Category Archives: Views from the Exercise Room

This category is just as it says, “Views from the Exercise Room”. It’s my personal observations of the people I meet and view during my own fitness routine. But it’s even more than that. Here you will learn some novel and effective ways that will make you lose weight and become physically fit.

Views from the Exercise Room

Losing weight quick fixes such as squats, sit ups and weights don’t work

June 3, 2018 Jack Corbett Leave a comment

Losing weight quick fixes just don’t work. When a woman queried Quora “Is doing 100 squats a day just as beneficial to weight loss as doing situps,” I lost it. I couldn’t remain silent. I was mortified. Not just because one woman was so utterly clueless. But because the majority of people worldwide are so utterly naive. And fat. I’ll give you two statistics just to perk you interest.

In World War II, the average American soldier weighed 144 pounds.

Between 2012 and 2014 the average American male weighed 197 pounds. While the average American woman weighed 169 pounds. That that was six years ago. I’ll virtually guarantee that American women and men are fatter and heavier in 2018. But get this. The average American woman is only five feet four. While a lot, perhaps the average Thai women are about five foot three. And weigh less than 99 pounds. One of my favorite Thai women is over five foot five. This is my friend Kwan. And she weighs less than 100 pounds. Does she have a sexy attractive body? See for yourself on this video. One of many I have of her.

Most Americans have become an alien species. Its like comparing an elephant to a tiger.

Compared to the World War II generation of American women and men, Americans have evolved into a fatter more elephantine form of the human species. While even in 1960 when I was in my early teens American men and women were quite slender in comparison. Sadly, the rest of the world is following the American example. And here I’m including the Brits, Germans, and even the Chinese who are rapidly turning into a race of fatsos. The Thais also, but thankfully they are still lagging far behind. The human race has entered a new alien world of sugar, carbohydrates and no exercise.

The problem is most people world wide look to Losing weight quick fixes.

I used to have my own physical fitness room while I was farming. Notice the Universal Machine system which I used to do sit ups, weights, etc. This was twenty years ago. The Universal setup cost me $3500, but it was only just another losing weight quick fixes. As for the room itself. I converted a one car garage into what you see here. I put large mirrors across an entire side of the room which created the illusion of lots of space. Another side I wall papered with mountain scenery. The effect I wanted to create and I think I did create was when I was in this room I had entered a different world. I adored this room. It cost me $10,000 back then and no doubt it would cost well over $20,000 today. But it was worth every penny.

You and many people think spending just five minutes a day will result in weight loss. Squats and sit ups will only tend to tighten people up.

They are useful only as a small part of an overall fitness program. Here’s what it takes. Aside from a while host of other things that I won’t get into here including proper diet.

I exercise here in Thailand at a five star hotel which has an exceptional fitness center. My favorite machine is a $10,000 plus elliptical machine. I spend about 70 minutes on this machine which exercises pretty much of the entire body. Within the first 10 minutes I’m sweating all over the machine (the fitness center is air conditioned). I will not stop until the machine tells me I’ve burned 750 calories.

The Jack Corbett beer exercise machine answer to losing weight and/or becoming physically fit.

One regular beer is around 160 calories. Light beers are 100 to 110 calories. So in 70 minutes I’ve burned off 7 light beers. But over the short term….I’ve lost about one kilo….2.2 pounds over this 70 minutes. That’s how much sweat runs all over the machine, my shirt and my shorts.

Now let’s assume a person burns the same amount of calories over an entire day as he takes in through consumption of food and beverages. Theoretically this person will neither gain or lose weight. If you want to lose one pound you must burn off 3600 calories. But it’s going to take me…..5 seventy minute sessions to lose just one pound.

I can use treadmills (which I tend to get injured on) and sometimes I will run 7.5 miles. And now I’m usually swimming one hour a day.

One of the stair climbers at my fitness center at the Centara Grand Mirage Hotel. The elliptical machines are in the front row with the stair-climbers behind them. You can watch television on the screeens in front of the elliptical machines and stair climbers. Of do what I do which is to insert a usb which contains my favorite exercise music. On the elliptical machines the music increases my pace because I’m almost flying to the music. But the stair climbers are even more challenging than the elliptical machines. For me they do not work well with my music. And they are just too boring. But when you go like hell on either the elliptical machines or stair climbers you are not looking for Losing weight quick fixes.. Especially when you are on these machines for mo;re then one hour.

The most effective machines are the elliptical machines and stair-climbers. Rowing machines, which are highly regarded, won’t even come close to a good elliptical machine when it comes to losing weight.

I don’t come here to talk to other people while I’m exercising. I focus on just three things….the music which keeps me pumped up, how fast I’m going, and how many calories I’m burning off.

So here’s the results of my fitness programs.

When I lettered on my varsity college cross country running team, the team was doing two workouts a day. With the first workout consisting of an 8 to 10 mile run. I was 19 then and I weighed 162 pounds. I am now 71 years old and my normal weight is 165 pounds. Right now I weigh 158 to 160 pounds and I don’t know why I’ve lost weight.

I will have to admit one thing though. At the fitness center I laugh a lot at most of the people exercising around me. Some of them plug in their smart phones into the machines which tell them to exercise for ten minutes. The elliptical machines can be set from a low of one to a high of 25. I set mine at 18. A lot of people set theirs at 1 because they have no idea of what they are doing. Then there’s a lot of guys who get into the weights. They do a set. Takes one minute. Then they look at themselves in the mirror for five minutes. Then they do another set and strut around the room for five minutes.

Now, this is not to take away from the pros who come here also.

There’s the German who was a professional tennis player in Germany. He uses a lot of machines but he also plays tennis everyday. Or the Swede who headed the entire hotel chain physical fitness centers throughout Asia. Jasper will do a lot of chin ups, then he hits the weights. Then he hits this machine, then that machine, then the treadmill or elliptical machine. He won’t rest for thirty seconds and while he’s exercising you don’t even talk to him. Or the American who is a stuntman, and has even played bit parts in movies. Or the fifty year old Thai guy who had bypass surgery on his heart whose doctor recommended lots of exercise. He’s not a pro, but when he comes to the fitness center he spends 2 hours a day exercising. But most guys who come here give me a lot of laughs.

Bottom line is you gotta pay big time if you plan on getting anything worthwhile. it’s going to take lots of concentration, thought, and hours each week of hard work. And do not rely upon Losing weight quick fixes.

Curing obesity requires rejecting AMA calling obesity a disease

February 22, 2014 Jack Corbett Leave a comment

Curing obesity requires Americans become proactive and reject the American Medical Association’s contention that obesity is a disease.

Put bluntly, the AMA is endorsing fatness as a way of life and what Americans should settle for.

I strongly suggest that in most cases laziness, stupidity, obesity and lack of self respect causes obesity. I also believe that the AMA is no better than a tribal association of witch doctors. So you might as well call me Dr. Corbett and listen up. If you care about curing obesity.

Let me guide you out of your fatness. Stop believing all this bacterial and virus nonsense the American Medical Association keeps spouting as the reason for your looking like a buffalo. Come exercise with me, watch what you eat, and see who’s really right on this one. The AMA or Dr. Corbett.

These are the elliptical machines and stair climbers I use at the Centara Grand Mirage Resort’s Fitness Center. I bring my own music on a usb and plug it into the machine. The music really pumps me up. On the elliptical machine I’m sweating like a mongoose in the first 10 minutes. But I’ve still got another 50 to 60 minutes to go.

Get on the elliptical machine for six days a week for an hour. Or if you are slow, two hours a day until you exercise off 750 calories. Do it for a few months. Watch what you eat and drink. And keep score of how many unnecessary calories you eat and drink. Then come back and tell me whether or not I’m right about curing obesity.

Think I’m off base? Consider that on February 21st, 2014 Sunday

the New York Times stated: “In June 2013, millions of Americans contracted a disease. They developed it not because of some pathogen or illness, but thanks to the American Medical Association’s decision to label obesity a “multi-metabolic and hormonal disease state.”

Which means the AMA was telling fat Americans: “Accept your being an overgrown hippopotamus because there is nothing you can do about it.” There’s a lot to the article, which is well worth reading. Where the editorial falls short is it doesn’t provide any answers. It only poses the dilemma that it is difficult to make a choice between making people feel good about their obesity and inspiring them to actually do something about it.

Americans today weigh 25 pounds more than they did in the 1960’s The reason is Pizzas and McDonalds, a sedentary lifestyle and unwillingness to exercise did it. And certainly not an incurable disease called obesity.

I am currently visiting Japan and I can guarantee you that neither the bacterial form of obesity or virus carried mutation has made any serious inroads here. For the most part I’m not seeing many fat people here in Japan. So it’s important to look at what the Japanese are doing about curing obesity.

A few days ago I asked my Japanese friend, Takoi, why Japanese women weren’t fat like American women. He replied: “Because Japanese women see thinness as the best way to be.”

That was in Tokyo, but now that I’m in Kyoto and have been here a few days longer, I must say that obviously the Japanese must be doing a lot of things right when it comes to being slender as opposed to the American approach advocated by the American Medical Association of “Don’t rock the boat. Feel good that you look like Jabba the Hut.”

The situation has gotten so bad that a good friend of mine who lives near me in Thailand told me, “I never want to bang another white woman ever again.” My friend is 71.

The truth is that most people can do something about their elephantine figures.

Here’s the Dr. Corbett secret. Americans must use their brains and have the will power to do what must be done. This is the only alternative to being ugly and fat for the rest of their lives.

Viewing themselves as victims of an incurable disease called Obesity as recommended by the AMA only serves to create an acceptance that being grotesquely fat and ugly is unavoidable.

Once again, I’m not the AMA, and I’m not about to tell you to feel good about yourself. So let’s just face the facts. Americans are not the same race of people they once were. Just keep in mind that

the average American soldier during World War II weighed just 152 pounds and that today the average American male weighs 194.7 pounds according to Wikipedia.

Whereas American females weigh 74.7 kilograms or 164.7 pounds. Good God, I’m 66 years old. I am five foot eleven, and I still weigh only 75 kilograms,. This is the same that I weighed in college.

So there is no excuse for the rest of you. I’m ashamed for my fellow Americans. The United States has become a hog farm for humans. And I’m not afraid to say what the American Medical Association is either too gutless or too much into the profit motive to admit that Curing obesity requires Americans to actually do something about it.

Did I say profit motive? Damn right I did. It’s either that or that the AMA is dim witted. It all boils down to this. Fat people have a lot more health problems than thin people do. To begin with the typical American male’s heart was designed to support a body weight of 152 pounds. This is the typical body weight of a World War II soldier. The heart was not designed to pump blood for a 195 pound body. The human heart cannot keep supporting all those extra arteries,veins and tissue for nearly one third more body mass.

So to begin with Americans can expect a lot more circulatory problems and that means more profits for the doctors.

On the other hand, perhaps doctors are not really that greedy. So then it’s gross stupidity that causes the AMA to lull Americans into acceptance of their corpulent bodies. And if it’s not stupidity, then it’s simply that the AMA is too gutless to tell the truth.

The truth is if you are American, chances are you are grossly overweight. So you now have two choices. Either accept the fact that you are destined to being a fatso for the rest of your life. Or decide that you are going to conquer what the AMA chooses to cause a practically incurable disease called Obesity. No matter what it takes.

The key to curing obesity is Americans must quantify how many calories they are putting into their bodies each day. And then make sure that they burn off more calories than they consume.

For example, one bottle of lite beer contains around 110 calories. To burn that off I need to run one mile. Or do eight minutes on the elliptical machine until the machine’s digital readout gets to 110 calories.

Centara Grand Mirage Hotel is where I have my fitness club membership. It costs a lot. But it’s got the best equipment and facility I know of. And if I am not exercising here, I am swimming for an hour a day or running 14 kilometers from Nakua Soi 16 to Walking Street and back.

I exercise very hard for one hour a day six days a week. In that hour if I’m on the elliptical machine I will burn off 750 calories which is good enough for 7 bottles of lite beer. But if I’m drinking a non lite beer, that’ll come out to 160 calories so in that same hour I will burn off approximately 5 beers. Since I am undergoing so much pain during that hour, I favor drinking the lite beer over the higher calorie regular beer. This means I am getting a lot more out of my one hour’s exercise.

Curing obesity at the Centara Fitness Center — It will set you back around $1000 a year and up for a fitness membership here. But figure it this way. My neighbors who play golf need a car to take them and their golf clubs way across Pattaya to the golf courses. And the fees they pay must run into the thousands. Many of my neighbors drink in the afternoons and they are going to pay a lot more for their drinks than I’ll ever pay here. Many of them are obese, but I suppose Curing obesity is not relevant to them.

So what about one large piece of cheesecake? I’m not sure on that one, but I’ve read that an average size serving is 257 calories. This means 2.6 miles of running, fast walking, or over 20 minutes on the elliptical machine just for that single slice.

So what about those 14 beers I had last night? Yeah, I know, I know. I’m quite the derelict. 14 beers if they are lite beers comes out to around 1400 calories.

So if I am burning off 750 calories during one hour’s exercise session, it’s going to take two days in a row to burn all that beer off, which comes out to 1500 calories. But only if these are lite beers. However I do not drink in the afternoons so a martini lunch is not in the cards.

I’ll usually have one big night out a week. But suppose I have two big nights out when I get sloshed to the gills? This comes out to 3000 calories. So I must keep in mind that 3600 calories equals one pound. If I keep that pace up for a month I’ll be gaining 3000 times 4 or 12,000 calories in that month. That means I am apt to gain about 3.5 pounds a month on account of the beer alone. However, I am hitting the exercise hard six days a week so that must be put into the equation. Six times 750 calories is 4500 calories that I’ve burned off. So that has to be balanced off against the 2800 calorie gain from two nights beer drinking.

What all this boils down to are two words, Quantify and brain. That is one must use one’s brain to constantly quantify how many calories are being consumed versus how many calories one is burning off. This is what it takes for curing obesity or at least to keep from becoming fat.

So what does it really take for Curing obesity?

A lot more than you think, and certainly a lot more than the doctors are telling you. Who are recommending three days a week of exercise. Which is complete bull. When I work out on the elliptical machine I maintain a pace that most 30 year-olds are unwilling or unable to attain.

Perhaps I’m lucky and have been blessed with much better than average genes. But if that’s the case, there’s still hope for you. Even if you think you have been victimized unfairly into suffering a lifetime of being fat and unsightly.

A big man often exercises next to me at the health club. Once I’ve done one hour’s torment and pain he’s just starting to hit his stride. The man will exercise for another hour. He’s British and I suppose he weighs over 300 pounds. He travels incessantly all over Southeast Asia, but when he does, he chooses hotels that have exercise rooms. I’ve heard he’s lost at least 20 kilograms or over 50 pounds. And he’s still losing weight. But he’s got a long way to go still. His business keeps him working over 60 hours a week, yet he still manages to do two hour exercise programs.

This man knows what it takes for curing obesity. He’s an inspiration to me because I can tell you this….he’s undergoing a lot more physical pain and challenge than I’m having to overcome at just 75 kilograms. Compared to him I’m just another wimp.

You might also want to read “Centara Grand Mirage Resort (When it comes to exercising, I want the best facilities I can get. The way I figure it, is if a lot of my friends spend thousands of dollars a year playing golf, I can justify a health club membership here.)

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