The Conclusion

Fellow bloggers,

This is my last blog ever for my immersion project. I have benefited so much from this experience and I’m glad I get to share my results to you.

At the end of the immersion I realized that I am more relaxed and not as up tight as I have been. I’m a lot happier and more aware than I was when I first started. I can focus on projects at hand a lot easier. My motivation seems to increase because I’m more motivated to get my stuff done then wait to the last minute on a lot of it.

I’m pretty sure I have lost some weight and I defiantly gained a lot more muscle mass. I can lift objects or weights up with more of an ease. My legs, stomach and arms are a lot more toned. I don’t have my muscle spasms anymore.

I feel like over all this immersion has been a really good experience. I haven’t encountered anything bad while participating in it. I suggest to you out there to try a thirty day immersion. You’ll be able to do it as long as you set your mind to it. From my own experience I set my mind on it and did succeed in my immersion.

Thank you so much for taking time to read my blog. I hope you enjoy it and really think about trying out the immersion experience. For all you know it maybe life changing

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The Final Workout

Hello,

This is my final workout for my thirty day immersion project. Since it was my final workout I decided to go have a very intense workout. Today I started on the elliptical for forty five minutes and had a resistance of four. I made sure to try to keep a steady pace for the whole forty five minutes. Once I finished the elliptical, I went to the track and ran twenty five minutes straight jog, no walking. I’m not actually sure how many laps I ran because I stopped keeping track because I was way into my music.

When I finished with my cardio I went down to the racquet ball courts where I played wally-ball with a couple of sisters. I was there for at least thirty minutes. When the games ended my sister Erica and I went to the weight room and lifted weights. I worked my legs, arms, back, and abs (minimal). I would estimate that we were down there for forty minutes. Last but not least we went upstairs to do our fifteen minute ab work out (that’s what killed me). By the end of my workout I was dripping sweat and I’m not one to sweat easily.

A couple of things I do before starting my work out is take aspirin, stretch and drink plenty of water. Aspirin helps reduce the pain after a workout and stretching reduces my chance of injury. Toward the end of the workout I do my abs work out last, because if you do it any other time then it will make your work out a lot harder. Then I always stretch right before I leave so my muscles don’t tense up.

This work out was by far the best work out that I have done. I’m glad to be ending my immersion on a good note.

The Benefit

Throbbing, aching, agenizing pain that shoots in your body for a very short time. Unable to move even an inch because one little movement will put you back in excruciating pain. Time passes by while you wait for the pain to diminish. Finally the pain goes away and you can carry on with your daily life.

There scenario above is what I had to go through almost every week. The doctors diagnosed me with muscle spasms in the back. For the longest time nothing seemed to help or reduce my spasms. The doctors told me I should go through physical therapy because they though the alignment of my hips might be the cause of my pain. After therapy my muscle spasms were still there and so my doctor suggested I start taking muscle relaxers. At the begging it helped, but slowly started to stop working. Again my doctor suggested another treatment called acupuncture. Acupuncture is where someone will stick needles in your pack in order to release tension. Again I got the same results where it would work for a short time and then just stop working. I got tired of going to the doctors especially when nothing seemed to work.

When I started the immersion project my muscle spasms were there but very minimal. Finally my muscle spasms have stopped. The exercise and strengthening of the back seemed to do the trick. To this day I have not had a muscle spasm. This project has literally stopped a pain that seemed to never go away.

Showoffs

Hello my fellow bloggers,

I am slowly approaching the end of my immersion project. Which means I’m only going to have a couple more posts before I give my farewells.

Until then I’m still going to talk your ear off about exercising/working out. Recently I went to the gym and this guy was trying to show off, since there were some girls paying attention to him. Well he decided to show his manliness and started to face his buddy in a one on one basketball tournament. He seemed to be really good because he was scoring right and left. All of a sudden his buddy stole the ball and just kept making them. They were tied up and at game point. His buddy stole the ball from him and started messing with the cocky guy. Anytime the guy would try taking the ball back his buddy would throw it between his legs or dribble around him. What I though was really funny is that the buddy knew his friend was showing off and so he on purposely made him look bad. The girls also thought it was hysterical. His buddy noticed that the girls were laughing at him, so he let his friend steal it away and score.

 

 

You could easily tell that his buddy let him win the game so he didn’t look to bad. The cocky guy just gave his buddy grief for loosing and didn’t even realize that he was given the win.

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I like to blog about these random stories because I don’t want all my blogs to sound the same. I literally do the same type of workout on a daily basis.

 

The Inevitable

Hi guys,

When I was in the rec today, I walked by the field and sports building and the indoor football turf and all the memories started flowing in. I wanted to write a blog about some of the experiences I faced this semester when I was playing intramurals for Sigma Kappa.

Ok so at the begging of the semester I was on the volleyball team and we got to the game right before finals and we were facing this team that seemed “professional.” They literally had volleyball shoes, knee pads and ankle braces. When they would serve the ball it would just shoot off my arms; it stung so bad. After the game my arms were swollen and were somewhat bruised. The next day my arms were literally dark blue and raised. We unfortunately lost that match, but it really was fun.

Another time I was playing indoor soccer and I was just warming up with the people on the team. They told me to block for them so I did and when the game was about to walk off the field my sisters asked where I was going. They told me I was playing goalie. During the game I went to pick up the ball and this girl and I slammed into each other. On the way down she stepped on my leg and her she turned her foot. The cleat dug into my skin and tore it up. I had to leave the game because I couldn’t walk on it.

Even though I got hurt in these examples I would still play those sports any day. I love sports so much.

The Pay Off

So, recently I worked out for two and a half hours. I’m pretty sure I was doing cardio for at least an hour and a half. I biked for seven miles, ran for two and a half and was on the elliptical for thirty minutes. (On the real note though I strongly dislike running; last time I started running on a daily basis I got shin splints. Shin splints hurt really bad and I’m always afraid of running and getting them again.) I have no idea why I did so much cardio; I just felt like I was the energizer bunny.

            After my “cardio high” I went down to the weight lifting area where I saw Zach. Zach is a competitive weight lifter; we did at least thirty minutes of squats. Zach taught me the right form and some helpful hints, I was hard core struggle bussing at the begging. When I was squatting I literally felt like it was never going to end. After squatting we went to the free weights where I was taught I helpful hint. If you take a weight that’s not too hard to hold and curl it into your forearm and slowly uncurl it. This exercise strengths your muscles in the forearm, which in return lets you actually lift ten more pounds then you could do previously.

            Once I left the gym and starting my homework, I need to go print off something for one of my class. Right when I got up I feel right back into the chair because I was in so much pain. But overall it was a good work out and if I had another chance to have that wonderful workout I would do it in a heartbeat

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The Struggle Is Real

Hello!

Sorry guys for not keeping up on my blog. 😦 I have been soooo busy with school, working out and sorority business. BUT the plus side is that I have been sticking to working out. I mean a lot of times I debate rather or not to go but I force myself to, so it’s all good in the hood.

I have found a work out buddy named Emilie (she is my Greek niece). We go to the gym every other day except on Saturday; Saturday is our rest day. On top of going to the gym, Emilie and I, joined the Sigma Kappa Volleyball team. We have practice on Wednesday night and games on Thursday nights. During practice we run drills such as suicides, digs, sets and spikes. Madame President is our coach and she set up plays such as double double crisscross (I can’t tell you what that play consists of because I don’t know if my opponents are reading my blog). We take our intramural sports very seriously.

On a totally different topic, my grades and attention span has been increasing ever since I started working out. I don’t seem to struggle as much on the sitting down and actually getting work done. I also can recall the information easier when I’m taking tests or answering a question in class. In all honesty I haven’t come across a negative aspect of working besides being sore. Even then I know something positive comes out. When your muscles are sore from a long work out or sport, your muscles are actually broken down and rebuilt to be stronger than what it was earlier.

Well I need to go study for a test that I have tomorrow. Have a wonderful Wednesday!! 🙂

Keep Pushing

Looking into the mirror at yourself feeling dissatisfied with your body. All you see are the flaws instead of the magnificent person underneath. The torment of unhappiness start to permeate through your emotions feel depressed and unworthy. As your self-esteem starts to decrease, you feel more isolated and lonely. Your best friend starts to worry and comes over to comfort you. Your best friend listens to you while you pour your heart out for hours. She/he calms you down and tells you everything’s ok and helps you through your rough patch.

Everyone experiences Body Dysmorphia (body-image disorder characterized by persistent preoccupations with imagine or slight defect in one’s appearance). I learned that recently in my health science class. I’m like a lot of people and not happy with some parts of my body. I know that the only way to “fix” some of my flaws is by working it off. Working out can help minimize your “negative” body image. People with BDD just need to find the motivation to change their attitudes and looks if it bothers them. I not only go to the gym to get more toned but I also go for the psychological and emotional benefits.

Working out helps my self-esteem. I feel more comfortable in my body and I don’t seem to have that negative feeling of dislike toward my body. I feel a lot more happier and confident compared to when I wasn’t working out.

Sweet Remedy

Bonjour,

Imagine being back in college or a time where you were super stressed out and all you wanted to do was either give up or cry. Everything seemed to build on top of each other. The weight lays heavy on your shoulders where you feel like there was no way out of your misery. All your Professors seem to pile on tests, essays and homework assignments all in the same week. The pressure is too unbearable.

I have been feeling like this for the past couple of months; not just dealing with college classes but with family deaths and sorority business. I’m not one that will go spilling my heart out to everyone or even my best friends. I actually keep all my emotions inside. Yes I know this is very unhealthy, but that’s how I work. I usually hold everything in until a certain point where something pushes me too far to handle. All my emotions seem to pour out at once, like a new volcano erupting.

I did find out a way to release all my anxiety and stress besides holding it all in. I actually work off most of my stress. Working out seems to be one of the few methods that work for me. The longer I work out the more I start feel relaxed and at peace. Once I’m done working out I always think to myself why was I freaking out in the first place?  

The Right Mind Set

You walk into the re center; immediately the smell of sweat and the rubber burning from the equipment begins to fill your senses. Looking around you see all the people working hard on their exercise. The dread of coming here starts to depress and the excitement and determination start to flow through your body.

Lately the more I have been working out the more excited I get. I started to look forward to going to the re center. The negative thoughts are becoming minimal. It also used to be really hard to motivate myself to go to the gym. I would always make up excuses on why I couldn’t go; ex: cold weather, being too tired, not having time and many more. Since I have actually scheduled specific time to work out those excuses aren’t appearing in my head anymore.

I seem to be a lot happier and less tired the more I have been working out. I feel like I am more committed to the activities I have going on. Since I do take time to work out, my procrastination seems to be minimal because I don’t have that time to surf the web or watch

 

Netflix. In all honesty I feel like picking working out/exercising was the best immersive learning topic. Exercising not only seems to help me get more in shape, it also helps with my emotions and managing time.