Quick update

What's up everyone? I know it's been a while since I've updated my blog. Not sure how many people read this but I thought I'd do an update for the people who do visit my blog every now and then. It's been a busy couple of weeks and I have been a little bit off my diet. It just shows how you can get caught up with life and everyone gets a little off track with their own fitness goals. For some of us, we deal with stress by eating foods that aren't necessarily good for us. The last time I let junk food get the better of me and I wasn't getting enough exercise to burn it off. I've been working out about 2 times per week which isn't nearly enough for the junk food that I've eaten lately. I just need to refocus my efforts and get back on track. I can't wait for it to get warmer more consistently so I can get back in the pool and I'm thinking about combining swimming with the Insanity workouts. I hope everyone is doing okay and once I get back on track I'll get back to having tips of the day as well as showing some interesting exercise demonstrations while explaining how to do them. Until next time, Get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel via iPhone

MOTIVATION!!!

What's up everyone? Its been two weeks since I last updated this blog. I had a lot of assignments, quizzes and exams to study for last week. Didn't have as much free time to update the blog like I used to. But I got it done. Its nice to stop and breathe for a little bit but have new course work to get started on so I can't relax for too long. Two things that I have to update, one is I took the Insanity - Fitness Test again. Have to stick with the program of a two week retest. The retest felt good. I started off really strong. Was

able to go full throttle for the first three exercises. Power jumps are just killer because they require you to use your entire body. And also because it is considered a power move, you are trying to be as explosive and quick as possible. It really causes your heartrate to rise very rapidly. I was only able to go full force for the first 30 seconds of the movement. I had to catch my breath for the second 30 seconds that I was supposed to be doing the power jumps. Considering that last time it took my the full 60 seconds to get 30 jumps and it took me 30 seconds to get 30 jumps I would still consider that number an improvement even though it doesn't show as a direct stat.

The second thing that I have to update is my weigh in. Weighed in at 197.6. Finally consistently weighing in under 200 lbs. That makes for a grand total of 14.2 total lbs in two whole months. Progress has slowed down slightly due to having a slightly busier schedule for the month of February. I checked back from the beginning of last month's weigh in and it was 203.8. So that was still a 6.4 lb weight loss for the month. More studying in accounting had to be done to take care of business. March will be busy as well but I should still be able to keep up the high intensity workouts. Its starting to warm up a little bit more so hopefully I'll be able to start going for a morning swim again and then also get in an Insanity workout in as well. When we get to April it going to be on like crazy. No school to worry about during April and then back to another class in May. So that means plenty of workout time and I can run slightly lower calorie intake to increase the weight loss and not suffer in the studies. You should have seen me some days during the month of January. Low calories and low carbs made me feel really slow sometimes mentally. Carbs are the primary brain fuel so got to eat enough to keep the brain working at an optimum level for studying. Good times.

TIP OF THE DAY/EXERCISE OF THE DAY:


How many people have been working on glute isolation exercises? The exercise that I'm going to be talking about today is a new and improved version of the one that most people know already.

First off, I'm going to talk about the standard glute isolation exercise that most people do already. As you can see in the picture that Shaun T is demonstrating, the standard glute isolation starts on all fours and then extends one leg out so you are now on three points of balance. Two options can then be done from this position. One, you can pulse the leg with it extended to activate the glute muscle. Or option two, you can contract and extend one leg back and forth from this position to one almost back to on all fours. I personally was never very fond of these exercise. It provided little resistance and an extremely high number of repetitions had to be done in order to get any type of substantial burn going. I find Shaun T's adaption much more challenging as it challenge more body parts besides the glute muscles.

So for Shaun T's version, start on all fours.

Next, raise your knees off the floor while keeping your toes and hands still on the ground. The nice thing about changing the stance to this way is that it causes you to use your shoulders and core a lot more to stabilize your upper body. With your knees off the ground, it activates the quads on both legs and you also use your butt to stabilize your body in this controlled position. By forcing yourself to stabilize more, you activate even more core muscles, as well as your hips.

Now, extend your leg out like in the standard glute isolation exercise. You really start to feel the burn in the front of your quad that is still on the ground. Your shoulders activate even more to keep yourself balance and in proper form. Again, you have both options to either pulse or contract and extend your leg back and forth. With this version of this standard exercise, you get more muscle group activation and makes for a much more challenging workout.


When I did this exercise, my leg that was bend supporting my body weight was on fire. I highly recommend doing this modification of this exercise as it works the body out a lot harder ultimately burning more calories which is what we all want in the long run anyway.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. Time to sign off. Get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel

Insanity - Fit Test Update

What's up everybody? Back to the workout grind. I was going to do the last workout in the series which is called Insanity - Upper Body Weight Training but it requires you to have access to set up weights. Right now I don't have an active gym membership due to my low income right now. I watched part of it and it has some good stuff but I couldn't do the workout so I decided to just start from the beginning of the series again. Going to be updating you on my improvements for the Insanity - Fit Test. The protocol for the fit test says to do it every two weeks. I went over by a couple of days but I was still able to show big improvements despite the weekend off from working out. Each of these movements are very demanding. With all the jumps lined up in a row, the jumps towards the end the form was starting to suffer a little bit but I was able to do a lot better than the first time that I took the test. I'm glad to see improvements across the board. Globe jumps actually include 4 jumps per cycle to count for one. So that's why it doesn't look like the improvement is the lowest.

TIP OF THE DAY:

Today, I want to discuss the importance of stretching. Stretching not only helps lengthen the muscles but also helps prevent injury.

When doing very ballistic workouts, like the Insanity series, stretching becomes more important than ever. Stretching at the beginning of the workout after a warm out helps loosen the muscles and prepare them for work. Stretching is also very important post workout to allow the built up lactic acid in the muscles from the the workout. For those of you who don't know, lactic acid is what causes the burning feeling in your muscles during your workout. Also, stretching is necessary with ballistic workouts like these because as your muscles start to grow, their range of motion starts to slowly decrease. If muscles are built up and the muscles are not stretched, then it is more likely for those muscles to become injured.

Well, that's all for tonight. Get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel

Insanity - Max Interval Sports Training

Hey everyone, just a short update today. Got back to my usual schedule of working out after taking a few days off. Did the next workout in the Insanity series. Max Interval Sports Training, I guess I went in with high expectations. It was a good workout but some of the exercises that were supposed to be sport specific weren't as good as I thought they would be. I've gone through sport specific training with my degree. The exercises were adapted to keep a high heart rate up like the entire series. Had then been specific exercises like you might actually use in a practice for a specific sport, I think it would have been better. Just my opinion, still love the workout series thought.

Well that's all for tonight. Get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel via iPhone

Insanity - Insane Abs

What's up everyone? Didn't get a chance to blog last night. I was on the road and busy with lots of errands and what not. Going to be taking this weekend off from the workouts. But I did do the Insanity - Insane abs workout yesterday. I was well worth it. I have two workouts left in the series and I like it more than some of the other workout series that I've seen. The great thing about this series is that you don't have to own any equipment. All your need is space and workout clothes and you can do these workouts. All the exercises use our own body weight to challenge yourself. The last two workouts left are Insanity - Max Interval Sports Training and Insanity - Upper Body Weight Training. I bet those two are going to be very intense this coming Monday and Tuesday.

TIP OF THE DAY/EXERCISE OF THE DAY:

Oblique rotations, another great exercise that uses the plank position with core and shoulder stabilization.

First, start in high plank or push up position. Make sure your shoulders are shoulder width apart. Also try to keep your butt down keeping it inline with your legs and your back. Your feet are going to be about waist width apart.

While maintaining complete body control, stabilize your shoulders and bring your left knee to your right elbow. Keep your core drawn in and contract the obliques while brining your knee to your elbow.

Keeping the shoulders stable and while keeping the core drawn in, control your leg back to the original high plank position.

Next, bring your left knee to your left elbow. This exercise helps to activate the lower abs as well as the obliques. Make sure to keep your core drawn-in at all times while doing these movement.s

And lastly bring your left leg back to the starting high plank position. Do all your repetitions on one side before switching to do the other side.

After doing this exercise my abs and shoulders were burning a good one. The Insanity series is really good at incorporating a lot of oblique and lower abs exercises. Almost everyone knows an abs exercise that focuses on the upper abs which are actually the easiest ones to target. But its the pesky love handles/muffin top or the beer belly that people are always trying to lose. Even after I finish the series, I'll find more exercises from this series to share with everyone.

Well that's all for tonight. Get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel via iPhone