Today is National Dance Day!

National Dance Day is a grassroots initiative encouraging the nation, young and old, to move!

On this day, individuals, families, organizations and communities from across the nation are encouraged to come together and dance. Any style of dance is welcome and imagination is recommended in order to get the most out of this celebratory day. So get up and dance!

Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar

I now have a pull-up bar at my house so that I can practice my pull-ups. My goal is to increase the number pull-up I can do to 20. I have been stuck at 8 pull-ups for so long now that it is annoying. The weird thing is that I was able to do up to 10 and 12 when I lived in California but it's seems that I am weaker on the East Coast! So I am only able to do about 6 or 7 consecutive pull-ups at a time.
I have been trying to do them every other day. I was at my health club doing pull-ups and this lady was asking me tips on how she to do them, since she was unable to do one and wanted to learn. I told her to have her husband spot her and do some negatives. This is how I was able to increase my pullup strength when I first started. I think I was only able to do about 2. The same lady then asks me if I was a professional athlete. She actually thought I looked like a professional athlete? I guess that is an improvement from the last time...this lady at my health club asked my husband and I if we were professional cheerleaders??? I am not sure if I've ever seen a six foot 5 inch tall cheerleader, since that's my husband's height! Weird how people assume that once you are in relatively good physical shape/conditioning, you look that way because you are getting paid...you therefore must be a professional_____

Visualize your Workout

I feel like I am on hiatus from my blog writing this summer. This has been an interesting and busy summer to say the least. Last month was a pretty crappy workout month (crappy by my standards)  and I getting back into my training this month. It's funny, I was speaking to a trainer, John, at my gym and I was telling him that I feel like I've lost muscle and my muscles are smaller, particularly in my legs. This is as as a result of having a crappy workout month last month. But here I am feeling a bit ridiculous telling him this since, I hope it's not that easy to lose muscle, but it takes so long for me to put on muscle that I have a bit of a paranoia about this. Well I am not the only one who is feels this way, since John tells me that he feels the say way since he has been unable to work out for over a month after having eye surgery. I feel for him! Since he is unable to workout, he has been doing what I call "air" workouts, he is basically doing bicep curls without weights and is using a lot of visualization techniques where he visualizes that he is working out. I am not sure how effective that is but, it makes him feel better. Wouldn't it be great to just visual working out and getting some of the same effects of that workout! I actually did have a trainer who would make me visualize all my workouts before doing them.

Happy Fourth of July

Okay I have not abandoned my blog, lots and lots have happened in the past month. I went to Toronto for the Memorial Day weekend, I had a good time with my family. Unfortunately when I returned my father-in-law passed and the month of June just flew past. I've also been fighting a summer cold this past week. How horrible it is to have a summer cold and this was a pretty bad cold that lasted way too long. I am hoping to get back into my workout groove this month. I had not worked out in 9 days which seemed like so long. I was finally able to workout on Saturday. I did a gruelling leg workout that Sumi created for me and as a result today my legs are super sore. Not sure which exercise caused this but my upper thighs are super sore, usually it's my quads that are sore but I really don't feel that much soreness in my quads. My calves are also really sore which is unusual, doesn't happen too often.

I did the following workout:
Back barbell squats
Stiff legged deadlifts
Walking (knees high) BB lunges
DB Bench Step Ups
Leg curls
Standing calf raises

Actve Release Technique (ART)

I had an ART session last week and that one session helped my squatting and leg workout. I had some problems with my right knee whenever I squatted. I still don't believe that only one session helped me so much. I encouraged my husband to get ART for his knee and back problems but I never thought of getting ART for myself. My chiropractor told me that I can do more sessions if the problem persists. So far so good. He also gave me some lateral exercises that I can do to strength my hip abductors. A large part of the problem was one side was stronger than the other. I really like this chiropractor because he has experience working with athletes and his website had a bunch of videos and exercises to do. www.activespineandsport.net

I don't want to lose weight, I want to lose fat!

When you lose weight, unfortunately you not only lose fat but you lose muscle as well. Personally, I never want to lose my hard earned muscle since its so hard to put on muscle. Will Brink made the quote below and I had to post it since it is so significant.
"When you lose weight, it can be muscle, water, bone, and fat. Most people focus exclusively on weight loss, and go about dieting and exercising—assuming they exercise at all—to lose weight. In that process, they often end up simply a thinner version of their former flabby selves. Sometimes, they even end up with a higher bodyfat percentage after they lose weight, as most of what they lost was muscle! Using weight loss as the only measure of success is a huge mistake!"

Some reasons why you don't want to lose muscle:

1. As a person adds muscle, her/his metabolic rate increases slightly.
2. Fat takes up more space than muscle; a five pound pile of fat will take up more space (volume) than a five pound pile of muscle
3. When you are resting your muscles (lean mass) consume more than 25% of your energy than fat.

Got Booty? The Facts On Booty Building Sneakers!

You all may have seen the ads on TV and in magazines, sneakers that help tone your legs and butt! I have been meaning to post about these sneakers for ever so long and unfortunately have not had a chance to do so. Don't get me wron, I am all for getting up from the couch and walking and being active. If you feel you need special booty building sneakers, go right ahead and get them but really now, are they really going to give you a nice toned booty? Below is a review of those booty building sneakers and I could not have said it better myself!
The author,Will Brink, states the following in his review "if you want a well developed shapely athletic butt and legs, no pair of sneakers is going to give it to you. Like any muscle, you will have to develop it the old fashioned way via exercises such as squats, lunges, split squats, and straight leg deadlifts..." The link to his full review is below, feel free to click on the link to read more. I find the article actually very humorous!

Got Booty? The Facts On Booty Building Sneakers!

Sumi’s Hybrid Training Journey

Recently I was speaking to one of my coworkers who's exact words were "my second child made me fat, I used to be thin, but I gained all this weight when I was pregnant". When I asked her how old her child was she told me 4 years old. People when are you going to stop making excuses!

I am often thrilled when I meet fitness minded people and below is a link to a blog that is motivating. She has a 2 year old, is not making excuses and looks great! She has also given me a great lower body workout that I am going to do tomorrow or Saturday. I will let you all know how that goes! You got to read Sumi's blog!

Sumi’s Hybrid Training Journey