The K*I*S*S* Fitness Program: Preface
Table of Contents | Preface | Chapter Introductions
As boys or young men, most of us males had contests with our buddies to see who could do the most pull-ups (sometimes we called them chin-ups). We would wiggle and squirm to get our chin over the bar and try to squeeze out another repetition of the exercise rather than let our buddies do better than us. Or, we might have had similar contests doing push-ups --- straining until we reached our limit and finally fell flat on our face in the dirt or on the floor. Of course, if we had these little contests often enough, we did get stronger.
The Marine Corps likes these exercises too. They do build good solid upper body strength.
However, did you ever try to do them on your own on a long-term basis? I’ve tried a number of times and I always have the feeling that I have to equal or better my performance of the previous day. Usually, after only a week or so, there comes a bad day when it’s simply impossible to do this. And, that’s the end of the exercise program.
This is one problem with calisthenics movements done to the max. They are extremely demanding from a mental point of view. To do a maximum effort at an exercise on a regular basis, you either need a bunch of your buddies urging you on or a drill sergeant shouting in your ear. Few, if any of us, have the willpower required to stick with this kind of exercise regimen on our own. This is only one of a number of problems with this approach to exercise.
There are also other objections. A single set of an exercise doesn’t really work the muscles enough. It takes a while for your blood to fully engorge the blood vessels in a particular muscle group. Bodybuilders call this getting “pumped up.” Related to this, a maximum effort without a warm-up can cause strained muscles or other injuries. A weight-lifter attempting a maximum lift will carefully warm up beforehand. This becomes more and more important the older you get. The bottom line is that an exercise session should progress from the bottom up. Start out easily and gradually work up to a level that pushes you a little. Getting back to our pull-ups and push-ups, what’s the solution?
Many many years ago I recall that my younger brother and I decided to have a pull-up contest. I had hung a bar from the ceiling of my basement and had become pretty good at doing them. However, even then, I didn’t like the idea of a one-shot attempt at doing a maximum number of repetitions of an exercise --- a single set. I suggested to him that, instead of one set, we first do one repetition, rest, then do two repetitions, rest, then three, etc. --- a sequence of sets, each one more difficult than the previous one --- until one of us gave up. Although I forgot who won the contest, that may have been the birth of the K*I*S*S* Fitness Program. At the end of a sequence of sets such as this, you’ve had an extremely stimulating workout. You’ve exercised your muscles to the maximum and have done it in a way that includes a built-in warm-up, involves multiple sets (to get the “pump”), and was a lot less psychologically demanding than a single set max attempt would have been.
Over the years, from time to time, I’ve proposed this type of friendly competition with workout partners. When you try it, you like it, as it seems so easy when you begin. However, it gradually sneaks up on you and, before you know it, you’re in the middle of a really demanding workout. Not too long ago, I invited a young man to exercise with me using the K*I*S*S* Fitness Program. We started at an intermediate Level. At first I could tell he wasn’t too impressed; it was too easy. However, when the last set came around, he was panting. His remark was simply, “This is pretty serious!” The K*I*S*S* Fitness Program is a very serious exercise program.
All this will give you a hint as to how the strength portion of the Program works (There’s an endurance portion too.). You might also gather from the foregoing that the Program can be as easy or as hard as you like. That’s right. Almost anyone can use it, no matter what his physical condition or age might be --- from the competitive athlete to the senior citizen.
The expression or word, K*I*S*S*, is a joke aimed at engineers like myself who work in developing countries and stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid!” I’ve seen many projects installed on the remote tropical islands where I’ve lived and worked for the last 25 years that were initial technical successes. However, after only a few years, they frequently slowed down and ultimately stopped working because their design was technologically inappropriate for the environment in which they were installed. So, as the years have passed, in my work, I’ve tried my darndest to keep things as simple as possible. This doesn’t guarantee success; but, it sure helps.
I think that simplicity is a virtue in just about any undertaking. Even exercise. Hence, the K*I*S*S* Fitness Program. Some people looking this program over will remark that it isn’t “cutting edge” or that there’s equipment that can do a better job. All this is true. But it’s simple, it works, and, like the practical water supply systems I’ve installed on little dots of Pacific islands for years, I feel you’re more apt to be using this program years down the road than a more complicated one. Likewise, you’re more apt to be using it than a piece of equipment that might malfunction after a while or that you can only get access to in a health club or gym. The gadgets are the “icing on the cake.” I use them sometimes because they add fun and variety to a fitness program. However, I don’t feel they are a sound foundation for one.
While living in New Jersey around thirty-five years ago, I was privileged to know a gentleman by the name of Winfield Franklin. At the time, he was the proprietor of a small health club. Win took care of the men’s gym in the basement and his wife, Margaret, took care of the women’s gym upstairs. As the club was quite far from my home, I only went there occasionally to work out. Mostly, I visited to take advantage of the opportunity to associate with Win. At that time, he was pushing seventy years’ old. He was one of the last “Physical Culturists” from the first half of the twentieth century.
I consider Win to have been a superman. He could grab my forearm with two fingers, squeeze, and make me beg for mercy. He had arms like Popeye! Amazingly, even though Win was a strength superman, he had endurance to match. This is extremely rare, but knowing him and observing him has convinced me that it is possible to excel in both areas. During those years around his seventieth birthday, he would celebrate the occasion by running or walking a mile for each year of his age --- non-stop. As if this weren’t spectacular enough, he would begin this feat by running the first twenty-six and one fourth miles --- a Marathon! And, he was ripping along too, at a pace that would have won an Olympic medal earlier in the century. This book is about the type of fitness program I think he would have advocated --- one that balances exercises that build strength with those that build your internal cardiovascular health.
For you women, I hope you won’t be offended if I mostly use male pronouns in this book. I do this simply to save paper. Everything I’m saying applies equally to either sex. In fact, for a while I “trained” a bunch of youngsters --- ages ten or thereabouts --- with a variation of the program in this book and I think the girls did better than the boys. One of the girls was a potential gymnast or acrobat. She could do ten honest pull-ups from a dead hang and is the only female I have ever met who could do this. I think the Marines only require their boot camp graduates to do seven. Unfortunately, in spite of what I told them, I don’t think the girl or her family realized her potential as a top class athlete. Too bad. Anyway, women, this book is for you too.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of number of people, without whose help it would have been impossible to complete this little book: to my wife, Marian, my thanks for her kindness in so many ways (including holding my feet down for many boring half hour long sessions so I could practice sit-ups); to my kids, Bruce (Win) and Margie, my thanks for patiently waiting for Dad to finish his exercises so he would have time to play with them; and, finally, to Frank Marlowe, a close friend from my college days and a fellow fitness enthusiast, my thanks for kindly reviewing and commenting on the manuscript of this book.
My best wishes to you, the reader, on your physical fitness journey.
Stephen J. Winter
2007