S&S, Where have y'all been???!

Seriously folks, it's a little insane.  Sariah is jetsetting all over the country while I'm stuck here manning the fort...the life of a popstar right?  But have no fear - I'm still working out just been slacking on the video front. Well actually, not even the video front the POSTING front.  I've been running tight on time so I dont get the chance to upload the vids to our channel.  Also,  it's really not that entertaining - it's not like I can show you exercises while holding the camera lol.  But this weekend I did tape a little post workout minute after finishing my Nike Training Club workout. I can't recommend these workouts enough - it's a great way to get a jam-packed full body workout in 30 minutes. There's 45 min options as well.   Tuesday, I did "shakedown" and lemme tell you - I looked like a madwoman since the exercises only go for 30 sec or 1 minute and it's literally up and down up and down.  Go from toe touches with a medicine ball into a squat press then back into plank rows or burpee to shoulder press every minute.  OMG. I was exhausted! but no pain no gain right?

I'm still sore.

BTW!   GIVEWAWAY WINNER!!!! WE DIDN'T FORGET YOU!!  

The winner is.....

Starfish!!!

Congratulations!

S&S Day 56: Body Remix

What did you say? You haven't entered our S&S SWAG GIVEAWAY? What are you waiting for?  ENTER HERE. 

I (Sef) was attacked by the snooze monster this time around (must have been this dreary rainy morning) but have no fear!  I was high-tailing it down to gym to meet up with Sariah who already had a 8 min run going on the dreadmill. The gym regulars saw me walk in and gave me that look like "mmmn hmmm" with the side eye/smirk glance to their wrist as if to say we see who's late today...  HA!!  Anyway I went up to Sariah and said "let's do this." We grabbed medicine balls, 5lb weights, and jumpropes and attacked the Nike Training Club Workout called "Body Remix"  and started the clock on a workout that...

kicked

our

^#*@!.


30 min folks...we were drenched in sweat around minute 2.

Take that take that take that (said in a classic Diddy voice)...   Um yeah.  that's what NTC told P90x.

It was gooood though.

It went a little something like this:

1 min: back pedal
2 min: light jog (we jumproped)
2 min: sliding glides
1 min: recover (we had no idea this was the only recover in the whole workout. dizzam - shoulda enjoyed it).
1 min: Burpee to shoulder press
1 min: Pushups with feet on medicine ball (really? really? try just holding a plank with this!)
1 min: Plank row to rotation (basically lift one arm with a 5lb weight in hand sideways)
1 min: Ski jumps (wide side jumps with medicine ball in hand)
2 min: Basketball lunge with medicine ball press (I personally love this one)
2 min: squat arm curls (squat then stand and do a bicep or hammer curl)
2 min: bunny hops with medicine ball overhead (this was so hard! and easy! we had to break after each 4 hops lol!)
1 min: bicycles (do this in ab ripper..psshhhh.. a breeze! hehe)
1 min: toe touches (ok not a breeze)
1 min: kick downs - we each took 30 seconds pushing each others legs down (GREAT ab excercise!)
1 min: Push up to frogger  (grrrrrrrr....pushing through)
2 min: single leg deadlift dumbbell row (great combo exercise...hard to do without losing balance!)
1 min: Medicine ball triceps push up (uhhhhh yeah... not that hardcore yet - hold a plank on ball or baby pushup )
1 min: alternating forward lunge to shoulder press
30 sec: mountain climbers
30 sec: knee tucks (we did jump tucks instead)
5 min: cool down/stretch (thank goodness)

Did that make you tired just reading it?  Multiply that times 100 and that's how we felt.

:) TGIF people!

Day 55: Let me see you run it run it

Keeping this short and sweet:
Sariah snoozed.
I didn't.
So I ran this morning.
It was a nice run.
Word.

Here's the route:

Here's the stats:
Run Time: 37:40
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 3.60 miles
Average: 10:28 /mile
Fastest Pace: 8:07 /mile

And here's the S&S SWAG GIVEAWAY!  ENTER HERE.

S&S SWAG GIVEAWAY!!!! and oh yeah..Day 54: Core Synergistics...

S&S is back!!! The S&S duo is reunited once again with Sariah coming back from L.A. for all-star weekend. She recounts her experience fitting exercise while traveling while I struggle with getting physically out of bed. ; Today is "recovery" week for P90x but that just really translates to "Cardio week" for us—today being core synergistics.We fast-tracked it today not using the video and going off the core synergistics exercise list we have in our worksheet (seriously, Tony does a lot of talking) so it gets down to a 40-45 min workout. It was a jam-packed workout and felt energized afterwards.

Also on the video we announced our first ever...

S&S Swag Giveaway!!!

To show some love to our fit and fabulous friends here in blog/podcast land, we're giving away a stability ball (with dvd and exercise poster) and a water bottle (since we're always harping about drinking some H20). Very cool swag for all you cool people out there. And if you already have a stability ball, enter anyway! Give it to a coworker or friend who always talks about excercising yet drops the ball (ha!) on actually doing something about it. Either way - GOOD LUCK!

S&S SWAG GIVEAWAY RULES:

Leave a SEPARATE comment for EACH of the things below.  1 comment = 1 entry.  We suggest you do everything specified below to increase your chances of winning.  If you do all 10, that's 10 entries!

We will choose the winner this coming Sunday, Feb 27 and announce on our monday morning video podcast!

Mandatory:

1.  MUST be a FOLLOWER of our blog. If you're not, click the Follow button located at the right sidebar. If you're already a follower, then let us know by commenting something like "I'm already a follower." We love seeing new faces and really aim to connect with everyone! = 1 entry

Extra Credit

2. SUBSCRIBE to our FREE podcast on itunes! Search for it by typing "S&S Express" =1 entry
3. Rate our itunes podcast (um hopefully 5 stars!) = 1 entry.
4. Leave a comment in the itunes review section (like how much you love us!) and tell us that you did so= 1 entry
5.  Follow Sariah on Twitter (@sariahmusicnow) and leave a comment that you do. = 1 entry
6.  Follow Sefa on Twitter (@eunicek) and leave a comment that you do. = 1 entry
7.  Like S&S Express on Facebook and come back here and leave a comment that lets us know that you did.
     Feel free to leave us a message on our fb wall! = 1 entry
8.  Post the link to this giveaway on your blog - leave a comment that you did so = 1 entry
9. Tweet the link to this giveaway on Twitter - leave a comment that you did so = 1 entry
10.  Add us to your blog roll - leave a comment that you did so and we'll add you to ours = 1 entry

Please remember to leave a SEPARATE comment for EACH of the things below.  1 comment = 1 entry. Increase your chances of winning by doing extra credit items!

Good luck!
Sefa & Sariah

Disclaimer:  This giveaway is hosted by Sefa & Sariah - we were not paid for our opinions on these products -they are our own. These companies do not know who we are. Entries close at 8pm Sunday Feb 27

S&S Extra: Sefa's Sunday morning run

With Sariah away enjoying the fabulous life in (warm!) LA for the NBA all-star weekend, I'm holding down the fort here in the big apple.  Sorry for being MIA on the posting front - everytime I sit down to blog I get sidelined by other distractions! To make up for it, I made a super-duper podcast about my run yesterday.  It's part travel, part commentary, part blair-witch (you'll see), and all S&S... ok maybe just S. 

I started off at the manhattan side of the BK bridge and ran to Brooklyn, through BK heights and Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass)  and back across the Manhattan Bridge into Chinatown.  It was a chilly day but an all-around good run. It's been a while since I've done anything longer than 3 miles and it made me miss 1/2 marathon training a bit. Sunday mornings were strictly limited to the Long Run.  One of the main reasons I looked forward to it was for the music mixes I would load up on my ipod. But now that I'm addicted to podcasts, I had that goin during yesterday's run and that was also relaxing. 

Anyhow, hope everyone had a fun fit weekend... I've been running more while S is away - also did some home makeover projects. Today however i'm snowed in (can't believe it was 70 degrees on friday) home catching up on projects, magazines, and blogging!  How did you enjoy your weekend?

Here's a few snaps from my west coast half:

Sariah at an all-star party

View during her workout:  30 min on the elliptical, a few arm strength exercises and abs on a medicine ball.

 

Sariah's breakfast

If there was a fire, Sariah would be SCREWED!

OMG - talk about deep sleeping.  LOL.. the beginning of the video explains it all.  When S finally got herself out of bed we took our workout outdoors for a quick 30 min session.  We ran about a mile then got to the field. we did the following at the field:

Down the field with 3 breaks:
Lunges (about 20)
20 pushups
side shuffles (left)
20 squat jumps
side shuffles (right)
modified burpees
15 lunge switch jumps

Back down the field with 3 breaks:
side shuffles (left/right)
20 pushups
side squats (left)
15 squat jumps
side squats (right)
towel hops


Down the field with 3 breaks:

side squats
mountain climbers
side squats

20 squat jumps
side shuffles (left/right)
modified burpees

On the bench:
in and outs (20)
tricep dips (20)


Back down the field with 3 breaks:

Tires
mountain climbers
Tires
On the bench:
in and outs (20)
tricep dips (20)side shuffles (left/right)

Then we ran back home.  What a crazy morning!  Ah well - we will have a slight break from video podcasts but not to worry - Sariah and I will be separately posting... She'll be tackling working out on the road in the midst of all-star weekend while I continue to keep doing the do' back on the home front. 

S&S is on itunes!

We're so excited that our podcasts are now up on itunes - for your viewing pleasure.  Please take a few moments to leave a review about our videos and rate us 5 stars!!!!  we want to make it up in the new and noteworthy section :)    To find us type in the search box: "S&S Express" or "sariah" or "sefa".  woo woo!

Back it up back it up let's begin...

Whoa welcome back everyone. Can't believe how crazy February has been with all our traveling. It's been super hard trying to coordinate our morning workouts together - we fit them in when we can get them in.  Example yesterday: one of us was traveling back from New orleans (sef) so Sariah did an outdoor run...later that night Sef taught two dance classes back to back.  Sometimes we just have to own up to making sure we personally stay on track. We could have easily just given ourselves ANOTHER day off.

This morning we woke up and did our back and biceps workout on P90x.   As far as fitting in the P90x into our schedules as it is - as long as we get a workout in (whether its the scheduled P90x or a NTC substitute)  we just pick up where we left off.  It's all about being flexible when you have to be - just as long as we get it in.

Sariah will be heading off to LA for the second half of this week so we hope to have some guest posts from her on the road (She's bringing dvds!) and Sef will be holding down the fort with a few running posts as she starts to gear up for 1/2 marathon training.

Anyhow - we missed you guys!

P.S. anyone tried TurboFire?  we're thinking of doing that next after P90x. let us know your experience with it!

PPS: note to sef: do not put thumb over mic - sorry for the muffled voices in the beginning!

S&S Day 41: Should you work out while being sick?

Sefa here: Back from our mini hiatus - S&S pulled in a 30 min circuit challenge workout courtesy of Nike Training Club. It was intense 30 minutes - especially for being inactive for 3 days. Being sick totally sucked and it took more effort to stay in bed than get to the gym and put that 30-60min in.  I mean-it's so easy to feel guilty after all the work we put in over the past few weeks.   So I did a little research to see if I should have worked out or stay in bed:

On cnn.com I found that:

Dr. Rick Kellerman, of the American Academy of Family Physicians, advises his patients to skip their workout if they have a fever. It puts too much stress on the heart, which already is beating faster because of the higher body temperature. If you're suffering from chest congestion, coughing and shortness of breath, he said, you also shouldn't work out. And exercising with a stomach ache will probably make you feel worse, he added.  But if you have the sniffles and milder symptoms of a cold, moderate exercise is probably OK, Kellerman said.

He also suggests easing back into a full workout.  "When you're feeling better, don't start back at 100 percent," he said. "Start at a lower level. Give yourself time to recuperate [or] you might relapse or prolong the illness."

Bodybuilding.com featured an article about a study sponsored by the American College of Sports Medicine headed by Thomas G. Weidner, Ph.D., Ball State University, which indicated that exercising moderately while you have a common cold doesn't affect the severity or duration of the symptoms.  The study revealed that exercising at a moderate intensity level does not intensify cold symptoms or compromise the immune system. It seems that a moderate level of intensity is not enough to alter immune response.

The article went on to warn readers that high intensity exercise such as heavy weight lifting or high intensity aerobic training has been shown to have a negative impact on the immune system during a cold or any respiratory infection.


Amy Dixon at Women's Health  echoed a similar message, advising that "Your symptoms hold the answer. The general rule is that if your sickness is above the neck, such as a runny or stuffy nose or general cold symptoms, it is okay to exercise at a moderate intensity.  Remember that now is not the time for intense interval training."  

Mayo Clinic website echoed a similar rule of thumb:

• Proceed with your workout if your signs and symptoms are "above the neck" — such as runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing or sore throat. Be prepared to reduce the intensity of your workout if needed, however.
• Postpone your workout if your signs and symptoms are "below the neck" — such as chest congestion, hacking cough or upset stomach. Likewise, don't exercise if you have a fever, fatigue or widespread muscle aches.

After reading a few more articles it seems the general consensus is to listen to your body.  I do want to add that you should be HONEST about listening to your body.  Some people confuse "sickness" for laziness and use it as an excuse (you know who you are!) ... that is just a slippery slope leading back into your bad ways (and undoing all your work!).   In the long run, getting those few extra days of rest just put me in a better position to get back into busy-woman mode.

Well Thank goodness for Sariah waking me up after a 1hr snoozefest I had with my alarm clock lol. We got it in and am happy we did.  I have to teach 3 classes tonight and one tomorrow as well as travel this weekend to New Orleans.  I'm not 100% but I definitely feel better than I did monday.  We'll be back on the grind in no time!

S&S Express Day 37: Konichiwa B*!#%&s!

After a busy saturday of work, an awesome concert with Robyn, and a girls night through the meatpacking district, we still manage to get up for a superbowl morning run/skate. ; Our initial plans to run a race were nixed due to work schedule so we get up EVEN EARLIER to run our own personal "race" in 20 degree temps and ice-filled paths.
Sorry for our lack of updating - we missed you guys too! Sariah jetted down to Miami for a few days and Sefa fell ill and forced herself to stay in bed and rest (and if you know sef - you know being immobile is HARD for her to do!) we'll be back soon though!
here are a few pics from our weekend:

At the Robyn concert

At the Robyn concert

Lights and action

Radio City Music Hall is pretty amazing

Post-show heading to meatpacking district!

Day 35: Cali face with a down south bump (chest & shoulders)

Episode title is for the jam by baby Bash ft E-40 ; we were listening to during our workout... props to satellite radio because we would need another 3 or 4 months before the song makes its way to east coast. Wow talk about pushup central. Soo many variations of a pushup and tricep extension - our arms and chest are exhuasted! Funny thoughts during watching the P90 video:

• woman looka-like-a man
• wow, tony doing those plyo/clap pushups makes him look like a dolphin
• our favorite song (not!) came on the radio - put your head on my pillow (sef attempted to yodel like the artist)
• if we could do every exercise while laying on our back this would be so much easier lol
• we could have been done earlier if we did not have an hour-long convo via text message from bed starting at 6am about how cold it was and how we did not want to get out of bed
• another pushup?
• we should take a picture during these side tri extensions - we look so fab
• did we really have to run that fast on the treadmill this morning? did that run burn off the mini bagel we ate before coming to work out? 
• someone changed the radio station! OH ...NO... THEY.... DIDN'T!!!!!
• seriously? another pushup?
• there's 5 minutes left - why hasn't cool down started?! hello?!

Ah well -we hope you all have a fabulous weekend... we'll see ya in a bit!

Today's Jam:

Baby Bash - Go Girl (feat. E-40) (2010)

Day 34: NTC- Cuuurrrve Carver

Boy these NTC workouts really do a number on us. Today was "curve carver" and the workout threw a whole bunch of new exercises at us that we eagerly attempted. We've demonstrated a few in our video. We gave this workout a thumbs up (like!) and will definitely add it to our workout playlist rotation. :)

Day 33: Run it out with legs and back

Even with NYC getting hit with an ice storm this morning, we can't cry snow day (those lucky kids!) for our workout. We hit the gym even earlier this morning and start off with a 1 mile jog-turned-run on the treadmill. Now we run whenever we do our outdoor workouts and it's fine - we're totally sweating and all- but it just seems extra long and hard whenever we have to get on the dreadmill. We jump off and right into our legs and back workout. Since we did focus on our back yesterday we substituted all the back exercises with reverse crunches and suspended knee lifts. All-in-all feeling good afterwards. This S&S squad thinks we may have to make that 1 mile run part of our usual warmup. No pain no gain!

Day 32: Back it up Back it up

We're back with Phase 2 Baby! Over the weekend, Sariah did some friend birthday celebratin while I jetted down to Florida for some R&R with my dad and my little pup, Dallas.

Sariah before she hits up the party!

Before heading to Drynk Soho in Tampa

With my lil' one, Dallas

Because of lack of sleep from both our parts we skipped Monday and jumped back in the gym for week 5. Today's workout? We didn't know there was so many variations of a bicep curl but we did a ton of them. For pull/chin ups we got on the machines for lat pull downs while near the end of the workout, I finally attempts a few pull ups.. a few and pushed out 5. We wrap it up with ab ripper X and get day 32 in our books.

TGIF! Wipeout workout - day 28

Whoa - forgot to post this yesterday but here's a taste of the nike training club workout we did called Wipeout. Keepin it short and sweet - hope everyone's workouts are well! Weigh-in day is monday! uh oh....

Make yourself ship-shape-sharp! (NTC- Day 27)

So we woke up to this:


about 10" of snow fell overnight shutting down the city today... sort of. S&S still has to go work (boo!). I think hibernation mode was in full force last night because Sariah overslept :) Nevertheless we still made it to the gym to fit in a 45 min full-body workout.

Instead of core synergistics we pulled out another Nike Training club workout. This one was under the "get Strong" category and was intermediate level called "worth the Weight" It was a goooood one. It was a bit like circuit training in that each exercise was about 30 sec - 1 min long with only a few recovery rests (like 3) during the entire workout. It was nice that it finished with about 5 min to stretch as well. Anyhow we really like these NTC workouts and highly recommend a download of this free app. Plus those models are DEISEL. we are in awe. Here's a little inspiration for all you ladies (and men) out there

When it comes to working out: Just Do It.

Today we open up with a fireside chat* about sticking to goals and making YOU a priority. The podcast I speak of can be found on itunes or here. It's called Back to Work. It's not fitness related but what Dan and Merlin speak of in regards to barriers is a point we agree with. We think it's in the middle of the episode - they use writing a book as an example.

Anyhow. Yoga. Whoa. it's been a while yoga. we did and didn't miss you. but we'll definitely be back. This is one challenge we have yet to master.

*Excuse the music in the beginning - forgot to fade it out earlier. oops :)

S&S Extra! Sneak Peek behind the scenes - "All About Sex"

So two weeks ago, Sariah shot her video for her new single "All About Sex" and guess who got to have a cameo? The other half of S&S- ME! heheheh.. thanks girl :) We just wanted to give you guys (all 19-20 of you followers lol) a sneak peek of the set and to see us made up a little (ok, made up a lot lol) with our hair did looking sasha fierce (make that Sariah lookin fierce!). Sure beats us in sweats/workout gear, half asleep in a gym studio. Here are a few pics from the day as well:

Sefa in hair & Makeup

On the set

Taking a quick pic before we start another scene

Sariah gettin fierce

Striking a pose before going back on set!

I think we clean up well - what do you guys think? Leave us a comment below!

NTC can transform you... (Day 25)

SO day 2 of recovery week and we throw on the NTC workout - this time a cardio workout called "transformer." We like the constant switching of exercises every 1 min or so but 3 sets is just about right because by the third set we were like "again?! (pout)" Ha. But overall "Transformer" was a good workout and there are several workouts to choose from so we have a lot of variety left before it'll start to feel redundant. Excuse our lack of enthusiasm and quietness - we just figured you'd want a little bit of a sneak peek into how our sessions go. At 6 or 7am, it's not all smiles and fun and games all the time - sometimes it's just WORK. word.

Day 20: Let's Box - HIyah!

Wow. what a struggle to wake up this morning. Sariah was feeling the effects of sake lol and I'm feeling a tinge of a cold coming on (blah!). So we snoozed a bit before we dragged ourselves to the gym to do Kenpo today. We subbed Tony's talking for some house/techno/r&b music. In addition to the bosu, we brought the boxing gloves out and added the jumprope going for 100 skips during each break. Though still exhausted we still pulled it out. Tonight is extra cardio since i'll be teaching funk at Crunch today. woo woo... any NYC readers - come check it out!