Interview With a Crossfit Enthusiast- Meagan!

Mel and I love finding information about different types of eating and exercise for our own personal knowledge and for our readers. We understand and promote that everyone’s bodies are different and we all need to find workouts that challenge us. Crossfit has become a huge movement in the last few years and one of our readers is a Crossfit enthusiast. We wanted to share this amazing fitness movement with you. Let us introduce you to our friend Meagan Sarnowski Nelson.

Sister Act Fitness: What made you get into Crossfit?

Meagan: A close friend’s husband became a trainer and in learning more about it, the variety and the difficulty level of it made me interested. 

 

Sister Act Fitness: What is your favourite thing about doing Crossfit?

Meagan: The variation, we rarely do the same workout again just different variations also the difficulty level. It is at your own pace but being in a supportive CF atmosphere makes you push your limits further. I love seeing my improvements. Even if it’s just adding 10 pounds to my dead lift I get a little happy happy feeling inside hehe. 

Sister Act Fitness: What would a typical Crossfit workout be? 

Meagan: There is really no typical workout. Each class is a different variation. We start with a warm up for 5-15 minutes then work on a strength/skill which could include a specific weightlifting movement or skill that we could work on and the strength/skill is than varied with different amount of repetitions. After that we go into a workout, the workouts range from 15-30 minutes of intense work usually keeping your heart rate up. Crossfit is famous for its common WODs (workout of the day) and they are typically named after a female, or a fallen soldier. These are benchmark workouts and aren’t completed every day but they help measure your progress when you do them again in a month or two. They are usually tougher but I always feel great after. 

Two of my favorite love/hate workouts are:

Cindy:

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

5 pull ups

10 push ups

15 air squats

I love/hate her because it sounds easy but once your 5-10 rounds in you are feeling the burn and  have to learn to push yourself to keep going. 

 

Filthy Fifty:

For time: 

50 Box Jumps on a 20 inch box

50 Jumping Pull-ups 

50 Kettlebell Swings @30 lbs 

50 Walking Lunges

 50 Knees To Elbows hanging on bar

50 Push Press, 45lb bar 

50 Back Extensions 

50 Wall Balls, @14 lbs 

50 Burpees 

50 Double Unders (skipping)

And this I love/hate because it’s one of the toughest to get through but I feel so accomplished when I finish. 

 

Sister Act Fitness: Top 5 songs on your workout playlist?

Meagan: We listen to Songza in the gym one I like is Hard Rock, Hard Bod or drop a beat. 

http://songza.com/search/?q=hard+rock 

 

Sister Act Fitness: What is your favourite quote?

Meagan: Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. OR

A crossfit quote:

the goal is to get fit,

Make it the best hour of your day,

Stay safe,

Turn up the music,

High five some people, 

And blow off some steam.

So remember that,

Relax, have fun, work out. 

-Pat Sherwood

 

Sister Act Fitness: What is your favourite post workout meal?

Meagan: BBQ chicken and a fresh salad with fruit and nuts. 

 

Sister Act Fitness: What inspires and motivates you?

Meagan: Feeling great. Even after a tough day, it is a stress reliever. Motivation is to lead a healthy lifestyle to stay active in the things I love. 

 

Sister Act Fitness: What is your favourite recipe?

Meagan: It’s an easy one, the Maple Blueberry no-cook oats breakfast. 

 

Sister Act Fitness: My cheat meal I could not live without is…? 

Meagan: Lasagne or any pasta and dessert. I would love to opt out of dinner to just have dessert haha

 

Sister Act Fitness: What does a typical day in your eating look like?

Meagan:

Daily food:

 Breakfast:

No cook oats with blueberries 

Coffee

Snack:

Fruit or yogurt or both

Lunch:

Chicken, veggies and either couscous or quinoa. If I’m still hungry I will have some salad. 

Snack:

Apple and cheese

Dinner:

Chicken, small salad, veggies, and either mashed cauliflower (my fav, have about once every 10 days) or we will have a carb such as rice, quinoa, couscous or baby potatoes. 

 

I do not take any supplements currently other than a BCAA drink during my workout, and on off days. 

 

Sister Act Fitness: What is your favourite thing about Sister Act Fitness?

Meagan: The updates! I love the recipes and new ideas you’ve tried  it has been a great help and motivation. 

 

Sister Act Fitness would like to thank Meagan for sharing her healthy lifestyle and Crossfit with us. Have any of you tried Crossfit? What do you do for your workouts? Sister Act Fitness would love to hear from you!  

 

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Superbowl Challenge!!!!!!!!!

Hey you! Ya you! The one who plans on feasting during the Superbowl game (yes I’m talking to myself) – How about accepting a little interval challenge before you chow down?

“Now why on earth would I do that Mel?”

Because interval workouts speed up your metabolism and keep your body burning fat long after you have completed the sweat-fest. How does it compare to regular cardio? “You see the instant that you are done with low intensity jogging, your body is done burning calories.  But, do an intense set of intervals, and your body burns calories for the 2-4 hours after the workout” (taken from the article here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fat_loss_with_interval_cardio.htm ) I’ll leave all the technical mumbo jumbo to the professionals but the bottom line is that cycling high heart-rate with low heart-rate is great for burning calories

So – what’s the challenge you ask? It’s 3 different exercises done as fast as you can then a one minute rest – then you repeat 4 more times for a total of 5 sets. Yes we are keeping this short but sweet – if you have more time feel free to repeat the set a couple more times (and brag about it on our facebook page – we smile when you do) if you have less time so be it – even in 10 minutes you should be sweating and cursing Sister Act Fitness

Here’s the break down:

First things first WARM UP (5min walk outside, arm swings, light stretching, treadmill, elliptical – whatever, get moving for 5 min, get your heart rate up)

Then cut the crap and let’s kill this (start your timer, if you dont have one no big deal):

Jumping Jacks – 30 of them

Pushups – 10 of them

Squats – 30 of them (remember to stick that butt out as if you are going to sit on a chair, keep your back arched and chest up)

1 min rest (focus on getting your breathing back under control) 

NOW REPEAT!!!!!!!!!! How many sets can you do in ten minutes? I’m going to do this workout tomorrow as well and post how many sets I completed. PS if you know me you know I hate pushups! I do them from my knees and I’m not ashamed to say so – if you can only do 5 then do 5 – this isn’t bootcamp this is asscamp as in get your ass moving before the chicken wings hit the table at the Super Bowl party!

If you do happen to eat a bit more then you wanted try drinking some tea after – my favorite is peppermint after a meal, helps with digestion 😉 It also wouldn’t hurt to take a digestive enzyme before and after you eat – I know I will be

Let us know how you did as we loving sharing with our little community 🙂

 

Sister Act Fitness wishes both the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks good luck tomorrow, however, given proximity to the Hawks Nest and the fact that the house we are watching the game at is heavily inhabited by Hawks fans we can’t help but say GGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWKS!

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