Lean and Hard

Almost nothing will knock your exercise routine out of commission like an injury. If you hate going to the gym, that can seem like a blessing: Finally, a good excuse not to go! But if you like your exercise or count it as important to your quality of life, hurting yourself in the gym is not a happy event. Here are 5 major causes of gym injury. Avoid them and be well!

1. No Warm-up

Warm, limber muscles and joints are conducive to great workouts. Cold, locked-up muscles and joints lead to injuries. Pulled muscles and tendons, strained joints and the like can easily result from no or inadequate warm-up, so take some time to stretch and get the blood flowing before hitting the big weights.

2. Over-Repetition

It's important to switch things up every so often, not only to avoid boredom and fitness plateaus, but also to avoid injuries. Repetitive movements can, over time, cause muscle imbalances and damage, so just like a balanced diet, make sure your workouts are balanced and hit all major muscle groups; and think about changing routines once in a while.

3. Distractions

The gym can be a distracting place, and it can be dangerous to lose focus in the middle of a heavy lift. The stronger you get, the heavier weights you'll be lifting, and heavy weights can quickly get out of your control. Avoid this by keeping your mind on what you're doing. Once the weight is down and the set it over, then you can drift for a bit before the next set.

4. Bad Form

Remember what you're trying to accomplish at the gym. The goal of lifting weights is not to lift the weight by any means possible. It's to increase muscle mass and strength. To that end, proper form is everything. Swinging the weight and putting your entire body into getting it up can not only minimize the benefit of the movement, it can also break something vital. So concentrate on the muscle you're trying to work, use it to lift the weight by sticking to good form, and avoid the mistake of trying to lift...

5. Too Much Weight

Strength and mass are increased by putting tension on the muscle, so you have to lift enough weight to shock the muscle into getting bigger and stronger. But pushing the pounds up too quickly can lead to bad form and serious injury. If you can't lift it using good form, back down the weight a bit.



Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment!

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This is what my own experience tells me, not what you'll often read on the web. What are the typical reasons given for why losing the last 10 or 15 pounds seems so hard to do?

I've read the following:

1. Your metabolism slows down as you lose weight so your body resists your weight loss efforts more and more as you approach your goal weight.

Reality: While it's true that you need fewer calories to maintain a lower weight than a higher one, the difference just isn't big enough to significantly put the brakes on your weight loss progress. You've heard that your body goes into a so-called starvation mode, and clings tightly to every calorie. You'd think, hearing this, that your cells are somehow able to hunker down and survive on almost no energy at all. The truth is, you need calories to live, and your cells will continue to burn them as needed to get through the day. So that's not the real reason for your halting forward motion as you try to shed those last few pounds.



2. Your body starts stocking away fat like nobody's business when it senses that its days of plenty are coming to an end.

Again, the reality is that this effect may exist, but it's just not big enough to account for the fact that the last few pounds are holding on to your frame like the movie aliens that wrap their spidery fingers around the heads of their ill-fated victims. You can't seem to pry them loose no matter what you try, but this isn't the fault of some amazing, souped up fat-creating stocking mechanism, No, the culprit tends to be a phenomenon that's far more prosaic.

Here's what happens when you get close to your goal: You start to let up. The psychology of it is easy to understand. It's the same temptation faced by anyone who's oh-so-close to attaining a hard-earned goal. You feel you can afford to give yourself a break. After all, you've attained so much! You deserve to reward yourself. So, you're not quite there yet, so what? A little indulgence can't hurt. And so on. Sound familiar? It does to me, anyway.

Whether or not you really do need a little break before that final push to the finish line is up to you, but the little breaks easily turn into on long, extended vacation. Hence, your goal lies out there unattained like a sparkling pool of water in a desert, forever moving away as you try to get closer.

Does this sound like you?

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No one likes to be wrong. That's why it's so difficult even to consider the possibility of it. There's the old joke about the guy who says, "I made a mistake once. I thought I made a mistake, but I was wrong." For some of us it's not only difficult to admit error, it's downright torture. There are a few people I know who, as far as anyone can remember, have never, ever admitted to a mistake.

Where's this leading? We are continually assailed with advice about fitness. One of my earliest memories is of my mom telling me that the men at the service station used Coke (the soft drink, not the controlled substance) to de-grease nuts and bolts, so think about what it would do to my teeth. Yikes. She was wrong about the nuts and bolts, right about the sugar being bad for my teeth. What other fitness "truths" have we picked up along the way that are really and truly flat out wrong?



There isn't any harm in being wrong about a lot of things, but health and fitness mistakes can be costly and frustrating. For example, the idea that you can get toned through exercise alone is one that leads to failure and disillusionment every day. Good strength training and cardiovascular exercise  can build muscle and burn calories, but this is not enough. Diet is a far more powerful way to trim excess fat and, in conjunction with the right exercise, give you a lean and hard body.

Another old but oh-so-wrong bit of classic fitness dreck is the one that says you get lean and toned by doing light weights and lots of reps, and a bulky, ape-like look using heavy weights and few reps. Doesn't work that way. Building strength and muscle mass is difficult to accomplish and requires working muscles to the point of almost-failure and eating a good, healthy diet.

So, rather than cling to those old, tried-and-proven-false fitness myths, do some research and get the facts. It's the age of information, so let's take advantage of that and update our database of knowledge.

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How much filthy lucre have you spent so far this year on weight-loss products? It's difficult even to estimate, isn't it? Everything from the gym membership that you rarely use, to the Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, to the pills and supplements, to the miracle exercise gizmo you saw on an infomercial and now lives in a closet, the garage, or under your bed; that all counts.

The next question is obvious: Has any of it worked? We're not going to count the phantom loss of 3 pounds that turned out to come back like a boomerang in a week. We can only count significant weight loss that stayed off.

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Maybe you know better than to spend your money of ineffective products, but millions of Americans don't. Take a look at the graphic below...


It shows how many people (approximately, of course) are overweight worldwide, and how much money Americans have spent on weight loss. Both numbers are climbing at an alarming rate.

So, why do people continue to spend money on ineffective products? Several reasons. We're desperate. We hope the next one will work. We blame ourselves for failures instead of blaming the products. I say it's time to wise up and find a solution that's based on truth and evidence. That's what Lean and Hard (dot com) is focused on. What works. And it costs you nothing! So click on "subscribe" below to get your free email updates!

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Losing weight doesn't have to be about enduring tasteless foods. Frankly, the thought of having a carrot or celery stick as a snack leaves me shuddering in revulsion. What's the point? I might as well try to fill up on cardboard. No, I eat a limited number of calories, but I enjoy what I eat. I find healthy recipes that taste great and satisfy me, and I keep getting new ideas for meals I've never tried.

Here's an excellent article that shares how to add great taste to your meals without unwanted calories as part of the deal.

5 Ways To Get More Taste And Fewer Calories From Your Food

Enjoy!

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Photo: Interdietplace.com

I never thought I'd be hearing these words, but I'm hearing them now: You don't need to lose any more weight.

It's nice to hear it, and I know I'm getting very close to my goal. So there's that. But I believe I have just a few more pounds and inches to go yet. Not many, but some. I'm wearing 34-inch waists now, down from 52. I'd like to be wearing 32s.

That said, I'm going to have to transition soon to a maintenance lifestyle. And just how do I do that? I know how to lose. And I never want to gain. So how do I maintain?

There are three main reasons why people regain the weight they've lost and then some, according to this excellent article by Brad Pilon on Livestrong.com. They are, The Imposter Phenomenon; Learning Maintenance; and Negative Social Pressure. If you've lost or are planning to lose weight, this is a must-read, but I want to take a look at the second problem in this post.

It seems true from experience that most dieters have no plan for maintenance. It's like planning a trip down to the last detail, but having no idea what to do once you arrive at your destination. One thing should be abundantly clear, though: You cannot go back to eating as you did before and expect to keep the weight from coming right back. So you absolutely must have a plan.

I lost weight by first ridding my diet of simple carbs, then restricting calories, maximizing nutrients, and getting exercise. So how will I maintain? Staying away from simple carbs, adding a limited number of calories, maximizing nutrients and getting exercise. You'll notice only one thing will change: Eating a bit more. Funny thing, that's almost exactly what the article recommends: "To learn your maintenance diet and exercise lifestyle start by doing everything you did to lose weight but add 20% more food, and take away 20% of the exercise." I'll have to see about the reducing exercise part.

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(Photo: Sugar Shock Blog)

Everyone knows that nicotine from cigarettes is addictive. Not only that, it'll destroy your health and possibly kill you. People who have never used them stay away, and current users are either trying to quit or seriously thinking about it. Illegal drugs are addictive. And bad for you. And expensive. Most of us stay away from them. Gambling and alcohol can be addictive for certain people. Unfortunately you won't know you're one of them until you're addicted.

What about food?

First, what does it mean to say that something is addictive? Let's go to that old fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia:

"Addiction is the continued use of a mood altering substance or behavior despite adverse dependency consequences, or a neurological impairment leading to such behaviors."

If certain foods are harmful to your health, alter your mood, and create dependency, what would you call them? Addictive?

According to this article in The Independent:

"Food addiction could be one of the reasons behind the rising number of individuals suffering from eating disorders and obesity, scientists have said.

Food is not currently included in the official diagnostic manual of addictive substances, but scientists believe excessive over-eating shares many of the psychological characteristics associated with other addictions, such as gambling and compulsive stealing."

What I experienced certainly fits the bill. Simple carbs absolutely altered my mood. They provided empty calories and spiked my glucose levels. And they made me crave more. How about you?

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It isn't always fun to learn that something you've heard over and over and accepted as true is actually false. On the other hand, it can be liberating. True information is usually helpful, and so we shouldn't be afraid to have our cherished health and fitness beliefs challenged. Here is a commonly held idea that turns out to be untrue:

Thin people are thin because they have a faster metabolism.

You know how it goes. I know how it goes, because I believed it too. I'd look at someone who was thin and wish I had their amazing, bird-like metabolism. They can eat whatever they want and stay thin as a spike. Along the same lines is the idea that you have a fast metabolism when you're young, but it slows down as you age.

The truth is, people who are thinner will have slower metabolisms than people who are heavier. Not faster. Slower. Why is that? Because it takes more energy, more work, hence more calories to move a heavy body around than a lighter body. Try it yourself with any object. That's why heavier vehicles, other things being equal, get worse gas mileage than lighter vehicles do.So how do thin people stay thin? Only three possible explanations exist: They burn more, consume less, or both. Thinner people find physical activity to be more comfortable. Moving around is easier, so they tend to do it more. The opposite happens when we get older and eat more. We gain weight, move around less, gain even more weight, and on and on it goes.

And why do young people get to eat more without gaining weight? Some of the energy they take in, in the form of calories, will go into growth, yes, but they are usually far more active than older folks and pay more attention to their appearance, and so probably eat less, not more, than older people do. When the older ones get married, there's less reason to care about diet and exercise, since they've already satisfied the evolutionary imperative to find a mate and pass on their genes. When we were young there were also probably some restraints put on our eating. When we get to be adults, the only people who can stop us from having that pie are the ones staring back at us in the mirror. The physical demands of our jobs also tend to become less energy-intensive as we age.

But all these reasons have to do with the same factors: Calories in, and calories out.

Is that discouraging? It shouldn't be! Because it means that you are not subject to the immutable dictates of a mysterious entity called your metabolism. You have the power to change, to transform your body using two tools. Diet, and exercise. And that's great news.

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File this under motivation. Here's a list of ten things it's so much easier to do when you're thin:

1. Walk around
2. Fit in seats. Airline seats, movie seats, restaurant seats, classroom seats, all kinds of seats.
3. Dance
4. Run
5. Take the stairs
6. Sleep
7. Make love
8. Wear nice clothes
9. Cross your legs
10. Stand for long periods

Got any to add?

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Here's an interesting thought: It doesn't seem strange when someone attempts to change their level of physical fitness through diet and exercise, but how many people do you know who are attempting to develop their emotional fitness? I mean in a systematic way that is based on sound science? If they're out there, I don't know them personally, or at least they don't talk about it,

Granted, transforming your body from morbidly obese to lean and hard is easily apparent to others, while transforming your internal state is far less so by definition, except as the change manifests itself in the way you behave. But isn't it true that people who get to know you in a more meaningful way can also recognize and appreciate an emotionally fitter you? And even more important, can't you?

I've made a lot of progress toward my goal of becoming physically lean and hard. I've lost 127 pounds so far, gone from a 52 inch waist to a 34. I'll be at my goal when I'm a 32, so I'm not there yet. But in spite of that progress, it seems to me that I can also engage in a different kind of diet and exercise, one that will enhance my emotional fitness. And I can go about it in a systematic way that is based on sound scientific evidence.

What is emotional fitness? There's no chart to tell me how much I should reduce my selfishness, anxiety or laziness, nor is there a measuring device to tell me how big my empathy and compassion are getting. But I can recognize what needs to be reduced and what needs to be enhanced, and I can find some means of cutting out the things in my life that destroy my emotional health and instead practicing more of those activities that build up my emotional fitness.

I look forward to sharing what I find as I embark on this journey toward a different kind of lean and hard. I hope you'll find it interesting and helpful.

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