5/26/2009

I have several things to bring everything up to date. First, let me pose a question. How does one define fitness? You’ve heard of the fat fit – those that are considered healthy although they carry a high percentage of body fat. Then there are bodybuilders. Are they fit when they diet down to 4% body fat? Is someone fit if they have a resting heart rate below 60 BPM? Is a long distance runner automatically characterized as fit? Does it have to do with your VO2? What about flexibility and mobility? My point in asking this is that there are many different levels of what you might consider fit. I think it helps to outline what you deem to be fitness and how you compare to that.

What do you do when you now longer have a contest or an event to train for? What if you aren’t playing any sports or running any races? What type of fitness should you strive for? These types of questions led me to Dave Tate. Dave Tate had a successful power lifting career and then had a career ending injury. He realized that he still had the same drive to train and improve after he rehabbed his injury. He came up with a yearlong program called Strong(er). It is split into 4 phases with cycles within each phase. I am getting ready to start this program. The goal is to come through with less body fat, increased cardio health, more flexibility and mobility, rehabbed from training injuries and maintained strength.

What I like about it is that it is designed to improve your general fitness level from many aspects: diet, cardio, lifting, stretching and rehab work. This is designed for someone who has lifted for many years and has experience with exercise. It also requires some pieces of equipment, and background reading, to get the most out of the program. You will need a foam roller and “spiky balls” for some of the rehab work. It is also recommended that you read Stretch to Win by Ann and Chris Frederick. I was supposed to start this program two weeks ago but ended up having to order the book and the foam roller after reading Dave’s program…now I’m reading the book so that I know how to do the stretches properly. All of these items can be purchased through Dave Tate’s company, EliteFTS. The link is www.EliteFTS.com

Someone asked me about my weight recently. It’s been hovering around 288 to 290. The last two weeks as I’ve been reading and learning the rehab exercises in preparation of Strong(er), I took some time off from the gym and the diet. My thoughts are that it was a mistake. I was reading a few weeks back on a diet website that your body gets adapted to eating the same foods day in and day out. And that you actually develop food allergies to frequently consumed foods, especially on a strict diet. So, switch it up. I relaxed my diet by drinking some sweet tea, eating a hotdog here and there, going out to eat – once at a Mexican restaurant, once at a Chinese restaurant and once at IHOP…I had pizza one night. I didn’t go completely off, I’ve maintained the no desserts, no sweets rule, although, I did have pancakes.

Last week I only went into the gym two days instead of my regular 5 or 6. Today I went back to my regular chest work out and it was difficult. My numbers were down. No PR’s today. Also, I’ve felt like I have no energy. The straying on my diet has caused me to lose my energy and that has caused my workouts to suffer, thus the feeling of not wanting to work out. I’m feeling sore and tight all over. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s easy to scrub a month of progress in a week of poor diet and skipping workouts. I don’t feel rejuvenated and better for it. In fact, I feel the complete opposite. This week is going to require me to force myself into the gym, I will likely be sore because of the time off and my diet must be reigned back in. I hope my numbers will return shortly. BTW, I don’t buy the article about the food allergies and the need to rotate foods. Variety is good, yes. But look at Clarence Bass’ work. He’s had many staples he’s stuck with for decades. I’ve never heard him mention a food allergy because of it.