A Personal Thought

I have been thinking recently about many things but more about me and Beachbody.  As you are probably aware I recently decided to be a Team Beachbody Coach.  The reason I wanted to do this was to share my enthusiasm in getting people fit.  I have personally tried the following Beachbody products Shakeology, P90X, and Les Mills Pump.

I have tried many meal replacement drinks like Shakeology but nothing compares to its taste and effectiveness on your body.  Because of my love for chocolate shakes the chocolate flavor has to be MY favorite.  I am looking forward to trying the tropical flavor also.  To really see what Shakeology can offer you in nutrition check out my earlier post called Shakeology - A Healthier You.

I did really like the P90X workout but because of living on a 3rd floor apartment it made it hard for me to get the full effectiveness of the workout.  I could not do all the jumping type of exercises that are part of the program.  It really is a great cross training workout in my opinion because it does hit all areas of your body from different angles.  I hope to try the workout again sometime in the future.

I am currently doing the Les Mills Pump program and I truly love it.  The principle of this workout is something called the Rep Effect, which in simple terms is lots of reps at lower weights.  You will upwards of 800 reps in the course of a workout.  What is great about this workout is that both men and women can do this workout together.  There is not a body part that is spared with the Les Mills Pump workout.  After the workout is done I know I have a complete workout because my whole body is exhausted.

Like I said earlier I became a coach so that I could help people get fitter and healthier.  I know if I can help at least 1 person attain this goal I have achieved my goal.  There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a smile on a person knowing that they have accomplished their health goals.  I don't think I could have a better organization than Team Beachbody in accomplishing this.  The support from fellow coaches is phenomenal.  I don't really think I would have tried this without the support of my fantastic coach, Christina Billmeier-Irwin.

If I can help you meet your health and fitness goals then please contact on Facebook, Google+, or visit my Beachbody site.  As they say on the Les Mills Pump Kia Kaha, which means Be Strong.

A Work In Progress – Part 2 by Jennifer Martin

My good friend from Facebook Jennifer Martin concludes her 2 part installment on A Work In Progress with this article.  In this installment she will detail her top 5 exercises that helped her lose an incredible amount of weight.  She looks absolutely amazing in my opinion.  You can reach her at Facebook at the following link.

The Skinny on Being Fit and Fabulous

A Work In Progress – Part 2

People ask me for tips on how they can lose weight and what my secret is. I have said it before. There is not a magic pill to get you where you want to be. But I do know this.

Diet alone will not do it. Exercise alone will not do it. It must be a combination of both. 

 

When I started on my weight loss journey, I didn’t exercise for the first three months. I lost weight but I then reached a point where it stalled. I realized then that I needed to add movement and exercise into my plan if I was going to get to where I wanted to be.

When I began training for my first half-marathon, I threw my food plan out the window. I mean, I was a runner now…I didn’t need to diet. After I gained 5 pounds over my original goal weight, I realized that this was a false statement.

I have a friend who is about ten pounds from his weight goal. He is a workout machine. He works out about 2 – 2 and a half hours each day/five days a week. His eating isn’t bad…but it’s not the greatest either. I have mentioned to him before that if he really want to get rid of those last ten pounds, that he must be vigilant about his eating habits. It gets harder and harder as you get closer to the end. The last remaining pounds want to hold on for dear life and it’s up to you to make a decision of how bad you want it. 

 

Here are my own personal top 5 fitness exercises counting down to number 1:

5. Wall sits. Want your thighs to burn? Try a wall sit. It’s quite simple, just stand with your back against the wall and sink down like you are sitting in a chair, except the only thing that is holding you up is your thighs and legs. So you are sitting with no seat under you. Talk about a burn. Start small and try to work your way up to three minutes. When it starts to burn, I take this opportunity to get on the smartphone so I don’t think about it.

4. Shoulder presses. Summer is coming up and so is halter top and tank top season. Get yourself some free weights and press those hands to the sky! In each hand, have a free weight. Your hands should be level with your shoulders, knuckles forward. Simply press the weights into the sky and then back down. You can also do this with the weights turned in instead of forward.

3. Squats. Did I hear a groan? Want a firm butt and backside? Squats will give you this. Regular squats, side squats, frog squats, jump squats, pistol squats. I would not recommend the latter until you have had plenty of practice. For a regular squat, simply bend your knees and sit back, trying to make a 90 degree angle with your butt to the floor. For an extra burn, try holding and squeezing.

2. Crunches. Abs, baby. Abs. It doesn’t matter where or how you do these…regular sit-ups, crunches on the stability ball, ab crunches with your feet in the air, bicycle crunches, reverse abs, oblique crunches. A strong core cannot be underestimated. It helps your posture which helps your back muscles.

1. Push-ups. Yea, I said it. I love push-ups! It targets so many areas: chest, back, arms and shoulders. Also, when you do the push-up, you are holding your core firm, another added benefit. Don’t be nervous if you can’t do the push-ups on your toes. Do them on your knees or use a wall and do a push-up while standing.

Les Mills Pump Extreme

The Les Mills Pump Extreme is the last and the longest of the workout DVDs.  The big difference with this workout is that the trainers work as a team.  As the trainers say in this one "double the pleasure for the double the pain".  So as with other posts of the Les Mills workouts I will be going through the workout and the very end I will be including a short video on the different moves of the workout.

As with every workout it starts with the warmup.  The warmup is led by Emma and Sheldon.  Here is the breakdown of the warmup:
Deadlift
Slow Deadrow
Single Deadrow
Upright Row
Squats
Lunges
Overhead Presses
Deadrow with a underhand grip
Bicep

The next tract is the legs and again is led by Emma and Sheldon.  This leg workout is all squats. This workout will be broken out in the speed of the reps.
2/2
3/1
Singles
Bottom halves
2/2
3/1
Singles
Bottom halves
Down and Hold (wide stance)
Bottom halves
Singles
Bottom halves
2/2
3/1
Singles
Bottom halves
Down and Hold
Bottom halves
Singles
Bottom halves

The next tract is the chest workout.  This workout is led by the 2 Ben's.  Like the leg workout I will be showing the speed of the reps.
4/4
2/2
3/1
Singles
2/2
3/1
Singles
Down and Hold
Singles
Down and Hold
Singles
2/2
3/1
Singles
Down and Hold
Singles
Bottom halves

The back tract is also led by the Ben's.  The back workout is broken into 3 things dead lifts, clean & press and dead row combo, and wide grip dead rows.  The speed of these reps are as follows.
Dead lift - 2/2
Dead lift - 3/1
Clean & Press Deadrow combo - 4 times
Wide grip dead rows - 3 times
Clean & Press Deadrow combo - 4 times
Wide grip dead rows - 3 times
Clean & Press Deadrow combo - 4 times
Wide grip dead rows - 3 times
Clean & Press Deadrow combo - 4 times
Dead lift - 4/4

The next tract we get into the arms by starting with the triceps. This body tract is led by Rachael and Dan.  Like the back this tract is done with 3 different exercises and they are overhead extensions, tricep kickbacks, and tricep pushups.  The speed of these exercises are.
Overhead extensions
4/4
2/2
3/1
1/3
Singles
2/2
3/1
1/3
Singles
Tricep kickbacks
2/2
Singles
2/2
1/3
Tricep pushups
Tricep kickbacks
2/2
Singles
2/2
1/3
Tricep pushups

The arms continue with biceps and also with Rachael and Dan leading the way.  The speed of these reps are as follows.
Curls
2/2
Bottom halves
1/3
2/2
Bottom halves
1/3
Bicep rows - 2/2
Bottom halves
Singles
1/3
Bicep rows - 2/2
Bottom halves
Singles
1/3

We now focus back on to the legs again.  This time the legs are hit by both squats and lunges.  Here is the breakdown of the speed of the reps between both the squats and lunges.
Squats
2/2
Down and Hold
2/2
Lunges
Singles
Bottom halves
4/4
After switching legs
Singles
Bottom halves
Squats
Down and Hold
Bottom halves
Singles
Lunges
Singles

Bottom halves
Singles
Squats
Down and Hold
Bottom halves
Singles
Lunges
Singles
Bottom halves
Singles

The shoulder tract is the next one that is done.  There are 6 different exercises with this tract.  They are rear deltoid raise, side raise, mac raise, upright row, overhead press, and pushups.  Here are the speeds of those exercises.
Rear deltoid raise
4/4
2/2
1/3
Top halves
1/3
Side raise
4/4
2/2
1/3
Mac raise
2/2
3/1
Singles
1/3
Upright row
3/1
2/2
1/3
Overhead press
2/2
1/3
Singles
Pushups

Then next Dan and Rachael led the abdominal tract.   This workout included heel drops, crunches, and oblique twists.

The final thing as with all Les Mills Pump workouts is the cool down.  Also, Rachael and Dan walked us through this.  After all those repetitions this feels so good.

Here is a short video showing you the Les Mills Pump Extreme workout.

I hope you have found these posts on the Les Mills Pump workouts helpful and informative.  Look in the future for more posts on Beachbody programs and products.

Shakeology - For A Healthier You

If you are a Facebook or Twitter user I would imagine you have probably seen the word Shakeology used quite a bit.  I would also imagine you are probably wondered what the heck Shakeology is all about.  I hope in this blog post I can shed a little light on what exactly Shakeology is and how it can benefit you.

Shakeology is a meal replacement drink like no other.  It is produced by The Beachbody Company.  It comes in 3 different flavors: Chocolate, Greenberry, and their vegan flavor called Tropical.  It contains 23 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, prebiotics, and digestive enzymes.  All of this to aid you in digestion, keep you regular, and boost your immune system.  The proteins and amino acids will help build and repair muscles, reduce hunger and food cravings, and keep your blood sugar steady.

Here are the nutritional facts about Shakeology:

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As you can see meets all the requirements you need and then some for a highly nutritious meal.  Personally I use Shakeology for my breakfast replacement meal and for me it gets the day started on the right foot.

Checkout this video on what doctors are saying about Shakeology.

To get more details about Shakeology or to order yours contact your Beachbody Coach or go to the my Beachbody Coach site.  I hope this post helps answer some questions you may have had about Shakeology.

Call Me Coach

Yes believe it or not I am now a Beach Body Coach.  First of all I want to thank my Beach Body Coach Christina Billmeier Irwin for all of her support and guidance during this process.  She was invaluable to me in providing me tons of information about getting into coaching.  What was best about Christina she did not pressure me at all, she just told me do what was best for me.  Again thank you Christina.

It is my goal in coaching to help you meet your health and fitness goals.  I want to be able to provide you the tools to help you meet them.  Whether it is Shakeology for your health or any of the great fitness products to help you get fit.  You can choose Les Mills Pump, P90X, P90X2, Insanity, 10 Minute Trainer, or I can go on and on.  I bet we can find the right one to meet your needs.

So let's make this journey together as we get healthier and fitter.  I know I am looking forward to it.  My Beach Body Coach is still a work in progress.  Here is the link to check it out so far.

Les Mills Pump Revolution

In week 7 of the Les Mills Pump workout program debuts a new workout DVD.  This one is called The Revolution and you really start to step it up with this workout.  The workout is longer and more body parts are incorporated into it.  The workout is 55 minutes in length as compared to The Shred of 45 minutes.  At the end of this post I have also included a brief video on The Revolution.

The start as with any workout the Les Mills Pump workouts is the warmup.  The warmup consists of deadlifts, bent over rows, and squats.  It is nice that it gets your heart rate elevated and prepares you what is to come in the workout.

The first body parts that gets attacked, are the legs and butt.  This set was squats and nothing but squats.  As always with Les Mills Pump it is the amount of reps that is stressed and not necessarily the amount of weight used.  This is their rep-effect philosophy.  The reps are done at 4/4, 3/1, 2/2, singles, and the killer bottom halves.  Very easily over 100 reps are done with this workout.  I used 10 pound plates on the bar for this exercise.

Next up is the chest.  Like the legs it has lots of reps using 4/4, 3/1, 2/2, singles, bottom halves, and something new for the chest - down and hold.  I used 10 pound plates on all of the chest press reps.  By the time we were done doing this, my chest was on fire.  Definitely the amount of reps has a greater impact on the smaller muscle groups like the chest.

The back is next on the hit list.  Boy does it get hit hard with dead lifts, clean and press with a upright row combo, and more bent over rows of varying grips (close and wide).  There are no bottom halves reps with the back.  There are many clean press and bent over row combos to destroy your whole body.  You can feel those with the legs, back, and shoulders.

The new body part that is used in the Revolution workout is the arms.  First up is the triceps.  The first exercise is the lying tricep extension using 4/4, 3/1, and 2/2 reps.  Tricep chest presses are done as singles.  Overhead tricep extensions are done standing and in single reps.  Right after triceps we went right into biceps.  The exercises for the biceps start with full curls in 2/2, 3/1, and 1/3 reps.  Following full curls are half curls in singles.  To finish the biceps we go back to full curls in singles.

We continue next with shoulders.  The starting exercise is wide pushups to incorporate more shoulder aspect.  The pushups are done both slow and fast.  After pushups we do reverse raises.  These raises are done at 2/2, 1/3, and top halves.  From these raises we next move to lateral raises.  The lateral raises are done in 2/2, 3/1, singles, & up and hold.  Next is the Mac raise, something that is particular to Les Mills Pump.  They call this a 3 dimensional workout because it incorporates all areas of the shoulder; front, side, and back.  Following are upright rows which are done in 4/4, 2/2, 3/1, and singles.  The upright rows were done with the bar and plates.  To finish the shoulders are overhead presses.

After the shoulders are over it is back to the legs again.  This leg workout is a combination of squats and lunges.  Both the squats and lunges are done with 2/2, 3/1, singles, and bottom halves.  First is squats.  These squats are done in a wide stance.  After the first set of squats are the lunges, one side at a time.  The leg workout is finished off with another set of squats.

Just when you think you might be done, the answer to that is NO.....  Your reward is a abdominal workout for another 5 minutes.

After all those reps you finally get to cool down and stretch.  The Revolution was a tremendous workout and I can't wait to do it again.  So far I can say that the Les Mills Pump has been a wise investment for me so far.  I can notice some differences.  I highly recommend this workout program.

And as they say with Les Mills Pump "Kia Kaha" - Be Strong....

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

I was chatting with my friend, Chantal Shea, and she was telling me that March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.  In fact Chantal heard this through friends of hers who were attempting to raise money in the fight against this form of cancer.  Colorectal cancer affects 150,000 people per year and approximately 50,000 will die from this form of cancer.  In fact even my own grandfather passed away from colon cancer. Though for my grandfather there were not the medical advances back then as there are today for the early detection.

The awareness for this cancer is not great as breast or prostrate cancer.  Due to that the funding for colorectal cancer funding is not where it should be.

So please help my friend Chantal in her support of her friends, the Dubins.   Just click on the link AliveAndKickn and read the Dubins story in the Survivors section of the site.  I found myself crying and laughing at the same time.  Not only did Dave and his family take on this fight with such determination but also with some sense of humor which I found truly inspiring.  So whatever you can do to help in their fight against colorectal cancer I know will be greatly appreciated by them.  Also, if you are on Facebook then like their page or follow them on Twitter.

Just remember to get tested when you hit age 50.  I want to thank Chantal for making me aware of this very important subject.  Like the Dubins say "Let's make March Blue"