Outdoor Park Workout.

Healthier Lifestyle

It’s going to be clear as you read this that I’m definitely not a writer. Nor am
I a trained fitness professional, I am just a regular guy who has been involved
in fitness for most of my life. So if you’re an English teacher or just really on
top of the laws of the English language please put the red pens away. You will
only ruin your monitor. Now that we understand each other I’ll move on to the
point.

In many ways, I was and still am unbalanced . I feel that most us are
unbalanced. Both in the exercises that we do to keep fit and also with the
things we do to live our lives. In most cases we lack patience , we set high
intensity goals and eventually burn out. Yet as G.I. Joe said “Knowing it is half
the battle”. Allow me to explain.

You will notice that as I go through my thoughts, here, with you that I’m not
going to be supporting one type of workout over another. As I see it, that is
part of the problem. At least it has been for me and for many of us. You see
as we get into workouts or into life in general we tend to get ourselves into
routines and habits. Then we find what we are good at and stick to improving
those areas, ignoring the areas that we lack. This is obviously the best way to
feed our ego. Especially when the attractive girl is watching and your upper
body resembles Arnold in predator! Hey and just cause your legs haven’t
gotten stronger since grade 6 and you can’t run one lap around the block its to
save your life, no biggie. She can’t see that!

Many other people do this but in reverse. You see it’s easy to pick on the body
builder type people, because anything they lack sticks out. In fact people can’t
wait to see there legs to point out how unbalanced they are. There are many
runners that I see running the great city of Toronto all the time who I wouldn’t
consider in good overall shape. You see if you have the body balance of an
Ostrich. Plain and simply, you are unbalanced. How many push ups do you
figure an Ostrich can do? Or a T Rex? We have been lucky enough to have a
more balanced body then these creatures. So why cheat ourselves?

You see this blog, article or whatever you want to call it isn’t called
bodybuilding 101 or The Ultimate run. It’s called A Healthy Lifestyle and
there’s a reason for that. The lifestyle might not fit you if you’re a beginner

and I can understand that. Sometimes you have to go through trial and error
before you can see what I’m trying to say. The people that I do think will
get something out of this is people who have been hardcore runners, or
weightlifters or have been after a particular goal. These people have been in
the game long enough. They have felt the set backs of injuries, or fall offs and
come backs from going hard and burning out. Well if you’re tired of all that
and now want to actually feel good with no excuses, you will probably listen to
what I’m saying.

I’ve also seen friends ruin backs, ankles, knees, rotator cuffs and tear
ligaments etc.

I too went through many ups and downs through my workouts and in life.
After getting into some of the worst shape in my life and going through an
all time low, I woke up looked in the mirror and was not happy. I started
back with tightening up my diet and renewing my gym membership. Which
is what most of us do in this situation. Along the way I turned 30 which is
a mile stone, right. So I did some reflecting on how I got to this point. I also
realized that I was about to go back to follow the same steps that I had done
before. Why wouldn’t I? It seemed to work..well kinda. The point is that we
are very likely to repeat the same mistakes if we are not aware. Which usually
starts with the attitude of the great come back! I’m gonna live in the gym
and run everywhere. “Say Goodbye to Carbs”! I need all the best of the best.
Shoes, protein, vitamins even special running socks! I’m hardcore! I feel sorry
for people who don’t take care of there health. Man it feels good to be back!
Then… Same injuries, same pit falls and the same excuses. My bodies too tired
to carry this pace and I want to sleep and eat cheese burgers with my (ex)
girlfriend.

Repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
It is insanity. At least that’s what an Ex girlfriend yelled me before breaking
up with me and speeding off in her car. As much as that sucked and probably
came from a Dr Phil book, she was right. Life is life. Working out is just a part
of life and life needs balance. So does everything in it.

What I came up with was that I wasn’t going to go “superman” on the world
for a short sprint. Instead I would figure out a way to maintain a healthy
life style for the long haul. This is going to take a change at the way I look at

things. It’s not all or nothing. It’s doing something everyday. Little by little
to make me who I am. If I can’t do as much as I’d like, it’s okay. I can make it
up in other ways. If I can’t go workout as long as I’d like one day, then that’s
a perfect day to have stricter diet. After all if I’m gonna do this for the rest of
my days, or until my body turns into a carcass, I need to enjoy myself. Think
positive and don’t unravel.

What I ended up doing was sampling all types of workouts that I had
researched on you tube and various other websites. Things that I had
never explored before like kettle ball training and boxing conditioning with
gymnastics training. All sorts of different types of training. Now that I had
the ease to explore into any of these methods no gym could hold me. Literally
once that sun started shinning out side of the gym, I decided that I would
do all my workouts outdoors using my environment. Now it’s been about 5
months and I must say I’m in some good shape. I mean the kind of shape that
you feel confident, happy and healthy.

As you might have guessed I believe it’s all about balance. If you’re into lifting
weights or running hard I think it’s cool. I just feel that we can incorporate
it to a balanced week. Say Friday you do your really hard running the rest of
the week you do bur-pees, jumps jacks and jump rope. As for your resistance
training mix it up. Do some calisthenics instead, then do some mass training,
then endurance, maybe do yoga etc. After all we want this to last. Not to be
on the side line. So enjoy it to the fullest. In this entry I don’t have a workout
plan for you. If you want one I can provide it for you no problem. I guess I
wanted you to know where I’m coming from. There should be a video here
for you to watch that a friend and I put together of me doing some things that
you can do out doors. Other then that I hope that this made some sense and
somehow motivates you. I will be doing more of these blogs, they are kind of
fun if you have done one maybe try that too. Why not , you can’t be balanced if
you try new things it balances out all the old things you do!

For some of my other balancing ideas, please stay tuned. I could only write so
fast!


Thanks for reading,

Michael R.

Distance and endurance..

Warning. The next few lines of this post will seem like a profile bio pertaining to some character on a "online web dating site". It's not.

I am a 40 year old, South American male. I speak a few languages, all just a little better than mediocre. I have a career which I love and well, I stay fit. Relatively....

I have always been athletic. By this I mean that, in my younger years I always had good hand eye coordination. I didn't need to go to the gym because I was always active. I played in team sports such as soccer, volleyball, cross country running, skiing and more. Activity was just a part growing up.

When I had discovered that I was a grown up, I kept active. I made the choice to join a gym. Gyms are always intimidating. There is all sorts of lunar like torture machinery. Unless one takes an active role in learning how to use their properties to achieve a desired physique, well...

I didn't.



I just wanted to go there and lift, not so heavy things, a number of times, get sweaty and get the hell out of the very uncomfortable men's change room.

I did this for a while. In contrast, I knew of a number of people who hit the gym hard. Systematically with a goal and ready for action. They were the body builders, who seek the mass. I think they are still in the change room.

Anyway, the gym could not keep my interest very long. I still wanted to keep fit. So, I started running.It worked my "lean" or long muscles effectively. This gave me the body shape that I wanted. I kept running. As every runner knows, running in addictive. Maybe it's because the initial learning curve is quite rewarding. One can be a 10k runner in no time. Then one becomes a member of a community.

After reaching the first 10k safe plateau, it becomes a challenge to go longer and longer. Obviously, the longer the distance, the harder it becomes to achieve a higher kilometer count. Then there is the whole aspect of increasing your distance while at he same time, decreasing your speed. That's where the fun really begins.

Maybe not as much "the fun" but more "the challenge". Trying to go longer and avoid injuries is also a unique game. One which a lot of us loose often. Injuries are common. The severity, frequency and one's ability to get better depend on various factors.

Speaking for my self, distance/ endurance running has become a part of my life. It has given me a great perspective from which to look at my life. I know if I wasn't a distance runner, I would have never seen some the great sites I visited while travelling for work. On my first night in Vienna, I clocked an extra 5k to my daily run because I got lost. I wouldn't complain though. Discovering, the monuments of Vienna, alone, in the dark was a fantastic experience. Considering that most of us who travel for work, we never really get a chance to see the cities we visit, running helps. The Champs-Elysee would have been different for my my brother and I, on our visit to Paris if we were both not addicted to staying fit.

Distance running or endurance training develops different muscles. To be a better runner one has to change the way one lives. This includes diet, rest periods and schedules. As a result, I also found that it gives one a different way to see every day life. It changes the way you live daily. I enjoy it, (I don't like it) immensely.