The 50's are a sandwich generation of fitness; we don't want to work out like we did 15, 10 or even 5 years ago, yet we aren't ready for the "senior" classes either. I'm revamping this blog to be a blend of health and fitness tips that I hope all of you "fiftysomethings" will find helpful.
***I am not a doctor or nutritionist.
Please consult your physician before performing any exercises or following any tips shown on this blog.
I've posted over and over again, that you cannot get a flat stomach or lose body fat just by exercising. What you eat is extremely important!
That being said, today's video combines fat burning cardio with strength and toning exercises geared towards your abdominal muscles. It is from blogilates and is about 8 minutes long.
Use a mat or do on a carpeted floor. I don't know how she is doing some of these exercises on a hard wood floor!
Listen to your body--modify if and when you need to.
Today's workout comes from Cassey Ho of blogilates. It is an intense 10 minute workout that focuses on the abdominal muscles. Make sure you warm up a bit first before doing this workout. You could also do this at the end of a cardio or other strength training workout as well.
Today's workout is another one from the 30 Day Fat Burn series from BeFit. It is called Metabolic Boost.
It is an intense 10 minute workout that includes the 4 cycles for 4 exercises, done for 30 seconds each. Each cycle is a progression from the previous cycle--modify to the earlier exercise if you need to.
The exercises included are:
Squat
Plank
Alternating Back Lunge
Mountain Climber
Squat Jump
Up Down Planks
Alternating Jump Lunges
Push-Up Climber Combo
Squat Jump/ Heel Click
Side Plank/ Hip Pulse Combo
Lunge Pulse
Crawls to Climbers Combo
Squat Pulses
Side Plank/ Hip Pulse Combo
Lunge Pulse
Climbers to Alternate Reaches
No warm up or cool down/stretch are included, please do those on your own.
Since I didn't post yesterday, I thought I'd add a wild ab challenge from blogilates as well. Do as many as you can with great form.
Today's workout comes from blogilates. It is basically a set of two challenges. First, you will be in a sit back position with 1 leg extended and will draw the letters of the alphabet in the air in front of you, switching legs half way through. Great for core stability and strength. The more you lean back, the more challenging it is.
In the second challenge you are on your back and the letters are made with your legs.
Please warm up first.
Give your lower back and abs a good stretch at the end--for lower back, hug your knees (grab behind the thighs) to your chest--hold for 30 secs to 1 minute. To stretch you abs, take your hands overhead and legs straight out (like a pencil) --breath in and stretch from fingertips to toes, hold for a second and breath out. Do this several times.
Sorry I missed posting yesterday, my husband and I were taking our son back to school for his final semester! Yay only one more to go--thankfully he's a junior, so we get a year off!
Today's muscle workout comes from blogilates. It is a standing pilates routine that focuses on the legs, butt and obliques.
There is no warm up, please do a short one first--march in place, do some squats, swing your arms around, just to warm the muscles up a bit.
Here's your bonus recipe: Pecan Crusted Mahi Mahi
I made this for dinner the other night--SO good!!!
It comes from Good Clean Fun which I guess is now A Whisk and a Hammer.
I omitted the cinnamon and nutmeg and just did straight salt and pepper for seasoning.
I finally saw this movie a couple of weeks ago. I had to wait until I saw the movie to share this workout.
It comes from blogilates. I think it is quite clever, fun, but intense. Criss Cross Jabberjays, Force Field Flyers, Poisonous Fog Crawl, Tick Tock Abs, Sprint or High Knees and Monkey Butt Knockout, these are the names of the exercises you'll be doing.
Do a warm up first. She takes you through the exercises once and you are to repeat the entire thing again on your own as many times as you'd like
While I was looking for this workout, I found another one. The workout starts about halfway through the video. It consists of 4 moves: burpees, power jumps, switch kicks and jabs. Just like above she takes you through the circuit once and then you are to repeat it again 2 more times on your own. Enjoy!
Today's muscle work video focuses on the inner thighs. It comes from blogilates and is about 10 minutes long. There is no warm up. Please do that on your own.
Make sure when you are on your side you keep your body upright. You don't want to slouch into that shoulder. If it starts to get too challenging to maintain, you can come down and cradle your head in your hand. (like in the above picture).
You'll want to do a quick inner thigh stretch afterward. Follow the pictures below:
I did this push up challenge with my class this morning. It was killer!!!! Instead of doing it to the song "Primadonna", we did it to "Vertigo" by U2--about 3 minutes 15 seconds. I changed it up a little. We did tricep push-ups during the chorus and kept the cross behinds slower. I have to admit, I lasted about 2 minutes and 45 seconds. We finished with chest raises--intense!
I spent most of yesterday at the vet with my dog--poor baby. This is him. Isn't he cute?
So since I didn't get to post yesterday, I'm including a short abdominal challenge to the end of the wild workout.
Keeping up with my shorter workout theme for the holiday season, this week's wild workout comes from BeFit GO. It is a 10 minute tabata workout that features 2 groups of 2 exercises doing each exercise for 20 seconds on 10 seconds rest for 4 rounds each targeting the legs and chest. Since there is only 10 seconds of rest in between exercises, it is quite an intense cardio workout as well.
Please do a warm up on your own, and don't forget to stretch afterward--they do a couple, but not enough.
If you don't have a medicine ball, don't worry about it. Do regular push-ups and hold a weight between your hands for the sit ups--or do them without any weight. I couldn't get the video to link directly. Click on the title below to get to the workout.
The ab workout challenge is from blogilates. It called "Waist Slimming POP Pilates to Wings by Little Mix." In this challenge, there is a modification box in the the upper left corner to follow if the move she's doing is too challenging.
As I've stated before, you cannot spot reduce, but you can spot tone. In order to truly "kill" that muffintop, you need to eat clean and do regular cardio and strength training as well; the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you will burn on a daily basis = higher metabolism.
Today's workout comes from Cassey Ho's Pilates Bootcamp Series on LivestrongWoman.
There is no warm up, please do one yourself. The workout is called Kill that Muffintop for Beginners. She uses a dumbbell, but if you are a beginner, do it without first.
I just couldn't get my act together to post anything yesterday.
So, today I found some fun challenges from Cassey Ho on the Blogilates Channel on YouTube. These challenges are set to different songs. I chose challenges for the abs and lower body. I'll do some for the upper body in another post. The songs are all between 3 and 4 minutes long.
Remember as always, warm up first and don't forget to stretch after!
The first one is the "Roar" Challenge for Abs and Inner Thighs
The second one is the "When You Love Her" Legs and Lunges Challenge:
The third one is the "Dance with Me" Ab Challenge:
The fourth one is the "Glad You Came" Calves Challenge:
An easier alternative to the bag of books is to fill empty milk bottles with water = 8 lbs.
Next is the "As Long as You Love Me" Love Handles Challenge:
One more for the abs: The "Up All Night" Abs Challenge
If it bothers your neck, place your hands gently behind your head keeping your elbows way back--lift chest toward the knees NOT your elbows. This could actually hurt your neck more if done improperly.
and my personal favorite: Gangnam Style Call Me Maybe Mash-Up Squat (lower body/cardio) Challenge:
This is such a great idea, I'm definitely going to incorporate some challenges like this into a couple of my own classes.
