Monday (8/10/20) Workout

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AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)

Set a 4-minute timer and see how many rounds you can get in the 4 minutes!

 

BLOCK 1:

Exercise 1 (10 reps):

  • L1: pushup from knees
  • L2: pushup from toes
  • L3: plyo pushup 

Exercise 2 (10 reps):

  • L1: handcuff RDL
  • L2: weighted RDL
  • L3: single leg RDL

 

BLOCK 2:

Exercise 1 (15 reps):

  • L1: penguins
  • L2: oblique dips
  • L3: side plank dips

Exercise 2:

  • L1: elevated mountain climbers 10 reps
  • L2: mountain climbers 15 reps
  • L3: mountain climbers 20 reps

 

BLOCK 3:

Exercise 1 (10 reps):

  • L1: pallof press (light)
  • L2: pallof press (medium)
  • L3: pallof press (heavy)

Exercise 2 (10 reps): 

  • L1: narrow pushup from knees
  • L2: narrow pushup from toes
  • L3: narrow pushup with 5 second negative

 

BLOCK 4: 

Exercise 1 (10 reps):

  • L1: squat thrust 
  • L2: burpee
  • L3: burpee to tuck jump

Exercise 2 (10 reps):

  • L1: plank shoulder taps from knees
  • L2: plank shoulder taps from toes
  • L3: plank shoulder taps to pushup 

 

BLOCK 5:

Exercise 1 (10 reps):

  • L1: step outs
  • L2: skater hops 
  • L3: skater hops with a toe touch

Exercise 2 (10 reps):

  • L1: flutter kicks 10 reps
  • L2: flutter kicks 15 reps
  • L3: flutter kicks 20 reps

 

Go to BCS Fitness on Facebook for a video run down of this workout! Have Fun!

The Cost of Dining Out by Brad Tillery

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Everybody loves to dine out. What’s not to love about sitting down and having someone else cook for you, pick up after you, and even serve you food that you normally wouldn’t cook for yourself? I enjoy it, don’t you? However, we all have to balance the enjoyment of dining out with the price (both financially and physically) we pay to do so.

Last week, I put up a chart in the gym that showed a cost analysis of dining out. I assigned a very conservative $7 per meal average and showed what a single person and a family of 4 would spend over the course of one month, one year, and five years if they dined out once, twice, three, four, or five times per week. Here are some of the highlights of our cost analysis…  

Cost of dining out 5 times per week for one month at $7 per meal per person:  

  • Single Person Monthly: $140
  •  Family of 4: $560 
  • Single Person Per Year: $1680 
  • Family of 4 Per Year: $6720
  •  Single Person Per 5 Years: $8400
  •  Family of 4 Per 5 Years: $ 33,600

  Now for homework… sit down and decide how many times you would like to dine out based on both your budget and your fitness goals. Then, try to come up with alternatives to dining out frequently (i.e. bringing tasty left-overs to work with you, having a spouse or family member share in cooking duties, or taking a grocery store tour in order to find a few new and exciting meals that are both heathy as well as easy to prepare at home. Before you know it, you’ll see a difference in both your bottom…and your bottom line.

6 Things a Personal Trainer in College Station/Bryan Can Do For You

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When it comes to the simple health pledges of exercising more and eating better, do we really take action?  On the surface, we all believe that we have the individual strength to overcome obstacles that block our path toward a healthier tomorrow.  In reality, however, this simple pledge can be much more complex.  Our busy lives of trying to navigate a fast-paced, highly-scheduled lifestyle, are in direct odds with what it takes to truly take care of ourselves.  In regards to our well being, modern living has moved us in the wrong direction.  Too much convenience, too many choices, too many things to get done.  My head spins just thinking about it.  So when we wake up and decide that enough is enough, do we really have the tools to combat the tide?  When you find yourself at this crossroads, it might be time for you to look outward and find assistance with a personal trainer.  The many benefits that investing in a personal trainer yields include:


Accountability-We like to see are ourselves as motivated and strong all the time, but in reality, life sometimes gets the better of us. Having a trainer can be a powerful motivator for consistency, which in my opinion is the most important aspect of any fitness program.  We all are stronger when we are held accountable.  Alone, it’s easy to drop a promise; but together, we can reach levels that we did not believe possible.

Motivation-Have someone help you reach your potential, rather than just get by.  Sometimes we need someone to remind us to believe in our own strength, and to inspire us to try hard when we are struggling.  Having a trainer can be a catalyst for change. Personal trainers can help construct, define and refine goals.  Personaltrainers can be the brains behind your workout plan, who take the guess work out of the workout, and keep consistency from getting boring.  Personal trainers can be helpful at the times when you need a push, and can be your guide when things are going well.  Often I hear from clients after sessions, “I would have never done that on my own.”  That is powerful.

Knowledge/Resource– Speaking of powerful, how about increasing your knowedge and awareness of your own health?  Personal trainers can be a wonderful sounding board and resource in regards to learning the principles to taking care of yourself.  We are all on a life-time journey, and discovering new ways to take care of yourself, can only be a good thing.

Troubleshooter-Obstacles be gone.  A personal trainer can help you be more objective about the obstacles that are in your way. Sometimes we are so mired in our challenges we learn to be helpless.  Personal trainers can assist with mental strategies to deconstruct the obstacles and get moving!

Prevention-The truth is that failing to invest in your heath can have long-term costs.  Many of the ailments in society today are categorized as lifestyle diseases.  Many people incur health care costs due to illnesses, which actually far exceed the cost of committing to a healthy lifestyle.  The expense of a personal trainer mayseem like a luxury, but the long-term cost of putting your health on the back burner can be far greater.  It has been said that if you could take all the benefits of exercise and put it in a pill, it would be the most prescribed medication by far on the planet.

Individualized- We are all unique, and personal trainers best serve this reality.  Adjustments to programs and attention to details that are unique to your journey is a prime benefit of personal training.  What might be good for a group, might not be for you.  Personal trainers will customize a program for you, adding value to anyexisting workout program.

These are just a few of the the benefits of working with a personal trainer.  Changing ourselves can be complex.  Trust that you can do it.  Trust that you can swim against the tide.  And remember, there are professionals out there ready to help you on your journey to a better you.

John Jasper, BS (Kinesiology) ’96

Personal Trainer/BCS Fitness

Maximizing Your Metabolism

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When it comes to losing body fat and gaining lean muscle, everything can be boiled down to these three areas…

  1. Nutrition: Most diet experts agree that your nutrition will be responsible for 70% of your success.
  2. Exercise: Although you can’t underestimate the synergy that is created when good nutrition and hard workouts go hand in hand, exercise will only take you as far as your diet will allow it to. Exercise is recognized as contributing 20% to the overall picture of fat loss and gains in lean muscle.
  3. Genetics: Your genetic make-up completes the puzzle at 10%.

One key factor in all three of these areas is your metabolism. A strong and speedy metabolism can help you utilize the calories you take in more effectively (nutrition,) it can help you burn more calories while you are working out (exercise,) and it can allow you to tap into fat stores while you work on the computer, sleep, or watch a movie (genetics.)

Here are just a couple of things we all can do to speed up our metabolism…

Drink Lots of Water. Start by sipping a total of 64-90 ounces of water per day and then add 8 ounces for every 10 lbs of fat you need to lose. The benefits of water include, improved kidney function, appetite supresant, better transfer of nutrients into cells, and better digestion of food.

Get Your ZZZZZ’s. Deep sleep enables our bodies to produce HGH-Human Growth Hormone. This is the hormone that works directly on cells to stimulate metabolism. This is one reason younger folks have an easier time staying slim since HGH is produced at a very high rate during earlier years in life. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night can help our bodies produce more HGH. Strenuous weight training has also been showed to increase HGH levels.

Increase Protein Intake. When you eat foods like chicken, fish, and other lean meats the number of chemical reactions needed to help it digest increase. Scientist refer to this as the “dynamic reaction of protein.” This reaction can raise BMI-Basal Metabolic Rate as high as 30% for a period of 3-12 hours after digestion.

We all know we can’t be 15 years old again, but we can help ourselves by doing small things everyday to insure we are maximizing our metabolic potential.

Live well and live with purpose, Brad