I'm all about the clean these days ....

No, not the kettlebell clean, though there has been some of that happening as well. More on that later.

I think I mentioned a couple posts down that I'm looking to lose some weight/body fat. Not a lot, just five pounds or so. Maybe not even that. I have roughly 100 pounds of lean mass, so my body fat percentage is already down in the teens. Plenty lean, but I'm used to myself a little leaner and a little lighter.

It has been some time since I've had to give much thought to my weight. When I was around 40 it finally clicked for me that starch is really not my friend, and once that piece fell into place it became easy for me to achieve and maintain a very lean (>15%) body composition.

Of course I pretty much knew that I couldn't count on that happy state of affairs continuing indefinitely and, sure enough, as my 47th birthday drew near it became obvious to me that my metabolic free ride was coming to a close. Even though I was working out hard and eating no more than usual, my weight was creeping inexorably upward. And it wasn't because I was building muscle. I've been lifting serious weights for long enough that I pretty much know I'm not going to be adding an appreciable amount of muscle unless someone slips me some steroids, and anyway I haven't been training for mass. Besides, my waist was getting thicker and my thighs were losing some of their definition ... and if those aren't signs of fat gain then I'm Jillian Michaels.

And I want it gone. I swear I don't mind getting older. I don't mind the gray hairs, at least when they confine themselves to my head, and I don't even mind the crows' feet and the splotches on my cheekbones that I tell myself are freckles but really aren't. All that is mostly genetic and I've got no real control over it. But I do want to control what I can, and my weight certainly falls into that category.

The last time I went on anything resembling an eating plan was 5 or 6 years ago when I did Body for Life. I did a modified version, sticking pretty closely to the recommended eating schedule, calorie allowance, and and macronutrient ratios (40/40/20), but consuming fewer grains and processed foods than allowed. Since it worked well then, I'm doing something similar now. I know that intermittent fasting and Warrior-Diet type plans are very popular alternatives, but since I tend to feel fairly awful if I go for too long without eating those plans hold little appeal for me. Actually, any eating plan that doesn't involve Absolut Citron and peanut butter by the tablespoon-ful holds very little appeal for me, but whatever.

As I've said before, I'm a great believer in not making myself crazier than I must, but at the same time I'm realistic about the fact that what I want to achieve won't be easy, particularly since I'm trying to get stronger as well as lose fat. I can't cut my calories too aggressively, and I need to be sure I'm getting enough protein and complex carbs to maintain my muscle mass. I chose a target of 1400-1700 clean, unprocessed calories per day, spread out over 5 meals, and about 100 grams of protein per day, again spread out over 5 meals. That's about as much as I can stand thinking about at one time, so my plan is to stay within that framework, then make adjustments as needed depending on how I do.

I've been on plan now for four days, and so far so good. Except that sometimes I want to eat more than the 300-400 calories I am allowed per meal. It's not a problem when I'm out, because once my food is gone it's gone. But when I am at home I need to distract myself.

So I have been cleaning. And cleaning. And cleaning some more.

Have I mentioned that I hate to clean, and am a terrible, terrible housekeeper?

In the process of cleaning my house I have made some interesting observations. For instance, I am fairly sure that women's shoes are the larvae of men's t-shirts. I am sure I am not the only female who has purchased an item of clothing secure in the knowledge that I already own the perfect shoes to complete the outfit, only to find when I get home that the shoes I remember are missing from my closet. Sure, I may own similar shoes, but not the ones I distinctly remember possessing. They must have gone somewhere, and I'm pretty sure my husband's t-shirt drawer is where they end up. That man owns dozens of t-shirts commemorating his participation in various athletic events he never competed in, promoting teams he does not support, advertising businesses he does not patronize, and commemorating visits to places he has never been. They must have come from somewhere, and the reasonable assumption is that they metamorphosed from my shoes.

Y'all know what I mean, right? Or do I need to go eat something?

Metabolic Density Training the Irontamer Way!

According to "Irontamer" Dave Whitley, Senior RKC, it IS possible to outsnatch a donut. That's good news if you're someone like me who likes to eat and isn't afraid of a little hard work. Okay, a LOT of hard work.


His formula for weight control involves a variation on what Charles Staley calls Escalating Density Training (EDT) and Alwyn Cosgrove refers to as Metabolic Density Training (MDT). Staley's version involves two exercises, performed as a superset for 15 minutes, while Cosgrove's involves three exercises performed as a tri-set for 10 minutes. In both cases, the idea is to get as many rounds as possible in the prescribed time period, using weights that are about 60% of your one rep max.

If you're not a kettlebell person you can put together great EDT/MDT fat loss workouts using free weight and bodyweight exercises. Cosgrove gives the following example:

dumbbell bench press (6-8 reps)
alternating lunge (6-8 reps)
Swiss ball crunch (6-8 reps)

You would pick a load that you could get 10-12 reps with, and you would try to perform the tri-set as many times as possible in 10 minutes.

But of course if you do happen to be into kettlebells, they work wonderfully for this type of workout because they allow you to get a tremendous amount of work done in relatively little time. Not only that, but most kettlebell workouts are quite simple, involving no more than two or three exercises for the entire workout.

Here's an example of MDT/EDT the Irontamer way:

Round 1: Snatches, 12R/12L, repeat as many times as possible in 15 minutes, using a kettlebell you could snatch 20 times

Rest: 3 minutes

Round 2: Superset: 12 pushups, 5 pullups, repeat as many times as possible in 15 minutes.

This was more or less my workout this morning I say "more or less" because I forgot to look at the directions before I began the workout, so I couldn't remember how many snatches I was supposed to do per work set. For some reason the number 5 was stuck in my head, so I did sets of 5 per side, completing 21 work sets (210 snatches) in 15 minutes. It was challenging but not horrible, although I started to get some nasty blisters toward the end of the workout that made the last couple of work sets more painful than I would have liked. My left hand always gets more ripped up than my right, probably because that's the side with the shoulder issues.

The three-minute rest rocked, and I took every second of it :)

For the pushups and pullups I think I got 16 work sets, so 192 pushups and 80 pullups total. It was definitely challenging but more because I think for me 5 pullups was too many for this type of workout. I can generally get a couple of good ones from a dead hang, and after that my range of motion steadily shrinks.

Stupidly I didn't wear my heart rate monitor so I have no idea how many calories I actually burned during this workout. But that's okay, because calories burned during the workout only tell part of the story. The real beauty of this type of workout is that it elevates the metabolism for hours following the workout, which is the real key to fat loss.

That, and being a little careful as regards donuts. Sure, you can probably outsnatch one Krispy Kreme? But a dozen? Not so much.

Sunday workout & thoughts on working hard: sometimes it's about getting 7 out of 10

Today was Turkish get-up day: singles with 16 kg for 5 minutes, working continuously, per the ETK Program Minimum. That works out to being only about 10 get-ups total because I like to move very slowly and deliberately through these. Well, maybe I should rephrase: I must move very slowly and deliberately through these, because otherwise I will end up losing control of the kettlebell and possibly putting a dent in the floor. Or my head.

After my Ordeal By Get-Up I decided it would be a good idea to start working on high pulls with the 16 kg. First I did a set of 1-hand swings, 10 to the right and 10 to the left, just to get in ballistic mode. Then I did sets of 5 high pulls to each side, beginning every minute on the minute for 6 minutes. Those felt pretty good, so much so that on minute 7 I decided to try doing a set of alternating high pulls and snatches. One high pull, one snatch, and that counts as one rep. I did 5 reps on each side, and felt challenged enough that I decided to stop there rather than pushing my luck and going for another set. Since I still had a little energy I did a few sets of swings for 20 reps, with 15 seconds rest between sets. I am definitely getting more comfortable with the heavier weight. I just wish the handle of the kettlebell wasn't quite so thick!

And now for my thoughts on working hard: I certainly am not opposed. I enjoy taking on physical challenges, and sometimes an all-out effort just feels right. But there's a time and a place for everything. If I'm competing in an event, that's the time to give it my all so I can get the best possible score. But if I'm taking a pass/fail test, my usual inclination is to do no more than necessary to get a passing score.

When I took the Washington State bar exam 22 years ago, each question on the test was worth 10 points, and to pass the test you needed an average score of 7 out of 10 points on every question. So instead of trying to get a 10 out of 10 on each question I tried for a 7. It was a pass-fail test, and there was no practical reason to try for more than a passing score. So I didn't. I answered each question in as much detail as I felt was necessary to get me a score of 7, but I didn't try to explore every nuance. I paced myself, saved my mental energy, and made sure I had enough time to answer all the questions. When I found myself with a little extra time at the end I went back and added more detail where I could, but only after I had answered every question.

It was a successful strategy. I passed. I have no idea what my actual score was, only that it was good enough. That's what I mean by there being no practical benefit to a high score.

I think of the RKC snatch test in much the same way. I need to be able to snatch the kettlebell closest in size to 1/4 my bodyweight 100 times in 5 minutes. I would prefer to take the test with 12 kg, which means I need to keep my weight down. Using 16 kg would be more badass for sure, but if I don't have to use that weight it would be stupid of me to do so because by all accounts the 5 minute snatch test is probably the easiest thing physically that I will do all weekend. It's not a competition and I'm not looking to set records or impress anyone. I'm just looking to pass.

I'm going for 7 out of 10.

Saturday workout & initial thoughts on Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle

First, the workout. You will be shocked to learn there was a kettlebell involved. I began with cleans, 5 on each side, followed immediately by get-ups, 1 per side. Catch breath, repeat for 5 rounds. I used my 16 kg for all reps, and it went okay. My goal is to be strong enough in a few weeks to press the 16 kg for reps. We'll see how it goes.

Then it was on to two-hand swings, sets of 30 for 12 minutes, with a minute of active recovery between sets. For my active recovery I usually do something lame such as jog in place because I want to emphasize "recovery" as opposed to "active." The point here is to do perfect swings, not burn as many calories as possible in 12 minutes.

Now for my thoughts on BFFM, keeping in mind that I am still only about halfway through my review of the book:

1. This is pretty much a straightforward old-school bodybuilder cutting program. No real surprise there, as the book is subtitled "Fat Loss Secrets of the World's Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models," or something like that. Tom Venuto is in fact a bodybuilder and fitness model, and I have no doubt that he actually follows a program very similar to this. For what it's worth, every physique competitor I know, not that I know all that many, follows a program similar to this.

2. I acquired my copy of BFFM in 2005. Very possibly there is an updated version that takes into account some of the research as to the benefits of intermittent fasting. I admit I don't know much about the benefits, other than that obviously it's useful in creating a calorie deficit as long as you eat no more than your maintenance calories on non-fast days. I think there's some research to the effect that intermittent fasting stimulates the release of growth hormone, which helps with fat loss, and I believe it's also supposed to be useful for detoxification or something like that. Those of you who've read Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat know a lot more about it than I do. And if you're following ESE and getting good results you will not be impressed by Tom Venuto's insistence that 5-6 meals a day is the absolute best way to eat for fat loss.

Mr. Venuto's main arguments in favor of frequent meals are (1) if you eat every 3 hours or so, you'll never get so hungry that you end up binging (2) if you're constantly supplying nutrients to your muscles you won't lose lean mass even though you are in calorie deficit mode (3) if you eat frequently you'll stimulate your metabolism, especially if you stick mostly to foods that require a lot of energy to digest, and (4) if you go for too long without eating you will trigger your body's "starvation response," resulting in a slowdown of your metabolism, a loss of lean mass, and difficulty in losing fat even if you're eating fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight.

Reason #4 in particular is a bit controversial these days, and Mr. Venuto himself has conceded on his Burn the Fat blog that missing a meal now and then, or even fasting for a day, isn't going to send your body into starvation mode. The starvation response is a real phenomenon, but there's no evidence it kicks in unless a person has been maintaining an extreme calorie deficit for a prolonged period of time. If a person who requires 1800 calories a day to maintain her weight decides she's going to eat less than half that, and does so for weeks on end in a misguided effort to lose fat, the starvation response is going to kick in defensively. She's going to lose muscle, her metabolism will slow way down, and the only thing that will get her body fat level moving in the right direction is a re-feed.

This is not a hypothetical example, by the way. "She" is me at age 18. I spent most of my college years subsisting on roughly 500 calories a day. If it wasn't for the starvation response I would be dead today.

3. As you will have gathered from the foregoing, Mr. Venuto does not approve of large calorie deficits. He recommends that people cut their calories by no more than 15-20%. In the case of our not-so-hypothetical female college student, this would mean cutting anywhere from 270 to 360 calories per day. Of course at that rate she'd be losing less than a pound of fat a week, but if she were to increase her activity level as Mr. Venuto recommends, she would speed things along. On Mr. Venuto's program one doesn't starve the fat off, one burns it off.

4. Mr. Venuto is a numbers guy. He believes in counting calories and weighing and measuring portions. None of this "the size of your fist" or "the size of your palm" nonsense (which I actually don't think is particularly nonsensical, at least for anyone who's not an aspiring physique competitor). He contends (and I agree with this) that it is absolutely vital to log food intake at least for a while, because if you don't you're likely to underestimate the number of calories you're consuming over the course of the week. Once you're at the point where you know off the top of your head how many calories are contained in 3 oz. chicken breast and how much space it takes up on your plate (hint: not much!) you can probably ease up a little on the weighing and measuring and writing everything down. Also, if you plan your meals in advance, all you need to do is stay on plan and you'll know how many calories you ate without having to actually lug a journal around with you.

5. I personally believe that a lot of this is overkill unless you are a physique competitor or want to look like one. If that happens to be your goal you probably do need to eat 6 times a day and strictly control calories and portion sizes for the best possible results. But keep in mind: your goal is to achieve a level of leanness that's not natural to most people. For that reason you're probably going to have to pull out all the stops. When you're 15 percent body fat and looking to get down to 12 percent, worrying about the thermic effect of food probably makes some sense. If you're 25 percent looking to get down to 22 percent, not so much. Take my advice and don't make yourself crazier than you must!

Enter The Kettlebell!: The Program Minimum

Last Sunday I restarted Enter The Kettlebell! using 16 kg as my default weight. Yikes! At the risk of stating the obvious, 16 kg is much heavier than 12 kg. Thirty-three percent heavier, in fact. That's a big jump in weight. Not only that, but the 16 kg kettlebell is much larger than what I'm used to, and the handle is much thicker. It's okay, though. I just need to work with the heavier weight a little at a time until I'm comfortable with it.

Fortunately the first four weeks of the Enter The Kettlebell! program are meant to provide exactly the type of initial conditioning I need. This phase of ETK! is called the Program Minimum, and consists of four prescribed workouts a week. After warming up with joint mobility work for the hips and shoulders, you do either swings for a prescribed number of repetitions, with a minute's active recovery between sets, for 12 minutes, or Turkish get-up singles for 5 minutes. It may not sound like much, but 5 minutes of TGUs gets very unpleasant very fast when you're holding 16kg overhead. I like the challenge of it, though. If the stabilizing muscles of my upper back are not fully engaged, I will fail. Therefore, I must be fully engaged. This is very good for me and will help me considerably when I'm ready to begin snatching the 16 kg for repetitions.

I'm not there yet, though. Not even close. I realized that the first time I tried doing some one-arm swings with the 16 kg. The bell pulled me forward onto the balls of my feet because I wasn't grounding sufficiently through my heels and I didn't have my shoulderblade fully retracted and depressed. I was letting the kettlebell control me instead of the other way around. Classic beginner stuff. Fortunately I knew what I needed to do to correct the problem, but even so it was disturbing to me that I let it happen even once. I think I've gotten lazy using the 12 kg for swings for so long. But hopefully four weeks on the ETK! Program Minimum will re-educate my muscles.

Because the prescribed workouts are so short, I'm going to have to supplement with other training in order to achieve my fat loss goals and maintain my overall level of conditioning. Today, for instance, I'm going to do a deck of cards drill. If you don't know the protocol for this, it's as follows:

Each suit in the deck represents a different exercise. I like to pick two upper-body-focused exercises (usually a push and a pull) and two lower-body focused exercises, but really it can be anything you like (or better yet, anything you don't like). Today, for instance, hearts are pushups, diamonds are pull-ups, spades are kettlebell goblet squats and clubs are kettlebell hand to hand swings. Each time you draw a card, the number on the card tells you how many reps to do. Today, for instance, if I draw a 4 of hearts it means I have to do 4 pushups. Face cards can be whatever number you want. Today, though, they're 10. When you've dealt out every card in the deck, you're done. It's kind of fun because you don't know in advance exactly what your workout is going to look like.

Edited to add: Good choice of workout! I've really been neglecting my pushups, and it shows. The goblet squats were great for practicing my "prys." Check out Dr. Mark Cheng's blog (http://kettlebellsla.blogspot.com) if you don't know what those are. Even if you're not into kettlebells they're great "preventive medicine" for knee, back and shoulder problems. I used my 16 kg kettlebell and it was hard to keep my shoulders back and chest up! I also used 16 kg for the hand to hand swings, and since I decided to count a swing with each arm as one rep I ended up doing 170 1-arm swings total. So it ended up being a 400-plus rep workout, although at the time it certainly seemed more like a 4000-rep workout and I was quite convinced I was using a marked deck with an abnormal number of 10s and face cards even though I do not own such a thing.

Motivational exercise music

Your playlist can make or break your workout. You always have a little more spring in your step when there's a great tune playing on your iPod. By the same token, anyone who has ever been trapped in a cycling class with an instructor who's got a penchant for the Crash Test Dummies knows just how challenging it can be to get your heart rate up when you're listening to music that's a complete downer.

Unless you are incredibly rhythm-challenged, you unconsciously are going to sync up your movements with the beat of the music. Therefore, it's important to pick music that has an appropriate tempo. For running, conventional wisdom is that 140-160 bpm is good. For cycling a little slower is recommended. For hill climbs I tend to pick something slower with a strong bass line, such as "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes. For sprints, Devo's "Whip It" is always a good choice.

Naturally, you also need to pick music you like. I personally am not a fan of the Black-Eyed Peas. For that reason, no matter how many times people tell me "Boom Boom Pow" is a great cardio song, you will never hear me play it in class. If a song makes you want to stick a fork in your eye it's demotivational even if the bpm is perfect.

Context can be everything. Normally I would never play Bruce Springsteen's "The River" during a cycling class even during the cool-down phase, because while it's a great song it's also depressing as heck. But I do trot it out every so often as part of my special "Wedding Reception From Hell" playlist that I use whenever I know someone in the class is planning a wedding or celebrating an anniversary :) (Also included on that playlist: "White Wedding" by Billy Idol (duh!), "Band of Gold" by Frieda Payne, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, "I Kissed a Girl" by Jill Sobule, and more in that vein.)

If you're doing resistance training or flexibility work you can pretty much listen to anything you like. I've benched to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Beethoven's Ninth, and both work great. Heavy metal and 80's hair bands seem to be a more typical choice among lifters, but I personally need to stay away from anything that reminds me of Spinal Tap because then I start to laugh and my form goes all to heck. That's just me, though.

I generally don't listen to music when I'm doing ballistic kettlebell work because I find I let the beat of the music rather than the laws of physics dictate my cadence. I'm in the minority here, though. Most kettlebellers prefer to listen to music during their workouts. I recommend trying it both ways to see which works better for you.

If you'd like a specific example of a cardio playlist on which I've gotten good feedback from my cycling classes, here you go:

The Killing Moon 5:50 Echo & The Bunnymen
December 4:45 Collective Soul
Blue Monday 7:24 New Order
The Boys of Summer 4:18 The Ataris
It's My Life 3:46 No Doubt
Shadowplay 4:07 The Killers
No You Girls 3:40 Franz Ferdinand
Rebel Rebel 4:32 David Bowie
I Predict A Riot 3:53 Kaiser Chiefs
Long Road to Ruin 3:45 Foo Fighters
Somebody Told Me 3:18 The Killers
Do You Want to 3:35 Franz Ferdinand
Last Nite 3:13 The Strokes
Dancing With Myself 4:50 Billy Idol
Under the Milky Way 4:58 The Church
Unchained Melody 4:54 U2

It's about an hour long, and gets progressively faster until the final two songs, which are good for cooling down and stretching. Although it's a spinning playlist it also works pretty well for running.

What music do you like for cardio? resistance training? Stretching? Let me know in the comments section, because I'm always looking for new ideas.

So You Want To Be A Personal Trainer?

Awesome! (Yes, Mike, I'm talking to you :))

It's a noble calling, or it can be. We live in a society that's affluent in so many ways, yet impoverished in others. Because of labor-saving technology we move less than any previous generation, yet we consume more empty calories because of modern farming practices and food production methods that have stripped our food supply of much of its nutritional value. Because of our unhealthy lifestyle rates of obesity are skyrocketing across all age groups, but especially in the young. Obesity-related illnesses such as Type II diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease are reaching epidemic proportions, wiping out savings and ruining lives ... or ending them prematurely. The only solution is to get people moving again and eating better, and that's exactly what we trainers do. Let me tell you: it feels great to be part of the solution and not part of the problem!

But before you quit your day job, Mike (or anyone else who is considering a career change), there are some things you should consider. First, the money sucks. There's definitely money to be made in the fitness industry, but not by working as a trainer. You need to have your own business, with trainers working for you. That can happen, but first you need to get experience and a reputation for excellence, and the best way to do that is either by working for someone else (who will keep most of what you make in exchange for client referrals and/or the use of his or her facility) or by training people basically for free. Working with people one on one is definitely a losing proposition from a monetary standpoint simply because there are a limited number of hours in the day, so give some thought to how you can make group personal training work. Or consider whether you'd be willing to offer classes. Bootcamps are popular because they tend not to require a lot of equipment, so they're low overhead. If you live in an area where it's possible to exercise outdoors year round you might not even need studio space to run a bootcamp business. Anyway, definitely think in terms of multiple revenue streams to augment your income from personal training.

(I freely admit I don't think about this stuff much because it makes my head hurt, but if I had children who were human as opposed to feline I certainly would.)

And speaking of children ... it can be hard to have a normal family life if you work as a trainer because your busy times tend to be the crack of dawn, the late afternoon and evening, and the weekends. If you work for a facility that offers daycare, or if you train people in their homes, you can fill up some of the daytime hours with SAHM clients, and then of course there are retirees, restaurant industry workers, and strippers who will prefer to train during the day. But if you're serious about making money as a trainer you need to resign yourself to working odd hours and not getting to spend as much time with your family as you might like, at least until your business is established. Of course that's true of most jobs: the early years are the hardest.

Also, are you a patient person? If so, good, because your clients will drive you insane at times. They will have unrealistic expectations. They will have preconceptions they won't want to give up. They will be all for training with you until you quote them your rate, and then their interest will evaporate like the morning dew. If you work for a gym they will try to talk you into training them under the table so they don't have to pay as much. They will offer you services instead of payment. This can work out okay if you're in business for yourself and it's an equal trade, but often it's not. They may be disrespectful in a variety of ways. (Hint: wear your wedding band at all times. If you don't wear a band, get one.)

Basically, people are weird about their bodies, and as a trainer you are going to have to deal with the ramifications of that weirdness. Often they've got all kinds of shame and guilt keeping them from making rational decisions about self-care. If you can help just a few of them get rid of that burden of shame, it's a beautiful beautiful thing and makes it all 200% worthwhile. But there inevitably are going to be people you can't reach, and when that happens it can be depressing.

If you do decide to proceed, be aware that neither ACE nor NASM requires a college degree. In fact, I think the only certification that does require a degree is ACSM. ACSM is probably the most prestigious certification and it's the one I would have gone for except that my degree is in history, not exercise science or a related field. NASM is probably "best of the rest." ACE will give you a thorough grounding in anatomy and physiology but isn't so helpful when it comes to program design. Where NASM really shines is in teaching trainers to spot and correct dysfunctional movement patterns so clients can exercise and perform activities of daily living with less likelihood of injury. The whole area of corrective exercise and "prehabilitation" is huge, what with so many people leading sedentary lifestyles. Basically they need to be gotten in shape to exercise!

I could go on and on (big surprise there, huh?) but I've probably given you enough food for thought for now. I'm hoping some of my other trainer friends (you know who you are!) chime in with their perspective on personal training as a career.