The Burpee Challenge

It's the end of March, and that has brought us to the end of the Burpee Challenge month. We heard about the challenge, put together a rogue team, and inserted our team into the action! It has not unexpectedly been a grueling, tough sled, but we managed to finish strong. Kristi outdid possibly every human on the planet with her last day total of 281! So between the two of us, we managed to crank out 4501 burpees this month.  That's 4501 points for our team!!

What have I learned?

1. Burpees ARE grueling, but your body adapts. I don't hate burpees any more.  I don't love or even like them, but I know I can do them and they aren't going to beat me.

2. Pacing yourself (say, sets of 10 with a 10-15 second rest between) also lets you complete more than you could if you just did them straight.

3. Having a challenge helps motivate and, well, challenge you to step up and achieve.

4. Having someone like, say, your daughter, crank out burpees in incredible numbers definitely challenges you to step up your game.

5. I'm feeling a bit disappointed now that this challenge is over.

6. It is time to transition to summer training activities. For me, that will be some sport-specific training. But with the kettlebells in February and the burpees in March, I feel like I'm starting at a way better place than ever before for this time of year. Bring it on!!

7. I learned that, while we've been blasting away on the burpees, Mom has continued her virtual walk, passing the second town and continuing eastward. That is also an inspiration!

Keeping Busy In-Between

After the Kettlebell Challenge was finished, we were lucky enough to get the "opportunity" to work on a team to do as many burpees as possible during the month of March. As they say, everyone loves to hate burpees, but I have to admit it has been kind of fun to make these "enjoyable" exercises part of my daily routine. I say "kind of" because the fun is now "kind of" wearing off. Glad there are only six days left!

Once March 31st comes and goes, I don't think they will be part of my daily routine, but I have learned a few things. First, when you start doing these - I mean when you first put burpees into your exercise routine - they make you feel pretty terrible. It's a high-intensity shock to your system. You are overwhelmed by thinking how good it would feel to STOP. Second, I learned that you fairly quickly adapt to it and can do more than you thought (you still feel pretty terrible, but you can actually do quite a few burpees while feeling this way). Third, I learned that strategy comes into play. Fourth, I learned what "100 burpees for time" means. Fifth, I learned that, even though the world's most interesting man does not always do burpees, when he does, even he has negative thoughts about them. Finally, I learned that I am more competitive than I thought!

Here are my takeaways:

Burpees are really intense, but jumping in and going for it yields a pretty quick adaptation: I can do way more than when I started three weeks ago. Another takeaway has been learning the strategy of pacing myself. For example, I've learned that I can crank out quite a few burpees using Tabata-style sets of 20 seconds with 10 second rests. I also tried sets of 40 seconds with 15 second rests, and that worked even better.

I am pretty sure I won't continue daily burpees after this challenge. But I now don't fear them, and I like the idea of adding burpees to the "popsicle stick cup" - my daughter's cool trick to randomize your workout. You draw a stick (with an exercise written on it) at random from the cup, and then you do the exercise. It adds variety and keeps your interest up. I should also say that my daughter has not only challenged and inspired me, but also a few of our burpee challenge teammates.

Our biggest challenge now is what to do after March. Looks like people will be developing their own training goals and activities, but I think we're going to try to keep the network alive with mutual updates, challenges, encouragement (and smack-talk, of course). When we get the final numbers from the burpee challenge, I'll post them here. Should be fun to see how many burpees got cranked out!

Marilyn Reaches Next Town!

I just talked with Mom today and she announced that she has reached Elkhorn, the next town in her virtual walk east. That makes a total of 37km! I also realized that, even though we hadn't been talking about her exercise, she has been faithfully walking on, even after the February fitness challenge ended.

That's dedication! I think the biggest contributor to her continuing to walk is how she has been feeling - which is alot better.

So - yet again - way to go, Mom!!

By the way, the hospital foundation put a short story about Mom on their Facebook page.

Missing Cross-Swim this week. . .

Our schools have their March Break this week, and that has affected schedules. In particular, both of the Cross-Swim classes I take were cancelled for the week. In the scheme of things, that is not a big deal, but I found myself experiencing a sort of withdrawal effect. I missed the classes. Don't get me wrong - they aren't exactly fun. In fact, they are often the opposite of fun. I have learned that you CAN sweat at a swimming pool! But the instructors are great. We have three instructors and, while they appear to be pleasant, kind people on the outside, they seem to enjoy pushing us through whatever grueling workout they have come up with each week. They make us endure a mix of high-intensity exercises with some moderate-intensity "cool-downs" in between. It's an hour of huffing and puffing (not so easy when part of your workout is in the water).

But we keep going back, and that's what has me intrigued. I look forward to class. I want to go. I make sure I ate an appropriate amount (usually, just a small amount) several hours before class because I really don't want to revisit the meal. I make sure to drink lots of water beforehand. I sometimes pop a nutrition ball on the way there so I have that little bit of reserve. . .

So why is it so motivating? I basically go out of my way, plan nutrition, hydration and even activities around it. What I think has happened is that I know an hour after class, I will feel great. I mean awesome! On-fire! My body leaves the pool craving "a pile of protein with some veggies". And I have feel that my metabolism is revved way up. I guess it is that natural endorphin high people talk about. I experienced the same kind of exercise separation anxiety a few times before - when I was training for triathlon events.

My conclusion is that, at some point, your priority shifts and you are not just randomly or aimlessly working out; you are on a mission. You are aiming for something. You see progress. Your workouts become more and more coherent. You are focused on getting better, getting faster, increasing your strength and stamina. You want to test yourself. And the "doing well" becomes a priority that you are actually willing to restructure your life in order to accomplish.

This is a pretty powerful motivator, but if you REALLY want to turbo-charge your motivation, add in a couple of workout buddies. Pick them carefully, because (imho) you need a combination of encouragement and smack-talk. Sometimes you need no words at all - just a quick text to inform you that one of your workout buddies was up at 7 am doing burpees. They don't even have to say anything - the little updates through the week are all it really takes. But a bit of smack-talk is kind of fun, so don't forget to sprinkle a dash of that on your workout buddies from time to time.

So I'm going to miss Cross-Swim this week. I will do my best to taper my eating a bit so I don't have to undo it when we get back to the pool!

You Need a Food Guide

CBC's website had a provocative article last week (March 5, 2016). Here is a link to their article which I recommend you read for background. The article references Jean-Claude Moubarac, a Canadian researcher who helped Brazil produce new dietary guidelines in 2014. According to the article, Moubarac stated that the Brazillian food guide focuses on how food is processed. Other highlights include an emphasis on fresh, minimally-processed foods and cooking meals from scratch to enjoy with family and friends. Here is a link to Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population (English .pdf version).

That is an interesting perspective. At an intuitive level, it really seems to make sense. I am not a dietitian. I'm just a guy who is learning about nutrition and healthy eating. Fresh food, home-cooked meals, limited salt and sugar. . . how can you go wrong? I like this approach, and it's emphasis on minimizing the processed foods. The challenge is this:  we live busy lives, and we don't always have time to shop for ingredients, prepare the food, and then construct a wonderful, fresh home-cooked meal.  Maybe we can leverage what we have learned about fitting healthy activities into our life and extend those principles to our nutrition lifestyle.

I think we need to consider re-orienting our whole view of food and nutrition. As I said in the title, we need a food guide. I'm not going to quibble about which one you use. The point is that we should always be becoming more knowledgeable about good nutrition, and more skillful at preparing nutritionally-informed food. Just like many of you challenged yourself in the fitness realm last month, keep raising the bar on your food preparation.

Learn more about what is in the food you eat. Learn how to program your food intake to meet your nutritional demands. Obviously, if you are working out regularly, you will need more energy. But don't just settle for a pile of food containing x calories - select combinations of foods which provide a good balance in terms of what makes up those calories. Learn about quality. Learn about how to build a diet that maximizes energy efficiently, that actually works for and with your body. I'm not talking here about simply going on a "weight-loss" diet.  I'm talking about a general nutritional-intake plan. And, if you like data and data analysis, you should take a look at the following really interesting (imho) website. It provides nutritional data for different types of food, and presents a variety of indices and graphics to visualize relevant aspects of food nutrition. I think you'll find it to be a helpful tool if you want to learn more about food. Here is the link: website about nutrition facts.

Stick with a food guide and become an informed "consumer"!

Diet - Not What You Think

Today's post is about diet. Not about dieting. Diet. In terms of food and diet, my personal experience is that two things change when you start to exercise. It appears (to me) that the first change gradually occurs, almost without you realizing it. The second phases itself in - also gradually - until one day you realize that both of these things have changed and your food intake and diet are different.


Change One:  Awareness (re-awareness) of food's nutritional values
For the most part, Canadians are well-informed about healthy nutrition. As a group, I would say we are well-informed about many of aspects of wellness. IMHO (In my humble opinion), what we almost globally do is fail to act on the good things we know to do. So. . . I pretty much KNOW what is good to eat and what is not good to eat. At times in my life when I have been deliberately and purposefully more active, one of the first effects beyond the actual exercise is that I start thinking about what I'm eating. I start hearing a nagging voice in my head when I pig out (consume an excess of) the deep fried stuff, or the soft-drinks or the super-salty things like some chips. The voice gets louder the more intense the exercise or the more there is a performance aspect (such as a training for a triathlon). The curious thing to me is that somehow, being in exercise mode makes me think about what I already knew but had not been thinking about. I also start looking more at nutrition labels and actually evaluating what is in the food.

Change Two:  Appetite changes and specific hungers
Once I have been in "workout mode" for a while, especially after I have crossed over into workouts that last more than hour a few times a week, my appetite noticeably changes. It is not that I feel hungrier, although sometimes I do. More exactly, I notice that my body wants protein and vegetables. In my case, I am aware that I want to eat freshly cooked cuts of meat like mostly chicken or pork, although beef has hit my radar also. The point is, it is always fresh cuts that I am craving. I have also had cravings for broccoli (which I already quite like) and one day I just HAD to have spinach!  My appetite for bread and potatoes - both of which I LOVE - has decreased noticeably, and I'm eating more rice (thanks to Jeba and Nelson for showing us a whole lot of interesting new ways to cook rice).


My explanation for all this is that, somehow, under exercise load, my body uses more of certain types of nutrients (and less of others) and basically places nutrient-specific orders to my appetite. As for the awareness side of things, I suspect that diet and nutrition are relevant to exercise and overall wellness (sorry, Captain Obvious). Okay, so I actually know that. What I suspect, then, is that there is a variant of the Ziegarnik Effect (I knew you'd want to look it up) at play; thoughts about healthy, nutritious foods begin to intrude into my general food thinking. I start feeling almost uneasy or guilty until and unless I reprogram my eating to more healthy choices. I already knew most of the information, but was not acting on it. I think that - the not acting on it - is what was causing the unease.


Well, that's a lot to chew on. I'll sign off, but I will be revisiting this in the future. I would like to get some thoughts from a dietician for a future post, and you can bet on a follow-up to "The Great Protein Powder Experiment".

The Plan For Blog Posts

I've had a few people wondering, so I thought it would be fair for me to give you the plan for blog posts.  I'm going to do one scheduled blog post per week.  These will be posted in the middle of the night on Sundays, so they will be live for Monday mornings.

If you would like an email notification, sign up using the "Follow Me By Email" link at the right.

Also, if you would like to suggest a topic or - better - if you'd like to contribute a post, please let me know!

Richard

Burpees - you asked. . .

I mentioned burpees the other day, and the question arose, "What is a burpee?"  Short answer:  a high-intensity exercise with many variations.  I couldn't tell you what a "standard" burpee is, because I don't know and I haven't found an authoritative expert who can say.  Here are a couple of examples - there are thousands, and each one is probably slightly different.  Each one probably also tells you what is wrong with the other guy's variation and what is superior about their variation.

Burpee example 1

Burpee example 2

As always, you need to evaluate your own physical ability to do any exercise before trying it.  Having a coach watch and guide you through the first few is important so you have good form and avoid injuring yourself.  A coach can also give you some modifications if you are not ready for the full-blown exercise or if you are rehabbing an injury.

This is a demanding, high-intensity physical exercise.  It is cheap, in that you don't need fancy equipment.  It falls into the category of "body-weight" exercises, where you work against your own body weight as resistance.  Burpees build strength and stamina. You will find different approaches to executing a burpee workout, but many people choose a time (say, 30 seconds) and try to do as many burpees in that time as possible.  After a short break, maybe another 20-30 seconds, they do another batch.  And they keep going.  And going.  And going. . . Alternately, you can use a Tabata format:  20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise followed by a 10 second break, then repeat this "round" 4 times.  Or 8.  Or more.  After about the third round of this, you are probably huffing and puffing about as hard as your lungs can go.  The best part about doing this exercise is stopping doing it.

Have fun!

Impact of the February Challenge

Okay, so I know I said the blog posts would probably go to weekly after we finished.  Well, things are still happening, so, as long as I have time, I'll try to post things as they come up.  At least now, though, the deadline pressure is off!

I mentioned a while ago that, if someone had told Mom (Marilyn) last summer that she would start walking in January and rack up nearly 30 km by the end of February, she would have said, "I scoff in your general direction."  [Sorry, Mom].  She has had a very interesting and profound experience since New Year, and it is best for you to hear it in her own words:

The Fitness Challenge has been an amazing and beneficial experience for me. It has set off a chain of events that I would never have imagined. Increased walking has led to less stiffness, which has given me better mobility and more stamina, resulting in a better appetite and a considerable weight gain, (a good thing, in my case! ) An added side benefit - just learning how to use the blog has increased my self confidence on the computer! Knowing that others were challenging themselves too, made it fun, and comparing notes with others was encouraging. Thank you, Richard and David, for the idea itself, for setting up the blog, and for keeping us all on task in such a positive way. I, for one, do not intend to stop just because February's come to an end. I plan to keep on walking and see how far I can "travel" by the end of the year. It's good to feel good! Mom/Marilyn