Category Archives: Fitness

TRX Suspension Training – 6 Months In

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This thing is killer. I am addicted to working with it.

Here are the quickie Plus points:

1. It works you in all planes of movement. Even free weights do not do what this does to you in terms of involving your entire body and activating your core in nearly every move.
2. It keeps me on my ‘bodyweight’ workouts that I need and require. Less stress on joints (especially coming off of a right knee arthroscopic surgery for a meniscus tear) and more focus on overall fitness instead of focus on any one fitness pursuit (strength, cardio, flexibility). It works on all levels at the same time. Call it ‘functional’ fitness, call it what you like – it’s applicable in the real world and keeps me going.
3. Instantly change your moves – ie. the angle of your move by adjusting your feet and viola – you can increase or decrease your intensity levels instantly.
4. Allows for creativity. You can take basic moves and create all sorts of extra stretches and extensions to totally revamp what’s happening and increases the usefulness and range of motion in every move. This system – which is truly as simple, and hardcore as you make it – allows for this on not only every movement, but on EVERY rep too. It’s incredibly freeing after years and years of strict form based movements to then take the same strict forms and allow for ways to increase the range and or plane the move works in… instantly on the fly.
5. It’s really the simplest form of workout, requiring only an anchor point that creates so many possibilities. You can get and find moves all over the Net – on the TRX Forums, the TRX blog, on YouTube and add them into your program as you see fit. It’s your body moving against gravity in multiple planes and constant motion. It’s perfectly suited to circuit training because adjustments are so fast and quick to do between moves.
6. You can do entire workouts alone to the highest level of intensity without need for a spotter.
7. There is no limit, seemingly, to the creative ways to incorporate this into most any routine.

Cons:

1. It costs $150 to get; you can do the moves with ropes or straps, but you lose all the flexibility to adjust on the fly and won’t have the handles and foot rests on a rope to work with. This thing is worth the money, it’s just a functional piece of engineering genius and the materials and quality are top shelf across the entire apparatus. It’s so simple stupid to work with, but yet durable and functional at the same time. Brilliantly done, and deceptively so to those that just look at it.
2. A novice with no workout experience to draw on might be a bit lost on how to properly do the moves. It comes with a great DVD and training book; but once you want to move past that you really need to understand proper athletic exercise mechanics to craft and customize your routines.
3. Your joints are taxed with overload – it’s based on moving and your joints – especially your shoulders and hips – are in most every single move. For every single upper body move, your shoulders are involved as at least a pivot point. Until you have the strength and stamina in your shoulders to do the advanced moves through an entire routine, it’s a bit overwhelming. I hit this thing thinking I was in shape, I got a quick lesson in humility.
4. It’s an equalizer. No matter how big, strong or fit you think you are… you are on even ground because of bodyweight – with everyone using it. For some folks, that can get inside your head. Not me, but it’s something to consider. I can rip off push-ups in the hundreds per set, but on this getting 25 hanging with my hands suspended, face-down under the anchor point on the ceiling is a most humbling experience.
5. You need an anchor point. It has a door attachment you can use as an anchor point, but that limits a lot of the ‘bigger’ moves (aka. doing a pendulum move with your feet suspended). You need enough space, not a LOT of space, but enough space to lean and move side to side.

TRX Suspension Trainer: Train Like the Pros.

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The Next Challenge – TRX Suspension Training

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So, I’ve done 5 full bore rounds of P90X; 2 full bore rounds of P90X-Plus and for the last year have focused on incorporating more sport specific exercise into my fitness program based around my soccer team’s weekly indoor (and outdoor in the summer) games.

Since Fall 2009, I have been doing a lot of slide board work; with the Goaler-One 10′ G-1 slideboard. Utilizing a interval type of approach and working hard against time, it’s been a killer new way to get cardio in that is DIRECTLY applicable on the field moving side to side and pivoting like I do as a defense man running backwards, and pivoting to frontwards and side-to-side like I do.

I’ve been following the P90X structure – hard for 3 weeks; cardio/core for 1 week.

It’s been nearly 3 years since I went at P90X and I need some new, different challenges to keep things interesting and fresh.

Enter: Fitness Anywhere: Make your body your machine.

My wife’s cousin has been doing this for a while and talked it up for about a year or so to me.

From first glance at the “Basic Training” workout that comes with the “Pro Pack” and if you’ve done P90X and/or Yoga… you’ll be right at home. Big movements that utilize your body weight and gravity to increase over all body type of moves and not specialty moves.

Tomorrow is Day 1 for me; let’s bring it!!

Here's what you get in the


Fitness Anywhere Video

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“I spent a lot of time on the floor with your mother.” — Jack LaLanne at 95, A Fitness Legend

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This man is inspiring, and looking at the quote I pulled here for the title, quite spry to boot at age 95. Many younger folks view him through a prism of caricature created by his ‘juice machine’ parodies by a crazed Jim Carrey on “In Living Color” but this guy was doing bodyweight exercise, stretching (aka Yoga in a sense) and living it his whole life.

Living proof and footsteps to follow in.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Jack LaLanne at 95

He exercised his personal demons

Bad food and sloth ooze over our planet like hot fudge mixed with giblet gravy. Fast food speeds us to our doublewide coffins, and we gave up exercise when watches started winding themselves.

But the battle to deliver mankind from its bad habits rages. Leading the charge, as he has for 80 years, is the Bay Area’s gift to world health, Jack LaLanne.

He’s 95, in fabulous shape although no longer the slab of muscle who inspired a nation via his daily exercise TV program. The brain is still cooking, and that’s always been LaLanne’s most effective tool.

Jack’s wife, Elaine, says she fell in love with him a half century ago not for his muscles.

“I was not interested in his body,” says Elaine LaLanne, also in super shape at 84. “I was attracted to his mind. I thought, ‘He’s got a brain. He’s got a brain.’ ”

“And he’s sittin’ on it,” LaLanne whispers, squeezing the biceps of an interviewer, who suddenly regrets skipping his morning push-ups.

The LaLannes were in town Wednesday for a party in honor of Jack’s 95th birthday, at John’s Grill, where the Jack LaLanne Salad never goes off the menu.

Teaming with wife

They’re a team, Jack and Elaine. When the subject of doughnuts comes up, Elaine says, “Jack, tell him what the healthiest part of the doughnut is.”

“The hole!” LaLanne says.

When the interviewer mentions that he watched LaLanne’s TV show in the ’50s, because his mom tuned in daily, LaLanne gives the interviewer’s biceps another firm squeeze and confides, “I spent a lot of time on the floor with your mother.”

But seriously, folks. Beneath the jokes and whimsy is a man as serious as a heart attack mixed with a stroke. He’ll make you smile, but he’ll also grab you by the arm, and by the head and the heart, and lead you to a better life.

LaLanne has made a fortune, but he won’t retire. He carries on his crusade with the zeal of a man whose jumpsuit is on fire.

“If you believe something, live it!” LaLanne barks.

He recently wrapped up a tour promoting his 11th book, “Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness & Longevity.” One reason to trust what the man preaches: He has seen the dark side.

A reformed sugarholic

LaLanne at 15 was “a miserable goddamn kid. It was like hell.” He was a sugarholic, gorging on sweets then barfing to make room for more. He was constantly sick, underweight, had zero energy, headaches so bad he would bang his head against a wall. He had an explosive temper, severe depression and a head full of demons when he dropped out of Berkeley High.

Then a neighbor gave Jack and his mother tickets to a lecture by clean-eating advocate Paul Bragg. Boom! Jack LaLanne was born.

Says LaLanne, “Bragg said, ‘My dear friends, it matters not what your physical condition is. If you obey nature’s laws, you will be born again.’ I went home and prayed, ‘Dear God, give me the willpower to refrain from those foods that are killing me.’ ”

Soon LaLanne was healthy beyond his dreams. He became a football star, a wrestling champ and a babe magnet. At 22, he opened a gym in downtown Oakland, and when business didn’t boom – maybe because in 1936 nobody knew what the hell a gym was – he told himself, “Jack, people are not coming to you. You gotta go to them!”

He trained cops and firefighters, he recruited at high schools, and in 1951, he began hosting a daily exercise show on KGO (Channel 7) – where he met Elaine – that became a network smash, running until 1985.

Using his personality and pep – with his muscles serving as his background singers – he bullied a nation into rethinking its nonapproach to nutrition and exercise. He invented and pioneered the fitness industry.

“My whole life,” LaLanne says, “is, ‘How can I help people like that man (Bragg) helped me?’ ”

Now Jack and Elaine sell their juicers on infomercials, the book is out, and he’s still preaching the gospel. The seeming futility of shaping up the world does not daunt him.

“I never think about that,” LaLanne says. “I think about things that I can improve.”

Still working out

One thing he can always improve is himself. LaLanne works out two hours a day, mostly swimming and lifting weights, at the LaLanne mansion on the Central Coast.

“I work at living,” he says, leaning close and squeezing an arm. “Most people work at dying. Dying’s easy.”

One of LaLanne’s most effective sales devices has been his amazing feats of strength. When Arnold Schwarzenegger came to America in 1968 and became an instant sensation on the Southern California muscle scene, LaLanne challenged the kid to a duel at Muscle Beach. The Austrian Oak was 21; the Oakland Oak was 54.

“I beat him in chin-ups and push-ups,” LaLanne says. “He said, ‘That Jack LaLanne’s an animal! I was sore for four days. I couldn’t lift my arms!’ ”

At age 70, handcuffed, LaLanne towed 70 loaded boats 1.5 miles in Long Beach Harbor. Now LaLanne’s most outrageous publicity stunt is kicking life’s butt on a daily basis.

“What feat are you going to do this year?” Elaine asks, lobbing another softball to her slugger hubby.

“I’m going to tow Elaine across the bathtub!”

In Datebook: Legendary fitness guru Jack LaLanne gives a Chronicle reporter a real workout.
LaLanne’s innovations

Jack LaLanne invented fitness. His innovations include:

The gym/spa: In 1936, he opened the Jack LaLanne Physical Culture Studio at 409 15th St. in Oakland, the first modern gym. He eventually sold his chain of studios to Bally.

Mind-body fusion: Now it’s a popular concept. “You can’t separate the mind and body,” he says.

Exercise machines: The kind with cables, pulleys and weight selectors. LaLanne didn’t patent them, but he invented them, including the first leg-extension machine.

Muscles on women: Before LaLanne’s TV show, a woman’s only workout was behind a vacuum cleaner.

Muscles on athletes: LaLanne helped dispel the “muscle-bound” myth. He was a fine athlete and a 4-handicap golfer.

Exercise videos: His TV show was the first workout video, live.

Varying workout routines: It’s what some now call “muscle confusion.” LaLanne changes his workout routine every 30 days. And he’ll do a particular lift slow today, fast tomorrow.

Yoga: He has never called it that, but from the beginning he preached the importance of stretching.

- Scott Ostler

E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
© 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.

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Yoga To Kick Your Rear – I LOVE This Stuff

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I’ve been doing the P90X Yoga and Tony Horton’s “One-on-One” Yoga (which is basically the same thing boiled down to 40 minutes) for about a year and a half, once a week.

I am utterly and completely convinced that Yoga is absolutely necessary and frankly, in terms of flexibility and ‘durability’ in the real world, the most important component to a well balanced workout program you can do. Tony calls it the ‘glue’ to all the other components, strength resistance training and cardio that you can do. Aptly named, the “Fountain of Youth”. I believe it, I live it, I do it. And he’s right.

That said, I’ve been needed some new variety in my program and mostly in the Yoga. I stumbled upon Exercise TV and it’s a phenomenal resource for this sort of workout. You can preview/watch/do the routines presented (full screen) for free with commercials. You can download and own the programs -commercial free- for your own use for $6.99 for most of them. That’s very reasonable. Their site is here: Exercise TV

I’ve found one in particular and it’s a GREAT Yoga workout that totally kicks my rear. I was sweating, cursing and… loving it. Check it out for yourself:

Click Here!

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“If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much.”

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What does the World’s oldest man think about diet?

This guy knows the truth of it, because he’s living proof. Don’t eat too much. Seems simple enough.

Two-meal diet aids in oldest man’s longevity

By Sydne George, Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — So what does the world’s oldest man eat? The answer is not much, at least not too much.

Walter Breuning, who turned 113 on Monday, eats just two meals a day and has done so for the past 35 years.

“I think you should push back from the table when you’re still hungry,” Breuning said.

At 5 foot 8, (“I shrunk a little,” he admitted) and 125 pounds, Breuning limits himself to a big breakfast and lunch every day and no supper.

“I have weighed the same for about 35 years,” Breuning said. “Well, that’s the way it should be.”

“You get in the habit of not eating at night, and you realize how good you feel. If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much.”

His practice of skipping supper began when he first moved to Great Falls from Minneapolis in 1978. He lived in the Yellowstone Apartments at the time and would walk downtown to Schell’s in the Johnson Hotel or the Albon Club on the second floor for lunch.

In 1980, the Albon Club moved to the Rainbow Hotel, and the owners asked Breuning to be manager, which he did for 15 years.

“I never started eating supper again,” Breuning said.

He gets up at 6:15 a.m. and has a big breakfast every day at 7:30 a.m. Usually it’s eggs, toast or pancakes.

“You can order anything you want, just like a restaurant,” he said.

“I eat a lot of fruit every day.”

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer sent Breuning a fruit basket after a recent visit.

“Boy, I tell you that was good fruit. I ate the whole darn thing,” Breuning said. “Peaches, pears, everything, it sure was good.”

In addition to eating fruit every day, Breuning also takes a baby aspirin.

“Just one baby aspirin,” he said, “but everybody gets that for their heart. That’s the only pill I ever take, no other medicine.”

And he drinks plenty of water.

“I drink water all the time,” he said, and just a bit of coffee. “I drink a cup and a half of coffee for breakfast and a cup with lunch.”

Breuning said he has been healthy all of his life and believes diet has a lot to do with it.

“If people could cut back on their normal weight, it wouldn’t be quite so bad,” he commented. “They just eat too much!”

Breuning remembers his family having a cow, pigs, chickens and a big garden when he was growing up, like most people did in those days.

“Everybody was poor years ago,” he said. “When we were kids, we ate what was on the table. Crusts of bread or whatever it was. You ate what they put on your plate, and that’s all you got,” Breuning said.

Breuning recalls his mother being a good cook, though she died when she was 46 after an operation in Minneapolis. His wife was a good cook, too. They met when they worked in Butte for the railroad.

“Everything she made was good,” Breuning said. “We used to have lots of card parties, and they would always say what a good cook she was.”

While diet has contributed to his longevity, Breuning also believes that working hard was good for him.

“Work doesn’t hurt anybody,” he said, mentioning that he had two jobs, one working for the Great Northern Railway until he was 66 and the other as manager/secretary for the local Shriner’s Club until he was 99.

These days, Breuning keeps busy talking with all of the people who visit the Rainbow Retirement Center interested in meeting the world’s oldest man.

Though his vision doesn’t allow him to read anymore, Breuning keeps his mind active by listening to the radio.

“My eyes are gone,” he said, “but I listen to the radio. I get all my news on KMON.”

Breuning started eating out 35 years ago, but said he doesn’t anymore.

“Once you get used to not eating in restaurants, you don’t want to anymore,” he said. Besides, he’d rather eat at home, at the Rainbow Retirement Center.

“They have a lot of good food right here,” he said, “and good cooks.”

Breuning celebrated his 113th birthday with not one, but two cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. And for his birthday lunch he got his favorite: liver and onions.

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The Tabata Protocal – Hardcore Interval Training

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Tabata Protocol is interval training that Izumi Tabata, Ph.D. – a Japanese researcher – designed for Olympic level athletes.

Broken down, it’s 7 minutes of warm up; followed by high intensity 100% effort bursts of 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest (starting at 4 series of sprints/rests up to 7 series of sprints/rests). You then do a cool down for 7 minutes (espeically key for old dogs like me!).

I have always believed in intervals and doing them has always been a key to staying in serious shape, IMHO.

But I got hurt in late April playing soccer (as I seem to be apt to do) and then re-injured the area in May. (Pulled groin – spare me the snickers, this injury HURTS and I’ll be down for another 4 weeks or so says the doc).

But I’m a fitness oriented guy and can’t play my sport. I’ve had to really rethink my workouts, I’m limited on what I can do. So I’m going a bit crazy. So I pulled my stationary bike back out and found that riding it doesn’t irriatate this injury at all. (Whew!)

So I barely recalled reading about this crazy Interval workout and using Google, found this.

I’ve been at it 3X a week now for the last 3 weeks. I’ve gone from barely making it through 4 cycles to ripping it through 6 cycles. I am pushing really hard too; my heart rate is cranking into the 167 range… which I don’t often see. (My max based on age and resting is 181 so I am hitting the bottom range of my VO2 range (aka 90%)). You feel like you are going to die towards the end of it, but man, it works.

So once I rehab this stupid injury completely (and not a DAY before it’s been cleared by the doc and I’ve been symptom free for at least a week doing wind sprints in the back field) and test this in ‘real life’ to see how my wind holds up in competition in the game, I can say that it feels good.

From the web: “…the Tabata Protocol is the rare workout that benefits both endurance athletes and sprinters — hard to accomplish …. (using this system) for six weeks improved their maximum aerobic capacity by 14%.” Compare that to traditional aerobic training at 70% for 60 minutes for six weeks showing an improvement of 9.5%.

Conventional Interval training, as I’ve done in the past, suggest keeping a 1:3 work-rest ratio (meaning your rest periods are 3X longer than your sprint periods). The Tabata Protocol’s work-rest ratio is 2:1.

If you are in shape (or have a doctor’s clearance to workout) then try this sort of Interval Training. I plan to maintain this level throughout from now on. It’s quick, it’s grueling, and it seems so far to be very effective. I won’t really know till I can bring it on the pitch for 60 minutes… but right now, injury or not, this has helped me remain in good shape.

Doing a mixture of P90X and this has been a good way to keep it together!

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New Year and Resolutions – Looking Back At a Year of One Fitness Journey and Looking Forward To More

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This is the time of year that everyone goes into self analysis and many folks, I’d say the bulk of them, come out with fitness oriented/health oriented changes. It seems that now; and then spring are the main times folks that don’t live the fitness oriented lifestyle actually acknowledge it’s existance and even consider switching into some sort of ‘fitness’ mode.

I’ll just speak for myself right now. As I come into 2009, I’ve been really focused and prioritized towards fitness since April. Last November 2007, I separated my left shoulder in a sports injury (indoor soccer. How do you separate your shoulder playing soccer? Leave it to me to find a way…). It took me 4 months to have some normal range of movement and start to build my strength back up. That’s one reason I look so weak in my ‘before’ pic that I’ve posted on this site as my ‘Day 1′ photos. I needed to really change up my routine, get my life in order and not just ‘fade away’ like I felt I was. It wasn’t about looks, or walking around with my shirt off in the summer. It was about performance on the soccer field running around slower and slower with less power and less stamina than ever before.

The main issue for me was simply letting the aging process take over. I was 41 and felt older. I was working out, eating 1/2 decent (and 1/2 not decent!) but felt old. And slow.

I found P90X, but through on-line research and not the (in)famous infomercial you see all the time on the weekends. I was researching Plyometrics (aka ‘jump training’) after watching a special on Kris Draper from the Detroit Red Wings focused on Plyo and keeping his speed and jump as he aged as a professional athelete. The search led to P90X and I liked what I read, and then in checking out reviews from folks I found a lot of folks I knew on-line and in real life had tried it and I liked what I heard from them.

When I got the program, I admit I was overwhelmed with it. I read all the included material and watched the workouts. I took the fit test to set a baseline. And then… I waited. I wasn’t sure I could commit that much time (an hour a day, six days a week) and focus on my diet over 90 days.

I laugh to myself about that now;

What’s happened to me over the last half of 2008, physically and mentally (related to getting in this groove) is really moving to me. I’ve regained my jump, energy and strength. I feel like I’m 20. I’ve got abs like I’ve never had before, my core is stronger than ever before, my strength matches (almost) where I was in my 20′s, my stamina is better than ever before, my flexibility is better than ever in my life and my balance is better. Doing Yoga on a regular (weekly) basis in this program has done wonders for me. I hated that part of it, but now have come to understand what it’s doing for me overall. Especially on the flexibility and balance part of this whole experience.

Physique wise, I’m totally impressed with what all this has done for me. I didn’t really believe that looking like this was really possible again. Really. lol. I hate typing stuff like this, because it comes off the wrong way so much; but I don’t think I’ve ever had it all ‘together’ like this ever before. When I was in my 20′s and really focused on muscle building, size and strength, I had no idea about core strength or worried about abs too much. Back then, to me, if my stomach was flat, then I was fine. Now, combining portion control and sensible common sense good foods instead of bad ones… I have abs. I’ve never had that before. Ever.

Mentally, I feel like I can accomplish things and am more confident tackling even very large tasks and hard tasks in any realm because I am more focused on what I can actually do. I’ve proved to myself that things that seem so impossible can be successfully done with consistent effort applied over time. I can weather things that before would really bother me without blinking an eye now.

In August, I reset my goals and focused on my 42nd birthday coming up this January. I wanted to see how close I could actually come to looking like I did at my physical peak… which I sort of loosely peg about age 23. I was working out everyday, very determined to get bigger and stronger. I was playing outdoor soccer and worked at a job where I was running a lot. Luckily I have some pictures from then, though I don’t often take such pictures, where I was ‘posing’. They’ll remain private, but suffice to say, I am pretty much there even right now by the end of December. I still have another whole month (my birthday is the last day of January) to keep working. It’ll be fun to see how I end up at that point.

I’ve often gone off about ‘perfection isn’t a destination, it’s a process’. So when you set a goal and actually, gasp, get there… what do you do? Set new ones. I have no intention of slowing down, eating crap, getting sedentary or letting all this work go to waste. I want to stay fit, live clean and enjoy the rest of my life as best I can. I want to be the old guy out on the indoor soccer field that guys marvel at for keeping up even though he’s the oldest guy by far on the team. I want to be the guy that my kids can grow up and later think, “Well, the old man still does it, why can’t I?”

When folks toot their own horn, even if they can do it and be honest, I hate it. It always comes off to me as arrogant. That’s not my intention. I just want to be honest with myself – and anyone following this blog – about where I’ve been, how I’ve gotten here and where I am going.

Peace.



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So, what happens after you complete P-90X?

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An interesting aspect of the P90-X program, and Beachbody programs in particular, is that you can simply adjust them to fit your lifestyle.

P90-X is pitched as a 90 day program. Period. But what happens to most folks that use it to get into shape, is that they like it. Really like it.

There are enough workouts in the program to mix and match. There are different ways to do that in 90 day programs depending on your goals. Classic, Lean and Doubles.

I also am doing the “P90-X Plus” program; it’s an extension of the P90-X formula. It again is a 90 day program that you can do in various flavors depending on your goals. It adds in new workouts and routines and uses the P90-X ones from the original. It’s much more suited to folks VERY familiar with Tony’s sort of programs. It took me watching them and trying them a few times to get the moves.

It’s very fast, circuit training. He has no “8-10″ rep stuff; it’s all max reps based on time. The workouts in P90X-Plus are shorter (average 40 minutes or so each) and INTENSE if you do them full throttle.

The ab workout deserves special mention. It’s a fantastic ab workout, perhaps the best and most well rounded one I’ve ever done. You do moves hanging from the pull-up bar, then standing, then sitting, then laying down. Then you do the same cycle with different moves. And then again. And then once more. It’s very effective and hard core.

Negatives? Tony pushes the Bowflex Select-Tech dumbbells a wee bit too much (understatment!). I get product placement, but jeez. He also bases a lot of the moves in the workouts around using power stands for push-ups and dips and such. (I’ll give him slack on this, I already own the power stands he invented and they are the best I’ve ever used). You can get around not using them and still do the workouts, but it’s MUCH more effective to use them.

With support from a dedicated coach, the forums and knowing you conquered P90X at least once; the Plus is a great way to extend well past the first 90 days.

Fitness isn’t a destination, nor is the 90 days a race to a finish. They are merely points on a journey that is lifelong.





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Studies Show Yoga Can Treat Illnesses

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Studies Show Yoga Can Treat Illnesses

BY SARAH AVERY • MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • November 28, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. — The ancient practice of yoga is increasingly finding a new following — among doctors and medical researchers who are working to prove its benefits for a variety of illnesses.
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Researchers at University of North Carolina Hospitals are studying yoga’s benefits for people with irritable bowel syndrome. Doctors at Duke University recently completed a study showing that yoga provided significant improvements with hot flashes, sleep and energy levels for postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.

And an oncologist in Beaufort County, N.C., sees improvement in his patients who take yoga classes.

“There’s been an explosion of data using yoga as a treatment option,” said Dr. Shelley Wroth, an obstetrician at Duke Integrative Medicine and a yoga teacher. She said studies have found that yoga helps people suffering from hypertension, anxiety, arthritis, chronic back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, stress, depression, diabetes and epilepsy — among others.

A recent study at Duke involved breast cancer patients who were experiencing severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms. Because of their illness, they were prohibited from taking hormone replacement therapy, so yoga was proposed as an alternative. The study found significant improvement among the women who took yoga classes, compared to women who did not.

“There are a lot of reactions to stress that exacerbate the menopausal symptoms,” said Laura Porter, coauthor of the Duke study. “Yoga — the physical poses and the more cognitive aspects of it — dampens the stress reactivity.”

But even as the science establishes yoga’s benefits, less is known about why it’s helpful. Porter and others postulate that the practice reduces stress through stretching, breathing and meditation. For people battling illness, stress reduction may pack extra potency.

“A lot of our diseases have some sort of origins in stress, and the stress reaction,” said William Frey, who is leading a yoga class in Raleigh, N.C., as part of a UNC-Chapel Hill study among patients with irritable bowel syndrome. “By taking care of stress, you’re starting to eliminate some of the diseases that are caused by it.”

Frey said he began offering yoga eight years ago through UNC-CH’s Program on Integrative Medicine.

“There was some concern we might be bringing spiritual elements into a very clinical setting,” Frey said. “But as people have seen its staying power, and see the results and research, there’s beginning to be more respectability.”

Yoga’s legitimacy increased when the National Institutes of Health became interested in it. The agency is funding studies on yoga and its effect on diseases. But some skepticism remains — in the medical profession and among patients.

Gioia O’Connell, a 54-year-old breast cancer survivor from Apex, N.C., said she wasn’t sure that yoga would help her. Her main hesitation was that yoga stemmed from Eastern roots, and she worried it was incompatible with her Christian faith. Still, she signed up for the study at Duke.

“I have to tell you, it was energizing,” O’Connell said. After being diagnosed with cancer in 1994 and undergoing a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and rounds of daily drugs, she felt wrung out. “It helped with stiffness, aches and pains. And the breathing really did help my energy level. That’s what I deal with, being a cancer survivor, the fatigue.”

Dr. John Inzerillo, an oncologist in Washington, N.C., said his patients have felt that benefit time and again. He began teaching yoga about five years ago as part of a busy practice in Goldsboro, N.C.

“We had breast cancer survivors, lymphoma survivors. Over the course of time — three or four months — I could see a lot more flexibility,” he said, noting that patients also said they felt less stressed.

About three years ago, Inzerillo scaled back. He quit the Goldsboro practice, set up shop in Washington and wrote a book, “Passion Beyond Pain,” about the importance of striking a thoughtful balance in life to overcome pain.

“I made life changes to allow me to get more enjoyment out of life and be more effective at work,” he said. “People get disconnected from the things that really mean something in life.”





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My Overall Thoughts About P90-X

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I’ve been asked what I like so much about P90-X. What makes it so special? What makes it different?

To me there are very important things that any sort of fitness/lifestyle program must include:

  1. Diet - and not just a ‘diet’ you do for a given period of time, but real lifestyle choices to echo a common sense approach to simply eating well. A lot of folks that do eat correctly call it, “Eating clean.”
  2. Strength Training – the basis. You must work the muscles to develop muscles. I am more a fan of ‘big’ complex moves that involve the entire body than focused on ‘small’ moves that isolate certain muscle groups only to the exclusion of others. Our bodies were designed to function as machines as a unit; not a collection of parts.
  3. Cardio Training – utterly indispensable. Your heart and lungs are the basis of what you can do, how long you can do it and without them, your life, let alone your fitness, is in danger. I am a tremendous proponent of ‘High Intensity Interval Training’ (aka HIIT) as opposed to low intensity aerobic work. I’ll expound on this further later (and in other posts).
  4. Flexibility -  as we age, beyond losing other aspects of fitness, we lose our flexibility. And that lost flexibility is precisely what makes us feel ‘old’ and raises our chances of getting injured from even seemingly mundane daily tasks.

So that’s my basic exercise related ‘pillars’ along with diet. There are a lot of other aspects to pay serious attention to (sleep, recovery, breathing, stretching (ballistic vs. static), posture, drinking water, etc..) but we will approach those separately and in other posts in depth.

Other logistical considerations for me before committing to an all-inclusive program are as follows:

  1. At Home – I like gyms, enjoy working out in them and they have tremendous resources to offer. But I have a family with children, a wife and run a few companies. I simply do not have time to get to a gym. What happens is that no matter how dedicated I am to it, going to the gym becomes a major roadblock to actually working out over time. I need a program that I can do – in it’s entirety – at home.
  2. Equipment - because I need/want to workout at home, the equipment I need to have to do the program can’t be extensive, expensive or expansive. I want little to no ‘gear’ needed, I do not want to break the bank to have what I need to do it correctly and the equipment I have can’t take up lots of space.
  3. Support - I’m pretty smart about working out. I’ve done it for large parts of my life and read/researched a lot about it. I have scoured the web and found fantastic resources that have helped me to shape my own ‘custom’ programs in the past that did work fairly well. But what lacked and one of the most overlooked aspects to training at home is a lack of support. And I’m not talking about your significant other. I mean a support group for motivation, for accountability and for asking/sharing advice.

How does P90-X lineup with what I look for? Let’s breakdown what it is and what it isn’t.

If you have looked at P90-X at all, you’ve seen the infomercial. You’ve seen the website, you might have caught the videos on the making of P90-X on YouTube.

Beachbody is the parent company that works with different trainers. One of them is Tony Horton. He’s 50 as I type this, but was 45 at the time P90-X was done. He’s in better shape than 99.5% of 20 year olds. He’s been a trainer for a long time and developed this program as an extension or ‘extreme’ version of his P90 program (which is also still sold).

The P90-X program is a collection of 12 DVD’s, a diet plan and online resources to support you through the program. Let’s look at them in order.

The term they pitch in the infomercial is “muscle confusion”; and basically that’s what the workout side of the program is based on.  There are six strengthening/resistance based workout DVD’s. Each is a different workout: Chest & Back; Shoulders & Arms; Legs & Back; Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper X. There are three cardio based workout DVD’s: Plyometrics, Kenpo X, Cardio X. There is one core workout, Core Synergistics. And two workouts centered around flexibility, Yoga-X and X-Stretch.

The workout program is setup in three phases, each phase is 4 weeks. Each phase consists of three weeks of six workouts; then a rest day. The fourth week is a ‘recovery week’ where you do no strength resistance workouts. The ‘muscle confusion’ factor comes into play by switching up the workouts you do each phase. The idea is to increase your reps/weight used in each move over the progression of the phases and the variety of the workouts each week and than in each phase keeps you interested and forces your body to not plateau like in so many other workout programs. I’ll review each of these workouts in other posts. Suffice to say, they are all real deal. The focus is on basic moves like push ups, pull ups and adding a tremendous (and VERY challenging) spin on such moves. Tony ties each of the workouts in with a warm up and a cool down. The moves he does are closer to circuit training, combining aspects of giant sets and super sets. There is little ‘downtime’ between exercises. They are all about one hour each. Yoga is an hour and a half. You do not stand around much in that time. It’s intense. Yoga will get it’s own post for sure; that one is perhaps the most challenging IMHO. But that’s another topic. These are REAL workouts. I’ve heard other folks call it “Cross-fit Lite” but I’d call it practical fitness. You will burn fat. You will gain muscle. You will gain flexibility. You will get more speed (Plyometrics is brilliant). You will learn moves you’ve never imagined.

What I particularly like about the workouts is that they translate into real world. The workouts you do will help you in sports, hiking, living life at any level. I can do things with ease that I struggled with before this program, even though I was in decent shape.

The diet program is divided up into three phases too. They go along with the workout and are as important or even more so than the workouts IMHO. In essence it’s a Phase 1 (low carb); Phase 2 (medium carb), Phase 3 (higher carb) diet strong in protein and focused on dividing up your meals into 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. They give you lots of ways to customize it for where you are in your fitness journey; but since P90-X is stressed for folks that come into the program with some degree of fitness the diet isn’t anything revolutionary, just… common sense. It can seem overly complicated at first; but the key is using it as a learning guide to illustrate ratios between carbs/proteins/fats through the phases and observe how your body reacts to them with the workouts. I feel they overload you with calories in the third phase; but frankly by the time you get there, you already know what works for you.

There are other tools not in the P90-X program that work perfectly hand-in-hand with it. One is The Daily Plate and it’s free. A fantastic guide if you simply need a road map is from Beachbody, it’s called Michi’s Ladder. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a fantastic guide. The thing that these tools all start you at is ’40-30-30.’ “40-30-30″ means a healthy, balanced diet made up of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. It’s a good starting place. Using something like Fitday and tracking your actual diet for a week gives you some idea of what you are actually eating now.  That’s an eye opener for most folks. It was for me. Note we all need carbs; the issue with them is what sort of carbs. I actually prefer to follow a 50-30-20 diet; which works for me. Once you get hip to this sort of thinking and simple portion control… well, then it’s easy to do.

So the workouts fit my three pillars of working out perfectly. And the exercises you do all make you stronger, faster, flexible and last longer in the real world. What about the logistical aspects?

The program is designed to be done in your home. On your timeframe, at your discretion. The secret is simply committing to do it. When I bought it, it sat for a few weeks as I familiarized myself with the workouts, the diet program and tried to get myself to finally give in and commit to it. One hour a day is a lot of time. I made a promise to myself to do it to the best of my ability for 90 days come hell or high water. And made the time, if you look for time that you can ‘find’ to do things… you’ll never ‘find’ the time. If you instead ‘make’ the time, it’s there for you to use. Just use it wisely.

What equipment do you need? Well, you NEED a pull up bar, some floor space (more on this), a yoga mat and block, and either some dumbbells or resistance bands. Pull ups are essential, and Tony has more in this program than I’ve ever seen before in any program my entire life. I already had a door frame pullup bar; so no big deal for me. (Beachbody sells a very nice one at a good price – click on the link for their store on my site here and check it out). I bought a Yoga mat and black at Target for about $25. I have owned dumbbells for years and years; but ended up with every resistance band that Beachbody sells (they call them B-Lines) in addition. They are VERY nice quality equipment. I think using both dumbbells and resistance bands is a great mix. They are very different in use and the variety is good.

There are other very helpful additions to consider if you are going all out. I ended up buying the power stands that Tony designed from Beachbody; they are extremely heavy duty and work phenomenally well. I didn’t buy them until after my first 90 day cycle. They are essential to doing P90-X Plus, but are great for all the P90-X exercises too.

Space. The final frontier…. err, well, ahem. I do all my workouts in my home office. In my family room, there are kid’s toys and a lot of the time, when I want to do my workouts (weekends and during the summer) my kids or wife a) don’t want me to hog the TV; and b) don’t want me sweating and jumping around in front of them. My home office is not huge. I need to modify some of the bigger moves that cover ground. But that’s no big deal and I do it. I have a useable floor space of about 10′ x 20′. That’s not a lot of room, but it works for me.

Support. We all need it. There are days you don’t feel motivated. Days you want to back off. If you aren’t answering to anyone about your progress, aren’t getting positive reinforcement… it’s easy to back off. There are fantastic support threads on the Beachbody forum. Great ‘rah rah’ posts, folks offering advice and you always have access to a coach. I do coaching for P90-X; and to me it’s about answering questions, finding answers and keeping the motivation up. Some folks have dramatic before/after pictures and stories. It’s far more important than you might imagine.

As I type this, I’ve lived with one hour of my day – every day – dedicated to Tony and P90-X of one form or another six days a week over 7.5 months. I’m never bored, not sick of Tony, the music, the chatter in the DVD’s or the moves. I get into doing them, form is a big deal to me. I work very hard at it and get it done.

As you can see (I hope) from the pictures, this program transformed my fitness. It’s taught me how to enjoy working this hard and I’m at a point where I am mixing/matching other workouts (Tony’s extension to P90-X, P90-X Plus and Tony’s “One-on-One” workouts) to keep the variety up and the muscles from plateaus. It’s working. I’m faster on the soccer field, stronger, have better posture without effort, have control of my diet, have energy, feel good and sleep well. I get sick less. I get better faster.

It’s hard work. It takes dedication and focus. But the pay off is enormous. Aspects of my life that are not related to fitness at all are benefiting. I have more energy and focus to do my work, play with my kids and spend time with wife. I find my confidence levels are higher when I am working with new clients or vendors for my business affairs. I am calmer and stress doesn’t get to me as much as it has always done.

To me this program was the complete answer. Beyond the 90 days they focus on.





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