Commercial Break Workout

Like most girls, I quite enjoy multitasking. One of my fav multitasking strategies is getting an extra workout in while watching tv. There are a few shows out there that I am completely addicted to, so instead of working out during the show, I will work out during the commercial break. The best perk is I do not feel guilty for wasting an hour on an already busy day.

Complete one circuit per commercial break. Each exercise should take 30 seconds, each circuit should be 90 seconds. If you wish to double up, try doing two circuits per commercial break and getting through the reps twice!​ The workout will help tone your entire body with circuits that will work specific regions.

To make this into a no-commercial workout, complete all circuits and take a 30 second break between circuit two and three. Then, take a 30 another second break after circuit four. Repeat this once.

Circuit One

Jumping Jacks

Jumping Jacks are a great way to get your heart pumping. Complete 30 seconds of jumping jacks, then move directly to the next workout. ​

Elevated Push-Ups

These are great for the arms, shoulders, and back. Get into push-up position and place your feet on a chair. Complete as many push-ups as you can in 30 seconds with your feet in the elevated position. 

Chair Ups

30 seconds of chair ups can go a long way to working those triceps. Start by sitting at the edge of your chair and place your hands on the edge with fingers folded over the front. Straighten legs out in front of you and lower your body so you are almost sitting. Lift yourself back up by straightening your arms. Continue lowering yourself and lifting back up for 30 seconds. 

Circuit Two

Swimmies

These will work arms, back, and legs. Lay on your stomach with legs straight out and arms in front of you. Lift your legs and torso off the ground so only your stomach and hips are on the floor. Alternate lifting your right arm and left leg, then left arm and right leg up higher off the ground. You should look a bit like you are swimming. Continue for 30 seconds straight. ​

V-Outs

V-outs work your lower abs and inner thighs. Intensity will vary depending on your leg's angle. ​The higher the intensity, the lower your legs are to the ground. Lay on your back with legs at 90 degrees (intermediate) or 45 degrees (advanced). Place your hand under your tailbone and begin opening legs to form a "V". Hold this position, then bring legs back together. Do as many V-outs as possible in 30 seconds.

Mountain Climbers

Mountain Climbers will work your abs, thighs, and all those tiny muscles in between! ​Get into lowered plank position and begin by bringing the right, then left leg in towards your chest. Alternate legs as fast as you can for 30 seconds. Just be sure to keep you bum down and your back in line with your legs.

​Circuit Three

Banana-Boat

This exercise works your oblique abs just as much as your intercostals and inner thighs. Start on laying on your back with arms and legs straight out. ​Lift your arms, shoulders, and legs off the ground. Hold this, banana, position for ten seconds, roll over and hold your legs, chest, and shoulders off the ground in boat position for ten seconds. Complete this banana/boat three times.

Be sure to roll to the left twice, then back to the right twice to work all muscle equally. Arms and legs should not touch the ground at all in the 60 seconds. Be sure to only use your body to roll, no cheating with hands!

Plank Position

Plank is great for arms and abs. To get more of a workout, try lowered plank position for 15 to 30 seconds. Hold plank position for 30 seconds, total. Be sure that hands are directly below shoulders. Your back should be in one straight line with no sagging lower back or lifted bum. 

Circuit Four

Lunges

Lunges are one of those core workout components that are great for our bum! Start standing with feet shoulder width apart. Bring right leg out in front of you and bend both the right and left knees so your front leg has a 90 degree angle and the back knee is almost touching the floor. Hold, then return to starting position. Alternate between the right and left legs for 1 minute. Be sure the your front knee does not go beyond the foot. 

Chair Circles

These are so wonderful for obliques and bum. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and hands in prayer position at the chest. ​Bend legs as low as possible while keeping the back straight. Begin Rotating your hips to the right in a circular motion while keeping the rest of your body still. Rotate to the right for 15 seconds, then rotate to the left for 15 more.

Jumping Jacks

Elevated Push-Ups

Chair-Ups

Swimmies

V-Outs

Mountain Climbers

Banana/Boat Part I

Banana/Boat Part II

Plank Position

Lunges

Chair Circles

Women's Health Workout Review: Drop Two Sizes

The May issue of Women's Health Magazine has a few reads that almost every woman would enjoy. ​Not only does this issue have a kick-butt workout via Keri Russell (star of the FX show The Americans and previously Felicity), but it also has an article by the new author of Drop Two Sizes, Rachel Crosgrove. Crosgrove's new book claims that we can loose more weight with shorter, higher intensity exercises.

This workout comes with an entire in-depth article talking about something many of us have been reading and implementing already- circuits, intervals, and thirty minute workouts. According to The Journal of Obesity, regular aerobic exercise has much greater limits for fat loss than we initially thought. If you are working out at the gym for hours on end and seeing little to no dips in the scale, Rachel recommends switching to some high intensity ​exercises that have been shown to increase fitness, lower insulin resistance, and increase fat loss.

Rachel Crosgrove recommends trying this "countdown" workout once to twice a week, replacing your usual cardio workout. Countdowns are a form of circuits where, instead of doing certain exercises for a determined amount of time, you do a determined number of reps, then, reduce the number of reps by one in each set. The last set of exercises should have one rep per set. Whoa, that was a lot of rep and set talk!

This countdown workout has five exercises and starts doing each exercise five times. Crosgrove says that the countdown method encourages proper form and a higher output of energy with every set. By doing the countdown, we are able to put more energy into every exercise to see better results. 

The Review

When I first saw this workout I thought it was too good to be true... Loose two dress sizes just seems to be a media ploy. I am still not convinced of the title, but am completely intrigued. The workout starts with a quick warm-up and is followed by five reps of each set and a 20-40 second cardio break between each set. All of the exercises are quite simple and almost all of them have been on the blog. There is nothing that seems too difficult about the workout, but I was dripping with sweat by the end, all the same. ​

The entire workout took me about fifteen minutes and burnt about 130 calories. That is pretty fantastic, especially for something with so little cardio! I was especially happy when I woke this morning to some sore inner thighs and other tiny leg muscles I did not know existed... This was much better than the burn I felt in my quads during the entire workout.

Overall, the workout is fantastic. Rachel Crosgrove has put together a great sequence that tricks you into working harder than you think. I am very excited to implement more "countdown" workouts into my fitness routine after this introduction. Hopefully, next week I will be able to review the super intense Keri Russell workout as well; it's what she did to get in shape for her role as a Russian spy! ​

Workout Round-Up and Apps for Marathon Trainers

I have been using some new workout tools for that past week or two and wanted to give a "check-in" on how they are going and what results I am finding. ​First off, the Butt Challenge. Do it. The first night I did it, it took me four minutes and I actually laughed at how easy it was. The next morning I woke up and the laughing stopped. My buns were aching! I have already noticed improvements in the derriere department, and give a big part of the credit to this workout.

Secondly, I quickly brought up that I have been using the 10k Free app in a post last week. I am not scheduled for any races yet, but plan on running a half marathon in either October or November. A nice bit of time to get prepared! I am currently using the 10k Challenge app and love it, but am seriously considering moving to the Map My Run app since you can set the race day, map the runs, ​set the days of training per week, and get text reminders on running days!

I am currently training three days of the week and will keep that up for as long as I can figure. The 10K Free starts out pretty slow with intervals where you pick the pace. This could be really great for a person who does not run often, or runs very slow... Me. With intervals and an incline, I ran 2 miles per 30 minutes, three times that week. It was a fantastic workout that never got boring. Intervals are heaven. 10K brings you up slowly and will train you to run just over six miles in fourteen weeks. ​This is not too bad and will leave me almost the same amount of time to train for the rest of the miles involved in a half marathon. If you are interested in training and running with me and live in the Central Florida area, message me. If we have enough people, we will form a super fun, app driven running group! There are a few different race options, and if there is enough interest, I may put them up for a vote!

For now, I will continue to use the 10k Free and possibly put a training routine up in the next few weeks. ​

How to Run

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I have been increasing my runs per week in preparation for a half marathon in the fall. Although I am super-excited about my first ever half marathon, I am also very weary of over-excursion or injury. ​Great fitting running shoes are the foundation for a good run, those are covered, but what about the stride, warm-up, and cool down?

Warm-Up

A five minute warm-up with dynamic stretches before your run will go a long way. Our joints get put through the ringer when we run, warming up ahead of time will reduce joint pain, ligament and muscle pain, and risk of injury. 

It is important to break into our jogging pace slowly once our dynamic stretches are complete. Start by walking, then increase your speed until your desired pace is accomplished. If, for some reason you do not complete dynamic stretches ahead of a run (which I so do not recommend), make sure to walk for about five minutes before you get into your jog. This will warm up your muscles and increase your heart rate, reducing the risk of cramps, fatigue, and injury. 

A Runner's Stance

​A runner's stride can make or break a run. Sore lower back muscles, cramps, shin splints, neck pain, and tense shoulders are all signs of improper strides. Like so many novice runners, when I started running a few year back, I felt all these pains. The good news is that the issues that cause these pains can be fixed, and in a pretty short amount of time.

An important, and sometimes overlooked, part of of a stride is the position of one's head. ​When we run, our chins should be parallel to the floor and our eye should be looking at the horizon. By looking ahead, we are able to see future obstacles (I feel like there is a life lesson there) and reduce tension in our neck and shoulders.

Looking down during a run can cause neck pain and migraines over time. By looking straight ahead, we are also starting good posture from the head down. When running, shoulders should be down and loose. We do not want our chests sticking out and shoulder-blades touching. If you start to feel your shoulders rising up towards your ears or curving inwards, reduce your pace and get back to your starting posture.

Lower back pain can come from pushing the pelvis too far forward and putting strain on the lower back. Our hips should be perpendicular to the floor with our bodies tilted forward slightly. The slight tilt will keep a forward momentum and the straight hips will take strain off the lower back. ​Arms should be held to our sides and only swing slightly with elbows held at a ninety degree angle throughout the entire run. Runner's World makes a great visualization for the hands; hands should be in loose fists like your are holding potato chips in each fist and do not want to break them.

Legs and feet are a super important part of any run. There is a lot of debate about how a person should land when running; ball vs. mid foot. I was taught the important of rolling the foot upwards when running by landing on the mid-foot (not the heal) and pushing off with the ball. This is also what Runner's World, Good Form Running, and a whole bunch of doctors agree is best. When jogging, be sure that you are not stomping or slapping your foot against the ground.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned about a stride is to keep the feet landing directly under the body at a cadence of 180 steps per minute. Unless you are sprinting, there is no reason to have a wide stride with high knees. Knees can be kept low and strides should be short. ​Be sure the the feet do not extend out farther than the knees when landing. Too broad a stride can cause landing on your heels instead of your mid-foot and lead to knee pain, back pain, shin splints, and micro fractures.

Cool-Down

It is important to have a cool down walk once your run is over. A five minute cools down will help your heart rate get back to normal and cool down muscles. After your run, complete about five minutes of post-run stretches. Static stretches after a workout will increase muscle flexibility and mobility. This will increase athletic performance and mobility over time and keep muscle long and lean. ​