PJ’s Fitness Blog
A blog about a fitter you. Come find out what is on the cutting edge of fitness science and be a part of the ongoing conversation.
All this talk about being green and energy efficient is great for the environment, but we should be doing the opposite with bodies. What do I mean by this? It simple. Be an energy hog. Pretend your body is a hummer, not a hybrid, and waste as much energy as you can each day.
Each year we get lazier. We also invent more stuff that supports that lazy lifestyle. 150 years ago, we had to walk or ride a horse to get somewhere. We took stairs, not escalators. We farmed, made stuff with our own hands, and cooked our own food. This food was all “organic” too, but that’s another rant, er I mean, another post…
Humans have been around for thousands of years, but only in the last century have we been able to get away with doing so little physically. We have so many machines that do stuff for us and to cart our fat butts around, it’s pathetic. While the convenience is nice, these conveniences are killing us and contributing to the biggest obesity epidemic in the history of mankind.
To turn the tide, I propose that we all get as “inefficient” as possible each day. How you ask? It’s actually pretty easy. When it comes to activity, just do the opposite of what your natural inclination tells you to do.
Today for example, I stood the whole time in church instead of finding a seat. I parked further away from the front door at Costco. On the walk into Costco, I found a stray cart in the parking lot and pushed it to the front door. I didn’t need that cart however, because I sought out a box to carry around instead. I ended up getting more than I came for (of course), so that box got pretty heavy and my arms were really fatigued and burning while standing in the checkout line, but that was the point! I was burning energy and getting stronger at the same time – JUST LIKE PEOPLE HAD TO DO 150 YEARS AGO!
Get creative and make it a game. You’ll soon rewire your brain with this new habit too. You will start thinking active by default, and soon you will find that your other habits are changing as well. Your food choices will get better, you will find more active friends to hang around with and so on, until you finally find yourself thin and fit – JUST LIKE PEOPLE WERE 150 YEARS AGO!
Start being a waste today! This is something that is easy to implement because it requires no additional time or money, just a little more effort spaced out through the day. It’s good for your body, your mind, and your soul. All you have to lose is your waist, so why not?
High Intensity Training (HIT) is well documented by the scientific research to burn fat faster and more permanently than Low And Moderate Exercise (LAME) workouts. In fact, LAME workouts can even cause you to gain fat instead of burn it!
Traditional personal trainers, otherwise known as Mentally Outdated Recreational Organizers who Never Study (MORONS), don’t keep up on the current research (because they never study), and since this makes them mentally outdated, they continue to tell their clients that “The optimal fat burning zone is best achieved at about 60% of your maximal effort.”
We used to think that, but research has proven otherwise, so now we know better. While it is true that fat is used as a primary fuel source during LAME intensity levels, it’s not the best way to burn fat off your body and get leaner with time.
MORONS go on to tell their clients that more is better, and the longer they can stay in the LAME zone, the more fat they will burn. The result is innocent recreational exercisers training like a rat on a wheel, for hours each week, only to earn dismal rates of return (at best) for their time invested.
In fact, since LAME does burn more fat during (more…)
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If you are a reader of this blog, you are probably already spending lots of money on wellness, but you are not even sure you are getting the best service because it’s too expensive and time-consuming to shop around!
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Sounds too good to be true? It’s not. It’s just a really great deal. It’s free to sign up. Then you automatically get reminders each time a new deal comes out – about 3 times per week.
Check it out and sign up for MyUrbanWellness.com today.
Great question, huh? I bet you know my answer already. Of course it’s better! Science has proven it over and over. Science has also shown that Prozac is about as good as a placebo, so it’s not hard to beat that over-used drug for elevating your mood. Even so, exercise is definitely the king for getting you happy, and curing depression.
The reason exercise works so well is because it is better at changing your brain chemicals than anything else you can do. Ever wondered why? God created us to move and to keep moving all day. Our modern society however, requires most of us to sit down all day instead. This unnatural lifestyle screws up the chemical balance in our brains and causes a downward spiral of depression, junk food cravings, more sedentary choices, obesity, etc., etc., until we are dead (10-20 years earlier than we have been).
A recent article in Time points out that exercise is indeed the best drug out there. High intensity exercise like the X Gym workout or the X Gym DVD is of course best; and activities like stair climbing offer the most intense “high” with the least time required, but for those who are obese or just want to get moving again, a simple walk can be the first step in a process that will change your mood and entire life.
Many regular X Gym members have eventually fired their “shrinks” because they just don’t need them anymore. When they are exercising regularly, they find it easier to eat better too. The X Gym member who suggested I write this post said, “I knew there was a reason I was (more…)
Allrightythen! It looks like X Gym put on another stairclimbing clinic tonight (12/3/09) in the 56 floor WaMu tower. The credit really has to go to God though, because we even stomped on our own times from last year by miraculous margins! Thanks to everyone who was praying for us! It obviously worked!
Here are the awards they offered tonight and who won them:
1st place male: Jesse Berg (X Gym Friends and Alumni team)
2nd place male: Kevin Crossman (X Gym Team)
1st place female: Kourtney Dexter (X Gym Team)
2nd place female: Jamela Leddy (X Gym Team)
1st place team: X Gym Friends and Alumni
2nd place team: X Gym
1st place relay team: X Gym
2nd place relay team: “Loaded for Bear”. Sorry X Gymers- we only had one relay team. My bad! I didn’t know they were awarding a 2nd place relay team this year (they didn’t last year). If I would have known, I would have formed another one (Kailyn Jeff and John were chomping at the bit). Then again, it was nice to let some other people win something 
Loaded for Bear was actually really fast, so good job guys!
1st place trainer: Kevin Crossman (X Gym). Kevin isn’t actually a trainer, but that’s OK. X Gym still got the award. Jesse is a spin instructor in Chicago, so technically he won this award, but that still would have given us the award, since he was on the X Gym Friends and Alumni team.
1st place gym: X Gym
I should also mention that between the two X Gym teams, we won 8 of the top 10 overall best times, and: (more…)
X Gym’s the three man Delta Force stair squad definitely left their mark on the Sears tower in Chicago today (11/15/09). As you may remember, X Gym members and trainers typically dominate any and all athletic events we enter, and stair competitions are certainly no exception.
The 103 story Sears tower climb is the second largest turnout of any stair race in the country with 1,800 participants showing up this year. It is surpassed only by the “Big Climb” up the Columbia center in Seattle. The Sears tower is 34 floors more than the Big Climb however, and since each floor is longer and taller, it is much harder and more competitive.
It is in fact, the hardest and highest climb in America, with the nation’s top climbers showing up to strut their stuff each year. Despite this incredible talent pool, The X Gym ended up owning two age categories to prove once again that we are the most successful training studio in the northwest as well as the most intense and effective training system on the planet.
Kevin Crossman, an X Gym member, along with his twin brother Brian, took 4th and 3rd in the 20-29 age bracket. Placing 11th overall out of 1,800 racers was amazing for Kevin since this was only his 2nd race ever. Brian’s 9th place finish overall was simply miraculous, considering this was his first ever stair race! The twin assassins blew away the stair climbing “veterans” with their astounding performance. No one could believe how well these newcomers did!
I competed in the 40-49 age bracket, and took 3rd place in that division. Since I am still relatively new to this sport as well, my dream was to place in the top 20 overall. Had I not invited the Crossmans,
In a recent study, 2/3 of the subjects in an alcohol treatment group who saw physical damage in a scan of their brain and body, stopped drinking. This was more than double the standard success rate of the control group.
Our society is more obese than ever. When I was in grade school, there was usually one token fat kid in each grade, and they got their fare share of teasing. Now it seems that being fat is the norm, and the skinny kids are the ones getting teased. This shift took only about 35 years to happen, and there is no sign of it letting up.
If you are fat, you’re eating sugar (see my last post for the different forms of sugar). Eating fat doesn’t make you fat, and eating protein actually makes you leaner. It’s the sugar that is killing you, and I mean that both figuratively and literally. For an interesting study on that, click here: http://bit.ly/37PIWR
The picture below shows what fat looks like under the dark winter clothes people wear to hide it this time of year, which also provides another way to ignore it, and to add to it through the sugar-fest we call the holiday season. A picture really does speak 10,000 words (or 100,000 sugar calories) doesn’t it?
I have written more often on sugar than any other subject, and how in its many forms is the main cause of type 2 diabetes, brain damage, immune suppression (making us susceptible to many illnesses ranging from the common cold to swine flu), and that is is the main food of choice for cancer cells. These are only a small fraction of the health problems associated with sugar intake. To list them all would create a post that would be so long, most people wouldn’t even bother to read it.
The biggest concern for most people is their weight. For the first time in the history of our planet, we now have more fat people than hungry people. Another first for humans is our childhood obesity epidemic, and the associated heart disease and diabetes among these kids. I bet you can guess what the culprit is.
Sugar has been scientifically proven to be more addictive than cocaine. The sugar cartels know this, and even bank on it – in a big way. They know that sugar is killing you and making you fat. They also know it was the biggest driver of slavery in the world. Did you know that it still is? I bet you didn’t, and if you eat sugar, you are (more…)
For those who love to get right to the bottom line, here are the results of my trip to LA on 9/25/09 with Chris Beams to take on the 75 story US Bank Building:
Chris placed 1st in his age bracket (30-39) and 3rd overall in the men’s open category. This was his 2nd competitive race.
I placed 1st in my age bracket and 2nd overall in the men’s open category. This was my 4th competitive race. For the official results on everyone, click here.
My niece Andrea placed 2nd in her age group and 16th overall. This was her first race!
For those of you who like videos, check out our stair blog at www.flightclubseattle.com.
Now, for those who like stories and details, read on, because it was a heck of a weekend filled with more fun and fitness insanity than I have ever experienced!
Wow! Now that was a hard climb! It was an eye opener too. All those piddly little 60 story practice climbs in Seattle helped a bunch until I got about that high in the US Bank building, but then I bonked. The remaining 15 stories were shockingly brutal! I felt like a little dutch boy in the Sahara dessert, walking up a sand dune wearing 10 pound wooden clogs!
My throat was part of that metaphor too. It got so dry and parched, I was horse for
I hate to say I told you so – especially about something like this – but in one of my posts last April (scroll down to see it – some browsers may put it on page 2) I stated that I believed the swine flu then wasn’t going to be a pandemic, but it might resurface as one later. I also mentioned that I would have some suspicions if that happened.
Well, it’s back, and I believe this one will be a media-manufactured pandemic, but not a real one, so I now I feel compelled to talk about the suspicions I have.
Before I get into that however, I want to talk about how you can avoid it. There are many things you can do (besides the common sense things like regular exercise, proper hygiene and not making out with sick people), but I want to focus here on just a few that you might not know about.
The three things I would like to highlight are 1) strengthening your immune system with proper nutrition, 2) taking a vitamin D3 supplement, and 3) (more…)
