Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove

I started Rachel Cosgrove’s Female Body Breakthrough (FBB)  program last week and have already been through both workouts (A and B) in the base phase.

Even with my very limited experience, the program feels  VERY good. Even after just one workout I had a feeling that my posture is improving. That is not a coincidence; Rachel Cosgrove has designed the program to correct the most common problems for females: rounded shoulders, forward head posture, poor core control and tight hip flexors.

The only problem I have is with all the single leg hops in the warm-up. My left knee disagrees with all that hopping so I just decided to leave them out. I’m plenty warmed up after the warm-up anyway. AND sweating like a pig soon after that. :-)

Cosgrove’s FBB program lasts 4 months and is a combination of metabolic resistance training and high intensity interval training (HIT). The emphasis is on strength training though. Steady state cardio is not part of the program except in the later phases. [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

I have a small but growing collection of fitspiration pictures on Pinterest. Occasionally I find new stuff to pin, but honestly, I have an ambivalent attitude toward fitspiration – most pictures and quotes leave me either cold or annoy me for one reason or another.

Here’s a couple of examples of annoying fitspiration – and what I think is wrong with them.

“Unless you puke, faint or die, keep going.” Yeah, that’s a great way to take care of yourself and avoid injuries. Frankly, I think the above fitspiration picture is targeted for teenage anorexics who use exercise as a form of punishment. I wouldn’t recommend that attitude toward exercise to anyone.

I like this picture a lot, but I still don’t feel inspired by it. Why? Most women who pose on fitspiration pictures are fitness models in their twenties. How much work would it require to gain and keep a body like that? Three hours a day?

Not a very realistic goal for anyone my age who has other things in her life than exercise. And  for many reasons, I wouldn’t look like that anyway. I want exercise to be an important part of my life, not dedicate my whole life to it.

Marion might actually be able to do that asana(?)! She might also be inspired about the picture, but to me it’s just such an impossible looking goal that it fails to inspire me at all. I’m more inspired by something I can actually almost do. Besides, I just gave up training for my military push up goal so I don’t feel inspired by a new “impossible goal”.

Maybe fitspiration is really meant for younger folks, and plumped up middle-aged women like me need their fitspiration more realistic? So I made a couple of my own fitspiration pictures. The second isn’t even about fitness, it’s about celebrating life.

I added my favorite quote from James Levine: “Better to live on your feet than die on your seat“. It’s something that really inspires me from day to day. If I don’t move, I don’t feel alive.

I made this one too. I purchased a stock photo, added some sparkles and a Geneen Roth quote from one of her books. I like my own inspiration picture a lot. :-) I’d like to be more able to live like that in my own life.

What kind of fitspiration inspires you the most?

Best Wishes,

Pain in the neck

I decided to abort my push up challenge yesterday. Doing push ups stiffens my upper neck muscles which in turn triggers migraine headaches, so I decided it makes no sense to  continue with the challenge.

Also, I visited a headache specialist on Tuesday for the first time.

To decrease inflammation, she put cortisone injections to the muscles that attach to the base my skull . (Yikes!) I also got a prescription  for preventive medication (amitriptylin) to be taken in the night. The nice thing (really a side-effect) about amitriptylin is that it knocks me out in the evening and I’m finally able to get a good nights’ sleep. I also got a prescription for sumatriptan, which I take in case I notice I’m getting a migraine attack.

Now we will wait and see how my migraine corresponds to the medication.

*******

I’m a bit disappointed I have to give up push up challenge. I could already feel I’m getting stronger in my upper body. However, it doesn’t mean I’m going to give up on military push ups altogether. No, I still have more than 6 years to figure out how to get a really strong body upper body.  :-)

If I can’t take a straight route to my goal, I take circuitous one!

Best Wishes,

Photo credit: Flickr / oakleyoriginals

Stuck in a workout rut? Been following the exact same routine for the last 12 months, or even more? The good news is that it’s pretty easy to figure out how to make exercise fun again. You may only need to tweak your routine a bit.

There’s bad news too. Boredom isn’t the only consequence of following the same routine for months on end. If you don’t regularly change your routine, you also stop getting stronger, losing fat and improving your endurance.

Here are my three tips on how to make exercise fun again.

#1: Set yourself a demanding fitness goal

Setting up a demanding fitness goal immediately makes your training more interesting. You start thinking more carefully about how you train and whether what you do is going to help you reach or goal or not. What exactly is needed for you to be able to do those 10 push ups | run that 5K in less than x minutes | do splits in three months?

#2: Introduce an element of competition

I’ve never been into competitive sports, so I was a bit surprised when noticed I have a competitive streak! My little sister decided to get fit about five months ago, and after that I’ve been a bit worried she will suddenly be in a better shape than I am.  [Read more...]

Best Wishes,

Lately, I’ve been doing workouts that concentrate on strengthening my core . I found the following tip on Pinterest. My left leg is the weak leg.

Best Wishes,