Gym Fears


This week Heather was home faking a cold and so I again had the opportunity to work with a new victim, I mean partner. I love partnering with Heather and look forward to next week when she will be back but it's kind of cool to have occasional opportunities to work with different people. I bet it's interesting for Mike to work with so many different people every week. Everyone has something new to offer.

Meet JIF (Tamara) who stepped in to be my partner this week. At the end of the session I asked her what her favorite part was and she said the Kettleball deadliest because she was afraid to do it (due to prior injury) and that it was cool to do it safely with Mike. It got me thinking about Gym Fears and how working with Mike mitigates them.







Three Gym Fears and how Mike can help you overcome them:



Fear that you will get hurt or aggravate an injury

  • If you are honest and realistic in communicating with Mike about your abilities and injuries he can monitor them, weights, reps, etc.
  • Mike knows a MILLION exercises so if something is bothering you all you have to do is speak up and he'll come up with something else awful, I mean amazing, for you to do.
  • Mike will train you to do exercises the right way so that you don't get hurt. He is then there to watch you and make sure you don't slip into bad habits.


JIF getting ready to kettle ball dead lift

Fear of not being able to do the thing you are trying to do. AKA fear of failure.   

  • Mike's job is to determine what is realistic for you so. If you are honest with him about how hard/easy each exercise then he will learn your abilities he shouldn't ask you to do things you can't.
  • If you can't do it then you can blame it on him. 


Fear of not being able to do the thing you are trying to do. AKA fear of failure. 

  • Mike's job is to determine what is realistic for you so. If you are honest with him about how hard/easy each exercise then he will learn your abilities he shouldn't ask you to do things you can't.
  •    
  • If you can't do it then you can blame it on him.

Fear that you will look stupid

  • Mike works out of a small training only gym so there are very few people to see you look stupid unless you write a blog about it and post videos.

  • You will look stupid. Get over it. You'll look hot later.

Success!








One more pic for the cleavage




So if you struggle with Gym fears consider training (at least with Mike) because it can definitely help.

What other gym fears do you have??



~Biz

Mmmmfood

I love food.  I do not love tracking food. 

When Mike asked me to track my daily food I clarified if tracking it from my plate to my mouth counted.  Alas, my friends it does not.

I have done food journals before to help figure out medical conditions.  They are a HUGE help in many regards.  But they are a pain in the butt.  It isn’t so much that it is hard or an extremely time consuming task it’s just kind of a bummer.

I have never tracked calories before.  I figured if I want it then I am going to eat and worry about the consequences later.  I realize that is a terrible plan but it’s the one I typically operate with.  Fortunately, technology is a huge blessing!  Mike recommended checking out MyFitnessPal.  You can access it on a computer and download an app for your smartphone.  But this is why it is amazing to me; it has a bar code scanner.  One that works and pulls up the food and nutritional info almost every time.  The only time it didn’t work was some weird obscure something or other I was eating (I should probably be more concerned that it couldn’t find something I was eating).  You can also enter your exercise so that your calorie allotment for the day adjusts based on the calories you expend.  Be warned though, the fitness portion leaves a little something to be desired.

 Why is tracking food good for you? 

  • It helps keep you accountable.  When you can physically see how many mini snickers you have chowed down in one day you start feeling a little guilty.
  • I enjoy seeing how many free bonus calories I get after a good work out or run.  And don’t tell Mike, but sometimes I fill those bonus calories with cake!
  • It is easier to see patterns which may help uncover certain trigger foods to avoid.  I have migraines and a whole laundry list of stomach issues.  I found out Chinese food made me feel like death and narrowed it down to that lovely MSG.  Another fun one with MSG, Dorito’s.  I haven’t had Dorito’s in over 8 years!
  • It’s strangely fascinating to see the calories add up.  Some things will shock you by having very few calories. 

In the end, everyone is going to have bad days.  Don’t beat yourself up too bad for dipping into the candy bowl every once in a while or eating a delicious white bread sandwich BUT don’t forget to log it.  If you think of the food you put in as the amount of burpee’s you will have to do you may just think otherwise.  Happy tracking!

The Pros and Cons of Balls

Why is it that I always find myself talking about balls?  Maybe cause balls are great for training... so much innuendo.    Today I'll go through some pros and cons of the Sweaty Swiss Balls that I love and hate so much.

PRO: There is A LOT of comedy to be had when trying to balance, squeeze, roll, and fondle balls
CON:  MUCH of the comedy is simply trying to get into position to start the exercises...

PRO: They work a lot of different body parts.  In addition to core activation each exercise works other areas too like shoulders, glutes and hamstrings.
CON: This means that ALL of me is sore for 2 days not just part of me...

PRO: The exercises are easily adjustable for different skill levels so they work well for partner training because we can each work at our level
CON: Its easy for your partner to kick your ass..

PRO: The exercises are fairly simply to understand.
CON: Imitation is harder than understanding...

PRO: Mike always has something new to add into the mix
CON: Mike always has something new to add into the mix...

PRO: I always like the idea of swiss balls before and after using them
CON: I remember how much they suck WHILE using them...

PRO: They use your body weight instead of added weight
CON: When working with weights it's because the weight is too heavy... with these its my body weight thats too heavy...

PRO: You get to play with balls
CON: They get really sweaty...

PRO: Mike mixes it up and does circuits with lots of different exercises
CON: Just when you think you are done he makes you do more dead bugs...or banging bugs which I'm sure I'll talk about another time.

PRO: You get to lie backwards over them at the end of the workout (trust me its amazing)
CON: You have to survive the workout to get to the end

PRO: I always survive and feel good about it.  =)

~Biz

Noodle legs!

Who knew there were so many ways to torture ones legs?  Squats with kettlebells, squats with a band, low side step squats, squats with a bar, Bulgarian split squats, the list of squats is endless I am sure.  And let us not forget the machine that is *ahem* less than lady like and makes your butt hurt.  Wait!  That came out wrong! 

We opted to pass on pictures of the awkward machine.  And if you are wondering where it made one’s butt hurt, think top cheek like a wicked slow building Charlie horse.

We did however take some pictures of the Bulgarian split squats.  These are without weights at first because I have the grace and poise of a drunken elephant and wanted to get a feel for the move prior to holding something heavy above my head.  Then Mike was convinced I could do them holding heavy items.  I am pretty sure he gave me the lightest thing he could find in the building and that still counts!  The Bulgarian split squats work a lot of things at once. That is why they suck and are awesome.  Both legs seemed angry at the same time, which is impressive considering one is kind of kicked up there. 

I know you are worried about my stick arms.  Have no fear!  Mike decided to go ahead and round out the night by making my arms work for it too.  But not as hard as my legs because I might need my arms to drag my noodle legs out to the car.  For that I am thankful.

I have been doing yoga two days a week at 5:30 am and I really enjoy it (the yoga not necessarily the time).  It is quite challenging after trainer days.  This morning the instructor was going over what to expect and says “today will be like leg day only with yoga!”  Let’s just go ahead and assume there was a lot of rests and modifications today.  On the up side I didn’t cry and I didn’t leave. 

One day the exercises of today will not generate the same level of soreness.  I am looking forward to that day where I can hold my baby weight and whip out sets and be like “BAM! Check that out!”  I know when that happens it will be short and glorious because Mike will hand me something heavier and we will start the process again.  It is worth it.