Dominating my Monday

Today started my week off rather well. It was the first official group run– which consisted of myself and a fellow Iraq veteran and professional bad ass. We ran a good four miles through the Bangor City Forest’s east trail, the Veazie Railroad Bed and the Bangor Land Trust. I was feeling good by the end.

This afternoon, I hit the gym and to spice things up, tried my hand at some German Volume Training (more to follow on this.) My muscles are twitching and I’m cooking up some delicious, protein/calorie packed burgers to build on to my muscle. The idea behind GVT is to complete 10 sets of 10 repetitions with the amount of weight. I started my week off with chest and back.

I loaded up a barbell with 105lbs and managed to choke out 10 sets bench presses, but started slipping my last four when I could only push out seven or eight at a time. I then moved onto my back exercise and successfully completed 10 sets of five with 135lbs on the bent-over barbell row.I stopped there with my GVT exercises and then moved onto three sets of 15 regular push ups and 3 sets of 3 chin-ups. That pretty much did it for me and now it’s time to recover.

Any of you guys lift weights out there? If so, what are your lifting goals and what are your favorite exercises? Let me know in the comments section!

Back to the Gym

Today, I went to Planet Fitness with intents to cancel my membership– which I did. But before I did so, I decided to do a fitness test on myself to see if I’d lost any strength in the past five months of not lifting weights. I tested myself in the Bench Press, The Squat and Straight-leg dead lift. When I was was working on strength this January I was able to bench press 205lbs, squat 245lbs, and dead lift 245lbs. Today I went in with the intent to do five reps of the exercise take a break and move up in weight.Once I felt like I could not comfortably do five good repetitions, I would stop. My scores are as follows–

Squat

5@135#

5@155#

5@175#

5@185#

4@205#

Bench press

5@135#

5@155#

5@165#

5@175#

Straight-leg deadlift

5@135#

5@165#

5@185#

5@205#

I’m a little rusty, but it’s good to see I haven’t lost too much strength since the beginning of the year. My membership for PF officially runs out on 17AUG so I think I’m going to challenge myself to see how much I can bring up my strength from now til then. Should be a fun experiment! I also weighed in at 172lbs today, which is also great considering I’ve eaten like crap over the past two weeks. Tomorrow will be a run day.

Independence Day Run!

Good Morning!

We’re going to be holding a group run at 6:00am on Wednesday, July 4th in honor of Independence Day! Anyone is welcome for an easy five or so miles. If you’ve never run five miles before Wednesday is as good a day as any to start!

You’ll be among good friends and an encouraging community. The Group is only as fast as it’s slowest runner!

We will meet at the Kitteridge Road entrance to the Bangor City Forest at 6:00 and get going shortly after that! Hope you can make it!

If there any questions or comments, feel free to ask me and I will clarify anything you need!

 

 

Why I Wake Up Early and How You Can Start Doing It Too!

Besides nutrition, the biggest obstacle I’ve encountered in my workouts is waking up early and leaving my foxy girlfriend all warm in our bed to go workout. Most days it just feels better to get that extra hour or two of sleep. Yesterday while running the Bangor City Forest at 0500 I came up with as many reasons as I could to justify getting up early to get my run in.

Early Morning is the best time of day!

Think about it– all day someone is after you to do something, whether it’s your boss at work who needs you to do something, your cat that needs food or friends asking things of you except for that golden alone time during the early morning hours where most of the world is still asleep. It’s just you, a cup of coffee and whatever you want to do for that time.

You have the opportunity to see the world as it gets light out, smell the morning air and have your thoughts to yourself without interruption. There’s nothing like running in the morning with the sun rising over the trees and knowing that before most people even wake up I’ve already covered six miles and had my coffee. Win? I think so.

You Can Fit More into Your Day

I used to think that it was stupid in basic training that we had to get up at zero-dark-thirty in the morning (approximately 4:30am for those who don’t know) just so we could do PT and clean. I now understand it. It doesn’t feel like there’s enough hours in a day when I work to go for a run and make it to my job. By waking up that extra hour or two earlier, I can fit in a complete workout, shower/shave, and have breakfast for my lady with ample time to make it to work.  Fitting more into your day also entails discipline. It takes a hell of a lot more discipline to wake up early and start accomplishing your mission than it does to sleep in and figure it out as you go.

Waking up earlier also gives you time to mentally prepare for the day. Instead of stumbling out of bed a half hour before work and not being mentally alert or awake you can get up early, sit down, brew some coffee or steep some tea, take time to enjoy it and think about things.

You can have more energy throughout the day

I’ve found that when I wake up early to run and do my warrior diet ritual, I’m not tired. I’m always mentally alert and cheerful. For me a lot of it has to do with the sense of accomplishment of getting more down before people wake up than most people do in a day. It’s a good feeling. The other aspect is the Warrior Diet itself. If I workout then eat a small breakfast with hardboiled eggs, fruits and coffee I find myself ready to go for the day. Not only that, working out has been shown to boost your mood and energy! (who’d have thunk it?)

How I Wake Up Early

If you have a hard time waking up, try setting your alarm ten minutes earlier every day until you reach the desired time you want to wake up every day. It might also help if you set the clock across the room where it forces you to get out of bed and go shut it off. But once you reach our desired time to wake up– don’t sleep in throughout the week. Eventually, waking up early will be come habit and sleeping in two or three days a week could ruin all the work you put into it! If you’re waking up early to workout, it’s more of a motivator to set your workout clothes right by your bed so that they’re waiting for you to get up and go!

The biggest thing that helps me get up and stay up is my morning ritual. I don’t mess with my phone or computer or anything until it’s complete, just so I can get that time to myself to completely wake up. I believe a morning ritual is something that everyone should have to help prepare themselves for the day. This is how mine goes.

The first thing I do in the morning is let our dog outside to do her business. I’ll stand outside with her in the morning sun and I’ll drink a big glass of water to rehydrate myself after my night’s sleep. It’s amazing how good you start to feel once you get rehydrated. After the little lady does her thing, I go inside and make a cup of coffee or tea. While the coffee is brewing or the tea is steeping I stretch out all my muscles and do some quick exercises to get he blood flowing. I’ll usually go with 10 push ups, 10 body squats and 10 5 lunges on each leg.

After stretching I sit down while listening to my running tunes and really take the time to slow down and enjoy my cup of coffee. I’ve found that if I’m able to do this then it’s easy to think throughout the day and take time to relax instead of stress out more. Only once I complete those tasks do I feel alert and oriented enough to get up and go conduct my workout. From there it’s just a matter of personal hygiene and dressing myself (which is sometimes a challenge.)The key to waking up early is find the routine that helps you out the most as well as easing into waking up earlier if you’re new to it.

What do you do for your morning routine?

Mid June Update

So, I’ve been absent from the blogging world for a hot minute, but I’ve returned. I’m still working out and following my warrior diet (for the most part.) I’m proud to announce that I fit back into my post-deployment (when I was skinnier) army uniform and my strength has stayed the same, if not improved over the past week and a half.

I’ve also launched my Warrior Trail Runner project on Facebook and have scheduled the first group run for this friday. Things are going well and I will be back more frequently from this point on.

Lastly, what are you guys doing to keep your workouts fresh and interesting this summer?

Warrior Diet Progress

Quick progress update. After a week of the warrior diet (complete with a cheat day! :x) I am down from 180lbs. to 168lbs. I’ve noticed no decrease in physical energy and though I still succumb to wanting to eat more than fruits and veggies during the day, I’m getting a lot better. There’s also been no decrease in my physical strength. I can run just the same as I did on a normal diet and my push-up an ab exercise pyramids are still going well.

Eating right is the hardest part for me, but I’m determined to make that push. Finally, progress pictures. It ain’t much, but it’s a start and that’s what matters.

Taken on May 14th, 2012. No real diet happening at the time.

Taken June 14th, 2012. One week of warrior diet

Progress and Revelations

Since starting this blog, I feel like I’ve learned many things about fitness and goal setting. It’s sparked my use of the Warrior Diet again and in turn, over the past week I’ve lost 10lbs. Not too shabby. I’m still overcoming the hunger and wanting to eat a lot during the day, but I expect that will disappear soon.

After starting my Warrior Trail Runner Fitness Challenge, I’ve realized many things. The first and most important being that I suck at goal setting. After some reflection, I’ve identified some of my major road blocks.

MAKING EXCUSES

How many times have you caught yourself going for a run or to the gym one day and then thinking

“That was awesome! I’m going to work out five days a week!” 

Not so much, huh? Me either. Something always comes up. I always manage to find awesome excuses to not work, not eat right or procrastinate. (I could be cleaning right now, but I’m doing this. Don’t tell my girlfriend!)

Anyway, I’ve gotten better at managing my time, and I get more stuff done now. My workouts are more numerous and more consistent. It comes down to discipline and making sure the manly thing is being done. The key to discipline is integrity. Start doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. Otherwise you just don’t make progress. It’s up to you. I’ve been doing it enough.

PLANNING

I often times exercise the Three P’s. Piss Poor Planning. I set off with WAY too many goals in mind, over zealous and thinking I can conquer the world. Recently, I’ve learned it’s about small victories. Instead of vowing to workout every day AND eat well, try to start with just eating right, or eating one good meal a day. Soon, one decent meal will turn into three decent meals a day and that one workout a week could turn into three or four workouts. Wars aren’t won in one battle. There are small objectives that need to be met for a total victory.

FIND A WORKOUT PARTNER

For the past month or so, I’ve been working out alone. My real workout partner fractured a rib, So I’ve been going at it alone. It’s less motivating sometimes, but I’ve always enjoyed working out by myself. Recently, my girlfriend and I got a little female Border Aussie and she’s my new partner. We went for a four mile run the other day and most of the time, she smoke me. She outran me and was good to go as long as she got to drink some water from the river and got to swim. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

TIME CONSTRAINTS

My biggest thing is setting time constraints. I was stupid to think I could make a total body change in eight weeks with all the excuse making, lack of planning and set backs I’ve had. The WTR Fitness Challenge is still on. It will continue to go until I’ve met my aforementioned goals. Sometimes setting a deadline works for me, but until I am awesome at time management, it just won’t work. So, I will not worry about time, but dammit, I will complete my mission. I challenge you to do the same! Nothing can hold you back from your goals unless you decide something will. What are you waiting for? Start making those changes today!

                     Pictured: Truth

Link

This past Tuesday I found myself in the parking lot of Planet Fitness trying to will myself to go inside for a workout. After thinking about people peddling nowhere on stationary bikes and walking on treadmills for an hour while watching day-time TV, I cringed. I thought about the creepy guys in muscle shirts who try for nothing but awkward eye contact with females and that one dude who will wait until everyone in the gym is looking before  going and lifting something heavy for ten seconds only to rest for the next five minutes. You know exactly who I mean.

Just the thought of experiencing all the horrors of the commercial gym scared me out of training on Tuesday and I called it a day off after Monday’s seven mile run and three-mile ruck march.But, yesterday I began to come up with a playground workout routine and pictures will follow shortly! Just to give you an idea of what my training plan is going to be, because there will be days when I can’t make it out to the forest for trail running and log drills, I have come up with several ideas for workouts that can be done on most any child’s playground.

The idea will be to train three to four days a week to start off with so I can get my body back in the idea of building muscle because I haven’t done much strength training in roughly two months. The playground I started to work out on is only a short distance from my house, so when I’m pressed for time getting my morning exercise I’ll just go to the park and smoke myself for a bit!

The first workout I tried was a total body circuit and for right now it will be called simply “Workout A” until I can get creative to come up with a better name! I warmed up with an approximately .3 mile run to the playground and did some dynamic stretching. I then completed three rounds of:

X10 decline push-ups (utilizing a park bench)

X2 good pull-ups (using a wider bar to work my grip, I’m also starting off focusing on form over repetitions.)

X5 triceps dips

X25 sit-ups or crunches

X2 approx. 10m trips of lunges on and incline/decline

The way I see it working out is this will eventually become more of a warm-up for me and I’ll graduate onto greater things, like what I am calling the Unholy One Hundred which is-

X5 Close hands push-ups

X10 regular push-ups

X3 wide-grip pull-ups

X2 trip crossing monkey bars with core flexed.

X5 close-hand pull-ups (reverse and false grip and hands thumb-width apart to work the biceps)

and repeat three more times for a total of 100 repetitions.

Who needs a commercial gym to get ripped? I’m going to start a challenge that anyone’s welcome to try with me! I want to get ridiculously fit using only playground equipment and outdoor exercises (trail runs, biking, log drills etc.) Along with all my progress with the warrior trail runner group, I will be posting updates of my urban fitness challenge. I will post pictures of my current body composition, I will log my nutrition and workout data and give report to how things are going.

My goals for the end of these eight weeks are as follows:

-Lose 10lbs. of fat in eight weeks.

-Be able to do 10 GOOD pull-ups consecutively.

-Be able to do 60 Good push-ups consecutively.

– Eating a mostly if not entirely paleolithic diet.

– Be measurably more self-disciplined physically and mentally.

Who’s joining me?

So, tomorrow morning I will kick my day off with either a run or playground work out weather dependant. Pictures and full workouts will be updated soon! It’s time to get this thing rolling! Lastly, let’s take a look at a little motivation, huh? I listen to this before I do anything awesome. No matter what.

Powerful Beyond Measure II

WTR Progress and a favorite workout!

It’s been a decently long week and I’m ready for rest. Unfortunately, I’ll only have about 10 hours rest from the time I get out of of my nine to five job and head down to Southern Maine to fulfill my Army Reserve Duties. For the Warrior Trail Runner, progress has been slow and it’s been a doing of my own. I find that I take a reactive approach to marketing instead of a proactive or aggressive approach. Today, I changed that. I have the first flyers printed out for WTR and hope to distribute them Monday and get some feedback through out the week.

On a much different note, it’s been a good week for trail running and keeping healthy the spirit of the adventurer. I’ve travelled an approximately meager sixteen miles by foot this week, but I’ve also accomplished awesome things with awesome friends. I’ve been through the cloud cover atop a frigid Cadillac Mountain, through rocky gorges, sloshed through knee-deep water and mud in the greater Bangor area and brought out one of my favorite workouts of all time–

THE RUCK MARCH!

Outside of military circles, you may recognize ruck marching as throwing a backpack on and filling it with heavy things and then walking for awhile at a brisk pace. It may not seem hard, but I guarantee you– a 30lb. pack for 4 miles will wear you down. Too easy? Go ahead and pack more weight in there.

(disclaimer: don’t actually do it if you’re not medically qualified, I take no responsibility for uncalculated risks to yourself.)

In any case, aside from weekly regimin of trail runs, log drills and body-weight exercises, I will again be adding in ruck marches to the mix for some variety! It’s too easy to do. You go out and get a relatively strong bag and fill it with rocks wrapped in a towel or old blanket because you don’t want the rocks to rub up against your pack and wear it down. It happens.

Your body expends a lot of energy to keep you going, to keep your core straight and not to mention it’s a great back workout. I was definitely feeling it the next day! So, if you’re feeling up to it, load your ruck up and go out for an hour and tell me what you think!

 What would you do to add to to the intensity or make it a better workout?