Water hydration very important

Water hydration in your body is necessary to prevent muscle loss and aids in weight loss.


"Anyone wanting to lose weight should attempt to hold on to their muscles. In fact attempts should be made to increase muscle mass as this helps in maintaining weight loss. A lot of diet programs result in massive muscle loss. This is one of the main reason for rebound weight gain." Click here to read this interesting article

Please keep in kind when this article says "a reduced calorie diet in combo with 500ml of water led to an increase in weight loss",  you take into account the type of physical activity you are doing before reducing your calorie intake.

Did you know that individuals who are obese tend to have more muscle than you would expect due to the fact that they have to carry their weight around every day. When you are aiming to get in shape it is important to do some sort of strength training to build muscle mass and or keep muscle mass. Muscles burn fat through out the day. In comparison when doing only "cardio" you are only burning fat during the activity but once you are done thats it your body does not continue to burn fat through out the day unless you have the muscle mass to do so. Again this is why it is important to combine strength and endurance workouts, also known as metabolic conditioning workouts.

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Wednesdays workout

Well, I didn't actually end up swimming on Wednesday. Our household is still trying to fight a stomach bug. However, I did a workout at 6:30am it was 1000m row, 30 push jerks at 45lbs and 50 Double unders.

Thursday I was really suffering with a sinus infection so I took a rest day. Friday I did a crazy interval workout and then went rock climbing. That was not a smart move I didn't have much left in me for climbing.

Today is Saturday and I am taking the day off to rest and think about new eating habits to add and some to take away. Right now we are trying to buy all our groceries local. So we eat a lot of potatoes,carrots and cabbage. But I am getting tired of it and it is not helping my progress to my goal. Therefore, I am going to go grocery shopping and my list will be:
Spinach
Mushrooms
Red onions
Tomatoes
Chick peas
Cashews
Yogurt
Thats it for the first round.

My goal is to eat more greens and less meat and see how I feel. Also, during the day when I get going with the kids I hardly drink 8oz of water. I definitely need to amp up my water intake. This week due to the stomach bug I have been eating a lot of refined carbs like rice, crackers and bread. So I will have to cut these foods out this week. I will post again tomorrow!! peace

My gills are now wet!

Well, it was my first time in the pool today since August 2010. It felt great! This is what I did for my warmup:
Dolphins dives 50m
100m Free
50m IM kick
50m Pull
50m Free
Workout:
6 x 50m Free 15 sec rest in between sets
50m pull
50m pull with speedo paddles
50m sculling with buoy between legs
350m Free swim

Next swim workout I will time myself for a 700m swim.

Yesterdays workout I scaled as I am still recovering from a stomach bug I caught on the week-end.

A chipper is a workout that makes you feel like you have been through a wood chipper at the end of the workout. A.K.A Exhaustion! One round for time.

"Chipperiffic" by me (15:55) felt sick during the workout but I pushed through.

20 Med Ball Cleans 14lbs

30 box jumps 20"

20 pull ups used 1/2"band

20 Kettlebell Swings 25lbs

30 Burpees

15 knees to elbows

20 SDHP 35lbs


The weather here in New Brunswick is finally warming up. The mounds of snow are now only banks of snow. I am mentally in gear for training. Hopefully, no illnesses arise. Tomorrow morning I plan to go swimming again. I will be doing a time trial for a 700m which is 28 laps of the pool very boring to do indoors but awesome out on the lake. I was looking at an adventure race called Tough mudder it is just insane! I think I need two more years of training before I feel comfortable doing this one. However, I would love to give it a try! 


For now my goal is to beat my last Tri time. This is what I am working towards. I haven't started biking I have decided that I am not yet a tri junkie that can cycle indoors so I am leaving it until I am able to bike outdoors. I will be working on my swimming, running and strength training.


Post tomorrow..peace:)

Its been a while

Steve and I went on vacation to Bermuda. However, the internet was not accessible as I thought it would have been so I could not post. I have four months until my first Triathlon.

My goal was to swim the whole week we were in Bermuda but I popped my eardrum on the way their so I could not swim :( I did three workout while we were there not as many as I wanted but taking into consideration the condition I was in I will take it.

This week I have done Three workouts one on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.
Mondays Workout                                                           Tuesdays Workout
20 minutes on Core, Back and hip conditioning             Skipping, reptile plank for core, pull ups,
2k Run                                                                              rowing and some box squats.

Thursdays Workout                                                        Fridays Workout
50 Wall Ball 10lbs                                                                  3k Run
Three rounds                                                    Deadlifts 10reps at 5 sets at 70lbs (Current max is 180lbs)
100 skips                                                          Pull ups Negative 8 @ 6 sets
15 Toes above waist on bar
10 F-Squats at 65lbs
Time:13:58
Then 1 Max Power clean at 95lbs. Tried 100lbs failed.

Laziness= dreadful workout

Okay, I was lazy yesterday! So for lunch I made a soup that called for canned corn and salmon. I have to mention that I have not bought much at the grocery store for just over three months. My usual shopping list at the grocery store includes: milk, yogurt, carrots and local apple cider. Everything else I purchase at the farmers market on Saturdays.

After eating this soup along with insufficient hydration. I could feel my blood pressure rise really fast. My breath was heavy and during my workout my lungs felt like they were on fire. It was terrible :( Having said this I will never do this again. I will never buy anything in a can again. Lesson well learn't. I know it is from the high sodium in the salmon. I eat sardines sometimes so I didn't think I would be so sensitive to sodium. However, I think it was a combination of the canned corn, salmon and the vegetable stock cube.

Today I still don't feel 100%.

My workout yesterday was:

25lbs Barbell step ups on two 45lbs plates anda 25lbs plate

Box jumps on two boxes 19" high 

10 Deadlifts 65lbs (my lower back was not 100% due a fall I experienced on my icy driveway)

I did 11 rounds and the step ups and the jumps in 25min.

The kids are sleeping now so I will be doing an at home workout:

1000 skips in 6:54

300 skips

10 push ups with one arm twisted plank

Four Rounds

I will post time right after :)

The difference between pullups, chinups and kiping pullups

Today at 6:30am I did 100 Burpee pull ups on the rings in 16:37. I am really happy with this time :)

Taken from CrossFit Kinetics amazing pic!

 I want to talk a little bit about Pull ups. Pull ups are done with an overhand grip and Chin ups are done with a underhand grip. I would highly encourage practising both as they do work slightly different muscles.

So, the difference between a kiping pull up and a regular pull up as you can see in the picture here there is a large swing involved in the kiping pullup. THIS IS NOT CHEATING. This is a completely different exercise than a regular pull up. If you are able to do one regular pull up you can most likely do two to three kiping pullups. This exercise is done for both power and strength. It will help develop your muscles to enable you to do strict pull ups.

Congrats Anna on your first pull up!!

HOW TO GET YOUR PULL UPS

1. Start by doing pull ups with feet on the ground and holding on to a smith machine bar bring your chin up over the bar and lower slowly back to plank position. At home you can do them on a 2' wooden dowel between two chairs (the same way as described on the smith machine).

2. You can then add negative pull ups. On a bar jump hold your chin over the bar and lower slowly.

3. If you have portable gymnastic rings then doing ring rows in combination with the above two with in 3-6 months you will have your pullups (this depends how and how much you train).

This picture on the left is depicting strict pull ups this is mainly done for strength.

If you have any questions feel free to post it on a comment.

Until tomorrow. Jump high..lift heavy!

Bike or Treadmill

Since biking is the longest part of a triathlon I really need to focus on improving my bike time for my triathlon in the summer. Therefore, I would like to purchase this baby. Another option is to buy the bike monitor for my Garmin GPS watch which is $12 something and hook my bike up to the trainer that I have. This is definitely the cheaper option but not the most compact or safe option around the kids.

Today I did 57 minutes of yoga as I was extremely stiff from my run yesterday.

Tomorrows workout will be to run 2.7K and

3-3-3-3-3 Snatch Balances