Gyminee Blog - Home

Hiking a 14er

2008-07-06T01:14:00Z

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I must admit that I didn't see any fireworks this year as I went to bed early so I could go for an early morning hike. If anyone is from the Rocky Mountain region, then they know what I'm talking about when I say the word "Fourteener." The term Fourteener (or 14er) refers to a mountain with a summit elevation of at least 14,000 feet.

One thing you will learn as you hike these tall peaks is that elevation is definitely a factor in your performance. Personally, I really start to feel the effects of altitude as I get over 12,000 feet, but altitude sickness can start much lower than that. Altitude sickness can actually be quite serious, and if you're interested in learning more here is a Wikipedia link.

Anyways, we hiked up to the top of Grays Peak, a summit elevation of 14,270 ft. Even though it is one of the easiest 14ers to summit in the Eastern Colorado region, it was a tough hike. From bottom to top, we gained about 3,000 ft. in elevation, and I could feel it every step of the way (Gyminee says I burned about 1,200 Calories and also let me track the elevation change!). It was definitely worth it, and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking at the top. You tend to forget how difficult the hike was when you are looking at a 360 degree panorama of some of America's most beautiful scenery!

Gyminee Food Search Engine for Firefox

2008-06-20T03:35:00Z

I was just browsing through some of my Google alerts, and saw that Jordan Lyall created a Firefox custom search engine that searches the Gyminee food database. I just installed it, and it works great. Thanks, Jordan.

Here is what it looks like in action:

This tool makes it even easier (and faster) to track your food intake on Gyminee. I highly encourage you to check out the Gyminee Food Search Engine for Firefox.

New Group Stats Feature

2008-06-13T18:09:00Z

Gyminee Groups have been in need of some sprucing up, and now it has finally happened. We felt like groups didn't do a good enough job of connecting users and also of providing motivation within a group setting. To address this we added some new stats.

The first thing you will see when you visit a group is a couple of leader boards, one that shows the "Top Exercisers" and one that shows the "Top Eaters". These stats provide a way to know who is doing well with their fitness and nutrition, and also provide some incentive to do well yourself.

The next thing you will see is some aggregate statistics for the entire group. Currently the stats shown are total calories burned, total weight lost, and total distance traveled. I think this is really great information to see. It lets you know that you aren't alone, and you can see the impact of multiple people all reaching for the same goals.

Enjoy!

New Feature: Gyminee Forums

2008-05-30T20:31:00Z

We just updated the site with a new forums feature. We hope this will improve interaction in the Gyminee community and be a valuable resource to share tips and advice.

So, what about group messages?

We view the current group messages as "in-group" communication. So, feel free to continue to use the group messaging features. They aren't going away. But, for most communication it probably makes sense to use the forums. Your comments/questions will receive attention from a greater audience.

Visit the Gyminee Forums.

Tips to Avoid Overtraining

2008-05-28T16:37:00Z

Overtraining is a mysterious and delicate topic, yet most of us have experienced it in some form. Rigorous training without overtraining is extremely difficult to achieve. You’re trying to intentionally and frequently cause short-term damage to your muscles without causing any long-term damage. What a balancing act!

The balancing act is even tougher when viewed as a cost/benefit relationship. Train and you’ll improve. Train rigorously and you’ll improve even more. Train too rigorously and not only will you not improve (you’ll injure yourself), but you will lose your ability to fully train while the injury heals, causing you a net decrease in performance.

Injuries due to overtraining usually result from one of two things: a single catastrophic event or chronic overuse. Here are some ways that I personally mitigate these injuries.

Try It Before You Buy It

When trying new exercises for the first time, which is something you should do often, never go full speed or with a full load your first time. This is something we all “know” but I’m not sure how religiously we practice it. Practice the motion unweighted for a few reps. Try to anticipate where you will feel the most stress and pay attention to those joints/muscles during the actual exercise. If the exercise involves a barbell then do a few reps with only the bar until you’re confident with the motion. This is especially important with complex motions like the clean. It’s OK to fool around with just the bar before you dive in head first. You don’t have to count the reps toward your workout, and you’ll benefit in the long-term.

Know Whether You Are Hurt or Injured

More specifically, know the difference as it is happening. At The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, I once saw a captain approach one of my fellow lieutenants who was rubbing his lower leg during a break in physical training. “Are you hurt or injured?” he asked. “If you’re injured then stop and go see the doc. If you’re hurt then suck it up and let’s go.” Pain is a normal part of exercise. You should expect and even seek a certain amount of pain in your training in order to improve. However, you must be able to tell when pain is giving way to injury, and sometimes it changes in an instant. My perception of the normal muscular stress of exercise: widespread burning, tightness, soreness to the touch. The onset of injury is more acute: sharp “cutting” pain, intense cramping, immediate and severe loss of strength. When an injury is about to occur you will feel the normal pain transition to injury. Sometimes it happens so quickly you can’t prevent it during the moment. In that case you were simply doing too much too soon. However, sometimes you can feel it happening and stop it in time. Building this perception and being willing to preserve yourself can save you from some injuries.

Take a Dump in Front of Everyone

…or at least be willing to. When you feel a catastrophic injury approaching you must unload the muscle to prevent it. You essentially have two options: shift the load to a different muscle group, sometimes one that the exercise position can’t easily support, or dump the weight. Make preparations in advance and be willing to dump the weight if you need to. Admittedly, I rarely do this. A corollary to this tenet is to anticipate your performance on future sets/reps and adjust load/reps accordingly before you start. Rubber bumper plates are excellent for exercises that involve large loads and high probability of failure if pushed to the limit. A spotter can also mitigate this risk. However, if all else fails and your knee/shoulder/insert important body part here is on the line, be willing to create a scene and suddenly let the weights clang to the floor. Your embarrassment will buy you out of a lot of pain and frustration.

Give Yourself a Break

I’ve given a lot of attention to catastrophic injury thus far, but overuse has plagued me far more often. A fitness enthusiast learns and eventually expects to work through pain. This is both a virtue and a vice, because it’s this ability that causes us to substantiate working through injuring pain. This most often happens in endurance training such as running. In 2003 I developed shin splints so badly that a month of rest was necessary to regain my long-term running ability. The fact that I was limping into the gym should have been a clue that all was not well. Because the pain subsided after my first 1000m I was determined to work through it. That was a mistake. Whenever any soreness doesn’t subside after 4-5 days then you have reason for caution. You don’t always have to wait until every muscle in a group has healed completely to work the muscle again, but if the muscle hasn’t felt fully healed in weeks then you’ve got a problem. Unfortunately, there’s only one cure: rest. Resting a week at the onset of injury is preferable to resting a month after greatly aggravating the injury. If you’ve been training for months then a week or even two weeks of rest isn’t going to hinder your long-term goals.

Crying Wolf or Pleading for Help?

I hope that some of the tips can help you avoid overtraining and the injuries it brings. The advice I’ve written is the advice that I give myself every day and seek to follow in my training. The sum of all the parts is this: know your body and listen to it, but listen to it as a concerned parent -- not a whimsical friend. In order to effectively train and develop total fitness you must push your body outside its comfort zone. It’s always going to be a little upset about this, and you often must tell it to shut up and keep moving. However, from time to time it will genuinely cry out for help, and in order to effectively respond you must know how to tell the difference and be willing to listen.

About the Author: Jeff Barnett is a fitness enthusiast from Huntsville, Alabama. For the past ten years he has pursued strength and health in numerous ways including serving as a Marine Corps officer. He occasionally writes about fitness on his blog, The Midnight Hour and posts his daily workouts on his facebook group, Crossfit Huntsville.

Unscheduled Downtime

2008-05-22T18:10:00Z

The Gyminee website experienced some unscheduled downtime from approximately 12:10PM till 1:00PM Central time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused Gyminee users. We were able to discover and fix the problem that caused this downtime, and we will now be able to avoid having similar problems in the future. To the best of our knowledge no data was lost during this downtime, but feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Become a Healthy Office Worker!

2008-05-21T20:05:00Z

If you have ever worked in an office environment then you know that, in most cases, it can be detrimental to your health. Everything from the birthday cakes, lack of movement, and high stress all leads to a less-than-healthy lifestyle.

Ali Hale from The Office Diet wrote a great post at the Ririan Project blog giving some helpful tips for those of us who spend most of our time cooped up in an office. Here are my 3 favorite tips (although be sure to check out all 7):

1. Take your own lunch. This is something that I have always been an advocate of. Depending on where you live, it can be almost impossible to find a healthy restaurant. Making a simple sandwich or salad for lunch will almost certainly be more healthy than anything you can find at a restaurant. Plus, you'll save a decent amount of money in the long run.

2. Get outside during your lunch break. A smart employer will allow their employees the freedom to go for a walk or a jog on their lunch break (and maybe even on a separate break). For one, healthy employees save the company money by reduced healthcare costs and less sick days spent. Second, taking short breaks and getting outside will result in happier and more productive employees. Hopefully you can convince your employer that by working less hours you can actually get more done!

3. Avoid the “free food” trap. This is by far my biggest weakness. No matter how many times I tell myself I won't partake of the free doughnuts, the next thing I know I have eaten 3 of them. Becoming a healthy office worker definitely requires self control. Another great way to think about this is that saving a few bucks right now isn't worth the tens of thousands it could cost you on healthcare costs down the road.

Grocery List Template

2008-05-16T16:20:00Z

The folks over at the SmarterFitter Blog have put together a very nice grocery shopping template. I really like this list for two reasons:

It saves time preparing your grocery list because it contains most of the things people concerned with a healthy diet would want to eat. Plus, the PDF allows you to add your own items.
It saves time while shopping by organizing foods well.

Here is a direct link to the grocery list PDF template and the article explaining the template.

New Interface

2008-05-14T18:15:00Z

As you might have noticed, we rolled out the new Gyminee site last night. Over the last few months, many users provided us with feedback and comments on how to make the site better, and we have integrated many of those ideas into the new look and feature set.

After you have had a chance to look around and see the new features, please write us and let us know what you think! As always, our user feedback is important to us. Keep the suggestions coming!

Sneak Peek (Part 3)

2008-05-08T18:01:00Z

This will be the last sneak peek we give before taking the new website design live. Currently, a handful of lucky users are testing out the new interface and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

We have already taken a look at improvements to the Workouts section and various other social improvements. This time we will look at some of the changes being made to the Nutrition section of Gyminee.

One of the biggest changes being made to the Nutrition section is open editing. Many users send error reports about foods being inaccurate, and we want them to be able to quickly and easily fix any errors they find. One of our favorite things about Gyminee is the great community of people that use it, and we want to give the community the ability to make Gyminee better. (If anyone is worried about other users miss-editing foods you have created, then don't worry. We allow you to turn off open editing for your foods.)

The new Nutrition Log is quite different from the current one. The biggest change in functionality is that you can now view other users' logs. This makes it much easier to keep an eye on your GymBuddies and see whether they are just eating ice cream for every meal. Another new feature is the Calorie Breakdown chart. It's great to be able to see at a glance where your calories are coming from.

The new Food Search is much different also. It is no longer integrated into the nutrition log, but is now it's own full-featured page. The new Advanced Options allow you to search just USDA foods, just foods created by other users, just foods you have created, or any combination of the three. Also, many of the changes to the Nutrition section are behind the scene. For example, the new food search returns much more accurate results, the meal planner has received usability improvements, you can upload pictures for foods, and so on.

Just hang in there a little bit longer. It's coming soon!

Beta Testers Wanted

2008-05-02T20:45:00Z

We are looking for a handful of loyal Gyminee users to help us test the new site before it goes live in a few weeks. If you are interested, post a comment with your Gyminee username or email (if you give username, make sure your email is set properly in your Gyminee profile). Or, you can send us an email directly.

Sneak Peek (Part 2)

2008-04-30T22:01:00Z

As many you already know, Gyminee is about to undergo a major overhaul. Not only will the look and feel of the Gyminee website see major improvements, but many cool and useful features will be added as well.

In Part 1 we looked at some of the exciting changes being made to the Gyminee Workouts section. Across the board, one of the major themes of the new design will be connecting users and helping people stay motivated. In this sneak peek I will disclose a few tidbits that are directly related to the new social themes.

For each of your GymBuddies you will now be able to view a letter grade that shows how well they are doing at hitting their calorie goals and exercising regularly. This is a major step forward in helping GymBuddies see at a glance how well each other is doing. Your Locker Room will also show you your own exercise and nutrition grades so you can stay motivated and make sure to hit your own goals.

Another area that will see great improvement is connecting users based on their location. It is now very easy to view all Gyminee users that live in a certain city or state. If you're looking for a buddy to head to the gym with, then you can even find users based on their home gym.

I hope you enjoyed this look at what is coming down the road (fairly soon I might add). Keep checking back for more sneak peeks.

Sneak Peek (Part 1)

2008-04-25T14:58:00Z

As promised, here are some screenshots of the upcoming website design. During this sneak peek we will take a look at the new and improved Workouts section. Whereas before the Workouts section was merely a way to organize a set of exercises, it is now much more feature-full.

One of the major themes of the new design is increased accountability. Your GymBuddies will now be able to view your Workout Log and see exactly what exercises you've been doing, how many calories you're burning, etc. On top of the increased accountability, the Workout Log is organized in a way that makes it much easier to submit your progress, view/manage the exercises you've performed each day, and also have a bird's eye view of how well you are doing fitness-wise.

Another aspect of the Workouts section that has been improved is submitting your progress. One question that many people have asked is, "What if I did something extra or different while I was at the gym?" At the bottom of the progress submission form you will now see a "Did Something Extra?" box. This will allow you to enter as many extra exercises as you wish, and hopefully make you less angry when someone is hogging your favorite machine at the gym.

Another cool feature that will be added is difficulty sliders. You will now be able to add more meaning to "I ran 1 mile today." Was that 1 mile really pushing yourself or was it a walk in the park? On top of the extra meaning you can add for each exercise, the difficulty sliders also allow Gyminee to more accurately estimate the number of calories you burned during your workout.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek at the new and improved Gyminee website. It's coming soon, so stick around for some more updates!

Behind the Scenes

2008-04-16T19:56:00Z

Many users are curious as to what's been happening with Gyminee and what changes are in store. The truth is, we have been working harder than ever to make Gyminee the most effective and easy-to-use tool available for tracking your health and fitness.

The biggest update to Gyminee will be a total website redesign. The new design will make Gyminee much easier to navigate and help users be more effective at keeping each other accountable. Along with the new website design, there are many new features that will be added. We are very excited about what's in store, and we'll be posting more details and some screenshots over the next couple of weeks.

What NOT to Eat

2008-03-28T04:37:00Z

The New York Times posted an interesting article dealing with The Worst Foods in America. The article is based on the book Eat This Not That! by Men’s Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko. David's book is a type of guide that details America's worst foods, and then gives better (i.e., healthier) alternatives.

I have not read this book myself, but it sounds like something that would be good to have sitting on your bookshelf. Here are some of the worst (i.e., unhealthiest) foods.

Worst Fast Food Meal: McDonald’s Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips with creamy ranch sauce. Chicken sounds healthy, but not at 870 calories.
Worst Drink: Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie. With 166 grams of sugar, you could have had eight servings of Ben & Jerry’s.
Worst Supermarket Meal: Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie. One pie packs 64 grams of fat.
Worst “Healthy” Burger: Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. With 1,145 calories, not a very healthy choice.
Worst Airport Snack: Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll. Packed with 813 hot gooey calories and 5 grams of trans fats.
Worst Kids’ Meal: Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni ‘n Cheese. With 62 fat grams, it’s the equivalent of 1.5 full boxes of Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese.
Worst Salad: On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef. A salad with 102 grams of fat and 2,410 mg of sodium.
Worst Dessert: Chili’s Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. At 1,600 calories, it’s like eating the caloric equivalent of three Big Macs.