Fitness Hacks That Work

 They all have one thing in common, they require discipline and mental fortitude, you will be uncomfortable but not feel like dying. They are the shortcuts to staying fit and healthy.

Fasting 24-40 hours

Once or twice a week, or month. Just do it. 16/8 IS NOT FASTING. I'll say it again, 16/8 IS NOT FASTING. 

Benefits of the 24+ hour fast:

Autophagy

Giving your digestive system a break

Reducing your insulin

Release of Growth Hormone

Energy

Less bloating

Lose fat, water and weight.  A 40 hour fast will easily lose you 4 lb. in scale weight.  After 40, I stop.  

It's one big mind game.  Drink lots of water, expect to urinate a lot, you'll be thinking of food at your normal feeding times.  Once past dinner time, if you chose to go over 40 hours, you're home free.  You will not be hungry the next day and you'll feel rejuvenated.

Things to drink:

Water, Black Coffee, Green Tea, Apple Cider Vinegar and Lemon Juice in Water. (This will help with hunger pangs)

Can I put milk or cream in my coffee?  Sure, but you're breaking the fast.  

Abstaining from Alcohol

Benefits:

Higher Energy

Better Sleep Quality

Great Workouts

Lose Weight while being less compliant with your diet. Eat vs. drink calories

No Hangovers

Lower Blood Pressure

Better Heart Health

Liver rejuvenates

Digestive system feels better

Better looking skin

Joint Pain disappears due to hydration and lubrication of joints.

No next day anxiety

Easier to adhere to better food choices.

Better focus

I love reading blogs that say, "This is what happened after I gave up alcohol for 30 days!"  Then they're back to drinking and all of their gains have disappeared.  I get it drinking is FUN.  It's relaxing, It's the great adult pastime.  Unfortunately, it is TERRIBLE for you.  Once you're through a weekend or 2, it is easy.  Some people are great at moderation. I am terrible in moderation.  I'm an all or nothing person.  

10–20-minute Kettlebell MetCon workouts.

I LOVE kettlebell complexes and chains.  That is what drew me to kettlebells in the first place.  

EPOC Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption Higher calorie burn after exercise

Build a stronger heart with heart rates over 150

Less time more bang for the buck

Builds Strength, Endurance and Mental Toughness

Blow torch fat, not muscle

Get in incredible condition which will carry over to other activities.  

Total body workouts which bring variety.

There are a lot of schools of thought that have evolved into flavors of the month.  Maffetone Method, keeping heart rate around 130.  A + A, lift explosively for short periods of time, Minimalism, Simple and Sinister, doing just getups and one hand swings.  None of these interest me.  To me, exercise is getting the heart rate jacked up and going hard.  The heart rate, go slow stuff is BORING to me.  I'd rather do a 5-minute snatch test and push myself or do a double kettlebell complex or chain which will be HARD for 15 minutes and be done with it.  

Today, I did a complex called the Upper Back Attack from Geoff Neupert's More Kettlebell Muscle.  It was week 4 of the 6-week program.  I'm doing it sequentially as a chain.  Heavy day was today. My kettlebells are 45 lb. each and I did doubles.  5 rounds, with 90 seconds rest between rounds.  Looked like this:

Double Swing x 1, Double Clean x 1, Press x 1, Double Snatch x 1, Squat x 1.  Repeat sequence 5 times to be 1 set.  

It looks innocent enough, but around the 4 time around the sequence because you've used your upper and lower body fatigue sets in. Each set is 25 reps.  The whole workout took 11 minutes. My heart rate was 180 beats per minute and when I got into the shower 15 minutes later after mediating and praying, I was still catching my breath a little.

The carryover is once or twice a week, I'll go to Planet Fitness, do some pullups and dips and run 2-3 miles.  I can run sub-9-minute miles on a treadmill, and I might run 5 miles on a good week. 

The Best Pullup Program is to lose Weight

Every website has pull-up program.  Add one rep every day for 30 days. Grease the Groove, Pavel's Fighter Pullup program.  

In my opinion, pull-ups are a top 5 exercise.  It's the BEST back AND AB exercise.  Do 20-30 pull-ups and let me know how your upper ab muscles feel the day after.  I'm not a max rep guy, I have long arms, but love to do them.  Hands facing one another which helps build biceps and back width without hurting rear deltoids. Maxing out reps burns out your next set and the set thereafter. Plus, form gets sloppy. Are you getting your chin over the bar?  Sets of 2-5 work best, between other working sets.  If you go to the gym and do chest, 3 exercises, 3 sets a piece.  You can get 9-10 sets of 3. That's 27-30 on the low end of good reps. The lighter you are the easier they are to do which would equal more reps.  Sets of 4 or 5.  Mentally, don't think of pulling your chin over the bar, think of meeting your elbows with the bottom of your ribcage.  

Take Psyllium Husk

Also known as Metamucil.  It's not old people stuff.  It is PHENOMENAL for digestive health.  When I had my colonoscopy at 50, they told me I had diverticulosis and to take 2 tbs a day.  It tastes good, like Orange Hi-C. I mix 2 TBS of Lemon Juice and Apple Cider Vinegar with it.  Goes down easy.  

Benefits

Lowers Cholesterol

Fiber fills you up, so you'll eat less

ACV helps with gut health

Eliminates IBS and diarrhea

Cleans out your digestive track.

Soft, enormous one wipe movements

Less bloat

Absorbs water into your waste.

Highly recommend it.  5 days a week.  

Daily Flossing

One of the most preventive things you can do. If you're awake for 16 hours a day, that's 960 minutes.  Takes 1 minute to floss your teeth after brushing. Dan John is a HUGE proponent of this.

Gum health

Teeth health

Removes plaque

Eliminates halitosis.  Don't believe me?  If you haven't flossed your teeth in a couple of days, take a sniff of the floss when you're done.  That bacterium is what is causing it.  Lose the Altoids, floss your teeth.

Heart health. Everything comes back to the heart.  The bacteria in the plaque can contain strep which will damage your heart if it's exposed.  

Magnesium Oil

Magnesium is one of the most important minerals for your body.  Most people are deficient.  Oral supplements don't absorb as well as applying it into the skin. Start with soles of feet.  It can burn/itch at first.  This is an indication that you are deficient in it. You can wipe it off after 20 minutes.  Apply when you get up in the morning before showering and 30 minutes before you go to bed.

Deeper sleep, enjoy the vivid dreams.

Natural relaxant. Same as bathing in Epsom salts which are magnesium based

Alleviates soreness

Helps with hypertension.

Forget the CBD oil, buy magnesium instead.

 

Kettlebell Muscle Review

This is the second time I've run the Kettlebell Muscle program.  Kettlebell Muscle is a book written by Geoff Neupert back in 2010.  It is one of the most famous books ever written about the effectiveness of kettlebell complexes and chains.  It was such a success that Geoff followed up with More Kettlebell Muscle which is 20 different programs.  But if you run them as a chain it's realistically 35 programs.

Unfortunately, the book is out of print.  I don't own it, however some generous soul had put it out on Reddit.  I don't use the forum, but copied the workout.  Before this blog, I checked and couldn't find it on a search.  If you want the workout, comment below and I'll get it to you. 

It is a double kettlebell program, using your 10-12 rep pressing max, to perform multiple sets of a complex.  What is a complex?  

A series of exercises strung together doing a number of reps at one exercise, transitioning to the next exercise without rest.  

For example: doing 5 reps of each exercise

Double Clean x 5, Double Snatch x 5, Double Press x 5, Front Squat x 5. Rest and Repeat.

For the Kettlebell Muscle Program, all the reps are set at 5.  Exercises are: Double Swing, Double High Pull, Double Clean, Double Snatch, Military Press, See-Saw Press, Clean and Press, Clean and Push Press and Front Squats. Rest periods run from 75-150 seconds dependent on the progression of the program.  Sets run from 3-7.

Workouts last as short as 7 minutes to almost 18.  Program is done 3 times a week, for 12 weeks. A minimum effective dose?  Absolutely, but it packs a real punch.  Especially weeks 6 and 12.

Having just finished a 16 week program, Geoff's Kettlebell Burn 2.0, where the workouts were 35-46 minutes, I wanted to just hit it and quit it.  I took a week off and went on a golf vacation in Asheville, NC, fully fresh and well fed, I started the program using Double 45's

After the first workout, which took 7 minutes, yes medium day, was 7 minutes.  3 rounds, 120 seconds rest in between. I decided to run the program 6 days a week.  Fit 2 weeks into 1 with a day off. Another change, I made was doing snatches, high pulls, and swings outside the knees.  Better hip snap and protection from popping my SI joint which has been a lingering injury on and off for 3 years.  

The program went by in a blur as I finished it in 6 weeks.  As you progress to 5-6 sets on heavy day and are doing 10 reps of squats with 90 seconds rest, the legs turn to absolute jelly with the shakes. 

In week 6 which occurred in the 3rd week, I had to put the bells down on set 5 of 6 sets.  So I got the rest down and finished rest pause style.  Double clean, rest 15 seconds, Double Press, rest etc.  I finished the workout in the same amount of time, just didn't have the discomfort of holding the bells in the rack and cut the 90 seconds rest down into 15 second increments.

Week 7, the program resets and you start with squats and add a chain movement of clean and push press to heavy day and a clean and press chain to medium day.  The first 6 weeks of the program help you set up for the discomfort of the second half of the program.  On heavy day, the last two exercises of the set are the double snatch and squat.  Once I got through the clean and push press, I knew I'd get through the set. Never did I think a double snatch set would be an oasis.

There were 2 things I was curious about, could you run the whole program as a chain and could you use it for fat loss.

A chain is a sequence of exercises just like a complex except you do one rep of each exercise repeated 5 times

Double Clean x 1 Double Snatch x 1 Press x 1, Squat x 1 and repeat that 5 times to finish the set.  

Chains spread the fatigue around and hit you like a sledge hammer after the 3rd rep. Kind of like drinking gin.  The whole world seems normal and then BOOM.

On an off day in the latter half of the program, I did a couple of sets of heavy day as a chain.  It was tough, yet doable. 

As a fat burner, no. The squatting volume makes you hungry, real hungry.  As in, "I need to social distance from my refrigerator" hungry.

Results:

Incredible condition.  Heart rate up over 180 beats per minute at the end of heavy day. 

Weight: 200-202.  Didn't lose weight, but my pants didn't get any tighter.  Need to cancel my membership in the 2 bills club.  

Strength. Higher.  Pressing 90 lbs. 20-35 reps 6 days a week improved my strength.  I haven't been working with heavy doubles in a year or so.  As a matter of fact, haven't pressed double 70's at all.  This week, I tried it. 140 lb. went up easy with good form.  Did 16 sets of 1 + a squat without any struggle at all

If you can find it, I highly recommend.  Comment below and I'll get you the program.