare the slight motion of your arms in jogging to tricep dips, thank you). 

Here is the workout, as posted in the May 12 issue of The New York Times Magazine:

How do you do it? I'm glad you asked, metaphorical person in my head!

1. Warm up. Follow along with this extremely handsome demonstrator. 

http://youtu.be/7L5KVw2Pwic

2. Go to www.tabatatimer.com and set up the timer in the following manner:

Prepare: 10 sec

Work: 30 sec

Rest: 10 sec

Cycles: 12

Tabatas: 1

You might notice that setting up your workout in this manner results in the workout taking 8 minutes and 10 seconds, not 7 like mentioned in the title. You will ignore this, because shut up.

3. Complete this workout by working as hard as possible during the work time using the exercise provided, and resting during the rest. 

4. Do this workout every other day, on top of your best effort to living an active lifestyle. 

 This simple routine is a fantastic introduction to interval training. It's short, lasting just 7 minutes (you will shut up so help me god) and covers the entire body, using the pace of the strength exercises to train the heart in tandem. If you're sick of running miles in the rain, nursing shin splints and losing muscle instead of fat, you can literally do this right now, using the chair you're sitting on and the wall your computer is plugged into.

There you have it. Detailed instructions for a simple workout you can do at home that is as effective -if not more so- than the traditional methods of "cardio" so many associate with weight loss. It's up to you to build up the motivation to follow through with it.

Now go forth! Lift heavy things, for SCIENCE!!!!!