Gym Rules

We all have our own set of "rules" about the gym, our own set of "pet peeves". I stick to my self most of the time, and unless I am stretching or warming up on the treadmill, I don't notice people around me too much, I am in my own zone and concentrating on what I am there to do.

I love training and when it is disrupted, I can get a little irritated.

I thought of this as I talked on the phone with "Mike", the head HVAC guy at Courtside. Mike was being nice, but I was a little miffed. I lodged a complaint, the last several days the weight room has been cold. I mean frigid cold. I have been wearing a long sleeve shirt and long pants, and am still afraid my hands will freeze to the metal bars. I am not a happy camper.

Mike explained that the heat is off to the weight room, intentionally. Seems folks complained it was too warm. I have never noticed that, and I tell him there must be a happy medium.

He said to give him a week before I take it further. I am hoping you can get it working Mike!

Our conversation made me think of other things that bother me at the gym.

I have my own ideas about what are very ineffective things I see people do all the time. When I see people doing these things I just wonder why they got out of bed. It reminds me of a saying that Issac posted up on the whiteboard at BodyComp Personal Training Gym, where I train with Roy:

"If you aren't living life on the edge, you are taking up too much space!"

If you are doing these things, you are wasting space in the gym:

1) Read and ride a stationary bike.

2) Text or email while on the stairmill.

3) Read the newspaper in between sets.

4) Socialize, socialize, socialize.

5) Cardio only, all the time. Period.

I have my own set of things that really bother me too:

1) The stinky guy. He wears the same damn thing everyday and he stands next to me. He cannot possibly wash those clothes by the smell of them. Yuck!

2) Perfume and cologne. ANY! Please don't douse yourself before you come in, I need to breathe. This is not a nightclub, save it for later. I am not sure which is worse, the stinky guy or perfume princess.

3) Big guys who ask me to spot them. Come on, really? You are a 200 pound stud and you want a 125 pound female to spot you on your bench?

4) Using the benches as a storage space for your water bottle, cell phone, towel, book, etc. I am here to train, I need to use the benches, put your stuff in a locker or on the floor.

5) Stopping me during my training and asking me "How do I get rid of (fill in the blank)?" "How much should I eat?" "How many days should I train?"....

I don't mind giving some suggestions, but at the right time and I cannot help plan your entire life in 5 minutes! Catch me in the cafe or in the locker room, and how about a simple question, not a request for an entire diet plan.

I hope you aren't doing anything on my list! If you are, you may want to see how those around you are reacting to you.

Carpe Diem

It's all coming together, my legs are getting bigger. You can see it in my shorts here, I can see it, everyone can see it. And the glutes? Huge in all their glory! 

Roy and I have been hammering and hammering on my legs, and now with this extra leg day added in, I am really getting excited!

Also, with the three days a week of calf exercises, my legs will soon catch up to my massive shoulders!

This is the kind of change that gets me so pumped up to seize the day "Carpe Diem"

What is so significant about this is I have been working on my legs for a couple years and really haven't seen a great deal of progress. I have great shoulders, they get wide and round; I have a wicked back, it gets wide and muscular; my glutes, get big and round; but the legs, they have always plagued me.

I am feeling so good about it all, I wake up in the middle of the night and think about training. I think about the food I will eat that will fuel me, and it encourages me to make better choices, what I eat immediately following training will make all the difference.

Wednesday night we met and it was quad day. We started with front squats, with the weight I left off with last week. These are down low, below parallel. Roy wanted to go heavier- "should I put on some more or just go for the big plates?" he asked. No need to ask again..."Big plates!!!" I said, so he stripped the bar and loaded on two 45 pound plates. I would try 10 reps of front squat with 135 pounds.

Roy said he wanted to video it but he was sure he should spot me instead. I banged out 10 without trouble, still maintaining a slow, steady tempo. I re-racked and told him I could have done 11. "Yeah I could tell!" he said.

We moved to lunges. Long, low and slow. You really haven't done lunges till you do them Roy's way. He wanted 4 sets of 15 on each leg. So that's a total of 120 lunges, 60 on each leg. The second set he says he wants to increase the dumbbells to 30 pounds, I say sure.

He sets down the dumbbells but they are 25 pounds with micro-weights, so they weigh 127.5 each. "What, you chickened out?" I ask. "That's all I need!" he says. "You want 30's? You got it!" He takes the others back and gives me two 30 pound dumbbells.

I do the next two sets and I do them well. I feel exhausted but elated at the same time. I am feeling powerful and triumphant.

Roy was excited too, I am not sure which one of us had more fun, me hammering the legs or him watching me progress and get bigger and stronger before his eyes.

My legs and glutes feel massive, we joke how soon I may need a cart behind me to carry the added weight, or a separate zip code just for my glutes.


I arrive home and Cooper and Adam are working on Adam's car in the garage, right where MyRedRocket (my car) lives. I park in the drive and give them the keys to move it when they are done.


At about 9:15 I am heading off to bed, I go to say goodnight and they are not there, I look down the drive and I see them with Adam's car, out in the street. I talk them out of their late night project and help push the car back up the long drive. It is difficult, the drive is slightly uphill, my legs are shot. So I guess this is my sled workout! 


We push it back into the garage and I tell them to leave it there, let MyRedRocket sleep outside tonight, she will be OK.


We need to push the car a bit more...all I can think of is how tired my legs are.

Soon, I may have to buy bigger shorts!

Stinging Nettle Soup

Everyone has heard of stinging nettles right? Sort of like poison oak, but milder. It doesn't affect some folks, but others who come in contact with it will develop a stinging rash.

Nettles have many benefits:

1. Pain: For many centuries stinging nettle is used as a herbal cure for treating pain, especially pain in the muscles as well as the joints. It is beneficial for treating pain associated with arthritis as well as gout.

2. Laxative and Diuretic: Stinging nettle herb is a natural laxative as well as a diuretic. Several studies have indicated that stinging nettle has a positive effect in the treatment of diarrhea and disorders of the urinary tract. It is also beneficial in treating prostate disorders. Studies have also shown that stinging nettle is also helpful in treating benign prostatic hyperplasia.

3. Hair: This herb is exceptionally is improving the health of the hair. If you use it directly on your hair it helps make them shinier, treat oily hair as well as reduce dandruff. Stinging nettle is also very good cure for treating baldness. Those who have started losing hair can use this herb to avoid further balding. Stinging nettle is also helpful in getting rid of lice.

4. Hay fever: Stinging nettle is a good cure in stopping the bouts of sneezes. It also eases itching caused by hay fever. Stinging nettle is considered to a good cure for hay fever as it has the ability to reduce the production of histamines in the body related to allergen.

5. Respiratory problems: stinging nettle is a helpful herb in treating respiratory problems like asthma, sinus, bronchitis as well as respiratory allergies. As said above stinging nettle is a very good histamine blocker which helps in keeping the allergies under control.

Stinging nettle is used to cure rhinitis and reduce inflammation without any side effects.

7. Bodybuilding aid: stinging nettle has 3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran which is a testosterone-booster. This substance helps in lowering estrogen level and increasing muscle, a good supplement for bodybuilders.

YUP! Go to any supplement or bodybuilding site and you will find stinging nettles sold as a natural testosterone booster!

Side effects:
Do not take stinging nettle is you are taking medicines which are blood thinners like aspirin. This herb reduces the blood pressure.

The soup was good! David made it. A very bright cheery green, and a great texture with a hint of lemon. It is from the book  Food Heroes by Georgia Pellegrini.

Stinging Nettle Soup

Dress yourself in thick rubber gloves and collect stinging nettles. The furry, painful-to-the-touch leaves are distinctive with the help of a good field guide, like Stalking he Wild Asparagus, by Euell Gibbons. Though they don’t feel nice, they taste nice when treated well. (If you’re not feeling adventurous, you can substitute spinach leaves.)

4 quarts stinging nettles
2 T olive oil
3 onions sliced paper thin
2 leeks, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
2 quarts chicken stock
Grated zest of 1 lemon
4 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Crème fraiche or plain yogurt for serving
Salt and black pepper to taste

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Prepare a large bowl off water and set it aside. Working in batches, drop the stinging nettles into the boiling water for a few seconds, then remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer them to the ice water. When all of the leaves are blanched and “shocked” in the ice water, remove them from the water, squeeze out the excess water, and set them aside.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil and add the onions, leeks, garlic, and fennel and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft, keeping the temperature low enough so that they don’t gain a lot of color, about 10 minutes. Deglaze the plain with the stock. Add the lemon zest and potatoes and cook at a low simmer, partially covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add the nettles and cook until heated through.
3. Puree the soup in a blender. Serve at room temperature, with a dab of crème fraiche or plain yogurt and lemon zest.

Hamstrings

As I explained last week, I am training hamstrings twice a week and quads twice a week. Volume is my friend and this seems to be the only way I can add size to these legs. Don't get me wrong, they look tremendously better than they used to, but still not where I want them. In fact, I have noticed that my legs have gotten much bigger! Yahoo!


But...not big enough. So I keep on keepin' on!

It's funny how so many women say they like my legs. I think what they actually like is the fact that I don't have saddle bags or cellulite, so that's all they notice, they neglect to notice that they are too thin for my shoulders, they are not in proportion. 

Above is the kneeling leg curl. This is one of the machines I am using on my own hamstring day, when I am not training with Roy. When I train hams with him on Mondays, right now we are doing Glute Ham Raise (lots and lots) and then single leg deadlifts. That's it, it has ensured I am sore all week long.

So on the hamstring day on my own I am using all the machines. I am using the lying leg curl, the seated leg curl and the kneeling leg curl (above). This should target the areas of the hamstring that Roy and I are not targeting on Mondays.

I see a lot of people using all of these machines incorrectly. They use momentum to swing the weights up. You should never use momentum as it defeats the purpose of the exercise. Everything should be controlled and smooth. 

On the lying leg curl I am using a 2/1 method- both legs to lift the weight (concentric movement) and one leg to lower the weight (eccentric movement). Making sure I keep the foot and calf relaxed so the effort comes from the hamstring. It is important to keep the weight low enough so the hips don't shoot up, thus using the glutes to pull up the weight.

The seated leg curl, I am going heavy. So heavy I really can only do 8 reps, I can tell I am too noisy, all the folks lined up on the stairmills turn to look in my direction, it's the grunting I know. 

The kneeling leg curl (above): I have struggled with this, my left hamstring is significantly weaker than the right, so the same weight on the right leg is easy while on the left is quite difficult. I do an extra set on the left to help build it up. Again, it is important to concentrate on the hamstring area, it is quite easy to get sloppy and use the glute and calf to pull up the weight. I go heavy with low reps as in all the hamstring exercises.

Last, I end with my friend the Glute Ham Raise (below), the most wonderful machine on earth. In this picture, it is not set up for me. I lower the front rollers all the way as low as they go (here they are as high as they go), and the back is pushed forward more for my height.

I do as many sets of 10 as I can, but after the curls I did before, it is hard, really hard. I can usually get 4 sets in on a good day.

The hams are responding and so are the quads, but I am a very, very demanding person.

A New Year Diet

It's that time of year, everyone is thinking about losing a few pounds, it's America's favorite pastime.  Many people have mentioned it to me over the last couple weeks, they want advise, they want help. "What really works?" "How do you stay slim?" "What exercises should I do?"


In my opinion, it's not the exercises that will sculpt your body, it's the food you fuel it with.


Don't walk away thinking that weight training isn't important, it is, I wouldn't look the way I look if I didn't lift heavy weights on a regular basis. But you can lift heavy weights all your life and if you eat like crap, you will look like crap, simple as that.


Oh I have seen some young males who can get away with eating all sorts of fast food and still have beautiful hard bodies, but they should at their age, they are in the prime of life with testosterone surging through their bodies. Testosterone is natures way of making muscle and males have about 10 times more than females do.


So to get the body you want, the body we all want, you need to take a look at your diet.  Unless you are competing, you really don't have to weigh or measure everything, but you can if you are OCD or just plain bad at eyeballing portions.


Stick to the foods that have proven to be successful: lean protein sources, good fats and complex carbohydrates.


I was asked just Saturday, where to start? The obvious first choices are eliminate garbage like chips (they are evil), alcohol, candy, crackers, all packaged snack type foods.  


Then make the right healthy choices. 


Protein: This is the most important, after all the word protein comes from the from Greek prōtos, first.


Be sure it is a lean protein source which can be any number of things: skinless turkey breast, skinless chicken breast, fish, shellfish, beef, buffalo, canned tuna, eggs (or egg whites). Sure, you can eat some pork on occasion. Stay away from sausages though- bad joo joo!


Then, your carbohydrate, the "starch": whether it is potato, oatmeal, brown rice, other whole grains; CUT IT IN HALF. That's right, whatever you would normally put on your plate, take half away and leave it like that.


Now, vegetables: DOUBLE the amount you would normally have. Yes indeed, and no butter or oil please. And if it is salad, don't put on salad dressing, that bottled stuff is typically chock full of calories. Of course, you can go in search of a nice low cal dressing, just be sure to check out the serving size and stick to it. Your best bet is to make your own with a very small amount of olive oil (good fat) and vinegar or lemon. 


Get used to eating and enjoying vegetables, they are your friend. Take a look at the picture at the top of the page, these are the vegetables I made on Monday for the next couple days. Some are plain, some are not. 


Clockwise, starting at the front with the red vegetable: Radicchio, a bitter green like a small red lettuce. I cut this up in thick pieces and tossed it with a fat free vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, grainy mustard, truvia, pepper); then I roasted it in the oven for about 15 minutes.


Sauteed mixed peppers with some olive oil; curry cauliflower and carrots (I will explain below); Soo Foo (my very small container of a mixed whole grain); steamed broccoli, eggplant that has been roasted in the oven, and in the center, sauteed mushrooms.


Over the course of the next three days I will eat all that, and I will get a delivery of more and cook yet more produce.


The cauliflower is great! I will combine it with chicken and mushrooms, or maybe peppers, and a squeeze of fresh lemon.


To make the cauliflower, preheat the oven to 400 (hot oven); cut the cauliflower into small florets, place in a baking pan or large dish so they will be in one layer. Sprinkle over a very small amount of olive oil, toss well. Sprinkle a small amount of kosher salt and a generous amount of curry powder, toss well. Spread evenly over the baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake 10 minutes to steam, then remove the foil and bake another 5 to 10 minutes until some start to lightly brown, toss and serve warm or room temperature.

Emu Egg Omelet

Dang that's a BIG egg! David and I were shopping at the Mountain View Farmer's Market and were getting some meat- Jim had these huge Emu eggs displayed on the table. I admired them but didn't think of eating one until another customer started telling me how wonderful they were, and then I had to have one.

She said they made a very rich and fluffy omelet, and I love omelets, I can eat them three times a day and have actually been known to! Eggs are one of the best protein sources we can eat. Typically I eat egg whites and will add one whole egg, this would indeed be a special omelet. 

What she didn't tell us right away was that the shells are very thick, and actually collector's items so you need to drill a hole in the end and blow out the egg so the shell can be preserved. Sounds like a fun night to me!

This post has a couple very short video's so if you are an email subscriber, please navigate to the blog to see them, they really are an important part of this blog.

We would have an Emu omelet with some strong stinky cheese and truffles. A glass of sparkling wine and the evening would be complete.

First we drilled two holes in the egg. (Video)

Then, we, no I had to get the egg out of the shell. The Emu egg is a bit different than a chicken egg. Chicken eggs contain 37% saturated (bad) and 63% unsaturated (good) fats, while emu eggs contain 31% saturated and 68% unsaturated fats.  Both contain all 8 of the essential amino acids needed in human nutrition.  Chicken eggs contain about 65% white, 35% yolk.  Emu eggs contain 55% white, and 45% yolk.  The big green eggs yield about two cups of egg.  One large chicken egg is about one quarter cup.

I decided to get a very large stick a break the yolk up while it was inside the egg, this way I could blow it out of the teeny tiny hole. The texture of the egg was very thick, I could feel the thickness with the stick and it was rather gross. (Video)

Then, I had to keep blowing the egg out of the shell, it was very thick and didn't cooperate well.  David and Derek had a good time as I did all the work.

Here I am in action, the egg is starting to come out now. (video)

Now it's really coming out and it seems like it just won't end! There is an awful lot of egg in this big green orb! And look how thick it is, the stick is standing up in the egg!

Once all of the egg was out, I had to take a breather- that took quite some time! We heated a very large skillet and started to cook the egg(s).

Then, we grated some stinky french cheese we purchased in Berkeley at the cheese board, and I shaved some black truffle. Yes, I happen to have a dedicated truffle shaver, not that it gets used often enough.

The egg was too large for us, so the omelet turned into scrambled eggs. The cheese was gooey and melted inside,  and I cooked the egg only until it was just set and still very creamy- I hate dry eggs! A generous shaving of black truffle on top and dinner was served!


I will buy these again, the egg was rich, creamy and fluffy at the same time, it must be the extra yolk to white ratio! I don't know if we will have as much fun with the next one, but we will certainly try!

Monday Morning Motivation

“I believe that I can create, whatever I want to create. If I can put my head on it right - study it, learn the patterns….I feel very strongly that we are who we choose to be.”

– Will Smith

“You must feed your mind even as you feed your body, and to make your mind healthy you must feed it nourishing, wholesome thoughts.”

-Unknown

I have about concluded that wealth is a state of mind, and that anyone can acquire a wealthy state of mind by thinking rich thoughts.

`Andrew Young

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

`James Allen

You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind.

`Darwin P. Kingsley

The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.

`Orison Swett Marden

Come to the edge. We can’t. We’re afraid. Come to the edge. We can’t. We will fall! Come to the edge. And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew.

`Guillaume Apollinaire