I hate it – those wiggly jiggly arms. Almost everyone has them (except Chalean, my hero). I love Turbo Fire – and in the video lots of women (without arm flappers) wear these little gloves. I decided to investigate!

BeachBody sells gloved hand weights, wow! Imagine doing your favorite cardio (walking, running, turbo-firing) and getting some good upper body at the same time! I love it. They are not expensive at all – turned out to be around $20 ($15 if you are a coach). I can’t wait for them to get here! They both are .75 lbs and all the reviews I read were very positive.

Will keep you guys posted!

Shop for your weighed gloves

A twinge of pain, is just the beginning. Its your body telling you something. Listen to it! There is a difference in muscle fatigue and pain.

Almost a year ago I threw my back into massive muscle spasms. I’ve been doing well but as soon as I feel that twinge, I quit. I can say that I think its related to my hamstrings. When they are tight my back seems to have issues. So, tonight I was supposed to do core 20 with turbo fire, and it hurt. So I stopped. Now my back feels like its about to go into spasm. So I’m being super careful this evening and I will probably rest tomorrow. Better safe than sorry!

One bad workout will put you out for weeks.

Ab Burner was on the menu for today. It’s a 10 minute ab crunching work out. If you compare it to Ab Ripper X, its cake. If you compare it to sitting on the couch, its a struggle. Its mostly crunches with not much rest in between exercise. Definitely a good ab workout but not as intense as the p90x version which after this long I still struggle to get through!

Owwwwwch! This is a good workout. Its 30 minutes and targets upper body and core, though you do squats and things too. You are supposed to do it after your HIIT workout which I always seem to wiped out to do that. Maybe I need to try it before?

You just use bands in Turbo Fire Sculpt 30 and do a lot of changing pace of how fast you are doing your reps. I struggled with a few of the tricep moves. Just when you think you are done, she calls for push ups, gotta love those push ups!

This is definitely one of my new favorites. Though nothing can really beat Tony

Seriously, it can be. I think you get caught up in the moment. I was doing my HIIT 15, saw those people killing it with their jumps, so I did it too. And, now my knee hurts. I read Nik’s post on Turbo Fire 45 EZ and how she got hurt too. What’s wrong with us?

Keep it simple! If you have bad knees, dont jump and bend down. If you have a bad back, be careful when you hit the floor. Protect your joints, they are the only ones you have.

I hereby am making a commitment on this day to NOT try to kill my joints. That’s all!

We have a problem, possibly more…

1)  I’m old

2)  My calf is truly injured

3)  My high intensity days are over

4)  The socks didn’t work

5) I can’t check my ego at the door

Until I isolate any one of these variables I won’t be confident in determining the core problem.

My left calf muscle spazzed out again.  The same way it did last week when I was over-doing it on Turbo Fire 45 EZ.  It hurt so bad I had to quit.  Man, that sucked. I was all sweaty and mad!  Only got about 20 of the 45 minutes done.  I know you’re all very concerned about my “injury”– rest easy– I’m fine.  I am walking with only a slight limp.  I’ll be back on track tomorrow.

My plan is to back off (again) and figure out which moves my knees, calves, and tendons can tolerate– or not– and stick to the safer moves for me.  There’s no shame in that, right? I mean seriously guys, I want to be doing this when I’m 70!!  I’ve gotta protect my body!  I actually feel really good doing jump tucks and air jacks.  I feel sort of free and almost youthful.  Somehow those aren’t don’t cause my calf as much pain as the constant ‘bounce’ on the balls of my feet does.  I will keep myself more flat-footed and move the intensity into my core for my punches and work on squatting lower into my moves.

I’m thinking Chalene is not going to call me anytime soon to be the spokeswoman for Turbo Fire.  But I still love it!!!!!  Just in a lower impact way.  BTW, going to see the chiropractor tomorrow.

On a positive note, my achilles tendon feels TREMENDOUSLY better.  I’m thinking my compression socks were worth the jeers.

Final comment of the day:  Work out SMART!  It’s not worth injuring yourself trying to prove you are Mrs. or Mr. Awesome.  As my daughter (who was three at the time) screamed out to her daddy while he was up to bat at a softball game, “You can be awesome… if you want!”  That’s our family motto, even 5 years later (well one of the many– you gotta rehearse what those crazy kids say, or you’ll forget, right!?)

Now GO PUSH PLAY!

Compression socks!  I know, I know.  Go ahead and laugh.  Get it all out, Amy.  Just know…it’s way funnier in person.

http://www.cepsocks.com here’s the correct website for the actual socks I bought.  Here are the highlights:

CEP – Legal Performance Enhancement for the Athlete

1. Arteries with normal blood flow - Arteries are blood vessels that transport oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the organs and muscles. Veins transport de-oxygenated blood back to the heart. 2. Arteries extension - The patented compression of the CEP compression sportsocks expands the diameter of the artery: Functionality 3. An increased arterial blood circulation and supply of oxygen to the musculature – The arterial blood circulation increases by approximately 30% while at rest and by approximately 40% under physical strain. The special and patented pressure profile of the CEP compression sport socks* is a decisive element in ensuring these results. The Conclusion: » increased blood circulation » more oxygen for the musculature » enhanced performance

Benefits of CEP – an increase in performance* * A quicker run - It is possible to reduce the running time by approximately 5% (e.g., this would equal twelve minutes at a marathon time of four hours.) * An easier run – Exertion is reduced by about 6% for the same running time since the muscles have to work less. * A quicker regeneration - The phase of regeneration is shorter. *Source: Performance Enhancement, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen/Nuremberg

How does compression increase arterial blood circulation?

Athletes need oxygen! And the properties of the CEP compression sport socks support the arteries and the supply of oxygen to the musculature:

	1. Artery musculature - The musculature of the arterial wall reacts to changes in pressure.
	2. Ambient pressure and expansion of the arterial diameter – The special and patented compression of the CEP compression sportsocks increases the ambient pressure. As a result the musculature in the arterial wall relaxes and a relaxed musculature increases the arterial diameter and consequently the blood flow through the arteries.

the studies -
– Study of Technical University Dresden (Dr. Bochmann)
– Study of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen/Nuremberg (Dr. Kemmler)
– Heat generation with CEP running O2
– Follow-Up Study ZaGoMed (Dr. Zapf)

Learn more-
CEP vs. the competition
ultimate compression technology

Why I’m comfortable looking like a geek:

So, for me, these suckers totally helped.  I’ve been suffering from achilles tendon pain on my right foot, and calf pain on my left leg.  The pain I felt on both sides caused me to quit my workout one day last week.  The next day I went to Fleet Feet in Reisterstown (or is it Pikesville?) and got fitted for new shoes.  I talked about my achilles pain and they recommended these socks.  I sort of sneered at the sight of them, especially after I tried them on, but decided I was exactly that desperate.   I’ve been working really high intensity since my purchase, and have no additional pain, along with a reduction in pain I felt before.  AWESOME!

The incredibly helpful folks at Fleet Feet helped fit me for shoes a year and a half ago, back when I was going to start running.  That was February 2009.  Yeah, I ran 1 time!!!  I just couldn’t muster the energy, or find the time.  But the shoes sure made me look like a runner.  Anyway, I ended up wearing those shoes once P90X came into my life, and wore them out.  Once I start getting shin splints I have to buy a new pair of shoes.  So, I was impulsive, and thoughtless, and purchased a pair of Under Armor shoes at the gym (paid way too much btw).  They worked ok until the day I decided to run in them…  The shoes I bought are the Saucony Guide 3.  They’re SO perfect for my feet.  I have a lot of heel support, and they’re so cushy!  I feel like I’m jumping on a foam mat!  They’ve got so much bounce in them.  I’m not kidding around guys.  The #1 priority for you when starting a workout program like Turbo Fire (with lots of running in place & jumping)– or P90X’s plyo, kenpo, or interval training– is to get yourself some sweet shoes.  It’ll save you from injury and will definitely improve your performance.  Man I love my shoes.

I DID it!  It was hard, but not much harder than HIIT 20.  It feels good to be getting better at it.  My heart rate hovered at 180, which I think is fine.  I was still winded after each fire drill.  I DID do some jumpin’ today and felt great!  I’m going to post a little bit later on about why that is.

I’m on week 3!!!!!

This one definitely hurts my back if I’m not careful. There is a lot of twisting which seems to make me sore. Here are the modifications I make to protect my back.

On the cross punches , I always move my feet. I tend to work out on carpet so it looks kind of like marching, but hey, nobody is watching!

For the zig zag knees – I keep my abs very tight and do more of a crunch than side to side motion.

When you punch the clock (3 & 9 pm) I actually turn my body so my hips are square with my shoulders and punch straight out. That limits the twisting on my back.

I follow the low intensity gal on the fire drills, but I do jumping jacks, just no air jacks.

On the weird swaying thing (not sure what that is called), I squat low but dont twist much.

I’m still pretty sore afterwards, but this is definitely my favorite workout but totally hurts my back if I’m not super careful.