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)

Rock Climbing and a Near Death Experience

Posted on May 8, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I have to confess up front that the near death experience wasn’t actually for me, it was for someone climbing right next to me, but I’ll get to that story in more detail later. I headed out around 8am on Sunday for a day of climbing with two of my buddies at a climbing area called Farley Ledge out in Western Mass (Erving, MA near Springfield). I considered this a different type of exercise from my Bouldering workout in the climbing gym on Friday because I would be lead climbing and top roping outdoors which is a pretty different experience as compared to bouldering indoors. We were out all day long so I didn’t think it would be wise to record my heart rate for the entire day so instead I recorded my peak for each climb. If you’re not savvy with climbing lingo, check out this forum thread for some snarky definitions: MoutainProject.com.

My first climb of the day was leading an easy 5.6 route which resulted in a heart rate of 128bpm, pretty calm (leading = clipping the rope into bolted anchors as you climb). My next climb was a top-rope on a 5.8 which actually had the same peak heart rate, 128bpm (top-rope = rope is tied to an anchor at the top of the climb). It was interesting to see that my heart rate on a 5.6 lead climb (more dangerous but easier) was the same as a 5.8 top-rope (safer but more difficult). Falling on top-rope is no big deal, but falling on a lead climb could mean a more serious 10-20 foot fall in some cases so it’s certainly riskier. When I then lead that same 5.8 my heart rate jumped 20 beats per minute to 148. So if it wasn’t obvious while climbing at the time, leading a route is certainly more nerve wracking than top-roping that same route. Lastly, I did a 5.10 on top-rope and that brought me up to 155bpm. I tried a few other 5.10 climbs but didn’t complete any of them, I only managed to get part way up so it wasn’t really worth recording my heart rate. I’m sure had I lead climbed that 5.10 my heart rate would have been closer to 180, a combination of harder climbing (physical) and higher probability of falling (mental).

Speaking of taking falls while lead climbing, it’s time for the near death experience story. There was a group of two girls and one guy climbing next to us doing the same 5.8 lead I just talked about. It was pretty clear that the guy had some idea of what he was doing but that the girls really didn’t (although they pretended they did). One girl who had never lead climbed before started up the 5.8 with the other inexperienced girl belaying her (strike one, two inexperienced people lead climbing together is not ideal). I believe I was having a conversation about Tough Mudder with somebody so I was halfway paying attention to them. Then all of the sudden, as the leader reached to clip her rope into the 4th clip, she slipped and fell. This should have been a no big deal fall and resulting in a 10 foot fall maximum with a soft catch on the rope because the clips were pretty close together. However, her belayer had taken her hand off the brake (CARDINAL SIN! strike two) and the rope shot through her belay device when the climber fell. She grabbed the rope with both hands to slow it down and the girl stopped 4 feet from the ground after falling upwards of 30 feet, almost slamming her head into the head of her belayer (neither were wearing helmets, strike three). This tore up the palms of her hands which she tried to brush off as not being a big deal (read: actually a huge deal).

Had the climber hit the ground she certainly would have broken several bones if not been easily paralyzed or killed. They tried to laugh it off as a “no big deal” accident but one of the older climbers who was around nicely told them that they should pack up, go home, and revisit the basis of lead climbing and lead belaying in the gym before going outside again, they didn’t argue and decided to head home. One strike in rock climbing can be enough to kill you or seriously injure you but these guys had three red flags that said, “You shouldn’t be climbing out here”. It was a scary experience but I hope it turned into one of those teachable moments where nobody got hurt.

Bouldering Pyramid Workout at the MetroRock Climbing Gym

Posted on May 5, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

The climbing gym is the only place where I’ve ever had a membership. I like rock climbing as exercise because it builds functional strength in ways that is hard to replicate in a traditional gym. There’s no machinery to help you get to the top, it’s only your body and your mind that will help you up (and a decent pair of shoes). Also, it’s an ever-changing workout because routes in the gym change almost monthly, so with dozens of climbs available it’s hard to get bored. In contrast, in a traditional gym, the rowing machine will always be a rowing machine and I tend to lose interest pretty quickly.

On Friday night I headed to MetroRock with my buddy Tony to do a Bouldering workout. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, here’s a decent definition of Bouldering that I found on a MountainProject.com forum: “Bouldering is climbing without a rope near the ground on boulders or at the base of a cliff. You never climb farther than you are willing to fall. Falls are usually broken by use of a padded “crash” pad. Helps build finger strength, power and footwork.” Bouldering is fun to me because it can have complicated technique and problems (read: climbs) that are short and discrete. I find them to be like a puzzle that you have to use both your mind and your body to solve.

A picture of a V3 having it's way with me :(

Some of my friends are pretty serious climbers so I reached out to them for a typical Bouldering workout that I could in the gym (instead of simply climbing for fun). What I eventually chose was called a pyramid workout where you ramp up to your toughest climb and then go back down again to where you started. Boulding problems are ranked from V0 as the easiest to V16 as the totally unreal/elite bouldering. Considering I’m climbing at a V3 level I built the workout with that as my peak. Inside of 45 minutes I climbed 4 V0′s, 3 V1′s, 2 V2′s, 1 V3, 2 V2′s, 3 V1′s, and 4 V0′s.

The workout lasted about 45 minutes and I climbed 19 boulder problems total, some of them I down-climbed as well instead of simply jumping down from the top. My minimum heart rate was 65, my maximum was 155, and my average was 114. I think the average was fairly low because a large part of gym climbing is actually sitting down and talking about climbing, in reality it’s probably a larger part of climbing than climbing itself. Suffice it to say, I had a great physical workout but a pretty low-key aerobic workout. It certainly worked my forearms, shoulders, back, and core but not so much the lungs over a longer period of time.

I’ll leave you with this sweet home bouldering video. This would be a great way to stay in shape if the only way to get to my computer were to boulder across the house:

A Near View of the High Seirra by John Muir – A Short Story Review

Posted on April 8, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Mountaineering Essays by John Muir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I definitely want to read the rest of John Muir’s short stories throughout this book. Muir was an absolute legend in the earliest days of Yosemite valley around the turn of the 20th century. He is ultimately responsible for saving many national park areas in the U.S. as well as starting the Seirra Club, a totally epic conservation organization that still exists today. The story “A Near View of The High Sierras” starts with him meeting a couple of painters in Yosemite Valley who wished to be taken to a beautiful landscape deserving of a painting. He had just been in an amazing area just above the Tuolumne Meadows so he took them there. After he got them set up he took off for an attempt to summit nearby Mt. Ritter, likely his last chance before winter set in. It was a day’s walk to the base so he took a blanket and a loaf of bread and set out. Muir is incredibly descriptive in his writing, at times it was hard for me to follow because he took two pages to describe a meadow. I often read a few pages twice just because I felt myself zoning out while riding the train to work. Coming from a time without GoPro cameras to capture 60 frames per second for an upload to YouTube, he had to be incredibly descriptive to even get the gist of what he was seeing, thus the need for complex and lengthy descriptions, at least by our standards today. He commented a few times throughout the story that he should teach himself how to paint so that he could show the world this amazing place that he lived in for most of the year. His attempt at summiting Mt Ritter was thwarted by poor weather and even poorer climbing conditions. He had to down-climb several sections because the rock was covered in a thin layer of ice and without crampons or ice axes it became impossible, so he bivied out two days with just a blanket and a loaf of bread and made back for painters’ camp. I wish I were half as badass as the mountaineers in that time. With all of our high-tech gear I feel like we’ve become increasingly soft, attaining a pathetic state relying more on our gear than our skill and ability to learn from nature, something I’m sure that our mountaineering ancestors would laugh at.

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About the Author John Muir:

John Muir (21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914^[1]) was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to save theYosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. Read the rest on Wikipedia…