Popeye, Olive Oil and Roger Federer

The last major tournament of the professional tennis season is concluding this weekend at the U.S. Open in New York.

Roger Federer has made his way into the semi-finals. That is no surprise. Federer is arguably the greatest tennis player of all time. His 16 major titles including 6 Wimbledon championships and 5 consecutive U.S. Opens have made him a familiar name even to tennis newbies.

Take a few minutes to watch part of a Federer match this weekend. Not just for his grace, quickness, agility and total command of the sport. No, I actually want you to look at Federer himself. In case you can’t see a match this weekend, I’ve included a picture below.

What I want you to notice is the massive difference in the size of his left arm (bicep and forearm) and his right arm. His right arm is muscled and thick like Popeye’s. His left arm is thin and wiry like Olive Oil’s. You would never think the two arms belong to the same person.

Federer is right-handed, meaning he hits all of his shots with the racket in his right hand. For a professional player that means he is hitting literally thousands of shots every day with his right arm and doing little, if anything, with his left arm.

Federer has a huge muscular imbalance. In general, muscular imbalances are a bad thing. They cause a person to rely on the stronger muscle set and that can lead to problems in other parts of the body. For example, a person with a muscle imbalance that favors their right arm will tend to carry heavy things (a briefcase or a piece of luggage) with the stronger arm. This forces core muscles to be overused to support lifting with the right side of the body, it causes muscles in the upper back and neck on the right side to be overused and it can lead to shifting of the hips while walking. All of these can create muscle imbalances throughout the body.

For many professional athletes, imbalance is common. Baseball pitchers, golfers and others repeat the same motion over and over throughout the year to the point where they couldn’t possibly spend enough time using the opposite arm to correct the imbalance.

As a non-professional athlete, however, you need to work to keep your muscles in balance. Here are some simple tips to keep your body evenly strong and looking symmetrical.

1) Use dumbbells for strength exercises. Using machines or barbells permits one side of the body to push harder than the other. Using dumbbells isolates the same amount of weight in each hand and forces symmetrical movement during the exercise.

2) Practice performing exercises standing on one leg (once you’ve mastered the exercise on two legs). This forces each leg to strengthen and improve balance independently of the other leg.

3) When doing an exercise like a lunge, make sure you are completing a full range of motion with each stride. Many people will limit their range of motion on the weaker side.

4) Always choose an equal amount of weight for each arm when using dumbbells. Do not increase the weight until you are able to do a full range of motion with great form on each side. The strong arm may be ready to progress to a heavier weight but in the long run it is best to keep both arms progressing together.

5) Take some time off from your sport during the off-season. If you do participate in a sport that requires emphasis on a one-sided motion, make sure that during the off-season you work to bring your body back into balance. Baseball pitcher Barry Zito begins working on exercises to get his body back in balance immediately after the season ends.

If you have questions please contact Active Personal Fitness at 267.626.7478. We offer in-home personal fitness training and group exercise classes throughout Central Bucks.

If you are an area tennis player, make sure you visit 40 Love Pro Shop in Doylestown. You can earn a $75 gift certificate for our classes or personal training if you become a regular at their shop!!

Be well,

Paul

www.ActivePersonalFitness.com

Why a stopwatch is the most important piece of fitness equipment you can own

Your workout.

If you pay any attention to my blog and Facebook posts you already know what you need to do. Learn how to do squats, pushups, pullups, deadlifts and sit-ups and then run, row, jump rope and bike. When you master these movements then learn some of their advanced variations. Do these at a high level of intensity.

Intensity. It's in bold so it must be important. Why? Because speed equals intensity and intensity equals results.

How do you measure intensity?

That's where the stopwatch comes in.

Regardless of your fitness level, you can do some form or squats, pushups, pullups, deadlifts, sit-ups, running, rowing, jump roping and biking. If you need ideas on how to pick an alternative that you can do just visit my website (www.ActivePersonalFitness.com/videos.html).

"Running" a mile can look many different ways. As can doing a defined number of squats (let's say 1 set of 30). Moving your body a mile is a defined amount of work. Running that mile in 12 minutes is a different level of fitness than running it in 8 minutes. Covering the distance in less time indicates better fitness for that event. Basically, doing the same amount of work in less time means you are more fit.

That is why the stopwatch is so important to your workouts. My pet peeve is hearing people say they worked out for an hour but when I watch them I see them resting half the time. The BEST way to improve your workouts is to limit your rest time!!

For some people 1 set of 30 squats comes easy. I know people who can do 30 body weight squats in 30 seconds. For others, the set may need to be broken up into sets of 10 with a short rest in between. The people doing 30 in 30 seconds are more fit. They can do the work in less time. The key to improving your fitness is to constantly try to do the exercises FASTER WITH PERFECT FORM.

Here are three straight forward workouts you can use to measure your fitness. Use the stopwatch. Try to get better every time you try it.

Workout #1

15 squats

15 pushups

25 jumping jacks

10 lunges on each leg

15 dips

Workout #2

4 rounds of:

Move 0.25 miles

25 squats

Workout #3

50 sit-ups

40 walking lunges

30 squat jumps

20 pushups

Set your stopwatch. Record your time. Do it again in a few days...faster.

Be well,

Paul

Paul Dziewisz

Active Personal Fitness

www.ActivePersonalFitness.com

267.626.7478

"You give us the effort...we'll get you the results."

Swim, Bike, Run, Swim, Bike, Run

Swim, bike, run...is this the extent of your workout?

If you are a triathlete or endurance athlete these three modes of exercise probably define most of your workout.

Most triathlete hold up the elite of their sport as the best athletes in the world. After all, they can run uber miles, swim for an hour and bike endlessly. Who could be more fit than Chris McCormack, Normann Stadler and Michellie Jones, the most recent winners of the storied Kona Ironman?

On the flip side, power lifters and NFL lineman are lifting 300+ lbs of weight and building muscles on top of their muscles. Aren't they the most fit?

I strongly argue that neither the Ironman winner or the NFL lineman are the fittest in the world. The elite triathletes are notably weak when it comes to moving any weight around and, as NFL All-Pro lineman Albert Haynesworth proved during training camp this year when he couldn't run a 1/2 mile, NFL lineman don't have endurance.

If your workout consists of swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run, you need to change it up....even if you are training for an event.

Total fitness comes from a balance of speed, endurance, strength, flexibility, stamina, balance, coordination, power, and agility. The athlete that achieves this or at least regularly works toward it will have more complete fitness.

This training involves total body, functional weight lifting, body weight exercises for muscular control and endurance, traditional cardio exercises done as fast-paced intervals and more.

If your in need of a boost to your fitness program. If you want to be faster on your bike or in your run. If you want to beat people at everything, not just your specialty event, then contact me to discuss using my Interval Strength Training program to get results.

Constantly varied functional movements done at high intensity -- huh?

Doing constantly varied functional movements at high intensity is the key improving fitness and getting the healthy feeling and looking body you want.

Notice I said it is "the key", not "the secret". There is nothing secret about constantly varied functional movements at high intensity.

But you may not understand what I mean.

In this blog we will break each phrase down and give you a basic understanding of how to approach your exercise. Future blogs will dig deeper.

Let's start with functional movements. Functional movement has been a buzz word in fitness for the last 5 years. Functional movements are natural body movements performed on a daily basis in the course of living your life. The classic example is a squat which is an exercise that mimics sitting down into a chair and standing up from that chair. That is an activity you perform 50 times daily without thinking about it. Similarly, when you drop a pen and bend down to pick it up you are performing another functional movement, a deadlift. Learning how to perform functional movements efficiently with weight improves your ability to move on a daily basis.

What does it mean to constantly vary these functional movements? Traditional strength training programs prescribe a set of standard exercises with a fixed number of sets and repetitions performed in the same sequence with slight increases in weight over a 4-6 week period. I believe this is not optimal if you want to be fit as you face your daily life. Is there any part of your life that remains constant and unchanging over a period of 4-6 weeks? I didn't think so.

Your workouts will be more effective if they exercises, sets, repetitions, and sequences are randomized to a degree. If you could envision a PowerBall lottery machine where the numbers on the ball are replaced with a exercise and you pulled out random balls and executed those exercises as they appeared you would improve your overall fitness and prepare your body for living daily. Will talk about how the randomness can be given some structure to improve it's effectiveness in future blogs.

The results you want are driven by high intensity. How much work can you do in given period of time? The more work (weight moved) you can do in given period the high your intensity level. The intensity of your workout should be constrained only by your physical and psychological tolerance. Try to lift 40lbs over your head 100 times and you will likely hit a physical limit (you have to rest because your muscles are fatigued) or a psychological limit (oh my God I have 60 more to go!!).

Combine functional movements with constant variation and high intensity and you will achieve the level of health you want and get all the fringe benefits (lean and lovely body) that go along with it.

Be well,

Paul

Paul Dziewisz
Active Personal Fitness
www.ActivePersonalFitness.com
CrossFit Level 1 Trainer
NASM - Certified Personal Trainer
267.626.7478

Can you really get a good workout in 5 minutes?

Monday was crazy busy for me. Starting with an adult boot camp at 5:45am and ending with my last one-on-one session at 8pm with all sorts of sessions and meetings in between, I literally had 10 minutes to get in a workout. But you can't really get a workout done in 10 minutes so why bother, right?

Wrong.

I warmed up for 5 minutes with body weight squats, lunges, jumping jacks and jump ropes. 2 rounds of about 30 seconds each just to get my blood flowing, muscles warm (not hard on a 90+ degree day) and lungs open. Then I hit it hard.

Here is the workout I did:
3 rounds of:
100lbs barbell ground to overhead - start with the weight on the ground and end with it overhead using any method you choose (snatch, clean and press, clean and jerk, squat/reverse curl/press, etc)
200 yard shuttle sprint (50 yards out, back, out and back)

5 minutes and 15 seconds.

Is this really an effective workout? Really, what can be accomplished in 5 minutes?

Yes, it is a great workout. Here's why:

1) Something is always better than nothing. Raising your heart rate and contracting your muscles will always have a health benefit over not using them.
2) The exercises chosen utilize all of your muscles. As a general rule, the more joints moving during an exercise the better that exercise is. Multiple joint exercises are called compound exercises. Moving a weight from the ground to overhead requires movement at your ankle, knee, hip, shoulder and elbow joints. You can't get more compound than that. Compound exercises are the most efficient for getting a total body workout. Use them frequently and definitely when you have limited time.
3) Short workouts done at high intensity (repeat....high intensity) will improve your anaerobic conditioning. You know when you're in a rush and forget something at the office and the elevator is taking too long? You have to run up 4 flights of stairs and you're out of breath at the top. You are likely using your anaerobic system. Your body is operating in oxygen deficit. It can only do so for a short period but the more you train in your anaerobic zone the longer you can sustain a high intensity effort.
4) The workout establishes a benchmark for you to try and beat the next time. I recorded my time so that when I do that workout next I have a time to shoot for. Always try to better your best on benchmark workouts.

Here is another suggestion for a short workout. Use the Tabata method. Choose an exercise. I suggest body weight squats, lunges, pushups, pullups, situps or running sprints. Perform as many of that exercise as you can in 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds (just 10 seconds) and repeat that sequence 10 times. That is a 5 minute workout. Remember, when doing the exercise don't sacrifice form for speed but do focus on doing as many reps as possible. I can hold at 21 body weight squats for 10 rounds. I can start at 24 pushups but my numbers tail off as the rounds get higher.

I guarantee you will feel a Tabata workout the next day.

Be well,

Paul

Paul Dziewisz
Active Personal Fitness
http://www.activepersonalfitness.com/
267.626.7478
"You give us the effort...we'll get you the results."

More on my marathon training

My training plan for the Philly Marathon in November has gotten some significant criticism from friends and clients. I think it is time for me to publish what I have done over the two weeks of training so far and also reiterate why I am choosing a less traditional training methodology.

Let's start with the two key reasons why I am not running long distances 3-4 times a week like a traditional training plan requires.

First, I don't love running. Traditional plans are extremely running intensive. Runner's World magazine provides a standard 4-month training plan for "beginners". The total amount of running over the 4 months is 347 miles. That is the equivilent of 13+ marathons. That is for beginners.

They recommend an intermediate plan of 5 runs per week with a range of total mileage between 562 and 610 miles and with 4 straight weeks of 45+ miles of running. If you love running, by all means, have at it!!!

If not, my plan calls for a approximately 300 miles of running in 5+ months of training. No week will cover more than 30 miles of running and my focus is on building up the leg stamina for the long runs. Each weekend includes a long run, beginning at 10 miles in late June and building up to 22 miles in late October.

The second reason I am constructing a less-traditional plan is that I don't like what endurance training does to my overall fitness. I work with many triathletes and distance runners. They simply are not as strong as I want to be. I refuse to sacrifice overall strength and function to be able to do a marathon. My plan calls for a lot of continued strength training and power workouts to improve my leg, hip, lower back, core and upper body strength to help prevent overuse injuries.

The long weekend runs will be supplemented by my Interval Strength Training workouts throughout the week. To the extent that those include running they are typically short, hard, fast interval runs. But for the most part, those workouts are total body strength and high-intensity cardio workouts lasting between 20 and 40 minutes.

Here is what I have done over the last two weeks. For those of you who are new to my blog, I personally follow the CrossFit Workout of the Day with modifications away from some of the gymnastic and olympic lifting movements.

June 14th
Row 500 meters
30 body weight bench presses (done on a chest press machine)
Row 1000 meters
20 body weight bench presses
Row 2000 meters
10 body weight bench presses

June 15th
Row 2000 meters
50 Wall ball tosses with 20 lb ball
Row 1000 meters
35 Wall ball tosses with 20 lb ball
Row 500 meters
20 Wall ball tosses with 20 lb ball

June 16th and 17th - Rest Days

June 18th
10 - 100 meter sprints with 90 sec rest in between each

June 21st
5 rounds of 50 foot walking lunges with 45lb barbell overhead, and
21 burpees

June 22nd
5 rounds of:
hard 1/2 mile run, and
50 pushups

June 23rd
3 rounds of:
15 dumbbell thrusters with 2-50lb dumbbells
30 situps on the glute-ham developer

June 24th - Rest Day

June 25th
5 rounds of:
40 double under jump ropes
30 - 2' high box jumps
20 - 55lb kettlebell swings

June 26th - 10 mile run

that is just a two week overview. Notice that running is combined in with a lot of rowing and other high-intensity aerobic activities that build stamina, strength and functional movement.

Stay tuned,

Paul

Should I do [fill in the blank] exercise? YES

I get this question all the time, asked in many different ways. What exercise should I do to lose weight? What exercise should I do to get toned? Should I do Pilates? Should I do Spinning? Should I use dumbbells? Should I use machines? Should I....?

The answer (almost universally) is YES, DO THEM ALL!

Varying your exercise routine is essential for getting results, avoiding boredom, improving total body health, and losing weight. The first thing I do when I meet with avid runners or cyclists is to get them focused on other activities (swimming, body weight exercise, yoga). This mix of activities will help them run/bike faster than if they simply ran or biked more.

Challenging your body in a different way each day helps you avoid plateaus in your results. A plateau is a leveling off of your progress which happens when you perform the same exercises in the same way over an extended period of time. Many people talk about their "workout routine". If you have a "routine", it's time to break it.

I recommend creating a master list of types of exercises that you will do. Not just the ones that you like, but also include ones you don't like so much. Your list might look like this:

Yoga, Spinning, TRX suspension training, Dumbbells, Elliptical, Machines, Play Basketball/Tennis/Soccer, Jog or Run, Swimming, Abs, Kettlebells, Boxing, Pilates, Step Aerobics, Fitness DVD, Walking....you get the picture.

Write each of these on a piece of paper and place them in a bowl.

Determine the number of days you can exercise each week. Make this a realistic goal that you know you will work to achieve.

Pull a slip of paper out of the bowl and that will be your focus for that day. I workout 3 days in a row then take one off so I usually workout 5 days a week. If those days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday then I would pull a slip out for each day at the beginning of the week to set my schedule. It could look like this, Monday - Spinning, Tuesday - Play Tennis, Wednesday - Dumbbell workout, Friday - Run, Saturday - Dumbbell workout.

Of course you may have to place restrictions on some of the slips of paper. For example, you can't take a step class unless there is one offered that day. In that case, just draw another slip of paper out of the jar.

Variety is the key to total body wellness. Start to mix it up and keep your exercise exciting!!

Paul

Paul Dziewisz
Active Personal Fitness
www.ActivePersonalFitness.com
267.626.7478
"You give us the effort...we'll get you the results."