Well Aged Fitness

   This is Tim, the winner of my work's transformation challenge during fall of last year. He just my training partner during the 12 weeks challenge and it was awesome to see the progress he made in his strength, physical appearance, and growth of his fitness knowledge. Here's what he had to say about his journey... "The transformation challenge was a great way to kickstart my fitness routine and the fact that it was a competition motivated me to work out regularly whereas before I would stop and start. By the end of the challenge I had gotten into a routine that was sustainable and have continued to work out. Training with Marvin really helped me to learn how to lift - I’d never lifted before so it seemed intimidating to me but he was great at encouraging and pushing me. Doing the challenge helped me realize that I’m capable of more than I thought and now I’m trying the 24 hour Tough Mudder Worlds. If you would have told me I’d be doing this a year ago there’s no...

Remember when you were a kid and instead of taking stairs you would rather climb and a ledge or jump off of it? Saw a fallen tree and had to try to balance on it? Remember the last time you tried the monkey bars? You think you can still do them? Might as well find out. Earlier this summer, I participated in the Rugged Maniac obstacle run. This was my third time doing this one, and sixth time doing an event like this. The wifey and I do it every year and try to recruit more and more people to come with us. This year we dragged her sister out and some of my wife's co-workers. For those who's never done one, I recommend trying one. I know what you're thinking, "I'm not fit/strong enough,"  "I have to get in shape first," or "it's too hard." Or something towards that nature. Before my first time, I  thought those tings too. There are many kinds of events out there that vary in length, obstacles, and difficulty levels. Sure the...

   About 6 months ago I started using ENGN by Evlution Nutrition , pre-workout powder that helps increase your energy, power, and focus. As supports cognitive function, enhances mood, expands muscle endurance, and helps delay fatigue.*     I never used it until that point because I thought that I could natural pump myself up for my workouts. I've always heard stories about the shakes and not sleeping at night, etc,. It didn't sound too appealing. Don't know if it was the shift work or the old age, but I realized that I wasn't getting the same consistent energy especially during my daytime workouts. Always blamed it on my 5am wake ups, after only getting 6 hrs of sleep, working 8-9 hrs and then working out. My workouts would be night and day, literally haha, when it came to the time of day and amount of weight I could push. For example, after nightshift I was able to bench 195 lbs, my personal best I may add ;), but after day shift within the next 2 wee...

      It's that time again, where we make resolutions for the new year. It's a month in and I'm already slacking on mine. :( Anyone else having this problem? Every year I would, "I want to be healthy by exercising more and eating better." Pretty general.   Hard to say if I actually followed through with it.  This year, I came up with four things I would like to do/change.  1) Drink more water . Seems simple enough but with my job, I can go long stretches without having anything to drink. And with all the exercise I get in a week, I should be drinking at least double of what I do now.  2) Stretch . I'm terrible at remember information to stretch after workouts. The only time I do is the next day when I'm already feeling tight. I know that I'd feel tight regardless but to a less of a degree the next day if I stretched after my workouts.  3) Sleep more . I currently run in 5 1/2 hrs of sleep time during the work we. Weekends I could do aro...

     Last year, we did a Transformation Challenge for my co-workers and I. It started on the beginning of October to the middle of December. It was very simple, you get to choose what you want to do, lose fat or gain muscle, and the method was up to you. Here's my results from last year. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give myself a 6.5. I hoped to have a bigger change after 10 weeks but I was okay with my results, more definition around the shoulders and chest, and a bit off the waistline.  Fast forward to this year's competition. I decided to try and bulk, put on some muscle. Something I never tried to do. Up the calories, and up the weight. Sounds simple, let's see.  UPDATE: it's been about a month into this years competition and I got to say, bulking is harder than it sounds. After about a year and a half of trying to keep the calories down (roughly around 1700-2000), I'm not programmed to eat as much as I need to (preferably around 2500-3000 ca...

I've never been one to count calories. I've always ate what I wanted, whenever I wanted, still do for the most part. Last year I started to become more aware of the calories that I was putting into my body. It was actually the first time I committed myself into losing body fat, mainly around my belly #dadbod. And really the concept was simple, less calories equals lass fat, more calories equals my fat. You need to know how many calories you need to maintain your body first. Many apps like MyFitnessPal, or a quick google search will lead to a calorie calculator, such as this one  https://www.freedieting.com/calorie-calculator .  In recent years, there's been a focus on making people aware of the number of calories they are consuming, hence, menus at restaurants having the number of calories beside each item. They've been doing it in the US for a long time now, but it's been introduced to Canada within the last few years I believe. If you've ever used...

      Everyone has that one, or more, picture that make you say, "is that what I really look like?" Here are my mine.  These were taken back in 2011. At the time I was working at the hotel, didn't exercise except for playing men's league basketball once a week and didn't care about my diet. It was two years since we had my daughter Kya, and at that pint, the gym was the last thing on my mind.  Seeing these pictures is when I started to put my gym membership to use. Although I still didn't go as often as I would like, once or twice a week, I did start feeling comfortable with myself.  I would go before work around 7:30am to get a workout in. Despite my body not going through a big transformation at the time, it was still a step forward and it made a positive change in my lifestyle. If you were like me, and were unhappy with how you look or feel at any point in your life, remember it takes that one step to get you moving forward. Start cre...