M-100s Workout

Here is a pretty simple but effective workout to get the heart rate bumping as a warm up, finishing, or total workout depending on your fitness level. It's simple in concept. 100 reps! These reps will be broken into sets of 3.
Your sets will consist the following:
 10 Burpees
 10 Mountain Climbers
 10 Double Pump Squat Jumps

Thats one set. Repeat that 3 times and finish off with another set of 10 Burpees. And there you have it. 100 reps in the books, you have just completed M-100s. These are the types of workouts that aid fat loss! They are short but high intensity thus even when you finish working out your body will still be burning tons of calories! They call this the AfterBurn effect.

Give it a try and let me know how you make out!!! You can also take this template and create limitless variations of this workout so be creative, have fun, and most importantly MOVE SOMETHING!!!


Here's another variation of the M-100 workout I created. Give this one a try as well!!!

-Mark B Fitness

APE TAPE- Product Review

                                                    ----------APE TAPE-------

I was recently selected to give a review of a product called Ape Tape. Ape Tape is a new type of athletic tape used to aid in recovery/help you perform through injuries.The box claims it does the following: Reduces muscle and joint pain, enhances recovery and helps fight fatigue, and can be used to apply compression or decompression. Obviously as an athlete, these are all desired effects. One can search out youtube and find a variety of videos showing how to properly apply this type of tape to a multitude of sports injuries and conditions. So here's my opinion of the product.

-THE GOOD

This stuff works! Both of my achilles have been injured within the last 5 years in some form or fashion. I say 5 years because the first one was injured about 5 years ago still gives me discomfort to this day. My newest achilles injury wasn't as severe however it reminds me every day that it has not healed 100%. Enter Ape Tape! Once I taped up my achilles' tendons I immediately felt relief on both legs. It's amazing how something so simple can work so quickly. Within minutes of being taped I feel like I was ready to sprint again with no problem.



Colors
There are a wide variety of colors to choose from. Personally, I like to stick with black myself but the available colors vary from the following:
Blue, orange and power black on Amazon and atleast another 8 more according to the box.    

Sizes-
Ape Tape comes in 2 different sizes - 2inch and 4inch. The prices on amazon are 24.95 for the 2inch and 29.95 for the 4 inch. The total length of tape measured off at 24.4 ft. This is atleast 8 ft more than you get with most of the other brands and because the tape is not pre-cut you can decide just how much you want to use at any given application. Additionally, the grid pattern on the backside of the tape helps to measure and make accurate cuts.

-THE BAD

As soon as I opened the package, the smell of medicated adhesive rushed my nose. My athletic tape may smell that way but this was the first time I noticed it so abruptly. Ape Tape claims to use a special proprietary APESTICK Hypoallergenic adhesive  so maybe that was the smell I noticed. Either way, that doesn't have an affect on it's usefullness however it was something that caught my attention.


The packaging claims that you can wear their product for 5 days straight. It is supposed to be water resistant and sweat proof! Honestly,  I have yet to find an athletic tape where this has been 100% true. Three days of adhesion, maybe! But five, that has not been my experience. Matter of fact, the first application came off within minutes of me starting to sweat. That said, I assumed human error and gave it a second try which went alot better than the first. Rounding the corners off of the edges helped alot, also I believe wiping the application site with alcohol before adhesion helped too.  Five days may be possible depending on where the person is placing the tape. Additionally, the amount of body hair a person has may make a difference also.

-SUMMARY

Ape Tape is just as good as any other kinesio tape on the market in my opinion. The additional 8ft of tape also makes it an attractive brand to purchase. I wish I could validate the claim that it will last five days however that was not my experience. I did like the size of the tape as I felt it was thicker than the other athletic tapes that I am use to. Bottom line, does it work on injuries? You bet your butt it does and at the end of the day that's all that matters. If you are a competitive athlete you are only truly worried about your tape working during training or on GAME DAY.  A new application would typically be used after that so whether your tape can last five days or not is more of a moot point. When it counts Ape Tape delivers!

Disclosure- I received this product free so that I could give my honest unbiased review. The opinions expressed are my own and have not been influence in anyway by the company.

New Video up...

Just a slight collection of some of my days doing conditioning work...

Let's get this work!!!

MarkBFitness

A few Sample Workouts

I was looking at the site and realized that my sample workouts section is looking pretty bare.
So, we need to fix this!!!  Here are three different workouts I recommended to one of my clients to get in/stay in good condition on the days we are not meeting.

Workout1       

This is a simple circuit. Easy but effective. If you want to make it more intense then try not to stop until you are finished. Additionally feel free to add to or decrease to the amount of reps according to your skill level.

Warmup (Jumping jacks, jumping rope, jogging, etc..whatever you prefer)

A) Pushups, ( Always change your hand positions to hit the muscle group slightly differently)

B) Pullups/Chinups

C) Dips,

D) Situps,

So once your workout starts its simply 10A, 10B, 10C, 20D. Keep repeating the circuit until you have finished atleast 100Pushups-à200Situps.  Try not to rest until you finish your situps. You can take a slight break at the end of each circuit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Workout 2

7mins of Burpees as many reps as you can complete. This is a very tough workout. It is short and sweet

But intense as hell. Keep count of how many reps you complete and write it down. Everytime you perform this workout try to beat your old number of reps. 

Warmup-

Not much to say about these. Start in a standing position, hop into the air, drop down into a plank position, do a pushup, and hop back up! If you want to still crank up the intensity then jump up with a knee tuck at the top of your jump!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Workout 3 

 This is another circuit type of workout. This is good as a warmup, a finisher or a full workout depending on your skill level. 

Warmup

A) Pushups

B) Pullups/Chinups

C) Dips

D) Double leg lifts (Put your legs in a straight line, bring parallel to the ground and raise them up to almost a v position and slowly lower them to about 6 inches above the ground and then back up again. )

This workout is the pyramid. Start with 1A 1B 1C 1D, then 2A 2B 2C 2D --à 10A 10B 10C 10D then go back down the ladder. 9A 9B 9C 9Dà1A 1B 1C 1D

More to come...

US Track and Field Championships TV Schedule

 If you are a fan of track and field like I am then you know it is pretty hard to keep track of when there are actual meets being televised. The weekend marks one of the easier schedules to track as it is the USA Track and Field Championships. Below is the link to the track and field championship broadcast schedule

http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/23/usa-track-and-field-championships-tv-broadcast-schedule/

The following are some other links that will help you stay informed as well.

www.trackalerts.com
www.trackandfieldnews.com
www.universalsports.com
http://www.iaaf.org/home
http://www.watchathletics.com/

Enjoy

-MarkBFitness

Don't forget to like my page on facebook!

Here's a little sample diet and a few recipes we use at the CASA.

I guess I'm being lazy but I'm going to send you to Gumbohair.com for a look at what goes on in the kitchen at my house. Have a beautiful, blessed day!

http://www.gumbohair.com/2012/09/sample-dietplus-some-recipes.html

-Mark Bfitness

Achilles troubles and more...That's where I've been

Hello again, ladies and gentlemen! 
Seems like it's been ages since I've had the time to pen or should I say type on this blog. My last post I was getting excited about the possibility of competing again this season! Training was hit or miss due to the addition of the new baby but I was still training pretty good. I decided it was time to get back to the track so I went to www.charliefrancis.com, one of my favorite training resources, and found a workout I wanted to give a shot. The workout was simple:

1st set 100 + 100 + 100 (meters)
2nd set 100 + 200 + 100 + 100 (meters)
3rd set 100 + 100 + 200 + 200 (meters)
4th set 100 + 200 + 100 + 100 (meters)
5th set 100 + 100 + 100 (meters)
* relaxed runs
(+ = walk 50 meters, walk 100 meters between sets)

"PRIDE COMETH BEFORE THE FALL"

As I was completing my workout there was a coach and athlete from one of the local universities completing a workout as well. They had a pretty tough workout going and since I always want to look like the track athlete I was, I was doing my best to look like a pro. However, on about my 4th set I noticed my Achilles felt a little tender and I picked up a slight limp. No worries I thought. It was a great workout and no need to push any more, I'll just do something tomorrow. The problem is, when tomorrow came my Achilles was still sore. One day, two day, a week, two weeks...still sore and my Achilles hasn't quite been the same since. Luckily, I didn't pop anything as I know what that feels like from my other Achilles accident some years earlier. But, till this day it is still not 100%.

I did buy some compression socks http://www.2xu.com/men-s-compression-perf-run-sock-ma2442e.html which seem to help but most mornings, it takes about a good hour before the circulation is good enough that I don't feel discomfort. The compression socks however feel awesome and I'll probably do a review on them soon.


SO WHAT WAS THE CAUSE?

Minimalist shoes! Yep, they warn you.."take your time building up your tolerance in these shoes." In my opinion, I wasn't running mileage so that didn't apply to me. The draw for me was sprinting without SHIN SPLINTS. Lawd knows I've dealt with them for too much of my running life so to be able to sprint pain free was a blessing. However, I guess I fell in the "too much too fast" category because on two seperate occassions my Achilles tendons have paid the price. My first incident occured when I was wearing Vibram Five fingers and now wearing the Inov8 Lite 195's https://instagram.com/p/0J3MfpEEne/?taken-by=markbfitness
Initially I would not have blamed the shoes and would have thought it was just freak accidents until I read someone else have the same thing happen with the Vibram Five Fingers. Not to mention there is a class action lawsuit against them right now for false advertising. If you're interested here's the link to file https://www.fivefingerssettlement.com/

Ah well, hopefully, my achilles will heal up soon. If I find a good method for rehab I'll be sure to post that as well. Injuries suck and make training unpleasant but I guess it's just a part of getting older.

MORAL OF THE STORY
Take your time and train smarter. Slow and steady wins the race...well sometimes atleast.

-Mark