Everyone loves lectures, right? I slept through many lectures back in the day, so why would I watch one now? Below is a 45 minute video about stretching that is actually fascinating! This lecture was a finalist for TVO’s best lecturer competition in 2009.

Professor Doug Richards from the University of Toronto covers the biomechanics of our muscles, joints and connective tissues, and covers these points:

• How much flexibility can be gained from stretching.
• Why sitting is so bad for your posture. Should you be stretching your lower back after you’ve been slouching in a chair all day? (Here’s a hint: no!)
• The effect of stretching on discomfort during exercise (starting at 31:15). Is it a good thing?
• Why cyclists and runners don’t want the same flexibility.
• Do you know why you’re touching your toes when you stretch your hamstrings? (37:00)
• Is stretching a health issue or a performance issue?
• Why do you have to walk so far to get your luggage in airports? (22:00)

I highly recommend paying attention to this one, even if you can’t help napping through your other lectures.

Tonight I witnessed the basic rules of gym etiquette being totally ignored by everyone from gym newbies to personal trainers. It was like I was in a gym on Bizarro World! How did my gym get to this point? Can it be fixed?

It’s more fun to document a problem than to solve it! So here are what I’ve guessed are the anti-rules of gym etiquette, based on what I really saw happening at my gym tonight:

1. When you are done using a swiss ball, please wedge it into the nearest exercise machine.
2. When you are done using a swiss ball, and there is no nearby exercise machine in which to wedge it, please leave it in the middle of the free weight area so that it can freely roll around.
3. When you are done using an exercise matt, please leave it where it is on the floor. That way it might still be there when you return next week.
4. When you are done using a pair of dumbbells, please leave them on the floor at your feet where you were standing. Others may want to stand in the same place and use the same weight.
5. If the floor is littered with too many objects and you are forced to return your dumbbells to the rack, please arrange the dumbbells in mismatched pairs. Others will appreciate the extra exercise gained while searching for matching dumbbells.
6. After you’re finished using a barbell, please leave all the weights on the bar. This is an opportunity for others to handle weights they’ve never attempted before.
7. When your aerobics or trendy boot-camp class finishes, swarm the free weight area as a group. Be sure to follow all the above rules while getting dangerously close to people who are lifting weights.
8. If you are in charge of the gym, and the comments box becomes full of complaints, feel free to discard the comments box.

If you have any ideas on how to restore some order to a gym that has descended into anarchy, I’d love to hear them.

So many sources tell me that I should be eating oatmeal. The benefit for those of us who exercise regularly is that it regulates blood sugar levels, giving us a steady supply of energy for hours. It makes a great pre-workout meal. There are many other benefits to eating oatmeal, but popular wisdom says that if you’re serious about exercise, you should be eating oatmeal. You should be eating oatmeal like it’s candy!

But you can’t eat just any oatmeal, say the trainers. Those packaged oatmeal bars are loaded with sugar that defeats the purpose of eating them. Same thing with instant oatmeal. You need to be eating rolled oats or steel-cut oats that you cook yourself on the stove!

Well, I tried that for a few weeks. It’s disgusting. I tried adding applesauce, cinnamon, vanilla, banana, and frozen raspberries. I gave up. I’ve come to accept that I can’t stand eating oatmeal cooked on the stove.

So I decided to try baking oatmeal and eating it that way. After a few revisions, I’ve finally come up with a recipe that I find delicious! As a bonus, I added flavourless protein powder, turning a delicious snack into muscle food! Note that this isn’t a dessert. It tastes great, but it’s definitely not sweet.

Following is my recipe for what I call FitLogg Oatmeal Squares. Give them a try!

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I can’t say enough how important it is to clearly define goals for yourself, and to write them down somewhere! Especially fitness goals. Where oh where could someone log their fitness goals…? In FitLogg!

Last weekend I experienced how much fun FitLogg’s goal feature can be. I had just finished an 8-week workout program, and was about to take a one-week vacation from the gym. (It’s always a good idea to take scheduled breaks.) I had some goals that I was getting close to achieving, so I didn’t want to take a break yet. So I added one final workout, a workout in which I would test myself against my goals.

In this workout, that I called a “goal day”, I wanted to achieve a new record in both the deadlift and bench press, since I had nearly reached my goals with them. I designed a workout that was fun and focused on those two exercises. It was a test to see whether my hard work on the 8-week program had paid off.

I got excited about it, as if I was going into an event for which I had been training, as if there was a prize to be won. Sure enough, I pushed myself hard to achieve the two goals, and succeeded! It was a memorable workout. The sore muscles and sweat-soaked clothes were reward enough, but seeing FitLogg reward me with multiple gold stars was pretty good for the ego too. I’ll definitely schedule some “goal day” workouts again in the future, and I’ll create more goals to test myself against.

Having the specific goals had a few effects on me:

• Even though I was allowed to take time away from the gym, I didn’t want to! Stopping before completing my goals was like quitting a video game right before finishing a level. How can you stop when you’re so close to finishing? Anyone who has stayed up way too late at night playing a video game knows how that feels. I used to have trouble motivating myself to get off my butt and get to the gym. That definitely hasn’t been a problem lately. Motivation is easy when success feels so close.
• Exercise became fun. Being at the gym wasn’t a chore on goal day. The workout was a challenge that I wanted to conquer.
• I learned that I can actually lift heavier weights than I had been using before. In the case of deadlift, I added 20 lbs to what I had previously tried. That’s a big jump in weight, or so I thought. It turns out that it was probably exactly the right weight for me. I expected it to feel a lot heavier. As a result, I’ll probably be more willing to put some extra iron on the bar in the future.

So, give goals a try. Create some specific goals and work towards achieving them. You’ll be amazed at how they’ll help you stay motivated. FitLogg has some gold stars it’s dying to give you!

All the late-night ab machines and celebrity-endorsed cardio workout DVDs won’t help you where you need to do the most work: in the kitchen. I think all exercise gadget infomercials should have to display this at the bottom of the screen at all times: “You can’t out-train a bad diet.”

When I decided to commit myself to a year-long exercise program (New Rules of Lifting), I also made the decision to change the way I eat. I didn’t want to waste all my hard work in the gym by eating garbage foods that would sabotage my efforts. Sadly, this meant that I needed to learn how to cook healthy meals. Cooking isn’t a hobby of mine. I’m not the type of person to have people over to eat my cooking. It doesn’t pain me to admit that my cooking isn’t worth showing off. For me, the best recipes are the ones that are easy and support my fitness goals.

So when I stumbled on a new CBC show called “Best Recipes Ever” on Monday afternoon, I was glued to the screen. First of all, I was shocked to be hooked on a cooking show. Second, I was shocked at how easy and practical the recipes were. The host, Kary Osmond, wasn’t trying to show off her mad cooking skillz, or wow us with innovative recipes and obscure ingredients. The episode I caught was called “Fridge Clean-Out Dinner“, so maybe she does get a bit fancy in other episodes. But this episode was exactly the type of cooking I wanted to learn.  Easy, fast, healthy, and with simple ingredients.

If you’re like me and want to learn to cook basic, delicious, healthy meals to support your workouts, check out the show on CBC in the afternoon. Better yet, go to the website and watch the episodes any time you want! (Who needs a TV anymore?) The Fridge Clean-Out Dinner episode is a great one to start with. There’s nothing better for learning to cook than by watching someone demonstrate it. Reading recipes online and in books isn’t as effective, in my opinion.

I made the Clean-Out-The-Crisper Creamy Soup last night, and it’s delicious! I added an extra potato to increase the calorie count and make it even more creamy.

Leave a comment if you know of any online video resources that teach cooking.

(Photo: “No soup for you!”, Bah Humbug)

Mike Boyle, a well-known personality in the fitness industry, has a book to sell. To sell that book, the marketing strategy is to provoke debate in the fitness blogosphere.

The first time I heard of him was from his Death of Squats video. Squatting, that thing we do when we sit on the couch and get up from the couch, has gone out of style, apparently. All the people who have gotten stronger and built muscle by doing squats were wrong. They shouldn’t have done it that way. Now there’s a new way to get the same results, but better! Click Add To Cart to find out how!

Well, most people who go to the gym don’t like doing squats and don’t do them. So I guess that video didn’t enrage enough people into buying his book.

So the next step was to provoke everyone who does cardio: The Death of Aerobic Base Training. From the video, he says, “So what’s aerobic training good for? Nothing.” Elsewhere in the talk he admits that it’s good for getting better at running, swimming, cycling, and other distance sports. But apparently those aren’t good for anything. Let’s not forget that aerobic training is good for improving cardiovascular health, but again that doesn’t seem to matter to Boyle. Who cares about the health of my heart and lungs? No one can see those when I’m at the beach, so they’re useless. Let ‘em rot!

No wonder it’s so hard to get accurate and honest fitness and nutrition information. Marketing tactics are at odds with facts when there’s a product to push. Boyle’s actual message is probably more nuanced than the video lets on, but the marketing is a tad heavy-handed.

Saying that aerobic training is dead ignores the fact that there are people who enjoy aerobic exercise! They do it because it’s a form of exercise that they want to do, not because they’re forced to do it. Oh, and it’s good for them!

I’ve tried to do things that I was told are good for me many times. But if I didn’t enjoy them, then I didn’t stick with them, and got nothing in return. I want that time back! If someone enjoys aerobic exercise, and gets benefits from it, then aerobic training is certainly not dead.

(Photo: “Oh the struggle to be thin”, MoToMo)

In the last post, I wrote about the Workouts Goal, which is a goal that’s all about motivating you to stay active in whatever it is you choose to do. Today, I’m writing about the Milestone Goal, which is about pushing yourself to achieve measurable improvements in the specific exercises you’re performing.

Your Own Roadmap

A milestone in FitLogg, like in real life, is an action that marks an important stage of your mission for overall fitness. It’s a checkpoint, a little victory, and a time to party! In FitLogg, reaching a milestone means that you’re getting fitter. Different people enjoy different exercises, so our ideas of what “getting fitter” means will vary.

But a sure way to get nowhere is to perform at exactly the same level every time we exercise. Arnold didn’t get big by lifting the same 25 pound dumbbells day after day! Our bodies are adaptable things, and they need to be challenged. When an activity starts to feel easy, it’s a sure thing that our bodies have adapted and are no longer going to respond. The fat won’t melt off as easily, and the muscles will stop getting bigger and stronger. Creating milestone goals is a great way to keep your sights on the road ahead, to motivate yourself to keep pushing and getting results.

Read on for instructions and ideas for milestone goals.

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Here’s the first post that explains how to use FitLogg. In these types of posts, I’ll explain one of FitLogg’s features, how to use it, why you might want to use it, and how it fits into real life.

First Steps

If there’s one thing that personal trainers, coaches, fitness buffs, and gym rats can agree on (except for one outrageous exception), it’s that doing something is better than doing nothing. Being active is better for your health than being sedentary. To encourage this behaviour, FitLogg has a type of goal called the Workouts Goal.

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The most common feature that I’ve been asked for is a goal for people who are trying to lose weight. I think it’s safe to say that most people who embark on new exercise regimens are trying to lose weight, so this type of goal is a must! I’ll be working on it soon, I promise!

On the other hand, there are plenty of people (mostly men, I’m sure) who work out to gain weight. To some people, skinny is an insult. So FitLogg will include a weight gain goal as well.

Then there are people like me who don’t have a clear goal about their weight. My goal is to burn fat and build muscle. When I step on a scale, what do I want to see? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. Rather than measuring progress according to the number on a scale, I’d rather measure my waist size. If my weight stays the same, but my pants are looser around the waist, then I’ll be happy! So, some sort of “measurement goal” will probably be added to FitLogg too.

In practice, I don’t think that a weight loss/gain goal is critical. It might be very motivational, but by itself won’t help you to succeed. To lose or gain weight, you need an action plan. An action plan can be created with the milestone goals that FitLogg has today.

So, in the meantime, create a couple of milestone goals for yourself, and set the number of workouts you should be performing every week (a workouts goal). These goals help to define your action plan. If you can follow through on your action plan, the weight loss or gain you want will follow!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. How would you like to see a weight loss/gain goal implemented?

(Photo: “Scale 2″, peter_w, Germany.)

Welcome to FitLogg’s companion, FitBlogg.  This will be the place to find news, tips, and how-to articles.

Who Am I?

I’m Neil, the creator and developer of FitLogg! Posting pictures of myself on the Internet isn’t how I get my kicks, so drawings will have to do. The picture on the left comes from an ad for jeans in an old comic book. Can you believe people used to buy clothes based on drawings of the clothes?  Amazing!

I’m a guy who likes making stuff, especially on computers. I got interested in programming on a Commodore 64 when I was a kid, and have been doing it as a profession and as a hobby ever since.

Why Did I Make FitLogg?

FitLogg started when I got home from the gym one day, sweaty and tired, and muttered to myself, “I have no idea what I’m doing. Am I wasting my time?”  Like most people, I was an off-and-on exerciser.  I rarely saw results from my efforts in the gym. My motivation to exercise typically lasted two or three months before I would give up.  I kept trying new things, without measuring what was working and what wasn’t.  So I threw together a simple iPhone web app for myself (and only for myself!) and started tracking my workouts.

About a year later, I had lots of data and could see that only a few things I was doing were giving noticeable results. Mostly, I was clueless.  I humbly conceded that I could not come up with workout routines for myself, so I bought a book called The New Rules of Lifting and started following that instead.  FitLogg showed me that suddenly I was seeing improvement in many areas, and has been a great tool to keep me motivated and excited about getting into shape.

Seeing how well FitLogg was helping me, I decided to put some serious time and effort into it.  I made it good enough to let other people use it, and that’s what you see today.

So, at first I built FitLogg for me, but now I’d be thrilled if other people used it. Are you using it?  What do you think so far?

I’ve got a lot more that I want to add to FitLogg, so stay tuned to this blog for news about new features.

Coming Soon on the Blog

Articles I plan to write include the following:

- What new features are planned?

- Tips on setting goals for yourself.

- Using FitLogg on the iPhone.

- and a lot more…

I might even talk about what I’ve learned about fitness so far, and comment on the latest fitness industry trends.  Come back soon and find out!