The Casual Vegan » Personal Training

Can I do pull ups everyday?

Greg — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 03:04:56 +0000

I don’t have to tell you exercise is important right?

One of my favorite forms of exercise is pull ups. I love them because they require no weights, they are really quick even at advanced levels, and I’m rewarded for being thin. I’ve used a lot of training methods over the years, but with my little brother in the Marines, I had to step up my pull up routine.

The best part about my program is that it’s lazy as hell, takes less than 2 minutes to do, I never get sore, and I always make improvements right on schedule. The trick is to be consistent and set realistic goals. Most programs have you do too many sets, too many days per week, and insist on impossible goals!

Using my program I went from 7 pull ups to 19 pull ups in about 5 months. Five months seems like a long time, but really it’s nothing. It goes by so fast.

The program

Do pull ups only once per day, one set of pull ups, 5 days a week at 70% of your maximum # of pull ups. After 2 weeks, (10 days of pull ups) increase the pull up count by 1. On your first day, start by testing your maximum number of pull ups. Remember to take weekends off and have fun with your new lazy program.

Some tips for the test

Don’t cheat, don’t kick your legs, don’t swing, just do pull ups and see how many you can do. If it’s 1 that’s ok! All you have to do to start the program is to do one pull up every day 5 days a week! After 2 weeks you’ll be able to do 2 pull ups no sweat.

Can’t do 1 pull up?

Start by getting yourself up on the bar then lift your legs and lower yourself down slowly. Do this 2 or 3 times and count that as your one pull up for the day. In 2 weeks you’ll be able to do your first pull up!

My favorite place to do pull ups is at the park. It only takes a minute and no one will look you at funny… ok they will probably stare at you, but who cares! You’re on your way to 20 pull ups!

Bike to Work Week

kristen — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:52:25 +0000

As you may have heard, it’s Bike-to-Work Week, and May in general is National Bike Month. For some of you, it may be impossible to bike to work this week, so People for Bikes is also calling this week Bike-to-Anywhere Week. According to Tim Blumenthal, executive director of People for Bikes, nearly 50 percent of the trips Americans make each day are three miles or less. Maybe there’s a way for you to incorporate bicycling into your errands.

bicycling with your family

As someone who’s starting a family very soon, I’m enjoying daydreaming about the ways in which Greg and I can keep bike-riding as our main source of transportation. We have been without a car now for about a year and a half, and have relied on our bikes, our feet, and public transportation for the bulk of our transportation. When necessary, we borrow or rent a car for a car trip. How cool would it be to have a family bike on which to do our shopping and transporting around town? Maybe a “mamachari,” a style of bicycle popular in Japan among domestic people that looks a little like this:

Or a less extreme model:

Mamachari bicycles have either front or rear child seats (or both) and racks and baskets for the bicyclist to use for carrying items as well. They are primarily “step-through” frames to allow for easy mounting, and apparently are sold very inexpensively in Japan as they’re so widely-used.

An American version of this mamachari is a bike modified with an Xtracycle. I look to my sister as a source of inspiration with this bike, because she often uses hers like a station wagon, transporting both of her children, ages 4 and 7, at the same time (the 4 year old in the bucket seat and the 7 year old sitting snugly on the wide, long board of the Xtracycle), or an abundance of material goods:

getting rid of your car altogether

I’m not going to be saccharine about this: not having a car does change your life and it does limit you. BUT, in most ways, the changes are positive. Numero Uno Positive Change of Not Having a Car: COST. A really nice bicycle might be an investment, but does it really compare to a vehicle that you pay off every month (along with gasoline, repairs, registration, city stickers, parking tickets, parking fees, moving violations, et cetera)? Of course not. Do I need to mention that bicycles have very very low recurring costs? Compare fixing a bike tire with changing your car tire. You get the idea.

Also, I find that I eat better when I’m not driving to the store or restaurant for my every whim (especially good since I’m pregnant). I don’t buy nearly as much stuff that I don’t need. And I don’t have to plan as much for exercise, because exercise is a natural extension of my existence. I mean, I’m not saying that bicycling to the store is super hard work, because it’s only a mile away, and a fairly flat mile at that — but it gets me moving when I’d otherwise be idle or passively pushing a gas pedal. Because as everyone knows, when you have a car, you use the car.

pregnant biking

I’m 33 weeks pregnant as of today, and I’ve sort of been waiting for the day when I can’t bicycle any longer, but it hasn’t arrived yet, and doesn’t look to be arriving anytime soon. Because I’ve been bicycling the whole time, I guess, my “center of gravity” has remained steady on my bike, so I never feel like I’m going to fall over. I play it safe though — I have a mountain bike with efficient but safe tires, wear a helmet, have safety lights, take extra time and care when mounting and dismounting, and lately, I’ve been riding a lot slower, just taking my time, not really thinking about how much further I have, but about how each rotation of the pedals is smooth and feels good, which it does.

Bicycling is an amazing exercise for pregnancy, along with walking and swimming. I feel like when I am bicycling a good amount (not too much, not too little, don’t want to overdo it), I have less back pain, I sleep better, and I have more energy each day. It is a wonderful way to manage the extra 22 lbs hanging on my body. And when you are seated well on your bike with a comfortable seat, it’s way more comfortable than a car ride!

back to bike-to-work week

So! With a few of these ideas, what will you do to participate in National Bike Month? If nothing else, be courteous and share the road with bicyclists! We are out there to make our lives better, our air (and your air) cleaner, our roads safer, and to just have a nice day smelling the roses (not just an expression for me right now, I really smell this huge rose bush every time I go into town) and stretching our legs!

Streak Running and an Hour with the 6RRC

Greg — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:01:41 +0000

Streak running is a task in insanity. I first heard of the idea from the second part of pod cast from The Story called Running Together where a son and his mother run every single day for 2 years straight. I then looked into the idea and found the United States Streak Running Association where runners have been running daily for 30+ years!

The rules of a streak are simple. Run at least 1 continuous mile every single day. A writer for the New York Times did a piece on her father who has run 2+ miles daily for 30 years. He apparently has a strange gait, and runs pretty slowly now, but he’s no worse for wear.

The 8th Day

I’ve been on my first running streak for 8 days now. But, today on the 8th day of my streak, I participated in the 6 Rivers Running Club hour long race. The race was held at the HSU track where I run several times a week already. How could I not participate? Yes, I could have run slower, and not as far… But, with an amazing 10 year old runner named RJ running a sub 6 minute mile, how could I slack off?

The Food

I ate oatmeal with lots of fruit and flax this morning, and brought some sweet orange bell peppers, an orange, and some almonds to the race. I kept two almonds for luck, but can’t remember when I ate them. I was surprised no one gave me weird looks for eating a whole pepper like an apple, but they are so good. After the race I immediately devoured the orange, and tried not to be rude as I turned down cookies three times. Since I eat so little processed foods and don’t use salt, I get very little sodium. I’ve salted my dinner tonight, but it covers up the marvelous flavor of these orange peppers.

The Hour Race

The first lap was a lot of fun, everyone was chatty and friendly. I was running too fast, but everyone else seemed so strong and fast. I was floating. My first three miles were too fast. I was nervous, but everyone around me was running so fast, it was hard to slow down. Going past 3 miles was strange…. The fastest I’d ever taken a treadmill was 7.0 and that was hard. And, I ran faster than that for 5+ miles before my mind started to shut down. By the end of the 7th mile I was dead. One of the fast runners who lapped me many times held up 3 fingers and shouted, 3 minutes left! So, I ran a lap and a half in three minutes.

Nothing hurt. I couldn’t breath, but I felt great.

When I stopped running I was actually surprised to notice the people in front of me weren’t running anymore, and I was hit with a wall of pain almost instantly, my left thigh was on fire and I could barely stand on my calves, let alone walk!

RJ passing people who both out ran me

The good news is I can still walk, the bad news is, tomorrow’s run is going to be extra, extra hard. I’m still questioning my sanity on this streak business. To make matters worse, the Avenue of the Giants Marathon is in 3 weeks. I was hoping to complete my first marathon, but with all this streak running, I’m probably going to compete in the half marathon or 5k instead.

The Beautiful Streak

The beauty of a running streak is that you never have to ask yourself if your going to run today. The answer is always an unquestionable yes! I’ve never run more than 5 days in a week before, so we will see how this goes. Next time, I’ll best 8 miles.

Marine Daily 16

Greg — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:28:26 +0000

The Marine Daily 16 is a set of calisthenics exercises that Marines “lovingly” refer to as PT (emphasis on the P) which is short for physical training. I’m writing a series of posts about this training program in this series I’ll walk you through the Daily 16 describing each exercise sharing my personal preferences and experience as well as putting together the entire program. My brother is a Marine stationed in Afghanistan, but before shipping out he got to come home and teach me exercise the Marine Corps way. I’m not writing about politics because this blog is about food and exercise. I’m proud of my brother, and hope they can all come home soon.

Home from boot, my brother showed me a series of exercises called the Daily 16. It is a series of warm ups, stretches, core calisthenics, and cool down exercises. The program used to be called the daily 7, but the new marine daily 16 program incorporates exercises for every major muscle in your body. You don’t need any equipment to do any exercises, and they are a safe, effective full body work out.

When you begin you’ll start just by doing the exercises, but as you get more comfortable with the exercises, the marines do what’s called a double. They mix running or hiking in with the exercises. So you go through the warm up exercises, then go for a short slow run. Then you stop, perform an exercise, and then go back to jogging. After a short jog, you stop and do another exercise. The exercises are your breaks from running, and running is your break from exercise. You end the workout with a jog and your cool down exercises and stretches. I’ll walk through each of the exercises in the series, and provide links to the very little information that’s available on the Internet about this exercise program. While the program was designed to turn boys into physically fit soldiers, the program works remarkably well for people of all ages and fitness levels. It’s fun and entertaining.

The marine corps provides a rough PDF file explaining each of the exercises: Marines Daily 16. The next post will follow shortly.

100 Pushups: How Many Can You Do?

Greg — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:18:50 +0000

I found an interesting site you should check out called 100 push ups. While I don’t often link to exercise websites, this one of fun and entertaining. I promise. The site contains information about push ups and a program to get anyone to 100 push ups. The main purpose of the site is to advertise their book; however, the program is still a fun one. While most people won’t actually get to 100 push ups in seven weeks, I’ bet you’ll be shocked how far you get.

Exercise not only makes you feel great, but it makes you healthier too. So, what are you waiting for? Take the push up test, and give the program a try. Of course, careful reading will reveal that the program’s goal is pretty much impossible for most people. However, don’t let that dissuade you. I’m giving the program (and the sit up, squat, and a pull up program) a try myself, because my gym closes for 2 weeks over Christmas. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m starting at 60 push ups, so hopefully I can make it to 100. Hopefully I can get several of my friends to try it with me!

George Laroque Vegan

Greg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:49:30 +0000

Everyone knows vegan’s are 120 lbs due to the lack of protein, iron, and calcium in our diets. Recently a National Hockey League tough guy, George Laroque, has gone vegan to make a political statement against animal abuse. He serves as a wakeup call to many ignorant sports fans who equate eating meat with athletics. At 245 lbs no one can question his physical prowess.

Unfortunately, most news media coverage of Laroque reaffirms meat industry propaganda about being vegan. Statements by the press about Laroque having a nutritionist are quickly interrupted to mean being vegan is difficult and only for the rich. However, being vegan means you have more nutrients in your diet than ever possible while eating meat and dairy. The sad truth is that it’s the people who eat out of bags or at McDonald’s that need nutritionists. Reading the news coverage reminds me why I feel compelled to write this website. Being Vegan is not hard, its not expensive, and you don’t need anything meat has to offer. Least of all Cancer and Heart Disease.

Nothing provokes anger quite as much as challenging people on their fundamental beliefs. One commenter to the Laraque article actually spoke briefly about starving people in Africa to justify his own meat consumption. While starving people all over the world would be happy to have anything to eat, it’s Vegans like Georges Laroque and all of you that are making a difference in the World. Meat production is an extremely wasteful, inefficient process. The less meat we eat, the more food there is for everyone.

Running Raw

Greg — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:04:35 +0000

This morning Kristen found Tim VanOrden’s Running Raw on YouTube. Tim is an amazing runner who eats and promotes a raw food, vegan diet to athletes on his blog Running Raw. Tim is a persuasive speaker and his blog is marvelously entertaining and educational. Tim proves that an amazing athlete can thrive on a raw food vegan diet.

tim doesn’t eat protein

In one of his video’s Tim comments on his “lack of protein. ” Any educated vegan should know that they get enough protein because protein is in everything. However, Tim who doesn’t eat legumes, seeds, nuts or soy openly admits that he completely defies the protein myth, and he’s got the athletic ability to prove athletes don’t need protein. He is the counter example that disproves the belief.

John Robbins is also a tri-athlete and every time someone like Donahue asked John about how athletes could possibly survive on a vegan diet, John gave the simple answer that he is a tri-athlete. What’s great about Tim’s work in promoting a healthy plant-based diet, is that Tim has both the nutrition knowledge and an amazing athletic gift to make a great role model. Tim is proving everyday that he can out perform younger meat-eating athletes.

running on candy

I particularly liked his video on the Sears tower race, where he takes second place in an amazing feat of athleticism. In the post race interview of the winning athlete, the 22 year old kid admits, while laughing, that he ate nothing before the race but a Snickers bar. The kid is an amazing talent, hopefully Tim’s example will rub off him because there’s no telling how great the young man could become if he weren’t racing on candy bars.

Why Do Runners Eat poorly?

Greg — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:24:52 +0000

Kristen has recently become inspired to take up serious running. However, reading books about running and how to train for running is like reading propaganda for the meat and dairy industry. Professional runners obviously live in the same toxic food culture that we all do. Yet, reading about trainers and runners who eat protein powder, refined grains, processed meat sandwiches, and snickers bars makes me shake my head in disappointment. I often wonder why more people don’t eat in season, winter is pomegranate season, even the most unhealthy eaters will enjoy pomegranate!

Recently, we watched a documentary about marathons and the Chicago marathon in which Deena Kastor talks about her foot injury and her recovery process. She mentions consuming lots of yogurt and cheese to get her calcium. Obviously she’s seen too many Got Milk? commercials because nutrition research has shown that eating dairy and animal protein actually causes calcium loss because the excess protein leaches calcium from your bones and causes you to urinate calcium.

Don’t take my word for it, go to your library and get Food Revolution by John Robbins. From page 94:

Daily calcium intake for African Americans: More than 1000mg
Daily calcium intake for black South Africans: 196mg
Hip fracture rate for African Americans compared to black South Africans: 9 times greater.

The moral here?

milk gives you hip fractures.

The Benefits of Exercise

Greg — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:01:06 +0000

Those of you who have read my exercise story know that I enjoy exercise. To motivate you about exercise I am sharing with you some of the benefits regular excise. By focusing on the value of vigorous exercise it is easier to stay motivated and committed to a training regimen.

The benefits of regular exercise:

Increased life span
Increased vitality and energy
Decreased body fat
Increased muscle mass and strength
Stronger bones, joints, and ligaments
Increased stamina and flexibility
Lower risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes
Lower cholesterol and blood pressure
Reduced depression and increased enthusiasm
Improved sleep and falling asleep faster
Improved mood and enhanced self esteem

Everyone’s favorite reason to exercise:

Bragging Rights about your personal fitness

Many of the benefits of exercise are also the benefits of a healthy whole-foods, plant-based diet. Combining a healthy diet with exercise will not only make you a better person, it will change your life.

If you really enjoy eating, then exercise is for you because the more you exercise the more food you have to eat. Whether you want to run a marathon, improve your self image, or just make yourself happy, exercise is the only way to go. On days where I run until I can’t run anymore, or lift until I can’t lift another repetition, I am happier, hungrier, and more excited about life. Humans just are not meant to sit in offices or in front of TV’s all day.

Never have time to exercise?

Put on your shoes right now.

Run (slowly) around the block. Yes, you, right now. We both know you have the time because you just read this post. If you’re at work, take a “coffee break” and give it a try. If you’re in nice shoes, walk around the block quickly twice, or take your shoes off and go up and down the stairs a few times. If anyone sees you, smile and say hello.

My Exercise Story

Greg — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:09:01 +0000

I have been a weightlifter on and off for the past five years and a runner for the past two. I am neither very talented, nor exceptionally motivated. I try to make it to the gym four days a week because of the wonderful benefits of exercise. Yet, as a graduate student and web developer, many times I only manage it twice a week. During those cold snowy Chicago winters, I’ve often struggled to maintain my healthy exercise habits. I am just a regular guy.

That being said, I’ve learned a lot about exercise in the past few years, climbed one of the tallest mountains in the lower 48, and trained myself to run a 10k in an hour (not fast, but a feat for a computer programmer). I’ve read many books on exercise, lifting, and running from Gunner Peterson’s G-Force: The Ultimate Guide to Your Best Body Ever to the fun half-biography, half-diet and exercise Stallone book Sly Moves: My Proven Program to Lose Weight, Build Strength, Gain Will Power, and Live your Dream. I’ve learned the most important aspect of exercising well is to set realistic goals for yourself.

how I started

When I started exercising at the age of 24, I weighed 130 lbs and I could barely lift a 15-pound dumbbell. Sweat made my back itch; I hadn’t touched a weight since high school. After putting a weight bench in my bedroom and spending months weight training (and injuring myself twice), running around the block very slowly still caused me to keel over and die. Breathing hard made me dizzy. Yet, through stubbornness I still managed to stumble my way up and down Mount Shasta.

After my closest friend dragged me off the mountain and I spent 3 weeks recovering from my experience, I knew it was time to take exercise more seriously. I started reading every exercise book I could stomach until I managed to find a few great books. Most exercise books are really bad and extremely embarrassing to read in public. But, I always want to do everything well. So I hit the books.

By establishing realistic goals I’ve managed to gain 10 pounds, add 55 lbs to my bench press, and increase my cardio limit by 50 minutes. If I hadn’t taken up exercise at 24 by the age of 30 I’d have been a 120 lb weakling with 30 lbs of fat. Whether you want to gain 10 pounds of muscle, or lose 10 pounds of fat, given a healthy whole foods plant-based diet, and realistic goals changing your body is easier than you might imagine.

My goals for next week are to benchpress 135 pounds 5 times, squat 135 pounds 5 times. Last week I pressed 135 pounds 4 times, and squated 135 3 times, so I expect to add 1 more rep next week, although I didn’t make it to the gym over the weekend due to school work and job searching. Whether you can lift 50 lbs or 200, setting realistic goals will allow you to build self esteme and succeed at weight lifting week after week.