Getting Fit Naturally

Here is an interesting thought that has came to mind this week.

I feel confident in the workouts I’ve been doing over the last few months, as it has resulted in muscle growth, fat burn, and weight loss.

However, even though I have been doing a lot of strength and metabolic conditioning, I still seem to be packing around this little belly around with me.

Wednesday earlier this week, I went to a Muay Thai training lesson, and my trainer had me do the usual 3 rounds of jumproping warmup, then 2 rounds of shadow boxing.

Now in between those rounds, he had me do 10 pushups each time, which wasn’t a big deal.

Following that, we hit the heavy bag, and I did some punch, kick, elbow, and knee combos.

After it was all said and done, my trainer had me do 300 sit-ups on the bench that goes on a downward slope with the padded bars to hold your feet in front. I figured since I had quite sufficient core strength, it wouldn’t be too bad. Well, needless to say, I did the 300 sit-ups no problem.

The problem was the next day, when my abs and legs hurt so bad from the soreness! Now, as the saying goes, “No pain, no gain”, but that really opened my eyes. I can see now that I really could be challenging my body a whole lot more, considering the phenominal shape I’m in now.

So here is a question to ask yourself? Are you pushing yourself hard enough? Work out and not see the level of results you anticipate? Perhaps evaluate your exercise regimen, and see what areas you can improve.

As for myself, I need to start focusing on cardio in more of a plyometric sense. Because the fact of the matter is, I get very winded when I try to run for longer than 30 seconds. Same with jump roping.

So the approach, I’m going to take, is changing my workouts to focus in on particular muscle groups each day, 3 days a week, and apply HIIT principles to each one. I am going to evaluate how this impacts my overall workouts, and see if I start seeing different results. Doing it this way of course has both advantages and disadvantages, as to be expected.

On the upside, this gives my body more recovery days, allowing muscles to rebuild after being tore down, which is how muscle growth occurs.

On the downside, focusing on muscle groups will bring that group of muscles to near absolute failure, and will cause a high level of fatigue. In the larger scope of things, that is actually a good thing, as it brings a higher challenge, but I will most definitely have to adjust to it.

Secondly, I’m going to really start to improve on my cardio by doing more plyometric exercises including jumproping. I am going to start with 6 30 second intervals of roping, and build up to 3 rounds of roping.

My next goal is to acquire a heavy bag and some good 16 oz gloves and shin pads so I can start more bag training at home. That will be highly beneficial.

And then after that, I’d like to get some good Thai Pads so I can train that way as well.

So I hope my insight has helped you perhaps reevaluate things to get to where you want to be!

Until next time,

Justin

Hello All,

So I just wanted to post something here, since I know it’s been a while since I’ve last posted anything. For all my regular readers, I first apologize for the delay in putting another post up here. Let’s just say it’s been crazy trying to keep everything in check with school reintroduced into my life.

So whats been going on with me lately? How have I been doing with health and fitness? Well, the answer to those questions is, I have been doing great for the most part. The last couple weeks, numerous events have came up that have prevented me from working out everyday as I have been, but when you have kids especially, sometimes that happens.

The biggest area I have been remotely struggling has been nutrition. There was a while where I just had a hard time keeping to a good nutrition regimen, due to lack of finances, but I have since discovered new innovative ways to eat healthy, yet cheap. What I’ve been doing thus far is doing what a lot of people do; buy “healthy” TV dinners like Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, Smart Ones, etc… But that was still costing a lot of money, mostly because they are on average $2.50 a pop.

So to remedy that, I have instead starting buying meats and then cooking them at work such as steak, chicken, and fish, which are high in protein, but generally low in fat, and cholesterol. I also bought these cups of individual personal portions of veggies like green beans, and peas, and then bought some cups of apple sauce as a 3rd course. Which in the end is much cheaper that way, plus I don’t get all the starches, and extra sugars that those TV dinners usually provide.

If you are able to invest in a George Forman grill, I would definitely suggest doing so. Depending on the size of it, you could easily take it to work with you, or just buy one to leave at work, and cook your meats in the breakroom.

Aside from that, I have been going to Muay Thai lessons twice a month which has been really go0d. I wished I could afford to go to lessons more often than that, but for now twice a month will just have to do. To aid in that, I really need to invest in some Thai Pads, but I just can’t seem to find them locally. I have another lesson on the 22nd, so I’ll have to ask my trainer then.

I have been doing my gameday training still, so I can be ready for the Turkey Bowl in November. I’m definitely looking forward to that.

For the record, I have been weighing around 213 lately. Today I weighed in at 213.2, so that’s good.

To switch things up a bit, I have also made a video blog of which I posted to my YouTube channel. It is embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

Hey Folks, so I just checked out the new workout video from Fitness Anywhere titled, “TRX Multi Sport Strength”.

The quality of the content of the video was great. The person taking you through the workout is very knowledgeable and friendly.

My only complaints towards the video is how she communicates during the video. Throughout the workout, I feel she lacks in enthusiasm in contrast to people like Fraser Quelch and Todd Durkin who just get you completely pumped up during the workouts they instruct. Furthermore, she changes her tone throughout the video between speaking in the 1st and 3rd person. Now, considering this was her first instructional video, I can definitely understand not having superior communication skills right off the bat; communication skills is an art, which takes time to adapt.

To playback the video, may or may not give you some hassle trying to play. The video format itself is in the .M4V format, which is designed to play in either Apple Quicktime, or Apple iTunes. Being I have a Mac, this was not an issue whatsoever, as both of those pieces of sofware are native to Mac. But for a Windows, or even Linux user, I could see some potential for frustation in having the ability to playback the video, particularly if you don’t want either application installed on your system.

Now, you can easily install either Quicktime or iTunes on Windows for free, but not everyone likes installing things they will rarely use.

The workout itself is great though. She walks you through a number of upper body, lower body and core exercises, in a short period of time so you’re not exercising forever and getting bored with it.

So, to sum it up, it is an excellent workout, and definitely worth buying and watching.

Thanks,

Justin

So I made a 3rd circuit for her to do during the week. It contains all the elements of the previous 2 days; however I added 2 more elements to really mix it up. I added Tae Bo and Pilates here and there.

She seemed to find the movement of some of the Tae Bo exercises challenging, however with a bit of focus and patience, she got the movement down and prevailed.

I especially like Tae Bo movements, as it contains elements of multiple martial arts disciplines, which provides an all body workout simply using rhythmic body movement.

I think she is doing exceptionally well so far, and foresee a great deal of progress in the near future.

I plan to write the day 4 circuit tonight. So we’ll see how it goes tomorrow!

Thanks,

Justin

Well today was day number two of my one year challenge. It was a great big hard workout. It took alot of time and there were a few hiccups. But over all it was great and I feel energized after working out. I was having a hard time while working out because my muscles were very sore from yesterday’s workout. But I just pushed through and somehow made it to the end without quitting. I give most the credit to my husband. I love him being there helping me through the workout. It helps me more than he will ever know. To know that someone cares so much about me, that they took so much time and energy to put together a workout routine just for me. I love you baby!

Today was also fun because we switched it up and bit and I worked out while my kids were awake. It was rather interesting but it turned out fun. Our two year old son was trying to do the workout that mommy was doing. It was really sweet because at one point I was crying out in pain and after I got done with that exercise my son climbed up on my lap and gave me hugs and kisses as if to tell me it was OK. He is such a cute little man. He was trying to do pushups on the perfect push up, trying to jump rope with the jump rope, and trying to do some exercise on the TRX. It was the cutest. Then when I was doing some jumps my daughter kept squealing with laughter when I jumped into her sight. She thought I was playing peek a boo with her. All in all it was a brutal awesome workout and I had a lot of laughs along the way.

I am excited to begin this process. And I can’t wait to see the end product when I am finished. That is all for today but thanks for reading.

So my husband started this for me. I will say I suck at blogging. I just get to the point and then it is over. Today was a good workout. My husband kept it fun but challenging. I love working out with him there to help keep me motivated. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store. Just a little background info on me.

I am 25 yrs old. I have been overweight all my life. I did really start gaining weight and becoming obese until after I got married. When I got married I weighed 180 lbs and I was in a size 14 pant. Now almost 6 years later I am in a size 20/22 and weigh 228 lbs.

I weighed in at 220 when I got pregnant with my first baby. I ended that pregnancy at 250. I got pregnant again 5 months later and had not lost any of the weight. I went up to 270 when I was pregnant with my second child. After I had him I went back down to 250. Then I started trying weight watchers after he was 6 months old. I got down to 232 at one point. I stopped doing WW and a pushed back up to 250. When our second child was 1 yr old I got pregnant with our third child. I started that pregnancy out at 250 lbs and got up to 262 lbs. When I came home from the hospital I was 237 lbs. But over the course of a month I went up to 253 lbs. There was alot of stress in that month. We were in and out of the hospital with the new baby. And my kids kept getting sick.

It was right around that time that my husband started his weight loss journey. I started with him at first. We were going full on. And I was losing weight. But I burned out quickly. I got bored and things with the new baby were hard. So I quit exercising with him. Then I got a little motivation, again due to my husband losing weight. So with him by my side we started doing another workout together. Again I got burned out and gave up. It was hard because if he wasn’t there by my side doing it with me I just wouldn’t do it. And it was easy to not do it when I had a little baby to use as an excuse.

So here I am now at 228 lbs just 8 lbs away from my pre pregnancy weight from my first pregnancy. And I am determined to lose that 8 lbs and then go on to lose 20 more. And then get to my ultimate goal of 150-155. I know that with all the time that my husband put into creating this workout I just have to stick to it. And in time I will get the results that I am seeking. If I don’t meet the weight goal I would like to at least meet a goal to be in a size 10 by August 2010.

Hello All,

So as you know since April, I started a fitness challenge to lose 60 lbs in 60 months. I have been exercising and practicing good nutrition whenever possible. I have so far lost 30 lbs, but built up a lot of muscle, so its hard to say whether I will lose that other 30 lbs since its not all fat now as before.

Well, my wife has been wanting to lose weight and get healthy again, but just hasn’t had the motivation, and when she did, she’d get bored with it.

So over the weekend, I wrote two days worth of circuits for her, and wanted to see how they went, and then I’d write some more. Well, I took her through Monday’s circuit today, and it went exceptionally well. I combined elements of cardio, strength, flexibility, and plyometrics using natural bodyweight, aerobic exercises designed by Leslie Sansone, TRX, Perfect Pushups, and Exercise Balls. I also used movements used in life, although not used frequently either outside childhood or abnormal circumstances. For example, Army Crawls, jumping over a ditch, hopscotch, etc…

When I wrote these circuits I had creativity in mind. Since my wife is the type that gets bored with “the norm”, I got creative, and made something fresh and innovative to get her excited, and keep her motivated. She had a lot of fun doing it, and still got an awesome workout. I can’t wait to see how it goes tomorrow.

So after the workout, I sat down with my wife and helped her set a goal of what she wants to acheive in her fitness quest. She thought about it, and said to lose 75 lbs in a year. Which is a very reasonable goal. I foresee her meeting that goal sooner, but only time will tell.

So starting from today, she set a goal. Her goal for the record is to lose 75 lbs by August 17th, 2010. Both her and I will update our progress, and I will provide commentary and insight on her progression.

For the record, she right now weighs in at 228 lbs. So if she is serious about her goal, she should be down to around 153 lbs on August 17th, 2010.

Here is her starting pictures:

Melissa 228 lbs 8/17/09 - Front Shot

Melissa 228 lbs 8/17/09 - Side Shot

Hi Folks,

Just realized I forgot to post last week!

For all my readers, much apologies. Between last week and this week, have made some good progression here. I have dropped down below the 220’s!

Last week got to 218 lbs, but over the weekend, as they are my recovery days, I tend to be rather sedentary, so I ended up back at 220 lbs again on Monday earlier this week.

I started doing a performance workout, which has helped kick me into high gear! I am getting ready for this football game that LANDesk does every year called the Turkey Bowl. I played last year and couldn’t walk for 4 days. So this year, I am getting body up to 250% so this time I’ll be cracking skulls along the way!

The first portion consists of applying metabolic conditioning on the treadmill. I rotate medium pace for 5 minutes to a high pace for 2 minutes. I keep doing this until I get up to the high speed interval 3 times, then I’ll spend 5 more minutes at medium pace, and then cooldown, and then breakout the TRX.

Since I started studying Health & Exercise Sciences, I must say it ends up breaking up my day much more efficiently to go the gym (which I had to get to take some classes since the school has a lack of certain equipment) go on the treadmill, and then wrap the Suspension Anchor around a free Smith Machine, and start tearing it up! I’ve been going earlier in the morning around 6am or so, so I can have it all wrapped up before class starts each day. So by the time I get home, I’m free to do what I want. And that definitely helps my wife.

I became a moderator for Fitness Anywhere, and they hooked me up with some sweet goodies! They asked me what I needed, and I told them some DVD’s, the Extender, and a T Shirt. I particularly wanted the Train Like the Pro’s DVD.

Well they sent me the Train Like the Pro’s DVD, the Ropes & Straps Bootcamp DVD, (yes, the name of it is highly sick and twisted by its nature, I know (if you had that thought cross your mind just now…)), the TRX Extender, a T Shirt, and a cool Fitness Anywhere water bottle.

I watched Train Like the Pro’s yesterday so I can get the feel for it, it looked pretty awesome. But, I plan on watching Ropes & Straps today at work. I really wanted that one for my wife to help mix things up because she has the problem of getting bored with workouts when I becomes repetitive. So, I’m going to put different elements into a circuit everyday for her with something new and different to keep her excited and motivated.

I plan on transitioning from the All Body XPress circuit as my regular workout to the Train Like the Pros workout, as it still contains an all body workout, but at a new level.

My fitness is going great and I’m pumped! I think I’ll try to post twice a week to keep you guys updated a bit more frequently, but not everyday like I was doing, because it got to a point where it was too repetitive with the same things over and over…

So I’ll plan on posting around mid week I anticipate. Until then, have a good day.

Hi folks,

So, day 99 of my challenge!

I have been steady at about 220 lbs this week overall. So a slight change, but not drastic by all means.

So as promised, here is the metabolic circuits I made up:

I did have the opportunity to do these 2 circuits this week, and they are quite decent workouts, however I think I need to manipulate the pace of the workouts, as they did not seem as “demanding” as a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) circuit would generally be. I think putting these various workouts “to tempo”, that would accomplish what I’m after.

I found a gym to train Brazilian Jui Jitsu at, named Altitude Combat Sports & Fitness. And best of all, it’s like 6 blocks away from my house, and they offer the option to pay for each class you go to as opposed to a flat montly rate. And since I work at night, I can only go once a week. So that option is actually cheaper, only costing me around $40 a month, which is pretty cheap. So can’t beat that; cheap and close.

I am in the process of getting a minor schedule change to allow me to go to training once a week. I am hoping I can get that change.

I’ve been jumproping quite often now, and my calves don’t go through the pain as they did initially. I have also been doing the TRX Flexibility Circuit, and the stretches are really helping. I can really feel myself opening up.

So I am half way through my challenge, and I’m feeling great!

Hopefully I can start training at the gym this upcoming Tuesday, but not sure if I can get the schedule change approved that soon. We’ll see how it goes.

Well thats all I have for this week, so until next week, have a great week!

Hi Folks,

Sorry it’s been a bit longer than I expected to post next. Just started the Health and Exercise Sciences degree this week, and it’s been a rough transition into getting used to going back to school.

None the less, it was a fun week.

So I finished off the 8 weeks of metabolic circuits created by Fraser Quelch at Fitness Anywhere. But reading the Metabolism Advantage, I now know that it isn’t over after the 8 weeks, you keep going, but now creating your own circuits.

Of which I made a circuit for the next 2 weeks that I will start on Tuesday. I will reveal it to you all then.

Also, been jumproping all week. My calves have been crying bloody murder , but I have continued to triumph none the less. I just can’t wait until my legs just explode! It will also give me a very good cardiovascular edge also.

Still been around the weight of 222 lbs. But I’m not worried. I honestly am not sure if I am going to lose this other 30 lbs. I may just maintain it in muscle as opposed to fat, which is fine, in fact its awesome! I really don’t mind weighing 222 in muscle. As long as its not fat, I don’t care.

I am still working on heading up to the U of U to get that Bod Pod test done so I can get an accurate measurement of my body composition. That will really help me in leveraging my workouts accordingly once I can get that data. So looking forward to that. I think I am going to try on the 5th to get that test, but we’ll see.

Well that’s all I have to report for this week. Until next time, have an awesome day!