5 Ways to Measure Fitness Progress Without a Scale

Let me be totally up front with something here: scales LIE.  If you knew someone to be a compulsive liar, just how much time would you spend listening to that person?  If you're like me, you'd take every word they said with the proverbial grain of salt. 

The bathroom scale is no different from that compulsive liar we all prefer to avoid.  One day it will say one thing only to tell an entirely different story the next.  Lose a pound, gain two pounds, lose two pounds, gain a pound...  After a couple weeks of this kind of "progress" it is easier to quit than to constantly be subjected to the inconsistency of the scale.

Time and again I've seen people frustrated by their scale because they weighed themselves on a daily or near-daily basis.  Weight can fluctuate so much over the course of a 24 hour period that it's often best to go weeks between weigh-ins.  So what can you do in the interim to measure your fitness and fat-reduction progress?  Here are some suggestions:

1. Find a pair of pants that is 1 size smaller than what you currently wear.  About once a week for a month, try the pants on.  As long as you're sticking to your exercise and nutrition plans, you probably won't go longer than a month without discovering that your once-too-small pants now fit.  A similar measure of progress is to find a belt that is currently too small for you to wear.  Eventually you will be able to wear the belt (even if it is on the very last hole!), and then you can gradually watch as you shrink into the second, third, and fourth holes.  I currently wear a belt that I couldn't wear in January, and I've progressed to the 4th hole on the belt.  That's progress!!
2. Take a fitness test.  Remember how on that first day of your new exercise regimen you got winded just walking into the gym?  I sure do!  I remember hitting that treadmill and huffing along at 3 mph.  Over time, 3 mph became 4, then 5.  Now my HIIT high points are at 9.5mph for 60 seconds.  When you keep track of your fitness progress - either in your weight training or your cardio training (or BOTH!) - you have an easy-to-read measuring stick of your progress towards overall fitness.  Some gyms offer professional fitness assessments that will enable you to have your progress tracked on multiple levels (strength, flexibility, endurance, etc.).  If you want to put out a little money for these assessments, then tracking progress becomes that much easier!
3. Get a body-fat measurement.  Body fat calipers can be purchased at supplement stores or online.  By taking a series of measurements on your body and punching the numbers into simple online calculators, you'll get a reading of percentage of body fat.  As you train and eat a nutritionally sound diet, the percentage of fat will go down over time.  Again, this is something you can have professionally measured in your gym (assuming they have a qualified Personal Trainer on staff).
4. Take progression photos.  About once every 2 weeks or so, have pictures of yourself taken from the front, back, and side.  Almost invariably after about a month or so of training and eating right you will see a noticeable difference in appearance from one set of shots to the next.  What's really fun is to take shots every other week for 16 weeks and compare the first shots to the last.  The difference will blow your mind!
5. Receive your accolades.  After you've been training and eating clean for a while, people will often begin to ask you that little question: "Are you losing weight?"  With a sense of pride (laced with humility, of course) you can tell them that you are indeed on the path to fitness and health by shedding fat and building muscle.  Believe me when I tell you that few things feel as great as having someone look at you with that raised eyebrow because they realize that there's not as much of you now as there used to be - and then they ask you what you're doing to drop the pounds.

Be well!!

Not the same old workout

My wife, when she's reading fitness magazines, is a very dangerous person.  The other night she was reading the most recent issue of On Fitness when she came across a leg workout that didn't require weights.  The workout was a combination of plyometrics and standard exercises.  On paper it didn't look so tough.  I changed my mind rather quickly this afternoon when we gave the workout a try at the gym.

The routine started with walking lunges for about 120 feet or so.  The lunges were immediately followed by 60 feet of sled pull (using a stretch band, I pulled my wife across the gym floor) going forward, then 60 feet going backward.  Here's where it got tricky - we had to do Belgian squats for 40 feet.  Belgian squats are basically a plyometric (jumping) move in which the participant deep squats, explodes upward into a jump, and then lands back in the squatting position.  The move is repeated over the 40 foot course.  The reason I say the move was "tricky" is simple: after the sled pull, my legs felt like gelatin.  I'm surprised I didn't land in a puddle on the gym floor after the first Belgian.  Once I managed to successfully complete the Belgians, the routine continued with low cross-stepping for 120 feet, duck-walks for 40 feet, and backward running for 120 feet.

We repeated this same routine twice more for a total of 3 circuits.  It doesn't end there, however.

Once the third circuit was complete, we headed over to the leg extension and flexion machines.  On each we performed 12 reps at a normal pace and then 12 reps at a slow pace (2 seconds contracting, 2 seconds relaxing).  I managed the hamstring flexion machine all right (though I thought I was going to spontaneously combust by the end), but the quad extension machine beat me.  I made it through the 12 normal reps but only 8 of the slow reps.  My legs just refused to work any more.

I told my wife when it was over that I was having "a religious experience".  She laughed then, but when she was done with her quad extensions, she was agreeing with me.

It's been 6 hours since the workout, and my legs still feel a bit shaky.  I can't imagine what this is going to feel like tomorrow!

The workout was a great combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise (cross training) that is an example of generating muscle confusion.  Since this workout was completely new to my body, I should see a better result from the workout than I would had I performed my regular weight training routine.  It's a good thing to throw a workout like this one into the mix every 3 to 4 workouts just to keep the body working to adapt to training.  The results should be more fat melting away and more muscle building taking place.  Give it a try.  You won't be sorry you did!

Be well!

Yellow Belts!

Yesterday was testing day at the Tim Cunningham Isshinryu Dojo in Tarboro, NC.  Alice, Daniel, and I were all testing for our first belt - yellow belt (hachi kyu).  All of us passed with flying colors - as you can see in the picture at the bottom of this entry.  Before that, though, here's a short video of the prearranged fighting sequence (called a "kata") that was a requirement for this test.  This is Seisan kata.

I love doing these kata - and there are about 12-15 of them in total that are required for black belt.  Several of them include traditional Okinawan weapons - sai, bo, and tonfa.

We're all on the journey to black belt (Shodan), and we look forward to the adventure!

Left to right - Alice; Keith; Daniel; Sensei Tim Cunningham, 7th Degree Black Belt

A Year in Review

It has to be said that the last 365 days have been nothing short of an adventure.  A year ago, I woke up, looked in the mirror and thought to myself, "Wow.  You've got to change."  In about 10 hours, I'll wake up, stretch, and look in the mirror again like I do pretty much every morning.  The image looking back at me will be entirely different than it was one year ago.

My 39th year started off with the same kind of laziness that my 38th year ended with.  I didn't make any meaningful changes until November 10th - nearly 4 months after my birthday.  When I started, however, I hit the ground running.  It took my wife and children going out of town for a week to allow me to get myself squared away enough to do what needed to be done.  Without distractions or reasons to make excuses for my inactivity, I was able to exercise every day and eat good foods.

I took 2 weeks off during the holidays and started again on January 5th.  The 18 weeks following that date were my official Transformation challenge.

The real challenge started, however, on February 7th.  That was the day that some things happened in my marriage that absolutely rocked my world.  My wife, who had lived with my anger and rotten self-image, had decided that she didn't want that kind of life for herself or our children.  She was set to send me packing and had already chosen a lawyer to help her carry out her plans.  Looking back, I can't say that I blame her.  I was a very difficult person to live with, and she certainly deserved a lot more than I was giving her.  The weeks that followed that episode were some of the most difficult I'd ever experienced.  They were also the most important part of my Transformation.

I had to look deep within to locate and purge my inner demons - the parts of me that harbored anger.  I had to learn to love myself, which happened more in the gym than anywhere else.  What I really had to do, however, was learn how to love my wife and children in meaningful ways.  Once I earned my own respect, I was able to learn to love myself - and all of that extended into loving my family.

We're still working on our marriage, but like physique Transformation, relationship transformation is an ongoing, never-ending process.

In the midst of the marriage situation, I had to deal with a broken foot.  March began with me slipping from a step and planting my foot ball first into a concrete floor.  The result was a very painful fracture of the second metatarsal on my left foot.  For 6 weeks, I wasn't supposed to run or perform any type of weight-bearing exercise that would overly involve my feet.  The doctor would not have been very pleased to know that within 24 hours of hearing his instructions I was in the gym lifting weights.  I modified all of my exercises to take my broken foot into consideration.  The treadmill gave way to the recumbent bicycle.  Leg presses, squats, and lunges gave way to extension, flexion, adductor, and abductor machines.  It wasn't a great replacement, but it was better than doing nothing at all.

Throughout everything, I made it to my goal on May 10th.  At the same time, however, I was faced with the possibility that I could lose my job.  State budget cuts in addition to a few other factors nearly put me in a permanent state of vacation from the job I had enjoyed for the previous 15 years.  Those were some stressful times, I grant you.  The constants I had in my life were Transformation and my family.

Over the following weeks, I worked on, completed, and submitted my final Transformation packet to the folks in California.  Champions should be announced in the next few weeks.  While I would like to say I'm confident that I will be a Tranfsformation Champion, there's a great chance that I will not win.  That's perfectly fine with me, though.  I'm fully prepared to accept not winning the contest.  What I've gained in health, confidence, and future vision is worth far more than any prize money could ever match.

With my newfound health, I've taken on new activities not the least of which is Isshin-ryu karate.  Karate was an activity I enjoyed when I was a sophomore in college but had abandoned after graduation.  Now, 20 years later I'm back in the dojo and loving every minute of my training.  As a matter of fact, my 40th birthday party will be preceded by my first official belt test - on Saturday, I expect to earn my yellow belt.

Now, weightingon40 is taking off - people are talking about it more and more.  Traffic is up and people are reading the stuff that's posted here.  I've started helping others with their own Transformations.  There's a lot of great new stuff on the horizon for both Alice and me as far as promoting the fitness lifestyle is concerned.  Further, we are looking into ventures that we never would have considered a year ago.  All of this is intended to encourage others to invest some time in themselves and their health.

Yes, the last year has been a huge learning experience that I would not trade for anything.  Despite all of the trials and close-calls, they were all a necessary part of helping me change into the person I am now.  I'm still working on myself - I have not "arrived" by any stretch of the imagination - but I am a totally different person than I was when I awoke on July 21, 2008.

I'm going to sign off now and wait for the next 20 minutes to tick off the clock.  At 1:30 AM, I will observe my passing from 39 to 40 and relish the moment of transition.  I'm not disturbed at all that I'm turning 40.  Life for me has just begun.  The best years are yet to come!

Be well!

Making Exercise Fun

There's nothing glamorous or fun about pounding the pavement for a few miles or spinning away on an elliptical trainer for 20-30 minutes.  Much of the time, the reason people give up on their fitness programs is simply due to the fact that they are bored silly with their routines.  So how do we keep it interesting?  How do we keep boredom from settling in and lulling us to sleep with redundancy?  Here are some ideas:

• Mix it up.  If you want to stick to a fairly standard routine, you can switch up your cardio training sessions from workout to workout.  Try running one day, riding the bike another, and doing elliptical training on another day.  In addition to keeping your interest levels, your body will be forced to continually adapt to the constantly changing demands, which is good for endurance and cardio training.
• Replace a regular cardio session with something completely different.  If you always use machines for your cardio, try a beginners cardio kickboxing class.  Other great options include trying a pilates or step aerobics class.  My gym offers a pretty cool rhythm class in which participants beat on inflatable exercise balls with drumsticks to the beat of driving music.  There's a LOT of movement around the room, and the participants really come out looking like they've been working hard.
• Get outside and play.  If you have children, go outside and go cycling or roller blading with them.  Play some tag football.  Go to the playground and chase your children around.  Play a round of tennis at the park.  When you're playing, you're not thinking about the calories you're burning, so get out there and just have some active fun!
• Take a karate class.  My wife and I both take karate with our sons.  I posted a blog just a few days ago detailing the degree of intensity involved with our karate classes.  Every class is a little different, and there are very often high intensity intervals that are GREAT for tearing up some calories.
• Go dancing.  There are very few full-body exercises that can be as much fun as dancing.  If you head to a club, keep your alcohol and food consumption in check - you don't want to burn a bunch of calories just to take them all in before the end of the night.  Another nice thing about dancing - you don't have to leave home to do it.  Crank up your player and just let loose.  Before you know it, 30 minutes have passed along with a few hundred calories.
• Partner up.  Besides the accountability factor involved in partner workouts, you'll have someone to chat with and bounce ideas off of.  The social aspect of partner workouts makes them that much more enjoyable, especially if your job includes hours of sitting in a cube looking at a computer monitor.
• Try a Tai Chi or yoga class.  To the uneducated eye, Tai Chi and yoga don't appear to provide much of a workout.  In truth, both of these activities are very physically demanding in addition to allowing the participant to focus on the most important part of our being - breathing.
• Watch TV while you work out.  If you choose to work out during your favorite TV show, you'll automatically be distracted away from the repitition of a workout.  TV shows offer a perfect mechanism for timing your workout - assuming your show is 30 minutes long!

The key to all of this is to enjoy your workouts.  Don't focus so much on the exercise aspect of what you're doing, but focus on having fun.  Above all, be well!