Warrior Workout - Pyramid Style

You can always make time for a workout. Whether you have 15 minutes or 50 minutes follow a cycle that allows you to modify that amount of time you have to invest while maximizing your efforts and utilizing multiple muscles groups. This pyramid style workout is tough but effective. The workout in its entirety ranges 45-60 minutes depending no your speed. If you start at the top and only get through half (which is the hardest part), don't forget to celebrate that win!

This workout doesn't require the need for any equipment which means you can do it at home, in a hotel, basement, living or even outside! Follow these 4 moves, one after another. You will being with 20 repetitions of each exercise. Once you complete 20 of each of the 4 exercises, you will have completed one round. You will continue through a full round of each, reducing the reps by one each time. The second round will consist of 19 reps of each, then 18 reps of each and so on, all the way down to 1 rep of each.

For all exercises except the burpees, the exercise is performed one on each side. ie. a left and right side counts as one rep.

REMEMBER: You are doing the hardest and longest first. It goes by faster towards the end.

Burpees with push up

Squat with knee lift (one on each side counts as one)

Mountain Climbers

Alternating Lunges

The "Muscle weighs more than fat" Debate

We've all heard it. We've all probably said it. But have we believed it?

The truth of the matter is that muscle WEIGHS the same, but takes up a lot less room! So even when people have more muscle, it doesn't mean they are larger in size. So why do the weight-watching women of the world preach the misinformed belief that lean muscle weighs more than fat? I find most individuals use this erroneous rationale to soften the blow of the scale. When the numbers on the scale begin to tip in an unfavorable direction, it is easy to find comfort in the theory that muscle weighs more than fat—especially if you are resistance training.

While fat and lean muscle weighs the same pound for pound, their composition varies immensely. Muscle has a leaner appearance due to its high density, whereas free-floating, Jello-like, fatty tissue needs more space to jiggle around, due to its low volume. Hence, someone with a high body-fat percentage will look overweight in comparison to an individual with a high lean tissue percentage.
Recently, I did the Lean in 13 Challenge from AdvoCare (pictured above) which includes a strict nutrition regimen following a carb cycling methodology but some of the key lean muscle building products like Catalyst and Muscle Gain. Now I've always loved catalyst but Muscle Gain was for sure new and I thought what EVERY girl has. "Bulk". Even though I know better. While it was challenging to eat at those intervals and eating what I had to when it proved to be successful in tightening things up. I focused on doing strength training at least twice a week specifically and incorporating it into my other workouts. What happened was essentially NO decrease in weight (1 pound could have been water or timing or what I wore) but I lost 7 inches!!! Now that is a testament to what inches mean in terms of weight.

JUST REMEMBER, weight isn't the only measurement of a successful fitness or nutrition program. Besides energy, endurance and strength that you feel, the other PHYSICAL measurement is through inches or body fat. They are ALL positives and all part of the journey. Be inspired by the story below. I was!

"Throw out the scale! Left I was taking harmful fat burners that sent me to the ER that's now off the market, barely eating, cardio bunny, and running 5-10 miles a day. Full of self-loathing just to keep that number on the scale in the 120s. I was miserable! Binge then restrict. Cry on the elliptical because the scale went up 1#. Then right is today! Sure I will lean out more, however I can lift like a champ. Run 4 miles on any given day. Perform and fuel my body, feel amazing, happy, energetic. Travel, have foods I want to eat and eat more than ever! I use to hate the scale. Now I don't bother to be honest. Left size 4, right size 6. Count inches, not pounds. Leaner, stronger, more powerful. Thanks AdvoCare. This is still the beginning. Wait 3 months from now!"