Fitness Facts Friday - What Exactly is a Muscle?

The right bicep muscle.

To start of Fitness Facts Friday, I've decided to explain what a muscle is.  As in, what is it made of, what does its structure look like, and how does it help me move my body.

Have you ever heard of fractals?  You know the pattern in a pattern in a pattern?  Like a fern or the Mandelbrot set?

Examples of Fractals.

Well a muscle reminds me a lot of a fractal in that if you zoom in on a muscle starting at the naked eye, the structure seems to repeat itself.  First with a bundle of muscle fibers, then with the muscle fiber itself which is a bundle of myofibrils.  Within the myofibrils live Actin and Myosin chains which interact to cause muscle contractions, aka when your muscle shortens itself or "flexes".  (I'm not going to get into the specifics of muscle contraction in this post)

Diagram of the structure of a muscle.

When your brain sends a signal to your muscle to contract it is actually sending a signal to each muscle fiber!  Depending on how many muscle fibers are called into action the force created by the muscle can be carefully controlled.  The main molecule that make up a muscle is protein!  Hence why when we eat meat, we are eating a lot of protein.  Essentially most meat that we consume are the muscles of other organisms.  Muscles attach to the bones of the body via tendons.  Let's talk about the bicep to really get an idea of how a muscle connects to the bones and how that enables use to move our skeleton.  Here is the anatomical view of the bicep:

The anatomy of the bicep.

As you can see the upper part of the bicep muscle attaches via tendons to the shoulder while the lower portion of the bicep muscle attaches to the lower arm, below the elbow.  When the muscle contracts, or shortens, the elbow acts as a pivot point and the lower arm is brought closer to the upper arm.  Take your arm right now and hold it out straight in front of you with your palm facing upwards.  If you want to lift your hand to touch your face, you are contracting your bicep muscle, the more you contract it, the closer your hand is to your face.  Pretty awesome stuff!  Of course the bicep is not the only muscle in the human body, in fact there are between 640-850 muscles in the human body!  Amazing!  These muscles range in type from voluntary (the skeletal muscles we use to walk around) to involuntary (the visceral muscles which control your inner organs) and cardiac (your heart).

Diagram of the muscles in the human body.

The main type of muscle that I want to focus on are the voluntary or skeletal muscles.  You know, the ones that help use pick those weights up and put them back down.  Some muscles have a counterpart muscle that acts in opposition to it.  An example of this is the hamstring and quads (blue/purple in the diagram above).  When the hamstring is flexed, the quads are stretched and when the quads are flexed, the hamstring is flexed.  Think of these opposing muscles as balancing one another to make sure our skeleton is not pulled to far in any one direction.  

The exercises that we do to get "in shape" can either use multiple muscle groups at once or focus on one muscle group at a time.  The diagram below lists the muscle group and several exercises that are associated with those muscles.  Next time you are sore and you are wondering what on earth you were doing that made that specific muscle hurt so bad, check out this infographic and try and figure out which exercise it was!  For example, my quads get sore if I do a lot of squats.  I hope you have enjoyed this mini lesson on what a muscle is!

☆ Stephanie Ann

Workout - Deck of Cards

All you need to do this workout is a little creativity and a deck of cards!  At my house, we have no shortage on decks of cards! 

So many options!

The first thing you will do is assign an exercise to each suit in the deck.  I like to choose at least 1 upper body exercise, 1 lower body exercise, and 1 core exercise.  For the fourth suit I pick an exercise that targets multiple muscle groups, burpees for example.  To make this super easy for you I've listed several exercises for each category!

Clubs (upper body)

• Push ups
• Tricep Dips
• Dumbbell Curls
• Dumbbell Row (includes the back in this one)
• Inverted Push ups
• Dumbbell Bench Press
• Dumbbell Fly

Diamonds (lower body)

• Squat Jumps
• Squats
• 1 Legged Squats
• Sumo Squats
• Calf Raises
• Hamstring Curl with a stability ball
• Mountain Climbers
• Squat Tuck Jumps

Hearts (core)

• Stomach Dippers
• Leg Raises
• Plank Jacks
• Side Plank Dips
• Side Crunches
• Russian Twist
• Stability Ball Crunches

Spades (multiple muscle groups)

• Burpees (with a push up!)
• Football runs with a drop down onto your stomach
• Burpees (with knee raises, no push up)
• Inchworm with a squat each time your feet touch your hands

Doing the Workout

To do the workout, pick one exercise from each category and you will do this exercise every time you flip a card of that suit.  Feel free to assign exercises not listed above when you are doing this yourself!

Clubs=Push ups

Diamonds=Squat Jumps

Hearts=Side Plank Dips

Spades=Burpees with knee raises.  

For reps you will do whatever the value of the card is.  For example if you flip the 7 of Hearts, you would be doing 7 Side Plank Dips on each side for that card.  Then flip the next card, let's call it the Jack of Spades, do 11 Burpees with knee raises.  Continue to flip cards and do the equivalent exercises and reps until you have done all 52 cards!  Super simple and super effective!  And you never know what is coming so you can't psych yourself out.  

If you want to make this harder on yourself add 10 reps to the value of each card.  This way an Ace becomes 11, a 2 becomes 12, a 3 becomes 13... a Jack becomes 21, a Queen becomes 22, and a King becomes 23.  You can also go through the deck more than once if you feel so inclined!  

☆ Stephanie Ann

Fitness Facts Friday

Hello all!

Welcome to what will become known as Fitness Facts Friday!  As part of my journey into the world of fitness and fitness coaching, I am studying to become certified as a personal trainer.  There are several reasons why I want to be certified as a personal trainer including but not limited to:

1. Increasing my knowledge of how the body works and how to maximize its capabilities
2. Have an official certification for my business 
3. Be able to apply the knowledge I learn to help others!

What will Fitness Facts Friday be?

An opportunity for me to share some of what I am learning through my studies with you!

I'm hoping to answer some questions people have about fitness and exercise along with giving some base knowledge.  Topics covered will include but won't be limited to:

• What exactly is a muscle?
• Why am I sore?  What is this lactic acid thing everyone always talks about?
• Will this exercise make my butt look big?
• How much protein do I really need?
• Using physics to maximize results
• Why do I have to eat well to see results?  Can't I just exercise?
• What benefits come from lifting weights?
• What benefits come from aerobic exercise?
• AND SO MUCH MORE!

I'm super excited to get this up and going next week :)  Make sure you check back next Friday to see what fun fitness fact I talk about first!  If you have any questions or want to know more about a specific topic, comment and I will look into it!  And remember:

☆ Stephanie Ann

21 Day Fix Extreme Challenge - Review

This past Sunday I finished my first 21 Day Fix Extreme Challenge.  The 21 days were up faster than I was anticipating even though it seemed like some of the days lasted forever.  Did I like it? Yes.  Would I do it again? Yes.  Was I perfect every single day? No.  Did I see positive results? Yes.

I'm starting a challenge group if you are interested in joining!

The Workouts

The first week the workouts seriously kicked my butt and left me feeling quite sore!  Which is a GOOD thing because that meant my body was waking up and finally being used again in a way that pushed me to my limits.  The first week I used mainly my light weights (3 lbs) or no weights at all in most of the workouts.  True to form they were all right 30 minutes long which is a very doable amount of time.  Long enough that you definitely feel it but short enough that you can really push yourself.  

Feeling accomplished after doing the cardio fix workout!

The second and third week of the program I was less sore after the workouts and I slowly began to use more weight ending with always using at least my light weights and sometimes my heavy weights (10 lbs).  The easiest workout for me was the 10 min hardcore because I LOVE having a strong core and have some leftover strength from years of gymnastics and pole vaulting.  That being said the hardest workout for me was definitely the cardio fix extreme because I was not in very good aerobic shape to begin.  I did improve from week 1 to week 3 in this workout and though it is hard I feel SUPER ACCOMPLISHED afterwards.

My light (3lbs) and heavy (10lbs) weights.

There was a minimal amount of equipment that I needed to do my workouts some of which I already had.  I used a yoga mat, light weights (3lbs each), heavy weights (10lbs each), and a resistance band.  If you are into saving $$ wherever possible I found the local thrift store was a good place to pick up some cheap weights and resistance bands.  If you want to be deluxe you can also order them or go to the store.  

I did a swim workout today and noticed that I felt stronger than last time I swam which was before the 21 Day Fix Extreme Challenge.  Awesome!

The Meal Plan

The simplified meal plan that came with 7 different color coded containers made knowing what to eat super easy!  My cravings for chocolate and baked goods made the application of the meal plan much harder.  I found that if I prepped my food once a week and had it ready to grab and go when I ran out the house I was much more likely to stick with the meal plan.  Initially I thought it didn't seem like that much food to eat but there were days where I actually fell short on what I was supposed to eat. 

An assortment of meals and meal prep from the 21 Day Fix Extreme Challenge.

The meal plan also got me to branch outside of my routine meals and explore different taste combinations.  Including the Shakeology as a breakfast most days instead of my typical 400-500 calorie muffin gave me more energy in the morning and just made me feel healthier because I knew it was good for me.  I was skeptic of the shake at first but will definitely be continuing to drink it every day!  The cost of eating a ton of fruits and vegetables wasn't too bad because all of the meal prep really cut down on my quick food purchases throughout the week.  Ross was on board for eating super healthy with me as well but didn't do any limiting on quantity that he ate.  It really helped that he was on board and super encouraging! :)

One thing that did fall through for me was my tracking.  :(  Did not stick with it through out the entire 21 days.  I did really well the first 7 days and kind of fizzled out after that.  I will be working on keeping better track next time I do a challenge!

The Results 

Overall I lost 4lbs going from 153 to 149 and 3.5 total inches going from 180 to 176.5 inches (measurements taken include waist, chest, hips, right arm, left arm, right thigh, and left thigh).

Below are my before and after photos with the before photo being on the left.  I can see a difference in how I look.  The most noticeable difference is that I feel STRONGER and have more MOTIVATION to get outside the house and do things like go for HIKES or SWIM.  My skin has improved as well and is much clearer than normal!  Not going to complain about that perk at all!

Left: 153lbs, Day 0     Right: 149lbs, Day 21

Left: 153lbs, Day 0     Right: 149lbs, Day 21

What's Next?

The next challenge that I plan on tackling is the new workout from Beach Body called 22 Minute Hard Corps which is a boot camp style workout that lasts for 60 days!  The meal plan that it follows is essentially the same as for the 21 Day Fix Extreme so I will be ahead of the game on that!

☆ Stephanie Ann