If It Doesn't Hurt You're Not Working Hard Enough

Yesterday was another sweat-producing, muscle aching, swear inducing workout with my buddy Brutus. And seriously, no one can bring out the sailor in me than Brutus and his favorite exercise-  the Figure 8 Squat.  Just thinking about that bleeping move summons from the depths of my insides a string of expletives that would make a Gordon Ramsay blush. :for the head scratchers, Gordon Ramsay is a British Chef who drops F-Bombs more frequently than he does butter in a pan.:

Thankfully (and seriously, I  tremble at the thought of mentioning this, because I know what it will mean for next Saturday)  I am not as tear inducing-ly sore as I was *last* weekend.  I can actually sit down with little pain today.  Though, my husband and I were shopping at the Outlet Mall today, and I carry a very large purse, which normally wouldn't even phase me.  However, after just twenty or so minutes of walking around the mall my arms were crying.  I guess I worked my arms out more than I thought I did yesterday.

While Brutus and I were chatting, he mentioned how sore he was from his workout the day before.  And I'm thinking "You're sore?  Mr 99 % muscle, I could bounce a quarter off your body and have it shoot into the atmosphere-  Not that I think about it mind you-  I'm married-  I'm just trying to give you the visual-  he's -built-  seriously, built. Anyway-  I said "wow, it's good to know that even super built muscle men hurt after their workouts too- not just out of shape huffy puffers."  His response,  if it doesn't hurt, you're not working hard enough.  Well-  I guess based on my pain, you can be rest assured Im working PLENTY hard.  P LEN TY .

I wanted to re-touch on some information that I did last week after my session with Brutus.  I was reading Eating Well magazine yesterday, and noticed there was an article on "3 Foods to Fuel Your Workout". It's a slight misrepresentation however, because when you open the magazine and get to the article (page 19) it's actually entitled "3 Ways to Pump Up Your Workout"  In the article, there is discussion of a study in the Journal of Physiology regarding eating and workouts (similar to the Shape article I discussed last week).  It says the same thing-  don't eat breakfast before you workout if you want to burn more calories.  However, this really needs to have a huge asterisk next to it.

As I said last week- Brutus says there is a difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercising.  Aerobic exercising is dependant on oxygen in the blood, so it does not need a fuel source in order to perform.  Anaerobic exercise (interval training/weightlifting)  goes to glucose/glycogen stores to deliver energy to the muscles.  What does this mean-  YOU MUST EAT before doing an anaerobic workout.  I ate a peanut butter/banana on 1 slice of multi grain bread and a slim fast (I was out of protein powder)  and it made a world of difference in my workout.  And trust me, Brutus worked me OUT.

I'm going to be announcing a challenge/contest in the next few days that will begin on May 1st.  It has some awesome prizes that I super geeked to announce-  and I really think that everyone will benefit from joining in the challenge.  I need to discuss some things with Brutus and tie up some of the loose ends on the details, but in the coming days I will be rolling it out- so stay tuned! :)