Friday, October 21, 2016

It's a Spartan Revolution Worldwide! Burpees for Boobs!

On October 15th, Spartan SGX coaches from across the world hosted the Spartan Revolution 2.0 workout; a Spartan lifestyle movement to get people up and active. The SGX coaches also went livestream through Spartan Race's facebook page so everyone could join in on this epic workout.

As an SGX Coach, I had the great privilege of leading part of this global lifestyle movement at UFC Edgewater in New Jersey.
Not only was this workout an epic lifestyle movement to encourage people to become more active on a Saturday morning, but most importantly it was an event where Spartans came together to raise cancer awareness. 


Spartan Race teamed up once again with Edith Sanford Breast Center (ESBC). ESBC, is a national Non-profit organization which is working on breast cancer preventive programs, treatments, as well as working with survivors. When you click on the link above to purchase a Burpees for Boobs women's/Men's tanks and tees, 100% of the net profits will go to TEAM EDITH.

Missed out on all the fun and sweat? Not to worry! Check out below where you can share or even get a group of friends together to participate with you in our burpee interval ladder called "Bur-Please".


Thank you to my Spartan team, Melina, Marko, Roberto and Kari for your outstanding teamwork!

Thank you also to UFC Edgewater for being my Spartan SGX training homebase.
And BIG THANK YOU to all of the Spartans who attended this global event!


Join the Revolution! I will see you at the race!

AROO! AROO! AROO!

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

SPARTAN RACE SPARKS FITNESS REVOLUTION DAY


Please join us at UFC GYM Edgewater for a global workout event to help battle obesity and promote a healthy lifestyle. You’ll receive a Spartan rally towel when you show up!

To sign up for a Spartan Revolution Workout, visit:

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Spartan Race NJ Beast 2016 - (Detailed Map included)


The time to tackle this green monster finally came back to Jersey and it was not what people expected. Many Spartans who tackled last year's NJ Beast felt it had not been "too difficult" and that it seemed similar to the NJ Spartan Super.

Well, needless to say, this year was going to be a different story. Norm Koch, with his "Little Knife" and his bear friends, decided to take things up a notch. Here's how it went down!

As I walked over to the registration tents to pick up my Bib, all I kept hearing was how last year's Beast was "easy". However, we were all in for a nice surprise when we discovered it would be a 14+ mile course. Not only was the mileage a factor, but there was a creative approach on how they used the landscape.

The beginning of the course set the pace by going on an incline right off the bat (most SR do). As the course continued it felt as if there were no obstacles or what seemed to be a handful, which was not the case. There were plenty of obstacles; they were spread out so well, but our legs were still shot from going up that whenever an obstacle was reached, it felt like a blur. Now, let's talk about the obstacles!

Since it is known that Norm Koch secretly has a weather machine, it was obvious he would make it rain the night before to make some obstacles that much harder. For starters, the sandbags were heavier; the sled pulls were a pain to pull, both of them; the Hercules hoist though wasn't so bad. The water obstacles were all cold and muddy. The carries, (Sandbag, log, bucket), were all there. The barbwires (2 of them) were fine. All the climbs were utilized, rope, A-Frame, monkey bars, Multi-rig, inverted wall. When you really stop and think about it, it was obstacles galore! Nearly every obstacle known to Spartan was utilized on this course!

See my very detailed and accurate map below.



Sunday was a whole new ball game. The on and off rain and the cold did play a small factor on warping the course. The course was a bit more technical to navigate through, descends were more slick causing me to take a few tumbles. But really the main difference was the cold.


See below a summary meme that should accurately depict this past weekend.


All in all it was a challenging course that gave many racers a small taste of what Killington is like (the 2014 one, not the 2015 one).

Congratulations to all the spartans who tackled the NJ Ultra and Beast, it was a doozy!

See you all at the next race! AROO!    

       

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Spartan Race Citifield 2016 - New Obstacles


On Saturday, April 16th, thousands of Spartans around the east coast got together to take on one of the first Spartan Race's 2016 Stadium Series races, which took place at Citifield. For many of us, this is the first race of the 2016 season. For others, it will be the first Spartan Race ever. For those of us who have been running these races for years, you may have noticed that there are some new details tossed into the ball game. Let's go over some of the new things.

Ropes - Some of you may have noticed the new thinner, sleeker climbing ropes. They are not as high as they were before, but due to them being thinner, there was a need for more grip than in previous races. Not only that, the material they are made from makes them a bit slick as well which makes it a bit harder to hook on your feet.

Tips: Work on a stronger grip and learn a couple of techniques wrapping your feet on the rope. Having a combination of both will help you dominate this obstacle.









Stairs - Up and down, Up and down. There were plenty more stairs this year, about one mile's worth in fact. According to several tracking watches, the average was 4.25 miles. This was a perfect amount for a Stadium Series Race. Obstacles were very well placed throughout the race course however, keeping a balance between running and obstacles.

Tips: For stadium runs, work more on your anaerobic capacity. It's not a long distance run, which means anaerobic capacity training will be the biggest asset over distance running. This type of training will improve the amount of extra work you are able to perform in running beyond your aerobic capacity.

Example: 5 to 10 rounds of 800 meter sprints followed by 200 meter jogging


Hercules Hoist - Seems like the Sand bags have gained some weight over the winter. When I ran the course in the morning, it took a lot of my strength to get the bag all the way up. Later on, at around 4pm when I went along with a team, I wasn't able to budge the bag! Now, I am not sure if it was that maybe the pulleys were beat up from thousands of spartans already having gone through or that they added more sand!?
Either way, this year they are definitely heavier.

Tips: Practice hand over hand sled pulls to improve your grip and back strength increasing your chances of avoiding burpees!


See "hand over hand sled pulls" video below
                                     
With NJ Beast next on the list, we will have some new upgrades to lookout for!

So what did you think about the new upgrades? Did they challenge you?
Like, Share, and Comment

See you at the Next Race! Aroo!

Saturday, January 9, 2016

AM PM Essentials Review - Live Longer Naturally

(Photo from the movie "Fifth Element")

As we hit a new age in technology, health technology is also advancing. According to http://www.about.com/health/, humans began living past the age of 30 around 30,000 years ago.
Since then our life expectancy has been increasing with every new generation.

Now with obesity on the rise, bad daily habits are becoming lifestyle factors that can put our life expectancy increases at a halt.

However, we can now take advantage of advancements in health tech such as AM/PM Essentials by Jeunesse. Check it out below:


Here is the list of components that compose AM:
Here is the list of components that compose PM:

Want to learn more about AM/PM Essentials? Click Below to learn more or even try it yourself.
Coach Aragon