Gain 34 lbs Of Muscle In 28 Days! May 2, 2007
I was reading some more of Tim Ferriss’ blog, and saw his recent article From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks. He has plenty of before-and-after photos to illustrate just how much of a difference this is. Amazing.
In it, he details the diet and exercise regimen he used to gain 34 lbs of muscle, while losing 3 lbs of fat, in 28 days. The diet is the same one I linked to yesterday, so I won’t repeat the details here, but the exercise program is interesting.
Basically, he only worked out twice per week. The workouts featured only a small variety of exercises (4-7 multi-joint exercises), and he did each one very slowly (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down) and repeated until failure (i.e. he couldn’t lift the weight another time) with a 3 minute break between each exercise.
I don’t have any weights or anything, but this approach sounds interesting. Any ideas for how to weight-train when you don’t own any gym equipment? Can it be done with common household items?
Post your ideas below!
Lawn Mowing For Weight Loss January 20, 2006
Just for kicks, I thought I’d wear my heart rate monitor today while I mowed the lawn. I was a little surprised to find out what good exercise it was!
According to the monitor, it took me 30 minutes to mow the lawn (including sweeping up the driveway afterwards), and 26:18 of that was within my target heart rate zone. My average heart rate was 137 (it’s usually around 120-125 when walking), and I burned 462 calories. Pushing and pulling the mower and sweeping use a lot of upper-body muscles, so I’m getting a bit of variety in the workout. With benefits like these, it looks like I won’t be procrastinating on mowing the lawn anymore!
No wonder I’ve never seen a fat lawn mowing contractor.
It now seems strange that so many people pay others to mow their lawn, and then pay to visit the gym for a workout!
A Man With A Pram December 15, 2005
G woke up early this morning, so I dressed her and took her out walking with me in a pram. She really enjoyed it, especially when I ran on a few flat bits of the footpath (another benefit of walking before 6:00am is that nobody can see you being silly!).
Pushing a pram seems to work different muscles - I noticed my legs were sore in different places today, and my arms were a bit sore too. I guess that’s a good thing!
I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t get as much exercise when pushing a pram as I do when walking briskly, but I was still pretty tired by the end of the walk. My town is quite hilly, so the pram gives some good resistance training!
iPod - My Smallest Piece of Exercise Equipment December 13, 2005
I walked again this morning, and actually enjoyed it.
Finding Time
Getting up at 5:30am seems to solve my Time- and Guilt-based aversions to exercise. I’ve found the extra half-hour in my day by simply getting up earlier, and so far it doesn’t seem to require me going to bed earlier at night. And I don’t feel guilty about leaving my wife at home to get the kids ready without help, since they’re all still in bed at that time (including her!).
Dealing With Boredom
But the big killer for me in the past has been Boredom. There just isn’t enough interest in plain old walking to keep me motivated day after day, week after week. Sure, you can vary your route on different days, but it’s still pretty uninteresting.
I’ve found a solution that’s working for me, though, and it might also work for you.
Audio Books
I have a half-hour drive to work every day, which is normally pretty much dead time. There’s not a lot you can do in a car to use that time productively, so you end up just listening to mindless radio. Then a couple of years ago I discovered the audio book section in my local library, and tried listening to books on the way to work. It turns out to be a great use of that time! I was getting through a full book every week or two.
Podcasts
About a year ago I started downloading and listening to podcasts, which were even better as they were directly related to my own interests - most of the books on tape were targeted to the older residents of our town, and I’d already been through most of the ones that really interested me.
So, I’m taking my iPod out with me in the mornings and listening to podcasts that I’m really interested in. Walking is no longer boring - it’s like I’m getting up half an hour early to listen to podcasts while my body goes for a walk.
Banish Laziness Too!
As an unexpected side effect, listening to podcasts also helps me with my Laziness problem. Each episode of a podcast is usually 10 minutes to an hour long, so it’s pretty rare that I finish an episode just as I get home (whether driving or walking). Each morning, I’m keen to get up and get out walking because I’m interested to hear the rest of the episode. Today I even kept walking for about 10 minutes longer because I wanted to keep listening.
Finding Podcasts
To find podcasts, just install Apple’s iTunes (available for Windows or Mac) and click on the Podcasts tab. You can learn more about using iTunes for listening to podcasts at the Apple web site. Or if you don’t want to use iTunes, read about podcasting at Wikipedia, download an alternative podcatching client, and search for podcasts at Podcast Alley.
Other Sources of Audio
If you can’t find any podcasts you’re interested in, or you don’t have broadband and so can’t download them, try audio books. Most libraries have them tucked away somewhere, and it really isn’t hard to rip the CDs into your iPod so you can listen to them more easily. You can purchase audio books online via the iTunes Music Store or somewhere like Audible.com. You could also purchase used audio books on CD from eBay, and then sell them again after you’ve listened to them.