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.