My New Years Resolution - Gain 5 Pounds of Pure Muscle

So I mentioned a couple of videos ago some tips on how to keep your 2014 New Years Fitness Resolutions, but I did not mention what mine where. Perhaps because I was not sure at that point? Well I have a plan now for 2014 and my new goal for the first 3-4 months is to put on some muscle mass. This is not something my body is prone to doing, I'm pretty good at shredding up and sure I can gain fat easy juts by eating but adding muscle mass quickly is not something I have been able to do easily in the past.

As you know I have been doing a lot of CrossFit over the past 6-7 months and it has been really greta for me in many ways. In some ways it may have limited me to add muscle since most CrossFit workouts are heavy on the high intensity which in a way is like cardio but with the benefit of more of a cardio workout. But the fact of the matter is by doing the high intensity training you do rob your body of some of its ability to put on pure muscle because it is multitasking and needs some of the energy to go towards the high intensity effort you are performing and then some of the energy goes into building muscle.

My goal is to gain between 5-8 pounds of solid muscle while maintaining a lean body mass, I plan to do this by cutting down on my CrossFit workouts to about 3 days per week and ramping up my Isolation body building style workouts to at least 3 days per week. I will be eating slightly more calories than I need so I can gain the additional muscle mass but my food intake will be very regulated with a lot of protein with some carbs and lower fat.

During my "transformation" I plan to "keep the shirt on" until I get to my final target weight what ever that turned out to be ;) Right now I am 182 pounds at about 8% body fat, I want to be at least 185 pounds at 6% body fat or closer to 190 pounds at 7% body fat when all is said and done.

So keep posted and I would love for you to share your Fitness Goals for 2014 with me so we can work towards them together.

New Years Day 2014 Inner Tubing at Cypress Mountain with the Family

It's always fun getting out with the family when hills and snow are involved, and not just for the kids :)

It's been kind of a tradition to head out to the the slopes each year, either on Boxing Day or like this year, New Years day and head up to Cypress Mountain for some inner tubing. Last year it was a winter wonderland in our local BC mountains but this year our winter has been so mild that most of the ski hills are not operating. At least Cypress Mountain with the aid of snow machines had the inner tube hills running.

We had a greta time and decided to skip the tow lineups and walk up the hill which is  a really great workout, it's like walking in sand but uphill while dragging a heavy object behind you (usually I had to drag mine and my sons inner tube).

I'm not sure exactly how many runs we got it in but it was at least 6-7 so all in all we got a pretty good workout in!

Enjoy the video, most of the video is shot while I was wearing my Liquid Image MODEL 367 - IMPACT SERIES HD 1080P Goggle Camera with the exception of when I put them on Gabriel for one of his runs. I also got some video using my iPhone 5s and took advantage of the 720p 120 frames per second slow-mo feature.

How to Beat the Odds and Stick to Your New Years Fitness Resolutions!

 

1. DO NOT, I repeat, do not go to the gym!
The gym is the last place you want to be at the beginning of any New Year, at least for a month or so till it settles down. Everyone who has set New Years Fitness Resolutions and the regular gym rats who want to hit the gym hard again after their holiday break will all be at the gym simultaneously. Not the place you want to be especially if you're new to the gym workout scene, since the regular gym rats are not impressed with all the temporary newbies taking up all the machines and not having a clew on how to use them ;)

I say stay at home and use what you have available, do body weight exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and air squats… Ride your bike, skip rope, go for a run or fast walk. If you feel the need to go to the gym then wait it out a bit and get your body ready for more intense gym workouts by doing what you can at home first.

2. Start simple and build on it.
Don't do too much too fast which is another reason to stay away from the gym. If you're not used to pushing your muscles and body hard then the gym may be overkill at the beginning for you anyways! The first thing I would recommend is to start off with walking as much as you have time for, to help get your body prepared for physical activity. Then start adding some body weight movements like push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and air squats. Add in some high active cardio like running, skipping, burpees, biking or use other cardio equipment if you have it.

Same goes for the eating side of things. Don't just jump into a crazy diet cold turkey, start off by cutting the calories in your drinks by drinking low or no calorie beverages like water or the occasional diet soda, and keeping your alcohol intake to a minimum. Once you have your beverages under control, move onto your food, eat more protein and less carbs, keep the fat down and your meal sizes to a modest portion, maybe replace a meal or two with a protein shake and stay away from unhealthy snacks and deserts as much as possible. Watch my "The Most Important Workout Technique You'll Ever Learn" video for more info on eating suggestions.

Do everything in stages so your body can get used to each stage before moving onto the next step.

3. Set achievable goals with rewards when you hit them.
Another reason why you need to start small is so you can set achievable fitness goals with rewards in place for when you active your fitness goals, followed by a new added goals! For example: Set a goal to drink only water as your beverage for two weeks. Once you hit this goal, reward yourself with a night out to the pub for some beers/wine with some good friends. Then get back to the water program and add a new layer to your food plan like having a protein shake for breakfast in the morning, drink your protein shakes for two weeks followed by another reward and new program goal added. Soon you will have a multi-layered fitness program that is getting you to your fitness goal very quickly!

You can also set weight or size related goals like: When you lose 10 pounds, you get to go to a restaurant of your choice for a cheat meal. Or if you reach a certain goal dress or pant size you get to buy some new clothing. Perhaps if you have a big fitness goal, you can plan a vacation to celebrate your success!

4. Accountability.
Make sure to tell a few important people in your life what your fitness plans are and ask them to check in on you to see how you're doing with your goals. Your friends or family can help support you along the way, you will not want to disappoint them and they will want to see you succeed!

Make a pact with a friend who has similar fitness goals, your competitive nature may come out and help keep you even more focussed. Nobody likes losing to a friend.

How about announce your fitness journey on Facebook or Twitter, that is making a committed statement!

Write down all your fitness goals in detail, short term goals and long term goals, look at your fitness goals every day and check off the ones you have accomplished!

5. If you fail do not give up, reset and start over, failure is not an option!
Have a plan for when you drop the ball and get off your program, we all do it from time to time. The only difference between those that fail and those that succeed is really being able to accept that you made some bad choices or mistakes and be willing to reset and get back to the program. Even if you have to start from the very beginning, at least this time you have more experience. The quicker you get going again the better off you will be so just make it happen and stop looking for excuses. Failure is not an excuse, it's just a temporary setback.

 

Good luck with all your New Years Resolutions, have a great 2014!

Have a Very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I wanted to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, it's almost here! Let's all remember to think about those around us, not all are as fortunate and some may be going through difficult times during this holiday season.

God Bless and Good Will!

Polar Loop Activity Tracker Band and H7 Heart Rate Sensor Review

So What are these devices?

The Polar loop is an Activity tracker. The Polar Loop tracks motion using an internal gyroscope and figures out how many steps you take and also knows the type of other activities you are doing like: sleeping, sitting, standing around, walking, running. The Polar Loop then converts that info into a calorie output guesstimation.

H7 is a Bluetooth Heart Rate Sensor. The H7 is a sensor that you wear around your chest to read your hearts beats per minute, it can pair to the Polar Loop, adding heart rate information allowing the Polar Loop along with its polar Flow software to know in detail how many calories you are burning (bases this on your age, weight, height and gender). I'm not going to talk a lot about the H7 during this review other than how it integrates with the Polar Loop.

Why get one of these gadgets?

If you're tracking your calorie intake but not your calorie output then how do you know where you stand? You can guess but you really don't know for sure, having this information takes the guesswork away. The more accurate the data the better you can adjust your calorie intake to meet your goals. (Lose weight, Gain weight, Maintain weight).

As an athlete you may want to know exactly what your heart rate is throughout a workout, so you can make small tweaks and improvements to your future workouts. Having a smart Wristband is kind of cool too!

How does the Polar Loop compare to other wrist band activity trackers?

This is not a comparison review, so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here but the Polar Loop in my opinion and for my personal needs seems to be the best option, why is this? It gives me the most accurate caloric intake and takes all the guess work away. It shows me a lot about how my workouts are effecting me in terms of actual expenditure on my part, my heart rate does not lie!

Some other features I like about the Polar Loop that set it apart:

• Water resistant to 30 meters, I never have to take it off.
• It's not going anywhere, it has the most secure strap and latch out of all the bands I have tested.
• One of the nicer looking fitness bands.
• The only tracker that knows what you are doing without you having to tell it.
• Only wrist band tracker that I know of that can pair with a heart rate sensor. (Polar does have some fitness watches that work similarly)

A couple of things that the Polar Loop does not have or do that some other fitness bands have:

• No altimeter for tracking flights of stairs.
• No motor/vibration for alarm vibration notifications.
• Does not really track estimated miles traveled.

Lets talk about the Polar loop in detail now, again this is not a full comparison review but I will be comparing my Fitbit Force to the Polar Loop at times since they are very similar devices and will be of interest to the same type of consumers. (Make sure to watch my Fitbit Force videos)

• Checkout the Polar Loop on the Polar website for detailed specifications.

Price Point:

• The Polar Loop is one of the lower cost Wrist Band Activity Trackers that includes an LCD screen at around $99.
• If you plan on adding the H7 Heart Rate Sensor, it's an additional $79 but worth it if you want extremely accurate workout and calorie expenditure data.

Build Quality:

• So far so good, my Polar Loop not showing any real wear and tear to date.
• Has a very secure strap and clasp, it's not going anywhere.
• Water proof down to 30 meters so you know the internals are protected from most environmental situations.

Esthetics:

• One of the nicest looking bands out there in my opinion.
• Customizable strap, just cut to size, one size fits all and comes with all the sizing tools needed except for a pair of scissors.
• The Red LED screen is very easy to read and the scrolling animation looks cool.
• Not too bulky and very light weight, does not get in the way or feel heavy or cumbersome at all.
• If the strap gets beat up, I'm not sure if it can be replaced (Like the FitBit Flex) 

Battery: 

• Claimed 5 days of continuous use, but I get more like 3-4 days. I do pair mine with the H7 and have it syncing to my iPhone regularly which will cut down on battery life.
• LED's dim a bit when the battery starts to get low, soon after that you will get a low battery warning on the bands screen.
• Charges very quickly, in about an hour using the included custom magnetically attached USB charging cable.

Pairing / Syncing:

• Pairing perhaps is not as seamless as the Fitbit bands but the Polar Loop does sync just fine with my iPhone over smart BT. (You must have an iPhone 4s or higher, no Android support just yet)
• When I'm running the Polar Flow App on my iPhone I can get it to manually sync by activating the screen on the Polar Loop, once it is finished syncing to your account (online cloud service), it will sync with the "product" or band.

Paring to my H7 Heart Rate Sensor is fairly simple, the first time you pair the Polar Loop to a compatible heart rate sensor you will want to do this at your home or somewhere secluded. Mainly so you don't confuse the setup with other Bluetooth heart rate sensors that may be close by (in a gym, getting ready to run a marathon…) Just place your compatible heart rate sensor near the Polar Loop and basically put it on, the two will pair automatically and from that point on will be linked to each another. To use the H7, simply put the heart rate sense on when you start your workout and take it off when you're done. You can see your heart rate on the Polar Loop while a heart rate sensor is paired. Your Polar Loop will then transfer that heart rate data to your Polar Flow App software which then sends it to your cloud based Polar account.

Ease of Use:

• Like pretty much all of these wrist band fitness trackers, the hardest part is navigating all the account setups which is necessary to start using these devices since they all sync their info to a cloud based service of some sort. The cloud data is then communicated back and forth from the device to your Smartphone or direct to a computer which then sends it to the cloud account service, which again will send that data to any other devices that are setup using your Polar account.
• Once setup, using the Polar Loop is as simple as keeping it charged and wearing it, if you want to see what's going on during the day, simply press the button once to bring up the display and again to cycle through info like the Time, Activity - how active you have been, if you have met your activity goals for the day. You can also see your Calories burned and Steps taken and if you have a heart rate sensor paired, you can see your heart rate in real time on the Polar Loops Screen.
• You can put the Polar Loop into Airplane mode by holding down the button for about 10 seconds while in Time mode, and take it out of Airplane mode by pressing the button for 10 seconds again while in any mode. (I did not find this very easy to do so be warned!)

Polar Flow iPhone App Software:

• Activity Tab: Shows you your basic activity for each day, you can scroll thorough previous days if you like. There is a dial that shows you what type of activity was happening at different times of the day and you can see exactly how much of each type you have done (Sleeping, Sitting, Standing, Walking, Running) There is no need to tell the Polar Loop what you are doing, it just knows! Below that are some suggestions to reach your daily goal along with Calorie, Steps, Activity Time and Sleep info (Sleep info seems to be measured as a consecutive sleeping period, not the total for the 24 hour period) You also set your body weight at the bottom.
• Training Summary Tab: Shows a weeks period of recorder activities and lists how many Sessions, total Duration, total Calories and Fat burned. Below that is a list of the Sessions performed in that weeks period. You can select a session and look at your performance. Heart Rate Chart, Fit versus Fat times, Heart Rate Average, Heart Rate Max, Calories Burned and how much of the workout was in the Fat Burning range. You will also see a little note at the bottom with some tips on your workout.
• Info Tab: Here you will find some instructional info and even some videos you can watch to learn about your Polar products.
• Setting Tab: Here you'll find a place to enter your personal Account and Profile information, a place to select if you wear the Polar Loop on the left or right hand, and an area for if you prefer to see your units in Imperial or Metric along with Notification setting.
• Sign Out Tab: Obviously for if you want to sign out for some reason.

POLAR FLOWbeta Wbe Based Online Software:

• To get to the Polar Flow online software you will need to go to (www.flow.polar.com) and sign in each time. There are several tabs along the top:
• FLOWbeta Tab: Is like the home button.
• Feed: shows your activity entries, in my case it shows all the times I paired my H7 to my Polar Loop and did a workout. You can write a comment which is useful for specifying what kind of workout you did for when you go back and revisit that workout.
• Explore Tab: Is for if you are interested in seeing other peoples GPS based workouts. Not really a Polar Loop thing at this time since the Polar Flow software does not track your location or distance travelled.
• Diary Tab: Is a Calendar view of your activities and daily goal measurements, you can click on each event to see them in detail. If you where wearing your Heart Rate Sensor then you can see a graph of your heart rate levels. you can also see what is happening in real time by selecting todays date.
• Progress Tab: Shows you a list of your workout sessions that you can then show on a scale and view Duration, Distance (Not really applicable with the Polar Loop and H7), Calories and Sport Zones.

Pros:

• One of the nicer looking fitness bands on the market in my opinion.
• Very secure band/clasp, will not fall off like most of the other fitness bands seem to do once in a while.
• Water Proof down to 30 meters.
• Great looking and easy to read red animated LED display.
• Can sync over smart Bluetooth to a compatible heart rate sensor for very detailed workout calorie output.
• Only movement tracker that really knows what you are doing without having to tell it, no having to put it in sleep mode. The Polar Loop can tell between sleeping, sitting, standing, walking and running. Most fitness trackers only tell you how many steps you have taken and try to convert that into calories.
• Seems to be very accurate in how many calories you are actually burning throughout the day, not too many or too little.
• iPhone App and online FLOW beta software is very good for being rather new or beta.

Cons: 

• Battery only lasts 3-4 days tops for me.
• The button does not always respond right away, almost like the band goes into a sleep mode to conserve energy, you have to be really persistent at times.
• My First Polar Loop was defective out of the box, would not charge at all.
• Button seems to be (heat and or moisture) sensitive so when in the shower and any time the water gets on it, the band LED lights turn on and cycle through the modes. Once when I was in a Hot tub it did the same while underwater but for the most part when underwater it will generally not respond to any button pressing and stay off.
• Did have some Polar Flow iPhone App error messages while syncing to the services (cloud), but all the data was getting to the cloud anyways?
• Putting the Polar Loop in and out of Sleep mode is not as easy as the instructions say, I would suggest leaving it in regular mode.

Conclusion:

For me the choice comes down to the following Fitness Bands: My Fitbit Force that I have been using for several months and been very happy with to date, or my new Polar Loop combined with the H7 Heart Rate Sensor. Although both of these fitness bands do a very good job tracking fitness, when it comes down to it, I prefer the Polar Loop for my needs and this is why. It simply does a better job of accurately figuring out what I am doing and converting that info into real world calorie output, and this is without the H7 Heart Rate Sensor. The Polar Loop does not just make everything an equal step, it looks at all types of activity and takes everything into consideration before converting the info into calories. Combine that with a heart rate sensor during workouts and you have a system that is incredibly accurate at figuring out how many calories are being burnt in a given day.

Sure the Fitbit Force can track flights of stairs, has better battery life, will vibrate for set alarms and is hooked into a bit more complete system for the addition of additional devices like the Aria body weight and fat percentage fitness scale. But at the end of the day, I want a wrist band activity tracker to do one thing really really well, and that's track my calories as accurately as possible, the Polar Loop is king in this area especially if you add a heart rate sensor like the H7 to the equation. I will miss my Fitbit Force but it's time for my Force to step aside and make way for the Polar Loop, well at least for now until an even better band comes out ;)