Round 2 / Day 39: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

40 Power Jumps in 30 seconds!

I'm feeling smug as hell today.

Exercise: How Much is Enough?

The New York Times' Well Blog published a piece today entitled "How Little Exercise Can You Get Away With?" -- a headline which, besides being ungrammatical, is somewhat deceptive. While the article appears at first glance to have been prompted by research about how much exercise is enough to maintain a baseline of good physical health, it's actually the amount of exercise needed to keep people from "feeling gloomy."

The answer, according to a study published in this month’s British Journal of Sports Medicine: a mere 20 minutes a week of any physical activity, whether sports, walking, gardening or even housecleaning, the last not usually associated with bringing out the sunshine. The researchers found that more activity conferred more mental-health benefits and that “participation in vigorous sports activities” tended to be the “most beneficial for mental health.” But their overall conclusion was that being active for as little as 20 minutes a week is sufficient, if your specific goal is mental health.

The Times does point out, though, that such scant exercise "won't do much for your cardiovascular fitness and is unlikely to lessen your risks for a multitude of diseases and, ultimately, of premature death, benefits that a greater amount of exercise may provide." According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, the "minimum amount of exercise required to see a significant lowering of your risk of dying prematurely was ... 500 MET minutes of exercise a week."

A single MET, or Metabolic Equivalent of Task, is the amount of energy a person uses at rest. Two METs represent twice the energy burned at rest; four METs, four times the energy used at rest; and so on. Walking at three miles per hour is a 3.3-MET activity, while running at 6 miles an hour is a 10-MET activity. The committee concluded that a person needs to accumulate a weekly minimum of 500 MET minutes of exercise, which does not mean 500 minutes of exercise. Instead, 150 minutes a week (two and a half hours) of a moderate, three- to five-MET activity, such as walking, works out to be about 500 MET minutes. Half as much time (an hour and 15 minutes per week) spent on a 6-plus MET activity like easy jogging seems, according to the committee, to have similar health effects.

Interestingly, they did not find that exercise beyond a certain point conferred significant additional health benefits. Instead, the “dose response” for exercise, the committee found, is “curvilinear.” In other words, people who are the least active to start with get the most health benefit from starting to exercise. People who already are fit don’t necessarily get a big additional health benefit from adding more workout time to their regimens.

That doesn't mean we should stop doing daily intense workouts, though: "According to the Physical Activity Guidelines report, 'It has been estimated that people who are physically active for approximately seven hours a week have a 40 percent lower risk of dying early than those who are active for less than 30 minutes a week.'

(Nice! I may actually have a greater chance of not dying early! (That is, if I don't keel over and die while doing some super-fucking-crazy Insanity routine.)

But the lesson aimed at people like my pre-P90X self (i.e., couch potatoes hoping to remain as guiltlessly immobile as possible) is simple: "Do something."

“Inactivity is looking more and more like one of the underlying causes of many chronic diseases,” [Frank Booth, a professor in the department of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri at Columbia] says. If, he adds, “you want to live to be 100,” which happens to be my New Year’s resolution, “then don’t just sit all day.”

Round 2 / Day 38: Back & Biceps + Ab Ripper X

This morning, I decided to up the weights I'm lifting, which meant my rep counts dropped. It wasn't fun to feel so inadequate, but if my goal is to build a little more muscle mass, I suppose I'm going to have to start pushing myself to go heavier (and eat more, too).

On another note: Katie doesn't ever seem to get less annoying. Today, it wasn't her incessant jabbering and overeager giggling that bugged me -- it was the weird squeaky grunting she emits during exercise. That, and the fact that she's decided that it's her responsibility to be the set-up man for Tony's douchey jokes. "What show is that, Tony?" she chirps when he smirks into the camera and launches into his "gun show" routine.

Both of you: SHUT. UP.

Should You Buy P90X From Beachbody or Amazon?

I'm guessing that Beachbody coaches make their commissions primarily from sales of supplements and equipment rather than from selling P90X or other workout DVD series. After all, if you buy P90X from Beachbody's website, it costs $139.75 including shipping costs, but it may take a week or more for the product to arrive at your doorstep. Meanwhile, if you buy P90X via Amazon.com, it costs $139.80 (with free shipping), and it'll show up within a few days -- and faster still if you're an Amazon Prime member. It's still sold by Beachbody, but if the package is lost in transit, misdelivered or damaged, you can deal with Amazon rather than Beachbody's notoriously inconsistent customer service team. I bought my P90X DVDs from Amazon, and was very satisfied with the speed with which the set arrived; in contrast, I purchased Insanity directly from Beachbody's website, and it took the company a week before it bothered to ship the DVDs to me.

P90X was Amazon's bestselling product in its "Sports & Outdoors" category in 2009, so it's no mystery why Beachbody's using Amazon as an additional sales channel. But why aren't Beachbody coaches (who are no doubt losing commission-eligible sales to Amazon) demanding that Beachbody do more to match the customer experience delivered by Amazon, or alternatively, to raise the price of P90X on Amazon?

The New Year's Resolution News Cycle

With everyone and their mother making health-related New Year's resolutions, the media's gearing up for its once-a-year full-court press on fitness before abandoning the topic for the rest of the year. A perfect example is People Magazine -- the American hausfrau's periodical of choice -- and its "Look Great in 2010" feature. The whole thing is kind of a mixed bag, including an inspirational slideshow of before-and-after shots of formerly-chubby regular folks (including one guy who used P90X to help get himself fit), some common sense workout tips from Hollywood trainers (Do strength training! Schedule your workouts!), and the useless celebrity inanity typical of these publications (Kourtney Kardashian works out naked! Julia Louis-Dreyfus loves bacon!).

I suppose that annually shining a spotlight on exercise and diet is a good thing, but my inner pessimist tells me that by February, most readers of People are going to let their gym memberships lapse and shift their focus back to the type of ice cream cake ingested by some C-list singer/reality show winner.

Round 2 / Day 37: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

A half-hour after this morning's (rather grueling) workout, my preschooler ambled sleepily into the kitchen, muttered "good morning" and gave me a half-hearted hug.

He then started coughing violently and croaked: "Ugh! Dad -- your body smells FILTHY."

That's a sign of a good workout, my little friend.

Sweating With the Oldies

I had no idea that Richard Simmons personally teaches group exercise classes up to three times a week at his Beverly Hills fitness center, Slimmons Studio:

His classes are an open secret in Los Angeles. You can call the studio to see if he will be there (or sign up for the Slimmons e-mail newsletter), show up 20 minutes early to ensure entry and pay $12. The sessions attract a mix of first-time looky-loos, young Simmons converts and a die-hard clientele of middle-aged women. One student, Willam Belli, a 25-year-old actor, described the class as “women who would go to Curves, and hipsters.”

I am so going to Slimmons the next time I'm in L.A. -- even if only to say that I've worked out with the Liberace of fitness.

Round 2 / Day 36: P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps + Ab Ripper X

Instead of speeding through my workout today, I kept pace with Tony, making sure I was squeezing out every rep with proper form. (Plus, I was trying to incorporate my TRX Suspension Trainer into as many exercises as possible.) After a couple of weeks of racing against the clock every time I popped in a P90X DVD, I expected the slower cadence of this morning's session to feel interminable -- but it didn't. The moves felt good, like I was really able to put every ounce of energy into each rep. Additionally, I didn't hit "Silence & Cues" today, opting instead to listen to Tony's jibber-jabber. Although I still tuned out most of the inane crap that he spews, his instructions about form kept me mindful of what I was supposed to be doing on each set.

(And frankly, I think my body was just relieved that I wasn't forcing myself into another workout performed at breakneck speed.)

P90X with TRX?

In the Comments section, JoHsu asked:

I've been considering the TRX suspension trainer a great deal after you mentioned it on your blog (people should start paying you commission), but I as wondering if it could be integrated well with the P90x workouts. I'm going to be hopping around the country alot in the next six months, and I wanted to come up with a better (and more affordable) solution than buying/shipping weights and a pull up bar everywhere I went. As a P90xer who owns a TRX system, do you think that I could do all the exercises in P90x with just the TRX trainer?

I have a set of SelectTech adjustable dumbbells at home, and I've cut down on business travel over the past year, so until now, I'd never considered whether it was feasible to perform all the exercises in P90X using only the TRX Suspension Trainer. But with JoHsu's question on my mind, I was intent on trying to incorporate the TRX into today's workout (Chest, Shoulders & Triceps) as much as possible -- just to see how many of the exercises translated easily into TRX moves.

Let me start by once again extolling the virtues of the TRX Suspension Trainer. It's an incredibly versatile fitness tool for multi-planar training, and one of my favorite pieces of equipment in our little home gym. Even more so than the Bosu Balance Trainer, the TRX Suspension Trainer is fantastic at adding instability to resistance exercises, thereby improving balance and strengthening muscles I didn't even know I had. There's a broad range of exercises you can do with the TRX -- a number of which are even more punishing than those seen in P90X. You can find ways to target every single part of your body with TRX.

But if you're intent on doing P90X moves, the TRX Suspension Trainer probably isn't your best bet. While it's great for enhancing your P90X workout by introducing a balance and stability challenge to many of the moves demonstrated by Tony Horton, and although you can use it to make some of the push-up variations even more crazy-difficult, the TRX doesn't offer an easy substitute for a number of the exercises in P90X.

Here are the moves I did in Chest, Shoulders & Triceps this morning, separated into two lists: Those that I could (relatively easily) use the TRX Suspension Trainer to perform, and those that I couldn't:

Doable on TRX:

• Slow-Motion 3-in-1 Push-Ups (it's simple enough to vary the speed of a standard TRX push-up)
• Chair Dips (you can do a set of TRX Tricep Presses instead)
• Plange Push-Ups (it's not easy to do these on TRX -- especially if you have wrist issues -- but it's doable)
• Pike Presses (I found it tough to maintain my balance while doing these on TRX, particularly with my feet on a bench or chair -- but it's still easier than doing them like this)
• Floor Flies (very challenging on TRX)
• Two-Twitch Speed Push-Ups (not too bad, but much more challenging than doing them on the floor)
• Lying Triceps Extensions (again, you can do a set of TRX Triceps Presses instead)

Not Really Doable on TRX:

• In & Out Shoulder Flies
• Side Tri-Rises
• Scarecrows
• Overhead Triceps Extensions (though I suppose you could do even more TRX Triceps Presses)
• Y-Presses
• Side-to-Side Push-Ups
• Pour Flies
• Side-Leaning Triceps Extensions
• One-Arm Push-Ups
• Weighted Circles
• Throw the Bombs
• Plyo Push-Ups
• Slow-Mo Throws
• Front-to-Back Triceps Extensions
• One-Arm Balance Push-Ups
• Fly-Row-Presses
• Dumbbell Cross-Body Blows

At least with Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, the number of TRX-ready P90X moves is dwarfed by the number of those that aren't particularly susceptible to TRX treatment. I'm sure that TRX substitutes for all the P90X moves do exist, and that with some work, you can find them online, but for simplicity's sake, my recommendation is to stick with weights or resistance bands for P90X, and to use the TRX to supplement -- not supplant -- your P90X equipment.

Round 2 / Day 35: Insanity Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs

Over the course of one holiday weekend, I downed about ten cookies (this one's my favorite) and three slices of cake, not to mention pizza, dim sum (ugh), a huge helping of homemade mac & cheese, and a big-ass Christmas dinner.

And yet I feel like I almost -- almost -- redeemed myself with one hard session of Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.

Unfortunately, the workout also made me hungry, and now I'm eying some leftovers in the fridge. (God, that flank steak looks good.)

Round 2 / Day 34: Insanity Cardio Recovery

I've decided that Cardio Recovery really isn't analogous to P90X's X Stretch. X Stretch is all about elongating muscles and alleviating achiness with long, languorous moves. Cardio Recovery has a little bit of that, but the focus of this workout actually appears to be strength-building resistance exercises -- the most challenging of which (by far) is the protracted series of slow squats and lunges, following by long holds and quick pulses. More than anything in P90X Legs & Back, this sequence leaves my legs feeling like jelly.

Round 2 / Day 33: P90X Legs & Back (But Not Ab Ripper X)

So I lied when I said I wouldn't exercise today, and ended up doing Legs & Back (which, as usual, kicked my ass).

But as a Christmas gift to myself, I skipped my scheduled Ab Ripper X workout, and did some Atomic Push-Ups instead.



Now: Time to watch the kids whip themselves into a gift-unwrapping frenzy under the Christmas tree.

Happy holidays!

A Holiday Poem

'Twas the night before Christmas,
So screw exercising tomorrow.

Round 2 / Day 32: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

There's very little I don't like about this workout. It has it all: crazy-intense jumping, arm- and chest-blasting push-up variations, sprints, core-strengthening plank moves -- everything you could hope for in a quick, forty-minute workout.

My only complaint is that Cardio Power & Resistance is a bit too short. It ended right as I felt like I was hitting a groove. (I don't want to speak too soon, though -- I haven't yet tried out the longer "Max" series of Insanity DVDs, which are coming up in the second half of Round 2.)

I Miss Pat Morita

So I guess they're remaking "The Karate Kid", with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith playing the Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio roles. And from the looks of this trailer, the movie's set in China, the ancient land of mean-eyed wushu-trained boys and demure violin-playing girls. During the course of the flick, Jackie Chan (sporting a moustache wispier than Mariah Carey's in "Precious") sagely teaches Jaden Smith how to be a kick-ass kung fu fighter, in part by instructing him to "JACK IT OFF" or something like that. (I guess "wax on, wax off" wasn't suggestive enough.)

But wait a second: This remake features a Chinese kung fu master teaching kung fu in China. There's no karate in this film -- not even the fake kind that Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel-san. So why is this movie still called "The Karate Kid"? Why not "The Kung Fu Kid" or "Will Smith's Kid" or "Jack It Off"?

Oh, right -- for a moment, I forgot that in Hollywood, all Asians (and their respective forms of native martial arts) are totally interchangeable.

Round 2 / Day 31: P90X Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X

I woke up late, and had to hustle through my morning workout. With zero breaks, my arms were pushed beyond exhaustion well before the end of the session, but it felt awesome to be challenged like this. I ended up shaving 20 minutes off of Shoulders & Arms, and another 6 minutes from Ab Ripper X -- yet I'm pretty sure I ended up with a more difficult workout overall. Good stuff.

Holiday Fitness Tips

Everywhere I turn, I see articles, news stories and blog posts about how to keep fit during the holidays (like here and here and here and here and here), so I thought I'd weigh in with my own two cents.

Without further ado, here's my super-awesome list of incredibly helpful tips for keeping the pounds off in December:

1. Continue (or Start) Exercising.
2. Don't Pig Out.

Done and done.

Check It Out: The Primal Blueprint

Remember Mark Sisson, the guy responsible for all the P90X supplements? You know – this guy:

Sisson's not just a supplement designer. He's also the author of “The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health and Boundless Energy” and runs an informative health and nutrition website called “Mark’s Daily Apple.”

His book and blog focus primarily on the benefits of evolutionary fitness and nutrition – the concept that, from an evolutionary and biological standpoint, high-carb diets eaten around the world today are not suitable for optimal human nutrition. Rather, we should revert to a simpler, more “primal” approach to diet and exercise: Eat mostly animals and plants, lift heavy stuff and move around (frequently and slowly, with an occasional sprint) like our ancestors did. According to Sisson, low carb is the way to go; we’ve been poisoned by modern food – including not just processed snacks and fast food, but also grains, sugars and chemically-altered fats.

(For a more detailed review of “The Primal Blueprint” from another P90Xer, check out Jeff Pickett’s excellent fitness blog, Life Isn’t Over.)

I’ve come to really enjoy Sisson’s site, and I subscribe to a lot of what he's said about nutrition in “The Primal Blueprint.” (It’s also great that he’s a fellow barefoot running and Vibram FiveFingers enthusiast.) Especially in my first month of P90X, a super-low-carb diet was the catalyst for a significant change in my body composition. I’m a firm believer in eating whole, unprocessed foods whenever possible, and I’m perfectly happy eating salads (with some protein: meat, nuts, beans, etc.) for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

BUT (and this is a pretty big BUT):

The “Primal Eating Plan” is totally anti-grains, which poses a problem for me. As Sisson puts it in his “Definitive Guide to Grains”:

The bottom line is this: grains = carbs. Unnecessary at best, but flat out unhealthy at worst, they’re not the wholesome staples they’re made out to be. Talk about double taxation: Our bodies pay for what our trusty government subsidizes Big Agra for. The best – really the only way – to achieve a low carb, whole foods diet is to ditch the grains. (Your body will be better off without inflammation, the insulin roller coaster, not to mention the constant onslaught of creepy gluten and lectins.) A diet very low or entirely without grains (low-carb) has been shown to decrease risk for problems associated with diabetes, to lower blood pressure, alleviate heartburn symptoms, and shed abdominal fat. Finally, low carb diets have been associated with significant “reductions in a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and adhesion molecules.”

One of the selling points of “The Primal Blueprint” is that it encourages you to simplify – to stop worrying about calorie counting or tightly-scripted exercise routines. But by effectively banning grains outright, Sisson actually makes it a lot harder to stick to the “Primal Eating Plan.” It hurts my head to think of the planning and forethought required to come up with a substitute for our pizza-loving kids, or the pain of having to scoop out the insides of a burrito to avoid eating a whole wheat tortilla.

I’m no expert, so I can’t speak to whether Sisson’s vehement arguments against grains are scientifically valid or not. But regardless, I don’t think that I can – or want to – eliminate grains altogether from my diet. It's just not realistic. I’ve already drastically limited my consumption of carbs over the past half-year; cutting added sugar almost entirely out of my diet and loading up on bananas and whole grains only after a hard morning workout. Grains help keep me from bonking when I push myself hard while working out. And besides, they fucking taste good.

[UPDATE: I eventually gave up grains. Really.]

One last note about Sisson, "The Primal Blueprint" and P90X:

“The Primal Blueprint” suggests that even those carbs that are ingested immediately after a workout should be avoided. But didn’t Mark Sisson create and help market the P90X Recovery Drink, which happens to be loaded with carbs?

Sisson’s response is a bit surprising – particularly because he now appears to be disavowing his own creation, and distancing himself from the claims he made in Beachbody's advertisements:

I did design the P90X post-workout shake. My main “business” is actually designing supplements, which I have done for several companies including my own. In the case of the P90X shake, I was contacted to design a product line to meet their particular demographic and price specs. At the time of design, the main challenge was to refill muscle glycogen immediately after a relatively longer and harder workout such that you could be ready to go again the very next day, so the main exercise premise deviated from PB [The Primal Blueprint]. Also, the diet being espoused by P90 staff dietitians was a higher carb diet, so I had to create something that would give the carb-burners a continuous source of muscle glycogen.

The prevailing technology at the time was to combine 80% carb and 20% protein, which I did using mainly fructose. I added antioxidants and creatine along with a few other recovery assists and made it the best tasting drink on the market. I appeared in their advertising at first as part of the deal, but I am no longer affiliated with the P90X program. Apparently, my interviews are still being used by P90 and there’s nothing I can do about that. Obviously, technology has changed in the years since that product was designed and I personally don’t follow a [post-workout] carb-loading strategy.

I'm no fan of Beachbody's P90X supplements, but that’s pretty different from what he was saying a few years ago:

Round 2 / Day 30: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Another Insanity workout completed without taking any extra breaks!

I don't want to jinx myself, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of this.

Round 2 / Day 29: P90X Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X

I'd almost forgotten how much I enjoy this workout. After spending so much time on cardio and leg exercises, it feels great to devote an entire hour-plus workout to upper-body resistance moves and core work. And having not performed this particular workout in three weeks (or any pull-ups for an entire week), Chest & Back was a nice shock to the system.

I'm continuing to try to get through all the P90X videos without taking breaks between moves, so I struggled a bit with my pull-ups; in fact, I reached exhaustion well before I reached my usual rep counts. Still, it was fun to challenge myself anaerobically. My takeaway from today's workout: You can continue to find ways to push yourself with P90X -- even after you think you've got it all figured out.

Dim Sum

M and I (and the kids) joined my extended family for a Chinese dim sum lunch today. My dad in particular is a dim sum fanatic, and drives 20-odd miles twice a week (or more) to chow down on dumplings, noodles and pastries stuffed with various combinations of pork, beef, shrimp, and other less easily identifiable proteins.

Me? I'm not a fan.* I got sick of the twice-weekly dim sum meals when I was a kid, and I've never found it especially tasty (except for a brief period during puberty, when everything seemed delicious). Now that I'm super-vigilant about my food choices, I'm even more leery of dim sum. Years ago, the government of Hong Kong -- the epicenter of dim sum culture -- released a report declaring the obvious: Dim sum is unhealthy.

[B]ased on laboratory analyses of 750 dim sum samples, Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department found high fat and salt and low calcium and fiber in everything from fried dumplings to marinated jellyfish. The report suggested that local residents eat these kinds of dim sum in moderation, and choose more dim sum like steamed buns and steamed rice rolls. Regular dim sum diners should order plates of boiled vegetables to go with their meals, the report said, and should beware of some steamed dim sum for which the ingredients are fried, like bean curd sheets.

...

[T]he findings were consistent with academic research on the nutritional content of dim sum and were especially important given recent studies on how people from this region absorb fat. Genetic tendencies toward long trunks and shorter legs mean that many people of southeast Asian descent may carry a higher proportion of fat relative to their height and weight than people of the same height and weight from northern China or Europe.

Southern Chinese ancestry? Stumpy legs and long trunk? That's me to a T. Dim sum is like kryptonite for me. Nonetheless, family obligations dictate that we must attend at least a dozen or so dim sum lunches each year.

My coping strategy? Eat a snack before going to dim sum. Pick at my plate and move stuff around. Eat a few steamed shrimp and/or veggie dumplings, drink some tea and ignore the rest. Focus everyone's attention on the kids and away from the fact that I haven't touched the many dishes of fried stuff on the Lazy Susan. Fend off family members' attempts to put food on my (empty) plate by constantly waving my hand a few inches above it (thus forming an impenetrable dim sum force field). Then, come home and have a bowl of cereal.

*My dislike of dim sum mystifies my dad. "You loved it when you were a kid," he says. I just nod, rather than reminding him that when I enjoyed dim sum, I also loved the antics of Family Circus (especially Barfy the Dog), the soothing sounds of The Carpenters, and pissing in my own bed.

Round 2 / Day 28: Insanity Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs (Repeat)

To get back into the swing of things after a week-long break from P90X and Insanity, I decided to repeat Day 28.

"Jump down into a deep squat, and do a suicide." So says Shaun T when describing Stance Jacks, but his statement is applicable to the entirety of this workout. Although I managed to complete all of Pure Cardio without any extra breaks (for the first time ever), I felt like I committing seppuku.

Un-Day

My five-year-old calls boring days "Un-Days" -- no birthday parties, swimming or kung fu classes, play dates, visits to the park or zoo, or train rides to the city.

He hates Un-Days.

After five days of balls-out exercise, today was my Un-Day. I did absolutely nothing that even resembled physical activity, other than sitting on the couch and playing video games with my kid.

I fucking love Un-Days.

Canyon Ranch: Day 5

Hoping to squeeze in a full day of exercise classes (and shower in our room instead of in the spa) before leaving Canyon Ranch, we called the front desk first thing this morning to inquire about a late checkout. The staffer at Guest Services was more than accommodating, and arranged for us to keep our room until 4:30 p.m., when our shuttle would depart for the airport. Score!

Our day, after the jump...

Alpine Muesli

I'm a fan of Canyon Ranch's alpine muesli, and have had it every morning here this week. Why eat fresh muesli? Because it’s packed with protein and fiber -- plus, it's tasty and easy to make. Bonus: it’s German (or maybe Swiss?) in origin. Think about it: When was the last time you ingested anything German in origin that’s actually super-awesome for your health? (Besides beer and franks.)

Here's a recipe that I've adapted from the one used here at Canyon Ranch -- I like my muesli a little less runny than the original version.

2/3 cup uncooked rolled oats
2/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup honey
3 medium-sized apples
3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries and/or raspberries

1. In a bowl, combine the oats, yogurt and vanilla extract.
2. In another bowl, combine the juice, almonds and honey.
3. Peel and grate the apples.
4. Wrap the apple in paper towels and squeeze out the juice.
5. You might as well drink the apple juice.
6. Add the apple to the juice mixture.
7. Stir in the berries and the yogurt mixture.
8. Chill and serve.

Makes approximately eight 1-cup servings.

Two Questions

(1) Why is Ice-T's wife working out in clear Lucite stripper heels?

(2) Does she really need to keep working out her glutes and thighs?

Source: DListed

Canyon Ranch: Day 4

We're leaving Canyon Ranch tomorrow afternoon, so I was determined not to slack off today.

A full rundown is after the jump...

Pink on P90X

"Ever hear of P90X? My brother and his wife are both in the Air Force; they do marathons and triathlons. I went [to visit them and she’s doing P90X]. I couldn’t keep up with her — and she’d just had her first baby four weeks ago. I was like, This is bullshit! I will perfect this thing! So usually, I wake up and do an hour of cardio, then an hour of P90X or yoga, then a half-hour of warm-up [during show rehearsal]. I do that six days a week.”

-Pink (Women's Health Magazine, January 2010 issue)

Source: FitSugar

Canyon Ranch: Day 3

I slept fitfully, owing to massive gas. Here at Canyon Ranch, I’ve been eating tons of salad, cruciferous vegetables, beans, and other gastastic foods, and it’s starting to catch up with me. I woke up exhausted from farting all night.

M, on the other hand, woke up ready to jump right into another day of heavy-duty workouts. After a quick breakfast (of muesli, fruit, egg white veggie omelet, and huevos rancheros -- washed down with OJ and a blueberry-cherry smoothie), we got started.

Our day in excruciating detail, after the jump.

Canyon Ranch: Day 2

Our second day at Canyon Ranch got off to a late start. We had planned to get up early to down some chow and let it digest a little before diving into another day of hardcore exercising. Instead, due to our exhaustion from yesterday, we didn’t crawl out of bed until 7:40 a.m. – less than an hour before our scheduled “Serious Cycle” class. Once we were up, though, we moved quickly, and slammed down breakfast at the Double U Café (Canyon Ranch’s casual restaurant): a veggie omelet, some muesli, yogurt and granola, and fruit. Then it was off to the gym.

Lots more after the jump...

Mmm - Tasty.

Canyon Ranch: Day 1

With two little kids, time-consuming jobs and a host of other day-to-day responsibilities, it can be challenging for M and me to find time for ourselves (other than the hour or so we spend exercising every day). That's why it feels so good to run away to another state and do nothing but focus on ourselves.

Our first day back at Canyon Ranch has been fantastic. In some ways, it's even better this time around because we're familiar with the layout of the place, the schedule, the trainers, the classes, and the food; instead of trying to figure out what we're supposed to be doing, we're just soaking up the whole experience and focusing on exercising, eating right, and relaxing.

After the jump, a rundown the things we did today, along with scoop about the Hollywood film actor who's been sweating next to us in our exercise classes.

Stretch on a Plane

Our flight to Tucson yesterday was a typically horrible experience: The departure was delayed for hours, and the plane was small and cramped. (We did, however, sit directly behind Peter Coyote, which was a welcome distraction -- though neither of us could remember any of the movies in which we'd seen him.) Our total time in the air was only about two hours, but we'd been sitting around for close to five, and I felt achy and stiff, so while M napped, I did the stretches and rotations I recently read about on the Times' Frugal Traveler blog. I recommend them, but I did look pretty weird -- like doing yoga on a bus.

Round 2 / Day 28: Insanity Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs

What's up with the Pulse Tucks from high and low plank positions? I'm confused: Am I just supposed to be clenching and releasing my sphincter? Am I seducing and humping the floor? What the hell is going on here?

But I'm Going to Need a Handjob First

I'm pretty sure this infomercial is going to give the Shake Weight and P90X ads a serious run for their money:

Round 2 / Day 27: Insanity Cardio Recovery

I'm not sure how my body's supposed to be able to recover when this workout includes the dreaded "deep muscle" moves. The low squat and lunge holds (and pulses, too) set my quads on fire and make me want to puke.

Canyon Ranch: Tucson

After tomorrow's Pure Cardio session, I'm taking a break of sorts from my P90X/Insanity Hybrid schedule. M and I are treating ourselves to a week of exercise, nutrition, and spa treatments at Canyon Ranch in Tucson.

We first visited Canyon Ranch exactly three years ago. Below the jump is a reprinted (and slightly edited) post from my old blog about our experiences at the spa.

Round 2 / Day 26: P90X Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X

I know, I know: according to my self-created P90X/Insanity Hybrid Schedule, I was supposed to do Core Synergistics today. But lately, I feel like I've been slacking a bit too much. It's been icy and wet outside, so I haven't been running. And while Insanity is crazy-intense, the workouts are relatively brief, so I'm not convinced that I'm getting the same calorie burn that I got during my first round of P90X.

(One easy way to confirm this would be for me to actually wear my heart rate monitor, but I hate having the plastic sensor strap around my chest -- once I work up a sweat, it starts sliding down my torso, and it's just a big pain in the ass.)

My eating habits are sliding, too -- I catch myself mindlessly stuffing handfuls of almonds and cereal in my mouth at all hours. (I'm addicted to whole wheat Chex with Trader Joes' roasted almond slivers.)

So today, I opted to do Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X instead of the (somewhat) easier Core Synergistics. Legs & Back has always been one of my least favorite P90X workouts, but it's grown on me in recent weeks. Still, I struggled to maintain my previous rep count on all the pull-up variations today, and my ability to balance on my left leg has declined since I finished Round 1. This is puzzling to me; I'd assumed that Insanity would have improved my leg strength and stability. Is it possible that I'm overtraining despite an overall decrease in my total exercise time?

Round 2 / Day 25: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Whenever Shaun T announces the start of a 30-second break, I've learned to not immediately take a swig of water. It takes me about ten seconds just to catch my breath; during this time, any attempt to swallow liquid results in me choking and spewing water and saliva all over the place. But by the time I can manage to take in (and hold down) a tiny sip, it's usually time to jump into the next exercise.

I wish there was enough time to drink during the middle of my sets, but I know I'd look ridiculous leaping around with this on my head:

Exercise in the Morning

Another reason to exercise in the morning: You work harder.

[N]ot only are performances better in the late afternoon and early evening, but, contrary to what exercise physiologists would predict, heart rates are also higher for the same effort.

One recent study, by the late Thomas Reilly and his colleagues at the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University in England, found that people’s maximum heart rates and sub-maximal heart rates were lower in the morning but that their perception of how hard they were working was the same in the morning as it was later in the day.

According to studies cited in this New York Times article, "[i]t actually is harder to exercise in the morning."

“Most components (strength, power, speed) of athletic performance are worst in the early hours of the morning,” he wrote in an e-mail message. “Ratings of perceived exertion during exercise have generally been found to be highest in the early morning.”

If you exercise later in the day, your muscles are more flexible and stronger and your heart and lungs are more efficient, said Michael H. Smolensky, an expert in chronobiology, the study of the body clock.

“Is a heart rate of 140 in the morning indicative of the same level of workout cost as in the afternoon?” asked Dr. Smolensky, a visiting professor at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston.

“I would say no,” he added. “Exercise physiologists say you should be able to perform at the same level with a heart rate of 140 in the morning as in the afternoon or early evening. But chronobiologists say your capacity to generate and tolerate a higher heart rate is better later in the day.”

So set your alarm clocks, people.

Round 2 / Day 24: Back & Biceps + Ab Ripper X

So after almost four months of P90X workouts, I finally tried the "Silence and Cues" feature on the DVDs. And I'm kicking myself for not checking this out sooner. It's the best thing ever.

With "Silence and Cues," there's no grating music. There's no commentary by Tony, other than a sentence or two at the start of each exercise to let you know that we're moving on. (It's astonishing how little time Tony spends on verbal instruction, and how much of his constant blabber is pointless and unnecessary.) Best of all, in Back & Biceps, you don't have to hear Katie's deranged giggling at all.

Another plus: You can listen to music on your iPod or soak in the silence during your workout. Or, if you're like me, you can turn on the other TV in the garage and catch up on old episodes of "Survivor" that are about to disappear from your TiVo -- all while doing Corn Cob Pull-Ups.

"Silence and Cues," I think I love you.

Who's That Guy With the Brown Socks?

So the winner of The Biggest Loser this season is Danny Cahill, who dropped from 430 pounds to 191 pounds. And you know that that means, right? Bunn-O-Matic's giving away coffee makers to charity! (WTF?)

Even more awesome? Danny ditched the soul patch.

The producers of the show are in the midst of a full-court press to defend charges that such rapid and massive weight loss is potentially dangerous, but for now, let's just raise our glasses to Danny and his amazing achievement, and hope that he's not urinating blood.

Round 2 / Day 23: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

I really, really, really hate Ski Abs and In & Out Abs.

That is all.

Please Do It In The Athletic Club.

I know you're all super-athletic and stuff, but if you find yourself on the subway in Tokyo (or anywhere else, for that matter), please refrain from using the hand-holds as Olympic rings and pressing your muscular ass into another passenger's face.

Source: Buzzfeed

Round 2 / Day 22: P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps + Ab Ripper X

The great thing about ignoring Tony* and just ripping through all the moves in both of these workouts? I shaved off more than 15 minutes from my morning routine.

The not-so-great thing? Getting through all the moves while minimizing and/or skipping rest breaks is crazy-tough. I was exhausted near the end of the hour, and had trouble with my last few reps of each exercise -- even those I normally find easy.

Still, I highly recommend trying to finish Ab Ripper X without breaks. It takes about 12 minutes, and it's a killer.

*Actually, while I tried to tune out Tony completely, I couldn't help but notice (again) that he keeps calling Dave the Substitute Teacher "Adam" and "Sean." Isn't exercise supposed to stave off senility?

Stop Using These Exercise Machines

Need more reasons to cancel your gym membership and work out at home? AOL Health (or is it “Aol. Health”?) recently posted a slideshow of six exercise machines to avoid at the gym.

AOL’s website is frustratingly difficult to navigate, so to save you from having to click through seven different screens and wait for dozens of photos and graphics to download, I’m providing a quick and dirty recap after the jump.

Chocolate Covered Bacon Donut Bar

Perhaps it's because I'm biased against the P90X Peak Performance Protein Bar, but I find this kind of bar to be infinitely more tantalizing. (Still, I think I'll stick with Clif Bars for now.)

Source: This Is Why You're Fat

Round 2 / Day 21: Insanity Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs

I woke up late and feeling lazy. The kids spent the night at their grandparents' house, so I enjoyed the luxury of dawdling over my morning yogurt and flaxseed in front of the TV. It took forever to bring myself to get off the couch and into the garage to start Pure Cardio.

Shaun T doesn't exactly ease you into the workout, either. Right away, I was panting hard as I tried to keep up during the warm-up routine. By the time the stretching began, sweat was already pouring down my face. And just a few minutes into the actual workout, I felt obliterated. But I followed Shaun T's advice to "dig deeper" -- it's my second-favorite Beachbody mantra, right after Tony Horton's "don't just kind of do it" -- and pushed through the remainder of the session. (I still had to take my usual mid-set breaks during Frog Jumps and Push-Up Jacks, though I tried to keep them as short as possible.)

Cardio Abs was painful, too -- especially the Wide Tuck Jumps and isometric C-Sit Hold. Part of me wanted to just stop the video and substitute Ab Ripper X in its place, but I reminded myself that Ab Ripper X is already on the schedule for tomorrow. The fun never ends.

Round 2 / Day 20: Rest & Recovery (& Plagiarism)

It's my scheduled rest day, and although I'd planned on popping in the Insanity Cardio Recovery DVD this morning, I think my body (and brain) would appreciate it if I just took a day off.

But even though I know that it's good for me, it feels a little overindulgent to just sit on my ass. I decided to go online to find a good article or blog post about the benefits of rest and recovery to help alleviate my guilt.

I soon came across a thoughtful, informative About.com article on this topic by Elizabeth Quinn, an exercise physiologist and author. Citing several research journals as sources, Quinn sets forth the case for recovery time:

[T]his is the time that the body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real training effect takes place. Recovery also allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues. Exercise or any other physical work causes changes in the body such as muscle tissue breakdown and the depletion of energy stores (muscle glycogen) as well as fluid loss.

Recovery time allows these stores to be replenished and allows tissue repair to occur. Without sufficient time to repair and replenish, the body will continue to breakdown from intensive exercise. Symptoms of overtraining often occur from a lack of recovery time. Signs of overtraining include a feeling of general malaise, staleness, depression, decreased sports performance and increased risk of injury, among others.

Quinn also briefly summarizes the differences between short-term and long-term recovery:

Keep in mind that there are two categories of recovery. There is immediate (short-term) recovery from a particularly intense training session or event, and there is the long-term recovery that needs to be build into a year-round training schedule. Both are important for optimal sports performance.

Short-term recovery, sometimes called active recovery occurs in the hours immediately after intense exercise. Active recovery refers to engaging in low-intensity exercise after workouts during both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard effort or workout as well as during the days following the workout. Both types of active recovery are linked to performance benefits.

...

Long-term recovery techniques refer to those that are built in to a seasonal training program. Most well-designed training schedules will include recovery days and or weeks that are built into an annual training schedule. This is also the reason athletes and coaches change their training program throughout the year, add crosstraining, modify workouts types, and make changes in intensity, time, distance and all the other training variables.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who enjoyed Quinn's article. As I kept searching on Google for more information about rest and recovery, I quickly found numerous bloggers and other authors that have directly lifted Quinn's text -- in whole or in chunks -- and presented her writing as their own. I found only one blog that properly credited Quinn as the author of the original piece; others appear to be perfectly happy taking credit for her writing. (Examples are here and here and here and here and here.)

I know that generating original content can be difficult, and plagiarism is easy. But in the age of Google, it's also easy to catch. So play nice, and give credit where credit is due.

The Stuff of Nightmares

I sure wish P90X featured more poodles.



Source: Wikipedia

Round 2 / Day 19: Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X

I think I'm on the verge of overtraining.

During Legs & Back this morning, my left leg kept wobbling during relatively easy lunge exercises (e.g., Sneaky Lunges, Side Lunges, etc.). After a few weeks of trying to cram Insanity workouts and barefoot running into an already-demanding P90X schedule, something's bound to give, and I don't want it to be my knees. I'd hoped to go running yesterday, but I got busy at work, and I think I'm going to rest my legs for the remainder of today, too. A few days of R&R can't hurt, right?

How to Run Barefoot

Three years ago, Ken Bob Saxton (a.k.a. "Barefoot Ken Bob," the godfather of barefoot running) posted on his blog a detailed primer on how to run sans shoes (or, at the very least, with minimalist shoes like the Vibram FiveFingers). It remains an excellent resource for anyone who's thinking about trying barefoot running, and I highly recommend it.

Round 2 / Day 18: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

I completed every single move in this morning's workout, and without taking extra breaks. I wish I could also tell you that it was a breeze, but in truth, I looked and felt like this when I was done:

Is Stretching Unnecessary?

I love X Stretch. It feels good, and it's a nice, restful (albeit sometimes slightly uncomfortable) way to wind down or relieve tightness and soreness. Last night, I still felt achy from running, so I popped in the X Stretch DVD. Over the course of an hour, my body gradually relaxed and my muscles loosened and lengthened.

But this morning, I felt tight again. (This totally bummed me out. Instead of X Stretching, I could have been watching Steven Seagal: Lawman.)

It turns out that stretching evidently doesn't do all that much for your body.

In fact, the latest science suggests that extremely loose muscles and tendons are generally unnecessary (unless you aspire to join a gymnastics squad), may be undesirable and are, for the most part, unachievable, anyway. “To a large degree, flexibility is genetic,” says Dr. Malachy McHugh, the director of research for the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and an expert on flexibility. You’re born stretchy or not. “Some small portion” of each person’s flexibility “is adaptable,” McHugh adds, “but it takes a long time and a lot of work to get even that small adaptation. It’s a bit depressing, really.”

WTF? Haven't we learned from Tony Horton, Shaun T and others that stretching helps loosen our muscles and tendons, and enhances our flexibility and range of motion? Aren't they right?

According to the science, the answer appears to be no. “There are two elements” involved in stretching a muscle, Dr. McHugh says. One is the muscle itself. The other is the mind, which sends various messages to the muscles and tendons telling them how to respond to your stretching when the discomfort of the stretching becomes too much. What changes as you stretch a muscle is primarily the message, not the physical structure of the muscle. “You’ll start to develop a tolerance” for the discomfort of the stretch, Dr. McHugh says. Your brain will allow you to hold the stretch longer. But the muscles and tendons themselves will not have changed much. You will feel less tight. But even this sensation of elasticity is short-lived, Dr. McHugh says. 

In a new review article of the effects of stretching that he co-wrote and that will be published soon in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, he looked at the measurable impacts of a number of different stretching regimens. What he found was that when people performed four 90-second stretches of their hamstrings, their “passive resistance” to the stretching decreased by about 18 percent — they felt much looser — but the effect had passed in less than an hour. To achieve a longer-lasting impact, and to stretch all of the muscles involved in running or other sports, he says, would probably require as much as an hour of concerted stretching. “And the effects still wouldn’t be permanent,” he says. “You only see changes” in the actual, physical structure of the muscles “after months of stretching, for hours at a time. Most people aren’t going to do that.”

And most of us don’t need to. “Flexibility is a functional thing,” Dr. Knudson says. “You only need enough range of motion in your joints to avoid injury. More is not necessarily better.”

So let's recap. We previously came to understand that cool-downs are unnecessary. And we already know that Tony Horton talks too much. Now that we're learning that stretching's benefits aren't as great as we were led to believe, doesn't this mean we can further shave down the time it takes to complete each P90X (and even Insanity) routine? What's left to do besides warming up and diving right into the core exercises?

Personally, I'm going to keep stretching -- not because I think I'm going to become a super-flexible guy, or that stretching is going to enhance my athletic performance. I'm going to stretch because it feels good.

Train Like You're Going to Run a Marathon

There's a great article on the Running Times website (and in the November issue of its magazine) about legendary running coach Arthur Lydiard.

Lydiard's known for being an early and forceful proponent of base training -- creating an aerobic foundation of fitness upon which athletes can later build. He posited that even sprinters can optimize their performance by training as if they were going to run a marathon, because the endurance training provided a level of conditioning that enhanced the runner's ability to sprint, and gave them a competitive advantage over those that didn't perform base training.

As the author of the article writes:

The first phase of Lydiard training is endurance/aerobic development. Think of aerobic running as home base -- the place where we hang out until we are mature enough to leave, and the place we always come back to for rest and recuperation. As the miles stack up, we increase the capacity of both the heart and the lungs for work, build our circulatory network to the muscles through increased capillarization, increase the number of mitochondria in the muscle cells, and develop other beneficial metabolic and enzymatic pathways for gathering and converting oxygen to energy. Once these structures are established they allow us to respond and recover quickly. Aerobic training, then, is training for all other types of training.

To me, this signals the importance of sustained aerobic exercise, whether it be in the form of long distance runs, lengthy bike rides or prolonged cardiovascular fitness routines. For all its benefits, I'm not sure that Insanity -- which is a pure interval routine, with its relatively brief bursts of intense activity -- fits this bill. P90X does a slightly better job of this, in that it features circuit training that builds some measure of endurance. But to really optimize my fitness level, my best bet may be to continue doing some middle- to long-distance running during the week to build up my endurance.

Shit in a Bun

Image Source: Our Final World

How can Wendy's Triple Baconator (1330 calories! 86 grams of fat!) possibly look appetizing to anyone? Even bacon fetishists have to be grossed out. I mean, the fucking thing looks like it's already been vomited up by someone.

Round 2 / Day 17: P90X Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X

Once again, I shortened my rest breaks, skipped the cool-down and didn't stop to listen to Tony's pointless banter, and managed to shorten the workout (while still doing all the moves) by almost 20 minutes.

Frankly, I just don't care how many reps Daniel Haas aims to crank out. Nor do I care about Dreya Weber's favorite soup or how much Tony thinks he physically resembles Joe Bovino and Bobby Stephenson. (By the way, they're all athletic white guys with dark hair, but only one comes across a total douchebag.)

What the Hell Happened to Jared?

He's not (yet) as big as he was pre-Subway, but if Jared Fogel's not careful, he's soon going to have to break out the fat jeans again. (Then again, perhaps he just looks bigger whenever he wears Colts paraphernalia.)

Run This Town

San Francisco was recently ranked by Runner's World as the second-best American city for running, and I can see why.

I took a mid-day break from work today to squeeze in a run. My office is within spitting distance of the San Francisco Marathon route, so I checked out the course map online and decided to follow it for awhile. I ran from downtown up past Fisherman's Wharf, the Cannery, Ghirardelli Square, and Aquatic Park, and then up above Fort Mason, down the Marina green, through Crissy Field and to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. And then I ran back to my office. It was 10 miles in all, and over the course of 80 minutes, I got to soak in beautiful views of the city that I never bothered to check out when I lived in San Francisco.

Two (of the many) reasons I love my job: I work in a jaw-droppingly beautiful city, and my job allows me the flexibility to take an hour-and-a-half off in the middle of the workday to run around this town.

Round 2 / Day 16: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Plyometric Cardio Circuit was intense this morning -- M and I both tried to get through all the exercises, but had to take unplanned rest breaks intermittently. For me, Ski Abs and In/Out Abs are the toughest moves to get through, especially given that they're at the very end of the workout. But when we finished, we both felt like we accomplished something today. Not bad, considering it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet.

Peeing Blood and Getting Fat

The New York Times published an interesting piece last week questioning the safety and effectiveness of the "extreme" weight loss techniques used on NBC's "The Biggest Loser." The article points out that the winner of the show's first season, Ryan Benson, "is now back above 300 pounds" and has "publicly admitted that he dropped some of the weight by fasting and dehydrating himself to the point that he was urinating blood." Yikes.

The general rule of thumb is that it's unsafe to lose much more than about two pounds per week. According to medical experts, the type of crazy-fast weight loss seen on "The Biggest Loser" can result in a number of medical issues, including "a weakening of the heart muscle, irregular heartbeat and dangerous reductions in potassium and electrolytes."

Plus, you might piss blood.

Sleep Better By Exercising

It's been said that exercise helps you sleep better at night, but is this true?

According to a recent study cited in this New York Times article, the answer is "yes":

The study found that sleep onset latency — the time it takes to fall asleep once in bed — ranged from as little as roughly 10 minutes for some children to more than 40 minutes for others. But physical activity during the day and sleep onset at night were closely linked: every hour of sedentary activity during the day resulted in an additional three minutes in the time it took to fall asleep at night. And the children who fell asleep faster ultimately slept longer, getting an extra hour of sleep for every 10-minute reduction in the time it took them to drift off.

Studies on adults have reached generally similar results, showing that an increase in physical activity improves sleep onset and increases sleep duration, particularly in people who have trouble sleeping.

So stop relying on your Ambien prescriptions and go work out, people.