Merry Disco Eve!!

When I went to the gym with my mother today this quote struck a particular nerve with me.  All I have been doing for the past year is lying on the tracks and waiting for the train to come rolling through.  Fortunately for me with the passing of each new year, month, day, hour, minute and second there is an opportunity for change, a time to do the right thing.  I have been neither wise nor brave over the past year.  This is something I am going to change.  Something I must change in order to survive.  I will no longer lay on the tracks.  I will be the conductor of my own destiny.  I will be brave.  I will be wise.  I will not let myself be derailed from the path I have set forth for myself.  This is a particularly tough week to get to the gym and put in work but I made it happen 2 days.  I feel like that is something to be proud of during the holiday season when fitness can so easily fall by the wayside.  As I constantly preach on here, consistency is key, and for me anything less than two days, is not only inconsistent, but is also considered a failure.  We didn't have a lot of time for today's work out, and I woke up with my shoulder hurting like a motherfucker, but some movement is always better than none and I have to say after working out my shoulder feels much better than it did earlier in the day.

The Golden Rule

"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you"

These are words to live by and ones that I use to govern my daily life and interactions.  This is the best way I have found to bring the positive energy of other people into my life.  I also have a golden rule when it comes to the gym.  Test, test, and test again.  Now when I say test, I am talking about testing your range of motion(ROM) and letting your body tell you what exercises you should be doing on any given day.  After stretching and my cardio warmup I bend over like I am going to touch my toes.  As soon as I feel the littlest bit of stretching in the back of my legs I stop moving and see how far down I have reached.  This then becomes your baseline for the day.  You then go through the motions of the different types of exercises in your repertoire.  Just for example if you wanted to test bench press you would stand straight up and do a chest press motion 3 times.  Once you do this you again test your ROM and see if it has gotten better, worse, or stayed the same.  Depending on a variety of factors inside and outside of your body, certain exercises will test better on any given day.  The whole I idea is to listen to your body and do the exercises and movements that it is most inclined to do on that given day at that time.  My own personal baseline usually rests in the middle of my shin.  It is really amazing to see how much your ROM changes as you test the various exercises.  Depending on the day certain exercises have me reaching to my ankle or the top of my foot before I feel the stretch in the back of the leg.  I know this idea can be a little confusing at first but you can find a wealth of information on this website or please feel free to message me and I can explain the concept further.

Day 3...

...and I'm sore and tired.  I could barely sleep last night, like a little kid on Christmas Eve, in anticipation of the release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  The Nexus is the latest in the line of flagship devices from Google and launches their new opperating system, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.  Before you ask, Yes, I am a giant nerd and stuff like this gets me really excited.  I thoroughly enjoy using every technological advantage to my disposal in daily life.  From streaming music to checking my heart rate this thing is going to be my best friend at the gym and I couldn't be happier with my purchase.  If you are on Verizon and in the market for a new phone I HIGHLY recommend this one.

Switchin' it up

On day two of my four day quest this week I decided to switch up my workout a bit and try some things that my trainer mentioned to me a couple of weeks back.  Since I had a big workout yesterday and I have a big training session with my boy Ryan tomorrow I didn't want to go to crazy today.  If you look on most cardio machines it shows you that low intensity is for burning fat and high intensity is for cardio.  What I am looking to do is train my body to burn fat even at the higher intensities.  What I did(and you can do this with any type of cardio) is use a giant rope, like the one you used to climb in gym class, hooked around a weighted base.  You grab each end of the rope in each hand and move it up and down as quickly as possible. I did this as hard and as fast as I could for 30 seconds.  This immediately jacked up my heart rate.  I then waited, continually testing my heart rate(using Instant Heart Rate Monitor) on my Android phone, until I was back to my resting heart rate.  I then repeated the 30 seconds again.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Well after a very long, celebratory weekend that saw stops in Atlantic City, New York City, and Washington D.C. I am finally getting back to the gym today.  Car trouble and laziness kept me sidelined yesterday and I vowed to not let that happen again today.  I can't believe almost a full week has gone by since I have been at the gym(and posted).  It just goes to show how easy it is to let it get away from you.  Consistency is key and I should have found a way over to the gym yesterday.  There is always so much going on in the last several weeks of the year that the gym can so easily fall by the wayside.  We can't let this happen!  We must be diligent or we will pay the price in a lack of energy as well as a more difficult road once we get back to working out.  I hit the gym 2 days last week which just really is not enough.  The bare minimum needs to be at least 3 days a week and I like to try and shoot for 5 but usually end up in the middle of those two numbers at 4.  If I want to hit that number this week it's going to have to be 4 days in a row as I have another jam packed weekend ahead.

"I spring train in the winter..."

"...Round early December. Run suicide drill over and over; With the weight of the world on my shoulders"

- Jay-Z

Vibram Five Fingers

With winter looming(it has to get here eventually right?) there comes a whole new slew of obstacles to getting your energy up and working out.  Bad weather, shorter days, and aching joints make it so much easier just to stay  inside and sit on the couch.  In fact I was perfectly content doing this today after having some pain in my knee from last night through this morning.  I iced the knee again today and still wasn't feeling great so not wanting to push it I gave up on the idea of the gym for the day.  A couple hours later I sat down at the computer to listen to some music and do some reading and I suddenly realized I couldn't stop moving.  My knee really didn't feel to bad anymore and I definitely had some great energy so I decided to capitalize on the moment immediately.  I threw on my Vibram Five Fingers(best workout shoe ever!) and braved the elements and headed out for the gym.

Back on my grind...

One of the main reasons I started writing this blog was to help me get my life back on track(for the hundredth time ha).  Over the past year I have felt adrift in a vast sea of mediocrity of my own making.  I've squandered opportunities and generally let life pass me by while just going through the motions day in and day out.  I'm tired of doing this and not being happy.  I want to live the life I know I can have and I am going to make it happen.  Writing is my first step to healing mind, body, soul and building back up some self confidence, telling myself that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to all I need to do is work, hard.  After a couple days off I battled though aching joints(ankles/knees due to rain I think), a wicked case of heartburn, and a general lack of energy to get to the gym today and put in some work.

Time & Energy Wait For No Man

Last night was one of those crazy full tilt New York City nights.  After catching dinner with some friends out in Bushwick we hit the dance floor at Good Units with friends old and new in tow, as well as one long lost brother with "slightly to much hair"(it's cooool bro we know a Barber or waxer haha).  The club was electric and the energy was flowing.  Nothing produces more energy than the people you are with and we had a great crew dancing to a precisely tuned soundtrack by one of the masters. Out of all the sets I have seen in that room this year this ranks close to the top, edged out of that top slot on the leaderboard by the dirty, destructive, beats of Steve Bug, and narrowly creeping past the artfully crafted mixing of the Wolf + Lamb vs. Soul Clap night.  For those keeping score at home:

1.) Steve Bug
2.) Rebel Rave(Bonus points for spinning 45:33 into Daft Punk to end the night)
3.) Wolf + Lamb vs. Soul Clap

...buuuuut it was a photo finish right down to the end as they were all very special nights for me this year and for that I am so appreciative to have the lovely people at Verboeten and flawlessSound doing what they do best and bringing the premiere DJ talent of the world to some of the best venues NYC has to offer.

Rebel Rave Friday!

First off I just want to thank Bottin for retweeting yesterday's post to all his followers.  It really meant a lot to me.  Thanks for spreading the energy!

Friday is always weigh in day for me.  I personally like to weigh myself before the weekend when I am likely to indulge a little bit more.  I then at least have the whole week to work it back off again.  Today's weight came in at 376.6 which is close to 2lbs lost the first week.  2lbs may not seem like a lot but if you can get between 2-4lbs down per week that is usually the sign of healthy weight loss and you (hopefully) can keep it off easier.  Overall a positive start to the day before my workout.

After the weigh in I did some stretching then a 10 min warm-up on the elliptical.  I am definitely feeling sore from the training session yesterday so I wasn't trying to go crazy today.  After the cardio I did 2 sets of bent over rows with a 20kg kettle bell and then 2 sets lunges.  I needed to conserve some energy for my favorite form of cardio, hitting the dance floor.

In water we trust...

Since I have started back on my quest I have been making sure to drink plenty of water.  This has always been key to me for weight loss success.  My trainer Ryan H. must have been reading my mind as he started talking to me about how essential water is for us.  "They" say we need at least 8 cups of water a day.  I have found that the more I drink the better I feel.  It helps with everything from my energy levels to digestion as well as constantly cleaning toxins from my system.  One of the greatest aspects of water is appetite suppression.  There are times where your body may think you are hungry but you are actually just thirsty.  When I start to get hungry, I chug a bottle of water.  A lot of times I will find that my hunger will subside.  If you are truly hungry after drinking the water your hunger will return and then it's time for a nice healthy meal complimented with plenty of water.  This will help control how much you need to eat to feel full.  Before my workout today I had a nice protein fueled breakfast balanced by plenty of water.

Happy Bobby V. day!

After a couple of months it looks like the Red Sox have found their man.  Let's hope he can be the SPARK that reignites this team and helps them regain the ENERGY they lost in September.  I'm very excited and a little nervous to see what he is able to accomplish in Beantown.

As for me I was up a little earlier than usual today after getting to sleep before 2am for the first time in a month. Decided to hit the gym first thing to really get me going today.  I didn't want to do too much today as I have a session with my trainer tomorrow afternoon that I want to be energized for.  I did 20 mins on the elliptical and went about 2 miles then pounded out 45 bench crunches.  I'm not the biggest fan of the elliptical in general.  After about 10 mins I tend to get bored up there which is why I usually just do a 10 minute warm-up then hit the weights.  Today I found my energy waining around the 13 minute mark and had to use some visualization to get it back going.  I closed my eyes and visualized myself in a dark dance club, lights and lasers bounce off the wall as the DJ drops the beat and suddenly it feels like the whole room is airborne.  Sweaty bodies are jumping and gyrating all around you as you feel the bass pound in your chest.  You are dancing out of control and can barely catch your breath but you keep going cause the music won't let you stop.  Low and behold I opened my eyes and I was back on track.

Back to the gym...

First day back at RWJ Fitness in Scotch Plains since Thanksgiving.  After an epic day after Thanksgiving flag football battle that left me beyond sore for a few days I got back to the grind in the gym today.  Quick 10 minute warm up on the eliptical then 4 sets of bent over rows with a 20kg Kettle Bell, 4 sets of lunges probably 30 in total, 3 sets of tricep rope pull down @ 35 lbs, and finally 3 sets of calf raises with 180 lbs on the 40 degree incline sled to keep building strength in my ankles after to separate (drunken) accidents left both ankles injured earlier in the year.

It begins...

Sooooo I've decided to start a blog.  After an up and down year with my fitness I wanted to put something out there to help gain some consistency, motivation, focus and enthusiasm in getting back on track with a good healthy lifestyle.  In other words I am looking for ENERGY.

Energy comes to us in various forms, people, love, ideas, and obviously the food that we eat as well as countless other ways.  For me the two most consistent ways to produce energy is through music and fitness.  The more we work out the more energy we have and the more our bodies want to keep moving.  Music has always been my motivator for movement.  Whether it be bopping your head while driving in the car or dancing around the room like a maniac music is inspiring and sometimes that is exactly what we need.

I hope to accomplish a few things with this blog.  I would like to gain energy, support, and motivation from the people reading but I also hope to give out as much energy as possible.  Hopefully someone reading this will be motivated to make some changes in their own life and create their own energy.  I strive to help by giving support, love, motivation and a soundtrack.  This is my quest, I hope you'll join me.

- Ian