Friday 13 April 2012

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up-

Today’s sign of the Apocalypse:

Some of you reading this fine morning may or may not know that the 116th running of the Boston Marathon is going down this weekend.  You also may or my not know (who really cares) that one of our dear team members here, Sister Margaret has been in Boston all week preparing for the run.  We kindly asked her to sit down and write a little exposé about the ‘Merican running community.  Before we get to her scathing piece…What is up with Boston anyways?  Who really cares about that city?  Now its common knowledge that the “real” Boston is in Lincolnshire home of the majestic St Botolph’s Church and not some lame, wanna be spoiled rotten sports city.  Anyways…

…Is Christian Grey running this year or not?  I sincerely hope so, Holy crap:  Americans are so bland and two-dimensional!

Something titillating happened during the course of being amongst a gathering of local runners during the past few days, the proverbial light bulbs started to flicker then they finally managed to fully illuminate themselves.  These events were eerily similar to reading an old Penny Dreadful when I was younger.  Why is it that everyone seems to feel uncomfortable about having their inner and outer selves virtually delineated?  Just yesterday I spotted a young woman craftily dressed for the running occasion reading the dreadful and horribly written book Fifty Shades of Grey at an outdoor cafe for lunch.  Getting off on a little light spanking and unarousing sex scenes while sipping on her crisp Perrier.  Oh, almost forgot: munching on a fresh cheese plate as well.  I could keenly tell her inner temperature and desire were rising, how?  The sweat outlined fingers grasping her iPad and the salacious look gripping her face.

Then I started to think about this in broader terms.  Today you can Google: “Fitness” and in .019 seconds you get your daily dose of erotic movements served to you to fill your every desire.  Beautiful men and women barely clothed, steaming with sweat…Holy Crap!!!  I could care less what movements they are performing, I want the virtual image of perceived hard work in my head during the run this Sunday!

Back in the old days there was something dreadful about running for miles on end.  Where do I pull my motivation for the final 15 miles?  Remember when your were a kid back in the day at the local corner store trying to build up the courage to buy the June issue of Pent House (gals have their faves as well) in 1980?  “I look to young.  There is no way the man behind the counter will sell it to me!  Dear God what if my parents find out?”  The sooner we admit that nobody needs a seedy magazine to see nudity in today’s world…

So it should come as no surprise now that everyone (and I mean everyone) is hyper obsessed with fitness/health because it’s easy, sexy and extremely assessable.  Do you engage in a running routine or pull your motivation for a hard workout from a scantily glad stud who you perceive is begging to see some secret potential in you?  From what I can surmise:  The only times you are thoroughly motivated to run or workout is when you finish a chapter of fifty Shades of Grey and open the Pinterest app to find a hot young man to keep you company for the last few miles.  And for the love of god if I hear one more yoga mom here ask:  “Is this cheese plate paleo friendly?”

The Plan-

Inner drive, passion, desire to achieve the unachievable…Holy Crap!!!

The Workout-

Let’s have some fun before the weekend begins…You will need a park, an open space and some friends and family.

Tag Running/Sprinting to Warm Up:  Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who tags first!  Do that for however long…Followed by:

Our Warm Up for the week and 20 or so minutes on the Monkey Bars.

Play around and have fun!

Notes:

What drives you?  Sex, passion or pleasure?  We sincerely wish all of you reading today a healthy and fun-filled weekend, ENJOY!!!

**If you have read Fifty Shades of Grey…You know what Holy Crap is all about…**


Thursday 12 April 2012

No one man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one-

Thursdays never seem to arrive quick enough during the week, do they?  There are a million other things to do on any other ordinary Thursday.  Sometimes we like to compare the ingredients in organic brown rice?  Other times there is a Arnica Oil on the market that simply sounds too good to be true.  In the end we consider Thursdays a time to step back and reflect on all the amazing things happening around us…You know what?  It’s “Best Caption Wins Something” time:

The Plan-

The Workout-

Your choice…Either a nice refreshing Rest Day or one of our fave workouts pulled from our “Don’t Stop, Don’t Puke” series here at CultFit HQ?

If you choose the workout?  Well, it’s not much of a workout but rather a nasty little test we like to do from time to time to chart progress amongst our dear followers.

Today’s Top Tip for aspiring fitness albóndigas:  You can learn more watching someone walk and performing a plank than you can HSPU’s or prone running.

The Test:  Hinge Walk Out to a High Push Up Plank…Feet together, Hinge, Walk your Hands out to a High Plank Position, Head in a neutral position and actively pushing through the floor with your delicate little hands.

Anything less than three minutes and you fail our test.  There is no amount of crunches, ab mat situp’s, yoga, core blast, 6 weeks to a 6 pack routines you can do to prepare for this today.

If at anytime you lose stability in your upper body, STOP.  If your hips drop, STOP.  If you start building tension in your neck, STOP!!!  If you seriously want to mess yo self up disregard the previous notes!?!

Hinge, Walkout, High Plank…How hard could it be?

Notes:

By all means give our test a go and see where you stand.  Some glaring weaknesses will present themselves after 30 seconds…Most importantly do this safely and ENJOY!!!


Tuesday 10 April 2012

This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man-

Good morning dear reader!  If you stopped by today to hang out and read about the wonderful breakfast we have planned and the totally awesome workout we will be doing later?  Now is a good time to scurry along and live vicariously through another blog-o-thingy.  Authenticity…We love your “cute” little pictures of the charming breakfast you put together just as much as the next peep.  Is it really you?  We’re saying it’s not and the sooner we all agree to this the sooner we can press on…

Our struggle with authenticity transcends fitness and it hit us yesterday reading through some interesting blogs.  We read maybe fifty blogs yesterday (a small sample size) of peeps proclaiming their excellence during a normal Monday; one after  another making life seem so great with big broad smiles, fantastic dinner ideas and bloviated opinions. As the “likes” started pouring in…We applauded their terrific Pottery Barn perfect lives.  Five fleeting minutes later we were left doubting what we had just digested: Were these peeps real?  How many of these people are there lurking on the inter-webz?

With the evolution of our hyper obsessed, media driven society.  It truly is hard to believe anyone’s appearance is real anymore, on-line or in real life (is there even a difference now?).  Call us crazy or old-fashioned but we like to believe that there are areas of our lives that will remain free from this growing trend in our society.  In the end, “WE” understand it’s not really possible to enrich/enhance who we are as individuals without working on ourselves from the inside out, or without authentic hard work.

The Plan-

The Workout-

Hopefully we took a few notes from yesterday to apply to today’s program?  Any problems tumbling around?  Did you do it gracefully or like a desk/office jockey?

Trail Run/Walk/Bike/Swim…Until you feel you are warmed up enough, followed by:

Yesterday’s Warm Up is Today’s Workout:

Forward Rolls X 10
Backward Rolls X 10
Dive Rolls X 10
Quick Rolls (3 successive rolls as fast as possible) X 5
Forward Roll To Bear Crawl
Backward Roll To Crab Crawl
High Knees (running, 40m)
Butt Kicks (running, 40m)
High Knees (running drill, 40m)
Butt Kicks (running drill, 40m)
One Legged Hops (get up high, extend, 40m)
Two Legged Hops (get up high, extend, 40m)
Backpedal (backwards run, reaching back, 40m)…

Turn up the intensity knob a tad and get into the running drills actively!  Followed by:

10 Minutes of Hanging Around

Notes:

Life is not all about perfectly sliced and presented warm apple pie…ENJOY!!!


Monday 9 April 2012

We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do-

We sincerely hope all you peeps out there lurking had a splendid holiday weekend with the family.  Good, don’t mind us now as we urinate all over your feel good plans for the week…

The above poll is our “scientific” contribution to the blog-o-sphere this morning.

To recap our little pep talk for the week regarding the seeking of providing and/or of advice…It comes down to one of life’s most basic dicta “You are more likely to get what you want if you ask for it.”  Shocking isn’t it?!?

The Plan-

The Workout-

For the rest of the week our Warm Up will consist of the following (may be done indoors or outdoors) Preferably in order:

Forward Rolls X 10
Backward Rolls X 10
Dive Rolls X 10
Quick Rolls (3 successive rolls as fast as possible) X 5
Forward Roll To Bear Crawl
Backward Roll To Crab Crawl
High Knees (running, 40m)
Butt Kicks (running, 40m)
High Knees (running drill, 40m)
Butt Kicks (running drill, 40m)
One Legged Hops (get up high, extend, 40m)
Two Legged Hops (get up high, extend, 40m)
Backpedal (backwards run, reaching back, 40m)…Followed by:

One Hundred of Something…”  This may be the only time we’ll ever actually use a clock as a means of measurement during a program!

Pick a movement and without stopping (obviously unbroken)…100 Perfect Reps.  We did this last year at about this same time, who knew that keeping a workout journal would come in handy?

This is what we did:  100 One Arm Perfect Presses Each Arm (20lb db)

Get creative today doing this…

Notes:

A few things are going to happen quickly if you give the program a go today:  One you over-estimate your athletic prowess.  Two is that 100 is a lot of reps to muster with an inflated sense of self worth…No matter what the outcome may be today.  Please do this safely and ENJOY!!!


Friday 6 April 2012

Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right-

Kathrine Switzer

The Plan-

You may need to scoot on over a little bit closer today, just a bit…The talk we would like to have with you is something, let’s be straight forward shale we?  Not something you want your friends to overhear or even that pretty little treadmill chica next to you.  We all have dirty little bad habits that are deeply anchored in each one of us.  As a matter of fact they have evolved into automatic actions during every waking moment of the day.  Take Uncle Paul for example:  “Normal” dude who likes to stay fit and obsess over his diet.  If you ask nicely he will happily pontificate a sweet story telling you all about staying fit and eating healthy…Until the weekend comes and it’s off to the races.  Just last week we bet Uncle Paul that he could not match his 5k time from the Saturday (25:40) before to a similar time on the same course on a Wednesday morning.  Same course, same time, even conditions…Different day!?!

What was his second time?  Let’s just say it was “OFF” by a considerable margin…Which he attributed to being “competitive”  whatever that means?  Train hard all week recuperating from a weekend competing, rinse and repeat all summer long.  Sound familiar dear friend?  What we propose is this:  Break the habit and become more, well: “YOU”.  Free yourself from the habit of perpetually grinding yourself down and awaken yourself to the present, the now.  This is going to hurt and will definitely be a process, and you know what?  Who knows you may find other areas of your life that need improving.

The Workout-

Pulled from our “Even a kid can do this” Series here at CultFit HQ…Hopefully you are sick of Perfect Push Ups right now:

Warm Up thoroughly as you see fit…Hardy/Flowing Lather, followed by:

Gather up the kids, the hubby or even the chica on the treadmill, head outside and…

Wheel Barrow Relays (Don’t act like you have no idea what this is?  Fire up the Google Machine…).  We decided to have a competitive program with the victor getting some Hobgoblin as a reward!!!

Sprint 40m out…Last one does the Wheel Barrow back to the start.  But before you start on the way back:  20 Perfect Push Ups for both of you.

If you quickly realize that there is an inherent mix match of talent?  Simply switch it up and keep the sprints spirited!

Get into this one today, it’s a blast!!!  Oh, and 6-10 times through  is going to be pretty impressive…

Notes:

We have a bit of light homework for you this weekend.  In between trying to kill yourself running a 5k and sometime before you head off to Whole Foods…Dying To Be Thin.

By all means have a great time if you give the program today a go.  And if you do?  Be safe and ENJOY!!!