Category Archives: workouts

Monday Moves #5

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The weather has just been amazing here the past few days. I have tried to soak up more than my fair share of the rays- and so far, have been pretty darn successful. Taking the pups to the park or for a walk without having to first put on a jacket is just awesome. And driving with the windows down. Ahh, yes.

But before I continue to keep speaking of the glorious weather- and leave my computer to get more rays before the sun sets- I have to post some exercise moves! Yet another three for you this week:

1. Gliding Jackknife 

5.6 MM1

-If you don’t have gliding discs, paper plates are just as effective (an cheaper!)

-One foot on each disc, starting in plank position. Contract core muscles to bring the discs up under your chest, then return to start position.

2. Single Leg Wall Squat with Hammer Curl

5.6 MM2

 

-Start with the ball behind your back (with the ball against the wall). Hold the weights at your side.

– Lower into a squat while simultaneously doing a hammer curl. The more advanced option is to perform the squat with one leg (see middle picture above).  Watch placement of knees and toes, make sure back is straight through entire move.

3.  Rear Deltoid Raise on Ball

5.6 MM3

– Lay on the ball, stabilizing yourself with your feet (knees up)

– With bent elbows at your side, squeeze your deltoids to bring your elbows up to shoulder height. Bring back to starting position.

 

Ok, that’s all I have for now…wordpress has been acting up so I wanted to make sure to get this published asap!

Question: What’s a move you’ve been loving lately??

Monday Moves #4

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This week, I have FOUR moves to share with you. As always, I am going to apologize in advance for the terrible pictures. I have Tyler take these on Sunday nights and I am anything but glamorous…especially on a Sunday….and especially on a Sunday after 7pm. But I do these to give you an idea as to how each exercise works (links to existing video demonstrations can get tedious and annoying!) I find it funyy that I am taking exercise photos while I am sporting a pub crawl t-shirt. Also, if anyone wants to come over and paint that back room, be my guest. Poop brown isn’t my favorite. Onto the exercises!

1. Singe Leg squat with hamstring extension

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-You don’t HAVE to hold an object (i.e. weight or med ball or whatever) but I find it helps me concentrate on my balance.

-Keeping one foot planted, extend the other leg in front of you, as you lower your body into a squat. If you are a beginner at this, you might not go very low (but hey, it’s something to work on!) Just remember to not let the anchoring knee go beyond the toes. When squatting, I always remember what one of my high school volleyball coaches told us: “don’t poop in the canoe.” Basically, it was the funny way of telling us to get our butts back and low.

– As you come up from the squat, bend your extended knee (first picture)

– Oh, and try holding that position…if you dare. You have no idea how much my tush was screaming when I had to wait for the dang flash to go off on the camera.

2. Arnold Press

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-Start with weights at shoulder height with palms facing your body.

-As you extend the weights overhead, rotate your wrists so that they will be facing away from your body and the top of the press.

-return to start.

3. Pass Through Lunge

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-WARNING: I will probably suck at explaining this one.

– Start with feet together, holding object in front of you

-Staking a step back with your left leg (left reverse lunge), pass the object under your right leg (passing it from the inside to the outside of your body)

-Come up from the reverse lunge (without touching your foot down at the start position) and immediately raise your knee so that object can circle back around as you pass it going right to left)

– Continue this exercise in a fluid motion until you have reached your desired reps. By not touching your lunging leg back to the start position, you are working on your core and balance!

4. The “X” Plank

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-WARNING: I will suck at explaining this one, too.

-Grab light to medium weights. Place weights on the outside of both hands when in a plank position.

-With your left hand, grab the left weight and move the weight across your body, placing it just under your right hip (Remember: try not to rotate your hips and torso when performing this exercise, as it tests your core strength!)

– Repeat with the right weight, bringing it under the left hip. Return hands to regular plank position.

-Retrieve weights, and bring them back to their starting positions.

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Hopefully these all make sense, but as always- let me know if you have any questions!

I incorporated these into my workout last night, along with some stationary cardio and TRX training, and I was SWEATY.

Question: Any moves you have been LOVING lately?

Monday Moves #2

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Hey everyone. This week’s Monday Moves post is a day late because I got caught up in everything that was happening in Boston. But we’re still gonna call it Monday Moves.

mondaymoves

Onto some moves for this week. Keep in mind the pictures are terrible, but they are just to give you an idea of how the exercise is performed.

1. Wall Sit with Shoulder Rotation and Overhead Press

4.16 wallsit

-Aside from the fact that I obviously need to sweep my dog’s hair before taking pictures, this move works your lower and upper body. Pressing the length of your back against the wall (be mindful to not let your lower back ‘roll’ forward) and dropping your hips to knee height (get that 90 degree angle), hold the weights as pictured (keep elbows stationed at shoulder height).

-Rotate the weights, keeping your shoulders and elbows put. Engage your core so that your back remains pressed against the wall while performing this part of the exercise.

-Press the weights over your head. That is the entire move. To return to starting position, reverse the order of the pictures as shown. (Aka: drop the elbows, rotate the shoulders, and lower the weights).

2. Bridge and Chest Press

4.16 press

-Start laying on the ground, feet planted. To engage your inner thighs, place either a bender ball or extremely light weight in between your knees. Cheese relatively heavy weights to hold- elbows lined with the chest.

-Engage your core and press with your heels to raise your hips into bridge position. Be mindful of the weight/ball between your knees. At the same time, press the weights overhead.

-In a slow, controlled movement, drop your elbows down to starting position and simultaneously round the spine to lower your butt to the floor. Repeat. Repeat lots of times if you want a great butt.

3. Single Leg Deadlift with Overhead Press

4.16 deadlift

-Ok, stick with me on this one, there are a lot of moves involved. But I promise, it is SO worth it. This is probably my favorite exercise. It requires balance and lots of coordination. Something I don’t generally have (on a Friday or Saturday night. Bahahaha, good joke Jen!)

-Start with your feet together, holding heavier weights at your sides. Keeping one foot planted, gradually kick one leg back- leg extended and foot flexed. At the same time, lower the weights to almost touch the ground by your planted foot.

-Then, bring the leg back to starting position (but DO NOT touch your foot to the floor. In a fluid and immediate motion, rotate the weight and begin a bicep curl while also lifting the ‘moving’ leg so that the knee is at hip height.

-Last part, extend the foot and transition the weights from the top of the bicep curl into an overhead press. To do more than one rep of this move, slowly reverse the order of steps. (Aka: Lower from the overhead press and bend the knee; reverse the curl; lower the leg.

4. Plank High Fives

4.16 plank

-Yes, you will high five your wall. Or you can position yourself to high five your baby or your pet or perhaps someone’s butt (if they’re like sitting in a chair or something. But I recommend you telling them you’re about to TAP THAT ASS.)

-Before assuming the position, face the wall (or object you’ll tap) and extend your arm out to find the appropriate length. Place yourself at the correct distance and get into a straight-arm plank with your palms directly under your shoulders. NO BUTTS IN THE AIR, Y’ALL.

-Keeping your core engaged, alternate arms to give high fives. Just try not to rotate your hips as your reach.

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There ya have it, folks. Some potentially new-to-you moves to add to future workouts. See ya tomorrow for WINESDAY WEDNESDAY!

Question: Done any of these moves before? Love em/hate em?

 

Some Workouts

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Thanks for the feedback on my last post. It really made me feel good about my little bloggy life 🙂

I think it’s only fair that I share with you my latest workouts. Since I’m actually typing this post ahead of time (gasp!) the following workouts are from Monday, 3/25 and Tuesday, 3/26. I was actually giddy before, during and after each workout because I knew I couldn’t NOT share!

Here goes.

Monday, I took the strength portion of my workout from Tina by doing the Defying Gravity Workout she recently posted (if you click on the link, it’ll take you directly to that workout).

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I followed it up with an awesome HIIT run

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Tuesday, I adapted a full-body tabata workout (I was in the mood to continue targeting all the major muscle groups rather than focusing on upper body, lower body or core). I ended up with this gem:

Reminder: tabatas are 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest repeated 8x through for a total of 4 minutes each round. For this particular workout, you will alternate between the two moves in each round. i.e.: Move 1 for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, move 2 for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat 4x.

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I immediately followed this strength circuit with 20 minutes of spin (rolling hills and resistance intervals) then this 20 minute treadmill run:

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In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been playing around with PicMonkey. Gotta make these workouts look as pretty as can be!

Now that I’ve hopefully inspired you with my strength and cardio workouts, here are some pictures of my little stink monkey (who is currently no so stinky since she came in the shower with me yesterday. AND LOVED IT.)

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Got any good workouts to share??!

Best Banana Bread

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Well, hello there. I hope this Hump Day is treating you all well. I am currently typing this in my pajamas (typical), on the couch, watching trashy day-time TV with the dog cuddled up next to me. Don’t shoot me out of jealousy just yet, I am also on the hunt for a job and predict that I will be miserable, in pants, and behind a desk in the near future.

Just thought I’d pop in real quick to share some random bits with you. Shall we get started?

  • I made the TASTIEST banana bread yesterday (I forgot to allocate for the altitude and therefore it did not cook enough for me, but I crumbled it up and stored it in an air-tight container for future dessert and snacking use). I still thought I HAD to share the recipe, because it really can’t be passed up (I know, I know, how many recipes for banana bread do you see on the internet? The answer: LOTS)

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Here’s What you Need:

  • 2 c almond flour
  • 1 T cinnamon
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 c coconut milk
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1/4 c agave
  • 2 ripe bananas (mashed)

Here’s What you Do:

  1. In a bowl, combine the almond flour, cinnamon, and soda. Set aside.
  2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the coconut milk, vanilla, agave and bananas. Stir until incorporated.
  3. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture.
  4. Pour in a prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

You can totally mess up and not let it fully cool like I did then have banana bread bits to toss in your yogurt for later!

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  • The strength portion of my workout yesterday was a Deck of Cards workout. I wrote up my entire week’s workout plan earlier this week, but I didn’t specifically designate which exercises I would do for this specific workout. Knowing that I wanted to target, ummm, my WHOLE body, I came up with these moves:
    • ♥= Jump Squats
    • ♦= Pushups
    • ♣= Side plank hip dips (each side)
    • ♠= Weighted donkey kicks (each side)

Video Demonstrations can be found here: Jump Squats, Side plank Hip dips, Weighted donkey kicks

  • This is one of my favorite new songs right now. I kept hearing it in the car and tried Shazaam-ing it, but Shazaam doesn’t recognize it. I did the grunt work and found it the old fashioned way (google), and here ya go:
  • (Ok, apparently, the video doesn’t want to appear, so here’s a link: http://youtu.be/gAwj-EuZc2w)
  • WARNING: I am not PROMOTING the following. I am simply allowing you to use my link to get 20% off if you are interested. OK?!

ellie-active-vixen

Ellie, the new monthly subscription program for athletic wear, has just released their March 2013 items and they are part of the LBD Collection. C’mon ladies, (sorry, gents- it’s women’s althetic wear only) we all love wearing black…it’s SLIMMING. And HOT. Anyhoo..check out THIS LINK (you will only get the 20% off if you go to their site through the link OR by clicking on the banner on the right-hand side of my blog page.

K, that’s all. For now..