#averageguyfitness

[averageguyfitness]

7 minute workout (science backed!)

In the fast-paced world we live in, we are often looking for the most efficient way to do something, be it commuting to work, cleaning our house/ apartment, or any number of tasks we have to do in the average day. When it comes to working out, however, quicker is never the answer, right? A quick workout can't possibly do as much as a long and tedious one, or can it? Well the latest workout I tried goes against everything we thought we knew about working out. 

Enter the scientifically backed 7 minute workout! Made by scientists, with science, this scientific workout was made by taking all the latest research on fitness, blending it together, and pouring out one of the most efficient workouts out there. Science science. 

I found the FitnessBlender.com version of this workout recently (http://youtu.be/Jru5B044HOs) and figured I'd give it a try to see if it's really that good. The basic layout of the workout involves doing 3 cycles of a total body, lower body, upper body, and finally a core exercise, in a 30 second on, 10 second off fashion. Each cycle has different exercises, but uses the same muscle group focus (total,lower,upper,core). What you get is 12 exercises that you do as many times as possible within each of their allotted 30 second intervals. Seems like this HIIT stuff is really the key to a good workout!

Anyway, my girlfriend and I did the workout together, and I must say, neither of us felt like it was that hard of a workout. Maybe we weren't pushing ourselves hard enough, but it seemed like we could have done the whole workout over again and still would have gotten through it just fine. I think we'll try it again in a couple of days and really push ourselves to our max and see if that makes a difference. 

Now I'm not saying you shouldn't try it. Depending on your fitness level, I'm sure this workout has the potential to really kick your ass, all in the span of 7 minutes. This is therefore the perfect workout for the person whose excuse is always "I just don't have the time". You all know someone like that. Send them over to FitnessBlender.com and tell them to give it a try!

Image from the New York Times "Well" blog (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-minute-workout/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1&

[averageguyfitness]

The Power of Music

Hey all. So it seems like I've collected at least a couple of followers! I'm not sure if you're just robots that follow everything or people who actually find my posts informative, but I'll just assume the latter. On another note, I know, once again, that I haven't posted in a while. My original plan was to post every week or so. So much for that... Anyway, I'm not going to promise I'll start posting like crazy from now on, because that is most likely not going to be true! I honestly don't know what I spend all my time doing... 

Okay, now for the topic of this post: music. I would say that music is a super important part of my life. I've played instruments from very young (violin, guitar, and some dabblings with others), and I love cranking up the volume and getting lost in a new song, or enjoying an old favorite. Anyway, what I've found is that when a particularly powerful song is playing, I feel an energy surge through me that just makes me want to jump around! I often use this energy bequeathed to me by music to get through my exercise routine. I feel like I can push out more reps, and sometimes I break out into shadow boxing to the beat of the music between my reps. Kinda silly, but it gets my heart pumping!

So give it a go. If you're thinking you need to do a workout, but don't think you have the energy for it, put one of your favorite songs on (at least one with a strong and fast beat), and see if it'll get you off your ass and into workout mode! This might be why Zumba is so popular ;)

I've been trying to think of a good song for this purpose, but my taste in music is somewhat unique, so it might not appeal to most of you out there. I'll give it a go anyway. I like dubstep, which is pretty mainstream, and has crazy power to it! Here's a dubstep remix of a Massive Attack song which I love! Check it out: 

Hope you like it. Happy Exercising! 

[averageguyfitness]

Fell off The wagon... Time to get back on!

I'll admit, the last couple of weeks I let my health and fitness fall on the wayside... I haven't been eating right, or doing regular workouts. If this happens to you though, you just gotta get back on that wagon and keep going! Sure you might have taken a few steps backwards, and this might be a little frustrating, but you just have to push yourself to take even more steps forward this time around. That is what I plan to do. 

Yesterday I did a nice short routine on FitnessBlender.com with my girlfriend:

This was a nice quick workout which really got me sweating! You do need a warm-up and cool-down routine before and after the video, respectively, which you can also find on the FitnessBlender website. I'm starting to sound like a walking advertisement for that site, but it's really a great tool for your pursuit of fitness, at the low price of absolutely free!

So if you fell off the wagon like me, the time to get back on is now!

Stay healthy America.