Formosa Fitness

Weight: 83.5kg body fat: 17.4% Dropped 1kg (2.2lbs.) in one week. Happy about that.

Training: a disaster, squat 80kg 5x10

single leg deadlift 2x20kg 5L/Rx4

swing ladder 20kg 1-8

jump rope 1000x in sets of 100

bike 10:00 100 cal. burned

Trained on an empty stomach this morning and had zero energy. Won't do that again. I squatted 135kg for reps last time and this time, 100kg felt like a ton.

So here I am in all my...... ugh.......Hide the kids.

This is all of a smile I could muster today. No breakfast and no coffee before working out make Dave a dull boy. Notice the fat around the waist, especially on the sides.

I'm actually happier with this one. The weight I lost this week appears to have come off the store of abdominal fat under my abs first. That's a good sign IMO. I deleted the pic of my pinching the love handles. Everyone has their limits and that pic exceeded mine. Sorry.

I can't believe I have pictures of me without my shirt on on the net. This is a sign of how dedicated I am to doing this because as most of you know, this is not me! I'm not the type to put pics like this up. But I want accountability and I will accept no excuses from myself. This body will improve!!!

See you tomorrow!!

Update: won't let a bad workout slow me down. I did another one this afternoon and broke some PRs:

100 air squats in 2:04, new PR

100 Burpees in 8:34, new PR

5 reverse crunches/5 leg thrusts x5

10 jackknives/10 russian twists/:30 plank x5

4:00 Tabata mountain climbers, made it all the way through.

Replacing a bad daily workout with a better one in the afternoon was a great choice! Live and learn!

Weight: 83.6kg and bodyfat 17.5% That's looking more like it.

Training: weighted hiking with 16kg 50:00, bike level 4 21:00 burned 200 cal

I asked the bug guy JC Santana about the whole functionally fat vs. functionally fit thing on Facebook and this is what he said:

Although I have referred to myself as fat at some points in my life I never quite considered myself such - I've always been an athlete and have been fit. However, at times I have looked like a lineman and sometimes like a running back. So you can be both at the same time - functionally fat AND functionally fit.

Don't worry about your look - its your life that is important. As long as you live the fitness life - you body will go through changes - depending on training, career situations, schedule, etc. See the fitness life as "STYLE" and your body comp as "FASHION". STYLE IS TIMELESS -FASHION IS ONLY NOW:)

So there you have it style vs. fashion and lineman vs. running back. Good ways of looking at it.

I re-read his "Out to Pasture" article where he went from 19% to 9% body fat and it was inspiring. I hope to meet a similar goal...lol....even if I only do it once. Have to do it and then take pictures. I might need to use those pics the rest of my life. Haha.

Getting taped for the first time tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Weight 84.0kg and body fat 17.9%

So a slight increase from yesterday but no big deal.

This morning my wife got up to find me doing an Insanity DVD. Gotta get in the morning sweat. I did 45:00 and was happy with that.

The reason I didn't do kettlebells, heavy weights, STX suspenion trainer, circuits, etc. was I just spent 5 days straight doint that stuff. I wanted something I never do and Insanity fit the bill nicely. Good back up workout. Please feel free to recommend any others!

So a while back, I uploaded this photo as a role model for more local women to follow. She's called "Iron Barbie" in Chinese (金剛芭比) and she's unique here. Someone made a comment that really struck me, "She's obviously put a lot of work into her body." I just stopped when I read that because it's true -- she has worked hard and has a lot to show for it. She looks great. Many of us functional trainers are working hard and have good movement skills but the work we're doing isn't always so obviously noticable. That's a problem. She's a walking billboard if she's a trainer. Am I a walking billboard? Maybe for Pillsbury. :)

I remember top trainer JC Santana going through a mid life crisis a few years back and he questioned the functional fitness he was known so well for. IIRC he decided to clean himself up, lose weight, and added back in some bodybuilding training that he had rejected in the past. His body responded very well to it probably because it was so different from the functional training he had been doing so much. After he dropped the weight, he had a new take on training. Select the tools needed from the functional OR bodybuilding or whatever to get the job done. It's a more balanced approach.

I let myself go from functionally fit to functionally fat because I wasn't paying attention. So it bit me in the butt.

I wonder how many other functional trainers are in this predicament?

I'm behind already on this so we'll skim a bit to catch up.

Here's my stats so far:

Day 1: 84.5 kg body fat 18.2% UGH!!!!!!

Day 2: 84.7kg body fat 18.1% Yes, my weight went up!!

Day 3: 84.3kg and 17.9% body fat

Day 4: 83.8kg and 17.8% body fat

That day 2 would have scared most beginner weight losers away. Work hard all day and the next day you weigh more? Welcome to the weight/fat loss world. You need to look longer term. Don't expect results the next day. So I've lost almost a kg already. Yeah!

Unfotunately I don't have time to type up all my workouts over the past four days. I've been doing 30-60 minutes of weight lifting, maybe 16-20 minutes hard cardio, and 1-2 hours of walking a day. Remember, this is my personal transformation and I've set a goal of 30 days. So this isn't necessarily the best plan for others but it provides some tips.

So how are the workouts going? GREAT!

Yesterday I deadlifted 145kg for the first time, a new PR. My previous squat PR was 136kg and yesterday I did 135kg for 10 reps and that was my last set!! Blowing squat out of the water! Double kettlebell clean 5:00 EDT my previous record was 61. Yesterday I did 70!!! Kicking butt! Today I killed upper body with bench, 50 pullups, 50 dips, rows, clean and press, and I finished off with four sets of curls and tricep pulldowns -- the first isolated movement training I've done in a while. It was great!

Here's what I've been eating for dinner:

Large salad with dressing, tomato soup, three pieces of steak. I had a small cup of coffee for dessert. This is very filling and very nutritious. I love eating like this.

Today after killing it in the gym, I had a smaller lunch and a itty bitty piece of cheesecake:

The cheesecake was a baby one, about six inches wide. So a piece won't set me back too much. :)

I have lots more to say but the kids are sick and at home so I'm busy with them and the gym. Look for more progress reports soon!

We've all seen the personal transformation stories in P90X and the movie 300. And I'm tired of reading top coaches talk about it. You know: a guy loses a ton of fat and gains a ton of muscle in a set period of time, usually 30 or 60 days. Well, I'm tired of just hearing about it, it's time to do it!

So here's my personal story.

This was last year and I was 78-79kg and doing fine. I was happy with my weight but not the amount of muscle that I had. As a personal trainer, I've always envied the other trainers in the field that look like a million bucks. I could name a lot of names like The Rock and Vin Diesel and those are names you know. They aren't super low in body fat and have a look I'd like to achieve. But another name you might not know is Christian Thibaudeau. As you can see, he looks a lot like Vin Diesel.

But here's the thing -- he didn't always look like that. He used to look like this:

I was reading one of his books and he talked about his personal transformation. He was a personal trainer and he looked like that on the left. He decided to transform himself for personal and professional reasons and now he looks like that on the right. Needless to say, he's charging whatever he wants for personal training and probably beating clients off with a stick.

His story and that of others really has stuck with me. I'm no where near my potential personally and haven't been since I was about 25 and in the army. Can I get it back? Can I get the body of my dreams and hopefully enhance my career? Heck yeah! Let's do it!!!

So last year, I started lifting heavy weights because I want to be a strength and conditioning coach as well as a personal trainer. I was making progress on the lifts and trying various diets, all with some success. In December of last year, I made a breakthrough and gained 2.4kg of muscle in a single month. I was so happy! And then came January.

After two months of bulking, I was getting a bit tired of the routine I was using. It was a bit exhausting doing 10x10 as I was doing and my business grew in January. So I found myself in between programs unexpectedly. I looked around for another bulking program because I wanted to continue that but I wasn't sure which one to go with. And here's the key -- the whole time I continued eating like I was still bulking.

February came and Chinese New Year meant the gym was closed for 9 days and I was home with the kids. I knew I still needed to work out so I used my 16kg kettlebell and did burpees, etc. as a home workout. I worked out every other day during that period but I still keep eating like I was bulking when I clearly was no longer on that kind of program!! This is a key to training -- your diet and training MUST match. If you're on a bulking diet but not a bulking training program then watch out! But I wasn't watching out. I had slipped off the program.

The end of February rolls around and I teach a Kettlebell Taiwan certification. The pictures and video come back and I look like this:

What the heck? What is that around my waist? It's a little pouch. I was shocked and weighed myself, something I haven't done in a while because I thought I was fine. Result: almost 85kg and over 18% body fat!!!! I was disgusted. I didn't even want to post the video we shot.

So that was last weekend and I'm already into day three of the transformation. The plan? The whole enchilada: gain muscle, lose fat, increase my weights on all the primary lifts. Basically be all I can be in 30 days.

Why 30 days? Because it's the least amount of time I can get anything done and if I go longer, I'll get lazy. Haha. If we need to extend it 60, I'll make that decision at 30 days.

I waited until day three to say something about this because I wanted to try it out for a few days and make sure this was somthing I wanted to do. After three days of training and getting my eating right, I've decided to go for it, so here we are!

I'm very excited and a little nervous about this. Being public makes it accountable in ways that make me uncomfortable. I don't like the spotlight like this but I know the added pressure may keep me going. If I talk the talk, I have to walk the walk, right? Yikes. Here goes nothing.

So this is the intro and I'll be posting training diet progress as we go along. I already have lots to say since I'm in day three already.

Stay tuned!

Here's a great little circuit we did yesterday. We coupled the farmer walks with rope pulls and v-ups. Try it out!

I recently got into a bit of an argument about motivation. I told folks that I don't motivate people to work out at Formosa Fitness. Not directly anway. And that got interpreted in the worst way.

Fact is, motivation is way over-rated.

Don't feel motivated today? No kidding. Join the rest of the world.

You don't just sit there on the couch and then one day feel terribly motivated to go out and do an intense exercise program. Just not gonna happen.

Instead I focus on setting habits. Why? Because you can depend on habits. Habits are what YOU DO, they aren't based on how YOU FEEL. Motivation is mental and largely based on emotion. Notice, "I don't FEEL motivated today." I don't care how you feel. I care what you do. If you only workout when you feel motivated, you'll get no where.

This is why I tell everyone to work out a minimum of three days a week. Otherwise you're just wasting time. Come to class three times a week and we'll get you results. Make that your habit.

Jack Lalanne, the famous fitness guru who recently died at the age of 96, said, "Fitness is a lifestyle. It’s something you do for the rest of your life. How long are you going to keep on breathing? How long are you going to keep eating? You just do it."

Get off the feeling merry-go-round and start getting results by making fitness a habit.

Then this is the way to get it. The Body Tribe folks show you variations that become almost yoga-like in their movements. These variations can fix your general burpee form and other physical problems you might have. Slowing them down like this is a pretty good idea. Let me know if this helps!

This is how you do it, folks. 5 low rows, 10 atomic pushups, and 15 jump squats. Do as many rounds of that circuit as possible in 20:00 and you won't need anything else. This is a great combo of Crossfit's Cindy workout with the suspension trainer. we're doing it here with our low cost STX suspension resistance trainer. These are only NT3000 -- less than half the cost of the TRX. This is a killer workout for the more athletically inclined. If you try it out, let me know what you think.

I could make a video of my doing burpees but I can promise I won't be as pleasant to look at as Suzanna.

This makes for a good challenge for most anyone. Try doing them in sets of 10 and then doing one set every minute. Rest for the rest of the minute and start again at the top of the minute. If that's too slow for you then just go for it. This makes a great at home workout, you only need one movement, and it takes no equipment. You can work up to this by doing sets of 5 and taking as long as you need in between sets. Recover about 80% (don't recover 100% because you want to learn to work through fatigue) and then do another set. Another way to build up is set a countdown timer to 10:00 and just see how many you can do in that time. Do this 1-2x a week until you can do 100 and then try doing them for time. This burns fat like a blowtorch!! My time is 9:46 for 100. What's yours?