Fun. Health. Games.

Well finally we’re all clearing the Christmas/New Years period (not to mention my family’s annoying birthdays on the 28th & 3rd!), and as usual my partner is saying she’s put on at least a few kilos. Me on the other hand… I’ve dropped weight, because I’m not at the gym. Ah, the curse of the fast metabolism.

I see see the conversation going on in your head right now, “oh poor you, you have to work out to keep weight on, I wish I had that problem.” Well, its a problem none the less, and these days guys have plenty of pressure on them to be buff & strong… and besides… *I* like being buff & strong! The problem is…

I’m just lazy!

And my body knows it. Its telling my muscle cells, “Yo! We don’t need to maintain all this mass any more, the guy’s not using it anymore!” And I lose weight… but gain a tiny bit around my waist.

What am I going to do about it? I said in my Colorado Experiment post I’d read about a guy called Tom Venuto, so I’ve gone and got a copy of his ebook, and I’m putting his eating practices to the test, while sticking as closely to Colorado style rep schemes as I can.

I’ll see what Tom says to do anyway. I’ll also be dragging my other half along, but to be frank with you, there’ll be no before & after shots – we’re just a little too shy for that.

So stay tuned & I’ll let you know what I think of the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book, and then I’ll see what results we get from it, month by month.

While shopping for Christmas presents this year, my partner found a book called “Cook Right For Your Type“. Its a book about how to cook (and eat) for your own particular blood type.

I’ve read the book, and I was fascinated by the background on how blood types evolved, and the rationale about eating particular foods based on your blood type… but the important thing for us is more how eating like this is going to be good for our health and weight loss (or muscle gain, for me!).

My other half has a bit of acne that we’ve suspected has some kind of food related cause (its just a WILD guess), and the book says that a lot of his clients who follow his diet plan lose a lot of weight… So since late November, we’ve been trying to follow what the book says…

TRYING.

You see… Christmas & New Years kinda got in the way a bit, and we’ve been completely unable to see whether we might get any weight loss from following the diet.

The point of this post?

Just letting you know I’m following a B blood type diet, and my girlfriend is following an O blood type diet, almost to the letter according to “Cook Right for Your Type”, and “Eat Right for Your Type”
.

I’ll let you know how we go.

I can hardly believe its been 3 months since my first post about the Colorado Experiment – but its true!

Thanks for all the emails & comments I’ve received badgering me to add a status report… I needed it!

Ok… So, how did it all go?

In my original post I said that the first few sessions made my muscles the sorest they’ve been for a long time. This effect didn’t last very long. Our routine for 3 months had us hitting the gym 2 times a week (because I’ve got a raging fast metabolism and the Colorado experiment guidelines say to keep the frequency low), but even though we were pushing ourselves hard, we quickly adapted & muscle soreness returned to the usual I get the day after a workout.

The routine we were doing was simple – start out with the exercise I needed the most (because I believe my body produces better results on muscles I work first) and finish with the exercise I needed the least (definitely chest!).

Each exercise was a large muscle group, and each session included every major muscle group via compound movements (these are exercises that involve more than one joint or muscle group), so it was certainly a “whole body” work out.

For me, I started with cable rows.  I’ve got a bung neck, and I feel that the stronger my back is, the better I’ll cope with my day to day hunching over a computer. So one BIG, full on set of back was performed, following the parameters of a Colorado style workout… 5 seconds concentric, 5 seconds eccentric. Each workout usually took around 45 minutes (1 min rest between sets).

And just for the sake of completion, I’d vary my workouts. So one day I’d do bench for chest. One day flys. One day I’d do cable rows for back, the next I’d do upright rows. The only thing I didn’t vary much was pull ups, which I do on an assisted weight machine to offset any chance of hurting my neck.

We followed most of the parameters of the Colorado experiment, but like I said in my first post, we didn’t use nautilus machines.

So what are the results? Are I HUGE?

No… sorry… I’m not now 10 pounds of muscle heavier after 3 months… I’m the same weight.

HOWEVER, I’m not eating to bulk right now… When I get a more convenient gym, I will absolutely let everyone know how I go with this routine while I try & bulk.

Update: I’ve been researching more about the whole “bulking” thing, and came across a guy called Tom Venuto. He’s done a book, “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle“, and the guy reckons “bulking” is a bunch of nonsense. I might grab a copy & review it, and see what he’s got to say about the “feed the muscle” half of the title!

Got any questions? Have you tried a Colorado style routine? Just punch in your details below & let us all know how you went.

Cheers!

My brother & I have recently decided to give a variation of “The Colorado Experiment” a test. We regularly go to the gym 2 to 3 times a week as it is, but are now tweaking our sessions to match this Colorado Experiment we found on the net.

Briefly, the Colorado Experiment says to try very slow concentric and eccentric contractions for each rep, rather than the fast stuff we’re used to. In fact I usually rip each concentric (or lifting or pushing) part of the rep very hard and fast, but now with the Colorado Experiment guidelines, I’m doing a 5 second up count, and a 5 second down count on every rep.

We’re giving ourselves 1 minute rest between sets, but opposed to the experiment (which seems to favour nautilus equipment for commercial reasons) we’re just using compound movements like bench press, squats, lunges, cable rows and the like. Each work out involves every major muscle group in the body to stimulate as much testosterone as possible, and we follow a loose system that lets us get every major muscle group in under an hour in the gym. We’re still only working out 2 or 3 times a week, no cardio apart from the occasional taking the dog for a walk!

My initial thoughts are that its brutally hard, but that might just be the initial getting used to it stage. My muscles are also much sorer than usual, which not not necessarily a positive sign… but it shows that my muscles aren’t used to it, and that I’m challenging them in different ways (and that is important!).

Come by soon and I’ll let you know what benefits I’ve been receiving from the Colorado Experiment inspired workouts we’re doing.

Update: See the results of the Colorado Experiment Test, here.

Big congrats to “Dancing Craze” inventor, Stacy Cho, the winner of HopeLab’s Ruckus Nation competition and recipient of $50,000 in prize money!

What is Dancing Craze? It’s not really like anything else on the market today, in fact, its more an expansion of real dancing and the sharing of that experience. Dancing Craze users will wear motion sensors which will replicate the user’s moves on screen, and then allow the dancer to share those moves with others all over the world. You can even try your hand at matching other’s moves that have already been submitted, or submit group dances.

Hopefully we see a strong community build up around this product and really do see more kids getting up and moving to use it!

Hopelab will now begin prototype development of Dancing Craze, and the second prize winner, iBlob. So its anyone’s guess how long these products will take to get to market. Hopefully not long.

Ruckus Nation’s competition to get kids moving…  moves on!

The semi finalists have been chosen and you can view the whole listing at http://www.ruckusnation.com/semifinalists.html. There’s some really wacky stuff there, but mainly a good solid group of products some of which you’ve probably even thought of yourself.

My favourite is “mile a minute” under the “other” catagory. The premise is that you earn points and other accolades which are tracked by a hybrid mobile phone/pedometer. The part I really like is the “getting free minutes” of talk time for your phone…

Having said that, I think we really need incentives which appeal to kids. So, I’m not sure how well this will apply… do kids need money these days? When I was that age I was glad to get a dollar to go and get mixed lollies at the local store. But then again there was no such thing as mobile phones back then either!

Congrats to the semi-finalists so far. I greatly look forward to seeing the finalists, and wish I had the time to make my way to San Franciso to see the whole shebang.

Tune in again soon for my secret dealings with… “The Colorado Experiment”.

My brother has stolen my copy of Psycho-Cybernetics! It’s a complete outrage… or should I say, completely understandable outrage!

Now utterly dog-eared to oblivion, I’ve “donated” that copy of the book to him and we’re still waiting on another copy of the book to come through our local Borders bookstore. 1 month and counting so far I believe.

So, what else is new? Well, I have to make comment on the fact my partner & I have just moved house (away from the afore-mentioned book-stealing brother) and it must be the best work out we’ve had in months.

There really is no need for going to the gym when you’re moving house. So my recommendation? Move house REPEATEDLY.

I finally got my hands on a copy of Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz the other day. I’ve been recommended this book by friends, business colleagues, and at least three authors I’ve read have recommended Maltz’s work. You could easily label the book an “Epic” or “Magnum Opus”… untold thousands of people from all walks of life, and from any profession you can name seem to have used Psycho-Cybernetics to their great benefit.

Psycho-Cybernetics is also widely hailed as the book that seeded the self-help movement. Before its release, self help was seen as something to be done in private, something embarrassing to be engaged in. Self-help’s massive popular following today can be directly traced back to Maltz’s work.

Now… I’m only a third of my way through the book, but I was inspired enough to post now, and promise you that I’ll have a review up shortly on how I think the book can be applied to weight loss.

But just briefly on that… so you know what kind of book this is… Psycho-Cybernetics revolves around shaping your own self image, so that rather than struggling to lose weight, pay down debt, or be more confident in social situations, you create a better self image of yourself so that all these things become natural, and easy for you.

A more instructive review soon, I promise!

I finished my Ruckus Nation Judging today. I can tell you it was a fascinating experience… but as to the details on what exactly I judged? Unfortunately I can’t go into that.

What I will say is that I got a lot of entries that used very popular current day technology and tweaked it to make it more enjoyable for kids, and to provide education at the same time. Some were much, much more successful at this than others, mind you. I really had a good chuckle at some of the entries, and some were quite mind blowing and wow worthy.

I can’t say I judged any entries which were cures to modern day obesity in kids… But who knows, I’m no Nostradamus.

Until next time, enjoy yourselves, and get active!

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t want to go to the gym, I hate looking at myself in all the mirrors” or, “I hate the gym and all the losers checking themselves out in the mirror.” I have, plenty of times. Both of these can certainly be valid concerns, and are without doubt held by a lot of people. You may feel uncomfortable looking in the mirror at the gym, or perhaps you’re a little overweight & it makes you feel self conscious. Fair enough. I can let that slide as we’re all human and by nature we avoid things that make us uncomfortable.

However, what I won’t let slide is the gym’s that are popping up promoting the fact they’re mirror free. I believe this shows two things… One- The owner’s know how to listen to people’s fears. No worries, that’s ok. But more importantly, it shows a lack of care, expertise, and a lack of brains. A lack of care because mirrors are not there for huge muscle bound guys and girls to show off and act like clowns or indulge their ego. And a lack of expertise because they should be well aware of that fact.

What are mirrors there for then? Despite your hatred of gym mirrors, they are useful, and they should be required pieces of equipment because it increases gym safety by allowing gym-goers to practice better form. Not to mention bodybuilders are actually sports people too. Mirrors are required to perfect poses they use in competition, and despite their professionalism body builders also need mirrors to perfect their form and remain uninjured.

There’s no troubles if your gym contains machines only… the machine will dictate what form you use, but if your gym has free weights (as good gyms do), you need mirrors where you can monitor your form, and reduce your risk of injury.

To get over your fear of mirrors, I can suggest a few things:

• Just face it. Fear has been called “False Evidence Appearing Real”. Get out in front of that mirror, amongst the big guys (if there are any), and just get on with it. Facing your fear is the best and perhaps only way to conquer it. You might even find out that they’re not all a bunch of idiot meat heads after all (but some inevitably will be- welcome to humanity).
• Go gym shopping for a few months. Most gyms will offer you a week or two of free membership so you can try it out before committing. Use this to your advantage and find a gym that isn’t full of massive steroid pumping guys and make it your home. The only problem with this idea is that “meat heads” as we stereotypically call them, seek out well equipped gyms, therefore we can pretty accurately assume something is wrong with the gym if there’s no “meat heads” in sight.
• You may be able to avoid the meat head and bicep ogling population by choosing different times of day. Experiment.
• If you’re a female, and you’re more concerned about being the only gal amongst a bunch of testosterone jacked guys with no other eye candy in sight, join a female only gym, or hunt for a gym with a female gym-going population. They do exist. Or see option 1. Face your fear.
• The last & worst option is- don’t work out at a gym with mirrors. Just do like everyone else does and do steady state cardio for an hour, and then wonder why your weight fluctuates so much and you don’t permanently keep it off. See what I’m ranting about, here.

I hope you enjoyed today’s soap box. And I hope you find it useful. Remember, while I like to say everything you do should be based in having a bit of fun, avoiding the mirror may sabotage you in more ways than one.