Skulpt Aim Body Fat and Muscle Quality Reader on it's way!

What is a Skulpt Aim? I had no idea this product even existed just a few days ago? I have been using a body fat scale at home but it is widely know that they are not all that accurate. Body fat scales only measures the fat in your lower body and do a lot of averaging based on your age, gender and height to make an educated guess as to what your body fat really is. But if you're kinda like me and not really the average sort of physic for your age then the measurements can be way off.

There is always the good old caliper test which works pretty well but can be a bit complicated, of course there is the tried and true underwater testing but that can be expensive and time consuming, not to mention very wet!

And that brings us to the Skulpt Aim, a new device based on 16 years of research and 6 years of use in the medical felid that not only measures body fat but also muscle quality! And the Skulpt Aim is 5 times more accurate than a Body Fat Scale, 4 times more accurate than Professional Caliper Testing and even within 1-2% accurate of the God Standard "Underwater Weighing"!

So I am supper happy to be getting a Skulpt Aim shortly and I am very curious to see what my actual body fat is. I also want to note that the Skulpt Aim is designed to be used as a tool to help you along your fitness journey by tracking your progress no matter what your goals are... Lose weight, build muscle or both?

I'm Giving Martial Arts Another Try :)

Here is a video Darren Clark from CMA Martial Arts (AKA CrossFit Langley) uploaded. It showcases some of the boys doing strength training and martial arts, what a combo! You get Body, Mind and being Kick Ass combined!

I have been wanting to get back into martial arts for some time but had some concerns about getting injured.Darren takes a very safe approach to his training avoiding a typical high risk injury situations and focussing on standup striking and kicking skills along with ground work submissions, chokes and positioning.

So far I have done three days of training with Darren and have truly enjoyed all of it. If you are in the Langley BC area, come on down and see what kind of program Darren can set you up with!

Box Squats - 405 x 6 Reps PR - 46 Years Old @ 192 Pounds

Another PR (Personal Best) for this old man (46)! On my quest to get a single rep back squat of 4 plates per side (405 pounds) I have been getting used to having the weight on my back by doing some heavy Box Squats. Based on the fact that I did 6 of them with 405 pounds on my back means I should be pretty close to a 1 rep 405 without the box and of course going to full depth.

In this video I setup the box height pretty close to parallel but when I go for the single I will try and get a bit more depth on it so there is no doubt that it is a good rep :) But again the idea of doing the Box Squats with the same 405 pound weight for reps is to get used to the heavy load on my system.

I also included some video of old man Darren (52) owner of CrossFit Langley doing 423 pounds for 8 reps kind of easy, if you can call 423 pound Box Squats easy that is ;)

The finish for this workout was 20 reps of regular Back Squats @ 245 pounds in as few sets as possible. I went for one big set of 20 and got it which was kind of another PR for me that day!

Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch Preview

I have been humming and hawing as to if I should get the new Apple Watch since it looks like it could be the best Smart Watch and Fitness Tracker on the market and I am sure in many ways it may in fact just be. That said I have come to the conclusion that the Apple Watch is just not right for me.

One of my main focuses for having a Fitness Tracker Smart Watch combination is to monitor my workouts as accurately as possible so I know to near precision how many calories I am burning and how much effort I am putting in. So this means I need to go with the most accurate heart rate monitoring available and that is still going to be a chest strap based Heart Rate Monitor. Believe me I have tried many variations of wrist based Optical Sensor heart rate trackers and none of them cut it, including the new Fitbit Surge. I am still waiting to see how the Apple Watch stacks up in this department but I am not optimistic to say the least.

The other concern I have with the Apple Watch is... Well it's just too nice and too expensive to be worn on my wrist while I beat the living crap out of it during my weight training and other fitness activities.

So that brings us back to the Garmin VivoActive. How did I get to this point and why did I go with the Garmin VivoActive? I have used many Fitness Bands and Fitness Watches in the past including some from Fitbit, Polar, Jawbone, Mio and Basis. Many of these Fitness Trackers worked well for me but once I tried the Polar Loop with its super accurate chest strap based Heart Rate Monitoring, I decided that this combination was the way to go at least for me. That led to trying out the Garmin VivoFit with HRM, which led to the Garmin VivoSmart with HRM, that led to what I am using now which again brings us back to the Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch bundled with a chest strap based Heart Rate Monitor.

Each new rendition of Garmin products has offered more built in technology and connectivity making each device more and more useful to me. At this point the Garmin VivoActive does what I need it to do, no more, no less and it does it really well.

Here is a breakdown of what I find most useful about the Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch:

• It's a 24 hour Fitness tracker that tracks my basic movements and figures out my daily caloric output.
• The VivoActive can be paired over Bluetooth with a Chest Strap Monitor to accurately read my Heart Rate during workouts.
• The Garmin VivoActive has a built in GPS that tracks my outside walks, runs and bike rides along with elevation, pace, speed distance and more...
• The Garmin VivoActive is water proof to 5 ATM (50 meters) so you can swim with it.
• The VivoActive has a very readable "all the time on" color touch screen with backlight when required.
• The Garmin VivoActive can gets up to 3 weeks of battery life. (Or a Solid week for someone like me using many of the power draining features.)
• The VivoActive is very light weight and low profile.
• The Garmin VivoActive is stylish and looks more like a watch than a fitness tracker.
• The VivoActive is also a Smart Watch with vibrating Text, Email, Social Media, Calendar and incoming Phone Call notifications.
• The Garmin VivoActive can also control your Phones music playback, show you the Weather conditions and of course keep you updated on your current daily activity output.
• The Garmin VivoActive can take advantage of the Garmin Connect IQ Store where new Watch Faces, Apps and Widgets can be downloaded to the VivoActive for personal customization.
• Good hardware is one thing, Garmin has also done a nice job with their software for both your Smart Phone and when using Garmin's Web Based Interface.

So for now I am sticking with my Garmin VivoActive over going with an Apple Watch. Well at least until the Apple Watch 2 comes out ;)

450 Pounds x8 Reps Dead Lift Personal Best - 46 Years Old at 192 Pounds

Sorry, but this time I didn't have my camera rolling so no video, you will just have to take my word for it :) I wasn't really sure how I was going to do repping out at 450 pounds. In the past I have done as many as 5 reps so getting an additional 3 was significant. My goal is to hot 500 pounds for a single so I should be really close now.

Hopefully my next video will be me deadlifitng 500 pounds!