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.
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…)
We sure had fun filming our first X Gym workout DVD! Tellit Productions shot and directed it, and they are now in the editing phase (which takes the most time). It will be out in time for Christmas though, so I’ll make sure everyone knows about it when it is done.
Our DVD will be amazingly superior to all the others out there. Here are some reasons why:
How much time have you wasted in traditional gyms for slow or no results? How much money have you spent on diets and weight loss products that don’t work? How many pounds have you lost and regained in your lifetime? Would you like a solution to these problems once and for all? It’s coming soon! I promise!
It makes a great gift too! If you are an X Gym member, you are probably tired of trying to explain to your friends and family about the workout you endure. Well, this will be your chance to buy them a copy so they will “get it” and start to see for themselves how fast results can be achieved!
If you aren’t an X Gym member, this is your chance to satisfy your curiosity and treat yourself to a workout routine that will finally produce rapid results that will last a lifetime!
Now I’ll leave you with a little teaser clip of some behind the scenes moments:
I had to laugh when I read the article posted on www.bakeryandsnacks.com about orthorexia. They call this a “healthy eating disorder” that is on the rise where “sufferers restrict the consumption of sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods. They also cut out any foods which contain artificial additives, or have come into contact with pesticides and herbicides.”
Hmmm, sounds pretty good to me. How can healthy eating be a disorder? Oh yeah, if you are selling baked goods and snacks, I guess orthorexics aren’t buying your garbage are they?
If you go to Wikipedia and look up the definition, they mention problems going overboard with this, and just like anything, that certainly is a possibility. I’m sure some people take it too far and hurt their health, or could even die from being too much of an extremist, but as for me, I’m a proud orthorexic! I actually eat some dairy from time to time, so does this make me a lacto-orthorexic?
My “condition” causes me to “suffer” through 4,000 calories of good food per day (or more) and keeps me leaner than ever. It also gives me the most energy and strength of my life and the mental clarity to boot. Another orthorexic recently posted in a BBC news story shares some of these “symptoms.”
My mom passed away from early onset Alzheimer’s disease, so I am a volunteer in a long study at the VA hospital which tests my memory, cognition, coordination and mental capacity every year. They tell me I am bucking the odds so far by improving my scores every year instead of the normal decline for people past 40. I know that I owe this in large part to being an orthorexic.
Besides all the great physical and mental health benefits we know about from eating clean, it also makes you look great and it burns fat like crazy! Th
e picture above is of a strict orthorexic who trains at the X Gym. Contrast him to the typical American who eats bakery and snack items, and the choice should be a no-brainer!
Think about it. Michelangelo sculpted “David” 500 years ago, and lots of people looked that way back then because they were mostly orthorexics by default. They just didn’t have crappy food available to eat. It was ALL organic, all fowl was wild or free range, and cows ate grass! If Michelangelo was around today and sculpted from the average modern population, his statue might have turned out different…
So it turns out that stair climbs, triathlons, running races, and obstacle courses aren’t the only contests we dominate as the X Gym. I guess it should be no surprise to report that the X Gym just cleaned house in another fitness competition. Today, August 8th, The X Gym took a “special forces” team of four to the Navy Seal Fitness Challenge at the Bellevue club. This contest required swimming, pushups, pullups, situps, and running, so you had to have endurance, strength and cardio to do well. This makes it a very unique competition, because only people who possess a well-rounded fitness can rank or win.
It is primarily a recruiting tool for the Navy Seals, to help them find folks fit enough to be candidates, but Greg (X Gym member pictured right) heard about it first, and suggested that we try it out. Since we only had about a month and a half to train, it was no surprise that (more…)
It might sound crazy, but changing your vocabulary can actually make you burn more fat. It can also make you stronger and build up your body. This is due to specific effects that words have on your physiology.
Most men can think of 3-5 positive or negative emotions in 10 seconds. Most women can think of 4-7 positive or negative emotions in the same amount of time. Try it yourself. In 10 seconds, think of as many positive emotions as you can, and then in another 10 seconds think of as many negative emotions as you can. Write them down, and you will be looking at your most common experiences in a typical day.
Expanding your emotional vocabulary will expand your experiences, and it can even help you get leaner. Every time you (more…)
The first few days at the Alki X Gym went well, despite the fact that there were only 8 clients left for us by the time we took over last Wedesday (down from 110 about a month ago).
New clients are joining, past Alki X Gym members are returning, and some are coming over from Belltown, so things are looking better every day. We have some great plans to repair the damage that has been done, and our new outdoor boot camp program is already breathing new life back into it as well (contact Kailyn through k@xgym.com to get in on the classes).
Evan, Joanna, Steve, Mike and Kailyn are the best trainers in the world, so I couldn’t have a better team to make this the strongest X Gym ever. I am very excited to make this succeed again with the help of such a fine group of people. It will make us closer, tighter, and even better than ever before!
My specialty is start-ups, and it looks like we have been handed one here for sure. Besides, everyone likes a comeback kid…
