Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Hollenbeck Hardcore Workout Wednesday

Sarah Hollenbeck turns 30 today.  Who is Sarah Hollenbeck?  She is a friend that takes classes at Fly Fitness and she is one of the most awesome people ever.  I created a workout in her honor today because it IS her birthday and I want to do what I can to celebrate her.  She is someone who is excited about turning 30 which is so impressive to me.  Every birthday comes no matter what so why not use it as an opportunity to celebrate, right, girlfriend?  Sarah is someone that is extremely dedicated to fitness and overall health and when you are around her, you feel happier just because she is such a positive person.  I know Sarah has gone through some hard times this year, like we all do when we are in this adventure called life.  What has truly impressed me is that she seems stronger, more loving of herself and even more willing to take whatever comes her way. 
A person really does reveal their self confidence in the gym and this chick-a-dee is no exception.  If you have been in class with her she is the one hootin and hollerin that her body is burning all the while pushing herself as hard as she can EVERY TIME.  Even when she was not physically feeling her best this year, she took the time to find her edge that day- and go right there.  I am inspired, LITERALLY INSPIRED, by Sarah.
We all go about our daily business, interacting with people, forming opinions and thoughts.  Taking what we can from each situation.  I am pretty sure Sarah knows that I think she is awesome but she probably doesn't know that she positively impacts my life on a pretty big scale every day I see her.  That is a pretty cool thing.  So today, how do you want to be?  How do you want to live your day?  How do you want to treat people?  I am pretty sure Sarah is going to be making people laugh and smile all day long.  That sounds pretty fun to me.

Here is my Hollenbeck Hardcore workout for this special day.

Warm up your body for at least 3 mins before starting this workout.  Remember I have 8lb. dumbbells at home so that is what I use.  Feel free to modify any of these exercises to find your level of hard.
The beginning of this workout is when your heart rate will be the highest, you will sweat and you should be breathing heavy.  All of the reps are done to the beat of the music, or one count.  Make sure you know the form for these moves.  That is always rule number one.  I was listening to BT Every Other Way and Love Will Kill You.  Find beats similar to that or just a fast pace.

Today is about STRENGTH.

Split lunge with bicep curl 20 curls, switch legs and hold for 20 more curls
One leg balancing airplane row 15, switch legs, 15 again
Assisted Pull ups 15 (if you don't have a pull up bar, just do another set of rows)
Push ups on toes 20
Tricep dips 30
Squat with a dumbbell lat raise 20
you will think I am crazy right here.  Catch your breath and GO, you can do this.
Squat with an X press 20
plank on your elbows 1 min
cobra pose on your mat for 3 long slow breaths
crunches 50
reverse crunches 30
oblique twist with one dumbbell 40
Now back on your feet, lets burn it out!!!  Focus on your muscles that you are working!
bicep curl with dumbbells 50
tricep dips 40
push ups on toes 10 push ups on knees 10
assisted pull ups 15
overhead seated shoulder press 20
plank with arms fully extended 1 min.  really squeeze your belly button to your spine as tight as you can, the entire time. 
jack knife sit ups 20  lay your body long on the mat, then bring your arms to your toes, right up in the air.
calf raises 50, then hold high for 10 seconds, then give me 20 jumps while on your tip toes.  You will have a bend in your knees, get high on the balls of your feet and jump.
hammy curl on soccer ball or other household object 30  lay on your back, feet up on the ball and lift your hips, like a pelvic thrust
leg lifts to when you think you cant go on, then hold for 10 seconds and give me 10 more
inner thigh lift 50, hold for 10
repeat other side
crunches 50
hammy curl on soccer ball 30
Now, the last 10-15 mins of this I did a yoga flow series.  It was like free style yoga and it went something like
Warrior 1, 2, 3 with reverse warrior on either side
I did some balancing like tree, dancer
Then I flowed to the mat for bow pose and stretch.
I want you to just follow your music and your body through a yoga series at the end.  If you really need to you can just find a yoga video on cable or something but the whole point was to just listen to your body and breath and find a practice that feels good.  It was really relaxing and I had Adelle, Counting Crows and Florence and the Machine helping me along.
I felt seriously amazing after this workout today.  I hope you do too and if you do this, please let me know!!!  I know Sarah is going to do this at some point.  She is that supportive voice who tells me how much she appreciates my blog.  It really helps me find the confidence to keep writing. 

I have not done an at home workout for awhile because I have been getting out to get my sweat on.  It felt great and for some crazy reason Dutch was entertaining himself downstairs.  It was amazing.  I had a few pangs of guilt, like, man-I should be playing with him right now.  Then I quickly let those thoughts go because I KNOW I deserved an hour to myself.  I focus every single minute of his waking life on him so I could take an hour without feeling bad.  I coached myself through it.  Namaste!


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

What NEVER works for Fit Mama....EXTREMES

What Never works for Fit Mama?  EXTREMES.
Before I share exactly what that means, please remember my philosophy.  You need to do what feels good to you and follow that feeling, always.  Trust and listen to your body.
There are a few things I need to rant about today.
1. CLEANSING
I am not a fan of any cleanse that does not include food for a certain number of days.  In fact when I have done a "cleanse" in the past, it only made me HUNGRY, ANGRY, CRANKY, MEAN, UNHAPPY, HUNGRY and HUNGRY.  For me, it has the opposite effect and makes me want to eat anything and everything.  I used to be a cleanse fanatic and would get so excited to drop 12 lbs. in 2 weeks by just drinking shakes and eating nuts "when you really needed to."  UM....mama no likey.  I would lose weight, yes, but in my opinion it was not because my body was releasing toxins.  It was because I was starving myself.  I do understand the health benefits of taking a break from certain things like caffeine, dairy, sugar, processed foods like breads for a limited amount of time.  Sometimes you need to get your groove back, to break addictive habits like eating chocolate after every meal (I am working on this....no, actually, no I am not.  Not today anyway)  I am talking about the shake cleanses, the juice cleanses, the artificial cleanses sold in pretty little packages.  I just worry that powerful marketing for the latest and greatest cleanse is giving people the wrong tools.  I don't think extremes work for the long term and if someone wants to get healthy and change their life, I want them to know they can be just as effective without starving themselves.  You can eat healthy and clean and feel good first.  I really truly believe that if you start inside the body will follow.  It's science.  It's the law's of the Universe.  Start by treating your body kind and loving.  Feed it good foods that make you feel better inside yourself.  Your body will be so happy and will start to show that by trimming down.
2. EXCESSIVE WORKING OUT
I have heard it one too many times.  "I was bad last week so I am going to do two spin classes a day for the next two weeks."  Okay, maybe that is an extreme example but sometimes I think people make exercise a punishment rather than a tool.  I understand falling out of routines for a few days, maybe talking yourself back into the gym.  The thing that can sometimes have the opposite effect on success is going to extreme, then realizing the work is too much, quitting and repeat.  In my own personal experience when I would be hard on myself or cruel, it would affect how I felt in my body.  It would lead me to the wrong place and I would feel guilty so the cycle would continue again.  My advice for creating a fitness routine is finding something you love to do.  Find something you enjoy or something you atleast want to see if you can learn to enjoy.  Do the amount that feels right.  Work as hard as you can in one class so that one class is enough.  I completely understand sometimes a double dip (two classes in a row) is in order, just to see what you are made of or possibly you are feeling super strong that particular night.  That is alot different than...."I was bad so I am going to make myself take two classes in a row."  The punishment always leads to rebellion which means stopping the workouts.  What if you worked out to FEEL GOOD.  Period.  I say it all the time, your body will follow your thoughts every time.  This example is no exception.
3. THE SCALE
I know this one is controversial because for some people, they have no issue with the scale.  It motivates them.  They can weigh themselves and not obsess.  Not Fit Mama.  (for some reason it makes me lol when I do third person Fit Mama)  I don't do the scale.  Once again, I used to.  I used to go NUTSO over it.  I had to learn it didn't work for me.  Simple way to realize what works and what doesn't is to ask yourself some questions......does this make me feel good?  does this help me reach my goals?  does this motivate me or make me feel discouraged?  I have the perfect example to share.  I have an absolutely gorgeous, lean, healthy client who comes to my toughest class.  This woman is a knock out.  She is extremely hard on herself and this week she was upset because she had "gained 3 lbs."  First of all, I don't think she gained the three pounds-I didn't see them anywhere on her and second of all, if she did-they looked great on her.  Did you hear that?  THEY LOOKED GREAT.  She is a scale person like me and has some crazy number in her head, probably from when she was like 21, of what she should weigh.  Why?  Who is the judge?  The judge is how you feel.  This beautiful woman had been working so hard.  She was about to go on vacation and wanted to enjoy how she felt in her bikini.  Because of the 3 lbs. she was not going to allow herself to feel good in a swimsuit.  It killed me but I can understand because I used to do the same thing.  Back in my weight watcher days I would eat as much pudding as I could handle, feel totally gross and awful in my body.  (what IS pudding???) As long as I lost weight that week I would celebrate by eating more pudding, feeling gross.  NO MAKEY SENSEY.

deep breath.  Today I encourage you to find YOUR guidelines.  Not rules- but find what makes you feel successful.  Take inventory on your patterns and evaluate which one's are working.  It all boils down to how you feel.  Every time.  Take a step and start to be aware of how you feel in your body.  Create that connection.  Free yourself from anything that has been holding you hostage to AWESOMENESS. 


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Don't Forget About Fit Mama 8pm workout

Ay vey.  The past few days have really gotten me.  Life has just been a bit rough and I feel it in my body.  A heaviness, a stress heaviness.  Today was no exception and my workout kept slipping further and further away from me.  When my body feels stress I need to get my sweat on.  Like, BAD.  I am almost like a caged beast and someone bess let mama out of her cage before she go crazy.  Working out just re calibrates all of me. 

Dutch and I had ALOT of fun today.  We had fun from 7am until 8pm, with a nice 2 hour nap in the middle.  The BEST part of the day was from 4-6pm.  Dutch, Vader (Dutch calls him VER-its so cute) and I headed for this park by our apartment.  We ended up finding the RADDEST walking trail in the trees behind the park and all three of us went on a lil hike.  I just absolutely love being in the trees.  I really do think Dutch is athletically advanced.  What 2 year old can hike?  Seriously.  He was grabbing handfuls of mud and throwing it into nothing.  He was using sticks as imaginary swords and fighting battles with someone only he could see.  It was that juicy part of my day where I just felt like I was a cool mom.  Grabbing mud chunks has to balance the chakra's, right?

Today was long and all of a sudden it was 8pm and I had not worked out.  I WAS SO TIRED.  I really didn't think I had anything in me to give to a workout.  I debated just taking a shower and getting in bed to read.  Then I quickly thought how much better that would feel after I worked out.  I decided to just go upstairs with my ipod, leave the boys downstairs, and just see what happened.  If I can get myself to start a workout, I usually find my groove quickly and get into it.  I definitely got a good sweat, my breathe was challenged, my body was working.  I feel really good about it because I was up there for at least 40mins when I planned to only do about 20.  I wouldn't say I felt FABULOUS in my body during the workout but I did release allot of stress and burned allot of cals.  I just mean, I wasn't my normal self and I could feel it but after a long day, just getting that in felt like an accomplishment.



So, here is the Don't Forget About Mama, 8pm workout
jump squat tabata
push ups 20 (on your toes!)
squat thrusts 20
tricep dips 20
high knees 40 (count each knee)
sumo squat with bicep curl 20 (I had 8lbs. in each hand)
weighted squats 40 (I had an 8lb. dumbbell in each hand. using proper form, go as quickly as you can)
Reverse lunge with knee tuck 20 each side (reverse lunge then just bring that same knee into the chest, no plyo here, just move quickly with good form.  tight tummy to get the extra core blast)
one leg balancing row 10 each leg
mountain climbers 40 (count each knee in)
pull ups (if you dont have a pull up bar, just do a row) 20
crunches 40
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plank/downward dog tabata  (hold plank when you are 20 secs on, move into down dog in your 10 secs off)
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do that whole first round again  (the 13 moves)
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core tabata (each 20 secs choose a new core exercise, don't forget the low  back)
   
definition of tabata-20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles).