Like I've said before, this isn't going to some get ripped quick scheme. So it would probably help to post some ground rules for this endeavor...
The Rules:
1) I'm NOT going to starve myself. - No this does not give me free rein to order the double-double, animal style, the next time I go to In-N-Out. But it also does not mean that I'm going to start counting calories, carbs, or anything else like that. I may try certain diets or nutritional programs as part of my research, but on a day-to-day basis, I'm simply going to watch what I eat in general, without necessarily killing myself over every food decision.
2) I'm going to learn as many different ab exercises as possible. - Pick up any health or fitness magazine and I guarantee you that every month, there is a set of four to eight ab moves that are "guaranteed to show results." Now I have no idea which ones actually work and which ones are fluff. But I'm willing to at least try em out. And as I figure out which ones I like (not to be confused with which ones are easiest), I'll start doing those exercises more often.
3) I'm not going to whine if I don't see results right away - Okay, I might whine to myself. But I defintely won't whine in this blog. Because this is going to be a long hard battle. And who knows, maybe I won't succeed in the end. But it won't be for lack of trying.
4) I'm going to post a new entry to the blog at least once a week - Probably the hardest rule to keep. Heck, sometimes it's easier to bang out 100 crunches than put together 500 quality words into a blog. But I'll try.
5) I'm not going to let any backsliding or mistakes cause me to give up. - Six months is a long time. And inevitably, there are going to be times when I might skip working out or eating right. Ordinarily, that would be the perfect time to let myself just give up on the whole endeavor. But I'm going to do my best to stop that. Instead, I'll post about my failure and see what I can do to prevent it from happening again.
So those are the ground rules. And although new rules and ideas may get added as we continue on, I hope that these 5 rules will stick.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
What's in a (Website) Name
Out of curiousity, I decided to see if the website url http://www.sixmonthsixpack.com/ was available. Lo and behold, it was! But then I thought it'd be interested to check on a few other domain names. So I searched for www.sixweeksixpack.com and www.sixdaysixpack.com and www.sixminutesixpack.com. Somewhat not surprisingly, 2 of these 3 urls have already been purchased by squatters. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, we (myself included) are all guilty of trying to find shortcuts when it comes to challenges. If I told you there was a way to get a six pack in six weeks vs. six months, obviously you'd choose the former. But my whole purpose in starting this blog is to ground my fitness goals into, well, REALITY. I've done workout programs and diets in the past, and I can tell you from long experience that nothing worth accomplishing can be done in less than a month. Sure you might see some minor improvements, but if you're really committed to a program (diet, exercise, or otherwise) you need at least two months to see a signficant difference.
My most recent example was my experience with the P90X workout program. I'll talk more about that endeavor in a future post. But suffice to say, the first 30 days were REALLY tough. The diet, the daily workouts, the constant denial of carbs. And after 30 days when I took some checkpoint photos of myself I was, to be honest, a bit disappointed. It's not that I hadn't lost any weight. It's just that I couldn't really SEE the big difference. It was all I could do not to chuck the DVDs in the trash and cram down a plate full of fettucini alfredo. It was only the constant encouragement of friends that helped me soldier on with the program. So I did. And 60 days later, I could see the difference. In fact, everyone could. Now, even my parents are saying, "Wow, you look a lot fitter than the last time we saw you." And they never notice anything!
When I started this new blog, I knew it would take more than a couple months to really get a six pack. And as I thought about blog names, the idea of a six pack in six weeks never even crossed my mind. Maybe if I was willing to starve myself on some sort of liquid diet and do 5000 crunches a day, I might be able to pull it off. But this journey isn't meant to be some sort of crash course on ab development. It's meant to figure out if I can get a six pack, without being the guy at the steakhouse that goes, "I'll have the garden salad with the fat-free vinaigrette dressing on the side." And that's going to take a lot longer than six weeks...
My most recent example was my experience with the P90X workout program. I'll talk more about that endeavor in a future post. But suffice to say, the first 30 days were REALLY tough. The diet, the daily workouts, the constant denial of carbs. And after 30 days when I took some checkpoint photos of myself I was, to be honest, a bit disappointed. It's not that I hadn't lost any weight. It's just that I couldn't really SEE the big difference. It was all I could do not to chuck the DVDs in the trash and cram down a plate full of fettucini alfredo. It was only the constant encouragement of friends that helped me soldier on with the program. So I did. And 60 days later, I could see the difference. In fact, everyone could. Now, even my parents are saying, "Wow, you look a lot fitter than the last time we saw you." And they never notice anything!
When I started this new blog, I knew it would take more than a couple months to really get a six pack. And as I thought about blog names, the idea of a six pack in six weeks never even crossed my mind. Maybe if I was willing to starve myself on some sort of liquid diet and do 5000 crunches a day, I might be able to pull it off. But this journey isn't meant to be some sort of crash course on ab development. It's meant to figure out if I can get a six pack, without being the guy at the steakhouse that goes, "I'll have the garden salad with the fat-free vinaigrette dressing on the side." And that's going to take a lot longer than six weeks...
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Elusive Six-Pack
Ask just about any guy who goes to the gym, "What is your number one goal in working out?" I'm sure answers will run the gamut from "I want to increase my agility for sports," to "I want to have bigger arms." But I'll be the number one answer to that question is "I want a six-pack." Ah, the elusive six-pack. The Moby Dick to so many workout junkies. Because in spite of how much time and effort you put into your daily workouts, the one part of your body that simply refuses to cooperate with your fitness goals is your abs. I'm not talking about the genetic freaks that were born with a six-pack and can eat whatever they want without gaining a pound on their midsection (we hate those guys). I'm talking about regular people who have full time jobs, try to hit the gym a few times a week, and follow fads like "spot reduction" and "8-minute abs", thinking that this will somehow lead to to promise land of washboard stomachs.
As for me, I fall squarely into the second category. I work out fairly regularly, try to eat right most of the time, and do crunches, jacknifes, trunk twists, and leg lifts ad nauseum. Yet at the end of the day, I still feel like I've about as far from a six pack as I ever was. But I always just encouraged myself by thinking, "Keep at it, Brian, and eventually, it'll happen." And then, I came across a sobering piece of news on the Internet. An article on a health and fitness website I read mentioned that if you don't have a six-pack by the time you're 30, it becomes signficantly harder to get, due to the body's slower metabolism. So as the big 3-0 looms less than a year away, I decided that this would be the push I need to really make a go of this whole six-pack quest. And since we are living in the 21st century, well I obviously need to blog about it as well.
So consider this the start of my journey to see if I can actually discover the magical six-pack that supposedly lives beneath the layers of midsection fat. Along the way, I will try to post interesting links, articles, and stories that relate to my quest. These posts won't solely be focused on getting a six-pack, however. I want to share general health and fitness stories that I also find interesting. After all, a six-pack may be the end goal, but there are so many routes to get there.
Just to be clear, I am no fitness expert. I don't have a master's degree in nutrition, and I still don't know how to use a stability ball at the gym. But I'm hoping that over the next few months, I'll learn more about what it takes to carve out that midsection. And I'll share my experiences with others who stumble across this blog so that perhaps we can all find the six-pack that lies beneath...
As for me, I fall squarely into the second category. I work out fairly regularly, try to eat right most of the time, and do crunches, jacknifes, trunk twists, and leg lifts ad nauseum. Yet at the end of the day, I still feel like I've about as far from a six pack as I ever was. But I always just encouraged myself by thinking, "Keep at it, Brian, and eventually, it'll happen." And then, I came across a sobering piece of news on the Internet. An article on a health and fitness website I read mentioned that if you don't have a six-pack by the time you're 30, it becomes signficantly harder to get, due to the body's slower metabolism. So as the big 3-0 looms less than a year away, I decided that this would be the push I need to really make a go of this whole six-pack quest. And since we are living in the 21st century, well I obviously need to blog about it as well.
So consider this the start of my journey to see if I can actually discover the magical six-pack that supposedly lives beneath the layers of midsection fat. Along the way, I will try to post interesting links, articles, and stories that relate to my quest. These posts won't solely be focused on getting a six-pack, however. I want to share general health and fitness stories that I also find interesting. After all, a six-pack may be the end goal, but there are so many routes to get there.
Just to be clear, I am no fitness expert. I don't have a master's degree in nutrition, and I still don't know how to use a stability ball at the gym. But I'm hoping that over the next few months, I'll learn more about what it takes to carve out that midsection. And I'll share my experiences with others who stumble across this blog so that perhaps we can all find the six-pack that lies beneath...
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