042: My first workout with the caveman

Hey everybody out there. So yesterday, I actually did manage to clean my apartment, which was awesome since I found two belts (which, believe it or not, I desperately need.) One of them is from high school, and I haven't really used it in like 4 years (using a belt on loop one or 2 is depressing, because then it basically feels like the stupid belt doesn't even fit you). So I tried on the belt. When I was in good shape like.... 4 years ago (well, okay shape. I haven't been in good shape in such a long time) the belt was on loop 4 or 5. And today?

Loop 6. Comfortably. I could even stretch and get to loop 7, if I really wanted to.
It was one of those hell yeah moments where I danced around my freshly clean room fist pumping while my cat looked embarrassed for me.

Anyway. Today after work, I visited with my mum for a bit and then headed over to Laidback Fitness on Warwick Ave for my training session with Ryan. Ryan and his wife, Laurie read my blog. Also they are pretty cool people. :)

So I met up with them and embarked on my new training adventure. I have to say, after the training disaster from last week, I went in with my apprehensions, for sure. This apprehension didn't exactly go away when we took off our shoes to work out. Working out barefoot? Crazy.

However, Ryan was awesome, and I really felt like I got a great workout that was supportive, and worked well with where I am at right now in my fitness abilities. We did all kinds of pretty strange exercises (stirring the pot? monkey banging the drum? inchworms?) but at the end of the day I for sure feel like I got some solid resistance that could really help me even as I go about my own independent workouts, and my heart rate got up there too, which is pretty surprising. I broke a good sweat and my legs don't feel like they are going to break off, which is always a plus.

Ryan's philosophy deals a lot with "primal fitness". The idea is basically that there weren't a lot of obese cave people, and there aren't many obese people living in jungle tribes. They generally have good physique and look happy. Which makes sense, if you think about it. So that's where the barefoot working out comes from. When cavemen were, you know, hunting the tyrannosaurus or whatever, they probably didn't wear cross trainers.

(Please note that I have no idea what cavemen hunted. I have absolutely no interest in history whatsoever)

In addition to the whole barefoot thing, the laid-back fitness approach uses very little equipment (not a lot of nautilus machines or ellipticals in the jurassic age either). I was a little skeptical, you know, with my preconceived notions about cardio and keeping my heart rate up. But there was definitely plenty of that.

There's also a gigantic shopping list and nutritional program, which isn't really something I'm looking to incorporate right this moment, since right now herbalife works and if it's not broken, I'm probably not going to mess with it, you know? But it's nice to also have that to fall back on if I hit a plateau and need to up my diet stakes a little.

Bottom line: It was a night and day experience by comparison.  The whole approach is great for people who are just starting out (or for people who are fit too, I'd think) I ended up making an appointment to work out with Ryan again on Monday at 11:30.  I think that stuff like this is a lot about finding the right fit, and so far, it seems like this might (fingers crossed) actually work? Yeah for getting in shape.

(But if I ever start running around the woods barefoot or eating raw alligator, someone can probably pull me back from this regimen. )

Tonight I am going to be dancing with the kids at work too. It's going to be a good fitness day. Take that, earlier in the week when I had no motivation at all!