Where's the Beef?

So, I was a little young for the commercial, but I do remember seeing it and finding the grouchy old lady extremely funny.  I’m not a tough audience member—I never have been.

So, for those of you who don’t remember or who never saw it, two old ladies are standing in front of a giant bun and marveling how big and fluffy it is.  It’s just the biggest bun they’ve ever seen.  A third old lady, the smallest, oldest, and crankiest of the bunch, approaches the bun and asks, “Where’s the beef?”

I’ve been thinking about that phrase in relationship to training and workouts lately.  It’s remarkably easy to put on a show of our fitness endeavors.  We can walk around in really comfortable and utilitarian workout gear, swig our bottled water, sweat a bit, and never quite get where we’re going.  It’s just a endless cycle of keeping up appearances.  And, for the most part, I don’t think we’re doing it to show off for others—instead, we’re convincing ourselves that the easier path is enough.

My question is this:  Where’s the beef?

Substance is not difficult to inject into workouts, but it has to be a conscious choice.  Whether the substance we seek is intensity, duration, focus, or consistency, we have to be acutely aware of how our workouts are shaping up from week to week.  And, just like the decision to continually work out, substance is a daily decision that eventually becomes habit-forming…for better or worse.

So, here’s a “Where’s the beef” challenge for the week that I will be attempting.  For each of my workouts this week, I will be focusing on one clear aspect of substantial work: 

First, I will increase the average duration of my cardiovascular exercise.  I think an extra 20 minutes will really get things moving.  As I’ve mentioned before, time is short lately, so I’m only going to do this occasionally, but it will move well into my next challenge.

Second is intensity.  For my next HIIT session, I am going to hit it even harder than before.  Afterwards, I’ll take stock of how I’m feeling and get a sense of heart rate for comparison.  I think if I keep this up, I’ll see positive results fairly quickly.

Third is focus.  In addition to the general workout regimen I’ve built since the summer, I’m also going to incorporate split-bodypart days into my regimen.  The general benefit I’m looking for here is to be able to move into higher quality and numerically higher reps.  I’m hoping most of these workouts will be bodyweight training to cut down on the need for equipment.  I’ll keep all of you posted on how this goes.  Any suggestions will be most appreciated.

So, that is the basic approach to my next series of workout months.  I have tests coming up over the course of the next several months in preparation for my Kyuki-do first-degree black belt test, and just like with Operation Shodan Fit, I’ll keep you posted on the approach and experience, and for those of you who don’t have a whole lot of experience with Kyuki-do, I’ll be giving some background on the art itself and my training experience so far.

In the meantime, with anything you’re working on, if you want to get to the substance of the matter, you can ask yourself, “Where’s the beef?”