Pop Goes the Weasel - Or Should I Say Rectus Femoris!

After a week away in Vegas it was back to the grind and today happened to be leg day at my CrossFit Langley class and it was heavy day, on this heavy day we do 5 sets with 3 reps of back squats increasing the weight with each set till we get to our max three rep weight. Of course we do our regular warmups before hand.

All went well right up to and including my 275 pound third set, I felt pretty good and was sure I was going to squeeze out at least 2 reps at 305... Well I did get one off but at a pretty big cost! Right at the bottom of my first rep of 305 pounds, as I was coming up I felt and heard a "pop" that was accompanied by a very significant sting in my left Quad. It actually stopped me in my tracks and I paused on the way up, I was not sure what to do since I had a spotter behind me and did not want to drop the weight on him, so up I went unassisted and to be honest as I went up it was not all that hard and the sting was kind of forgotten since I was so focuses on getting this weight up and off of me.

Needless to say, no more squatting for me on this day and perhaps for a while :( I finished up the workout doing 10 reps times 6 sets of sit-ups, push-ups and pull-ups, and I did get a pretty good workout in for the day considering what happened.

So here I am sitting at home typing away on my keyboard with an icepack on my leg, not sure of the severity of the Quad Rectus Femoris tear? I am thinking it is at least a first degree tear (about a 5% tear). It could even be a second degree tear (more than 5% but less than a complete tear), but I am fairly certain it is not a third degree tear since that would be a complete tear and there would have been no way I would have been able to get the weight up.

Because of all of this I have decided that from now on I will only lift to get stronger in general. I am not going to do sets under 5-6 reps max since every time I have sustained an injury it has been during reps of 3 or lower. So there will be no more single rep Personal Record attempts. What's the point if I get injured in the process and I can no longer train that body part. That is completely anti productive and not worth the satisfaction of saying I can lift "X" amount of weight.

Home Workout - Chest, Triceps and Abs with Polar Flow Summary

Follow me along in this video where I do an at home workout focussing on Chest, Triceps and Abs. I use a combination of exercises that incorporate free weights, smith machine, pulleys, my Total Gym and body weight.

As I do with all my workouts now-a-days, I track my heart rate using my Polar Loop paired to a Polar H7 (with smart Bluetooth) heart rate monitor so I can track my calories burned during my workouts. I show you a graph of this workout at the end of the video so you can see my total workout time, peek heart rate, average heart rate and calories burned for the workout.

I also talk a bit about a gaol I have which is to potentially compete in a mens over 40 physique fitness competition at the end of this year, I will have to see about this but without goals you are only limiting yourself!

My New Years Resolution - Gain 5 Pounds of Pure Muscle

So I mentioned a couple of videos ago some tips on how to keep your 2014 New Years Fitness Resolutions, but I did not mention what mine where. Perhaps because I was not sure at that point? Well I have a plan now for 2014 and my new goal for the first 3-4 months is to put on some muscle mass. This is not something my body is prone to doing, I'm pretty good at shredding up and sure I can gain fat easy juts by eating but adding muscle mass quickly is not something I have been able to do easily in the past.

As you know I have been doing a lot of CrossFit over the past 6-7 months and it has been really greta for me in many ways. In some ways it may have limited me to add muscle since most CrossFit workouts are heavy on the high intensity which in a way is like cardio but with the benefit of more of a cardio workout. But the fact of the matter is by doing the high intensity training you do rob your body of some of its ability to put on pure muscle because it is multitasking and needs some of the energy to go towards the high intensity effort you are performing and then some of the energy goes into building muscle.

My goal is to gain between 5-8 pounds of solid muscle while maintaining a lean body mass, I plan to do this by cutting down on my CrossFit workouts to about 3 days per week and ramping up my Isolation body building style workouts to at least 3 days per week. I will be eating slightly more calories than I need so I can gain the additional muscle mass but my food intake will be very regulated with a lot of protein with some carbs and lower fat.

During my "transformation" I plan to "keep the shirt on" until I get to my final target weight what ever that turned out to be ;) Right now I am 182 pounds at about 8% body fat, I want to be at least 185 pounds at 6% body fat or closer to 190 pounds at 7% body fat when all is said and done.

So keep posted and I would love for you to share your Fitness Goals for 2014 with me so we can work towards them together.

New Years Day 2014 Inner Tubing at Cypress Mountain with the Family

It's always fun getting out with the family when hills and snow are involved, and not just for the kids :)

It's been kind of a tradition to head out to the the slopes each year, either on Boxing Day or like this year, New Years day and head up to Cypress Mountain for some inner tubing. Last year it was a winter wonderland in our local BC mountains but this year our winter has been so mild that most of the ski hills are not operating. At least Cypress Mountain with the aid of snow machines had the inner tube hills running.

We had a greta time and decided to skip the tow lineups and walk up the hill which is  a really great workout, it's like walking in sand but uphill while dragging a heavy object behind you (usually I had to drag mine and my sons inner tube).

I'm not sure exactly how many runs we got it in but it was at least 6-7 so all in all we got a pretty good workout in!

Enjoy the video, most of the video is shot while I was wearing my Liquid Image MODEL 367 - IMPACT SERIES HD 1080P Goggle Camera with the exception of when I put them on Gabriel for one of his runs. I also got some video using my iPhone 5s and took advantage of the 720p 120 frames per second slow-mo feature.

How to Beat the Odds and Stick to Your New Years Fitness Resolutions!

 

1. DO NOT, I repeat, do not go to the gym!
The gym is the last place you want to be at the beginning of any New Year, at least for a month or so till it settles down. Everyone who has set New Years Fitness Resolutions and the regular gym rats who want to hit the gym hard again after their holiday break will all be at the gym simultaneously. Not the place you want to be especially if you're new to the gym workout scene, since the regular gym rats are not impressed with all the temporary newbies taking up all the machines and not having a clew on how to use them ;)

I say stay at home and use what you have available, do body weight exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and air squats… Ride your bike, skip rope, go for a run or fast walk. If you feel the need to go to the gym then wait it out a bit and get your body ready for more intense gym workouts by doing what you can at home first.

2. Start simple and build on it.
Don't do too much too fast which is another reason to stay away from the gym. If you're not used to pushing your muscles and body hard then the gym may be overkill at the beginning for you anyways! The first thing I would recommend is to start off with walking as much as you have time for, to help get your body prepared for physical activity. Then start adding some body weight movements like push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and air squats. Add in some high active cardio like running, skipping, burpees, biking or use other cardio equipment if you have it.

Same goes for the eating side of things. Don't just jump into a crazy diet cold turkey, start off by cutting the calories in your drinks by drinking low or no calorie beverages like water or the occasional diet soda, and keeping your alcohol intake to a minimum. Once you have your beverages under control, move onto your food, eat more protein and less carbs, keep the fat down and your meal sizes to a modest portion, maybe replace a meal or two with a protein shake and stay away from unhealthy snacks and deserts as much as possible. Watch my "The Most Important Workout Technique You'll Ever Learn" video for more info on eating suggestions.

Do everything in stages so your body can get used to each stage before moving onto the next step.

3. Set achievable goals with rewards when you hit them.
Another reason why you need to start small is so you can set achievable fitness goals with rewards in place for when you active your fitness goals, followed by a new added goals! For example: Set a goal to drink only water as your beverage for two weeks. Once you hit this goal, reward yourself with a night out to the pub for some beers/wine with some good friends. Then get back to the water program and add a new layer to your food plan like having a protein shake for breakfast in the morning, drink your protein shakes for two weeks followed by another reward and new program goal added. Soon you will have a multi-layered fitness program that is getting you to your fitness goal very quickly!

You can also set weight or size related goals like: When you lose 10 pounds, you get to go to a restaurant of your choice for a cheat meal. Or if you reach a certain goal dress or pant size you get to buy some new clothing. Perhaps if you have a big fitness goal, you can plan a vacation to celebrate your success!

4. Accountability.
Make sure to tell a few important people in your life what your fitness plans are and ask them to check in on you to see how you're doing with your goals. Your friends or family can help support you along the way, you will not want to disappoint them and they will want to see you succeed!

Make a pact with a friend who has similar fitness goals, your competitive nature may come out and help keep you even more focussed. Nobody likes losing to a friend.

How about announce your fitness journey on Facebook or Twitter, that is making a committed statement!

Write down all your fitness goals in detail, short term goals and long term goals, look at your fitness goals every day and check off the ones you have accomplished!

5. If you fail do not give up, reset and start over, failure is not an option!
Have a plan for when you drop the ball and get off your program, we all do it from time to time. The only difference between those that fail and those that succeed is really being able to accept that you made some bad choices or mistakes and be willing to reset and get back to the program. Even if you have to start from the very beginning, at least this time you have more experience. The quicker you get going again the better off you will be so just make it happen and stop looking for excuses. Failure is not an excuse, it's just a temporary setback.

 

Good luck with all your New Years Resolutions, have a great 2014!