Day 2: Rest Day

Today's the rest day (so soon!)--just have to make sure I get at least seven hours of sleep to get some good muscle recovery going. Zzzzz....

Day 1: The Workouts Begin

If you remember your sixth grade prom as horridly vivid as I do, you might also remember how awkward that first dance was. This first workout was not like that, but it could've been. Tyler was great about easing into the workout, fully aware that I may or may not be familiar with the moves. It also helped to give him a better idea of how I workout, how often and which muscle groups I recruit if I begin to get tired, understanding what the right weights were for different moves, and even help establish a common vocabulary between the two of us.

For this workout, we did two cycles of moves that incorporated a lot of core muscles and integrated total body. Below are the exercises that comprised a single cycle (DISCLAIMER: these may or may not be the official names... but they also may or may not be far superior to their forgettable originals... why can't we just name exercises names like Bob... or Sandy... Snoopy?):

Monster-walking
FOCUS: gluts (especially gluteus medius), core
2 sets of walking from side to side with a resistance band around the area just above the ankles. It's a lot like walking around your room with your pants around your ankles, which I think may actually be a practical skill in life... Hey, you never know when an earthquake will strike!

Also monster walking.

Kettlebell squat with overhead lift

FOCUS: quads, gluts, superior pecs, delts, triceps, biceps, core

1 set of squats while holding a kettlebell up against your chest (elbows in! chicken dancing is for weddings, sixth grade proms... any formal occasion really) followed by an overhead lift at the top of the squat. If you're falling backwards because of balance, that's okay since it means that your focusing on the right form and trying to go as deep as possible with your squat.

Unilateral box step-up

FOCUS: quads, gluts, hams, core

1 set each side (1 + 1 = deux), step up on a platform/box with one leg at a time. Keep the movement smooth and controlled all the way up and all the way down to get the most of out of the move (think "Black Swan" with a little less florid psychosis). Also, make sure not to just let yourself drop on the way down, since at that point you'd be putting a higher degree of impact on your hips and working out the gravity muscles all up in your imaginary mind.

Kneeling unilateral overhead press

FOCUS: lats, triceps, biceps, core

1 set each side, kneel (make sure that both legs are parallel and aligned in this position) with a kettlebell in one hand in a "racked" position in front of your chest, pivot arm out, raise overhead, and bring back to start in reverse order. That is, hold the kettlebell so the top of the handle is in your palm and the bell is leaning on the back of your forearm. The key to this is making sure that you remain completely balanced, that your wrist is completely straight throughout the whole motion. Keep your balance as you rotate our arm laterally (not too far out or you'll injure your shoulder and/or fall over... which ever fate decide for you first). Raise the kettlebell overhead in a smooth, controlled motion. Err on the side of moving too slow rather than too fast while making sure that you feel the work being down by your muscles and not your joints. Pain in joints = No bueno.

Nice rack.

Bridge hamstring curl

FOCUS: gluts, hams, core (notice the core theme yet?)

1 set, raise into half-bridge position with feet on balance ball and curl ball towards your body while keeping a solid bridge.

Mind the gap.

Plank combo

FOCUS: total core (especially abs)

30 seconds in standard/missionary plank position, 30 seconds in side bridge on left, 30 seconds in side bridge on right.

Showing others your handle and your spout is good form.

Push-up strife

FOCUS: pecs, biceps, triceps, core

1 set, standard/missionary push-up position with one hand on a (stable) kettlebell on the ground. Push-up, walk hands toward opposite side so the other hand can lay on top of the kettlebell, push-up again.... lather, rinse, repeat.

Farmer-walking

FOCUS: quads, gluts, hamstrings, lats, wrist flexors, core

Walk one lap around the room (approximately 30 seconds at moderate speed) with a kettlebell in each hand (kind of like a farmhand!). Make sure to keep back straight (imagine like you're trying to tuck your shoulder blades into your back pockes) and core tight... breathe, too!

The boundary between "farmer walking" and "monster walking" can be a very thin line...

Snoopy

FOCUS: core (specifically serratus anterior, transversus abdominis, and obliques)
1 set for each side. Start by standing about four shoulder-widths away from a cable tower, and (parallel to the tower so your shoulder is facing it) bring the cable to your chest with both hands, extend your arms out, and now rotate your upper body (only with your upper body--no hips) away and towards the tower. The range of motion is about 90 degrees from your center... kind of like you're slicing a tall pillar of butter....that's about as thick as the trunk of a tree... so... you're slicing a butter-tree...)

Repeat all of these so you do a total of two cycles. Finish by doing some simple dynamic stretch--just enough to increase blood flow through your muscles without causing non-exercise induced muscle tearing. Feel free to use the long styrofoam roller to massage calves and quads by placing your weight on it as you roll back and forth (more details on stretching and massage later).

Overall, it was a great workout in terms of learning some variations on moves and starting to get a feel for working with Tyler. Maybe one day I'll be Tyler's "that guy"...

That guy.

My First Training Session

I just met my trainer for the Evolution program: Tyler.

As part of the team, his role will be to get me to push my limits as far as possible--without getting injured.

Gratuitous Fitcorp website shot of Tyler.

(yeah, that guy on the bench is not me... but I bet his triceps could crush a large walnut)

Todays's session was important, though it really wasn't a workout. I'd say the theme was "Laying the Foundation"... or "Things That Don't Make you Sweat." We started out by getting to know each other a little more, establishing some rapport. We went through a trainer worksheet that walked through previous experience with exercise, anticipated challenges, and short and long term goals for the program. When he asked for my workout history, I pretty much gave the full history.

My workout history? Hmmm... where would I start? Oh yes.... I was a fat kid. A very fat kid.

I used to be able to do this.

No, really.

It wasn't until I was about thirteen where I finally grew into my weight and began to realize that in all the P.E. classes I dreaded I was actually pretty good at running. While most of the kids would tire out quickly, I had enough discipline to pace myself--having the extra energy stores probably helped, too. Overall, I didn't really workout with any semblance of regularity until medical school. After my third year of medical school, I did research in Iowa for a year, but at the end of that year I got caught in kind of... sort of... an accident... It was only after a year of intense physical therapy that I even dared to enter the gym again. At that point I was extremely lucky to become friends with my workout-buddy, Jake (I'm pretty sure he's been working out ever since he was in the womb), that helped get me from barely being able to do a single push-up to being able to do 30 in a row without breaking a sweat.

Hey, it's Jake! Hi Jake!

I worked out with Jake for about 3 months and had some really phenomenal results. I then had to do a fair amount of travelling the rest of the year, so I continued to workout solo, and was able to keep my workouts pretty regular until my recent move to Boston. Now I'm ready to add another milestone in that history.

When we chatted about anticipated challenges, it really boiled down to one thing: INTERN YEAR. Fortunately, I've grown to make it a priority to weigh any and all intellectual and professional endeavors no greater than health and fitness goals. I used to treat my body like it was just a form of transportation for my brain to get from meeting to meeting, but I've learned to appreciate it for so much more and am committed to making sure that both my body and brain always learning and developing together. There's a lot of technical scientific reasons, but there really is a fascinating and powerful synergy between the two.

As far as short and long term objectives go for the program, I figured we'd make some specific ones once we start actually working out, but, in general, it would be a progression of increasing overall body strength and, especially, core strength.

After our trainer pow-wow, we did some functional movement assessments. We did some small tests to see what the range of motion was for different parts of my body and what baseline functional strength we were working with. Turned out I was in good enough shape to start an intense workout program. There were only two small asymmetries in range of motion and flexibility between my right and left shoulder by a little bit and between my right and left hip again by a little bit. Throughout the program we'll see if we can even those out, though it really won't be the focus of our sessions.

At the end of the session, we scheduled for the first real workout session. We've begun to lay a great foundation, and once that's done we'll be ready to build something incredible.

I Won... Evolution?!

Looks like Darwin must have decided to shake his evolution stick at me, because apparently I won a chance to do a full-on Fitcorp Evolution!

Darwin is likely going to get a kick out of watching me go through this experience.... Why? Because I'm a resident physician... wait, it gets better....... I'm also an intern.

What does that mean? Interns are historically the medical team's work-horses... neigh.....nay... pack-mules. Our schedules are usually so demanding that regulations had to be put in place to limit the number of hours we worked per week down to no more than 80. Just this past year the number of hours we would work in one overnight shift went from 30+ to a max of 16 hrs. Needless to say, historically, interns usually don't have the luxury to have enough time to go to the gym and eat healthy on top of finding time to sleep more than a few hours. Add a constant flow of stress hormones being pumped into your system into the mix and it's really no surprise that interns often expect that they'll get out of shape and put on some pounds. Will I be able to resist the pattern?... We'll find out soon enough.

Either way, I'm ready to dive into this whole experience head first and see how far I can push evolution...

Here are the conditions for a Fitcorp Evolution:

1. Focus: 3 personal training sessions per week.
2. Discipline: 3 nutrition consults spread throughout the Evolution.
3. Time: 3 months of full Fitcorp access, so the Evolution starts tomorrow and technically runs up through September.
4. Guts.

Here's a diagrammatic representation of these conditions for Evolution...

Now, with the technicalities out of the way, let's see who wins this battle...