Too old for competitive sports? Says who???

Study: Soccer beats jogging for fitness - Fitness - MSNBC.com

You know what drives me crazy? People who put artificial time lines on what you can and cannot do at certain times of your life. Perhaps some of these sound familiar:

1. "Aren't you too old to be staying out so late?"
   
2. "Aren't you a little too old to be doing that?"
   
3. "Aren't you a bit too old to participate in competitive sports? What are you trying to prove?"
   

Pile of garbage (and that is using a nicer term).

Click on the link above to read a recent study about how people that compete in team, competitive sports get better results than those who simply trudge through a workout day after day. It helps when someone is chasing you. It helps when there is a goal (to win or perform your best). It helps when you actually ENJOY being active.

Don't listen to anyone around you that has decided certain parts of your life have term limits. They do not help at all.

Don't Let Time Sneak Up On You

No love handles now? Just wait - Nutrition Notes - MSNBC.com

Most successful professionals become virtuosos in their craft through willpower and the force of their personality. The world of top tier lawyers, business executives, financiers and other rainmakers is full of Type-A, hard charging individuals who always seemed to go the extra mile and put in more effort than their peers to get where they are today. I have also found that many of these people also tend to be former athletes since the competitive arena tends to bring out the best in people's performance both on and off the field of play.

So, how do rainmakers who are no stranger to spartan working and training regimens become softer, less fit versions of themselves by the time that they hit their late thirties or early forties? This article talks about this phenomenon: it creeps up on you.

Time is not kind. As you get older, most peoples' exercise routines suffer, fancy dinners are frequent and a life of leisure becomes a reward for your hard work. However, you must remember my guiding principle of training: always accelerate uphill.

If you cannot work out longer, work out harder. If you can't skip that dinner with a client, compensate for it with what you keep in your fridge at home. And, as time passes by, you must continue to challenge yourself with fresh approaches, new techniques and arduous regimens that keep your body guessing.

Accelerating uphill works to make you stand out from the crowd--in how you look and feel--for one simple reason: most people don't. Isn't that what got you to where you are today in the first place?

The myth of the weekend warrior

The myth of the weekend warrior - Smart Fitness - MSNBC.com


Here is a great article I found on MSNBC about how "weekend warriors" are not as prevalent as you might think. Now, I am not quite sure who is keeping all of the sports equipment stores in business, but it does not sound like it is the adults of the world.

After looking at some of the facts in this report, I think the proper term would be seasonal warrior--those who exercise once every three months or so at the company 5K race or family touch football game.

What if people viewed exercise as an everyday event much like brushing your teeth? You brush to maintain good health instead of trying to make up for weeks of bad habits on the day of your hot date. Ultimately, it doesn't work, so you smile with your mouth closed and use lots of mouthwash. This sounds very similar to a non-exerciser wearing baggy clothing and keeping away from the beach at all costs. There is a simpler, better way...

1. Move more
   
2. Do not treat every meal like Thanksgiving
   
3. Do activities with a high DI factor (discipline/intensity)
   
4. Keep a daily record of what you do
   
5. Compete in something against other people, your personal record of achievement or at least a clock
   

Too Easy? Do More.

I have been asked many times about how to determine when you should increase your weights, number of repetitions, sets, and the like. Your body actually has a pretty simple way of telling you when it is time to move up: it gets easy.

The whole point of training or learning any new skill is to improve. So, don't be too surprised or bent out of shape when it actually occurs. That was the whole point of all the effort! However, to stay exactly how you are, you must maintain the same level of discipline and intensity you have right now. If you are not quite to the state you wish to be in, you have to do more.

The simplest way to demonstrate how your body does this is to use the example of how a callous gets built up on your hand. If you never did manual labor such as yard work, your hands would be smooth and soft. While you may be eligible to become a hand model for a catalog, you have not built up a lot of protection when manual labor may be required.

If you overdo it one day and spend 12 hours in the yard raking, shoveling and pulling weeds, you get blisters. This is because you overdid it without the proper acclimation period.

However, if you gradually build up the amount of yard work you do over several weekends, you not only get a pretty lawn, but callouses on your hands. The more work you do, the tougher and thicker they become. Do not kid yourself though: as soon as you cut back on that lawn work (like during the winter months), those callouses go away quickly.

Your body reponds the same way in a more complex manner when you exercise whether it is running, weight training or some other form or exertion. To improve requires more effort than the last time. And, when you stop, the changes quickly dissipate.

So, how does a busy rainmaker "do more" when they are already pressed for time and energy? Here are some suggestions on how to increase your effort without having to create extra hours in the day or shirk other obligations:

1. Increase the intensity. This first one is simple: if what you are doing right now is easy, increase the amount of effort. For example, this may be raising the weight you are using per set of an exercise or the speed you are running. It is pretty simple math. If you increase any of these variables by 10%, you are doing 10% more work. When that gets easy, increase it again.
   
2. Decrease the rest interval. If you are pressed for time, decrease the amount of time you rest between sets in weight training or the frequency that you do cardiovascular activities. Think about it this way: if you normally lift something that weighs 50 pounds 10 times for 3 sets that takes 1 minute with a 2 minute rest interval, that means you have lifted 1500 pounds in seven minutes. If you decrease the rest time to 90 seconds, that means you have lifted the same amount of weight in just six minutes. You have increased effort by 15% in less time.
   
3. Increase the work load. By increasing the distance you run or bike, you have done more work. A great deal of time is spent getting ready to exerise, showering afterwards and other non-productive activities. The incremental increase in distance is actually a very small percentage of the time you must devote to your total exercise time period. Once you get to a point where you have no more time to add to your training, increase the speed. Now you are doing more work in the same period of time. With weight training, it is even easier---just increase the number of repetitions. Keep in mind that once you cross the upper boundaries of repetition ranges (5-8 for strength, 8-12 for size and tone, 12-15 for endurance), it is time to increase the weight.
   

Like a number of people you know, your body will only do as much as it has to. If you want to give it a good kick in the pants and keep improving, you can't let life get too easy. You MUST do more.

Article on best and worst diet strategies

Best — and worst — diet strategies - Diet & Nutrition - MSNBC.com

Consumer Reports, a reputable evaluator of commercial products, recently published a report on the best and worst of the most popular diet plans. In general, those plans that develop healthy eating habits and not labeling some foods as "evil" scored the highest.

Pay attention to the section on "budgeting calories" in the article. If most people treated their daily eating habits like balancing their checkbook, they would have great success. Think of eating excess calories like putting purchases on a credit card...you will have to pay it back later with interest.

Got Rest?

A number of people ask me, "What is the proper time to rest between sets?" Well, it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I found a great article from Men's Fitness that talks about how tailoring your rest periods can be just as important as how you tailor your actual workout plan. Check out the article and let me know your experiences.