Internet

I don’t know if you know this but pretty much my entire family are involved in fitness and nutrition efforts right now. My brother’s family are getting healthier. My dad and mom have both lost scads of weight (like I think a combined 100 lbs). Kat and I, well, you know.
But here’s a neat one.
I challenged my dad to see who can lose 10 pounds faster over the next little while. Yep. He’s at a micro-plateau, and I’ve been teetering through a few little pounds here and there. I think it’s the perfect time for a challenge. The contest starts today. I’m at his house right now. The weigh-in will be in moments. Whichever of us gets to 10 pounds gone from that weight first gets the prize.
For me? 6 movie passes. For him? $60 in book gift certificates. How rockin is this?
And I’ve got all kinds of plans. I just read something in the new issue of Men’s Fitness that I’m going to try. Want to pound your intensity and maximum effort up? Switch your weight program out this way: Do 10 sets of 3 instead of 3 sets of 10. That way, you can lift closer to your one-rep maximum, over and over. Rest 60-120 seconds in between each set. Maybe even mix lower-body-centric exercises in between upper-body-centric ones, for better recovery. But try and get more sets of fewer reps.
The reasoning is that the more times you move the metal the better, but if you try for light weights for lots of reps, you’re not getting as much of a challenge. It makes perfect sense to me.
I’ll be mixing that theory in with two other training methods during this evolution. I’ll be going back to sprint/interval training, as that’s been helping move the scale and/or get my power going. I’ll be attacking the CrossFit Workout Of the Day (WOD) stuff (CrossFit Site), though I’ll be doing a week removed from the current one (as I’ve no internet access at home).
This evolution will be one of the last for pure strength and power, as I’m getting closer to marathon season. I’m still on the fence on whether I’ll do Nipmuck in June as my first marathon, or if I’ll do an ultra in September as my first and a marathon in November as my second. We’ll see how training goes.
So, here starts the competition. I’ve read everywhere that guys function extremely well when there’s a challenge on the line. We’ll see how that plays out between a father and son who’ve never really competed against each other, but who have at least a flicker of that competitive sense about us.
Has anyone ever done a similar challenge with friends or family (or enemies)? How’d it go for you?
(And hey, thanks for all the nice comments on last post. That’s a lot of new readers all of a sudden. Great to hear from you!)
[email]