Survival of the Fittest

Part of working out is getting a little funky, but still, smelling bad is the pits (ha). And high temperatures plus hard workouts means I’m having trouble finding a deodorant that works quite as hard as I’d like it to. If you don’t mind, I’d like to enlist your help.

My armpits used to smell like flowers. No, really. Fa brand roll-on in Spring Flower. But those of you who know me know that any time I get attached to a body-care product, it’s only a matter of time before it disappears from the shelves forever. (I have friends who refuse to share details about their favorite products lest my curse be contagious. It’s not, I swear.) I’m sure it’s partly driven by marketing and the emphasis on revamping or replacing products with what’s “new and better,” but the other part, I remain convinced, is the curse.

And so inevitably, several years back, my favorite Fa scent vanished. The representative I spoke with at the time assured me their “Sensitive” fragrance was the same product in new packaging, but my armpits begged to differ. So, I bought every remaining bottle of the old stuff still left in their warehouse. (Thank you, Dad, for my tendency to hoard.)

SINCE MY SUPPLY RAN OUT, I’ve tried to think of it as a blessing in disguise. After all, Fa lists potentially cancer-causing aluminum as an ingredient.

Lately, I’ve been using the Thai Crystal Deodorant Stone. And it works. Sometimes, anyway. (Sometimes on one side and not the other, which is baffling. I generally consider myself competent enough to apply evenly.)

But I wonder if there’s a better product right under my nose.

So I’m asking you to take pity (or “pitty,” as it were) on me and share what you use to stay smelling sweet through the sweatiest of times. Men’s or women’s formula, I don’t care. Just leave your recommendations in the comments section.

On a marginally related note, Charlotte of the fabulous blog The Great Fitness Experiment recently shared a very funny account of a diaper-laundering incident gone wrong in “Poo Sniffing.” Sometimes working out stinks.

[photo by Roadsidepictures]

Pamela MacElree, founder of the blog Recipes for Performance & Fitness, sent me a new pull-up plan the other day. It’s called the Russian Pull-up Program, and was designed by one Pavel Tsatsouline, kettlebell guru (pictured at left — and I think His Sexiness is pointing at you).

His plan seems much more manageable than the Special Ops Plan we chatted about in April. Downright doable, in fact!

Click on this link to download a PDF of the Russian Pull-Up Program.

Hey, has anyone made progress on their pull-ups? I’ve gone from two to five. Not bad, but I’m looking for more.

[Zoey and Ellie: BFFs. Photo credit: Lisa Dombroski]

Today is Take Your Dog to Work Day, which Erica pointed out in the comments section of the CrossFit Philly blog yesterday. But if taking yer pooch to work isn’t possible, consider making him or her your workout buddy.

“Forty percent of pet dogs are overweight or obese. That’s close to thirty million dogs in the United States alone dealing with health implications of weight problems … like diabetes, heart problems, aching joints, difficulty breathing, intolerance of exercise, even an increased risk of cancer,” according to Fitness Unleashed!: A Dog and Owner’s Guide to Losing Weight and Gaining Health Together by Marty Becker, DVM, and Robert Kushner, MD. So gradually amping up the exercise is good for both of you.

Many of you are already out there with Buffy, Fluffy and Spike. According to this Fit Sugar post, which cites research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, dog owners walk an average of 300 minutes per week, whereas folks without dogs only walk around 168 minutes.

Co-owners of Thank Dog Boot Camp, Jill and Jamie Bowers (don’t you love aptonyms?), have based a business on the concept of working out with your doggie friend, and I think they’re on to something. Lately, I’ve been working out early in the morning with a group of friends, and taking the pooches pictured above for a trail run by Wissahickon Creek afterward. Their sheer joy in being unleashed upon nature is almost enough to make me forget about the pain and tightness in my lower calves. Almost. (But on my to-do list is getting my gait checked out, because something is up. Jogging should not be so painful.)

LASTLY, I CAME ACROSS AN ARTICLE about the very cool Seattle Animal Shelter’s Get Fit With Fido program. Every Wednesday and Saturday, you can volunteer to run adoptable dogs from the shelter on 2- to 4-mile routes. The volunteers wear bright yellow, and the dogs wear “I’m available for adoption” banners.

The program has been so successful that there’s a spinoff (kind of like “Private Practice“) called the SAS Annual Furry 5K, where 2,500 runners/walkers, 1,000 dogs, and one “very brave” (or very stupid?) cat participate in a five-kilometer event each June to raise money for the Help the Animals Fund. Looks like the race was last Sunday, but there’s always next year to do your doggone duty.

Yesterday, my friend Lesha sent me this speed-training video. The quality is blah, but the content is great — lots of good ideas for drills. I think I’m faster for having watched it. Or maybe it’s just my eyes.

YouTube link tohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZajP6CKhPdM

From what I can gather in the notes, the boys are hockey players from Quebec. For more information, see www.adaptsport.com. (Helps if you know French. Which I don’t.)

Points to anyone who can point out the klutzy kid. And, keep sending me fitness linky-loos! I l-l-l-like it!

Oftentimes, by the time the media gets a hold of a message, it gets blown out of proportion. OK, we blow it out of proportion. In this case, the message, “Chocolate milk is a good postworkout recovery drink,” morphed — at least in my mind — to “Chocolate milk is an ideal postworkout recovery drink.” (Probably because I really, really wanted it to be true.)

So I had a few questions after reading this June 3 post by Adam Russell, PhD, high-performance nutrition and supplementation consultant to USA Rugby, in which he poked fun at the recent New York Times article on post-workout nutrition. I was especially baffled since chocolate milk had been second on Russell’s May 28 list of suggested postworkout amino acids. As in, is this dude moody?

But no. He just wanted to clarify that chocolate milk is “good, but not perfect.” Which he elaborated upon in a third post the other day, as well as in an email to me.

Here’s what Russell has to say about why chocolate milk isn’t an ideal postworkout recovery drink:

• The major protein in milk, casein, is a slow-digesting protein, which means the gastric emptying time of chocolate milk isn’t as good as some other possibilities. And the faster you can get amino acids out of the small intestine and into the bloodstream during the recovery phase, the better it is for insulin response and protein synthesis.

• The types of carbs in milk aren’t as fast-delivering as some other sources; namely, the ones in Surge and Vitargo.

• There’s potential for lactose intolerance in a significant portion of the population.

• Many commercial milks are sweetened using poor-quality sugars (and in the case of high-fructose corn syrup [HFCS], downright dangerous). Folks who work out really hard can get away with HFCS on occasion, but we’re talking high-intensity interval and strength and conditioning training. Given that some folks think of walking up a flight of stairs is a workout, adding more cheap sugars to their diets could be a very, very bad thing for most of America.

So what does the job better than chocolate milk?

Surge and Vitargo are two examples. And adding whey protein isolate to the latter may be better yet.

But chocolate milk is still a decent option, right?

Yes. It does the job better than most crap out there, it’s cheaper (although milk isn’t as cheap as it used to be) and you don’t have to think very hard about it. So pay your taxes, be nice, and at the very least drink chocolate milk after a moderate- to high-intensity workout.

[photo by russeljsmith]

It has come to my attention through a number of conversations I’ve had with people since posting “Stretching the Truth?” a couple weeks ago that some of you from the lazybutt camp are taking select bits of information and running with them. Or rather, you’re running with them and not stretching afterwards. If what you got out of my first post was “I never have to stretch again!” we need to talk.

In particular, let’s review the parts you didn’t want to hear before …

• You’re right, you don’t have to do static stretching before activity (unless you’re following Mike Robertson’s acute corrective strategies). But you should do dynamic flexibility drills as they improve coordination and muscle response time.
• You should stretch right after your workout because it will help you maintain your current level of flexibility — even if it’s not that impressive. (If you don’t stretch then, you run the risk of letting the tight get even tighter.)
• To actually improve your flexibility, incorporate a general stretching program as part of your workout routine (yoga is an effective way to do it). There’s a good reason to do so — over time, adhering to a general stretching program appears to help prevent injury and boost athletic performance. Ya hear that? When muscle is stretched regularly, it becomes stronger and contracts more rapidly, resulting in increased force and speed.

Questions or comments? Stories or jokes?

Last night I saw Danny DeVito by the pretty-pretty fountain in Logan Square. He was filming an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Which has nothing to do with fitness, really, besides the fact that I was on my way home from the gym.

Best part? They had to stop shooting because it was too overcast.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while — got deadlines coming in hard and fast. Good thing I’ve been training, as I’ve been able to dodge them. (If you are reading this and you happen to be my boss, obviously I am kidding.) Ahem. On to the topic of this post: circuit training!

On the first day of the April tryout for the U.S. women’s rugby 15s team, the backs (generally thought of as the smaller, faster players) were working on footwork and agility outdoors, while the forwards (generally misrepresented as big strong brutes, but just go with it) were doing … something else inside the gym.

I didn’t concern myself with what exactly they were up to at the time — after all, we backs were busy frolicking around picking daisies, to hear the forwards tell it — but whatever it was, they looked truly wrecked afterwards. My friend Cheeks looked particularly sweaty and wild-eyed afterward, but she says that was because she got the heaviest kettlebell.

IT HAS SINCE COME TO LIGHT that the forwards were doing a killer 12-station circuit workout, and said workout is posted below, should you want to give it a go.

Clarification from Candi Orsini, assistant coach of the U.S. women’s rugby team: “The circuit the forwards did is NOT what the backs should be doing. The backs don’t need circuit training, they need SPEED training.” Duly noted. Any rugby backs reading this, don’t even think about it. All others, enjoy!

RUGBY WORK-IT CIRCUIT

There are 12 stations. Do each exercise for 35 seconds, rest 10 seconds, and repeat the exercise for another 35 seconds. You then have 10 seconds to move to next station. Make sure that you focus on your form even as you get tired (i.e., continue to engage your core and explode from the hips).

Station 1: Dumbell Pattern
• Holding a dumbbell in each hand, one arm at a time, repeat this pattern for time: overhead press, punch out at head height, punch out at chest height, uppercut

Station 2: Figure-8 Situps
• Continuous situps
• Each time you come up, move a small med ball (2 to 3 lbs.) in a figure-8 pattern around and through your legs

Station 3: Jump Rope
• Continuously jump rope; try to add some doubles and triples

Station 4: Wall Ball
• Hold ball at chest height and face a tall, bare wall
• Perform a full squat and explosively come up out of it, following through with hip thrust and throwing ball to a marked point about 10 feet overhead on wall
• Catch ball and repeat

Station 5: Air Squats
• Continuously perform bodyweight squats
• Maintain form, meaning you should drop all the way down to 90 degrees, explode back up and follow through to hip thrust

Station 6: Burpees
• Plank position, pushup, burpee with explosive jump and arms up

Station 7: Resistance Band Rows
• Stand on looped band with both feet, holding upper part in both hands
• Pull up to perform an upright row, with elbows up and out

Station 8: Toe Boxes
• Stand in front of a low plyo box; secure box against wall
• Quick toe touches between box and floor, alternating feet
• Concentrate on quick feet

Station 9: Overhead Squats with Plates
• Using plate of appropriate weight, hold plate overhead with arms fully extended, shoulders and lats engaged
• Perform continuous squats, lowering under control to 90 degrees and then rising explosively

Station 10: Side Planks
• Lie on one side on the ground, weight supported on your elbow and feet stacked together
• Engage your core and maintain body position in a straight line; switch sides

Station 11: Lunge with Plate
• Hold plate of appropriate weight at chest height, close to your body
• As you lunge forward, push plate straight out away from chest; keep knee above ankle
• Push off with front heel and stand up, pulling plate back into chest as you do

Station 12: Across-the-Floor Pushups
• As you explode up and out of a pushup, hop your hands laterally across floor
• Do 3 in each direction and repeat
• If can’t move laterally to start, practice pushing off hard enough to get air under your hands

Bonus Round: Kettlebell Swings
• 30 kettlebell swings, putting the bell back past your knees on the backswing and thrusting your hips forward on the upswing

Seriously, why were the forwards tired after that? Got questions? Answers? Comments? Share ‘em …