Month: February 2020

Leg day. Pass.

My typical workout week consists of
Monday: Chest and Arms
Tuesday: Back and Arms
Wednesday: Shoulders and Arms
Thursday: Chest and Arms
Friday: Back and Arms
Saturday: Shoulders and Arms
Sunday: Legs Rest… and Arms

You may have noticed that there is no leg day in my weekly routine. This is no mistake. I do not lift my legs, and not because I choose not to lift legs, but rather there is always some reason 100% out of my control that forbids me from doing legs. For instance, I always schedule my leg days for Sunday. Something out of my control happens and I have to turn it into a rest day. Rest assured I will be doing arms. Here are some of my top bro-tips on how to skip leg day everyday.

You’re injured
Lifting legs requires a lot of energy and physical exertion. Before you go under the barbell, focus on your current condition and you may notice that your knee starts bothering you. As this happens, you also realize your lower back really hurts. This is probably from your last leg workout. Which was your first leg workout. And your last leg workout. And it is never a good idea to workout legs while injured. The best thing to do to recover is to perform heavy weight, sloppy, dumbbell curls.

 

The feeling isn’t right
In order to successfully complete an intense leg workout, everything in the entire universe needs to be just right. If you are able to convince yourself that even the tiniest of things is off, it is best not to force it. “Aw man no way, Khal Drogo is dead. Aw man, aw darn. I can’t workout like this.” This is a clear indication not to do legs today.

Yawning
You just yawned. There is no way you can finish a leg workout. Your body needs rest. It would be best if you stopped doing legs immediately and started doing some heavy dumbbell curls instead

 

The buddy system
You hit up your lifting friend and ask them if they want to crush a leg workout today. Unfortunately they can’t because they are doing arms. Now you are also going to do arms

 

The equipment is occupied
You arrive at the gym fired up to finally hit legs and neglecting them for the last couple of years, but the squat rack and the leg press are both occupied. Don’t wait for even a second. Don’t ask them how many sets they have left because it’s definitely 9001. Just ditch the entire operation. You can hit legs next week

Disclaimer: You really should not want to skip leg day. First things first, legs are awesome. Who doesn’t want big gluteus maximus or massive quads? Training lower body muscles also makes it easier to run, jump, kick, accelerate, decelerate, pivot, and also prevents injuries. If you made it this far please disregard everything I have stated above as it was intended as satire.

Should you wear a Fitbit?

A Fitbit is essentially a watch that tracks various metrics relating to health, such as heart rate, the amount of steps walked, the amount of stairs climbed, the amount of calories burned, quality of sleep and so on. The company produces a variety of different activity trackers at different price points dependent on the function that the watch provides. The first Fitbit ever released was called the Fitbit tracker, and it tracked only calories burned, steps, and sleep. Since then, additional features such as waterproof technology and GPS have been accompanying newer products.

 

Pros
There are quite a few physical health benefits of wearing a fitbit. The most important one for me would be its ability to track how many steps I take in a day. This metric is important because it gives a consistent and understandable evaluation of how much I have moved in a single day. You can even program some of the watches to remind you to take more steps in a given hour. If you are trying to remain active in a relatively sedentary world, I would recommend setting a goal of around 10,000 steps. The feeling of achieving your goal is also a nice way to release dopamine. The quality of sleep metric is also very important to me. As someone who loves a good night’s rest, it is important for me to know my quality of sleep, so I can adjust my day to ensure better sleep in the following nights. The Fitbit Charge 3 tracks 4 key components of sleep, which are calculated using your heart rate, oxygen saturation, and your movement while sleeping. The 4 components of sleep tracked are time spent awake, time spent in REM (Rapid eye movement), time spent in a light sleep, and time spent in a deep sleep. The quality of sleep is also rated on a scale from 0-100, with 100 being the highest possible score, and 0 being the lowest. Heart rate is also incredibly useful for someone active, so they can remain in the optimal heart rate zone if they are doing cardio or strength training.

Cons
There are also quite a few cons to go along with owning and wearing a fitbit. The first one you will notice is the price. A high end model with the latest technology will cost you more than $100 dollars, which is hardly a bargain, but is significantly cheaper than some of the other leading smart watches. Another disadvantage would be battery life. Most professional grade wrist watches have a battery life of around 4 years, with replacements coming around every two years. The Fitbit charge 3 will need to be charged at least once every week to remain functioning. One more instance in which the fitbit would not match up to the traditional wrist watch is in style. To most people, and I am not saying that you need to own a Rolex, but to most people, a silver wristwatch, or pretty much any traditional wrist watch will look more professional than a fitbit in a professional setting. Many people used to believe that fitbits and other smart watches were only reserved for nerds and fitness buffs, but as time passes, more and more people are taking advantage of the useful insight provided by the technology in our new age watches

 

Conclusion
If you are a health conscious person and you do not currently wear a more traditional style wrist watch, I would recommend that you try out a fitbit, there is a lot to learn about yourself and your habits with regular use. If you don’t really care that much about your health, then I say keep living your life, you do not really need a fitbit. Thanks!