Timed Abs: You Have 3 Minutes to Spare

I don’t want to hear that you don’t have 3 minutes to spare for a little exercise. Because you do. So let’s sit down and get it over with. “Timed abs” is one of my favorite abs routine. It’s different every time, but the technique is the same–no resting between the exercises. I first picked it up during high school track and saw its effectiveness. So, I brought to my own workouts as I grew up and also to my clients as I train them.

. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How many exercises and/or how many sets you do is up to how much time you can spare for your health. Here’s an example routine that you can try out. Either do 30 reps or 30 seconds of each:

Crunches
Toe touches (lift your legs up and reach for them over and over)
Slow bicycles (the slower you do them, the harder they are)
In n outs (I call them rows)
Side crunches
Reverse crunches

And that’s it! It would be even better if you could do more than one set, but one set will definitely set your core on fire if you do it right. If you have the time, go for three sets. If not, do as much as you can. Put your 100% effort and work into it. The best way to show dedication is hard work into yourself.

Abdomen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By doing this set of exercises, you are hitting each part of your abdominal muscles. Here’s a list of more exercises for each abdominal section. Let us know if you have any questions. Cheers! And stay hungry and fit!

Apr092013

MMA Circuit Training: New Workout!

Hey everyone, so this might be a first on the blog site. I am going to provide you with one of my personal workouts for you perform. This one can be adjusted to fit your current level of conditioning. It also has a great progress tracking system. It’s essentially a full body workout that is meant to get your heart rate way up into the cardio-building and even fat burning range. If you haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channel make sure you do. As I am getting in better shape, I will be posting free workout videos! It’s like I’m personally training you, but it’s not quite personal… and it’s FREE!

You perform five exercises. Each for a set number of reps. You do not rest between exercises. Rest 30 seconds after each round. Then repeat until you are exhausted and cannot complete a round. That is when you stop. This one can be done at home or in the gym or a park. It requires no equipment but some can be used to make it more challenging. It’s very simple but very effective. Here it is:

1. Roundhouse kicks – 20 total

2. Split jumps – 10 total

3. Mountain climbers – 15 total

4. Elbow strikes – 20 total

5. Burpees – 10 total

I recently did this one at the end of a very long muscle workout and stopped only in Round 4 so I’ll be taking a rematch very soon! I haven’t done cardio in a VERY long time so once I start it up again I’ll have better luck.

Feel free to add some wrist weights, ankle weights, a weight vest, or use a standing or hanging bag in order to challenge yourself further. Use ALL OF THEM if you are a beast and want to stay hungry and fit!

Mar062013

Quick Home Workout (Starting at Just 10 Minutes!)

So you really don’t have a lot of time, but you want to get some kind of cardio and strength activity in. Maybe you’re running off to see Jack the Giant Slayer in 15 minutes, but you want to get some muscle work in (hmm, sounds familiar…). This one ended up being a great core blaster with great upper body work as well.

And that’s my delightful chicken scratch! Do as many sets as you have time for. You can do one set in 7-10 minutes, depending on how long you last until failure. The weight for curls, rows, and press is up to you! You should get a light sweat and feel it in the abs and upper body, at least I did. Do them right, no rushing! If you have any questions on the exercises, feel free to comment and ask!

Cheers! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

Feb142013

Love Yourself: 30-Minute Total Body Blast [NO EQUIPMENT NECESSARY]

Hey, lovers and self-lovers out there! Today may be a day to splurge on chocolate, pastas, and fine wines (we are personally ordering pizza and kicking back since I work late), but it is also a day to show your body some love! You can’t be unfair and only treat your taste buds, treat your body too. Find 30 minutes out of your busy day to kick your own butt! In a kind and loving happy way. This is a home workout, you don’t need any weights–just keep moving! So no excuses! Keep a water bottle nearby.

30-Minute Circuit Total Body Blast

We are going to be doing a circuit of 10 stations for 1 minute each. Think you’re ready? Let’s do it!

1. Jump rope. Whether you have an actual jump rope or not, do this at a fast pace.

English: into the groove double dutch jump rope (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. Plie squats. More information on these if you click the link, these should be done slowly.

Here’s me with weights, but they are unnecessary for all

3. Push-ups. More information at the link, you can do them regular or knee-style, whatever your strength level is at.

4. Mountain climbers. These are quick. The faster you go, the more you burn!

5. Plank. Click the link for more information. Make sure you’re doing this right or I’ll sit on you.

6. Supermans. For these, you are on your belly and you lift your arms and your legs, with your torso still on the ground. You go up for about a second and then down, and then up and down, etc.

7. High knees. Hold your hands/arms parallel to the floor at a high level and kick your knees up to try to get them to your hands. These are FAST.

8. Lunges. Hands on the hips in starting position, lunge out forward with one leg, then back, lunge out with the other leg and back. Make sure that back leg is getting low to the ground.

9. Dips. Using a bench, a chair, a couch, anything really, hold onto the object, facing away from it and dip down, using your triceps.

10. Russian twists. Sit up with your legs off the ground and twist your shoulders back and forth (your whole torso), hitting either side with your hands. Make sure you are doing a full twist.

X3. To do this full workout, you must do this circuit three times. And 1 minute at each station (use an iPhone, a timer, stopwatch, something to keep track of time). You may need rest in between, but get a sip of water and try to keep going. Keep that heart rate up and the sweat flowing. And if you only have 20 minutes, then you can just make it two circuits instead of one. I know you have 20 minutes to spare today before you spend it with your love or your friends or your pets. If you’d rather have a shorter, more repetitive 15-min workout, click here. And click here for more circuit training ideas.

Let us know if you have any questions, and as always, stay hungry and fit! Cheers!

Jan302013

15 Minute High-Intensity Workout — No Excuses

I don’t care how busy you are. You have 15 minutes. You do. Don’t lie to yourself. So if you don’t have time for your own full workout, try this one. Only 15 minutes. Extremely simple. All you need is a timer. You could use your phone if it has one too. You can get some of your family to do it with you–it will make it more fun (and entertaining) this way. Most everyone can do it, unless you have a significant injury. Just try it! It gets you working, your heart rate up, hopefully sweating, and your core/legs strong. So here it is…

1 minute mountain climbers

1 minute russian twists

1 minute lunges

Meaning, you perform 1 minute of mountain climbers, 1 minute of russian twists, then 1 minute of lunges. And REPEAT FIVE TIMES. Take as little rest as possible. If you do so, you will have completed a very efficient, high-intensity, muscle-burning workout.

With the mountain climbers, I want you to go as quickly as possible. Keeping the pace up is one thing, but you also need to try to get those feet as close to the hands as possible to complete a good exercise.

With the russian twists, make sure you are doing complete rotations. This means that it’s not just your hands moving side to side, but also your shoulders. You’re doing a complete twist from either side. Once you’ve mastered that rotation, try to get a solid speed going.

With the lunges, if you have enough room you can do moving lunges. Otherwise, place your hands on your hips, lunge forward with the right, bring it back to center, then lunge forward with the left. This way, you stay in the same spot, but still get the full extension of the exercise.

Good luck, work hard, and sweat often!

Aug232012

15-Min Abs MIX ‘N MATCH, BABY!

Hey ya’ll! (awkward…sorry for the accent, we’re watching Chopped Southern Style) Anywayyyys, so you want to get some abs in? Who doesn’t! They’re fun, quick, and it’s an enjoyable burn. It’s also fun to work on your mid-section, which bother most people weight or fat-wise. When you do an ab workout (or core–even better), you’re building the muscle there. It’s not necessarily targeting just belly fat, but you will burn calories as you do these workouts, and as discussed earlier, will continue to burn calories afterwards. You’ll start off with some wash-board abs, then move onto certain “packs.” It just matters how hard you work.

So we’ve put together for you an easy routine that can be swapped around. It consists of 3 exercises–you get to choose from the list below. In this fast workout, we want to work all parts of your abdomen including upper abs, lower abs, and obliques. Yes, those aren’t the scientific names, but it’s how we all know them by. So choose one from each category and put them together. We want to do 30 reps of each and 3 sets of all of it.

Upper Abs

Lowers Abs

Plank
Fast bicycles
Slow bicycles (my favorite, just take the pace down slower and you will feel it much more strongly)
Pikes
Reverse crunches

Obliques

Again, this is a home workout. If you had a facility like a gym, you could obviously incorporate more exercises, using cables, more weights, bars, medicine ball, roman chair, etc.

Remember, you’re doing 30 reps (which means number of times you perform an exercise) of each exercise out of the three categories for 3 sets. Let me show you an example:

Example Mix ‘n Match Abs Workout

FIRST SET

30 indian crunches
30 slow bicycles
30 side crunches

SECOND SET

30 indian crunches
30 slow bicycles
30 side crunches

THIRD SET

30 indian crunches
30 slow bicycles
30 side crunches

And that’s 270 reps of abs exercises. So you get the idea. And if you don’t want to just do the same ones, add in some more for your different sets. Also, I normally do ten sets, but three is a great place to start out.

Let me know how this works for you and what abs exercises you love!

Get crazy, Sparta style

Aug212012

15-Minute Triceps Workout

Finding it hard to squeeze a workout in?

In this life of ridiculous busy-ness, it’s hard to get a chance to stop, put on your workout clothes (which for some reason feel tight, perhaps because they haven’t been used in a week and a half), and get into the mode. Let alone actually drive/walk/bike/bus to a gym! Big breath, you don’t need to do huge workouts every day to stay in fit. Remember that it’s exercise AND nutrition. They’ve got to walk side by side if you want results.

And another thing before I show you some exercises, is to remember how important strength and resistance training is. This means working out your muscles. No, it’s not just for boys. It’s for us big girls too. And it’s really important for your health! Think cardio is the only way to burn calories? Think again. When you rip up those muscle fibers while pushing yourself during any muscle workout (let’s take leg press), your body has to work hard after the workout as well in order to repair those fibers. Which means your body is burning calories after the workout to try and repair those fibers as quick as possible. Quads burn after that leg press the next day? Fibers are torn so it makes it sore to walk around. So muscle workouts = more calories burned afterwards.

Onto the 15-min workout. It could be even less. It depends on the number of reps, sets, and exercises you do. I chose to do three. I actually did them watching “The Help,” figuring it was a movie I should watch and always looked good (it was). Here’s the three I did:

1. One-Arm Triceps Extension

Pretty simple. Get a weight you’re comfortable with (I started with 12 lbs and moved up to 18 lbs for my last set) and either sit or stand. Extend the weight with one arm over your head and then lower it down (with control) towards your back. Keep everything slow and controlled until your form is good. Now do the other arm.

Reps: 12, Sets: 4

2. Two-Arm Triceps Extension

So it’s basically the same thing (read above) but with two arms holding the weight. This allows you to use a heavier weight than the single-arm. I started with 15 lbs and ended my last set with 21 lbs.

Sets: 4, Reps: 12

3. Skull Crushers

You can either do this with a bar or weights. I chose to do it with weights (dumbbells) simply because I don’t have a bar here at the apartment. Start lying down with your weights or bar extended in front of your chest and then slowly lower until your hands are right at your forehead. Then push out again. That’s one rep. Get why it’s called a skull crusher? I went around 15 lbs for this one.

Reps: 10, Sets: 4

So there you have it. A three-exercise workout that left my triceps feeling tired. You will too if you do them properly with the right number of reps and sets. Your core will also be worked if you keep it tight and do the exercises correctly. Do what feels good for you. Never push it to the point of injury, but push yourself to get that last rep. Comment below if you have any questions. Enjoy!

PS– If you are interested in getting a free training plan and/or consultation or just have some questions, please email us at alana.ppowell@gmail.com