High Tech Treadmills in the HUB Gym

I know most of us have been in the HUB gym at one point or another in our time here. As of last year they revamped all the treadmills where you can now do all sorts of things. You can plug in your Ipod and listen through the treadmill or even watch TV. This is my favorite aspect of the new treadmills because it really takes your mind off the monotony of running in side on one. Generally, all you do is stare at the wall of mindless posters and are bored within a few minutes. When your mind takes over self doubt begins to creep in and you begin to focus on how tired you are. It's all downhill from there and it's tough to really have a "mind over matter"state of mind. When you have a TV in front of you it really takes your mind off what you are doing. The other day a soccer game was on between Man City and Manchester United I started watching at halftime and I didn't look down at the time for 25 minutes and realized I had run nearly 4 miles. You really do get distracted and it can be beneficial to be having a relatively fun time watching TV all the while getting a good exercise routine in. I really suggest if you want to get a good run and have an easier time trying to accomplish a difficult running task, go to the HUB, turn on the TV and get started running! (Never thought i'd say that in a million years!)

The Runners High

No tips this week, just sharing my thoughts and my recent exercise habits. Lately, I've been getting off my running routine because I usually do Insanity or play soccer for my cardio. Don't get me wrong 10 times out of 10 I will play soccer to get my cardio, because it is extremely good for you, and I really have a strong passion for the game. It's been  a part of my life since I was 6 years old and it will continue to be for a very long time to come. However, back to my point. I decided I would just go for a longer run and bring down the pace instead of pushing extremely hard doing intervals or 2.5 miles in 15 minutes. I found that i really do enjoy to run. I set out at 8.3 mph and continued to run for 40 minutes without even really realizing. In the HUB they have TV's built-in so the Colbert Report was on which is one of my favorite shows and Jeopardy afterwards so it kept me distracted. I had run 5 miles in that time and really for the first time got into what they call the "runners high" where this feeling of warmth and almost autopilot came over me. Since really feeling that on my first run I've been running 5 days a week racking up 25 miles this week alone.

My advice is to try it! Running usually can get really boring especially on a treadmill, but watching TV or listening to some of your favorite songs can really be peaceful and put you into the runners high that really is addictive. Oh yea, did I mention your losing weight and getting in shape at the same time??

Ab Exercise's

There are many ab exercises that you can do but there are a few things that many people fail to do, which is not use proper technique, and doing ab exercises when still overweight. Below is a simple non traditional exercise which engages not just your abs but your entire core and stabilizer muscles. You'll be begging to stop after just one minute. Don't let your body sag, bad form will only lead to injury and not results

In addition to people not engaging their core I sometimes see people who are overweight doing ab exercises. You should not be doing this! A common misconception people have when trying to lose weight is that weights are a terrible idea. They are wrong when losing weights lifting can be very beneficial, it burns calories and tones your muscles. However, when working ab's it may burn calories BUT it helps build and grow your ab's which in this case is not good. When you have a belly it is obviously stored fat and even though you don't think you have abs, believe me they are. So once you begin working these like any other muscles they get bigger and in turn push your belly further out which may you look like your getting bigger 

Jack3d

I'm a thin guy and usually am not one for supplements. I usually just take whey protein isolate which just helps recover my muscles and give me around 20g's of protein to "feed" the muscles I just used in my workout. Now we've all been there, feeling lethargic or tired and overall just not wanting to workout at all. Sometimes i'll drink a cup of coffee and wait a little and i'm ready to go. However least year when I was in GNC buying a new tub of Whey a Salesman suggested I try this supplement called Jack3d. I normally never agree to a salesman's extra pitch for some great product, but he was my age, told me he got no commission of extra sale for selling it and people had been buying it like crazy and he had tried it and said he had never had so much energy in his life. He didn't press me to buy, but said it was amazing and it really makes you workout longer and harder, so I figured what the hell why not it was Gold Week (which includes around 7 dollar discounts) so it was only  20 bucks.

I got back from the store and read the directions which said to take this 30 minutes before my workout, which I did as follows. Within 30 minutes my whole body was tingling, as they said it would, and i could barley sit still. However, it wasn't a jittery uncomfortable feeling, just a focused energized feeling like I HAD to do some physical activity. I went to the gym and worked out for 2 hours with ease increasing my reps and weights in every single exercise. The amazing thing was that it was a natural crash from the supplement, I wasn't exhausted with a headache at all just slowly began to feel normal again.

Bottom Line, if you want to have tons and tons of energy for the gym and no crash later take this. Be warned do not take this as if it was a cup of coffee, you should be ready to workout or run for a while as this lasts around 1:30 before the effects begin to decline.

Hybrid Workouts

Hey Everyone,

As promised I will be discussing the hybrid workouts I use now after graduating from P90X. A little background, P90X was and still is extremely difficult. The lifting sessions consist of 24 exercises pushing you to your limits, and leaving you wasted afterwards. However, after finishing the program I had become in very good cardiovascular shape and the cardio sessions like Plyometrics weren't doing it for me anymore, I wanted the next challenge. I discovered Insanity with legendary trainer Shaun T. Insanity is the hardest cardio workout I've ever done! and if your serious about working out, I dare you to try this. I thought I was in great shape after P90X and figured how hard could it be? I've tackled P90X no problem. I along with the people IN THE VIDEO who you are supposed to look up to are stopping and taking breaks it is so hard. It is all body weight exercises but don't let that fool you, each exercise goes for 45 seconds to a minute but imagine doing push-ups for a minute straight then into high knees for a minute then mountain climbers for a minute and at least 4 more exercises with no break. When the water breaks come (few and far between) you cherish them but only have 30 seconds to rest and then right back into another circuit of 7 exercises before your next break. The workouts generally run about 40-45 minutes in length warm-up included but man are they tough. When doing the warm-up it feels like you jump right into the workout because I am dripping sweat by the time it ends and its time to stretch.

Overall, I have gotten much stronger and come a long way since i first started doing Insanity but by no means have I gotten used to it and I've been doing it for over a year now, They still challenge me and have my arms and legs screaming for mercy the entire time. These cardio routines combined with the P90X lifting sessions leave me with a perfect balance of strength and cardio for the week and have kept me in the best shape of my life.

P90X

I'm not sure if you guys have heard of this workout program but I follow it very closely and have had extreme success. You've probably seen the infomericals telling you how you can transform your body in just 90 days if you buy this program, and myself like many others brushed this off as another scam and changed the channel, because there was no way I was going to pay 100 dollars for some workout program that I would do in my house..How could that possibly be better than the gym??

Well after sophomore years winterim, I was quite unhappy with my self image, I had put on the winter weight and my routine at the gym wasn't very challenging with the same 2-3 workouts over and over again. Honestly, I thought I knew what I was doing, but looking back, I was as ignorant as they come. I am a cookie cutter of what the customers on the TV said, I saw the infomercial late at night and saw peoples results so I began to look into it, reading forums and seeing countless YouTube videos of peoples transformations. What I saw was enough to lead me to believe that maybe there was something to this program. So I made the decision to buy P90X and it really was life changing. It said in the disclaimers that if you are not in great shape this may not be for you, but I didn't think twice and started the first workout called Chest and Back with 24 exercises mostly just push-ups and pull-ups plus Ab Ripper X at the end. WOW. I had been kicked in the face with this workout. My whole body was sore for days afterwards, with every upper body movement my chest screamed, I could barely put my back pack on. I realized this was for real. Despite this I started again the next week and stuck with it working out 6 day's a week. There are a mix of lifting workouts and cardio sessions including a workout called Plyometrics, or jump training, that leaves your legs feeling like Jello.

What I hadn't realized in transforming your body was how important nutrition is. The P90X Nutrition Plan really is the secret behind shedding unwanted weight. Nutrition is a science and the guys at Beachbody have exacted it with calculations to see what Level you fall into, because obviously portions for someone who is 250 lbs will be different then a 120lb women. They give you recipes and guidelines of when/what to eat and how often it really is helpful to have structure when jumping into such a huge change in your life.

What I also hadn't known was that your body plateau's after working out for a while because your muscles begin to get used to the routine and same movements which stunts your results, but what P90X does is change your routine each month to ensure your muscles never get into a habit and to keep them guessing aka growing. At the end of the 90 days I went from being out of shape and flabby to lean, tone and cut. I had actually stayed about the same wight gaining about 2 lbs but I had lost tons of fat off my side and in my face and put on 5 lbs of muscle.

This program really did give my lifestyle a 180 in terms of lifting and eating healthy and I highly, highly, highly recommend it if your really serious about changing the way you look, feel, and eat. Since then i have moved onto the new challenges like High Intensity Interval Training because the cardio sessions don't push me hard enough but to this day, I mix P90X workouts into my daily routine switching every few weeks to keep the body guessing. Stay tuned next week when I talk about my Hybrid Workouts that I use now, that combine the toughest elements of hardcore exercise programs..Stay Healthy!

Introduction to Post

Here is a short intro as to what I wrote about below, which includes my time in Panama City last week.

KC's Photostream

kcblast7's photostream on Flickr.

Hey everyone these are just some pictures from my time down in Floirda while away

Spring Break

Hey y'all! Might have picked up a southern accent while I was away. I just got back from Spring Break in Panama City Beach, Florida. I am tan (well red) and quite exhausted considering we drove a full 25 hours to get there.

On the way there I broke out of my normal routine of eating healthy because in all honesty its difficult to eat healthy with 4 others trying to get down to Panama City as fast as possible. This leads to fast food rest stops for 5 minutes and then back on the road. A way to avoid eating badly on these trips is to pack yourself little snacks that are non perishable so that you don't have to eat at Burger King or McDonald's every time you stop. I did this but underestimated and ran out of granola bars and raisins. So I had to eat but just because you go to McDonald's doesn't mean you have to eat terribly. Despite what people think there actually are some healthy options. They have salads which are not bad for you, but a big mistake people tend to do is load it with salad dressing. DON'T! moderation is key. What many don't know is that salad dressing is loaded with fat and if you put one portable dressing packet of Caesar dressing on your salad you're adding 200 calories with 25% of your fat content for the day. Its the little things like eating a large salad with a fat free dressing or half a packet to have a healthy 200 calories or ONE single cheeseburger from the dollar menu (very small patty) with 400 empty calories and 20% of your fat content.

Another quick tip to negate the hangover from the night before, a simple quick workout or run can do wonders. A hangover was inevitable down there so I scoped out where our hotel was, and around 11 o clock each morning I would get up while the roommates were still meandering around/getting ready for the beach I would go for a 15-20 minute run.It doesn't have to be super intense but a nice steady pace will do wonders for how you feel later on in the day. Stay tuned for next week!! Please Follow!!

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

H.I.I.T

Have you heard of it?

No I'm not talking about striking someone with a punch and no I didn't hit the "I" button twice by mistake. I always find it amusing that people don't know why they're not losing weight despite being on the treadmill for an hour. In my experience its usually girls that I see on the treadmill for 45 minutes.You all have seen the girl reading a magazine walking with a towel over the screen to hide the stats, god forbid they see their progress. People.. walking on a treadmill will no doubt burn calories, no argument there, but I like many others do not have the time nor am I willing to walk on a treadmill for a an hour or two. You must know that there are more efficient ways to not only burn calories, but also increase your cardiovascular strength and endurance.

Its okay to get sweaty in the gym! that's why its there. You need to raise your heart rate to 60-85% of its max in order to be the in the "target heart zone" which is where you begin to burn the most calories and put your body to work. Sorry for my rant, but lets get down to the point of this post. High Intensity Interval Training also known as HIIT. I stumbled upon this form of training about a year ago, and have never looked back. I have always been into running and being lean & fit. That being said I was a bit ignorant as far as my workout routine was concerned. I thought that running 2 miles in 11 minutes and some change was sufficient exercise as far as getting my heart rate up.

What HIIT is about mixing high intensity bursts of exercise with moderate intensity recovery periods. It's the quickest way to get fit, lose fat and supercharge for sports performance. It all about increasing your anaerobic threshold. An example would be running 20 minutes on the treadmill at 8 mph. This would most likely get your heart rate up at a good pace and you can expect to burn around 300 calories. While this is beneficial to long term endurance, it is not the best way to increase your cardiovascular strength. Take this same exercise for 20 minutes but instead of running at a consistent pace, you will run the first minute at around 6.4 miles per hour and the second minute at 10.4-11 mph and alternate each minute. Your rest is the jog so you never are fully at rest but you are giving your body a small window of time to recover. This helps tricking your body into spiking your metabolism so you burn more fat. The benefits are remarkable, this same 20 minute workout done using the HIIT method will burn 600-650 calories all the while burning way more fat and greatly increasing your anaerobic capacity.

Stay tuned for next week when I talk about how to avoid plateaus in your workout routines! Please continue to follow!!

Introduction

Hi everyone! this blog will be updated weekly with tips for leading a healthier lifestyle. I love exercising and being in shape so this should be a fun blog for me to keep updated. Looking forward to share my knowledge with you, and hopefully everyone who follows will improve their exercise and diet habits!