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Come Join My Body Beast Challenge

September 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment (Edit)

The summer is all but over and the fall grows near. Unfortunately, the outdoor pools are closed down, and now it is time to refocus. Over the past few months, I have been quite busy. Consequently, my time spent in the gym has decreased during this summer, but that will be changing as I move into October. Now is as good as ever to step it back up and switch things up. So, that is why I am taking the Body Beast Challenge, and that is why I am encouraging you to do the same!

Who?

First, if you are a person who loves to workout in the gym or merely finds his or her best results by working out in a gym setting, this fitness program is just for you. For me, I love the gym. Sure, I can workout at home by doing core training, but I get great results at the gym – I find it to be a highly-motivating environment. Second, if you are getting okay results in the gym but looking to mix it up and add an effective nutrition plan, this routine is made for you. The nutrition plan is really something that I am looking forward to! Third, if you are experiencing plateaued results, it is time to change things up and confuse your muscles (more on this concept in a future blog post)! At the beginning of the summer, I was finding that I was plateauing a little bit, so I changed my routine a bit and focused more completing a higher number of reps at a solid weight in order to chisel my muscles a little bit more. Now, it is time to confuse the muscles a bit more, so I am ready to adapt my own version of the Body Beast workout to reach the next level!

What?

Well, Body Beast is a workout designed by world-renowned bodybuilder, Sagi Kalev. The program provides two main tracks that you can take to reach your fitness goals. The first option is the LEAN BEAST! This routine focuses on building muscle while controlling and reducing body fat. The second option is the HUGE BEAST. Do you want to add massive muscle while still controlling much of the body fat? This program option is just for you. For me, I am going to start out with the LEAN BEAST program and then possibly migrate to HUGE BEAST later on. All in all, you will gain quality muscle if you follow either Body Beast program!

Body Beast logo

Why?

Health and nutrition are key components of improving your chances of living a long and prosperous life.  Gimmick diets are usually just temporary bandages; instead, fitness and nutrition are life-long endeavors, and it is never too late to get things back on track. I see the great potential in this workout program, and I am anxious to gain great results. The only question is will you be cheering me on from the sidelines or rocking out the challenge with me!

When?

I have decided that I will take on this challenge in October. I figured that it is as good of a time as any other. Plus, by starting in October, I will have extra health goals to keep me on track as the holiday eating season approaches! Sounds great, huh? Now is the best time to challenge yourself! Who’s with me?

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Terry Crews Cobra Back Workout Review

October 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment (Edit)

Hitting the gym everyday of the week, I am always looking for new techniques to get better and stronger results! One day, I was roaming around the Bodybuilding.com website when I came across a back routine by famous actor and former NFL player Terry Crews! Since I am also a fan of his and know that he is also a big fitness fanatic like me, I figured that I should try it out and see what happens. I figured that Terry Crews did not get his muscles from just keeping it light and taking it easy in the gym. So, I gave it a whirl! I must admit that I currently workout my shoulders on my back days, so I kept that true and merely put Terry’s cobra back workout in front of a shorter shoulder workout! The first time I tried this workout, it took me about 2 hours to get through his back workout, so, if you are looking to give it a try, just make sure that you give yourself enough time to try it out. That does not mean that it will take you 2 hours, but it did take me about as I tried to keep the workout in the same order that he did it, tried to maintain the proper form, tried to figure out the best weights to use for each set, and tried to fight the gym crowd. I will admit that this workout kicked my butt the first time I gave it a try, and it will probably give you a run for your money too, but hang in there! Make sure that you focus more on maintaining proper form and technique than trying to slap on maximum weight in an effort to show off. Also, I encourage you to make sure that you look at your diet as well; basically, without getting into what to eat or not to eat before any workouts, just make sure you have enough fuel in your body to get through the workout; the last thing you will want is for your energy levels to drop while your struggle through a new workout.

Terry Crews at a press conference for The Expendables

Again, I encourage you to give this routine a few tries. Thus far, I have seen some solid results and plan to keep this routine in the weekly mix! But, I strongly encourage you to do the following:

  1. Remember that it starts in the kitchen
  2. Eat enough to ensure you don’t run out of energy
  3. Stay hydrated ~ drink water in-between sets and throughout the day
  4. Allow enough time to get the full routine in
  5. Stay focused
  6. Never quit! Hard work pays off!

Check out this routine and let me know what you think about it!

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Fitness Finesse

July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment (Edit)

The fitness battle is one that encompasses an entire lifetime. At each new turn, there are new challenges, and each of these challenges can be conquered with a little bit of hard work and dedication. Recently, I was privileged and pleased to be able to take a vacation to Orlando, Florida, with my loved ones. As most of us know, vacations tend to be a relaxing yet busy experience, and that was certainly the case for us! While we only scheduled two days for the amusement parks and one day at the beach, the remaining four days flew by so quickly that we really did not have any time to get over to the fitness center. For me, I appreciated the break from the typical (daily) grind at the gym, but the vacation is now over, so it is time to get back into the swing of things. Looking back, I recommend that you take a day off here or there or at least switch up the routine to keep fitness fun, exciting, and fresh. At the end of the day, fitness is a long-term life commitment, and it requires some finesse, persistence, determination, self-motivation, and dedication. Getting burned out along the way is a common frustration for many, so be sure to change things up from time to time and certainly give your body time to heal. Furthermore, be sure that you are feeding your muscles and getting adequate and consistent sleep each day. The fitness battle is long and tiring, but the fruits of the victories are well worth the time and effort; good luck and keep up the good work!

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Rough Start to 2011

January 27, 2011 By 3 Comments (Edit)

Here is a quick update for all of you guys (and gals) who are tracking my fitness resolution progress, goal achievement progress, or my posted DailyMile fitness routines. I ended 2010 in a fitness slump of sorts. Sure, the holiday season added more to my schedule, but the main culprit seemed to be a slight illness that I could not shake back in the middle of December. Now, I find myself slowly getting back into form, but I have lost a little on some of my lifting routines and exercises. No worries… I still am on track and highly motivated; I won’t allow any minor setback to trip me up. I am determined and remain patient in my endeavors. But, I must say that I need to really step up my cardio performance, and that begins anew tonight with a scheduled post-workout spin class – 60 minutes of fun! I hope you are doing well in your quest to achieve your fitness goals – don’t give up… never give up! Like me, I recommend that you just keep chipping away each day and keep at it. Last, but not least, remember that “fitness begins in the kitchen!” I know, I know – I have to focus on that too, but working out hard with the weights in the gym for two hours does little good if we eat a bunch of donuts when we get home!

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Color Coded Plates

October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment (Edit)

As many of you have known already (and to those who do not know but will soon figure out), I am a bit obsessive compulsive here and there, especially at the gym. When I walk up to the paper towel dispenser, I always pull two sheets off and line them up exactly back-to-back before folding it twice and spraying it with the disinfectant. I do the same thing when I need a dry (double) paper towel to wipe my sweat off of me. It is just part of my routine. Of course, I have other routines as well, just as many other weightlifters do. Now, if you read some of my other remarks and blog posts about fitness before, I really get flustered when I see the wrong weight on the wrong rack. At my gym, this becomes a bigger issue near the two Smith Machines.

Now, I would consider myself to be a nice fellow gym member. After using each machine or bench, I wipe it off. Also, when I use the plated weights (on benches, leg presses, etc.), I return each weight to the exact stack I got it from. For me, this is probably most popular on legs and shoulders day where, on a heavy workout day, I am stacking up 20-26 (45lbs) plates on the angled linear leg press (1300+ lbs total with the sled) and 300 to 400lbs on the Smith Machine when I do shoulder shrugs. No matter how much I decide to or attempt to lift, I try my best to be courteous to the other lifters by returning all plated weights to their rightful spot. In fact, you will typically find me noticing plated weights out of place and fixing those pet peeves of mine by returning those for the lazier gym rats.

So, what’s the problem (besides a few lazy people in the gym from time to time)? Well, great question, and here is one of my answers. The gym should be a bit more organized, especially for those visual learners. Of course, it is not fair just to complain about the problems or downfalls of the gym or any issue or place without offering up a potential solution. After great thought the other evening, I found that my gym and many others like it should simply have color coded plated weights. We could make each weight level a different color and color code the bar or slot where to return it, but I offer a different idea. Instead, I think that we should section off the gym more visibly by making each section of weights a different color because I find that some stacks are not full while others seem to overflow. So, the plated weights that are stacked on the leg press and squat machines should be one color (I say, pick green since it is my favorite color, and I love to work out my legs). Then, the plated weights over on the Smith machine should be colored blue (have you ever noticed just how clustered and unorganized the Smith Machine weights can be?)! Then, let’s go to the other plated machines and color those plates purple. Lastly, let’s color the plated weights within the bench section red. This will allow others to see where they borrowed the weights from in the first place. Furthermore, if I am using a red plate over in the leg press area, I know where it should be returned to. Attention gyms: Let’s get organized! And to my fellow lifters… take an extra minute and return the weights to their rightful spot after using them – think of it as the final repetition or something!

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Bought New Earbuds

August 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment (Edit)

Well, after constantly finding myself at the mercy of my old earbuds which always seemed to either randomly fast-forward through some of my songs (chipmunk style) or randomly paused the music, I had to acknowledge that my earbuds were shorting out on me – that they had some type of wiring issue. Basically, I needed to invest in a new set. Since I find it important to have uninterrupted music playability while working out and since it was a relative urgent matter on my birthday, I just swung by the nearby Wal-Mart and sought to pick up a new set. As I was looking around, a customer came up and was looking for specific types of earbuds; he took a moment to recommend the JVC HA-FX35 Marshmallow earbuds to me because of the noise-cancelling features and the quality that you get at such a bargain, he grabbed himself two sets, and he headed off on his way. As a result, I decided to give them a try.

Here is what I think:

I must acknowledge that I have not tried out a whole bunch of sets or types of earbuds (I think this is now the third set that I have ever needed to use), so I cannot consider myself to be a true expert. However, I do put between 14 and 21 hours into the gym each week, and the iPod Touch is never left at home! Overall, they are a solid and inexpensive choice. The quality is not too bad, but I will say that my biggest hurdle thus far is getting use to the feel and comfort in the ear. It does not seem as loud as previous earbuds that I use, but that might be a good thing, preventing me from damaging my ears any more than necessary. Yet, I do sometimes struggle to find a loud enough volume to get me in the workout zone! Currently, I am doing a little trial-and-error on the feel of them within my ear; I will say that it is possible that I am not putting them in deep enough or angling them just right.

So, the jury is still out on these, but, I believe that, at $20 (USD), there would be few if any other better options from competing brands and product lines within the price range! But, maybe I missed something, so what do you think?

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Recent Pet Peeves at the Gym

July 16, 2010 By 1 Comment (Edit)

As with anything in life, a few things get on my nerves while trying to workout at the gym. I go to LA Fitness near my house, and I really enjoy my time there, typically spending over two hour each day tackling various cardio and weight training routines! Since I attend a large gym like LA Fitness, I seem to come across a few more things that jump on my nerves than I might endure at a small facility.

Here are some of the pet peeves that I have endured in the past month:

Urinals not flushed – Okay, so this is a guy thing that is quite mind-boggling at times. Are we just trying to conserve some water here or what? Typically, the gym is never out of hand soap, so it is not like the guys can’t wash their hands after flushing, something that they probably should be doing anyways!

People who don’t put weights back after using benches and plate machines – This is simply a courtesy thing, and the gyms ask that you do this when you are done with the weights and prior to moving on to your next exercise or machine. As the gym teacher back in high school would say, “If you can lift the weights up to use them, you can lift them to put them back where they belong.”

Weights on wrong stack – Well, some people put the weights back, but they do not put them back where they truly belong, so I guess they get half credit, right? This is particularly true over at the dumbbell racks. Since it is sometimes easier (depending on which bench someone uses and which benches are available) to simply put the dumbbells back on the nearest racks instead of where they belong, you have to really be watchful when going to grab the dumbbells that you want for your workout. I recommend that you double check because people can make mistakes from time to time, but some actions are purely blatant. I recall one recent workout where I grabbed one 50lb dumbbell with my right hand and a 55lb dumbbell with my left hand to go use on the flat bench. Surprisingly, I did not notice the difference during the chest press routine, but I noticed it after the first set. Luckily, it did not cause me an injury or something of a similar nature. Certainly, it does not stop there either; people put the 25lb weight plates on the 45lb rack, so I find myself having to fix it – must just be my perfectionist or slight OCD self showing himself!

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Welcome to Fitness Frenzy

July 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment (Edit)

I have started this separate blog in order to keep my interests and their related blogs apart. I look forward to sharing my fitness goals, thoughts, aspirations, and more, and I welcome your candor along the way!

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