As I mentioned in my last post, we are very excited to be working on the new LIVESTRONG.COM workout program and app. We wanted to make sure we tried any workout program ourselves before unleashing it on our members. Our goal is to provide an easy-to-follow, challenging and fun workout program that can appeal to EVERYONE and be done almost anywhere, whether your home, your office, outside or a gym. No matter what your goal, body type, age or injury situation is, our program should also adjust to your needs and to your schedule.
Recently, the Inflict Training guys came back to our offices, and we grabbed three more LIVESTRONG.COM team members to join me for a workout. It was a great experience. We were able to really see how the workout could be tailored to different people with different goals, strengths and intensity levels. Craig and Danny tailored the program on the fly to accommodate us all -- from beginners (people who have not been to a gym in a while), to intermediate (regular gym users). Soon, we also will be adding a more advanced person to the mix to see how the workouts can be turned up to achieve high levels of intensity.
One of our new trainees was Content Editor Krisserin Canary. Krisserin regularly exercises and has spent a large portion of her life in the gym. But, she says she is still overweight and out of shape. Krisserin’s ultimate goal, she says, is to lose 10 pounds and increase her overall strength.
LIVESTRONG.COM Content Editor Krisserin Canary
“It's been quite a while since I've been to the gym, and even longer since I've done anything more than cardio, so I was expecting to get my butt kicked by Craig and Danny,” says Krisserin, a former competitive gymnast and a pole vaulter at UCLA. “Instead I felt great after the workout … Craig made sure I paced myself and I was only slightly sore the next day. Even though I know my way around the gym, I'm completely clueless as to what exercises to do or what order to do them in."
Krisserin, who used The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM to lose the 30 pounds she gained in college, realized she had been doing basically the same routine taught by her athletic trainers in college, “which becomes ineffective after a while, as your body becomes accustomed to the routine.”
“In the past, the lifting and cardio I did was tuned specifically to gymnastics and pole vaulting. The training I did with Craig however was a lot more focused. I felt like I was working my entire body and the circuits we did felt like an aerobic workout,” she says “I learned with Craig and Danny that you need different variations to continue to challenge yourself. I'm excited for my next workout, and excited to learn new ways to challenge myself and my body.”
In addition to being able to do this workout at your own pace and in your own space, the best part of the LIVESTRONG.COM and Inflict Training philosophy is it is a total body workout that focuses on strength, agility and improving your cardiovascular capabilities. The exercises combined stretching, cardio and resistance training and focus on total body movements, as opposed to muscle isolation. There is also a great deal of focus on strengthening your core which helps almost all of the other areas perform better.
Krisserin and I especially liked that the first part of the workout: "muscle activation" for 15-20 minutes. We used many stretching exercises along with foam rollers and resistance bands to really ACTIVATE specific muscles. This made doing the exercises later in the workout much easier to do.
And Krisserin can attest that she definitely felt a difference in her workouts. If you want to learn more about Krisserin, visit her LIVESTRONG.COM profile. Next time, you will learn how the workout affected LIVESTRONG.COM Graphic Designer Wil Teran, a father of three, who put exercise by the wayside for parenthood.
In the meantime, please send me you ideas and thoughts. I would love your feedback on the workouts.
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