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Jack Ingram

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Jack Knows Fitness!

Jack Ingram shares his personal workout routine and offers tips on how you, too, can get on the road to better health.

Jack Ingram recently gave Country Weekly an inside look at part of the fitness regimen that keeps him looking and feeling so good onstage. While his routine may not be exactly right for everyone, it’s perfect for him and his busy schedule. Here’s part of what Jack had to say about how he works out, why he does it and what you can do to get started.

CW
Tell me about one of the things you do to motivate yourself to get your running in while you’re on tour.
JI
When I’m on tour, I get dropped off four miles from the venue, and I run back. So it’s kind of an interesting take for me—it’s just so there’s no head games. I’ve gotta get back to the venue. I’ve gotta get back to the show.
CW
How do you vary your weight lifting and your running during the week?
JI
I normally try and work out with weights—with my schedule, sometimes I just can’t—every other day. Work out every other day, and run every other day—different days. And if I skip a day, the next day I’ll work out with weights and run. When I do that—there’s two kinds of workouts I do. One is long running, four or five miles. The other is interval running that I copped off this Body for Life book. It’s 20 minutes, but you’re basically going from jogging to sprinting over the course of intervals. You do everything in a minute interval. So after 20 minutes, you’ve run about 2 ½ or 3 miles. It’s pretty crazy. You think in 20 minutes, you can’t really work yourself out that much, but you can. And the idea of that particular workout is it fits my schedule great because I don’t want to work out longer. I want to work out harder. So when you do this Body for Life thing, your effort level is based on a scale of one to 10. So your scale is gonna be different from my scale. And my scale is gonna be different from somebody else’s. And you’re working out as hard as you can for the time you’re there. And you get better and better over time, as your level of one to 10 increases. But you’re not working out for 2 ½ hours. So I really like that idea. That’s really what I grabbed onto. I love to work out and it makes me feel good, but I’m not a gym rat.
CW
Does it help when you’re depressed, or angry about something, etc.?
JI
That’s just it. You can work out a lot of issues if you give yourself time. I don’t ever like to get too spiritual about it. But, when people meditate, they’re clearing their head. And running can get you to that place. Working out can get you to that place, where you’re concentrating on something else so intently that you forget. Your mind kind of blacks . . . and clears out all the issues. And you can work some thing out. And, when I’m most tired, it’s because I haven’t been workin’ out.
I start feeling a little sluggish if I don’t work out.

Jack’s Getting Started Tips

If it’s been too long since you last worked out, here’s Jack’s advice on how to get back on the path to better fitness.

  • Don’t be overwhelmed
  • Start doing something small—take a first step
  • Walk around the block, get fresh air for 15 minutes
  • Do something that doesn’t take a lot of effort, but gets you breathing heavy
  • Do it till it feels good, then stop and come back the next day
  • The next day, go a little harder, then stop while it still feels good
  • Guess what? You’re workin’ out, losin’ weight, feeling good

For more about Jack’s fitness routine, check out his story in the May 19 issue of Country Weekly.

  • May 5, 2008
  • story by David Scarlett
  • photo by HARRISON MCCLARY

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