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Posts Tagged circuit training

False Starts and Fresh Starts

Dec 7

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Hi friends!

WOW, my office is cold this morning – 64 degrees!

Oscar (the little guy on the weather station) thinks he needs that hat and scarf for OUTSIDE.  I’m thinking I need them inside just to write my blog post!  My office faces north and is at the end of the vent system so it doesn’t get a whole lot of heat on chilly days.  :)

So this is on full blast this morning:

And I’m chugging on my post-workout green smoothie, which doesn’t do much to warm me up.

Scoop of brown rice protein, 1/2 cucumber, 1 celery stalk, sprinkle of freshly ground flaxseeds, spoon of pepitas, handful of spinach, a clementine (Joan, I picked up some clementines – thanks for the reminder!) and 8 oz of water.

Yes, I did say POST-WORKOUT!  I got up and did a workout this morning for the first time in a number of days because of being sick (more on the workout in a minute).  For this being a FIT LIVING blog, I certainly haven’t been fitting in much FIT recently, have I?  I was thinking the other day how I’m looking forward to the fresh start of the upcoming new year and hoping it’s a better one overall.  2011 has been a great year in many ways, but between school finals in the early part of the year, getting a new business set up and going, catching pertussis (which had me out of the game for 2 months), then rhabdomyolysis (with a hospital stay and doc-imposed exercise restrictions after that fact) and now this cold, I feel like this has been one of my least “fit” years.  It seems like every time I climb back on my healthy wagon, I hit a bump and get bounced off!  :)   As I told someone recently about their same issues, we need to install some seatbelts on these wagons! Early 2012 will bring my 39th birthday so I really want my last year in my thirties to be super-fit!  “Fit & Fine at 39″ will be my slogan.

Since it’s like I’m starting from square one, today’s workout was a little on the light side but it was a blast!

Circuit Workout:

Waterski Lunges (reverse lunge while holding a cable row at your belly)

Ball Knee-Ins

Single Leg Deadlifts

Tubing Crossover Lat Pulldowns

Frankenstein Squats (with broomstick)

Ball Crunches

Cardio Dance Interval to Rihanna “We Found Love“

Sip some water

Waterski Lunges (reverse lunge while holding a cable row at your belly)

Crossover Planks

Single Leg Deadlifts

Tubing Crossover Lat Pulldowns

Frankenstein Squats (low half of movement only to bump up intensity)

Hanging Knee Raises

Cardio Dance Interval to Ne-Yo “Closer”

Cool down and stretch

Ahhh I feel better already!  Now it’s just a matter of stringing a number of these good days together to rebuild my consistency.

Anyone else looking forward to a “clean slate” of 2012?  What are you looking forward to putting behind you?

Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

 

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Circuit Training for Upper Body and Core

Sep 25

Posted by Shari B. in Exercise Instruction, Keeping Fit | 12 Comments

Hi friends!  Happy weekend to you all!

As promised, I am back to share with you a little workout I put together last week for one of my ‘in-person’ personal training clients.  She gets a lot of lower body work outside of our in-studio sessions, so we focus on upper body, cardio and core movements.

She enjoyed this one a lot so I thought I’d post it here as well.  Every once in a while I should show you FITNESS stuff in addition to just healthy FOOD stuff, right? ;)

Be sure to warm up for a minimum of 5 minutes (and preferably 10 minutes) in order to get blood flowing to your muscles and raise your core body temperature.  Action pics are included after the list of circuits, to give you an idea of the movement involved.  Get your timer ready because you’ll perform each exercise for one minute!

A1: 1 Minute Punch Presses on the Ball

A2: 1 Minute Seated Rows with Exercise Tube

A3: 1 Minute Reverse Plank Posterior Lifts

A4: 1 Minute Cardio Interval (we ran on a treadmill)

A5: 1 Minute Rest 1 minute

Complete “A” Circuit twice through before moving on.

B1: 1 Minute Pushups (as many as you can full pushup style then drop to modified style on your knees if you need to)

B2: 1 Minute Squatting Punch Rows

B3: 1 Minute Upright Rows into Overhead Presses

B4: 1 Minute Cardio Interval

B5: 1 Minute Rest 1 minute

Complete “B” Circuit twice through before moving on.

C1: 1 Minute Dumbbell Flyes with a ‘Twist’

C2: 1 Minute Swimmers

c3: 1 Minute Bicycles

c4: 1 Minute Cardio Interval

c5: 1 Minute Rest

Complete “C” Circuit twice through before moving on to your cool-down (in the second set, C5: rest should be replaced with cool-down activity.)

Cool down with light cardio or walking for at least 5 minutes to bring your heart rate back down and allow your blood flow to normalize.

Action Shots to give you an idea on the movements:

Punch Presses on the Ball
Head and neck supported, abs and glutes tight, palms facing each other
Alternate arms pressing upward similar to punching

*NOTE* I prefer to keep my upper back, neck and shoulders on the ball and use my core muscles to stabilize my low back.  If you have any issues with your back, roll further onto the ball to ensure your back is being supported, or perform this movement on a weight bench instead.

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Seated Rows with Exercise Tube
Rowing movement, keeping torso steady

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Reverse Plank with Posterior Lifts
A Jackie Warner special ;) You’ll feel the whole backside of your body
Notice that the arms stay straight – these are not tricep dips.  You are lifting your butt up and down (squeeze the glutes!)

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Pushups

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Squatting Punch Rows
Palms are facing up on this one, alternating quickly right to left arms

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Upright Rows into Overhead Press
Four step motion here.

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Dumbbell Flyes with a ‘Twist’
the ‘twist’ here is that you start with your palms facing toward your head and as you lower into the flye, slowly rotate the wrists so that the palms face each other at the bottom of the movement.  Twist again on the way up back to the start position.

*NOTE* I prefer to keep my upper back, neck and shoulders on the ball and use my core muscles to stabilize my low back.  If you have any issues with your back, roll further onto the ball to ensure your back is being supported, or perform this movement on a weight bench instead.

***

Swimmers
Opposite arm/leg flutter to simulate swimming.

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Bicycles
Fingertips are lightly touching head, NOT pulling on it.  Take elbow across the body to the opposite knee, then switch to other side.

Before beginning any exercise program, it may be recommended that person first consult a physician or other qualified health care provider. A physician or other health care provider can determine what type of exercise, the frequency, and the intensity are appropriate for each individual. A physician or other health care provider may be able to recommend an exercise program that will cater to a person’s specific heath concerns and needs.

Let me know if you have any questions on the workout or what your thoughts were after completing it.  Was it hard for you?  Or too easy?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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13 Exercises for Friday the 13th

Nov 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Happy Friday the 13th FitFeat friends!  Any superstitious readers out there?  In honor of Friday the 13th, I did this crazy workout this morning:

Today’s Feat:  Shari’s “13 for the 13th” Workout

Warmup on treadmill, 5 minutes

  1. Smith-squats (tabata style, 4 min)
  2. Seated Row (tabata style, 4 min)
  3. Leg Extensions (tabata style, 4 min)
  4. DB Upright Row (tabata style, 4 min)
  5. Leg Curls on FitBall (tabata style, 4 min — I was crying by the 3rd minute on these)
  6. DB Chest Flyes 1 set of 15 reps
  7. High StepUps 15 left, 15 right
  8. KB Side Lateral Swings 15 right, 15 left
  9. Band SideSteps 25 right, 25 left
  10. KB Biceps Curls 20 right, 20 left
  11. KB Ab Twist (in boat position) 30 reps
  12. Triceps Dips 15 reps
  13. Explosive Lunges 20 reps

OK, I officially have squiggle arms and squiggle legs…  ;)

Yesterday’s Feat

A beautiful (and tough) 3.6 mile hilly run with a training client 

Yesterday’s Eats

I had my standard pre-run meal Coconut Cream Pie Larabar with coffee about an hour beforehand.  I’m now officially out of this flavor in my Larabar stash and will have to wait until they go on sale again.  :( I refuse to pay more than $1 per bar if I can avoid it. 

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After our run, my client was telling me about these wonderful breakfast burritos she picks up on occasion, and it inspired me to come home and make a Breakfast Wrap:  whole wheat tortilla, leftover roasted potato bites, one HB egg, a bit of avocado and a drizzle of salsa.  It was SO good!  And it hit the spot after a fast-paced hilly run.  Perfect!

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It did such a good job of filling me up, that when lunchtime rolled around all I really wanted was a green smoothie!  And Brendan Brazier snuck into the picture too…

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I don’t often like to have two Larabars in one day, but a Lemon Bar sounded too good to resist.

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I spent some time late afternoon putting together dinner:  Heavenly Ginger Curry Squash Soup, for which I posted the recipe earlier today.  As mentioned in that post, I had to make myself eat a large salad to tame the hungry beast inside before I devoured my soup.  I KNEW I wouldn’t have leftovers if I started with it, it was that yummy.  My salad included spinach, dulse, sundried tomatoes, carrots, nutritional yeast and 1/2 tbsp of Goddess dressing. 

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And then the main event.  I am already dreaming of lunchtime today when I can have some more of this delicious meal!  Behold the best soup ever:

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And I didn’t figure the evening could get any better, but it DID!!!  MSP surprised me with dark chocolate covered cacao nibs!!!  WAHOOO!  (Thanks MSP!  You’re the best ever!)  Wow these are delightful.  Good thing these come in small bags… Not something I’d want to stay stocked up on because I had a hard time putting them down last night.

I’m looking forward to tonight when I get to catch up with some girlfriends over wine & apps tonight!  In the meantime, there is a LOT to accomplish so I better get crackin’!  Have a FANTASTIC Friday! 

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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