Tabata I'm Gonna Make You Cry!

Have you ever heard of the crazy workouts they call TABATA?! There's a whole website about it HERE. Basically what it is is a FOUR MINUTE WORKOUT! Wait! What?! You heard me, FOUR MINUTES! These are perfect for those crazy days where you anxiously want to workout, but feel you really have no time. But hey, you have 5 minutes before a quick shower--you have time for a TABATA!

The breakdown.

You do 20 seconds of something hardcore. We are talking an 11 on a scale of 1-10! 

Then, you get 10 seconds to catch your breath. 

Repeat this for only FOUR MINUTES! Then you are done.

Here are some ideas:

20 sec Jumping Jacks

10 sec off

-repeat 8 times-

OR

20 sec Burpees

10 sec off

-repeat 8 times-

OR if you have A.D.D. like me:

20 sec Jumping Jacks

10 sec off

20 sec Burpees

10 sec off

20 sec Pushups

10 sec off

20 sec Sprints in place

10 sec off

-repeat twice-

Get the idea?! You can basically do anything that is quick cardio. You will be exhausted after FOUR MINUTES if you do it correctly and then you will so be feeling like you got in a good workout even though it was short!

Shape has a great selection of these! Check out there ideas HERE.

Have more time than just FOUR MINUTES? Try Fitsugars routine HERE (or pictured below) I'm not gonna lie. We may be doing this one in my Friday's class!

ENJOY!

Helpful Tips for a Healthy You

This past week I have talked to my sister and my best friend. Both want to lose weight, both have multiple toddlers that make life slightly chaotic, but both have a desire to change (and keep in mind, both look AMAZING even if they don't think so!).  The point of my blog is to help those that may not have the luxury of going to the gym two hours day, but still want to get fit. For today's post, I'm giving you some of my favorite sites that have some great tools to help you get there.

Self Magazine Fitness Calculators:  Find your ideal weight range, find out about how many calories you burned while playing with your kids, find out your happy weight, you BMI, how many calories you should intake. It's a great tool to find out you are doing okay!

I learned that the ideal weight range for my height is 108-145lbs! The estimation of how many calories I burned in a 60 minutes spin class was 760 (vigorous), and 660 (moderate), which I actually burned 700 calories in my class last night so it is pretty accurate! Check out this site! You will enjoy it!

FitDay: Here is an article on how many calories you need to burn extra a day to lose 5, 10, 15lbs, etc. I had read an article once that said if you wanted to maintain your weight, burn an extra 100 calories a day, if you want to lose 1-2lbs, burn an extra 250 calories a day. Want to drop 5lbs+, strive for 500 calories a day to burn. This article pretty much supports the one I read, plus gives you helpful tips of how to do it safely. Good article!

Calorie Count: If you are a dieter, this site is a great tool to find out how many calories you should be eating to lose weight by a certain date. I typed in for me if I wanted to lose 2lbs in a month what calories should I intake. Because of my activity level, it said 1700. If I was less active and wanted to lose more, it said 1200 a day.

Favorite Fitness Sites: We know I love stealing ideas for my workouts and there are so many amazing sites that have so much to offer.   SELF, SHAPE, and FITSUGAR offer exercises, recipes, lifestyle info, etc. CROSSFIT MAMA has stellar workouts that are all crossfit inspired, but some are super short! YOGA.COM has some great yoga routines for any level. This is only a handful of the amazing sites out there!

Great Fitness Apps: I do not have a smart phone, so I searched for recommendations on this one! Here is a great article from Men's Fitness.  Myfitnesspal suggested THESE. Huffington Post suggested THESE. I think having a built in pedometer in your phone is cool and strive to hit so many steps a day. Many of the fitness apps are free, but find ones that work for your lifestyle and your goals. Jon just downloaded one through Nike that keeps track of his distance and time when he runs. It tells him as he goes how far he's gone, and he uses that to hit a goal distance. Very cool if you ask me!

I feel like I'm only scratching the surface on the cool tools that are out there. If you find anything great, let me know! I'm always looking too!

ENJOY!

Spin Inspired

This routine I created for spin, but it can be done on a treadmill, elliptical, or on a track (if you live somewhere where the track actually has good terrain!).  I'm going to tell you the scale of the sprint or climb, where 1 is basically sleeping, and 10 you want to die! Oh, And I'm including my playlist, because I'm cool like that!

1. Whistle: Flo Rida

2. Yummy: Gwen Stefani

3. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with With You: Black Kids

4. Big Butts: Sir Mix-a-lot

5. Wonderful Night: Fatboy Slim

6. Crazy Kids: Ke$ha

7. Run: Flo Rida

8. Arms: Christina Perri

Routine: 

1. Warm up- easy breezy, 3-4

2. Easy Jog (running or elliptical), standing run (bike), 5-6

3. Sprints-30 sec sprint, 15 sec break (you can do these longer, but stick with break being half the time as the sprint.

4. Climb-Make it a great incline (like a 10+ on a treadmill) or add gear to make it about an 8. On the bike I like to add jumps to the "fellas" part!

5. Fast run. If you don't like my songs, make it a shorter song (mine is 2:45).

6. Steady climb. Lower incline (maybe 5) and maybe a light jog (scale 5-6). On the bike, I'm about a scale 7 and add hovers to the chorus.

7. Run and Sprint. Run the whole thing and sprint the chorus (I wanna run to you!). OR Jog and Sprint OR walk and sprint! It's the last song, make it worth it!

8. Cool down. Easy pace.

Sculpt All Day

 What do you do on those days you don't have time to do a workout? Do it throughout the day! Today, I challenge you to do random leg sculpting exercises throughout your day! Here's how we are going to start:

How long are you suppose to brush your teeth every morning? Two minutes, right?! So for your two minutes of teeth cleaning, we are going to focus on the inner/outer thighs and behind borrowing a little barre style exercise. I found this here. Repeat this exercise for your night time teeth brushing too!

First Position Plié and Relevé

Use a portable barre, countertop, or sturdy table that is at least hip level. Lightly place both hands on the surface and bring your feet into first position, heels together, toes turned out from the hip socket to the corners. Your feet make a small V shape. Never turn the toes out all the way, because it is hard on the knees. Lift your heels off the floor and press onto the ball of your foot, keeping your ankles strong. Keep your heels lifted the whole time. Straighten the legs and bend them so your knees are over your toes (above), keeping the torso upright and elongated. It should look as if you are sliding up and down a wall. Stretch the legs fully at the top with your heels lifted. Then bend the knees back into a plié.

How many times a day do you wash your hands?! As a mom, I feel that I wash mine about 50 times a day between cleaning up my kids, my house, bathroom breaks, doing dishes, etc. Today, I want you to do squats or a wall sit every time you wash those hands! It's 20 seconds of quad, hamstring, glute work, multiple times a day! 

I'm curious how many squats you end up doing! If you think about counting them all, let me know! I will try to keep track of mine as well!

Enjoy!

Friday: Adult Jungle Gym

Zach's 54 just got a crazy new jungle gym thing that my Friday class has been looking forward to for weeks! So in honor of the new contraption, our class focused on what we could do on this thing (and the surrounding area)! Here is what we did today!

Warm-up: Jogging around the indoor track.

Round 1: each station 1 minute

Round 2: each station 45 sec.

Station 1: TRX Front Squats-you take it from this positions (shown) into a squat and come back up. 

We added forward jumps to the squats because we are cool like that!

Station 2: TRX Crunch-I think this picture shows it perfectly! 

If you can't do a crunch, hold the plank position!

Station 3: Buso Ball Squats-like we did on THIS Friday!

Station 4:  Elevated Pushups with hands on bar.

Kind of like this . . .

Station 5: High Step Ups

 Station 6: Ab Twists with a medicine ball. 

Station 7: Pullups. We did have a big band for support, but lets be honest . . .

it was a BAD idea!

Stations 8: Rope Work-picture is about the best description I have!

(and yeah, we all looked that good doing it!)

Station 9: Buso Squats--um, I don't think well at 5:30am so we had this station twice!

Station 10: Dips on the bar. BBAAADDDD!

Station 11: Over/Unders-Step over a bar-then squat under the bar. 

Because we range from 5'2" to 6'4", this exercise was awesome!

Station 11 option 2: Monkey Bars. Yeah. This stopped being easy about

25 years ago! My hands STILL hurt!

Station 12: Crunches on ball

Finished up with abs to "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, and stretched 

to "I Like Big Butts" by Sir Mix-a-lot!

How else would you end this fun?!

Wanna Thank Your Motha . . .

You guessed it (if you know AWESOME music)! We are working on the BACKSIDE today! 

Do each move 8-16 times (at least)!

1-legged Deadlifts: Option 2 is always keeping both feet down!

Bridge: Keep the abs in tight as you push your hips up.

1-legged Squat: balance on the toe or lift foot completely up as you squat down.

 Froggy Leg Lift: Keep knees wide and toes together. Lift feet up and down.

Curtsy Lunge: As you step back, angle the back foot and "curtsy", then bring back to start.

 Side Lunge: Step side to side, bring it down to a deep lunge.

Walking Lunge: Just keep your form in check (knee over ankle) as you travel these lunges.

Hip Extensions: Kick straight leg up and down. Can add bring that knee to chest

and kicking it straight back out.

ENJOY!

Run this way: Torchin' Calories

3 min: Walk/Slow Jog (warmup)

2 min: Jog Happy (that comfy pace you love!)

1 min: Run (fast)

2 min: Jog Happy

1 min: Run

2 min: Jog Happy

1 min: Sprint (you HATE this)

2 min: Jog Happy

1 min: Sprint

2 min: Jog Happy

1 min: Run

2 min: Jog Happy

1 min: Sprint

2 min: Jog Happy

1 min: Run

2 min: Jog Happy

1 min: Run

3 min: Jog Happy or Slow Jog

(With this 30 minute workout: you should easily burn 300-500 calories: based off a 135lb woman)

Enjoy!

Sexy Arms

Today we are going to focus on the arms! I love the look of lean sculpted arms 

with strong shoulders so you never NEED shoulder pads 

(you know they like to come back in style)! Here are some of my favorite ARM go-to 

moves. There is a lot of shoulder and triceps because those are generally 

most of our problem areas! Keep the weight light (5lbs will probably be great) 

and do 3 sets of 8 for each move!

Chest Press: tones chest, shoulders, and triceps.

 Bicep Curls: can do with palms up, in or down. I suggest do each round

in a different direction to change it up!

Dips: Straighten your legs or add weight to the legs to make these harder.

Pushup: works shoulders, chest, arms, and core. Go on knees to make it 

easier but try at least one round in "guy" style!

Reverse Fly: works the back of the shoulders.

Shoulder Pushups: Make sure you keep your behind in the air for these!

 Overhead Tricep Extensions: Keep those inner arms close to your ears to keep

your form nice on these!

Front Raise (or Front Extension): Keep your elbows "soft" (so not stick straight)

and tighten your abs as you raise and lower the weights.

T-Raises: I like taking two counts to go up and down with this move.

Keep it smooth though and if you feel like you are "jerking" the weights to

get them up, go DOWN on weight!

Triceps Pushup: Most of us NEED to do these on our knees! Keep the 

elbows in tight and remember you only have 8 per round!

Triceps Kickback: These can be done with palms facing in, down, and up.

I would suggest trying a different one per round to hit all that muscle!

ENJOY!

Kickboxing!

(Jab, Cross, Uppercut Right, Uppercut Left, Duck)

Easy way to get your heart pumping and a little frustration out . . . KICKBOXING! If you have a punching bag, I'm jealous! Otherwise, "air" punching works just fine!

Here you go:

Upper Body Burn:

100 Right Jabs

100 Left Jabs

100 Right Crosses (left foot forward)

100 Left Crosses (right foot forward)

100 Right Hooks

100 Left Hooks

100 R/L Uppercuts

Lower Body Burn:

50 Right Knees

50 Left Knees

50 Right Kicks (pull knee up first then kick with flexed foot)

50 Left Kicks (pull knee up first then kick with flexed foot)

50 Back Right Kicks

50 Back Left Kicks

50 Right Side or Roundhouse Kicks

50 Left Side or Roundhouse Kicks

You WILL be feeling the burn in your shoulders and legs after these basic drills! Add combos (jab cross hook or jab jab cross, etc) to play around with it! Make sure your music is pumping and no one gets in your way!

ENJOY!

What We Did Today

Today was all about stations in my Hardcore Cardio class. We did each station for 1 minute and then rested 15 seconds. Enjoy!

Kettlebell (or weight) Swings

Walking Lunges

Sit Ups

Squats

Jump Rope or Jumping Jack

Burbees

Sumo Squat Twists

Dips

Back Extensions/Supermans

Wall Ball Toss

Pushups

Heisman 1-2-3

Quick Lifting!

50 Squats

40 Bicep Curls

30 Lunges

20 Triceps Kickbacks

10 Pushups

20 Dips

30 Supermans

40 Plie Squats

50 Sit-Ups

ENJOY!

Yoga.

Today we are going to talk about YOGA! I think Yoga gets a bad rap because people don't really understand what it's really good for. It does NOT have to be a spiritual experience! It is NOT only for stretching. You can be at any fitness level to gain the benefits of yoga! Yoga creates lean muscles, flexibility, and if you really are aiming for it, inner peace!  

I am not a Yogi, so today I'm sending you on a field-trip to your local library! Find yourself a yoga video and try it out! There are a gazillion different types out there, so I'm sure there's one for you! I have a video that features Rodney Yee, and I love it. 

Don't have time to run to the library, but still want to try out a little yoga? Start with a Sun Salutation! They are a great way to warm up your muscles and feel a stretch throughout your body! Here are a couple of options thanks to Youtube!

So go find some inner peace today!

A Little Help From SELF

Today for the sculpting ideas, I'm going to send you over to SELF Magazines' website to some awesome abs and lower body exercises! I've used the majority of these moves in my Below The Belt class and LOVE them!  The only equipment you will need is an exercise ball. I figure most people oddly have one! If not, you could use an ottoman to do the bulk of the moves! Be creative and ENJOY! (click the links below the pictures!)

Firm Booty

Toned Abs

Spinning!

It is no mystery that I LOVE spin class! It is what got me really into working out, and originally helped me lose the 20lbs I had gained post high school! It is one of the few exercise classes that is easy on your knees, yet in a 60minute class you can burn 500-1000+ calories! You see why I LOVE it?!

Starting out: If you are going to a class-go early and have the instructor set you up. Too shy to start out in a class? here is ehow.com's instructions on how to set up your spin bike, with my editing. For their complete instructions, go here.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Set the seat height at about hip level and sit on the saddle, placing the balls of your feet on the pedals. Push down on one pedal, stopping it at the bottom of the pedal stroke, where your foot is at its furthest point from your body. Your leg should be almost fully extended, but with a slight bend in the knee, and your hips should not rock as you pedal.
   • 2
     Once you get the seat about right, place your pedals in the horizontal position (parallel to the ground) and look down to see how your knee is lining up with your pedal: a plumb line hanging from the bottom of your forward knee cap should align with the center of the pedal.
   • 3
     Adjust the seat forward or backward accordingly, and remember that you may now need to raise or lower the seat slightly since the seat's fore-aft position affects your reach to the pedals.
2. 4
   Now sit on the bike and see how your hands feel on the handlebars. About 40% of your weight should be resting on the handlebars while about 60% should be on your saddle. If you have too much weight up front, raise the handlebars; if you have too much weight on the seat, lower the handlebars.  -Kat here: I always advise my class to adjust their handlebars to what is comfortable to them. I have super tall guys liking them low, and shorties thinking they should be fully raised! To each his own!-

Okay, did I bore you?! Set up is really important because it can make or break your experience. Keep in mind, your behind WILL MOST LIKELY be sore the next day! This is normal. Just watch your underwear (no super lacy thongs ladies) and give it a few more tries in a couple weeks time, and this saddle soreness will stop happening!

Playlist/Workout:

     I'm gonna give you both, because that's the way I roll! If you have music you love, totally use that! Like always, this will be about a 30 minute workout, which should burn 300+ calories if you are pushing yourself!

1. Whistle : Flo Rida : 3:45

     --Warm up seated (light gear, easy ride)

2. If We Ever Meet Again: Tambaland: 4:53

     --Standing warm up (check out girlie in the picture, see how her behind is over the seat? When 

        standing, you should feel the nose of your seat hit your inner thighs. Keep your weight in your 

        legs and play with the gears until this feels comfortable!)

3. Bang Bang: K'naan: 3:07

     --Sprints (15 sec on, 15 sec off)

4. Die Young: Ke$ha: 3:32

     --Jumps (right on the beat. I count on one leg, up for 4, down for 4, up 2, down 2, etc)

5. One Foot: Fun. 3:32

     --Heavy climb (on a scale of 1-10, make it a 8 on the heavy factor. Keep this gear the whole song. 

        Add some speed in the chorus for added "fun"!)

6. Run: Flo Rida: 3:52

     --You guess it, run! (Same scale, make it a 6 so just over a flat road. Keep tempo. At chorus, add 

        gear but keep tempo!)

7. We R Who We R: Ke$ha: 3:25

     --3 rounds, 3 speeds: seated or standing. (Start with beat being a JOG, speed it up to a RUN at 

       "Tonight we're going hard", SPRINT at"We're dancing like we're dumb". Back to a jog, add a 

        little gear. Repeat!

8. Heaven: O.A.R.: 3:31

     --cool down (lighten the gear and slow down the pace until your heart rate returns to normal)

     --stretch.

Don't forget to picture someone singing along to all of the songs and you totally have MY class! Enjoy!