What I am doing????

Ok so what I have decided to do is split things up between upper body and lower body. It is a simple split. Now with that said I train my entire body ever day I just do not use the Exer-Genie/Isorobic device for the entire body daily. So for examble Monday I did my entire uper body with the Exer-Genie then once finshed I did some body weight squats and road an exercise bike for 10 minutes. I train my legs to some degree daily but nothing like how I train them on leg day. Tue. I used my Exer-Genie to train all of the muscles in my legs,hips and glutes then I do some body weight squats and isometric calf exercises. Since my primary goal is fat reduceing and general health I do not really plan my workouts much especialy for the upper body I have a rough outline with a few goals and I vary most of the workout each time. I mostly try to keep moveing with no rest or breaks at all for the 30 minutes I am training the upper body. The legs are a bit different because you really can not transition very fast on the leg exercise's with the Exer-Genie unless you have a partner helping to return the line to it's working postion after each rep so I go mostly for strength on all the leg exercise's.So when training legs I treat each rep like a mini single 1RM done in secsession. I always incorperate at least 3 isometric holds for 7 seconds in each postion on the first rep.

Really the body weight squats do not have to be done with only body weight to insanely high numbers! As long as you hold your weights either at your side or between your legs like with dumbells or kettlebells then you can use resistance and do fewer reps. I do not think that the average person or even the average athlete benifitts much from heavy back or front squats done with a barbell across their shoulders. I think that longterm this causes too much spinal compression and makes the body more prone to injury. I think that squats and high step's or step up's done with heavy dumbells and slightly higher rep's will acomplish everything that 99% of the population includeing seasoned athletes need. The exception would be powerlifters, olympic weight lifters, and strong man competitors. One can do deadlifts, dumbell squats, high steps and one leg body weight squats and accomplish all the strength building for sport and injury prevention that anyone would ever need. As far as explosive ballistic straining goes one can use kettlebell's of various sizes to train for those affects usualy associated with heavy Olympic Lifting while also building anerobic endurance. The plus side is that kettlebells are far easier to learn to do properly from a DVD then traditional Olympic lifting and they are far less likely to cause you any serious injury. They are also far cheaper.

Some might say that just doing push-up's, pull-up's and body weight squats is all a person needs. I would say look around next time you are at Walmart and count the number of people that look like they could not do a single pull-up,push-up etc?????????? Because the Exer-Genie allows you to adjust the resitance even someone as weak as a 5 year old can start out on it. It allows you to adjust the movements to your body so you can work around injuries. The uper body exercise's are all done while standing and only a few of the leg exercise are done on the floor and even then most of those could be done from a chair as well. I have seen more then a few people that have a hard time getting up and down from the ground. If you have a fat belly how far done do you think you will get trying to do a push-up??? Because it is use's isometrics and isotonics and cover's everything from anerobic to aerobic this tool is almost a must have for anyone that is out of shape. Unlike the garbage seen on TV these units are built solid and do what they where designed to do. I mean they where good enough for NASA for crying out loud.

I like my Exer-Genie's build quality better then my Isorobic but the Isorobic comes with better workout material/instruction and it is easier to repeatably set to a specific resistance level. The Isorobic unit has a window that show's exactly the amount of resistance you have adjusted into the device. The Exer-Genie makes you count turns and look at a sticker to still how much resistance you have dialed in. If you need a device that comes with rock solid guidence and motovational discussions and program guids then I would recomend that you buy an Isorobic unit from Ogie Shaw since he also includes his own material along with the material that comes from Isorobic. If you are rather experinced exerciser and are looking for the most bang for your buck I would recomend you get the Exer-Genie/"The Trainer" it has an insanely good price and is in my opion the best buy in the fitness industry I do not understand how they can offer such a well built and functional piece of equipment at such a fair and honest price!!!

The reason I am useing this form of training is because I am about 3 hours away from my home. I am doing some seaonal farm work and staying at my inlaws house. The Exer-Genie is the perfect tool in that it is compact,portable and so far pleasantly effective.

First let’s start off with the basics. We are going to use resistance training as the primary tool for sculpting our bodies. Why? Well first you would have to run or do enough cardio to equal or exceed 35 miles a week in order to cause the slightest change in your body composition. Resistance training on the other hand really only needs to last an hour a day to be truly effective for what we are looking to do and far less then that if you are only after some strength and muscle mass increase. We are going to use anaerobic endurance training to get the benefits of aerobic work and strength training in one workout down 1-2 times a day. At first we will do them twice a day because we are going to start out rather short and work up to that magical hour! So we will do a circuit that will consist of simple exercise’s that one can do standing initially since some people may not be able to get on their knee’s and may not feel comfortable working from the floor at first. We are going to do a circuit which is made up of several different exercises linked together in a continuous fashion. So we will do one set of 10 repetitions then move to the next exercise and so on. Once we get to the end of all the assigned exercise’s you can either start over right away which is the best practice or you can take a short brake before starting over. No if you are really out of shape or you have the intensity cranked up real high you might need to take a break up to 2 minutes in length before starting over. You will do this for 15 minutes of exercise. If you are taking a break you will need to reduce the rest time each week until you are doing these circuits continuous with out a rest break between circuits for the entire 15 minutes! We are going to do two 15 minute workouts per day preferable one in the morning before work and one in the evening after work.

Oh I almost forgot a set is a group of repetitions of a single exercise done at one time before stopping or moving on to another exercise. A repetition is when one complete cycle of any given movement from start to finish back to start position is performed. A circuit is a group of exercise’s that are done in a specific order one after the other usually with no break between exercises. Our goal is to be able to do this circuit for one continuous hour non-stop. So each week if you find that the workout is getting easier you can add time to the circuit. Once you reach the hour mark you increase the weight and reduce the time and start working your way back up again.

As time goes on we will introduce such classics as the push-up, pull-up, and whole body bridge for time! So just be patient. Oh and this is nothing at all like what my book is going to be like just so you know. The program I am laying out in this blog is for old out of shape men like me that want to look good and feel good but are not too worried about doing just those things we need to do to attain higher athletic performance. First all need to establish a fitness base and then we have to decide if we really want to make the sacrifices that must be made to attain a high level of athletic physical preparedness.

Now on to the exercise’s. I am going to pick exercise’s that can be performed with either elastic bands or with dumbbells. I have not found a good site with illustrations yet to link to that shows these exercise’s so you might need to google them if you do not already know them.

Shoulder Press
Bicep Curl
Tricep Over head Extensions
Bent Over Row
Dumbbell Squat
Front Shoulder Raise
Dumbbell Lunge
Calf Raise’s
Standing Ab Crunch
Dumbbell Stiff Legged Deadlift


We will start with these and work our way up. In time we will add push-ups and pull-ups. If you feel comfortable doing push-ups or pull-ups right now go for it or you can wait.

Why I created this blog?!?!?!

Well I am considering writeing a book about health and fitness. I think their is one problem though and it is big! I am not healthy and fit anymore. Sure I was a national level athlete in the USA. I have competed and won on the regional level as well. I have traveled and competed internationaly. The problem though is that no matter how great my accomplishments no one is going to take advice from some one that "was great" especialy if they are out of shape now! So I decided to put my thoughts into practice and get back into shape. Along the way I am going to share my thoughts, my idea's and my workouts. I will use this blog to hash out my thoughts for the book I am planning on writeing.

I hope that others will take notice and join me in this goal. You will see that I am not the picture of health and prosperity and am quite out of shape. I have a bad knee with torn cartilage and an ankle that has been surgicaly repaired to a degree! I have rip that likes to pop out of place due to a bad car accident and a broken toe! I am so grossly over weight that it is not funny. Oh and my heart has some wireing issues and a leaky mitral valve on the left ventrical. Yes I have been cleared to exercise. Oh I almost forgot I take medicine for high blood pressure. So if I can do this any one can. I have found that people are always keen to make excuse's! Instead of focusing on what you are unable to do focus on what you can do and then make evrything else work for you. As humans our greatest skill is bending our environment to suit us. We are creators and inavators so do not ever let the fact that you can not do a particular movement get you down their is always an alternative or some way to work around an injury!!

So in the begining I will have a lot of posts that will cover general fitness knoldge topics. It would be hard for me to expect anyone to follow me if they have no idea what I am talking about. I will be takeing daily digital photos and posting as well. THis way at the end of the program we can run the stills at speed and see the transformation happen about like time lapsed photographer like you saw in school witht he flower growing from a seed to full bloom n like a minute!

My book is going to be about how I think anyone from a child to an old man like myself can recreate themselfs in the image of health and fitness. Sure some people have a genetic leg up on the fitness ladder but I know that great athletes are created not born. All of us can improve of state of fitness. If you want larger muscles I gurantee you can have larger muscle. This does not mean that you will look like a professional bodybuilder though! I can gurantee that you can increase your strength well beyound that of the average man or woman. You can get as lean as you choose to get as well. The best part is that you can choose when you stop loseing fat, when you stop increaseing muscle mass, how strong you want to be. It is all about the choices we make.

I am not saying it is going to be easy! I am not going to say it will be fun at first either! In time it does get easier and things become fun. In the begining your friends and family will try to sabotage you if you let them! People at work wil think you are wasteing your time and should just buy bigger pants. No one can make you do this. I can tell you this much you will feel better about yourself each day that goes buy and you are makeing a change in your life! As you lose fat or gain muscle or both people will notice especialyt he oposite sex! People can say what they want but our brains are programed to lust after those we find attractive physicaly not the person with the best personality or the sharpest witt or the bigest bank account! THose other things all come latter or they are things we settle for because we do not think we are hansome enough,buff enough,sexy enough to get what we really want! Do not get me wrong all those other things are more important inthe long run in a lasting relationship but they do not get the opposite sex to approach you at a bar or the grocery store or church it is all about the image you project.

Well that enough for today! Monday the 23 of June I will have the wife take some photos of myself in shorts for the the day 1 shots. Tune in tomorrow for my first true article.