Real Life Fitness – Getting Fit With Brent

Ok, so I REALLY need to do some more video updates, but have been busy.  I’m lucky to get my blog updated over the last week or so!

Today was Insanity Asylum Strength.  I can feel myself getting stronger and better in this routine now that I’m actually eating the right amount of calories for what I need.  I’m getting more assisted pull-ups done, my push-ups are getting easier, etc.  Of course, this routine still kicks my tail, but it is designed to.

Off to get more things done, get to bed early, and enjoy relief tomorrow (gearing up for Game Day + Overtime on Saturday).

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Back to the old habit of not getting sleep before a tough workout like Insanity Asylum…

Actually, not a bad habit.  In fact, not even purposeful.  Work issues last night and a 4 year old who decided to come into bed with us and kick me half the night leads to a very exhausted feeling in the morning.  So much so that I plan to do my personal development reading and go to bed!

Nutrition was back on track for the most part today, but still want to improve some.  I need to get back into my routine of bigger meals early, smaller meals later.  That is the one thing I took from the Asylum plan that worked for me when I was doing it with Insanity.

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Wow, last week got INCREDIBLY busy and I simply did not get a chance to post.  So here are my thoughts and highlights:

First, Asylum Game Day…rough.  Very rough.  A very long 60 minutes.

The rest of the routines went as planned.  This morning was rough coming off of a holiday weekend.  So my calorie burn today was quite a bit less (but I’m okay with that).  Tomorrow is a new day and a new chance to push hard.  Verticle Plyo is still one of the hardest routines in the set, and that is what I do tomorrow.

I hope to get back into posting.  I will say this:

Between doing Insanity, and then Asylum, I miss P90x.  Granted P90X is “extreme” it’s a pace I enjoy a lot more.  I like to lift.  I like challenging my body through weights.  I like a pace where I can focus on form and not feel rushed because there is a very small time limit and a rush to the next activity.  So I will be starting a new round of P90X after I get back from the beach.

My nutrition?  Well, hasn’t been good.  Going to be cleaning it up over the next few days and get back into a routine of small deficit eating of clean foods and pushing hard.  I moved away from the Asylum diet but the holiday weekend threw me off track a bit.  Nothing to be concerned with, just need to clean it back up.

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After a very needed (and nice) rest day yesterday, and a LOT of sleep last night, I got to push plan on Insanity Asylum Speed and Agility again this morning.  I did MUCH better than what I had last week.  I felt like I knew a few more of the moves and could push harder.  Amazing what a  little bit of good sleep can do for you!  46 minutes recorded, 635 calories burned.

Confession time, though:  I HATE the Asylum diet.  Not that I hate the foods on it, but rather it’s tough.  I liked my routine of 6 days of good eating and one cheat meal, having a few more carbs, and slightly less veggies than what I’m taking in now.  But…I’m focused on the goal.  The goal is to put the “Get Shredded” plan to the test and see how much body fat it could help me lose in 30 days.

I might only make it 14 on it though.  Honestly, I can feel my body needing more carbs.  I’m giving it through day 14 and focusing on getting good amounts of sleep to decide whether it is not enough to continue.

Tomorrow is another video and doing Asylum Strength.  I have a lot to improve on with this routine.  I did HORRIBLE last week on it, want to lift heavier, and do better on it tomorrow.

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O.M.G.  Hardest 40 minutes ever.  In fact, hardest WARM-UP ever!  Shaun T says something early on about lactic acid build-up and he was not joking.  Within the first few minutes my legs were on fire.  I have so much room for improvement with these routines its unreal.

That being said, this is my first time through all of them and I expect an improvement in performance each time I do them.  And I will improve.  It is a bit frustrating to me that I had this much trouble with them, both cardio wise and just learning what I’m doing.  But, the first 4 days are down and now it is time to pick up the pace.

One interesting note:  I did have to pause the video at one point.  I had to go get another resistance band (the heavy red band).   I put on my HRM at that point and started tracking.  In the last 19 mintues (including the over 3 minute cool-down) the calorie burn was over 250.  My heart rate was constantly in the 166-172 range, which isn’t bad for me.  I think next week I’ll wear it throughout all the routines and start tracking progress through how much it says I’m burning.

The nutrition is tougher than what it looks.  I’m having 1 starch a day most days, with 2 being the max.  My shake has banana in it, but other than that my fruit count is low.  1800-1900 calories on this plan is working, but is tougher than it may look or appear.

I’m holding my own with it.  I’m dedicated to getting my results, and if it means sticking out a plan like this over a period of time, so be it.

Tomorrow, thankfully, is a rest day.  My legs are sore.  I hope they can recover some before Sunday starts it again with Speed and Agility.

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Today was a bit “easier” if there is such a thing with Shaun T.  It was Back To Core, and while I wasn’t doing crazy moves with a ladder, rope, or weights, I was moving in some (right now) uncomfortable positions.  Some of the moves I simply did wrong.  But, plenty of time to improve on that.

So far, so good on the nutrition.  3 days down of an Asylum style plan and no hiccups.  As of this morning I had already lost 2 pounds.  I don’t think that will sustain, though, but progress is progress.  I hope to get one body fat measurement in this weekend and see how things look.  My goal is still 10% body fat by August 1, and it might take all 30 days of eating on the Asylum plan to get there!

Here is a look at some of the two Asylum workouts I did yesterday and today.

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So after another night of having a 4 year old kick me most of the night, I attempted this workout. Not a great performance at all. I was winded early on. I was tired. All I could think about was going to bed and getting more sleep.

Yet I completed it anyways.

Sometimes you just have to suck it up regardless of how tired you are and just do what you are scheduled to do, and that is what I did.  I took video, but it was UGLY!  It will take me a while to edit down so I may edit this one sometime this weekend and show some of it.

Nutrition was spot on again today.  I’m following Asylum’s plan for nutrition and it isn’t too bad so far.  We’ll see how I feel after a few days of good sleep.

Brent Insanity Asylum asylum strength, insanity asylum

It’s been a while since I’ve blog, so thought I’d give a quick catch-up to what all I’ve been doing over the last 7-8 days on exercise, my Insanity results, etc.

First, my Insanity results:

-  Lost almsot no weight (around 1 pound final weigh-in, but I’ll say more on this in a minute)
-  Lost 1″ from waistline
-  Lost 1.4% body Fat

Although my weight did not change then, I did manage to drop down to 165 a bit later last week, so I think a lot of the weight on my final weigh in was just waist and sodium.

Here is a picture of my Insanity before/after:

Good progress, nothing “earth shattering” but very pleased with the overall fat burn I had.  I can tell the biggest difference in my upper abs and in my arms.

Since then, I attempted a start of another week of Insanity, but after being smart and listening to my body, I decided the best route to go was to rest my body and shoulders a bit before I started Asylum.

-  Last Sunday I did do Max Interval Plyo.
-  Last Monday I did 20 minutes of Max Cardio Conditioning but had to stop due to pains from a kidney stone (not pleasant, let me tell you…)

From that point, I did 2 days of Yoga and then got sick.  Yep, when it rains, it pours.  So I took 3 days off from exercise altogether:  Two to get to feel better, and one was  regular scheduled rest day.

Yesterday I did my Asylum assessment test.  I’ve got video and I’ll post results later tonight.  It wasn’t pretty, not at all!

So there it is in a fairly wordy nutshell.  This week I’ll be doing Yoga and then heading to Beachbody’s Coach Summit 2011 in Los Angeles.  I’ll post updates on new products, workouts, etc, throughout the weekend.  You can also follow me on twitter (@brentworley) to get up-to-date about what Beachbody is going to release.

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Today is day 3 of the Insanity recovery week.  It’s nice not pounding the body, but at the same time, doing the same thing over, and over, and over gets a bit monotonous.  But hey, it’s only one week, right?  So I’m not going to complain too much.

Nutrition is on point today.

I think I’ve retooled my nutrition for the final month of Insanity.  It is going to look a LOT like the Asylum plan, or as close to it as I can without following it verbatim.

Here is what it looks like:

Breakfast – Either Shakeology + 100 Calories, or Protein/Starch/Fat combo that comes out to 500 calories.
Snack – Combo up to 400 Calories.  Will have a starch.
Lunch – Either leftovers or Shakeology + 100 calories.  Starch every other day.  500 Calories
Snack – 400 Calories, no starch.
Supper – 1/2 starch, protein, and fat mix.  400 Calories

Combine this with a recovery drink, and I’m sitting at 2400/day.

My key now is to figure out what my snacks will be.  No dairy in this plan.  The only starches allowed at supper will be 1/2 cup of beans or 1/2 cup of brown rice.  Everything else will be off limits.

Speaking of Asylum, I’m working on getting the equipment figured out.  I still need to order the pull-up bar since mine is breaking down.  But I’ve been figuring out how to jump rope again.  I adjusted the rope to the correct length today.  I also fooled around a bit with the agility ladder and attempted some plyo push-ups using it.

Needless to say, Asylum is going to kick my butt, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.

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So, a busy weekend….a VERY busy weekend, and I find myself well behind in posting on Insanity and the workouts.  Here goes nothing:

Friday – Plyo Circuit.  Felt good, pushed hard.

Saturday – Rest day

Sunday – Recovery week beings with Core Cardio and Balance.  I’m thankful for a recovery week, although I think they could have introduced more variety to this week.  I jumped into my wife’s Turbo Fire routine after I finished with this and did a couple of HIITs.

Today – CCB again.  And tomorrow?  CCB….again.  Catch the drift of the recovery week?  This workout is not “easy” but not challenging either.

I’m working on retooling my nutrition for month #2.  I’m going to move to an Asylum-esque plan.  No dairy.  Less carbs to no carbs at night (and all carbs will be natural, such as either beans or rice).  Bigger meals early in the day, slowly getting smaller, but still hanging around 2400 calories.  I may increase this to 2600 if needed, but 2400 will have to suffice for now.

Will be interesting when I get to Asylum and do their full meal plan for 14 days, cutting back to 1800 calories and pushing hard.  Hoping to get a good short-term fat burn doing that.

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