Monday, July 30, 2007

Day 262: Live From Korea!

G'day,

I have touched down in Seoul after a short 2 hour flight from Japan. I'll stay here for one night before I take off on an 8 hour flight to Australia tomorrow.

My hotel in Seoul is located between the two major entertainment districts, Meyondon and Dongdaemun. I was able to walk to both and check out the scene which was extremely lively!

Cool Places In Seoul

Meyondon has a real "buzz" to it with a ton of shopping stalls (selling mainly fake stuff!) along with heaps of places to eat traditional spicy Korean food, like kimchi. If you haven't tried kimchi before I highly recommend it, especially if you'd like to clear your sinuses.

Dongdaemun is a more "upscale" market area dominated by large shopping malls and nightspots. I actually stopped in at a coffee shop on the way back to my hotel and watched the last 10 minutes of the Asian Cup final between Korea and Japan.

Much to the delight of the locals Korea beat Japan in a penalty shootout 5-4 after the scores were locked after extra time. The crowd went beserk, some rivalries never die!

The picture below (from Photos.com) accurately depicts the "buzz" of downtown Seoul.


The Reality Of Training In Hotel Gyms

Tomorrow I'll get up early and do a workout at the hotel gym which has a good supply of cardio gear but very light on with weights.

The more I travel, the more I realize that getting a decent gym in a hotel is very "hit and miss". This is regardless of what rating the hotel is. However, it is up to me to adapt my workout to the eqipment on hand rather than complaining about it!

Before I sign off I'll reveal the answer to the question I posed back on Day 260 regarding my "shocking loss of strength".

Answer To Day 260 Question

The reason why I was unable to lift the same amount of weight for barbell bench press compared to my previous Lactic Acid (LT) workout 2 weeks earlier was because of an error I made with my rest periods.

My rest periods were only 10 seconds in length while they should have 20 seconds for LT. I mistakenly used 10 seconds rest because I mentally prepared myself for Muscle Rounds instead of LT beforehand.

This was a very simple error but one which perplexed me at the time. As I follow the Metabolic Surge fat loss training program this mistake is quite easy to make as the rest periods vary between 10, 20, 30 and 40 seconds for each of ther different types of routines within the program.

However, this is actually the strength of Metabolic Surge as your body is continually being stimulated by the change-up and as a result it cannot adapt to the constant barrage of different workouts. This "non-adaption" was (and is) a key driver for my success over Mission 1 & 2.

For more information on Surge and an RTP bonus offer check out my Day 75 Post: Nick Nilsson's "Power Surge"

Peace,
Adam Waters, NESTA-CPT

P.S. Day 262 pics from my hotel room in Seoul.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

cool! I've never tried Korean food before. Being a country girl all those people would make me nervous. I've always preferred the country to big city. Anyways, have fun! And I love seeing pics of other places.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I've been staying for 4 days in the YMCA hotel in Downtown Seoul, nice nightlight, but I haven't been able to find any bar with live band playing music.

I want to ask you a question: why did you write in your daily activities to drink 2 glasses of room temperature water?

I read this on a website, what is your take on that? : "Drink cold water. Warming up fluids in your body takes calories. If you drink ice water throughout the day, you will burn more calories, as well as maintain the proper water balance in your body."

Cheers,
James

Adam Waters said...

Hi Suzette, Yeah Korean food is real spicy, almost everything has pickles! Actually I'll be heading "outback" in a couple of days, looking forward to the country air!

Adam

Adam Waters said...

Hi James,

Its a small world isn't it! I wouldN't have been too far from you, I was at the Best Western.

In regards to room temp water from what I understand it helps with the digestive process. I have read that excessively hot or cold water is not ideal. With that said you could be right about more calories being burned from cold water.

Cheers,
Adam