My new favorite ab move….

I was trying to think of a way to add some resistance for ab work and I came up with this move using a band and a body ball.  The band is anchored around my bench and I’m able to pull it up and over for some great resistance. I was going to attempt to just tell you about it, and then I figured I would save some time by just taking a quick snap shot.   Feel free to try it and let me know if you have any moves similar to this as this is now one of my favorites…

 

I’ll be posting some more circuit plans shortly with the basic breakdown I’ve been following lately.  The short version is legs/shoulders one day, back/biceps another day, and then chest/triceps.  I stick in cardio and abs whenever I can find the time which is still usually before the sun comes up

Hope you’re having a great week!!

Stephanie

My cutting-edge home gym

My cutting-edge home gym...

        I’ve been working out at home for years, even when I’ve also been instructing fitness classes.  And now that I find myself with two small children and hardly any time to breathe (let alone workout!), my home gym has become even more important to me.  It’s my little corner of the world where at the crack of dawn, I drag myself out of bed to see what routine I can come up with on any given day to get this body stronger and healthier. 

        I thought maybe before I would show it to you, I would really clean it up first and that I would show the TV in front of the treadmill so that it least looks somewhat like the “cardio theaters’ you see at fancy gyms.  Then I realized that actually I should probably leave it just as it is – furry Elmo chair and all the rest of the toys – as that’s what it usually looks like and any of you out there with small children would never believe it if I posted a sparkling clean workout area. 

        You also may notice the huge Pampers box behind my workout bench.  It’s full of wonderful things I’m going to put in scrapbooks for my children one day.  (Let me translate “one day.”  That means sometime in the future – probably in the faraway future when they’re both old enough to be driving.)  I know that eventually I’ll at least try to sort it into two different boxes for them.  I tend to grab the camcorder at least twice a week so my kids will have digital scrapbooks one day…

        As far as the workout stuff you see, I’ve got my treadmill, a bench that inclines to various levels, dumbbells that go from 3 to 20 pounds, and bands with three different levels of resistance.  I also have a tall box which is one of the good old fashioned wooden ones but at the current moment it’s in my son’s room because earlier tonight I was trying to clean out his closet.  He’s sleeping now and you couldn’t pay me to go in there and get it for a picture as it’s been one of those days and I prefer he remain sleeping  :-)   I have the bands anchored around the weight bench as I used them this morning for part of an upper body routine.  When I figure out how to turn the automatic picture-taker button on my camera I’ll try to show you some of my favorite moves with them rigged up this way.

        Hope you enjoyed seeing one of my favorite places – including the mess!!

So about the morning workouts….

I’ve had people ask me how in the world I manage to get up in the morning to work out.  I believe they imagine me leaping out of the bed with a smile on my face, ready to tackle whatever muscle group happens to be the lucky workout focus of the day.   Actually, I would prefer to get up just as early, but to have some uninterrupted quiet time to do my devotion for the day and to savor a slow cup of coffee.  However, that’s not where I am at this point in life, so slowly but surely I’ve become one of the early bird workout crew.

 

If you are currently a night owl and interested in possibly transforming yourself from a late day exerciser to an early bird, here are some tips that might just help:

 

• Give yourself a couple of weeks to shift your bedtime and wake time.
• To change your bedtime, start moving it back in small amounts – 10 to 15 minutes – and get up 10-15 minutes earlier.
• Be realistic with how much you can really get done in the morning and chose workout plans that will allow you to fit this schedule.  In other words, don’t tell yourself that you’re going to get up and work out for a solid hour when there’s no way that would really work and allow you to get out of the door on time.  Instead, shoot for 40-45 minutes or whatever works for you.
• You may find that the intensity of your workouts increases greatly because you really do have a limited amount of time and this forces you to focus more, so look forward to morning workouts as an additional way to challenge yourself.
• Have everything ready and sitting out – shoes, clothes, workout equipment, the video you’ll watch or the music you’ll listen to, water bottle already filled in the fridge… I’ve written a little bit more about this below…
• If you need to get a little something on your stomach, try eating a scoop of peanut butter. I have to give a shout out to my friend Kathryn for that tip!

 

The morning time workout is a blending of two things for me.  I listen to Christian music to inspire my spirit and in doing so, I’m inspired to work harder physically.  I guess it’s kind of like what people experience when they try to do the whole spiritual side of yoga, but the main difference is that rather than try to channel anything from within myself (which would be pretty worthless without grace), I’m able to instead focus on glorifying a living God through movement.  That’s not to say that I don’t love Miami big bass or club music as I really enjoy listening to a strong, driving beat.  But I notice that without a doubt my workouts are more purposeful and fulfilling when I also work with music that allows me to focus on someone so much greater than myself spiritually.

 

I won’t kid you about the desire to hit the snooze button and roll over if given the opportunity.  I had to train myself to get up so early and the night before I have to have everything possible ready to go for my workout.  Like I said earlier, the clothes are set out, the shoes and socks waiting, the IPod fully charged….I even go ahead and put cream and Splenda in a coffee cup and put it in the fridge at night.  The coffee pot is set so that it’s waiting for me when I get up and then since I’m pouring the hot coffee into a cup that’s been refrigerated all night, the coffee isn’t quite so hot as I try to gulp it down for a little extra push before I begin my workout.  I also have to go to bed pretty early but I don’t think I’m at any disadvantage for having not seen whatever late night TV has to offer.

 

The mornings are not my ideal time to workout, but that’s the only time that I consistently have available.  And rather than worry if I’ll have the energy late in the day to get in a good workout, I can already check it off of my to-do list and go about the rest of my day knowing I  spent at least a  little time  nurturing both  my body and my soul.   

 

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.”   Lamentations 3:22-23

Supplement Information

 

In an effort to continue along with my goal of full transparency, I figured I should share with you which supplements I’ve utilized to improve my fitness level.  Okay – let me rephrase that to what it really means – I’ll tell you what I’ve used that seems to help me lean out and have more energy when I need it for heavy training….

 

First of all, you must understand the first rule of supplements.   No matter how exotic, how pricey, how clever or novel a product may seem to be – unless you put in the sweat behind it – you probably won’t notice much of a difference.   And just about everyone you talk to who has used supplements probably has a different combination or experience, so really all you can do is experiment with yourself to find out if something will work for you.

 

To begin, I’ll just start with protein as I do supplement my regular diet with shakes and bars.  I try to get in between 100 and 125 grams a day and that can be very challenging with regular food.  I love Isopure products including the powders and the fruit drinks, but they can be pretty expensive.  I also like Myoplex and Labrada as well and generally I’ll go with whatever is on sale.  You can sneak protein powder into many of your meals such as adding it to pancakes, mixing it in with pudding, or use it to make a smoothie a little more filling.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about protein, it’s that as long as I’m consistent in getting the amount I try for on a regular basis, I can have my occasional “oh-my-gosh-I’ve-got-to-have-pizza-and-ice cream-and chips” episode and still be okay. I try to make sure that any powder I use has amino acids included as well since when you lift weights, you’re essentially tearing down muscle and you need to be sure that you’ve got the best nutrition available to build them back leaner and tighter.

 

The next one is glucosamine chondroitin and you’ll never make me believe that it doesn’t work.  I can tell such a difference with my knees and I take it every single day. The only times in recent years that I stopped taking it were when I was pregnant and when I got back to working out after each child was born, I really felt some occasional pain in my knees.  I’m sure this was probably a combination of the fact that I was toting around an enormous amount of weight and that hormones do funny things to your joints when you’re pregnant, but as soon as I started taking my GC again, the pain went away.  I know there are numerous studies out there showing that it works, as well as some that say it doesn’t, but it’s the answer to prayer for my knees.

 

And here’s one that can be very questionable in terms of whether it actually works or not – pyruvate.  When I know that I’m going to need a little energy boost for weight lifting, I’ll take some of this about 30 minutes before I work out.  This presents a problem for me since I work out early in the morning, but on the weekends when I can get in an afternoon workout I’ll still use it.  (I can tell a difference with it, but not so much that I’m going to get up any earlier to have it kick in before I do my morning workout.  It’s not worth trading in sleep as far as I’m concerned..)  I’m not going to link to any articles on it in this piece, but if you google it there’s plenty of information on how they think it works.  (who are “they” anyway??? J ).

 

Creatine is something that I also used once upon a time, but I don’t really remember noticing any major changes.  I can’t remember the name of it, but it was a liquid designed for women.  I also tried to take Hydroxycut about 6 years ago, and it was such a terrible experience that I can’t even imagine trying it again.   I felt horrible and even though formulations of fat burners like it have supposedly improved, I just can’t even risk feeling like I did when I tried it.  Just like a lot of people in this world, I wish I could drop weight really fast as it appears that the people do in the ads, but I can’t take the side effect profile that would come along with regular consumption of it.

 

Daily I also take Vitamin D and a multivitamin. 

 

Hope you’re not asleep at the computer at this point and let me know if you have any questions.  And of course, I’d love to hear any advice on supplements that you may have to share as well. 

Fitness Tip of the Moment August 30, 2008

Along the lines of College Game Day which I just wrote about, I’m going to encourage you to borrow from sports training and to add some drills into your own workouts.  If you’re looking to add some intensity to your workout video routines, this is very simple.   Whenever the lead of the video is doing a cardio interval, go ahead and do the interval but then pause your DVD/tape right at the end. 

Now, do 1 minute straight of some sort of athletic drill.  You could do the football run (I like to alternate between a wide run and a close run with my feet), you can do as many jumping jacks as you can, you could do the mountain climb (hands on a step or the floor alternating the feet, jumping back and forth to switch), some shuffles side to side, pretend to run through tires with your knees as high as possible as you run, or anything else you can think of that will make you push yourself for an extra minute.  If your workout has 4 or 5 cardio intervals and you add one minute after each one, you can easily lengthen the workout and get a whole interval’s worth of cardio in at the same time.

And if you have kids who play football or if you live near a place where a team practices, take note of what they do and get some ideas (and of course, then share them with the rest of us!).

Have a great day!

Steph