Fitness – Page 4 – HIKES & HAMSTRINGS

Focus T25: Beta, Week 1

Today I finished week 1 of the beta phase of T25. I loved this week’s workouts. My favourite is by far Speed 2.0- the variety of moves and speed of their execution were fun to learn and by the end, it was awesome to put them all together for 8 counts each. Also, I enjoyed the introduction of weights to the workouts for Rip’t Circuit and Upper Focus. So far, this Focus T25 is turning out to be a great program. I’ve been experiencing a little bit of tightness in my right IT band, so it’s time to get back to the foam roller, as well as massages and physiotherapy. Those have done wonders in the past!

Focus T25: Progress

I mentioned in my last post that Shaun T is my fitness idol. I’ve done about half of his 60-day Insanity program before, but was derailed by a vacation. Insanity is intense, but I loved it. And as things have gotten busier and busier, I’ve realized that the days of doing 1.5 – 2 hours of P90X each night isn’t really sustainable. So lo’ and behold! When Shaun T and Beachbody announced the Focus T25 program, I was super excited.

Why? Because T25 stands for Time: 25 minutes. (Well, according to one of his videos, the “T” also stands for the T in Shaun “T” :D). What’s awesome about this workout is that each video is 25 minutes long. That’s it! And it’s a full body workout with lots of cardio, core work, and resistance training in the form of body weight and actual weights. I’m usually dripping sweat by the end of the 25 minutes.

Twenty-five minutes may seem short, but as the name suggests, the program is all about focus. It’s important to push yourself throughout the 25 minutes and really focus on the intensity and form of the moves. Don’t just do the workout! I try to give 100% all the time, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. I need to step it up myself.

The program is divided into the Alpha Cycle (The Foundation: 5 weeks), Beta Cycle (The Core: 5 weeks), and Gamma Cycle (Strength: 4 weeks). I’m looking forward to the Gamma Phase- there’s some awesome weight training in that segment. Technically, my day one was July 15th. We’re close to the end of September, so my 5 week Alpha Cycle has taken me 11 weeks. But I did remain active with many different hiking trips, so it makes sense (to me) that things would be a bit spaced out. So far, I think I’m seeing results. I gained some weight post-Ireland and I’m happy that I’m trimming down a bit. But as the Alpha Cycle winds down, I’m gearing up for an intense Beta Cycle with minimal days missed. My brother is about to start a Focus T25 challenge on September 30th with his friends and coworkers, and I’ll be joining the intensity, but starting with the Beta Cycle. As he puts it:

“…there are 525,949 minutes in a year. These 10 weeks will have us working out for approx 1500 minutes of the year. That is .3% of our total time this year. I don’t know about you but .3% of my time in a year is just an incredible bargain to taking big steps to a more fit and healthier life =)”

Well said bro. Well said.

Also, this won’t be the last of these high-intensity at-home programs I will do. It was recently announced that P90X3 will be available in December of this year! P90X3!! I’m SUPER excited about this. Once Focus T25 is complete, I know what I’ll be doing :). It’s been a while since I’ve heard Tony’s pterodactyl jokes…

What the “F”! My Fall Focus

It’s the fall. I love this time of year. There’s something about the start of September that has me pumped to start new adventures and conquer goals. No doubt this is due to the scholastic schedule that I experienced for many years. And now, working in an academic setting again where I’m on main campus with all the new and returning students, there’s a sense of ambition brewing in me.

I knew I had to cultivate that ambition somehow. Which, of course, translated into reflection, lists, and a catchy tag line: “What the “F”! My Fall Focus”. I’ve come up with a game plan to tackle the next few months. Work is important and a must-do, so the list doesn’t include work-related activities like learning R or brushing up on my statistical methodology. Relationships and friendships are very important and will always get my full attention. So other than those, I’ve included the following “for-me” items into which I need to put energy. And they all start with the letter “F”:

Finances. Let’s just say that quitting my job in March and then going on a crazy expensive trip to Ireland a few weeks later were not the best decisions for my finances. (The trip, though, was great, so I wouldn’t change it for anything…). It would be many months following the trip that I’d see my first pay cheque, and though I had several people helping me out or offer to help me out, it was quite the financial hit. Here I am, at the end of September, and I finally feel like things are on the up and the cash flow is steady. But I’m still in the red. My goal for the fall is to be completely aware of my finances: where my money is going, how much I can spend, and then spend less than that. In the last month, I’ve completely rejigged where I store my money, my expenses, how much I contribute to RRSPs, and what I can budget for the month. I’ve also done a bit of consolidation, closed accounts, and paid off loans, which has been pretty awesome!

Fashion. It’s no secret that my fashion has gone down hill. I’m not saying that I don’t have fashion sense- I actually think I have a good idea of what fits my body well. I will say I’m not that adventurous with colours, but I’m trying to change that. But the aspect of fashion I’m most concerned with is my work attire. I actually showed up for work in shorts and running shoes two weeks ago. This prompted someone to say, jokingly, that it’s no longer summer. I don’t think it was jokingly. I think it was a polite way of saying that I need to step it up. So as much as I’m on a budget, I do have to put a little bit of money into sprucing up my wardrobe. I’m thinking Express will be a good place to try. Their clothes fit me well, look presentable, and are always on sale. I may be funding new clothes, but I’ll certainly be as thrifty as possible.

Fitness. After a summer of laziness and travel, I gained some weight (true story). So on June 24th (my scheduled start day of my new job), I made a commitment to start ramping up my fitness. I’m no stranger to initiating long bouts of fitness activity, and although I’ve made it a lifestyle choice, I certainly do better when I’m on a “#”-day program. I recently passed the 90 day mark since June 24th and I’m seeing results. The reason? Doing as much hiking as I could fit in, and starting Beachbody’s / Shaun T’s Focus T25 program. Shaun T has quickly become my fitness idol. I find him incredibly motivating. Through Instagram and Facebook, it’s clear that he puts everything into living a healthy and active lifestyle and inspires others to do the same. But he also has crazy cheat days and cravings and still looks the way he does. That point keeps me in check: I continue to watch my nutrition and what I eat, but it’s okay to indulge every now and then. To me, the most important part of my Fall Focus is my fitness. I’ll be tracking my workouts, cooking as many healthy meals as time permits, taking progress photos, and trying to push my limits as much as possible. Nutrition was 2013 goal of mine, and I’m putting it back into focus. I recently committed to the Banff Subaru Triathlon next year, so this fall goal may include some swimming. Apparently I need to know how to swim in order to survive the triathlon. Yikes. Oh, and cross-country skiing, because it’s a crazy complete body workout. And it’s fun. Fun starts with “F”.

Needless to say, I’m quite excited about the next few months, especially with the fitness aspect. I just found out that P90X3 will be released in December, so this will prepare me well for the 2014 Winter Challenge! More on that later, of course.

Day 45: Mid-P90X Progress :S

Insanity: Thank you for helping me stay somewhat on track! (Photo courtesy of www.beachbody.com) — Insanity: Thank you for helping me stay somewhat on track! (Photo courtesy of http://www.beachbody.com)

Ugh.

That’s pretty much how I feel about reaching the midpoint of my P90X fitness schedule. Today is Day 45, and I can say that even though I started strong, I have dropped the ball in the last few weeks. Phase 1 of the program was awesome. Then I flew home for a weekend, and I’ve never fully recovered since. I do put a lot of pressure on myself, so in my mind, the last 45 days have been a disaster/failure. However, I know this isn’t the case. I’m still doing regular exercise, and this is a good thing. I really want to pick it up for the next 45 days, but I have to keep in mind the following:

1) Work within the injury. I feel like a broken record with my injured left foot and consistent pain on my right arm, but it really does impede the performance of certain workouts. There’s no sense making the injuries worse… so I need to alter my program. Thank goodness for “Steam Engine”, my go-to abdominal workout when I’m substituting an exercise.

2) I enjoy cardio more than strength training. Well, right now I do. Since my genetics make it quite difficult to bulk-up and maintain muscle mass, my focus has been on general fitness, cardio, and trying to stay lean. Which brings me to the next point…

3) I will incorporate more Insanity. I enjoy Beachbody’s Insanity. And even though I’m exhausted by the end of the workout, I really feel like my cardio strength is improving. This will be good for running season when it starts up for me :). Hmm… maybe I should…

4) Do more fun cardio. Maybe I should try this cold-weather-running thing that people do. Or try to do more cross-country skiing. These are great, enjoyable aerobic activities that will get me outside. And with the days becoming longer, there’s no better time than now to push myself a little more and just get out there!

5) Life happens. There was a time when I did a solid P90X program. This is no longer too realistic for me. It’s not that I can’t do it (because I already did!), but sometimes more than one rest day in a week is okay. It may seem ludicrous, but I really do have to tell myself this from time to time, else the result is not a happy Rick. It’s okay to rest a little more once in a while.

So my harsh self-assessment will give myself a C+. It just means that there’s definitely room to improve over the next 45 days. Time to bring it even more!

November Fitness Challenge?

As I write this, it’s December 2nd. Where did November go?? For some reason, time just feels like it’s flying by! Although November came and went, there was a challenge in there. The November Three-way Challenge of Awesomeness. To recall, friends Dan, Beth and I, after realizing that we were quite lazy throughout the month of October, decided we would do some kind of activity every day in November. We would be accountable to our goals by tracking the activities on a shared spreadsheet. We enjoy challenges, yes, but the main purpose of this undertaking was to motivate each other to schedule fitness activities into our day-to-day lives, especially when things get quite busy or that lazy feeling sets in. In the end, we all increased the amount of time doing something each day in November (on average) compared to October, whether that was running, biking, cardio, stretching, etc. In that regard, the challenge was a complete success and we all won. Yay!

For me, life these days is certainly not like the life I lived 2 years ago when I was able to do a 90 day P90X plan without missing a day or workout. Now, it’s a challenge to incorporate something every day, although as I write that, I hear myself screaming “Excuses!” The November Three-way Challenge of Awesomeness went well in that I managed to do something every day. Sometimes it was 90 minutes of Bikram yoga. Occasionally, there were wintery activities, such as skiing or snowboarding. And when time was seemingly nowhere to be found, I would target my abdominal muscles for 10 to 20 minutes. Of course, sometimes I was enthusiastic for the workouts; other times, I worked out begrudgingly. For posterity, here are my activities for the month:

Since I like metrics, that works out to be 1,351 minutes of activity over a 30 day period, or 45.03 minutes/day on average. I’m quite happy with those numbers. I did a bit of googling and came across the Public Health Agency of Canada’s site on physical activity. We all know that living a healthy lifestyle that incorporates physical activity can: prevent chronic diseases, like heart disease and diabetes; make us stronger; decrease stress; combat obesity; improve mental health and morale; and give us more energy. According to the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), an adult between the ages of 18 and 64 should accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week. That physical activity should include some strength resistance activities at least 2 days a week. I like the slogan that the CSEP uses in their guideline pdfs: “Pick a time. Pick a place. Make a plan and move more!”

Even though I’m quite pleased about surpassing 150 minutes per week, and integrating strength training and cardio throughout the month of November, I have learned and realized a few things:

I want to step it up. Big time.
To do so, I need to eat better and start trying to get more sleep. (I make no promises on the sleep part!)
In order to complete everything I want to complete, I need to work on a schedule. This is super important in order to fit in the workouts.

My plan, once again, is to start a round of P90X in the new year. Hopefully I’m not plagued with the same injuries as this year, but since I’m still recovering, anything is possible. But I’m not going to get too tied up with this. As long as I continue living a healthy lifestyle, watching what I eat, and exercising safely, I will be very content :). With that said, I have taken a few days off to relax. Apparently relaxing once in a while is also important for a healthy lifestyle….