Sliding Workouts

Have you ever tried a towel or skateboard workout? Boy, are they intense! If you have done these before, you know that it is a massive ab and glute workout. If you have not, I would highly recommend trying it! Skateboard workouts are my personal favorite, but if you do not have a skateboard available, towel workouts are fantastic as well! For either of these workouts, the goal is to use your leg, abdominal, and arm strength while any other portion of you is sliding around on the floor. This takes lots of balance, coordination, and strength- and because of that, is a great whole body workout!

Although skateboard workouts are not as big of a hit yet, there are still a few YouTube videos out there with them. I may just need to do a workout with the skateboard on the blog soon, because there are simply not enough good resources for a full workout.

As for towel workouts, there are PLENTY! These are a few of my favorite towel and skateboard workouts. I have also heard of using paper plates and added a Cassey Ho workout where she does just that! Let me know which is your favorite!

A Full [and Intense] Skateboard Workout

Pumps and Iron Towel Workout

This workout is very quick and VERY effective. My favorite part is that Nicole goes over proper posture. Towel workouts can be much more intense than a regular workout, and for that reason, can be a lot easier to get something wrong and get hurt from. Back strain is a big part of that. The goal is to have other parts of your body making up for the lack of resistance and support the towel gives. If you are feeling lower back pain, take a minute to readjust, something is not right.

Cassey Ho Plate Workout for Abs

Plank Roll Challenge

TGIF! What are your plans for this weekend? We will be enjoying the cold[ish] beach at a business conference near by. Usually, at these conferences, there is not too much time to workout. I have gotten use to it and try to fit in little workouts here and there instead of big ones once to twice a day.

Not sure about you, but my abs could use some TLC right now after the holidays and plank rolls seem like the perfect fix! For that reason, we have a weekend challenge! It is pretty simple, but should not be easy. If you breeze through this, try doubling or tripling the number to really active that core! One hundred plank rolls should take about 5-minutes, so it is nothing that you will have to cut out time for in the next three days.

A nice little cheat for plank rolls if you have sore wrists or need that little boost is to do them on the forearms instead of the palms of the hands. This will make them a bit easier and seriously reduce the weight on those wrists.

Happy weekend!

A Great Treadmill Interval Workout

Ok, so I cannot take any credit for this 30-minute interval workout that will feel like death while doing it, and ike you have conquered the world when it is over. This was the treadmill portion of my workout at Orange Theory yesterday and I simply had to share. Seriously, so good! The workout includes a 3-minute warm-up and 3-minute cool down. I completed it before going on to do floor work, but you can do it all on it's own as well.

If, however, you are wanting to get some major calorie burning, the floor work we did was pretty great too! There were four total sets, the first being six reps of squat rows and six reps of push-ups. Then came six reps of jumping lunges (per side) with six reps of tricep dips. A lot of other things happened with the rowing machines, but doing these two sets twice each would be a killed workout all the same!

I like to keep each pace the same or higher than the time before. For a killer workout, try increasing the sprints by 0.1-0.3 for each interval... Including the last one! Increasing the sprints really helps work my glutes as much as my lower abs. It also get a way higher calorie burn since my heart rate is going through the ringer.

What are some of your favorite ways to get a massive calorie burn?

Shape Magazine Workout Review: Brooke Burke-Charvet's Abs

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Man, it is a bit crazy to be talking about the September issue of Shape magazine- can 2014 be that close to ending already?! Apparently so.

This issue of Shape magazine has uber caught my interest. Not just because of the usual great workouts, or the fact that they have a workout by a celebrity and trainer, but also because of the recipes. I am so happy that my first look at this month's (or should I say next month's) issue was after a hearty lunch. There are some incredible recipes in this issue, like the seafood paella, that I am simply dying to try! There are also some fantastic articles that will probably go against those preconceived notions of the breakfast pastry. 

But, what we are really here to talk about is Brooke Burke-Charvet's abs. Most of us ladies, and a few men, would kill for Brooke's incredible abs of steal. At 43, her super toned physique is not minor accomplishment and one that I admire her for. Brooke is a mother of four, TV host, and fitness instructor twice a week. In her interview she talks about being let go from DWTS, family, and how her workout has changed over the years. It is a very humble, very informative article that I was happy to read- especially since I really knew very little about her before reading it. 

In the interview, Brooke said that she focuses a lot of her attention on abs. This made me super excited since the whole workout is some of her favorite (and most grueling) ab exercises. Whether you love ab workouts or could drop them like a sack of potatoes, we all know how important they are and how tough, long, and unsuccessful they can be. This ab workout is only about 4-minutes and includes one set of each exercise geared to work the upper, lower, and oblique abdominal muscles.

The Workout

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This workout is pretty straight forward with 6 moves, two of which uses a weight. I completed mine in the morning just after waking up and before having my breakfast. It was a great way to start the day and ended up taking me 4 1/2 minutes to complete! I am not sure how this would be as a workout on it's own, but together with another workout or as something you do as a quick heart rate raiser during the day, it is pretty great!

Since the whole thing took 4-minutes and was mainly floor work, I decided not to wear my HRM. Not sure about how your HRM works, but mine never seems to get it right when I am horizontal... Because of this, I do not know the calories burned, but I can say that it definitely raised my heart rate in the first 30-seconds!

The workout did not leave my abs quaking or my muscles sore, but it is something I would love to do with another workout or as part of my wake-up regimen :)