Arms on FIRE! WOOT!

I love Cathe Friedrich. LOVE LOVE LOVE her. OMG. I babble on about her in my vlog below- because way back when I first started working out, I was doing Taebo only. Yea, back in the old school days when Billy Blanks Taebo Advanced LIVE VHS tapes were the bomb yo. Then I found out about The Firm- probably from seeing one of their early infomercials. 

Anyone remember this?

Wow. That's a whole lotta blush on Barbie for a workout! But, in all seriousness, aside from the "I Wanna Be a Dancer" leotards and nude panty hose + legwarmers, these early workouts were KILLER. Susan (forgetting her last name at the moment) was throwing it DOWN back then. That's when I first discovered Tracie Long. (BTW I was going to share with you a video clip of the early workouts but for some reason OMG THIS KILLS ME WHEN PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW TO LEVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA TO PROMOTE THEIR PRODUCT- DON'T DISABLE EMBEDDING!! HELLO FREE PUBLICITY!! ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION NICKELBACK?? OMG Anna Benson, the creator of these original killer workouts has all the video clips with embedding disabled. Look them up by clicking here if you wish- and beware- full-frontal 80's Lycra, legwarmers and men in short shorts flashbacks WILL APPEAR. And yes, I am writing to Anna to ask her to let me HELP HER.) Tracie Long went on to create her own business with her own DVDS that are really different than the mainstream step or "toning" workouts you'd see years ago. 

Somewhere along the way, The Firm became Cheese.Com. All the really good tough instructors left and then they had a bunch of bobbleheaded Valley Girls in more pastel colors doing workouts on extremely strange new gadgets. They kept coming out with new equipment and it got really annoying- I think that's how they lost the love. That's when I discovered Cathe via some forums online. Yea FORUMS. I shudder when I type that. So 90's haha. If you haven't tried Cathe's workouts you are missing out. She is hard core and has SOOOO many different versions of both "CARDIO" (HIIT, Kickboxing, MMA, step, plyo, you name it) and Weight Training, you will never get bored. And granted, you need a nice home gym set up with heavy weights and ideally a barbell set and some bands, but you'll feel like you have a trainer there. And hello- she CLEARLY knows what she's doing:

This morning, I warmed up with a little bit of RevAbs and yummy Brett Hoebel, my future ex-boyfriend. 

He is Mantastic. Yes, he does indeed say "DJ" during the workouts, but it works, because he also grunts a lot, and well, let's be honest, he's like Brazilian or Latino or a fusion of both of them. Whatever it is IT WORKS FOR ME. He passes the bark test ok?

Moving on, I did about 10-15 minutes of RevAbs just to get moving and get my heart rate up. Then I did an oldie of Cathe's- Muscle Max. But, I did a premix of Upper Body only. Holy Cow. I burned UP my upper body. Shoulders, Chest, Back, Triceps and Biceps. Overall, it was a 400 calorie burner and I stopped at an hour. Remember, I'm focusing on NOT OVERDOING IT. No more Over-training. No more always aiming for 1000 calorie burns. 

She also had us using the bands for that "bonus burn". This is the time during the workout that I'm screaming obscenities at the screen:

Oh Check it out! Cathe Friedrich UNDERSTANDS that the smart thing to do with social media is to allow sharing of your content! DUH! 

Sorry if I get a little passionate about marketing and social....I just want peeps to GET IT! HELP ME HELP YOU ANNA! 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: for those of you working out from home, what are your favorite workout DVDs and how did you find out about them?

What's Exciting My Brain RIGHT NOW.

Hey Kittens!! TGIF!

Sorry the blogging and vlogging has been a bit sucky this week. As you know, I've been in San Francisco on business, heading home tomorrow. Sadly, I'm in my hotel room tonight with a sore throat. So it's me, Zicam, some green tea and Excedrin PM getting all nice and cozy. I hate getting sick. Zicam usually does the trick, and I hope so, cuz I'm NOT HAVING IT. 

Anyway. I am REALLY EXCITED to get home. I've found myself very frustrated this week with my performance quite frankly. Is it challenging to workout on the road? Absolutely. Is it impossible? NOPE. And yet, there is something missing with my day-to-day (albeit complicated and unpredictable) schedule that is ensuring I'm not hitting a 100% week. 

To me, a 100% week means I've done my running, my weight training and ideally my yoga (for balance). It doesn't mean that I "did what I could". I'm just disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I totally get that I have to be easy on myself on a day when I get up at 6am, arrive somewhere around 4pm, have a dinner that night and stroll into my hotel at 10pm. I just feel like I'm hitting each day lately and winging it.

The past 2-3 months have been insane. I've traveled close to 30,000 miles and been attending big conferences that run over into the weekends. I was trying to spend every free moment working on the book and people- THAT IS EXHAUSTING.

Running has CLEARLY wowed me. I'm amazed at what I've been able to do and accomplish. The competitive beast within me has been unleashed! I am excited and more motivated THAN EVER - and - I BELIEVE MORE THAN EVER THAT I CAN DO THIS- reach my goals- because I'm seeing changes in my body every week now- I'M READY. So the mindset is there. I have the tools. I renewed my gym membership so I can do workouts there and at my "home gym". 

I need to write up a plan. Period. This is what's  missing. I can't wing it with my schedule anymore. My days are so full, if I don't map out a short term and long term plan, I am going to end up disappointed in my training and my performance. 

When I get home I have some new GOODIES to incorporate. I can utilize the gym when it gets too cold to run outside. (I also love finishing my workouts and using the sauna in the winter....!!) I also have - REVABS. Remember I've talked about working on my abs? Yes, overall CORE (which I'll share with you those books I'm reading Core Performance- that's less about "hot abs" and more about core strength for overall health, stability and athletic performance) but also I want abs. Amy and I want abs. The running has started to help me lose the fat I've been fighting. Now, I want to carve up that middle. 

CHECK IT.

So psyched! Kids, you have no idea some of the KILLER stuff that is coming your way. Amy and I are gonna write up our training plan for the ROCK N ROLL VEGAS 1/2 MARATHON in December!! WOOT! We are also going to commit to doing our local Hot Yoga class once a week or more when our travel schedule allows. Amy just did her first TRX classes and was wowed. Check out the video below, featuring Mark Verstegen, the author of the Core Performance books I mentioned last week. I'm still reading all of those. 

Whoa!!! Are there enough hours in the day to try all of this?? YUMMY!!

Here is a peek at a Hot Yoga experience:

QUESTION OF THE DAY: DO YOU PLAN OUT AND WRITE OUT YOUR WORKOUTS EACH WEEK?