It was going to happen sooner or later.  All that work and pushing and sweating has to meet a test from time to time or what’s the point?

Enter GameDay

Sports simulation with the agility ladder to show you the level of fitness you are currently at.  Some of the activities I am Boss at, while others i’m still working towards.

Truth be told, this is just a fun way to run through all the exercises that you do during the asylum video series in one 60 minute session, with the back drop of competition.  Team Asylum kicks butt!

Power jumps, back extensions, push ups, running, soccer kicks, baseball, football, tennis, skating, swimming, SURFING….it’s all here.  You will have to find at least one ‘sport” you like during this routine.

I also started taking a few supplements.  I want to try a few things so I did a cardio ignite pre-workout drink and i’m going to take some other things during the day.  I have a 30 day supply so I’ll judge the results along with cleaning up my eating through the month of Feb.

That reminds me!

I know we are only 11 Days into a 30 days Asylum workout but if you are wanting to come with me to the Asylum 2 toward the end of February  now is the time to start placing your order.  I’m going to order mine as well.  It seems like an awesome way to complete a 4 month Journey that started back in November with Insanity.

How is your new years fitness journey coming?  Its only been one month but if you are thinking about throwing in the towel, DON’T!  Send me a message and give Beachbody a try.  I will be your coach and help you though the hard parts but you have to email me and let me know what you need.  Sometimes, the difference between success and failure is simple Pride:

I”m here to help you, I needed help when I first started and its been the best decision I’ve ever made.  Message me, find me on facebook, or just go balls out and join me, its free:  www.beachbodycoach.com/brucea.

Tomorrow I”m teaching P90X but I may have everyone just do my back to core workout so I don’t have to workout twice :)  #lazymuch

Have an amazing day

Asylum Day 3 back to core.  I am continued to be amazed at how challenging the Asylum workout is AFTER pushing hard through Insanity.

The key is progress!

I did a kick ass job with Insanity which bumped me to a new level, now that I’m doing Asylum at this level, i’m performing harder and faster and stronger which is feeding the process making it harder.  I have always been strong, so the first two times I did Asylum, it wasn’t as challenging because I looked at it as a strength workout with more cardio thrown in.  Now i’m seeing it for what it is.

Sports performance!

it’s right there on the label!

I used to do these drills when I played football and was doing martial arts.  This isn’t a workout, it’s a trainer.

SIDE NOTE:  I’ve been loving Bikram Yoga the last two weeks as I continue to do it nightly and one of the instructors said something yesterday that I haven’t heard in a long time but really sank in: “I’m giving you instructions and i’m always telling you the same thing, you will hear different things when you are physically and mentally ready to hear them.”

Insanity: Asylum Volume 1 SPORTS PERFORMANCE

I guess i’m ready to hear it :)

END SIDE NOTE

I’ve been doing videos after my asylum workouts but i’m not sure I like them.  I don’t say as much as I would say if I were writing so I may just making that a weekly recap type thing, who knows.

So i’m back in the game, Teaching Turbo kick at work twice a week for our fitness initiative.  Teaching P90X on Saturdays and i’m a coach in the area Biggest Loser  Challenge.  I’m doing my own asylum workout and trying to hit Bikram as often as possible.  I have done yoga and I know it’s good for you but seriously, 5 sessions of Bikram with focused instruction and I’m feeling amazing!  I haven’t even mentions the 1/2 Marathon I just finished at Disney AND I got registered last night for the 1/2 marathon at Disney in California!!!

I started this blog to remind myself that getting healthy is important and I need to get back into shape and continue to Do Something Amazing with my body so I stay young and active.  This year I’m going to try to kick it up even another notch and I’m just going to BE AMAZING!

BE AMAZING!  Let people look at you an wonder where and how you get the drive and the energy to do all the things you’re doing.  Set and example and a blueprint for others to follow you.  In a world where everything seems to be dumbing down and people are getting lazier by the second, BE AMAZING!

When I was younger I used to have my favorite Superman T-shirt I would wear around.  A few girls I knew had a problem with it because I was “cocky and arrogant for wearing it”

I don’t know why this came to me yesterday (probably the yoga) but NONE of these girls bothered to really get to know me or they would have known that I COLLECT COMIC BOOKS and SUPERMAN IS MY FAVORITE!  It had nothing to do with cockiness or arrogance, it was my reminder that I find superman amazing and I wore his shirt because, SHOCK, I actually like superman.

What’s the point in all that? There are a lot of people who are shackled with opinions and cares of what other people think or limits that other people put on you.  STOP THAT!  BE AMAZING!  Let your light shine, drive for what you want and keep pushing because your goals and life will never belong to anyone else and at the end of it, you can look back and say that you did something amazing.

I saw my superman shirt yesterday and it’s coming back out.  I am amazing, I’ve done amazing things in my life and I have a lot more on the horizon.  Stop being chained by the hang ups of people who ultimately don’t matter.

Saturday finds me teaching a growing P90X class for the Salt Creek park district in Palatine.

The class is getting stronger!  More push ups and better quality push ups, more and better everything.  Even people who just joined the class last week are looking better this week.

Train properly and consistently and there is no way you won’t see improvements.  I have a team put together and we are entered in the area wide “biggest loser” contest  with the winning team getting 5K in new equipment for the district.  I think/know that we are going to win.  

You can’t train with me and not see a difference, and i’m putting this mentality into the people I am working with.  You can’t train and not expect an improvement.

Keep that attitude in everything you do and notice how fast life get’s better!

I’m starting Insanity: The Asylum on Monday and i’m also starting a new turbo class that i’m teaching for our fitness initiative at work!  I’m also going to start doing Video Blogs for Asylum so let’s see how that goes :)

Last year I got fitter, this year i’m making a more concerted effort to pay it forward to others.

Need motivation or support, take advantage of free coaching and support and join my beachbody team.   Just follow the link and send me an email.  I’m here to help you!

www.beachbodycoach.com/brucea

Ah, the joys of Insanity continue!

I missed two days of the workout last week, Max Recovery on Thursday and Max (insert painful name here) on Friday because I’m kind of sick.  I even missed work on Friday.

Saturday I taught what I thought was going to be my last class of this session but everyone wants me to teach this coming Saturday and the Saturday after that as well.  How can I NOT?  I love teaching class.  Getting Turbo-kick certified and P90X certified has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my adult life.  (Adult life started at 33 for me).

Saturday’s class was a combo of P90X shoulders and arms and Insanity Max interval plyo.  The end results was a happily worked out class, although one of my regulars didn’t come because he got injured.

This brings me to today.  Insanity is not an easy 60 day workout, even when you modify it, this is not an easy workout.  It’s jarring on the body, takes concentration and determination.  it requires you listening to that balance of your body between hurt and laziness.  I missed two days of my workout because I was not feeling well.  I worked out today and as much as I would like to say I was just going through the motions, my body tells me otherwise.  If you are going to do Insanity, more than any other routine I have done, you are all committed or not.  You can’t 1/2 ass a diamond jump, you can’t 1/2 ass ski abs and pushup jacks. (I’m sure you can figure out a way to 1/2 ass it but by the time you do, you will be busy doing it).

42 days in and I’m all in for this workout.  Insanity, the cardio builder that will give you a year’s worth of results in 60 days.  Just be sure to take care of your body, know your limits and work within your body and you will make it through this and be ready for anything else.

Dig Deeper!

See you tomorrow for Max Interval Plyo

Recovery Week Day 4,

Yesterday I needed to take a full recovery day and did nothing on the workout front.  This was a good decision as I slept in a bit and clearly needed it.  I even slept in this morning and pushed the workout back until this evening.  

Doing this workout in the evening is kind of refreshing after an entire day of work. By work I mean, sitting in a meeting with a bunch of other network and computer geeks hammering out the final designs of our soon to be deployed cisco switches and ucs/vmware/emc infrastructure.  (I’m kind of a uber-smart guy…I should get a shirt that says All this and brains too)

Anyway, techno-geekiness aside, the release that good old fashion muscle work provides it a good thing and a necessary thing.  I’ve also been doing my daily shakeology and this is helping me feel better as I navigate this cold that doesn’t want to easily go away.

Two more days of recovery week and we are moving on to Insanity Month 2: Hell on Earth. 

My mind is beginning to shift toward the Disney run (and deciding if i want a Windows 8 ultra pc or not…the geek never really goes away, i just don’t talk about it).  

I need to start running in the real world again, nothing much, just enough so that my feet in the vibram is ready to handle the 13.1 miles of impact. I’m done running in shoes, never should have gone back to them.

I’m also mentally rambling which happens at night which is why I tend to workout in the morning and write my blog then because i have way to much going on in my head right now.

Have a great night and see you in the AM.  Here is a picture of Shaun T looking like he’s thinking deep thought, enjoy:

“Recovery Week” continues!

I’ve been consistently working out for 2 years and it still amazes me how you can feel the difference in strength and form in one day.  All the workouts this week are the same but I have discovered weaknesses in my core and how to fix them.  

Tip:  The tighter you flex your core while doing the knee lift activities, the more you work your core AND the less pressure is on your hip and groin area.  Yeah yeah, I know you already know this but sometimes, when you focus on an activity you can feel the difference and feel the strength building.  I’m pretty sure i’ll be tired tomorrow BUT I’ll be stronger and that is what counts.

I have a low grade cold and I can tell this because doing the cardio portions of this workout are surprisingly hard to me.  When you begin to get into better shape, if something is off, you feel it even more.  I think this is the stage where I can begin fine tuning :)  I also haven’t been really hungry the last few days which makes my nutrition input even more important!  I’m drinking lots of water and taking my Shakeology…of course!  It is the healthiest meal of the day

Looking ahead, Next week kicks off month 2 of Insanity where the workouts are 60 minutes instead of 40 and the intensity level is ramped up even more (As if that were possible).  This workout continues to build on itself and if you don’t do the ‘muscle building’ activities of this week, it will be harder next week.

Disney 1/2 marathon is on Jan 12th, which means I’ll be missing the last 3 days of Insanity but I think running will make up for them.  

After that I’ll either take a week off or not but the next activity I’ll be doing is Insanity:Asylum vol 1.  This continues to build on the foundation laid out by Insanity but if you want to do this with me, please feel free to join me!  If you need a copy, message me or go to my sight and get one.  

Tomorrow is another day of this…Insanity.  Keep pushing play, dig deeper and all that jazz.  If you stay consistent, you are making progress and that is the most importANT part of it all (impor-ANT, like Shaun T says it).

Manania

I didn’t workout on Friday, it was one of those times my body was just spent and I couldn’t get up to do it.  No worries, Saturday would have been my “off day” anyway…only I teach fitness class on Saturday, what to do, what to do?

I KNOW BOTH WORKOUTS!!!!!

Up Saturday Morning at 6 am doing Insanity Pure Cardio only this time it’s followed by Cardio Abs.  Yep, we’ve reached that portion of the workout where Shaun feels he needs to start adding additional 15 minute activities to the routine!

This is how you feel after doing Shaun-T’s version of “teaching you how to have sex.”  You have to do it to understand but lets’ just say the last routine, high plank/low plank, if you watch the faces of some of the people in the class, they are thinking exactly what you will be thinking ;)

I then took a shower because I desperately needed to wash the Shaun-T off me, got dressed and head over to teaching my morning workout.  It’s Movember so for the last 3 weeks I’ve been trying to grow a mustache…what do you think?

Here is some of my class as they get ready for the funk

This was a great workout, I was thinking I’d be exhausted but I had more energy than I expected and I got them going, which kept me going.  In the end, a floor full of sweat, sore muscles and smiles was left by all.

So 3 workouts done now i’m going to relax and chill for the rest of the weekend…until tomorrow when I have to do the FIT TEST!

Dig Deeper!  I’m kicking ass with this insanity session and i’m feeling the results.  I’m ending 2012 with a bang…assuming 2012 doesn’t end on Dec 21st.  I mean seriously, if Twinkies are going out of business, the end is Near!

Day 11, thank goodness there is no jumping during cardio recovery!  Now doing a ton of squats and lunges makes it feel like you’re kind of jumping only not as impactful.  Thanks Shaun T :-)

I just love when he starts asking everyone how they are feeling when they are holding lunges and squats.  How the F@#K do you think I feel?!

I made the mistake of getting on the scale this morning and I’m not happy but then I have to remind myself that the scale lies, hell, the body lies.  When you are working out hard, you are essentially “tearing” your muscles to get stronger.  This results in the body retaining more water to protect the damaged muscles so when you get on a scale after a hard series of workouts, you have weight gain…AND SORENESS.

I know I need to drink more water and I need to stay off the scale, which I don’t typically get on during a workout session until recovery week.  I’m eating decently, I’m working out hard and my clothes are continuing to get loose.  the scale is a liar so stay off of it!

This was the hardest workout day of the series so far.  Like I mentioned yesterday, this is an accumulation workout and as you break down more and more it get’s harder and harder to maintain form an speed or generally MOVE

I didn’t want to move, my body didn’t want to move, I managed to dig deep and do a moderate workout but this was not the best showing.  My ankles are sore, which is to be expected and my core/hip flexor has never really been the same since I pulled it months ago…getting stronger and functional but not 100%.

I’m really glad that tomorrow is cardio recovery

Dig Deeper, week 2 is always the hardest, even doing P90X the 2nd week is where the soreness and pain set in.  This is where you remind yourself that you have goals and sometimes you have to go through a little pain to get to the level of fitness you want to achieve.  It didn’t kill me so I must be getting stronger!