kungfusailer

I was out at sea last week, and we had some amazingly clear weather during the dark of the moon, and it got me thinking about relearning celestial, as well as the constellations. Then news came that another ship, on which a friend of mine is Captain, got some of their bridge electronics fried during an UNREP halfway across the Atlantic. It’s a wake-up call, warning us all (drivers of cars as well) that we are becoming too dependent on the little magic black boxes full of electronic circuits, and that we need to maintain the older low-tech living skills as well.

Crews Into Shape is underway, and we’ve got 4 full teams of 11 people each onboard! I’m doing unofficial weigh-ins and bodyfat analysis tomorrow for people who want to track their progress by those numbers. My next project will be to put together a nutrition workshop and some other weekly group activities.

Getting a six pack is not about starving yourself of food and wearing yourself out with endless cardio sessions. Will you get a six pack with this method? Yes. Are there better ways? Abso-freakin’-lutely! Sound, healthy, balanced nutrition combined with short, intense weight training sessions, and short, intense cardio intervals are way faster, more effective, and more healthy.
I wrote the following as a comment on rsuelzer’s completion post, but thought I should post it as an entry here so that it would be visible to the general “get a six pack” group.
1. Fat, believe it or not, is NECESSARY. It is one of three vital macronutrients for health, the other two being protein and carbohydrates. To not “eat anything with fat in it” will cause damage to every cell in your body, and you will start to feel joint pain, weakness, and mental cloudiness.
The common misconception is that the fat that you eat immediately becomes fat on your body, which just isn’t true. What is true is that you need to eat the RIGHT kinds of fat (Omega-3, Omega-6, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated), which will actually HELP YOUR METABOLISM FUNCTION BETTER, ALLOWING YOU TO BURN MORE FAT, you need to limit saturated fat, and cut out all the harmful kinds of fat (hydrogenated, partially-hydrogenated, or trans-fats).
2. Running 5 miles a day and doing every ab exercise until you cry is OVERTRAINING. You will be much better served by 3 full-body weight training sessions per week, and 2-3 short but INTENSE cardio sessions per week. No weight training workout should exceed an hour, and no cardio session should exceed 40 minutes. Run harder, faster, but shorter, and only a few times a week. Do your abs exercises as part of your weight training, only a few times per week. Never work the same muscle group two days in a row. This will allow your muscles the recovery time they need to grow, and your mind the recovery time you need to keep from getting burned out.
You should be paying me for this kind of professional advice. Do some research. Read a book. I recommend Body-for-Life, The Abs Diet, Men’s Health Power Training, and Men’s Health or Women’s Health magazines for starters. STOP RUNNING YOURSELF TO DEATH!