Back in action!

Greetings and salutations my friends! So, here we are, 10 days after my first experience with shin splints, and I can honestly say that I don't ever want to experience them ever again as long as I live! I'm no wimp, but geesh do they hurt!

I'm not 100%, but I did do a very low impact workout yesterday and walked one of the dogs. There's no way I'm going to try to go full-bore with a workout until I know that I'm ready to go. If I do, I realize that I'll just be back to square one, icing my shins and feeling icky about how I feel because I can't workout.

All too often, those of us who live for our workouts push ourselves to get back into the game too soon. When I rode horses competitively, if my horse had a tweaky tendon, or some mysterious lameness, there's no way I would put him back into work until he was ready to go. Six months of hand-walking an off the track Thoroughbred who is on stall rest is no fun. That said, I now totally understand their exuberance when finally put back to work. It's easy to do too much too soon. You just have to ease back into it, whether you're a human or equine athlete. Somehow, some way, you have to temper your enthusiasm at first. It is for the best.

So, no impact exercises for me during the next week. I can walk the dogs and do my weight workouts, but sadly, no Turbo Fire, no plyometrics drills, no running. It's for the best...you have one body, and you need to take care of it.

No pain, no gain, right? WRONG!

Greetings and salutations everyone! I know that all of us have experienced some sort of pain caused by injury at some point in our lives, right? So, what do you do? Does it require an immediate trip to the doctor, do you rest, or do you push through?

Many people, myself included in the past, would just push through the pain. We would grit our teeth, hope that we 'worked out of it,' and push on. No pain, no gain, right? Sadly, it really should say, "Pain, no gain," simply because if you ignore it long enough, the pain is going to get louder and louder until you finally are forced to listen.

The problem is this...if you're anything like me, I LIKE to workout. In fact, it's a major part of my day that leaves me feeling good about myself. I feel sort of lost without exercise every day, even if it's just a walk with my dogs. There's a part of me that NEEDS to exercise. So, if I'm injured and need to rest, I have some major issues with the fact that I can't walk the dogs, do P90X, or push play with Chalene and Turbo Fire. Injuries just honk me off!

Alas, here I am again, injured (insert frustrated sigh here). On Monday afternoon I did my scheduled P90X Legs and Back workout, bright and early Tuesday morning I did a 30 minute HIIT, and by Tuesday afternoon, the front of my left shin felt like it was on fire. Wednesday was a rest day, so I didn't workout, but I did walk my 3 dogs for an hour. Just walking, right? I figured it would be no big deal. Sadly, by the end of the third mile with the third dog, I had to grit my teeth against the pain in my left leg just to make it home. My poor little pupster, James, couldn't quite figure out why mom was walking so blasted slow!

It's been four days and I'm SO sick of this. But here's the deal. When you're in pain, your body is screaming at you to listen up. If you hurt enough to notice it, you had better listen to what your body is trying to tell you. If you choose not to, a week of inconvenience may very well turn into a month or longer.

I did manage to do some push-ups and core work today, things that won't aggravate my left shin, and I am icing and stretching the injury like a good girl. I am feeling better...almost good enough to walk some dogs! But, I am going to force myself to stay immobile for a few more days to make sure that I've given my body time to heal.

Pain doesn't necessarily mean you're doing something right...pain means you'd better listen and you had better listen NOW!

Love the Fire!

Greetings and salutations my fitness friends! Hope today's blog post finds each one of you happy, healthy, and solidly moving towards your fitness goals, regardless of whether it is the holiday season or not!

Many of you know that many months ago I started the 20-week ChaLean Extreme/Turbo Fire hybrid. I'm pleased to say that I finished said hybrid earlier this fall, and have just been bouncing around from workout to workout, making sure that I lift weights 2-3 days per week, walk my dogs 6 days per week and fit some cardio in wherever I can. I really liked the hybrid, but really wasn't ready to jump right back into 20-weeks of training. That said, I can honestly say that I have found that one workout program that speaks to my heart, and it's Turbo Fire.

Honestly, I started out as a Tony Horton/P90X girl through and through. I wanted to do massive amounts of push ups and my nemesis, the pull up bar, challenged me every day. I was never a cardio girl, so P90X was a good fit for me. Then I upped the challenge and made myself do Insanity. I appreciated the program for what it is...butt kicking cardio that will get you into GREAT cardiovascular shape. However, it wasn't until I pushed play on Turbo Fire that I fell in LOVE with cardio.

Seriously, the music is fantastic, Chalene Johnson has powerhouse moves, she pushes you to work harder, and I burn, on average, 100 calories for every 10 minutes of the workout. Just today I did the Fire 55 EZ workout (which by NO means is EZ!) and burned a good 542 calries in 53 minutes. I burn more in Turbo Fire than I do in Insanity (which leaves me exhausted on the floor), probably because the moves incorporate lower body, core and upper body movement versus one or the other.

Anyhow, I'm here to say that I LOVE Turbo Fire. Honestly, I can say that it will be a part of my fitness rotation for months and years to come. If you're unfamiliar, here's a little taste of what Turbo Fire is all about. Also, please feel free to JOIN ME on Facebook if you're on there...I'd love to help you on your own fitness journey as well!

Feel the FIRE!

Greetings and Salutations my friends! I can't believe it's already July...that means my summer vacation as a middle school teacher is already halfway over and I'm going to have to change the spinning of my wheels from fitness, fitness, fitness to fitness, reading and writing. I'll be honest...I'm not ready for the kiddos to come back into my classroom just yet. I'll get there, I promise, but it'll probably be August 9th at 7:25 when my new sweethearts walk down the hallway as the biggest, baddest 8th graders the school has seen. You see...THIS is the real reason why I workout!

I finished my first 90-day round of ChaLean Extreme on Saturday even though it took me about 110 days to finish (due to a muscle injury in my groin, hip and low back. I absolutely LOVED the program. The injury, though, inspired me to listen even more to my body (I wish I would remember this lesson as I tend to forget it from time to time) and I've started studying yoga at a local yoga studio. Let me just say...Yoga IS TOUGH. Seriously, those yoga peeps are strong, strong, strong. The thing is, I'm strong too, but not yoga strong. Yoga will identify every single one of your weaknesses within the first 5 minutes of class. It's a very humbling experience, but I know that if I keep up with it, it'll make me a better person overall as well.

Anyhow, my purpose today is to talk about FIRE...as in Turbo Fire.

I started my 20 week (yes, I said TWENTY WEEKS) hybrid schedule that combines ChaLean Extreme and Turbo Fire yesterday and I am SO psyched about the results I know I'm going to get. Chalene's Turbo Fire workouts (both the Fire and HiiT) workouts are killer calorie burners (seriously, I got 700 calories in a 55 minute workout the other day!!), and combined with the strength training with ChaLean Extreme, I don't know that there's going to be a better combination.

One of the 'new' things in the Turbo Fire program is a concept called HIIT...High Intensity Interval Training...short bouts of high intesity exercise for about 45 seconds followed by short rests. Rinse, repeat. Granted, you may be looking around for your left lung between HIIT intervals, but the good thing is that the HIIT workouts are generally short (15-25 minutes) compared to the Fire workouts (30-60), but continue to give you the 'afterburner effect' once finished.

Here's just a little sneak peak of what the HIIT 15 workout entails (though this is just 2 of the 3 intervals...I somehow managed to erase the 3rd circuit off my camcorder and my body was too toasted from fatigue to try to record it again once I'd realized my faux pas):



Now, I know, I know...many of you want to tell me that, "I don't jump." Well, you know what? I didn't either a year ago. I was too fat to get my big old booty off the ground. It was like trying to jump with an anvil in my pants. But here I am today, a regular old jumping bean! Don't fear, though...every single move on every class session of Turbo Fire has been modified for those of you who don't want the impact of jumping. You'll still get a great workout, but without stressing your knees.

There you have it...my two favorites...Turbo Fire and ChaLean Extreme. Who would like to join me and fuel their fire?? Message me!!