Tag: fitness

No More Dissin’ Reebok

Nick Momrik2 Comments

Baker is one of about 425 employees at Reebok who are taking part in a new fitness program that is transforming the sneaker maker’s Canton headquarters. Participants lost over 4,000 pounds collectively during 2011 – roughly the weight of an small SUV.

via Reebok on a mission to get its employees fit – The Boston Globe

Nike and Adidas have always been my go-to brands for exercise shoes and clothes. I’ve never owned anything made by Reebok until this past November. I’ve gained a new respect for Reebok because of their support for CrossFit and the culture they are encouraging with their employees. I’m looking forward to the new commercials they have coming out.

The Female Body Image

Nick Momrik2 Comments

Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery.

The quote is from a short post about the female body image in which the author discusses skinny vs. fit and healthy vs. fat and the differences between what men and women see as an ideal female body image. I thought it was interesting that women base their appearance issues more on what other women think and I couldn’t agree more with the recommendation for women to lift heavy weights.

CrossFit: Open Source Fitness

Nick Momrik43 Comments

My hands started to tingle. I pushed with my hamstrings and ass to finish another air squat. Thirteen. I bent over and placed my hands on my knees. I could barely breathe. I was getting light-headed. What was going on? I stood up and did another squat. Fourteen. One more. Fifteen. I dropped to my hands and knees. No more.

A couple of minutes passed. I stood up and attempted to stretch. I felt dizzy and had to sit on the ground for a few minutes. I stood up and walked to the open door for some fresh air. It didn’t help. I sat on the plyo boxes for a minute but quickly moved to laying on the ground. This trainer is either worried about me or holding back a laugh. I’m glad no one else is here, because this is embarrassing.

It was October 31st and I had just completed my first CrossFit mini-session with Matt at Survival Fitness. I think it was about a half hour before I was able to leave the gym. When I got home I spent about an hour laying on the couch. My body was exhausted and I felt terrible. But the only thing I could think about was going back on Wednesday for another workout. It couldn’t come soon enough. I was hooked.

So what did I do in that first workout? It started off with a 5 round Tabata circuit of high knees, butt kicks, and mountain climbers to warm-up. If you’ve never heard of Tabata, it’s a form of high intensity interval training which uses 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. The warm-up was a piece of cake.

For the workout of the day (WOD), I was to do a circuit of 5 ring rows (instead of pull-ups), 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats. I’d repeat as many rounds as I could in 20 minutes. It sounded easy enough. In CrossFit, this WOD is well-known. It’s called “Cindy” and is one of the benchmark girls. I was only able to complete a measly 3 rounds and 7 minutes hadn’t even passed on the timer.

I met with Matt two more times for mini-sessions. During the second week I went to my first CrossFit class, which only had 2 other people attend. When I looked at the WOD on the whiteboard, I wished I was in another 1-on-1 session with Matt. We were going to do “Murph” which is a one mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and another one mile run. The nice thing about this WOD is you are allowed break up the pull-ups (ring rows as a modification), push-ups, and squats however you like. Yep, you guessed it, breaking them up Cindy-style is usually the way to go. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit terrified.

For the warm-up we did eight Tabata rounds of our choice. I think I switched between high knees, but kicks, and jumping jacks. I felt ok during the run considering I hadn’t run anywhere other than after my hat on the golf course since spring. I finished the mile in 8:20. I wasn’t really worried about that though. I was worried about the middle of the WOD. When the timer hit 45:00 I had completed 13 rounds! I didn’t get to 20 or even start the second mile run, but I couldn’t have been happier. In 7 days my body had made an incredible improvement. I was getting fit and having a blast doing it.

Part of yesterday’s workout (shown to the right) included a mile run as part of the warm-up. I finished in 7:47 today and it was a brutal 45° outside! In 2 weeks I knocked 33 seconds off my time. Each day my endurance is getting better and I’m getting stronger. I feel great!

I’ve run and rode a bike for exercise many times. I’ve done P90X and Insanity. I’ve always gotten bored after a few months and stopped working out. I’m confident I’ve found the holy grail of exercise programs with CrossFit. Each workout is different so I shouldn’t get bored with the repetition found in other programs.

CrossFit in unique in the way it defines fitness (PDF download). It’s all about using functional movements to prepare trainees not only for the unknown but for the unknowable. This type of fitness can prepare an individual for any type of sport. CrossFit is actually known as the sport of fitness.

I’m also enjoying CrossFit so much because it has similarities with other big parts of my life. CrossFit shares some similarities with WordPress, especially with the online community. Some people outside the community actually call it a cult! Each day on crossfit.com you can get the community WOD and share your results in the comments with other athletes around the world. The site shares videos with instructions on how to do all the movements. There’s a wealth of information on the web site and nearly everything is free. The part that’s not free is in the CrossFit Journal which costs $25 a year. Everything is very similar to the open source foundation WordPress is built on.

…de-centralized approach shares some common features with open source software projects and allows best practices to emerge from a variety of approaches…
CrossFit on Wikipedia

CrossFit is also similar to golf because it’s all about improving and beating yourself. All of the WODs are based on completing a workout as fast as possible, doing as many rounds as possible in a period of time, or lifting heavier weights. Everything is measured. In golf, any Joe Nobody can compete in local qualifiers, maybe the sectional qualifier, and have a chance to play in the US Open. The CrossFit Games, which determine the “fittest on Earth”, use a similar system. You can start doing workouts in your garage and end up competing against a world champion. In the 2011 CrossFit Games, the individual male and female winners were awarded $250,000 each! It’s no joke.

When you get down to the roots of CrossFit, it’s all about improving yourself. Working out to get in the best shape possible. Practicing functional fitness to be prepared for anything. Eating right to promote a healthy life and get the most out of each WOD. Helping others in the community.

I’ve been doing CrossFit for 3 weeks now. I’ve read more articles and watched more videos than I can count, attempting to absorb as much as I can. Hopefully I’m still doing a WOD three months from now and three months after that. Follow my workouts at crossfit.nickmomrik.com and let me know if you have any questions. If you’ve been struggling with your exercise routine, look into in. Survive the first workout and you might be hooked like me.

Here are some pictures from Survival Fitness where I’m a member:

4 Hour Body Really Works

Nick Momrik4 Comments

The 4 Hour Body bookWhen a coworker mentioned The 4 Hour Body back in January my first thought was, “Great, another book like The 4 Hour Workweek.” I read 4HWW a couple of years ago and hated it, so I was skeptical about 4HB. After reading a couple of reviews I picked up a copy of the book and decided to see what all the buzz was about.

I experimented with some of the concepts and programs for the last 3 months. I can tell you the book is the real deal. I concentrated on losing weight for 7 weeks and was able to lose 16.9 pounds and knock 3.6% off my body fat. For 4 weeks after that, I worked on adding muscle with minimal gym time and was able to increase the weight of 4 different lifts between 31% and 57%. Each week I wrote detailed posts which are linked below.

The most important piece of 4HB is the Slow Carb Diet. I found the first 2 weeks a little tough, but after that I rarely had cravings for everything I had stopped eating. Cheat day really helps with this because you can eat anything you want and have something to look forward to. In the beginning I think cheat day is very important, but I experimented with several cheat meals a couple of weeks and was still able to see a lot of weight loss.

In the book, Tim recommends some supplements to help with weight loss and some tricks to minimize weight gain on cheat day. I didn’t take any of the supplements and didn’t do anything special on cheat day. I did however do a lot of walking on the golf course, kettlebell swings, ab exercises, and cardio such as running, biking, and hiking. I think all of the exercise was important to my weight loss and made me a lot more healthy.

Another thing Tim says is a key in the book is to measure inches. I did this for a few weeks but found that it was too easy to game the measurements because there is no way you can measure the same spots every week. I was seeing my weight and body fat drop each week which was good enough of a measurement for me.

After I hit my weight goal I decided to try out Occam’s Protocol to add some muscle and I was strict about following the minimum effective dose concept. Over 4 weeks I spent less that 2 total hours lifting weights and saw gains of more than 30% (up to a 57% increase on one lift) on all 4 lifts. I added milk back into my diet and ate protein bars as snacks. I didn’t up my caloric intake anywhere close to what is suggested by the book.. The only supplement I took was creatine for muscle recovery. While I didn’t see massive weight gains, I wasn’t after a bunch of weight; I wanted to add muscle and was able to very easily.

4 Hour Body doesn’t stop with the book. Many people are writing about their experiences on blogs and forums around the web. You can find support from folks who are either going through the same thing or have already gone through it. A great community has sprung up around 4HB and everyone seems willing to share encouragement, tips, and recipes.

It’s been a week since my last detailed post, but I continue to experiment. Even with a drive across the country when I ate a bunch of crap, I lost nearly 4 pounds and almost a full percent of body fat since Sunday. My weight and body fat are the lowest they’ve been during the journey. I think dropping protein bars out of my diet had a lot to do with this because they contain a lot of sugar and carbs.

If you are looking to lose weight or put on a lot of muscle, I suggest picking up a copy of the book. Start by following the things Tim has outlined in the book. After a few weeks start making changes to experiment for yourself. Different things work for different folks. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

4 Hour Body: Week 11

Nick Momrik7 Comments

I’ve completed my eleventh week of 4 Hour Body. This was my fourth week attempting to gain muscle with some of the Occam’s Protocol stuff. If you want to read previous posts about my journey, use the links in the table at the bottom of this post or browse the 4 Hour Body tag archives of my blog.

Day 64 – Sunday, March 20, 2011

I started the day with a strawberry protein shake. A bit later I made a turkey bacon and spinach scramble. Walked 5.07 miles playing 18 holes of golf and ate a protein bar on the golf course. For lunch I made baked salmon, brown rice, and baked beans. Drank creatine + water and then did the A workout. I completed 8.6 reps (5/5) of close grip pull-downs with 120 pounds and 9.2 reps on the shoulder press with 110 pounds. Then I also did 10 myotatic crunches and 10 cat vomits. Drank more creatine + water and chocolate protein + milk.

I measured my blood pressure and pulse on a machine at Walmart and everything looks good there. My blood pressure was 122 over 78 and my pulse rate was 60. I forgot to take pictures of breakfast and lunch, so I’ll add the picture of the results from this test. I did a 25 minute easy run (2.66 miles) as part of duathlon training and walked 0.58 miles. Ate another protein bar for a snack. For dinner I had 3 fried eggs, green beans, pinto beans, and a glass of milk. I had a chocolate banana protein shake before bed.

Blood Pressure & PulseDinnerShake

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March Miles

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Training for the duathlon has upped my mileage dramatically from the last two months. I’ve done quite a bit more golfing too. Overall March was a good way to end my 4 Hour Body experimenting (will be finished after Saturday) and get ready for my first duathlon.

  • 32.6 miles running
  • 110.1 miles cycling
  • 62.2 miles walking (nearly all was on the golf course)
  • 14.7 miles hiking

That’s a total of 219.6 miles for the month, which is more than January and February combined!

This is not an April Fool’s Day joke. Check my RunKeeper profile for full details.

4 Hour Body: Week 10

Nick Momrik2 Comments

I’ve completed my tenth week of 4 Hour Body. This was my third week attempting to gain muscle with some of the Occam’s Protocol stuff. If you want to read previous posts about my journey, use the links in the table at the bottom of this post or browse the 4 Hour Body tag archives of my blog.

Day 64 – Sunday, March 20, 2011

Made a big strawberry banana protein shake for breakfast and headed to the golf course. Also had creatine + water. Walked 18 holes of golf (5.5 miles) and I was exhausted on the back 9. I didn’t know if my legs were going to hold out to finish the round. Not sure if was lack of sleep (maybe 5-6 hours) or being a little dehydrated from a few beers last night. On the course I had a protein bar and some trail mix. For lunch (forgot picture) I had baked salsa chicken, pinto beans, and green beans. Took a 2 hour nap I was so tired. Had a protein bar for a snack and then had to do a 20 minute easy run for duathlon training, which ended up being about 2.2 miles. For dinner I had a glass of milk and made baked salmon, yams, and baked beans. Not exactly a slow carb meal but I need to eat up some of the other food I have in the cupboard so I don’t have to haul it back to Michigan in 2 weeks. Ate another protein bar for a snack.

Dinner


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