WorkoutBrothers.com

Brad Bose, PhD, the man in charge of training Robert Downey, Jr. for Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, and Iron Man 2 put him on a “functional fitness” regimen that included all sorts of unorthodox exercises and routines.

Functional fitness is an approach to fitness that utilizes REAL LIFE ranges of motion instead of repetitive, robotic machine motions (like body building). There is less focus on isolating individual muscles and more focus on working out the entire body. The end result is a lean, muscly body that performs at it’s peak across a wide range of activities (not just lifting). The result of traditional body building and “cardio” exercising is peak performance (if you can even call it that) in one or two activities (lifting, flexing, or running on a treadmill).

They had just 3 months to get Downey into Tony Stark form after he had dropped 20 lbs to play Sherlock Holmes.

His workouts included exercises and techniques  such as Indian Clubs, Meels, Wheelbarrows, Fire Hoses, Sled, Giant Tires, Sledgehammers, and more unorthodox workout routines.

Downey was tired of the regular routine of hitting the gym and just lifting weights and said, “If I have to get underneath a bench press or [do] a squat, I’m going to shoot myself. I just don’t have the motivation.” So, Bose put him on this functional fitness regimen that really “shock and awed” his body.

If you want proof that there’s something to working out out in a non-traditional, non-body building way just take a look at Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man 2. He built that physique in 3 months using functional fitness workouts.

For more information and the details of each workout element see the full article at WebMD.

Yesterday I completed a workout that involved doing 100 pull ups (total).

The workout was 4 rounds (for time) of 25 pull ups and 25 wall ball squats. I completed mine in 38 minutes. Keith was around the 19 minute mark I think.

Now, my overall time isn’t anything to write home about, especially if you compare it to seasoned CrossFitters or Primal workout-ers, but I’m most excited about the fact that I actually DID 100 Pull Ups!!

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A 2008 Study of over 350,000 people across Europe published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that having a large waistline can almost double your risk of dying prematurely even if your body mass index is within the ‘normal’ range.

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The Huttos (all four of us: Russ and his wife Lydia; Jon and his wife Tiffany) just started a new challenge this week.

Here’s the skinny:

This is a Biggest Loser style challenge. Weekly weigh-ins. Weekly challenges.

We had our weigh-in last night.

The challenge will be 7 weeks long. Monday, April 12, 2010 – Friday, May 28, 2010

Each week there is a $20 cash prize. Winner for the week takes all.

Overall winner gets all the glory!

Progress will be measured in percentages (not lbs).

Each of us has individual motivation to do the challenge but we’re all doing this together (yet, individually).

The guys, Russ and Jon, will be posting their progress here on the blog. The ladies chose not to reveal their progress to the world which is fine! But if you think about it (and know them) cheer them on over on their facebook pages!

An August 2009 study from Australia says that sitting at work leads to more sitting when you’re not at work. Sitting down for too long has been linked to obesity.

Another study from New Zealand links  hours spent sitting at a desk–especially those using a computer–with an increased risk of developing blood clots in the legs. “These clots–Deep-Vein Thrombosis (DVT)–can migrate to your lungs, shut off circulation, starve lung and heart tissue of oxygen and, if you don’t get clot-dissolving drugs in time, kill you, according to the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand.”

Another study says, “recent epidemiologic evidence suggests that sitting time has deleterious [negative] cardiovascular and metabolic effects that are independent of whether adults meet physical activity guidelines.” So you could be a pretty active person outside of work/couch time but still be doing your health and fitness a disservice by sitting down too much.

One doctor even says that sitting down too much is just as bad for your health as smoking cigarettes.

Mark’s Daily Apple has a great article today (which is where I got these links from) on how to go about changing your “sitting habits.”