Your Own Reality Show

Your Own Reality Show

Over the last 15 years reality TV has provided you with endless hours of guilty-pleasure entertainment or completely ruined the medium of television, depending on your point of view.

From the early days of MTV’s Real World (yes, I watched the first season) to the Kardashians (never seen it and probably couldn’t pick Kim out of a lineup if I had to) we have been provided with 24x7 access to EVERYTHING. We’ve seen Jessica Simpson ponder Chicken of the Sea and The Donald fire countless B-listers.

If a reality star has done it, we’ve seen it.

Imagine if you were starring in your own reality TV show. What if the eyes of the world were on you all day long? What would you do with your leftover Halloween candy? Would you sneak that late night bowl of ice cream? Would you tell your personal trainer about your cupcake addiction if you knew he/she could see it on TV later that night?

The answer is you might do those things, but if you did you would own the action and the consequences much better than you do now.

Here are a few tips for reaching your fitness goals by playing the part of the reality star:

1)      Communicate your weight loss and fitness goals to all your friends. Let them know what you are trying to accomplish. Some won’t care but enough of them will that you will get energy from their encouragement and they will hold you accountable by regularly asking how it’s going.

2)      Imagine that there is a live feed camera in your kitchen. When you select your foods from the fridge think about that camera. Would you want everyone to see you eat your poor food choices?

3)      Journal your workouts online through social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Let your friends know what you did for your workout today.

4)      Log your food journal on a public site like a blog. Own up to your goals and what you are doing to fulfill them.

5)      Start doing it this week!!!

Be well,

Paul

Me and Serena Williams

On Wednesday Serena Williams tweeted “bad day” to her Twitter followers.

Serena has won 13 major tennis championships. She is a successful business person in the fashion industry. Her endorsements contracts are huge. What could be so bad?

“It’s a blood clot in your lungs.” That’s what they told me in the spring of 2006. The medical term is pulmonary embolism but at the time it didn’t register in my head. It should have. My father-in-law had died from a post-operative pulmonary embolism ten years earlier.

For me, it started with what felt like an upset stomach at noon on a Friday. It was uncomfortable enough that I left work early that day (I was a corporate cubicle dweller at the time). By 6pm I thought I had pulled a muscle in my left rib cage. It was plausible; I had worked out that morning and could have strained something.

By Friday evening I had tied the pain to my breathing. Deep breaths equaled searing pain in my ribs. Shallow breaths meant the pain wasn’t so bad. Being the stubborn, indestructible guy that I think I am, I went to bed.

By morning, at the urging of my wife, I headed to the emergency room. Every moment ratcheted up the pain level. In at 10am, put through a battery of tests including x-rays, blood tests, physical exams, more x-rays and finally six hours later a CAT scan.

Even after the CAT scan the nurse came into my room and prepared to release me. They hadn’t found anything. It must be a muscle strain.

Then 30 minutes later things changed. A small embolism was found in my lung on the last scan. Quickly I was put on a blood thinner and whisked up to a hospital room where I spent the next 5 days bed ridden while the Heparin dissolved the clot.

“Bad day” indeed.

Serena was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism last week and is likely to face a minimum or 6 months on a blood thinner, perhaps a lifetime. This is not good news for an athlete. The regular intense workouts, the hours spent on a hard court surface and the occasional scrapes and falls that go with it are not great for someone who, once cut, can’t form a clot due to their medication.

Add the endless travel of a pro athlete and she has many obstacles to overcome to regain her footing as a great tennis player. (Airline travel was likely the cause of my clot. If you don’t move around regularly your blood will pool and the risk of a clot increases.)

However, I'm proof that a fully active lifestyle is possible. Six months of blood thinners and I was allow to stop taking them. I had no family history and no risk factors for forming clots. I get up and walk around on any flight that lasts more than an hour. I ride my bike fast, mix it up on the tennis court occasionally, hike with the dogs and stay moving like I did before. That clot changed my life in other ways.

That small clot is largely responsible for a dramatic turnaround in me. I used that bad day as a wake up call. My life changed significantly over the next several months. I chucked my corporate career, re-committed to be fit and healthy, and started my personal training business. I’ve never felt better and never loved what I do as much as I do today.

Hopefully Serena's bad day is just that, a single day that she will fully recover from.

Be well,

Paul

Paul Dziewisz
Active Personal Fitness
www.ActivePersonalFitness.com
267.626.7478

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.

We're here to work

This past weekend two of my favorite clients finished their first 100-mile bike ride. We call that a "Century Ride." 100-miles on a bike is impressive for anyone, but slightly more impressive for this husband and wife team.

You see, she just turned 60 years old and he is clinging to 59 for a few more weeks. (He reminds her about the difference in that first number about every 5 minutes!)

They are not hardcore triathletes or longtime athletic competitors. They are parents, home owners and have careers. They get aches and pains, overcome obstacles, and sometimes do more than they should. But THEY GET IT!!

For the three years we've worked together their mantra has been "we're here to work." He had a long day at the office, her shoulder is nagging, they both did a long ride the day before. All of those possible excuses present themselves every week. But they stick to their world view...."we're here to work."

And work they do. We meet once a week at 8pm to do a total body workout that includes short cardio intervals, lots of full body exercises, dumbbells, medicine balls, TRX straps, etc. They want to leave feeling like they made a difference in their health. They want to be faster on the bike, strong for their kayak, and feel good about themselves.

Do you think you will be able to do a 100-mile bike ride when you reach 60? If not, start doing something about it now. Contact me for a complimentary fitness consultation and a fitness assessment. Let's see where you are with your fitness and get you moving more.

Remember my Elevation Boot Camp in Chalfont runs M/W/F at 5:45am and M/Tu/Th at 6:15pm. Come out and get the first week of classes for free.

Be well,

Paul

Paul Dziewisz
Active Personal Fitness
CrossFit Level 1 Trainer
NASM - Certified Personal Trainer
www.ActivePersonalFitness.com
267.626.7478
"You give us the effort...we'll get you the 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

The fastest, hardest one mile you'll ever run

Today's workout was all about intervals. My friends at CrossFit suggested the following workout. It turned out to be the fastest, hardest one mile I've ever run.

After a full warmup (see below)
Sprint for 20 seconds
Then rest for 40 seconds
Repeat for a total of 15 sprints. Total workout takes 15 minutes.

Do this workout at a track and start each new sprint precisely where the last one left off. I carried a stopwatch in one hand and a playing card in the other. When the stop watch hit 20 seconds I dropped the playing card and then walked back to it during my recovery period so I knew where to start the next one.

That is a total of 5 minutes of running and 10 minutes of resting.

The challenge is to go all out during the sprints and then recover hard during the rest time.

Based on the results I saw posted online I set my goal for 1 mile total over the 15 sprints. I reached 1 mile and 20 yards.

Benefits of this workout
1) Intervals are a great way to optimize your cardio workouts. It improves your bodies ability to work at a high or even anaerobic heart rate and improves your ability to recover faster from intense efforts.
2) For distance runners, running at a faster pace rather than a steady slower pace will teach your body the mechanics needed to run faster and help you improve your distance times.
3) This workout can easily be used as a benchmark workout to see how your fitness has improved over time.

Remember, all fitness levels can do this workout. If you can't sprint then run, can't run then jog, can't jog then power walk, can't power walk then walk. Just go as intensely as you can within your fitness level.

Suggested Warmup
2 sets of:
15 body weight squats
25 jumping jacks
15 supermen
15 pushups
15 walking lunges
30 second plank

The Importance for Standardized Testing

Yikes, standardized tests. Those two words draw out a few possible reactions from most people.

Those of you who are 40ish like me cringe at the thought of filling those bubbles with your number 2 pencils in middle school. Admit it, you had a rule, when in doubt go with B.

For others, the thought of standardized testing gets your blood boiling. You may believe that standardized tests improve student and teacher performance and they are necessary for the future of our education system. Or, conversely, you may believe standardized tests drive the wrong behavior and that our kids are better off learning how to learn rather than learning how to pass a test.

Trust me, I'm not jumping into that debate.

For the purposes of this article, standardized testing is good...for your fitness.

Yesterday I did one of my benchmark workouts. A workout that I do every 3-6 weeks to see my fitness improvements. I was ecstatic. For this particular workout I made a 10% improvement over my last attempt. That's huge!!

What this test showed me was that my commitment to 5 workouts per week (4 of them are 30 minutes or less) over the last two months is paying off. My results rarely show up on the scale and body fat percentages are an inexact science. I need personalized fitness tests to tell me if I am improving my fitness.

When I begin working with a client we do a series of benchmark tests (weight, body fat, measurements, core strength, flexibility, cardio capacity and basic strength). Every 4-6 weeks we revisit these tests. Everyone should do these basic tests and track their progress.

It's when we get past the beginner stage with my clients that we start to add personalized benchmark tests. In boot camp we do these every 6 weeks. Below are some of the tests we do regularly in boot camp:

- Maximum number of pushups (elbows come to a 90 degree bend and no more than 3 seconds of rest between pushups)

- 100 box jumps (10" step) as fast as possible (two foot jump or step up and down)

- Maximum number of jump ropes in 2 minutes

- 40 - 10foot side-to-side shuffles as fast as possible.

How to perform your standardized tests
The most important thing about the test is that it must involve a repeatable exercise done with a specifically measurable range of motion. If you choose to do squats, put a chair behind you and make sure your butt hits the chair on each repetition. If your butt doesn't hit the chair then the rep doesn't count. Similarly with the pushups listed above. If your elbows don't hit a 90 degree bend then the rep doesn't count.

Secondly, the exercise must be done for a defined number of reps or a defined period of time. If you choose to do jump ropes make sure you pick a number or jumps or do as many as you can in a given period of time.

Thirdly, choose tests that measure all aspects of your fitness. Your tests should involve exercises that measure your cardio capacity, maximum strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and core strength.

Lastly, perform these tests as part of your regular workout at various times. Don't set aside special days and don't do any specific preparation for them. In other words, don't rest for two days beforehand or change your routine in any way prior to your tests. Just make them a normal part of your routine.

Here are the benchmark tests that I use to measure my progress regularly.

CrossFit's Fight Gone Bad: 5 exercises done for 1 minute each with a continuously running clock. I move from one exercise to the next without stopping the clock, performing as many reps as possible in the minute. After getting through the 5 exercises I rest for one minute then repeat the 5 exercise set two more times. Grand total is 17 minutes. The exercises:
- Toss a 20 lb medicine ball up to hit a 10 foot target
- Sumo deadlift with an upright row using a 75lb barbell
- 20" box jumps
- 75 lb overhead push press
- Row for one minute
I count the total reps for the first 4 exercises and the total calories on the row to get my total score for each round then add them up for a grand total.

Maximum weight deadlift, back squat and overhead press: Deadlift increasing amounts of weight until I hit my maximum using good form. Do the same for back squat and overhead press.

Tabata pushups and squats: Do as many pushups as possible in 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. Repeat that for 5 rounds and add up your total number of pushups. Do the same for squats.

Run 5K as fast as possible

Filthy Fifties:
50 reps of 12 exercises done as fast as possible with good form
Box jumps, 24 inch box
Jumping pull-ups
Kettlebell swings, 35 lb kettlebell or dumbbell
Walking Lunges, 50 steps
Hanging straight leg raises
Push presses, 45 pounds
Back extensions
Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
Burpees
Double unders jump ropes

Your tests should reflect your current fitness level and should be made more difficult the more fit you get. Fight Gone Bad and Filthy Fifties are a real struggle for me but they are getting better.

If you need assistance with assessing your current fitness level or if you would like help setting up regular tests for yourself please contact me at the number below.

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."

Landon Donovan, two anonymous tennis players, and the lessons of persistence

Persistence.

It is the single most powerful quality to have if you want to achieve a goal or dream. It was never displayed more overtly than yesterday.

Yesterday was an epic day in sports. Whether you follow soccer and tennis (most Americans have no more than a passing interest in either) or you don't, you have heard the news from South Africa and London.

In South Africa, the USA Soccer team, robbed of victory in the previous match by a referee's poor decision, faced a must-win situation to advance to the "knockout" round of the World Cup. This is a big deal. So big that hundreds of millions of people worldwide watch every game. The Super Bowl wishes it got this much attention.

They dominated play in Wednesday's match with Algeria but could not score. The team hit goal posts, missed easy scoring chances, and yes, had another goal disallowed by a referee's poor decision. As the end of the scoreless game neared it seemed as though the team could not overcome the bad calls and mistakes. It was not meant to be. As they entered extra time (the four minutes added on at the end of the game) they were in full attack mode, needing to score, desperate, 4 minutes from failure after 4 years of preparation.

Then magic happened. A key save by the U.S. goaltender, an aggressive pass to leader Landon Donovan, a flurry of passes and a bouncing ball in front of Algeria's net, and then Donovan ran on to the ball and calmly kicked it in. "It was like time stopped for a moment", Donovan said afterward.

The goal was an epic moment in USA sports. A memory for everyone who watched. A moment of national pride that sports can bring to a country. Denied a goal in a match they dominated until the 91st minute, the USA team worked even harder, pushed the pace, became more agressive and intense until they broke through with the goal. Memorable. Inspired.

A couple continents north of South Africa, two guys no one ever heard of played a lot of tennis yesterday. A LOT of tennis. 10 hours worth. And it's still not over. American John Isner and Frenchman Nicholas Mahut are still playing. The match began Tuesday, played all day Wednesday and continues today. The fifth set is tied 59 games to 59 games. For those of you who don't follow tennis, 59 total games is considered a very long match. They've played 118 games in the last set alone and they're still not done.

This is the longest match ever played. No one would have watched this match if it were not a record setter for length. Neither of these guys is famous. Neither of them will win the tournament. And yet, neither of them will quit. How easy would it be to just quit and let the other guy win. They have gained instant fame with appearances on the Today Show and other media outlets. Why not just stop now? But Isner and Mahut battle on. One will eventually win and one will lose but they have made a mark in tennis history.

My clients are regularly confronted with the fear of not reaching their goal. A few pounds of weight gain one week, a day where a 2 mile run feels like a marathon, and the feeling that someone else in boot camp is stronger, leaner, and fitter than they are.

At those moments of doubt (we're not going to advance to the knockout round or I'll never win this marathon match) is when you need to dig the deepest.

Landon Donovan and the US squad showed us that it sometimes takes effort in every moment to reach your dream. Isner and Mahut showed us that sometimes it takes a effort behind what you could have imagined to achieve your goal.

The next time you are faced with a workout where you just don't have it and don't think you will finish it. Take a moment and realize that all of the effort you put in will pay off big one day. And when it does, go out and set another goal.