New Year, New You

January 10th, 2011



1)     
5 ROUNDS FOR TIME OF:



10 BURPEES (DROP TO FLOOR FOR 1
PUSH-UP, BACK TO STANDING AND JUMP UP TO CLAP HANDS OVER HEAD = 1 REP, THEN
DROP TO FLOOR AGAIN….)



ALTERNATING
LUNGES X 10 EACH LEG

Work out of the Week

December 1st, 2010

RUN 1 MILE

PERFORM 15 ROUNDS OF THE FOLLOWING:

5 PUSH-UPS

10 SIT UPS

15 SQUATS

RUN 1 MILE

Workout of the Week

November 23rd, 2010

This week:

3 rounds for time of:

Row 1000m

21 Thrusters

18m Bear Crawl

Enjoy, I know you will.

Workout of the Week

November 3rd, 2010

Hello again, here is this weeks workout:

Do 3 rounds of the following for total repetitions:

1 min “cardio” (count calories)

1 min wall ball (count number of reps)

1 min kettlebell or dumbbell swings (count number of reps)

1 min rest .

add up your total reps for your score from all 3 rounds!

“Cardio” can be 1 minute on a treadmill, bike or cross trainer, or skipping, or even running on the spot fast.

Wall ball can be done with a Medicine ball or even a light ball of little weight, like a pilates ball.

Enjoy, and remember, ain’t nothing to it but to do it.

Fitness and women

October 20th, 2010

Like I always say, you should train for improving performance and not for looking good. There are so many myths regarding women and weights resulting from industry brainwashing. This article is a good place to start debunking those myths:

http://www.oaklandcountycrossfit.com/?p=1744

Workout of the Week

October 16th, 2010

From now on I’ll try to add a workout of the week for you to try…see how you fare with this!

Two exercises, Squats and sit-ups, where each round has a total of 21 repetitions. Starting with 20 squats and 1 sit-up work you way down

to 1 squat and 20 sit-ups, like so:

20 Squats, 1 Sit-up

19 Squats, 2 Sit-ups

18 Squats, 3 Sit-ups

17 Squats, 4 Sit-ups

3 Squats, 18 Sit-ups

2 Squats, 19 Sit-ups

1 Squat, 20 Sit-ups

Record your time, and post them to comments!

Stick a Fork in Me…

October 6th, 2010

…I’m done. And by that I mean that my 1 month Paleo challenge is over. So what did I learn from it?

On www.fitday.com I entered 1 sample day of my Paleo nutrition, and the calorie breakdown was the following (this is one particular day that is fairly representative of most days, except I had more red meat and sat fats this day than on other days where I ate more fish):

  • A total of 2696 calories.
  • Fat 59% (Saturated: 16%, Polyunsaturated 13%, Monounsaturated 24%)
  • Carbohydrates 16%, no sugars and dietary fibre about 30% of this 16%.
  • Protein 25%
  • Alcohol 0%

Ok fine, but what does that mean? Well, some quick observations. I abstained from dairy products, sugars, and refined carbs such as bread and pasta. I am taking A LOT of fats, probably too much. Yet I lost around 2Kg in the 1 month period. For those that still believe fats are bad for you, think again. However, I may reduce the amount slightly “going forward”.

Carbohydrates: Well, only 16% of my total intake that day. All from fruit (pears, bananas, blueberries, mandarins) and raw veg (lettuce, broccoli, yellow peppers, avocado, cherry tomatoes). I can easily survive without bread, pasta, rice etc that is not allowed on the Paleo diet. I completely cut out sugars.

Protein: Roughly one quarter of my diet was protein. Looking to the future, I need to increase this with lean meat, chicken and fish, in order to increase my muscle mass which is one of my aims. I thought that I had increased it sufficiently this month, but apparently not! I would like the figure to be around 30% at least. I did eat a little bit too much red meat. The arguments over saturated fat go on, so for the moment I will cut down on red meat and increase lean white meat and fish.

Alcohol: 0% on this day, but I did drink alcohol on 2 days during the challenge. I had some wine on a night in with friends, and wine and beer at a wedding 2 weeks ago. So I didn’t manage to stay off alcohol for the entire month, but didn’t worry about it either as sometimes you got to live a little and not go completely overboard.

Fitday is a great tool to measure your calories, as I mentioned, but also to give you a breakdown on vitamins and minerals intake. Interesting points with my nutrition were as follows:

Vitamin A: I had only 42% of RDA (recommended daily allowance). Vit A can be found in cod liver oil (I def don’t get enough of this), eggs and dairy products. Seeing as I was off dairy products, I am not surprised this was low for me. However, I do eat plenty of veg and thought that this would cover my requirements for most vitamins and minerals. Vit A is found in mostly in your red/orange/yellow vegetables and while I eat yellow peppers and sometimes carrots, I obviously need more variety. Variety is vital.

Vitamin D: 0% RDA on this particular day, although I did eat eggs. This to me seems inaccurate, and I am not too worried as on most other days I ate plenty oily fish and eggs which should give me enough. Like most Irish people, I’m not going to get enough Vit D from sunshine unless the global warming gathers pace (finger’s crossed).

Calcium: Only 51% RDA. Calcium is found of course in dairy products but also spinach, oranges, nuts, beans and peas, sesame seeds and green leafy veg. I ate plenty green leafy veg, but obviously not enough to make up for the lack of dairy products. Something I’ll have to be mindful of.

Summary:

Overall, I would say that the challenge was a big success for me. Planning and organising the meals was more difficult and time consuming, and of course following paleo nutrition can be socially awkward (“AAAaaawwwkward!). But the benefits I felt, more than made up for it. The biggest benefits were:

  1. Feeling much more comfortable post-meals, no bloating or ahem, discomfort.
  2. I felt a clearer mind after meals, no tiredness or brain fog.
  3. I became more lean with less effort. My body fat % went down, although just to reiterate losing weight was not a goal for me. I was training less regularly than before the challenge due to moving house etc.
  4. I really have become a lover of fruit and veg. I thought there were some veg I hated, now after trying them again I love them i.e. tomatoes, avocados.
  5. I am not under the control of sugary foods and crappy snacks! I can leave them alone, not having them around in your cupboards in the first place is the most important thing.

So what now… well I’m taking this week to myself to eat whatever I like but I will then return to strict Paleo. Strict, albeit with flexibility for those 10% of occasions when its just easier to relax.

Workout of the Week

September 29th, 2010

Ok folks try this one for size:

For time:

50 Squats

Run 400m

50 Push-Ups

Run 400m

50 Tricep Dips

Run 400m

50 Sit Ups

Run 400m

50 Back Extensions

Run 400m

400m sprint runs interspersed with high rep body weight exercises. For those with tight shoulders, reduce the push-up reps and make sure you work on some shoulder mobility exercises to loosen them up regularly over time.

I find this a GREAT song to run to….

Once you find a space to run, or use your gym/home treadmill, get going! Post your times to comments

Week 3 Paleo Challenge

September 17th, 2010

Hello again folks, its been a few days since I last posted and you may be wondering how I’m getting on with my Paleo Challenge.

All is going well I must say. I experienced some minor headaches about a week ago that lasted for about 36 hours on and off but other than that its plain sailing! I’m still feeling better, often sated and never bloated. I’ve had a few challenges though…and some coming up. The challenge of eating at friends, of eating at a wedding….and what to do about alcohol. Why oh why did cavement not drink alcohol. I’ve been trying to find a way around this for a special occasion or two and I’ve deluded, I mean decided that sulphur-free red wine will be Ok. Its more Paleo than beers, and until such time as I learn to make my own Paleo friendly beer, it’ll have to do!

I can see now, with 17 days under my belt, that this style of nutrition really suits. I’m going to keep it up after the one month challenge, albeit not entirely strictly. I’ll allow myself those damned refined carbohydrates on special occasions and when eating at friends etc. I can’t be a fringe lunatic all the time…!

Until next time.

What is CrossFit?

September 10th, 2010

More and more people are asking me about this…What is CrossFit? Its great. I’ll let the video below explain.