The Best Contact Martial Arts for People Over 50

How To Workout at 80-90% of Your Maximum Heart Rate

Today’s a day to enjoy with family, friends, and most importantly, good food! However, even on this day, it is important to exhibit some self-control when sitting down to eat. To help you out in this most difficult of endeavors, I’ve put together a few tips that will help keep you from regretting poor eating choices later in the day.

To start:

• Drink a glass or two of water before your meal. This will help you feel full more quickly.
• Eat a small, healthy snack before your meal. Fruit is always a good choice for this.
• When it comes to the appetizers, focus on the vegetable platter, if available. Eat carrots, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, etc. Avoid the dip though!
• When it comes time for your meal, serve yourself small portions of everything you want to eat. A good rule of thumb is fist-sized portions. Make a fist, look at the size of it, then serve yourself a portion of the candied yams or stuffing or whatever no larger than that size.

The meal and your enjoyment of it is an important part of your day. Try some of everything if you want it, but keep the portions small. The more good stuff you eat before the meal, the less bad stuff you’ll want to eat afterwards.

Good luck!!

Secondly, and most importantly, I took on my very first client this week and together we had 2 successful sessions. The first session consisted mostly of a dynamic warmup and an assessment of her physical conditioning, followed by a couple of rounds of bodyweight circuits focused on using good form while pushing her just enough to give her a good workout. In the second session we got right to work after a dynamic workout, going through 5 rounds of bodyweight circuits that worked her entire body. She was challenged and tired after the session but not overly so.

The best part of our sessions was that she worked hard the entire time, never complained once, and did everything I asked of her. She has also worked hard to change her eating habits. If she keeps up this kind of effort, her results will be quick and impressive! As an added bonus (for me), there was another lady in our small office gym who saw us in our sessions and showed interest in hiring me for sessions of her own! Sweet!

For an understanding of my workout philosophy, check out http://www.ruckus101.com/. That is a workout plan run by my friend Jay Simon, who I’ve been working with for a couple of months, both being trained by him and helping him out during training sessions. I’ve learned a lot from him.

If you’re in the No. VA area and looking to get into the best shape you possibly can, give me a call!

Think of it this way – you might be able to run a 10k at a comfortable pace, but if you step onto a basketball court and play a full-court game, what will happen? In 2 minutes you’ll be winded because your body isn’t prepared for it. You’re out of your comfort zone and trying to work at a pace you’re not used to do. That’s the idea behind sprint workouts.

I would suggest that you do your sprinting workouts outdoors, but if you are more comfortable on a treadmill, try this type of routine – rather than setting the treadmill at 6.0 mph and running for 20 minutes, try something like this:

• Set the incline at 2.0
• Walk at 3.0 mph for 30 seconds.
• Increase the speed to 6.0 for 30 seconds.
• Walk at 3.0 mph for 30 seconds.
• Increase the speed to 6.5 for 30 seconds.
• Walk at 3.0 mph for 30 seconds.
• Increase the speed to 7.0 for 30 seconds.

And so on until you hit a speed that you cannot do for 30 seconds. Then cycle back down (7.0, 6.5, etc.).

See how that goes for a workout. I guarantee you if you’re one of the “set pace and run for X minutes” people, this type of workout will really push you. 30 seconds may be too short a time. Great! Do each set for 45 seconds or even a minute. When that gets easy, add extra rounds at your top speed or set your first round sprint speed higher so that your max speed round will be higher. Try raising the incline. The key is not to get too used to any one speed or incline. Your body needs the variety, the change of pace, to really force itself to work.

To really test yourself, take your workout outdoors. One of my favorite workouts, which requires an interval timer (iphones have them for $0.99), is to mark off a distance of about 100 yards. Then I will set the timer for :30. I will start the timer and sprint the distance. Whatever time I have left from the initial :30 seconds I rest. When the timer goes off, I run back. I’ll run 16 rounds (8 minutes), rest 4 minutes, run 8 rounds (4 minutes), rest 2 minutes, and run 4 rounds (2 minutes). This whole workout takes exactly 20 minutes and will have you begging for mercy.

Another tremendous options is taking your workout to a small hill (60-100 yds). Run your sprints there. Sprint up the hill and walk down (slowly) and sprint back as soon as you get back to the starting line. Try to get 10-20 rounds in.

Another good option is running in sand (barefoot). The sand will give so much that it will slow you down and make you work harder for each step. The ultimate test is sprinting up hills made of sand. The sand will give with each step, making climbing just getting up the hill difficult, much less sprinting up it.

What’s great about a sprinting workout is you can do them in less time than you would a “traditional” run, but get a lot more out of it. You will burn more fat and be in much better shape.

**A word of advice – consult a physician before trying your first sprint workout. They are much more taxing than traditional types of cardio. You’ll need to work your way into shape.

 “I could give you a lot of tips, a lot of tips…a lot of English tips”, to which she replies: “I don’t know.” Lloyd immediately responds: “No tips of any kind!” 

Lloyd is cool!

In honor of my man Lloyd Dobler I will give you, dear reader, a few (ok – a lot of) tips on nutrition, which really is the single most important aspect of your training regimen. 

Quick Nutrition Tips: 

1. Single biggest tip – don’t eat sugar. Don’t put sugar in your caffeinated beverage. Don’t drink sugary drinks (juice, sodas, etc.). That includes “Diet” (the biggest misnomer ever) sodas. Don’t eat dessert at every meal. How can you avoid it? Simple – don’t buy it. Don’t buy any sugary food when you go to the grocery store. If you don’t have it in the house you can’t slip. Buy fruits and veggies for snacks. If you eat no sugar for a while, you’ll be amazed at how sweet an apple or (my favorite) pineapple slices taste. Amazed I tell ya!!
2. Eat many small meals throughout the day. There are studies debating whether it’s better to eat 3 times (bigger meals) or 5-6 smaller meals. I eat at least 5 times a day and sometimes 6 (depending on my activity level). The reason I suggest small meals is this: you will get used to eating less each time, so that when you do indulge in a “cheat meal” you won’t be able to eat as much of it.
3. And that leads us to my favorite tip: “Cheat meals” are just fine. I try to eat one ridiculous cheat meal every week and pig out on one dessert every week. I work out all week, eat like I’m supposed to all week, and I fantasize the whole time about that one time I’m gonna stuff my face. That cheat meal becomes so much more satisfying when you know you’ve earned it! Notice – ONE cheat meal a week AT MOST!!!
4. Label readers: IGNORE “Fat Free” and “Low Fat” on a label. All those labels mean is that they’ve processed their “food” even more to adjust the fat percentage in it. It’s still loaded with chemicals and preservatives and (most likely) sugar. Take a look at a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream label and notice the grams of sugar. Do you really think that the “low fat” version is “better” for you?? Really??

Great! It's low fat!

You'll only get fat eating this version...NOT!

Are these the tips you were looking for? 

Droids

That’s great dude but just tell me what I should eat and what I shouldn’t eat, ok?!

OK! BUT – understand – what your to read is the ideal. Most people will seriously struggle to stay with it. That’s fine (and perfectly normal). Stick with the 80/20 rule – 80% of your intake should follow these rules and 20%, well, have fun!

What you should eat: 

• Lean meats (and fish) and eggs
• Fruits
• Vegetables (There are greens in supplement form – I highly recommend them)
• Whole grains (brown rice, whole grain past)
• Nuts (raw almonds, walnuts, pecans) or other fats like Avocados.

Limit your servings of:

• Pasta
• Breads (don’t automatically grab the roll at a restaurant and spread butter on it)

What you should not eat: 

• Anything with sugar

  What you should drink: 

• Water – don’t adhere to any “96 oz. of water/day” rule. Some people need more (like me), others need less. If you’re thirsty, drink water. Gonna do yard work on a hot day? Drink more water. Simple.
• Green tea
• Vitamin Water Zero
• Propel
• Alcohol is ok as part of your cheat meal. A glass of wine or a beer here and there isn’t too bad (and do have some health benefits). Every dinner? Bad idea.

  What you should not drink: 

• Everything else. Seriously. ”Diet” sodas are a bad choice – they are sweetened with “Aspartame” or some other alternative sweetner. Alternative sweeteners are bad. BAD.  

Meals: 

Eat a protein source, a carbohydrate source, and a fat source in every small meal. A meal consists of: a small portion of lean meats (the size of your fist is a good rule for portion size), a fruit or veggie serving (or both) and a small handful of nuts. Every meal. 5-6 times a day. That’s a healthy day! 

If you want to get more into the breakdown of the foods you should eat, I recommend: http://zonediet.com. They list out all of the foods by type and which are best/good/worst for each type. I use this as the basis for which foods I eat. I do not use the Zone as my base diet in terms of the amounts though. They recommend too little food in my opinion.

• 5 Deadlifts – 20 lb KB (suitcase style)
• 5 High Pulls
• 5 Front squats
• 5 Presses
• 5 Good Mornings

5 rounds:

• 3 Pistols (alternating legs)
• 5 Renegade Rows – 20 lb KB

5 rounds:

• 8 Pullups (just 6 the last round)

Like I said – back at it!

I will just be sparring BJJ with her a few times this week. She’s only been training BJJ for a few months but she’s a freak (in a good way) in terms of her athleticism. I have more skill in terms of technique than she does, but I really have to push to handle her. In terms of her MMA fights, I do not envy her opponents. She is extremely strong and she has no fear. Most importantly, she’s very coachable and sticks to her game plans very well. She’s a tough opponent for anybody and mark my words – you will see her name in the big shows soon enough.

3 rounds

• 50 Double Unders
• 21 KB Swings
• 12 Pullups

http://www.freesitemapgenerator.com/

I have the Army 10-miler coming up in late October (3 months). I’ve only been running 1ce/week. Time to up the effort with the running. My goal is to finish in under 1:20 – <8:00/mile. I finished last year in 1:27 (8:27/mile).

5 rounds:
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 situps
20 squats
(no rest)

2 rounds:
5 T’s per side
10 Sitouts per side
(no rest)

2 rounds:
20 crunches – reach to one side
20 side crunches
(no rest)

Static stretching

Feels good to get back at it!