This week marked the end of Biggest Loser “16” after twelve weeks of work for the participants. It was certainly tough keeping everyone going, particularly this time around. Summers are always tough, and we had quite a few people that had to miss due to injuries, vacations and the like.
For the final workout, we did a repeat of the workout they did on the first night. The exercises were: Wall Ball (squatting with a medicine ball and then throwing it up on the wall), Dumbbell Curls, Box Jumps, Kettlebell Swings and AB Routine #1-4 (Crunches with knees bent, Crunches with legs in the air, Sit-ups Crossing, and Leg Lifts).
Each person works out at their station for 45-50 seconds, and then rotates to the next station by the start of the next minute. It takes five minutes to complete a circuit, and the goal is to repeat the circuit four times for a total of 20 minutes. It’s a pretty demanding routine that’s a lot harder than it sounds—especially if you’re pushing yourself.
Twelve weeks ago, I cut it off at 15 minutes, due to the fact that everyone was pretty much hammered after just 3 rounds. This time, they did the whole 20 minute workout, and while it was still tough, they had plenty left in their tank.
For the last six weeks, the top two participants have been battling back and forth, often alternating between the top two spots. This week’s Biggest Loser was T. J. Johnson, who lost 1.0% of his body weight and 2.2 lbs. After winning last week, Brittany Cline placed second this week, losing a little less than 1.0% and 1.0 lb.
The title of Biggest Loser for the entire program, however, goes to Brittany, who lost a larger percentage of body weight throughout Biggest Loser “16.” Over the twelve weeks, she lost 17.3% of her body weight and 23.4 lbs.
Even though he lost a little more weight in total, T. J. ended up in second place overall, losing 11.2% of his body weight, and 25.4 lbs.
Now the goal is to keep their routines going, even though the program’s over. That’s maybe tougher than the program itself. Life intrudes and if you’re not careful, it’s very easy to let your guard down and start missing workouts. Before you know it, you’ve put the weight right back on. It takes daily discipline to watch and control your weight.
In Brittany’s case, she’s got some extra motivation to keep plugging for the next four months due to an upcoming wedding dress she’s planning on fitting into. Good luck Brittany, and congratulations!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
WE'RE SOME TOUGH MUDDERS!
This weekend a group of twelve of us did the real deal at Tough Mudder—IN. The group included Susan Pearman Arp, Patty Brewington, Jennifer Clover, Jane Graham, Dr. John Hancock, Michelle Henry-Hall, Sharon McDaniel, Chris and Brooke Newhart, Michelle Bibo Vaughn, Heather Warren and myself.
Two of our Biggest Losers, T. J. and Amanda Johnson (and one Bub) also attended as support staff (which was pretty tough too), and they did a great job helping us during the event.
After several months of training, we all felt more or less ready for the physical part, but you never know about the mental part. It was basically twelve miles up and down sand dunes and the motorcycle and four-wheeler trails at Badlands Off Road Park in Attica, IN. What made it interesting were the 24 truly sadistic obstacles thrown in throughout the event.
Here’s one way of putting things in perspective. You had to go over a 6-foot wall just to enter the starting corral before the race. You then swore a pledge not to whine, or leave anyone behind. They called the waiver the “death” waiver.
Every 20 minutes, several hundred people went through the starting gates and out into the course. Throughout the event, we must have gone up and down a hundred hills. Some were extremely high, and almost too steep to go up without help near the top.
They also liked getting you extremely wet and slippery before having you climb things, which made it more difficult. For example, they had you do things like the “Kiss of Mud”, which was a belly crawl through a muddy field, under barbed wire just 8 inches off the ground.
Once your hands and feet were extremely muddy, they had you tackle several pairs of 12-foot “Berlin Walls” (I guess one pair wasn’t enough). Too tall for most people to do without help, it typically took two on the bottom for a boost, and one on top reaching down so you had something to grab. Once you made it over, you had to be careful jumping back down so you wouldn’t turn an ankle or sprain a knee.
Another time, after going through more mud pits, they had you going over and under a section of large trees that had been cut down and stacked up like tinker toys. This would have been better without the muddy hands and feet!
There were several tunnel crawls, one of which led down to another muddy pit with more barbed wire keeping you face down in the water. Once you made it out of the pipe into the water, you had to crawl back through another one to get up and out.
Another tunnel was even smaller and more claustrophobic, with a sandy bottom that just tore up your knees and elbows. Speaking of sand, just continuing to run with your shoes filled up with sand and rocks might have been the biggest challenge of all. Most of us stopped to clean them out a couple times, but it didn’t really matter, they just filled right back up.
There was one section called the “Muddy Mile” where you waded through these mud bogs hip deep and so thick that it was almost impossible to move. Other times, the mud was sloppier so it was easier to move, but they had buried tree trunks at different places where you couldn’t see them. If you didn’t feel them, you’d smack your shins on them. Even if you did feel them, you still slipped trying to get over them.
At one point, we came through the mud and up this dusty hill and then stopped to catch our breath. Someone commented “we looked like a bunch of refugees from somewhere bad.”
One of the most interesting obstacles was the “Arctic Enema”, a large construction dumpster filled with water and ice cubes. Belly button deep, you waded to the center and then had to fully immerse yourself to get under this obstacle and come up on the other side. It was extremely cold!
There was a really long water slide which was pretty refreshing, except for the muddy pool you slammed into at the end. Another time we ran about a mile through a shallow creek which was kind of neat, but you had to watch your footing on the rocks.
Probably the coolest water event was the 15’ jump off the “Walk the Plank” platform into the creek, after pulling yourself up a steep ramp with a rope. But it wasn’t cool for this one guy, who forgot to keep his arm in close when jumping, and separated his shoulder when he hit the water.
About four hours into the event, the rain and lightning came, and they were closing any obstacles that had anything to do with water, including a monster monkey bars over water, and a long slippery balance beam with water on both sides to break your fall.
They actually shut the entire course down while we were doing the slippery giant quarter pipe wall. Two of us made it up, and another almost made it before we were all told to leave the obstacle because the course was closing due to the extreme weather.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to complete the most shocking events. One was a belly crawl through a muddy section with live wires packing 10,000 volts. The other was a sprint through the final obstacle called “Electro Shock Therapy.” You guessed it—more live wires hanging down to run through to get to the finish line. It’s weird. You didn’t want to do it, but you were kind of disappointed that you couldn’t do it. Maybe next time.
Some of the obstacles seemed pretty daunting when we looked at them on the internet, and they seemed even more there. But at that moment, you just had to suck it up and get started. If you just got started, you could do it, because the biggest challenge was actually in your mind, not the obstacle itself.
All in all, we ended up with some bruises and minor abrasions, but also a pretty big sense of accomplishment. We were Tough Mudders!
This week’s Biggest Loser was once again Brittany Cline, who lost 3.3% of her body weight and 4.6 lbs. T. J. Johnson was second, losing a little less than 1.0% and 1.6 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Two of our Biggest Losers, T. J. and Amanda Johnson (and one Bub) also attended as support staff (which was pretty tough too), and they did a great job helping us during the event.
After several months of training, we all felt more or less ready for the physical part, but you never know about the mental part. It was basically twelve miles up and down sand dunes and the motorcycle and four-wheeler trails at Badlands Off Road Park in Attica, IN. What made it interesting were the 24 truly sadistic obstacles thrown in throughout the event.
Here’s one way of putting things in perspective. You had to go over a 6-foot wall just to enter the starting corral before the race. You then swore a pledge not to whine, or leave anyone behind. They called the waiver the “death” waiver.
Every 20 minutes, several hundred people went through the starting gates and out into the course. Throughout the event, we must have gone up and down a hundred hills. Some were extremely high, and almost too steep to go up without help near the top.
They also liked getting you extremely wet and slippery before having you climb things, which made it more difficult. For example, they had you do things like the “Kiss of Mud”, which was a belly crawl through a muddy field, under barbed wire just 8 inches off the ground.
Once your hands and feet were extremely muddy, they had you tackle several pairs of 12-foot “Berlin Walls” (I guess one pair wasn’t enough). Too tall for most people to do without help, it typically took two on the bottom for a boost, and one on top reaching down so you had something to grab. Once you made it over, you had to be careful jumping back down so you wouldn’t turn an ankle or sprain a knee.
Another time, after going through more mud pits, they had you going over and under a section of large trees that had been cut down and stacked up like tinker toys. This would have been better without the muddy hands and feet!
There were several tunnel crawls, one of which led down to another muddy pit with more barbed wire keeping you face down in the water. Once you made it out of the pipe into the water, you had to crawl back through another one to get up and out.
Another tunnel was even smaller and more claustrophobic, with a sandy bottom that just tore up your knees and elbows. Speaking of sand, just continuing to run with your shoes filled up with sand and rocks might have been the biggest challenge of all. Most of us stopped to clean them out a couple times, but it didn’t really matter, they just filled right back up.
There was one section called the “Muddy Mile” where you waded through these mud bogs hip deep and so thick that it was almost impossible to move. Other times, the mud was sloppier so it was easier to move, but they had buried tree trunks at different places where you couldn’t see them. If you didn’t feel them, you’d smack your shins on them. Even if you did feel them, you still slipped trying to get over them.
At one point, we came through the mud and up this dusty hill and then stopped to catch our breath. Someone commented “we looked like a bunch of refugees from somewhere bad.”
One of the most interesting obstacles was the “Arctic Enema”, a large construction dumpster filled with water and ice cubes. Belly button deep, you waded to the center and then had to fully immerse yourself to get under this obstacle and come up on the other side. It was extremely cold!
There was a really long water slide which was pretty refreshing, except for the muddy pool you slammed into at the end. Another time we ran about a mile through a shallow creek which was kind of neat, but you had to watch your footing on the rocks.
Probably the coolest water event was the 15’ jump off the “Walk the Plank” platform into the creek, after pulling yourself up a steep ramp with a rope. But it wasn’t cool for this one guy, who forgot to keep his arm in close when jumping, and separated his shoulder when he hit the water.
About four hours into the event, the rain and lightning came, and they were closing any obstacles that had anything to do with water, including a monster monkey bars over water, and a long slippery balance beam with water on both sides to break your fall.
They actually shut the entire course down while we were doing the slippery giant quarter pipe wall. Two of us made it up, and another almost made it before we were all told to leave the obstacle because the course was closing due to the extreme weather.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to complete the most shocking events. One was a belly crawl through a muddy section with live wires packing 10,000 volts. The other was a sprint through the final obstacle called “Electro Shock Therapy.” You guessed it—more live wires hanging down to run through to get to the finish line. It’s weird. You didn’t want to do it, but you were kind of disappointed that you couldn’t do it. Maybe next time.
Some of the obstacles seemed pretty daunting when we looked at them on the internet, and they seemed even more there. But at that moment, you just had to suck it up and get started. If you just got started, you could do it, because the biggest challenge was actually in your mind, not the obstacle itself.
All in all, we ended up with some bruises and minor abrasions, but also a pretty big sense of accomplishment. We were Tough Mudders!
This week’s Biggest Loser was once again Brittany Cline, who lost 3.3% of her body weight and 4.6 lbs. T. J. Johnson was second, losing a little less than 1.0% and 1.6 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Thursday, June 14, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" -- WEEK TEN & MORE TOUGH MUDDER TRAINING!
This weekend another group met out at the house for some more Tough Mudder training, and we had a couple more new obstacles for them: a 13’ cargo net, and a rope climb up (or down) a cliff. We ran about a mile of trail four times, up and down hills, not counting the creek running, which is always an extra bonus!
As part of each lap, they climbed over an 8’ climbing wall, the new 13’ cargo net, a 15’ rope climb of the cliff, as well as carrying a 25-40# weight up a hill and across the dam. They also ran in mud, belly crawled across a muddy section, and walked across another section of the pond.
In the creek, we went farther than last time, including lots of going over and around fallen trees. They even did quite a bit of balance beam walking along some of them. Once, they had to belly crawl through a section of creek, and several times, they were fully immersed.
We’ll be doing more training this week on the same course, focusing on the obstacles and running, especially uphill. All of this is designed to help us get ready for Tough Mudder, a 12 mile trail run this weekend with a bunch of even more difficult obstacles.
To read more about this interesting and difficult event, go to www.toughmudder.com . Next week, I’ll give you a report from the Tough Mudder field!
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline, who lost 2.6% of her body weight and 3.6 lbs. T. J. Johnson was second, losing 1.0% and 2.4 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
As part of each lap, they climbed over an 8’ climbing wall, the new 13’ cargo net, a 15’ rope climb of the cliff, as well as carrying a 25-40# weight up a hill and across the dam. They also ran in mud, belly crawled across a muddy section, and walked across another section of the pond.
In the creek, we went farther than last time, including lots of going over and around fallen trees. They even did quite a bit of balance beam walking along some of them. Once, they had to belly crawl through a section of creek, and several times, they were fully immersed.
We’ll be doing more training this week on the same course, focusing on the obstacles and running, especially uphill. All of this is designed to help us get ready for Tough Mudder, a 12 mile trail run this weekend with a bunch of even more difficult obstacles.
To read more about this interesting and difficult event, go to www.toughmudder.com . Next week, I’ll give you a report from the Tough Mudder field!
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline, who lost 2.6% of her body weight and 3.6 lbs. T. J. Johnson was second, losing 1.0% and 2.4 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Monday, June 11, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER--WEEK NINE
This week we did another routine with the group. The first round alternated Thrusters (Rear Squat with a Shoulder Press), and AB Routine #1-5, which included Crunches, Crunches with Legs Up, Sit-ups crossing to the L, Sit-ups crossing to the R, and Leg Lifts (5x). Round two was Push-ups and Pull-ups (5x), and round three alternated Dumbbell Curls with Leg-Raises (5x).
The goal is to do all five sets in round one, back-to-back without stopping. Once you finish the round, you can take a quick drink and catch your breath—if you were pushing hard, that is.
Similarly, you should do round two back-to-back, stopping only after your fifth set for another quick drink. This way, you’ll not only be getting your strength and conditioning, but a cardio workout as well. You’ve heard of supersizing? This is called super-setting!
Doing things back-to-back this way will really crank up the heart rate and calories burned both during and after your workout. In fact, if you’re working out for weight loss and you’ve hit a plateau, this might be a good way to get things going again.
Meanwhile, we had lots of folks go out and participate in the 7th annual C.A.M.A. Teen Bike Rally last Saturday. A few did the shorter 4 and 15 mile route with their kids, while many of us did the longer 42 mile ride. We even had a few superstars do the 72 mile route. It was a great day for riding—not too hot, not too cold, and C.A.M.A. did a great job as usual with the support staff and routes.
Some of us also went out for some more Tough Mudder training on Sunday afternoon, doing a 5 mile trail run featuring lots of hills and a nice jog through the creek. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t make it, so I consoled myself with 13 laps around my 5/8 mile trail out at the house, later that afternoon.
We’ve all got to do what it takes to make sure we’re ready for Tough Mudder, coming up on June 16th. Those 12 miles and 24 obstacles are looming closer and closer! For more information about this event, go to www.toughmudder.com .
This week’s Biggest Loser was T.J. Johnson, who lost 1.0% of his body weight and 2.4 lbs. Brittany Cline was second, losing about half a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
The goal is to do all five sets in round one, back-to-back without stopping. Once you finish the round, you can take a quick drink and catch your breath—if you were pushing hard, that is.
Similarly, you should do round two back-to-back, stopping only after your fifth set for another quick drink. This way, you’ll not only be getting your strength and conditioning, but a cardio workout as well. You’ve heard of supersizing? This is called super-setting!
Doing things back-to-back this way will really crank up the heart rate and calories burned both during and after your workout. In fact, if you’re working out for weight loss and you’ve hit a plateau, this might be a good way to get things going again.
Meanwhile, we had lots of folks go out and participate in the 7th annual C.A.M.A. Teen Bike Rally last Saturday. A few did the shorter 4 and 15 mile route with their kids, while many of us did the longer 42 mile ride. We even had a few superstars do the 72 mile route. It was a great day for riding—not too hot, not too cold, and C.A.M.A. did a great job as usual with the support staff and routes.
Some of us also went out for some more Tough Mudder training on Sunday afternoon, doing a 5 mile trail run featuring lots of hills and a nice jog through the creek. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t make it, so I consoled myself with 13 laps around my 5/8 mile trail out at the house, later that afternoon.
We’ve all got to do what it takes to make sure we’re ready for Tough Mudder, coming up on June 16th. Those 12 miles and 24 obstacles are looming closer and closer! For more information about this event, go to www.toughmudder.com .
This week’s Biggest Loser was T.J. Johnson, who lost 1.0% of his body weight and 2.4 lbs. Brittany Cline was second, losing about half a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Monday, June 04, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" -- WEEK EIGHT (MORE TOUGH MUDDER TRAINING)
While this week’s Biggest Loser workout was canceled due to the Memorial Holiday Weekend, we did have a group out over the weekend for some more “Tough Mudder” training. This time, we did another “Mini-Mudder” that actually got us muddy.
Up to this point, our group has done some fantastic interval training, and even a neat trail run out at one of our member’s place, including a nice platform jump into the pond. This time, we got together at our place where I have a 5/8 mile trail I like to run on a regular basis.
To make it interesting, we added some neat obstacles, including a weight-carry up hill, several short dips into the creek, a 9 foot wall to climb, a couple mud crawls, and a walk across the pond (harder than it sounds). They had to keep focused on a certain point on the other shore or they’d be swimming.
For the final lap, they had a much longer creek run—more like a walk, really, since they had to climb over numerous trees that had fallen due to local beavers and the wind. They also had to navigate through some nice deeper sections. Once they got back, they had a final pond walk to cap things off! All told, it took a little less than an hour, and I figure we covered around 4 miles.
This was a great workout, but we’ve got more work to do if we’re going to be ready for the real deal on June 16th. Tough Mudder Indiana is in Attica, IN, and will be 12 miles of grueling obstacles, including lots of mud, ice water dunks, the big pond jump, crawling through tight places, hand walking across a dunk pit, crawling under barbed wire, and even electric shocks! What were we thinking?
Next week we’re going to cover around 6-7 miles of trails, including lots of uphill runs, and more practice doing the 16’ platform pond jump! Then we’ll back at our place, where I’m preparing a few more surprises for them. We’ve got to get ready for Tough Mudder! For more information about this event, go to www.toughmudder.com .
This week’s Biggest Loser was Tom Emerick, who lost 1.5% of his body weight and 2.8 lbs. Second place went to Tony Westerfield, who lost 1.3% and 1.7 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Up to this point, our group has done some fantastic interval training, and even a neat trail run out at one of our member’s place, including a nice platform jump into the pond. This time, we got together at our place where I have a 5/8 mile trail I like to run on a regular basis.
To make it interesting, we added some neat obstacles, including a weight-carry up hill, several short dips into the creek, a 9 foot wall to climb, a couple mud crawls, and a walk across the pond (harder than it sounds). They had to keep focused on a certain point on the other shore or they’d be swimming.
For the final lap, they had a much longer creek run—more like a walk, really, since they had to climb over numerous trees that had fallen due to local beavers and the wind. They also had to navigate through some nice deeper sections. Once they got back, they had a final pond walk to cap things off! All told, it took a little less than an hour, and I figure we covered around 4 miles.
This was a great workout, but we’ve got more work to do if we’re going to be ready for the real deal on June 16th. Tough Mudder Indiana is in Attica, IN, and will be 12 miles of grueling obstacles, including lots of mud, ice water dunks, the big pond jump, crawling through tight places, hand walking across a dunk pit, crawling under barbed wire, and even electric shocks! What were we thinking?
Next week we’re going to cover around 6-7 miles of trails, including lots of uphill runs, and more practice doing the 16’ platform pond jump! Then we’ll back at our place, where I’m preparing a few more surprises for them. We’ve got to get ready for Tough Mudder! For more information about this event, go to www.toughmudder.com .
This week’s Biggest Loser was Tom Emerick, who lost 1.5% of his body weight and 2.8 lbs. Second place went to Tony Westerfield, who lost 1.3% and 1.7 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" -- WEEK SEVEN
This week we introduced some new exercises to the group. Previously, they’d been using dumbbells for their free weight workouts, so I wanted them to have an opportunity to try some new things with the straight bar.
The best known straight bar movements are the bench press, rear squat and dead-lift. The bench press is the best known movement that develops the chest, and also works the shoulders and triceps.
The rear squat is an overall lower body movement that emphasizes the quadriceps (front of the thigh), hamstrings (back of the thigh), gluteals (your bottom), and adductor muscles that run inside the thigh.
The dead-lift primarily works your lower back, gluteals and hamstrings. These three exercises are the most popular free weight movements of all time, and are the basis for any serious strength and conditioning programs.
Because they’re compound movements that require a great deal of stabilizer muscle involvement, they’re also important for anyone wanting to improve their overall functional fitness.
We also introduced several other straight bar movements: Front Squat, Thrusters (Rear Squat with a shoulder press), Cleans, Clean, Jerk & Press, and floor-wipers. When combined with other exercises such as pull-ups, you can create some very challenging workouts like this nationally known CrossFit workout known by the nickname “Fran.”
Do a set of 21 Thrusters followed by 21 Pull-ups, then 15 Thrusters and 15 Pull-ups, and finally 9 Thrusters and 9 Pull-ups, as fast as possible without any breaks. Compare your time to others. The best time I’ve ever had was 4:45. Most people starting out will take a couple more minutes. The record for this nationally is right around 2:00! Amazing.
The standard weights are 95 lbs for men (45 lb bar with two 25 lb plates ), and 65 lbs for women (45 lb bar plus two 10 lb plates). I’d suggest guys start out with 65 lbs, and women try it with 40 lbs (30 lb bar with two 5 lb plates). Most people will also need to use a chair to help cheat out the pull-ups.
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline again, who lost 2.6% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. Second place went to T. J. Johnson, who lost 1.3% and 3.0 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
The best known straight bar movements are the bench press, rear squat and dead-lift. The bench press is the best known movement that develops the chest, and also works the shoulders and triceps.
The rear squat is an overall lower body movement that emphasizes the quadriceps (front of the thigh), hamstrings (back of the thigh), gluteals (your bottom), and adductor muscles that run inside the thigh.
The dead-lift primarily works your lower back, gluteals and hamstrings. These three exercises are the most popular free weight movements of all time, and are the basis for any serious strength and conditioning programs.
Because they’re compound movements that require a great deal of stabilizer muscle involvement, they’re also important for anyone wanting to improve their overall functional fitness.
We also introduced several other straight bar movements: Front Squat, Thrusters (Rear Squat with a shoulder press), Cleans, Clean, Jerk & Press, and floor-wipers. When combined with other exercises such as pull-ups, you can create some very challenging workouts like this nationally known CrossFit workout known by the nickname “Fran.”
Do a set of 21 Thrusters followed by 21 Pull-ups, then 15 Thrusters and 15 Pull-ups, and finally 9 Thrusters and 9 Pull-ups, as fast as possible without any breaks. Compare your time to others. The best time I’ve ever had was 4:45. Most people starting out will take a couple more minutes. The record for this nationally is right around 2:00! Amazing.
The standard weights are 95 lbs for men (45 lb bar with two 25 lb plates ), and 65 lbs for women (45 lb bar plus two 10 lb plates). I’d suggest guys start out with 65 lbs, and women try it with 40 lbs (30 lb bar with two 5 lb plates). Most people will also need to use a chair to help cheat out the pull-ups.
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline again, who lost 2.6% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. Second place went to T. J. Johnson, who lost 1.3% and 3.0 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Monday, May 21, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" -- WEEK SIX
This week the group reached the half-way point of their twelve week program. By now, they’ve created some new habits with their diet and exercise that hopefully, will last a long time.
But in the end, it’s not just about losing weight and getting in shape—it’s about learning how to keep the weight off and stay in shape. Now that changes your life. If you lose all that weight, but just put it right back on, you really haven’t changed your life.
That’s why I want to keep giving them different workout routines and exercises. That keeps things interesting, and that will keep you working out. Setting goals to do new and interesting events can help too. You have to train for them and that helps keep you motivated day-to-day.
Last Saturday, a group of us did something interesting called the “Viking Assault” at Dobbs Park in Terre Haute, including two of our Biggest Losers, Sande Sherer and T. J. Johnson. It was a trail run that was supposed to be a 5K (3.1 miles), but we think it was closer to 2 ½ miles. It also had 10 obstacles you had to go over, including a 4’ wall, a 6’ wall, running through a creek, and a few other things.
We all got a little wet and muddy, but even someone relatively new to exercise could have done it. While some people smoked through it, everyone set their own pace. It’s really more about finishing the event and doing something different.
The weekly Biggest Loser workout was an example of how to combine interval training with weights or calisthenics. They ran ¼ mile, followed by 25 push-ups, 25 body squats and 25 sit-ups (4x). To make it harder, do ½ miles instead, or replace the exercises with hand-stand pushups, pull-ups, kettlebell swings, and other movements.
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline who lost 2.0% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs. Floyd McWilliams was second, losing 1.0% and 2.0 lbs. Jennifer Bowers placed third, losing about a half a percent and 1.2 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
But in the end, it’s not just about losing weight and getting in shape—it’s about learning how to keep the weight off and stay in shape. Now that changes your life. If you lose all that weight, but just put it right back on, you really haven’t changed your life.
That’s why I want to keep giving them different workout routines and exercises. That keeps things interesting, and that will keep you working out. Setting goals to do new and interesting events can help too. You have to train for them and that helps keep you motivated day-to-day.
Last Saturday, a group of us did something interesting called the “Viking Assault” at Dobbs Park in Terre Haute, including two of our Biggest Losers, Sande Sherer and T. J. Johnson. It was a trail run that was supposed to be a 5K (3.1 miles), but we think it was closer to 2 ½ miles. It also had 10 obstacles you had to go over, including a 4’ wall, a 6’ wall, running through a creek, and a few other things.
We all got a little wet and muddy, but even someone relatively new to exercise could have done it. While some people smoked through it, everyone set their own pace. It’s really more about finishing the event and doing something different.
The weekly Biggest Loser workout was an example of how to combine interval training with weights or calisthenics. They ran ¼ mile, followed by 25 push-ups, 25 body squats and 25 sit-ups (4x). To make it harder, do ½ miles instead, or replace the exercises with hand-stand pushups, pull-ups, kettlebell swings, and other movements.
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline who lost 2.0% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs. Floyd McWilliams was second, losing 1.0% and 2.0 lbs. Jennifer Bowers placed third, losing about a half a percent and 1.2 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Monday, May 14, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER -- WEEK FIVE
This week we did High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on the treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bike, stair-stepper, Concept 2 rower and Schwinn Airdyne. They used the following scale called Perceived Exertion to help measure the intensity of their workout intervals.
0 This is like doing nothing.
1 This is almost like doing nothing.
2 This still feels pretty light.
3 This finally feels like light exercise.
4 This feels like moderate exercise—no big deal.
5 This is getting a little harder but still pretty easy.
6 This is getting harder but still pretty doable.
7 This is harder and I’m breathing harder, too.
8 This feels very hard and talking is tough.
9 This is extremely hard—I can’t talk!
10 This is MAXIMAL—I have to stop!!!
It has nothing to do with speed, resistance or level—it’s always based on how you feel. Some person could be walking and it would feel like a “4.” Someone else could actually be running and that feels like a “4” to them. Here’s the 28 minute HIIT workout that they did.
• 1 min at what felt like a “4” or “5”
• 1 min at what felt like a “6”
• 1 min at what felt like a “7"
• 1 min at a “6” to recover
• 1 min at what felt like a “8”
• 1 min at a “6” to recover
• 1 min at an “8”
• 1 min at a “6”
• 1 min at what felt like a “9”
• 1 min at a “7”
• 1 min at a “9”
• 1 min at a “6”to recover
• 1 min at a “10” (so hard you have to stop)
• 1 min at a “4”
• 1 min at a “10” (same thing)
• 1 min at a “4”
• 2 min at an “8”
• 1 min at a “6”
• 2 min at an “8”
• 1 min at a “6”
• 2 min at a “9” (this was very hard!)
• 1 min at a “6”
• 1 min at a “10” (one more crazy one!)
• 2 min at a “4” or “5” to cool down
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline, who lost 1.4 lbs. Tonya Westerfield placed second, losing 1.0 lbs, and Tom Emerick lost 1.2 lbs for third place. All of them lost just a little less than 1% of their body weight.
This shows just how hard it is after the first month. Where people were used to losing 2-3 lbs a week, at week five, even the top three found it hard to lose much more than a pound. Hopefully, the high intensity interval training will help get them through the slump!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
0 This is like doing nothing.
1 This is almost like doing nothing.
2 This still feels pretty light.
3 This finally feels like light exercise.
4 This feels like moderate exercise—no big deal.
5 This is getting a little harder but still pretty easy.
6 This is getting harder but still pretty doable.
7 This is harder and I’m breathing harder, too.
8 This feels very hard and talking is tough.
9 This is extremely hard—I can’t talk!
10 This is MAXIMAL—I have to stop!!!
It has nothing to do with speed, resistance or level—it’s always based on how you feel. Some person could be walking and it would feel like a “4.” Someone else could actually be running and that feels like a “4” to them. Here’s the 28 minute HIIT workout that they did.
• 1 min at what felt like a “4” or “5”
• 1 min at what felt like a “6”
• 1 min at what felt like a “7"
• 1 min at a “6” to recover
• 1 min at what felt like a “8”
• 1 min at a “6” to recover
• 1 min at an “8”
• 1 min at a “6”
• 1 min at what felt like a “9”
• 1 min at a “7”
• 1 min at a “9”
• 1 min at a “6”to recover
• 1 min at a “10” (so hard you have to stop)
• 1 min at a “4”
• 1 min at a “10” (same thing)
• 1 min at a “4”
• 2 min at an “8”
• 1 min at a “6”
• 2 min at an “8”
• 1 min at a “6”
• 2 min at a “9” (this was very hard!)
• 1 min at a “6”
• 1 min at a “10” (one more crazy one!)
• 2 min at a “4” or “5” to cool down
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline, who lost 1.4 lbs. Tonya Westerfield placed second, losing 1.0 lbs, and Tom Emerick lost 1.2 lbs for third place. All of them lost just a little less than 1% of their body weight.
This shows just how hard it is after the first month. Where people were used to losing 2-3 lbs a week, at week five, even the top three found it hard to lose much more than a pound. Hopefully, the high intensity interval training will help get them through the slump!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" -- WEEK FOUR
This week I gave the group a new free weight workout with dumbbells (DB). I want to keep teaching them new exercises and movements so they’ll have a big bag of tricks when they workout.
It helps keep it fresh and interesting and also keeps the body from getting too used to things, and that keeps the body changing! It was another full-body workout that hit all the major muscle groups. Here’s what they did:
Round One:
Walking Lunges (1st set), Walking Lunges w/dumbbells (2nd set), and Walking Lunges w/stick held overhead (3rd set). They alternated this exercise with Pec Fly’s on a Ball with DB (3x).
Round Two:
Single Leg Deadlifts with DB, alternating with DB Pull-overs on a ball (3x).
Round Three:
3-Way Shoulder Drill with DB (front raises, lateral raises, and bent-over rear delt raises), alternating with DB Biceps Curls—21’s (7 hammer curls, 7 halfway curls from top down, and 7 full length curls), and also bent-over double Tricep Kickbacks with DB (3x).
Round Four:
Assorted Ab exercises on the ball: One-leg crunches, total pull-over crunches with twists, pikes, ball pull-overs on their back, and round-the-worlds.
While some of these exercises are self-explanatory, others probably need some interpretation and guidance—some even had the group scratching their head sometimes. The best thing to do is find a friend who knows what they’re doing, or get with an athletic trainer.
If you’re internet savvy, you can Google the movement name, or look it up on YouTube. There will be lots of free videos showing you exactly how to do it with good form. This will help you get more out of your workout, and also help you avoid injuries.
Finally, at the end of our fourth week, the group should be taking some new measurements to compare with their starting measurements a month ago. Hopefully, I’ll have some good numbers to report to you next week!
Some of us are signed up to do the “Viking Assault” 5K obstacle run over in Terre Haute in a couple of weeks. It’s on Saturday, May 12th, and you can sign up at www.vikingassault.com . If you want a nice little challenge, and don’t mind getting a little dirty (filthy muddy), this event’s for you!
This week’s Biggest Loser was a tie between Tina Foote, who lost 3.2 lbs, and Brittany Cline, who lost 2.6 lbs. Both lost 1.7% if their body weight. Third place went to T. J. Johnson, who lost 3.7 lbs, and 1.6%. Amanda Johnson lost 2.2 lbs and 1.5% for fourth place.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
It helps keep it fresh and interesting and also keeps the body from getting too used to things, and that keeps the body changing! It was another full-body workout that hit all the major muscle groups. Here’s what they did:
Round One:
Walking Lunges (1st set), Walking Lunges w/dumbbells (2nd set), and Walking Lunges w/stick held overhead (3rd set). They alternated this exercise with Pec Fly’s on a Ball with DB (3x).
Round Two:
Single Leg Deadlifts with DB, alternating with DB Pull-overs on a ball (3x).
Round Three:
3-Way Shoulder Drill with DB (front raises, lateral raises, and bent-over rear delt raises), alternating with DB Biceps Curls—21’s (7 hammer curls, 7 halfway curls from top down, and 7 full length curls), and also bent-over double Tricep Kickbacks with DB (3x).
Round Four:
Assorted Ab exercises on the ball: One-leg crunches, total pull-over crunches with twists, pikes, ball pull-overs on their back, and round-the-worlds.
While some of these exercises are self-explanatory, others probably need some interpretation and guidance—some even had the group scratching their head sometimes. The best thing to do is find a friend who knows what they’re doing, or get with an athletic trainer.
If you’re internet savvy, you can Google the movement name, or look it up on YouTube. There will be lots of free videos showing you exactly how to do it with good form. This will help you get more out of your workout, and also help you avoid injuries.
Finally, at the end of our fourth week, the group should be taking some new measurements to compare with their starting measurements a month ago. Hopefully, I’ll have some good numbers to report to you next week!
Some of us are signed up to do the “Viking Assault” 5K obstacle run over in Terre Haute in a couple of weeks. It’s on Saturday, May 12th, and you can sign up at www.vikingassault.com . If you want a nice little challenge, and don’t mind getting a little dirty (filthy muddy), this event’s for you!
This week’s Biggest Loser was a tie between Tina Foote, who lost 3.2 lbs, and Brittany Cline, who lost 2.6 lbs. Both lost 1.7% if their body weight. Third place went to T. J. Johnson, who lost 3.7 lbs, and 1.6%. Amanda Johnson lost 2.2 lbs and 1.5% for fourth place.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" -- WEEK THREE "A DAY IN THE PARK"
It was a nice day, not too cold, and the sun was still shining, so I took the group outside for the first time for some jogging and calisthenics interval training. For weight-loss, fitness and general toning, you can’t beat this type of workout.
First, we ran down to the water tower at the corner of Jasper & Main. The faster runners continued to jog around the park until the rest of the group arrived. Once everyone was there, we did a series of calisthenics alternating with sprints.
Here’s how it worked. They did a round of push-ups and then ran to the other end of the park and back. After that, they did a round of body squats and another sprint. Then they did rounds of sit-ups, burpees, mountain climbers and partner leg lifts, all with sprints in-between!
The only muscle groups we didn’t hit were the pulling muscles, used in pull-ups and arm curls. So I told them to hit those tomorrow!
By the time it was over, everyone’s butt was dragging, and ready to return to the barn, so they walked/ran back to the center. It was quite a workout, and really good preparation for a little challenge I made to them for next month called the “Viking Assault.”
This is a 5K run (3.1 mi) with 10 obstacles in Terre Haute on Saturday, May 12th. Almost anyone can do this. You don’t even have to be able to run 3 miles in a row, since you’ll get a little break from the running at each obstacle. Of course you’ll be doing stuff, but you’ll have a break from running!
The organizers say they have a 99% completion rate, and if you look at the video at www.vikingassault.com , you’ll get a good idea what’s going on. It’ll be a good tune-up for many of us planning on participating in the “Tough Mudder” in June. That’s a 10-12 mile run with 20-24 obstacles! You can go to www.toughmudder.com to see what that one’s all about!
This week’s Biggest Loser was T.J. Johnson, who lost 2.2% and another 5.4 lbs. He’s lost an amazing 16.4 lbs in just 3 weeks! Second place went to Brittany Cline, who lost 1.3% and 2.0 lbs. Tonya Westerfield was third, losing about a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
First, we ran down to the water tower at the corner of Jasper & Main. The faster runners continued to jog around the park until the rest of the group arrived. Once everyone was there, we did a series of calisthenics alternating with sprints.
Here’s how it worked. They did a round of push-ups and then ran to the other end of the park and back. After that, they did a round of body squats and another sprint. Then they did rounds of sit-ups, burpees, mountain climbers and partner leg lifts, all with sprints in-between!
The only muscle groups we didn’t hit were the pulling muscles, used in pull-ups and arm curls. So I told them to hit those tomorrow!
By the time it was over, everyone’s butt was dragging, and ready to return to the barn, so they walked/ran back to the center. It was quite a workout, and really good preparation for a little challenge I made to them for next month called the “Viking Assault.”
This is a 5K run (3.1 mi) with 10 obstacles in Terre Haute on Saturday, May 12th. Almost anyone can do this. You don’t even have to be able to run 3 miles in a row, since you’ll get a little break from the running at each obstacle. Of course you’ll be doing stuff, but you’ll have a break from running!
The organizers say they have a 99% completion rate, and if you look at the video at www.vikingassault.com , you’ll get a good idea what’s going on. It’ll be a good tune-up for many of us planning on participating in the “Tough Mudder” in June. That’s a 10-12 mile run with 20-24 obstacles! You can go to www.toughmudder.com to see what that one’s all about!
This week’s Biggest Loser was T.J. Johnson, who lost 2.2% and another 5.4 lbs. He’s lost an amazing 16.4 lbs in just 3 weeks! Second place went to Brittany Cline, who lost 1.3% and 2.0 lbs. Tonya Westerfield was third, losing about a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Thursday, April 19, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" WEEK TWO
This week we introduced the group to a basic free-weight workout. Programs can vary widely. There are routines where you do exercises that hit the entire body. Typically, you’d do this routine three times a week, like on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The off days would be cardio or rest days.
Then there is a two-day split routine that works the muscles of the upper body on one day, and the lower body on the next day. Usually, you’d take a rest or cardio day on the following day and then start over. This means you’d hit each muscle group twice a week.
There are 3-day splits that do “Pushing” movements on one day (Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps), “Pulling” movements the next day (Back & Biceps), and Lower Body (Legs, Hips & Abs) on the third day. Then you either take a day off, or start over. So you can hit each muscle groups twice a week with the 3-day split too.
Finally, there are 4 and 5-day splits that are for people looking to focus even more on particular muscle groups. An example of a 5-day split would be working your Chest on Monday, Back on Tuesday, Legs & Abs on Wednesday, Shoulders on Thursday, and Arms (Biceps & Triceps) on Friday. Then you could do cardio on Saturday and rest on Sunday.
The rule of thumb is the more you focus on a particular body part, by doing more movements and sets, the more that body part will respond and grow. All that extra work means you might be sorer, though, so you’ll need more rest time to recover.
This week the group did the following full-body workout with dumbbells and an exercise ball. It hit all the major muscle groups and took about 20-25 minutes. They picked weights that they could comfortably do at least 10 repetitions on each exercise.
1. Dumbbell (DB) Chest Press on Ball & DB Squats (3x)
2. DB Single Arm Rows & DB Deadlifts (3x)
3. DB Lateral Raises, DB Curls, & DB Overhead Tricep Press (3x)
4. Ab Crunches on Ball, Knee-Ins on Ball & Leg Lifts (2x)
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline, who lost 2.0% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. T.J. Johnson placed second, losing 1.5% and 3.8 lbs. Tonya Westerfield was third, losing about a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Then there is a two-day split routine that works the muscles of the upper body on one day, and the lower body on the next day. Usually, you’d take a rest or cardio day on the following day and then start over. This means you’d hit each muscle group twice a week.
There are 3-day splits that do “Pushing” movements on one day (Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps), “Pulling” movements the next day (Back & Biceps), and Lower Body (Legs, Hips & Abs) on the third day. Then you either take a day off, or start over. So you can hit each muscle groups twice a week with the 3-day split too.
Finally, there are 4 and 5-day splits that are for people looking to focus even more on particular muscle groups. An example of a 5-day split would be working your Chest on Monday, Back on Tuesday, Legs & Abs on Wednesday, Shoulders on Thursday, and Arms (Biceps & Triceps) on Friday. Then you could do cardio on Saturday and rest on Sunday.
The rule of thumb is the more you focus on a particular body part, by doing more movements and sets, the more that body part will respond and grow. All that extra work means you might be sorer, though, so you’ll need more rest time to recover.
This week the group did the following full-body workout with dumbbells and an exercise ball. It hit all the major muscle groups and took about 20-25 minutes. They picked weights that they could comfortably do at least 10 repetitions on each exercise.
1. Dumbbell (DB) Chest Press on Ball & DB Squats (3x)
2. DB Single Arm Rows & DB Deadlifts (3x)
3. DB Lateral Raises, DB Curls, & DB Overhead Tricep Press (3x)
4. Ab Crunches on Ball, Knee-Ins on Ball & Leg Lifts (2x)
This week’s Biggest Loser was Brittany Cline, who lost 2.0% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. T.J. Johnson placed second, losing 1.5% and 3.8 lbs. Tonya Westerfield was third, losing about a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Thursday, April 12, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" WEEK ONE
We always have two goals for people just starting a weight-loss program. The first is simply to get moving. Lots of moving, every day—twice a day if possible.
The second goal is to have them write down their calories each day in a daily calorie log. Most people are surprised at the actual amount of calories they consume each day. Whether they’re high or low—almost nobody guesses right. That’s why we write it down.
There are lots of good applications out there for your smart phones or computers. They’ll help you track your food calories in, and exercise calories out, so you can see where you stand every day.
If you can create a 500 calorie deficit each day, you’ll burn one pound of fat in a week. A 1,000 calorie deficit will net you two pounds of fat that week. It’s that simple. Burn more than you store and you’ll lose weight.
One wild card is that you have to at least hit your minimum calories or your body will cause your metabolism to slow down. This makes it very hard to burn fat for fuel—you’ve got to “hit your minimum.”
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, women should never go below 1,200 calories, and men need at least 1,800. What you consume above that supports your daily activities like work and exercise.
But whatever you consume that you don’t need, will be stored as fat. So the goal is to figure out that sweet spot—where you consume more than your minimum, but less than your total activity and daily needs.
That’s where the daily deficit comes in. Once you hit your minimum, plus a little bit for comfort, any extra energy needed for exercise and other activities will ultimately be made up by burning fat for fuel.
I’ve found most women are comfortable around 1,500-1,650 calories/day and can still lose weight. Guys can comfortably lose weight at around 2,250-2,400 calories/day. Those extra calories over your minimum, will give you enough to fuel your activities, but still leave you with a deficit so you can lose weight.
This week the group did a mile, and then the following workout: 25 Superman Push-ups, 25 Pull-ups, 25 Jumping Squats, 25 Mountain Climbers, 25 Dumbbell Curls, 25 Kettlebell Swings, and 25 Sit-ups. They modified movements where necessary, and did two rounds with the goal being to work up to three rounds later in the week.
This week’s Biggest Loser was T.J. Johnson, who lost 2.9% of his body weight and 7.2 lbs. Second place went to Floyd McWilliams, who lost 2.0% and 4.0 lbs. Third place went to Sande Sherer, who lost 1.7% and 2.8 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
The second goal is to have them write down their calories each day in a daily calorie log. Most people are surprised at the actual amount of calories they consume each day. Whether they’re high or low—almost nobody guesses right. That’s why we write it down.
There are lots of good applications out there for your smart phones or computers. They’ll help you track your food calories in, and exercise calories out, so you can see where you stand every day.
If you can create a 500 calorie deficit each day, you’ll burn one pound of fat in a week. A 1,000 calorie deficit will net you two pounds of fat that week. It’s that simple. Burn more than you store and you’ll lose weight.
One wild card is that you have to at least hit your minimum calories or your body will cause your metabolism to slow down. This makes it very hard to burn fat for fuel—you’ve got to “hit your minimum.”
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, women should never go below 1,200 calories, and men need at least 1,800. What you consume above that supports your daily activities like work and exercise.
But whatever you consume that you don’t need, will be stored as fat. So the goal is to figure out that sweet spot—where you consume more than your minimum, but less than your total activity and daily needs.
That’s where the daily deficit comes in. Once you hit your minimum, plus a little bit for comfort, any extra energy needed for exercise and other activities will ultimately be made up by burning fat for fuel.
I’ve found most women are comfortable around 1,500-1,650 calories/day and can still lose weight. Guys can comfortably lose weight at around 2,250-2,400 calories/day. Those extra calories over your minimum, will give you enough to fuel your activities, but still leave you with a deficit so you can lose weight.
This week the group did a mile, and then the following workout: 25 Superman Push-ups, 25 Pull-ups, 25 Jumping Squats, 25 Mountain Climbers, 25 Dumbbell Curls, 25 Kettlebell Swings, and 25 Sit-ups. They modified movements where necessary, and did two rounds with the goal being to work up to three rounds later in the week.
This week’s Biggest Loser was T.J. Johnson, who lost 2.9% of his body weight and 7.2 lbs. Second place went to Floyd McWilliams, who lost 2.0% and 4.0 lbs. Third place went to Sande Sherer, who lost 1.7% and 2.8 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Sunday, April 08, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "16" INITIAL WEIGH-IN & WORKOUT
Last Monday night we had the initial weigh-in and first workout for the new group in Biggest Loser “16.” It’s a much smaller group this time for some reason. Perhaps it’s because it’s warming up and more people are outside. But it was a pretty mild winter and spring, so who knows?
Regardless, it’s such a small group that we’ll be able to do things that we never could do in the larger groups. When we had 30 people or more, we had to do things in stages, but there were some things we just couldn’t do—there was only so much equipment to go around.
Now we’ll be able to do pretty much anything I’d do if I were training them, one-on-one, along with all the things we typically do in our regular classes, which usually run around 10 people—just what we have in Biggest Loser “16.” So we’re going to change things up even more and see what happens!
We weighed them in and got their body fat, and a bunch of other parameters. They took beginning measurements so they’ll have something to compare with down the road. They also got their daily calorie logs so they can start writing down their food.
I covered the workout routine they’ll be on for the 12 weeks: Weights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; and Cardio on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Plus, they’ll be using their “secret weapon” for weight-loss—another smaller, less intense workout that can be as simple as walking a mile in the morning which takes about 20 minutes.
Their first workout was a tough one that had five stations: Wall Ball, Dumbbell Curls, Box Jumps, Kettlebell Swings, and Crunches (bent knees, legs up, side-to-side, and straight legs).
They did each station for about 45 seconds and took 15 seconds to rotate to the next exercise, five stations each round, for a total of four rounds. Don’t ever let anyone tell you they don’t have enough time to work out, for this workout lasted only 20 minutes, but they were all ready to stop by the end of it!
The main goal this week was simply to get them moving. Next week, we’ll be talking about the amount of food they’re eating, based on their daily calorie logs.
We still have lots of room in the group, so if you want a push this summer, and want to participate in Biggest Loser “16”, you need to let me know as soon as possible. Then you can join us next Monday night!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Regardless, it’s such a small group that we’ll be able to do things that we never could do in the larger groups. When we had 30 people or more, we had to do things in stages, but there were some things we just couldn’t do—there was only so much equipment to go around.
Now we’ll be able to do pretty much anything I’d do if I were training them, one-on-one, along with all the things we typically do in our regular classes, which usually run around 10 people—just what we have in Biggest Loser “16.” So we’re going to change things up even more and see what happens!
We weighed them in and got their body fat, and a bunch of other parameters. They took beginning measurements so they’ll have something to compare with down the road. They also got their daily calorie logs so they can start writing down their food.
I covered the workout routine they’ll be on for the 12 weeks: Weights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; and Cardio on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Plus, they’ll be using their “secret weapon” for weight-loss—another smaller, less intense workout that can be as simple as walking a mile in the morning which takes about 20 minutes.
Their first workout was a tough one that had five stations: Wall Ball, Dumbbell Curls, Box Jumps, Kettlebell Swings, and Crunches (bent knees, legs up, side-to-side, and straight legs).
They did each station for about 45 seconds and took 15 seconds to rotate to the next exercise, five stations each round, for a total of four rounds. Don’t ever let anyone tell you they don’t have enough time to work out, for this workout lasted only 20 minutes, but they were all ready to stop by the end of it!
The main goal this week was simply to get them moving. Next week, we’ll be talking about the amount of food they’re eating, based on their daily calorie logs.
We still have lots of room in the group, so if you want a push this summer, and want to participate in Biggest Loser “16”, you need to let me know as soon as possible. Then you can join us next Monday night!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Thursday, March 29, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK TWELVE--FINAL RESULTS!
We finished another Biggest Loser Monday night. We started with 32 people, and 14 people made the final weigh-in for a 43.75% completion ratio. There were 3-4 others still participating that couldn’t make it, so we probably finished up around 50%.
Our final workout was a 5K (3.1 mi) out at the football field track. We’re often able to participate in official 5K events, but since there weren’t any going on nearby, I decided to have them do their own 5K.
It’s definitely more interesting doing an official event, instead of doing 12 and ¼ laps around a track, because you actually get to go somewhere. It’s also more exciting when you have a whole bunch of people doing it, so people tend to push themselves more. Still, it’s good to go out there and see how long it takes, even if you have to do it on a track or a treadmill.
In the next Biggest Loser “16”, there will be a couple opportunities to do an “official” 5K. One will be a straight 5K over at Sarah Bush, and the other will be a 5K plus mud and 10 obstacles in Terre Haute for those who dare!
In the end, it’s about challenging yourself. Some people use the events to ensure they’ll train, which keeps them active and healthy. Others do them because they want a new challenge.
That’s the same reason people do Biggest Loser. While some need to lose a lot of weight, others just want to get in shape, but with a little push, and accountability. Over the last 12 weeks, this group worked out harder than ever, right from the start, and it’s going to be the same thing with the next group, starting next week!
This week’s Biggest Loser was Leslie Shanks, who lost 2.1% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. Beverly Weger placed second, losing 1.9% and 3.2 lbs. Laken Pennington was third, losing 1.5% and 2.0 lbs. Sandra Soberg was fourth, losing 1.4% and 1.6 lbs, and Brad Adams placed fifth, losing 1.0% and 2.2 lbs.
Our overall Biggest Loser was Laken Pennington, who lost 23.0% of her body weight and 31.2 lbs! Second place overall went to Amy Church, who lost 17.1% and 20.0 lbs. Here’s a complete list of the top ten finishers:
1. Laken Pennington: 23.0%, 31.2 lbs
2. Amy Church: 17.1%, 20.0 lbs
3. Beverly Weger: 15.2%, 24.6 lbs
4. Leslie Shanks: 13.1%, 20.6 lbs
5. Sandra Soberg: 11.6%, 13.0 lbs
6. Jennifer Abernathy: 11.2%, 19.4 lbs
7. Jodi Theirl: 11.0%, 16.0 lbs
8. Greg Stuck: 10.8%, 19.6 lbs
9. Angie Adams: 8.8%, 11.8 lbs
10. Brad Adams: 8.3%, 17.4 lbs
If you want a push this summer, and want to participate in the next Biggest Loser “16”, you need to let me know as soon as possible. The first weigh-in and workout will be this Monday, April 2nd at 6pm, so let’s get started!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Our final workout was a 5K (3.1 mi) out at the football field track. We’re often able to participate in official 5K events, but since there weren’t any going on nearby, I decided to have them do their own 5K.
It’s definitely more interesting doing an official event, instead of doing 12 and ¼ laps around a track, because you actually get to go somewhere. It’s also more exciting when you have a whole bunch of people doing it, so people tend to push themselves more. Still, it’s good to go out there and see how long it takes, even if you have to do it on a track or a treadmill.
In the next Biggest Loser “16”, there will be a couple opportunities to do an “official” 5K. One will be a straight 5K over at Sarah Bush, and the other will be a 5K plus mud and 10 obstacles in Terre Haute for those who dare!
In the end, it’s about challenging yourself. Some people use the events to ensure they’ll train, which keeps them active and healthy. Others do them because they want a new challenge.
That’s the same reason people do Biggest Loser. While some need to lose a lot of weight, others just want to get in shape, but with a little push, and accountability. Over the last 12 weeks, this group worked out harder than ever, right from the start, and it’s going to be the same thing with the next group, starting next week!
This week’s Biggest Loser was Leslie Shanks, who lost 2.1% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. Beverly Weger placed second, losing 1.9% and 3.2 lbs. Laken Pennington was third, losing 1.5% and 2.0 lbs. Sandra Soberg was fourth, losing 1.4% and 1.6 lbs, and Brad Adams placed fifth, losing 1.0% and 2.2 lbs.
Our overall Biggest Loser was Laken Pennington, who lost 23.0% of her body weight and 31.2 lbs! Second place overall went to Amy Church, who lost 17.1% and 20.0 lbs. Here’s a complete list of the top ten finishers:
1. Laken Pennington: 23.0%, 31.2 lbs
2. Amy Church: 17.1%, 20.0 lbs
3. Beverly Weger: 15.2%, 24.6 lbs
4. Leslie Shanks: 13.1%, 20.6 lbs
5. Sandra Soberg: 11.6%, 13.0 lbs
6. Jennifer Abernathy: 11.2%, 19.4 lbs
7. Jodi Theirl: 11.0%, 16.0 lbs
8. Greg Stuck: 10.8%, 19.6 lbs
9. Angie Adams: 8.8%, 11.8 lbs
10. Brad Adams: 8.3%, 17.4 lbs
If you want a push this summer, and want to participate in the next Biggest Loser “16”, you need to let me know as soon as possible. The first weigh-in and workout will be this Monday, April 2nd at 6pm, so let’s get started!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Thursday, March 22, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK ELEVEN
Well, the group just finished week eleven which leaves one week to go. It looks like several people have broken out of the midterm slump and weight-loss plateau’s which were going around.
At times like those, you just have to buckle down, redouble your efforts, and stay with it. If you quit, you never get what you want. So it really comes down to, is staying power. And that really comes down to commitment.
If you’re really committed to something, you can withstand all the different things that are pulling on you, trying to get you off track. This means you have to have reasons to keep going. Here’s where having certain, specific goals can help.
If you have a goal that really means something to you, you’re more likely to get there. One thing that almost all of the remaining Biggest Losers have in common is a goal. If I ask them how much they wanted to lose during the 12 weeks, they can tell me right away.
The other thing that really helps is if you have a need to do it. This is a felt-need that is so deep, that sometimes, you can’t even explain it. It just is. I think it’s when you really get in tune with you who are, and who you’re supposed to be.
It could be as simple as finally getting fed up with how things have been for you. Once you turn that corner, it gets easier to do whatever it takes to keep going.
Finally, once you start feeling better, you do it so you can keep feeling that way. Here’s where the real power is. You know what it’s like the other way, and you don’t ever want to go back. And by then, you might even like working out, and watching what you eat!
This week’s Biggest Loser was once again Laken Pennington, who lost 2.3% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. Laken’s lost a total of 29.2 lbs to date and had a goal of 30.0 lbs. That should be no problem for her.
Second place went to Amy Church, who lost 1.8% and 2.2 lbs. Sandra Soberg was third, losing 1.7% and 2.0 lbs. Jennifer Abernathy got fourth, losing 1.6% and 2.8 lbs, and Mandi Stuck was fifth, losing 1.4% and 1.6 lbs.
If you’re interested in participating in the next Biggest Loser “16”, you need to let me know as soon as possible The first weigh-in and workout will be on Monday, April 2nd at 6pm, so let’s get started!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
At times like those, you just have to buckle down, redouble your efforts, and stay with it. If you quit, you never get what you want. So it really comes down to, is staying power. And that really comes down to commitment.
If you’re really committed to something, you can withstand all the different things that are pulling on you, trying to get you off track. This means you have to have reasons to keep going. Here’s where having certain, specific goals can help.
If you have a goal that really means something to you, you’re more likely to get there. One thing that almost all of the remaining Biggest Losers have in common is a goal. If I ask them how much they wanted to lose during the 12 weeks, they can tell me right away.
The other thing that really helps is if you have a need to do it. This is a felt-need that is so deep, that sometimes, you can’t even explain it. It just is. I think it’s when you really get in tune with you who are, and who you’re supposed to be.
It could be as simple as finally getting fed up with how things have been for you. Once you turn that corner, it gets easier to do whatever it takes to keep going.
Finally, once you start feeling better, you do it so you can keep feeling that way. Here’s where the real power is. You know what it’s like the other way, and you don’t ever want to go back. And by then, you might even like working out, and watching what you eat!
This week’s Biggest Loser was once again Laken Pennington, who lost 2.3% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. Laken’s lost a total of 29.2 lbs to date and had a goal of 30.0 lbs. That should be no problem for her.
Second place went to Amy Church, who lost 1.8% and 2.2 lbs. Sandra Soberg was third, losing 1.7% and 2.0 lbs. Jennifer Abernathy got fourth, losing 1.6% and 2.8 lbs, and Mandi Stuck was fifth, losing 1.4% and 1.6 lbs.
If you’re interested in participating in the next Biggest Loser “16”, you need to let me know as soon as possible The first weigh-in and workout will be on Monday, April 2nd at 6pm, so let’s get started!
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Friday, March 16, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK TEN
Over the last few weeks, weight loss has been slowing down a bit and we haven’t been seeing such big numbers anymore. Many people are finding it harder to lose even a pound or two. This is what’s called the weight loss plateau. It almost always shows up, usually 8-10 weeks into a weight loss program.
There are several reasons why this happens. People find it hard to maintain discipline for so long, especially when weight loss starts slowing down. It gets easy to start letting things slide, and you start missing workouts, or get a little loose with your diet.
Your body can also get used to what you’re doing. Now you don’t need quite as much effort or energy to do the same things, so you’ll burn fewer calories. This slows down weight loss. That’s why I always like to keep changing the workouts so they’re always tough.
Sometimes, it’s a combination of things. You start missing workouts and you quit watching what you eat! In a week or two, you can regain a couple pounds. Left unchecked for several weeks, you can put back five or even ten pounds.
Even though you lose weight, you still have the fat cells. You’ve been burning the fat from inside the cells, and they shrink way down in size, but they’re still there waiting, just in case you’re gonna need em again. If you go back to an inactive lifestyle or eating too much, you will.
The trick to losing weight is having a daily calorie deficit—burning more calories than you consume. If you can create a 500 calorie deficit each day, you’ll lose 1 pound that week. If you can add enough activity to be down 1,000 calories, you’ll lose 2 pounds.
But it goes the other way too. If you quit exercising and keep consuming the same calories, now you can have a calorie surplus. If the surplus is 500 calories a day, in a week, you’ve just regained a pound.
Let’s say you quit getting your 500 calorie workouts, and you relax your eating by another 500 calories. That’s a 1,000 calorie swing that day. Do it for a week and now you’ve gained 2 pounds! At that rate it won’t take long before you’ve regained everything you’ve lost. It’s so common it’s called “The Yo-Yo syndrome.”
I’ve seen it here. Someone will lose 100 lbs, and then put it right back on. What a shame. All that work down the drain. And often, they’ll try to lose it, but they just don’t have the heart to go through all that once again, so they finally just give up.
The key is staying on top of it. If you hit a plateau, redouble your efforts. If you pick up a few pounds, figure out what went wrong and fix it. Work harder and work longer. Start writing down your calories again. Get focused again and get back with the program. Remember, it is a life-long effort, losing the weight and keeping it off!
This week’s Biggest Loser was Greg Stuck, who lost 1.2% of his body weight and 2.2 lbs. Second place went to Beverly Weger, who lost 0.8% and 1.4 lbs. To date, she has lost 21.2 lbs.
Angie Adams placed third, losing 0.7% and 1.0 lb. Laken Pennington was fourth, losing 0.6% and a little less than a pound. There was a four-way tie for fifth place, with Jodi Theirl, Brad Adams, Amy Church, and Kit Kirby all losing 0.5% and right around a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
There are several reasons why this happens. People find it hard to maintain discipline for so long, especially when weight loss starts slowing down. It gets easy to start letting things slide, and you start missing workouts, or get a little loose with your diet.
Your body can also get used to what you’re doing. Now you don’t need quite as much effort or energy to do the same things, so you’ll burn fewer calories. This slows down weight loss. That’s why I always like to keep changing the workouts so they’re always tough.
Sometimes, it’s a combination of things. You start missing workouts and you quit watching what you eat! In a week or two, you can regain a couple pounds. Left unchecked for several weeks, you can put back five or even ten pounds.
Even though you lose weight, you still have the fat cells. You’ve been burning the fat from inside the cells, and they shrink way down in size, but they’re still there waiting, just in case you’re gonna need em again. If you go back to an inactive lifestyle or eating too much, you will.
The trick to losing weight is having a daily calorie deficit—burning more calories than you consume. If you can create a 500 calorie deficit each day, you’ll lose 1 pound that week. If you can add enough activity to be down 1,000 calories, you’ll lose 2 pounds.
But it goes the other way too. If you quit exercising and keep consuming the same calories, now you can have a calorie surplus. If the surplus is 500 calories a day, in a week, you’ve just regained a pound.
Let’s say you quit getting your 500 calorie workouts, and you relax your eating by another 500 calories. That’s a 1,000 calorie swing that day. Do it for a week and now you’ve gained 2 pounds! At that rate it won’t take long before you’ve regained everything you’ve lost. It’s so common it’s called “The Yo-Yo syndrome.”
I’ve seen it here. Someone will lose 100 lbs, and then put it right back on. What a shame. All that work down the drain. And often, they’ll try to lose it, but they just don’t have the heart to go through all that once again, so they finally just give up.
The key is staying on top of it. If you hit a plateau, redouble your efforts. If you pick up a few pounds, figure out what went wrong and fix it. Work harder and work longer. Start writing down your calories again. Get focused again and get back with the program. Remember, it is a life-long effort, losing the weight and keeping it off!
This week’s Biggest Loser was Greg Stuck, who lost 1.2% of his body weight and 2.2 lbs. Second place went to Beverly Weger, who lost 0.8% and 1.4 lbs. To date, she has lost 21.2 lbs.
Angie Adams placed third, losing 0.7% and 1.0 lb. Laken Pennington was fourth, losing 0.6% and a little less than a pound. There was a four-way tie for fifth place, with Jodi Theirl, Brad Adams, Amy Church, and Kit Kirby all losing 0.5% and right around a pound.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Saturday, March 10, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK NINE
With another week down, I wanted to keep the intensity high with another butt-kickin’ full body workout similar to the boot camp workouts I give our group class. In fact, they’ve been doing so well, it seemed right to have them do the same workout! Here’s what they did:
Round One: (5x)
• Straight Bar Deadlift-Sumo-Hi Pulls (10-15x)
• Assorted Ab Crunches on the Exercise Ball (10-15x)
Round Two: (5x)
• Straight Bar Squats w/Overhead Press (10-15x)
• More Assorted Ab Crunches on the Exercise Ball (10-15x)
Round Three: (5x)
• Straight Bar Curls (10-15x)
• Even More Assorted Ab Crunches on the Exercise Ball (10-15x)
We also talked about how snacking can make or break their weight loss goals—especially as they start moving into a weight loss plateau. For the women, if they miss a snack or two, it could easily put them under their daily minimum calories, making it hard to lose weight. Remember, most women are under-eaters.
For the guys, snacking too much could put them over their calorie goal, making it easy to store fat instead of burning it. Most guys tend to eat too much, so portion control becomes a top priority. Here are some of the favorite snacks named by the group to help keep their hunger in check between meals:
• Sliced Apples w/peanut butter
• Greek Yogurt (or regular low fat yogurt w/fruit)
• Cheese
• Trail Mix (nuts, raisins, a few M & M’s)
Several people posted some nice losses in inches, with some totaling more than 10 inches overall. The greatest loss was recorded by Laken Pennington, who’s lost an amazing 11 inches off her waist alone, and 27 inches overall! With that kind of success, it’s no surprise that she was this week’s Biggest Loser once again, losing 2.1% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs.
Second place went to Beverly Weger, who lost 1.3% and 2.2 lbs. We had a three-way tie for third place, with Kara Englum, Tom Emerick and Mandi Stuck all losing about 1.0% and 1.4 lbs, 1.7 lbs, and 1.0 lb respectively.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Round One: (5x)
• Straight Bar Deadlift-Sumo-Hi Pulls (10-15x)
• Assorted Ab Crunches on the Exercise Ball (10-15x)
Round Two: (5x)
• Straight Bar Squats w/Overhead Press (10-15x)
• More Assorted Ab Crunches on the Exercise Ball (10-15x)
Round Three: (5x)
• Straight Bar Curls (10-15x)
• Even More Assorted Ab Crunches on the Exercise Ball (10-15x)
We also talked about how snacking can make or break their weight loss goals—especially as they start moving into a weight loss plateau. For the women, if they miss a snack or two, it could easily put them under their daily minimum calories, making it hard to lose weight. Remember, most women are under-eaters.
For the guys, snacking too much could put them over their calorie goal, making it easy to store fat instead of burning it. Most guys tend to eat too much, so portion control becomes a top priority. Here are some of the favorite snacks named by the group to help keep their hunger in check between meals:
• Sliced Apples w/peanut butter
• Greek Yogurt (or regular low fat yogurt w/fruit)
• Cheese
• Trail Mix (nuts, raisins, a few M & M’s)
Several people posted some nice losses in inches, with some totaling more than 10 inches overall. The greatest loss was recorded by Laken Pennington, who’s lost an amazing 11 inches off her waist alone, and 27 inches overall! With that kind of success, it’s no surprise that she was this week’s Biggest Loser once again, losing 2.1% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs.
Second place went to Beverly Weger, who lost 1.3% and 2.2 lbs. We had a three-way tie for third place, with Kara Englum, Tom Emerick and Mandi Stuck all losing about 1.0% and 1.4 lbs, 1.7 lbs, and 1.0 lb respectively.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Thursday, March 01, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK EIGHT
With another week down, the Biggest Losers now have two months under their belt, and hopefully, fewer inches. They took measurements on the first night, and then again after one month, so it’s time for more measurements. I’m guessing they’ll really have some good numbers to report and I’ll have more on that for you next week.
As for retention, it’s looking very good, perhaps the best ever. Typically, we end up with about half the participants. You might recall we started with 32, and then dropped to 30 due to one moving, and a schedule conflict.
This week we had 22 people make the weigh-in and workout. So eight missed the weigh-in, and of those, I know at least three are still going strong. That means we might be down to 25 out of 32, which is still up over 75% participation!
The weekly workout was another barn-burner, and the same one I gave the 5:30 group. Now these people chew up and spit out tough workouts, so it’s quite an accomplishment for our Biggest Losers to be doing that hard a workout after only two months! Here’s what they did:
10 Dumbbell (DB) Deadlift-Curl-Presses, 15 Mountain-Climbers, and 20 Sit-ups, 10x.
This type of workout starts easily enough, but by the time you get halfway, you know you’re in trouble. In fact, you might wonder if you’ve got what it takes to finish. But by the time you get to round seven or eight, you’ll realize you only have a couple rounds left, so you just buckle down and press on. The trick is to just focus on one round at a time.
For accomplished athletes, the goal is to do the workout for time—as quickly as possible. Of course, if you’re just getting started, it would be much wiser to pace yourself until you know you can make it through.
Make sure you’ve eaten something before the workout. You’ll need some carbs to carry you through. Otherwise, you’ll burn through all the glycogen (carbs + water) in your muscles and all your free-fatty acids in the blood, and you’ll be left without any immediate energy to go on.
At that point, you’re burning fat for fuel, but you can’t produce it quickly enough to meet the demands of the workout (if you’re pushing hard). When that happens, you’re caught between energy systems, so you bonk out.
That’s when you start feeling sick to your stomach, light-headed and possibly even dizzy. If that happens, you need to take a little break and get something in you, like half a bottle of Gatorade. You’ll feel better within a few minutes. You’ll also probably never start a workout like that again without fueling up first!
This week’s winner was Angie Adams, who lost 2.3% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. Second place went to Nancy Vono, who lost 1.8% and 3.4 lbs. Jodi Theirl was third, losing 1.7% and 2.6 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
As for retention, it’s looking very good, perhaps the best ever. Typically, we end up with about half the participants. You might recall we started with 32, and then dropped to 30 due to one moving, and a schedule conflict.
This week we had 22 people make the weigh-in and workout. So eight missed the weigh-in, and of those, I know at least three are still going strong. That means we might be down to 25 out of 32, which is still up over 75% participation!
The weekly workout was another barn-burner, and the same one I gave the 5:30 group. Now these people chew up and spit out tough workouts, so it’s quite an accomplishment for our Biggest Losers to be doing that hard a workout after only two months! Here’s what they did:
10 Dumbbell (DB) Deadlift-Curl-Presses, 15 Mountain-Climbers, and 20 Sit-ups, 10x.
This type of workout starts easily enough, but by the time you get halfway, you know you’re in trouble. In fact, you might wonder if you’ve got what it takes to finish. But by the time you get to round seven or eight, you’ll realize you only have a couple rounds left, so you just buckle down and press on. The trick is to just focus on one round at a time.
For accomplished athletes, the goal is to do the workout for time—as quickly as possible. Of course, if you’re just getting started, it would be much wiser to pace yourself until you know you can make it through.
Make sure you’ve eaten something before the workout. You’ll need some carbs to carry you through. Otherwise, you’ll burn through all the glycogen (carbs + water) in your muscles and all your free-fatty acids in the blood, and you’ll be left without any immediate energy to go on.
At that point, you’re burning fat for fuel, but you can’t produce it quickly enough to meet the demands of the workout (if you’re pushing hard). When that happens, you’re caught between energy systems, so you bonk out.
That’s when you start feeling sick to your stomach, light-headed and possibly even dizzy. If that happens, you need to take a little break and get something in you, like half a bottle of Gatorade. You’ll feel better within a few minutes. You’ll also probably never start a workout like that again without fueling up first!
This week’s winner was Angie Adams, who lost 2.3% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs. Second place went to Nancy Vono, who lost 1.8% and 3.4 lbs. Jodi Theirl was third, losing 1.7% and 2.6 lbs.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Monday, February 27, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK SEVEN
This marks the end of Week Seven and we still have very high participation. Of the remaining 30 people, 22 made the weigh-in, and 20 made the workout.
If you’ve been reading the articles over the last few weeks, you know they’ve been doing some pretty high intensity workouts, and I wanted to continue with that. This week we combined 60 second cardio intervals with 60 seconds on the Maxicam weight machines.
Group One started in the cardio area while Group Two started on the weight machines. They could use any piece of cardio equipment whether it was a treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bike, Schwinn Air Dyne, Stepper, or Rower.
After 60 seconds, they switched places and Group Two hit the cardio machines. After another minute, they switched again. The goal was to minimize the transition time and to get on a different cardio machine each time. On the weight machines, they moved through them in a circuit, hitting the next machine in line each time.
They did 10 rounds, 60 seconds cardio, 60 seconds weights, for a total of 20 minutes. It was probably 25 minutes if you count travel time between the machines, but as I said, they were moving quickly back and forth.
I told them to hold back a bit the first couple rounds to get completely warmed up. Then they cranked up the levels or speed in the cardio area. On the weights, the goal was to keep using the machine the entire 60 seconds, even if they had to lower the weight a couple of times.
This is the kind of workout that really starts adding up, and by the halfway point at the end of the fifth round, everyone was feeling it. To their credit, they kept pushing, and the last ten minutes were pretty tough.
Afterward, we talked about how to use the concept, and make up different workouts. I also gave them a few ideas from my own workout log during the last week:
• Run ¼ mile, Leg Press, Calf Raises, Leg Extension, and Leg Curls. 5x. (A leg workout).
• Ride the Schwinn Air Dyne for 5 minutes, and then row on the Concept 2 Rower for 5 minutes. 8x. (A cardio workout that can be scaled back both in minutes, and total rounds).
• Ride the Schwinn Air Dyne for 5 minutes, and then do 25 Pushups, 25 Body Squats, 25 Sit-ups, and 25 Hyper-extensions. 6x. (A total body workout that also has a lot of cardio. Modify it any way you need to).
• Run ½ mile, Row 1000 meters, Ride 1.5 miles on the Air Dyne. 6x. (This was a wicked cardio workout that uses a ton of muscle! Again, feel free to modify it for distance, or total workout time).
This week’s winner was Laken Pennington, who lost 2.5% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. Sandra Soberg was second, losing 1.5% and 1.8 lbs. Jennifer Abernathy and Beverly Weger tied for third, both losing 1.4%, and 2.6 lbs and 2.4 lbs respectively.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
If you’ve been reading the articles over the last few weeks, you know they’ve been doing some pretty high intensity workouts, and I wanted to continue with that. This week we combined 60 second cardio intervals with 60 seconds on the Maxicam weight machines.
Group One started in the cardio area while Group Two started on the weight machines. They could use any piece of cardio equipment whether it was a treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bike, Schwinn Air Dyne, Stepper, or Rower.
After 60 seconds, they switched places and Group Two hit the cardio machines. After another minute, they switched again. The goal was to minimize the transition time and to get on a different cardio machine each time. On the weight machines, they moved through them in a circuit, hitting the next machine in line each time.
They did 10 rounds, 60 seconds cardio, 60 seconds weights, for a total of 20 minutes. It was probably 25 minutes if you count travel time between the machines, but as I said, they were moving quickly back and forth.
I told them to hold back a bit the first couple rounds to get completely warmed up. Then they cranked up the levels or speed in the cardio area. On the weights, the goal was to keep using the machine the entire 60 seconds, even if they had to lower the weight a couple of times.
This is the kind of workout that really starts adding up, and by the halfway point at the end of the fifth round, everyone was feeling it. To their credit, they kept pushing, and the last ten minutes were pretty tough.
Afterward, we talked about how to use the concept, and make up different workouts. I also gave them a few ideas from my own workout log during the last week:
• Run ¼ mile, Leg Press, Calf Raises, Leg Extension, and Leg Curls. 5x. (A leg workout).
• Ride the Schwinn Air Dyne for 5 minutes, and then row on the Concept 2 Rower for 5 minutes. 8x. (A cardio workout that can be scaled back both in minutes, and total rounds).
• Ride the Schwinn Air Dyne for 5 minutes, and then do 25 Pushups, 25 Body Squats, 25 Sit-ups, and 25 Hyper-extensions. 6x. (A total body workout that also has a lot of cardio. Modify it any way you need to).
• Run ½ mile, Row 1000 meters, Ride 1.5 miles on the Air Dyne. 6x. (This was a wicked cardio workout that uses a ton of muscle! Again, feel free to modify it for distance, or total workout time).
This week’s winner was Laken Pennington, who lost 2.5% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. Sandra Soberg was second, losing 1.5% and 1.8 lbs. Jennifer Abernathy and Beverly Weger tied for third, both losing 1.4%, and 2.6 lbs and 2.4 lbs respectively.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
BIGGEST LOSER "15" -- WEEK SIX
This marks the halfway point in the twelve week program. We started out with thirty two, and have lost two people to attrition. One never really showed up, and the other just moved away from the area.
Last week, 27 of the remaining 30 weighed in, and this week 24 made the weigh-in. Over the course of the program, half the group drops out for one reason or another, so we’re doing pretty well at this point.
You might recall that last time in Biggest Loser “14”, we had a much higher dropout rate than usual, so it’s good to see that was probably just a fluke. In fact, it’s looking like we might finish with well more than half the group!
Of the 15 groups we’ve done, I recall that groups five through eight seemed to set most of the weight loss records. The most pounds lost for a guy was 60 lbs, and we’ve had a couple people hit it. Since then, no one has been able to get close. The most lost for a gal was 43 lbs, and it’s been a long time since anyone has gotten close to that either.
Typically, we’ll see one or two people get to around 40 lbs or so, with a couple more in the 30’s. Usually, the bulk of the weight loss is around 15-20 lbs for most people. Remember, a pound a week is good, two pounds a week is great, and three or more pounds a week is fantastic—and hard to keep up.
The results you see on TV, while outstanding, aren’t anywhere close to typical. They live on a ranch, don’t have jobs, or kids to raise and transport in multiple directions. They also work out 6-8 hours a day. My goal is to get these people moving twice a day—for at least 20 minutes early, and then 45 minutes to an hour later in the day.
One thing that has really impressed me is the extent to which some people from the group have taken the Monday night workouts and set them up again on Wednesdays and sometimes even on Fridays too. They’re tough workouts once a week, much less repeating them. It will be interesting to see if they repeat this week’s workout!
(1) Burpees, (2) Pull-ups, (3) Leg/Knee Raises, (4) Kettle Bell Swings, (5) Body Squats, (6) Mountain Climbers. 25 seconds at each station and 5 seconds to move to the next station. Each round lasted three minutes with a 30 second rest break between rounds. Ten rounds total!
This week’s winner was Jodi Thierl, who lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. Second place went to Mandi Stuck, who lost 1.8% and 2.2 lbs. Amy Church, Kit Kirby, and Debbie Eveland tied for third, all losing 1.4%, and 1.8 lbs, 2.8 lbs, and 1.8 lbs respectively. Laken Pennington and Greg Stuck tied for fourth, losing 1.2%, and 1.8 lbs and 2.2 lbs respectively.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
Last week, 27 of the remaining 30 weighed in, and this week 24 made the weigh-in. Over the course of the program, half the group drops out for one reason or another, so we’re doing pretty well at this point.
You might recall that last time in Biggest Loser “14”, we had a much higher dropout rate than usual, so it’s good to see that was probably just a fluke. In fact, it’s looking like we might finish with well more than half the group!
Of the 15 groups we’ve done, I recall that groups five through eight seemed to set most of the weight loss records. The most pounds lost for a guy was 60 lbs, and we’ve had a couple people hit it. Since then, no one has been able to get close. The most lost for a gal was 43 lbs, and it’s been a long time since anyone has gotten close to that either.
Typically, we’ll see one or two people get to around 40 lbs or so, with a couple more in the 30’s. Usually, the bulk of the weight loss is around 15-20 lbs for most people. Remember, a pound a week is good, two pounds a week is great, and three or more pounds a week is fantastic—and hard to keep up.
The results you see on TV, while outstanding, aren’t anywhere close to typical. They live on a ranch, don’t have jobs, or kids to raise and transport in multiple directions. They also work out 6-8 hours a day. My goal is to get these people moving twice a day—for at least 20 minutes early, and then 45 minutes to an hour later in the day.
One thing that has really impressed me is the extent to which some people from the group have taken the Monday night workouts and set them up again on Wednesdays and sometimes even on Fridays too. They’re tough workouts once a week, much less repeating them. It will be interesting to see if they repeat this week’s workout!
(1) Burpees, (2) Pull-ups, (3) Leg/Knee Raises, (4) Kettle Bell Swings, (5) Body Squats, (6) Mountain Climbers. 25 seconds at each station and 5 seconds to move to the next station. Each round lasted three minutes with a 30 second rest break between rounds. Ten rounds total!
This week’s winner was Jodi Thierl, who lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs. Second place went to Mandi Stuck, who lost 1.8% and 2.2 lbs. Amy Church, Kit Kirby, and Debbie Eveland tied for third, all losing 1.4%, and 1.8 lbs, 2.8 lbs, and 1.8 lbs respectively. Laken Pennington and Greg Stuck tied for fourth, losing 1.2%, and 1.8 lbs and 2.2 lbs respectively.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomdolanfitness !
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