PraxisFitness

Out-training a bad diet?

Giz — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:48:48 +0000

I work at a gym here and aside from personal training, I do fitness consultations, which are orientations for new members. We discuss current habits, take measurements, define goals, and help them create a plan to get there. In talking with people, it constantly amazes me that they assume that just coming in to the gym and doing some walking will solve all their health issues. I am not knocking walking - it’s fantastic exercise for any one. But at the same time, many of them expect to succeed with large weight loss goals without making changes to their diets. This is Louisiana, the fattest state in the nation, and on top of that - New Orleans, famous for rich everday fare. A nutritional diet isn’t exactly high on people’s priority list, or even in many people’s knowledge base.

I ran across this video post over at Cataput Fitness and thought it was just a fantastic representation of trying to out-train a poor diet… and just how futile it can be. Watch it and let me know what you think!

Craig Ballantyne at a sub-6-minute-mile vs. Brad Pilon and a pizza and soda… and the winner is?

A Woo-Hoo Shout Out!

Giz — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:43:09 +0000

My sister Mingo has been flirting off and on with fitness for a long time, buying into lots of fitness tools (and yes, ok, some gimmicks as well). Her job is very busy and stressful, and she has a husband and several “furry children” to take care of, plus she regularly volunteers at charity events. Basically. she’s in the same situation many American women are in, struggling to fit in taking herself on a daily basis - every one else is first.

A couple of months ago, she bit the bullet, so to speak, and joined a training group for 5K running. The runners, walkers, beginners and competitors are split into abilty/goal groups. Some folks are brand new, just trying to walk to a finish, others want to run some or all of the 5K, others are going for medals. In any case, they are out there 2 to 3 times a week, rain or shine, in nice weather and in freezing.

Mingo has made it to most of the runs, but the last week she missed the entire week because she was sick. The “mid-term” 5K was this past weekend, and she was very concerned about finishing. The runs were mostly walk-run combos, and they had progressed to a longer run interval than walking, and just hit the 3 mile distance, while Mingo was sick, so she’d not even completed the distance before.

I think the week off was good for her - she not only finished the 5K, she RAN THE ENTIRE THING. Still being a bit in the coughing-fit stage, she really had to moderate her pace to keep going - and amazingly, she found she could actually keep going. Big shout out of CONGRATS and a HUG to my sis - GO YOU!!!!

So… blog name change to PraxisFitness!

Giz — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:54:25 +0000

The GizFit name was always a temporary placeholder while I thought of a name for my fitness writings. It’s not really a meaningful name, it’s too close to MizFit (whose site I adore), and really, who even really understands it but me? But, it did it’s job and held the place.

I was just reading Tom Venuto’s The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscles, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect WeightThe Body Fat Solution, when I stumbled across the word praxis. He describes a problem solving formula with three rules:

1. Understand cause and effect.
2. Think differently.
3. Act on the answer.

Within “act on the answer” is the little blurb about praxis:

3. Act on the answer. You must take action. One of the biggest reasons for failure is having a large gap between what you know and what you actually do. From the ancient Greek comes a work called praxis, which refers to the practice or doing of what you already know.

As soon as I saw the definition of praxis, I knew it was the name for my site. How many people out there actually know what to do for health, and yet lack the gene-motivation-impetus-whathaveyou to actually put it into practice? I’d bet more than you might initially think. I’ve talked to many people who are just overwhelmed by diet and fitness advice, advice that seems to change with each day’s news… but what really works has always worked. It just needs a few tweaks for today’s lifestyles.

I haven’t finished the book yet to be able to say whether it’s a worthwhile purchase, but even having only gotten through chapter one, I’m leaning toward yes.

March Madness

Giz — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:46:44 +0000

MizFit wrote on Friday about the Concept2 rower and trying it again after many years of not using it. I work in a gym with tons of cardio equipment: treadmills, ellipticals, stair climbers, stepmills, stationary bikes, recumbent bikes, striders… at least two dozen each for the treadmills and ellipticals. Along with all this equipment, we have two older Concept2 rowers. If you go to the Concept2 site, you’ll see they currently sell two models, with two different computers: PM3 and PM4. I don’t know which model my gym’s rowers are, but the computer is PM2. I’m sure the folks walking around the track seeing me flip the little computer all over were wondering what I was doing - but the label is not on the front!

So anyway, I agreed with MizFit about the difficulty of the rower, especially if you haven’t used it in a while; even the Concept2 site recommends starting out with only 3 to 5 minutes of rowing! I’d been doing 5 minutes here and there, mixing it in with other cardio, and still feeling the ankle burn (there’s a lot of ankle flexion involved) and the grip fatigue… well, after Miz’s post, I went to the Concept2 website and noticed they are hosting a challenge: “5000 meters a day keeps March madness at bay!”

Basically, the goal is to row 5000 meters a day for at least 25 days during the month of March. I couldn’t get to the gym Sunday, but I did create myself and online logbook at Concept2, and comitted to doing the challenge. Five minutes after I decided I started thinking about 5000 meters… and wondering just how long that would take me. I had just been doing the 5 minutes, and not bothering to turn on the computer on the rower. Those here-and-there 5 minutes are the most I’ve ever gone.

Today I challenged myself to do my entire half hour of cardio on the rower. I’m sure I’ll be feeling it tomorrow because wow, it was tough! On the other hand, it wasn’t as tough as I expected, and the meters added up fairly quickly. Within 33 minutes I was able to get my first 5000 meters, and I’ve put the requisite sticker on my calendar (anyone else do that? I know it’s so second grade… but it really helps me).

24 more days to go. MizFit, if I complain it’s your fault… beat it out of me, LOL!