Recovery Week - Active Rest

We are back another recovery week. To really get the most out of the class we need to understand the purpose of active recovery.

Active recovery is just what it says: take a proactive approach to recovery. Recovery is allowing your body to regenerate to building stronger muscles capable of taking more punishment...I mean exercise.

Another HUGE part of active recovery is the psychological recovery. Allowing your mind to relax and not worry about getting up before dawn. Let the mental stress, that comes along with really pushing your body harder than you have before, dissipate. This helps to avoid burnout.

Now to the active part. Although we are recovering I want you to do something fun, that you enjoy doing, but is active and involves motion and movement. It could be as simple as walking 9 holes of golf, hiking in the hills, going for a bike ride, or playing with your kids. But do something you enjoy.

In case you're struggling to come up with some activity, I have a challenge for you this week that I will take less than 10 minutes. Find an empty gallon jug and fill it with water, be sure duct tape the cap to make sure the water doesn't leak from it. This is your medicine ball (but don't try bouncing it).

1. Squat curl and press x 30 (Try single arm if you DARE!!)
   
2. 1/2 Pushups x 20 - lower your chest to the water jug and push back up
3. Split Jumps x 10 each leg (20 for adv.) - take a lunge position and jump as high as you can absorbing the drop on the landing
   
4. Single arm row and push x 20 each - from a bent over rowing position pull the jug up and then turn and push the jug to the sky.

On the first day you try this circuit, go around once and see how quick you can do it. The second day you try it I want you to go around as many times as possible without resting longer than :10 between exercises.

When you are done, come back and leave a comment with how many times you made it around!!

See you next week!!

Sabatoging your Weight Loss Goals

Alright guys. So you've been working really hard with our Hi-5 FitCamp. We are building muscle, but what about cutting out the fat??

Most of that needs to come from a change in your eating habits. If you try to out work a bad diet, you'll fail every time.

To lose weight, we have to have what is called a negative calorie balance. Meaning that in order to lose weight you must have fewer calories coming in than going out. Don't take it to the extreme, everybody has a minimum number of calories they must eat just to keep their body functioning properly. A negative balance of -500 per day will allow you to cut out over a pound per week. You can meet this negative balance through a combination of restructured eating habits and exercise. You can find out how many your body needs here. If you don't know how much you need, then how can you know how many you need to cut out? And this is the one thing that sabatoge's the weight loss goals of most people.

But you also need additional energy based on your activity level. You can find out how many you need here. Our resting energy requirement (RMR) is partially dependent on how much muscle we have on our body. The more muscle we have, the more energy we require, and the more energy we use at rest. So what happens is our body starts losing fat at rest.

So if you think lifting weights or resistance training isn't for you, you might want to rethink that. Rethink what your definition of resistance training is. Body weight squat are resistance training, pushups are resistance training. Lifting your child or grandchild up is resistance training (if he/she is over 30 pounds, I would not recommend this for most people who are new to exercise). But don't be afraid to go a little heavy. An 8 lb medicine ball is an extremely effective tool for building strength, muscular endurance, muscular power and core stability/strength.

Here is a quick at home circuit that uses a medicine ball and takes about 15 minutes.

Do one right after the other and don't stop until you make it 3 times around or 15 minutes.

A) Med Ball overhead squat x 15
B) Mountain climbers on med ball x 10 each side

C) Lateral Lunge w/ med ball push x 8 each side

D) Side plank :20 each side

Nutrition

If you've never heard of Dr. Chris Mohr, well we need to get you guys acquainted. Dr. Mohr is a nutritionist who specializes in weight loss and has consulted with everybody from the average joe, to the junior athlete, to professional baseball and football players. So if you are ever in doubt about what to eat, you can visit his website or subscribe to his newsletter that is filled with tons of great information.

His most recent idea is amazingly brilliant!! I can't wait to try it out. See it here!!. I hope you guys are able to take advantage of this and try out that burger this weekend.