May’s 30 Day Fitness Experiment Recap and Analysis

Posted on June 3, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I’ve spent the past 9 months doing various 30-day lifestyle experiments which have targeted many different aspects of my life. However, I had yet to do one concerning fitness so I figured it was about time. The month of May was an attempt to do something active and different every day as a means to get out of my comfort zone to try new methods of exercise. As with every other experiment I’ve done so far, aspects of them have crept their way into my life and have become habit (compost bin, talking with strangers on the train, minimalism, eating less meat and more veggies, reading short stories, having sober weekends and not feeling weird about it, etc) and I’m sure that this fitness month will be no exception to that. As with any good experiment it is important to first ask the right kinds of questions. I wanted to find answers to questions like: “Is broomball a legitimate form of exercise?” or “Should I spend my time going to the gym or playing pickup soccer?” or “Do I get a better workout when I do them alone or with friends?” I definitely found some answers to those questions and I’ll recap some of them in this post.

I did a total of 27 different kinds of workouts this month, it was pretty tough logistically but with a little bit of organization and a whole lot of supportive friends I managed to do it. The only repeat workouts were running during Ragnar and hiking during my Hawaii trip. In sum, I ended up doing 31 total bouts of exercise, some more intense than others but at the end of the day I accomplished my goal of getting out of my comfort zone and trying out new exercises. For a full list of the workouts I did, scroll to the bottom of this post.

At the beginning of the month I bought a heart rate monitor because as an engineer, I had to find a way to measure my experiment. How do my new workouts compare to my habitual workouts and how do all of those relate to my overall fitness level? Here’s a chart for min/max/average heart rates for each exercise I did this month. I managed to either forget or mess up my heart rate data for only 3 of my workouts, so they’re omitted from this chart, showing 28 out of the 31 workouts I did this month:

Having the heart rates recorded is one thing, but what’s more important is to put these into context of your training zones which differ from person to person depending primarily on age and resting heart rate (54bpm for me): Fat Burning Zone (125-160bpm), Aerobic Zone (160-174), Anaerobic Threshold Zone (174-181), and Anaerobic Zone (181-195). I won’t go through how I calculated the zones because it’s pretty well-established and you can find the equations online anywhere. HERE are the equations I used. Here’s the chart with the zones overlaid on my heart rate data:

In terms of Average Heart Rate, I did not have any exercises that were in my Anaerobic Threshold Zone nor in my Anaerobic Zone. Most of my workouts landed me in the Fat Burning Zone:

Fat Burning Zone: Broomball, Harvard Stadium, Soccer, Lead Climbing, Plyometrics, Ragnar 1/2/3, Insanity, Boxing, Road Biking, Dragon Boat, Austere Fitness, Rollerblading, Spartan Race WOD, and Swimming.
Exercises that didn’t make the Fat Burning cut for Average Heart Rate: Bouldering, Rowing, P90X Shoulders/Arms, Apartment Moving, TRX Suspension Training, Outrigger Canoeing, Hiking 1/2/3, Yoga, Resistance Bands, Fitness Park.

The caveat here is that I only measured heart rate. I indeed burned fat while hiking 22 miles over 3 days in Hawaii, it’s just that my heart rate didn’t bring me into that zone. A proper measurement would include EMG for measuring muscle activity and VO2 for measuring oxygen consumption, but I’ll never have such advanced equipment so heart rate is all I have to work with. The moral of the story here for me is that for the exercises that didn’t make the fat burning cut, I likely wasn’t pushing myself hard enough (low intensity level) or consistently enough (too many breaks). The other lesson is that I was burning fat doing a variety of different things; from rollerblading to boxing to throwing rocks, I was helping make my body leaner and healthier, all without having to join a gym, spend any money, or use any weights/gym machines.

In terms of my Maximum Heart Rate, I had a few surprising findings:

Anaerobic Zone: Broomball was the only exercise that brought me to an anaerobic level of working out, who knew? I knew I was working really hard and super out of breath but I had no idea I was playing at such a high intensity level. Thank you Social Boston Sports for introducing me to Broomball (league champs 2 years in a row!)
Anaerobic Threshold Zone: Pickup Soccer and my 3rd Ragnar leg. Both of these workout were done with friends, were competitive with other people, and were among the most fun I had while exercising.
Aerobic Zone: Harvard Stadium Run, Plyometrics, Ragnar 1/2, Boxing, Spartan Race WOD, Austere Fitness, and Road Biking.
Fat Burning Zone: Rowing, Bouldering, Lead Climbing, P90X Shoulders/Arms, Apartment Moving, Insanity, Dragon Boat Racing, Outrigger Canoe Paddling, Hiking 1/2/3, Power Yoga, Rollerblading, Swimming, and the Fitness Park.

In all of my workouts this month, I at least reached the point somewhere in the workout where I was burning fat, it just might not have been burning fat the entire time as the average heart rate would indicate.

As for my initial questions starting this month, I found that Broomball is not only a legitimate form of exercise, it’s a fantastic form of exercise which could help push the limits of my anaerobic conditioning. I also found that I didn’t need to go to a gym or lift weights, I’m better of running around outside playing pickup soccer. Lasty, I did 15 of my workouts (roughly half) with friends, these were also the ones where I pushed myself the hardest (anaerobic threshold and anaerobic zones).

Would I do another 30day fitness experiment? Definitely. I had a blast, I feel great, and I have plenty of ideas for other types of exercise. There were about a dozen other exercises that I couldn’t quite do just because of logistics, time, and access to gear, some of them are: ultimate frisbee, mountain biking, break dancing, capoeira, various martial arts, kick boxing, spinning, kayaking, canoeing, and others.

Here’s the list of the exercises I did this month, feel free to check them out by clicking on the links:

Pickup Broomball in Somerville (thanks to Michelle for enlightening me to glory that is pickup broomball)
Harvard Stadium Run (thanks to Dan for always being willing to crush it)
Rowing in the Gym (thanks to no one because erging sucks)
Bouldering Pyramid Workout at Metrorock (boulder sesh with Tony)
Pickup Soccer at Tufts University (thanks Dan, Lauren, and Katie for inviting me)
Lead Rock Climbing at Farley Ledge (thanks to Tom)
P90X Shoulders, Biceps, and Triceps
12 Minute Tabata Abdominal Intervals (thanks Julia for sending this my way, sorry we couldn’t get any spinning classes in)
P90X Plyometrics in my Living Room (sorry neighbors below me)
Moving Apartments as a Workout (you’re welcome Sarah :)
Ragnar Relay Race Cape Cod (thanks Katie for organizing it and thanks team for being awesome, 6th place out of over 300 teams!)
Active Recovery Day
Boxing at the Ring Boxing Club (thanks Dan and JLo for joining me)
TRX Suspension Training (thanks Shane for providing the gear and walking me through a workout)
Insanity – Core Cardio and Balance (thanks Karen for letting me borrow the DVDs)
Road Biking
Dragon Boat Racing (thanks Julia for sending this my way, thanks Dave the team’s coach for letting me try it out)
Outrigger Canoe Paddling on Oahu (thanks to Sarah and the Lanikai Canoe Club)
Hiking the Kalalau Trail in Kauai (thanks to Sarah and her expert logistics)
Power Yoga on Kalalau Beach in Kauai Featured as the Adventure Photo of the Day on LetsbeWild.com
Fitness in Austere Environments (Kauai) (thanks Trevor for being a berzerk viking and designing these workouts)
Rollerblading on the Charles River Bike Path
Swimming at Tufts University (thanks Ashley)
Resistance Bands (thanks Graham)
Elliptical – didn’t even write about it b/c it was so lame, recap: awkward/unnatural motion and couldn’t raise my heart rate higher than 140 no matter how high the resistance and how hard I pushed.
Spartan Race Workout of the Day (WOD) (thanks Andy and Joe from Peak and Spartan Races)
Fitness Park Workout (thanks Boston)

Fitness Park Workout on the Charles River

Posted on June 2, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Due to living downtown, I spend a lot of time running, biking, or walking on the Charles River path. It’s a great fitness outlet provided by the city that gives you trees, grass, and a river while still being very close to the heart of Boston. One thing I’ve never done on the path however, is use the Fitness Park they built a few years ago. It has pull-up bars, benches, and a variety of other pieces of equipment you can use for a workout. I always see people using it but I’ve never taken part myself.

A bunch of people working out on the Charles River Fitness Park after work. One guy was just doing Karate and not actually using the equipment, whatever floats your boat dude.

I didn’t just want to do one of my own routines because the city of Boston went to the trouble of installing workout guidelines scattered throughout the Fitness Park itself:

There were also signs for people in wheelchairs to show them how to use the equipment in the park:

I decided that I’d follow these guidelines and use that as my workout. My question was, “Can I get a really good workout in by following these guidelines or are they just for people who need the extra help and don’t know how to do it themselves?” They have clear pictures for each exercise with a table for reps including different difficulties: Starting Par (easiest), Sporting Par (moderate), and Championship (hardest). So I decided to go for the Championship status to see if I could do it.

I’m obviously not in a wheelchair like the descriptions above but I did the workouts modified. I went through the Championship level and decided that it wouldn’t be enough so I went through the sequence twice at the Championship level before moving onto the next set of exercises.

Again I had the same experience here; I found that doing the highest recommended level wouldn’t be enough to get a serious workout in. I’m not crazy strong/fit by any stretch of the imagination but I do think that I’m not really in the target market for these workout guidelines. Someone who exercises daily probably doesn’t need much help to figure out how to use the equipment in the fitness park and how many repetitions it will take to give them a good burn. So I continued with the same methodology of going through each sign twice at the highest level before moving on. Here are the other pictures just for description of what I did for exercises:

The exercises included stretching, horizontal chin-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, vault bar, more sit-ups, more push-ups, chin-ups, knee lifts, body curls, arm rotations, back arches, more chin-ups, log hopping, bench dips, bench curls, toe touches, body stretches, more bench dips, and a cool-down. I spent 42 minutes going through these workouts and had a min/max/average heart rate of 77/157/117. I was sweating heavily and pretty spent after the workout was finished but I didn’t find that these signs provided a tremendous amount of value to my workout, I could have done the same thing on my own. However, it was fun to explore the signs and to use each piece of equipment in the park. I probably wouldn’t do the same thing again but I can definitely see myself using the fitness park to mix in some upper body fitness into the middle of a run or bike, much like the Spartan Race WOD I did earlier in the week. Despite my disinterest in using these signs I still think they’re a positive thing for the city to have invested in. Anything that can help people get moving and exercise a bit is money well spent in my opinion.

Spartan Race Workout of the Day

Posted on June 1, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Typically my weekly fitness routine involves at least 2-3 days of running so throughout this fitness month I’ve been jonesing to get out there and do some running. I found the chance when I came across a specific Spartan Race Workout of the Day or “WOD” as it’s affectionately referred to in the Crossfit Community. I’m a local marketing affiliate for the Spartan Races (read: do some volunteer promo stuff and get free race registrations) so I get a lot of their emails. This month I subscribed to their daily Spartan Race WOD. It’s a little intense to get one email every day but once in a while one catches my eye. Today it was a workout that involved running so I jumped on it. This particular workout had a total of three miles of running with some upper body stuff mixed in between each mile. Here’s the workout I did during lunch at work:

Warmup – 5 Minute Jog and 20 Pushups
Run 1 Mile at Race Pace (approximated 7:30 pace for me based off my pace during Ragnar)
25 Burpees
Run 1 Mile at Race Pace
15 Pullups
Run 1 Mile at Race Pace
Burpee Pullups to Failure (10)
50 Crunches
2 Minute Plank
Stretching

It was an absolutely fantastic workout with a lot of intensity. I liked breaking up the run with some upper body exercises, I felt like I was getting more of a full-body workout that way. Also, having done the 2011 Spartan Beast in Vermont (13 miles, 22 obstacles, up and down Killington) this workout was perfect training for that. So I like the fact that most of these Spartan WODs accurately reflect the type of movements you’ll need to do during the races: run, climb over things, carry sand bags, and do burpees. Burpees are a major difference between Spartan Races and the other obstacle course races out there; if you don’t successfully complete an obstacle then you have to do 30 burpees. In the other (not Spartan) races you’re simply allowed to go on with no punishment, weak-sauce in my opinion. The workout lasted about 35 minutes and my heart rate min/max/average was 99/163/144 so I was certainly pushing myself pretty hard with breaks only 30s or shorter between exercises. I prefer these daily, bodyweight workouts to the beachbody workout videos like Insanity and P90X because they’re short, intense, practical, to the point, and help to build functional strength (usually) without weights. While joining a Crossfit gym would be awesome, if you’re part of the 99% it’ll likely be out of your price range ($250/month for 2 workouts/week in downtown Boston?!?!?!) I highly suggest checking out the free WODs that you can do for free. They even have a 30 day WOD challenge, perhaps I see another fitness experiment in my future :)

Resistance Bands on the Charles River Fitness Park

Posted on May 31, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Having just come back from Hawaii, the last thing I wanted to do today was to workout inside. So I went for a short 10 mile bike ride. However, having already done a bike ride this month I decided to stop at the Fitness Park located along the Charles River to get in some alternative exercise. I brought my roommate’s resistance bands and did a shoulders/biceps/triceps workout. For those of you who think resistance bands are for sissies, guess again. You can make them as easy or as tough as you want depending on the strength of your band and/or the tension you create for yourself. I got a good burn going on my muscles and my muscles were shaking by the end of each set. We used to use them all the time when I played high school and during my brief stint in college as well. They are great for strengthening things like rotator-cuffs for example. You can also get a good burn doing just about anything as long as you’re doing it right (i.e. consistent tension in the band throughout the range of the exercise, if the bands go slack you’re doing it wrong).

Using a heart rate monitor for the first time during a resistance band workout I found that I should probably mix in some type of cardiovascular component next time. My min/max/average heart rates were 67/96/125, so pretty low intensity as far as heart rate goes. I was feeling a serious burn in my muscles but I wasn’t exactly working my lungs at all. It would have been great to do one set of shoulders/biceps/triceps and then jump rope or do abs as a way to get my heart rate average up overall. I felt ok with not doing this today because I had already biked 10 miles so I figured that was good enough cardio for the day.

I meant to bring the bands with me on my trip to Hawaii so I could get a workout done in the airport but I totally forgot and left them at home. I would definitely bring these on travel with me as a way to get a quick and effective workout in my hotel room instead of using the bogus equipment usually found in hotel workout facilities. I’d also use them for rehab as well if I were injured. For example, my roommate had shoulder surgery a while back and he’s been using them pretty consistently to regain strength. I used them last summer when I aggravated my shoulder 2 months into the P90X+ workout program. A mixture of rest (i.e. no shoulder exercises) and resistance band workouts helped me to move past the shoulder issue. I’m even thinking of getting a set of bands to keep at my desk at work for those times when I’m sleepy at the end of the day, getting the blood flowing is a great way to wake back up.

I like resistance bands because they are light-weight, low-maintenance, and can be used inside or outside to give you a serious workout so I definitely approve of using them as a way to stay fit and augment your normal workout routine.