Another Friday, and another batch of incredible posts from around the web. You're going to start seeing that I post stuff from a bunch of usual suspects, blogs that I go to regularly in order to catch some enlightenment, learn some new tricks or simply enjoy that blogger's sense of humor. Here's what particularly caught my eye this week.
We're going to be kicking off a series of articles here on the Extreme Fitness Results Blog examining the world of extreme exercises. While many people throw themselves into P90X or the Insanity Workout, there's a whole slew of others who like to get Rocky Balboa on their workouts and try a variety of intense exercises. Over the next few weeks we're going to examine a number of these off-the-beaten track workouts, and evaluate whether they're worth considering. Today we're going to kick off by looking at a very cool exercise: the sledgehammer Tabata. It's cool because you get to swing a sledgehammer around, and if you're a boy, that's like returning to be a nine year old. If you're a girl? I don't know. Do girls like swinging sledgehammers around? Probably! That's just how awesome sledgehammers are.
Where you guys aware that Shakeology is rapidly becoming one of the most successful supplements out there? (Is it even a supplement? It's actually a full meal replacement!) To celebrate this rising in popularity, and the general excitement this product is generating across the nation (we're not making this up, we get amazing feedback here at EFR almost every day), we want to do a Shakeology giveaway to spur people to share their favorite recipes--and their craziest ones.
We're kicking off a new feature here at the Extreme Fitness Results Blog, where we'll link you guys to the best out there on the web. Now, there are hundreds upon thousands of amazing articles, ideas, suggestions and comments being made every day, so this is of course just a dip in the bucket, but for my money, each of these links is worth clicking on ;)
The message is always the same: Never Give In, Never Surrender. Work through the pain, tough it out, walk it off. Dig deeper, bring it, be all that you can be. But sometimes life intervenes, sometimes events go awry, and you just have to stop. An injury, a new job routine that hogs all your time, a complete implosion of your willpower, a failure to get the results you needed to stay motivated, something comes along and you find yourself unable to get out of bed and do your workout. What do you do then?
Sports supplements come and go, promising to be the magic bullet that will suddenly turn us all into supermen, but one by one their claims are disproven and they are forgotten, only to be replaced by new and more exciting promises. However, one supplement however has survived all the scrutiny, has been tested by hundreds of scientific teams, has been used extensively these past two decades and still stands tall. If any single sports supplement out there can be said to work, than its Creatine, which leads us to the question: should you take it when about to undergo Insanity or P90X?
A lot of people ask me about the timing of their recovery drink or protein shake. Some people have an almost religious belief that you need to drink it immediately after your workout, and take it into the gym with them, chugging it all down just as soon as they drop the barbell. Others believe you should have it in your system before you even workout, while others say that as long as you have it within forty minutes of your exercise, you're fine. Which is right? The discussion on nutrient timing has become intense of late, with some people going as far as to say that it doesn't actually matter what you eat, as long as you eat it at the right time (which is nonsense). So what's the real deal? When should you drink your recovery formula?
One of the questions we get the most from people trying our extreme workouts like P90X or Insanity is why they haven't dropped as much weight as they had hoped. Three, four weeks into the workout program, and they're standing on the scale, looking down at the numbers with a mixture of resignation and defeat as they see that they haven't changed as much as they had hoped. Despite the work, the sweat, the effort and careful eating, the pounds haven't fallen off like water. Are they doing something wrong? In fact, they are. They're focusing on the wrong thing.
Today we sit down with Fernanda Bressan, an Independent Beachbody Coach and part of the Extreme Fitness Results team that recently went out to Hawaii as part of the Beachbody Top Coach Annual Trip. We asked her about the experience, the people she met, and what it was like to take a class live from Tony Horton, and here's what she had to say:
Everybody is always saying you should work out. Get in shape. Run around in circles, or in the same place, lift heavy pieces of metal, sweat sweat sweat. Swim laps in the pool, or throw balls through hoops, or do some more running, or lift some more heavy pieces of metal. But why? People, let's be honest. All that exercise is hard. It takes work. And then you have to shower afterward. Is it really worth the bother? I'm not convinced--so here are the top 6 reasons to be lazy, as seen by me, on this Friday, when I am feeling a little loopy. Here we go!