Take the 90-Second Challenge

Pete Cerqua's book "The 90 Second Fitness Solution" contains the exercises that have had the biggest impact on changing the shape of my body.

The "Wall Sit" and the "Plank" are two staples of exercise/fitness books and magazines; but I have never come across someone who describes how to do it the way Pete does.

You can log onto his site "90-second fitness" (link below) to take the "90 second fitness challenge" and download his description of how to do these exercises the Pete way.

http://www.90-secondfitness.com/


The first time I did the "Wall Sit" I made it 30 seconds and almost gave up because it was so easy. I had already lost about 80 pounds at that point using inspiration and advice from countless books. I was thinking, yeah I am strong, this is easy. I am glad I didn't stop there because at 35 seconds, it got my attention. I noticed I was feeling muscles I hadn't felt in a long time, and by 45 seconds I was on the floor, in a good way. Now I wasn't timing myself, so I don't know if I really made it 30 seconds before it felt hard, or it just felt like 30 seconds. We are generally terrible at timing how long something takes when it comes to something uncomfortable.

I think the challenge to hold the position for 90 seconds is brilliant. It really helps illustrate what happens when our every day muscles get fatigued and those other deeper sleeping muscles are invited to awaken. My legs aren't recognizable from what they looked like before! The results are astounding.

I recently re-read Pete Cerqua's book and took a break from the gym and have focused on the Wall Sit and Plank, I have lost 5 pounds in the past two weeks, and am now officially under 150 pounds. Another huge milestone. At this point my focus is on gaining muscle and losing fat.

Why gain muscle? Well, it looks better than fat. You can eat more. Muscle increases your metabolism. Strength training makes your muscles metabolically active which means that you burn more calories over the course of the week (including during your sleep) the more muscle you have. I have a great description of this from Dr. Furhman that I may share in another blog post.

Try the 90 second challenge, and time yourself. Don't count to 90 -- it is amazing how quickly we can count when we are exercising. Wendy Becker has the best description of this in one of her podcasts (Yell At Your Fat - free on Itunes) where she describes her 16 mile walk to the mountain near her house. She says at the two mile marker she is feeling a little tired and by the tree that she knows is the half way four mile marker of the eight miles to the base of the mountain she is feeling a second wind. I listened in awe as she described doing this walk every day.

I remember listening to this episode for the first time over the winter as I was driving to the gym, I had been walking two miles a day that week and was thinking, I have to at least walk three today.

Then,as I am turning into the gym parking lot Wendy describes the first day she does the walk with her new pedometer. Suddenly her sixteen mile walk becomes a two mile walk... it just felt like sixteen miles! Who can't relate to that!

Try the Wall Sit!

Have a good weekend,
Jennifer