Exercise Quotes for February

"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable." - Oscar Wilde, before he died at the age of 46.

"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far." - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826).

"Exercise alone provides psychological and physical benefits. However, if you also adopt a strategy that engages your mind while you exercise, you can get a whole host of psychological benefits fairly quickly." - James Rippe, M.D.

"Dig where the gold is…unless you just need some exercise." - John M. Capozzi.

"Extreme exercise doesn’t save you from poor food choices. It can be difficult to exercise and erase away that chocolate cake or pizza pie. It doesn’t work that way." - Jennifer Hudson.

"To resist the frigidity of old age one must combine the body, the mind and the heart - and to keep them in parallel vigor one must exercise, study and love." - Karl von Bonstetten.

"Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness." - Joseph Addison.

"Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself." - Elie Wiesel.

"Why do strong arms fatigue themselves with frivolous dumbbells? To dig a vineyard is worthier exercise for men." - Marcus Valerius Martialis (40 AD - 103 AD).

Note - I could not believe the above quote is real. Did they really have dumbbells 20 centuries ago??? So I decided to do some research, and yes, they really did have dumbbells that many centuries ago. Below are some dumbbells (known as Halteres) from Ancient Greece. They look very different, but not so different as to be unrecognizable. So I learned something today. Huzzah!

What does it take to become an Olympic archer?

Q

"I am from venezuela, I have nine years practicing archery and I love this sport, it's part of my life...

All coaches left my country to other countries by the abuse and the low value given to them, I have a few years of training without a coach, in 2010 I traveled to Canada to my grandmother's house and told him all the things I passed in archery in my country and she took me to an archery in calgary and helped me to buy a bow ( hoyt Alpha Burner) and talk to a Canadian coach to train me.

thanks to that I improve a lot and achieve shoot 1348 points, I know it's not much but fight hard to achieve...

I want to be an excellent archer, that's my goal, you could guide me, because I want to go to canada and become a excellent Canadia archer, what i have to do? there is a chance?

Please. Any help you can give me is appreciated."

Luis R.

A

Hello Luis!

Honestly you have three choices. And two of them will be quite expensive.

You either train yourself, which will cost less and require you to be doing archery 3-6 times per week.

Or you hire an archery coach to train you several times per week, which will cost you about $180 to $240 per week. (Roughly $9,000 to $12,000 per year.)

Or you could even hire a former Olympian archer to train you, which will be about $20,000 per year ($400 per week).

So yeah, it really depends on whether you want to pay for training or focus on self-improvement / Do It Yourself.

Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
CardioTrek.ca

$100 off Personal Training

Cardio Trek limited time offer!

For a limited time sign up for 50 hours of personal training sessions for $1400 (regularly priced at $1500).

Or save $250 by signing up for 100 hours of personal training sessions for $2500 (regularly priced at $2750).

Offer expires on March 31st 2014 and is valid only to residents of Downtown Toronto / Uptown Toronto. (If you are not sure if you live within the area, email cardiotrek@gmail.com and ask.)

In other news Arnold Schwarzenegger recently went "undercover" at Gold's Gym in California to raise awareness about fitness / health and an after school fitness program.

Rob Ford's Weight Loss Plan

It is an election year in Toronto and Rob Ford thinks he can win the October 27th 2014 election and stay mayor of Toronto - if he can just lose some weight.

"The only way people are going to respect me, to bring back my image, is if I lose weight," says Rob Ford. "The rest falls into place."

And in case you haven't been watching lately, Toronto's crack smoking mayor (soon to be former crack smoking mayor?) has lost roughly 40 lbs since mid November 2013 when he was weighing in at 336 lbs and is now weighing in at roughly 295 lbs.

That is 41 lbs in 2 months. Roughly 9 weeks. A little over 4 lbs per week.

If he keeps going at that rate he is going to be 255 lbs by mid March - and have excess loose skin rolling off of him.

If he kept it up he could even be 205 lbs by mid May. In which case the loose skin around his face is going to become like Diefenbaker's jowls.

My thoughts? Slow down. Lose weight more slowly. Wait for your skin to catch up. If you lose weight too quickly your belly skin will end up looking like an apron.

So what exactly is Rob Ford doing in the gym you might ask?

Well Toronto's mayor, who has described himself in the past as "three hundred pounds of fun", is using the gym at Toronto City Hall almost every day and is also:

Jogging outdoors.

Leg Pressing 810 lbs.

Ford is really good at the leg press and also says he aims to one day leg press 1,000 pounds.

“If I do my bi(ceps)s on Monday, say, then I’ll do my legs Tuesday, chest Thursday, back, and so on, all week,” says Rob Ford.

He is doing a combination of cardio for 45 minutes and weight lifting exercises for another 45 minutes.

To put that in perspective a 295 lb person jogging for 45 minutes (without a break) burns 996 calories. We can assume that he is having breaks, so it will be less than that - possible 600 to 700 calories. The same person doing weightlifting for 45 minutes burns 305 calories.

So we are looking at Rob Ford burning about 900 to 1000 calories per 90 minute workout session. No wonder he is losing 20 lbs per month.

Note - This kind of workout is really difficult. Most people would quit within the first couple of weeks. Having a personal trainer to keep you motivated makes a huge difference in keeping motivated and striving for more.

Politics aside, if Rob Ford can go into the 2014 election "lean, mean and clean" he will have a lot more energy for the campaign and be able to put his best foot forward when it comes to trying and convince people he has changed his ways and is deserving of being re-elected.

Building your Dumbbell Collection

If you are looking to put on muscle then having a dumbbell collection at home is a good must-have.

Below is a photo of my personal collection of dumbbells which I use for weightlifting at home.

Also in the photo is my weightlifting gloves. They are my "Atlas" weightlifting gloves, which I sometimes also use for cycling outdoors, and also my "Copper Canyon Cycling" gloves, which are basically identical to the Atlas weightlifting gloves. It doesn't really matter what brand you buy, the gloves are there to protect your hands so you don't hurt yourself / develop painful callouses. The gloves cost about $10 to $15 and are totally worth it.

All the dumbbells shown here were purchased at Canadian Tire - they cost about $1 per pound. Thus if you are doing the math I have spent $105 + tax on my dumbbell collection. Plus an extra $30 on gloves.

Once you have your dumbbell collection, what do you do with them?

#1. Bicep Curls

This is easy. Just do 8 to 10 repetitions. Rest. Repeat 8 to 10 repetitions. Rest. Keep doing that 5 to 10 times. Doing between 40 to 100 reps of bicep curls every 2nd day (combined with a healthy balanced diet) will help you build bicep strength pretty quickly.


#2. Tricep Raises

Using one or two dumbbells lift your arms above your head and lower your the dumbbell(s) behind your head. Lift it back above your head slowly. Lower. Repeat 8 to 10 times. Rest. Repeat 5 to 10 times. Doing this exercise every 2 days will build up your tricep muscles quickly.

#3. Shoulder Raises

Using a lighter dumbbell - something you can handle more easily - hold the dumbbells at your sides and lift sideways until they are at 90 degrees. Lower slower back to your side. Repeat 10 times. Rest. Repeat the exercise 5 to 10 times. This exercise will build shoulder strength quite rapidly.

Taken together these 3 exercises will help you build strength in your arms and shoulders quite rapidly - but they should not be the only exercises you are doing. Push ups, chin ups, and sit ups are nice additions to the above 3 weightlifting exercises. The push ups will build your arms, shoulders and pecs. The chin ups will build your arms, shoulders, back and pecs. The sit ups will build your abdominal muscles.

Weightlifting Tips

Pay attention to your form. Good form avoids injury and builds muscle faster.

Stick to dumbbells you can use. If they are too heavy for you to complete all the exercises then you need to be using a lighter poundage.

Explore other exercises too, including other ways to utilize your dumbbells. Examples include the Zottman Curl, Y Press (lifting the dumbbells to make your body into a Y shape),

If you experience any severe pain stop immediately. Wait two days before weightlifting again. Excessive weightlifting can cause severe muscle fatigue - which can lead to injury and chronic pain.

Eat a protein bar or protein shake after finishing your weightlifting routine.

Eat healthy - including veggies and protein! Weightlifting without eating healthy is like buying a muscle car, but forgetting to buy gasoline. Your body needs fuel to grow muscle.

Challenge yourself. If your dumbbells feel too light, it is time to get a dumbbell that is 5 lbs heavier. Don't overdo it, but aim to challenge yourself physically.