No time to get to your gym? Or maybe you just want a change of surroundings for your workout. If you work or live in a building with stairs and hallways (and you're permitted to exercise in them) I have the perfect workout for you to do. Especially a few days before Christmas, where you'll most likely be overindulging in food and drink.
Today, I took my class through these drills, and I know they loved me for it. This is based on having 5 floors in your stairwell. If you have less,or more, you can adjust it accordingly.
50x squats (on the ground floor), run up to the 5th floor
40x squats, run up to the 4th floor,
30x, 3rd floor
20x, 2nd floor
10x, 1st floor
*Let's say you only have one flight of stairs, you can adjust it by doing the 50 squats, then running the stairs 5 times, then do your 40 squats, then run it 4 times, and so on.
Want to make this even more challenging? Reverse it, start with 10 squats and one floor and work your way up.
For your next drill, find a hallway that has low traffic. Try to find a hallway that is a good distance, not too short, but not too long.
Do 10x pushups, run the hallway and back
8x pushups, run the hallway and back
6x pushups, run hallway and back
4x pushups, run hallway and back
2x pushups, run hallway and back
For your final drill you will mix jumping jacks and planks. You don't really need the hallway or stairwell for this, but it's good to finish up with some core work.
20x jumping jacks/1 min. plank
15x jumping jacks/ 45 sec. plank
10x jumping jacks/30 sec. plank
5x jumping jacks/25 second plank
*If you have a partner you guys can switch off holding the plank and doing jumping jacks.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!
Holiday Eating Tips
It's hard to stay on a regimen over the holidays and let's face it; we are all going to splurge a little bit during the holidays. With that in mind let's all remember these tips for making it through the holidays without reversing any of your great progress:
1. Keep working out every day.
2. On a day when you anticipate eating a lot, do a high impact cardio workout beforehand to counter some of the effects of overindulging.
For example, perform a sprint workout. Yes you have to bundle up and go outside.
Do 8-10 sprints (meaning as hard as you possibly can run) about half the length of a soccer field. Sprint on the lap up, and jog back. Repeat this 8-10 times. If you must rest in between, take a short rest. Remember to breathe through your nose when exercising outside.
3. At a big dinner, just have a little bit of everything. Only put a small amount of each course on your plate. Of course make sure you have your veggies and watch those simple carbohydrates! Here’s a hint, serve your food with the opposite hand of which you usually use. For instance if you are right handed, serve your food with your left. This sounds crazy, but you actually wind up serving yourself less food this way.
4. Chew your food at least 10 times before swallowing.
5. Use the 10 minute rule, meaning if you think you must have seconds, wait about 10 minutes and see if you feel the same way. That so called hunger for seconds goes away after waiting 10 minutes. Often people grab more food on impulse when they are not really hungry. The 10 minute rule is a huge help on this.
6. Limit alcohol consumption. (especially on New Year's Eve! )
7. Last but not least, don't deny yourself a Christmas cookie or two, but leave it at that. You don't want to sit there and eat the whole tin of cookies. I guarantee you will regret it. If you think you can't have one without having 15, it's best to stay away and opt for a healthier holiday snack.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
1. Keep working out every day.
2. On a day when you anticipate eating a lot, do a high impact cardio workout beforehand to counter some of the effects of overindulging.
For example, perform a sprint workout. Yes you have to bundle up and go outside.
Do 8-10 sprints (meaning as hard as you possibly can run) about half the length of a soccer field. Sprint on the lap up, and jog back. Repeat this 8-10 times. If you must rest in between, take a short rest. Remember to breathe through your nose when exercising outside.
3. At a big dinner, just have a little bit of everything. Only put a small amount of each course on your plate. Of course make sure you have your veggies and watch those simple carbohydrates! Here’s a hint, serve your food with the opposite hand of which you usually use. For instance if you are right handed, serve your food with your left. This sounds crazy, but you actually wind up serving yourself less food this way.
4. Chew your food at least 10 times before swallowing.
5. Use the 10 minute rule, meaning if you think you must have seconds, wait about 10 minutes and see if you feel the same way. That so called hunger for seconds goes away after waiting 10 minutes. Often people grab more food on impulse when they are not really hungry. The 10 minute rule is a huge help on this.
6. Limit alcohol consumption. (especially on New Year's Eve! )
7. Last but not least, don't deny yourself a Christmas cookie or two, but leave it at that. You don't want to sit there and eat the whole tin of cookies. I guarantee you will regret it. If you think you can't have one without having 15, it's best to stay away and opt for a healthier holiday snack.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!
Vanity Muscles
What muscles did you work today? Let me guess, if you’re a male you worked your chest and biceps and if you’re a female you worked your legs, thighs, and glutes? It seems to me that in general most men and most women seem to concentrate more on these respective areas.
Why? Because these are the vanity muscles. These are the muscles you see when you look in the mirror. And let’s face it; men are conditioned to think their chest and biceps should be big and developed from childhood and women are bombarded with magazine covers and pop culture suggesting their lower half is what needs to be sculpted But if these are the only muscles you train, your workout is seriously flawed.
You are not going to develop that physique you may be picturing if those are the only muscles you train. If anything you are overtraining them, and you are going to make your body asymmetric, thus leaving you open to more injury and an oddly shaped body. First off, overtraining is not going to help you make gains, it’s counter productive to making gains. Overworked muscles do not grow or develop. Also, any development in those vanity muscles will also seriously be stalled if you do not workout the rest of your body. You will get leaner faster if you work every muscle in the body (yes guys, that includes legs too) at least one time per week.
Doing the same routine over and over is another gym no-no. The body thrives on variety. You will either get bored or your body will plateau and you may stop seeing development altogether. If you did bench press and dumbbell curls last week, this week do an incline dumbbell press and cable curls. If you did squats last week, do lunges this week. There are hundreds of different ways to mix it up.
I know it’s tempting to go into the gym and plop right down to work on those vanity muscles, and this is fine, it just means that you are working those muscles that day, which, in turn means the next day that you go into the gym, you need to work other muscles.
Why? Because these are the vanity muscles. These are the muscles you see when you look in the mirror. And let’s face it; men are conditioned to think their chest and biceps should be big and developed from childhood and women are bombarded with magazine covers and pop culture suggesting their lower half is what needs to be sculpted But if these are the only muscles you train, your workout is seriously flawed.
You are not going to develop that physique you may be picturing if those are the only muscles you train. If anything you are overtraining them, and you are going to make your body asymmetric, thus leaving you open to more injury and an oddly shaped body. First off, overtraining is not going to help you make gains, it’s counter productive to making gains. Overworked muscles do not grow or develop. Also, any development in those vanity muscles will also seriously be stalled if you do not workout the rest of your body. You will get leaner faster if you work every muscle in the body (yes guys, that includes legs too) at least one time per week.
Doing the same routine over and over is another gym no-no. The body thrives on variety. You will either get bored or your body will plateau and you may stop seeing development altogether. If you did bench press and dumbbell curls last week, this week do an incline dumbbell press and cable curls. If you did squats last week, do lunges this week. There are hundreds of different ways to mix it up.
I know it’s tempting to go into the gym and plop right down to work on those vanity muscles, and this is fine, it just means that you are working those muscles that day, which, in turn means the next day that you go into the gym, you need to work other muscles.
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