Saturday, September 30, 2006

I spent the afternoon at a Utah State football game with my boys. I had to tease my husband: he finally bought us Aggie season tickets for the worst season they’ve had in years. The boys and I had a great run this morning. They rode and I ran to an awesome climbing tree. The baby’s the only one who’s had hard day. He cried while I showered until he almost couldn’t breathe. I jumped out and grabbed him, I was terrified. The second I picked him up, he calmed down and smiled at me. What do you do about that? A five-month old who knows how to play his mother?

I’m posting Monday’s working tonight, because I don’t want to post on Sunday.
I’ll warm-up with at least twenty minutes of cardio, then do three sets of fifteen of the following exercises. Do the exercises in a circuit: Do fifteen repetitions of each, then start over at the beginning. Do each exercise at least three times. If you aren’t feeling fatigued you could do another set of each.

Squat
Feet shoulder width apart, sit back like you’re sitting in a chair, raise hands in front of body for balance. Sit until knees are almost parallel with hips, making sure your back stays straight and your knees do not extend past your toes. Raise yourself to starting position, squeezing glutes. Repeat.

Lunge
Take a giant step forward, bend back knee until it almost touches the ground, lift and lower until you finish the reps, then switch sides. Make sure you’re not leaning forward over your front leg.

Step-up
Holding a 10-15 pound dumbbell in each hand, find a step or bench at least 18” high. Step up and tap, then step down, alternating legs each time.

Hamstring Curl
Using a band or a cable machine: wrap band or attachment around ankle, curl ankle up until a little past 90 degrees, lower and repeat.

Friday, September 29, 2006

I often hear women complain: My friend Janna Barlow is skinny because of her good genes or my neighbor, Jenny Speth is teeny because of her high metabolism. There is some truth to this. I also know people who are thin and seem to do nothing but eat dessert. But most people who are fit work at it and a lot of people who are skinny don’t eat big portions and are extremely active even if they don’t “work out.”

The fact of the matter is it doesn’t matter what someone else does or doesn’t do to look good. We can only worry about ourselves. I know I spend too much time comparing, being jealous, not feeling good enough.

Let’s stop it. Take care of yourself. Eat healthy, fresh food and watch your portions. Get off the couch and move with your kids. Start weightlifting, it’s the most effective thing you can do for weight loss. If we want to be happy, let’s take care of ourselves and our loved ones and focus on the positive.

There’s my soapbox for the day. Oh, and I forgot my good news. I lost two pounds this week! Maybe the baby fat is finally coming off. Are any of you out there nursing? It’s such a balancing act between trying to lose the weight and keep the milk, you know?

Tomorrow I’m going to enjoy my kiddos. We’re going to go on a five-mile run (they ride bikes) to this cool climbing tree we found a few weeks ago. Tomorrow is Saturday, so please don’t worry if you don’t work out, but try and be active. If you have the time it’s an ideal day and time of year to go hiking, biking, play football or soccer on the lawn, or work in the yard.

Have a great day with your family. I’ll post Monday’s workout Saturday night because I’m too lazy to wake up early Monday morning and do it. Sunday is a day of rest. If you’ve been working out hard, your body needs the rest to rebuild muscle tissue. I sometimes go on a walk on Sundays, but usually I just enjoy church and my family.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

I couldn’t get out of bed this morning. I stayed up late talking with my husband, then my baby was up from three to four and again at six. So I worked out with my boys before they went to school. We had a good leg workout. The older boys love doing jumping jacks and karate and the baby loves it when I hold him for squats and calf raises.

The day was so pretty I took the boys on a five-mile walk. My four-year old rode his CAT bike the entire way. I was so proud. To give him a break I fished all the change out of the stroller and took him and my nephew to 7-Eleven to pick out a treat. What a mistake. I only had $1.69 and the Slurpie’s alone are $.99. A Snickers is $.85. You do the math. I was in trouble. Of course I couldn’t talk them into sharing, I was sweating until I realized Lee’s Marketplace was only eight blocks away (I didn’t tell them they had to ride another mile). I squatted down and pleaded my case: If you’ll ride your bikes to Lee’s, you can each have two candy bars. They screamed yippee and raced out of there so fast I’m sure the teller thought we’d stolen something, but I got an extra couple miles in on my walk and they each got two candy bars that were $.25 each. Dang, I’m smart (and cheap).

I’m going to do my upper-body workout in the morning like a circuit. I’ll repeat each exercise twelve times, then move to the next until I’ve finished them all, then I’ll repeat that cycle twice more.
Pushup
Lay facedown on floor. Raise up on hands and toes or hands and knees, make sure your body is a straight line, your bum is down, abs are in tight. Keeping head up, bend elbows as low as you can go, slowly raise up again.
Lat Pull-down
You have to have either a lat machine or a band to do this exercise. With the lat machine: grasp the handles, leaning back slightly, lower the bar to collarbone level, contracting the latissimus dorsi muscles (the large muscle that runs down your back from your armpit to your waist). If you have a band, hold it above your head with both hands, slowly spread your hands wide as you pull the band down and out.
Lateral Raise
Holding a five to ten pound weight in each hand, raise the arms straight out to the side, careful not to scrunch your shoulders up. Lift until the shoulder, elbow, and hand are all level, thumbs should be facing the floor. Lower and repeat.
Twisting Bicep Curl
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Palms facing forward holding weights. Slowly curl weight to the top of arm twisting until thumbs are facing forward at the top, then lower.
Tricep Dip
Find a bench or chair. Place both hands on the chair, fingers facing forward, feet flat on the floor with knees bent (to increase difficulty you may straighten the legs or place the feet on another chair). Slowly dip down, bending elbows until bum almost touches the floor. Keep your backside close to the chair, don’t just dip your rear, make sure your elbows are bending and the rear of your arms is doing the work.
Hopefully within the next few weeks I’ll get my website up and going and then I’ll have pictures and descriptions of the exercises on the website. Until then you’ll have to wade through my descriptions. Have a great day tomorrow.

No pain, no gain is not completely accurate. It should be no exhaustion, no toned body. You should be working your muscles hard enough that you feel tired, the last few lifts should be a struggle. But you shouldn’t feel pain. If your joints hurt, stop. If you feel sharp pain in your muscles, stop.
You’re going to be sore when you push yourself hard enough. This is a good thing. I promise. When you lift weights, your muscle tissue is being damaged and then rebuilt, this will cause some tenderness. The next day after doing a good leg workout you should feel a little soreness when you walk down stairs or get out of a chair. But, if you hurt so bad you can’t get out of the chair, you’ve overdone it. Don’t push so hard you hurt yourself, but make sure you push hard enough that you get sore and get stronger.

One more thing: Make sure you get clearance from your doctor to begin any exercise program, especially if you’re pregnant, just had a baby, or have any medical condition.

Tomorrow morning I will do twenty minutes on the Stairmaster to warm up and then do the following exercises for my lower body workout.
Walking Lunge
Make sure you have plenty of room to move. Take a huge step forward, bend back knee until almost touching the floor, bring back foot forward to meet front foot, switch legs and repeat, walking across the room. Do 3 sets of 12 on each leg.
Squat
Feet shoulder width apart, sit back like you’re sitting in a chair, raise hands in front of body for balance. Sit until knees are almost parallel with hips, making sure your back stays straight and your knees do not extend past your toes. Raise yourself to starting position, squeezing glutes. Do 4 sets of 15, on the last set, you can add a plyometric jump if you’d like and if you have no knee, hip, or ankle problems. This means that you sit back into the squat, but then as you come up, you jump in the air as if you were shooting a basketball, landing softly.
Dead Lift
Holding a 10-15 pound dumbbell in each hand, slowly lower the weights down to your ankles. Keep the weights close to your body, your back flat, and look forward (into the mirror) the entire time. You should feel a pull in your hamstrings, slowly roll back up, then repeat. 3 sets of 12.
Glute Press
You can use a cable machine on this or do it without resistance. Standing with one foot slightly behind the other, press straight back, squeezing the glute. Do 3 sets of 15 on each leg.
I’m off to bed so I can make it to Summit Creek in the morning and have a decent workout. I need to work off that bowl of ice cream I ate tonight! My husband was on jury duty today and didn’t come home until 10:30. I hate to admit that I’m a freak-out wife, but I assumed that court followed normal working hours and my husband always calls me when he’s going to be late. Of course I was imagining car accidents and angry mobsters hurting him because he convicted their friend! (Told you I was a freak-out.) Anyway, when our friend who’s a Cache County attorney tracked him down I consoled myself by eating several cups of Blue Bunny. I feel much better now.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Today was a great day! My baby was angelic. He took three good naps and giggled at me several times. I got a lot of writing done and even planted some primroses. Good day for a mom with three wild men, four if you include my honey.

Tomorrow I’m going to concentrate on cardio, at least forty minutes. I like to run, but you can do whatever you like: treadmill, bike, Versaclimber, elliptical, etc. Just make sure you’re getting your heart rate up and you’re pushing yourself so you can see results.

I’m also including stabilization exercises in tomorrow’s workout. Your stabilizer muscles are your abdomen and lower back. I need to explain a common misconception: doing ab work will not remove your belly roll. It is impossible to burn fat in one spot or spot-reduce. We all store fat in different ways, and unfortunately most of us have stubborn spots that are the last place to lose the fat. (I lose it first in my chest and gain it first on my thighs.)

So what can you do? You have to do everything: cardiovascular, strength training, stretching, and a well-balanced diet. The fat will gradually come off. I believe strength training is the most important facet because the muscle you build is harder to maintain than fat, therefore your metabolism increases and you burn fat even when you’re sitting around watching Everybody Loves Raymond.

Okay, back to the stabilization exercises.
Plank: Laying facedown on the floor, place your elbows together and raise your body up on them. Then straighten legs and lift body onto toes. At this point only your toes and elbows should be touching the floor. Make sure your body is one straight line from your head to your toes: suck your abs in, get your butt down. Hold for as long as you can (you’ll start shaking, try to hold past that for at least a ten-count), rest then repeat three times. (If it’s too hard you can start on your knees instead of toes.)
Side Plank: Laying on side, raise onto one elbow and the side of one foot. Hold as long as you can, rest, repeat three times on each side.
Curl: Laying on back, feet flat on floor, knees bent. Tilt pelvis, suck abs in, tuck bum under. Hands behind your head, looking straight up slowly raise shoulders off the floor a few inches, then return to start, repeat 12-20 times.
Back Extension: Lay facedown on floor, hands behind head. Slowly raise chest off the floor a few inches, then slowly lower. To increase difficulty, raise your legs off the floor at the same time. Repeat 12-20 times.
That’s it for today. It can be so easy to fit it in. Take the kids on a long stroller ride and then do your stabilization exercises while they play on the grass or in your living room. Warning: They will crawl all over you and the plank is killer with forty extra pounds on your back.