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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 10-Minute Quick-I-Need-A-Workout Workout!

February 9, 2015 by Jenna

This is your 10-minute quick-I-need-a-workout workout. Some days 10-minutes is just all that you have. But hey, that’s ok. 10 minutes is better than no minutes.

On Saturday my parents and younger brother were heading out early in the morning to drive to Sioux Falls for my sister’s birthday. I knew I wasn’t going to get a workout in, so I put this together as something we could all do quick in the morning before sitting in a car for 3.5 hours. My dad opted out, because he had to go “drive around and check things out” around the farm.

This workout consists of 10 exercises that you perform back-to-back for 1 minute each. It works your upper body, lower body, core and even includes a few cardio bursts. You can do this workout anywhere and the only equipment you need is some sort of timer – a stopwatch, a phone, an app, a microwave timer, whatever is convenient!

This is what you’ll do:

You may think, “10 minutes? What is even the point?” And if you do, I can totally see where you’re coming from, but I promise that his workout will still challenge you (Pushups for a minute? Not fun.) as long as you push yourself to work and make those 10 minutes worth it.

Plus, if 10 minutes is all that you have, then 10 minutes is what you should take.

So on Saturday morning at about 7:15am my mom, brother, and I started this workout. The first minute was spent doing jumping jacks while trying to stop laughing over the fact that we were doing jumping jacks… in a our dining room… while Taylor Swift played in the background. We were quite the sight. Another giggle-attack started during the lunges and then another during the pushups. The laughter just helped us burn a few extra calories! Regardless of the all the giggles, we did it and all felt better for it.

Besides being short and effective another bonus of this workout is that you don’t need to get re-ready afterwards. You’ll get your heart pumping, but you won’t be drenched in sweat. So if you need to squeeze in something during your lunch break, between work and happy hour, or even just on a super busy day, you won’t need to spend a lot of time to refresh yourself afterwards as you probably would after this workout or this workout.

This is perfect for all you business travelers out there! You can easily do this in your hotel room before heading out for the day or after work before going to dinner.

And what if you have more than 10 minutes? Do it twice. Or three times. Or add in a minute of burpees. Or a round of intervals on the treadmill. So many great options here!

The next time you don’t think your schedule will allow you to fit in a full on workout, try to at least carve out 10 minutes of time for this one! You won’t regret it.

As always, if you have any questions about the exercises feel free to ask them in the comments.

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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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The Magic Of Foam Rolling

September 22, 2014 by Jenna

Foam rolling. It’s a magical, magical thing.

Are you familiar with the magic of foam rolling? If not, let me tell you about it. If so, let me remind you.

Foam rolling is a form of self-myofascial release. I know, “self-myo-whaaaa?” Fascia. It’s the connective tissue that surrounds all of your muscles and nerves, kind of like tendons or ligaments.

Self-myofascial release (SMR) is a stretching technique just like static stretching and dynamic stretching. I can get really sciency here and talk all about Golgi tendon organs (GTO), muscle spindles, and autogenic inhibition, but I won’t. Basically SMR helps muscles and tissues to relax. Due to things like overuse, repetitive movements, and poor posture, muscles can become tight and develop adhesions. Over time this can lead to muscle inflammation, spasms, impaired movements, and muscle imbalances.

Who wants that? No one. That’s where the foam roller magic comes in.

The purpose of a foam roller is to put pressure on these sore spots or “trigger points” in order to release the knots. It’s like giving yourself a deep tissue massage.

The act of foam rolling is really quite simple. Roll the foam roller along the targeted area (calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, upper back, etc.) until you feel a tender spot. Hold the roller on this spot for 30-90 seconds. This is the hard part. It is painful with a capital p (AKA: Painful). Hold it, try to relax your muscles, and breathe through it. You’ll feel better later, I promise. After the hold continue to roll along the targeted area looking for more of these trigger points to release.

The SMR technique can be done as part of your warm-up routine or as a post-workout cool down or just do it everyday while you’re catching up on The Mindy Project. It also pairs well with static stretching.

The magic of foam rolling is that it helps improve range of motion, muscle alignment, flexibility, and neuromuscular efficiency. It is also way more cost-effective than getting regular $70 massages. It is only about $20 for a foam roller than you can use over and over and over and over again. Not a bad deal, huh? I have this one.

For more information and some pictorial instructions, go here.

I can’t begin to express how important foam rolling is. After you add it into your routine on a regular basis you’ll begin to notice and feel all of the benefits. I really hope you try it out.

I’m sitting here typing this after a week of running 42 miles, including a hill workout, a variety speed workout, and a 17-mile long run. Yikes. Let me tell you, I did not do a good job at foam rolling this week. My legs are tight and I could definitely feel my left hip flexor and knee during the last 14 miles of my 17-mile run. That’s not ok.

Lesson learned: foam roll, errday.

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