exercise Archives - Page 2 of 5

The Fit 5: Chest

April 7, 2015 by Jenna

It’s time for another round of The Fit Five! This time we are going to learn about the chest muscle group, which you may refer to as your “pecs” or maybe even your “pectoralis major” and “pectoralis minor”. Whatever you want to call this muscle group, we are going to learn about it.

First, let’s clear up a myth for the ladies: Strength training that targets chest muscles will not make your boobs bigger. Also, it will not make your boobs smaller. However, building chest muscles (underneath your boobs) could add a natural lift. So that’s a bonus.

Now, here are some non-myths, also known as facts:

It’s good to learn this type of stuff, don’t you think?

Experiment time: Stand up with your arms extended straight out from your sides so that you look like a human “t”. Now move your arms forward so that they are extended straight out in front of you. Clap your hands together. That movement was horizontal adduction of the shoulder and contracting your chest muscles helped make that happen.

The clap was just for fun, because learning is fun.

The next time you do a push up or bench press, think about that movement and contracting those pectoral muscles.

Speaking of push ups and bench presses, below are 5 chest exercises.

These are all basic exercises that can be adapted to your needs. Here are some examples:

Stagger your hands for the push ups.
Place your feet on a stability ball or a bench while doing push ups.
Perform the bench press, pullover, and fly while lying on a stability ball rather than a bench.
Use a barbell or a smith machine rather than dumbbells for the bench press.
Put the bench at an incline while performing the bench press or the flies.
Utilize a cable machine and do standing flies.

Those are just a few of the many ways you could adapt these exercises. You can also adjust the acute variables (resistance, tempo, rest, etc) in order to work the muscles differently.

Don’t forget to add in some shoulder, biceps, and triceps exercises for a great upper body workout!

I hope you are enjoying these Fit Five posts and are learning some new things. I personally gain a lot from writing them.

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10-Minute Bodyweight Pyramid Workout

March 30, 2015 by Jenna

A 10-minute bodyweight pyramid workout!

You guys, this is a fun one. We are going to work really hard and these 10 minutes are going to fly by. This is a high-intensity workout consisting of three moves: burpees, squats, and push-ups. That’s it, just those three. No equipment necessary.

By the time we are finished we will have completed 50 burpees, 50 squats, and 50 push-ups in just 10 short, heart-pumping, sweaty minutes. Afterwards, we will reap all the benefits of high-intensity exercise, like increased calorie burn, increased aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and boosted metabolism.

GREAT. This is what is going to happen -> We are going to do a round of burpees, squats, and push-ups, 2 reps each. Then in increments of 2 we are going to work up to 10 reps of each. This is the tip of the pyramid – more than halfway done! Then we are going to work back down to 2 reps of each and give ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done.

A few cues:

BURPEES: Begin in a standing position. Lower down into a squat, place your hands on the ground in front of you, and quickly kick your feet back into the push up position. Lower your body to the floor, raise back up, and return your feet back to the squat position as quickly as possible. Immediately jump up as high as you can.
SQUATS: Begin in a standing position. Lower your body by pushing your hips back until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Make sure to keep your back straight and your knees behind your toes. Raise your body back to standing position, pushing through your heels, and engaging your glutes.
PUSH-UPS: Begin in push-up (plank) position. Keeping your body in a straight line with your core engaged, slowly lower your body while bending your elbows to 90 degrees. Push your body back up to starting position.

This cycle of burpees, squats, and push-ups is really working our whole body: lower body, upper body, core, and cardio. And if you think about it burpees are basically squats and push-ups combined in one move with some jumps in it. Sooo… a pretty great combination of moves going on here.

I recommend doing this 10-minute bodyweight pyramid workout 1-2 per week. It would be great to do after a 30- or 45-minute session of steady state cardio or after a strength training routine. However, this would be just as effective to do as a stand-alone workout for days when you are in a time crunch.

If you really love burpees (who doesn’t?!), make sure to check out this burpee run!

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Superset Tabata Clover Workout

March 17, 2015 by Jenna

Hi friends. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I put together a fun clover-inspired superset Tabata workout that will leave you feeling as happy as a leprechaun… assuming that leprechauns are super happy. I think they probably are. You know, all those pots of gold and stuff.

This workout doesn’t require any equipment. Meaning, you can do it anywhere.

It will take you less than 20 minutes to complete. Meaning, you can squeeze this in between work and meeting up with friends for a green beer and a dinner of corned beef and cabbage.

How perfect is that? It’s a lucky day for all of us.

This Tabata features four supersets, one for each lucky clover leaf. In true Tabata form we are going to work really, really hard for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. We will switch between the first and second exercises in first clover leaf until 4 rounds (4 minutes) has been completed. Then we rest for a minute and move onto the second clover leaf following the same pattern.

Here’s the game plan:

Each clover leaf features one strength and one plyometric/cardio exercise. We want our heart to work and our muscles to be sore. Remember, the key to Tabata workouts are to really push it for those 20 seconds so that afterwards you get to experience all of those metabolism-boosting, fat-burning rewards afterwards.

Feel free to progress the squats and alternating lunges by adding weights or biceps/hammer curls with dumbbells; however, drop them when you get to the jumps. I have used the Seconds and Interval Timer apps to keep time, but there are a lot of free ones out there too! If you have questions on any of the exercises or how to progress/regress them, just shoot me a note in the comments!

Do know this, just because this is a St. Patrick’s Day clover-inspired workout you are welcome to do this on other days of the year too. Lucky clovers are applicable everyday. Plus, you could also consider it 4-H themed, which is also relevant year round.

Shout out to all the Irish and 4-H’ers out there!! Have a happy St. Patty’s Day!

PS – If you liked this one make sure to check out these: Superset Tabata, 20-Minute Plyo Tabata, 4th of July Tabata Workout.

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The Fit 5: Triceps

March 2, 2015 by Jenna

Hello! Welcome to March and to the 3^rd installment of “The Fit 5”!

In January we talked about shoulders, learned what the heck the coracobrachialis is, discovered that the shoulder is the most moveable joint, and did rows, raises, presses, and shrugs.

In February we learned all about biceps, how it is an awkward sounding single noun and it inspired the word “muscle”. Then we did a lot of different curls.

Today, we move to triceps!

TRICEPS. They are my least favorite muscle group to train. Also, probably, my weakest. Coincidence? No. Not at all. However, I do know how important they are to strengthen and work on. No body wants to see flabby underarms.

So. Today I am going to give lots of love to the triceps. First, we’ll learn. Then, we’ll do.

LEARN…

If you can recall The Fit 5: Biceps I mentioned that the word biceps refers to a muscle that has both a long head and a short head – two heads. Based on that logic how many heads do you think a triceps muscle has?

If you said three, you are both brilliant and correct. The triceps brachii muscle has three heads: long, lateral, and medial. Now here are some more Fit 5 Facts about the triceps muscle.

And guess what?! It’s another awkward sounding singular noun. Hurray! As if I weren’t awkward enough.

DO…

Now that we know more about the triceps, let’s strengthen them. It’s almost summer, so before we know it we’ll be wearing tank tops and waving to people all over the place.

Right?! Summer is almost here?! Or at least spring? Or at least 30-degree weather?!

Blah. This is what we are going to do to get them into shape for whenever the weather starts to turn (or I hop on a jet plane to somewhere warm).

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: adapt these exercises to get the results that you are looking for. To work on your stability, perform the standing triceps extensions on one leg or sitting on a stability ball and do the lying triceps extensions lying on a stability ball instead of a bench. To build muscle use heavier weights and low reps; to maintain lean muscle use lighter weights and higher reps.

It is good idea to mix up the variables (reps, sets, tempo, intensity, rest, frequency) from time to time. If you are always using 8 lbs dumbbells for you triceps extensions, try bumping up the weight to 10 lbs or 12 lbs once a week. Also, play with your tempo. Try slowing things down and really focus on contracting and extending your tricepses. They will hate you and then they will love you.

I am going to pledge to you that I will start giving more love and attention to my triceps and fitting more of these exercises into my normal routine. Here are some ways that I am thinking:

Alternate these with the biceps exercises. Triceps and biceps are essentially opposite muscles. While one contracts the other extends, so let’s keep them even.
Perform an upper body circuit with biceps, shoulders, and triceps.
Pick two of the exercises for this week. Early in the week use light weights and high reps, then later in the week use heavier weights and lower reps. Then next week pick two other exercises any follow the same pattern.
Perform all 5 exercises with a set of squats and/or lunges in between.

People, the possibilities are endless.

As always, reach out in the comments with questions! Otherwise start working on those triceps!

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The Fit 5: Biceps

February 2, 2015 by Jenna

In January I kicked off a new series called “The Fit 5” and talked a lot about shoulders. This month it’s all about the biceps.

When I say “biceps” I am referring to the biceps brachii muscle on your upper arm, not to be confused with the biceps femoris, which is a part of the hamstring muscle group. Also, did you know that biceps is actually a singular noun? It refers to a muscle that has both a long head and short head; the plural form is “bicepses”. This can lead to awkward sounding sentences.

The biceps on my right arm is sore. My bicepses hurt from all those hammer curls. Awkward, but correct.

Here are some more interesting biceps facts!

Now, let’s talk biceps exercises. I am sure you are familiar with biceps curls, but there are other exercises you can do to build those biceps!

As always, adjust the variables to meet your needs. For example, the dumbbell hammer curls can be done standing on one leg, standing on both legs, sitting on a stability ball, or sitting on a bench. Use heavy weights and perform less reps (20 lbs, 8 reps) or lighter weights and more reps (10 lbs, 15 reps). Just do whatever you are in the mood for and then switch it up the next time you do them!

Here are a few ways you can incorporate these exercises into your strength training routine:

Between each biceps exercise do a set of squats.
Do 10 burpees after each biceps exercise.
Alternate these with the shoulder exercises.
Perform one exercise every day, Monday-Friday.

These are just a few examples of so many more possibilities!

Side note: I am pretty excited about these plank hammer curls. They are an awesome full body exercise!

I hope you enjoyed the second edition of The Fit 5 and learned a little bit about bicepses (still so awkward!) If you have any questions about these exercises, feel free to ask in a comment.

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50-Min Pyramid Elliptical Workout

January 26, 2015 by Jenna

Hey everybody, let’s go spend 50 minutes on the elliptical!

On Christmas Day I came to the realization that I needed to take some time off of running. After running here and there in December and not feeling so awesome about my performance I concluded that my legs/hip flexors still needed some rest and recovery time after my injury and the Philadelphia Marathon.

30 days without running means that I spent a lot of time on the elliptical for my cardio. I have come a long way from my elliptical-bashing mindset when I wrote this post (<- that workout btw, do it). In fact, I have grown to be quite fond of it.

Two things that help pass the time on the elliptical:

Changing up the resistance
Podcasts

I’ll talk about the first point first (because that makes sense). Changing the resistance up and down helps keep the elliptical interesting. When elliptical-ing you are inside and stationary, not running outside turning corners, going over bridges, etc. Switching the resistance makes things feel different and therefore, more exciting. Plus, this gives you a better workout than steady state cardio.

We are going to do some intervals in a pyramid fashion, meaning that the intervals will increase in duration (2 to 3 to 4 to 5 minutes) and then decrease (5 to 4 to 3 to 2 minutes). Also, while we increase and decrease the time we are going to move the resistance up and down (10 to 13 to 15 to 17 to 15 to 13 to 10).

Here is the workout in a pretty little image:

You will want to exert the about the same amount of effort on the high resistances as you do on the low resistances. When you increase the resistance up to 15, you will be working pretty hard, but you will probably be going at a slower mph. Really use your legs (especially those glutes!) to push through. When the resistance is low you’ll easily be able to go faster. Take the first 30-45 seconds to recover a bit from the high resistance then kick it into gear and start moving. There is no need to sprint here, just make sure to keep your heart rate up!

Now onto my second point, podcasts. I just discovered how wonderful they are. It all started when my sister-in-law convinced me to listen to Serial and mentioned that it was great to listen to during workouts. Life changing advice. Since elliptical-ing my way through Serial I have been exploring other podcasts like This American Life, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! (which I have always been a fan of), and brushing up on my German with Coffee Break German.

To clarify, podcasts are great for those longer, not speed focused workout sessions. I wouldn’t listen to a podcasts while doing rounds of sprints or anything. Fast-paced music is necessary for those. But when pushing through high resistances at a slow and steady pace, it is fun to listen to a story and learn things! #multitasking

One downside: I know I look like a weirdo when I spontaneously burst out laughing while chugging along on the elliptical. But I just can’t help it, Peter Sagal makes me giggle!

So, put on your favorite podcast and hit the elliptical for this 50-minute pyramid workout. It’ll be fun.

Btw, my forced break from running is now over. I went out for a run on Saturday, which was a gorgeous 35 degree afternoon. I was way overdressed (there were people in shorts and t-shirts). I didn’t wear my GPS watch, because I wanted to concentrate on how my body felt rather than worry about my pace, but based on my knowledge of the lake routes I probably hit about 5.5 miles. It felt so great! I’m excited to introduce running back into my workout regime.

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