I was that geek.

When you think of geek, you think of the woman or man who is hooked onto their Xbox like a newborn onto a teat. The geek is out of shape living on a diet of chips and Mountain Dew. The only locker room experiences geeks have are the ones where they are shoved into the locker. So they grow up thinking, fitness is not for me.

I was that geek.

I was the kid who was picked last at kickball, couldn’t lift weights and couldn’t catch a ball if it was covered in glue. That’s because I received a message over and over: you aren’t an athlete. You can’t be a geek and have athletic skill. I was the Forrest Gump of the gym. Seat taken. Can’t sit here.

So I resigned myself to my Xbox and sci-fi books, my board games and comics. I ate what I wanted and then last year, after nearly drowning in a SCUBA accident, I realized something:

I was killing myself.

So I did what every geek would: I turned to the internet for the solution. I researched blogs and websites trying to find how I could get into shape. Because I knew this simple fact: joining a gym would be a mistake. I would do the minimum input to get the greatest psychological result. I would just be overwhelmed by the choices, do the smallest little thing to help me feel better, and walk out.

I would fail. And fail hard.

But the one thing that kept coming up was CrossFit. I joined one CrossFit gym and after three weeks of puking, the trainer told me I wasn’t fit enough for his gym. I think after I tried to do 60 jumping jacks and vomited it might have clued him in.

I pressed on, found another CrossFit gym, and after I told my coach about my first experience, he said, “That’s horrible! I’d never give up on you. You just have to show up.”

And show up I did.

A couple of the guys actually guessed how long I’d last. You have to understand. I never lifted weights. I didn’t know anything about anything in regards to fitness. And it’s been over a year. I have a little weight left to lose, but this geek is now much more fit and I know how you can get your fellow (or inner) geek to get fit.

1. Set tiny goals: Don’t say you are going to work out every day. It’s a lie. Set out to work out just today. Go for a walk. Throw a ball around. Jump some rope for 5 minutes or even 2 minutes.

2. Write it down: We geeks like to look back and see what we’ve done. Keep a journal. Decorate it Superman style, but write down every attempt. (I take a picture of myself after every CrossFit workout and post it to my Facebook.)

3. Discover why: You have to find out why you are embarking on this quest. Health? Show up your high school reunion? Make your eHarmony picture better? If you don’t know why, and you start hating it, you will instantly give up if you don’t have a reason.

4. Reward yourself: If you can workout consistently (however you define that), reward yourself with some Xbox time or a book.

5. Limit yourself: I swear, your PlayStation is your nemesis in regards to fitness. Make sure you limit your time or you will sink, literally, into the couch.

6. Morning: I hit the gym at 6:00am, three or four times a week. Why? Because I have the most energy and I save the evenings for my veg time. Speaking of veg….

7. Purge the house: Listen nerd, I know you like chips and dip and candy and Mountain Dew, but if you want to control your diet, you have to get rid of that stuff. It’s not easy, trust me, but if it’s in the house, its siren song will ruin your workout. Give that crap away, set it on fire or just toss it. Trust me, it’s worth it.

8. Combine your loves: If you don’t have time to read, get on that treadmill with some Robert Jordan (a fantasy author, non-geeks) and start walking. You love the Internet, so do I! Sign up for fitocracy.com and record your workouts and level up.

You have to integrate fitness into your geeky lifestyle. I have shattered the myth that a geek can’t be fit and can’t lift weights. I back squat 325 pounds and I don’t throw up anymore.

You  might also like:

• From Fat Kid To Fitness Competitor
• What Strength Training Means To Me: How A Bookish Girl Became A Lifter And Coach.

The post A Geek’s Quest for Fitness: 8 Tools to Get from Nerd to Jock appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I didn’t find that at all.

Don’t get me wrong. The gyms are good. You’ll find plenty of dumbbells and weights, some kettlebells (rare) and treadmills. Good elliptical machines along with a million bottles of water. It’s just basic. And at first I scoffed, but then I realized: simplicity works.

As I’ve been stumbling on the treadmill like a tranquilized bear trying to get some mileage, I’ve observed the habitat of the American military (Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines) – these heroes I see everyday. These are women and men who are far from home. I see them lug AK-45s across their chests day in and day out. They lack sleep and miss their families. And they serve our country never expecting a thank you, a handshake or a pat on the back.

And here they are hitting the gym. They are fulfilling their “PT” (physical training) requirement, but they hit the gym with passion and drive.

It was then I realized that the equipment doesn’t matter at all. It’s the heart and mind of the soldier that produces results. If you gave them two truck tires, a chin up bar and a bowling ball, they’d figure out a way to not only make it work, but to smoke whoever goes to the million-machine workout place that gives you a wheatgrass smoothie after your fifteen minutes of Pilates.

Here are some of my notes on their passion and drive and how they find and maintain it. These may help you get motivated to hit the gym and pursue fitness.

• Go together. These soldiers have battle buddies that are committed to each other’s health. The stronger they both are, the better they are for survival. Find someone to go to the gym with. If someone’s is counting on you, you are more likely to go.
• Write it down. There are these standard green notebooks soldiers carry around and record their workout. They take notes and jot down everything they do in the gym. Keep a journal of your workouts. I put mine on an Excel spreadsheet.
• Be encouraging. I expected that soldiers would make snide comments if their buddy couldn’t do another pull up. By no means. They encourage instead of cajole. Be aware of the talk you not only give your workout buddy, but yourself. If you got up, and got to the gym, keep all your talk positive.
• Have a Reason. These soldiers are in the gym for survival. They want to be able to endure the terrain and the challenges that are outside the wire of the base. Every workout has a purpose: Strong soldiers survive. Have a goal and a reason that you are working out. Prepping for the beach? Want to match your eHarmony data? If you know why you’re in the gym, you’ll stay longer.
• Simple. Simple. Simple. These machines aren’t complex. These soldiers keep the workouts simple and varied. Pushups, burpees, sit ups and air squats are the main ingredients of their workouts. Keep your workouts simple. If you are spending more time looking up different routines than working out, that might be a problem.

I find no lack of inspiration in the gym. As I’m trying to increase my pace, and all the voices in my head join in the chorus of, “You’re a Hack, McRae! Go eat a doughnut!” I look at these soldiers and think, if they can be here, away from their families, I can run another quarter mile. If they can wake up at 0400 hours, go outside the base and look for insurgents, I can put down the fork. If these women and men, who are guarding our freedom, work fourteen-hour days and then head to the gym, I have no excuse whatsoever.

And well, neither do you.

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Expecting Perfection Leads to Destruction

My goal every week is hit the gym three days a week. That’s it. It doesn’t matter what combination of days. I know we can set ourselves up for failure if we say, “I’m going to the gym for an hour, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 7:00 AM. No excuses.”

I give you two weeks and you’ll be eating cheesecake while watching the Food Network and most likely crying. Crying really hard.

You have to give yourself leeway to make mistakes and have a plan to make up for them. If you miss your morning workout, you are making it up in the evening, or move it to Saturday. Don’t have room for 30 minutes of cardio? Do 15 minutes.

The rookie move is scrapping the whole plan because one thing goes wrong. You only hit the gym twice? Sweet. It’s keeping the habit that’s the key. Sure you want to make improvements, but start with making small successes.

Prepare the Day Before

I’ll keep this simple. Put your gym clothes in a certain place in your room ready to go. I have a couple pair of shorts and some shirts and socks ready to go. I don’t have to search for them. If I am searching for gym clothes, the piles and piles of excuses stack up to not go the gym. Put your water in the refrigerator.

Some days, I swear I’d rather go to the dentist while he’s on a bender than go to the gym. But, I go because missing a workout creates much more pain than going to one.

Tell the World

I can’t shut up about CrossFit (you don’t have to have CrossFit be your exercise of choice.) I post it on Facebook, Fitocracy and Twitter when I’ve completed a workout. When my friends ask what I did today I say, “Well, I started the day working out.” I find talking about it integrates it into your life (and my friends have even joined!). Remember when you met (or thought you met) “the one” – you told everyone! Even if you say, “I went to the gym” you will start having it be your lifestyle.

Hit the Reset Button

If you miss a couple of weeks working out, you can be discouraged and just give up all together. Don’t! Just as if your computer locked up, you just flip a switch and start again.

Keep a long obedience in the same direction by applying these easy changes and you will see results quickly – psychologically, physically, and emotionally.

The post 4 Tools to Successfully Start the Workout Lifestyle appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The problem with a lot of freedom is students usually don’t consider the impact their new choices have, especially around the mid-line. The freshmen fifteen is starting to get bigger and bigger. With students having full access to a meal plan, no longer eating what their parents ate, and having unlimited amounts of food (and, let’s admit it – beer) gaining weight happens quickly.

Here are some tips to avoid the freshmen fifteen (plus):

1. Walk to class: Avoid the “Hey, I’ll give you a ride.” temptation. Hoof it to class and you get some major calorie burning out of the way.
2. Manage the food plan: If you have unlimited choices, from pizza to chicken, choose to hit the salad bar first. That’s right, before the pudding and sausage and gravy, hit the salad bar hard, and go sit down. Don’t stack up your tray with “options” because soon that becomes grazing.
3. Carry proudly: Having an endless fountain of soda at school, there could be a temptation to fill up on empty, sugary calories. So, carry around a refillable water bottle with you at all times. You can fill up at the million water fountains on the campus. Feel free to decorate it some school spirit (and I’d put your name and number on it).
4. Eat with other people: In college I had a regular group of people to eat with and we would make these pacts: “Don’t let me eat more than one piece of pizza,” “I only get half a dessert,” etc. Have people keep you accountable on what you are putting on the tray.
5. Even better – create a contest: If you have a roommate or buddy on your floor who is dedicated to fitness ask them to be your partner. Come up with goals each week: workout 5 times, hit the stadium stairs, count how many steps from one college landmark to another.
6. Get your Resident Advisor involved: If you live on a floor you most likely have an RA. Bug them about doing fitness programs on your floor, having floor competitions (Biggest Loser anyone?).
7. Use your gym: I can’t tell you how many students have no idea where the gym is. Not only that, but most college gyms I know offer classes (note: free!) on nutrition, personal training, and weightlifting. Students don’t take advantage of it! Granted, classes are basic, but they are enough to motivate you.
8. Intramurals: I can’t tell you how many times I hear a student whine about being bored. Just because you aren’t playing sports for the university, doesn’t mean you can’t get involved. Intramural sports are a fantastic way to get active, meet people, and have a lot of fun. Many teams I’ve been a part of come up with crazy names, too (Volley Llamas, Chronically Single, That 70’s Slow).
9. CrossFit: At the CrossFit gyms I’ve known, they all offer deals for students. Why? Because students tell students and then tell more students.
10. Eat before an event: One of the strategies of getting students to events is to heap pizza and junk food on the students. They gorge on it like jackals on a wounded gazelle. Make sure and eat a healthy meal before you go and stay away from the snack table (or bring your own, bag of nuts, some fruit and a big glass of water.)

So while the myth of the Freshman 15 is a strong one, it doesn’t have to come true for you!

Ryan McRae is a Resident Director at Cal State San Marcos, an avid geek, and last year joined CrossFit. He’s the guy who comes in last, but has a heart of a lion.

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