I did this workout in the morning before we went to view a house that we were interested in renting on one of the gulf islands off of the coast of Vancouver. Unfortunately the woman at the ferry terminal sold us the wrong ticket, and we ended up on a completely different island. Of course we didn’t realize that we were on the wrong island at first, and as we endlessly circled around wondering why our GPS navigation system kept trying to send us into the Ocean. It was just one of those days… We got stuck on the island for the whole day until the next boat left in the evening. We didn’t get to see the house so the hunt continues :)

Click here for the full description of today’s workout. All you need for this workout is your Gymboss Interval Timer - the rest is all body weight exercises.

Some of you may remember that the first book I got on my Amazon Kindle was “You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises for Men and Women” by Mark Lauren. I enjoyed reading this book very much, because it covers all of the principles of effective training that I have been following for the past year. Freddy and I were happy to hear from Mark Lauren after we first mentioned his book to you guys. He offered to write a special guest article for all of us here on BodyRock.Tv that covers some of the basic principles that we all should follow in order to get the best results out of our training. Here is Mark’s article below and our special thanks to him for sharing his knowledge with us.

What is the most effective method of getting fit and becoming that sexy beast that you know you should be?

By Mark Lauren

This is the question that I’m going to address, but first, let’s take a look at what it means to be fit. The dictionary definition of fit is possessing the ability to survive and pass on your genes. Webster’s Dictionary isn’t very helpful on this one, so in my book You Are Your Own Gym I define fitness as the degree to which a person possesses muscular endurance, strength, power, balance, flexibility, coordination, speed, and cardiovascular endurance. These are the main components that make up fitness. A byproduct of having or acquiring these skills is an attractive physique that has the right proportions of muscle and fat, and it’s this byproduct of fitness that most of us are mainly after.

What many people don’t realize is that the best way to change your physique is to focus on the development of these skills and not the other way around. Most people train with their emphasis on changes in body composition or, even worse- weight. When you train properly, your body composition changes because there is a greater need for cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, strength, and power. It also changes because your body is burning far more calories than normal for a couple of reasons that I’ll mention later.

Remember that form follows function. Your body changes in order to give you the required skills to perform the activities demanded of it. In order for you to acquire the components of fitness to a greater degree, your body drops body fat and gains muscle. It is important for people to realize this simple principle. We need to focus on creating a demand that develops the skills that cause our bodies to change it’s body composition. It is also important for us to realize that our emphasis should be on the improvement of our performance, since that is ultimately what will develop the skills of fitness that cause the byproduct that we are after. Now that we understand what it is that our workouts should emphasize we can ask the question as to how to best develop these skills in the least amount of time?

The answer is short intense interval type workouts using compound movements that engage many muscles at once. Through the use of high intensity interval training (HIIT), we are able to develop all the qualities of fitness and burn many calories in one short workout. Lucky for us, the most effective method of developing all of these skills turns out to also be the most time efficient.

These short intense workouts are effective for several reasons.

First, they build muscle. Muscle plays an important role in your metabolism. It is a metabolically expensive tissue that causes you to burn extra calories even while at rest! The average adult American gains 2.2 pounds of fat per year, due to an ever slowing metabolism. The slowing of the metabolism is mainly due to a loss of muscle as we age. By gaining just 2 pounds of muscle and maintaining it, the average American could completely reverse this weight gain. Muscle not only allows you to burn far more calories while at rest, it becomes especially important while performing high intensity workouts. Adding a few extra pounds of muscle, to most people’s frame, is like upgrading from a 4 cylinder motor to a 6 cylinder motor, and while working out, that larger motor requires much more fuel to operate. That extra fuel is- calories!

Never neglect this principle when losing weight. It is the number one fitness mistake. People often lose a massive amount of weight in a short amount of time, but their body composition doesn’t change all that much because of the large amount of lost muscle tissue. This is not only unattractive to most people, but it also makes it much harder to keep the excess fat off. Think body composition not weight. No, scratch that. Think performance! The end result that you’re looking for will follow.

The second reason that HIIT is so effective is that these workouts cause you to burn extra calories long after the completion of the workout. For up to 36 hours after HIIT your metabolism remains boosted while restoring the body’s systems to normal.

HIIT is also very effective at developing strength and cardiovascular performance. Ironically, the impact that HIIT has on cardiovascular performance is actually much greater than that of “cardio”.  Cardio, on it’s own, will yield no gains in strength and will likely cause you to lose strength and muscle mass, which is bad for the reasons discussed. Go to the forum at www.MarkLauren.com to find two studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of HIIT compared to cardio. In the first of these studies, a group doing only 4 minutes of HIIT, 5 days per week, was compared to a group that did 1 hour of target heart range training 5 days per week. At the end of 6 weeks, the HIIT group had a 40% greater gain in cardiovascular performance and a 28% gain in strength! The cardio group had no gains in strength. The second study compared the impact of the two training methods on body composition and found comparable results.

Through the use of short intense workouts that train muscular endurance, strength, power, and cardiovascular endurance all at the same time, you are able to build muscle while giving your metabolism a lasting boost.

Next time you’re working out, think intensity not duration.

Also, by using bodyweight movements that engage many muscles at once in HIIT you are able to get exceptional results with an incredibly small sacrifice of time. These workouts can be done anywhere anytime. Better results can be had in about the same amount of time that most people spend driving to and from the gym.

Cheers,

Mark

I received this comment the other day and I thought that it would benefit everyone if I took a little bit of extra time to answer this question in more detail.

Here is the comment:

You’re saying that your workouts are lots more intense than 1 hour of running. But we know that fat begins to burn only after 30 min of training, so the hour of running is more intense than 12 min of workout. Your workouts are great for people who would like to keep their fit, but it’s not enough for those who would like to loss weight. So, what should the last do? Maybe they should increase the time of your exercises and do them at least 40 min?

Ok, so here we go.

Your body burns fat or carbs depending on the intensity of your activity. You burn fat even if your body is at rest. Actually you are burning fat right now as you are reading my post. If you are an average person sitting in front of your computer reading this, your body is burning about one or two calories per minute of which about 70 % comes from fat and about 30% comes from carbs.

When you exercise, as the intensity increases, your body starts using more and more carbohydrates for energy instead of fat. At the higher limits of aerobic exercise, 100 percent of the energy is coming from carbs. When carbs are no longer available, the body will break down your muscle and use it for energy. When carbohydrate stores are depleted, the rate at which fat is used as energy is reduced and that’s why carbs are essential in order to metabolize fat.

You lose fat only if you burn more calories than you eat on a daily basis, not because you burn fat (or something else) when you are exercising.

When you eat after your workout (including the workouts that burn more fat than carbohydrates), you will rapidly replenish both carbs and fats that you have used up during the workout. As soon as an excess of calories (from either fats or carbohydrates) exists, your body will begin to store them as fat. This means that your body’s fat stores will be virtually unchanged.

The key to fat loss is to boost your metabolism so that your body is continuously burning calories at a higher rate 24/7. People with muscle mass are automatically burning more calories and fat. Every 5 pounds of muscle that you build on your body will burn up to 15,000 extra calories a month which equals roughly 2 pounds of fat. Building this extra muscle will give you one hell of an advantage and it shows that muscles are the best engine for burning fat.

High Intensity Interval Strength Training using your own bodyweight is the most effective way to burn fat and build lean muscles. The workouts that I do will boost your metabolism for as long as 24 to 48 hours after the workout is over. The more intense your workouts are the more fat you will burn and the stronger and leaner you will become. My high intensity interval bodyweight workouts will also improve your cardiovascular strength and endurance, agility, balance, speed, and power.

The reason why I keep my workouts short is because you are suppose to be pushing at your maximum effort. It is simply not possible to sustain this kind of intensity over longer periods of time. Simply put, if you have anything left at the end of these workouts, then you didn’t train hard enough. It is really that simple. Everyone has their own level of what max effort means, but the one thing that we should all have in common at the end of these workouts is that we should be completely wiped out. You are the only one that controls the intensity of these workouts. Everything depends on your effort and how much you are prepared to push in these few minutes of training. If you decide to put comfort before intensity then you are trading away your results.

I will talk about the benefits of bodyweight exercises later. I think that I should also explain how to get muscle tone without getting bulky (for girls) and how to gain larger muscles (for guys) with my workouts. These are one of the most common questions so lets talk about it in the following week.

Best,

Zuzana.

At the end of our previous article on procrastination, we asked you for some strategies on fighting procrastination when it comes to exercise, and one of the main things we noticed in a lot of responses was the connection with depression, happiness, and exercise. So let’s talk about it!

How Exercise Helps

We had a lot of comments along these lines:

“I struggle with depression, but because of my daily workouts, I am able to cope without using medication”
“I have suffered from depression for some time and one huge help with fighting it is exercise!!”
“The most effective thing for combating anxiety is exercise! It gets rid of the excess adrenaline that you get with anxiety attacks.”

We can’t tell you how great it is to see people exercising on a regular basis, and having that exercise have a really positive effect on their depression or anxiety.

The Science Behind It

We did some research, and while there is no super-set-in-stone link between alleviating depression and exercise, there are a bunch of things that point to reasons why exercise might help.

Endorphins are one thing — the chemicals our brain releases when we work out, go for a run, or get physically active. This is pure chemistry right here — that “natural high” people talk about experiencing after a workout isn’t just wishful thinking.

Your Body Temperature — this one isn’t as clear as the endorphins, but (as everyone knows), when you exercise, your body temperature can go up, and for some people, this can alleviate anxiety — as one commenter said, the exercise itself burns through that excess adrenaline, and the higher temperatures caused by a good workout can calm the mind down.

Pure Emotion

The other big thing about exercise is just the fact that any physical activity you do, especially when you’ve really made a positive change in your life and are working out consistently, is something you know is fundamentally good for you.

And being able to stick with that — to know in your heart that you’re really pursuing something that’s great for your mind, body, and well-being — that can often make a real difference in combating some of the symptoms of both depression and anxiety.

More to Come

Next, we’re going to talk about getting started on a daily basis, especially if fitness-procrastination is a problem for you. For those of you suffering from depression, this can be even more difficult, as those symptoms can make even simple tasks near-impossible, and you won’t find us readily admitting that exercise (especially Zuzana’s routines) are really easy ;)

But there are dozens of ways and dozens of places — physical and mental — that you can start from.

Your Comments

And that’s where we want to ask you, once more — you shared a whole lot and had some great conversations in the first Fitness and Procrastination Article, and now we want to hear about one specific thing:

On those days when you seem to be able to find every reason not to exercise, what’s the one single trick that gets you moving? It can be mental, physical, a trigger, a song — whatever works for you! Tell us about it!

Here is another cool article from my friend Chris. This time he will teach you how you can build your own custom pull up bar – one of the most useful pieces of exercise equipment for bodyweight training that anyone can have at home. Enjoy and a big thanks to Chris for taking the time to share with all of us less handy people :)

Zuzana.

Ps: My workout from today plus grocery haul and overview of the food that we buy is going to be up tomorrow.

How to Make A Custom Made Home Pull-up Bar

by CL Vancil

You might ask why make your own Pull-up bar? The type Zuzana and Frederick have isn’t very expensive and is readily available here. Well, some of us find the commercially made Pull-up bars just don’t fit our home architecture. Either the molding is too thick or to tall or even the doorway available is to wide. And again some of us just can’t buy one or don’t want to. For me the reason is as I’ve stated before, I get some satisfaction from making something like this myself. Also I will describe a way to modify some of the commercially made Pull-up bars so they can possibly be used in wider doorways.

I had quite a lot of PVC materials left over from making a custom Dip Station and thought it might be fun to tackle a Pull-up bar design which can be made custom for almost any doorway and is easy to put up and take down for when you are having friends over and don’t require a pull up from them as they pass thru the doorway. :)

So I will provide you with pictures and a parts list here with some simple tips for customizing it to other doorways.

First, just because I used PVC doesn’t mean you have to as well. It could be made out of Galvanized pipe. The basic principles are the same. It’s just a little harder to customize predetermined pipe lengths to any single doorway. But, then Galvanized pipe will takes heavier loads compared to a similar diameter piece of PVC pipe and can be taken apart for tighter storage. I did test my design with a backpack with 45 pounds of weights in it which made my weight more than 200 pounds and though PVC has some flex to it, but I didn’t have a problem with it breaking

Okay what I made was based on a doorway at a friend’s house where they have typical Architrave molding around the doors. The header is about 8 inches high and sticks out quite a bit further than most modern trim. So how do you determine your own doorway dimensions to make a custom bar? There are three basic measurements to take, but there maybe others or barriers to consider when making your own bar. The first measurement is the width of the doorway opening, the next is the thickness of the door opening including the header which you will hang from and last the height of the header.

My example’s doorway has a 29 inches wide opening, 8 inch depth and a height to the top of the Lintel (header) of 10 inches. There where limits to one side as the adjoining structure was only 4 inches away.  For this doorway I made the “arms” only 3.5 inches. I didn’t glue in these short “arms” so I could use longer pieces at other doorways.

Here is the basic parts list for 1.25 inch PVC pipe:

4- End Caps

4-Tees

4- 90 Degree Elbows

6- 2 inch long pieces of pipe (connect between the Tees, Elbows and a couple of the End Caps)

2- 3.5 inch long pieces of pipe (little “arms” that connect to the front Tees and the actual Pull-up bar)

2- 8 inch long pieces of pipe (connect thru the doorway)

2- 10 inch long pieces of pipe (connect the 8 inch pieces to the back hanger)

1- 14 inch long pieces of pipe (back hanger spacer)

1- 22 inch long pieces of pipe (the Pull-up bar)

A cutting tool for PVC and a small bottle of PVC Pipe Cement.

When assembling it really doesn’t matter to much which parts are put together first.  Just make sure you have the parts in the right position when the glue sets.  I often dry fit and use a pencil to mark important pieces with a line on both parts to aid in lining them up as I glue.

To make it to fit other doorways you need only measure the three key dimensions and cut the parts to fit them, but it never hurts to dry fit the parts together before gluing and cut a bit longer as you can always cut a little off easier than add a little bit. ;)

Okay, what if you have a commercially made Pull-up bars already and it almost fits!  If only there were a couple inches more wood for it to “grab” on the sides of the doorway and it would work. You could just add that extra molding to the doorway if it’s your own home and the spouse won’t kill you for doing it. Or you can pop the rubber end cap off one end the Pull-up bar and try slipping a short piece of pipe in to the opening. I found a piece of 1 inch by 6 inches long PVC slipped over the bar I had. Unfortunately this pushes the foam covering it into a pile which I straightened out with some trouble. But, this added several inches to the length of the bar enabling someone with a doorway 36 inches wide to use this Pull-up bar as the bar itself is only 36 inches long.

Once again if you make a Pull-up bar using my ideas and actually use it for exercises and not the piece of art I designed it as it’s clearly your own fault! :)

But one of the biggest problems isn’t just “falling off the wagon” mentally, as it were — it’s physical, too.

Why Exercise is Different

This isn’t like adopting some good dietary habits, keeping them up, and then occasionally having a really lazy week where you eat terribly, before starting to cook well once again.

It may sound obvious, but it really bears repeating — there is no friction when it comes to getting back into eating well. Besides adjusting a bit for tastes you’re “used to”, nothing with your body will suddenly start protesting in a way you can’t deal with. You could change your diet — for the better — tomorrow, drastically, and you’d probably be pretty damn fine.

But with exercise it’s just not like that.

The Path

A lot of us are on a path towards complete fitness. I suppose you could think of it kind of like a mountain, only it’s really one that never ends — the peak is always up there in the clouds, just out of reach, but damn, is it ever nice towards the top.

Each time you put off working out, though, you increase the chances that you’ll take a step backward down that mountain. In our article introducing this “procrastination” series we said that just missing a day or two — or even longer, or a big stretch — shouldn’t be an impediment to starting again, that you won’t suddenly lose all those good results just because you’ve missed a workout.

What You Will Lose

But here’s the problem — what you will lose is that peak level of fitness you were cultivating, the one that let you track your body, pay attention to how well you were doing the workouts, the feeling that you could push things further, run harder, train with more intensity.

Every day you put off working out and procrastinate, is another day that getting back to that ‘peak’ level, where you really know what your body is capable of, becomes a little bit harder. And just like the old proverb goes — a stitch in time saves nine — if you really procrastinate and stop working out for months at a time, then getting back to that level is going to be a bigger mental & physical challenge than it needs to be.

Keeping Up Something, Anything

That’s why so much fitness advice, including ours, implores you to just get active, even if you’re “off the wagon”, so to speak. If you still manage a short run or a brisk walk or some sports, even in the funk of your exercise procrastination, you’ll be that little bit closer to re-starting that long, wonderful, lifetime climb up the mountain.

Your Stories

We want to know — what was the hardest you’ve ever had to fight to get back into working out? We’re really interested in hearing from people who have gone from a solid, intense workout program to literally zero, and — especially if you’re getting back into it — how that happened and how you got over it. Tell us your stories!

Here at BodyRock we often speak about eating healthy foods and enjoying regular exercise but it all comes hand in hand with how good we feel about ourselves which in turn affects how happy we are.

Get regular exercise

Simple as that. Buy some comfortable workout clothes, start following some videos, and make an effort to get your body moving more. The more active you get, the better you will look and the better you will feel — and if you want an excuse to get intimate with your partner then this one is ideal!

Eat healthily

I know, I know, it’s an obvious one to point out but a constant thrashing of fatty and salty foods can actually make you depressed. Research shows that obese people are 25% more likely to suffer from depression and eating foods that stave off depression and make you feel good are ideal. We often take out our anger on those closest to us, but some of this can be avoided with a little healthy eating — so next time you feel like whacking your partner over the head with a carrot; eat it instead!

Zzzzzzz’s – Get some sleep!

And no I don’t mean go to bed after a fight to sleep it off — I mean get some sleep! Studies show that sleep deprivation causes couples to argue more than any other factor, as people who struggle to sleep are often worried about problems, which, combined with a lack of sleep, can quickly get blown well out of proportion. We all get moody when we are tired but the better you eat and the more you exercise, the easier you will find it to get a good night’s sleep…

Fact: Your partner is often at the brunt of your bad moods

Fiction: You can’t do anything about your bad moods

It’s all entwined — if you exercise well, eat healthily and live an active lifestyle then you will be all-around far happier and far more confident in your relationship. Try it and see!

Best,

Frederick

“Since it’s the habit that matters, I can work out tomorrow; today’s not a big deal by itself.” I finally got it right in my head that EVERY day, including today, matters. If I don’t find time today to push myself, then I won’t tomorrow or the next day either.”

Why Every Day Matters

Some of this stuff might seem obvious, but often times it’s the most obvious stuff that needs to be repeated — and drilled into our heads over and over — for us to finally adopt it.

Many of us construct an image of what we want to look like when we start working out and pursuing a healthy lifestyle.

This is really useful, as it becomes something we can continually refer to, while on the long road towards getting in shape. But at the same time that this image helps us, it can hinder us, too.

Especially when there’s a lot of weight to lose, the image we construct for ourselves can be so distant from what we are, right now, that it can come to have almost no bearing on our day-to-day lives.

Making a Connection Between Today and That Distant, Future “Me”

In other words, the exercise routine that we need to do, right now, today — can come to seem less important, because we simply can’t see how doing 20 minutes of strength training will possibly do anything towards reaching that body.

But of course, we know this isn’t true — every workout is as important as the previous one or the next one. Not every workout will feel as good, or come at that exact moment when we really notice a physical change in our appearance, but they all contribute, and since we can’t measure exactly what each workout does to our bodies, we might as well assume that they are all equally essential to what we want to become.

As soon as you accept this idea, then the only workout that matters, and the only workout that ever matters — is today’s.

Looking Forward and Looking Back

Sure, it’s crucial to look back at all the great exercise you did previously. We’re not suggesting living entirely in “the now” — there’s nothing wrong with getting inspired by how far you’ve come or how far you want to go.

But the key to achieving those goals is to live in the now when it’s time to actually do your workout. Too many of us project forward to the future, making plans and fantasizing about future bodies, or look back into the past, either with happiness or regret, and use these moments as ways to put off doing a workout today.

We’ve got no doubt that even our website — and we always want you to visit our website — can become a kind of “motivating distraction” that, if used improperly, can prevent you from working out.

It’s like all the productivity advice that really took off on the internet recently (often called productivity porn) — people become so fixated at looking at photographs of minimalistic desks, beautiful workspaces, and workflow secrets of the ultra-productive, that they forget to do any actual work themselves.

So go. Finish this article, and if you’re on here, searching around for motivation to get going — you’ve found it. Exercise. We’ll be here tomorrow, too ;)

Make Today Matter

It’s a cliche, sure, but sometimes we need cliches when we’re procrastinating on something essential. So remember:

There is only ever right now.

Enjoy this article from my friend Chris who has been very supportive of our site

and is a regular and helpful contributor in our community comments.

Why Do it Yourself?

By CL Vancil

For some it’s the high cost of sports equipment  that prevents them from purchasing such things. For others, the location they live in hasn’t got a convenient place to purchase fitness equipment or it simply costs to much to ship it to them.

For many of us it the pleasure you get form making something yourself and the satisfaction of learning to use new tools, materials and systems. In this case it’s a simple Dip Station made of Galvanized steel pipe or PVC pipe. The basic design is the same in either case. Galvanized pipe is readily available, but can cost as much as the product you’re trying to mimic and requires some skill in assembling it without putting a lot of unions in the design.

Assembly can be tricky with pieces of pipe because of the nature of threaded parts. While threading together more than two pieces you often are undoing one side while tightening the another! This is where unions allow you to screw together parts, but you need to allow for the length unions add to any piece of pipe. So it might be simpler and better for some to make this out of something lighter and easier to assemble…PVC pipe. I’m sure a 1.25 inch schedule 40 pipe would work as well as the galvanized steel pipe and cost much less. The galvanized pipe assembly shown cost me over $130 USD which is about the cost of the Ultimate Body Press Zuzana and Frederick use.

Here is the parts list for the Dip Station I made:

(all are 3/4 inch galvanized steel pipe)

1-1 1/2 inch Nipple (it’s what plumbers call a short piece of pipe)

1- 2 inch Nipple

1-Coupling

1- 5 inch long piece of pipe

1- 18 inch long piece of pipe

2 -Unions

8- 90 degree elbows

2- “Tee”*

2- 12 inch long pieces of pipe

6- 24 inch long pieces of pipe

2- 36 inch long pieces of pipe

To assemble the steel pipe version you will need an open space, gloves and at least one pipe wrench. Start at the union which is screwed onto the 36 inch length of pipe. It really doesn’t matter which end or which part of the union you use. But, let’s start with the 2 inch nipple and the part of the union with the two pieces. You then connect one of the 90 degree elbow and a 24 inch length of pipe. Then another 90 degree elbow and the 12 inch length of pipe. Next connect to one of the TEEs and another 24 inch piece of pipe. Okay do you get the general idea? The last thing you would assemble would be the cross brace with the other union and the 5 inch long piece of pipe and the 18 inch long piece.

Here is a parts list for a Dip Station made of 1.25 inch PVC pipe:

8- 90 degree elbows

2- “Tee”*

2- 12 inch long pieces of pipe

7- 24 inch long pieces of pipe

2- 36 inch long pieces of pipe And a small bottle of PVC Pipe Cement Some places (i.e., Home Depot) you can buy 24 inch pieces of PVC pipe already cut to length.

But, you do need two 12 and two 36. Or I guess you could go with cutting a 24 long pipe in half and with two couplings glue up two 36. That would change how many 24 inch pieces you need and you might as well cut the other two 12 inch from a 24 as well. This wouldn’t be the cheapest route as a single precut 24 inch piece costs about half as much as a 10 foot lengths of pipe which normally you would cut to the correct lengths yourself. As you can see this is a bit like big people LEGOs or Erector Sets. ;)

And if you make either of these Stations and actually use it for exercise and not the dust collecting piece of art I designed it as, it’s your own fault! :)

In the comments following our first article on Procrastination and Fitness, Nadia very helpfully pointed out that “So many people are motivated by appearance, that they forget the other IMMEDIATE effects of exercise.”

Getting Over Appearance

It’s no secret that appearance is fundamental to finding further motivation to keep exercising.

We know this more than anybody — there’s a reason we post videos of Zuzana’s workouts, of course. It’s not just that videos are easier to follow at home (though they are), it’s also that seeing her results, and seeing how strong her body is are great, amazing motivators.

We’ve talked about the power of metrics before, and there’s nothing like a good set of before and after photos to keep you motivated. They’re amazing.

But appearance can’t be everything.

Why We Need to Focus on Other Stuff, Too

The main problem is simply time — it normally takes a couple of months before you start to see real results from your exercise. You might lose some weight, you might see some muscles develop — but on average, you really need to give yourself sixty days before you take a long, hard look in the mirror (and if you can go further than that, more power to you).

That’s why, even though appearance is an amazing motivator, it’s not the motivator you want to be constantly drawing from when first starting out. As Nadia (in the comments) said, there are other, immediate effects of exercise, and those are the ones you need to grab onto in the early going:

• psychological benefits like stress/anxiety reduction
• better moods and self-esteem
• just feeling happier
• getting more stuff done on that post-workout high

Saving the Appearance Stuff For Later

It’s too bad that the best motivation — your appearance — is the hardest to quantify and use. But that’s always the way it is, right? If it weren’t hard to do, and hard to begin, everyone would be fit, and healthy, and there’d be no need for diet books, exercise videos, or sites like ours.

But we all know it’s not an easy road.

One way to make the appearance ‘motivator’ an even more useful thing in the future is to take a photo of yourself on Day 1, and then not refer to that photo, and not go stare at yourself in the mirror post-workout, and not obsess over how your body is changing — for a full 60 days. It’s tough to get the discipline to do that, but if you can? You’re in for a big reward when you hit that 60-day mark.

Over To You…

Have any of you successfully pushed out the ‘appearance’ factor when first getting started? How have you managed to not focus entirely on how you look for those first 30, 60, or 90 days, even if changing your appearance is a primary reason for getting fit? Tell us about your strategies!

Both Freddy and I are still feeling sick, although today we feel a lot better. Hopefully by tomorrow we will both be back to normal.

Because we were both not up for a workout, we thought we would take this time to go through some of the most common FAQ’s that people ask in the comments. I hope that this video helps – especially for you newbies to the site.

Just to let you guys know we have started the official BodyRock.Tv facebook page – you can find it by clicking here. We have been posting little updates on what’s going on with us there in between our regular updates here on BodyRock.Tv

Hold your thumbs for me (that’s the Czech way) and keep your fingers crossed for Freddy to get over this cold by tomorrow :)

Best,

Zuzana