KellyOlexa.com

Holy Crap! This is a goal to be able to accomplish. I actually was googling "functional training" images and found this gem. I really want to incorporate more functional training into my weekly workouts. 

If you aren't yet familiar with functional training, I don't want to define it here..but overall what I've learned about functional training is that for the most part it relies on bodyweight movements that mimic activity done in "real life". There is also a lot of core training in functional fitness and much of functional fitness is based on core training, doing moves that require your core to stabilize the body for movement. **Please don't take this as a definition of it, it is simply my way of describing what I've experienced through videos or trainers.**

I found this gem on YouTube as an example of some kickbutt functional training:

I'm including this functional training as a segue into more talk on NO EXCUSES. Y'all may know that I am in Park City, UT for a conference. Many people use the excuse of traveling for business as "I just don't have time to fit a workout in" - and in some cases yes, I can see that this IS valid. There are indeed times when I've traveled and your day at a convention starts at  7am and ends after cocktails and parties at 11pm. Some of you might say, "You don't have to go the party! Go to the gym and workout." Well, that isn't true in most cases. If your business relies on solid relationships, you MUST attend the parties. You stay in and workout, you lose out on time with the client. 

I'm sharing the video above because one of the things that I hear from people making excuses is that, "I travel for work all the time and I don't have time or there is no hotel gym". BLAH  BLAH BLAH.

Here is the thing. Although there are times as above where many of us can't fit in a workout in a day that goes from 7am to 11pm.....(and for those of you about to say, well get up at 4am and workout- please note that if I'm going to bed at midnight the night prior, getting up at 4am isn't gonna happen AND it is just as important to get a good night's sleep as it is to stay active.), I have found easy ways to get a KILLER workout going IN MY HOTEL ROOM. Seriously. And I've timed it with my Polar HRM so I know I can get a 500-800 calorie burn just as easy in a hotel room as in my home gym. Pay attention.

This  is an example of a fairly nice hotel gym. I know that Doubletree Hotels is starting to install kick butt gyms in all their hotels (I know this because their head of PR is my BFF ok). However, in the mean time many gyms in hotels are SUCKTASTIC. Seriously. They have 2-3 cardio machines from the late 80's and maybe if you are lucky some free weights but mostly old-school "all-in-one" machines that are lopsided and broken. Plus you'll get some Jock-Wannabe in there staring at your cleavage and/or bootie the entire working offering to "spot" you when you are on the treadmill. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about.

This is why I like to workout in my room. Plus it takes away the time excuse. Get up and everything you need is right in your room. I bring my Valslides with me whenever I travel, coupled with the kick butt Val Bands. I actually use Val Bands instead of Cathe bands when I do Butts N Guts- the Val Bands provide more resistance and don't break. Hello. 

I also have some resistance bands that are like 2 oz and fit nicely into any suitcase. So, I might not have free weights but I have a room, some great equipment that does all kind of good stuff, and no excuses.

To get your cardio going, think about all the options!! I bring 3-4 DVDs and play them on my laptop. This trip I brought a kickboxing one, sometimes I bring Cathe HIIT- and hello maybe P90x Plyo. Heck, say you forgot your DVD, go to YouTube- you'd be AMAZED how many full length workout videos you can find. I shared one of my favorite Taebo Boot camp videos - full hour length video is available free on YouTube. Go to YouTube and search ValSlides, you'll find all kinds of core, leg,  and functional moves from men and women that are using them daily. Plus once you've done some kind of HIIT or Plyo, you know that you can make up a routine in your room easy. Just go 20 or 30 seconds then rest, then 20 or 30 seconds and rest and so on. 

No Excuses. Working out in your room can be just as killer as how you workout at home. So, you miss some free weights for a few days. Man DID workout and get buff before free weights people. Go lift a rock or a dead body, it's all the same. 

hehehe

Gotta run. I will shoot some vlogs today - hopefully I can upload on this hotel high speed connection. Remember what happened last time. Took 4 hours. I'm not having that.

Have a kick butt day. 

For those of you that travel- how do you like to workout on the road?

Come to mommy, Tony. WHAT?

Happy Monday kids. How is your day?? I'm in Detroit, because I just can't get enough of it. ;-) Riiiggghhthtt. 

Even though I traveled today, I still got my workout in. And yes, I had to convince myself to not "take a day off you've been traveling today...." WAAAHHH So what?? You have the ability to breathe, to walk, to MOVE....you take the opportunity get BETTER. I did Cathe HIIT 30/30 and then the Ilaria Kickboxing workout that I love so much. Burned 650 calories in an hour WOOT!! I think my Polar HRM though is going on the blink because it's annoying me. Keeps stopping. GRRR.

I have some pretty exciting stuff coming up you crazy bloggers. I'm coming to your town soon!! WOOOOOOHOOOOO!! Did you see the EVO Conference below?? Check it out and enter if you'd like to win!! ;-) I'm psyched. 

On that note, I must run, have a jam-packed day tomorrow. But- um yes I will still workout. And I will eat on my plan, my own plan that is kicking butt. I was with family for my niece's graduation this weekend and it felt soooo great to have so many of them notice on Saturday night how much weight I've lost!! Bikini, come to Kelly, because I embrace you now!! I embrace you!!!

Enjoy Mr. Tony Horton today Kids. I know I do. Do you understand why I love P90X so much? I also want to state for the record that Tony should CALL ME because I might consider dating him. I'm just sayin. 

;-)

Hello Kittens!! Today's blog is titled Ghoulash because when I think of that dish, first of all, I shudder, because it reminds me of this dish my mom made (bless her heart, and she is a FABULOUS COOK but some of those casseroles in the day....whoa.) called "Mrs. Meir's Casserole". Lots of ground beef and like, stuff. Anyway, it's a metaphor for today being a whole bunch of STUFF.

The above picture is Shellie Blanks- daughter of Billy Blanks (TaeBo and yes it's from a 2nd marriage for those of you going HUH??). I'm sharing this picture for two reasons. A) I did a KICK BUTT kickboxing workout this morning and it FELT GREAT. Dang! This week I want to kick my OWN arse! Lame Kelly. LAME! Anyway, Sherry and I were texting about this earlier this morning, and I have had this discussion a lot recently. That is- quite often the 'body type' or physique we are aiming for or we aspire to become- is totally the opposite of what we are. And thus we are setting ourselves up for perpetual failure and disappointment. Then the self-loathing appears and it's all downhill from there. 

For me, I have straight hair. Always wanted curly hair- remember Cher in the big hair days? Or Mariah Carey in the early-I'm-not-a-hoochie-mama days? Yup. I'd love hair like that, so I spent oodles of cash on PERMS to destroy my hair into curliness. As my friend Mac would say, "Kelly, that dog ain't gonna hunt!"

Shellie's physique- very lean, no boobs, boy-hips and very defined muscle tone, THAT is my ideal. If I could go through a drive-through and order a body for myself, that would be it. HELLO. I am totally on the Kim Kardashian side of the hourglass ok? I've finally realized that this is how I am made. That hourglass figure is not gonna go away. Ever.  I have to stop trying to achieve the impossible. I have to learn to like what I am, and then strive to become the most healthy fit version of THAT. So, my goals are the same in many ways, but now I am not measuring my results against an unreasonable objective. 

I just said how great I feel after my kickboxing workout. And how crappy I feel that this week I didn't workout because I felt like a big bunch of BLEEEHHHHH all week. Whiny Kelly won. Sadness. Because, it's very true, I've said it before, when you are off the game, it's easy to keep going in that direction. Then you are that much further away from where you want to be. All it takes is one step back in the right direction- once you do it and start feeling SO PROUD AND SO GREAT to be back at it, you won't stop.

This is that time of year most everyone throws caution to the wind and says, MEH~ I'm gonna enjoy the holidays and start my diet January 1st. SCREW THAT. I'm going to enjoy the holidays but I'm looking at this first "chunk" of 30 days and I'm going to kick butt. I'm going to get back to 6 days a week workouts and 6 days a week of eating good. When that 30 days is over, I know I'll be leaner and stronger, who KNOWS how much of the fat loss goal I will have accomplished? I know it will be something and I will no longer beat myself up mentally for not reaching perfection in a month. Let's just KEEP GOING. KEEP GETTING BETTER. KEEP- NOT STOPPING.

You can do it. 

So can I. I challenge you to not wait. 

Whoa. People I did a little 30 minutes of Amy Bento Kettlebell followed by this gem for kickboxing and leg blast. SWEATFEST. What an awesome workout. Totally different than others out there and she just builds and builds and builds. This is the kind of workout where you keep doing it and get better and better in your flexibility and endurance and wow it works the legs- I also wanted to mention that this workout toward the end plus the Tracy Effinger one from yesterday both incorporated (and come to think of it that Amy Bento weight one from earlier in the week did also) the 'sissy squat' variations. I had no idea how TOTALLY DIFFERENTLY this positioning works your lower body. Whoa. I have NOT been doing that in the past and look forward to conquering it more. Yea. See a little peek here below, but you can see more and get your own DVD at Collage Video. (and no I'm not making any $$ from Collage Video, I just use them cuz they have a guarantee and GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE plus video previews...I never had heard of this woman but saw the preview and am SO GLAD I got this!!)

The Video is called Ilaria's Bodystrikes. FYI.