My Strong Medicine » cardio

Sick Of Being Fat

Sean — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 13:07:22 +0000

So – yet another weight loss success story. We’ve seen him. We’ve seen the ballooning effect. Now he lost the weight because he got tired of seeing it on camera.
Good for him.
Inspirational. I hope for his sake he keeps it off and maintains his health lifestyle.
He also states his motivation was to be around and enjoy his family. He went from battling Diabetes to being freed from the debilitating complication.
Way to go Drew! Way to go.

Amplify’d from www.nydailynews.com

Drew Carey weight loss: ‘The Price is Right’ host lost 80 lbs. after getting ‘sick of being fat’

Drew Carey lost 80 lbs. through a stict no-carb diet and a cardio-packed workout routine.

Drew Carey, the formerly hefty host of “The Price is Right,” has shed a reported 80 pounds since January.

“I like being skinny. I was sick of being fat on the camera,” he told People.com. “I just got sick of it.”

Although the game show host, 52, used to have Type II Diabetes, he told the mag, “I’m not diabetic anymore. No medication needed.”

The actor said he has been committed to losing weight the old-fashioned way — strict dieting and a rigorous workout routine.

“No carbs,” Carey said. “I have cheated a couple times, but basically no carbs, not even a cracker. No bread at all. No pizza, nothing. No corn, no beans, no starches of any kind. Egg whites in the morning or like, Greek yogurt, cut some fruit.

“I don’t drink anything but water,” he added. “No coffee, no tea, no soda.”

Carey also has been keeping busy in the gym.

“Lots of cardio. About 45 minutes of cardio, at least 45 minutes of cardio,” he said. “I’ve been kind of lazy like lately, so I’m not doing it six days a week, but I will be for this next month.”

Although Carey has already gone from a size 44 pants to a size 33-34, he hopes to drop an additional 10 pounds and fit into a size 32.

“Once I started losing weight, again, like once I started dropping a couple pant sizes, then it was easy ’cause once you see the results, then you don’t wanna stop,” he said.

Carey told UsMagazine.com he wants to lose the weight so he can “be looking that great at 86″ like his “Price is Right” predecessor, Bob Barker, and to watch his fiancée’s son grow up.

“My fiancée has a 5-year-old, and wow, I’d love to see him graduate,” he added. “I’d love to be able play with him without getting tired, enjoy my life and watch him grow.”Read more at www.nydailynews.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/88dd

Filed under: random Tagged: cardio

‘No Time To Exercise’?!

Sean — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:47:02 +0000

Image Source: Google

I used to bark this all the time. “I’d exercise if I had the time”. “Who has the time to do cardio for 30-45 minutes”.

The list is endless.

The bottom line is most of us have a finite amount of time to ‘exercise’, so how are we to attain a healthy state of fitness if we just don’t have the time to do it.

Interval Training : Interval training can cut exercise hours sharply – Fitness- msnbc.com

I’ve been preaching this concept for over a year now. I’ve known about it for decades, but can’t say I used it personally until last year. I tell you it’s heaven sent. Not only do you get what you need done, you get it done in a fraction of the time.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or Tabata intervals. Both are training concepts that originate with the high-caliber professional athletic world (Olympic athletes).

You go ‘all out’ for a set amount of time. Then you ‘rest’ or move at a tolerable level. Then back to ‘all out’. You do this cycle for a set amount of time.

Your training will consist of a rollercoaster. Going fast and hard then backing off.

You find yourself working harder and getting your cardiovascular benefit in just minutes a day as opposed to hours.

I won’t go into the juicy details, but interval training works. I do it as my only cardiovascular exercise. I do not waste my time doing 30-45 minute runs, walks, biking or hiking. I do interval sprints.

This alone would be enough, but there is also a theory out there (EPOC – Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) that suggests you actually burn more calories (and possibly fat) well after your interval session is over.

If the ‘no time’ excuse is high on your list of reasons why you’re not exercising I highly suggest you give this a try. Do the research (quick internet search will do) and give it a go. Don’t worry about the exact minutes needed or required. Just try the interval of maximum intensity coupled with bouts of low intensity for a sustained 5-10 minute period. Don’t worry about not being able to go maximum effort. Don’t worry if you only could last 3 minutes. Just get started. You’ll be surprised of the results if you stick with it.

Aren’t you getting tired and bored with long steady state cardio. Don’t you watch the clock a lil too much? Or worse, are you not exercising at all?!

Give it a try.

Filed under: fitness Tagged: cardio, hiit

Looking For A Cardio Alternative? How About Jump Rope?

Sean — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:38:21 +0000

via youtube.com

Wicked Jump Rope King Buddy Lee
OK.. maybe we should start simple?

Posted in fitness Tagged: cardio

Tough Time Training

Sean — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:38:46 +0000

Image Source: Freewebs

So I really am bored with cardio. In fact I have almost eliminated it from my workout routine. I’m lucky if I run once during the week.

Aside from all my orthopedic problems, I really do get bored with just ‘going for a run’. Thankfully the ARC trainer’s at the gym have TV sets. So I can at least keep myself occupied for the 20 or 30 minutes I force myself to endure.

My rationale for eliminating cutting back on my ‘cardio’ was that I was burning enough calories doing my interval weight training. I don’t follow any ‘formal’ program like HIIT, or HIT, or Circuit Training. I do maximum effort, minimal rest, total body – large muscle movement workouts. A pseudo-HIT-HIIT-Circuit training program, toss in some CrossFit and Yoga movements aannnd that’s how I roll.

So I can’t believe it didn’t dawn on me to apply my max effort – min rest theory to my running/ cardio exercise (or the lack-there-of).

Thanks to Israel over at Fat Man Unleashed and Mark over at Mark’s Daily Apple for spawning this idea in my training.

I can’t say I followed the Tabata spring method to a T. I once again did my own thang.

Keeping in mind I have to use the ARC trainer, or something similar to an elliptical trainer due to my damaged joints. I ran a pseudo-HIT-Fartlek-Tabata routine for 30 minutes. I did 2 min max sprint effort followed by 30 second rest periods for a total of 9 sets(including a quick warm-up and cool down)

I must say I think my body will be slapping me silly for this tomorrow. I was ‘spaghetti-legged’ afterwards. And doing my CORE exercises turned out to be quite the challenge.

I liked the change, and in theory this type of training should give me more bang-for-my-buck, so I’m interested to see how this plays out over the coming months.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there is a Dairy Queen Strawberry Shortcake Blizzard waiting for me in the other room (courtesy of my wife – THANKS! )

Carpe Diem

Posted in fitness Tagged: cardio, hiit