P - A - P

Don't worry this post has nothing to do with any kind of smears. What I am talking about is P.A.P. or Post-Activation Potentiation. PAP is being implemented to improve overall performance for professional athletes. Why would this matter to the average joe? Because PAP is actually going to be invading our homes by means of P90X2!!! (at least the 3rd phase).

Let me take a step back. The main idea of PAP is that heavy loads on muscles stimulates the nervous system in a way that results in improved neuromuscular efficiency which allows your muscles to contract faster and with more force. This translates to more strength and power.  The gains of PAP however are dependent on your level of fitness. The more fit you are the more effective PAP training is due to higher fatigue thresholds and better conditioning. Which is also why it helps endurance athletes who have amazing conditioning. Why is this exciting? Because P90X2 is using PAP which means they are more aggressively addressing the needs of individuals who are already fit and, because of this incorporation, also means P90X2 is designed to get you to a level where PAP would be effective. 

I have the good fortune to be a subscriber to P90X  One on One Volume 3 (essentially a set of 12 dvds that are the workshop for P90X2 - since I have them all I get a 50% discount off the upcoming P90X2!) and one of the discs is an actual PAP workout. It was very clear from the beginning that this was a much different workout than any they have ever put out. More so after completing the workout and finding that I was completely and utterly soaked as if I did an Asylum level cardio routine only without the fast paced cardio. Drenched.

The workout is divided into 3 complexes. This complex training combines resistance exercises with plyometrics which results in higher PAP responses. The first is a warmup complex which is an appetizer to the main course. You build a light sweat and get all your muscles ready for the brutality to come. This is followed by a lower body complex and an upper body complex with little break in between.

The complexes themselves are 4 rounds of multiple movements with no resting. The first movement is a strength movement followed by a power movement and finished with a stability movement. I found that the first round was kind of a calibration round to allow your body to get used to the movements, the 2nd round was actually easier, the 3rd a littler harder, and the 4th round was the grand finale in every sense. These 3 complexes (warmup, lower, upper) were a bear. It's no wonder I was sweating so much as every muscle in my body was pushed to max effort.

I can't wait to get P90X2 and reach the 3rd phase which will be the main PAP phase so I can torture myself with more complexes. It seems that P90X2 will be about improving physical performance and in doing so will transform your body into a machine. What am i gonna do with P90X2 PAP? Simple, I'm gonna use to to perform excellent flagpoles (I still need some shoulder/core strength to straighten it out) and maybe finally pull off a muscle up! lol lofty goals, I know.

ALLLMOOOSSTTT!!!

A time to cleanse

Recently a friend of mine decided he was going to do a cleanse to prime himself for his latest fitness program "Insanity: The Asylum" (read my Asylum journey here). I have written about him before in the Body Experiment series of blogs under the alias "Noob" (Body Experiments I, Body Experiments II, Body Experiments III). Since he has transformed his body he is now comfortable dropping his alias and "unmasking" and will be addressed by his real name, Gursh. Funny how the need for anonymity is in direct correlation to his waist size and body fat percentage.

Also Day 1 of P90X as he started right on the heals of Insanity

Gursh has just completed one round of P90X and to prepare himself for the Asylum performed a 3 day cleanse. Three days seems to be a bit short for a cleansing program but his cleanse was not designed for weight loss. Gursh performed a Shakeology cleanse. The main focus of this type of cleanse is to maximize the amount of nutrients you take in with minimal calories. It is all about priming your body to accept nutrients more efficiently and reach a level of homeostasis to maximize results of an upcoming workout/nutrition program. Nutritional efficiency is the name of the game.

Despite the fact that this type of cleanse is not truly designed to lose weight or inches, Gursh did see a drop in both. In the three days he lost a total of 7lbs and about 1.5 inches around his waist as a bonus (currently 166lbs down from 191lbs in Jan, waist from 40" now at 32", body fat from 27% to about 10%). Gursh will continue to have a Shakeology shake daily as it is super nutrient dense and will help with maintaining and improving on his current results. When you focus on becoming healthy and improving physical performance rather than just "losing weight" or getting a six pack the results are life augmenting - and you end up losing weight and getting that six pack anyway lol.


By the way Gursh is not the only one to "unmask" from prior blogs. Say hello to Mitch aka "Sub Zero" and his results from his  journey with P90X...and if you haven't guessed these two are both official Super Mudders!

Body Experiments III

In January I began a series of posts that included "Body Experiments" and "Body Experiments II" which described the testing of various "proven" techniques to improve body composition. This is the 3rd installment and we take a look at a few more results.

Since the last post Noob has completed a full 60 day run of Insanity with some pretty great results. Noob began at a weight of 191 lbs and is now 175 lbs having gone from about 27% body fat to about 13%. He has lost close to 30 lbs of fat and gained about 14 lbs of muscle (mostly in his legs). All in all Noob has seen a total of 15 inches lost with the largest lost around his waste (5 inches lost).

In addition to the changes in appearance Noob also has had a dramatic change in physical performance. Insanity uses a series of movements to gauge overall performance and have labeled them the "Fit Test". Here are Noob's Fit test results from Day 1 to Day 60:

Noob was not the only one to complete a round of Insanity. I also completed the program (my 2nd round complete) with some P90X sprinkled in. In addition to the workout programs, I also experimented with the use of cold water showers to help burn fat(as described in the original "Body Experiments" post). All in all I found the method to be pretty effective. It's hard to tell from the pictures but I definitely felt and saw a difference in definition when I used the cold shower method. I also lost about 10 lbs through the process and a couple percent of body fat (maybe 1).

 

Unlike my first round where I took the Fit Test every 2 weeks, this time around I only took the Fit Test at the very end. Here are my fit tests from my original run of Insanity as well as my latest test (highlighted in red).

 

Next month we will see Sub Zero's final results and the progress of our first female on a fit quest!

Body Experiments II

What happens when some goofballs decide to put "proven" workout techniques/programs to the test? Apparently, they get pretty good results. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about body experiments a group of us conducted and now some initial results are in.

Scorpion (alias - see previous post for details) decided to test a method in Tim Ferriss' book "Four-Hour Body" with which Tim Ferriss was able to put on 34 lbs of muscle in 28 days. It was a pretty strong claim especially considering the workouts were only 30 minutes long and you only do 2 workouts a week. That equates to a measly 1 hour per week or a grand total of 4 hours to gain this mass in 28 days. Scorpion did not follow the exact same set of exercises but followed the technique and pace in which the exercises should be executed. He also modified the meal plan slightly.

Amazingly despite not sticking 100% to the program outlined in "Four-Hour Body", Scorpion made some pretty strong gains. Overall he gained about 20 lbs in the 4 weeks going from an initial weight of 176 lbs to 196 lbs. 196 lbs is the highest weight Scorpion has ever been despite past attempts to get to 200 lbs via other methods including taking weight gainers. Adding a couple percent of fat loss to the total muscle gain for scorpion was around 25-27 lbs. So it seems the claim of gaining 34 lbs of muscle in 28 days is in fact legitimate. Now having completed his program Scorpion will either push to gain the last few pounds to hit the 200 lbs or perhaps start a new experiment testing a claim to go from 5K runs to 50K runs in a 12 week period. First, he needs to get initial 5K under his belt as Scorpion's cardio leaves a bit to be desired.

Noob also hit a milestone having completed 30 days of Insanity. His results have been great. He is following the workout programs as described and is actually eating healthy (unlike the 90% of Americans who "think" they eat healthy despite our 30% + obesity rate). Noob began at 191 lbs and is currently at 183 lbs. Doesn't seem like a lot of weight for 30 days but the scale is a poor judge of progress as it doesn't take into account muscle mass gained in contrast to fat lost. It's a good thing we took measurements. In the past 30 days Noob lost a total of 8.5 inches and about 7% body fat (about 15 lbs of fat!).

• arms - .5 inches
• legs - 4 inches
• chest - 1.5 inches
• waist - 3.5 inches

 











Next time I'll go over my final 60 day results (cold shower technique to burn fat!), Subzero's 30 day milestone (P90X), perhaps the return of Ermac after his shoulder injury (P90X), and maybe the start of our first female member to attempt a body transformation!

Body Experiments I

With Shake Weights, Ab Rowers, Total Gyms, and programs like Zumba, P90X, and Insanity how is it that we do not have a population of rock hard bodies running marathons and outliving past generations? The answer is lack of brainpower. It isn't even a lack of ability, but a lack of will to think. We do not possess the knowledge to properly fuel and shape our bodies because we are too lazy to learn how. Dean Karnazes said it best - "Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness". Sure having that perfect body would make us happy but getting it is simply not comfortable. We are quite content letting someone else do the thinking for us, which is fine when the sources are legitimate, but often we do not even bother to figure that part out and end up crash dieting or in possession of the latest fitness gizmo. We believe the promises of magic pills and potions and miracle machines that can transform us in minutes. I figure nutrition and exercise are applied sciences so along with a few other people I know, we are going to apply "proven" techniques and methods and see if they really do work. The following blog post chronicles our adventures.

Now before we went ahead and began our fitness shenanigans we took "before" photos. I have posted my terrible "before" photos in the past despite how terrible they were (you can see an example in a previous post). Did I mention they were terrible? Anyway, it seems my compatriots are a little less inclined to "show off" so I have come up with a perfect solution - anonymous photos! By "anonymous" I mean that I will cover their faces with various Mortal Kombat ninja masks and refer to them by Mortal Kombat characters. Thought it would be fitting since the new Mortal Kombat game is coming out in March. If you hadn't guessed, I am a huge geek that got interested in fitness as of late.

Let us begin with our Xers. Or rather P90Xers. P90X promises body transformation in just 90 days by simply following a program of workout DVDs at home and all you need are dumbbells and a pull up bar (or resistance bands if you are lacking either). Our first guinea pig is Reptile. Reptile can literally be described as someone who has never worked out a day in his life. Unfortunately due to a debilitating internal injury Reptile had to take time off from the program. Hopefully he will continue and complete the program in 2011!

Along with Reptile, Ermac took the P90X challenge as well. Ermac once played sports but began living a sedentary life of video games and watching movies. Ermac completed the program! He lost about 25lbs total which was a combination of losing a ton of fat and gaining heavier muscle mass. Ermac did not quite follow the meal plan but his results were still great. Fired up, Ermac planned to do a second round of P90X but due to a shoulder injury is currently inactive. He will restart the program when his shoulder is better. During the interim, the weight he lost stayed off due to better eating habits despite not working out. Hey, after next round I bet Ermac will be confident enough to lose the shirt.

Sub Zero decided he would attempt the program himself. This will be his second attempt as Sub Zero's greatest handicap is accountability and persistence. P90X is not an easy program and often times causes people to quit because it takes people out of their comfort zones. Let's hope Sub Zero sticks with it considering it definitely works as evidenced from Ermac's results as well as my own.



Insanity is another program we put to the test (I am currently in my 2nd round...kinda - I'm adding 3 days of P90X per week). Insanity is another DVD program like P90X only with more of a cardio focus and no equipment necessary. Noob is currently in his 2nd week of Insanity and the transformation is already quite apparent. Noob initially had terrible cardio and very poor eating habits. He is actually doing a better job of his first round than I did initially as he is following a better nutrition plan. In two weeks I will post up his 30 day results and there will definitely be clear progress.

Scorpion is also testing a "proven" method to reshape his body. He is testing a program that promised gains of 34 lbs of lean muscle in 28 days with only 2 workouts a week (30 minutes each). The total workout time for the entire month is 4 hours! Scorpion was intrigued so he decided to attempt the program. The details can be found in the book "4-Hour Body" by Tim Ferriss and includes such techniques as doing all workouts to failure, using a 5 count cadence (that means each movement takes 5 seconds positive and negative so they are very very slow moves), and guzzling a ton of milk. Scorpion has a long history of working out until just recently (couple month hiatus before starting the regimen) and came close to puking during a few of those "short" 30 minute workouts. The method seems to be pretty effective so far - again as with Noob the 30 day photos should demonstrate the effectiveness.

I myself, am also putting specific techniques to the test. The "4-Hour Body" has a chapter on using temperature manipulation to lose fat. In this case I use cold showers to activate specific responses in the body to actually burn fat. That's right, cold showers to lose fat! I have to say it is working pretty well. I don't feel like I have much fat to begin with but I am definitely getting more and more defined. I would like to attribute the gains to this crazy cold shower technique.

Hopefully when everyone gets their desired results they will be brave enough to "unmask"! We'll see in 2 weeks...hopefully we'll have more folks joining us in body experiments!

50 Years Strong and Beyond

This past year I decided to stop growing older. I used to have the mindset that as the years roll by my physicality would begin to diminish and by my 50s would be completely inactive in all things physical. What low expectations I had. Back in August I stumbled upon a video on Youtube of Doc Horton himself (Tony Horton, creator of P90X) proving just what a 52 year old can do. The ridiculous shape Tony was in really drove home how young I actually am and gave me the belief that your abilities as you age are not determined by some number but by the choices you make. Here is a guy who set his own bar for what he would and would not be able to do regardless of his age. I now view every year going forward as year of improvement rather than a year of fading. Here is Tony at Venice beach August 2010: 

 

And if you think that is impressive look up Jack Lalanne's(Yes the kitchen power juicer guy) birthday challenges. I believe he is 96 now and still going strong. What is a birthday challenge? It is something to you do to push yourself to the limit on your birthday; A sort of personal milestone. For me I believe my 28th Birthday Challenge will be to run 28 miles. Should be fun considering the farthest I have run before that was 12 miles during the Tough Mudder Tristate and before that 4 miles one time during training lol. Man do I hate to run lol. If you can't wrap your head around Jack Lalanne doing any challenges, remember before he was the old man pushing his Power Juicer on infomercials he was this guy and a fitness revolutionary ----->

Oh and here are some examples of his ridiculous Birthday Challenges:

• 1954 (age 40): swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds (64 kg; 10 st) of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
• 1955 (age 41): swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to Star Jump significantly.
• 1956 (age 42): set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
• 1957 (age 43): swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound (1,100 kg; 180 st) cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile (1.6 km) swim into a swimming distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km).
• 1958 (age 44): maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The 30-mile (48 km) trip took 9.5 hours.
• 1959 (age 45): did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes and The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
• 1974 (age 60): For the second time, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
• 1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, he again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
• 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the "Spirit of '76", United States Bicentennial, he swam one mile (1.6 km) in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
• 1979 (age 65): towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds (2,900 kg; 460 st) of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.^[19]
• 1980 (age 66): towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile (1.6 km) in less than one hour.
• 1994 (age 80): Once again handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles (2.4 km) while towing 80 boats with 80 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.