The Power of 3

Three is a great number for working out. I break many of my strength training workouts into groups of 3. Here is one set of 3 to start off a Power of 3 workout!

Warm up for a few minutes to begin and grab a water bottle!

1. Forward & Back Lunge - With or without weight. Stand with feet hip distance apart and parallel, your shoulders down and back, your spine in neutral and your core engaged. Begin reaching forward with your right foot and coming into a front lunge, engage your core and the hamstrings and glutes of your supporting leg and lift your right knee, without putting your foot on the ground, reach the right leg to the back into a reverse lunge. Engage your muscles, lift the knee and lower into a forward lunge. The foot will not return to the starting position until you complete 10 repetitions. 1 Lunge forward, 1 lunge back = 1 repetition. After 10, return your foot to center and begin with the left leg. Great as a body weight exercise!

To increase the challenge, hold a dumbbell at chest height when you lunge, press the dumbbell overhead, keeping your shoulders down and away from you ears, as you lift the knee and switch the lunge, lower the dumbbell as you lunge, press with the knee lift!

2. Alternating Toe Touch - Begin on your back with your legs extended and your arms extended out to the side. Engage your core and with an exhale, lift your head, neck and shoulders off the ground and lifting your right leg, reach your left hand toward your right leg, inhale to lower and switch sides. Repeat for 24 reps, 12 on each side.

3. Side Plank Push-Up - Begin in plank position, the up position of a push-up with your shoulders stacked above your wrists and dropped away from your ears, your core engaged and the muscles in your legs engaged reaching back through your heels. Lower into a push-up with an inhale of your breath, on a exhale, press up and rotate into the side plank position extending your right arm to the sky. Return the arm to the floor, rotate back into plank and do a push-up. Exhale up and rotate into a side plank on the other side, extending your left arm. Return to plank and repeat. Feel free to do these on your knees! Repeat for 4-8 repetitions and remember to keep your core engaged and not allow your back to sag!

The power of 3! Repeat this set of 3 exercises 3 times, have fun and drink a lot of water!

Blast the New Year Workout!

Remember how much fun a jump rope used to bring? Now is the time to conjure up all fond jump roping memories and bring them into your workout! So, find a jump rope, a stability ball and a water bottle, this is fun!

Stability ball push-up & knee-up
Begin with your body in plank position, the up-phase of a push-up, with your feet on the ball. Stack your shoulders above your wrists, point your fingers forward, drop your shoulders away from your ears and engage your core, no back sagging! Bend your elbows, keeping your spine straight, lower into the down phase of the push-up, press up and repeat for 8-10 repetitions.

After the last push-up, remain in the up phase and roll your knees toward your chest using your core muscles. Extend your legs, 1 repetition. Repeat for 10 repetitions. Lower your knees and press back into child’s pose to rest.

Grab your jump-rope! Check the time and skip rope for 1 minute. Work hard, the minute will go by quickly, sort of. Be mindful of your core and keep your muscles engaged as you skip.

Sumo squat w/side leg lift
Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip distance apart with your toes pointing out. Drop your shoulders and engage your core. With your chest up, bend your knees into a squat. As you straighten your knees to stand, lift your right leg to the side, lower the leg, coming back into the squat and lift your left leg to the side as you stand. Continue the motion, squat, side leg lift right, squat, side leg lift left, repeat for 24 repetitions; 12 reps per leg.

Jump rope, 1 minute.

Repeat the entire sequence for a total of 3-5 sets.

Have fun, drink lots of water and stretch when you have finished.

Super Girl (Person) Push-Ups!

Assume the push-up position, the up position.

Make sure your fingers are pointing forward to ease the strain on your wrists, engage your core, drop your shoulders away from your ears and make sure that your spine is a straight line from your neck down to your tailbone.

Lift your right leg off the floor and do a push-up. Return your leg to the floor and lift your left leg, push-up. Repeat for 3 sets of 10 repetitions pressing into child's pose or downward facing dog to rest.

To modify this exercise, stay in the up position of the push-up and alternately lift and lower your legs, exhaling your breath as you lift, inhale as you lower.

My Sore Muscles...

The last couple weeks I have been feeling pretty run down and my weight training has taken a back burner.

Yesterday, without wanting to "over-do" it, I knew I needed to get started again with my routine. What follows is what I came up with to ease back into weight training and now I am feeling a bit sore in places.
Set #1
1. Pull-ups: not many, I can only do 3-5 so on the last one I come down as slowly as possible
2. Push-ups: I did 15
3. Oblique/Center/Oblique/Center crunches on the BOSU: 15 each

Set #2
20 Reps of:
1. Squats with my feet hip distance apart
2. Jump Squats on the BOSU
3. Forward Lunge with and overhead press using a medicine ball
4. Alternating Jump Lunge

Set #3
1. Reverse Lunge: 20 reps with each leg with a torso twist/press using a medicine ball
2. Tuck Jumps: 10, this is just a standing jump pulling your knees up as close to your chest as possible
3. Hamstring Curl with a stability ball: lie on your back with your feet on a stability ball, press up into a shoulder bridge and straighten your legs to roll the ball away from your body, bend your knees to bring the ball back, repeat for 20 repetitions.

Then I did it again. This was quick and pretty fun. My biceps, back and chest are feeling the pull-ups and push-ups and my quads and glutes are also twinging a bit.

I followed it up with stretching and water!

Last Week...A Recap

Last week was a series of cardio activity and full body resistance exercises.
The routine goes like this...

1. Start off with a good 5-10 minute warm-up and then move into...

2. One minute of cardio activity working between 75%-90% of your maximum ability.

3. Sumo Squats with a dumbbell shoulder press for 30 seconds

4. One minute of cardio

5. Walking Lunge with dumbbells for 30 seconds

6. One minute of cardio

7. Push-ups for 30 seconds

8. One minute of cardio

9. Finally...Squats with your feet together for 30 seconds

10. Cool down for 10 minutes or repeat the entire cycle for as many repetitions as time and energy permit!

As always...remember to drink lots of water and have lots of fun!

Finally!

Finish the series with push-ups for 30 seconds, another minute of cardio and last but not least...30 seconds of squats with your feet together.

Begin the squats standing with your feet together, holding dumbbells in your hands by your sides.

Keeping your shoulders down and back, your core engaged and your chest up, bend your knees into a deep squat. Engage your hamstrings and glutes to return to stand and repeat for 30 seconds.

Plank Push-ups!

Begin in plank position, the up phase of a push-up with your hands flat on the floor beneath your shoulders. From here, lower your body and with your core strength, press back up, one (1) push-up. Pause at the top and lift your left hand off the floor with your arm extended out to side. Hold here and lift your right foot off the floor. Lower your hand and foot back to the floor, do another push-up and repeat with opposite hand and foot. Continue, alternating sides for 8-12 repetitions.

Please remember...do not allow your stomach to sag to the floor, maintain your core strength, keep your shoulders down away from your ears and don’t forget to breathe! Have fun!!

Elevated Push-Up; The Tried & True But Different

Start in push-up position with your feet on a chair behind you. Drop your shoulders down and back, away from your ears, contract your core and do not allow your stomach to sag toward the floor. Lower your torso toward the floor and press back to the up position with the exhale of your breath. Repeat for as many repetitions as can be performed in proper position!

More From Home... Or Where You May Be!

Another simple at home exercise!

Stand facing a wall with your palms on the wall at shoulder height, feet hip distance and parallel, preparing for a standing push-up. This will become more difficult the further away from the wall you stand, begin 2-3 feet from the wall.

Engage your core muscles, drop your shoulders and maintain your neutral spinal alignment.

Lower your torso, maintaining your posture, hold in the "down" position for 5 deep breaths and return to the "up" position, 1 repetition. Repeat for 3 sets of 15 repetitions, alternating with the kneeling torso lean.

Fun, simple, can be done anywhere!

Just For Fun...

...Stability Ball Push-ups!

Find yourself in plank position with the tops of your feet/shins on your stability ball. Make sure that your core is engaged, your stomach does not sag toward the floor, your shoulders are away from your ears and stacked over your wrists. From this plank position, do a set of push-ups; only as many as you can in do in good form and no more than 15. If you are not in the mood for push-ups, hold plank for a determined amount of time, 30 seconds for example. Perform 3 sets in good form.

This is challenging and will be felt in your arms, chest and core. Enjoy!

Arms, Back and Core!

This week I wanted to focus on our arms and back so in looking back, pun intended, here is a quick recap of the exercises.
Starting off, after taking a few moments to contemplate your life’s distractions, bang out a set of 15 bench dips or a few push-ups.
Follow that up with:
• “Y”: Lie face down on the floor with your arms extended out from your shoulders forming a ‘Y’ position overhead. Engage the muscles in your arms all the way through your finger tips with your thumbs pointing toward the ceiling. Slide your shoulder blades down and back and engage your core. Using the strength of your core and with an exhale of your breath, lift your torso, head and arms off the floor, inhale, lower and repeat. If you are looking for an extra challenge, lift your legs, with your muscles engaged, off the floor at the same time.
• Begin in plank position. Engage the muscles of your arms up to your shoulders, your core and your legs, reaching through your heels. Maintain a straight, neutral spine, not allowing your stomach to sag to the floor or your tailbone to reach to the ceiling. Take a deep breath and "roll" on to your right hand, coming into a side plank. Take a breath and from there roll toward to your back into backward plank position. Take another breath and roll over on to your left hand in another side plank. Breathe again and return to your starting plank position. It is important to maintain your core integrity and spine alignment through all these positions!
• Stand with your feet hip distance and parallel, shoulders down and back and your core engaged. If you have a set of light dumbbells, hold one in each hand. With your palms facing forward and your arms by your sides, bend your elbow, engaging your bicep, into a curl. At the top of the curl, turn your palm to the front again and extend your arm into a shoulder press. Lower your arm to your hip. With the same arm, extend it up into a diagonal overhead. Lower back to your hip and again with the same arm, punch across your chest. Lower your arm to your side and repeat the entire series with the opposite arm. Repeat this series of exercises for 3 sets of 10 repetitions on each arm. It is a fun one!
• Begin this on your hands and knees. Balance your weight on your knees and one arm, engaging all the muscles of your balancing arm and pressing through your palm and all your fingers. Make a fist with your "working" arm and with a slightly bent arm, bring your fist to your rib cage. This is your starting position. With the muscles in your arm engaged, squeeze your shoulder blades together and lift your arm, still slightly bent, laterally, (to the side) to shoulder height. Return and repeat for 15 repetitions and switch arms.
Cycle through these exercises for a great arm, back and core series. Have a great weekend!