The Windblown Look

As we begin the slow transition from Summer to Fall and then from Fall to Winter, the one thing we can all generally count on is beautiful weather. So with that being said, this past week I thought it'd be a nice little change of pace to exercise outside. And with the wind fiercely blowing and the leaves falling all around me, I have to say, it made me feel a little like Fabio on the cover of one of those cheesy romance novels.

"How I thought I looked"

"How I really looked..."

Not only did I have the windblown look going for me, but exercising outside also allowed me to experience the sounds of nature as I huffed and puffed through my Burpee routine. It's a wonderful feeling having complete silence other than the birds chirping around you and the wind blowing through the trees. Here I go getting all sappy on you all...

"Pun most definitely intended"

...but I just wanted to get my point across that it's important for us to not get caught up only doing the gym thing. Instead, the next time you work out, even if it's with weights, bring them outside. You'll thank me for it. Unless it's snowing.

Other than one missed day this past week due to sickness, I was able to complete my other two adays, and the results are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
10/9/2012	REST
10/10/2012	Ladder	15	15 min 15 sec	15 min 04 sec	40 sec	240
10/11/2012	Ladder	15	15 min 27 sec	15 min 28 sec	40 sec	240
10/12/2012	REST
10/13/2012	Ladder	15	15 min 20 sec	15 min 19 sec	40 sec	240
10/14/2012	SICK					0
10/15/2012	REST

This week I'll leave you with a quote regarding a our human need for nature from Native American writer and actor, Luther Standing Bear:

"Man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; the Lakota knew that lack of respect for growing, living things, soon led to a lack of respect for humans too."

L&R,

Drew

Good Form Ol' Chap

How many of you out there grew up hearing the phrase "keep good form" when exercising or lifting weights? If you had coaches and parents telling you this as a child and teenager, then you were one of the lucky few. Piggybacking on one of my earlier posts, "Safety First", I felt it necessary to drive home the point that when exercising, form is everything. 

Pictured: Proper Form

Per Bodybuilding.com, "Proper form is essential for success when training for anything from general fitness to sports events and/or competitions. It is the quality of training that influences your progress more than quantity. It is important to understand the proper mechanics of training to get the most benefit of your time."

I don't think I could have said it any better myself, and if you have any argument with this philosophy, well you can...

I've now made it through yet another full week of Burpees, and my results are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time	Beak Time  Per Set	Total  Burpees
10/1/2012	Broad Jumps	6	6 min 42 sec	30 sec	60
10/2/2012	Ladder	15	13 min 05 sec	30 sec	120
10/3/2012	Pull-up	6	7 min 34 sec	30 sec	60
10/4/2012	REST
10/5/2012	Box Jumps	4	5 min 33 sec	60 sec	40
10/6/2012	Mix	7	9 min 03 sec	40 sec	70
10/7/2012	REST

Today, I'll leave you with a quote from exercise physiologist and fitness consultant, Elizabeth Quinn:

"No matter what sort of workout routine or exercise you enjoy, using incorrect technique not only reduces the effectiveness of the workout, but puts you at a greater risk for getting injured."

L&R,

Drew

The Cow Goes Moo, The Dietitian Goes Boo

Forgive me for such a ridiculously cheesy title this week, but I wanted to make my point short and sweet. Growing up, I know the majority of us were consistently given milk during almost every meal of the day. Our parents as well as the TV would tell us if we drank it, it would help us "grow up to be big and strong one day". Well, I'm here to help spread the word that what we've been told our entire lives is false.

"Ahhhhh!"

Based on multiple scientific studies over the past few years, researchers have shown that cow's milk can actually be more detrimental to our bodies than helpful to them. Per SaveOurBones.com, "The most surprising link is that not only do we not absorb the calcium in cow's milk (especially if pasteurized), but to make matters worse, it actually increases calcium loss from the bones. What an irony this is!"

The True Origins of the Apocolypse

So this week, if you haven't already tried it, I'd like to introduce you to a great replacement for cow's milk: Almond Milk. The actual benefits for almond milk are off the charts. A glass of almond milk contains 50% of your daily value of Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant, as well as other vitamins and minerals such as Vitamins A & D, Calcium, and Magnesium. It also has significantly less calories and fat content than dairy milk. When describing the benefits of almond milk, Livestrong.com says, "Antioxidants repair free radical damage, which keeps your skin healthy, your liver functioning at its best, improves overall brain function."

With all that being said, I think it's time you stop paying attention to celebrities in the "Got Milk?" commercials and start paying attention to your body. As always, my results from this week are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
9/25/2012	REST
9/26/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 09 sec	17 min 15 sec	50 sec	240
9/27/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 12 sec	17 min 14 sec	50 sec	240
9/28/2012	REST
9/29/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 24 sec	17 min 30 sec	50 sec	240
9/30/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 30 sec		50 sec	120
10/1/2012	REST

This week I'll leave you with an insightful quote from Irish playwright and founder of the London School of Economics, George Bernard Shaw:

"A mind of the caliber of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows."

L&R,

Drew

Making the Cut

This week, I introduced my last set of new exercises to the mix by adding both Box Jumps and Broad Jumps to my Burpee workouts. Although there are many other variations of the Burpee that people have invented over the years, I felt these two were a nice final fit to my experiment.

Box Jump

Broad Jump

Over the remaining three months I'll not only be adding these two exercises, but I'll also begin increasing my reps on the Mix workout days to add in the other workouts I've come to know and "love" over the past 8 months. Those workouts included Lunges, Star Jumps, Diamond Buddhas, Mountain Climbers, One-Legged Burpees, Jumping Jacks, and Pull-ups.

"Lunges and Climbers and Buddhas, OH MY!  

Although it was great to incorporate some new exercises into the mix this week, they were anything but easy, with box jumps easily winning the award for hardest workout of the year. It'll be a great way to finish out the remaining months, pushing myself both mentally and physically toward the finish. With all that being said, I've posted my results from this past week below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time	Beak Time  Per Set	Total  Burpees
9/17/2012	Broad Jumps	6	7 min 34 sec	40 sec	60
9/18/2012	Ladder	15	13 min 00 sec	30 sec	120
9/19/2012	Pull-up	6	7 min 11 sec	30 sec	60
9/20/2012	REST
9/21/2012	Box Jumps	4	5 min 45 sec	60 sec	40
9/22/2012	Mix	7	8 min 50 sec	40 sec	70
9/23/2012	REST

In response to all of the other Burpee exercises I could have chosen for this experiment, I'll leave you this week with a funny quote from Steve Carrell's most famous TV personality, Michael Scott:

"I hate, hate being left out. Whether it's not being picked for a team, or being picked for a team and then showing up and realizing that team doesn't exist. Or that the sport doesn't exist! I should have known... "Poop-ball??"

L&R,

Drew

Stretch for the Finish

With 3 months left in this experiment, I thought what better time than now to talk about the importance of stretching. Throughout most of my adult life I've made sure to stretch for at least 5 to 10 minutes before I began any workouts because I've always felt it's an extremely important aspect to your body's health. Per livestrong.com, "proper stretching is thought to help avoid injury by increasing your flexibility, which can also help improve performance in physical activity".

Stretch Armstrong concurs...

I also feel stretching has played a large role in why I haven't had any significant injuries over the past year. Growing up, I never felt stretching was necessary and because of that my back always gave me problems and my legs were always tight. But now, thanks in part to both stretching and Burpees, I'm probably as close  as I've ever been to the top of my game.

In terms of working out however, this past week was a rough one, as I was out of town for a sales meeting and did my best to keep up with the two-adays. My puny girly-man results are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
9/10/2012	REST
9/11/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 24 sec	Work	50 sec	120
9/12/2012	Ladder	15	Work	17 min 11 sec	50 sec	120
9/13/2012	REST
9/14/2012	Ladder	15	17 min 18 sec	17 min 04 sec	50 sec	240
9/15/2012	REST
9/16/2012	REST

This week I'll leave you with the simplest of quotes from the man, the myth, the mustache, Da Bears Coach Mike Ditka. Because if Ditka says it, you better do it:

"I do some weights, and I do a lot of stretching."

L&R,

Drew

On the Burpee Trail

In light of the current campaign going on in Washington, I thought I'd take some time to reflect on this nation's political and economic policies...Psshhhhh, yea right! I'd never bore you with all that media driven hullabaloo. But yes, I did mean for the title of this post to be a double entendre, if that's what you were thinking. And I know it was, right? Right?

Okay, okay. Onto the other meaning of the title. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending one of my close friend's weddings in Colorado, which is why I unfortunately wasn't able to finish out the week. However, despite not keeping track of them, I was still able to do a few Burpees up on the mountaintop while we hiked 3.5 miles near our hotel. That's when one of my astute co-hiking buddies thought it would be clever to incorporate trail into the title since we were on a traill. Brilliant, I know.

So, even though I didn't finish the week, I was still able to at least complete the bulk of my workouts from the first few days. The results are listed below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time	Beak Time  Per Set	Total  Burpees
9/3/2012	Climbers	6	7 min 17 sec	30 sec	60
9/4/2012	Ladder	15	13 min 02 sec	30 sec	120
9/5/2012	Pull-up	6	7 min 15 sec	30 sec	60
9/6/2012	REST
9/7/2012	Vacation
9/8/2012	Vacation
9/9/2012	Vacation

And since I missed much of last weeks' workouts, and have a National Sales Meeting to attend this week for work, I'll leave you with a quote from the remarkably comedic styling of our most recent president, George W. Bush:

"The future will be better tomorrow."

L&R,
Drew

A Family Affair

Up until this point, I've been flying mostly solo on the Burpee Experiment. Sure, there have been a few times over the past 8 months where I've had a buddy or two work out with me, but for the most part I've been a one man show. However, this past Labor Day weekend brought about a welcome, albeit short, change to my workouts. As you probably know if you've been keeping up with this experiment, this past week was yet another grueling week of two-aday ladder sets. Well this time around, I had five other members of mine and my wife's extended family to join me in the process of "Grinning and bearing it".

Uncle Yogi

After grinding through 120 burpees, I'll say I was thoroughly surprised at how well our family members performed, especially after indulging in a breakfast of creamed eggs and enough bacon to feed a small army. This unfortunately and fortunately (depending on how you choose to look at it) always seems to happen when our family gets together. So to actually get a workout in while vacationing in Gluttonville, is something of an anomaly.

With all that to say, I managed to actually complete a full week of two-adays (bacon and all) and have listed my results below:

Date	Workout	Sets	Total Time (Morning)	Total Time (Night)	Beak Time Per Set	Total Burpees
8/27/2012	REST
8/28/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 35 sec	19 min 38 sec	60 sec	240
8/29/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 27 sec	19 min 15 sec	60 sec	240
8/30/2012	REST
8/31/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 32 sec	19 min 28 sec	60 sec	240
9/1/2012	Ladder	15	19 min 27 sec	19 min 35 sec	60 sec	240
9/2/2012	REST

Today, I'll leave you with a quote from the late, great, American humorist, Erma Bombeck:

"I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage."

L&R,

Drew