Upper Body HIIT & How To Get Flexible {YQA!}

This week may look a little different than usual because we'll be hanging out with Joi over at Fitness RX Lady doing a 7 Day Mini Blog Challenge. Each day she has a little challenge set up for us to help make our blogs better and get to know our wonderful readers better. I may or may not do number 4. I'm not making any promises. 

 

Today's challenge is to solve a problem for your readers. It's been some time since I've done a YQA and I have  a couple (or more) of questions that need to be answered. So let's get down to business!

Upper Body HIIT

Over at Brooklyn Active Mama, in response to my comment, Nellie said "I am curious about this upperbody HIIT?! We talking pushups? pullups?!" Great question, Nellie!

First off, let's define HIIT. It stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Basically you are cycling through high intensity bursts with low intensity bursts. Usually you are looking at a 2:1 ratio. For example, 60 seconds hard, 30 seconds low intensity. Or even 2 minutes hard, 1 minute low intensity. Technically, Tabata is a form of HIIT because you are cycling through 20 seconds hard, 10 seconds low (or rest, if you can call 10 seconds a rest). High, low, high, low.

When you do workouts with high reps you are building muscular endurance as opposed to strength. When you do many weight bearing exercises back to back, such as a circuit workout, you are also getting in some cardio too. Simply by alternating a weighted exercise with a cardio type of exercise. As long as you maintain form of course!

Because I'm not sure if I will or won't do number 4, here is a video that I found on YouTube using resistance bands. You could do the same thing with weights.



Can I just say that she has the most ripped arms ever! Green with envy! 

Flexibility

On The Five Elements of Fitness, Joi (yes, the same Joi as above!) asked a question in regards to flexibility "would 1 quick yoga sequence every morning do the trick?"

Ummm, yes, and no. Don't you love that precise answer! I think doing a yoga sequence in the morning is great for breathing and relaxation which will naturally result in some additional flexibility. However, flexibility needs to be incorporated two other ways (unless you participate regularly in dance, martial arts, or gymnastics which naturally incorporates flexibility within the form of exercise), at the end of strength training and periodized throughout your training cycles.

After strength training (heavy lifting) you need to do a good solid 10-15 minutes of flexibility stretching exercises. Why? As you increase reps, sets, or use heavier weights, it will result in a loss of flexibility. When working with heavy weights you hardly ever extend the limbs fully because you've lost the mechanical advantage by putting a heavier weight on the muscles. Also, as you develop sufficient muscle and strength you keep the muscles in a shorted state even after the workout. That's why you'll often see very muscular men who walk with one full side of their body moving at one time. They are just stiff and inflexible! Luckily as women we don't have the testosterone to reach that point! But we can still develop some muscle which needs to be kept flexible to keep that long lean look.

Small Talk:

Are you working on Joi's Mini Blog Challenge (if not, you should!)? What fitness questions do you have? Are you going to try the Upper Body HIIT v

The Five Elements of a Perfect Fitness Plan

No matter what you do, hire a trainer, join group classes, develop your own plan, there are five elements that you need to really be the best you you can be. I may be interested in celebrity workouts but I want to be the best me that I can be. And you want to be the best you. And the only way to do that is to have all five elements in your plan. You must be balanced!

Cardio

Your muscles need oxygen! All of them, not just your heart. In order to do that you need to develop your cardiovascular system to be able to freely provide that much needed oxygen. Your heart and lungs have the job of expelling waste from your body and in order to do that they need to be strong. The basis for cardio is based on the need for your body to deliver oxygen and expel waste.

Some great cardio options include walking, running, Zumba, HIT, and circuit training.

Strength

You need to lift babies, groceries, move your furniture, lift your purse (you know it's big and heavy!) and a whole host of other things. You can only do that if you have strength. To develop strength you need to train your musculoskeltal system against an external force. This means lifting dumbbells/barbells or using your body weight against the ground or other surface. Strength is important in order to maintain bone density. Think osteoporosis. The strength you develop through weight training not only helps you burn more calories at rest but it also develops your musculoskeletal system and allows you to better move around. And move around for the long haul!

Flexibility

Limber up folks! Flexibility is actually about the mobility of your joints (or series of joints) and how muscles, tendons, ligaments and other soft tissues affect  it. You need to be able to extend, flex, and move joints through their full range of motion. You must be flexible enough to meet your daily needs. Think about it, you stretch a lot! That ceiling fan isn't going to come down to meet you to be dusted. You need to get up there and clean it (slight pause while everyone cleans their ceiling fans). Maybe do a little Pilates because you also need to have a little extra stretch in there. Like your jeans on Thanksgiving. Which brings me to....

Diet

You know what they say, you can't outrun a bad diet. I'm really not sure who "they are" but it's true. The best diet is the one that you follow and is based on whole foods (i.e., foods that come from nature and not from a factory). Your body needs proper nutrients in order to fuel it for health and activity. In your diet you should have the following nutrients: carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. If you are lacking in one of these nutrients it can keep you from reaching your fitness goals. Diet is critical in developing a happy healthy body!

Positivity!

I can think of a million things that fit here. You need to "see" it to believe it or as I said to Nellie the other day "keep your mind on your muscle and your muscle on your mind." Of course, I was just teasing her but it's really true! But it applies to all areas of your life, a happier you will make healthier choices and you'll feel good about those choices. A positive attitude goes a long way to keeping you fit. Even the YMCA triangle stands for "mind", "body" and "spirit".

Small Talk

Do you incorporate all five elements into your fitness plan? If so, what are your best tips?

How To Care for Curly Hair

I have a love / hate relationship with my hair. I love that I have it and ummm....I'm thinking that's about it. When I was younger it was stick straight. Mostly due to massive amounts of surgery, anesthesia pulls curl out of your hair. Not really a happy news when your mom just put a perm in your stick straight hair. But something happened after I had my kids. There could be a couple of scenarios going on there: I've had less surgeries as an adult, my mom got me so many perms as a child the chemicals are permanently transferred into my scalp and coats my hair as it grows (haha!) or my children just gave me another gift. The little miracles.

So here I am with curly hair and zero clue how to care for it. On top of that I'm not the youngest chick in the hen house so my hair isn't shiny anymore. Isn't growing older wonderful? You work so hard at your career to make more money only to find out that you have to spend it all on things to make you look younger. LOL! So I was super excited when I was introduced to nuNAAT through Sweat Pink. Not only do they have complete systems for different hair types but the products also have keratin in them. I've been using another product with keratin in it but wasn't totally thrilled with the results. But with NuNaat not only is my hair shinier but it is looking and feeling healthier and (big bonus) I don't have to use any styling products oto have awesome curls/wave.

But not only do you need great products to care for curly hair you have to be extra special with it. So here is how I've learned to care for my hair over the years:

1. Wash it with a shampoo made for curly hair like the nuNAAT products. But do not wash it every day. Some of my best hair complements come on day three when it's up in some sort of faux bun with a headband in it.

2. Follow with a conditioner also made for curly hair.

The  next couple of steps are the most critical.

3. When you put your hair into a towel -- do NOT rub it, scrunch it, etc. Do not touch that hair, just leave it in your towel. Actually I use a Twistie Turban (genius!)

4. Put a leave in conditioner in it. The nuNAAT leave in conditioner if fab (plus all the products smell good). Before I found nuNAAT I used coconut oil. Yes, they make it just for your hair.

5. With nuNaat I have not needed other products with the coconut oil I have to use a mouse for curly hair.

6. Use a wide toothed comb to comb all the products through your hair. Don't use fingers, your brush, etc.

7. Flip your hair over and scrunch softly. Scrunch it don't comb your fingers through your hair.

8. Let it air dry.

9. Don't touch it for the rest of the day!

Thank you to nuNAAT for my now beautifully curly hair. And saving my hair from further products. The first day after I used it, I went home and before I said anything my husband said "What did you do your hair? You look ten years younger." Now, what could be a better testimony than that.

Small Talk

Do you have curly hair? How do you care for it?

Disclosure: I am a Sweat Pink Ambassador and received free product from nuNAAT through my participation. I was not required to write a review. Please note that all opinions are my own fair, honest, assessments of the product. 

Fire Up Your Metabolism

As you know, I'm doing The Fast Metabolism Diet this month. You also know that I'm not the best at following diets. I started off last week doing real well but then it tapered off. This diet is based in whole foods so I was cutting out processed foods, sugar, caffeine, and a large list of other no's on her list (except I cheated and had wheat so now I still need to cut that out). Days one and two I had horrible migraines, on day three I was feeling bloated and not myself, on day four I was doubled over in pain. That brought me to two thoughts 1) I must have a lot of crap in my system to have withdrawal symptoms that bring me to my knees or 2) I was genuinely sick.  Not sure which it was but since feel like I went through hell, I'm not going back to putting that stuff in my body for a good long while. Fingers crossed for never!

I was fairly decent at following the cycles through (other than adding some fat in early to beat the bloat and stomach pain and having the wheat. Okay, I didn't do great), but regardless I'm proud of myself for all of the junk that I've cut out of my diet. So I decided to do a search of some meals that I can eat for each phase of the Fast Metabolism Diet and really fire up my metabolism. Perhaps that was the reason I was running a fever most of the week. My metabolism became so fired up that I felt like I was on fire. You think?




Smoothies:

Watermelon Smoothie
Mango and Almond Smoothie

Meals:

Buffalo Chili
Coconut Curry Chicken

Sides:

Sweet Potato Hummus with Cucumbers

Desserts:

Dark Chocolate Chip Cake with Mocha Frosting


I've enjoyed Phase 3 which is 3 days long which allows all types of food in there....carbs, protein and fat. The other days, not so much caring for. Heavy carbs bloats me and the high protein days kind of gross me out as I'm not a high protein eater. However those two phases are only two days each so I'm going to keep trudging forward and see if I can't get this diet right by the end of the month. Then I'll be onto a June diet and I've already started the reading for that. Aren't you glad that I'm willing to try all this stuff for you?

Small Talk:

What type of diet do you follow (if any)? Do you have a preference for carbs or protein?