8 Wicked Mountain Climber Variations

December 30, 2011 By 11 Comments

This is a guest post by my good friend Troy Pesola who is the founder of Cube Dweller Fitness. He helps cubicle dwellers learn to live life outside of the box. He has been a long time fan of the fitness bloomer movement and I’m happy to have him share some of his insights here. 

Living in Colorado means being surrounded by mountains which is the perfect setting to think about mountain climber variations. When Srdjan published the Mountain Climbers Exercise For Building Core Strength article, I figured I would suggested some variations that I found work well to build endurance and core strength.

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Filed Under: Guest Post, Video Post

24 Things About Me That You Probably Didn’t Know

December 24, 2011 By 44 Comments

Yup, that’s me…

Doing one of my patented dance moves. 

Don’t ask.

And yea, today is my 24th birthday – on the 24th of December. I think they call that your Champagne birthday.

The lack of an exclamation point might make you think that it’s not something that I’m excited about, but I am.

Really.

24 years of my life have gone by and I couldn’t be happier. An exclamation point simply wouldn’t do it justice.

A lot of things have happened over the past 24 years. A lot of milestones have been surpassed and many goals have been accomplished. I’ve met so many incredible people along the way that I am eternally grateful for. They’ve all inspired me to be the person I am today.

I’ve travelled to places that I never thought I would. I’ve accomplished things I sometimes never thought were possible. Over the past 24 years I’ve fallen down and gotten up hundreds of times, both literally and figuratively.

And I’ve loved every minute of it.

In the spirit of my 24th birthday, I want to do something a little different. Something I haven’t done here before. I’m going to get a little bit personal and share 24 random facts about myself that (most) of you probably didn’t know.

Taking a deep breath…

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous

A Gym Without Mirrors

December 19, 2011 By 16 Comments

Imagine this for a second…

You’re on your way to the gym for another killer workout. On your way there, in your head you’re running through all the exercises you’re planning to do. You get there, you change, you hook up your music, and you head on inside psyched to get started.

Only something is different.

Something is…missing.

You look around and realize that, for some reason, all the mirrors are missing. They’re gone. Every single mirror has been taken down.

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous

3 Core Strengthening Exercises for Women

December 13, 2011 By 11 Comments

Ladies, ladies, ladies…

Glad you could join me.

If you’ve been following the series of workouts I’ve been putting together for you, you’ve already seen (and hopefully used) one (or both) of the following workouts:

As you know, at Bloom to Fit we like to focus on functional strength – strength that you can actually use in your daily activities. After all, the whole idea here is to teach you how to build a better body that you can use for life.

With that being said, today I want to tie things up with an effective core strengthening routine that you can incorporate with the upper and lower body workouts. These core strengthening exercises for women will place focus on your entire core, not just your abdominals. Too often we only focus on what we can see and neglect the important muscles behind us that keep our bodies moving. This routine is designed to challenge you in a way you’re most likely not used to, so be prepared for some great results.

Let’s get to work.

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Filed Under: For Women

Getting Ripped with Visual Impact Phase 3

December 8, 2011 By 9 Comments

Yup, it’s time to get ripped…

Again, with the Visual Impact Program.

Visual Impact has been very effective for me so far. In Phase 1, I gained 19lbs of muscle in a mere 8 weeks. Then I spent 4 weeks going through Phase 2 which didn’t yield the results I thought it would, but it was a great transition into what I’m doing right now.

On November 14, 2011, I got started with Visual Impact Phase 3 with two goals in mind:

  1. Cut down all the excess fat I’ve put on from Phase 1 and Phase 2 (not much),
  2. Build incredible strength.

What I want to be left with is a lean, strong physique. I want to hit 8 percent body fat and I want to increase my strength by at least 20% in the exercises that I’ll be doing.

I know these sound like crazy numbers but it’s totally doable with this program. I’m already three weeks into it and I’m experiencing some incredible results.

Just like I did with Phase 1, I want to share as much detail with you about my progress as I can. I’ll share the training routine, my diet and supplement strategy and I’ll document anything I think is worthy of relaying so you can truly see how this program can help you build a leaner, better body.

Let’s get into some details.

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Filed Under: Getting Ripped

Function of Respiratory System in a Functionally Strong Body

December 4, 2011 By 8 Comments

Hey! Psssttt…

It’s your lungs calling.

How well do you know them?

How well do you know how they work? How your respiratory system functions?

It’s time to lay down some facts.

As you may know from my old posts, building a better body requires strengthening your heart and the systems responsible for efficiently delivering oxygen and nutrients to the working tissues of the body. This is exactly what I talked about a while back when I wrote a post titled How does the Cardiovascular System Work. It explains exactly what your heart goes through as you put your body through varying types of activities.

I want you to start there.

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Filed Under: Your Body

The Powerful Link Between Comfort and Results

November 29, 2011 By 8 Comments

A few weeks ago, a fellow reader asked me a very profound question. He wanted to know one thing:

What drives me?

Without hesitation, I knew the answer. And I’m willing to bet that it’s the exact same thing that drives you.

Results.

Results drive us. They motivate us. They push us to keep going even when we have the least bit of desire to.

It’s human nature at its finest. People are wired to be driven by results. It’s inside of us. We want results. Badly. We crave them. And we get anxious and frustrated when we don’t get them, and get them quickly.

Results mean success. And we all want success, right?

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Filed Under: Miscellaneous

How to Strengthen Ankles for Life

November 23, 2011 By 13 Comments

Look down at your feet for a second.

Yea, those are your ankles down there.

More likely than not, you put very little thought into them. You kind of just expect them to work. Flawlessly.

But our ankles are precious. They do a lot for us. We don’t realize it, but each day our ankles go through a lot of stress just to support us in the activities we choose to do – even if it may just be standing or walking. On a daily basis, our ankle joints are constantly bombarded with forces from all different directions. They work hard to keep us up and running.

That being said, it’s really important that we take care of them – that we strengthen them.

I want to show you a number of ankle strengthening exercises that you can perform on a regular basis to ensure your ankles are apt for supporting you in all activities you choose to perform. I want to show you how to strengthen ankles for life.

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Filed Under: Improve Joint Mobility

23 Skipping Rope Exercises – Extended [VIDEO]

November 20, 2011 By 16 Comments

What’s up guys!

So a while ago, I put together a post titled 10 Skipping Rope Exercises for a Better Body. I put a lot of time into the article because I really believe in the power and benefits of skipping rope.

This is definitely one piece of equipment you would want to add to your toolbox.

As I mentioned before, I am constantly looking for ways to incorporate skipping into my training routines. That’s why I keep playing around with different foot patterns and hand placements. You’ll see what I’m talking about in a second.

Like I did with my push up variation article, I decided to put together a video for you guys so you can see exactly what I’m talking about. On top of that, I’ve added an extra 13 variations to bring it to a total of 23 skipping rope exercises you can test and add to your routine. I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s the video:

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Filed Under: Skipping Rope, Video Post

5 Youtube Motivational Videos to get your Juices Flowing

November 15, 2011 By 17 Comments

Motivation.

Such a powerful word.

It’s something we all want but find hard to find. Hard to dig up. From within.

If there is one thing that’s keeping us from achieving the results that we’re after, it’s lack of motivation. We may be in possession of the best training and dieting methods, but if we don’t have the motivation to take action, there is simply no hope.

So how do you get motivated?

Some people are very visual – they respond best to when they see something. Others are more auditory – they respond best when they hear something that puts them in the right state of mind.

Regardless of which one pertains to you, you’ll find that videos are a great mix of visual and auditory ques that have the power to put you in a state of action.

As we move deeper into the information age, we are empowered with technology that gives us instant access to an unlimited supply of motivational videos.

Think YouTube.

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Filed Under: Inspiration & Motivation
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