SERIOUSLY IMPRESSIVE! I'VE LOST 20 POUNDS IN ONLY 12 WEEKS THANKS TO EET!

I went down to 194 lbs from 214 at the very tail end of my 12th week on EET, which is incredibly impressive, considering that I was 198 lbs only a week before. As I mentioned in that previous article of mine, I would slightly alter my weekly forecasts to take into account my graduate school restarting after the holidays. Therefore, My current weekly EET forecast looks like this:

EET CONTINUES ITS MAGIC! HOW I LOST 16 POUNDS IN 11 WEEKS WITH NO FOOD RESTRICTIONS!

This is my latest article for Hive Health Media, detailing my progress on EET. I wrote this article a week ago, so it's not very current as I post it on my blog, but it will make a nice lead-in to some other amazing leaps that I've got going on EET, which I'll have up tomorrow. Anyway, enjoy the article and please leave any questions and comments if you have any. You can also check out the original Hive version, but in any case, here's exactly how I lost 16 pounds in only 11 weeks without any sort of food restrictions:

HOW I LOST 10 POUNDS IN 6 WEEKS EATING JUNK FOOD EVERY DAY

This is an article I made that was published on Hive Health Media a few days ago. In it, I discuss where I currently am on the EET Fitness Plan and how I got there. This is all real. No tricks, no special pills, and no skipping junk food. Below is the complete text, but you can go here for the original article on Hive.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR POSTURE AND FLEXIBILITY WITH THE FITNESS FIXER

I recently discovered a great fitness blog by one Jolie Bookspan, called "The Fitness Fixer". Dr. Bookspan has written many tremendously useful fitness articles there, especially on the topic of flexibility and posture, among others. Here are some articles that I highly recommend you check out:

THE TURKISH GETUP

I'd like to highlight a little-known, but very effective and very fun exercise known as the Turkish Getup. A Russian exercise meant to be performed with a kettlebell,it can also be performed with a dumbbell.Here's a very detailed video of how to perform this unique exercise:

WHAT MAKES A GOOD WARM UP?

Before any physical activity, one should always warm up. A good warm should be composed of the following factors:

1. IT SHOULD MIMIC THE ACTUAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE



In order to properly prepare the body for the actual movements to take place during training, the warm up should be composed of the movements themselves, or movements very close to them. Jogging, for example, is a very good warm up for long distance runners or sprinters, but is a terrible warm up for Olympic weight lifters. These athletes would benefit better from a warm up composed of the actual lifts, but at a much lower intensity, such as being performed at a much lighter weight, and without the explosiveness required, such as in a hanging clean and press.

FITNESS FOR GAMERS: HOW TO BECOME A TRUE GAMING ATHLETE

I'm a gamer myself, which is pretty obvious considering some of the articles I write. I find that it's a great way for me to relax and rest from time to time, and forgot the troubles of the world for a bit. That said, there are those out there who play games professionally. First off, they should actually follow the requirements to be physically fit. In other words, they should be physically active, take in proper nutrition, have adequate rest and relaxation, integrate good health practices in their lifestyles (eg: no smoking!), and have regular medical and dental check ups. That's just good advice for anyone, and not only gamers.

This article will focus on fitness techniques that will actually help professional gamers become better at what they do for a living.

HOW TO EXERCISE WITH JOINT PROBLEMS

I recently did a guest post on Trying Fitness, which I think is a wonderful fitness blog. It's called "HOW TO EXERCISE WITH JOINT PROBLEMS", and I discuss how obese, overweight, elderly, and any other individuals who have joint problems may still be able to exercise efficiently by training in the water. That's right, folks, aqua workouts are the key, and you can find out more checking out my article over at Trying Fitness!

RUNNING BAREFOOT

Should you run barefoot? If you google "running barefoot" you can see a lot of various websites promoting this. Of course, like any idea, you would see a lot of websites countering this as well. But why do people even encourage this thought? Have they never heard of shoes before?

HOW TO PREVENT CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME

Medical professionals all over the world have reported that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is one of the most common injuries being sustained today. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an overuse injury caused by repeatedly flexing the wrist or maintaining the wrist in a flexed position. This means that your wrists are constantly bent in such a way that the palms of your hands are facing you, even slightly, like if you were to bend your wrists to type on the keyboard.

People often bend their wrists to type, but, unfortunately, that’s totally the wrong way to go about it. Again, maintaining or constantly bending your wrists in that position can lead to a very serious injury, which can often lead to surgery, and you don’t want that, do you?

PIANO PLAYER

The best way to type on a keyboard is to do it like the expert piano players do, with their wrists in a neutral (not bent) position. Some people might think this contrary, but this is the most natural position for your wrists to be in. After all, you don’t naturally bend your wrists and form your fingers into a claw while walking do you? No, and if you do, you really should read on to see how you can correct that.

THE SECRETS TO LONGEVITY

Below is a picture of Sylvester Stallone from his upcoming movie, The Expendables. For those who don’t seem to realize, the man is 64 years old. Not bad for an old man. There’s also this extraordinary video I created an article for recently about a man in his 60’s performing gymnastics techniques most people less than half his age (including myself) can’t do.

Living an exceptionally long and healthy life isn’t restricted to a select genetically gifted few people in this world. Sylvester Stallone clearly can’t be classified as one, despite appearances. During his youth, when one would expect him to look his best ever, his physique didn’t nearly resemble what it does today. Just check out the first Rocky movie and compare it to some of his more recent features (barring Cop Land) to see the difference. This is all the result of hard work and consistency, which literally anyone can achieve.

It’s actually as simple as following the most common pieces of advice found in such articles as the requirements to be physically fit and the cost of physical inactivity, but here are the most important rules that you need to know:

THE PREDATORS WORKOUT

I recently had the chance to watch the movie "Predators".Great action movie, but I personally feel that it kind of pales in comparison to Arnold’s 1987 classic.The writers and director obviously wanted to make it bigger and more exciting than the original, but failed to make the story become totally engaging. The star of the film, Adrien Body, while a great actor, is also no Arnold Schwarzenegger, so that’s something that was probably eating at the back of my mind during the entire film.

But while Brody is no Austrian Oak, he nonetheless still worked tremendously hard to build a very impressive physique for this film. Entertainment.gather.com has a great article about his transformation:

“When asked about how he prepared for this action hero role, Brody noted that he was doing a "challenging" six days a week of training and diet. He was also shooting for the movie 12 hours per day. Brody said during preparation he wasn't drinking alcohol, wasn't consuming any refined sugars and was having no sex. He said he did all that he could to harness a "ferocious" mentality and persona for this character"

THE SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE, DUMBBELL HOME WORKOUT

As a follow up to one of my earlier articles, the simple, but effective, home workout, I was asked to create a dumbbell version. To start off, the program that I will recommend here is primarily for those who are beginner weight trainers, meaning those that have been training consistently for less than one year, those that have been lifting weights for quite a while now, but are usually on and off and were never really consistent in their past routines, or those that are absolute beginners.

WHAT'S THE WORKOUT SCHEDULE?

There are two sets of workouts that I will recommend, Set A and Set B. You should perform the Set A workouts twice a week, and the Set B workouts once a week. Ideally, the schedule would Set A performed every Mondays and Fridays, and Set B every Wednesdays. If you can’t do the workouts with exactly that schedule, then feel free to adjust it to your needs, with hopefully the same spacing in between workout days. As much as possible, don’t try to do the workout for three days straight during a single week, as your body won’t be able to rest properly. You’ll tire and stress yourself out more than you’ll be making yourself fit.

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH VIDEO

Honest to god, there is a fountain of youth, and there's really no secret to reaching it. Everything I, and the rest of the people in the fitness industry have been blabbering about is all it takes. Having an excellent, balanced diet, regularly working out, and resting and relaxing when needed, all while having the most fun possible, is the key to the fountain of youth.

I originally saw this video via one of my favorite sites, Ross Training, and loved it so much that I had to link it here!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you gymnastics at age 69:

THE COST OF PHYSICAL INACTIVITY

The human body is an incredible piece of precision machinery; and, like an automobile, for example, it needs to be regularly maintained. Your muscles need to be regularly utilized in order for them not to weaken and to stay at their peak capacities. If you don't maintain them and if you choose to simply slack off the majority of your life in front of the TV set, well, then you're unfortunately going to suffer a couple of consequences.

1. Cardiovascular Diseases - When the human body is relatively inactive for a very long time, the heart becomes weaker and less efficient than it should normally be, and is more susceptible to life-threatening diseases that can cause heart attack.

2. Obesity - Like gasoline is to an average car, food is fuel to human beings. It is our energy source. Unfortunately, if people maintain (or even increase) their eating habits from their youth, yet become more and more sedentary as they grow older, they use less and less energy as they simultaneously take in more and more. The body then stores this excess enhergy as fat,and obesity occurs in no time. Obese people are even more susceptible to cardiovascualr diseases, so it's really no laughing matter. Read more about managing the body's energy consumption on my article about Energy Balance.

JAKE GYLENHAAL'S PRINCE OF PERSIA WORKOUT

Times Online has a fascinating article on how movie stars transform their bodies to suit particular roles, but the most interesting thing about it is that it details Jake Gylenhaal’s current diet and fitness routine for his newest movie, “Prince of Persia”:

“5.30am Pre-workout snack: half a banana, some nuts and an espresso.

6am An hour-and-a-half cardio outdoors workout while wearing a 20lb flak jacket to simulate the weight of armour. Interval training - 10min uphill sprint, followed by abs exercises, eg, sit-ups, at the top of the hill. Repeat sequence five times, then a 10min run, followed by stretching exercises.


7.30am An egg-white omelette, a small protein shake and an isotonic drink to replenish salts lost during training.

Lunch Baked potato with tuna and salad.

6-7pm An hour of resistance training using cables to simulate sword fights, pull-ups, press-ups, abs exercises using weights; finish with stretching.

7-8pm: An hour-long deep tissue massage

Dinner: Soup and a protein shake

Snacks/supplements Two litres of water, protein bars, dark chocolate, supplements rich in omega-3, 6 and 9. No foods containing refined sugar, occasional glass of wine allowed."

ROBERT DOWNEY JR'S IRON MAN 2 WORKOUT

US Magazine has a great article about how Robert Downey Jr. quickly bulked up for his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2. Downey apparently used very unconventional methods in order to gain over 20 pounds of muscle mass in less than a month's time:

"Instead of doing regular bench presses, we used a bamboo bar... and we would hang plates on rubber bands off the bar... so it was like trying to bench press a snake!" Bose explains. "It bounced all over the place."

Downey Jr. also pushed "a custom-built wheelbarrow that we modified with 600 to 700 lb. weight stacks" around an obstacle course.

"We went out and bought truck tires, and we used sledgehammers -- anywhere from, two 4-lb. sledgehammers in each hand, all the way up to a full 20-lb. sledgehammer -- and we were just beating tires with it. We used fire hoses that we filled with sand and water... and we'd drag and whip them to build the shoulder muscles and pecs back up."

They also juggled "weighted Indian clubs," hulled around kettle bells and even used a war machine, which Boyes explains is "like a rope with handles on it with a pulley -- you suspend yourself from it," says Bose.

THE SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE, HOME WORKOUT

Every time someone comes up to me and asks me to recommend a quick, but effective workout routine for them, I give them the Crossfit Tabata This workout. The Crossift FAQ page explains this thusly:

“Tabata Intervals ( 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times) is applied in turn to the Squat, Rower, Pullups, Sit-ups, and Push-ups with a one minute rotation break between exercises. Each exercise is scored by the weakest number of reps (calories on the rower) in each of the eight intervals. During the one minute rotation time allowed the clock is not stopped but kept running. The score is the total of the scores from the five stations.”



If one were to apply all the exercises indicated on that list, the workout would take 25 minutes, exclusive, of course, of any warm ups and stretching routines, which, when applied, can make the total time 35 minutes or less.

Usually, though the people who ask me of this want to use the workout at home for convenience’s sake, and since not a lot of people own rowing machines, I always take the rower out of the equation, giving us 30 minutes total time left.

Another thing to consider, though something I don’t really recommend, is to take the pullup exercise out as well, since not a lot of people have bars or similar apparatus within their homes that can support their own body weight. I really don’t like taking out the pullup since it’s one of the most excellent exercises I know and is one of my personal favorites, but if you must take it out, then fine. Exercising less is always better than not exercising at all, but again, not that recommended. In this case, the total time would be cut down to only 25 minutes. Just enough time to do while watching your favorite program on TV.

For absolute beginners, though, I would recommend cutting down the time for each exercise cycle in half just so you can get the hang of it first. After doing the workout continuously for about a month or so, then you'll most probably be strong enough to challenge it at the full level.

So, instead of doing 8 cycles per exercise, you'll only be doing 4, resulting in only 2 minutes total exercise time, plus the 1 minute break, bringing our total down to only 22 minutes if you include the pullups, and only 19 minutes if you exclude them.

FIRST POST

Hello to you all,

I have been personally involved in physical fitness for more than ten years to the day. I started in high school when I was only seventeen and wanted to change the way my flabby and unattractive exterior was viewed. Social conditioning, I know, which had vanity and possibly selfishness at its core, but it actually did a lot of good for me.

I started working out at a gym which was only walking distance away. Oddly enough, the gym had opened just three or four months before I seriously made my decision to get in shape. I worked out there pretty much every day, doing basic body building things like babrell biceps curls and machine chess presses. I also became more and more conscious of my diet and substituted fruit for all the junk food I was eating. I have no idea how I did it before but I just quit flat out. Almost like a smoker does cold turkey. Suddenly any and all junk food really did look like their namesake: trash, with flies and all.