My Birthday Wish

Today I celebrate my 34th birthday.  It seems so weird to say 34, mainly because I truly feel like I'm in my early 20's...actually, I feel better than when I was in my early 20's. Back then, I was beginning my teaching career and tipping the scales at over 200 lbs, but I still thought I was in shape. How wrong I was. Fast forward 10 years and I find myself in so much better of a place with my health, happiness, and life in general. I love spending time playing with my boys and my wife and I feel better not only about each other but about our future as a whole. And just 2 weeks ago I was pitching against a familiar team and the manager comes over to me and says, " I don't know what you've been doing, but you are throwing harder against us now than you were 4 years ago. I can't thank Beachbody enough for what their products have done for me and my wife, and what the business opportunity has brought into our lives. Sure the money is good, but the relationships we have build with other coaches and the people we have influenced to become active in their journey toward health and fitness. It feels so good to pay it forward, you just cannot put a price on it.

I do hear it a lot from people who think I am only in this for the money. What I have to say to them is the small commission I get from an individual buying P90X from me pales in comparison to the tears of joy I get to experience from them when they tell me the doctor told them they were no longer obese, or that they don't have to take a particular medication anymore because their health has improved so much. I offer a fit club for free every Tuesday night, no obligation, no business presentation...just a great workout with a bunch of other folks that could use some extra support or simply enjoy walking the same path as others in similar situations and sharing community together. I truly don't care if you are using a Beachbody product or not. Sure, I'd prefer it, but if something is working for you and you are spreading the good word to others, that is all I can ask of you. 2 out of every 3 people in this country are obese or overweight, I don't need to make everyone a customer, but I want to make everyone aware of this crisis. I am trying to do my part, and I could use as much help as possible.

The reason I am so adamant about Beachbody and it's products is not only because I own my own Beachbody Business, but because they have a system that will absolutely work for everyone. We have fitness programs for those who like to move and grove like TurboJam, TurboFire, Hip Hop Abs, Rockin Body, programs that leave you in a puddle on the floor like Insanity and Insanity: The Asylum, or our most popular workout program of all P90X and coming soon, P90X-2, and these are just a small sample of the over 130 programs we carry. We also have the best meal replacement shake in the world in Shakeology. This is not just a meal replacement shake for weight loss, but for total health with all-natural ingredients that will completely transform you from the inside out.

So my Birthday Wish is that everyone who reads this message decides to make the commitment to improve their own health and helps to influence 2 other people to decide, commit, and succeed in becoming healthier. If you don't have the power to change, contact me and we'll do it together. Get a group to join in and we'll do it as a team. I am committing to do my part to End the Trend of obesity in this country, and I need your help.

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 30

Well, I've reached the end of the road in my 30 Day experience with Asylum and I couldn't be more proud. Sure, I still have a long way to go and there are a lot of improvements to make not only in many of the exercises in this workout, but in my general health and fitness as I strive to lead the quality of life that I want to live for years to come. There is an odd sense of satisfaction mixed with a let down that it's over. I will never again experience this program for the first time, and it's bitter-sweet in a way because the first time you set out to accomplish something there is this drive that wants to see things through to the end. Future endeavors are just as satisfying, but to me they just aren't nearly as meaningful as that initial experience, when you believe you can do something but you still have questions about how it's all going to play out.

Well, in my case with Insanity: The Asylum, I am very proud of how it went.  In going back and reading my posts covering the previous 29 days of this program, I noticed that I often claimed that although I know I'm improving I just didn't feel it. That my shoulders and legs were just as weary in the late weeks as they were in the initial ones. My Fit Test result speaks for itself. I showed improvement in every category with the exception of X Jumps. But my explanation for that is my form improved and I was jumping higher during this last test, so it would take longer between jumps, and my ass hurt like hell when Shaun T yelled "TIME".  I was blown away by the improvements I made in the other stats, especially the ones involving the ladder where you have to go up and back to complete a rotation, which means 6-8 movements for every rotation which is huge. Take a look at how things went and just remember, you can do anything if you really want to!

I want to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this journey, your messages of encouragement and inspiration have been fantastic. For those of you who expressed your thanks for my posts giving you the motivation to push yourself, I am humbled, grateful, and encouraged to see that what I am doing is having a positive effect on others as they improve their own health and fitness. God Bless every one of you, and good luck in your own transformations.

Signing off of my 30 Days in the Asylum as a GRADUATE. As Shaun T would say, "Peace, Out".

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 27

Yesterday I completed Day 27 of Asylum and the workout was Back to Core. Now, although this workout is at a much slower pace than all of the other ones with the exception of Relief, it is one of the more grueling workouts in the program (well, it is for me anyways). I don't think I have ever worked my lower back so much in my life, and this workout really pointed out that I need to pay more attention to it. Over the last 27 days, whenever I saw this workout was on the schedule I just thought to myself, "Oh Great!", because I knew I was going to be in pain in a few minutes. Well, nothing has changed, it still hurts, but it hurts GOOD. I have improved tremendously in all of the movements, and can make it through most of them without stopping. The only one I seem to still have trouble with are the flutter moves during the Split Lunges. My lower back burns, my core is torqued, my supporting leg starts to buckle and the rear shoulder feels like it's on fire half-way through the move. I have to take a second or two off before jumping back into position, but that is much better than the first attempt at this workout where on many of the moves I would take a break, and the breaks would be much longer. The other move I see a lot of room for improvement on are the reverse swimmers. By the time you get to them, you are pretty far into the workout so my back was pretty fatigued. With it being harder to keep my chest up, it made it more difficult for me to slide my elbows through without giving myself a rug burn, so I tried to slow down and simply concentrate on form when that happened. I think that's the main thing, my form. I am noticing that on all the moves my form has improved significantly, thus I am working my muscles more and lasting longer, and therefore just as tired and covered in sweat as ever by the end of the workout. What a fantastic program. 3 more days of digging deeper until "graduation!"

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 24

Yesterday I completed Day 24 of Asylum, and STRENGTH was on the schedule. I really like using the bands with this workout, but go to the dumbbells for the chest exercises to give me better resistance. I also opt to do the floor work for my back rather than go into the other room to perform on the pull-up bar, although I think that may be having a negative effect on my progress because I really need to work on my pull-ups. I am getting better at the moves where I have to jump on and off of my bands, so I get a better overall workout. Now that things seem to flow smoothly from one move to the next with the bands, I actually think I prefer using them to free weights, but it may be just because of the type of weights that I have that makes them inconvenient to switch the weight quickly.

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 23

Yesterday I completed Day 23 of Asylum, which simply means that I still have an entire week to go! This workout was about Speed & Agility, and when I look back at my video I notice that I really am not all that gifted in either of the two. Actually, although you can't really see it in this video, I do feel like I've gotten stronger in most of the moves. I did feel a sharp pain in my right knee during the opening jump rope exercises, which did cause me to stop momentarily a couple of times. But once my legs warmed up and fluid was lubing up my joints I felt a lot better. Where I truly felt gassed was during the repeated Bear Crawl exercises and the Progressive Mountain Climbers. At that point my quads have hardly any strength left, my back is tired and my shoulders felt like they were ready to give out. But as Shaun T says, that's when the real work begins. And you can tell that I was working hard by looking at how my shirt changes from light gray to almost black from all the sweat that poured out of me. Keep Digging Deeper everyone!

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 12

Once again I am met with the challenge of Back to Core. I know in looking at my videos from the previous days with this workouts that I'm improving, but during the workout it sure doesn't feel that way. Two moves in particular set my lower back on fire, and the first of those two does a number on my shoulders. Those two muscle groups continue to be my biggest area of weakness that I really want to improve on. The moves I am referring to are the twists (pulses included) and the swimmer. I had to take a quick break (I think a couple during the swimmer) in both of them to give myself some relief. The other thing I am having issues with are my calf muscles during the jumping jack sequence. The same thing happened to me during Plyo and Legs & Back in P90X and it is quite painful. My calves have always been muscular, but ever since I strained my achilis a couple of years ago I have had this problem. I will have to monitor it and continue to stretch and massage them because it is pretty frustrating. Other than that, it was a great workout.

Asylum Day 9 - I cheated!!!

Ok, so I didn't end up doing Vertical Plyo yesterday like it's listed on the calendar. I admit it, I am a wuss. Last week when I did my Day 2 workout and followed it up that night by hosting my Fit Club workout to Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit, my calves were burning for 5 days and the following workouts were exremely tough to get through. So I didn't want to experience that this time around to see if my next few workouts will be better for me than last week's following Fit Club. I am supposed to have a rest day today, but with a busy schedule tomorrow I plan to flip flop them and take tomorrow off. As always, I did prepare a video, so check out what we did yesterday with the small group that attended the workout yesterday. If you like what you see and want to try it, help increase our numbers by showing up with a friend.

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 7

Things must be improving for me, because I did this workout after playing 2nd Base and Pitching in my baseball game this morning prior to this workout, and I only died a little bit this time ;-D.  I really liked the change with the bands today in the STRENGTH workout. It gave me a different feeling in the two-way resistance, although I did feel awkward in some of the movements, especially when I had to jump in the air with the bands still under my feet. But hopefully I will become more graceful as time goes on, because I do plan on doing this workout again with the bands.

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 6

A repeat of the Day 1 workout, today I did Speed and Agility. I still don't feel very speedy or agile, but I do think I made some improvement, despite the fact that my quads were burning from the beginning, no doubt a little residual pain from the previous workouts completed during the week. I still had to take periodic breaks for both my fatigue and to get some oxygen back into my lungs, but did better on most of the moves. I still have trouble with some of the agility moves where my left foot is supposed to lead (it's a little on the slow side), and no matter how hard I try, can't seem to get my feet into the 3rd ladder rung without knocking the ladder out of place during in and out progressions...by the way, I HATE IN AND OUT PROGRESSION. It's like when Shaun T couldn't decide what move to do next in the sequence, that was his "go to" move...he must have been pretty indecisive during the planning of this workout then :-D. As usual, here are the highlights of the workout.

Insanity: The Asylum - Day 4

I have to admit that today is actually Day 5 of my Asylum program, but that means that today is a rest day for me. Therefore, I took the luxury of going to bed without posting last night, knowing that I could do it today instead. So what if that makes me lazy...I was exhausted after that workout and the video will prove it. My legs were still recovering from two days prior when I did the Strength workout and followed it up by hosting my fit club in doing Insanity: Plyometric Cardio Circuit, and the rest of me felt the fatigue from the Back to Core workout I did the day before. By the end of this workout I honestly felt like I was going to throw up and pass out, or pass out and throw up...I really couldn't tell in which order they were planning to occur. My stomach hurt, and I was having difficulty catching my breath. I think a lot of it had to do with dehydration. I don't know if it shows in the video or pictures, but I was completely drenched in sweat from head to toe. I managed to survive without passing out or puking, so I claim a victory over Vertical Plyo in this round. However, I still have a ton of improvement to do on the movements. Many of them caused me to stumble, waiver, or look just plain stupid, but I kept going. I hope this inspires others to do the same.