Inversion Table

February 20th, 2012

Background
I’ve read and watched videos about inversion tables. I’ve known they existed for quite a few years, but lacked interest in sacrificing the bedroom/spare room real estate for such a thing. As I recall, they’re designed to alleviate the pressure that gravity causes your own body mass to exert on your frame, specifically the discs in your spine. By inverting oneself, you effectively reduce or altogether eliminate that pressure by reversing it. Impressive idea.

In the recent past I started looking into these things, not because I’m suffering from back pain, but to try and take advantage of what appears to be a healing tool, or concept. I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it, but did take it as far as making a special trip to Play It Again Sports just to try one out. I was only in it for 60 seconds, tops, but dared to go full vertical and really enjoyed the experience.

Present
Today, my wife admitted she found an inversion table on Craig’s List and made plans to surprise me with it when I got home. There was a problem: the table wouldn’t fit in her car. She had to tell me about it, so that I could take my car to get it. Fortunately, I had just the right amount of cash to offer in exchange. The seller claimed to have purchased it to relieve lower back pain.

I loaded the STAMINA Gravity Inversion Therapy Table in the car and headed home. A few hours later I brought it inside and we set it up. There’s only minor setup required, no tools, and it collapses to take up minimal space for storage. I got in it and quickly realized this particular model doesn’t go full vertical, in fact I’d have to say it stops at roughly 70 degrees, give or take. No worries. It is ill-advised to get in them for very long, or very ‘far’ at first. You’re supposed to gradually ease into the duration and angle over time.

My wife jumped in and gave it a whirl for herself; she too enjoyed it.

I intend to do more research and add the inversion table to my daily fitness routine. I’ll post more about my experience later.

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Reducing Boredom on the Treadmill

January 15th, 2012

For some, running on a treadmill is more an exercise in distracting their mind than focusing on the workout. My first experience on a moving belt left me uninterested in trying again. I was at a Gold’s Gym in Richmond, VA. My friend, knowing I considered myself a runner, suggested I try out the treadmill. It was fine until I tried to get off the thing. I nearly collapsed in a heap at the rear end of the machine and secretly vowed I would forever avoid any similar embarrassment.

Things have changed, as have my feelings towards or against the treadmill; in fact I now own one that resides in our guest bedroom. The point of this post is not to share with you my love for this fantastic contraption, but rather tell you what I do to keep myself engaged in my workout and distracted from the potential onslaught of boredom and desire to quit.

First of all, it’s important to note the way I setup the treadmill. If you always walk or run on the treadmill at 0° you’re doing yourself a disservice. The best way to mimic self-propelled walking (viz. waking on your own as opposed to hovering over a moving belt) is to set the incline to at least 2°, 2.0 as it appears on most models. More often than not the speed control and display are on the right, and the incline control and display is on the left. You’ll figure it out, it’s easy.

With your treadmill set at 2° you’re ready to start walking or running. I don’t condone reading while on a treadmill, walking or running. Many people listen to music, myself included, but there are obvious problems (that can be avoided with practice). When listening to music, particularly a familiar song, I tend to keep track of how long I’ve been running measured against the duration of the song. For some, this may be helpful. I find that for the most part I annoy myself when I do this. However, music is definitely one way to reduce boredom on the treadmill.

An easy way to jazz things up a bit, and give yourself a better workout, is to vary the speed of the belt at predetermined intervals, every 0.25, 0.50 or 1 mile mark. I’ve never come across a treadmill that didn’t track your distance in 0.01 increments. If yours doesn’t, upgrade.

I always start my workouts with a 0.25mi walk at 4.0mph; this takes 3m 45s, or 3:45. I then continue my warmup at 6.0mph (or a 10:00 pace). I’ll run at that speed for 0.25 to 0.50 miles before cranking it up to 6.7mph which is an 8:57 pace. This is where my runs get interesting. My unspoken (until now) and undocumented goal, or plan, has been to keep my running pace at or above an 8:57 pace. By varying the speed and incline I keep my runs interesting and the little increments of 0.25 to 0.50 miles giving me something to look forward to that’s no more than 2, 15s away!

To give you a continued example, after my walk/jog warmup I’ll run at 6.7 for a mile which takes roughly 9:00. I then bump it up to an 8:00 (7.5mph) and sub 7:00 (?) pace. I’ll run at each of these paces, or somewhere in between from 0.25 to 1.0 miles at a time. I try to finish my faster running in 3 or 4 miles and cool down over 1 to 2.0 miles at or below a 9:00 pace.

I hope this helps. I know it’s nothing earth-shattering, but it should help. You can also improve your workout by maintaining the same pace while increasing the incline. Don’t try and be super-dude taking it up to 10° unless you’re used to walking/running at that speed and pace. Go slow. Ease into it, particularly if you’re new to exercising regularly.

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La De Da

January 3rd, 2012

I haven’t posted in so long I wanted to just get something out here to let my readers (aka. “Me”) know what’s going on. I stopped the Oatmeal Diet, again. This time it had more to do with other things in my life that got in the way (lunch date with my long/lost uncle, the midnight release of MW3, etc). I know, excuses, excuses. I may do it again, again.

Diet
I’ve been working towards a mostly Paleo diet these last few weeks. I’ve had the often deviation from this objective as my goal lacks focus. I have yet to draft a meal plan, although I spent a few weeks working with this: smoothies for breakfast and a salad for lunch, dinner open to anything, really. My smoothie recipes are secret, but are essentially flavored either strawberry, blueberry, peach, or mango (at least at this point). I’ll add more flavors later as I get my hands on other frozen fruit. I’m including ground oatmeal (which I turn into powder using a single-serve blender) in each along with yogurt, neither of which is Paleo.

My lunch salads have been relatively simple, which recipe(s) are not secret. I use green leaf, Romaine and or iceberg lettuce chopped into little pieces. I’ll add either canned tuna or salmon, or chicken as a meat on top. I usually add salted sunflower seeds and often carrots on the side. As a dressing, I’ve been mixing virgin olive oil with soy sauce. Mmmm. Not much to it, I know, but it tastes good, it’s 100% Paleo and relatively healthy.

Exercise
I continue to run as I have been most of this year. All my aches and pains had subsided, so like the infamous running moron I am, I cranked up my mileage to 5 miles every time I set foot on the treadmill. It went well for about a week and a half…now my ankles hurt again. :( I managed to squeeze in a 6 mile long run…on the treadmill, that’s boring, but I got it done. Usually, when I can’t run I resort to the elliptical or stationary bike, that’s if I’m in the gym – at home I’ll use YourShape on my Xbox Kinect.

For this year, I’m going to redouble my efforts at building a/n (running) endurance / aerobic base and from there begin increasing my speed. Let’s be honest, I’m already running faster, but it’s still not where I’d like to be. I intend to run a few 5 and 10Ks and maybe toss in my first half marathon.

Education
I’m still not in school and I won’t be going this semester either. I need to get back in there and start working on my bachelor’s degree, not to mention being in school pays – considering the income generated from the GI bill. :) I’ll likely go to ODU this fall. For now, I’m weighing my options and considering different ideas.

Family
Sarah and I are doing well. Hailey is nearly crawling. Jennifer loves school, got too many things for Christmas, and is worried about growing up and becoming all that is a woman!

Work
My job is still going fine, although there aren’t as many “training opportunities” as I would like. I’m not very busy for now, but I know that will change and look forward to the time when it does. In the interim, I continue to help out where I can and am needed, and have been focusing on professional development (in all its various forms).

Minimalism
I’ve already gotten rid of a bunch of clothes. I’m always thinking of what to let go of next. I told my wife yesterday as we went furniture shopping not to create an emotional attachment to any of these inanimate objects. It’s interesting as I think more about living with less, how silly I feel developing a very real, emotional connection with stuff. It’s kind of scary actually, and I suspect precisely what big businesses want people to do, that way they/we continue buying more and most stuff we don’t need.

I’m trying to take this concept of minimalism and apply it to all aspects of my life. It’s more than just living with less, it’s also about living efficiently and in the moment. I’m working on my financial position, relationships with other people, and trying to figure out how to spend my time.

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Oatmeal Diet, Take 3, Day 2 (of 7)

November 3rd, 2011

Bust! I deviated greatly from my original plan and did not eat only oatmeal today. I hang my head in shame as I confess that I had pizza and salad for lunch. In fairness, I was invited last-minute to meet my uncle who I see only every 4 – 5 years. It was an absolute pleasure to hear from him and I was excited to see him. I thought it would be better to simply put my oatmeal on-hold than bring a bowl of cooked oatmeal to lunch and try to explain.

My first 2 servings went as planned, first at 5:30AM and the second at 9:00AM. For the second serving I withheld honey which turned out to be a tasteless idea. Haha! Seriously, it was a little bland. To make up for the lack of sweetener I added salt; I don’t know if that actually works as an appropriate substitute…Hmmm. I managed to get it all down, and washed both servings down with 8 ounces of water.

A further deviation was at lunch drinking Diet Dr Pepper and coming home to 12 ounces of Mountain Dew Game Fuel, a specially made MW3-inspired beverage. Aaah. It’s delicious.

So what’s the plan, drop the diet like I never started, or get back on the horse and try again. I’m getting back up, dusting myself off and continuing for the remaining 5 days. Oh, I had a banana with peanut butter this evening. I have to admit, eating only oatmeal makes for an interesting…experience…in the…bathroom. *ahem* If you know what I mean. Less substance, more oatmeal. Ewww. TMI, I know. I’m sorry, but truth be told – it’s unusual and mildly uncomfortable. I ate the banana to compensate.

Tomorrow I’m back on schedule just as originally planned. Unless another long, lost uncle (or aunt for that matter) rings my tele and invites me to lunch I’ll continue eating just oatmeal.

Exercise: 1H, stationary bike. 19 miles!
Weight: AM, 182.8; PM, ?

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Oatmeal Diet, Take 3, Day 1 (of 7)

November 2nd, 2011

Whew! I made it through the day with little more than 5 servings of oatmeal. I say, “little more” because I broke down and, in an effort to circumvent a debilitating headache, consumed 32 ounces of Diet Mountain Dew. Other than that, I stayed right on task consuming oatmeal at every meal washed down with a glass of water.

For the first meal I woke up at 5:30AM, went into the kitchen and prepared my scrumptious feast. I ate it quickly and then went back to bed for a little more shuteye before leaving for work. At each scheduled time (9:00AM, 12:30PM, and 4:00PM) I went to the kitchen in our office break room and prepared another serving. I measured and poured 8 ounces of water into a plastic cup which I then marked with a permanent marker. From then on, at each “meal” I filled my cup to the 8 ounce mark and used it to wash down the oatmeal.

In total, I’ve consumed 5 separate meals of nearly pure oatmeal. In each serving I added up to 1tbsp butter and 1-2tbsp honey. In my 3rd serving (12:30PM) I added a packet of salt, but decided I can stomach the taste of the oatmeal without it. When you add it up, excluding the butter and honey, I’ve eaten 1,500 calories: 5 servings @ 300 calories, or 10 measured servings of oatmeal (as defined on the container) at 150 calories each.

I feel a little hungry, but not too bad. I honestly expected each serving to be less palatable than they were. I have to admit, eating just oatmeal this time has been pleasant. It helps to have some flavor. I’m adding just over 1 1/2 cups of water and microwaving for 2 minutes which (in my opinion) makes the oatmeal near-perfect.

Tomorrow, I’m going to use honey again, but I plan to buy some jam/jelly for flavoring on subsequent days. I’ll continue to have 1 8 ounce glass of water at each meal, and allow myself only 20 ounces of Diet Mountain Dew. Oh, in full disclosure I should confess I chewed a few pieces of gum which added a handful of calories…but who’s counting. ;)

Exercise: none. (I ran barefoot on the pavement yesterday and think I may have caused a stress fracture on the top of my foot.)
Weight: AM, 184.8; PM, 184.6

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