Age-Defying Muscles

"It's bad business getting older, and I would advise you not to do it!" Those words from Woody Allen on his experience with aging.  If only it was a matter of choice, and too many of us avoid the proven alternative.  Because the truth is that there is an established method and strategy that will let you grow old with some grit and grace, and its name is strength training through muscle confusion.

At around the age of 40, our bodies slowly and progressively begin to lose strength.  We lose about a quarter of a pound of muscle every year, or roughly 1 to 2 percent loss in strength!  What's happening is the aging process breaks down muscle, known as sarcopenia.   Your muscles up until the age of 40 are naturally able to synthesize enough proteins to grow and maintain muscle.  However, the bodies ability to keep up with the demands of life begins to wane.

Thankfully, the remedy to slow down this phenomenon is readily available.  Weights are the fountain of youth and the age-defying muscle builders!  Combined with a nutritional diet of lean proteins, we can put a halt to the decline and actually reverse the trend.  More muscle means you'll be more mobile, lower your risks and incidence of heart disease, obesity, certain cancers, and diabetes as well as increased quality of living.  Just ask someone who hasn't kept up with exercise and good eating about the quality of their life and you will usually find that they will encourage you to start doing those things as early as possible in life so that you can truly have some golden years. 

Fitness experts recommend that all healthy adults do strength training exercises at least two to three days a week.  It is also recommended to concentrate your muscle exercises on all six of the major muscle groups:  chest, shoulders, arms, abdomen, legs, and back.  The easiest and least expensive way to get into a weight training program is to use hand weights and or exercise bands combined with body resistance training, and that simply means using your own body weight.  If you want the most bang for your buck, you don't need to invest in expensive machines and pulley systems.  Your body is the fitness machine.  I strongly recommend the at home fitness program created by Tony Horton for Beach Body called P90X.

What I like about P90X is it gives me a structured, easy to follow, total body workout and nutritional guidance that is bringing me what I view as amazing results!  It's for all levels of fitness, so whether you're just a beginner or need to take your workouts to the next level, you're going to get exactly what you need!  Don't just take my word for it, there are thousands of success stories on Youtube and a few that I've shared here on my Rx For Fitness and Health blog.


To wrap it up, let me suggest some training tips for guaranteed success: 

1.  Always warm up prior to your workout!  Do some light jogging on the spot, some squats, arm circles and or push ups, jumping jacks and light stretching that will raise your heart rate slowly and get the muscles warm and ready for the workout.

2.  When performing any strength training exercise, watch your form in the moves by lifting with precision and controlled.

3.  Do NOT hold your breath.  Just breathe.  Focus on exhaling during the hard part of the lift.

4.  Start with a lighter weight and more repetitions for toning and to get the form first, then heavy up for fewer reps and for building more muscle.

5.  Do not over exert yourself or over extend your joints beyond comfort. Push yourself a little out of your comfort zone, but If it HURTS, STOP.

6.  Train the larger muscles first, such as your pecs, lats, glutes, quads and hamstrings, and then work your way to the smaller muscles of your hips, arms and shoulders.

7.  Leave your abdominal and core muscles training for the end.  You need these muscles fresh to help stabilize your body during weight lifting.

8.  Proper Rest and recovery is critical, so wait 48 hours between training the same set of muscles again.

9.  Lift with purpose, don't just lift, but focus on it and squeeze!.  Set goals and write them down and work hard to attain them!

The different workouts of P90X are based on a training concept called periodization, or "muscle confusion." This method of cross-training is achieved through switching the order of exercises and incorporating new moves and varied movements. From my own experience now using the method for the past 8 months has prevented my body from adapting to exercises over time and resulting in continual improvement without plateaus.  It has provided the perfect balance for strength training and my muscles have developed and continue to build in mass.  I feel stronger, have more energy, sleep fantastic and enjoy a quality of life at the age of 48 that I now feel like I had in my twenties!  If Tony Horton can do it at the age of 52, you too can have age-defying muscles if you decide, commit and succeed!  It's never too late to get started, so what are you waiting for?  "Why not you?  Why not you to do something for work that you love?  Why not you to have a healthy body?  Why not you to have a healthy love?  Why not you to be, have or do anything you have ever dreamed of?  We are so quick to think others are deserving over ourselves.  The truth is that we are ALL deserving, SO WHY NOT YOU?!!"  - Jillian Michaels

Honey I Shrunk My Pants

The right combination of diet and exercise is the key to dropping excess pounds. Do your pants or clothing feel tight or snug? An effective way of dropping a pant size is to change your diet and increase your activity level. Creating a deficit of calories will cause a loss of weight and lead to a smaller waistline. But first you need to establish a baseline for your daily calorie intake. I use the Harris-Benedict Equation as a guide for determining my caloric needs to maintain my current weight.

Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

As an example, I’m 48 years old, 6’1” and weight 175 pounds. Using the above equation for men, 66 + (6.23 x 175) + (12.7 x 73) – (6.8 x 48) = 1757 calories. If I want to lose weight, I would strive for 500 fewer calories per day, or to gain weight I would add 500 calories to my daily diet. It takes an accumulative deficit of about 3500 calories to drop 1 pound. Over the course of weeks and months, it can add up fast and shrink your pant size!

If you want to burn even more calories, other than through reducing the amount you eat, you need daily exercise. You burn calories through physical activities like biking, jogging, walking, swimming and other athletic sport activities. It’s recommended to get at least 30 to 60 minutes of daily exercise. By combining my reduced calorie diet and P90X exercise, I burned over 13 thousand calories more per week than I consumed, and I was successfully able to achieve an average weight loss of 15 pounds per month for the first three months. Since February 1st, I’ve lost a total of 65 pounds and 7 pants sizes! In the video, you can see how I look going from a 44 inch pant size to a 32!



To help you stay motivated, I recommend you track your progress. There are many online resources that are free such as www.fitday.com or www.sparkpeople.com that have calories trackers that count what you eat, what you burn through exercise and help you reach your goal. It’s a great way to stay focused and get results!

One thing that you can do to greatly improve your health is by going with fresh fruits and vegetables. Skip the processed foods and choose foods that are lower in calories including whole grains and lean proteins such as fish and poultry.

Lastly, to rev up your metabolism and burn more calories, start training your muscles through resistance workouts and weight lifting. The more muscles you build and develop, the more calories you’ll burn and the more weight you’ll lose. Soon you’ll be fitting into the pants you wore when you were younger and you’ll look and feel great!

It's never too late to start changing bad habits, habits that can shave years off your life and impact the quality of your life.   So, if you want the straight dope on fueling your body with nutritious food and what to avoid, I'm here to help and it won't cost you a penny for the free advice based on my own experience and what has worked for me.  I hope you'll follow my blog and provide me with some feedback on my posts.  I'll be catering good choices that include both dietary and lifestyle changes.  So if you could use a boost to your engine, buckle up for the ride of your life and let's get started!

David's 90 Day P90X Transformation

I invite you to check out my new transformation video of my first 90 day round. It began on February 1st, 2011 and continued through to May 1st, 2011. During that time I lost 45 pounds, 8 inches off my waist and about 14% body fat!



See more amazing success stories from other regular guys just like myself at the Success Stories section of my blog.  If you would like to learn more about P90X, please read my blog post on Beginner, Striver or Warrior.

It's never too late to start changing bad habits, habits that can shave years off your life and impact the quality of your life.   So, if you want the straight dope on fueling your body with nutritious food and what to avoid, I'm here to help and it won't cost you a penny for the free advice based on my own experience and what has worked for me.  I hope you'll follow my blog and provide me with some feedback on my posts.  I'll be catering good choices that include both dietary and lifestyle changes.  So if you could use a boost to your engine, buckle up for the ride of your life and let's get started!

Beginner, Striver or Warrior?

Fitness expert Tony Horton is the driving force behind my health success! I strongly recommend the Beachbody workout he created called P90X. Chances are you've either seen an infomercial, watched a news related health story, or seen his book. After reading my blog, you may be asking yourself if this is for you or if it'll be too overwhelming. I asked the same questions and wondered if this was just going to be another one of those fad programs we've all seen others try and fail. There are so many individuals who have shared their stories of transformation that are simply incredible!! These people are not making this stuff up and neither am I. P90X debuted in 2004 to provide a rigorous regimen for people with some experience in fitness programs. However, the training is not only geared toward those who are seasoned at exercising, but also to those who are just beginners. It really does offer workouts for all levels.  If I could do it, I know you can too!

So just what is P90X? Its a 90-day program that combines a variety of exercise techniques including strength training, cardio, yoga, plyometrics and stretching. The program consists of a nutrition guide, fitness plan, calender and series of DVD videos featuring Tony Horton as instructor assisted by several fitness models who demonstrate the different workout levels depending on whether you're a beginner, a striver or a warrior! So you can follow along with moves at a lower and or higher level of intensity depending on your level of fitness and goals. If you're unsure of your current fitness level, there's even a fitness test.

Beginner is what it says on the label. You're beginning. You want to make a change, you're probably out of shape, carrying around substantial extra weight, and need a place to start. Beginners make small dietary changes at a time, get active and modify moves to a beginner level.  A Striver is perhaps someone who has less to lose, who is doing a lot of things right but maybe has plateaued. A striver eats clean, works out regularly, and is striving for that healthy lifestyle (and is on the way).  A Warrior is top of the chain - bringing it every workout, a peak performer, in fact I'd say performance is a key component to the Warrior. Warriors don't just do the full move, they add an advanced component.   So the question is - which are you?

The P90X program cycle goes 13 weeks, training six days per week and the seventh day as a stretch/rest day. The three training blocks during the 90 days of the program can be performed one of three ways called "classic", "lean" or "doubles," that you select according to your goals. Do you want to shed pounds of fat and strengthen muscles? Go lean! Do you want to build more muscle and tone up? Go classic! If you want to maximize both, go doubles! My first round I did the "lean" version.  I'm on my second round doing the "classic" version.  Most of the workouts are less than 1 hour in duration. The Abdominal workout called AB Ripper X is 15 minutes and is done 2-3 times per week depending on the program you choose.   Here's an example of the classic program routine.

The greatest benefit from P90X is the years of consultation done by Tony Horton with fitness experts and experimenting with a wide variety of disciplines to find the most effective moves. The 12 different workouts are based on a training concept called periodization, or "muscle confusion." This method of cross-training is achieved through switching the order of exercises and incorporating new moves and varied movements. From my own experience now using the method for the past 4 and half months has prevented my body from adapting to exercises over time and resulting in continual improvement without plateaus.


It has significantly improved my physical fitness in the first 90 days and continues to do so combined with the right nutrition and dietary supplement plan.  I consider myself somewhere between a Striver and a Warrior and it get's better as each week goes by! I am looking forward to the release of P90X2 later this year!



If you want the straight dope on fueling your body with nutritious food and what to avoid, I'm here to help and it won't cost you a penny for the free advice based on my own experience and what has worked for me.  I hope you'll follow my blog and provide me with some feedback on my posts.  I'll be catering good choices that include both dietary and lifestyle changes.  So if you could use a boost to your engine, buckle up for the ride of your life and let's get started!