Dani has a Fair comeback

Last week Dani visited the annual state of Texas Fat celebration, otherwise known as the State Fair of Texas. While I enjoy the State Fair as much as the next guy, I don't typically eat while I am there, other than my own brought-from-home protein bars or snacks. With options like 1200-calorie turkey legs, deep fried Everything (corn dogs, Twinkies, Coke, beer, funnel cakes, Snickers, etc), candy/caramel apples, and butter drenched corn cobs, just to name a few, there really isn't anything available to help me even MAINTAIN my current physical state.

Dani told me that she would be attending the fair and I instructed her to take her own foods. She said she wanted one corn cob, so I conceded and said she should request no extra butter (because they Are cooked in butter).

Next weigh-in day, she is up by four pounds, and discouraged. I asked about the corn and she fessed up to what she ate:
Corn on the cob
Corn dogS (plural)
Tater Twisters (fried potatoes)
Fried
Fried
Fried
.....

She spent the following week busting her butt everyday by burning an average of 900 a day, sometimes over multiple sessions (which is a fantastic way to get in all your calories burn if you are short on time). She also watched her diet very closely!!

The result:
Next weigh-in she was back down to her Pre-State Fair weight. That is a good thing, BUT just think how much further along she could have been if she had demonstrated discipline at the State Fair.

The best part about it is that it appears Dani learned a lesson from it all. I hope she will apply her knowledge the next time she is faced with a tempting situation.

1) always plan ahead: know where you are going, how long you will be there, and what food is available.

2) have a backup plan: keep goal-achieving snacks on hand for those times when you are caught at mealtime without a meal in sight

3) keep exercise as part of your daily agenda: plan it in advance by booking the appointment with yourself (or a trainer) and KEEP IT.


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"And I started...."

I will let Dani's own words be today's post.  Below is the text I recieved from her this morning at 10:42 am:

"I was so tired this morning, Debbie.  And I didn't feel like it.  Sleeping in sounded so much better than huffing and sweating.  But I got up.  And I went to the gym.  When I got to the gym, I still didn't feel like it.  I couldn't wake up.  But I climbed on the elliptical. 

And I started.

I was unsure.  After 12 minutes, I climbed off and stretched and still wasn't sure.  Then, I climbed onto the stepmill and climbed for 30 minutes.  42 minutes and 500 calories later, I felt so much better about myself."

~~~~~~~

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."  ~ Zig Ziglar
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." ~ Mark Twain
"The miracle isn't that I finished, the miracle is that I had the courage to start." ~ John Bingham
"And I started." ~ Dani Yoder

Warm Up 101

I request all my clients to show up at least 15 minutes prior to their scheduled appointments so they can "warm up."  Let's talk about what that really means. 

Why the warm up?

Starting with a "warm up" period will allow your body to physiologically prepare for physical exertion.  Of course, these changes will occur whether the individual actually performs a "warm up period" or not, but doing so at a moderate pace will reduce chance of injury during the resistance training.

In my program, the warm up is also crucial to getting the maximum caloric benefit out of the hour that the clients pay for.  Having an elevated heart rate and easily moving joints at the beginning of our hour means that I don't have to spend the first few sets getting the client's body ready before we can do higher intensity work.

How to Warm Up

A proper warm up can be performed via many different methods.  In the gym, people usually select their favorite cardio equipment: treadmill, elliptical, bike or stair climber.  Outdoors, people usually go for a run or ride their bike.  No matter which method you choose, you should start with a moderate pace then increase the pace after a couple of minutes.  I like to use a scale of 1 - 10 for conveying the pace:

Your warm up should start around a 3 or 4 pace and after 2 minutes, up the level to about a 5 or 6.  Maintain the 5 - 6 pace for about 13 minutes for a total of 15 minutes on the warm up.  Doing so will ensure you are ready for the 7 through 9 or 10 that we will hit during the working hour.

How to recognize the symptoms of being WARM

It is pretty easy to identify the people who actually spent time warming up before their training session.

Sweating:  First tell-tale sign: they are sweating, or at the minimum, glistening.  When your body temperature goes up (aka gets warmer...see the tie-in?), you begin to sweat.  Sure, some people sweat more efficiently than others, but you will sweat when you are warm.

Elevated Heart Rate: All my clients are required to wear heart rate monitors since our program is strongly based on heart rate training.  Having a heart rate about 130 is a good indicator you are putting forth some effort. 

Looser Joints & Muscles: This one is a bit more challenging for the outsider to recognize, but a person simply moves more fluidly when s/he is warm. 

Increased Vascularity: In leaner folks you can see the widened blood vessels at the surface of the skin as the blood begins circulating more to the working muscles (and less to the internal organs) it gives them the necessary oxygen supply.

Begin all your workouts with a good warm up and you will notice that the rest of your workout goes pretty smoothly.  If you have a specific body part that gives you grief (knees, elbows, back), then take a few minutes after your warm up to do a few light-weight movements for that joint to let the muscles and ligaments know they are about to be moving a little more, so "get ready."

Officially, the best workout ever

....according to Dani!

This workout was written for Dani who specifically requested "Something nearly impossible to accomplish, but (she'll) accomplish it because it's necessary."

I promised her a workout that the 300 Spartans would be proud of.   The program below is NOT for the unconditioned person.  It combines 45 minutes of intense purely cardiovascular training with intense weight training compound movements.  The weight suggestions shown below are what worked for Dani.  Your needs may be different.  See if you are Spartan enough for this:

Spartan 300 Workout*
(3 sets of each superset)

Squat Press 10# / 20 reps
Lunge Curl 10# / 20 reps

8 minutes cardio with HR at 85% - 90% of max heart rate (220 - your age)
       (Alternate 1 minute at 85% max HR with 1 minute at 90% max HR)

Jumping Squat Row 80# / 15 reps
Lunge Press 10# / 8 reps

8 minutes cardio with HR at 85% - 90% of MaxHR

Dumbbell Snatch 25# / 5
Pushups 8 reps
Squat Jump 12 reps

8 minutes cardio with HR at 85% - 90% of MaxHR


Single Arm Squat + Front Raise 15# / 8
Step Curl 15# / 8
Barbell Snatch 50# / 6

5 minutes cardio with HR at 85% - 90% of MaxHR


Chest fly machine (single arm) 50# / 10ea
Assisted Pull up machine (100# assist) 6 to 8 reps
Squat Fly 10# / 8

8 minutes cardio with HR at 85% - 90% of MaxHR

Cool Down with about 5 - 10 minutes of slow to moderate walking/elliptical.


Dani has declared this workout will be her Sunday workout. Always.  Of course, as she improves at this workout, she will need to adjust the weights or movements in order to keep advancing in her fitness. 

Dani's first attempt had her completing 60% of the workout and burning 690 calories.  My calculations estimate that finishing the entire workout would be a 1,150 calorie burn, and would likely take about 1.5 hours to complete. 

*Disclaimer: before attempting any workout, check with your physician to make sure your body can withstand the effort that is required.  With any activity, working out has its risks.  Just be sure the risks FOR YOU don't outweigh the reward!  Also, be sure to properly warm up before physical activity.

Perseverence, Spiral Pins & Five AM

As usual, I kept in contact with Dani throughout the week - giving her daily workout plans, talking about food choices, and even talking through the occasional tough emotional patch.  Dani had a rough week, emotionally speaking, that is.  We won't go into all the details, but let's just say some folks at public gyms are cruel. 

It is important to remember that there is a human inside every body that you see.  As humans, we all have feelings and are sensitive to different things.  We share this earth experience with everyone else inhabiting it.  Therefore, we should all help each other in the best way possible to get through this life as unscathed as possible.  While I don't know what those rude people experienced in their lives to cause them to feel the need to inflict emotional harm on strangers, I do know that they made a choice to be rude.  So Dani, too, had a choice.  She could have believed their hurtful remarks, allowed it to crush her spirits, and leave the gym in tears.  But not Dani.  She recognized that although their remarks were hurtful, they did not truly reflect DANI.  Dani, in fact, was motivated to work even harder in spite of their comments. 

I could not be more proud.  Perseverence is required for someone who wants to compete.  Prepping for a contest challenges the body, the mind, and the spirit.  When you are the most physically depleted, you still have to put forth a week of workouts to keep the muscles taut.  When you think you can no longer go without carbs, or complete the last set, you must be able to convince yourself to continue.  Pushing your limits results in the greatest reward: Accomplishment.  Even if you don't win a trophy, you DID it. 

Dani DID it.

Dani's appointment this week was moved around a bit, and it turned out that the time that worked out best for both of us was 5:00 on Thursday morning.  So the gal that I feared was chronically late had the earliest appointment possible.  But truely, I had no doubts she would make it -- especially considering last week!

Sure enough, at 4:40 AM, Dani walked in the door with her hair down.  And she has a LOT of hair!  I thought it would take at least 10 minutes to tame it the way I normally see it.  But in a matter of mere seconds, she twisted 2 little spiral pins into her hair and ended up with a tight little bun.  I have a lot of naturally curly/kinky hair myself (nowhere near what Dani has) and I have never gotten my hair into such a perfect bun!  I asked her if those were "secret black girl pins."  She laughed and assured me they are not.  She found them at CVS!  I made a mental note to locate them later.

We measured:
WEIGHT: 182.2 (-1# from Day 1)
WAIST: 32" (-1" from Day 1)

We got through a Chest / Biceps workout in which she burned 760 calories in the hour!  She has kept up with homework workouts all week.  One day she could not muster the gumption to lift weights, but she still did cardio for an hour! 

I am very happy with Dani's dedication and have no doubts she will continue this favorable trend!  Now I have to go plan her Big Workout Sunday.