Sunday, May 03, 2009

BIGGEST LOSER "7' WEEK FOUR -- TURNING IT UP

This week we turned it up again. The goal is to get them ready for the Sarah Bush Lincoln “Races for all Paces” 5K two weeks from now on Saturday, May 9th. You can Goggle it to get more information.

So, they ran to the park at Main & Central. Then they did a pretty intense sequence of exercises there in the park, including sprints, walking lunges, burpees, crunches, sumo wrestling, pushups, planks, and more. Then they had to run back to the gym.

With all the sprints, they did more than 2 miles. Plus running back home is quite a bit tougher after you’ve done all those other things. The 5K will actually be easier, because they’ll have fresh legs.

The workout was non-stop as they moved from one thing to the other. I call it “active rest.” While one muscle group is resting, we’re working another. This keeps the intensity high, making a strength workout a cardio workout too—burning more calories and getting you leaner and meaner.

Next week we’ll be turning it up again by moving from the machines to free weights. The difference between machines and free weights is very obvious once you try the free weights.

Machines are very good about isolating the target muscles, but that’s also their weakness. Since the motion is so strict, you don’t need your stabilizer muscles to assist and support the motion. That’s where free weights have the advantage.

Machines also often give you a leverage advantage that you just don’t get with free weights. With free weights, you have to do all the work. More work means more calories burned and a better workout.

Finally, machines typically support you with a back pad. This is fine, but it means you don’t need to use your core muscles for support. Free weights have no support and once again, you’re doing all the work—including stabilization, with your core. It also helps prepare you for real life, where often times you need your core for support.

Doing a chest press with two 25lb dumbbells on an exercise ball will feel much more difficult than lifting 100 lbs on a chest press machine, even though it’s less than half the weight. Try it, you’ll see. Next week, I’ll give you the run down on the basic free weight routine they’ll be starting with.

The winner of week four was Shawn Bowers who lost 2.6% of his body weight and an amazing 7.0 lbs. He’s been stepping it up with the Level IV workouts and his running. Shawn won a $20 Wal-Mart gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance.

Second place went to Mary Ann Creech who lost 1.8% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. Third place went to Linda Kerekguarto who lost 1.6% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs.

Out of the original 39 that started Biggest Loser “7,” we’re down to 32 participants that made the Saturday morning weigh-in. So here are the results for the first four weeks.

The goal is to average at least a pound a week, or 4.0 lbs by now, which is good. Two pounds a week is great, and that would be around 8.0 lbs. Three or more pounds a week is fantastic, and that would be anything around 12.0 lbs or more.

% lbs
1. Nicole Richardson 7.3 13.2
2. Vince Porter 7.1 20.2
3. Doug Sutton 6.6 17.4
4. Penny Spinner 5.7 10.0
5. John Crow 5.7 16.4
6. Shawn Bowers 5.0 14.0
7. Stacey Reed 5.0 10.0
8. Brittany Cline 4.8 9.0
9. Linda Kerekguarto 4.4 8.6
10. Stephanie Crampton 4.2 7.0
11. Jaymi Warner 3.9 6.6
12. Mary Ann Creech 3.7 6.8
13. Bessie Rigdon 3.7 5.2
14. Steve Jones 3.3 8.0
15. Heather Sutton 3.1 7.2
16. Kara Englum 2.9 4.6
17. Shirley Fiscus 2.7 5.2
18. Tisha Watters 2.6 5.4
19. Brian Bradley 2.5 5.2
20. Dawn Hopper 2.5 4.6
21. Pennie Callaway-Duzan 2.1 3.4
22. Christy Neal 2.0 4.8
23. Margo Yeargon 1.9 3.0
24. Mike Elledge 1.7 5.0
25. Lacey Strow 1.6 3.0
26. Kenneth Harp 1.3 4.4
27. Jennifer Reel 1.3 2.6
28. John Rigdon 1.2 2.4
29. Libby Reel 0.1 2.8
30. Tony Peel 0.1 2.4
31. Jeff Reel 0.1 2.6
32. Jennifer Bowers 0.0 0.0

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