Saturday's Stretch/Flexibility -- Deep Hip and Leg Stretch Flow Part 1

I found another new channel on YouTube called sadienardini.  It is mainly a yoga channel.

Today's routine is part 1 of a 3 part series that I will be posting for today and the next two Saturdays.  It is about 10 minutes long and focuses on opening up and stretching the hips, legs and lower back.

It's very important in stretching that you only take your body as far as it wants to go--you should feel a good stretch with some resistance, but it shouldn't be painful.  After holding a stretch for a while, you will be able to feel the muscle relaxing and lengthening.  If you feel it tightening, you are taking it too far.

With regular practice, you can gain flexibility in these joints and muscles so that you may be able to go further in the future.

Friday's Funny

What are your top 5 exercises?  hee hee

Thursday's Total Body/Cardio -- Partner Workout

Studies have shown that if you exercise with a buddy you will work harder and stick to it longer.

Today's workout is meant to be done with a partner.  You can help, encourage and challenge each other while getting in a great workout.

If you move from one exercise to another with little rest, you can add that cardiovascular element to it as well, or for even more calorie/fat burning add in 45 second jogs/high knees/jumping jacks, etc. in between each exercise.

Please do a longer warm up and don't forget to stretch!

Wednesday's Wild/Warrior Workout -- Insane 10 Minute HIIT Tabata

Today's workout comes from LiveExercise.

It is a 10 minute HIIT Tabata workout that has 3 high intensity exercises that are done for 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest.  This is repeated for 6 rounds before moving onto the next exercise.

As a bonus, during the "rest" time, the instructor adds a second exercise for more intensity if you'd like.

Make sure you are lifting enough weight to feel the bicep curls, but not so much that you can't control them.  A resistance band is definitely recommended here over dumbbells.

There is no warm up included.  Please do that on your own.

Please cool down and stretch on your own as well.

Tuesday's Trunk & Core + Missed Muscle Work -- 7 Ab Exercises + Upper Body Fat Burning

Today I'm posting two workouts because I missed yesterday.  I found a new channel on YouTube called  XHIT Daily.  Both workouts are from here.  No warm up or cool down are provided, please do those on your own.  You need a stability ball for a few of the exercises.

The first one is an abdominal workout consisting of 7 exercises, each done for 1 minute.

The second is a beginner upper body routine that consists of 13 exercises each done for 15 reps.  Because she does one exercise right after another with little rest, this has a bit of a fat burning/cardio element as well.  You need a ball, or bench/coffee table to lay on and a set of dumb bells.

One note, when she is doing chest flyes, the heading says she's doing upright rows.  She does those later and they are labeled correctly.

Sunday's Recipe Share -- Gluten free, grain free Gnudi

What's Gnudi you ask?  I didn't know what it was until I read last week's Food section of the Daily Herald.

Gnudi are ricotta dumplings--it's basically the yummy filling of a ravioli without the pasta shell.  The recipe published had soft bread crumbs as one of it's ingredients--I subbed that out with almond flour and flax seed meal.  I suppose I could have used a gluten free piece of bread, but then they would not be grain free.

Here's what they look like (I forgot to take a picture of mine--this one's from Google).

Mine didn't have any spinach in them--the next ones I make will for sure.

Here's my adaptation of the recipe:

(I doubled the recipe when I made it)

Step one:  Mix together 1 cup of whole milk ricotta, 1/2 c. of grated Parmesan (could use Asiago, pecorino Romano or combo of them), 1 egg, 2-3 Tablespoons of Almond Flour and 2-3 Tablespoons of Flax Seed Meal, and 1/2-1 full Tablespoon of Coconut Flour.  If gluten is not a concern, then you would use 5-6 Tablespoons of soft bread crumbs instead.  Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to take--be creative with your spices--the ricotta is really a blank canvas. Let this mixture sit for 20-30 minutes so the flour can absorb any liquid and thicken the mixture.

Step Two:  Heat a large pot of well salted water to boil over high heat.  Roll the dough into 20-30 small balls with well floured hands (I used coconut flour).  Place them on a floured baking sheet--roll them in the flour to coat them--this will provide a protective layer. (mine were bigger--I got this many from the double recipe).

Step Three:  Carefully slip them into boiling water.  After they bob to the surface, cook for 2 minutes--since mine were bigger, I cooked them for more like 4 minutes.  Remove from pot with a slotted spoon. Serve with more Parmesan or with a sauce of your choice.

I served these with eggplant parmesan--YUM!

I've also seen them fried in butter--I want to try that too.