A little late; I hope y’all can forgive me.

I got all my soapboxing out this week.   Here’s a recap:

• Kids should stop spending time getting virtually fit and actually go outside and run around.  At least, that’s what I wrote on Monday.  Who uses the word “simulacra“?  Me.
• A tongue-in-cheek post on how you know it’s time to get a new personal trainer.
• Scott Kustes of Modern Forager made me rethink my definition of carb-loading.  Who knew you could reconcile carb-loading and low-carb diets?
• Finally, I talked about using benchmark workouts as a motivational tool and a gauge of progress.  Now, it’s easy to know whether you’re fitter, stronger, or just plain better than you were 6 months ago.

Two of my morning clients (Christine and Ilana, I’m talking about you) will be pleased to discover that I was suitably abused at Jiujitsu today.  Just thought I’d let you know.

Have a pleasant weekend, all.

Benchmark yourself.

That’s right; hold yourself to your progress.  What I’m asking you to do is to test yourself.  Not in the Marines’ “Everyday you don’t test yourself is a day wasted sir!” way, but by performing a workout that tests your current ability against your past ability.

The athletes reading this post are all slapping their foreheads and saying, “Of course!  How obvious.”  But for those of us whose lives aren’t under such close scrutiny (”8:15am?  Time for your 500mg of bee pollen!”), benchmarking performance isn’t intuitive. 

Of course, benchmarking makes sense if you think about it. Perform x amount of work for x length of time, and you have the formula for prescribable, progressable, and scalable exercise. Want to improve? Simple; increase your power output (i.e., increase the amount of work done, the length of time, or both). Every single exercise program that gets results has this simple formula at its core.  Sure, you can lift more in the Lateral Raise now than two years ago (at least, I hope so), when you started.  But how does that really compare?  And is there a way to look at the whole picture instead of parts of the whole?

Using a benchmarking workout is probably the best way to compare the current you with prior, lesser versions of yourself.  While a benchmarking workout can be many things, I’ll loosely define it here as any workout with fixed parameters that allow for infinite progression.

Crossfit’s “Cindy” WOD is a great example of a benchmarking workout.  The parameters are fixed and simple:

One round = 5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 Squats; As many rounds as possible in 20 min.

In May, you perform Cindy and only get 10 rounds in.  Then, you train for two months, and curious, you try another Cindy.  If you get more than 10 rounds, congratulations; you’ve improved, and you can show it in a measurable and definable way.

Of course, metabolic conditioning may not be your cup of tea; perhaps pure strength is your thing.  Your benchmark workout might be your 5 RM (the maximum weight you can lift for 5 reps) of Leg Press, Bench Press, and Bent-Over Row.  You can imagine how easy benchmarking is if you’re involved in a sport (times, rounds, serves, punches, etc.).  And fat loss?  The only metric worth caring about - total body fat, however you choose to measure it.

If you’ve not done so before, or if you’re looking for a tool to help you restart your motivation, give benchmarking a try.  Create (or find) a workout that you can set a baseline with.  Train for a little while, then test yourself again. 

Scott posted a great blog about Intermittent Fasting and carb loading - check it out.

What’s most instructive about Scott’s post is the notion of a “controlled-carbohydrate” diet for athletes (particularly those involved in high-effort activities) vs. a traditional ketogenic diet.

(Now, I (being a geek of sorts) enjoy labeling and compartmentalizing things, so realize that none of the following bullet points are going to be on the exam and that you may skip down to the rest of the discourse )

• A controlled-carbohydrate diet involves curtailing carbohydrate intake except for “refuel meals” immediately following exercise bouts. Carb intake on this kind of diet tends to be under 120 grams of carbs daily.
• A Paleo-style diet involves not eating foods that Paleolithic Man didn’t eat. Nothing processed; no dairy; no sweeteners (except honey); no grains; limited starches. By its very nature, it tends to be a low/controlled carb diet, since very few pure carbohydrate foods (save leafy vegetables and seasonally available fruit) can be eaten without in their natural state (i.e., without processing).
• A low-carb (or ketogenic) diet is one where carb intake is under 60 grams daily.

Scott, a recreational athlete himself, reveals that he ingests roughly 100-120g of carbs a day to help fuel his workouts. This is interesting and parallels my own experience (namely, “needing” to eat more carbs to recover properly from jiujitsu). However, Scott’s thoughts on “carbing up” by eating “real foods” like sweet potatoes, squashes, and fruit as opposed to grains is valuable (and a concept explored in Paleo Diet for Athletes, where athletes are encouraged to copiously refuel glycogen stores in the meals immediately following exercise bouts).

This selection from the blog post sums it up nicely:

“My version of a carb load entails adding in a sweet potato after one of my more grueling workouts, but beyond that, I figure that my normal carbohydrate intake* will refill my muscles before the next rough workout.”

*my note: Scott’s normal carbohydrate intake involves a lot of green stuff. Here’s a pic of one of his typical meals.

Bottom line: Lay off the pasta before race day. Eat real food (and some fat) instead.

1. You’re talked to instead of guided.

As in, instead of telling you to brace your abdominals while military pressing, they’re telling you about housebreaking their new puppy, or (insert random non-exercise related topic here).

Edit: Not to be confused with friendly banter between exercises, as in when resting. But when “under load”, it’s time to play seriously.

2. You confuse them with one of these:

And last but certainly not least,

3. You’re moving farther away from your goals instead of closer.

Hey, they’re your results (and it’s your money).

My brother is an amazing sight on Rock Band drums.  He can (nearly) flawlessly execute songs on Expert setting (which is akin to playing the actual drum tracks).  And as good as he is, there are a whole host of people who blow him out of the water (like this guy, for example).

Now, it’s interesting to note that unlike many of these other folks, my brother can actually play (real) drums.  And it stands to reason that if you rock out on a Rock Band drum pad, you’ll likely do well on an honest-to-good drumset. 

Why, then, are there 5.5 million copies of Rock Band out there and not 5.5 million fledgling punk bands?  I can’t be certain, but I’d bet that there will be less than 7.5 million new guitar players this fiscal year, but that’s how many copies Guitar Hero 3 is projected to sell.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, but humor me for a moment: How long do you think this kid took to learn to “play” this song?  What if he’d applied the equivalent number of game-hours to playing a real guitar?

Let’s apply this thought to exercise and fitness: How many people do you know who think playing Wii Sports is a suitable alternative to heading to the gym or eating better? 

Let’s stop with all the simulacra and get back to reality.  Put the Wii controller down.  Go outside.