Challenge Workouts

Periscope is a new form of social media that I’ve started using. You can learn more about it here: www.Periscope.tv. It’s a way to do LIVE streaming video so that I can connect with you in REAL time and you can join in to comment, ask questions and show love in the form of ♡♡♡’s. (You tap your device’s screen to do this).

You can join Periscope and never have to do a live broadcast yourself, but you can enjoy video broadcasts of those people that you follow. It’s a great way to connect and get to know the ‘real’ person. The videos are raw and unedited and you never know what will happen on them so that’s the fun part. Search for me  and follow @ChallengeWorkouts

You’ll be notified anytime I do a broadcast. If you miss the broadcast, the replay is available for 24 hours.

I also decided that I’d do a ‘follow along’ video for you on Periscope as an experiment. It was my day off, but I wanted to try this out and once I got started, well, you know the rest….lots of you tuned in – for the rest of you – you’ll see a follow along video in the Periscope replay here. (This one will be available until 2:30 pm MST Sat. Jauly 25/15).

This was a bit of a disaster as you can see, but it was great fun and it’s a good workout for you to do in only 10 minutes. You can choose to follow along with me in the video, or just use the idea to do your own workout at home:

100 Burpees in 10 Minutes

Set your timer for 1 minute repeats.

Do 10 burpees in the first minute and rest in any remaining time you have until the minute is up. Repeat for 10 rounds.

Modify – Your first minute is the ‘test’ minute. Do burpees (or whatever modification you’d like to use like a burpee walk-out or full body extension). Count your reps until you get to 45 seconds. Rest for 15 seconds. Then repeat this number for the remaining 9 sets.

Intensify – This is the same as the way to modify – count how many reps you get in the first minute (up to 45 seconds so you’ll have a bit of rest in round 1). Then repeat that 9 more times. You could also do one of the cool burpee variations that I did in the video (floppy/hand release burpee, burpee get up, double jump burpee, handstand burpee)

So now you need to do three things:

1. Download Periscope to your device.
2. Follow me, Challenge Workouts and stay tuned for other Periscope broadcasts (and give me lots of ♡♡♡’s!)
3. Do this burpee follow along workout =)
4. Use cool things like Periscope with me to get in the BEST shape possible! Get on the early notification for my VIP Coaching group HERE.

How’s your motivation today? Did you workout? How was your nutrition?

I ask this because you expressed interest in my Challenge Workout VIP coaching program and this is the sort of thing you’d need to report in every day.

No matter if you’ve had a great day or you totally fell off the wagon, the team supports each other:

Tomorrow marks the start of the next 90 days of coaching. If you want to get in, now’s the time. You can do that HERE.

I’m so impressed with the progress the crew made in the last round (you can read about them here) and I’d love for you to join us (many of them will stay on and you’ll love them).

I had a conference call this morning with those that who had questions about the program, I’ll do a quick summary of some of the most common questions here:

What workouts will we do?

What about nutrition?

You’ll get a comprehensive plan with recipes and all you need. In addition, we have a nutritionist stopping by the private group to add content and answer questions. The plan is a simple paleo based plan that’s sustainable for the long term.

I’m going on a holiday in the middle of the 90 days, what about that?

Holidays are a fact of life (if we’re lucky!). We’ll help you find a way to enjoy your holiday while not sabotaging your efforts thus far.  It’s important to have a healthy balance in life, if that means lightening up on the nutrition plan and workouts, that’s understandable; the strategies we suggest will have you feeling motivated and energized and will help you avoid weight gain. We’ll likely switch into a ‘maintenance’ mode if need be. (Remember the last coaching VIP’s got through four holidays together and still lost weight.)

How does the program actually work?

Fair enough! Basically, this is an accountability group. We’ll arm you with the knowledge you need to get in the best shape of your life, but the most important part is the consistent application of this info.

We’ll help you change from an ‘information gatherer’ to an ‘information implementer’. You’ll get online workout programs, (follow along videos will be added this round), you’ll get a nutrition plan and you’ll report in daily with your progress. You’ll get support, motivation and all your questions answered. We’ll hold you accountable so you reach your goals.

That’s it!

It sounds simple because it is.

You’ll get results because you’re one of the five percenter’s that’s an action taker by applying for the program.

Go ahead and apply HERE NOW, as space is limited.

A big thank you to everyone who helped me out by filling out my recent survey. It really helps me to learn more about YOU. When I know what your needs are, I can do a better job at meeting them.

Many of you asked questions, so I’ll take this opportunity to address a few of them…..

Question: How can I get a good upper body workout when I’m working around shoulder pain?

Answer: I’ve had my share of shoulder and elbow pain. It’s important to AVOID certain exercises that will worsen your shoulder condition or even cause shoulder pain. Here’s a post with the 5 Worst Exercises for Your Shoulders (lots a videos there for you).

I have no miracle for getting a ‘good upper body’ with shoulder or elbow pain, but I do have a miracle for getting OVER your pain so you can get to work on your upper body. Check out this post.

As we age, we seem to always be training around something. It’s imperative to listen to your body and respect any ache or pain you feel. I make notes of when a pain started, what I was doing, the intensity of the pain, how it’s reacted to certain movements etc. That way I can better assess the problem, or provide detailed info to a medical expert. I honestly do a lot of my own rehab with the help of my friend, Rick Kaselj. He steers me in the right direction with rehab that I can do on my own, and then if I find no relief I can seek medical attention. You can see how Rick solved my shoulder pain here (and even my knee pain here).

Here’s a video that Rick made for those of us that do a lot of pull ups to help our shoulders stay healthy:

****************************************************************************

Turns out there are a number (59%) of readers that are women 🙂

Question: I’m a woman approaching 40 and I find that I can’t lose weight. What’s the best workout approach? I don’t have much time.

Answer: I honestly didn’t make that question one up, but it may seem that way when you see my answer. I work with many women in their 40’s in my fitness boot camp. I got into the whole online fitness coaching world with my first program called, Female Fat Loss Over 40. I developed it because I got so many questions about this and needed a way to address the issues of women in this age group.

This video pretty much explains my training approach with women in their 40’s who feel like their metabolism is tanking:

The interesting thing is that you don’t necessarily need to be a woman in your 40’s to benefit from the strength and HIIT approach I suggest. But I highly recommend it for women in this age group because women (you know who you are!) commonly gravitate towards steady state cardio (the dreadmill!). As I said in the video, steady state cardio is a road to steady state boredom, plateaus and frustration. You’ll see specially formulated workouts for women in your 40’s and beyond here.

This last year I’ve taken on a partner to help me with this program. Her name is Lisa Bullock and she’s a kick in the pants – entertaining and educational (enter-cational?). In any case, if you’re a woman in your 40’s and beyond and if you find some of the Challenge workouts a little too, well, challenging… you’ll find my ‘other’  blog and fun stuff here.

****************************************************************************

Question: What do I do if I’m starting from scratch as far as fitness goes? I took a long lay off. (Like years…)

Answer: Don’t do too much too soon! The biggest mistake many folks make when they get back into fitness is that they forget that their body isn’t conditioned to go 100%. They remember what they could do ‘back in the day’ (whether that’s from a month ago or from junior high 😉 ) and they go back to the same intensity. The best advice I can give you is to go 50% of what you feel you’re capable of for the first week. You’ll likely be sore anyway, but you’ll avoid injury.

Look ===>

The majority of my readers, 87% of you,  are over 40.

This means, more than ever, that we can’t afford to be injured.

You may think you’re ready for Challenge style workouts, but they may be a little intense for you.

My recommendation is to go ‘slow and steady’. Do progressive and safe workouts. The best ones online are from my good friends Dr. Dan Ritchie and Dr. Cody Sipes. You’ll find video follow along workouts (with me!). Here’s what these workouts are about:

Check out this blog post to find a workout.

Take a look at the Functional Fitness program here.

****************************************************************************

It wasn’t a big surprise to see that the majority of you train at home. Under the ‘other’ category, many of you said ‘outside’, ‘playground’, ‘hotel room’ and other places that a ‘home style’ workout would work well.

I also asked how you liked your content delivered, and here’s what you said:

So since 72% of you train at home and 63% like more videos, I thought I’d go to the vault and pull out an oldie but a goodie. This is a playground workout that you can do while your kids are playing at the park. Do 30 seconds of each exercise and repeat twice:

• broad jump
• monkey bar pass (or pull ups)
• suicide sprint
• jump rope (or phantom skip)
• bear crawl
• skaters
• Repeat twice
• Finish with 200 jumping jacks

If you like this workout, then you’ll LOVE my good friend Todd Kuslikus’ Bodyweight Bundle

You’ll get SO MUCH value for only $37 that you won’t even believe your eyes:

The Bodyweight Bundle 2.0 Includes All Of The Following…

• 8 Bodyweight Muscle Building/Strength ebooks valued at $235.70
• 6 Bodyweight Fatloss ebooks valued at $214.94
• 4 Bodyweight Play/Trick ebooks valued at $201
• 10 Bodyweight Workout Videos/ebooks valued at $246.79
• 5 Bodyweight Nutrition/Receipe ebooks valued at $97.94
• 4 Bodyweight Rehab/Stretching/Warm Up ebooks valued at $116.90

Total Value of Bodyweight Bundle 2.0…. $1,113.27

Your price: $37 🙂

****************************************************************************

And last but not least, what’s a Q n A without Sev?

I travel a great deal but never have to worry about Sev. It’s like he gets to go on a little doggy vacation too. He goes to his wonderful dog sitter, Elena.

Here he is with some of his pals, Monsieur LaRue, Cher (his love interest), Winnie and Buck ====>

Elena is like his doting Grandma, as you can see, everyone is getting spoiled with a teaspoon of Cool Whip – something he’d never get at home.

And if you’re up for a new sort of challenge, here was an entirely different one I did:

What a fantastically fun fundraising idea.

Even if no one ‘calls you out’, I highly recommend that you go here to make a donation.  Sadly, I’ve had ALS touch two people in my life, so making any donation, big or small, is money well spent as far as I’m concerned.

And now it’s time for some Q n A’s 🙂

Question: I’ve recently heard of something called neotame. What exactly is it?

Answer: Many of you will NOT have heard of this silent killer. It’s a relative to aspartame (nuff said!). It’s used as a table top sweetener and in processed food that are labelled ‘sugar free’.

It’s been linked to a number of health issues like diabetes, cancer, memory loss, fatigue, and more. It also wrecks havoc on any weight loss efforts. Find out some healthy alternatives in this article.

Go to this article and learn the 4 step label decoder solution to help you avoid ingredients like neotame in your food.

 Facts found on this page, when applied consistently could mean the difference between getting the body of your dreams and your physique staying the same.

Take a few minutes to read and learn here, it could save your health.

**********************************************************************************

Question: I’ve started to do some intervals which I’ve read are best for fat loss, so why am I starving now??

Answer: Intervals and cardio can spike your hunger.

In a study from the International Journal of Obesity, 35 overweight men and women exercised 5 times a week for 12 weeks. The results varied, but one subject even GAINED 4 pounds. Read the rest of this entry »

What excitement do you have planned this week?

Yesterday we took some time to take our dogs to the park and run their sillie’s out.

Sam is taking the selfie, you’ll also see my God-daughter, me, Sam’s dog Libby and of course (the Pirate) Sev.

I even make Sev step out of his comfort zone 😉

It was an adventure for him and Libby to ride in the back of the truck with me.  (He was not digging getting in the first time, but hopped up on the return trip.) We decided to take the 2 minute drive to the dog park since it was too hot to walk the extra 15 minutes both ways. The dogs were ready to collapse after their run.