MetroSource Magazine Article – The Pre-Travel Workouts

GETTING IN SHAPE FOR TRAVEL

As published in MetroSource Magazine, April-May 2011

Growing up in Portland Oregon in the 50’s, long distance travel was never high on my family’s agenda. Somehow I got a travel itch that started in high school and it hasn’t stopped. It’s not as easy now. I used to hitchhike and we all used to be able to walk on and off planes to see our friends off on their trips.

JUST SITTING AROUND

The most challenging part of traveling is sitting. Whether we are traveling by car, train or air, our bodies are badly supported with seats that push our shoulders forward and make our lower backs scream with inflammation and stress.  Once we arrive, hotel beds and pillows aren’t always up to the support standards that keep our bodies healthy.

ARRIVING SHARP

Whether we’re traveling for business or vacation, we want to arrive feeling rested and strong, not tired and achy. The time to insure this is prior to travel. Make a plan and perform exercises that target endurance and core muscle groups to achieve this goal.

PRE-TRAVEL PLANS

·      For vacation travel, get committed three weeks before your departure date.

·      If you travel for business, incorporate this formula into your workout regime.

·      Dedicate three days a week to fitness conditioning for travel.

·      Include a yoga or stretch class at least one day a week.

·      Include two 30-40 minute cardio sessions each week between weight workouts.

·      Get a massage every week to work out any existing stiffness.

·      Adjust your diet so it’s low in fats and carbohydrates and heavy in protein and vegetables.

·      Eliminate inflammatory foods: sugar, anything fried, alcohol and excessive salt.

STRENGTH-TEST YOURSELF

On Day 1, you will Test your strength and endurance with this simple (yet challenging) routine outlined below.  Each week, you will perform the strength test and time how long it takes you to complete. At the end of three weeks, your goal is to shave time off your initial performance.

·  Start with 10 Squats

·  Move directly to 10 Push-ups 

·  Then follow with 10 Crunches. 

·  Immediately stand and repeat the sequence 9 more times. 

Stop if you have to, but your goal is to complete all of the movements with no rest between them. This routine targets your legs, abs and upper body and will give you a good cardio workout.

TRAVEL FIT WORKOUTS

Here are 3 days worth of exercises. I recommend doing them Monday, Wednesday, Friday separated with cardio on Tuesday and Thursday.

Perform each exercise 3 times with a goal of 15 repetitions for each – excluding the Strength Test, perform that just once.

Day 1:

1.              Strength test workout

2.              Medicine ball woodchop

3.              Cable side twists

4.              Stability ball dumbbell press

5.              Stability ball dumbbell flyes

6.              Barbell upright rows

7.              Dumbbell bicep curls

Day 2:

1.              One arm dumbbell row

2.              Wide grip cable pull down

3.              Narrow grip cable pull down

4.              Seated leg extensions

5.              Hip dips on stability ball

6.              Dumbbell weighted squats

7.              Stability ball crunches

Day 3:

1.              Medicine ball weighted sit-up

2.              Oblique crunches

3.              Plank on stability ball (hold for 10-60 seconds)

4.              Dumbbell side lateral shoulder raises

5.              Dumbbell single arm shoulder presses

6.              Push-ups, toes on stability ball

7.              Triceps rope push downs

You can find instructional videos to all of the exercises      at Rick Dinihanian's Channel on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rickdinihanian?feature=mhsn

Train your Mind,Train your Body,Tame your Tongue
Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. Never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider. 

Fit for Takeoff

The April-May 2010 issue of MetroSource , an upscale business guide for New York City and Los Angeles, includes an article that I wrote entitled “Fit for Take-Off”.  It’s about exercising when you are away from home and gives you a great Hotel Gym Workout.  I thought I’d share it with you here– especially for everyone outside of MetroSource’s distribution area.  

Traveling on Madonna’s “Sticky and Sweet” tour gave me a chance to experience a lot of hotel gyms. Guest conscious establishments, like the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton, know their guests are fitness savvy and provide their gyms with amazing equipment.  Regardless of where you’re staying, most hotels with a gym will provide you with hand weights and dumbbells for working out.

Fit for Takeoff

MetroSource Magazine

Most of my clients are gearing up for bathing suit weather with spring just around the corner. Since it’s also a time for travel, I’m giving those of you who have some training a “portable workout” that is primarily dumbbell-based because most every gym has them.

I love coming back from a trip feeling energized and more fit than when I left. You will too, if you take this program along with you. It’ll help you knock out your training anywhere. For those of you who are just getting started, you may need some instruction first, but don’t use this caution as an excuse to sidestep exercise. Almost anyone can use cardio equipment and do simple abdominal and floor exercises.

Workout Notes

Warm up for each weight workout with five to 10 minutes of cardio. Complete three sets of 12 repetitions for each weight exercise. Target three sets of 25 reps for each abdominal exercise. If you can’t do that, set a benchmark that’s just above what you think you can do and shoot for that number. Do 20 to 40 minutes of “interval training” on your cardio days. If you don’t have the endurance or time for a 40-minute stretch, get up, grab some coffee and hit the gym before breakfast for a 20-minute cardio blast, then come back at the end of the day before dinner and give yourself another 20 minutes. (As an added bonus, you won’t feel guilty if you eat dessert.)

The Workout

Day 1: Chest & Triceps

Flat bench, dumbbell chest press

Incline bench, dumbbell chest press

Flat bench, dumbbell flys

Decline pushups

Triceps dumbbell kickbacks

Triceps bench dips

Day 2: Cardio & Abs

Bent knee leg raises

Oblique crunches

Crunches

Day 3: Back & Biceps

Dumbbell row

Pull ups: narrow & wide grips

Dumbbell biceps curl

Dumbbell hammer curl

Day 4: Cardio & Abs

Knee-in on bench

Stability ball abdominal crunches

Stability ball oblique crunches

Day 5: Legs & Shoulders

Squats and lunges

Leg extensions

Seated dumbbell shoulder press

Side deltoid: Seated lateral raise

Front deltoid: standing forward raise

Posterior deltoid: seated bent-over raise

Day 6: Cardio & Abs 

Flat bench crunches

Flat bench bicycle

Flat bench Russian twist

Train your Body. Train your Mind. Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. Never begin and exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider.

Ten Training Tips

At the gym I see every kind of body. The guy who's totally lean, the trainers who are huge but need coaching on body aesthetics, the really heavy guy working on his biceps, and there's the guy who just came in from Abercrombie. 


Comparing myself to other guys gets me into trouble because there's always someone better and more fit – and someone who's not. My meditation Master always said that "there is no competition", our task is simply to make ourselves better.  

Better Workouts – Better Bodies

1 Train your mind 
Before you start a set, know what you are going to do. What's your form and movement? How many reps are you going to do? Tell yourself you are going to do 10 reps and you'll almost always do them. Tell yourself you are going to try to do 10 reps and you'll almost always miss your mark.

2 Core values first
If you have core values, you can weather anything life throws at you. If your body has a strong core, the same thing happens. So train your core. Get a stability ball for home; they're the best piece of gym equipment you can invest in. Workout your abs and lower back. First thing in the morning do hip dips on the ball followed by a hard ab blast. Flip over and do 20 push-ups on the ball planking your body and pulling your belly button to your spine.

3 Legs before coffee
After you do your stability ball routine, hit your legs by doing three sets of 25 squats without any weight. Now have your morning coffee. You'll have more energy all day long. The first time I did this I was shocked at how much work it was. This is great to do before you head to the gym for a leg workout.

4 Befriend a dumbbell – or two
Use dumbbells instead of machines. Dumbbells make each side of your body (or arm, or bicep) work independently. Both sides have to work just as hard. Additionally dumbbells allow muscles a greater range of movement and strengthen the smaller muscles, tendons and ligaments. You'll keep from being bored too. Dumbbells have more variations for training than machines or barbells.

5 Release growth hormone
Train your legs.Working this massive muscle group triggers the release of large amounts of growth hormone. Guess what? That creates muscle growth throughout your entire body and best of all turbo charges your fat burners. Want a strong upper body? Train your legs.

6 Work the big boys 
Just starting? Want to burn and get ripped? Train your big body parts first – train your legs, your back and your chest. These are the powerhouses of your body, they'll fire up your metabolism and create additional energy for you. Your smaller muscles will get worked right along with them without direct focus. You'll still want to  train your biceps, triceps, shoulders and forearms, just not as often. 

7 Super circuit
Circuit training is perfect if you're just getting started, you muscles are relearning how to work. You can work them hard, build strength and get a full hour in. If you're already training, doing a circuit training blast once every two weeks can keep you lean and your workouts fresh. Your goal is to do 3 full body circuits in an hour.

8 The magic hour
Hit an hour of weight training hard, stop and stretch. It's not really a magic number, but it's a good time measure for most of us. After an hour of intense weight training your body starts to produce cortisol in response to perceived stress. Too much cortisol is nasty and deserves an entire blog. Suffice it to say that it can lower testosterone levels, cause protein breakdown, increase body fat – and with overtraining – decrease athletic performance. Want more time at the gym? Split your workouts morning and evening, you'll have a rest, and both workouts will be strong.

9 Cardio blast last
If you want to do cardio on weight training days, do it after your workout. You can always power through 20 minutes of cardio after training. But if you use your prime energy for cardio before a workout, you'll have less energy and endurance lifting weights, get poor results and take longer to create the gains (or losses) that you are looking for.

10 Recover and grow
Some days my mind thinks my body should train – but my body doesn't want to. If I'm dragging myself up the stairs to the gym I know I've hit one of those times that is approaching overload. I probably haven't recovered from my previous workout. So I'll guiltlessly leave the gym and do something fresh with my hour. Look at it this way; we work out to challenge our muscles to grow. The muscle has to recover as it's growing, so if we're not fully recovered we won't be creating new muscle growth with our workout. Listen to your body, it always knows best.

Train your Body. Train your Mind. Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional program without consulting your health care provider.

My First Time

I'm dedicating this blog to the inspirational body builder – Joe Loprenzi who died at the age of 95 on December 16 this year. Joe's brother Sam built the first gym I ever stepped foot into, and it's still there in the same spot in southeast Portland, Oregon.

Until I was 13, my athletic activities were bike riding and playing chess. In the 8th grade, Bobby, the “popular boy” – who I had an innocent teen crush on – asked me to sign up for the Pop Warner football team with him. The team needed a “big guy” in the front line, (translation: heavy kid) and he was the quarterback. Cool, anything to get to hang out with him and get rides home in his dad’s 1950’s  windowless jeep.

Touchdown Hero

The "football thing" was a huge new venture for me. Every part of it was terrifying, and I’d never succeeded at anything in sports before. I was as determined as a 13 year-old could be because I wanted to succeed so badly and I wanted Bobby to like me. The coach realized that I could remember plays and designed a couple of them where I got to break out from the line and have the ball tossed to me. One time, I made a touchdown. Do you have any idea what kind of confidence builder that was? I was the team’s hero for a day.


My junior year in high school, a new kid moved in next door. Greg was tall, lean and ripped. His family had moved to Portland from a farm in Eastern Oregon, so he’d been tossing hay bales for years. I’d never seen abs like his except in the bodybuilding ads in the back of my superhero DC Comic books. Greg had a few years of weight training experience with his dad, and they liked to go watch bodybuilding competitions at the Portland Armory. Greg and his dad started taking me along to the shows, and that summer, Greg asked me to go to a local gym with him. Ask a high school friend with a major crush on you to go to the gym? Yeah!

Loprenzi's Gym

Loprenzi’s gym in southeast Portland was just a 30 minute bike ride from our homes. Sam Loprenzi  was a celebrity bodybuilder who had started the gym in 1948, and he was still there every day. His brother Joe was about 50 at the time and definitely looked like one of my superhero fantasies. Sam's semi-warehouse gym space was big, hot and certainly didn’t have a self explanatory set of circuit training machines. In fact, I really don’t remember any machines, just lots of heavy weight plates, home made gym equipment and really big guys with wide leather belts doing squats.


Intuitively, I knew how to do bicep curls, but that was about it. I didn’t have a clue about how to perform any other exercise. The whole place was a mystery. Greg took me around a little bit and helped me with a few exercises but because I was so intimidated, I never liked being at the gym. What kept me going there was the bike ride over and getting to spend time with Greg.

Even now when I go to a new gym I get the some of the same feelings. Gyms are like new leather work gloves. It takes a little while to get them to fit comfortably. Every gym is different, the layout, the equipment, the music and the vibe of the people. Even if you’re experienced, it’s a whole new place to figure out. If you’ve never worked out before, it’s even more difficult.

Travel Fit

Since the end of the year often involves travel, I’m giving those of you who have some training a portable workout that’s good in just about any hotel gym. The workouts are primarily dumbbell based because most gyms have them. Take this program along with you. It’ll help you knock out a weeks worth of training anyplace so you can get a quick workout in and stay in shape on the road.


For those of you who are just getting started, get some instruction first, and watch this blog for “how to” writings. (even more as soon as I get that video camera working).  Don’t use this caution as an excuse to sidestep exercise though – every gym has some form of cardio equipment and mats for abs and floor exercises.

Workout Notes

Complete 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions for each weight exercise. Target 2-3 sets of 25 reps for each abdominal exercise. If you can't do that, set a bench mark that's just above what you think you can do and shoot for that number. Do at least 20 minutes of cardio interval training on your cardio days. If you don't have the endurance or time for a 40 minute stretch, get up, grab some coffee and hit the gym before breakfast for a 20 minute cardio blast, then come back at the end of the day before dinner and give yourself another 20 minute cardio blast. You won't feel guilty when you eat dessert that night.

The 6 Day Hotel Gym Workout

Day 1 – Chest & Triceps

5-10 minute cardio warm-up

Flat bench dumbbell chest press

Incline bench dumbbell chest press

Flat bench dumbell flys  (or pec fly machine)

Decline pushups (toes on bench, hands on floor)

Rope triceps pushdowns

Triceps dumbell kickbacks

Day 2 – Cardio & Abs

Cardio 

Abdominals on a mat: 

Bent knee leg raises

Oblique crunches

Crunches

Day 3 – Back & Biceps

5-10 minute cardio warm-up

Dumbbell row  

Cable lat pulldowns

Pull ups – narrow and wide grips

Dumbbell biceps curl

Dumbbell hammer curl

Day 4 – Cardio & Abs

Cardio 

Stability ball abdominal crunches

Stability ball oblique crunches 

Day 5 – Legs & Shoulders

5-10 minute cardio warm-up

Squats

Lunges

Leg extensions (if a machine is available)

Seated dumbbell shoulder Press

Side deltoid – seated lateral raise

Front deltoid – standing forward raise

Posterior deltoid – seated bent over lateral raise  

Day 6 – Cardio & Abs

Cardio 

Flat bench crunches

Flat bench bicycle

Flat bench Russian twist 

Day 7 – Get out and play

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medial professional. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your physician.