OK, so this post has very little to do with the last one. But it’s possibly one of the most important ones in the series.

It’s really very simple. No matter how much you workout, no matter how much cardio you do, it will be of no use unless you watch what you eat. Now don’t get me wrong here. I don’t mean that you should starve yourself. That’s the last thing you should do, especially if you’re on a rigorous exercise regime, because you’ll just tire yourself out more quickly and die. What I mean is that you need to be careful about what and how much you eat:

• First thing – avoid the junk. If you bothered to get your butt off and start working out in the first place, you don’t want it all going to waste simply because you lack the will power to stop yourself from grabbing anything and everything within arm’s reach and stuffing it into your mouth. I mean it. No ice-creams. No fried chips. No chocolate. No pizza. No fizzy drinks. Turn it into an occasional indulgence, and then you’ll realise just how good they really are.
• Even at home, suggest to the cook of the house to make healthier stuff. Less of fried foods. More greens. Avoid red meat if possible, because it tends to make putting on weight easier.
• Watch how much you eat. There are many ways to do this. First thing is, you could consider turning off the television and concentrating on your food for once. Also, consider eating slowly. That way once you’re full, you’ll know before you stuff yourself to bursting point. Get to know your appetite, and don’t stuff yourself, no matter what your parents might tell you. It just isn’t good for you. Also, try having smaller helpings, this might help you eat less. And if you’re still eating too much, try a smaller plate, that always works.
• Eat at the right times. Meaning, set your meal times, and try and stick to them. Make sure you have a healthy breakfast, because you’re less likely to get hunger pangs through the rest of the day.
• In case you do feel a bit peckish, keep a couple of healthy snacks around. Right now, it’s summer, and there is a good variety of juicy fruits you can buy. As I said, avoid snacking on fatty stuff.
• If you want, you can switch to a 5-6 meal pattern. Just have little portions of food in each meal. I don’t follow this yet, but I might consider it.

Do all of the above, and it will really supplement your efforts to lose weight by exercising. Remember that your workout lasts only for about half-an-hour, but if you keep following these healthy habits, in the long run, they could be more beneficial than anything else I post about.

Tags: Fitness

This is a bit of a departure from the last post, and sort of goes back to the motivational tips. My point is that it’s very easy for humans (and related primates capable of using computers and working out) to get distracted, especially during your workout. It’s vital that you stay focussed throughout your workout.

Now, I know that it’s really tough for some people to stay focussed for 20 minutes, even though its for your own good. The main reason you should be staying focussed is simply because once you get distracted, you might stop monitoring your speed/tempo. Once that happens, and your average speed/heart rate drops, you’ll have to get it up again. Trust me, it’s much easier when you don’t slow down in the first place.

The first and foremost tool at your disposal is music. You should have a playlist specifically for your workouts ready. It’s really simple. Just avoid any kind of slow song. I suggest a mix of fast hip-hop, techno/electronic (not necessarily trance), head-banging rock etc. I could come up with a mathematical formula for selecting songs, but I couldn’t be bothered. So all I’ll say is that keep the BPM (beats per minute) or tempo of the songs above your heart-rate and/or steps per minute.

CAUTION : You may be really tempted to use your music player while you’re doing exercises, but I won’t suggest that. Firstly, headphone cables have a tendency to get badly entangled, both with each other, and with your limbs. The last thing you want is tripping over your own headphone cable. Secondly, headphones can be kind of delicate, and excessive pulling on the cables is bound to cause them to stop working after a while, especially if you do it day-after-day. If you really must listen to music while exercising, get some cheap disposable earphones, like the kind you’ll get on flights.

Now, while you’re running, you should not pay attention to anybody around you. Fine, things, birds, sky et al are fine, but not people. People have eyes, and mouths (although because you’re blasting your music, you probably won’t hear them). Some people stare, which is, to be honest, nothing worth a second glance back.

The second more pressing concern is competition. You’re more than likely to encounter other people jogging/running/exercising in the same place you are. My advice is to avoid being influenced by them at all costs. Somebody might be doing less laps than you, so might be running faster. Do not get into an ego competition with him/her in an attempt to go faster. You’ll just end up messing your entire run up. Remember that you’re on a self-paced programme, and you’re biggest competitor is yourself. Run at your own pace, run only as much as you had targeted. Remember that others might be on a different training routine i.e. one that might concentrate on endurance (so they’ll run more laps than you), or on speed (they’ll run faster than you). Just stay focussed. This is important because if you don’t pace yourself, you’ll end up too tired for the next day’s workout, which means you might not do it, and once your break the trend, it might get progressively worse, till finally you might drop the thing altogether, and be branded a worthless pile of s**t.

Oh, and one more thing. Whatever you do, don’t get all smug and happy if you overtake someone. Especially if they’re younger/older/out of shape. Bear in mind that they had the will power to come out and workout like you, and given enough time, will be shaping up just like you, possibly even better. So treat them as your equals, and don’t patronise them.

Oh, and one little tip that might help you. If you remember, I keep referring to the term MF (motivational factor). Well, that MF must have a name of some sorts, right? Well, take a pen, and with your palm facing upwards, write the initial for that MF on your wrist. Next time you feel you’re letting up, just glance at your wrist and give yourself a little boost. Works for me. Without fail.

Tags: Fitness

Well, I covered the basics of developing your exercise routine in the last post. I realised that I forgot to add some things, so this post serves as a post-script.

I’ve realised that sets and reps aren’t really all that helpful when it comes to Level 1 exercises. Level 1 exercises are more of simple stretching, and if done at the right tempo, good cardio exercises. So, doing them in different sets won’t make a big difference when it comes to development of the body. In fact, it’s good to keep the heart rate up by performing many reps of Level 1 exercises at a time.

However, as Pulkit correctly pointed out, reps and sets are invaluable when it comes to Level 2 exercises. It can help you increase the overload on your muscles, without you hitting the wall. Dividing 30 push-ups into 2 sets of manageable 15 push-ups can make a world of difference, if that’s what you want. Otherwise, there’s another option for you.

Endurance Sets

In the case of Level 2 exercises, you can choose to either take it easy and make 2 sets of manageable number of reps, or choose to go all out in endurance sets. Try for something very close to your limit. Take for example pull-ups. They’re extremely hard. So, do one or two less than you think your body can handle, and then return to them after doing some other exercises. This can be more effective than simple reps and sets. The second endurance set will most probably end up with lesser number of reps than the first one, because you’ll most likely definitely be pooped by this time. So, take it easy at first, before you try and increase the number of reps in your endurance sets.

Exercise Level-ups

The exercises I mentioned are merely the basic definition of the exercises. You can modify them to meet your needs or to be more challenging, as per your needs. I’ll list some of the level-ups you can consider for both Level 1 and Level 2 exercises.

• As you running can be levelled-up with a speed boost or distance boost. Optionally you can add more stuff like, lunges, where you attempt to scoop things off the ground as you run along, or in-run speed variations.
• A good way to level-up any exercise it to simply increase the tempo. Just start doing stuff faster, but be careful as to not pull a muscle, or lose your balance and end up face first on the grass.
• When it comes to exercises involving linear stretching, like the first one mentioned in Basic Exercises, you can always try and extend yourself a bit more each time, which counts as additional strain.
• Angular stretching, like splits, can be made much tougher by simply opening your legs at a much wider angle. Warning : The first time you try this, you will most probably lose balance and end up falling backwards or forwards.
• The first Level 2 exercise, the standing run-jump/whatever, can be made tougher by bending your knees more on each landing, making it tougher to launch yourself, rather than just skipping on your feet.
• Push-ups can be made tougher in a variety of ways:
• Try keeping your legs higher than your torso i.e. on a bench or something. This will make your push-up much tougher.
• Once you think you’ve mastered push-ups, try finger push-ups, using just your fingers.
• Explosive push-ups are really hard. When you lift yourself off, you’re supposed to push very hard, in an attempt to get your body airborne.
• Finally, even one-handed push-ups are a challenge.
• I plan to take up each of the above level-ups once I think I’m ready.
• If you were doing chin-ups, switch to pull-ups, because they’re much tougher. And hold your body in the pull-up position for a while, to make it tougher. And make sure that on each pull-up, your chin does rise above the bar you’re pulling up on, otherwise it doesn’t count as a full push-up.
• As for The Exercise I Don’t Know The Name Of Yet, which I’ve decided to christen as the reverse bench push-up, you can make it tougher by choosing a higher bench. I haven’t tried explosive reverse bench push-ups yet, so I can’t recommend them yet.
• Crunches can be made progressively tougher, by lightening the counterweight on your feet. As your abs develop, you’ll realise automatically that the need for the counterweight will reduce.

That’s all the ramping up for now, the next post will, arguably, be the most important one in the series. But you may have to wait a while, because my TS at VMC is coming up, and I need to focus on that now…

Tags: Fitness

OK, this post really doesn’t pick up from the last post, more like a few weeks after the last-to-last post.

So, now I’m assuming you’ve been on working out for a while. The next thing to do, is to make things more challenging for yourself. The fact of the matter is that the human body is excellent at adapting, and so once your body begins to cope with the strain you throw at it, you’ll need to keep making it harder to prevent things from stagnating.

Let’s begin with stamina i.e. running. Now, refer to one of the previous posts in which I gave the formula for average pace and speed. Once you’re acquainted with them, choose one you like. If you choose pace, your aim is to bring it lower it, and if you choose speed, your aim is to increase it.

Now there are several ways of tracking your progress. If you’re like me, lucky enough to have an application do it for you on your mobile phone, you won’t have much problems. On the other hand, if you don’t, you’ll need to have a stopwatch. This is of course assuming you’ve calculated the length of your jog/run. Then, everyday, you can calculate your average speed for the day.

Don’t even think about changing it drastically. For example, when I started measuring, I used to do about 10.5 kmph, and now, after about a month, I’ve only reached 12 kmph. That may not seem like a big jump, but once you start keeping track of your progress, you’ll realise exactly how hard it is to up your speed by even 1 kmph.

Once you’ve calculated your first speed, set yourself a reasonable target, never more than 0.5 kmph more than your average. Now, each time you go for your run, try to go just a little bit faster, consciously. If you’re running laps, use the lap timer in your stopwatch to see if you’re slowing down. If you are, use your MF (motivational factor) to give you an extra boost of speed. This step may be hard for some. But don’t give up. Just work consistently at it, and eventually, you will speed up.

After you’ve reached your first speed threshold, you have two options. Either speed up some more, or work on distance i.e. set yourself a longer route, which for me, translates into more laps of the park. This step it totally up to you, except that 2 successive thresholds shouldn’t ideally be of the same type. Once you’ve decided to increase speed once, it’s not advisable to go for it again.

Also, you’ll notice that as you progress, it will become increasingly harder to achieve new thresholds. Like I find it very hard to reach 12.5 kmph. It’s just that you’re reaching the limit of what your body can do with its current fitness level. Don’t get frustrated, just keep at it, and eventually, you will be able to attain your target. It’s just that it might take some time.

The same logic can be extended to the exercises. Except that there are some terms you need to know first:

• Rep – A rep is short for repetition. In other words, it’s one complete movement through an exercise. For example, one push-up counts as a rep.
• Set – A set is a collection of reps.

Now there are many ways to alter your sets, according to your needs. If you’re just interested in weight loss, a static routine will be fine. Something along the lines of 10-15 reps of Level 1 exercises, and 5-7 reps of Level 2 exercises will help you reduce body fat, but relatively slowly.

On the other hand, if you’re like me, you have the option of punishing yourself a bit more.

Work your way up to something like 20 reps of each Level 1 exercise, and 10-13 reps of Level 2 exercises. Now, instead of doing all your exercises in one go, do a couple of sets of each, interspersed with other exercises. This allows your muscles some time to relax, while you work on the others. Alternatively, you could do a super set, which would have one set of each exercise which concentrates on one part of the body. The order in which I gave the exercises is essentially automatically divided into super sets, so you can just alter the number of reps in each of them, and do something like 2-3 super sets of each kind.

With each passing day, try to add a rep to a particular exercise. If it doesn’t work i.e. you just give up (which you shouldn’t, assuming you have a suitable MF), don’t try to add it the next day, instead add it the day after. In the meantime, try to add a rep on an exercise on a totally different part of the body, and see how that works.

Once a set gets too crowded i.e. too many reps, balance it out by adding a new shorter set, that way, you can keep developing your body, without suffering too much fatigue. In case you’re having trouble adding reps, take it easy for a week before adding more. But, you should never, ever, reduce the number of reps. It’s OK, if one day, you do 25 push-ups instead of 30, but don’t make it a habit.

That concludes this post, but doesn’t mark the end of the series…

Tags: Fitness

OK, so over the past series of posts (the last one was Level 3 – Part 3), I’ve detailed the exercises you could try if you wanted to tuck in your tummy and build a little muscle mass in its stead.

Just one thing, due to the lack of comments in the previous post, I have come to the conclusion that no one is really interested in following this routine. But, nevertheless, I will toil on for the benefit of someone tripping along the World Wide Web, and for my own benefit.

Now one thing a shrewd reader would have noticed, is the rather glaring omission of the word ‘gym’ from this entire series, despite the presence of the word ‘workout’. The reason for this is very simple. I’ve never been to a gym. Reason being simple : lack of funds. My parents are not likely to fund an enterprise which they consider a waste of time anyway. As a result, I don’t quite know if I will be able to bring myself to join a gym in the future. But why bother about that now? Despite the presence of a few gyms nearby, I’ve never been to them, despite my friend, Rishabh, telling me that one particular gym, The Indian Gym, was rather good.

Now, if you’re lucky and live in a residential complex in Gurgaon or NOIDA, it’s possible that along with the yearly membership you pay to the association/society/whatever, you will also have free access to a gym. If this is the case, I leave the choice up to you. You can either enrol yourself in the gym, and get in shape with the guidance of a trainer, or you can follow my path, brave the elements, and use a park. Needless to say, these posts will cease to be useful once you adopt the first path.

I know little about gyms, so I won’t say much. All I can say is that before you put down the cash for a month’s membership, try out the place for a day or two. Make sure the ventilation works well, because I, for one, would hate to workout in a room reeking of somebody else’s sweat. There should be a trained and qualified trainer, and optionally, a dietician, who can help you out.

Again, there is little advice I can offer on bench presses and deadlifts, assuming you choose to build mass in that way. But I can tell you this, deadlifts (where you stand and lift a pair of barbells above your shoulders) can adversely affect your height, especially if you’re still in the growing phase.

I do not claim to be an expert on the subject of fitness. I have neither the stamina of a marathon runner, nor a ripped body, and I can only share my experiences. If you wish to learn from my experiences, be my guest. If not, why are you reading this?

The next post, I’ll post about how to ramp things up…

Again, I put the facts in front of you – would you rather fork out a couple of thousand bucks for something, for which exists a viable, adequate, cost-free solution?

Tags: Fitness