In less than a day, our garage underwent this makeover all in the name of making breathing room for barbells:

(Not gonna lie, I’m a little embarrassed with that “before” image! I feel like I’m hoarding.) It’s so easy to make sure the pretty gym equipment stays organized but it’s all the other stuff, the automotive cleaning stuff, the tools, the christmas decorations, that takes up valuable workout space. But it’s actually pretty easy to get it all organized and off the floor… honestly, it took us about 4 steps.

Step 1: Remove everything from the space needing to get organized. This will seem to make an even bigger eye sore since you’re essentially just moving the mess but, trust me, it’s for the best. This is also the step where I would paint the walls a nice sterile white shade but we’re just renting this home for the time being so that was out of the question. Unfinished garages… I just don’t get it.

We had to move all the junk over to the bumper plates and power rack side of the garage:

Step 2: Break up that big pile of stuff into small categorized groups of like-items. For us, all the mountain bike maintenance tools went in one pile, the snowboard tuning stuff in another, lawn & garden junk in a separate pile, etc etc.

Step 3 is all about containing the categorized piles. Visually, you can see how big of a bin will be needed for the stuff just by glancing at the piles in Step 2. You can find containers almost anywhere these days: Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, The Container Store… it’s all good.

Step 4:  Making room for gym equipment means utilizing as much wall space as possible so set up some shelving units and get those bins all up on ‘em! We found this workbench rigged with a power outlet and lights at Harbor Freight Tools and it cost less than a Reebok|CrossFit hoodie. The 4-tiered shelves we got at Walmart. Between all the containers, the workbench, and the shelf, we spent less than $200! Totally worth it for more space to do box jumps and double unders, if you ask me.

Step 5 is really optional and only “necessary” if you’re an organizational freak like me. My idea of “heaven” is getting locked in a room with a label maker and things needing to get organized. Step 5 is all about putting labels on the bins (aka putting the cherry on the sundae. Insert the voices of sweet angels singing here.)

Other ways we’ve maximized workout space by using walls include hanging the bikes vertically:

We got some yellow hooks at Home Depot and we just hang a tire off them:

We also stole our office’s decorative wall shelves and now use it to store our shoes:

Even the shop lights have found a home up on the wall with a makeshift shelf comprised of a board and a couple of L-brackets:

So now all that sits on the floor of the gym are the plyo boxes, the DIY weight tree, the bumper plates, power rack, and the workbench/shelf. Aside from that, all other floor space is fair game for foam rolling and burpees. Lucky me.

What is it about Saturdays that makes me want to indulge in sweets?! To make matters “worse” I live near Boulder where those self-serve frozen yogurt places with the pay-by-the-ounce topping bars are a dime a dozen. But, I can’t eat that on the regular. Ohhh, I know, I know! Chocolate frozen yogurt topped with Butterfinger crumbles, brownie bites, peanut butter sauce, mochi, and fresh banana slices is freakin’ delicious! (I won’t even TRY to deny that!)

So here’s a little trick that’s well known in the raw diet circuit and has been going around the interwebs. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now:

Step 1: Peel and freeze banana.
Step 2: Stick frozen banana in blender.

And… that’s it. I top mine with slap-chopped nuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon ’cause cinnamon has a way of making food look prettier – just ask Starbucks.

You have to try this banana concoction. It’s so creamy and delicious (there’s a “that’s what she said” joke in there somewhere.)

Here’s the caveat:
Admittedly, even though this qualifies as Paleo I still treat it like a cup of self serve frozen yogurt topped with Butterfingers and brownies. That is to say, I don’t indulge in it very often. After all, an 8″ banana packs 17 grams of sugar. And while I absolutely agree that a banana has its rightful place in a nutritious diet, I still believe a sugar is a sugar is a sugar. If I didn’t, I’d probably be getting drunk off fruit juice right now. I tend to stick with 1/2 a banana max and I eat this wanna-be frozen yogurt maybe once a month. So that’s my personal full disclosure.

Here’s the good news: It’s January (I know, tell you something you don’t already know.) It’s the middle of winter which means: NOW is the time to stock up on summer spandex – if that’s your thing.

I didn’t think these “the 1980′s called and want their spandex back” Reebok shorts were my thing until I looked at the additional 50% off-the-already-low-price tag. For less than $6, yeah, I could suddenly get into abstract teal, pink, and neon orange eyesore prints. (I can’t help that I like saving money.)

I also managed to score a black racer back baby-doll workout top from Target for, wait for it, $5.48. Clearance racks are SO my thing.

So, anyway, anytime I’m in a store that sells clothes, I make it a point to drop by their activewear dept and check to see if there are summer workout clothes on the clearance racks. Now is the time! I keep hoping all the summery colors might be extra extra extra motivation to workout in winter which might make barely-there-things from stores that start with “Victoria’s” and ends with “Secret” just a little more appealing. Who am I kidding; that actually won’t work for me unless said store wants to start selling “active” wear for a whopping five whole dollars. (And that won’t happen as long as beauty blondes and brunettes strut down glittery catwalks in oversized Angel wings.) Oh! But, they do sell really cute VSX workout and yoga clothes now!!!

Thank you Progenex, SICFIT, family, and friends. (Pls disregard the chipped nail polish!)

This is probably old news for my followers on Twitter but I’m saying it here anyway! Ryan and my video collaboration “Get Up. Get Fit. Get Out.” WON first place in the SICflicks fueled by Progenex video competition. The night I found out, my cheeks hurt so bad from smiling. I mean, the grand prize was FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS with some SICFIT gear and Progenex thrown in (as if $5k wasn’t enough?! Hello, we’ll take it!!)

Don’t ask me what we’re spending the money on. I don’t think I’ve ever EVER had this much free money. My mind is still reeling.

Just wanted to give a HUGE thank you to SICFIT and Progenex. I knew we did a good job with the video but, seriously, there were some stiff competition with other good videos and captured talents. We certainly didn’t expect to win so we are flattered. I mean… FLATTERED. Thank you to everyone that viewed the video, liked it on Facebook, retweeted it on Twitter, and passed it on to their friends. You guys are the best!

Thank you all so much!

Check out our Behind The Scenes shots here!

“The documentation of a day in the life of athletes who believe it’s not only about what you do under the bar and in the gym, but what it enables you to do when you step out the door.”

As it turns out, capturing a  series of “money shots” on film is hard work. It’s been well worth the effort, though. Maybe I’m biased but I think it’s slicker than residual snot on a nose hair after a sneeze. Check out WHY we work out!

So much planning and thought went into picking locations, working with weather, and manipulating lighting that I figured, “Why just stop at making a video?! Let’s give a behind-the-scenes glimpse (with special permission from Mr. Ryan Filmmaker) into the making of Get Up. Get Fit. Get Out.”

#1
This is what you see in the opening timelapse scene:

But what you don’t see is:

- The “Decker” script is our real handwriting! It was signed on my Wacom tablet and then later animated with the help of YouTube tutorials. The info is out there, you just have to know what you want and go out and get it.

- The cloud timelapse required waking up at still-dark-go-back-to-sleep-o’thirty in the morning. It was made out of 180 total pictures. Since we didn’t have an intervalometer, and we weren’t enticed to drop $136 for it, we calculated that we would need to MANUALLY take 1 picture every 5 seconds for 15 minutes for a mere 5 second clip. My elementary math teachers would be proud. Did I mention we deemed the first timelapse “meh…not dramatic enough” so we had to rinse and repeat the whole process! It’s just so hard to settle for anything less than “BAM.” If you don’t get BAM! the first time, “kick it up a notch.”

#2
In the movie clip, you see this:

Could you tell that my shirt is purposely inside out?! Apparently, all those words were kind of distracting on film. Which brings me to a photog tip: Neutral colors and clothes with smaller prints/designs work best since they are more versatile (color wise) and not as distracting (but if that is the intent, the this product of the 80′s recommends neon.)

#3
In the movie clip you see these garage gym scenes:

But what may not have been so obvious is that we lacked fancy video lighting. So, for ALL the shots filmed in the garage, Ryan got creative with placing Home Depot halogen shop lights around whatever he was filming. Hip hip for working with what you have! You know what they say, “It’s not what you can do when the tank is full, it’s what you can do when the tank is empty.” Well our video-making budget may have been empty but, in the words of Kanye, “Who gon stop me? Who gon stop me, huh?”

#4
We were luckier than a rabbit in a cage full of hound dogs to be able to capture the sun-flare goggle shots. The sun was quickly setting behind the mountains at the time. In fact, getting a lot of the shots was a matter of racing and chasing the sun. We were bonafide light chasers.

Which brings me to another tip when making movies or taking pictures: YOU MUST MUST MUST PAY ATTENTION TO WHERE YOUR LIGHT IS. Play around with sun flare (my favorite!), backlighting, and directional lighting. And, psssst! The best time to get your shots is within an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset when the lighting is the most delicious, hence why photographers call it “The Golden Hour.”

#5
This is what you see in the video but if you look closer, you’ll notice my fingers are red. It was colder than a polar bear’s bum but wearing gloves was distracting and it decreased my dexterity, which looked sloppy on film. So, off with the gloves and on with the frostbite. Yet another tip? WHEN PHOTOGRAPHING PEOPLE, PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THEIR EYES AND THEIR HANDS. Hands have the potential to portray a lot of emotion. You ever see a Valley Girl dining al fresco with her BFF in California? You can practically see what she’s saying just by watching those pretty manicured hands.

#6
The idea for this shot was derived in the quiet minutes between fully asleep and fully awake. I woke up and thought, “Headlights!” And so this shot was filmed in freezing temperatures, at night, in front of the car’s headlights because… I had a dream! I mean, we had to change things up from the halogen shop lights, anyway, so…

#7
In the movie, you see the overhead lunge scene:

Well those shots were filmed on a pedestrian bridge over a highway. Filming these shots took longer than a check out in a Walmart Express Lane because we had to wait for pedestrians to walk out of the frame. It was exceptionally windy that day and so half the time I attempted (rather futilely) to get shelter from the wind by hiding behind a 45lb bumper plate. Rubber – it’s not THAT warm.

#8
The trail running shots were filmed at my favorite place to trail run in Boulder. There is a network of trails that start behind the National Center for Atmospheric Research and curve for miles on ridges, to canyons & gulleys, and past meadows.

The segment was filmed up on a ridge so it was extra windy. In between “Cut! Retake! Aaaand… action!” I could be found trying desperately to warm up under my snowboarding jacket. This is the fake smile I give when I feel like I’m f-f-f-f-freezing.

#9: The tyrolean scene! It was filmed in Boulder Canyon:

You ever trying hanging from cinched harness on a taught rope over a snow-covered river with a full bladder? Don’t. It’s actually not that comfortable. For this scene I forgot my helmet in the car (shame, shame) so I borrowed Ryan’s, which was two sizes too big ’cause his head has to be big enough to accommodate his super smart brain. So, when we reviewed the clips on scene (always review your clips on scene!) it was discovered that the oversized helmet was CROOKED the whole time (a climbing pet peeve of mine.) That’s when we opted to refilm the whole segment – while hanging in the harness, in the cold, with a full bladder – in less than 5 minutes because the sunlight was quickly diminishing. Dedication and attention to detail? Yes. Yes, I think so.

Crooked helmets makes me feel like my helmet is not secured well to my head. RE-TAKE!

#10
Not sure how I managed to remember to wear a mitt on my right hand and not on my left hand for this scene. And the whole time I was convinced I had a circulatory problem when only one had started getting wet and cold.

#11
The “asleep before your head hits the pillow” scene starring Ryan was achieved in only 5 takes. Apparently, 5 takes of falling backwards on a pillow is all it takes to end up with a brain-sloshing headache. I always loved falling backwards on my bed as a kid and never got a headache. Maybe that explains why my brain is way smaller than Ryan’s.   I hope Ryan thinks the mild concussion was worth the shot.

And so there it is! “Get Up. Get Fit. Get Out.” If our submission doesn’t win the contest, it’s still cool ’cause what we both learned about making films is invaluable. This was Ryan’s second edit so win or not, it’s only going get better from here. If nothing else, we at least had fun getting outside and doing all the outdoor things that is the motivation between converting a garage into a gym and waking up at 6:00am in the dead of winter to deadlift!

What’s the motivation behind YOUR workouts? Drop a link to any of your fitness videos – I’d love to see what’s got you fired up.