Tag: Great Shape

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Weight Loss Exercise

Breaking through your Barriers

I was listening to a podcast today where the fellow was talking about comfort zones and how to picture them. The way that he explained it was that to be comfortable you need to have a top and a bottom level to your comfort zone and when you get close to either you start to feel uncomfortable.

I have never heard it explained this way. I alway think that we have barriers to break through but in this analogy the guy was saying if you feel pretty good you will grab that piece of cake, if you feel not so good compared to the top of your comfort zone then you will pass on it.

I like cake, but the example is great when we take emotions out of the equation.

So really what you want to do to break through your barrier in this example is to say – “I want to lose 5 pounds, this will be uncomfortable but I will pass on the next 20 pieces of cake to do this”

Does that make sense?

I sometimes stumble personally because I will break down things like this logically. Workout, eating, food type or exercise type decisions are all rational but when the time comes is when the emotion comes. The stress of getting out of that comfort zone.

Getting out of your comfort zone, the way I look at it is simply to hold your breath and jump. There is no way that we are going to avoid stress or discomfort and those really are the emotional side of breaking through your barriers, let that be, know you will be uncomfortable, and do it anyway.

I can give a great example and that is my workout schedule. I love to and know that I have to workout hard and heavy. These workouts make the difference between me being in ok shape and being in great shape. But to do these workouts means that I have to make it to the gym and then once there I need to lift as heavy as I can. I know that there are many excuses that I can make so I try to just set a time to go and then not even think twice about hitting the gym. I know that thinking twice about going to the gym means that I am going to be able to come up with great and useful excuses not to go. Very easy for me to skip with a huge headful of excuses.

Once I hit the gym there are still chances not to give it my all and I have to admit sometimes I don’t get that last rep in our skip the last set.

The important thing to remember though is that everything you do is the most important thing at that moment. If you can just make the little change, just this once, it proves to your brain that change is in fact possible.

So in the end I say this. Figure out what is truly important to change, find out what your real challenge is, you know the thing that makes you scared and nervous, and push through. Prove to your emotions AND your brain that you can push your boundaries that one inch farther.


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Weight Loss Exercise

10 minute workout

I always look for a quick workout and a 10 minute workout sounds great to me. This is a busy time of year for a lot of people and I am no exception. I slacked a little over the last couple of weeks with my workouts and here I am at 5:30 in the morning, when I should be sleeping sitting on the computer.

I am pretty happy though because I just got a workout in.

Nothing feels better than working successfully towards your goals and so I am pretty excited to be back on track. You could get on track to and if you are smart about it you can get in some short 10 minute workouts and feel like I feel this morning (although you may not want to get up this early for a workout).

How can you get any kind of workout in 10 minutes?

10 minute workout

10 minute workout

10 Minute Workout

Well Craig Ballentyne, the Turbulence Training guy, gave me this 20 page guide that gives you a four week plan of 10 minute workout plans to get yourself going. Not only is there 5 sample 10 minute workout routines but there is also 10 tips to safe workouts and a some stretches to get you all limbered up. The guide has lots of pictures to so that you don’t have to guess what the exercise should be like.

The best thing about the 20 page guide is that it is free.

Just click this link and the guide will open up the pdf right in your browser window, it is an Adobe Acrobat file.

This is a great deal (free is always good in my book). Let anyone that you think is interested know about it and we can all get in great shape by the new year

Take this 10 minute workout or one of the many in the book and see what you can do over the next few days.

  • 10 minute workout


10 minute workout

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Weight Loss Exercise

Fit over 40 review

How can you be Fit over 40

Last week I turned 40 and as part of the process of reaching another one of those ages with a 0 on the end I decided to take a look at what I should do differently with my health and exercise.

Yes, I know, age is just a number and it is more important to treat your body well, but there are health and fitness issues that will make a difference in exercise, for example we produce less testosterone naturally as we get older so it is more difficult to gain muscle.

As I was looking for information I ran across an eBook called Fit over 40. Fit over 40 is a very interesting eBook written by Jon Benson and Tom Venuto. The reason that this book is interesting is that it is not just a do this, do that, eat this, don’t eat that, type of book. Instead this book is big on motivation and shows you a better way to reach your goals. The way the book uses is through example.

Here are the three sections of Fit over 40

Fit over 40 reviewFit over 40 Part one

Jon Benson describes his struggles and successes and how he was able to transform his body and health. And further Jon lays outs some great principles

  • BodyWorks: Strength Strategy
  • Inner Fuel: The Taste of Health
  • I Can See The Valley: New Hills, New Horizons
  • Begin and Believe
  • Post-40 Training Tips

Fit over 40 Part two

This is the exciting meat of this book. Now that we have a basis for looking at how it looks and feels to be fit Jon Benson takes us through biographies of 52 people over 40 that have a great health and how they got that way, some were very sick and some were healthy but the important thing is all of these people are people that we can really relate to in one way or another. This way we do not have to look at pro athletes as an unreachable standard of how to get in great shape.

Fit over 40 Part three

This is where Tom Venuto of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle fame kicks in. Tom Goes through the five pillars of Anti Aging:

  • Pillar 1: Weight Strength Training
  • Pillar 2: Aerobic Training
  • Pillar 3: Learning To Be Flexible
  • Pillar 4: Lifelong Nutrition
  • Pillar 5: Recovery and Renewal

After going through this and helping us realize what a big part the mental game is in getting fit we now have a well rounded process for getting, keeping, and improving lifelong health.

Conclusion of Fit over 40 Review

Fit over 40, I believe is a great read and reference book for almost anyone over 40 years old. In comparing Fit over 40 to Burn the Fat Feed the muscle, I find that this book is less in the actual workout regimen but is much better in role models. It is always easy in popular culture to find the freaks, the people over 90 that do triathlons, or the young kid that swims the English Channel. But what about the rest of us? How about the people to old to be pro athletes (although the book has a couple) but still young enough to be incredibly fit and healthy?

Any day that you are having motivation problems you can come back to this book on your computer and read about someone that is just like you and has overcome what you are struggling with.

I really recommend Fit over 40 to keep your motivation and for $39.00 it is a great value.

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