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There was an error in the last send attemp - sorry about that.
Right now most of the world is making a big deal about this guy named Michael Phelps. Something about some swimming medals. Apparently a lot of medals. But his aquatic dominance is not the only thing making a splash in the papers... his reported 12,000 calorie diet has been making some serious waves. (I think 2 puns in one sentence deserves some applause, don't you? Regardless I'll stop.)
The average American Phelps' age consumes about 2000 calories per day and that means Phelps consumes 6 times the norm. We already know Phelps is an uber quick, alien-human-fish genetically engineered mutant, surely the result of a super secret Area 51 project. But the mad scientists responsible for his manufacture might not have fully realized the energy required to run such a sophisticated machine. 12,000 calories a day is a massive amount by anyone's standards. So you might first ask why the hell isn't Michael Phelps fat? It all comes down to consumption and expenditure. The guy may eat like a Dyson vacuum on crack, but he trains like he is possessed by mighty Poseidon himself. He simply expends as much energy as he consumes, and that keeps his weight constant. I even heard him say that he can't seem to break 200 lbs even though he stands 6'4". So what happens after the Olympics are over, and his training stops? There is a simple answer to that as well.
If Phelps continued to consume at his current rate and ceased all physical activity he would in all likely hood blow up like a blow fish (dammit, another pun). I actually see this a lot in former college athletes who graduate and then get a real job and "normal" life- (the getting fat part that is, they do not actually resemble sea creatures). To maintain weight, expenditure must equal consumption. To lose weight expenditure has to exceed consumption. Pretty simple (on paper anyway). In truth I don't think Phelps will ever have a big problem for a few crucial reasons:
Not many of us are blessed with the seemingly super-charged metabolism of Michael Phelps. If you or I tried to consume 12,000 calories in a day you would probably wind up in the hospital. I'm sure Phelps worked up to it. But it all comes down to what comes in and what goes out. If you want to lose weight you need to (God help me I am going to quote Oprah) move more and eat less. It's just that simple. (Big) butt like I said earlier this very simple concept, when placed into our real world everyday lives, can be quite difficult to put into practice. You can either learn to deal with it, make adaptations and choices conducive to the way you want to look and the health you need to thrive, or end up looking like Jabba the Hutt and get buried in a giant cargo crate at a very early age. The other slightly less practical option is to swim and workout for 6 plus hours per day. Who knows, you might win a few medals of your own. I think I'll workout 3 or 4 times per week for 30 minutes, and watch what I eat 90% of the time and eat like Phelps 10% of the time. That works for me. What works
for you? Or maybe a better question is what *IS NOT* working for you?
I have issues (don't we all). Too many to list, but one in particular has to do with goals. As of now I have nothing coming up. No event like a wedding, reunion or photoshoot or anything like that and that is a problem. I, like many, have a problem when there is not a definitive goal set. Whether it be to look good by a certain date or to get down to X size. When I have no definitive goal things start to slip. It is far easier to justify a handful of this or a bite of that. Likewise it is much easier to skip out on workouts when there is no prize to shoot for. To put it another way - maintenance is for losers. To truly be successful I need a goal, and I'm guessing you do too. This goes for not only fitness but life as well. But I'll stick to fitness. So here it goes, I have made a goal. A little background.... Back on April 5th, 2008 I took some photos with my shirt off. You might think that is not a big deal, I am after all fit boy buffed pants. Well you'd be wrong.
It is a deeply rooted psychological trauma (not that deep really) but when I was younger I was always chubby, husky or just plain fat. And that meant I got teased a fair amount. Dry your eyes, I'm fine. Fast forward 20 years and those thoughts are still there in the back of my head. So even to this day taking my shirt off at the pool or at the beach or whatever gives me pause. I know, you think I'm crazy - but those thoughts are there. Now back to the goal... My 37th birthday is in about 5 weeks, on September 23rd. On or before that date I will take photos shirtless and post them on this blog / newsletter. Barring catastrophe I make this pledge: there will be abs. There is no great significance to that date other than it is my birthday, and a date that will be hard for me to forget. Other than that it is fairly random, but it works. Oh crap, I made a goal. Oh s**t, I took it one step further and made it public. DAMN IT! I guess there's no backing out.
If you need help setting, achieving or refining your goals let me know. I am literally an expert and would be privileged to lend assistance. See you
(see me) in September.
Note: It has been a while since I have posted an actual workout. Lest you all think I have lost my workout chops and am now nothing more than an amazingly clever and incredibly entertaining writer, I thought I would give you and idea of what I have been up to workout wise. Enjoy. I should just start off by saying that I wasn't thinking, not really. It just seemed like a good idea at the time, and there was no other reason- good, bad or as it turns out, evil. I am talking about my most recent workouts. I draw from all sorts of odd places for inspiration: other trainers, books, magazines movies, sometimes simple whims and occasionally the voices in my head. A while back a colleague of mine, Craig Balantyne, made a bit of a splash with a "300" workout- inspired by the film of the same name. So the other day for some reason Craig's workout popped into my head. I thought "Hey 300 is a really cool number." Plus it was a cool movie too.
So I took Craig's idea of completing 300 reps in a single workout, and then mixed that with Charles Staley's EDT style of exercise pairings. In EDT, or Escalating Density Training, you choose 2 exercises and alternate between the 2 for a given period of time. This is a huge oversimplification of how the EDT program works, but you get the idea. So instead of concentrating on number of reps per set, you are concentrating on completing as many reps as you can in the given time period. Each time you do the workout you try to get more reps completed in the same period of time thus increasing the "density" (get it? Escalating Density Training). But that is not exactly what I did - I just wanted you to know where my head was. Insert your own joke here. So my goal was to choose 2 exercise pairs (4 exercises total) and complete 75 reps per exercise for a total of... you guessed it 300 reps. I could do as many sets as it took and I did not put a time limit on it either. I would chose weight I thought would cause failure in the 8-10 range. Now, whenever I create a workout for myself or others my basic philosophy is that if you can do it as prescribed then it was too easy. Good news, this was not too easy. It was the opposite of easy. It was suck. I just wanted to choose moves I that knew well and were not technically difficult to perform. Nothing fancy and like I said 300 reps just sounds so cool... Here is the workout as I designed it: A1:
Deadlift B1: Kettle
Bell Swing Remember 75 reps each, in as many sets as it takes. After I finish the "A" pairing, I move on to "B". No problem. Problem. I finished "A" (barely) and thought I was going to die or puke or both. And I was not even sure of the order. Then I only got 50 reps on each of the "B" moves and had to call it a day- well short of my goal which pissed me off. I was pretty much useless the rest of the evening and much of the following day. Time to re-think things. So do you know what I thought for my next workout? 240 is a cool number too. So I tweaked things a bit. For my next pairings I would go for 60 reps each. Much more plausible (at least for now) and would in all likelihood decrease the chances of me regurgitating in my own gym. Here are some of my recent (mostly) completed "60's" workouts: Workout
1 B1: Kettle
Bell Swing Workout
2 B1: BB
Thrusters Workout
3
(This one *REALLY* kicked my ass) B1: Kettle
Bell Swing Workout
4 B1: BB
Thrusters What you can take form this is that it does not take a rocket scientist to put together a cool and challenging workout. All I did was choose a few moves and set a (relatively random) rep goal. That's it. Of course I made sure that there was balance- that I was pushing as much as I was pulling, and that I used the back of my legs as much as the front (basically). Since I kinda came up with this, I will call this training style Rep Goal Training: RGT. ("RGT" also kinda looks like regurgitate, which makes it easy to remember) All you need to do for RGT is pick a few big moves you know well, alternate between them for a challenging number of reps. Then give it all you got. If you can do the workout as you designed it, make it harder next time. As for me I will revisit my new RGT foe the 75's in the very near future. I'll be damned if I will let a stupid randomly chosen number beat me. Next time I will be prepared.
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Joshua Carter The Body Transformation Expert 818-337-6175 Successes
Blog I have a new blog. Yippee! I know, I know. When you just can’t get enough of me drop by and see what I am up to or what I am doing or just come by and heckle me. Don't know what a blog is? It is basically a newsletter that is updated regularly. I have been posting every few days or so. Check it out: |
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Email: joshua@carterfitness.com |
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