Dumbbells are essential!

If there was only one piece of weight lifting equipment you could own, it would be dumbbells.

Even a single dumbbell provides dozens of potential exercises for your routine.

Dumbbells are not expensive, and you can even get high quality components second-hand. Dumbbells don’t take up a lot of storage space, and you can work out with dumbbells in a very limited amount of space.

A pair of dumbbells doesn’t take up much more room than a single dumbbell, and isn’t any harder to acquire.

Dumbbells are extra effective because they are less stable than a barbell, and require your muscles to stabilize the apparatus at the same time that the exercise is being executed.

I have three pairs of dumbbells that I love.

My light dumbbells are great for warming up and learning to exercises that I want to add to my routine.

My medium weight dumbbells are my work horses. I do most of my workout routine with my medium dumbbells. They are heavy enough to provide a challenge, but not too heavy to do multiple reps.

My heavy dumbbells are a great challenge for exercises when I really want to push myself.

My favorite exercise of all is the dumbbell fly. I use my light dumbbells to do a variety of flat bench and inclined bench curls and flys and presses. I use my heavy dumbbells to do flys that I do lying on the floor.

If you haven’t committed to a weight lifting program yet, go get some dumbbells.

I give up!

People who take up new exercises always seem to give up eventually anyway. Why can’t I give up?

I’ve always hated running anyway. I’ve always been the worst runner you’ve ever seen. Even as a kid playing little league sports, I was the last little shuffler around the track when we ran laps.
But I’m not giving up on running. I’m giving up my excuses to NOT run.
I wasn’t running at all when I first started working out. After working out for a few weeks, I realized that working out with weights left me feeling constricted.  Sometimes I would get charly horse cramps in the middle of the night after working out. It was suggested to me that I should stretch out after my workouts.  But I instinctively knew the answer to this problem.  I had to face my old nemesis, running.  And I was right! Running after working out with weights felt absolutely fantastic.

A lot of my running is really walking. But I push myself to run as much as I can. I go twice around the mile track at our local park. I go as soon as I’m done with my weight routine.

As much as I don’t like running, whenever I did run I could always feel immediately that running was a great thing to do and has important results.

I’m also giving up on obsessing about doing the exercises correctly. Zig Ziglar used to say that anything worth doing was worth doing POORLY, until you can learn to do it well. Well, I’m going to do my exercises poorly, but consistently until I learn to do them well.

So if I’m letting my body sway too much, or bending my elbows too much or doing the reps too fast, that’s okay. I’ll work on it, and soon I’ll be performing these exercises correctly.  The trick is to keep trying, and to keep increasing the amount of weight I’m lifting.

If I’m going to give up on trying to do my exercises perfectly, I’m going to have to give up on avoiding information, because although I want some lea way in learning to do my exercises correctly, I also don’t want to hurt myself. I need to know when my poor form is dangerous to my body. 

Maybe the next thing I need to give up is my diet. I have horrible eating habits. I need to give up. I need to give up second helpings, and large pieces of birthday cake, and most of all I need to give up cola drinks.

Setbacks.

Chocolate dream pie is a setback.
Dinner at Chuck A Rama for a family birthday after lunch at McDonald’s is a setback.
Colds and other sicknesses are setbacks.
Vacations are setbacks.
Setbacks keep us from exercising. Yes, there are a million reasons NOT to work out. Some would say, and even I would say, that you just need to stop making excuses and get the work done.
But still, things frequently happen that cause us to fall behind on our workout schedule or eating habits. (I hate to say diet)
Some people will tell you that if you fall out of the habit of working out, you’ll never go back.
That’s true if working out is a punishment.  But if working out is a pleasure and a reward, then you’ll be glad to be back at it when your setback is out of the way.
What do you do about setbacks? Determine to get back to your workout as soon as possible? That’s fine.

It’s important to develop exercise or other activity habits that are life changing. Exercise and physical activity should be rewarding. It’s that reward that will keep you coming back, and keep you active.

Setbacks are going to happen. You’ll go on vacation, you’ll get sick, you’ll over indulge when eating the things you love.

How do you go about regaining your workout? Will you need to lift lighter weights for a time, or do fewer reps? Maybe.

But learn to think of yourself first as a runner, or a weight lifter, or a biker, or whatever it is that you’re doing. It’s not something that can be given up. It’s what you do, it’s who you are.

Curls are for girls

Here’s another blog about the opposition I’ve faced.

I just can’t help talking about my weight lifting. It’s something that I’m very passionate about. But talking about weight lifting with the wrong people can bring the strangest reactions.

Recently while discussing weight loss and fitness with a group of young guys, my weight lifting routine came up. Like dogs who had spotted a cat from the front room window, they started to snarl and pepper me with questions.

“What kind of weights to do you have?”

“How often and how long to you work out?”

“How much can you bench?”

So I began to detail my equipment and my workout to these guys. Bench presses, dumbbell flys, lat pull downs, etc. When I got to the part about my military bar, one of them shouted at me: “Curls are for girls!”

What the???

Curls are for girls?

These two guys shared a hearty laugh and a high five. Apparently I had been disproved and humiliated. But I was flabbergasted.

One of these guys was a former college level athlete, and the other had been in the marines.

So I asked them how they went about working their bicep muscles.

No good answers.

Then it hit me: Some guys have lots of opinions about fitness and weight lifting, but don’t know much about it.

Don't get me wrong, if you're a girl, by all means grab some dumbbells and do some curls. I'm just saying that men performing curls with any kind of apparatus is good exercise.

It’s true that it's foolish to lift weights targeting only one part of your body, like your just your biceps or just your abs. But proper weight lifting should exercise all muscles in your body. I just don’t buy the idea that someone would want a strong body, but not want strong biceps, because “Curls are for girls.”

Educate yourself about fitness and weightlifting. More education brings better results, and makes you less vulnerable to dummies with zingers like

“Curls are for girls.”

Warm up! For heaven’s sake warm up!

Often when I’m talking about weight lifting, someone will tell me that they WERE lifting weights, but that they hurt themselves.

Highly dubious. I have my suspicions about the way these people work out. You might get hurt if you push yourself too hard, or attempt to lift too much weight, or especially if you are not warmed up properly when you start your work out.

I haven’t been hurt yet working out with weights, but I do admit that sometimes my elbow makes a funny clicking noise when I’m doing bench presses. I’ve found that if I’ve warmed up more vigorously, this doesn’t happen as much. But clicking elbow can only be a bad sign.

There are various ways to get your muscles warmed up and ready to lift weights,  and one of them is by lifting weights. But traditional warm ups should always be considered first.

Sometimes my warmup includes jumping jacks, jogging in place, and stretches. I do this enthusiastically for about five minutes. But even then, I do my start my work out with less challenging exercises and move up to more challenging exercises.

Sometimes my warmup involves weight lifting exercises performed with lighter weights. Again, I do quick, explosive reps with very light weights. I choose exercises with a maximum range of motion. These exercises include French curls, and pull overs.

All this being said, I sometimes wonder.  Are all these people telling me that they’ve hurt themselves working out with weights, really people who don’t want to lift weights in the first place and would rather wear a leotard and ride an elliptical machine?

If you’re going to lift weights, then shut up and lift them. Pick a safe starting point, and lift an appropriate amount of weight. Don’t try to impress someone, don’t try to be macho. Just lift a proper weight that will provide you with great exercise.

No, I can’t help you develop your abs.

How did we ever get here? Those of us with big bellies, I mean.
Well, if we really think about it, we all know the answer. We got here little by little. A little ice cream, a little more ice cream, some cookies, a nap on the couch instead of basketball with your friends, and thousands of hamburgers.

All that adds up to, my belly. That’s been a very difficult for me since starting this workout program.

People have so many stupid ideas about weight loss and fitness. Many of these people actually get their ideas out there on the television. So here we are, no longer in our twenties, bellies protruding, and the television is telling us that we could look like the guy with the twenty inch waist and the sculpted abs and his pants pulled down below his hips, and all in just  two to six weeks.

Just as bad is our neighbor who warns us that sit ups can cause a pot belly. Who ever heard of that? Did you ever hear anybody say: “yea, my belly has REALLY grown bigger since I’ve started doing sit ups!”????

Ridiculous!

Just keep being active. Be faithful to whatever physical activity appeals to you. Keep working out. Give it time. You’ll see results.

I get frustrated when I see that my belly is still there. But then I remember that I haven’t really been very good with my diet yet, and that I’m 47  years old, and that I’ve had a big belly for years and years. I got here little by little for a very long time, and it just makes sense that I’ll have to get out of this situation little by little over years of time.

That’s what I want. I don’t want fast, dramatic results that will be very hard to maintain. I want permanent habits and a familiar lifestyle. I’m learning to enjoy exercise. That’s why I got started, and that’s why I’m going to continue. If my belly goes away in the process, I’ll be thrilled. If not, I’ll get a job as Santa Claus at the mall. But I’ll be a very fit, healthy and happy Santa Claus.

How long will this take?

Ads for fitness programs and equipment on television give us the idea that sculpted abs and bulging biceps are just a few weeks away.

Possible? I don’t know. And I don’t care.

But I have been interested to learn the opinions of experts in the fields of exercise and fitness. These true opinions are hard to find. But my favorite experts all have shared thoughts about how much time it should take to develop that dream body.

Funny how right now the one thing everybody wants is a well-defined, tapered abdomen.  What about strong legs, or a powerful back? I don’t know, but I would think that over all fitness should be the goal.

I like two things that Mike Chang has said.

First: If you get your entire body in shape, your abs will follow. You don’t need to “focus” on your abs.

Second: When you see someone on television or on tv that is in peak physical condition, they haven’t achieved this in just a few weeks. They look good because of years of good habits, proper diet, and lots of exercise.

Mike’s sarcastic answer to “How long should this take?” is: You should look pretty good after ten years.

The message is this: Make fitness a lifelong habit. Don’t try to work yourself to death for a few weeks hoping to look like a sexy movie star. Is it possible? Mike says that yes, there is a fast track to a good body if you’re willing to work that hard. But I don’t believe that exercise schedules like that are maintainable. One day you’ll stop. One day you’ll quit.

Still, when you exercise, you expect results. How long did it take me to see results? I saw results immediately. I felt better after just a few days. One of the first things I noticed was my double chin disappearing. Then I noticed my biceps shaping up. I noticed my stamina increasing and my posture improving. I liked that, and it definitely motivated me to continue.

Other changes were more gradual. I noticed an overall sense of wellbeing. My appetite changed and my diet was affected. I didn’t crave soda and sweets like I did before. I stopped over eating. And there were more physical changes. My shoulders broadened and developed. My chest squared up.

But my belly is still big and it pokes out over my pants. Do I pay attention to exercises that work my core? Sure I do.  But I always remind myself that I am working out because it feels so good, and it’s fun, and I’m happy because I’m becoming more fit and healthy.  Give me some time and my belly will look better. In fact, I think I’m going to look better and better overall. I just have to keep believing.