I don’t know which version of this I’m seeing.
Too Busy to Exercise? Too Busy to BLOG!
It’s ironic that my last post was about being too busy to exercise because for the last couple of months, I’ve been too busy to blog! But I am here and still keeping up with my exercise routine the best I can! I AM indeed very busy but I find that integrating exercise into my day actually keeps my productivity up, my energy level stable, and my attention sharp!
This month I will embark on another 10K Swings! I am also getting 10,000 steps in as often as I can now that it’s spring. Still, some days you wouldn’t know it, here in Chicago! It was in the 40s and rainy yesterday but the warmer weather is on the way.
One thing I am doing to integrate exercise into my day is keeping my kettlebell out here by my desk and doing 50-100 swings at various times during the day. It serves as a RECHARGE far more powerful than any toxic energy drink could!
I’ve been doing a few hundred swings every day. Starting today, the monthly count will be documented in the sidebar! I hope you are starting your summer out right!
Daily Workout Routine: Too Busy to Exercise?
Greetings! February has been intense for me so far and it’s left little time to post! Still, I am doing what I can to keep up with a daily workout routine!
I have taken time away from working on my weight loss book to do a short-term project. I’ve messed up my routine a bit by obsessively working until the middle of the night! I end up sleeping later than usual in the morning but still not getting a good eight hours! I will get this project over with so I can get back to a normal routine.
A daily workout is ESSENTIAL to keeping your energy level high! For me, no matter how busy I get I do SOME kind of exercise in my day. It’s what wakes me up and gets me going! I start to feel sluggish if I don’t make time for a daily workout routine. I am MORE productive if I make time for exercise!!!
To keep it time efficient while my work schedule is busier, I get out on the stairs first thing each morning. Just get up, get washed, get down to the second floor! My kettlebells have taken up permanent residence in my living room so throughout my workday I take time out to get in some heavy swings. I have a goal of being able to do 100 continuous hand to hand swings with the 40lb-er. My cardio ability exceeds my strength at this time, but I’m interested to see where I might be by the end of the month!
I am doing the IKFF certification routine. I can do the minimum repetitions but I need to be able to work up to the required time. It’s a short but effective workout!!
Speaking of end of the month, my birthday is MARCH 1! I’ve decided not to weigh during February. Just do what I need to get done and see where I end up by my birthday! Will I maintain January’s weight loss? We’ll see!!
10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge Wrap Up
As my last weigh-in day of January, I’m counting this as the last day of the challenge month. I reached 10000 swings on Wednesday and continued regular weights workouts and even got in 5000 and 10000 steps on the good weather days we had this week.
Assessment of the 10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge: I definitely saw a cardio improvement. Early on I would have to breathe “double time” when I got up to a couple hundred reps of hand to hand with the quarter pounder. By now it takes one-handed swings of the 40lb-er to hit that level of exertion. I stopped swinging only the quarter pounder as it was not a sufficient challenge after just about a week and a half or so of daily swinging. I switched up one- and two-handed swings of the 40lb-er and the 65lb-er.
My hands survived quite well. I rather like my callouses. They’re fine and not painful at all. My left hand tends to get pinched a bit more often than my right.
I was very surprised to see the weekly weight loss! Final total: NINE POUNDS!! I lost 4 pounds the second week and I thought it was a fluke but clearly not! My weight has been stable for a long time so this was clearly a good jolt to my body. I did not change my usual diet but my appetite may have been reduced due to the increased activity overall. My skinny jeans are now loose fresh out of the wash. They actually feel a bit baggy. I don’t even want to try on my baggy jeans. I’ll no doubt need a belt to cinch ’em up. Not that I’m complaining!
Moving forward, I really like the idea of a Monthly Fitness Challenge. For the month of February I am going to climb 1000 floors of stairs. I am very attached to kettlebell swings now so I will continue at lower reps and higher weight for a month. I will also incorporate the lifts required by the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation certification. I want to be able to take that certification by the end of 2012.
In coming days look for my instructional video on the kettlebell swing! I have looked and can’t find anything that breaks it down in the way I think some people need to get it right in the absence of personal instruction.
You’ve got a few days to think about it before Feb 1. I hope you try your own Monthly Fitness Challenge!
10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge COMPLETE!
Yes I made it to 10000 kettlebell swings! I finished today with 400 swings with just the 40lb-er. This Sunday, weekly weigh-in day, I will post a wrap up of the results of the month. Well, the three weeks it took! My hands stood up quite well. My callouses are fine, my hands did not get torn up. For whatever reason I seem to pinch my left hand a little more than my right.
With a full week left in the month I will continue to do swings and my usual workouts of course. Today was weights day. I will use the coming week to start my new kettlebell routine and start practicing for doing the stairs again.
Check back on Sunday for final 10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge weight loss results!
10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge: The End is Near!
Just 400 swings left to complete the 10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge! It’s been really cool. Mostly I’m happy to have gotten into the idea of doing a Monthly Fitness Challenge. Change things up! Keep it interesting! Today I did a weights workout with 500 kettlebell swings then I finished by zipping up from my floor to the top to see how hard or easy it would be. It was no problem.
There’s work being done in the building and there was the most amazing breeze blowing through the entire stairwell today. It wasn’t cold so I’m not sure where it was coming from. When I got to the top floor I could see up to the roof access and it didn’t look like anything up there was open. If it could be so perfectly breeze-y in the stairwell all the time I’d do the stairs every day gladly! It just gets SO stuffy in there!! Plus some of the flights and landings are very grungy. Apparently the maintenance crew divides the job up by sections of floors and some guys really blow it off.
I’m thinking for February I’m going to do 1000 Floors Stair Climbing. I’d like to keep doing a lot of swings but lower volume, higher weight, integrating in with the three other lifts of the IKFF certification routine. I was thinking today instead of free weights perhaps I’ll do a bodyweight/core routine.
Kettlebell Weight Loss Challenge: One More Pound
Sunday morning is weigh-in time and I’m down one more pound in what seems to have become the Kettlebell Weight Loss Challenge. That seems to fit considering it’s the third week and I lost FOUR pounds last week! I’m amazed in general! I figure I can keep going with it or let myself eat a bit more. It’s just great to see I can give my body enough of a shock to get a calorie deficit going. Fifties, female, menopausal, low calorie needs–weight loss is not easy for a person like me. It takes a helluva lotta work.
I will complete the 10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge this week. I figure after I hit the big 10000 I will continue swings at a lower volume and start working up for a Stair Climb Challenge in February! Does 1000 Floors for the month seem too low?
Killer Kettlebell Cardio!
Today I combined kettlebell swings with high intensity intervals on the manual treadmill for killer kettlebell cardio! I really liked it; I was able to keep my breathing and heart rate high while getting nicely sweaty. I can’t believe I’ve got less than 1000 kettlebell swings to complete the 10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge! I’ve been thinking about what kettlebell routine to do for February. I would like to be able to earn IKFF certification before the end of 2012 so I think I might do the certification routine. Swings, clean & press, snatches, and squats. Sounds pretty good.
Sunday is weigh-in day! Very interested to see if I’ve lost weight again this week! I still feel like that 4lb loss last week was something of a fluke. I’ll be impressed with myself if I’ve maintained it, totally amazed if I lost more weight.
Kettlebell Swings Challenge Home Stretch!
Eleven days left in the month and just 1500 swings left to go! Clearly I’ll put down the 10000 kettlebell swings challenge and then BREAK THROUGH! I usually take Sunday off so I could finish this next Tuesday, how about it?
I’m very interested to see if I’ve lost more weight this week. Someone told me today she thought I looked like I’d dropped a bit since she’d seen me a couple of months ago. She’s a fitness professional so I trust her eye. The most important thing to come out of this month, though, is getting me interested in doing a monthly fitness challenge. I’m sure I’ll continue to do a LOT of kettlebell swings but not as many. I’ll go back to a more general kettlebell routine. I’d like to have something special to do every month, keep things interesting!
I’m thinking I will do stair climbing for February. I wanted to do 10000 steps a day but February in Chicago, that’s not gonna happen!
Be sure to check back on Sunday morning to find out if I lost more weight! I’m down six pounds for the first two weeks.
The Advantage of Kettlebell Cardio!
Through the 10K Kettlebell Swings Challenge my cardio efficiency has definitely improved. I’ve got the usual love/hate thing with cardio. I don’t want to stand on some machine and I’ve never been able to run, not even when I was a kid. I have climbed the stairs in my building but I get tired of the stuffy stairwell. I’ve always wished I could do that jump rope that looks effortless the way some people do it but try as I might, I’ve never been good at that! I have a jump rope made from an airplane cable so missing means potential foot amputation.
I love swings for high-efficiency “Kettlebell Cardio”! The greatest benefit is the advantage kettlebell swings have over any other kind of cardio. Running, stairs, elliptical, spin bikes–all you can do is put in the time. You can try to go faster and work for longer but you’ll still be moving just your bodyweight.
The Kettlebell Advantage: Increasing the amount of weight you are moving! Brilliant! The metabolism is so misunderstood; the misinformation that goes around is incredible! One of the variables that will contribute to determining your calorie burn is the amount of weight you are moving. This is the reason for one of the most maddening traits of the metabolism: The more mass you are moving, the higher your calorie burn will be. Therefore, a heavier person will burn more calories. But as that person loses weight, their calorie burn will drop!
Before this fact bums you out too much, wrap your head around this! As you improve your conditioning and lose weight, your capacity to work harder will improve. When I weighed 340lbs, I might have been burning a lot of calories per minute but I couldn’t do anything for very long. Like REALLY not long at all!! Now of course, I walk for miles, I can swing a kettlebell SIX HUNDRED times so, at half my former weight, do you think I’m burning more calories now?
In my forthcoming book, 100 Lbs Off, I will cover the Mysterious Metabolism and get you straight on the facts!
