L.E.S is More: Part 1 - Lifting

Lifting-

In my experience and observation, it is possible that one can reach a desired weight or composition by purely focusing on their diet. However, adding a weight training regimen will help expedite results and allow one to reach their goals faster.

For the average person or beginner, I think it's good to aim for lifting 3x/Week. Those three days can easily be broken out into chest/back, shoulders/arms and lower body. This allows you to hit all the key muscle groups and do so effectively.

If you don't have access to a gym, don't fret. Getting outside and being active 3-5x a week is a great substitute. Whether it be walking your dog, hiking up in Forest park, or riding your bike to and from work, those activities will all help expedite the process. The goal here is to just avoid being sedentary.

It’s important if you are a beginner to at least start with a lower weight to ensure proper lifting technique and form. It pains me to see people load the bar up with weight, only to severely limit their range of motion. If you have some anxiety about using low weights because of how it may look, let me just say that everybody started there at one point. Additionally, it's important you gauge your results compared to your goals/expectations. DO NOT compare yourself to your peers because there is no concrete basis for comparison and it will only have a negative effect on your mental approach.

So here is an example of a basic lifting routine and lifts one could use if they decide that weight training 3x/week would work for them:

Chest/Back

• Dumbbell Bench Press
• Seated cable rows
• Incline Dumbbell bench press
• Pullups

Shoulders/Arms

• Dumbbell Shoulder press
• Rear Delt Raise
• Lateral DB Raise
• Seated Curls
• Dips

Lower Body  

• Squats
• Lunges
• Hamstring curls

Stay tuned for the Eating portion of the L.E.S. is More series, coming soon!

-Colin

L.E.S. is More

I’d like to set this up as a little intro into a 3-part series called “L.E.S is More”

L.E.S is a simple acronym for Lift, Eat, Sleep, or as I’d like to think, the bare essentials of getting into shape or living a healthy lifestyle. 

In today’s world we are able to access much more information than we were 10-20 years ago thanks to advances in online capabilities. Why this can be a good thing, it can also lead to information overload. How do we know what is healthy? What lifting method works the best? What supplement will help me do X & Y? With all the new information available, it seems we tend to forget the basic things that built the platform for those questions to even be asked. This is why I encourage people to step away from the overload and focus on the three most crucial elements to any successful body or lifestyle transformation.

Lift. Eat. Sleep. 

Each subsequent post will go into a little more detail of how LES can actually be more, and how to take advantage of each component to achieve maximal results.

Trust me; I used to be that guy on the other side, trying to find the latest supplement or latest and greatest routine. It wasn’t until I stepped away and really thought about what my goal was. I wasn’t training to be the next Ronnie Coleman or Bo Jackson; I just wanted to maximize what my body could do for my personal satisfaction. Subsequently I realized the differences between doing those special routines and taking those magic pills/powders are clearly immaterial & PFW (s/o to my fellow accountant’s lol). 

So please stay tuned and on the lookout for the next couple posts. Step away from the information overload, assess what your true goals are, and focus on the basics of: Lifting, Eating, and Sleeping. Give it some time and hopefully you will be achieving those goals like I am…

2/15/13 Goals Update

I would like to say I have officially accomplished one of my goals this year and can subsequently cross it off my list.

Granted it wasn’t that hard of a goal to accomplish, but officially filling and registering Peakless as an LLC gives me a motivational boost to stay on top of the blog and get things rolling on the business side to generate some revenue.

Big win or small win, a win is a win.

 

-Colin

Valentines Day #ForeverAlone Travel Workout

I definitely should have made sure to post this actually on Valentine’s Day but after I got off work, and through the workout I had to pack for my flight back to Portland today. 

Given yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and I was in Missoula without a Valentine, I thought the name would be jokingly fitting in a few ways:

1. It’s Valentine’s Day, without a date, on the road, safe to say that "forever alone" feeling was probably present.
2. After actually finishing this workout, I'd prefer to be alone to give myself some time to catch my breath and get some blood back in my brain.
3. By finishing the workout itself you put yourself one step closer to being in better shape, boosting your confidence and resulting in a newer self to increase ones chances of not ending up forever alone. 

Without further ado, the Forever Lonely Valentine’s Day Workout:

4 Rounds Total 

• 100 Air Squats 
• 75 Sit ups 
• 50 Sky Jumps 
• 25 Pushups 
• 20 Rear 
• 10 Hand Stand Pushups 
• Run 1/4 mile on the treadmill. 

Overall it’s a tough but satisfying workout. Like I mentioned before, not a lot of Hotels will have the ample amount of free weights so to counteract this, workouts must have and maintain a high intensity.

Additionally Montana was fun for what it was. I'm not sure if I would go out of my way to comeback aside from seeing Yellowstone, but it was nice to be able to cross it off the list. Not sure I agree with a lot of the locals who told me it was just like Portland (LOL) but they were good people none the less. Although I think this picture would be a good indicator of how quiet this place actually is:

-Colin

Travel Workout - Chest

Being physically fit is very important to me. Working full time now, I strongly believe that being physically fit and mentally fit are highly correlated. Growing up and playing sports though high school, the stubbornness in me neglected lifting weights for the sheer fact that I was able to rely on natural talent and felt as if I didn't need to do anything more because I still achieved All-League and All-State honors in my respective sports.

Man, how far I have come from my 16 year old self...

Currently I'm in Missoula, MT helping out the Montana office because they are a little short on staff this time of year. I was able to fly down to Denver for the weekend and experience my first two Crossfit workouts at Crossfit LoDo in Denver, CO. I will give you my overall impression on Crossfit later but here is a chest workout I did this morning in the hotel fitness room:

4 Rounds as fast as you can of:

• 10 Dumbbell Bench presses (I used 50 lb DB's as that's as high as they go)
• 25 push ups 
• 20 Sky's (Jumping high as you can off  2 feet and exploding back up as soon as your feet hit the ground)
• 10 Standing Cable flys (25 lbs each side)
• 10 Burpees 
• 1/4 Mile on the treadmill on highest speed 

Overall it was a great workout and worked up a solid sweat to get me feeling right to start the day. Personally, there is nothing better than working up a sweat before most people get out of bed.

The key to workouts like these, using more body weight than free weights is to keep the tempo and intensity high. I don't think I fully caught my breath until I was back in my room getting ready for the day ahead. Its hard to do because you have to push yourself when nobody else is watching, but once you do it a few times and see that you do in fact survive and begin to see results it can become very addicting.

" Ain't nothing to it, but to do it"
                       
-Colin

Welcome

I'd like to think of this post as my first real introduction to this blog and site. Over the past year or so I have been gathering information, compiling my thoughts and trying to find something that I could substantiate and put into words on paper. It wasn't until this past weekend that I realized that I was possibly over thinking what this "should" all be about.

This is Peakless.

Peakless is about always trying to improve something in your life one step at a time.

We ALL know what we aren't happy about in our lives, and to some extent we know what we need to do (If not then that's another story but we will eventually get around to that). But for whatever reason, stepping outside of our comfort zone and putting the energy into making changes or improvements are more difficult than we realize and we stop short because it seems like its going to become more work than its actually worth.

I've had my internal struggles, just like anyone else. Nothing in life is promised, but we can control the way we handle certain situations or the effort/energy we put into different tasks.

So here we are. I am finally about to quit delaying this and make the changes I know I've needed to make the past year or so of contemplation.

So with all that said I'd like to spend the next posts telling you more about myself and the things that I plan to accomplish in the near future and the things I would love to help you accomplish in the near future as well.

-Colin