Monday's Muscle Work -- Quick Leg Burn

Today's muscle work focuses on the lower body.  It is a 20 minute beginner to advanced workout from FitnessBlender.  No equipment is needed.  There are 10 exercises, performing each for 1 minute with a 15 second rest in between.

A warm up and cool down are both provided.

Here is a list of the exercises you will be doing--from the website (note--his modifications are to make the exercise more challenging rather than easier):

Squat (Easy to modify; use any weighted object that is most comfortable for you)
Lateral Jump (Difficult to modify; a weighted vest or ankle weights works best)
Ski Squat (Easy to modify; use any weighted object that is most comfortable for you)
Lunges (Easy to modify, dumbbells at sides or medicine ball at chest is best)
Sumo Squat (Moderate to modify; medicine ball at chest or barbell on shoulders is easiest)
Straight Leg Dead Lift (Easy to modify; dumbbells or barbell at thighs are best)
Tip Toe Squat (Difficult to modify; because of balance issues weighted vest is best)
Calf Raises (Easy to modify; one dumbbell, same arm as leg is best, leaves one hand free for balance)
Plie Squat (Difficult to Modify; because of balance issues weighted vest is best)
Single Leg Bridge (Difficult to modify; placing a dumbbell on the hips is best but makes balance more difficult)

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!

Thursday's Total Body/Cardio -- Cardio Barre Introductory Workout

Today's workout comes from Lionsgate BeFit.  It is a beginner cardio barre total body routine.  You don't have to have a bar to do this routine--you can use a high back chair, a counter top, or even a wall.

From the description on YouTube:

"Cardio Barre: Introductory Workout is a unique, 20 minute high energy/no impact exercise routine that combines dance-inspired barre work and light weights with continual fat burning motion to tone the entire body, strengthen the core, and kick start your weight loss potential. Cardio Barre, Hollywood's Hottest Workout guides you through several basic moves that will activate the abdominals to build a strong core, promote beautiful posture, and improve balance. You will sculpt lean muscle and slim the waistline while toning the hips, thighs, abs, legs, chest, arms, calves, obliques,"

Just a couple of form tips:  Pulses and bounces are two different things. You want all moves, even the small ones to be controlled.

Some of the moves are kind of fast, which will make it more cardio, however, do it at your own pace, remember-- form is more important than speed always.

Feel free to wear shoes if you'd like, but they are not necessary.  When doing balance work it's actually easier to go barefoot because you can grip with your toes.

On the abdominal crunches, keep your elbows back in line your ears.

When you are on your side, make sure to stay lifted out of that bottom shoulder--no slouching!

You need one lighter weight.  A warm up and stretch are both provided.

Monday's Muscle Work -- Standing Pilates for Legs, Butt and Obliques + bonus recipe

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.

Pecan Crusted Mahi Mahi

Monday's Muscle work -- Beginner Inner Thighs

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:

Wednesday's Wild/Warrior Workout + Tuesday's Trunk and Core BeFit GO/Blogilates

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.

10 Minute Tabata Legs and Chest 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.

Monday's Muscle Work -- When You Think You Can't

With this being such a busy time of year, I decided to post shorter workouts in the next few weeks so that you won't have the excuse of not having enough time.

Today's video comes from Livestrong Woman and is appropriately called When You Think you Can't .  This workout will hit all the major muscles in your body in a very short amount of time.  She suggests repeating the circuit 2 more times, but if you don't have the time, do it only once or twice with full all out intensity--it's better than nothing.

Please do a warm up and cool down on your own.

Thursday's Total Body/Cardio -- Cardio Dance Sculpt

Happy Thursday!  Today's workout comes from jessicasmithtv.  It is entitled Cardio Dance Sculpt. The great thing about dancing, at least to me, is that it doesn't feel like exercise.  I just read a post from a fitness group I follow and it said this:  "Exercise is like telling your body, "you're gonna hate me for this, but you'll thank me later."  I don't necessarily agree with that.  Exercise doesn't have to be torture.

This is a low impact, total body workout.  Because it's not done at super high intensity, it is a longer workout--about an hour.  This kind of workout is great to do in combination with shorter, higher intensity workouts on alternate days.

She does the entire thing barefoot.  It's up to you if you want to wear shoes or not.

You will need some light weights or water bottles and a chair.  She does a warm up and cool down.

Don't worry if you're not a natural dancer--Dance Like No One's Watching!!!

Monday's Muscle Work -- 20 Minute Turkey Burner

Mondays are crazy busy for me, so my posts are usually a bit shorter.  This one is no exception.  Today's workout comes from RealFitTV.

It's called the Thank Your Thighs 20 Minute Turkey Burner Workout.

I couldn't get the video to link directly.  Click the link under the picture to see the workout.

A warm up and cool down/stretch are provided.

20 Minute Turkey Burner

Wednesday's Wild/Warrior Workout -- Deck of Cards

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you don't give up." —Confucius

As you've guessed by now, I'm taking this deck of cards workout theme throughout the week.

This one is going to be intense and challenging, but remember as Confucius says, don't give up!

To see how it works, refer to Monday's post.

Here are the exercises:

Hearts:  Push ups-- regular or modified keeping the butt down, back flat and head in line with the neck.

Diamonds:  Burpees (with our without the push up, depending on how you feel).  Keep your back flat as you squat--see how she keeps her head up until she jumps back into plank and then her back remains flat as she returns to the squat.  If these are too intense, they can be done using a sturdy coffee table, chair, or even the the bottom stair step--being higher makes these easier.  You can also step the feet back and in one at a time as fast as you can instead of jumping the feet out and in.


                                   


Clubs:   Tricep Dips  Level 1 -- knees bent, level 2-- legs extended.

Your hands should be in line with your bottom and your elbows pointing back behind you.  Remember bend and straighten the elbows, keeping your legs and bottom out of it, use the arms to do the lifting.  Keep the shoulders down from your ears, and your abs and glutes tight.  If it gets too intense, just hold it at the top and count the seconds slowly for reps.

Spades:  Squat Jacks

Stay low on these.  To modify--staying low, step the foot out wider and back one at a time (this would be one rep)

JOKERS WILD!!!!

Plank jacks for 1 minute.  These can be done on forearms or with straight arms.  Again, make sure to keep your bottom down.  You should have a straight line from your head to your heels.  To modify step the feet out side to side one at a time.

Monday's Muscle Work -- Deck of Cards -- Lower Body

Today's workout is going to go along with my challenge of the week:  The Deck of Cards Workout.

Today I'm going to make up another one you--using only strength moves for the lower body.  You will need one standard deck of cards including the two Jokers.

If you missed my earlier post, here's how it works.  I'm going to assign one exercise for each of the four suits.  Shuffle the cards.  Turn over a card--do the exercise assigned for that suit as many times as indicated on the card--for example 5 of hearts = 5 reps of the exercise assigned to hearts.

Face cards = 10 reps, Aces = 11 reps.

Ok, here's the workout:

Hearts:  Squat jumps

Diamonds:  Speed skaters (count it 1,1--2,2 etc.)

Clubs:  Alternating Lunges

Spades:  Glute Bridges

For the Joker:  Mountain Climbers 30-45 seconds

Thursday's Total Body/Cardio -- 30 Day Shred Level 1 --Repost

Now, you may or may not know about the controversy surrounding the "punishment" Jillian Michaels received for breaking the rules and giving her team caffeine supplements on the Biggest Loser--well, she did and was reprimanded for it.

While I don't agree with what she did, I more so disagree with the punishment itself-- that it was the team that really received the punishment--a 4 pound disadvantage on the scale and not her.  Thankfully that disadvantage didn't matter--her team would have lost the weigh-in regardless.

I think she should have been fined, or something--she was, however, ridiculed on national television....In the end, she did not state what she did was wrong, nor did she apologize for what she did.  She was only sorry that her actions were taken out on her team.

The best thing about it was that Ruben Studdard got to return after being eliminated the week before.

Here's a link to what happened:  Biggest Loser Trainer Breaks Rules

While I am a coffee drinker and don't find anything wrong with consuming caffeine myself, I don't believe it's any trainers place to give their trainees supplements of any kind--we are not doctors.

Regardless of what happened, she still has some great workouts.  This is the first video I'm re-posting.  It's a great total body interval workout called 30 Day Shred.

All you need a set of dumbbells and a mat or carpeted area.

Tuesday's Trunk and Core + Some Missed Muscle Work -- Blogilates Challenges

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.