Introducing Fit-20 - 20-minute workouts

I've been talking for awhile about doing a series of 20-minute workouts that can be done just about anywhere and require little to no gym equipment; I've been thinking about it for even longer. Well, they're here!

Beginning next week I'll start posting Fit-20 workouts, which you can use as the basis for your own workout routine.  Here's a quick synopsis:

Fit-20 Workouts WILL:

• Provide a road map for getting your body moving on a consistent basis.
• Provide a workout you can do just about anytime and anywhere.
• Work your entire body, from head to toe. (unless you're already in great shape, you will be sore!)
• Get your heart pumping, aerobic style.
• Tone your body, working your muscles while making your heart pump, lungs gasp, and sweat glands go into over-drive.
• Be flexible, so you can do them according to your own ability.
• Most will require simple, or even no gym equipment. Those that require equipment can be substituted for other exercises.
• Be published 3 days per week. Those of you who want to work out longer, or more frequently, are welcome to. You can add time or repetitions to the posted Fit-20 workout. You can add an aerobic exercise before or after the workout. You can stack multiple Fit-20 workouts back-to-back if you're so inclined.
• Be a great compliment to a sensible diet and a long-term weight loss &/or fitness plan. (ie: goals measured in months, rather than weeks.)
• Be a basic building block to overall fitness.

Fit-20 Workouts WILL NOT:

• Pretend to replace a 90-minute daily workout - if you're looking for 30-day results like you see on a TV infomercial, you'll need to look elsewhere.
• Spend lots of time "sculpting" a specific body part - we can't spend 30 minutes on your shoulders or abs during a 20 minute workout! You'll see lots of fast-paced movements, and not so many "hold that pose for 90 seconds" activities.
• By themselves, Fit-20 workouts will not cause you to lose weight. They'll make a great compliment to a good eating plan (which is coming soon!), but if you're over-eating, 20 minutes of exercise probably won't change your weight.
• Get you into specific event performance shape. Want to run a marathon? You'll need to train for a marathon!

You can learn about Fit-20 Workouts in more detail on my Fit-20 page. You can sign up here to receive them in your email inbox each day a new one is published.

Coming soon - Food & Diet ideas to compliment your Fit-20 workouts on the way to long-term success. Stay tuned...

-Chris Butterworth

log your workouts for better performance

One of the great feelings that comes with doing something consistently, whether that be exercising, eating right, or learning any other new skill, is the pride of forward progress. And one of the best ways to see forward progress is to write down what you were able to do at each workout.

A good log will have notes for: how much weight you used, how many reps or sets you did, how fast you went, and how you felt during &/or after the workout. Over time, you should see improvement in every area, and in every exercise.

5 Reasons for tracking your progress

1.) Confirm you're moving forward

Sometimes you need to find that little extra motivation when you're facing the prospect of another tough workout, knowing you're about to feel tired, sweaty, and probably sore the next day. It would be discouraging to think you're beating your brains in without making forward progress. But when you see your results, you'll know your body is getting something out of the effort you're putting in. And the more time that goes by, the more progress you'll see.

In addition, you'll see a consistent entry of dates, showing your consistent approach towards your goals. If you open your log and notice a large gap in dates, you'll know you're getting off track, and you can take the opportunity to correct your course.

2.) Pride and Motivation

Seeing how much weight you could lift when you first started, or how fast or far you could run, or how many sets you could do, can be a source of pride when you know how far you've come. It can also be a great motivator for even further progress - once you see the proof that what you're doing is working, you start to believe in yourself even more, and push yourself a little harder.

3.) Benchmarks for bad days and good days

Some days you'll struggle to find your motivation for working out. Maybe you don't feel well, or you're tired, or you've got other things on your mind. These are the days where your log will show you what is minimally expected of yourself. You know how much weight, or how many reps, you did last week and the week before, so you'll use those as goals for today's workout.

Other days you'll be in a great mood, ready and excited to dominate your workout. These days you'll look at what you've done over the last couple of weeks and know you want to hit those numbers and *then* start counting your personal records!

4.) Finding patterns

Are your workouts better at night than in the morning? Do your numbers get worse every time you do a particular exercise? Do your workouts get better, or worse, as the week progresses? Finding patterns in your workouts can help you make adjustments to your routines to better suit your body.

My log showed me that I perform better in night-time workouts than early morning workouts, so I shifted to evenings after the kids went to bed. Then, however, it wasn't long before I realized that I felt exhausted all the time, so I switched back to morning workouts. By working out in the morning, I'm giving up a little bit of top end performance, but I feel better throughout the day.

Bonus - if you're also tracking your eating, you might even find cross patterns, where you'll notice better or worse performance depending on what and when you eat!

5.) Knowing where to start

You don't want to waste your workout time searching for the right weight, or wondering how many of something you're supposed to do. This is especially true with cross-fit workouts, where you might go several weeks before repeating an exercise or routine. A quick glance at your log shows you what you did the last couple times you did a similar workout.

Conclusion

It doesn't really matter what method you use to log your workouts, from paper & pen to highly sophisticated computer program, you'll realize many benefits to keeping track of what, and how, you're doing. And you'll see that, just like hiking, small steps add up to great distances over time.

-Chris Butterworth

5 keyboard shortcuts to make Windows easier

Have you ever watched someone work with a program where you know how to do it better/faster/easier? It's maddening! These 5 shortcuts are easy to use and are available throughout the Windows environment - Word, Excel, Internet, Evernote, and so on.

1. Copy (Ctrl + c)

Whether you're trying to copy a letter, word, block of text, photo, or file, reaching for your mouse and searching around for menu options is so tedious. Once you select the text, just hit the Ctrl key and the "c" key, and Bam - your text (or image, or file) is copied to the clipboard.

2. Paste (Ctrl + v)

The copy shortcut is great, but you get to finish off the 1-2 combination by quickly and easily pasting whatever it is you just copied.

3. Select All (Ctrl + a)

Selecting long blocks of text may be one of the most frustrating events you do during the course of the day - you're holding down the button and dragging the mouse, wondering if you started in the right place, or if you you're going to be able to stop at the end. Don't do that anymore! Just place the cursor anywhere in the block of text, then hit Ctrl and "a". (probably immediately  followed by Ctrl + c, right?)

4. Find (Ctrl + f)

Being able to quickly find a word in a document is very helpful. It's even better when you trying to find something specific buried within a long web page or PDF file. Press Ctrl and the "f" key, and you'll see a pop-up box asking what it is you're trying to find.

5. My Computer (Windows Explorer) (Win + e)

From anywhere within Windows, press the Windows key and “e” to open up a new instance of My Computer - ideal when you're trying to find a particular file, or when you need to copy a file from one location to another. (using ctrl +c and ctrl + v, of course!)

Conclusion

These are the most common things that drive me crazy when I'm watching somebody else work inefficiently within Windows. i bet you'll feel the same way too, once you get used to these..

Fluency + 1 - I wrote about fluency not too long ago. It's easier to add one new thing to your current workflow than it is to try to remember 5 things you should be doing. I'd recommend picking one of these 5, and start using it today, like Now! Then, as it becomes 2nd nature, come back to the list and try adding another one.

What are some other good shortcuts out there? Do you have a favorite I didn't mention? Let me know..

-Chris Butterworth

be prepared. work hard. be successful.

Have you heard about Les Brown and the Miami Dolphins? Last month the Dolphins signed Brown, hoping he'll make the team and become a dominating tight end over the next few years. No big deal, right? Every other team has been signing players as well. But this is a bigger deal than most, you see - Les Brown is an accountant who hasn't played football since high school, about 8 years ago!

There's a good write-up of the story in the Seattle Times:

This time a year ago, Les Brown was working behind a desk at Huntsman Gay Global Capital's West Palm Beach office. He was planning to return to school at Westminster College in Salt Lake City and finish his finance degree. Long-term, his goal was to work for an investment bank or a consulting firm in New York.

The NFL was something he watched, like a second religion, Sunday afternoons. In high school he got offers to play football at Oregon, Washington State and Brigham Young. Instead, he chose to play basketball, the sport he always loved most, at Westminster College, an NAIA school.

It was a longshot, but the precedent already has been set. San Diego's Antonio Gates and New Orleans' Jimmy Graham made the transition from college basketball player to NFL tight end. Brown, at 6 feet 4, had that same prototypical pro look.

"I would never undersell this kid," Ikei said. "He's a very intelligent kid. Has a great work ethic. He won't be afraid to ask questions and make mistakes and pick himself up and do it again. It will actually surprise me if he doesn't make the roster."

Now he is living his life completely, without regrets. He's taking a chance, unafraid of failure, unafraid of miracles.

"I hope that my story, albeit a very nontraditional one, can be helpful to people," he said. "I hope it can help people realize that, hey, it doesn't matter if you're two years removed from playing college sports and you're sitting behind a desk. If you put your mind and effort into something, you can make your dreams come true."

It's a great story, regardless of the ending. Maybe he'll make the team and become an all-pro tight end. Maybe he'll get cut and never play a down in the NFL.

But look at what he did.

• He kept himself in great shape, even after his fleeting college basketball career was over.
• He was willing to elevate this goal above everything else, giving it his absolute focus - so much so that he moved 3,000 miles away from home, to a place where training would be the only thing for him to do.
• He was given an opportunity, and he seized it with both hands. No hedging, no fear of losing, no regrets.

I realize Les Brown possesses some physical traits most of us do not, like a 6' 4" frame coupled with a 4.4 40 and a 39" vertical jump, which is why he's shooting for the NFL while most of us are excited just to watch the games on TV come September.

But that's not the point. Last week I wrote "where preparation meets opportunity." This is the same story - just with different names and different places.

Be prepared. Be focused. Be dedicated. Be willing to answer when opportunity knocks. Those are the points.

If Les Brown can go from accountant to Miami Dolphins tight end, what can you do?

-Chris Butterworth

cross-fit body-weight workouts are good

My last two fitness goals were centered around endurance events. (endurance is a relative term - they were both the longest I had ever tackled; neither would be considered a long event in the grand scheme of their kind.)

I ran a 10-mile road race on Thanksgiving Day last fall. My longest run ever prior to training for that race had been 4 miles. Needless to say I spent most of last fall training with long runs, and it paid off - I killed that race. I finished well below my goal time, and my time at the 6-mile mark still blows me away.

Then came my Olympic-length triathlon a couple weeks ago. This race required me to spend A LOT of time swimming, biking, and running. 60-minute workouts became child's play, as I had many 2.5 hour training sessions in the mornings before work. The race itself was grueling, taking over 3 hours to complete.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because I haven't done a body-weight cross-fit workout since last summer. I've trained long, and I've trained hard. I've done speed work, hill work, fast work and slow work. But I don't remember ever being too sore to walk.

This week I worked out 4 days. I swam on Monday, and I ran on Friday. Tuesday & Thursday I did body-weight cross-fit workouts, 20-25 minutes each. And I cannot believe how SORE I am today!

Right now - lunchtime on Friday - as I write this, I can feel my workouts in every part of my body: biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, back, abs (lots - please don't make me laugh or sneeze!), butt, quads, hamstrings, calves..

I don't know how to compare calories burned doing cross-fit with running or swimming, but I can tell this - my heart rate was very high for 20-25 minutes, and my muscles were getting worked hard. I don't think I could have done these workouts for 60 minutes, or even for 45 minutes - I was spent by the end of them. And today my body is still spending energy to heal my muscles.

I've said many times before - you're only in shape for whatever it is you're in shape for. And since I don't have anything particular to train for in the near future, I'm looking forward to more of these workouts - general fitness with a mix of cardio, strength, and body shaping...

Cross-fit body-weight workouts are good.

-Chris Butterworth

intervals

Interval training is a method where you perform an exercise at a very high level of intensity for a short period of time, followed by doing the same exercise at a slower pace while you catch your breath. Repeat.

Intervals can be used with just about any aerobic activity - running, biking, swimming, jumping jacks, dancing, etc. You can vary the time & distance of fast vs slow based on your abilities and intensity.

• Distance - run 100 yards as fast as you can, at a full-out sprint. Then jog slowly back to the starting line, and sprint again. No resting in between sets - the jogging portion is your rest.
• Longer distances might include 1/4 mile at a pace too fast to keep for long, but not an all out sprint.
• Shorter distances are ok, too - more exploding off the line with less maintaining top speed involved.
• Time - sprint for 10 seconds; slow jog for 50 seconds; repeat. This becomes 1 minute for each interval.
• You can increase your time increments as you get stronger and fitter. Keep in mind, though, that more time sprinting equals less time recovering - 10 seconds / 50 seconds, 15 / 45, 20 / 40, etc.
• For longer distances, exchange sprinting for running fast - run fast for 150 steps, jog for 150 steps. Repeat the process for the duration of your run.

Intervals vs Steady Pace

I find that I can run a given distance, say 5 miles for example, faster when I hold a steady pace. But when I do 100 yard intervals for that same distance (5 miles equals 44 sprints of 100 yards each), I'm completely wiped out - more tired, more sweaty, more heart-pounding, and much more sore the next day.

Intervals pack a punch, and are a great way to turn up your intensity!

Legal Disclaimer (don't blame me).

Warning - I am NOT a licensed physical trainer, therapist, nutritionist, or a doctor.  I am a regular guy who just happens to love exercise and fitness.

Exercise can be dangerous if done incorrectly or in excess.  I can't see you, and you can't see me, to know if you're doing an exercise incorrectly, which could lead to injury.

Please Please Please seek help / advice / counsel from a local professional before starting a new program, or before doing an exercise you're unfamiliar with.  This information is intended as a guide to point you in the right direction.  If you aren't familiar with the exercises described herein, I highly recommend seeking professional advice before trying them.

working on the right things

From Seth Godin's blog:

I don't think winners beat the competition because they work harder. And it's not even clear that they win because they have more creativity. The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters.

... (they) are doing it by perfecting the things that matter and ignoring the rest.

That's so obvious, and yet so difficult to embrace. I talk about getting things done, "just do it", making forward progress, ending the day ahead of where you started it - things like that. But even while trying to move forward, how much of our day's energy gets wasted on stuff that really doesn't matter?

Most of us can't tell our boss when what we're doing is a waste of time, or at the very least we're skittish about how the potential outcome could affect our livelihood. But then there you are, slaving away on something which ultimately doesn't move you forward. The more energy you can shift towards getting the things that matter done, the better off you'll be.

-Chris Butterworth

was my workout long enough?

Do you ever get to the end of a workout and wonder if you've done enough? You know you could have gone further on the treadmill, or completed another set of exercises. That's when the doubt sets in, and you start to wonder if you're short-changing yourself and your fitness routine.

This is a question which has different answers for each of us, much like "when is enough?"

I would turn the focus of this question back to your goal and your master plan. If you set a goal for yourself, and then created an action plan (process) with daily or weekly milestones which can be easily tracked, then it's really just a matter of doing what you set out to do, and checking in on your progress periodically. (see "the process creates the results".) And since 99% of my readers have goals along the lines of losing weight and getting healthy, I'll focus on a plan for those:

Losing weight in moderation (such as 25 lbs per year), or exercising for health benefits, can require a little patience and some further detective work. Let's look at what's involved in losing 25 lbs per year in more detail:

Losing 25 lbs per year boils down to about 2 lbs per month, or about 1/2 lb per week. That's not very much, which means it can be difficult to tell if you're being successful from week to week, and almost impossible to tell from day to day, at least by standing on a scale.

1.) First of all, your weight probably fluctuates a couple-few pounds from day to day, regardless of what you ate or how long you exercised yesterday. I recommend standing on the same scale, at the same time of day, wearing the same clothes (such as first thing after waking up, after your morning pee, wearing your skivvies or pajamas), 3 days in a row to get a better feel for your baseline weight. Write down the three different weights.

2.) Your diet will play a bigger role in losing weight than your exercise. Exercise will compliment your diet very well - it will accelerate fat loss, add muscle tone and definition, help speed up your metabolism, make you more likely to be more active throughout the rest of the day, and make you feel better about yourself. But exercise alone won't trigger your weight loss - unless you're doing several hours per day, in which case you probably aren't reading my website... Start here, with diet. It doesn't matter whether you're doing 15 minutes or 60 minutes of exercise - if you're diet isn't under control, you aren't losing weight.

3.) Build the master plan. You know your baseline weight, and you know how much you've been eating and exercising before you started making changes. Now you can make some changes to both. Maybe you're plan is to eliminate processed foods, sugar, or carbs, or maybe you want to eat fewer than 1,500 calories per day. (I'm a fan of limiting calories without making drastic changes to what & where you eat, but that's another topic for another day.) Whatever it is, you should know at the end of each day whether you accomplished your eating goal. Do the same thing for your exercise plan - if your plan calls for 20 minutes of exercise 5 days a week, then do it. Now is not the time to question your workouts - maybe you can make some notes to yourself about how you're feeling, but you don't need to spontaneously change your workout plan.

4.) Compare your results against your plan. We know that 1/2 pound per week is hard to measure, so let's wait a little longer before making comparisons. After 6 weeks on your plan, you should have lost about 3 pounds. Get on the scale again (3 mornings in a row) and see how you're doing (compare all 3 weights with all 3 of your baseline weights). If you're making acceptable progress, great - you're workouts are fine. If you're not happy with your progress, now is a good time to edit your plan. If you think you're not working out hard enough, change your workout duration or intensity. If you think your workouts are ok but you're still not losing weight, adjust your diet.  Once you set up a new process, stay with it for another 6 weeks before making more changes. Keep in mind that your goal was for a whole year, and you're only about 17% through the year, so there's still plenty of time to modify and correct yourself.

5.) Pounds can be stubborn - check your body too. Many times you'll see your body change, and notice how differently your clothes are fitting, long before your body sheds weight. It's very possible that you've lost inches but haven't lost any weight yet. That's because your body is building muscle from your workouts, so even though you've lost some fat, the scale doesn't know the difference. If this is the case, you know you're moving in the right direction and the weight loss will follow. (and when it does, it's likely to happen faster than you expected!)

So, getting back to the original question, "was my workout long enough?" That depends on your plan. Did you make a plan? Did you follow your plan? If so, then yes - your workout was long enough. If you get to the 6 week mark (or 12 weeks, or 18 weeks), and you find you need to kick it up a notch, then do so - modify your plan to be a bit more aggressive, and then follow your new plan. But trying to wing it on the fly isn't going to work - the process creates the result.

Did you ever have an old teacher or manager tell you to "plan your work, then work your plan?" Turns out they were right.

-Chris Butterworth