The Preparation... Set the journey of your mind and body on the right pathway.

"For it is we who must pray for our daily bread, and if He grants it to us, it is only through our labour, our skill and preparation." - Paracelsus

Paracelsus might have lived in the late middle ages, but even he knew back then that every living being needs to prepare itself to adapt better for immediate, local environment to survive. A "prepared" living being lead by "labor" (which is mental and physical exertion to do productive work) and "skill" (which is an ability acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort) will easily fall under "survival of the fittest" category. In modern day environment this translates to leading a longer, healthier, and stronger life by adapting a disciplined way of life.

To be physically fit, the first change an individual has to make is to have a willingness to take minimal steps in the right, and positive direction to succeed. So, during preparation stage, an individual should be involved in information gathering, or fact finding. I'd like to think that some of the information I share here might be very beneficial in the long run, though this list is not exhaustive.

1. What can you do?: To begin with, it is always good to consult a physician prior to beginning an exercise program so it is designed to suit your health and fitness condition.

What I do?: I discussed with a physician about my allergies and breathlessness and asked him questions like, how far can I push my body?, whether it was OK to train my body by subjecting it to high intensity workouts, leading to higher heart rates?, what dietary supplements to take, like vitamins and others for better health?, etc. Then, I got a full body blood test done to become aware of what deficiencies I have. I also became aware of my body composition (like BMI, and Body Type - Ectomorph, Mesomorph or Endomorph).

2. What can you do?: Eat right to train right! Inform yourself well about what to eat daily for clean-burning fuel and what supplements to take that are beneficial. Also, get to know what specific foods to eat often depending on the kind of workout routine you undertake.

What I do?: I won't be answering this right now, because I am still figuring out the proper and best food for me, given that I am a vegetarian! But, in general, I do try to eat at least 6 small meals a day, and try to include lot of proteins and complex carbs in my diet, though carbs are restricted to daytime meals.

3. What can you do?: Once you know your body well, you can now design a workout routine that fits you and your personal goals. Make sure to choose an exercise that you enjoy doing. This will keep you interested and more likely make you continue exercising.

What I do?: I choose short duration, high intensity exercises. This allows me to stay focused over the entire session and keeps my heart rate high, thus leading to higher metabolic rates.

4. What can you do?: Make sure to include warm-up and cool-down sessions before and after any workout. This will help you avoid post-exercise soreness or injury.

What I do?: I do jumping rope, or run up and down the stairs, or brisk walk for 3-5 minutes. Also, before weight training, I stretch my arms and legs, or throw punches in the air to warm-up.

So, start preparing yourself to live a better life, and progressively change your workout routines to suit your personal goals and challenges. Tell yourself repeatedly everyday, "It's not a routine, or an exercise, it's a way of life."

Jennifer Nicole Lee (JNL): Not "Can-do" but "Go-get-it" attitude fitness trainer!

She Talks! ...others talk too, but she TALKS!! ...She TALKS AND she WORKS OUT!!! You wonder what does she talk about unlike others, and how does she workout? Well, to put it all in one sentence, she talks passionately about her hardcore workouts!

That attitude rubs off well on anyone listening and watching her video sessions. Her empowering charismatic fitness talk is sort of a magnetism that makes you believe that you too are a go-getter and not just a can-do person. At least, that is how I felt - inspired confidence.

Her video sessions are either short high intensity interval workouts, or medium length gym based weight training combined with cardio sessions. She mostly uses light weights and does give tips on how many reps to perform to get from a toned looking body to a body with more cuts and contours. Again like some others, most of her workouts are available on youtube to watch. She regularly gives fitness advice on www.bodybuilding.com under her body space webpage. She also has training programs available on dvds and books for purchase across the world. And, she has a gym based in Florida open for memberships.

So, if you like training with light weights, and like an enthusiastic trainer to push you harder and to inspire you with her passionate words, then look up JNL!

Zuzana Light: Fitness Bootcamp Trainer.

Say you are this person looking forward to begin a workout routine that is tough, uses less machines, and is not sluggish and boring that you stop working out after a month or earlier because you were so bored out of your wits and saw no desirable changes in your body. I don't know about you, but I am that person. I am that person who looks out for a good fitness routine that I actually enjoy doing, is least expensive, more private, and are short daily routines so I can effectively use my short spare time to see results, or at least see that it is going in the direction of desired results. Now, some of you might agree with all the above requirements I have given, or might think all these requirements together might not be possible without leaving out some. Like, how can least expensive and private both be satisfied without an expensive home gym, or a gym membership that kills privacy. Well, the solution is to just do a very simple google search, or youtube search for, "home, no weights workouts." 1000s, 10,000s, millions of links will pop up leaving you overwhelmed, but be very little patient and browse around few of them and you will definitely find one among them to be Zuzana Light's workouts. Of course once, you've found her, you've found Light, not Zuzana but, the enlightment path to inexpensive, tough, short workouts that show results. And then you can follow through that same lit path, leading to her website http://www.bodyrock.tv, which has more bright Light!

What I really like about her workouts other than the fact that they satisfy all my requirements is that they are very inspiring. Inspiring how, you may ask? She is inspiring because most of her videos are unedited pieces, i.e. they don't sometimes hide the fact that she is tiring out, feeling out of breathe, and finding it hard to continue. To me, when I watch her workouts, I see that she is perfectly fit, and pretty strong. But still, seeing her tire out during some workouts makes me think how much harder is she pushing given her already high fitness level. So, I am inspired and challenged to push as hard as I can at my current fitness level, hoping to improve it until I get to her level, or go beyond. In fact, I read sometime recently on her blog that she is challenging herself to another level of fitness by starting to train in Capoeira, which is a Brazilian art form combining martial arts, sports and music. Watch this clip to see how physically challenging this art form gets, though it looks elegantly smooth and light in motion.


(source http://www.youtube.com/)

She has great, valuable tips to share with her viewers all the time regarding workout routines and what to eat. One such example that comes to my mind is when she talked about how it was not her "cheat" day yet, and she was going out to dinner and have some desert as well. She advices a good work around for this, and the advice is to do a quick 4 minute high intensity workout, after which you can eat anything within the next two hours.

I follow most of her workouts, esp. the ones for abs, back, and the high intensity training routines. She is a great fitness trainer, advisor, and advocate of using bodyweight for training. In fact, I need to mention her husband Frederic Light as well here, who also shares his opinion on fitness and maintains their website.

By saying what she always says, "No more excuses for not working out", I think, she hits the nail on the head driving the point straight home.

Hugh Jackman ...Sluuuurrrp!!!

He is like my protein bar! Good amounts of protein (muscle), and right amounts of fat. The first time I saw him was in the movie "Someone like you" with Ashley Judd. I didn't notice him until that scene where Ashley Judd does the cheerleader dance for him in his apartment, in the middle of the night! That was so long ago when I laid my eyes on him, and still can't take them off him. Of course! Now that he is even bigger protein bar! I looked up his workout routine naturally and lucky me, I did this search at the right time. Hugh Jackman had just been through his intense training and preparation for his role as Wolverine in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".

Here is what his trainers did to get Hugh Jackman ready for his role of Wolverine,

The first thing his trainers did was to make a fitness assessment. They recorded his body fat, posture and flexibility, and did the aerobic and anaerobic testing. Now, with this data they were able to come up with a custom workout program for Jackman that would transform him into a man with Wolverine body that is more athletic, and not just another bodybuilder training to bulk up.


Let's start laying out step by step phases that Hugh Jackman was put through to achieve this transformation.

1. Changing tempo of weight lifting was the first phase to enhance muscle mass. Three seconds of eccentric phase and one second of concentric phase is what Hugh was put through. So, to describe this phase, for doing a bench press, Hugh would take three seconds to lower down the barbell, while take only a second to lift the weight up. The three seconds time in lowering the weight puts the muscle under increased tension, which in turn causes damage to the muscle tissue, thus helping in its growth. The order of priority that is crucial in weight lifting is form, followed by tempo (control), and then only weights.


2. The second phase focused mainly on maximizing strength and not in muscle mass. Hugh was trained to take on as heavy as possible without paying much attention to tempo. Each of these phases were 6-12 weeks long depending on the outcome. Hugh trained for 1 to 2 hours, 5 times a week. On Fridays, Hugh would take part in bootcamp workout for half hour. In this session, he did brutal bodyweight and interval style training to boost his metabolism, and increase this endurance and strength. This was necessary as Wolverine is a mutant who could jump and run with powerful limbs.


3. For his last phase, he did weight training for one day, and filled rest of his days with yoga, pilates and Tai Chi. He also did cardiovascular training on treadmill at moderate intensity to burn off the fat which he had accumulated over the past 6 weeks of each phase in order to reveal the 6-pack abs.


Shocking the muscles into growing is what the trainers did by introducing the 2 phases, which constantly challenged Hugh's body. Mistakes made by most people is either never changing their workout, or changing it way too often, both of which is wrong. Six weeks each phase is a good duration to keep up with.


So, here is an example of what Hugh Jackman's Workout Routine would look like,

TRAINING FOR STRENGTH
Reps: 2–6 Sets: 4–6
Rest: 3–5 min.

TRAINING FOR SIZE
Reps: 8–12 Sets: 3–5 Rest: 1 min.

A sample chest workout:

Incline Dumbbell Chest Press
Flat Dumbbell Chest Press
Seated Machine Press
Decline Dumbbell Chest Press

TRAINING FOR FAT LOSS
Reps: 8–12 Sets: 2–4 Rest: 1 min.

An example of a full-body strength and endurance workout:

Dumbbell Bench Press:
superset with Alternating Swiss Ball Dumbbell Chest Press

Standing Cable Row
superset with One Arm Dumbbell Bench Row

Seated Shoulder Press
superset with Alternating Standing Shoulder Press

Barbell Squat
superset with Walking Lunge

Intervals: Warm up at 75% maximum heart rate for 5 minutes, increase to 90% for 1 minute, lower to 85% for 3 minutes, then 75% for 2 minutes. Repeat for 60 minutes. [1]


Finally, we have one last thing to talk about and that is Hugh's diet plan. Hugh had a very disciplined diet plan with 6-7 meals a day. He would have egg whites in the morning (at 4AM!), and at every 3 hours after that he would consume brown rice and vegetables as well as proteins including steamed chicken breasts and egg whites. After midday, he would not eat rice or any carbohydrates, but just vegetables, meat, and fish.

Hugh consumed natural protein most of the time and took supplement as protein powder only when he couldn't get enough of it from natural sources. At night, he ate slow digesting cottage cheese.


Reason for Hugh Jackman’s Success

Hugh Jackman succeeded not because he set goals on how much weight he needed to bench, but because he imagined himself to be Wolverine. Wolverine is the hero who could withstand tremendous pain, fuel himself with anger, and begin when everyone else quit. This kind of determination is what helped Hugh to overcome the pain barrier with months of workout. While bench pressing 315 pounds, he had a choice of either using the help of his spotter, or do it all by himself. He chose the latter. [2]

So, Hugh growled and pumped iron like Wolverine and finally was capable to live up to the image of Wolverine.

Putting your mind into the muscle makes lot more sense to me now!



References:

[1] Train like Hugh Jackman, http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/general-fitness/get-jacked-like-hugh-jackman
[2] How to build body like Hugh Jackman, http://munfitnessblog.com/how-to-build-body-like-hugh-jackman/

Jessica Biel Inspired!

Ever looked at Jessica Biel and said, "Man! She's got great arms and good lean abs??!!" I did! So, I went ahead and searched what her personal fitness trainer, Jason Walsh had to say about her training. Jason Walsh had leaked Jessica's workout routine and diet, which is,

1. Cardio Interval Training: HIIT also known as High Intensity Interval Training is the best form of cardiovascular training out there that helps in burning body fat and is much superior and effective when compared to the traditional steady pace cardio training.

Jessica incorporates this training into her workout regimen. Her typical training would include jogging for 1/2 mile to warm up and then she does 6 sprints with short rests in between. These 6 sprints combines 2 sets of 200 meters, 2 sets of 150 meters, and 2 sets of 100 meters.

Imagine yourself doing a 200 meter sprint! ...Huh! That's nearly 8 times the length of a tennis court! 8 times of HIGH INTENSITY SPRINTING!!! Now that would require me to train very hard, hoping someday I shall run like Usain Bolt!

2. Plyometrics: Heard of this term before?! I hadn't. So, I look it up and found out that plyometrics is a set of fast, explosive exercises that help in improving alertness, nervous system, and the performance of an athlete.

Jessica uses this form of training to her advantage for serving as HIIT training as well. What she does in this workout is jump from the bottom step of a flight of 20 stairs to the third, skipping a stair each jump.

Jason was quoted saying, "After Jessica did these the first time, she would’ve punched me if she had the energy."

I think, I will be needing an oxygen tank before I could even spot him around after this kind of intense routine.

3. Weight Training: Circuit training, which is a form of weight training helps in getting cardio workout done as well.

Jessica uses lighter weights, and does more reps while constantly moving to engage in cardio workout as well. This circuit includes hanging leg raises and Russian twists for the abdominals. To make the best of it, the circuit training is treated as weight training and not turning it into another cardio session.

Now, the much awaited diet plan! Diet being the most important as it makes upto 70% of how your body shapes up after all that rigorous training.

Biel knows how meticulous she needs to be with her diet as she is with her training. She follows a strict diet for 6 days in a week and Sundays are her CHEAT DAYS when she indulges in her favorite foods.

"She eats varied diet of complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal and whole wheat toast with one tablespoon of almond butter in the morning. For dinner she enjoys fish, veggies, and basmati rice. She snacks on fruits like bananas, apples, and strawberries. She doesn’t deny herself the foods she craves, and likes to treat her at the end of the day with something sweet like a piece of dark chocolate." [1]

To get a lean, toned look it is necessary to cycle calories, i.e. not to eat low calories continuously, which lowers your metabolism. But, to eat high calorie food at strategic points to prevent this from happening.

So, we've seen a week long routine right here, and it is very hard too. It will be sometime before I get used to this Bond girl routine!



Reference:

[1] Jessica Biel Workout Routine Revealed, http://jessicabielworkout.net/