Fitness Greatness

Two of many fitness innovations that have increased my knowledge of fitness and my physique...

Iphone App's 100 Pushups:
This application guarantees to whip you into enough shape to do 100 pushups.  I'm in.  Pushups are the key to toned shoulders, arms, back, chest, and core in one exercise movement.  Push your way to firm, sculpted arms and be held accountable on your Iphone.  Your phone counts down the time in between each set, giving you the perfect amount of recovery time--a factor that can either make or break the success of a workout.  The app also posts reminders onto your phone's calendar.  Since having pretty major spine surgery that currently limits (still...yawn) the amount of upperbody weight lifting I'm allowed to do, I am relying almost solely on this app to reshape the way my arms look in my sundresses this summer...until we meet again, bench press and pull-ups! Learn more about this app here.

Cross-Fit:
An ex once led me to this website and took me into the gym to try this workout, well, out.  He insisted that the gym time I was logging by doing traditional weight lifting was outrageous, and that Cross-fit made you much fitter anyway by keeping your body's muscles guessing.  Cross-fit relies on Olympic Powerlifting movements, kettle bells, the pull-up bar, etc.  While I can't really subscribe to this way of life in the gym with my body's surgical recovery limitations, I can attest that Cross-fit helped me to run a half marathon on zero training and PR (set a personal record), and my body looked great.  Every exercise has demonstration clips.  The workouts are posted each day, even on rest days.  Usually, the routine either encourages as many rounds as you can do in a certain amount of time, as much weight as you can lift in a given number of rounds, or how much time it takes you to complete a specified amount of rounds.  Don't be intimidated because you can start small, adjust the day's workouts to fit your current fitness levels, and work up.  There are also an increasing amount of gyms offering Cross-fit classes, and even gyms that are only Cross-fit gyms.  Click here to get started.  I've always maintained that the only thing I did get out of this relationship, besides lessons learned about yucky guys, was a hardcore fitness regimen.