What I Learned

What I Learned

This project was incredible for increasing my passion for exercise. I was able to pass on some of knowledge to others which was a great feeling. Throughout the course of the past couple months I also made some massive improvements to myself involving strength, endurance and muscle tone. My deadlift max raised about 70 pounds and my bench press max raised about 60 pounds. At the beginning of the project I wasn't any sort of a runner but currently I'm doing my first marathon in two weeks. Two days ago I went on a little four mile run and did the first two at 5:30 minute mile pace. A couple weeks ago I did 6 miles at 6 minute pace and a 27 mile run whereas when I first started a few moths ago I was going on three mile runs at 10 minute mile pace. To measure my improvement in terms muscle tone I took progress pictures of my abdomen about every month.

To conclude, this project was amazing for me. It successfully reignited a passion I had been starting to lose sight of. My life had been on a path that was not opportune for my long term goals. Not only did I become physically improved but my persistence, determination and ability to strive for my goals improved. At this point I believe those aspects are more a part of who I am than ever before in my life. To provide a simple overview of how my life has been, I will explain some aspects of the past couple months. On average I've been working out 2-5 hours a day four to seven days. I alternate how much time I put into exercising in order to have a recovery period. For one length of time I may have grown a bit fanatical, getting up at five every morning and running for two hours, going to school, going to swim practice, (I'm on a swim team) then lifting weights and doing calisthenics before running again and getting home to do more strength training. During that time I would finish exercising at around 9:30 which was perfect so I could go to bed at 10:00 and do it over the next day. I would often break past five hours with over 10 miles of running, 75 minutes of swimming and hours of strength training. After not having a rest day in weeks and being forced to visit the chiropractor for a myriad of problems related to over training I decided to tone it down a little. Earlier I mentioned that the mental traits exercise affected other parts of my life. With the added discipline, persistence, and determination I was able to accomplish mush more in school, raising my grades and learning more content. Right now I am the closest I've ever been to my life goals and I reiterate, the personal characteristics that I value most, that are the closest to my heart are more present in my everyday life than ever before.

Upper Body Weight Training

Upper Body Weight Training

There are countless upper body exercises that can be performed with weights. People often perform a couple to isolate and exercise their shoulders, biceps, triceps, pecs, and assorted upper back muscles. One of the main upper body lifts done is the bench press. This is performed by using either a bar or dumbbells. Your back is supported by a exercise bench as you push your arms away from your chest and then lower the weight back down.

On a unrelated note I realize that I haven't done any blogs on core exercise. I feel that I need to stress how important it is to keep your strong. You should do a myriad of different core exercises mainly because your abdominal muscles support your torso and help prevent against injury.

Lower Body Strength Building

Lower Body Weights

Weightlifting is very important to build both muscle and strength. In my opinion the most important weightlifting exercises for your legs are:

• Squats 

• Dead Lifting 

• The Clean 

• The Snatch

(some of these exercises use your upper body as well)

Project Update:

So far I have taken a break from swimming in order to spend more time on running and weights. There is a script but I still need to make the video that will be the culmination of all my knowledge on this subject. I started running in sand wich I've to be very helpful for building speed. Also I've raised my max deadlift to three hundred pounds and max bench press to two hundred. I'm about halfway through my the explanatory part of my blog and will proceed to talking about Upper body wights, swimming, and certain body weight exercises.

Interval Training/Sprints

Interval Training/Sprints

Sprints are great for a myriad of benefits. They build cardiovascular ability, lower body strength, and muscle tone. In order to perform this safely you first half to warm up properly. For this you should do some sort of light cardio such as jogging or jumping rope for a few minutes. It is important to also do static stretching. Make sure get all the major muscle groups even the ones in your upper body as you can pull those while sprinting.* For the actual work out you have a combination of sprinting and walking. An example of a work out could be:

1. 2 min. jump rope
2. 3 min. stretching
3. 30 second sprint
4. 30 second walk
5. 30 second sprint
6. 30 second walk
7. repeat 5 and 6 until fatigue
8. PUSH YOURSELF

*It does help to to have special light weight shoes for sprinting but there not entirely necessary.

Running

Running

With this project i've noticed vast improvements involving strength and muscle tone but especially with endurance. As of two months ago I was never a runner, at the gym I would walk at a steep grade on the treadmill and my current cardio would come from swimming. On top of swimming and weights I recently started running and within a short period of time my endurance increased an incredible amount. A few weeks ago I started running and didn't stop. It was night at the beginning and ran until the wee hours of the morning. I had ended up going 27 miles. It was slightly horrible, my feet hurt for days and the next day I could barely walk. On average I currently break about 50 miles a week, sometimes more. In order to make running more pleasant I bought some nice running shoes. Asics gt-2000. For running long distance I would definitely recommend investing in a nice pair of shoes if nothing else, shoes are the most important. Bad suport effects everything from your ankles to your knees to your hips to your spine. If you have wide feet I would't sugesst asics, there a very thin shoe and for me, they squeeze my feet causing some pain.
When it comes to workouts it is very important that you keep your back and joints free of injury. Recently I visited the chiropractor who found a multitude of problems including four discs out of alignment and a rotator cuff injury. To bypass issues like these, my suggestion would be to make sure you have proper form, strengthening the small muscle groups as that can protect your joints and keep them strong along with purchasing a weight belt. Weight belts are extremely helpful in supporting your back and preventing injury.
When it comes to swimming its very difficult to get injured, I would say just be careful to not dehydrated and drink lots of water. This also helps to prevent muscle cramps in the water which are extremely annoying and can take a chunk of time out of your workout as when they happen you have to climb out of the pool and stretch. As rule of thumb you should drink 8 fluid oz or one cup of water for every ten minutes of cardio. Water is incredibly important to living healthy and maintaining energy levels.

For buying shoes for normal running you should go to this link to find which type you need.

Project Update

So far I've realized that I need a to do list for this project.

1. Right now I have to: continue with my exercise every day
2. Create document with all my exercises and improvements.
3. Create pamphlet and workout guide along with a a section on diet and rest.
4. Research diet and rest.
5. Create script for video
6. Create video

After I created the scripts I'll make or find a assortment of videos or explain or explain the different aspects of certain types of exercise. First I'll start with running and sprinting before moving onto to weightlifting.

Getting Swole Project

What am I excited about for this project?
What am I wondering about this project?
What ideas interest me right now?

In the upcoming project I'm excited to learn about my limits in terms of strength and hopefully improve myself while exploring my passion for exercise and spread that passion to others where it will hopefully benefit their lives. If it works I will leave this year being physically much stronger, more athletic overall and more knowledgeable on this subject. With many informational videos about certain aspects of this topic. I wonder where and how exactly I'm going to get my weights and what progress I'm going to see along with how I'm going get into other aspects of exercise and how I'm going to get other people into them. Right now the most interesting part is just being able to explore different compartments in exercise and expand my passion along with the challenge of indoctrinating others.

What I want to say to those who are trying to embark on the journey of self improvement through exercise is that its an amazing thing and there's not much to it. First you should set some goals, they can be small or big, clear or ambiguous but they help to keep you focused. At this point it really just takes knowing what works for you and discipline. Perhaps the most important quality for exercise is discipline. Now not everyone has surplus cognitive control but you can build it up. So start small; keep everything easy and then make it harder. It is imperative to just do it. The first step to finishing is starting. What really helps is to find what works for you. Exercise is different for everyone. If you find a passion for running, just put on a pair of shoes and start running. Throught my blog I will discuss my own experience as well as many different options to help you find something you can stick with.