Before I get too far into this post, some disclaimers:

1. I am a big fan of Kemme Fitness, which publishes K-Fit.
2. I am into the whole “Functional Fitness” thing.
3. While I’ve never met him face to face, I’ve had lots of email/FB/phone conversations with Pete Kemme, and hold him in high regard.
4. Without going into details, lets just say that I’m personally invested in the success of Kemme Fitness in general.  More details to follow later this year.

What I’m getting at is that I am not the most unbiased person to write this review.  But, I am going to do my best to be objective.  So buckle your seat belts, keep your hands and feet inside cabin at all times, and enjoy the ride!

The Program

In response to people asking for a program, Kemme Fitness released K-Fit.  Its designed to introduce you to the whole functional fitness paradigm and the crazy workouts involved.  Its 12 weeks long, and you do 4 workouts a week.  You repeat the same workouts for two weeks, then move on to the next block of 4 workouts.  The only equipment you are required to have is a pull-up bar, a medicine ball, a physioball, and a kettlebell.

What I like

The first two weeks workout routines seem to be pretty well done.  They aren’t too challenging, but challenging enough to keep things interesting.  If you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, and attacking the exercises with gusto, you will be worn out at the end of the workout.  You will feel it in your muscles the next day, for sure.  You will also use all four pieces of equipment.  Workout #3 was fun because I got to use the kettlebells for the first time, and Workout #4 was fun because medicine ball slams are awesome.

Second, it is a good intro the the variety of exercises on the Kemme Fitness website.  When my wife first pushed me to do this program, I was initially not that interested.  She wanted the program because she did not want to have to think about what workout to do on what day of the week.  I was perfectly content just picking random workouts and tackling them however I saw fit.  But when I did the first weeks worth of workouts, I noticed a funny thing: I did my first Nose to Ground – and I did not like it.

The problem was that I expected not to like it.  And therefore, in the months that I had been doing workouts off of the Kemme Fitness website, I had managed to avoid, consciously or subconsciously, doing Nose to Ground.  And the K-Fit workout forced me into doing it.  And that is a good thing by all measures – if you are avoiding that which you find hard or unpleasant, you will not advance.  At least not at the pace you want to.

What I don’t like

You have to be self-motivated.  More so than other programs.  It requires a lot of motivation to decide to workout at home.  And having done a DVD based workout (namely Insanity), I know it requires a lot of motivation to get that done.  However, you have to take that to the next level to just tackle a list of exercises.  There is no timer going on the bottom of the TV screen, no branded t-shirt wearing awesome personal trainer guy on the screen telling you that you can do it.  Its just you, a piece of paper, and maybe a kettlebell.  By definition, this narrows the market to include only the hardcore self motivated people.  However, perhaps this is by design.

Second, I want more cardio.  Something very strange happened to me last year.  Aliens came down and put a pod under my bed, the government snuck in at night with a team of ninja surgeons and planted a chip in my head, or my wife started slipping something into my Diet Dr. Peppers.  Regardless, I like to run now.  I’m not terribly good at it, I’m slow and cumbersome, but I like doing it.  And so far, there isn’t a lot of running in the first two weeks.  Only 1 mile broken up in 1/10th of a mile increments.  However, I’m fixing that by just adding whatever cardio I want at the end of the workout.  Don’t get me wrong, you get quite the cardio workout if you are doing the workouts as prescribed, I just want more of it.  Pete will tell you that you don’t need to exercise for an hour every day, and he’s probably right, its just a habit I got into and I don’t yet feel right quitting at the 30 minute mark.

Of course, the shorter workouts are likely a bonus for most people.

Conclusion

So far, so good.  I’m enjoying the workouts.  As I sit here writing this my shoulders and pecs are sore from doing push-ups and medicine ball thrusters, so I know things are working.

To paraphrase Joe Biden, a politician I don’t care much for at all, this is a big effin’ deal.  NSFW language warning on the video below.

Why is this a big deal?  I’ve never run 5 miles before.  Its a milestone.  The most I’d ever run before was a fun run in Pennsylvania with my wife as she trained for her half marathon.  At about 4.86 mi into the run, I bowed out and did calisthenic stuff.

Its not a big distance.  But it was to me, because it represents a small step in the forward journey I’ve been taking this year.  A journey towards breaking boundaries, changing my life, and all that.  A year ago, “I’m gonna run to the corner store” meant getting in the car and going.  I can now do it on my own two feet.  Three times in a row without stopping, actually.

Small part of the story is why I ran 5 mi.  I did it because the running schedule said I had to, if I want to be able to run the 8 mi that is the Spartan Race course.  For anyone that is on the fence, this shows you one small way that races matter, they make you set goals and attain them.

So if you feel like it, raise a glass to me tonight.  I will.

And next week its 6 mi.

1.  You can make time to exercise daily.

This is the biggest lesson I learned from doing the 60 day program.  Before, I could not imagine having the time to work out 6 days a week.  But when I made the commitment to do the program with my wife, everything changed.  I set alarms to get up earlier.  I multitasked, doing the routines while the kids ate their dinner and played.  For an entire two month period I made it work.  And when it was done, I knew I could continue to make it work.

Which leads into another point – the biggest benefit I got out of doing near daily exercise is that it became a habit. Now, if I take a day off of exercise, I feel like I’m missing out.  Build a habit, and you will build a new lifestyle.

2. Your core is important.

Or, as Shaun T says, “im-PORT-ant”.

Your core, all those muscles in the middle that I cant name (except for abs and back), are the real center of your body.  If you get your core into shape, all those stabilizing muscles end up benefitting you immensely. It helps me with my balance, running, and provides a strong base for full body movements.  Back soreness will go away when your abs get stronger.  You learn to use your body as a whole, which is how it was meant to be used.  In simple terms, its called “functional fitness”.  To understand functional fitness, I will direct you to Chapter 2 of Pete Kemme’s e-book “Creating the body that God intended us to USE“.  Which brings me to…

3.  Functional, whole body movements are better than isolation exercises.

Insanity is what led me straight towards the whole functional fitness paradigm.  Crossfitters know this already, but when you do whole body exercises that engage multiple muscle groups, you are working more efficiently than when you isolate muscles.

For instance, doing bench presses works your pectorals and your triceps.  But push-ups work those same muscles, plus your entire core to stabilize your body.  And you can do spiderman push-ups to work your obliques as well, or even push-ups as part of a burpee for a full body workout.  Plus it engages all those stabilizer muscles that don’t normally get worked.

And if you do those fast and hard enough, you get a great cardio workout.

4. Take rest breaks when your form suffers.

Being aware of my body as I exercise became second nature.  And your body will tell you when its time to take a break.  Namely, your form will begin to suffer.  You won’t be able to complete the push-up without your back swaying.  You will try and do a tuck jump, and your knees will only go halfway up to where they are supposed to.

That is your cue to take a short, quick break.  Grab a few sips of water, take a few deep breaths, and get back to it.  Its amazing the effect a short break will have on your body.

And you will need breaks.  I loved it when the hardbodies that were doing the exercises in the video had to fall out and take a break.  Because it let me know they were human.  And because it pointed out to me that when you are working hard, and pushing yourself, you will reach the point of burn out.

5. You will live through being sore.

Being sore sucks.  There is no other way around it.  But its manageable.  And its the natural byproduct of tearing down your body so it can be rebuilt.  Better than it was before.  Just ask Lee Majors (for those of you born after the 70s, Google that on your iPhones).

During the whole Insanity program, I was sore all the time.  And in unpleasant places, like my glutes.  Which is a nice way of saying my butt.  Seriously, all of the squats and jumps worked those muscles to death, and you have no idea how much you use those muscles until they are sore.  And try as you might, there is no good way to explain to someone that you winced because you have a sore butt.

So, while I am not currently following a Beachbody exercise program, I would not trade those 60 days that I did for anything.

So I’m writing again, all of you fans can step back from the edge now.  It’s going to be okay.

Today’s contribution to the world is to describe my workout today.  I am lovingly calling it “Stroller Derby!”  Those of you that stay at home with kids and think that you don’t have time for exercise, I’m about to prove you wrong.

Necessary Equipment

First, you need a weight.  Mine is named “Nate”, and he weighs about 30 lbs.  Your weight will also need to like playgrounds.  My Nate weight loves playgrounds, and loves to run around and have fun.

Next, you need a playground.  That’s obvious.

The Exercise Plan

You will need to be a suitable distance from the playground, something that you are comfortable running, edging towards the challenging side.  We don’t have a suitable playground near our house, so I drive over and park in another housing development, and start my workout there.

Its really simple.  You load your Nate weight into some sort of acceptable pushcart.  I use something that my wife bought that she calls a “jogging stroller”.  The stroller is cool because you can load it up with more weight in the form of water, Gatorade, your iPod, etc.  The more weight in the stroller, the more fun running hills is!

Run!

Now, run to the playground.  If, as in my case, the playground is only .9 miles away from where you park, you should probably run in the wrong direction first to increase the mileage.

Exercise!

Once at the playground, your Nate weight becomes your timer.  Your goal is to run through as many different bodyweight exercises as you can in the 30-45 minutes you will be at the park.  You should start an exercise and do it until you reach burn out, or until your Nate weight interrupts you.  My Nate weight does that fairly often, needing help climbing up a ladder, needing to be pushed on the swing, needing to be told not to swim in the creek, or needing a diaper change.  You can also use your Nate weight for exercise, picking it up and putting it down.  Or chasing it around.

If you need creative suggestions for exercises, I recommend this really comprehensive list at Kemme Fitness.  In my workout today, I did:

• Scorpion Push ups, spiderman push ups, air squats, lateral bounds, rowboats, tuck jumps, cross toe touchs, Brazilian crunches, all on the playground itself
• Box jumps and uneven push ups on the retaining wall
• Reverse Push Ups, Dips, and leg raises on the equipment

And more I can’t remember.  But you get the point.

Then…

Run Again!

Now, run back to your home (or car) as in my case.  If you are feeling adventurous, you can take another long run back.  In my case, I am usually wiped out from the heavy duty exercises on the playground, and my Nate weight is getting tired and cranky.  So I run the short route back.

And finally…

Nap!

Definitely your Nate weight should take a nap.  You probably can to, if you want.

Results

According to my FT60, my exercise was 1hr and 53 minutes long, burned 1490 calories, 17% of which was from fat, with an average heartrate of 141 and a max of 208.   The 208 happened when I hit the final sprint to the car to make my Nate weight laugh out loud.

Kemme Fitness is a website run by Pete Kemme, who is about three different kinds of awesome and nine different kinds of crazy.  He believes in functional fitness, high intensity training, and constantly changing your training to keep things fresh and interesting.  He also makes a lot of his own equipment, such as a medicine ball created out of sand and a basketball, whom he calls “Carl”.

He’s also a police detective, so that scores big points in my book.

Without further ado, here is the workout I did.  I took the liberty of linking to YouTube videos of the different exercises.

Beginner – No Equipment

• 10 Sit-up Stand-up Tuck Jumps
• 10 – each side – Scorpion Push-ups
• 10 Inchworm
• 10 Quad Squats
• 10 -each side – Frog to Side Plank
• 10 Burpee
• 10 Pistols (1 legged squat)
• 10 Pike Push-ups
• 10 Tuck Jumps
• 10 Air Squats
• 10 Squat Jumps
• 10 Mountain Climbers
• 10 Split Squat Jumps
• 10 Frog Jumps
• 10 Rowboat
• 10 Cross Toes Touches
• 10 Brazilian Crunch
• 10 Siamese Squats
• 10 Twist Push-ups
• 10 Leg Swoops
• X2 (if you can)

I took the (if you can) to be a personal challenge, and I did it twice.  Including about 10 minutes of warm up and 5 minutes of cool down, it took me 57 minutes to complete.  I burned 596 calories, 21 % of which was from fat, with an average heartrate of 126 bpm, and a max of 166 bpm.  It took a bit longer than it will in the future, because I had to stop and refresh myself on the exact form of a couple of the exercises.

I took 30 second breaks as needed.  Next time I will probably set an interval timer to do 3 minutes of exercise and 30 seconds of rest and see how that breaks it up.  And I will probably start swapping out exercises.

Why is that?  Because that is the point of Kemme Fitness.  Pete gives you these exercises as a guideline, and encourages experimentation.

So, the exercises were challenging, whole body, and a great workout.  The time it took to complete was around 40 minutes, and my heart rate was elevated appropriately the whole time.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t go ahead and link to my disclaimer.

I wrote an email to the Maple Grove Barefoot Guy about how I got started in barefoot running for his Fan Friday feature.  He and I had a very interesting email conversation that turned into this post.

Most impressively, he took my initial book-length email and all the long long responses to his questions and condensed it into something cohesive and readable.

So, for all of my reading masses (both of you, thanks mom!), head over there and check it out.  And read the MGBG’s blog, it oozes awesome from every crevasse.

Another thing was that Monika had a recipe for protein balls, which Mandy described as like protein bars, but all natural and homemade.  She talked so much about how good they were that I was a bit skeptical.

Until she made them.

Seriously, these things are great.  They taste AWESOME.  Very good for use when you would normally snarf a protein bar – as a hunger fix, to add protein while regularly working out, whatever.  And since you control all the ingredients, you can control the calories, protein, taste, etc.  Monika is also very into something called clean eating, which I know absolutely zilch about.  I thought it meant showering and washing your hands before you ate.  Which I sometimes even do.

So, here is the recipe as Monika originally emailed to my wife, including her comments:

Peanut Butter Protein Balls

• 2 cups oats
• 16 oz nut butter (peanut butter seems to be our favorite but all should work.  try to stick with natural and no extra added sugars)
• 2 bars or 1 bag of chocolate (if you want to stick to clean eating go for something with at LEAST 70% chocolate)
• 2 cups honey or agave (agave is clean, but honey is cheaper. your call)
• 4-6 scoops of protein powder (I use EAS chocolate, but all should work. I do 6, but only because we workout a lot. if you dont, I would lean toward 4)

Add all to a standing mixer (if you do not have a standing mixer, i would add 1/4 cup more peanut butter and 1/4 cup honey to thin it out) and blend for about 10 full minutes. You will need to watch because depending on the type of oats you have, you may need to add more honey/agave.  It should be the consistency of cookie dough, so just use your best judgement.

Once thoroughly combined, use a small cookie scoop or a spoon and scoop out 1-2 Tbls of mixture and roll into a small ball.  I set these into a large tupperware container and then leave them in the fridge for roughly two weeks (we eat them to fast, but they should last longer too), but they also freeze fantastically.

However, they do NOT need to be refrigerated.

This recipe makes about 48 balls and a serving is 2 balls.

I’m talking about the GE Rocket Blender.  And its custom made for smoothie addicts like me.

I’ve been wearing this thing out.  Usually once, sometimes twice a day, I’ve been dumping yogurt, frozen fruit, milk, and sometimes chocolate protein powder into this and making fresh homemade smoothies.  Filling enough to be a meal replacement, quick enough to do on the way to work, and it only makes a one person mess.  The mess part is important, because I typically leave a trail of destruction behind me as I move through the world.

If you are doing a shake based meal replacement plan (like Shakeology), you should spend a few bones on this.

Here’s how it works – you dump the ingredients into the cup.  The blade attachment screws onto the top of the cup, then you invert the whole mess and put in into the base.  When you twist it into place the motor fires up and blends it up.  Once you unscrew the blade attachment, you can throw a black plastic ring on the cup to cover up the threads.  Not that they are a threat to slice your lips or anything.  Unless you gnaw on the cup, and then I can’t help you.

It also comes with a smaller cup and a different blade attachment for making salsa.  But I haven’t done that yet, since I’m fixated on smoothies and a salsa smoothie doesn’t sound appetizing.

So if you are looking for a something like the Magic Bullet (AS SEEN ON TV!) but don’t want to spend $100 on something, roll by the nearest Walmart and get one of these for $20.

Take a look at this hawtness:

Minimal. Sexy. Just like me.

I was dying to ditch the shoes completely and run barefoot, but the scorching pavement around here makes that impossible.  Plus, I really dig running trails and gravel roads.  So I got these shoes.  At $110, they are on par with the cost of other good running shoes.

So far, I’ve done three runs in them, and I’ve worn them out and about several times.  I will do a longer review after I’ve put some serious miles in them, but the first impression is that they are great.

The transition itself is going okay.  I think I did some good prep work – I was running in a pseudo “reduced” cheapo shoe before, and I was working on a midfoot strike in those shoes. I had already increased my cadence and shortened my stride.  I also shed the shoes and have been doing some of the exercises in “The Barefoot Running Book – Second Edition“.

My first and third runs were good.  One mile each, both at easy paces.  The second run left me with cramping, sore calves, and I couldn’t even finish it. I believe I was so focused on the midfoot strike that I wasn’t letting my heel touch the ground.  Running on your toes is not a good idea, for the record.

For all of my breathless fans, I will keep you posted on the progress.

I laid on the floor, a sweaty, quivering mess.  My mouth was salty with the taste of my sweat.  Or was it tears?  Or blood?  I didn’t truly know.  Winston stood over me, smiling a cruel smile.  On his head he was sporting lime green troll hair, and he was wearing a tiki icon around his neck.  The tiki icon reminded me of the one from the Brady Bunch.  In one hand he held a trident, in the other he was palming Shaun T’s severed head like a basketball.  He said “Congrats, it is finished”, then laughed maniacally.  Was I dreaming?  No, I finished Insanity.

This will be my review of the second half of the Insanity workout.  For the first half, look here.

The Results

The results are pretty dramatic.  I won’t be posting my before/after pics, as my skin is white enough to blind even most Internet people.  I can’t help that I’m so German.  However, I will tell you a few things about what changed for me.

First, I did not lose any weight.  But its been drastically redistributed.  My arms, chest, and shoulders are much larger, and my legs are incredibly well defined.  My waistline has shrunk dramatically.  My face is a lot thinner.

My cardio and speed are up as well.  I ran a mile this morning, testing out my new Merrell Trail Gloves.  Before Insanity, when I ran my mile times were in the 11-12 minute range.  This morning, it was 9:20 sec.  And I felt like I could keep going forever.  As I increase my distance in the barefoot shoes, we will see how that changes, but I’m feeling like its not going to go down that much.

What I Did Right

I worked out consistently.  In the whole program, I missed only two days.  One day I burned out about 15 minutes into the workout and finally just had to push the “stop” button on the DVD.  I will likely do a blog post about that some day, but suffice to say that I had reached my body’s burn out point and needed a break.  Listen to your body.  The second time was after some long days at work and I just needed the hour extra of sleep in order to make it through another overnight shift.  Missing two days out of a 63 day program is pretty consistent.

I also applied myself in the workouts.  I was often sore the next day, which in a 6 day a week program means I was usually sore every day.

What I Did Wrong

I did not modify my diet any.  I eat a relatively low carb diet that tends to focus more on the good carbs – like whole grains.  But I eat the occasional cheeseburger and fries.  And sometimes with my schedule and the kids I would end up fixing the good ol’ Hamburger Helper, which is not the most diet friendly meal in anyone’s pantry.  I did not change what I ate just because I did not want to.  After having done the program and seen the results, I wonder how much smaller my gut would be now if I had followed the plan.

I did not have a heartrate monitor.  I don’t necessarily think I did this “wrong”, but it would have been very helpful to have the monitor in these workouts.  That way I could tell if I had hit or passed my target heartrate, and therefore I could take that break, or if I was just being a bit of a wuss.

What’s Next?

I’m going to begin a running/cross-training program to prepare myself for my fall obstacle races.  I will likely alternate running with some of the Insanity max workouts.  I’m going to play the next part by ear a bit, which will be a refreshing change from the regimen of C25k followed by Insanity.