Phase 3 Live Fit

This 39-second YouTube scene from the movie The Jerk ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTwz-mlJPL0 ) pretty much sums up how I see my results from Live Fit Trainer.  Since I couldn't just lift the video from YouTube (some jerk disabled the 'embed' and link functions) I'll recap it here:

(From the movie, The Jerk)

Navin R. Johnson (Steve Martin) voiceover: "I was so glad to be going home. I remembered the days when I sang and danced with my family on the porch of the old house. But, things change, and with all the additions to the family, we had to tear down the old house, even though we loved it."

"The Old House"

"But we built us a bigger one"

"The New House"

I can't tell you how many times in my life I've referenced the 'before' and 'after' house from The Jerk. Recapping my results from Live Fit is another one of those times. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy that I did the Live Fit program, but I can't report that I had huge visible results. I will finish my re-cap below, but know this: if you haven't yet seen The Jerk (because, perhaps you weren't born yet?) your life is not yet complete!

Genuinely Excited to be in Phase 3!
When I left Phase 2 of the Live Fit series, I was crawling out of my skin and bursting out of my pants. After 10 days on Phase 2 (the 'bulking' stage), I opted out because while I did want to gain (a little) muscle, but I also wanted to lose fat. I was eager for a change in the right direction.

Two Phases in One
Really, Phase 3 is two phases: the brutal phase and the less brutal phase. For the first two weeks you might have to quit your job, give your kids away or get up at 4am to accomplish the workouts (or more likely, all of the above). Alternately, you could split your workout into two daily workouts: crazy! The sessions took me 1.5-2 hours, including the 30 minute sprint cardio at the end. But for the first time in what seemed like a millennium, I did start to lose some of the bulk I gained in the previous phases. Is it any wonder? My daily calorie burn went from ~100-300 in previous phases to over 600 most days.

Me, on the right: doing some landscaping at a lighthouse in Pensacola with a tourism volunteer group. At this time I was just finishing the brutal 1st half of Phase 3 (apologies on the double printing of this photo- you can complain to Blogger)

The good news is that the last and final two weeks of Phase 3 are a delight in comparison. The strength training takes 30-40 minutes. Then you do an additional 30-40 of cardio on most days. (I know, I know it still sounds like a lot, but it's far less than the first two weeks.)

Never a Dull moment
This phase keeps you on your toes, especially the first two weeks. I actually prefer this sort of workout. It's nearly impossible to get bored. You hardly rest between lifting sets because you are too busy jumping rope or doing mountain climbers. Also, you can forget checking your Instagram feed or watching Spongebob during your cardio session because sprints take all of your concentration. Again, the last two weeks are more mellow- you just do 3-4 sets of a circuit, followed by some cardio.

You win some, you lose some

Long-time readers may remember that I couldn't do pushups due to pain from several torn rotator-cuff tendons (so I posted a video on how to do 'negative' pushups). Well, guess what! My shoulder is nearly good as new (for a shoulder with a bunch of torn tendons). I can now do full man-style pushups without pain. I suppose that I strengthened up the surrounding muscles thanks to the variety of exercises offered on Live Fit. For this, I am grateful.

On the downside, a couple of my joints were aching intermittently from the intense plyometrics during the first part of Phase 3. (Jamie warns of this possibility). I do realize that am also not 25 any more. Incidentally, I adore these moves, and I'm quite willing to put up with a sore joint or two, as long as it's nothing more than a temporary inconvenience and not an injury.

The Hunger Games.
I can't make sense of when my body decides to be hungry (ravenous, even) or when it wants nothing to do with food and I practically have to force-feed my post-workout smoothie. You would think that all that crazy intense working out during the first 2 weeks would render me starving, but the opposite was true. So I think that the combination of the intense calories burned, with my relative lack-of-appetite was the combination that helped me shed some of the weight I gained in phase 2. Even during the last two weeks, my hunger wasn't out of control.

The inches will just melt off…or will they?

Well, that worked for other people like Janetha. I was really hoping for the same sort of results, but sadly for me that didn't quite happen. I did lose back the weight that I gained in the latter part of Phase 1 and Phase 2 and ended up exactly where I started, weight-wise. I did lean out a little bit on my upper half. And my bottom half is a bit more toned and slightly smaller. But I did not lose inches as I was hoping to do. Again, I did none of the carb-cycling nor diet-following. I’m certain that if I had done so, I would have seen more drastic results. But I'd rather stay at a size that is manageable for the rest of my life by eating like a quasi-normal person (indulgences included), rather than live a life of restriction in order to fit into a smaller size-probably one that is unrealistic for me.
 
Would I do it again?
Actually, yes I would! But I think I'd need to be very careful or lighten the bulking Phase 2. I'm not willing to gain the muscle in Phase 2 only to diet down in Phase 3 (which, done according to the plan, loses both fat and muscle- this is why you pre-build the muscle...because you will be losing some of it later). 

My husband's perspective

In Phase 1, Derek was freaking out that my arms were getting big and that I was going to 'take this too far.' By the end of Phase 3 he took it all back. He believes that my body did have a bigger transformation than I feel it did and that I'm more toned than before. I know that often we don't see ourselves as objectively as others do. So I thought I would throw his perspective out there for what it's worth. Remember, I was hoping to lose some size, as well as gain muscle. And from my perspective, I didn't lose much, if any size.

Hiking the weekend I began Live Fit (my "Before" photo)

Goofing off with friend/reader extraordinaire, Missy. I was nearly done with Live Fit (my "after" photo)

As you can see, my 'before' and 'after' photos are a bit like Navin R. Johnson's childhood house remodel: there is a slight improvement, but nothing earth-shattering. And while we're talking about the Jerk, now that I completed Live Fit, I feel like dancing and singing on a porch.

Q: Have you ever completed a set program: diet and/or exercise? Did you like it? Are you currently doing one and if so, how is it going? What is your favorite classic comedy?

Phase 2 Live Fit: The Bulking Stage

So as I left Phase 1 I was not a very happy person. I had gained 4 pounds (I don't care if it's muscle or fat...my pants were tight and that's no bueno.) My theory on what went wrong: I suspect that I jumped into Phase 1 from the start lifting heavier than perhaps I should have been (closer to 85% of max, rather than the 65% suggested). So it might have been as though I was on a really long Phase 2 right from the start. I just didn't want to waste my time lifting weights that were too light for me.

Finally I get to burn some calories!

There were days in Phase 1 where a pretty grueling workout 'earned' me about 100-150 calories (not much). Even the upper body strength workouts in Phase 2 burned similar calories. While I don't log calories I consume any more, I do keep track of calories I burn through exercise on Daily Plate. Plus, I like to burn some decent calories when I take the time and energy to get to the gym. So Phase 2 granted me 30 minutes of "Moderate intensity" or "Fat-burning" cardio. Personally, I call it “mind-numbing.” It's the kind of cardio that allows you to check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or watch Spongebob Squarepants.

Spongebob in drag. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Spongebob with Milk&Cookies- that's pretty fabulous too.

I will admit, however, that I saw no appreciable 'fat burning' with this moderate cardio. I never really have noticed it in the past either. When I was maintaining my weight 20 lbs heavier than now, all I did was mind-numbing cardio. In other words, it did not burn away my fat (and of course I do realize that I was eating enough calories to maintain that weight).


I love working out, but not quite THAT often.
In the beginning of Phase 2, I was happy with the 4-5 day per week workout schedule, but very quickly it morphed into 6 days. This is a lot of training week in and week out, especially this intensely and for someone who took nearly no days off in Phase 1. (I average 5-6 days on my own).

Beware the bulk

I wasn’t trying to gain size with Live Fit. I was trying to lean out and gain some muscle definition. Probably because I refused to lower my calories, I just bulked up. And then bulked some more. This was pretty unnerving as I was busting my guts in the gym 6 days a week. My poor husband and Janetha never heard the end of my complaining. Finally Janetha suggested that I just jump ahead to Phase 3 if I was going nuts (and to keep me from driving her nuts, I suspect). I realized that she was right. I couldn't take another 20 days of bulking. So I abandoned ship on day 11.


Notes on being a Nerdy Note-taker
Until 3 months ago, the notion of keeping track of how much weight I lifted for each exercise I did seemed ridiculous. I should have realized that this sort of thing is right up my alley, being the rainman data-junkie that I am. I simply clicked on the day's workout in the website, clicked on the PDF document option and copied/pasted seven days into an email to myself and then printed that out. You could also just hit 'printable copy' and do it day-by-day.

Typical Phase 2 day

Upper body workout: 33 minutes for 104 calories burned: ugh.

Moderate cardio for 191 calories burned. At this point I was grateful to be able to burn any extra calories.

App Happy:
I did start to feel a bit self-conscious toting around a bunch of papers in the gym so I decided to explore some iphone apps. The two I liked best were Fitness Buddy (99 cents) and Gym buddy ($2.99). Truth be known, I did have some fun with them, but didn't make the time to really investigate all of their features so that I could input Live Fit's particular workouts. Having said that, I might go back to using an app when I finish Live Fit. In fact, the apps even offer suggested exercise-by-exercise routines, which is pretty cool.

Just a few gym/health data apps

Fitness Buddy is a great app for 99 cents!

Fitness Buddy has a database of thousands of exercises, and action photo demonstrations that are very useful.

Fitness Buddy also offers pre-loaded workouts. You just click on it and record your workout. It tells you what to do.

Gym Buddy is $2.99 and offers many features including a very annoying sound functions (you can turn them off in your settings)

Gym buddy's main menu

Gym Buddy has measurements/weight tracking (complete with graphs!) and an Interval Timer that can be helpful.

Gym Buddy also offers tons of exercises (and you can add in your own)

In addition to weights and reps, you can time your rest periods, planks etc.

There are many, many other apps. These were just the ones that I stumbled upon. 

Q: Do you keep track of data of any kind? Calories eaten, calories burned, macronutrients, miles ran or biked, etc?

My thoughts on Phase 1 Live Fit Trainer

I am in the throws of the last Phase of Jamie Eason's Live Fit Trainer. You can see my general summary of Live Fit in my last post about it. Today I'll talk about Phase 1 from my perspective: The No-Cardio-get-your-lifting-on phase.

No cardio. Really?!
Jamie explains that she wants all of those precious calories that you would be "using up" doing cardio to go to building muscle instead. I'll admit, as a cardio junkie, this was tough for me to swallow. In fact, I will just confess that I cheated. On my "Rest days" I hiked, biked and went to my favorite classes because these are activities that I genuinely enjoy.  And because I was terrified I'd gain weight without some cardio. I also walked to the gym on some of my training days because the thought of driving myself to the gym in order to burn a measly 100-150 calories was just too torturous for me to bear. 

For beginners and cardio-despisers, the no-cardio rule in this phase is just a dream-come-true. For me, it was impossible.

Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it.
During this whole program, someone else (Jamie Eason) tells you exactly what to do, and you simply do it. Simple enough. One thing that I did notice: on several days that I felt totally uninspired to hit the gym, I did get my butt over there because I was 'following the program' and didn't want to get behind. Invariably, I was happy that I did.

As a long-time independent exerciser, the mere thought of following 'a plan' made me cringe. A day or so into the program, I realized that I loved having a written plan! I could check off those satisfying boxes and fill in the blank spots with numbers like the Rainman nerd that I am. I am pretty sure that in the future I will plan out my workouts just so that I can check off boxes.

New old moves.
I read a lot of fitness magazines and I am familiar with most exercises (except the Donkey Calf Raise). But that doesn't mean that I used them regularly. Example: you know that turnips, rutabagas and parsnips exist, right? You see them lurking over in the produce section. But do you eat them often? No! Same thing here.

All the rage? Here is the infamous donkey calf raise in a recent Oxygen Magazine.

Also, in Phase 1, the workout calls for doing 3 sets of one exercise and then moving on to another exercise. In the past, I never did this. I typically did supersets (two exercises back to back) or giant sets (several exercises in succession) for all of my workouts. This change gave my muscles a shock and a burn (and I loved it!)

An unexpected bonus of writing down the weight lifted is that I instinctively wanted to better myself each time I lifted. This was not necessarily the case before, as I couldn't remember every weight I lifted for every exercise I performed. When I had the data at my fingertips, it's clear- I either do the same or do better. Unless I have pain, I like to do better.

Chill out, man.
Incidentally Phase 1 has you resting a minute in between moves. That is 60 whole seconds! This is something I simply never did before. I would either do some sort of active rest (jump rope, mountain climbers etc) or superset another exercise immediately, so I never stood still in the gym, ever. During Phase 1, I felt very luxurious (and quite possibly a bit lazy) standing there for 60 whole seconds. But it gave me plenty of time to check in with Instagram. 


Rest up.
For the beginner, Phase 1 is a dream. The first half gives you 3 days per week rest, and the second gives you two. That's pretty manageable. Especially when there is no cardio involved.

In the past 15 years I've trained anywhere from 5-6 days per week. So this was a definite step backward for me. As I mentioned, my rest days in Phase 1 were anything but restful. If I had to do it over, I'd probably opt for more rest because I was pretty wiped out by the time I got to Phase 2.

My results after Phase 1:

By the end of the month, I started to feel stockier.  I had actually gained 4 solid pounds and my pants were tighter. This was partly due to an increase in appetite in the first two weeks, and eating out quite a bit the last two. As the old saying goes "Abs are made in the kitchen." I was not about to try a 'diet' that I couldn't stick with forever, so I just lived and ate as usual, which includes periods where I'm hungrier and periods when I'm not. The only thing that changed substantially were the workouts.

There is no question that the first phase builds muscle. Given the fact that the program is located on Bodybuilding.com, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. However, that doesn't stop husbands from worrying that their wives will become enormous she-men. Here is an actual conversation with my husband, Derek, after not seeing each other for about 10 days toward the end of Phase 1:

Derek: You're not going to take this too far, are you? (One eyebrow shoots up his forehead)
Deb: What do you mean?
Derek: Your arms look big.
Deb: What?!! Do they look fat?
Derek: No.
Deb: How can they be big but not look fat?
Derek: (Backpeddling) Well, they aren't big, but they are bigger than before.
Deb: How can you tell that they look bigger but not fatter?
Derek: They just look bigger. Not fatter.
Deb: Not fatter?
Derek: (Sigh) No.
Deb: (Sigh)

You can imagine that I was not a happy camper by the end of Phase 1. It made me wonder how much weight I would have gained had I not been "siphoning off" (burning) calories doing some cardio. It took all my might to not abandon ship, but I decided to stick with it to the next phase. I will have a review of Phase 2 soon.

Incidentally, I could post 'before' and 'after' photos for Phase 1, but honestly you wouldn't notice any difference. It's the sort of thing that I can feel but others can't visualize, even with the extra 4 pounds and the tighter pants. Instead, I'll post a photo of sweet Lindsay and me on the day that she and James had a layover in LA. It happens to be on the last day of Phase 1.

Lovely Lindsay

 Q: Cardio: Love it or hate it? Does the thought of burning 100 calories per workout make you wonder 'why bother?' despite the fact that it is still good for you?