Insanity Workout Review – Rest Day
So today is a rest day, YESSSS! I have officially made it through my first week of the Insanity workout! Today, I am going to take the time to relax. My body still feels great, and I woke up today without any soreness. I haven’t been able to check but I feel slimmer, it feels like I have lost some weight. Hopefully all the working out and eating healthy will pay off, because if it doesn’t I am going to be pissed!
I do not really have much to write on today, except that it was a really good week. The workouts were tough and I have been challenged mentally more than I have in a long time, since P90x. I did P90x last year, and comparing the two so far…well you really can’t. They are two very completely different workouts. Yes, I am exhausted with the Insanity workout and doing all cardio has been extremely difficult for be, but when I did p90x I had a hard time doing simple tasks, like driving, because y muscles were so tired. I would say that the Insanity workout and the P90x are equally the best workouts for what you want them to do.
Let’s talk about my nutrition, on Saturday I started off great, had healthy meals all day, but I did have a date night with my girlfriend and some other friends. Since it was a special night for me and my girl, I decided to have some dessert with her. but my dinner was pretty right on to the diet. I had Fillet Mignon with a Lobster Tail and a baked potato. It was INCREDIBLE!!!! Loved every bite. Today I had another steak and potato, and then I had a turkey burger with some mayo, tomato, and lettuce, it was pretty delicious.
Workout Routines For Toning
I thought I would do a little post on a couple workout routines for toning. So many times many people shy away from workouts with weights because they are afraid of bulking up, well that is not the case anymore. Just because you lift weights and build muscle does not mean you are going to bulk up, it is a myth! There are some great workout routines for toning out there, a couple off the top of my head are the P90x extreme home fitness routine and the Power 90 workout routine. Those two workout routines have been tested and tried and both have been very successful for toning muscles. But there is a new workout that I want to mention, which focuses on building lean muscle mass. It is called the Chalean Extreme workout routine, it’s motto is “Muscle Burns Fat” and if you want to burn that excess fat off then building muscle is the best and quickest way to do it.
Recently I have had the opportunity to try this Chalean Extreme workout. I am only at the beginning of the third week, so I am pretty new at it, but I have already noticed a difference in my body fat. Chalean Extreme is a 90 day workout program that can be extended to 120 days if you want to. In the 90 day session there are three different phases, the Burn, Push and Lean Phase. Each phase is 30 days long and comes with a complimentary food guide that outlines each phase. The reason Chalean Extreme is a great workout routine for toning is because it takes full advantage of dumbbell training. Dumbbells are some of the best weights you can use for muscle building, dumbbells not only use weight resistance but it also use stability resistance. Using dumbbells force all your little muscles to stabilize the weight as you lift it, that is the advantage dumbbells have over bars.
Another thing that makes Chalean Extreme a great workout routine for toning, is that it has you do full body workouts. You are never working out one body part at a time, if you are doing a bicep curl then you will also be doing a squat at the same time. If you are doing a tricep extension, then you will be doing a lunge at the same time. You will always be focusing on two major body sections at a time, whether it is upper and lower body or lower body and mid-section and so on. There are some great cardiovascular routines too.
It is important to know, that even though the Chalean Extreme routine has some great exercises, if you do not have heavy enough weights than you will be cheating yourself from achieving great results. So go out and get a nice set of dumbbells or resistance bands. Dumbbells do not take up much space, but are kind of expensive. So if you are looking for a cheaper alternative, than take a look at getting some resistance bands, they virtually take up no space and are very cost affective. Another great thing about resistance bands is that they create resistance through the band and not gravity like dumbbells. So if you are looking for a workout routine for toning, I highly suggest trying the Chalean extreme program.
The ChaLean Extreme Way
Today was my tenth day of doing the Chalean Extreme workout routine, and so far this is the most blood pumping workout there is so far. The Disc is called Burn Intervals, it is about 45 minutes long, so it is the longest workout I have done yet. It really does push your heart rate up. You pretty much switch from doing a cadio exercise to a light weight exercise, but even though you are doing light weight, you do tons of reps. The key with this workout is to get your heart rate up with the cardio exercises and then build muscles endurance with the weight lifting. I know it sounds kind of easy but after awhile your legs get tired from all the squats, lunges and plyometrics, and then your arms and shoulders get tired because you are doing about 30 plus reps every time you pick up the weights.
This workout is definitely different from the burn circuit workouts, with the burn circuit workouts, you focus more on heavier weights and slow reps, but with the Burn Interval workout, you do more lighter weight but faster reps. There are some slow lifting in this workout, but most the time you are going at a steady pace. Again, like all of the Burn Circuit discs, you will be doing a full body workout with Burn Intervals. You will focus on the legs, abs, and upper body.
You would think that after doing a 45 minute workout, you would be done after it was finished, but not on these day. After the Burn Interval workout, you will do the Ab burner routine. It is about 8 more minutes of ab workouts. I have done a lot of ab workouts. I have done ab routines at the gym, and I have also done the ab workout of P90x. The P90x ab workout is definitely the hardest I have ever done, but I found it to be to difficult and painful for my tailbone. So it was hard to complete it. That is why I like this Chalean Extreme routine, I get a great workout with my abs but I do not experience the pain in my tailbone when I do these exercises, so I can focus purely on my abs.
My diet – Last night my friend from out of town came to visit, so a group of us went out to dinner. But I think I did pretty well. We had Thai food, but I had a lean Steak with cabbage and grilled vegetables, the only thing I did bad on was having Crab Rangoons. This morning I had Unflavored Oatmeal and blueberries, I plan on having a protein drink in a few minutes, and then lunch. So far it has been a good morning.
Finally! Day 9 of ChaLean Extreme
I lost my Wingman
So I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, I started the Chalean Extreme Workout again! The bad new is, I lost my wingman!! It’s like Maverick losing Goose in Top Gun!! Ben is no longer going to be able to do the workout with me, although I was disappointed when he told me, I understand why he will not be able to go on. He’s got his second child on the way and he feels that he is going to pull some late nights with a new born baby and that doing the workouts in the morning will just be to much for him. So that leaves me to do the rest of the Chalean extreme program alone. I am bummed, because I had to do P90x all by myself, and it is way more fun when you have someone working out with you. So I guess I will have to soldier on.
Today, I did the Chalean Extreme Burn Circuit 2 workout. After the warm ups (which I am still not to crazy about), I did 9 workouts, but two of the exercises you have to workout both sides of your body separately so it is like you are doing 11 workouts. The workout is about 35 minutes long, so you want to make sure you give it your all, because 35 minutes is not that much time. The great part about these workouts is that you are always working out more than one part of your body at a time, so you are getting a full body workout with each move. The first move is called a sumo squat with bicep curl, like every other exercise, you will do 12 reps. Stand with your feet pointing outward in a wide stance, as you squat down, hold the weights in between your legs and as you stand up perform a bicep curl. I used 25 pounds because it is the heaviest I have, but you are supposed to use weight that makes you really struggle by the 10th to 12th rep. My favorite workouts are the “get extreme” workouts, with these workout you only do 3 reps, but very very slowly. Slow is the key here, if you do not perform the exercise slowly, you will not maximize your workout. I would say the toughest workouts on the Burn circuit 2 disc, are the tricep workouts, my triceps are pretty lame though, so that is probably why I struggle with these workouts the most. Overall it was a great workout, my arms feel good, and my legs were wobbling a little bit, I do feel like I need to somehow find some heavier weights.
I have also continued on with my Abs Diet, yesterday I went to the Seattle Mariners Home Opener, where we beat the LA Angels of Anaheim in 10 innings, it was a pretty sweet game and it was KEN GRIFFEY JR’s First game back at home in a Mariners Uniform. But I ate pizza, garlic fries and carmel popcorn, so it was not exactly an Abs Diet day. This morning I had oatmeal, then for lunch I had some chicken, I also enjoyed a protein drink to help me build that lean muscle mass. Tomorrow I will be doing the ChaLean Extreme Burn Intervals and Ab Burner discs.
ChaLean Extreme: In Waiting
So I finally got a hold of the television repair people and faxed in all the proper paper work for them to come out or send me a new bulb for my LCD rear projection television. This whole process has been annoying, but it has not been the end of the world. I still get a lot of workouts in, although it is not ChaLean Extreme. My whole purpose to doing ChaLean Extreme is so I can write reviews and tell people about my progress or lack there of. Soon I will get the problem resolved and everything will be back to normal, but until then, I am gonna keep on doing workouts at the gym and hikes. Besides, I have to do some type of workout or else I will go crazy!! If I go to long without working out then I lose my edge, my motivation, and it is harder for me to start back up. So remaining active is not an option for me.
As far as the diet is going, this is my fifth day on the Men’s health Abs diet. I think I am doing it right, that is why I ordered the book, to make sure that I am doing this diet correctly. But I feel great, my body feels healthy, and I feel energized. I am excited to see some of the results I get in the first week. It is the weekend so I will not be posting until Monday, I am going on a four mile hike this afternoon with a friend, and tomorrow I am probably just going to take it easy. I have a friends birthday and we are going to this extremely nice italian restaurant. In my diet I do allow myself to splurge a little one day a week. I hope that is okay with the Abs Diet book.
ChaLean Extreme: Still on Hold :(
So today is the second day of not being able to do the Chalean extreme workout, my television is still out of commission, and I have no idea when it is going to be fixed. Besides the hold the workouts have been going pretty well, but if I were to compare it with the P90x routine, I would say that P90x was more difficult, even though Chalean extreme is pretty tough itself. They are both great workouts and I have enjoyed each one. So since yesterday I was not able to do the Chalean extreme routine, I went on a hike with my friends. It was pretty spare of the moment and it was around 10:00 pm when we decided to go. It was actually extremely fun, I have never gone hiking in the dark before, I have hiked at night coming down a mountain because I ran out of day light, but I have never started up a mountain at night. It was quite the experience, it was muddy and steep. Mt. Peak is probably one of the more steeper mountains I have had to climb, but although it is steep it is only about 1.2 miles, so it is pretty short. I would like to go on another hike today, but it is raining like crazy, so I might have to go to the gym. Speaking of the gym, I am still pretty sore from my workout on Monday, we really did push ourselves pretty hard.
I kind of feel like I am just rambling on, but I still need to talk about how my diet is going. So far I have been doing really well, I had a chance to eat a snickers bar yesterday but did not do it. I also have a whole bunch of friends keeping me accountable, mostly because if the abs diet works for me than they want to try it. It definitely has not been easy, but yesterday I cooked this chicken that was sooooo good. It was a halved chicken breast, covered in olive oil, parsley, basil, red pepper flakes, garlic and kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. It was so delicious!! I really enjoy cooking, especially when you cook for people and they enjoy the food, it gives a great sense of accomplishment. Hopefully I can start giving you more reviews on the ChaLean extreme workout in the next few days, in the mean time I will just keep on posting on my other workouts and how my diet is going.
Oh yeah, if you are wondering what is up with the Cougar picutre, it is because last night during the hike we were comstantley looking over our shoulders just incase a Cougar was stalking us.
ChaLean Extreme: Bump in the Road!!
Well I woke up today to do the ChaLean extreme workout, and my television stopped working. So right now the workout is put on hold, until I can get it fixed. I called the company I bought my television from because I have a 3 year bulb replacement warranty, so hopefully they give me a call back so I can get the new bulb for my television. This is totally lame, but I am glad this never happened during my P90x workout and I am glad it happened earlier than later in the Chalean extreme routine. So I guess I will just have to continue to go to the gym to get my workouts in. Yesterday evening I went to the gym to workout with Jeff, and we focused on chest, triceps, and abs. We worked out for about an hour and a half, and after the workout I could barely even shift or steer my car, because my arms were so tired. I am pretty sore right now.
This is my second day on my new diet, so far I have been doing pretty good with it. I went and bought some groceries last night to help me. I bought chicken, tuna, whole wheat bread, vegetables, fruit, oatmeal and nuts. So this morning I had oatmeal with raspberries, it did not taste good at all, but it was filling. For lunch I will probably eat some chicken. which I am going to cook right now. Peace!!
ChaLean Extreme: Day 8 – Getting Extreme!!
Well we had to rest days over the weekend from our ChaLean extreme workout, so our bodies are all healed up and ready to go. Over the weekend I did not workout , I did not even go to LA Fitness to do any running, and I ate terrible. It was my sister’s birthday so I went out a few times for lunch and dinner and had cake and ice cream. I am the type of person that if I screw up in a day with my eating then I eat bad the rest of the day. But today marks the day that I start eating healthier again, so I can maximize my results from this workout. I decided not to follow the ChaLean Extreme nutrition guide that they provided for me, instead I will be doing The Abs Diet from Men’s Health. This diet includes 12 power foods. 1. Almonds and other nuts 2. Beans and other Legumes 3. Spinach, greens 4. Dairy, fat-free milk, yogurt and cheese 5. Instant oatmeal – unflavored and unsweetened 6. Eggs 7. Turkey and other lean meats – lean beef, chicken and fish 8. Peanut Butter, all natural and sugar free 9. olive oil 10. Whole grain breads 11. Extra protein powder 12. Raspberries and other berries. So wish me luck, this is probably going to be the hardest diet I have ever had to stick with. I get one day a week to splurge, I am actually more nervous about this than I am about the workout.
Today we did the Chalean Extreme Burn Circuit 1 disc again for the second time. If you remember in my first post about this workout I mentioned that I felt like the workout was to easy because I did not have heavy enough weights. Well, this time I had heavier weights and the workout went a lot better, but I do feel like this is the easier workout of the three Burn Circuits. What I do love about this ChaLean Extreme Workout, is that they have some great Ab workouts with dumbbells. You really get to focus on your obliques and if you do the exercise correctly than you can really feel your obliques getting a good workout. I really do like how you usually work out multiple body parts at a time. So if you are doing deltoid workouts then at the same time you are in a lounge working out your legs, or if you are doing a bench press, they have you working out your lower abs at the same time. That was one thing the P90x workout was great with too, was working out more than one section at a time.
Tonight I am going to LA Fitness to workout with Jeff, we are going to do a Chest workout and then run for a couple miles. But I will writing more about that tomorrow. And remember to check out Ben’s Chalean Extreme workout blog.
ChaLean Extreme: Day 5 – Burn and Recharge
So today is the last workout of the week with ChaLean extreme, and it has been a great workout so far. Ben and I will do the same routine next week and for the rest of the month, before we switch it up into the push phase. Today, we did the ChaLean Extreme Burn it off and recharge disc, where you are trying to get your heart rate up as much as possible. Ben and I do not have to much room to maneuver so it was kind of difficult at first to get really into this workout, but by the end we were sweating and Ben felt light headed because he worked out so hard. The workout involved a lot of movement dips, lunges, jumps and football drills. Yes, I said football drills! I thought that was pretty cool, I always love it when workouts incorporate sporting drills in to the exercises. My P90x Workout did that with the plyometrics disc. It adds an element of fun to the whole thing, although it is pretty challenging.
After the ChaLean Extreme Burn it off disc, I got to do the Recharge exercise. The first workout today was a little under 30 minutes long and the recharge disc was about 20 minutes long, so all together you will workout for about 50 minutes. But the recharge disc was nice, it was all stretching, and boy did my muscles need it, in fact my muscles need the two rest days coming up too. There were a lot of Yoga poses in this workout, it had upward dog, downward dog, warrior poses and some other yoga exercises. I kind of struggled with Yoga routine in P90x, but the ChaLean extreme workout is not meant to be a full on Yoga workout, so it was not as difficult, it did feel great though. I am glad they have put stretching into these workouts, because they really do help your flexibility and your muscles to develop.
I have a big day tomorrow, it is my sister’s birthday and we are going to Mizu. It is a Japanese restaurant where the chef is at your table and he cooks and does all sorts of cool things right in front of you. It’s pretty sweet, I think I am going to get the Steak and Lobster.
ChaLean Extreme: Day 4 – Burn 3
So it is Thursday today, so that means it is the fourth day of my ChaLean Extreme Workout. Today was not so good, not because of the workout, but we had a few unexpected guests in the middle of the workout, so we had to pause a few times. I am sure if we were able to go through the whole thing without stopping then it would have felt like more of a challenge. The ChaLean Extreme Burn Circuit 3 disc was the shortest workout so far. It was just a little bit above 30 minutes, which is fine because after yesterday’s workout we needed a shorter workout. I do not really mind the workout pushing me to much today, because that means I will feel more up to going to the gym to run a few miles. I do not think I am going to lift at the gym, because I need to give my muscles some time to recover from all the workouts I did with ChaLean and the gym. There were a lot of squats and shoulder workouts in the Burn circuit 3 workout, your shoulders will get a great workout in this session.
So far both Ben and I have agreed that the workouts have been really great, even our buddy Derek has worked out with us the last couple days. Derek used the resistance bands that I bought for my P90x workout routine. I think he had a hard time using them, not because of difficulty but because he was just not used to them. They can be kind of a pain if you do not use them correctly. I think Dumbbells are difinitely the way to go with the ChaLean extreme workout, and if you can get the same kind Chalene Johnson is using than that is even better.
If there is one thing I can start doing better, is eating more healthy. Last night a bunch of my friends got together, and I sort of pigged out on doughnut holes. I have not even opened the nutrition guide yet, maybe I should take a look at it and try to follow some type of plan.
