Ah-ha!

I love teaching Body Pump.

This morning a class participant had that 'ah-ha' moment where my instructions made sense and she was able to feel the correct muscles working!  I love that.  Another member learned if she pulled her shoulder blades together during the deadrow then her neck wouldn't tense.  Such simple tweaks can make all the difference!

Train to be Awesome....

Nia Shanks is one of my favorite on-line trainers.  She gives no nonsense advice and is on a mission to get women to stop focusing on the scale and lift heavy weight!

Here is a recent article.  Let's stop exercising/training to make a certain weight or waist size....let's train to be AWESOME!

Spot training....

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about 'spot training'...

"What exercises can I do to get rid of _____?"

Unfortunately there isn't one exercise that will take away the fat around our mid-section or get rid of the  flaps surrounding our triceps or the fat on your upper thighs.  Spot training is a myth.

There are so many factors that play into the equation....genetics being one.  We all carry fat in different areas and when we gain a few pounds its happy place is different for each person.

Another factor is what we are eating.  A solid eating plan contributes to about 80% of fat loss.  This might be discouraging to some because they may 'exercise so they can eat what they want'.  This is fine and dandy if you just love exercise and want to be stronger.  BUT if you want to lose fat and get muscle definition you will need to clean up your eating.

Read this article for other tips for fat loss....

Race against yourself....

This is the workout I did with my client this morning....(after our warm-up and core work)

25 Kettle Bell swings
20 Bridges
15 Step-ups (each leg)
10 squat jumps
5 hill sprints (used my front lawn...only takes about 10 seconds to sprint to the top)

We set the stopwatch and recorded her time for round 1.  This was our base time....the goal was to be quicker on the following rounds (while keeping good form).  Beating the clock was great motivation to push harder even when she wanted to quit!  I was so very impressed!

Relay Triathlon

So today I completed an Olympic distance triathlon as part of a relay team.  I have wanted to do this longer triathlon(1 mile swim, 20+mile bike, 10K run) for about a year and almost signed up ....but then decided I didn't have time to train properly and it would be good to try it as a team first.  I volunteered to do the swim, Noelia (my first ever client!) did the bike ride and our chiropractor Chantel Brooks did the run.  She had a baby 4 months ago and used this event as a motivator to get back in shape.

my team was the lady in red and black.  Carla did each event.  

When we woke up it was storming-lightning and rain....but thankfully it stopped and only caused a 1 hour delay.  I was nervous swimming in the river but it turned out to be better than a lake.  It was a narrow river and not a huge body of water like the lakes in my other triathlons.  And the river provided a nice current to help push you along.  1000m was downstream and then we had to finish the last 500m upstream....very tough.  As we were waiting to start I got in the water to warm up....that is when I realized just how strong the current was... Advantageous on the way down-problematic on the way up....but I finished.  And with a time of 32 minutes!  I was expecting 45-60 minutes so i was very pleased.  

 before the race.  i sure wish I had taken a picture of the river!  you can kinda see it behind us.  the man is John who takes my Pump class on Mondays at 5:15...and then that is Carla-who is a very strong athlete!  

After I came out of the water I passed the timing chip to Noelia and she took off on the bike for the 24 mile course.  She was nervous with the roads being wet but she averaged 17.4 mph....VERY impressive! It took her 1 hr. and 15 minutes.  Chantel also had a very impressive time with the 10K coming in 1:24!  I did feel like I cheated as I watched the other athletes complete each event....just inspired me more to do the whole thing next year!  If I had the money and time to train properly I would find one to do next month...but I really would like to do this one since I am kinda familiar with the course.  We all were inspired to do it next year.  

our "After" shot.  I really felt bad for Chantel and Noelia....they exercised for over an hour....mine was only 32 minutes...and I had help from the current!

Want to run?

A couple of months ago my new client indicated she wanted to try running.  In the past she has tried but didn't get far.  She would start out too fast and her legs would hurt for days afterwards.

My solution?  Start a run:walk program and go slow.  We are making great progress and no sore legs!

I looked at a couple of run:walk programs (see links below) but they weren't working for us so I created one to suit our needs.  We started with the ratio of 30:30 run:walk.  Each week we would tweak our times as we felt stronger.  We moved it up to 45:30 but decided this week we needed a little more walk time so we are going to see how  45:45 feels.  Our first 5K is this month and our only goal is to finish strong...which I know we can!  And our legs will feel great.

Here are some links to other run:walk programs.

Couch to 5K

Jeff Galloway training programs

Sore muscles?

Try foam rolling...

When I get sore muscles I usually stretch....isn't that what we have all done?  Well...sometimes stretching is not enough.  During my workout on Friday I did  some one-leg deadlifts with a heavy kettlebell and that evening I could feel the soreness kicking in.  I knew this weekend was going to be filled with some "ooowww" moments when I sat down or bent over.  I decided to start foam rolling that night before the soreness reached its peak.    I did about 10 minutes each night and it reduced the soreness by 75%.  I won't lie....foam rolling doesn't feel great...but the effects are worth the discomfort.  It is like a deep tissue massage.  Hurts so bad but afterwards feels so good.

Foam rolling has many benefits and I am trying to make it a regular part of my fitness routine...not just when i am sore!

Here is an article with many links to other excellent articles on this subject.