Impatience, Fitness tips, and more

This morning I tutored the two kids I tutored all summer last year. They're real smart like, especially the boy- who's also older, but they can get on my nerves sometimes. Today I had them studying for 2-3 hours straight and by the time the boy just had 3 more questions left, my patience was running very thin. I was really losing it fast. Anyway, I just told them it was recess and stopped there. PMS, hunger, and smart kids who refuse to think are not a good combination!

The waves are back! My neighbors kids, (12-14) year olds, and their cousins who are all about the same age- were having heaps of fun surfing out there this afternoon. I could see them riding the waves from way out where they break all the way to the shore. I usually go and swim with them, as I did this morning, but I had stuff to do this afternoon.

Oh and look, fitness tips!

Get Fit In As Little As Two Hours a Week

Like most time-pressed women who juggle their career, errands, family and friends — and much more — many firefighters scramble to find the time to exercise on a regular basis. But there is a difference between them and us. Firefighters have to stay fit to do their jobs. So Discovery Health Online asked Michael Stefano, author of The Firefighters Workout Book: The 30-Minute-a-Day, Train-for-Life Program for Men and Women, for his recommendation on the most efficient way for busy women to get in shape and stay there. We asked him to keep three goals in mind:

* Losing or controlling weight
* Building muscle strength
* Boosting overall health (with our society's emphasis on looking good, we sometimes forget that a key benefit of regular exercise is that it protects us against the progression of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, type II diabetes and some forms of cancer.)

Alternate Cardiovascular and Strength Training
According to Stefano, you can accomplish all three goals by doing a 30- to 45-minute cardiovascular workout on Monday, for example, and strength training the following day. The strength training should consist of eight or 10 short bursts of intense effort (sets) performed in a series or circuit at least twice each week. This alternating workout program "will give you a two-for-one bonus of both fat burning and toning," he says. The end result is four or five workouts weekly (including cardio) "that can be as little as two hours of total exercise each week."

Insist on Intensity
Getting results is more a matter of how intensely you exercise than which exercise you choose to do. Stefano explains: The benefits of cardiovascular or aerobic exercise depend strictly on the heart and breathing rate achieved during the activity.

Ideally, you need to elevate your heart rate to between 60 or 70 percent of your maximum heart rate for about 20 or 30 minutes at least three days a week. (The simplest way to do this calculation is to subtract your age from 220. The result is the maximum number of times your heart can beat in one minute; take 60 or 70 percent of this number to obtain your target heart rate.)

The more intensely you train (without working above 85 percent of your maximum heart rate), the less time you'll need to exercise to get the same results. Walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling are all good fat-burning exercises when done at your target heart rate.

Similarly, the point of strength or resistance training "isn't necessarily how many sets you do, or how often you lift," says Stefano, "but how intensely you train while adhering to perfect form. This intensity level is relative, varies with each individual, and depends on many factors, including age, sex, and current level of fitness."

Stefano says the top resistance exercises for improving muscle tone are the captain's chair for abdominals, squats for the buttocks and push-ups for the arms, shoulders and chest.

The "Interval" Workout
Greg Florez, spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise and chief executive of FitAdvisor.com, agrees with Stefano that you can accomplish a total body-conditioning workout in 30-45 minutes. "The key issues are working large body parts in a strength program and getting the correct intensity in both the cardiovascular and strength training portions," he says.

To do this, add a strength exercise approximately every two to three minutes to your cardiovascular workout. In other words, stop jogging, stair climbing or doing the elliptical trainer and hit the mat to perform 12-15 push-ups. Then immediately resume your cardiovascular exercise without rest. Continue doing intervals throughout the cardio routine to work your way through the major muscle groups in your body — shoulders, back, chest, arms, hips/buttocks and legs.

Intervals Increase Caloric Burn and Fitness
Interval training can help break up the monotony of jogging on a treadmill for 30 minutes, but more importantly, it can help you maintain a relatively high level of intensity, which increases the number of calories burned and helps to build your overall fitness level. "That is why interval training is so valuable," says Florez, who suggests doing one such workout each week as well as varying your normal cardio routine to add a bit of speed, incline or distance. Perform your cardio workout three to five times a week at a minimum of 20 minutes per session.

Quality is the goal when doing the strength portion of the workout. The 12-15 repetitions should be hard enough that you could not complete any more without compromising form and correct posture. When you pass that level, you should increase the weight/resistance.
Source

And of course, don't forget to drop by IGN to watch some Mystic Warrior stuff!

Doggy luvz

I'm not feeling all too good yet. Still soggy brained, but bit better.
Here's some shitz to laugh over

CrossFit: The Fast, Furious Workout Craze
Can CrossFit whip you into shape in just 15 minutes a session—safely?
By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness
Fitness for All // CrossFit (C) Ben Kerns

If your gym suddenly looks like a cross between a gymnastics studio and a Marine Corps boot camp, chances are it's offering CrossFit classes. This fitness craze that's swept the nation in recent years was developed by a former gymnast in Santa Cruz, California, named Greg Glassman. The grassroots movement started with Glassman's rudimentary Web site on which he posted a daily workout routine (officially known as the "workout of the day" or simply the "WOD"). A dedicated following of police officers, firefighters and military types soon discovered the workouts, and from there, the wave just kept growing. Now, CrossFitters (as devotees are called) number in the thousands, and gyms across the country are offering this intense workout program.

"The workouts include elements of Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, and track and field done in combinations that increase core strength and conditioning," explains Jake Platt, owner of Northwest CrossFit in Seattle. There are about 50 basic exercises that are mixed and matched to create the "WOD," and every day is different. "Routine is the enemy," says Platt, an N.A.S.M. Certified Personal Trainer. "We want to keep your body guessing and make sure that no adaption is happening that will lead you to plateau and stop seeing progress."

That variety is one of the biggest selling points of the program. "I had been going to the gym for about six months, and I was just bored with it," says Roger Parks, a software engineer in Seattle who discovered CrossFit four months ago. He has now traded his hour of treadmill time for a high-intensity CrossFit session four to five days a week. "Now I crank through my workout in 20 minutes and then I'm done for the day," says Parks. He also supplements his workouts with biking and running, and has seen his flag football and soccer playing improve thanks to the strength and stamina he's gained doing CrossFit.

Efficiency, intensity—and safety concerns

CrossFit workouts are modeled on full-body functional movements—like lifting, pulling, twisting, running, crawling and pushing. And because every move is designed to incorporate the entire body, a full workout can be accomplished in an efficient 15- to 20-minute session. The other trademark of the sessions is their intensity. "We're looking to get people to move as quickly as they possibly can through the entire workout," says Platt.

Critics of the workouts (and even some CrossFitters themselves) worry about the high intensity of the moves. "You're doing things fast with a bunch a weight, and I can see how that could be dangerous if it's done wrong," admits Parks. To avoid any potential risk, Parks started slowly. At the CrossFit gym he attends, the "WOD" comes in two versions—the prescribed routine and a modified version of it. Trainer Jake Platt agrees that there could be potential for injury if the moves aren't done perfectly. "Safety is our number-one concern, so in the beginning we work on very basic exercises and make sure people are learning perfect form and movement," he says. That's especially important considering the weights that are used in the exercises (for example, a 20-pound "wall ball" for men and a 12-pound one for women, or a 75-pound Olympic bar for men and 50-pound one for women).

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As always, don't forget to watch your Ninjai Chapter