Personal training: helping a friend day four

personal-training

Warm-up:

  • Knee to chest
  • lunge twist
  • leg swings
5-10 minutes of dynamic warm-up.
Workout Session:
  • Treadmill – 45 minutes, no incline, 4.0 speed. 
If he needed a break, I told him to reduce the speed and keep walking, not come to a full stop. 
Cool-down:
  • Treadmill- 5 minute, no incline, 3.5 decreasing slowly to 1.5 speeds
Stretching:
  • Glute stretch- hold 10 seconds each leg
  • Runner’s stretch- hold for 10 seconds, each leg
  • hamstring stretch- 3 sets of 8-10 second counts both legs at the same time
Overall:
John did a good job with not coming to a complete stop when he was becoming fatigued, he listened to me and reduced his speed as needed but always made to sure to raise it back to 4.0 when he was ready.  It is obvious he struggles with cardiovascular oxidation, but that is okay, because we will continue to work on this.  Tomorrow, I will have him do the same exact exercise regimen, if we attend the gym (which is in the plans).  I figured he may get winded a bit because he is not used to walking that pace, he does a good job with staying hydrated during the workout session, unlike myself. oops. He turned in his paperwork for the week, that keeps track of his eating habits, steps, and sleep. I will be sure to look over all of those this weekend, he asked me when he could weigh himself and I informed him Oct. 9th would be his first weigh-in. Hopefully  he will see results, small or big, and if not, we can go over the why & how. 
Goal: Cardio, Cardio, Cardio. Work on his endurance, cardiovascular oxidation, breathing, and get him to push himself when he gets “tired”. 
Your fitness blogger,
Shay-lon xoxo
P.S I may not get to anyone’s comments from today or tomorrow because I am having to work all day today, so bare with me, and I will make sure to reply back as soon as I get a chance. Thank you.

The Former Editor of Muscle & Fitness Magazine wants me to write for his website

blogger

Hey bloggers,

I wanted to inform you on two things:

  1. The Editor in Chief of “Muscle & Fitness” magazine got back with me, he wasn’t impressed with my pitch but wants me to send him more with what he requires and told me I was a great writer and he wasn’t saying “no” to me for writing for the magazine, because he thinks I can do it, and would make a great writer for the magazine. Overall, I will be studying on “pitching” and making sure I do better this time around, I am happy he gave me a second chance at this.  
  2. The former Editor of Muscle & Fitness magazine contacted me today, asking if I would be interested writing for his website working along side with him. It isn’t paid but he will promote me throughout all social media platforms, and use my “bylines”. He seems eager to work with me, I have yet to send him an email replying back, I will do that today or tomorrow (with a “yes”) because it could turn into a job or open more doors for me down the road. Nonetheless this will be a good stepping stone, hopefully leading into the right direction. 

Thank you for the continued support, I will be very busy, but hopefully it will pay off in the end. Something good came out of my bad week. 

Your fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo

Bring the gym to your home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWy_aOlB45Y

Not everyone likes going to the gym to get their fitness for the day, I don’t blame them, because even though I attend a gym, not every gym treats their customers well, maintains a clean gym facility and the people that attend them don’t always make newcomers feel comfortable. It is hard to choose a gym, and even though I provided people with a “how to” in choosing a gym, some people just feel more comfortable within their own four walls. 

 

Personally, I have worked out at home with workout videos, believe it or not, I was doing “Taebo” with Billy Blanks for a while because my mom gave me the home videos for when I wanted to lose weight. I enjoyed it for a little while, it was a challenge because I was out of shape and got down on myself when I didn’t get something right or couldn’t keep up. I then decided to search for workouts that could be done at the house for when I decided I wasn’t in the mood to leave the house to workout. I used Pinterest at the time and found workouts I could do at the house, they were good workouts but I didn’t take them seriously because I never put my all into them.  I had to soon resort to making sure I attended the gym on a regular basis in order to take things seriously, and push myself. This was my story, but I know people who do home workouts and swear by them, and that is their story.  I say if it works, then do it. 

 

This post isn’t about whether home workouts are good or bad, that isn’t something someone can tell you, that is something that is specific to each individual, some of you may enjoy workout videos, home exercises, and some of you may not find them to be enjoyable and much prefer to attend a gym or class, either one is okay.  This post is about sharing with you the positives that can come from working out at home and I will share some ideas on how to go about working out at home if you are interested,

 

The benefits to staying home:

 
  • It is Free, you don’t have to pay to stay at your house to workout
  • Minimal equipment, you don’t need to purchase a ton of equipment in order to workout at home
  • Choices- you can workout outside or indoors
  • No dress code, you can wear whatever you feel comfortable in without judgement
  • No one is laughing at your mistakes- no one will make light of your mistakes, make them with no judgement
  • Save time- no drive time to and back from a gym
  • Your trainer is the video, you don’t have to worry about trainers switching up on you, taking vacations, etc. 
  • Privacy
  • Some would argue “greater consistency” because they can’t make excuses for why they don’t workout (the weather, traffic, time)
  • Guaranteed clean environment because you live there, you can make it as clean as you would like
  • Progress at your pace, not having to compare your results with others from a class 

Home videos:

  • Billy Blanks Taebo
  • Youtube videos (choose wisely)
  • P90X
  • insanity
  • Zumba
  • 21 day Fix
  • Prenatal physique
  • PIYo Yoga
  • Focus T25
  • 30 Day shred Jillian Michaels
  • Shaun T Cize
  • Body Beast
  • Hip Hop Abs
  • Richard Simmons (he makes me laugh)
  • Getting ideas from Pinterest

If you know someone or if you have had any luck with any of these workouts, please share with my readers, they would love to hear about it. Also, if you are like myself and cannot get motivated enough to workout at home, would love to hear why. If anyone has other forms of working out they use when at home, please feel free to share. Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed the read, share, like, follow and comment. 

 

Your fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo

“Shay-lon is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Red wine and Dark chocolate

Who loves dark chocolate and red wine? I know I love me some good red wine, I actually prefer red wine over white and to be honest with all of you, I have a bottle of red wine next to me while I am typing (no I am not drunk typing). I am not a fan of dark chocolate and not a huge fan of chocolate, I have to be in the mood for it, to say the least it is not my downfall. Rumor has it that drinking red wine and eating dark chocolate has health benefits and I went digging to see what I could find and I think some of you may be pleased with some of the information and others of you may be shocked.

Red Wine: 

  • Some red wines, if made with high fiber Tempranillo grapes have been known to lower cholesterol levels
  • Protects the heart- the antioxidants reduce the risk of unwanted clotting
  • Controls blood sugar- The skin of red grapes can help regulate blood sugar in diabetics
  • Boost the brain- Resveratrol found in red wine can have a positive keeping a sharp memory
  • Fights off a cold- Again the antioxidants in red wine can help fight infection and protect cells against the effects of free radicals
  • Decreases the chance of cancer- now there was a study done that said the red wine “inhibited the key action of cancer feeding protein” because of the resveratrol. 
  • Prevents the growth of fat cells- the compound piceatannol 
  • Goes great with a nice meal. 
Now this does not mean red wines do not have negative effects on the body, this means just like anyone else, one should drink it in moderation. It is normally suggested one drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men. Although, if you ask me.. I don’t do a very good job following the rules. 
Dark chocolate:
  • Lowers blood pressure- if one has reached a certain age and have mild to high blood pressure.
  • dark chocolate contains antioxidants- but not the milk chocolate, and do not wash the down the dark chocolate with milk, otherwise that takes from what the antioxidants will help with
  • Improves blood flow
  • Lower risk of heart disease
  • known to protect the skin from the sun- flavonols can protect against sun induced damage, improve skin hydration and increase skin density
  • Improve brain function- the cocoa was used in a study with elderly people, and it shown to impro ve their cognitive functions
Eat dark chocolate in moderation but choose it over eating milk chocolate, do not load up on dark chocolate because it still has many calories and that means you will want to watch how much of it you consume on a daily basis.  
Between the both of these treats, I am thinking most of you are thinking about going to the store and stocking up on red wine and dark chocolate. Nothing wrong with that, just save me a bottle! Hope you enjoyed the read, feel free to share it on social media, follow me, and leave feedback!
Your fitness blogger, 
Shay-lon xoxo

Personal training- helping a friend day 3

personal-training

Hey everyone, 

Today was day 3 of “personal training” helping a friend, today was another good day at the gym with his workout, he did very well overall even with a challenge. 

Warm-up

  • Treadmill- 10 minutes, no incline, 3.5 speed
Workout:
  • Stationary bike, level 4 resistance, had him keep his RPMs at a 50 but not quite 80.  I had him do a 10 minutes split, with a 1 minute break between each split. He did 4 rounds of 10 minutes. 
Cool down:
  • Treadmill, no incline, 2.5 speed
Stretching:
  • We didn’t have time for stretches afterwards because he had other business to tend to. 
Overall, John did very well with the exercise routine today, again he killed the stationary bike and he enjoys it a lot. He took breaks this time to only get water to stay hydrated since he had forgotten his water bottle, his RPMs were between 60 and 80 the whole time, and he didn’t stop for any significant amount of time. I am very proud of him. Tomorrow I plan switching it up a bit, and having him do the treadmill for 45 minutes, at a constant speed of 4.0- 4.5 and see how he handles it without the incline. I want to eventually have him use incline, but not until his fitness level increases, where I am comfortable with him doing incline at a high rate of speed, or moderate rate of speed. I could have him do a high incline with a low speed, but still, I need to make sure he is conditioned for that because that can still be fairly hard on someone who is unconditioned. 
Our warm-up will be a dynamic warm-up instead of using the treadmill and we will have a cool down on the treadmill since that is where we will start our workout. 
At some point, I will be pushing him beyond his comfort level, but in small increments with different cardio exercises. 
Your fitness blogger,
Shay-lon xoxo