INSANITY DAY 4

Cardio Recovery

This is my recovery day from the other grueling days of Insanity. You get it once a week. Definitely less cardio but... there's still some deep muscle work going on. Not a day off by no means. It seems like the Insanity version of yoga. Shaun T calls it "control". Must admit though, it was a good break from the fast pace of the other workouts. Still managed to get my sweat on a little! Ready for the next one after this mini rest...

STRESS, STRESS, STRESS!

 Stressed? I'm sure you"re not alone. There are many things out there today that pushes most peoples stress meter through the roof. One of the big things the economy. It's seen more dips than a pool. Paying bills, sticking to a budget and managing debt on the top of the list. But check this out! It's not about the money, a University of Kentucky psychologist, Thomas Miller, Ph.D. believes. "Much financial stress actually has to do with uncertainty-about your money situation, yes, but that really means your job. Not knowing the specifics about where you stand eats like acid." One thing you can do to help with this is ask your boss how you fit into the company's plans, or what you can do to make yourself more valuable. Ask if you should be concerned or not. The more answers you're given about your situation, the more clarity you'll have- and clarity equals control!!

INSANITY DAY 3

Cardio Power & Resistance A little sore today after the last workout but this next one doesn't care! With this workout you get more muscle toning exercises. There's a lot more push ups to work your chest, shoulder exercises and squats for your legs. The warm up still gets you sweating and the rest just finishes everthing off. Like I had said before, watch your knees on the jumps and keep your form in check. When I get a little tired, I try to push a little harder and lose my form a bit. Don't want to do that!! Remember that 5 of an exercise with good form is better than 10 with bad form. It will also prevent you from getting hurt. The cardio is still insane! By the end of the workout, I could really feel it in my legs and chest. And lets not forget the abs, which is the problem area for so many people. With these workouts you work them without doing one sit up! I don't know about you but I know a lot if people who hate sit ups! All said and done, another good workout. Moving on to the next!

INSANITY DAY 2

Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Done! Still sweating as I sit here pecking on my computer trying to cool off. For those of you that don't know what Insanity is all about, click the link below to see a short video...

INSANITY WORKOUT
One thing I will say is that this workout isn't for beginners. Its literally one of the toughest workouts I've ever done!! Legs are jelly right now! And I'm STILL SWEATING! Other than that, I'm feeling pretty good. Gotta make sure to keep my nutrition in check because this workout is going to require a lot of energy. For anyone planning on doing this workout, expect to feel pretty out of breath. And as soon as you catch it a little, the break is over! That 30 seconds seems like 15 seconds. The crazy thing is I'm waiting to do the next one tomorrow. Interesting...  Until tomorrow, live well!

CAUTION: If you have knee problems, you should be very careful with this workout or just don't do it at all.

GOTTA DIG DEEPER!!

Just like you, trainers, coaches and anyone else involved in health and fitness are no exception to the rules. Myself included! Exercise and proper diet help to improve and maintain good physical as well as mental health. Like you, I have my own personal fitness goals too! I'm inviting you to follow me on my continuing fitness journey. My program of choice for the next 2 months is a Beachbody workout called "INSANITY". Its a pretty challenging workout! I'll be posting my true thoughts about it as well as my progress here on my blog in hopes to motivate you to start or continue your fitness journey. Join me!

Lets get started! As of yesterday 5/1/12, here are my fit test results. It was a little tougher than I thought!! LOL

Goals for workout: Lean up, burn some unwanted fat! Weight: Athletic 234 lbs (Not so much looking for weight loss but if it comes, so be it!)

1. Switch kicks 90
2. Power jacks 45
3. Power knees 105
4. Power jumps 30 (watch the knees!)
5. Globe jumps 8
6. Suicide jumps 8 (those are tuff!)
7. Push up jacks 21
8. Low plank obliques 30

* All exercises for fit test are over 1 minute!

Next up: Plyometric Cardio Circuit.

FAT ADDS FAT

  Fat doesn't just show up one day, hang out and keep to itself. Fat loves to be kept company by more fat. The more fat you allow to come in, the harder it will be to stop more fat from coming to hang out.

According to Men's Health, here's why.
Your BMR- basal (resting) metabolic rate- accounts for the majority of the calories you burn every day. It's determined by a number of factors: your age, sex, height and your bodies ratio of fat to muscle.
Fat slows down your calorie burn. Fat is lazy on a metabolic level: It burns barely any calories at all. For your body to support a pound of fat, it needs to burn about 2 calories a day. But 1 pound of skeletal muscle burns 3 times as many calories a day just to sustain itself. Of course the more calories you burn, the more fat you lose. And that's why Fat hates Muscle- because Muscle is constantly burning it off.

To fight back fats tries to break down muscle. The main fat involved is called visceral fat. This type of fat hangs out behind your abdominal muscles and surrounds your internal organs. This fat releases compounds that raise your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and high blood sugar. This fat also messes with a hormone called adiponectin that helps regulate your metabolism. The more fat you have, the less of this hormone you have which makes your metabolism slower. A study from the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that active molecules that are released from visceral fat can degrade muscle quality- which leads to more fat. This gives that nasty fat a whole lot of hang out partners: MORE FAT!

A GOOD SNACK? MAYBE NOT!

   You grab a snack bar rushing off to work or while at work. Think you're gonna have a healthy snack while on the move? Maybe your snack bar isn't as healthy as you think!
There a hundreds of snack bars on the market today. Many of which make claims of being healthy. A healthy snack? Maybe not! Research by Choice magazine showed that only a handful of those bars actually have the nutritional value they claim.






 










Many of those bars were loaded with sugar, saturated fats and salt. There was one yogurt bar that had more of those things in it than a mars bar! Did you know that most of the fruit in health bars doesn't come from real fruit but from the lab instead. If that's so, what nutritional value does it have? Answer, NONE! Don't be fooled when the wrapper of your snack has those pretty pictures of fruit when it has no real fruit at all! In fact, it has more the total opposite of what real fruit has.

How can you make sure your snack bar is really healthy? Read your labels. It's all there!!