Tuesday, November 30, 2010

From flab to fab!

Welcome to the Workout of the Week blog!
This week we have another great success story to share with you. It's one that might make you say, "Gee, maybe I can do that?!?"


Caleb Pike says he used to get winded just tying his shoes. Today, he competes in triathlons and marathons and he invited us to a class at Altoona Campus called "RIPPED" to show just how far he's come.

Caleb's inspiration to get fit came in a tiny package - his six month old daughter. “I didn’t think I could be a very good dad to her if I couldn’t keep up with her,” he says. That was two years ago - Caleb weighed in at 290 pounds and his percentage of body fat was fifty percent. "We were very lazy," Caleb says of himself and his fiance'. "We ate a lot of junk food... we thought that eating healthy was eating one less flour taco!"

Now, Caleb and Nicole take the "RIPPED" class together twice a week. It meets at five in the morning. That's right ... FIVE AM! Trust me, that is a time of day I never see, and with good reason. I was hurting from the get-go. We're doing the Tabata method - twenty seconds of hard work, followed by ten seconds of rest, eight times in a row. The instructor, Tracy Downey divides us into six groups for the six different stations she's set up. There's a push up station, sprints, pull ups and tricep dips, wall ball, crunches, and lunges. By the time we finish eight rounds at each station we are exhausted and we can tell we're going to be sore. Caleb spends quite a bit of time grinning at our discomfort and he hardly looks tired at all!

Since he started his lifestyle change back in 2008, Caleb's cut his weight by 100 pounds and reduced his body fat by 35 percent. He believes he's in the best shape of his life - physically and mentally - and he's excited about raising his little girl to live the same healthy life.

If you want to check out the "Ripped" class, or other programs at Altoona Campus, here is the contact information:

1500 8th Street SW
Altoona, IA 50009
Phone: 515/967-0788
info@altoonacampus.com

Have a healthy week!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

'Tis the season... for a travel band!

Hello workout friends!

It's the time of year when all of us tend to eat, drink and be merry ... and get fatter. Although holiday weight gain is often exaggerated (some report an average of seven to ten pounds) even putting on a pound or two can be a problem because we usually never take it off!

In addition to consuming more, we often exercise less this time of year. It's easy to make excuses - from busy schedules to rotten weather. Well, give it up. Angie Gallagher is back with a workout you can do anywhere, with just one simple exercise tool. "The nice thing about the band is it's easily adjustable," she explains, "if two feet is too difficult, taking one foot out makes it easier." The pieces of plastic come in different models and levels of difficulty and it really is amazing the different moves you can do. There are bicep curls and overhead presses, and cardio like jumping jacks and hopping drills. The possibilities are endless and the workout is really tough when you keep doing compound moves that use big muscle groups. Angie's even come up with a way to make classic push ups more challenging ... why, why, why

When you finish things off with ab work, you've managed to turn your hotel - or guest room at mom and dad's house - into a gym. "The nice thing about this workout is you're burning calories and fat and building muscle, all at the same time," Angie says with a smile, "it's very efficient."

You can find resistance bands and tubes at fitness stores, Wal-Mart and Target or you can buy them online. Another bonus ... they're cheap!

http://theshapestore.com/pc/SHAPE-Resistance-Cords-c10.htm

http://www.beachbody.com/category/fitness_gear/bands_balls_weights.do

Thanks for stopping by the blog, have a healthy week!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Blasting Back Fat!

Welcome to the blog, workout fans!

This week we're returning to requests from our friends and colleages and to our friend Gigi Filer of Gigi's Pilates and Personal Training in Des Moines.

“As we age, things start to head south.” That’s what Gigi tells us during a recent workout session. It’s depressing, but with her help we are learning how to fight back and this week, we’re targeting - the back. Specifically, back fat.

"Right above or below the bra line for women,” says Gigi, “and for men it's those love handles right above the belt line." We already know where it is ... what we need to know is how to get rid of it! First, Gigi gives us an anatomy lesson. "For the back, we focus on big muscle groups – the lats, traps, rhomboids." Latissimus dorsi are the big, power muscles of the back and Gigi has us working them by doing lat pulldowns. She has us sit on a resistance ball, forcing us to engage the core more than we normally would. Trapezius and rhomboids are next – both in the middle of the back. We do bent over rows to hammer what we really hate … that fat hanging over our bra straps. And Gigi says if we do these moves as a compound set – one right after the other – we’ll soon blast our backs into beautiful shape!

Have a healthy week!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Losers are winners

Hello workout friends!
This week our segment takes on a new theme - success. Many of our workouts have been meant to inspire YOU ... now meet two women who inspire US.

Lyndee Underbakke and Molly Fairchild wanted to be contestants on The Biggest Loser, Season 10 but didn't get picked. It didn't stop them from starting a routine aimed at getting fit. Their goal - losing a combined 320 pounds. The two have been friends for years so it was no surprise that when Lyndee got engaged, she asked Molly to be in her wedding. And that's how the lifestyle change started. "Well, it started out as a quest for the dress!" Lyndee says with a laugh. As if the quest isn't hard enough, it was torture for these two because nothing fit. "I was gonna have to lose something to be in the wedding," Molly explains.

Weight has been a problem for Molly and Lyndee for most of their lives. "People talk about, back when i was skinny or those are my skinny pictures,"Molly says with a shrug, "I don't have those." The women knew it was finally time to do something about it and they decided to do it together. First, they altered their diets. Then they joined Aspen Athletic Clubs and started training with Scott Kauffman. "The clients I see leave here with written program," he explains, "so we work out and then they know, here's what you need to do two times before next Thursday."

Molly and Lyndee admit that at first the workouts seemed impossible but not they can't wait to see what Scott will dish out next. With his help they've lost more than 100 pounds and 80 inches! They post their successes, and failures on a facebook page called "Send Lyndee and Molly to Biggest Loser Season 10". They hoped it would help them make it on the show but now it serves as an outlet, and keeps them accountable. They hoped to draw a few hundred fans and ended up with more than three-thousand at one point!

The hard work is paying off. At Lyndee's wedding, the gals looked beautiful. Even more important, they feel fantastic.

We're going to be touching base with Molly and Lyndee periodically, but if you want to track their progress on your own, find their facebook page.

Here's to a healthy week!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com