Backwards Beast and Elmo

I started the day by walking the Beast 4 times with my clients......twice we walked backwards up the hill and once we ran up the hill. I also did a total of 400 walking lunges with them. Later in the afternoon, I walked what I'll call "Elmo" (see notes at bottom of page) 3 times with a couple of clients and then came home and spent about 20 mins on the heavy bag again.

What did you do today?

Split Jerks and More

A good hour long bike ride started the day and later in the afternoon/evening I spent 1/2 hour working my way up in weight on split jerks and also spent 20 mins on the heavy bag. Nothing too out of the ordinary today, but it was enough.

TOPFIT Tip -- Cut Cancer Risk -- According to the American Council for Cancer Research, you can lower your risk of cancer by 20% by eating your 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. 20% not enough to get your attention? Then bump that up to as much as a 40% reduction by making the rest of your diet healthy, staying active, and maintaining a healthy weight.

Sunday Funday

Once again I had 4 other people over for a good circuit workout. We started and ended with a 1/2 mile walk and did 5 circuits of deadlifts, pullups, pushups, SB crunches and SB leg curls. We rotated through each station and everyone had to keep doing reps until the last/slowest person completed 15 reps on whichever station they were on.......you can bet there was some "subtle" encouragement handed out to the slowest person on each interval......LOL.
After this, I went on a 1 hour bike ride and spent about 1/2 hour doing yard work. Since I still had a little energy left I also spent 20 mins on the heavy bag.

Rest Day?

Rest day? Well, almost. In the morning I walked the Beast twice and ran approx 1/4 mile 3 times with my client. Then it was off to the Harvest Fair and Microbrew Fest. There was a lot of walking involved and a little dancing, but fear not, I made up for it by eating a little junk and sampling several microbrews......good times!

TOPFIT TIP -- Fat Loss and Low Intensity Cardio -- Don't buy in to the myth that by doing low intensity cardio you’ll burn more fat than doing high intensity cardio -- sounds like an excuse to be lazy to me. Whereas it is true that the percentage of calories coming from fat is higher, total calories burned will be lower….and for fat loss, isn’t it all about burning more calories?

Tabatas and Boxing

A brisk 1 mile walk with clients was a great start to my day, followed by a fairly intense 1 hour bike ride. Later, I did some Tabatas (see notes at bottom of page) and boxing.....5 mins heavy bag, Tabata pullups, 5 mins speed bag, Tabata pushups, 5 mins heavy bag, Tabata crunches, 5 mins speed bag, Tabata squats, with approx 1 minute rest between exercises.
If you haven't done Tabatas before, give them a try and let me know what you think!

A Little Bit of Leg Work

Walking the Beast twice was a good start to the day and then, as has been the theme lately, I went on an hour long bike ride.....this one included some hills again.
I managed to squeeze in a decent workout of front squats, stationary lunges and even some calf raises just for fun. Then 1/2 hour on the bike again to go get my hair cut.
Overall, not a bad day.
So what did you manage to piece together today?

Pedal, Push and Pull

The day started with a fun 1 hour bike ride, then later I spent 1/2 an hour alternating between max reps of bodyweight (185#) bench presses and strict (non-kipping) pullups. To finish the day off, I spent 20 mins alternating between 2 min intervals of jump rope and heavy bag.

No takers? C'mon! I know many of you have heavy bags or have access to one......can't I get even one of you to take me up on Saturday's challenge?

Pyramid Circuits

Walking the Beast twice this morning is how I started my day and then, since I had a client do this workout earlier, I thought it would be a great one to do myself. I did circuits of modified pullups/body rows (sometimes referred to as rack rows), pushups, crunches, lunges (number of reps is per leg) and back extensions. The reps on the 11 total circuits were 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Give this one a try yourself and let me know how it goes......change the exercises as necessary to suit your abilities and available equipment.

Clean & Jerk

I started the day with a good hour long bike ride, then later I spent 1/2 hour doing clean & jerks, cleans, and power cleans. To finish the day off, I did a total of about 1.25 miles of brisk walking with clients (broken up into a few intervals). Nothing really exciting, but it got the job done.
So, what did you do today?

TOPFIT Tip -- Sex and Drugs and Exercise -- A couple of the hottest drugs on the market are for erectile dysfunction. These drugs work by increasing blood flow to the affected, or more precisely, the un-affected area.....but why not do the same thing naturally with exercise? Studies have shown that men who exercise vigorously are about half as likely to have erection problems as inactive men. It's also been shown that as a man gains weight, he becomes more susceptible to experiencing erectile dysfunction.

Sunday Circuits

Circuits seemed to be the order of the day today. I had 4 other people come over and we did 4 circuits of 45 seconds work and 15 seconds rest of box jumps or step ups, pushups, crunches, squats or assisted squats and band rows......I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but give it everything you've got and it's a pretty intense 20 minutes. We also walked 1/2 mile before and after this workout. Before everyone came over, I went on an hour long moderate/high intensity bike ride, and afterward I did about 15 mins of abs and core work.

Here's a little eye-opening article I ran accross. "Obesity More Harmful to Heart Than Smoking"

Bikin' and Boxin'

Not a lot of biking today, only a total of 35 mins riding to a client's home and back. The main workout today was an old school professional boxing match with my heavy bag. I did 15 three minute rounds with one minute rests. Now, I'd like to challenge all of you that have a heavy bag to do the same this weekend. Be sure to keep your guard up and stay on your toes. Always keep moving....if you're not hitting the bag you should be dancing around it. Let me know how it goes!!

TOPFIT Tip -- Too many people spend more time socializing in the gym than they do working out, so when I hear someone say "I don't have time to go to the gym today", I tell them "4get it!" GET in, GET busy, GET done, GET out. Keep the chatter and rest periods to a minimum --- you’ll probably get a better workout and you’ll feel great about yourself for not skipping it.

Lower Intensity Day

After all the activity yesterday, I decided today should be a lower activity day. So, I started with an hour long moderate/high intensity bike ride (the high intensity part was about 15 mins of hill climbing) and after that I did a quick 1/2 hour chest workout consisting of moderate and heavy bench presses and supersets of DB flyes and decline pushups. I don't often do "body part" workouts or isolation exercises, but this just seemed to fit the bill today.

TOPFIT TIP -- Spot reduction does not work, and doing hundreds of crunches will not make you lose the fat covering your abs. Think about it --- if exercising a bodypart got rid of the fat in that area, then everyone you know that talks a lot would have a skinny little face.

The Birthday Workout

Today I did what I call the Birthday Workout again. This is a workout I've had some clients do to celebrate their birthdays and I usually do it with them. Today, in addition to the birthday boy there were 3 of us doing the workout with him. The workout consists of 6 exercises done as a circuit. On the 1st circuit the reps equal your age, the 2nd circuit the reps equal the month you were born, the 3rd circuit is the day you were born and the 4th circuit is the year you were born (there is a shorter version where you do the current year [8] instead). For example, since I'm 50 and born on 8/25/58 the reps on each of the circuits would be 50, 8, 25, 58. The exercises are kettlebell swings (I used the 20kg), squat thrusts/burpees, modified pullups/body rows, pushups, stability ball crunches and stability ball leg curls. We also walked the Beast (see below) before and after the circuits. Of course, this just wasn't enough for me so I also did about 300 walking lunges with my next client along with walking the Beast again. And since I still had some feeling left in my legs I went on an hour long bike ride after this. And add to all that 20 mins on the heavy bag.

So, what did you do today?

Recovery Days

If you've really been on a roll with your exercise program and have been hitting it hard for several days in a row, take a break for a day. I don't mean you should be a complete couch potato, but don't plan to do any workouts or any exercise just for the sake of exercise. This is a day to take a more leisurely walk, an easy bike ride or do some house or yard work. Keep the intensity on the lower side and give your body a chance to recover from all the intense workouts you've been doing (surely you have been doing intense workouts, right?). You could even find some time to work in a little extra stretching.
Since I've had several days in a row of pushing the overtraining envelope, this is my day to back off a bit. So far I've walked a little over a mile with a client and later I'll do about an hour of yard work.....just some lighter activity to let my body recover and prepare it for what's coming tomorrow.......and what's coming tomorrow is gonna be KILLER.....stay tuned!

Pieced Together Workout

Nothing too exciting or out of the ordinary about today's workout, just a lot of activities that really added up. I started the day by walking the Beast 4 times with a couple of clients (the Beast is a 1/3 mile long paved mountain goat trail that my clients like to call their driveway), went on an hour long moderate intensity bike ride, spent 1/2 hour doing snatches, power snatches and a few overhead squats and finished with 20 mins. of quality time with my heavy bag.
All in all not a bad day. Sometimes you just need to piece it together like that.

Thanks Cindy!

It's due to Cindy getting a blog online before I did that finally kicked my butt in gear to publish this blog.....it's been set up for awhile, but I was just too lazy to actually commit to posting regularly. Thanks for the little kick in the pants!
If you live in the Spokane Washington area and are in need of a trainer, give Cindy a call. With her unique background and years of experience, she'll get you the results you're after.
Check out her website and blog at http://www.cbfitnesstrainer.com/ .

Welcome to the U.S. Lyen!

I want to use this first post to welcome a good friend, fellow trainer and one of Europe's hottest fitness competitors to the U.S.
Lyen Wong has made the move to Miami to take the next step in her fitness career. Of course this means she's building her training business from scratch, so if you're in the Miami area and in need of a trainer, give her a call.
Take some time to check out her websites which you'll find links to both at http://www.lyenwong.com/ .
Welcome to the U.S. Lyen. You're going to do great things here!!!