Survival of the Fittest

Today’s post was written by Charlotte Hilton Andersen, brilliant and charming host of The Great Fitness Experiment. If you’re not familiar with her blog, check it out immediately for a no-holds-barred account of her approach to fitness, which consists of doing something spanking-new every 30 days. (This month’s fitness experiment? Kettlebells. I love me some kettlebells.) Here, she explains the method to her madness.

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HEALTH AND FITNESS ARE really very simple. Lift heavy weights. Except that cardio is the secret to burning fat. Lots of protein fills you up. But vegetarians live longer. Don’t take supplements because nature is best. Except for Vitamin D, B6, calcium, magnesium, iron and Omega-3’s. Eat whole foods. But buy these specially formulated, packaged (and expensive) health foods. Listen to your body to know when you are hungry. So here are ten tips to conquer cravings.

Catch all that? No? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have 28 hours a day to read all the latest health and fitness research? So how do you know what works? And just because it works for someone else, does that mean it will work for you? You can’t know. Unless you try it yourself.

It was from this mental schizophrenic rambling that The Great Fitness Experiment was born. I decided to go from gym rat to lab rat, taking on a new Fitness Experiment every month to try and separate the hypertrophy from the just plain hype.

Over the course of a year I have learned one important lesson: Every reasonable workout works. Until it doesn’t. It turns out that the key to fitness bliss is … change. Not only is change good for all your fitness markers — I can hear your muscles screaming from here — but it also keeps the boredom away. Not to mention all the potential for public humiliation! So it is with great excitement, I bring to you:

Charlotte’s Guide To Making Your Own Fitness Experiment

1. Pick a fitness routine. Tear one out of a magazine, search one out on the Internet, ask friends and family or shell out bucks for the sweetest late-night infomercial star — just pick something. You only have to do it for 30 days (28 if it’s February!) so even those of you with commitment issues can handle this without calling in Sarah Jessica Parker and crew.

2. Make it fun. It will help if you pick something you like. After doing this for a year, I am pretty much open to trying anything I don’t have to pay for but if you are just starting out, go with a program that appeals to you. Everything will be boring to you by day 30 so don’t stress too much. And if it’s not boring? You’ve found your fitness Shangri-La and can officially become that smug person at parties who drops split times and weight sets like Disney Princesses lose parents.

3. Line up some good Gym Buddies. Not only will they motivate you to stick with it and pick you up when you’re down — both literally and figuratively — but they are invaluable for tasks like deciphering weird exercise pictures, loading the weight bar evenly, and even shielding you so can pick a quick wedgie. Yep, they’re great. And no, you can’t have mine; they’re taken. Although I do have a pretty sweet crew, if I do say so myself. My right-hand girl is Gym Buddy Allison (a.k.a. Good Sport Allison). She is the ideal Gym Buddy: She will try anything I throw at her, keeps the complaining to a minimum and is always good for a laugh when I drop a weight plate on my foot. Not to mention she’s freakishly strong. Then there is Gym Buddy Mike, a former competitive hammer thrower (10 points for anyone who watched that event on the Olympics!) who coaches us in proper technique for all the Olympic lifts. Plus he always carries jelly beans. Who doesn’t love that? Gym Buddy Megan is our pace dog and runs our butts into the ground. She’s also good at keeping your treadmill running while you sprint to the bathroom to take care of your runner’s tummy. Everyone needs a friend like that. Gym Buddy Jerry is in charge of witty one-liners, Gym Buddy Shalome bends us into burritos and no one can forget Turbo Jennie — official cardio butt kicker and the only girl who can make me bounce like Beyonce.

4. Get a sense of humor. When you change your routine this much, you’re not going to be great at everything. You want to be the best? Great, stick to your sport and call me when your knees blow out. The rest of us just have to accept that failure comes with the territory. There will be Experiments that you hate. And there will be Experiments that hate you. It’s all about the learning, and if you can laugh at yourself then you won’t cry. Not that I’ve ever cried over an Experiment. Ahem.

5. Track your stats. Here’s where the science part comes in. If you don’t write it down — and by “it” I mean everything — then you will never know what works. Memories lie, number don’t. Decide what is important to you (and it had better be more than just weight) and then keep a workout journal. It isn’t about “progress” or even “accountability” — it’s about seeing which types of exercises your body responds to and how. The Gym Buddies and I track weight, inches (chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf and arm), body fat percentage, weight loads and reps, one-rep maxes, pull-ups, and fast mile and sprint times. It’s all in the details.

Everyone is a researcher of their own body. The trick is to be conscious of it. Make a plan and then chart your data. It’ll either make you the world’s biggest fitness geek or a really fit human being. Or both. Either way, you can sit at my table in the cafeteria.

Intrigued? Motivated? Just want to watch someone else get snapped in the face with a resistance band so you can have a good giggle? Come join the Gym Buddies and I over at The Great Fitness Experiment as we squat like Sumo wrestlers, hoo-ah like Navy Seals, bend it like ballerinas and get hemorrhoids like Olympic weight lifters. We can always use a new test subject!

I realize I’ve been all over the map lately, topic-wise, but hey, I did say I’d be compiling a hodgepodge of fitness information here. Therefore, it’s totally reasonable to transition from kvetching about the color selection of women’s trainers to posting an interview with one of the biggest names in the fitness biz.

Here, Michael Boyle, author of Functional Training for Sports: Superior Conditioning for Today’s Athlete (Human Kinetics, 2004), strength and conditioning coach for Boston University men’s hockey team, and founder of the hugely informative Web site www.strengthcoach.com, has been gracious enough to answer a few questions on — surprise, surprise — a wide range of mostly unrelated topics.

For more of his wisdom within this blog, see here, here and here.

JS: What are a few of the most common misconceptions you encounter when training athletes (i.e., what do you have to talk people out of doing all the time)?

MB: Number one is steady-state cardio work. I think it borders on useless for all but the most unfit. To me, steady state is for beginners who can’t tolerate intervals yet, or for recovery days. I think team-sport athletes should do almost no steady state work. For fitness enthusiasts, maybe twice a week at most.

Number two is lifting with light weights. I laugh at people who lift these little dumbbells out of fear of getting “too big.” It takes tremendous work to build muscles. What I want to say to most people is, “Don’t worry, you won’t work hard enough to build muscle anyway.”

JS: What are some basic pre-hab concepts athletes shouldn’t skip (but often do)?

MB: Athletes should foam roll to improve tissue quality and then stretch for tissue length. We need to take better care of our muscles. [Ed note: For some foam rolling stretches, check out “On a Roll” in the Experience Life November 2007 archives.]

JS: Best exercises to reduce your 40 time?

MB: Some variation of the squat. The 40 is about getting a bigger engine. In the simplest sense, a bigger engine (stronger muscles) equals more speed.

JS: Best agility exercises to improve change of direction?

MB: I’m not a big agility guy, but I think single leg plyos with stability emphasis are key. Lateral bounds with a one-second pause in a 2 to 30 degree knee bend are a great place to start.

JS: Most common dysfunction/imbalance/inflexibility in the body?

MB: Tight lateral hamstrings. It’s very difficult to get a good hamstring stretch. Most people end up stretching their low back instead of their hamstrings. Don’t flex the trunk when you stretch the hams. [See the photo below for Boyle’s recommendation for a hamstrings stretch that keeps your back decidedly not rounded.]

JS: What do you think is the best way for an overweight athlete to drop body fat without losing much muscle?

MB: Simple: Eat better. If it’s white, skip it. No bread, no cereal, no pasta, no rice. I would advocate grain-free for weight loss and reduced grain for general health. Corn and high fructose corn syrup have become the number one source of calories in our diet. Guess what — corn is a grain, not a vegetable. [Ed note: And the girl from Iowa bursts into tears …]

JS: How much barefoot training do you incorporate into your training programs?

MB: We don’t do much barefoot for practical reasons — it just takes time to get shoes on and off, etc. We do recommend less constructed shoes like the Reebok Smoothfit series and the Nike Free.

JS: Who do you ask when you don’t know the answer to a fitness question?

MB: Depends on the topic. For exercise physiology stuff, I go to a guy named Chris Frankel. Very smart guy. Works for the company that makes the TRX system.

For injury stuff, I ask orthopedic physical therapist Dan Dyrek. I have dubbed him my “smartest man no one has heard of.”

JS: Other thoughts?

MB: I don’t think training changes much. I think kettlebells are here to stay. I think some of the bootcamp and Biggest Loser stuff is irresponsible.

[photo credit: mil8]

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 …

Thanks to an oh-so-brief kettlebell workout yesterday morning, I’m feeling a little more fatal than fatale today. (I knew that was going to happen!)

Luckily, I have The Stick (pictured above) and my trusty foam roller handy to break up the mess in my muscles.

These myofascial-release tools are useful even when I’m not sore — actually, especially then, because it’s easier to distinguish “hot spots” (especially tight or knotted tissue) from general tenderness.

They do inflict some degree of pain during use, though. Especially to my piriformis and ilitotibial (IT) bands.

But it’s worth it. This guy knows what I’m sayin’.

To get the scoop on a range of myofascial-release techniques, see “Deep Release,” available in the July/August 2007 EL archives, and “On a Roll,” from the November 2007 issue.

You know who else uses foam rollers? Ninjas, apparently.

(Photo credit: Kim Magrini)

Over the last few years, I’ve grappled with injuries, motivation and the dawning realization that I might be entering the twilight of this particular phase of my athletic career. That is, I may eventually want to find a sport that isn’t full contact. Eventually.

Since the 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cup, where I was a traveling reserve for the U.S. squad, I’ve been playing less rugby than I used to. Prior to that, I often played year-round; sometimes on as many as seven teams, counting select-sides and national team events.

But looking back, I can see where I sacrificed my fitness to avoid burnout, and over the past three years, I’ve basically ground to a halt on the fitness front.

That’s disappointing to me on a personal and professional level — I constantly delve into the world of fitness on behalf of the magazine, and I love learning about new concepts, so it’s time I start applying them to my own life again. After all, one cannot subsist on practice and games alone.

I suspect the trick will be in the reinvention process. I’m not done with rugby, by any means, but I’ve got to find something else I can’t wait to do — something that will get me in prison shape, preferably.

I’ve got friends who have broad interests and are masters of reinvention, whereas I tend to throw myself into my chosen sport with a single-mindedness that comes in handy when attempting to reach a specific goal, but is less valuable from a diversification perspective.

So the real question is, what else can I be? (Accepting suggestions….)

So far, two potential options:
1) A martial artist? A sign about a submission grappling class captured my attention the other day. (So much for finding a sport that isn’t full contact.)

2) Or maybe a trail runner? I’ve been tempted to hit the trail more often since we published Dimity McDowell’s article on the topic in April 2006. I’ve enjoyed trail running the few times I’ve done it, and if it holds true that this version of running is kinder on the joints, I just may have a shot.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The trick for now, I think, is to just try a bunch of things and see what sticks.

To that end, on Sunday I went for a long walk in the woods alongside gorgeous Wissahickon Creek, part of Philadelphia’s 9,200-acre Fairmount Park. Last night I ran — well, shuffled — a couple miles around South Philly, and on the docket for tonight is at least part of the Pavel Tsatsouline DVD From Russia With Tough Love: Pavel’s Kettlebell Workout for a Femme Fatale (Dragon Door, 2003).

I have a hunch the woods might stick.