I consider myself to be in really great shape and even though I really don’t perform much cardio or endurance type training I figured it would pose no real problems. Once again I was MISTAKEN! I did my first crossfit workout today at my gym in place of my normal workout routine. It was rough!

I discovered the my cardio was lacking bad, I was cramping up and muscles I never really felt working before were fatigued and sore in no time. This type of training will be an added tool for me to utilize to achieve an even healthy physique, but I will not eliminate straight weight training either(don’t get me wrong I’m not saying in crossfit you don’t go heavy, bc you do) because I enjoy my specific style of training as well.

So on to today’s workout was a brutal introduction:

Five rounds for reps of:
1 min Wall ball shots, 25 pound medicine ball(basically you preform a deep squat with the medicine ball and as you come up you toss the ball into the air and aim to hit the wall about 10ft high. Then as the ball comes back down you catch it as you go into the decent of the next squat and repeat the process in one continuous motion.)

The starting position for wall ball shots

The top position for wall ball shots

1 min alternating arm towel pull ups

Regular arm position for towel pull-ups shown(not alt arm)

Run 400m

Rest

Start each round exactly six minutes apart. Your rest period is whatever remains after the run.You total up the number of wall ball shots for each round and also the number of towel pullups preformed. This is your score and you next time you preform this workout you attempt to beat your numbers(measurement of progress). Bellow are my numbers

Round 1

27 Wall Ball Shots

11 Towel Pullups

1min 25sec left after run

Round 2

27 Wall Ball Shots

9 Towel Pullups

1min 32sec left after run

Round 3

22 Wall Ball Shots

9 Towel Pullups

1min 30sec left after run

Round 4

22 Wall Ball Shots

10 Towel Pullups

1min 18sec left after run

Round 5

27 Wall Ball Shots

11 Towel Pullups

1min 30sec left after run

Totals

125 Wall Ball Shots

50 Towel Pull-ups

This was a fun, but most importantly challenging workout. The thing I enjoyed about this style of training is its really up to you to push your self hard  and in fitness if you lack self motivation your going to be in really big trouble.

]]> http://time2transform.com/breakasweat/things-will-never-be-the-same/feed 1 http://time2transform.com/tips-4-a-healthy-life/track-your-progress http://time2transform.com/tips-4-a-healthy-life/track-your-progress#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:09:43 +0000 Musclez99 http://time2transform.com/?p=466 An highly crucial piece of your fitness routine is being able to measure your progression.

Body fat testing is not miserable, nor is it expensive. You can have it completed at about any gym or fitness center. Simply ask if they have an practiced professional who can assess body composition.

It’s also a great idea to snap ‘before and after pics’ and post them someplace you will discover them every day.

However most importantly, assess  5 – 10 various aspects of your advancement.
My most flourishing clients measure everything in their life that’s affected by their weight loss, usually on a simple scale from 1 – 10, such as:

- their daily vigour level
- the way they feel when they glance in the mirror
- their mental attitude
- the way they fit into their apparel
- their level of mental concentration
- their endurance in their workouts
- the compliments they experience from people
- their waist, hips, and thigh measurements
- their body weight
- their body-fat level

Make a rich list of ways you can evaluate your progress – however be sure to add affairs that are truly essential to YOU. If having loads of  is profound to you, then you should be evaluating your vigor level every day to check if your diet and/or workout routine are doing their job.

On the other hand, if you already experience a mass of daily vigor, than you may not want to measure that – you may choose to assess other affairs that are more fundamental to you at your current stage of life.

Take time to create your list, then write your advancement in a everyday diary every day for each of the categories on your list. Then get an medium for the complete day, and write that average at the top of your page.

Now Im not against using an exersicise ball for certain purposes, training your ABS seems to be the most popular of them and I believe this is where the exercise ball is best utilized. It allows for a grater range of motion and because of its lack of stability it requires greater recruitment of all the supporting core muscle to keep your body stabilized when working on one.  They are also good for helping a person with balance issues or weak core stabilizer movements. So there are many practical uses for them and I will never deny that. I myself use them ocassionally when Im at the gym.

Now on to what this post is really about, using them for everything. Just because someone has told people that using an exersices ball is beneficial to there core and other stabilizers, they seem to feel like they must be used when doing every exerciser.  This is definitely not the case and using an exercise ball in certain situations can be extremely dangerous and not to mention makes you look ridiculous. One of the worst stories I ever heard was about this guy that was doing dumbbell bench press on one using the 110lb dumbbells and the ball popped. I’m sure you can guess what happened as a result and if not let me just say it wasn’t pretty and required a lot of stitches.

I haven't decided whats worse about the above picture; the fact that the guy on the ball actually believes hes getting some benefit from this or that there is what appears to be a fitness trainer behind him that is the one that has decided to utilize this move for his clients benefit.

So please be careful when you decide to use an exercise ball for something it may have not been designed for and just because you see or hear about someone using it to do some amazing new exercise really think about how much benefit your going to get out of it and make sure its not just someones lame attempt to get more attention in the gym.

If your careful how and when you use an exercise ball you won’t end up like the people in the video bellow

I hear it all the time from people in the gym “I was doing so good and then I messed it all up during the Holidays” These people made a choice and decided to use the Holidays as an excuse to explain why they aren’t where they wanted to be. They have the mindset that if they messed up a little bit on their plan, then they might as well just start all over or quit. They are going to let one or two days off give them an excuse to take much more time off  or worse yet stop their fitness plan altogether.Remember if your looking for an excuses not to stay in shape, you can always find one. So stop looking!

You can’t let little slip ups or a few planned days off for vacation ruin everything you have already done and accomplished. You need to except that you are going to make mistakes, but you can’t let those mistakes get you down and upset. If you allow one missed workout or bad day of eating to get you so upset that your going to quit on your fitness plan, you will never reach your fitness goals and will stay very frustrated.

So the best advice I can offer you is that if you experience a set back in your fitness plan , just put it behind you, learn from it, and continue on right where you left off. Don’t give your mistake or day off another thought and definitely don’t allow it to mess with your mental focus. The past is the past and your main focus should be on where you want to be in the future and your not going to get there any faster looking back to see all your mistakes and worrying about what you could have done differently.

I began working out seriously in 1999 as a sophomore in high school where I was a skinny kid on the basketball team that wanted a change. Throughout the years I gained as much knowledge in the areas of fitness, nutrition, health and training as I could get my hands on. Then by implying the knowledge I gained to my own life I completely turned it around and? my passion for the fitness industry began to grow more and more every day.

I eventually decided I would dedicated my life to helping others reach their goals and make the changes for their lives that they have always wanted. I want to provide my guidance and knowledge to help ensure them that they can overcome the obstacles placed in their paths and achieve the desired results they have always been dreaming of. I changed my life Now its YOUR turn!

I believe that fitness is not just something you do or a hobby you have, its a lifestyle you embody. I not only have knowledge about what it takes to life a healthier lifestyle , but I live it myself. I cook and take all my meals with me to work, I avoid the temptations of fast food and junk even as my friends and co-workers are constantly providing the temptations to cheat. Through my routines and guidance you will develop the ability to transform your lifestyle ,which will not only help you get the results you want faster, but more importantly allow you to gain the knowledge necessary to keep those results. Its one thing to make the changes necessary briefly to get great results, but the more challenging aspect is not returning to the bad habits and lifestyles that got you to where you are. Albert Einstein once said ?The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.? In order to keep the results you make, you have to be willing to sacrifice and making the long lasting lifestyle changes that will keep you on track and keep you from regressing.

?why put of until tomorrow, what you can be accomplishing today?-Me

To keep the page as simple as possible I’m only going to use 5 different categories for my posts. I would like to introduce you to each category and a basic description of what they will contain.

1.)EatRight

This category will contain all the posts that have anythign to do with food, nutrition, diet tips,etc

2.)Break-a-Sweat

This will be the category where all posts on workout routines, exercises, or techniques will be placed

3.)@theGym

This category will be posts about anything relating to the gym setting, rules, peeves, tricks, tips

4.)Fit-Tech

As the name implies this category will deal with anything tech related such as, gadgets, product reviews, equipment, websites, programs, etc.

5.)FitnessFanatics!

This category will be about trainers, bodybuilders, models, celebrities, any people some how involved in the fitness industry.

Well that’s just a quick preview of the type of posts that will be made here, so I look forward to having you as a subscriber and get ready to use the info you learn here to transform yourself into health version 2.0