Use your car for this for a month...
I am guessing that this has a little bit to do with the insane crash I had a few weeks back, but I have been driving a LOT less lately. As life would have it there are a few situations here and there (baseball games and a new one-on-one client out in VA) where a car or ride is needed, but besides that, it's been my feet or my bike. Interestingly enough, this has led to a pretty interesting phenomenon involving my metabolism: it has been skyrocketing. The most obvious change for me has been that this and last week I have been either running home from a zipcar drop-off about 3 miles, or biking home from a game about 5-8 miles. These little spurts of totally aerobic conditioning are happening after my dinner and around an hour or two before I go to bed (I've been having some almond butter and celery before bed, so there's a little fuel between). Now, as I've been learning more and more over the past couple months about how I work, I can assure you that my findings are very personal. What I mean by this is that what works for me just might not work for you. I have case upon case of people doing things just like myself and it not working. A couple examples are one old client of mine who mixed in a good deal of aerobic conditioning. I actually had to suggest to this client to cut back on it as I thought is was not only negatively effecting their in-gym gains, but also their overall health outside of the fitness realm. The second they cut back on the easy conditioning, things began to turn around like crazy. The other example was one where I suggested the whole "eat a meal every 3 hours" that has been working wonders for me. This person just felt beyond stuffed and weighed down from that and had to cut back on the consistency of meals.
Shoot, as I write this my head is flooding over with other examples of how people just work differently from each other. The well-followed Mark Sisson just wrote on his blog about meal timing and came to a very similar conclusion. And I realize I am getting a little away from my point of this post (about becoming more active...). So Let's leave this one at this: that what one person does is not what everyone should do. Try things out (make sure you give it at LEAST two months, preferably more, to really see if it works or not) and find what works best for you. You have your whole life to figure it all out, use it!
So, how do you become more active? Well, I have one client who walks 4 miles to work twice a week, rather than drive (he walks or metros home in the evening). I literally just talked to a woman today who rides her bike to and from work twice a week. If you grab a coffee in the morning, or sometime during work, find a way to avoid the closer cafe and head to one 5+ blocks further away. When you read the paper, or watch the news in the morning, hop on a stationary bike. Tim Ferriss heads to the bathroom when he's out to dinner and bangs out 40 air squats!
I understand that this sort of thing s probably one of the easiest to find an excuse NOT to do. So, trick yourself into it. Park your car at a friends house a mile or two from yours one night. You'll have to run or walk to your place, then, when you wake up in the morning, just like that you have a nice little early AM jog. Another way to "force yourself" into becoming a bit more active is by signing up for some form of endurance event and inevitably you'll be a bit more motivated to get prepared. The goal in general is to give it a try for a week or so. If you end up feeling awesome, sweet, you'll probably end up sticking to it becuase it works for you! If, on the other hand, your feel like crap, perhaps it's just not the right thing for you. But you'll never know if you don't try so go do it!
In other news, rest day for me! Along with training a bunch of clients and riding my bike to the baseball game and back I am feeling really ready for tomorrows strength and hill sprints!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
Shoot, as I write this my head is flooding over with other examples of how people just work differently from each other. The well-followed Mark Sisson just wrote on his blog about meal timing and came to a very similar conclusion. And I realize I am getting a little away from my point of this post (about becoming more active...). So Let's leave this one at this: that what one person does is not what everyone should do. Try things out (make sure you give it at LEAST two months, preferably more, to really see if it works or not) and find what works best for you. You have your whole life to figure it all out, use it!
So, how do you become more active? Well, I have one client who walks 4 miles to work twice a week, rather than drive (he walks or metros home in the evening). I literally just talked to a woman today who rides her bike to and from work twice a week. If you grab a coffee in the morning, or sometime during work, find a way to avoid the closer cafe and head to one 5+ blocks further away. When you read the paper, or watch the news in the morning, hop on a stationary bike. Tim Ferriss heads to the bathroom when he's out to dinner and bangs out 40 air squats!
I understand that this sort of thing s probably one of the easiest to find an excuse NOT to do. So, trick yourself into it. Park your car at a friends house a mile or two from yours one night. You'll have to run or walk to your place, then, when you wake up in the morning, just like that you have a nice little early AM jog. Another way to "force yourself" into becoming a bit more active is by signing up for some form of endurance event and inevitably you'll be a bit more motivated to get prepared. The goal in general is to give it a try for a week or so. If you end up feeling awesome, sweet, you'll probably end up sticking to it becuase it works for you! If, on the other hand, your feel like crap, perhaps it's just not the right thing for you. But you'll never know if you don't try so go do it!
In other news, rest day for me! Along with training a bunch of clients and riding my bike to the baseball game and back I am feeling really ready for tomorrows strength and hill sprints!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
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