Brad Gibala

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Archives for February 2010

How To Lose An Inch Off Your Waist In One Week

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Go skiing or snowboarding for 7 days straight!

Since getting back from my ski trip to Park City Utah 2 days ago I have felt tighter in the ab area. I did not think I could lose weight snowboarding as I’m in good shape already from all of the P90X workouts and Insanity that I do. I guess I was wrong.

My girlfriend said it felt like I had dropped a size when she put her arms around me to give me a hug. I bought a pair of Gap Jeans a week before my trip and put them on today to see how they fit. They were really loose. When I bought them they were comfortable. Not tight, but not loose. Somebody could pants me right now if they wanted to as there would be no hips to grab onto.

I’m not sure on the amount of weight that was lost as I did not weigh myself before I went. What I do know is the pants you see me wearing in the photo did not have a inch gap before I left. What’s amazing is how I would lose weight or a pant size from what I was eating and drinking. Every morning that week I had scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, and sausage in them along with a English muffin and banana. This meal would hold me over through lunch and I’d have a Nature Valley Granola Bar on the mountain.

After skiing or snowboarding was over I’d eat a sandwich, chips, and whatever else was laying around our place. From there we would start consuming beer until 1 am. It was the 3.2% weak stuff as that’s Utah’s law. After partying for 4 hours we would head back to our place and cook up frozen pizzas with extra bacon or sausage and eat those while drinking more beer until 2am. This cycle was repeated for 7 days straight including two nights where we went to a brewery and I ate a Hamburger or Reuben with fries and a Double IPA.

I think I know how new military recruits lose so much weight when they go into basic training now. It does not matter what you eat as long as you are constantly moving. We skied or snowboarded almost 5 hours straight each day. I’ll have to eat and drink way more next time!

My 7 days of Skiing and Snowboarding in Park City Utah

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Holy Crap. I was able to hit my goal of skiing or snowboarding for 7 straight days while on my trip to Park City, Utah. I’ll tell you what, I am exhausted as hell. Riding for 4-5 hours a day straight with small breaks here and there started to catch up to me on the last two days. The conditions could not of been better. We’ve been going on a ski trip every year for the past 7 years and this is the first year that it snowed every day. On 3 of the days it dropped 4 inches while we were skiing or it dropped 2-4 inches over night.

This was our plan.

Monday (2/15/10) – Night skiing at Park City Mountain Resort

Tuesday (2/16/10) – Skiing at Park City Mountain Resort

Wednesday (2/17/10) – Snowboarding at Sundance Resort

Thursday (2/18/10) – Snowblading (Mini Skis) at Brighton Ski Resort

Friday (2/19/10) – Snowboarding at Park City Mountain Resort

Saturday (2/20/10) – Snowboarding at The Canyons

Sunday (2/21/10) – Snowboarding at Snowbird

We got into Salt Lake City on Monday around noon. We headed right to Park City Mountain Resort before we checked into our condo for some night skiing. They only had a couple runs opened but we did not care. The couple hours we spent on the hill was a great warm up for the next couple of days.

For Tuesday we headed back to PCMR. It snowed over night and there were blue skies all day. We tried to shred as much of PCMR as possible but the place is so big and the lift lines were a little busy as people were celebrating Mardi Gras. It made for a fun day. My legs were getting a great workout on all of the Blue and Black Diamonds I went down. I’ve had a set of Volkl Skis for a couple years now and they worked very well with my new set of Salomon Ski Boots. Besides my feet hurting a little from breaking in the new ski boots it ended up being an awesome day.

On Wednesday we decided to get into our rental car and drive out to Robert Redford’s Sundance. This place had more of a rustic feel to it. The majority of the buildings were wood and much of the attention was focused on the outdoors…as it should be. It started snowing lightly at the peaks but it was near 45 degrees at the base making the snow very soft. I brought out my K2 snowboard for the day. It ended up being a great day as the views were amazing along with the mountain having a wide open but unique feel to it. I did not get to meet Robert Redford though which would of made it the highlight of the trip.

To keep the adventure going we picked Brighton to shred on for Thursday. It snowed all day again making conditions very soft and alot of fun. What I liked most about Brighton was that all of the runs funneled down to the few lifts they had making it easy to not lose each other. Brighton might be my new favorite place as it had a little bit of everything even though it was not as big of a resort as PCMR or The Canyons. I used my Salomon Snowblades which are a lot of fun when going in and out of the trees as they are easy to maneuver. You use different muscles with them compared to normal skis so its a little bit of cross training.

We had some left over discounted lift tickets for PCMR and used them on Friday. Again, it snowed a couple inches during the day making conditions nice and soft for us to snowboard on. Fatigue was starting to set in from the previous couple of days and a little bit of late night partying.

The Canyons were calling us on Saturday. This place is huge. I snowboarded again as I’m trying to get better at it. Plus, its really good cross training as you use a whole different set of leg and core muscles. It snowed all day again. We even hiked to the top of the Expert Only lift. It was a cool site to see as there was 3 feet of fresh powder to ride on. That part was cool. The rest of the run was a little bit above my ability as there were gigantic moguls everywhere. It would have been easier on skis for me. After 45 minutes of falling, taking breaks, and waiting up for a friend who was doing the same we finally made it down.

For our last day in Utah we drove to Snowbird. I wish we would have gone there during the middle of the week as most of the runs are Black Diamonds. The blue runs were challenging too. It was snowing all day again which made visibility bad. It was not a big deal the previous days but this place was moguled out from everybody skiing on it. There were a couple moments when the nerves jumped up as I did not see a bump until the last second. I even gave myself whiplash when I hit a rut on a catwalk. My snowboard flung me around and I smacked me head. Good thing I was wearing my helmet. We took the tram up to the top and hung out on the back side bowls known as Mineral Basin. If it was not the seventh day of shredding it probably would have been a lot more fun. My mind and body were in two different places after smacking my head. I was exhausted. The runs were steep and bumpy. If it would of been day 1 on my board I would of done better. Since it was not, I did not get to enjoy Snowbird as much. If I get back to Utah in the future it will definitely be the first place I go to.

So after 7 days of skiing and snowboarding I felt whipped. We would go 4 – 5 hours each day. The afternoon pass is what works for us. We use to try to do the all day passes but we would take our lunch break, drink $40 of beer, and burn ourselves out much faster during the trip. Doing the half day saves $15 – $30 on lift tickets plus we don’t drink $40 of beer saving us lots of money and energy to go all out.

There is no way I would have been able to go as hard as I did for all 7 days without getting myself in shape first. Leading up to my trip I focused most of my workouts on leg and core specific workouts. I mixed in P90X and Insanity workouts like P90X Legs and Back, Plyometrics, Yoga, and Cardio Circuit Training. The soreness didn’t set in until the day after I got home. It was mainly because I have never snowboarded 3 days in a row in my life so those muscles got a much harder workout. My abs feel ripped right now because I was using my toe edge so much the last day on the steeps to make sure I would not fall head over heels and tumble off a 60 foot cliff.

I’m pretty pumped about making it all 7 days knowing that I did not eat all that well and partied all most every night. Its what we do on our trips. From what I’ve read I was probably burning about 500 calories per hour which comes out to almost 2500 calories burned on the slopes. So anything I was drinking or eating was being burned up. The only thing I wish I would have done differently was bring some P90X Recovery Drink packets and P90X Protein Bars. I didn’t bring either because I like travelling light and there was no more space for those. I always take those after a workout to help me recover faster. They would of helped for sure. Its been two days since I got home and I can’t stop eating. Next time I embark on a 7 day shred fest I will need to eat much more.

If you are big into skiing or snowboarding and really want to get the most out of your ski vacations then take the time to get in shape before you go. Insanity is probably the best workout to do because it uses your body weight as resistance and is a lot of leg and core work. Both of which are used in skiing and snowboarding. After this trip I think I might be done riding for the season. We put in almost 30 hours of shredding the gnar. One things for sure, I’ll be taking the next week off from working out to let my body recover as I’m tired as hell.

Off to Park City Utah for Skiing and Snowboarding

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Its that time of year again when I head on my annual “Mancation” ski trip with my buddies. This year we will be heading out to Park City, Utah for our rage fest. Its been on the short list of places to go for me and I’m happy to be shredding it this year. Last year, we had a great time at Mont Tremblant in Canada and are planning on bettering that trip. We are staying a whole week this year which is a new thing for us as we usually only go for 3 nights.

The snow reports are starting to look like it might actually drop a couple inches this year. It better as we seem to bring bad luck where ever we go. Last year it snowed for the first time ever on a trip with a steady snowfall for all 4 days on the slopes. Nothing big but just enough to make it soft.

We found a house to rent two blocks away from downtown Park City with what looks like the ability to put our skis on from the back porch and follow a trail to the Park City Mountain Resort chair lift. We are renting a mini van so we can check out the other resorts in the area like the The Canyons, Brighton, and Sundance. Hopefully Robert Redford will be at Sundance so we can see him show off some of his ski moves he put so brilliantly together in Downhill Racer.

The goal this year is to shred every single day. To do so I’ve been busting my ass trying to get my cardio up to do it. I’ve done a bunch of different workouts in the past month to hopefully allow me to shred as much gnar as possible during the day, party at night, and repeat the next day.

I’ve been doing more endurance workouts including 4 mile runs followed by a 3/4 mile swim twice a week. It takes me about an hour and a half to do this while only taking a break to change clothes to get into the pool. Every day after doing those I feel sore as hell but good at the same time as every muscle in my body was challenged. On the other days I’ve been doing a combination of P90X, P90X Plus, and Insanity workouts. The ones in particular I’ve been doing are Insanity Pure Cardio, Insanity Cardio Recovery, P90X Yoga X, P90X Upper Plus, P90X Interval X Plus, P90X Kenpo Cardio Plus, along with the ab workouts like Ab Ripper X and Abs Core Plus.

The mountains (hills) here in Michigan are merely a place to warm up or practice new tricks and I’ve been going once a week to break in some new ski boots I got for Christmas. I’m not into doing tricks so its mainly a time for me to get loosened up and get out of the house. After skiing at places like Vail, Whistler, and Lake Tahoe, the plces in Michigan are kind of a let down.

I should be able to go for it and ski or snowboard every day with the shape I’m in. The first couple runs are going to burn a little but hopefully my conditioning will help me power through and enjoy myself out there. My buddy Dave has told me he’s going to shred every day also. I hope he does as I know our other friends who are coming usually burn out after the second day. Maybe with the extra two days on the slopes Dave will beat his weight loss record from last year when he lost 7 pounds snowboarding. Its an amazing feat as we ate like crap and drank lots of Canadian beer last year. He might lose 10 or more this year.

That’s it for now. I’ll do a recap in a week talking about the trip and if I was able to shred everyday. Dave and I write more about our ski/snowboarding trips at a snowboarding blog that we run. Feel free to check it out and tell us your shred stories.

P90X vs Insanity

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Many people have been asking me to write a P90X vs Insanity review. Since I have completed both of them individually and a P90X / Insanity hybrid workout I decided to spend a couple minutes to give as best of a evaluation of both that I could. So here we go.

P90X vs Insanity

Build Muscle – P90X -You are using weights in 5 of the workouts including the pull up bar. There are no weights used with Insanity at all besides your body weight.

Intense Cardio – Insanity– Hands down winner here. All of the Insanity workouts involve cardio training while just half of the P90X workouts do.

Strength Training – P90X– This was a close one but I chose P90X because of the weight training along with the cardio. Workouts like P90X Legs & Back, P90X Chest & Back are similar to some of the Insanity workouts but the addition of weights help build more strength.

Flexibility – P90X – Yoga X, X Stretch, and the almost 10 minutes of stretching for each workout top the basic stretching with Insanity.

Abs – Insanity– It seems like almost 80% of each movement is geared toward the core area in the normal workouts not including the Cardio Ab workout. P90X has the killer Ab Ripper X workout but Insanity has more plank work and ab focused moves.

Weight Loss – Push – Both P90X and Insanity will help you lose weight if you really get at it.

Toning – Insanity – Very close here again as both workouts will tone you up but using your body weight for resistance will tone up any bulk that you have.

Cost – Insanity– If price is a issue then Insanity is the way to go as you only need the DVDs which are $119. For P90X you need dumbbells or resistance bands and a pull up bar. If you have those then you only need the P90X DVDs which are $119 also but you can get the P90X Deluxe set for $239 which includes bands, pull up bar, P90X, and the recovery drink. Of course you can get a 25% discount if you sign up to be a Beachbody Coach or a 10% discount with a Beachbody Club membership too.

Time – Insanity – Most of the workouts with Insanity are under 50 minutes long while P90X is about an hour plus Ab Ripper X three times a week. If time is an issue then go with Insanity.

Beginner – P90X – Tony Horton has three people in the background showing you how to modify each move from a beginner to advanced. The goal is to build up your strength to keep up with the person doing the advanced move.

Advanced – Insanity – Don’t start Insanity unless you are already in some kind of shape. I think of Insanity as two a day football practices wrapped up into 45 minutes. You’re basically trying to keep up with Shaun T, who is a college track star, doing power jumps, squats, and push ups at a ridiculous pace.

Variety – P90X– Yoga, Kenpo, and using a pull up bar are things not done in Insanity.

Value – P90X– Since it comes with 12 workouts to Insanity’s 9, you can switch them up to your liking after the 90 days. This means you can make the investment of the DVDs go a lot farther then the 90 days. Heck, I did P90X 3 times straight before doing Insanity. Try to spend $119 for a 9 month gym membership.

What Were The P90X vs Insanity Results?

Overall – P90X – The strength training, variety, and ability for people of any fitness level to be able to jump in and get great results over a 90 day period put it just a tad farther than Insanity

It was a close one: P90X 7 Insanity 6.

What Did You Think About The P90X vs Insanity Review?

All of these are my opinions from doing P90X 3 times, Insanity 1 time, and a P90X / Insanity hybrid workout. I’ve had great results with both of them individually and together. If you are confused on what one to do right now I usually tell people to pick one based on cost and time. If you don’t have the extra money to buy the dumbbells or pull up bar then go with Insanity and if you do have those then do P90X. If time is your issue then the 45 minute workouts with Insanity will be better for you instead of the 55 to 70 minute workouts with P90X. Either way you go each will help you reach your fitness goals because when your done with one just go and get the other one. If you are ready to start Insanity or P90X you can get them at the Beachbody Store. Check out the Beachbody Coach program to get discounts on them. I hope this P90X vs Insanity review helps you out in choosing a program.