Super Saturday II

Get ready, get set, GO!

Here's a quick full body workout for your weekend energizer!

Start with 50 jumping jacks. Stay on your toes and don't use momentum for your arms to really make them count!

Do 10 push-ups each against a wall, counter, and then floor.

10 squat jumps (All the way down and then high in the air pointing those calves!)

10 tricep dips.

50 Windmills w/squat. (Do windmills but going into a squat each time.)

20 single leg lunges: These are the lunges you do standing in front of a chair with one leg back on the chair.

End with The 100 (Lay on back, legs up off ground, head and shoulders up, arms pulse for 100...)

Repeat 3 times and then enjoy your weekend!

Ok, now seriously, I am doing some blogging work...be back next week.

Taking a break

Hi everyone,

I have to take a break for a little while so I can try to figure some stuff out on Blogger with archiving (and b/c I need a break from writing here....)

I should be back on in a week but there is plenty in the archives to keep you huffing and puffing while I am gone. :-)

Enjoy!

Do-It Yourself ABS

Anti-locking Brake Systems unlock your breaks by pumping them...some ABS cause break pedals to pulse.

We can do that ourselves! Yay!

Do one minute of each exercise:

1. The 100 (On back, legs out at 45 degree angle, head and shoulders up off ground, pulse hands 100 times next to legs.)

2. Standing with feet about shoulder width apart and keeping arms behind head you are going to bring your right knee and right elbow together (crunching your abs) 20 times. (Make sure you never put too much weight on right foot when it comes down...just toe will touch ground each time.) Go straight into right elbow to left knee for 20. Then do left elbow to left knee for 20 and left elbow to right knee for 20 reps. When you are doing opposite arm and leg, bring toes slightly back and out a little farther to increase the effort.)

3. Butterfly crunches: Laying on your back, bring your legs up and soles of feet together (like a butterfly stretch). Lift your head and shoulders off the ground so you are looking through your legs. Put arms through the butterfly stretch and as you are pulsing your arms and upper body forward, pulse your legs toward you just slightly. Do this for a minute.

4. Still laying on your back, bring both feet straight into the air. Let head and shoulders stay on ground while you slowly bring one leg down at a time, holding for a second right above the ground and then back up slowly. Alternate legs, 20 times.

5. Straight crunches: Laying on back, feet on the ground, knees bent, arms behind your head (or crossed over your chest) crunch up and down slowly. Do as many as you can for the last minute. Really focus on tightening those abs!

Super Saturday!

Get ready, get set, GO!

Here's a quick full body workout for your weekend energizer!

Start with 50 jumping jacks (yes, full jumping jacks, arms and legs both!) Stay on your toes and don't use momentum for your arms to really make them count!

Do 10 push-ups each against a wall, counter, and then floor.

10 slow squats: hold the squat low for a count of 5 each time.

10 tricep dips.

10 squat jumps (All the way down and then high in the air pointing those calves!)

Repeat 3 times and then enjoy your weekend!

Early Abs

Good morning. I am on time today! Yay!

We are going to do some ab hip thrusts. Look at this video to see how.

Now, go do 20 or so and see how that goes.

Now stretch and do the 100: Lay on your back and bring your knees to your chest. Hug them tight, releasing any tension in your lower back. Take 10-20 seconds to really breathe deep breaths. Release your arms and legs so that your feet are on the ground, knees bent, arms flat on ground at either side of your body.

Now, lift your arms off the ground, fingertips together and straight out, letting the energy flow from them. Tightening your abs, bring your head and shoulders off the ground. Begin to pulse your hands up and down (as if you are saying Hi, about 2-3 inch movements) and count 100 pulses. (Keep abs tight the entire time.)

Repeat both exercises 3-5 times.

Yay! You did it!

Legs, legs, legs!

Ok, here is an interesting one.

Standing with back next to a wall (not touching it) place fingertips gently on wall for balance. Raise your right leg straight out in front of you, trying to get it at a 90 degree angle. Keep fingertips on wall only if you need it. Hold for as long as you can. Release. Switch legs.

Now, raise right leg sideways, toes keep pointing forward. Hold at the top for a count of 5 then SLOWLY bring down (but don't touch ground.) Back up, count for 5, then slowly back down. Do as many as you can keeping in mind you have to do the same number on the other side! :-)

If you don't feel the burn, repeat both exercises again (and again and again). :-)

Make it count!

FitNiche Day

Today we are doing the workout at FitNiche.com (under Daily Workouts).

We are doing 50 push-ups.

TIP 1: Keep back straight by pressing weight backward into knees or toes.

TIP 2: Spread the 50 pushups out over the entire day, doing 5 or 10 at a time if you can't do all 50 at once.

Make it count!

Out of the AByss

Here are four strong exercises. Repeat them all in a row until your abs are feeling groovy, hee hee....

First, lay on your back, right knee bent, foot on floor. Put left ankle over right knee and bring right knee forward slightly (lifting that foot off the floor.) Now, left hand goes on your waist and right hand behind your head. You are crunching your right elbow to left knee. 20 crunches then switch sides for another 20.

Now, right foot back down (knee still bent) and bring your left leg straight up and grab your toes with your left hand. Reach your right arm in between the left leg and arm and pulse forward at the diagonal 20 times. Switch sides for another 20.

Still laying on your back, bring both feet straight into the air. Let head and shoulders stay on ground while you slowly bring one leg down at a time, holding for a second right above the ground and then back up slowly. Alternate legs, 20 times.

Finally, both legs straight in the air, reach both hands toward feet and crunch straight up, bringing upper body off the ground and back down. 10-20 times.

Yay, you did it!

Challenge: Throughout the day, tighten your abs as tight as you can, taking about 10 breaths, getting tighter with each exhale. Do this whenever you think about it.

Day of Stretch!

In case you haven't been paying attention, Sunday is our day to really focus on stretching our bodies....they have worked hard and deserve the rest. Take 5, 10 or even 15 minutes to really focus on getting rid of that tension! Click here for some ideas!

Make it count!

Two Legs a Day Keeps the Flab Away!

Today let's do 1 minute of squats with a kid on our backs. (Feet farther than shoulder width apart.)

Then do another minute of speed squats like this: Put feet back together. Stand in front of a chair in case you need balance. You are going to squat straight down and back up. Then squat down while jutting your bum to the right, back up. Now to the left, back up and back to straight down. Do it as fast as you can for the full minute!

Repeat both exercises 3-4 times.

YAY! You did it!

Better Late than Saggy!

Ok, I know it is almost 8 p.m. but I really have struggled getting to this workout today SOOOOO, here is today's AND tomorrow's workouts. You can do them both tomorrow. YAY! Double the fun!

Arms: Grab a milk jug if you have one, or some weights will do, hee hee. Hold the weight in your right hand. Step your left leg forward into a semi-lunge, left arm rests on your leg. Now do very slow tricep curls with your right arm: lift elbow back in line with shoulder and keeping it still curl your arm under slowly, and then back out, slowly. Do this for a minute OR use heavier weights (think full milk jug) and do as many as you can. Switch sides.

Now do as many wall push-ups as you can. Go until truly fatigued.

Abs: Lay on your back, legs in the air. Bring your legs to each side slightly (like a V). Bring arms between legs and crunch up. While you release, bring legs together and arms on the outside to crunch up. During the release, bring legs back to the side while you crunch in the middle, etc. One minute total.

Finally, do VERY SLOW bicycle legs, bringing legs as close to the ground as possible without actually touching. One full minute.

Now repeat it all until you are satisfied!

YAY! YOU DID IT!

(sorry again for the late workout....darn those kids!)

Windmill Lunges and Ski Jumps

Here are 2 exercises I found as part of an online Boot Camp Workout. Click here to see the entire workout; it's pretty good!

Side Lunge with Windmill Arms
Stand with legs wide, arms straight out to the sides and parallel to the floor. Bend the right knee into a side lunge and bring the left arm down towards the foot. Repeat on the other side, lunging from side to side and bringing opposite arm towards foot. The faster you go and the lower you lunge, the harder it is. Repeat for 16 reps on each side.

Ski Jumps
Stand with feet together. Jump to the right several feet, keeping knees bent and landing in a squat. Jump back to the left and continue jumping from side to side (place a book or pillow on the floor to jump over for added challenge) for 16 or more reps.

Repeat these two until the 5 minutes are up.

Make it count!

Buns of Steel

Let's change it up a bit. Along with yesterday's ab workout, let's get those buns in shape as well.

Get on all fours, hands under your shoulders, knees in line with hands, back strong and abs tight. Straighten out your right leg so that it is in line with your back. Flex your right cheek and then release. Your leg will do little pulses up and down (but it is not a crazy amount of movement.) Do this for one full minute (60-70 pulses), then switch legs.

Drop down into child's pose to stretch the backside and then back onto all fours. This time bring your right knee towards chest and then push your leg out straight, holding in the extension before bringing knee back toward chest. Repeat 50 times per side.

Finally, come into a squat position, feet are a little past shoulder width apart. Put your hands behind your head. Squat down and then push up to the right bringing your left knee toward your right elbow, weight is on right leg. Squat back down and bring right knee to left elbow. Repeat for one minute.

Yay! You did it! Now do it again until you know you made it count! :-)

Ab-ologies

I apologize for being so late today! I worked out till my brain shut off this morning apparently!

ABS:

Start with the 100: Lay on your back and bring your knees to your chest. Hug them tight, releasing any tension in your lower back. Take 10-20 seconds to really breathe deep breaths. Release your arms and legs so that your feet are on the ground, knees bent, arms flat on ground at either side of your body.

Now, lift your arms off the ground, fingertips together and straight out, letting the energy flow from them. Tightening your abs, bring your head and shoulders off the ground. Begin to pulse your hands up and down (as if you are saying Hi, about 2-3 inch movements) and count 100 pulses. (Keep abs tight the entire time.)

Next do tree pose abs: Stretch body out. Now, legs are straight, laying flat on the ground. Bring your left foot to the inside of your right thigh (like you are doing tree pose laying down for those of you yogis out there). Bring your head and shoulders off the ground, keeping abs tight, hands hovering above your legs. Pulse hands for a count of 50, switch legs around and pulse another 50.

Repeat 2-3 times.

Make it count!

Push-ups Plus!

We are working on our arms and I was told, in an indirect way, we need to work them harder...ok then.

Get into push up position. (Try to do real push-ups for starters if you can...you can always switch later to modified on your knees.) Do 5 push-ups and on the 5th one hold your body an inch of the ground for a count of 5. Then continue to do push-ups, holding every 5th for a count of 5. Do as many as you can for a minute.

Switch to tricep dips, holding every 5th one for a count of 5.

Now shake your arms out and do 50 jumping jacks.

Repeat 3-5 times.

Make it count!

Apple Core Friday

Get ready to work your core, abs included. :-)

Power Thrusts: (Start by getting your head out of the gutter, this is a workout!) Feet together, squat down so that your hands are on the ground a little in front of your feet and a little wider apart than your feet. In one quick movement you are going to jump both feet back so that you are in plank pose and then jump them back to the squat. Make sure to keep your abs tight! tight! tight! so that you don't arch your back and break yourself! Do 10-15 of these.

Now lay on your back and do straight leg bicycle for ONE FULL MINUTE: Legs in straight in the air, lower one of the time, keeping head, shoulders and arms off the ground, pulsing arms forward just slightly. (You should remember these from a few weeks back.)

Now, back up and repeat 3-5 times!

Make it count and HAPPY FRIDAY!

Oh My! It's up to my thigh!

Standing close to a chair or counter, just in case you need balance, lift your right foot off the ground. While you squat down on your left leg, slowly reach your right foot back behind you while you reach both your right arm out in front of you. Keep your left hand on your left thigh for balance help. You are trying to get your left leg to bend as close to 90 degrees as you can (without knee going over toes of course.) Straighten back up, bringing arm in and right knee forward but not letting toes touch the ground. Do one full minute then switch sides and do another full minute.

No do one minute of SLOW squats: Legs shoulder width apart, feet facing forward, baby held out front (hee hee...only if you have to!) Slowly, slowly squat down to sitting position, hold a second and then go all the way into a squatting position (think: I have to pee in the forest...) Now slowly push back to sitting, hold, and then all the way back up. (If you have bad knees, do not go all the way into squatting...)

Repeat all of the above to your heart's content!

Yay! You did it!

Mostly Abs....

Ok, today we are doing abs but it will definitely work other things, coordination included: Good luck!

Standing with feet about shoulder width apart and keeping arms behind head you are going to bring your right knee and right elbow together (crunching your abs) 20 times. (Make sure you never put too much weight on right foot when it comes down...just toe will touch ground each time.) Go straight into right elbow to left knee for 20. Then do left elbow to left knee for 20 and left elbow to right knee for 20 reps. When you are doing opposite arm and leg, bring toes slightly back and out a little farther to increase the effort.)

Now go straight into some butterfly crunches: Laying on your back, bring your legs up and soles of feet together (like a butterfly stretch). Lift your head and shoulders off the ground so you are looking through your legs. Put arms through the butterfly stretch and as you are pulsing your arms and upper body forward, pulse your legs toward you just slightly. Do this for a minute.

Repeat both exercises 2-5 times.

Yay! You did it! See you tomorrow!