hey Everyone,

I get a little excited whenever I have fitness breakthrough and would like to share this new one with you as it has been bringing me great rewards.

Although I can run hard and play sports on occasion, I have avoided running on consecutive days for decades because I repeatedly get knee and heel pains that cumulatively get worse over time. The problem is that weightlifting, crossfit, and my other workouts sometimes lack that sustained heart rate boost that brings hours of euphoria. I get bored easily on the bike or other machines.

If your knees, heels, shins or hips have been keeping you away from daily cardio also, try this new style on the treadmill:

Big Picture:
30 minute uphill climb at a slow pace.

Details:
-set the treadmill incline to 8.0
-set the speed to 2.5 to warm up. Increase to any comfortable slow speed. (I get to 3.5 after about 7 minutes)
-increase incline to 10 at around the half way mark (15 minutes)
-increase incline to 12, then 15 (max) every 5-10 minutes.
-keep speed slow ~3.5

as a beginner modification, you can also make the whole workout a fast uphill walk.
(This will probably be enough for those who are more susceptible to injury.)

The slow speed and high incline with give you both a sustained cardiovascular workout with minimal impact on the joints. It kind of feels like the eliptical, but much better.

I usually go for 30 minutes minimum and add extra minutes when feeling stronger.

try it…
and let me know how the sweet rewards feel.

Let me know if you are able to repeat the workout for multiple days in a row without hurting your joints.

-Dr. Neal

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©2010 “Knees Hurt On the Treadmill??” by Dr. Neal Schwartz

Acne is a relentless condition that can tweak the mind of anyone.

As you can imagine,  I see many cases of anxiety and depression on a daily basis. In our newer information age,  I’ve noticed people are becomming less and less equipped to handle the emotional stresses of life, possibly due to the search for a magic piece of information that can save them.

In this series of videos and posts, my intention is to shift the emphasis of healing back to action instead of knowledge.

One reason the  internet may be failing to help you find balance is because sitting and watching the screen, in and of itself,  is very bad for your health.

The more you sit and research for magic solutions that require less action,  the worse off your mental health becomes.

Success in achieving any goal often times comes from action rather than the endless gathering of opinions and statistics.

With that in mind,  I’ve decided to make some videos to get people in action.  I will refer patients from the office and clients online to this video collection in an effort to break the spiral of hopelessness and mistaken pessimism that is often unconsciously created while having troubled skin or any other chronic medical problem.

Part 1 is the introduction and Beginner workouts:

Details:

20 squats

20 sit-ups

or

20 squats

20 pushups

or

20 pushups

20 situps.

For more intensity,  raise either or both numbers as high as you need and repeat sets decreasing the numbers like this:

100 squats

50 situps

80 squats

40 situps

60 squats

30 situps

40 squats

20 situps

20 squats

10 situps

For more beginner ideas,  see the crossfit (beginners) section of the blog.

(see videos 2 and 3 in the link below)

(more…)

      While helping to battle patient’s anxiety and depression for many years,  I’ve found that balancing a patient’s physical body chemistry and circulation has more of an impact on the mind’s health than than any prescription medicine, therapy, or life coaching.   It’s always a challenge to bring someone to the next level of fitness because advice is often met with reflex resistance.  If the patient is already going to the gym,  I will hear  ”I’m already working out all the time!”  and if the patient is not working out, I often hear, “I don’t have time for the gym…”

To cater to every situation,  I have created a special workout for any patient or client that does not currently feel amazingly energetic, powerfully inspirational, or able to find joy anymore.      You can do this workout in your home or at the gym and it takes less time than watching a rerun on TV.  (there really is no good excuse not to join in here…)

I teach people that we are no longer working out for reasons of body image.  The workouts are really needed for the mind.  (not everyone has come to this realization yet.)

 If done exactly as prescribed, this workout culture will change you life in dramatic ways.  You can’t imagine the rewards until you feel them.  Once you’ve made it past the hurdles, you will look back at your old lifestyle and think, “If I only knew then what I know now…”

If you feel less than great in your day to day mood,  I recommend working out 7/week.  (you can replace this workout  with other types of exercises to mix it up.  If you can’t come up with other ones, see my crossfit section for more ideas.  you can mix in home yoga, other crossfit workouts, long walks, jogging, dancing, swimming, etc.)   

7 days a week is what I call a “treatment dose”    It can change any hopeless and helpless situation.  It’s amazingly powerful when the rewards accumulate.

(be conscious of  your limitations, your heart, your joints, your feet, and your back.  Always consult with your doctor if you are unsure of any exercise)

Without further ado,  I present to you,  

Dr. Neal’s Ultimate Home Workout (for all levels of fitness)

We’re going to start off with the full workout for those feeling pretty fit and then water it down for all other levels.

If you have been reading some of my crossfit posts, this workout represents the best crossfit-style workout that can be done at home.

For Athletes:

1)   Warm up:   jog in place for 5 minutes with athletic shoes on.  while bouncing around, swing the arms around in all driections stretching out the shoulders, chest, and back.   You can swing them in circles both directions and across the chest.  Bring you elbows back behind you back to open up the chest and back.   

2) use a stopwatch or clock if available to time your workout.  You’ll be surprised how much this can change the intensity of the workout.  try it!

3)  Do the crossfit-style workout entitled:   

“Annie-modified by Dr. Neal”

25  Burpees

50 sit-ups    (Keep your feet flat on floor.  you can cheat with momentum swinging and reaching with your arms.  Don’t grab the back of your neck.  Keep the pace with momentum and cheating)

20 Burpees

40 sit-ups

15 Burpees

30 sit-ups

10 Burpees

20 sit-ups

5  Burpees

10 sit-ups

**Remember you can always take a break to catch your breath.  Just get back into the action as soon as you can.  Have water available before you start.  Time the event, write down the time.

4)  Eat a conscious, nutritious meal without fear or compulsion.  

5)  If available, take an old school bath.  Try this despite any reflex resistance.  try it.

6)  Put on comfortable clothing and bask in the rewards of your new found culture, personality, and wellness.   If the workout was done at the proper intensity level, this feeling should last many hours.  After doing 7 days a week for awhile,  the feeling can last for days at a time.   If you are not feeling the rewards, assume your intensity level was below the threshold for breaking you free of your mind and step it up better next time.

For those who workout occasionally: 

1)   Warm up:   jog in place for 5 minutes with athletic shoes on.  while bouncing around, swing the arms around in all driections stretching out the shoulders, chest, and back.   You can swing them in circles both directions and across the chest.  Bring you elbows back behind you back to open up the chest and back.   

2) use a stopwatch or clock if available to time your workout.  You’ll be surprised how much this can change the intensity of the workout.  try it!

3)  Do the crossfit-style workout entitled:   

“Annie-modified by Dr. Neal”

15  Burpees     (one variation is to step your feet one at a time back and forth rather than jumping)

30 sit-ups    (Keep your feet flat on floor.  you can cheat with momentum swinging and reaching with your arms.  Don’t grab the back of your neck.  Keep the pace with momentum and cheating)

10 Burpees

20 sit-ups

5  Burpees

10 sit-ups

3  Burpees

10  sit-ups

2  Burpees

10 sit-ups

**Remember you can always take a break to catch your breath.  Just get back into the action as soon as you can.  Have water available before you start.  Time the event, write down the time.   When this workout gets too easy, move up to the next level.   (above)

4)  Eat a conscious, nutritious meal without fear or compulsion.  

5)  If available, take an old school bath.  Try this despite any reflex resistance.  try it.

6)  Put on comfortable clothing and bask in the rewards of your new found culture, personality, and wellness.   If the workout was done at the proper intensity level, this feeling should last many hours.  After doing 7 days a week for awhile,  the feeling can last for days at a time.   If you are not feeling the rewards, assume your intensity level was below the threshold for breaking you free of your mind and step it up better next time.

For those who are active but never really Exercise:

1)   Warm up:   jog in place for 5 minutes with athletic shoes on.  while bouncing around, swing the arms around in all driections stretching out the shoulders, chest, and back.   You can swing them in circles both directions and across the chest.  Bring you elbows back behind you back to open up the chest and back.   

2) use a stopwatch or clock if available to time your workout.  You’ll be surprised how much this can change the intensity of the workout.  try it!

3)  Do the crossfit-style workout entitled:   

“Annie-modified by Dr. Neal”

5  Burpees     (one variation is to step your feet one at a time back and forth rather than jumping)

15 sit-ups    (Keep your feet flat on floor.  you can cheat with momentum swinging and reaching with your arms.  Don’t grab the back of your neck.  Keep the pace with momentum and cheating)

4  Burpees

10 sit-ups

3  Burpees

5  sit-ups

2  Burpees

5  sit-ups

1  Burpees

5  sit-ups

**Remember you can always take a break to catch your breath.  Just get back into the action as soon as you can.  Have water available before you start.  Time the event, write down the time.   When this workout gets too easy, move up to the next level.   (above)

4)  Eat a conscious, nutritious meal without fear or compulsion.  

5)  If available, take an old school bath.   Try this despite any reflex resistance.   try it.

6)  Put on comfortable clothing and bask in the rewards of your new found culture, personality, and wellness.   If the workout was done at the proper intensity level, this feeling should last many hours.  After doing 7 days a week for awhile,  the feeling can last for days at a time.   If you are not feeling the rewards, assume your intensity level was below the threshold for breaking you free of your mind and step it up better next time.

For those who are completely inactive:  (check with your doctor if worried about exercise in general)

1)   Warm up:   jog in place for 5 minutes with athletic shoes on.  while bouncing around, swing the arms around in all driections stretching out the shoulders, chest, and back.   You can swing them in circles both directions and across the chest.  Bring you elbows back behind you back to open up the chest and back.   

2) use a stopwatch or clock if available to time your workout.  You’ll be surprised how much this can change the intensity of the workout.  try it!

3)  Do the crossfit-style workout entitled:   

“Annie-modified by Dr. Neal”

2  Burpees     **(one variation is to step your feet one at a time back and forth rather than jumping)

10 sit-ups    (Keep your feet flat on floor.  you can cheat with momentum swinging and reaching with your arms.  Don’t grab the back of your neck.  Keep the pace with momentum and cheating)

2  Burpees

5  sit-ups

1  Burpees

5   sit-ups

**Remember you can always take a break to catch your breath.  Just get back into the action as soon as you can.  Have water available before you start.  Time the event, write down the time.   When this workout gets too easy, move up to the next level.   (above)

4)  Eat a conscious, nutritious meal without fear or compulsion.  

5)  If available, take an old school bath.   Try this despite any reflex resistance.   try it.

6)  Put on comfortable clothing and bask in the rewards of your new found culture, personality, and wellness.   If the workout was done at the proper intensity level, this feeling should last many hours.  After doing 7 days a week for awhile,  the feeling can last for days at a time.   If you are not feeling the rewards, assume your intensity level was below the threshold for breaking you free of your mind and step it up better next time.

If you decide to join in with me,  comment on your experiences to help others motivate themselves to check it out.

Be safe and enjoy, 

-Dr. Neal

©2009  ”Dr. Neal’s Ultimate Home Workout (For all levels of fitness)”    by Dr. Neal Schwartz

    Many of my patients in the office have been asking for more crossfit interpretations so I’ll keep posting them up as a quick resource for those both in and outside the office…

If you are not in great shape yet, Here’s a total beginner crossfit-style workout you can do in your own home or gym.

***If unsure, check with your doctor to make sure you are ready for physical activity.  (i.e. stress test, bloodwork, blood pressure, joints, etc…)

“Dr. Neal’s Crossfit Workout for total beginners”

Day 1:

1) stretch for a bit and warm up by just fake jump roping in place for 5 minutes.   (use sneakers, no need for a rope yet.  looks a little like dancing)

2) then Do 10 push ups.  (you can put your knees down to make them easier if needed)  Take a break if needed and get back to it as soon as you can.

3) Then immediately do 15 sit-ups.  (you can lock your feet under something only if needed.  You can cheat by using momentum and climbing up with hands on knees if needed.)

That’s it!!   That is day one.   Warm yourself into the rhythm with this short 10 minute workout at home.

Day 2

Increase the number of pushups to 15,  sit-ups to 20

Day 3

keep increasing the number of push-ups and sit-ups at any interval.  When you get to 50 and 50,  you’re ready for some real crossfit workouts from the other posts.   Remember you can always take a break to catch your breath.  Just get back into the action as soon as you can.  Time the event, write down the time, and watch your fitness and balance in life improve every day.

be mindful of you limits and enjoy, 

-Dr. Neal

©2009 “Dr. Neal’s Crossfit Workout for Total Beginners”  by Dr. Neal Schwartz

      In the passion for helping those who needlessly suffer,  I have found that ultra-fitness has been my biggest weapon to help my patient’s mild depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, mania, obsessive compulsiveness, fatique, and general low levels of enthusiasm for life.    

     When I was a Soccer and Lacrosse player in high school,  I remember my overall emotional and physical balance would keep me healthy under all types of stress.   As college, medical school, and the life of a doctor overshadowed my physcial fitness energies, I found myself constantly in need of something that I couldn’t put my finger on.  It was a mild anxiety and mild depression that crept up on me without my knowledge.  I used to think it was just “part of getting older”  or “part of life”  but I now realize what I was doing wrong throughout my 20’s…

      I realized that my stress level was greater than my fitness level and the resulting negative slope was what I now call the “downward slope of unwellness”   Although I was still working out almost every day with weights and some cardio, it wasn’t enough to balance the heavy tolls of work and living in New York.  

     It wasn’t until about age 30 that I realized I was in a “fitness deficit”,  even though I worked out 5 times a week!  It was the intensity of the soccer field that was gone leaving me in a “relative mild depression”    In a flurry to get back what I now realized I had lost, I started searching for better ways to safely gain cardiovascular fitness and found indoor rock climbing and “the summit” (older post).  They gave me a good fix of what I was looking for but never held enough ground to get me through the whole week.  Still looking for more, I consulted my older brother who is a world certified Moutaineer and Alpine touring ski guide.   He had recently gotten into a new workout called “crossfit” and urged me to join in.  He said,  “this is the only workout I’ve ever done in gym that has even come close to the ice climbing and alpine touring trips I do all winter.”  A “bad” patient myself, I was very reluctant to change anything even though the rewards from my workouts had been only partially fullfilling.   I hedged for a few more months and then finally started checking it out.  

       I limped in trying some of the isolated exercises like “burpees” and “Box Jumps” without actually doing the real “workout of the day.”  I immediately felt the rewards and my hunger for crossfit began to grow.  It wasn’t until I did a “workout of the day” called “fran” that I became completely hooked.  The rewards were so massive that I felt at 33 years of age that I was back in high school.  It furthered solidified all the subtle wellness mistakes I was making in my twenties.

       As a passionate practitioner of medicine and wellness,  I can’t help telling every patient about the crossfit revolution regardless of the reason they have come to see me.  Mild depression and anxiety work into every facet of life and if not addressed, creep up on patients unconsciously.  

      Although I’m a huge fan, I have found that the crossfit site, without real one-on-one coaching, isn’t very easy to follow for a beginner.  As a 3 week beginner myself, I’m going to outline how I got massive rewards from this innovation so far.  If there are any crossfit experts out there reading this,  feel free to comment on my instructions as this represents my personal amazing experience with this “new” type of workout.  

        As a beginner, I’ve been selecting out the workouts of the day that have less powerlifting moves in them.  I did a more advanced move the other day as a tester and indeed pulled my back out likely do to improper form.  I will be outlining and detailing some of the safer routines for any beginners like myself.  If you are a beginner to exercise in general,  it’s safer to wait on this intense workout until you have done some standard cycling or treadmilling for a few weeks.  (if cleared by your doctor of course.) 

     For those that have done some of the isolated exercised and are ready for a “workout of the day”, I think “fran” is great place to start because you can adjust the weight to your specifications.   (I used 65 pounds on day 1 and now use 75 on week 3.  Will be increasing as my form improves.)

Here it is:

“Fran“

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups  

Post time to comments.

   As I mentioned earlier,  these workouts of the day aren’t very clear to a total beginner, so i will elaborate here.  

         21 “Thrusters” using any weight as shown in the video link.  You should have a weight that is difficult to get many repititions from but not too difficult to do a small handful.  After doing a bunch,  you take “mini breaks” just to catch your breath as if you were in a soccer game hanging off the ball for a moment.  You don’t take a long walk to the water fountain or have any conversation like you used to do with classic weight lifting.  The whole routine is one long set with breaks only to catch your breath momentarily.  You get back into the fight as soon as possible.  (see video for these little breaks)

      Immediately after thrusters, you catch wind only if needed and start your pull ups.  you can use the assisted pull up machine or swing your legs.  This pull up is different than the isolated pull ups of bodybuiling back workouts.  It’s more of a full body functional move.  Use the small breaks to get though it. 

After the pull ups,  you catch some wind only if needed (no real breaks here),  and start your 15 thrusters.  Change weight only if you can’t even do a couple of them.  

then the pulls ups–15,   9 more thrusters,  9 more pulls ups.  no real breaks, just short breaks to catch wind.  

The whole routine is intensified by the fact that you are timing yourself.   you’ll see “for time” on the workout of the day.   Knowing that thousands of people around the world are doing and timing the exact same workout you are doing is very motivating and brings massive rewards.

******As with any exercise routine,  the conversion from regular cardio and weight lifting to crossfit style working out comes with several real risks.   You must be mindful of your limits especially in the first few weeks.  Specific concerns for this routine would be your heart, your back, your shoulders, your knees, and neck.  Be careful and ease into this new amazing culture.  You still have plenty of time to recapture your youth…

    Having access to hundreds of mildly depressed patients and online clients everyday,  I will make a crossfit section here and update all the beginner details in an effort to clear the heads of all my patients. This new clarity will open up infinite possibilites of tackling any health challenges including the ruthless ones of the skin. 

hope you feel the energy here, 

be well, 

-Dr. Neal

©2008 “Introduction to “crossfit”" by Dr. Neal Schwartz