Reach Your Fitness Goals By Following These Simple Steps
Fitness generally refers to two different topics, nutrition and exercise. Both of these are essential aspects to having a healthy life and when you are able to improve them, you will begin to feel better about yourself and others will begin to respect you more. Fitness is not just about looking great, but more importantly, it is about feeling great. The following tips will help you with just that. Certainly not connected directly to fitness but still a little something people really should take a glance at is the epson powerlite Home Cinema 8350 if you should get the time and want to reinforce your own home entertainment system.
Have a physical with your doctor before starting a fitness program. This is especially important if you have high blood pressure, smoke, have diabetes or are overweight. The doctor will be able to tell you if there are any kinds of activities that you should avoid in the beginning.
To improve your fitness, try working out a little each day. This is more beneficial than just doing an exercise ‘binge’ once a week. Incorporating exercise into your daily routine will make it easier to keep to your exercise momentum going, and means you won’t dread and try to avoid an overly long workout session.
Challenge yourself. Increase the amount of exercise that you do every day or every other day. You will eventually hit a plateau in your exercise routine and not be doing yourself any good when you get used to what you do normally. They always say ‘no pain, no gain’.
To help you stick with your fitness goals, find yourself a workout buddy. This person will help you stay accountable for showing up to your workouts. Having a buddy can also keep you motivated on the days when you’d rather not do your workout. Laughing and talking as you work out will allow you to work out longer, which causes you to burn more calories than if you were just working out alone.
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Sprinters can easily and quickly increase their speed by adding targeted workouts for their hamstring muscles. To begin, start with a traditional leg curl. When you begin to pull the weight lower, however, concentrate on flexing your feet and toes away from your body. This simple step increases the workload on your hamstrings.
Nothing limits fitness success more than finding it a chore to do regularly. An easy solution is to find a cardiovascular activity that is enjoyable. Some people do not enjoy running, and thus would find very little long-time benefits from this activity, as they are less likely to stick with it. By integrating activities that you find fun (like swimming, sports, rowing, etc.), it is easier to stay motivated.
A great way to get fit is to start eating more vegetables. Vegetables are packed with essential vitamins and nutrients and if you aren’t eating enough, you aren’t doing your body any favors. An easy way to make sure you’re eating enough vegetables is to just toss a handful of them into a salad.
Invest in an MP3 player to use during workouts. This way you will always be able to tune to music that motivates you. You may not be into the music that they play at your gym, but when you have your MP3player and headphones, there will not be a problem.
Remember, you can work out no matter what your age, health, or fitness level. There is a fitness plan out there that can work for your life. The tips we went over here are just a starting point, get out there are learn all you can so that you can get the body that you want. For additional information upon the fitness make sure that you visit my personal canon powershot site to learn more.
The 18th Day of My Insanity Workout Review
Today I over slept a little bit, but that is okay because the scheduled Insanity workout was Cardio Recovery. Last night was a good night, I did some more ab workouts before I went to bed on my Swiss exercise ball, plus some other on the floor lower ab workouts. Then I also did some dumbbell lifting before I went to bed, I just worked out my biceps and shoulders, I also did some push ups to workout my chest a little bit. It was nothing to strenuous, just enough so I started feeling a burn…I do not want to wear myself out for the Insanity workout, so any other exercising I do besides the Insanity workout, will be in moderation. It was a good night to fit in some extra exercises, because I knew the next day I was going to have a recovery day.
So the Insanity workout today is said to be a recovery day, but I am still a little skeptical if that is true or not. There are exercises in this Insanity workout that really suck. When you have to hold a squat position and holding a lunge position is just not easy to do, then you after your done holding you pulse up and down in the squat and lunge, it is very difficult to get through, because your legs are on fire. Another difficult exercise in this Insanity workout, are the plank positions. There is a workout that works out your glutes, quads, core and shoulders, all at the same time. There are a couple more exercises in this Insanity workout that burn, but mostly all the rest have to do with balancing and stretching. Some of the balancing poses are difficult for me, but I am getting better…it’s all this darn Yoga stuff…I know it is good for you, but it is weird…who thought up these crazy stretch positions?!! Anyway, I enjoyed my Insanity workout today, it was not to long, so that was nice.
Nutrition: I had another awesome day with my Insanity workout nutrition plan. After my mid-lunch shakeology drink, I had a turkey sandwich for lunch, on whole wheat bread, and an apple. I am pretty sure I just had fruit for my mid-dinner, but for dinner I had a delicious steak. Steak is so good!! I do not understand how anyone can live without eating meat, is it seriously the best thing in the world! All you vegetarians out there are really missing out!
So tomorrow I will continue my Insanity workout review, and do the Cardio Power and resistance workout. I am so happy I have not missed a day yet, but I might have a difficult time doing the workout on Saturday because I am not going to be home, or anywhere with a TV. So I have not figured out what I am going to do yet.
The ChaLean Extreme Fitness Routine
Let’s first just go over the basics. ChaLean Extreme is a 90 day workout, but you have the option of going 120 days. There are three main phases, the first phase is the Burn phase. In this phase you will lift weights so you can speed up your metabolism and break down any fat reserves. There are upper body and lower body workouts and most the time your are working them out at the same time. The second phase is called the Push Phase. There are different workouts and still weight lifting, but this time with heavier weights. Where in the burn phase you do a weight where you can get 10-12 reps, in the Push phase you use weights where you can only do 6-8 reps. It gets tougher, but you are still gaining muscle to burn away that fat. The third phase is called the Lean Phase. This is where you will really start to see the results, all that weight lifting and work you did in the first two months, lead you up to this point. You will do new workouts and exercises that will help melt those fat reserves right off your body. After this phase you can be done, but there is also another phase that you can chose to do called the Lean for life phase, it is an extra thirty days for anybody who really wants to push themselves. It is there as an option, so you can make the decision after the 90 days is over.
The great part about the Chalean Extreme workout and even the Px90 workout, is that they both focus on beating the workout plateau. The workout Plateau is when a person stops seeing results from their workout routine, your muscles adapt to your routine and even though you might be working harder, you still do not see results. But Chalean extreme addresses the problem, by continually switching up the routine every 30 days. The Chalean Extreme program also comes with a fitness guide and a nutrition guide, because eating is a huge part of the workout if you are going to see results or not. There are recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I am pretty sure there are some recipes for snacks. Chalean Extreme comes with a sculpting band and a body fat monitor, and if you get the deluxe version it comes with weighted gloves.
All this to say, the main goal is to build muscle so you can burn fat. Do not worry about bulking up though, because this program is designed for building lean muscle, not huge bulky muscles. The Chalean extreme program has a lot to live up to, because it says you can burn up to 60% of your body fat in three months….I guess they are right no matter what, because it do not promise 60% fat loss, but “up to” 60%. Anyways I am sure that if someone really took it seriously and did it by the book, then they can see great results from it and that is what I am going to try to do. My challenge is to see if this thing actually does work, so I will be sticking to a diet of my own and pushing myself to muscle failure. Let’s see how it goes.
Can You Do The Chalean Extreme Workout?
Here is an article that I wrote on my other blog, I thought that it would be helpful for anyone who was interested in the Chalean Extreme workout.
Before you begin your Chalean Extreme journey, it is important to know if you can even physically do the ChaLean Extreme workout. First you need to do the fitness test, to see if you are even in shape for the workouts. For the Fit test you will need a stopwatch, wall, towel, pen or pencil, comfortable clothes, water, 12 inch ruler and free weights ranging from 5 – 20 lbs. or resistance bands. There are eight parts to the Chalean extreme evaluation, you being with doing about 5 minutes of warm up. The warm up is crucial because it will help you to prevent injury that could happen. The warm up can including light jogging, jumping jacks, etc.
The first exercise you will do after the warm up are push ups. All you need to do, is complete as many push ups as you can do without a break, if you cannot perform a push up on your toes, than you can do the knee option. Just make sure that you keep good form, no butt in the air, flex your abs and butt, and do not lover your head. After you are done, mark how many push ups you did, whether on your toes or on your knees.
The 2nd exercise in the Chalean Extreme fit test is crunches, it is the same goal as push ups, do as many as possible. Lay on the ground with bent knees, with your hands behind your head, lift your shoulders off the ground until you come to a 45 degree angle. Perform as many as possible without having your shoulders hit the ground and make sure you do not pull on your head when you perform a crunch.
Thirdly, squats. Again, do as many as possible. Begin with your feet shoulder width apart and squat down like you are sitting in a chair. Keep your back straight and your knees bent, make sure your knees do not bend past your toes. To keep your balance, you might want to stick out your arms straight from your chest. Make sure your weight is focused on the back of your heels. Lastly so the Squats slowly.
The Fourth workout is the Forearm Plank, for this exercise you will need the stopwatch. To perform this workout , get in a push up position, but instead of being on your hands, lie down on your elbows with your forearms and hands faced forward on the ground. Start the timer and get into plank position, holding yourself up on your toes and your elbows, make sure you tighten your abs and butt. Go as long as possible and record your time.
Fifth, do an Overhead Shoulder Press. For this exercise you will need to do 10-12 reps with dumbbells or resistance bands. You will need to pick a weight so that by the 12th rep you can barely push it up, this is important because the Chalean Extreme program focuses on doing reps until your muscles pretty much fail. For the Overhead Press, stand with your feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, and back straight. Hold the weights or the band handles in your hands so that they are just above shoulder height or resting on your shoulders, then push the weights up straight over you head and slowly back down.
The Sixth workout is a Bicep curl. You will need weights or bands for this exercise. Again you want to pick a weight heavy enough so you almost fail at the 12th rep. This is pretty simple, it is just a standard bicep curl. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, and slightly bent knees. With your arms down and your elbows by the side of your body, lift up the weights and stop just before you get to your shoulders. Do not rush it! Count to 4 when you are curling up to meet your bicep, and then do a 4 count on the way down.
The last exercise is a Sit and Reach, you will need the ruler for this one. This is a flexibility test. Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. place the ruler vertically in between your legs, with the bottom of the ruler even with the bottom of your feet. Stretch three times with your hands stacked on each other. Record each stretch, if you reach past the ruler and your feet, than you meet the minimum requirements for the ChaLean Extreme workout.
Another Day With ChaLean Extreme
So today was the first day of my fourth week with Chalean Extreme Review. I did well, but I really have not gotten into a good flow like I would like to. So I either need to start taking it more seriously right now, or wait until Ben gets back so we can do this workout together, I have not really decided yet. I still have really enjoyed the workouts and I do believe that I really can get great results out of this workouts, but I have not been focused like I need to be. I also want to deliver good posts for all of you and actually show you my results.
Anyways, today’s workout went really well and I decided to switch back to my Monday through Friday workout routine, because the Tuesday thru Saturday routine did not work out. I feel like I am more focused if I start on Mondays and that I am more likely to do the workouts every day if I start at the beginning of the week. These workouts kind of baffle me a little bit, because I will be exercising and lifting weights and doing fine and then all of a sudden I will be sweating like crazy, it hits me quickly. The reason I feel like it is odd, is because when I lift weights normally at the gym, I never sweat. But I think because the Chalean extreme routine has you workout your legs with squats and lunges at the same time you are doing your upper-body workouts, it makes you sweat more. I really enjoy it, and I know that if I am sweating then I am getting a good workout. Tomorrow for my Chalean Extreme workout, I will be doing the Burn Circuit 2 session.
I also have a Softball game tonight, and we had a tournament last Saturday. At the tournament WE LOST ALL THREE GAMES!!! I really hate losing, I am not used to it, none of us on the team are, but for some reason we have just not completely clicked yet. I bat either 4th or 5th in the line up, and I went 0-2 in the first game. I only got up twice, because of the ten run rule. The second and third game were a lot better for me. I think I went 3-5 the second game and either 3-3 or 4-4 the third game with a 3 run home run. So things are starting to pick up for me in the hitting arena, but I am still a little slow at playing third base. I am feeling more comfortable over there but I am just missing the ball on some of my dives, but that will all come around. We have two games tonight, so hopefully we can win them both and be 3 and 1 for the season. Wish us luck!!
Shoulders with Chalean Extreme
So today is Friday and you know what that means… it means I get to do the Chalean Extreme Burn circuit 3 workout and that also means I get to workout my shoulders, because that is all this workout seems to focus on. I really enjoy this workout, although I got to be honest with you, I do not really enjoy working out my shoulders. The reason is probably because I have had some problems in the past with my shoulders. Last year when I was at softball practice, I dove for a ground ball at tweaked my left shoulder, and it has not been the same since. I do not know exactly what is wrong with it, but it continues to stiffen up and pop. I can still do activities without it hurting, but it always pops. Anyways, that is enough of me crying about my shoulder.
Lets talk about the workout, I wanted to push myself a little more in this workout than I did last week, so I used the 25 pounders as much as possible. It is hard to do lateral raises and deltoids raises with 25 pounds, but I did it slowly and with good form. The great thing about this workout is that there are only nine exercises, plus two “get extreme” sessions. So you should be able to go all out and the workout is only 28 minutes long, so it is one of the shorter ones. In every exercise you either do a squat or a lunge, this workout also incorporates calf raises in the squats and lunges too. So not only are you getting a great shoulder, lat, and deltoids workout, you are also getting a great lower body workout. As I mention before there are two “Get Extreme” workouts, in these workouts you do 3 reps as slow as possible, usually an eight count up and an eight count down. The first “Get Extreme” workout are push ups, you only do three, but it is tough because you do them ultra slowly, the second one is an overhead shoulder press as slow as possible. These are great exercises but very exhausting because you hardly get a break before you jump into them. Overall this is a wonderful workout.
Tomorrow I am going to do the Burn it off and recharge, than I have a softball tournament for the rest of the day, so wish me luck, because after our last weeks performance we kind of need it.
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.
Chalean Extreme Day 13
Today, I had to wake up earlier than normal to go to work. I helped tear up a deck because the wood is all rotten, so I was not able to stick to my normal schedule of doing the Chalean Extreme workout in the morning. I did however meet up with a friend at LA Fitness and did a back and bicep workout routine with him, which worked out great because that was the workout I was supposed to do with the Chalean Extreme workout. We always workout pretty hard at the gym, and we use all the same principles that Chalene Johnson believes in. We use dumbbells for the most part and we do not try to rush our exercises, slow is key.
We usually start off with pull ups but because I injured my bicep last time, we decided to warm up with a lighter bicep curl first. Then we went to the pull up bar, and with our hands facing forward we did as many pull ups as possible, 3 times. After that your biceps and upper back are pretty tired, so it makes it pretty tough to finish the rest of the exercises. We continued to switch off, focusing on biceps and then back and so on, we also did routines that involved working out both areas at the same time. After the back and biceps workout, we usually end it with some abdominal workouts. Doing some crunches and oblique exercises, afterward my abs are always sore, but a good sore not a painful one. I probably will not get to my workout tomorrow, but I will be doing the Burn circuit 3 workout on friday. So far this has been a great workout routine for toning.
ChaLean Extreme is back in business!!
My new bat!!
So I can finally start up the ChaLean Extreme workout again, I got my replacement bulb for my television and now I am in business. Ben and I decided to just start up where we left off, and we are going to start up again on Monday. Even though it has been annoying that we have not been able to do the ChaLean extreme workouts, it has been kind of nice, because it has allowed for my arm to heal up a little bit. Hopefully by Monday it will feel back to its old self, and hopefully I do not injury myself dirt biking tomorrow, it is a risk I am willing to take. I did not go to the gym the last couple days, but I have been sticking to my diet. I really did not do that well during the weekend, but I have gotten back on track since then. I will not be able to make it to the gym today, but hopefully tomorrow, and then I would like to do sprints again on Saturday before softball practice. Speaking of Softball practice, I received my bat in the mail too. It is sweeet!! It’s a Worth Mutant HD 120, I cannot wait to break it in and pound the ball.
Workouts, but not with ChaLean Extreme
So I did workouts over the weekend and on Monday but none of them were with Chalean Extreme. I am STILL waiting for my television to be fixed, but it is all good. I had Softball practice on Saturday and Sunday, but since I usually do not get a good workout at practice, I decided to go early and workout. On Saturday I did something that I have not done since I played football…I ran lines. For people who do not know what that is, it is when you start from one endzone and run to the 20 yard line and run back and then to the 40 yard line and run back and so on until you do the full 100 yard dash. It gets super tiring, because you are sprinting the whole time. I also ran a couple laps around the track before that to get warmed up. After running lines, I rested for a little bit, and then ran the hundred yard dash as fast as I could twice. It really was a great workout, all together it was only about 20 minutes, but it was nice to get back outside and do some sprinting.
I also worked out on Monday with Jeff, and we did another upper body workout focusing on the chest and triceps. I had to make sure that I was careful that I did not hurt my arm worse, so I took it pretty easy. For the chest we did Dumbbell presses, a upper body press, and a cable press. For the triceps, we did triceps extensions on the cables, s dips, and something else…I can’t remember what it’s called. After that we then focused on are stomachs and then did some push ups on a stability ball. I even ran for about a mile before Jeff got there, so overall it was a great workout.
Now I will explain the picture, Sunday I rode a motorbike for the first time, it was called a pit bike. The experience was fun, although I let the clutch out to fast the first time I tried and almost dragged my face across the earth. Tuesday, was my second time ever riding a pit bike, and my friends spent all day build a jump that they were going off on. When I got there they asked me if I wanted to try the jump, and I was like YEAH sounds like fun. Well, I got on the bike and let out the clutch, so far everything was smooth. I was riding around getting used to the feel, I lined up to the jump and was going to just take a test run to get the feel of it. But half way I just decided to go for it. No one ever told me that you have to stand up a little bit when you go off the jump. So when I went off the jump I was sitting down, which caused my front tire to head downwards straight into the ground, I hit the very top of my front tire and almost completely flipped over the handlebars, but I pulled it off. I was about as close as you can get to flipping without flipping. It was exciting, and they got it on video. It is pretty hilarious.
