Strickland Fitness

I did Challenge #6 today and it was awesome. My arms were burning, my heart was pumping, and I was sweating! Did you have the same experience? I always keep my workouts intense…no matter what it is I’m doing. When you hit the gym, hit it hard. You really will only get out of what you put in. Always keep your goals in mind!!

The Challenge for today is to rest your arms and hit the intervals hard. We will be doing one workout over the weekend along with a day of rest. I have a feeling everyone is feeling the intensity so let’s raise those heart rates a little. Beginners do workout A and the more advanced do workout B. If you need a reminder on how intervals work, read this: http://stricklandfitness.com/2008/12/15/interval-training/. Go for it!!! Once you have done your intervals, put a check mark in the box for Oct. 9^th. Great job!

Workout A:

10 minutes warm up

20-30 minutes intervals with your low heart rate being 50% of your max and your high heart rate being 80%

10 minutes cool down

Workout B:

10 minutes warm up

20-30 minutes intervals with your low heart rate being 60% of your max and your high heart rate being 85%

10 minutes cool down

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Ok challengers, it’s time to start shredding the upper body! We are trying to build lean muscle and burn fat. So for the purpose of this challenge, we will be sticking to medium weights, doing more repetitions, and reducing our recovery time between sets to keep the heart rate slightly elevated. If you are trying to build bulk muscle, heavier weights and more rest between sets will be needed. There will not be separate workouts for the beginners and more advanced. Everyone will do the same workout with the amount of weight being the difference. This workout is for the gym. If you do not belong to a gym, you can use anything at home that you can hold in one hand.

You will only get out of this workout what you put into it. Challenge yourself and keep it intense!! Before you start, read this: http://stricklandfitness.com/2009/01/22/intensity/.

Here is a description of all the exercises you will need for the workout:

Push-ups: (works the chest, triceps, and shoulders) Always start on your hands and feet and drop to the knees if needed to complete the set.

Lat Pulls: (works the Lats. See this for more details, http://stricklandfitness.com/2008/10/22/back-not-bis/) The lat pull machine requires you to use your back and biceps. It’s the machine that you sit down on and pull the weight down. Pull the weight down to the front of your chin, not behind your head. As you are pulling the weight down, try and pull your shoulder blades into your back pocket throughout the movement. This ensures you are using your lats and not only your arms. Be sure to keep your back straight. Don’t lean back.

Military Press: (works the shoulders and traps, or top of the shoulders) Sit on a bench with a back support. Start with the dumbbells in front of your shoulders with your palms facing toward you. Press above your head while twisting your palms to face away from you.

Isolated Abdominal Crunches: (works the abs) see challenge #3.

Straight Arm Shoulder Raises: (works the front and side of shoulders) With the dumbbells at your side, palms facing toward your body, raise the weight to your sides until shoulder height and then lower. Keep your arms straight through the entire movement. Raise the weight now to the front and lower. Alternate between the side and front. Keep your back straight.

Tricep Extensions: (works the triceps, or back of the arms) Standing with a straight back and a small bend in the knees, hold a dumbbell with both hands straight above your head. Bending only at the elbows, slowly lower the weight behind your head and then extend back to above your head. Do not move your head forward to let the weight pass behind it.

Bicep Curls: (works the biceps, or front of the arms) Standing with a straight back and a slight bend in the knees, hold a dumbbell in each hand. Imagine that your elbows are pinned to your sides. Starting with the weights down by your waist, slowly bring the weight up to your shoulders by bending at the elbow. Be sure the elbow doesn’t move and your body remains perfectly still throughout the movement.

The Workout

For each exercise, choose a weight that you can do 12-15 repetitions with the last 3 reps being difficult to do while maintaining good form.

10 minute warm-up

In the order mentioned above, do 12-15 repetitions of each exercise with no rest between them. Work hard and intense. Focus on the muscle you are using for each exercise. Make a mind – muscle connection!! After 1 series, rest for 2 minutes. Repeat the series 2-3 more times with 2 minutes rest between each series for a total of 3-4 series.

10 minute cool down

Once completed, put a check in the box for Oct. 8^th. Great job!!!

Use of any knowledge from this website is voluntary. By reading this post, you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the disclaimer in the about section of this website. Thanks for participating!

Today is going to be strictly calorie burning. For an introduction to interval training, read this post… http://stricklandfitness.com/2008/12/15/interval-training/. There is a formula in there for calculating heart rates for interval training. Getting the maximum heart rate for that formula is a little different than the way you got it for the challenge. That is ok. Use the formula in the attached post. Be sure to write down the percentages (50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, and 85%) of your maximum heart rate for interval training as you will need them for the future. Once you have read the post, you are ready for intervals today. If you have any questions on how to do intervals, please ask in the comment section. Intervals are a great way to shed some pounds…or stones for the UK J

Using any cardio apparatus, beginners do workout A and more advanced challengers do workout B. Once you have done your intervals, put a check in your calendar for Oct. 6^th. Great job!!!

Workout A:

10 minutes active warm up

8-10 sprints: Sprint until 65% of your max heart rate and rest until it goes down to 50%.

You can raise the heart rates if you feel comfortable. It should take no more than a minute to hit your selected heart rate and it doesn’t matter how long it takes for it to come down. That will speed up with time. Be sure to be intense in your efforts to hit your top heart rate. Don’t just jog, but sprint!

10 minutes cool down

Workout B:

10 minutes active warm up

8-10 sprints: Sprint until 85% of your max heart rate and rest until it goes down to 60%. It should take no more than a minute to hit your selected heart rate and it doesn’t matter how long it takes for it to come down. That will speed up with time. Be sure to be intense in your efforts to hit your top heart rate. Don’t just jog, but sprint!

10 minutes cool down

Use of any knowledge from this website is voluntary. By reading this post, you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the disclaimer in the about section of this website. Thanks for participating!

Today’s prep tool for the Strictly Fit October Challenge is a bit of some fitness education. We have challengers from all over the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, the United States and beyond. However, for the purpose of this challenge, I will be using pounds and inches (and it’s what I know best). If you need help with the conversions, here is a good place http://www.lenntech.com/calculators/mass-weight/mass-weight.htm.

Ok, so the fact for today is that you have to burn 3500 calories in order to burn 1 pound of fat. If your goal is to lose weight, you will have to burn 3500 calories more than your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) in order to lose 1 pound. Your BMR is the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day. What does this mean exactly? If your BMR is 2000 calories (kcal), you burn 2000 kcal just doing nothing. So if you ate 2000 kcal and your BMR is 2000 and you did nothing all day, your weight would stay the same. If your BMR is 2000 kcal and you consume 2500 kcal and do nothing all day, you would slowly gain weight. If you did this everyday for 1 week, you would gain 1 pound. That’s 500 kcal over your BMR for 7 days. 500 x 7 =3500. So far so good? Great! If your goal is to lose weight, you want to make sure you burn more calories than your BMR. You can do this by lowering your daily caloric intake, exercise, and cardio. If your goal is to gain weight and/or muscle, then you have to burn less than your BMR.

How do you find out what your BMR is? There are a couple things that have to be factored into the equation. Your height, age, weight, activity level, and gender are the major factors. You can go this website and it will compute it for you automatically. http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php. Just click the BMR and RMR calculator button. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s pretty accurate. Once it’s calculated, write it down. I also want you to email it to me so I can send you specific instructions throughout the challenge based on your BMR. Now that you have it, you have a great starting point towards your goal.

Now is the time to go to your food journal that you have been keeping. Remember Prep Tool #1. Have you counted the calories that you take in every day? Compare your daily caloric intake with your BMR. How do they compare? I will go over with you what to do with this information just before the challenge starts.

Once you have calculated your BMI, compared it to how many calories you have been taking in, and emailed it to me, put a check in the box for Sept. 23^rd. GREAT JOB!!!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! The excitement level is growing with the October Challenge just 10 days away. This is going to be a great way to gain new knowledge on fitness and nutrition while expanding your tool box with new exercises and cardio workouts. And it’s all for free!

Well, hopefully everyone has started or continued to be active with their workouts and not just waiting for the challenge to begin. The next prep tool will be to know your resting heart rate and maximum heart rate. You will need this for the cardio workouts in the Challenge. Now that you know how to get your heart rate (with a heart monitor, the machines at the gym, or manually), take your resting heart rate. It’s best to do it right when you wake, but you can do it at any time you are at full rest. For your maximum heart rate, it’s best to get it by using the form of cardio (running, biking, swimming, etc.) you plan on doing. If you don’t have access to your mode of cardio, you can run in place at home or outside to get it. We will use running in place for the purpose of talking about how to get your maximum heart rate. After a couple minutes of warming up and stretching (see pre workout post in fitness tips category), start running in place. Slowly increase your speed to maximum intensity. As you are hitting maximum intensity, start singing your favorite song out loud. Stop running the instant you need to gasp for air between words. Check your heart rate. This is your maximum heart rate. Be sure to write down your resting and maximum rate. You will need this when the challenge starts. If you need a refresher on how to get your heart rate, see http://stricklandfitness.com/2009/09/17/prep-tool-2-for-october-challenge/.

Once you have done this, put a check mark in the box for Sept. 21^st. Great Job!!

Use of any knowledge from this website is voluntary. By reading this post, you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the disclaimer in the about section of this website. Thanks for participating!