Saturday, March 15, 2008

BIGGEST LOSER 3--WEEK NINE

We just started our last month with this group. So far the results have been the best ever. While we’ve lost over half of the original 57 that started, the ones who are left seem to be doing really well.

Many of the remaining contestants have asked me about doing another group, so I guess we’ll do one more (Biggest Loser 4) starting Friday, April 11th. The 57 we started with was a little much to handle, so I’m going to limit this group to the 1st 40 that come in and sign up as soon as possible.

We’ll have the same deal. You can work out anywhere: at the Y, Curves, Tom’s, or even at home. $25.00 entry fee and a $500 prize for the Biggest Loser based on greatest percentage of weight loss. This will be the last one we do until next fall, so if you’re interested, you better get in and sign up!

During the Friday night workout, we talked about interval training in the weight room and divided up into three groups. Group One started on the exercise ball with the DB Chest Press with dumbbells. While they were doing this, Group Two performed “Burpees” an evil exercise where you squat down, thrust your legs out behind you, and then do a pushup before quickly getting back to your feet and jumping in the air.

At the same time, Group Three performed “Woodchoppers” with a medicine ball, a weighted ball that looks like the basketball but is heavier (8-25 lbs). For this exercise, they bent over with legs shoulder-width apart, holding the ball on the floor between their legs with two hands. They then straighten up their body, lifting the ball over their shoulder to one side, before bending back over and touching the ball to the floor again. Then they straighten up and lift the ball over their shoulder to the other side.

Once they were finished, they each rotated until each group had performed all the exercises. After several sets of each, we switched up the exercises on the ball for Group One to DB Pullovers, DB Squat Thrusters, and DB Curls. We also kept switching up the core exercises for Groups Two & Three with “Mountain Climbers”, a variety of “Planks”, and other Ball Twisting exercises.

In this fashion, they went through their workout with very little breaks for an hour. The goal was to keep them moving in a more intense fashion, without taking any rest time. I call it active rest. While one muscle group is resting, you’re hitting another. This type of workout is tough, but it burns the greatest amount of calories.

Their goal is to start putting those core exercises in between sets of their primary free weight exercises in their workouts during the week. If they do, they’ll keep things moving and burn more calories. This will help them stay on track to their goal.

This week, we recognized two winners: One for the gals, and one for the guys. Both received a $20 cash prize from Dimond Brothers Insurance. Once again Cheryl Redmon took top honors for the women with a percentage weight loss of 1.81% and 3.6 lbs lost. Cheryl has lost 29.2 lbs in nine weeks!

When I asked her how she did it, she said she just kept doing what she’d been doing. Previously, she’d been adding jogging to her cardio workouts, but this week, she wasn’t able to run, having pulled a muscle the previous week. She said she just focused on doing the elliptical instead, with more intensity than before. It goes to show you that sometimes you just have to work around things.

For the guys, and Biggest Loser overall, Bill Lewis took top honors with a percentage weight loss of an incredible 3.05%, which works out to a weight loss of 7.4 lbs. He’s lost 40.2 lbs overall in just nine weeks. He says he stepped it up this week. I guess he did.

He also pulled into 1st place in the contest with a total weight loss of 14.586%, just ahead of Joe Stidham, who has a total percentage weight loss of 14.531% with the Redmon family right on their heels. Folks, this might go down to the wire. Stay tuned!

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