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Day 16 | Insanity Challenge | Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Day 16 felt pretty good today. It’s funny no matter how many times you do these Insanity workouts they never seem to get any easier. As you progress you’re able to push yourself harder making the workouts harder. So day 1 will feel just as hard as day 63. Plyometric Cardio Circuit is still a fun routine which I’m starting to look forward to every time it comes up on the schedule.

Day 16 Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Back to the grind today after having the 25 minute Fit Test yesterday. Like I mentioned above it wasn’t any easier today but I felt like I pushed out of my comfort zone. I think that is the biggest trick to Insanity. You need to push yourself out of your comfort zone or you are probably not going to progress like you should. My legs were fairly sore today, actually they have been sore since day 2, but I continue to push through it and do my best. Doesn’t help that today had a ton of squats and jumps. One thing that I’m having an issue with it the arc in the bottom of my feet. They start to get really sore mostly during the warm up. I’m thinking it might be my shoes. I’ve had them for a while and have been looking for a replacement pair with no luck. I need a good comfortable cross trainer but every one I have tried was too stiff. Guess I’ll be hitting the shoe stores this weekend.

Day 16 Plyometric Cardio Circuit Nutrition

I have been using a few different recipes from the Insanity Nutrition Guide and being day 16. I wanted to try something new. I decided I wanted to try the Chicken Meatballs recipe (image) with a side of broccoli for lunch. It was really good too. I included the nutrition facts below. It was my trial run before I cook enough for the family. I’m pretty sure the entire family will enjoy that recipe. At dinner I went with grilled chicken, what can I say, I like chicken. I’m have been pretty good with my nutrition and I plan to keep it that way. I completed today with 1969 calories and my macros at 46-35-19.

Day 16 Nutrition

Insanity Nutrition Day 16 — Click to enlarge

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Why Wearing a Heart Rate Monitor Is Important

by Rob Humphrey

Many people don’t realize just how important their heart rate is during a workout. If you wish to get the most out of your exercise routine, you need to reach a certain heart rate for a specific amount of time. It’s so important that many people simply pause to check their pulse, and you could do this, but it will disrupt your routine. Additionally, you may not be able to get an accurate reading when you have been involved in strenuous activity. The best option would be to purchase and use a simple heart rate monitor watch or other device each time you exercise.

The Importance of a Target Heart Rate

You need to reach a target heart rate with your exercises to see the best results. You need to avoid overtraining as well as undertraining.

In the lower zones—sometimes called “cruise zones”—you can train for longer periods of time. As you move up to higher-intensity zones, you need to decrease the amount of time that you spend in these, particularly in the top two (the Threshold and Redline Zones) where your body will make you stop.

Your five heart rate zones are specific to your maximum heart rate, not anybody else’s. For example, if there two runners are each maintaining a heart rate of 160 bpm, one runner might be in their Z4 Threshold Zone while the other might be in their Z2 Temperate Zone.

Each heart rate zone burns a different number of calories per minute. How many calories you burn within the range for each zone depends on how fit you are:

Zone 1 = 3–7 calories per minute

Zone 2 = 7–12 calories per minute

Zone 3 = 12–17 calories per minute

Zone 4 = 17–20 calories per minute

Zone 5 = 20+ calories per minute

Looking at this, you all probably want to be in zone 5 as much as possible. Unfortunately, the time we can spend here is limited. For efficiency, Team Beachbody workouts try and maximize the time spent in the higher zones, which we’ll get to in a moment. Training in the lower zones is also important. Check out the Target Heart Rate caluclator.

The Negative Effects of Undertraining

When you reach the right pulse, you are actually getting the most of your workout. What you may not be aware of is that when you undertrain or don’t reach that target heart rate, you won’t be burning as many calories, making your whole routine not nearly as effective. Additionally, by under training, you won’t do anything to strengthen your heart muscle.

You need your heart to be strong for your overall health. Additionally, the stronger your heart, the more endurance you can build for longer, more effective workouts.

The Problems with Overtraining

Overtraining can be just as bad as undertraining though. Working out too hard can be dangerous for your health. When you work out too much, you could become dehydrated and that may cause your blood pressure to bottom out. When your blood pressure drops, you could become dizzy and fall or even pass out.
Additionally, if you overtrain often because you don’t know how to reach your target heart rate, then you are actually in danger of chronic infections.

How to Find Your Target Heart Rate

Using a heart rate monitor is only half the battle. You actually have to know what your target is. This will depend on your overall health. Here are some tips on finding your target.

You need to reach about 50 percent of the maximum heart rate if you are in poor health. If you are in better shape, then you can target closer to 85 percent of the maximum for you.
You can use a simple formula that will determine the maximum heart rate for you. For men, subtract their age from 220, for women, use 226 less your age.
Once you have the maximum heart rate, you can then multiply it times .50 or .85 to find out your target heart rate. Here is an example for a 35 year old out of shape man: 220-35= 185
185 x .50=92.5 (goal peak heart rate)

This is an estimated heart rate for your workout activities, and you may need to adjust the number plus or minus 15. However, this will give you a good place to start for your own heart rate monitoring.

Choosing the Right Heart Rate Monitor

Now that you know how important it is to keep your heart rate within the target zone, you can get started exercising in a more productive manner for your fitness goals and for your health. Now, you need to choose the right monitor so that you don’t have to interrupt and take your pulse every few minutes. You can spend anywhere from $40 to several hundreds of dollars on a monitor. You need to decide on a budget before you start shopping.

Consider heart rate monitor features.

The most basic monitors will only calculate your heart rate. More advanced devices will track speed, distance, and more. Some will even connect to your smart phone and home computer to track your performance continually.

Think about style.

The two main types of heart rate monitors are those that you wear on your wrist and those that you wear on your chest. Obviously, the wrist monitors may seem a better option, but they aren’t as accurate. If you want the best results, consider spending the extra money on a chest monitor.

If you choose a more in-depth monitor, make sure you know how to use it. These devices aren’t as simple as switching them on. You need to read the manual carefully and learn how to use all of the features that you just paid for. These features can help you build a more productive workout as well.

My Current Heart Rate Monitor

Right now I am personally using the POLAR BEAT heart rate monitor which syncs to my iPhone. The Polar Beat app is free you just need to purchase the chest strap with blue tooth. I found mine on amazon and it works really well. What I like best is I can see the read outs of calories burned and what zone I’m in while I’m working out. So I can tell exactly where I’m “dogging it” and when I need to raise the intensity.

Your heart rate is extremely important during your workouts. If you don’t reach a target heart rate, then you won’t be burning many calories. If you overextend yourself, you could be putting yourself in danger of injury or illness. Once you know how to calculate your target heart rate, the best way to keep up with it is a quality pulse so that you don’t have to pause your workout and check it regularly.

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Yours In Success,

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My Sample 1700 Calorie Diet | Quick Diet Tips

by Rob Humphrey

Last week we discussed how important tracking your nutrition is going to be in order to get meet your goals. It’s more than just seeing how many calories you eat in a day. We break it down to the macronutritents and what percentages we need. Personally I have tracked my calories before and never really seen amazing results. I did lose over 36 pounds with P90X/Insanity and Shakeology but not the lean cut look that everybody wants. After putting some of the weight back on I have been working out hard to get back to my goal weight but I just couldn’t drop the weight as easy as before. I’ll be honest, even though I was working out hard and “eating right” I wasn’t doing any tracking of what I was eating. Fast forward a little bit, now I have been tracking my nutrition religiously and shooting for the 50-30-20 macronutrients percentages. What I discovered was that I was WAY OFF before I started tracking. I wasn’t taking in nearly enough protein and I was eating way to many carbs. It took a little adjustments here and there but now I have a good routine down. But was the weight starting to coming off?

Absolutely, in fact I’m dropping weight quicker than I had ever before, including inches and body fat. And I can tell you I’m not dropping weight at a unhealthly rate either. The goal here is that it’s coming off consistently and efficiently. At this point I’m working out about 30-40 minutes a day five days per week. Taking the weekend off is important to me so I make sure I can recover. Other than doing my workouts I’m pretty much sedentary the rest of the day. As a full-time Beachbody Coach and stay at home father, I answer calls and emails so it doesn’t take that much energy, unless I’m doing the dishes, laundry or cleaning and we know those don’t burn a ton of calories. The reason I’m telling you this is I want you to understand why I have my calorie intake where it’s at.

My Calorie Goal

Right now I have a goal of 1700-1800 calories per day. If you are doing P90X or something that requires a longer workout you may want to start somewhere around 1900-2000 calories. The best part about keeping track of your nutrition is you’ll know exactly where you need to adjust. Let’s say you are meeting your goals of 50-30-30 at 2000 calories and you are not dropping weight or inches, then we can simply adjust and drop your daily calories by about 200 and go from there. Track your nutrition for the next week and see if that helps drop the weight, simple enough right. No more dieting for weeks on end while seeing zero return on investment.

Starvation Mode

I’m sure you’ve read about going into starvation mode before and that you want to avoid it. Just in case we aren’t sure, starvation mode is where you eat so little calories that your body goes in to a defense mode and will store fat thinking it will need it to survive. Our bodies are designed to survive so it will do what it has to do to live. How do we combat starvation mode? First we need to make sure we are taking in enough calories. You can get an idea of the calories you need for your body type in the tools section over at Team Beachbody under the “Get Fit” tab. You’ll need to create a free account real quick first which you can do by clicking here. The second thing you need to do to combat starvation mode is to eat more often. Generally a good idea is 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. This will keep your metabolism running.

My Example Diet (1700 Calories)

So I figured it would be a good idea to share a day or two of my 1700 calories diet. If 1700 calories is to many or to few simply add or subtract to meet your own goals. I’m not saying this is a “perfect nutrition” but it will show you that it is possible to meet your goals. The goal is to hit 50% Protein 30% Carbs and 20% fats if you are trying to cut body fat and weight. There are a lot or other things I’m eating but this will give you an idea. Later in the week I’ll post about good carbs and bad carbs, you’ll only want to consume “healthy carbs” but make sure you track them as they carry a lot of carbs per serving.

H20

You don’t see it in the above sample diets but I drink A LOT of water. The easiest way for me to keep track of my water intake is by drinking 1 large glass of water at each meal which is 7 for me. Each glass is at least 12oz so just with that I hit 84oz on the day, but I drink in between meals as well. If you have a big problem drinking water try starting with a glass at each meal. There are so many benefits to drinking water that you don’t want to skip this step.

Meal Timing

Timing your meals is just as important as eating them. When you eat every 2-3 hours you’ll probably feel like all you do is eat all day, I know I do. I wanted to show you how I schedule my daily nutrition. Again you can adjust to your lifestyle. My tips here is that you’ll want to eat within 20 minutes of waking up and you’ll want to include a good amount of protein.

7:00 Breakfast

9:30 ((Workout))

10:00 Post Workout Protein Shake

12:00 Snack 1

2:00 Lunch

4:00 Snack 2

6:00 Dinner

8:00 Snack 3

This is just the beginning of a series of nutrition posts that I’ll be adding in the coming weeks as I continue my fitness journey. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything. Also feel free to chime in the comments section with any questions or ideas of your own. I’d be happy to hear them.

Yours In Success,

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WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, or ideas below in the comments!

Beachbody Coach Success Club Allstar | Still Pinching Myself

by Rob Humphrey

I continue to pinch myself everyday. I feel really thankful and blessed for where my Beachbody Coach Business has taken me. 2011 was an amazing ride. It’s not to often that I stop and pat myself on the back but I think that sometimes in life it’s ok to do just that. By no means am I trying to “brag” but I’m extremely proud of myself for what I have been able to accomplish this year. In 2011 alone I have been on a 7 day luxury cruise and I went on an all expense paid trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas all courtesy of Beachbody. I have also been a “top recruiter” for the year and top in Shakeology HD several times.

Set Success Club Goals

When I began 2011 I had no idea where it would take me and I had set goals that I would like to accomplish which I recommend everyone do. One of my goals was to qualify for the 2012 Beachbody Coach Success club trip. The Success club trip is broken down into different levels so more Beachbody Coaches can qualify to go, the better you qualify the better your trip can be. The first level is 50 points, then 100 points and to get your way completely paid for you needed to reach Success Club any 9 months out of the year. Last year I qualified for the trip by what is called “50 Success Club Point winner” (I finished the year with 93 points) and my way was paid for, BUT I had to pay for my companion (which was my wonderful wife of course) which came out to be $750. $750 for a 7 day luxury cruise for two is an awesome deal to say the least so I’m not complaining, but this year I wanted to qualify where we could both go with nothing out of pocket.

I’m proud to say I met my goal of reaching Success Club 9 months of 2011. Well, I actually surpassed my goal and hit Success Club all 12 months, and on top of that they were all Success Club 10. I’m extremely proud of this personal accomplishment as there aren’t to many who have captured this feat in the Beachbody Coach network. Meeting Success Club 10 for 12 months means that I have completely qualified for the 2012 Success Club trip to Atlantis, So me and my wife can go with zero money out of our pocket plus I also got an upgraded room, $500 travel cash and a $1,000 bonus. We are using the bonus I earned to bring our kids with us to Atlantis, I can’t begin to tell you how excited my kids are to get to go.

Success Club All Star

One of the newest recognitions that Beachbody is now doing is called the Success Club All Star. Which is also known as the Success Club Hall of Fame. Once they released this recognition I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.

What is a Success Club All Star?

Success Club All Stars are Coaches who know no bounds. They show up to work every single day. And they wield the power of the Game Plan to achieve Success Club each and every month. But what makes the following Coaches so special is they’ve qualified for Success Club for a minimum of 12 consecutive months. That’s hero stuff!

What does being an All Star mean?

A permanent spot in the Success Club Hall of Fame

Immeasurable business growth

Recognition in the Coach Online Office, social media, and newsletters

Onstage recognition at the annual Coach Summit

I’m am proud to say I have done it and now am part of the Success Club All Stars where only a small handful of coaches are part of. Only 20 coaches out of more than 70,000 have reached this milestone and I’m extremely honored to have accomplished this.

I continue to work with my own team of coaches to help build their businesses and help them succeed any way I can. I am extremely grateful and honored to have the Team that I do and I appreciate each and every single one of them. One of the greatest rewards beyond any of these trips and recognitions is seeing my own team members accomplish their personal goals and reap the rewards they deserve.

As I said to start this post I pinch myself everyday to make sure this is not a dream and I love everyday being able to get up and take my kids to and from school with no need for a nanny or sitter. I’m able to work from home and be there for them day in and day out and that is my “WHY”. Get a hold of your WHY and don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do this, stay away from negative people and keep positive people in your life and yo will go so much further. Whether you are an aspiring Beachbody Coach or just looking into getting started I wish you all the best. Set your goals and don’t let anyone stand in your way!

Want to learn more about joining my team – click here.

Yours In Success,

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WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, or ideas below in the comments!

What Results Can you Expect from Shakeology

by Rob Humphrey

Will I see results? This may be the number one question you ask yourself if you are considering purchasing Shakeology. I understand your concern. When a fitness product comes on the market, we always want to know what are the expected results. What is hype and what is real?

In other words, why should I buy this product?

There is no secret formula to getting in better shape. You already know that exercise and the proper diet lead to a healthier lifestyle. Consistency, hard work, and discipline are a part of the equation.

Shakeology just takes it up a notch, giving you even better results. Shakeology not only focuses on the fitness aspect, but also includes other health benefits.

Adding Shakeology to your fitness program can lead to weight loss, lower cholesterol, increased energy, and improved digestive health.

Here are some of the specific results seen by users of Shakeology.

Weight loss. Shakeology is a low calorie meal or snack packed with healthy ingredients that will suppress your appetite and replenish your body. Instead of filling up on high calorie meals, Shakeology can provide a sensible alternative to keep you on track. This is an essential part of losing weight.
Provides Energy. Once you add Shakeology to your fitness plan, you will notice an increase in your energy levels. Natural ingredients without saturated fat, added sugars, or preservatives, lead to higher levels of energy. Shakeology gives you the energy you need to get through your workouts
Lower Cholesterol. The combination of the cholesterol reducing ingredients in Shakeology and weight loss can lead to a significant drop in cholesterol. With Shakeology’s natural ingredients and whole foods, many users have seen a drop of 20 points after using Shakeology.
Improved Digestive Health. Shakeology includes probiotics that improve your digestive health. These “friendly-bacteria” can help with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or other digestive problems.
Reduce Cravings and Balance Blood Sugar. Skipping meals can lower your blood sugar levels, leading to lethargy, impaired mental functioning and irritability. While using Shakeology as a snack in between workouts, not only will you reduce your sugar cravings, but you will balance your blood sugar.

It is important to note that Beachbody supports a “well-rounded” approach to health. Exercise, mental health, and diet work together to create a balance, and Shakeology is only one component to a healthy lifestyle. It is up to you to apply the others.

Click here to learn more about Shakeology.

Yours In Success,

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WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, or ideas below in the comments!