Apologies!

     I can't even begin to say how sorry I am that I haven't posted in sooo long! It's been a crazy year so far and by the looks of things it won't be slowing down any time soon! Fortunately I think it's all good craziness these days, whereas the beginning of our year was made crazy by dealing with stolen cars, the threat of eviction because our management company lost our rent check and failed to tell us until after the "late" due date, asthmatic children that we tried to get under control for over a month and that almost resulted in the hospitalization of our sweet baby boy, medical bills from our son's birth not being covered because neither insurance provider wants to take responsibility (we're still fighting that one!) and a host of other problems. But things are looking up and I decided I'd better do a quick post on here to let you all know that I am alive, that I do still at least think about posting on here and that I'm going to try to get a little better organized with the blog to hopefully start posting again, even if it's only once a week. Thank you all for your patience and I hope that I can get this blog up and running again! In the mean time, you can email all questions to me at sarabsorensen@gmail.com

The Spartacus Workout

     I tried an awesome workout this morning and I have to say, I'm already sore! (I love being sore though, do you?) Remember this book? I was flipping through it last night looking for some inspiration now that I'm cleared to get my postpartum body back into some real shape and I came across The Spartacus Workout. One of the things I loved about it was that it required minimal equipment and mostly body weight. And you can make it 10 minutes or 30 minutes depending on how much time you have (and my time is very limited with a 7-week-old and a 2-year-old running around).

     The Spartacus Workout is a circuit, you need to treat it as such or else you miss out on the benefits of the workout. Circuits are awesome because they get your heart rate up and you work your muscles well so really, you're killing 2 birds with one stone (which I very much like). You get your cardio, and you get your toning.

     There are 10 stations you rotate through, you spend 60 seconds at each station and allow yourself 15 seconds to move from station to station. Perform the exercise at your station for as many reps as you can within than 60 second period. If you can't make it to 60 seconds, it's okay to take a break but then pick back up where you left off. If you need to take that break, pause only for a few seconds. You don't want your heart rate to drop too much. Repeat the circuit for a total of 3 times (if you can haha) leaving a 2 minute break in between circuits. Ready for the circuit?

Station 1

Goblet squat

Station 2

Mountain climber

Station 3

Single-arm dumbbell swing

Station 4

T-push up

Station 5

Split jump

Station 6

Dumbbell row

Station 7

Dumbbell side lunge and touch

Station 8

Push up position row

Station 9

Dumbbell lunge and rotation

Station 10

Dumbbell push press

Pyramid Training Method

     You may have seen some pyramid workouts floating around the internet or places like Pinterest that look something like this:

20 calf raises

30 squats

40 toe touches

50 second wall sit

100 jumping jacks

50 second wall sit

40 toe touches

30 squats

20 calf raises

     (I tried this one and yes, I was sore!) While these workouts do resemble a pyramid in terms of going up in the number of reps and peaking before coming back down, traditionally the pyramid method of training is much different. There's nothing wrong with these other pyramid workouts, in fact, I really like them, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain what the traditional pyramid training method is.

     I could get all technical and talk about 1 rep max and all that but I'm going to keep this really simple. You're going to decrease your reps as you increase your weight. For example, if I'm using the pyramid training method while doing bicep curls I would do something like this:

12 reps at 8 lbs

10 reps at 10 lbs

8 reps at 15 lbs

It could even look like this...

12 reps at 8 lbs

10 reps at 10 lbs

8 reps at 15 lbs

10 reps at 10 lbs

12 reps at 8 lbs

It's totally up to you.

     It's totally up to you how many sets you would like to do, what weights you do, how many reps you start at, and how many reps you decrease by. Obviously the less reps you do, the heavier the weight. If you get all the way down to 1 rep, it needs to be so hard that you can only lift that weight the 1 time. If you get down to just a few reps but you feel like you could lift that weight 10 times, you need to change your weights.

     One of the benefits to a pyramid workout is that by starting with lighter weight and more reps, you give your muscles a chance to warm up before hitting the heavier weights. Also, being able to hit heavier weights towards the end will help you overload the muscle and as you may remember, we want to overload the muscle so that it becomes stronger.

     So, have fun with pyramids, leave comments sharing ones you like with everyone else and, as always, leave me an email with any more questions you may have! sarabsorensen@gmail.com

     Since your weight-lifting pyramid workout is going to be unique to you, here's another of the different pyramid workouts like I showed at the beginning of this post to try. Enjoy!

          The PT Pyramid

I'm Back!

     I'm ready to get Turbo Fit going again (not gonna lie, this blog is an excellent motivator for me!) but I don't always have time to sit down and write a post and come up with workouts. If any of you are blog writers you know, blogging can take a lot of time! So, to keep giving you all something new (and to help myself get back into the swing of things) I'll be posting links to some awesome workouts I find. This way, you don't have to go looking for them, and I can keep posting regularly in less time. Sound good? I thought so. ;)

     Here's a 15 minute equipment-free cardio workout from FITNESS Magazine! Perfect, right? If you have invested in equipment that's awesome, however most people don't invest in their own equipment so it's awesome to find some cardio workouts that also help tone you up with nothing but your body weight and gravity. Enjoy and let me know how you did!

Miss me much?

     Well, I didn't plan on taking such a long break before the baby was born, but I did plan on laying low for a while after! I apologize for the 2 month break in posting but sleepless nights mean no energy for anything, including blogging! People don't often realize that blogging takes quite a lot of time and since I don't get paid to do this, it's hard to justify some of the time I spend on here which is why I've taken such a long break. My cute little kiddos need me! (And I need a good night's sleep - I'm not sure when that'll come though. :))
     I'm still going to be taking a few more weeks to try to catch up on some sleep and to prepare things to get this blog going again, but I thought I'd drop a line to assure you all that I have survived this first month with a newborn and a crazy toddler, and that I will be coming back! I hope you all have been doing wonderfully well in life and especially in your fitness goals. I'll be back in a few weeks to help you get going and to give you some great new health and fitness ideas! You're all so wonderful!

You Asked... Rip 60 Program

     Recently on the Turbo Fit Facebook page I asked what you were most interested in hearing about right now. I've got 4 weeks until baby boy is born which means 4 weeks or less for me to get in all the posts you are really wanting to hear about now. One follower asked me what I knew about the Rip-60 program and I'm not gonna lie, I'd never heard of it before. That being said, I don't know any real people who have tried it so I don't know what the real world results of the actual program are, but I can give you my professional assessment of the program based on what they are claiming. I have a massive list of programs I want to do once this baby is born and I'm cleared for exercise (though I have to admit, it's SO hard to wait for that clearance!). I'm going to have to add Rip-60 to that list and then I can give you a different perspective on how the program works.

     The first thing I noticed as I got onto the website was the Jillian Michaels was on there. I have to tell you that at that point I was trying really hard not to have a negative opinion about the program haha. Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but I'm not a fan of Jillian Michaels. I've read some of her books and I've watched her quite a bit on multiple fitness shows and I think she's pretty fake and that because something worked for her to get her out of her obese adolescence, it should work for everyone and that if you don't do it her way, you're wrong. Fortunately, she's not the creator of this program so the fact that she's on it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I have read some articles, however, stating that her kettlebell workouts do not use proper technique and that people have gotten hurt following her kettlebell workouts so I would strongly advise you to look up proper technique on the kettlebell exercises that she leads before fully participating in those exercises.

     Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest about Jillian, I need to address the claims that it's better than P90X and Insanity. Rip-60 claims that you lose more weight, build more endurance, and blah blah blah. I'm not gonna lie, whether these claims are true or not, it has nothing to do with the "betterness" (is that a word? it is now haha) of the program. It's different than P90X and Insanity so of course you're going to get different (not necessarily better) results. Each program focuses differently on those aspects and so results will be different (again, not necessarily better). No matter what program you peruse, time and effort are key parts that no program can force you to do at any level. It's going to be all about the time you put into it and the effort you put into it. Also, different programs are going to have different amounts of strength, endurance, and cardio training. If a program is weighted more towards cardio (programs like Insanity) then yes, you will lose more weight with that program. If it is more weighted towards strength training, then chances are you're going to lose less weight, and build more muscle. (Though to be fair, a small change with the numbers on the scale can be misleading - you're building muscle, so the fat loss that occurs isn't going to show up as dramatically on the scale because you are gaining more muscle mass.) They all increase strength, they all help you reduce body fat, and they all increase endurance, so really, you can't go wrong. My personal opinion is that all three of these programs are going to be great, you just have to figure out which one you will like the most and that you will stick with.

     Having not done the program myself or knowing anyone that has, from outside appearances this program seems great and you'll be happy with your results, though I have no real testimony from anyone to back this up. Again, if you're putting the effort in that you should, almost any program is going to be great. As long as the meal plans are balanced and realistic, those are great tools in the program to help you get the body you want. Be wary though of supplements and meal replacements. If you are eating a healthy, balanced diet, you do NOT need meal replacements OR supplements! Once you have the body you want, you need to find a way to maintain it. If you can't continue going on at the pace you were during the program, you need at least to keep it as part of your routine at whatever level you can and keep eating healthy. The reason people revert back to their old bodies is because they revert back to their old ways. Keep eating healthy, keep exercising, and your results will last. Have fun, enjoy, and if you have any experience with Rip-60 please share in a comment below!

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