Fierce Workout: Well Armed

Regardless of who you are and what you do you probably spend a lot of time picking things up and putting them back down. Whether you are carrying your children and groceries, working in your garden or lifting a 32 oz. mug of beer to your mouth, your arms are probably involved in the process.

This weeks workout is all about building strong, shapely arms to make whatever it is you do look a little sexier.

The How To:

Tension (resistance) Band Curls:

Stand on the tension band with your legs apart until you feel appropriate (challenging) tension with your arms straight down. Holding the tension band handles, palms out, curl up as you would with a dumbbell curl.

Tension (resistance) Band Triceps Extensions:

Wrap the tension band around a post, tree, bedpost, or anything else that is sturdy and will hold tension well at about your ankle level. With the tension band behind you. With your hands behind your head grab the handle, palms face each other, elbows bent at 90 degrees. Keep your upper arm pressed tightly against your body with the elbow bent at a 90 degree angle. Pull the handles up and slowly return it back to the starting position. Make sure that you are using appropriate tension for this exercise.

Tension (resistance) Band Preacher Curls:

Wrap the tension band around a sturdy surface at about your waist level. Hold the band with your arms extended, palms up. Pull the handles towards your shoulders and slowly return back to starting position. Make sure that you are using appropriate tension for this exercise.

Tension (resistance) Band Triceps Push-down:

Wrap the band around something sturdy high above your head. Hold the handles with your palms facing each other, elbows bent at 90 degree angles close to your body. Pull the handles down while keeping them close to your body, bending only at the elbows. Return to the starting position. Make sure that you are using appropriate tension for this exercise.

Tension (resistance) Band Wrist Curls:

Secure the tension band underneath one of your feet. Hold the tension band handle with the opposite hand, elbow resting on top of your quad, hand  above your knee, palm facing up. Pull the handle up by curling your wrist up. Return to the starting position. Take care to utilize proper and challenging tension on the band at all times.

Tension (resistance) Band Wrist Extensions:

Secure the tension band underneath one of your feet. Hold the tension band handle with the same hand, elbow resting on top of your quad, hand  above your knee, palm facing down. Pull the handle up by utilizing only your wrist and allow it to return to the starting position. Your forearm should remain stationary throughout this exercise.

Fierce Workout: Cry on My Shoulder

Warm weather is right around the corner and that means sleeveless shirts and exposed shoulders and arms. Who wouldn’t want to have some nice, sexy definition? This weeks no gym required workout is all about shoulders. All you will need is a set of tension (resistance) bands.

The How To:

Tension (resistance) Band Shoulder Press:

Stand on the tension band with one of your feet until you feel appropriate (challenging) tension with your hands over your shoulders and  elbows bent. Holding the tension band handles, palms out, push the handles up until your arms are almost fully extended (keep your elbow soft), then bring your hands slowly to the starting position.

Tension (resistance) Band Internal Shoulder Rotation:

Wrap the tension band around a post, tree, bedpost, or anything else that is sturdy and will hold tension well at about your waist level. With the tension band at your side, grab the handle with the hand closest to the band. Keep your upper arm pressed tightly against your body with the elbow bent at a 90 degree angle. Pull the handle in towards your abdomen and slowly return it back to the starting position. Make sure that you are using appropriate tension for this exercise.

Tension (resistance) Band External Shoulder Rotation:

Wrap the tension band around a post, tree, bedpost, or anything else that is sturdy and will hold tension well at about your waist level. With the tension band at your side, grab the handle with the hand furthest away from the band. Keep your upper arm pressed tightly against your body with the elbow bent at a 90 degree angle. Pull the handle out across your body away from your abdomen and slowly return it back to the starting position. Make sure that you are using appropriate tension for this exercise.

Tension (resistance) Band Front Deltoid Raise:

Wrap the tension (resistance) band around a post, tree, bedpost, or anything else that is sturdy and will hold tension well. Hold the tension band handels with your arms in front of you, palms facing down. Pull the tension band up until your arms are parallel to the floor, then slowly return to the starting position. Remember to maintain appropriate, challenging tension on your resistance bands!

Tension (resistance) Band Lateral Deltoid Raise:

Stand on the tension band with your legs apart until you feel appropriate (challenging) tension with your arms straight down. Holding the tension band handles with your arms on either side of your body, palms in, pull the handles out and up until your arms are parallel to the floor. Slowly return to the starting position.

I’d love to her what you thought about this workout in the comments below or on our Facebook!

 

 

Fierce Workout: Fierce Fit

This week is all about endurance and seeing what you are made of.  Do this workout as fast as possible, with proper form for 30 minutes. Make sure that you are keeping track of how many rounds you have completed, write the number down. I do this workout at least once a month to see if I can beat my score every time. Enjoy!

3 Easy Steps to Get Fit in 2014

If you have been anywhere around a TV set, a radio, or a computer, you have noticed the great abundance of “get fit now”. It is that time of the year again. The time when supplement companies and larger than though trainers are pushing their miracle cure all product on the unsuspecting consumers with low self-esteem. Do these products work? Some of them. Do they work safely and for a prolonged period of time? No.

We live in a society that is largely driven by instant gratification and impulse. No one wants to work to be fit, but everyone wants to have a fit body of a fitness model. After all, it is much easier to pop a pill and eat a pizza while watching football, than working out and eating clean. Does anyone think about the consequences of taking these drugs? Does anyone stop to ask why they work so quickly and so effectively? No. Why? Because blissful ignorance with a skinny fat body is significantly safer than a challenging and at times difficult reality in which one has to find information, process it, and work to get the results that they want. In short, half-baked approaches breed half-baked results and a lot of disappointed, misinformed consumers. So, what can you do to get lasting weight loss results? Read on.

What I have to say right now may not be what you want to hear, but I am not in the business of cuddling and propagating fitness myths. I am here to give you the hard truth and save you the time you’ll spend doing research on your own. Here’s the deal. Most “magic” weight loss pills, shakes, and powders are unsafe. If you have to order your food premade, you’ll gain all of your weight back after you stop eating “out of the box”. There is no such thing as getting “toned and fit” without changing your daily lives.

The only way to get true and lasting results is by keeping a clean and sustainable diet, maintaining a healthy attitude, and exercising daily.

Keeping a Clean and Sustainable Diet:

Let’s face it, if you drastically cut calories, completely cut out certain food groups or expect perfect rigid compliance to a dietary plan, you will eventually slip. In fact, when you slip you will binge, feel guilty, get down on yourself, and try to maintain the same diet with even more restrictions than before to make up for your pitfall. Does that sound like a healthy relationship with food? No. To me, that sounds more like an eating disorder and we all know that eating disorders are very unhealthy.

A sustainable diet should revolve around a lifestyle. When you decide to get in shape, you have to realize that you are on a journey and just like any journey, this one will have peaks and valleys. The secret to sustainable, healthy weight loss is realizing that a valley isn’t going to undo everything you worked for. So, if you make it a priority to eat healthy 90% of the time, that one piece of cake on your birthday, a plate full of delicious food on Thanksgiving, and a bowl of macaroni and cheese every other month aren’t going to send you on an express train to fat town.

A clean sustainable diet should involve all of the major food groups (unless you have a medical condition that prevents you from eating certain things) in moderation. Eating for weight loss is an art form that will take time to master fully, there is no diet that perfectly fits all, and there are no shortcuts. A clean, healthy diet with proper caloric intake (you can’t starve yourself!!!) takes time to develop and perfect.

I encourage you to do your research, look at various food plans, study strategic eating, and custom design your own eating plan. It will take time, but in the end you will be rewarded with energy, better health, and a lean, strong body.

Healthy Attitude:

We briefly touched on this subject in the previous section when we discussed a healthy relationship with food. You can’t punish yourself for slip-ups and deviations of off the plan, but you also have to hold yourself accountable for what you do in daily basis. Having a support group helps, but at the end of the day it is between you and your refrigerator, or between you and your bed.

You have to make a plan and stick to it regardless of what the world around you wants. If you know that what you are doing is right for you, then no one else has the right to keep you away from your goals and your dreams. Not even you. You have to push yourself every day. I wish I could tell you that it gets to a point where going to the gym or out on a run is automatic. No. I still have days when I question why I am up at 5 am on a cold winter morning. There are days when the last thing that I want to do is drive to the gym and lift a bunch of weights when the laundry is piled up, dinner needs to be cooked, and I still have a mound of paperwork to get through. However, I don’t make excuses. I put on my big girl pants, lace up my shoes, and I tell myself that it is better that way. I can say with full confidence,  I am yet to regret a workout that I did.

However, healthy attitude goes far beyond building a healthy relationship with food and regular, hard workouts. A healthy attitude also encompasses how you view the world. It is easy to be mad and sad about your circumstances, but when you make a decision to take control and change, you become empowered. Feeling strong and in control is what gets people in the gym initially, but most quickly get discouraged because the results didn’t come fast enough. Here’s the hard part: you have to remain positive and have faith in the fact that the results will come if you actually follow a program that you set for yourself. You have to force yourself to become an optimist on those days when you just want to quit because the pudgy feeling isn’t going away fast enough.

Again, I wish I could tell you that feeling discouraged goes away with time – it doesn’t. But if you keep at it long enough, you will learn that the voice inside your head that tells you “it’s not working”, “you don’t have the body for this”, “you are too old” etc. is a total liar. With time, you learn to ignore your own little critic and you learn that when the voice rears its ugly head, you are closer than you ever were before to achieving that one goal that you set for yourself.

Exercising Daily:

A good diet and a great attitude aren’t going to get you far without exercise. Consistent, challenging, daily exercise paired with a great diet is a sure recipe for a fabulous body. Now, let me clarify, I am not telling you to go out and do Zumba (although it is a fun way to initially lose some extra weight). The exercise that I am talking about involves 3-4 heavy weight training sessions and 3 cardio sessions a week. You can’t be a cardio queen and expect a toned body of a fitness model. You have to lift HEAVY weights. Let me say this right now: there is no way that you are going to end up looking like a she Hulk unless you are SPECIFICALLY working to attain that aesthetic. So, no, don’t tell me that lifting heavy turns women into men. It is a total myths that is propagated by men who are scared of strong women, women who are scared of hard work, and skinny fat models who would be out of a job if the rest of us woke up and realized that having the ability to pick up more than 5 lbs at a time makes you more attractive and gives you the lean, toned look you actually want. Yes, I’m talking to you ladies.

Gentlemen, I have to caution you against trying to show off. Heavy training means lifting the weight you can ACTUALLY lift with PROPER form. Allow me to elaborate: that means that you shouldn’t be squirming under a barbell during your bench press like a deranged worm because you loaded the bar too heavy. You are not a hero if you get hurt, so why set yourself up for failure? Take it easy, maintain proper tension throughout your exercises and watch your body bulge with awesome rippliness faster than the guy who has been trying to “out lift” you all alone and has been doing it wrong.

I don’t know about you, but for me, a fit strong body is a status symbol. You can’t buy it, you can pay someone to surgically make it. You have to invest the time, the sweat, the tears and the doubts to achieve it. There are challenges to achieving your perfect physique at any age and in any circumstance, so don’t discount the efforts of the younger crowd just because of their age or the older crowd just because of their experience. We all face different struggles, have different body types, and respond to different things better than others. Building a body you want takes time, it takes trial and error and you have to be willing to invest in your journey fully in order to rip the perfect results.

Fierce Workout: The Extinction

This is another AMRAP workout that is guaranteed to get your heart rate up and burn a bunch of calories. Although this is not one of the “no special equipment required” workouts, you can still use some of the household objects to get this one done. For example, if you do not have access to a kettle bell a gallon jug filled with water can be great substitute. You can use a park bench or a high curb to do your box jumps. Sometimes improvising is what keeps the workout fun and fresh. 🙂  Remember to use good form on your kettle bell swings!

Fierce Workout: Sweating Bullets

This another Holiday travel friendly workout of the week. This week we will be using tension bands. You should be able to complete this workout in 30 minutes.

The How To:

Tension Band Squats:

Stand on the tension band with your hands by your shoulders in the squat position. Pretend that you are holding a barbell on your shoulders and you are about to do barbell squats. Your tension band should be appropriately tense. Now, stand up with your hands by your shoulders as you would while performing a barbell squat.

Tension Band Curls:

Stand on the tension band with your legs apart until you feel appropriate (challenging) tension with your arms straight down. Holding the tension band handles, palms out, curl up as you would with a dumbbell curl.

Tension Band Sit-ups:

Wrap the tension band around a post, tree, bedpost, or anything else that is sturdy and will hold tension well. Position yourself on the floor / ground facing away from the post. Holding your hands by your head with an appropriate (challenging) amount of tension on the band, perform sit-ups.

Try to rest only after you have completed a circuit. Push hard, dig deep, and remember it is a short workout designed to burn a lot of calories. After you finish, make sure that you stretch, use a roller if one is available, and drink lots of water. Have fun and let me know what you think!

Fierce Workout: Torch the Turkey

I’d like to invite you to take a moment and think about all of the things that you are grateful for today. Think about how far along you have come, how much progress you have made. Be thankful for your body, your strength, your determination. Celebrate your commitment and your success in spite of the busy schedule, family obligation, stress at work, and millions of other things that get in the way.

Now that you have thought about how awesome you are, it is time to proactively burn off that Thanksgiving meal you are going to consume in a few hours.

Here’s the deal: this is short and sweet and to the point HIIT workout. After you do your warm up, do each of the following exercises for 50 seconds without rest between sets, then rest 20 seconds and do the circuit again for 40 seconds, then rest 20 seconds, etc. until you get to 10 seconds. Your workout should look something like this:

EXAMPLE:
50 seconds Push-ups
50 seconds High Knees
50 seconds Burpees
50 seconds Jumping Jacks

Rest 20 Seconds

40 seconds Push-ups
40 seconds High Knees
ETC.

Do not stop between sets, push hard and dig deep. It will be hard, but you can do it!

After you finish your last circuit, stretch, hydrate, and go eat lots of turkey (white meat, of course).

Quick Warm-up: 10 Toy Soldiers, 10 Knee to Elbow, 10 Toe Touch Kick and Squat, 20 Line Jumps

 

Fierce Workout: Fit in 400

Chances are you are going to be away from your gym / workout equipment this Holiday season due to travel and family obligations. Does your workout have to suffer because that? No! This week, I have devised a fun, fast paced way for you to burn off the Holiday treats at the track.

Fierce Workout: The Sky Is The Limit

Since the Holiday season is almost here, I figured I’d start posting some travel friendly workouts. This week we will explorer an AMRAP workout. AMRAP stands for As Many Reps As Possible in a given amount of time. For this workout, you’ll need to complete as many reps as possible for 20 minutes of the exercises listed on the workout graphic. You may stop as needed, but remember, you only have 20 minutes to complete this. The shorter the breaks the more reps you’ll be able to squeeze in.

Fierce Workout: The Countdown

Here’s  a fun and challenging way to brighten up your workout routine. I introduce to you, The Countdown! Pick a number you are comfortable with (for the sake of this example I chose 10) and do each exercise 10 times, then 9 times, and so on until you get to 1. No rest between sets until you get to the end of the circuit, rest 60 seconds.

This is a physical endurance exercise as well as a mental one. Regardless of your desire to give up, you must keep going. If you chose your starting number correctly, this is the kind of workout that will leave you exhausted and sore. Remember to hydrate properly before and after, eat right, and, as usual, talk to your doctor before attempting anything that is outside of your comfort zone.