10 Minute Workout

Boom. Picked up Mario Lopez's Knockout Fitness for a flight back to Boston. It's a Men's Health publication and Lopez co-authored it with a very experienced trainer, Joe Dowdell. Some great ideas and plans in that book. Here's a ten minute workout I just did.



From back in the day:

Last Week of January 2015

The end of the first month of 2015 is approaching. Six days left. What can you accomplish? How did you stack up against your goals? The majority of people forget their New Year's Resolutions by March. How do you keep going?? Here's the answer...You set a larger goal- and if you do fall off, and you have that McDonald's or those beers, or even a bottle of wine, you get back on....



Tomorrow is Monday. What will you do this week to position yourself in February where you want to be? What if January was just a reintegration month? Like that scene in the Abyss when Ed Harris learns to breathe water, there's a re-acclimation process.


So this is what I want for myself this week:

1- Stricter Paleo. Let's tighten up that belt towards an end of February goal of fitting back into the suit I bought last June.

2- Three workouts with weights...Schedule them! Keep a journal!

3- One day sprints and one day of an activity I enjoy (surfing or boxing)....




But what is the larger goal?

The larger goal is to get into the best shape of my life by my birthday in June. I'll have to think of a way to quantify that...But I'm thinking of performance-oriented goals like 50 pushups, 10 pullups, 6:30 min mile.

Set achievable goals. Keep a progress journal. Find compatriots. Succeed. Set new goals. Be fit for life.

ATTITUDE => ALTITUDE

The Best Shape of Your Life in 2015 and Kelly Slater

Still taking on the 21 Day Mark Sisson Challenge. Their app was a no-go for me. Didn't work out- so I've been pretty much on my own. Been doing well overall. But my question is-
WHAT IF THIS WAS THE YEAR THAT YOU GOT INTO THE BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE? WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU HAVE TO MAKE?



Kelly Slater is in awesome shape. He's 42 and he's still killing it. When I saw him surf in August in Malibu, it was crazy how good he was, just cutting up and down, owning waves, putting everyone to shame in the water. He did a 720 degree aerial in Portugal last year. He competes against guys half his age. So what's HIS secret? The new Outside magazine addresses Kelly's continuing relevance in surfing and great health. Also, there's the book, For the Love, by Kelly with Phil Jarratt.



According to the article and the book, he has a few healthy habits-

1- He swears off milk and makes his own almond milk.

2- He eats healthy fats. He mentions if he could (and sometimes he does), he'd eat Guacemole and chips all day.

3- He's experimented with CrossFit and some other stuff (yoga) ,but overall, most workouts are water workouts.

4- He's down with hot baths and massages, and spends a fair amount of time relaxing, listening to music, playing music, and trying to maintain balance in his life.

5- He's eating a largely protein based diet, though the article mentions some stuff like chia seeds and goji berries in granola for breakfast.

From the article:
"The one thing that stands out in his otherwise low-key program is his yogi-style diet. Most days his breakfast is a homemade pudding made of chia seeds, raw nuts, goji berries, and yogurt. At home he makes his own almond milk in a blender, straining it through cheesecloth. He frequently drinks a concentrated dose of omega-3 fatty acids from marine algae. Over the past couple of years, he’s cut out almost all caffeine. When he’s traveling for surf contests, his “very big suitcase” is packed “half with clothes and half with food.”



Pretty amazing guy...and a good role model.

21 Day Primal Challenge

It's a new year and you want to shape up, you say. Let's say you've put on some weight over the holidays. Not uncommon. Hit the gym harder? Eat less? Exercise more? That would be the standard advice. For years I did the same thing. I got stronger in the gym, but typically my weight was the same...until 2011, when my friend, Joe Bagg, introduced me to the Paleo Diet. He had done a nutritional certification with Robb Wolf, author of the Paleo Solution, through Crossfit. I had tried vegetarianism for mostly ethical reasons but it hadn't worked for me. I felt better about not eating animals, but had digestion issues with the emphasis on beans and tofu products. A few months later, I did Robb Wolf's 30 day challenge and it worked out well. By February of 2012, I was lean and my body had adjusted to burning fat over glucose. Joe was an important part of helping me stick to it and giving me some pointers (ex. Make sure you're eating enough fats- like avocados and olive oil). You can check out Joe's story here. I made this short documentary, Paleo Jazz, about him in 2013 (shot on 16mm b/w).



This January I'm starting Mark Sisson's 21 Day Primal Challenge. Sisson is the author of the Primal Blueprint and has started this challenge as a way to inspire others and connect those isolated Paleo folks with others around the world like them. The guidelines are simple. I've taken the basics Sisson's site, www.marksdailyapple.com:







If you're interested in joining me, drop a comment or email me at gabe.rosenn@gmail.com. I firmly believe that the Paleo or Primal diet is the key to health and longevity. I've also begun the Spartacus 3 workout...Spartacus 1 was a great fat-burning circuit, based on the workout that actors from the show used. Reprinted here from Men's Health:



Hope to hear from some of you.

Good luck out there! Happy 2015!
GPR

Fat Doesn't Make You Fat

In 2012, I decided to try the Paleo diet for 30 days, thinking I'd lean out. I'd heard about it through my friend who did Crossfit and I had Rob Wolf's Quickstart pdf as a guide. My weight went from 205 lbs to 185 lbs. I went from wearing large shirts to mediums. My waist size went from 34 to 31. There were other health benefits- better cholesterol and blood work, more energy, better sleep. Two years later, I still do a modified Paleo diet- which is more of a low-carb lifestyle. It seems like the mainstream media is catching on...I came across "Less Carbs, More Fat" in the new Men's Journal.



It lists in "A Better Way to Eat" the following:

1- Cut carbs

2- Eat your vegetables

3- Embrace fat

4- Redefine your version of "healthy fats"

5- Stop worrying about calorie counts

Additionally, it has an article "Do Athletes Need Carbs" that talks about how NBA players like LeBron James, Chris Kaman, and Kobe Bryant have started eating this way and are becoming leaner and have more energy.


I literally just sent someone an article by Gary Taubes- What if It's All A Big Fat Lie?" about whether the medical establishment has had it all wrong all these years (since the late 60's) about the calories in- calories out equation, fat making you fat, high carb diet it prescribes. And mainstream media has obviously caught onto gluten-free products...but what's missing is the research about sugar making us fat. It keeps insulin levels stoked (not in the surf sense), so cells hang onto fat...Stress can also trigger hormonal responses telling the body to hang onto fat...and one thing I've noticed is poor sleep can really make you crave sugar and carbohydrates. I'm just starting a new 10 week workout plan that emphasizes natural eating and in the gym a mix of dynamic warm-ups, big lifts (ex. bench, deadlift) with low reps, and smaller lifts with high rep work. I've been back to the gym 3x a week, and surfed a couple times since the Haunted Heats contest. My picture of me and Kelly Slater was featured in 90065 magazine in their Big Wednesday surf spread...but hahaha, I was cut out...



Was thinking though, I wonder if I'd be surfing at all if I hadn't switched to a low-carb lifestyle two years ago. I definitely am in better health, with more energy, a better blood profile, and fat to muscle ratio.

Halloween Heats 2

It's a costume ball...It's a surfing contest...It's the Haunted Heats Surf Competition held by ZJ's Boarding House. It was also my first time surfing since August and the rib injury. I went as Slash and it felt appropriate as I stumbled onto the beach, pretty much in character. 8 am on a Saturday is early to play dress-up, act out your character, and then surf in costume...but, I pushed through. Played Sweet Child of Mine with my Les Paul and a portable amp, and rocked the 60 people watching..



In the waves, I caught one good wave right off, and executed a nice bottom turn, playing some air guitar for style points, and holding up the sign of the devil. I almost had brought along a wine bottle for more style points but not really a great idea when you're surfing to have glass on you. Beyond that, I lost my aviator sunglasses in one wave, and got fairly nailed by many waves, though a lot of people congratulated me when the 15 min heat was over. Also in my heat btw were a pilot who had turned his surfboard into a plane, a mullet wearing redneck, Mrs Doubtfire, and a Hershey's kiss. Slash did not win- but it was still a good experience, and good to get back into the water (One of us has lost some speed and strength)



Then there was the raffle. Proceeds went to Boarding for Breast Cancer, and October is breast cancer awareness month. I didn't win that either and they gave out some nice Firewire boards. So, I actually did a Craigslist search when I got back to my apt for a board I've been aware of- Shaun Thomson's The Warp (2012). Designed by Ventura shaper, Al Merrick, The Warp is made for older surfers looking to shred on California waves. I met Shaun last year around this time and was inspired by him to go to the North Shore, Hawaii. He's a South African, Jewish surfer, now in his 50's, and produced the film, Bustin' Down the Door about the birth of pro surfing (narrated by Ed Norton), and beyond that, is a classy ambassador for surfing. He wrote the Code, which I covered in another blog entry. So I felt like, maybe this board, a 6'4 performance shortboard ($200), was a good reward for all my surf efforts of the past year- from Hawaii to the 50 year swell in Malibu, to competing in three surf competitions; it's been quite a year. I hope the board works out, and takes me to a true intermediate level.



Here's Shaun at Rincon in Ventura...notice the board...


Most of all, I hope I get back to that place of enjoying surfing and having fun with it. I get very competitive about it. It really is a privilege to be healthy and active and have the opportunity to get out into nature. When you do catch a wave, it's such a great feeling- and even when it doesn't- and you're out there with seals and dolphins, surfing at sunrise and sunset, it's a beautiful thing.

Daniel Craig's 007 workout

I'm back in LA and back at 24 Hr Fitness, still healing from the surf injury but doing much better. The important thing about an injury is to keep going. You can take a little time off and definitely you need to rest, but you ultimately, have to push on. That being said, it's been awesome to swim again. I've chosen to go back to a program that I tried in 2003, the Daniel Craig James Bond workout.



I did a modified version of this workout today- involving isometric lifts (ie. no weights- and subbed pull-ups for another back exercise)



The Daniel Craig 007 workout is tough. It's 5 days a week and heavy in volume- and very pull-up oriented. Pull-ups are great for building upper body strength, but they're difficult. It's a solid program with a power circuit of big lifts on Monday and Friday and some smaller workouts on T,W,R (groups of two body parts). The real key is finding the motivation and sticking to the program.

Happy Fall!
Gabe