Evolving your body: More than what you think

Good Thursday to you Internet Friends

I haven't written in awhile due to lack of inspiration/time. However, once again I find myself at a point in my training life where I find that my perspectives are evolving and I think it may be beneficial for some of my readers (if there are still any!) who currently find themselves in a rut with their workouts/body/performance.

I recently had the opportunity to have a six week placement at a fantastic private physiotherapy clinic in Burlington, Ontario with an extremely talented and knowledgeable clinician with over 20 years in the field. This preceptor has done an incredible job at helping me continue to fine tune my approach to looking at the body, including my own.

I won't mention their name, as I haven't asked their permission to blog about them, but this physiotherapist has a strong Pilates, yoga, and manual therapy background and does an excellent job at combining all three to give patients what they need to get better and avoid injury in the future.

My first day in this clinic I was excited and apprehensive to see 4 Pilates reformers staring me down. Now, I've always turned my nose up at Pilates proclaiming "Pilates is bad for your lower back, and is not an efficient form of training...it's just another fitness fad to make money".  However, I thought why not give my preceptor's evening reformer class a go, since it was better than sitting on my but charting.

All I can say is … holy potatoes! I engaged muscles I never knew I had and have finally had a deep abdominal "a ha" moment. In school we are taught how to engage the deep stabilizers of the pelvis in one or two ways on our back and on all fours. My preceptor quickly taught me that engaging those muscles in isolation is all well and good, but if you cannot engage them when they count during everyday movement and exercise then they are essentially useless…. Pilates taught me just that.

Another wonderful thing I discovered about Pilates is that it is like yoga… but more… flow-ey, at least the way my preceptor taught it. We used our muscles in a way to lengthen and engage full range of motion. I found that after the class I felt fantastic. It is a great adjunct to my overall training.

Upon some reflection I had another a-ha moment. I had always dismissed training such as Pilates proclaiming that building muscle and functional strength is the "only" way to train. However, as I age (as we all do), strength training can only bring you so far without mobility.

I'm seeing something interesting happening in the fitness world with the heavy lifters. I don't know if it's because my friends are becoming older along with me, or if this is a true evolution of the industry, but mobility training is starting to become an essential part of over all body health and performance.

I kind of always knew this in the back of my head, and about 5 years ago made a solid effort to increase my flexibility. However, the more and more I learn about the body from a functional and injury prevention/rehabilitation perspective, I find that mobility training is way more than just stretching.

So to avoid further rambling, I'm going to put in point form some stuff that I have learned since last September on incorporating mobility into your sport/lifting/training program.


1. Breathing is way more important than you think it is: After I wrote this, it seemed kinda silly. Of course breathing is important Robyn, you need breathing to live and stuff. However, I've noticed through observation of myself and clients that we often do not breathe properly. Breathing seems pretty straight forward. However, as you are moving, working, stretching.. etc notice how you're breathing. Here are some common things I have noticed that contribute to inefficient breathing...

• Holding your breath: no brainer, don't hold your breath. However, pay more attention to your breathing during the day and notice when you do so (it's probably more than you think). Also, when people hold their breath they tend to tense their neck and upper back… bad news bears.

• Upper chest breathing: a lot of us, especially when stressed/working hard, breath with the top of our chest (think everything pec/boob up). Efficient breathing involves the entire lung, including the lower half (think belly button to bottom of pec/boob). When stretching/lifting/stressed out think about breathing from your belly, mid-chest, then upper chest last.

• Inhalation/exhalation timing: Some people will exhale when the abdominal cavity needs stabilization naturally. However, a lot of us don't or simply don't think about it. This is even more likely to happen during everyday movement. It feels weird at first to be constantly thinking about when to exhale, but eventually it becomes habit. The idea is simple…. we want the spine and pelvis to be as stable as possible when moving and lifting, so, ideally, we want to be exhaling and thus engaging the deep abdominal muscles during these movements. For example, when getting up from a chair, ideally, you should exhale and engage your deep abdominals (that's a topic for another day). The amount of exhalation and deep abdominal activation will vary on the amount of load you are moving (your body vs. deadlifting weight).

2. What is your body actually doing?!: This is something that I see as being a subtle/often overlooked contributor to overuse injuries. To go into depth on this topic is way beyond the scope of this blog post, so I'll just use this point to put a little birdy in the back of your head to pay attention to your body when you're using it.

• Cervical spine and head: your c-spine is your neck and your head is… attached to your neck. A lot of the time slight changes in your head and neck position during movement can lead to injury/pain over time. Something common I see is people "leading with their chin". This is especially apparent when people deadlift or squat. When going into a deep squat or deadlift the body actually needs quite a bit of thoracic (upper back) extension and hip flexibility (which a lot of us are deficient in since we SIT too much). Therefore, the body will naturally compensate by "poking" our chin out and extending through the neck. It looks like this….

Holy neck strain batman

VERSUS

Some sneaky chin poking/c-spine extending moments can also occur when driving, working on the computer, and going from seated to standing. So pay attention to what that head is doing!!!

• Thoracic Spine: Ohhh the t-spine. My love hate relationship. The t-spine can cause all sorts of problems. I actually contemplated going straight to lumbar spine/pelvis because mines so terrible and I'm not sure how the picture will turn out. As mentioned previously, lack of t-spine flexibility causes all sorts of issues in the head and neck (i.e., the head and neck will extend to obtain the extension lacking in the t-spine). Climbers and people with crazy back muscles I'm talking to you! If your t-spine is hypomobile/inflexible this will effect things above and below your upper back and just make everything so much less efficient. An example of an inflexible t-spine is when you generally look like this….

Notice the considerable rounding of the subjects upper back contributing to forward head posture and overall generalized sadness

So instead of being a douche-bag  unhelpful and just telling you to "stand up taller and don't round your back", how about I give you a simple thing to do to help your back extension.

First you need two towels (or a foam roller if you have one)….

two towels

Second, fold the two towels in half and then roll them tightly into a log type situation….

old-school foam roller

Finally, place the log towel down longitudinally (along your spine) and lye down on it starting at your bum all the way to your head. You can put your arms over your head to increase upper back extension or make your arms into a cactus to open the chest…. as so….

arms above head (not in cactus) for ease of viewing 

I would keep your knees bent to support your lower back. Here's some cactus arms….

Muther fudging cactus arms

If this position is too easy for you (the towel longitudinally along your spine that is), you can alternatively put it horizontally across your upper back. I like to do this with a foam roller at various hypomobile sections of my upper back. Cactus arms/arms over head still apply to this towel position.

Ok jeeze. I think I'm gonna leave it there. I'm not sure how this blog post started about me now loving Pilates and turned into me taking pictures of myself with a towel, but it is what it is.

There are, indeed, other parts of the body that we must be aware of (like everything below the belly button) that I'll try and make a post on before the ridiculousness of my 4th unit of physio-school ensues.

Any questions/comments are always appreciated. They actually keep me motivated to keep posting.

Stay strong!

~Byn

Increasing Your Fitness Motivation

A healthy and fit body is something we all want to have. However, most of us have a hard time eating healthily and working out regularly because we lack motivation. Know that it's not unusual to have those times when you're not feeling motivated enough. Be ready for days when you lack the energy to start or finish your workout; you shouldn't let that discourage you. Even if you don't feel like exercising, push on and exert some effort. Those days you don't feel like working are the days when you should be working out. Keep the following points in mind if you want to increase your motivation for fitness.
Having specific goals can help to keep you motivated. A goal to be healthier or to shed weight is general. You want to be more specific than that. For instance, a specific goal can be to lose 30 pounds or to set a target weight for you. If you want to be able to run a certain number of miles or lift a certain amount of weight, set these as goals. If you write your specific goals down, you'll be better able to focus on them. Even though you can have a number of major goals, it's a good idea to concentrate on one goal at any given time because doing so gives you a better chance of accomplishing your goals faster.
Cost may be what's keeping you from pursuing your fitness goals. Joining a gym or purchasing exercise equipment can be costly. You may also feel that it's too much of a commitment to join a club or buy a large machine. If cost is a concern for you, you can start exercising at home and you don't even have to buy expensive equipment.
Many books, videos and DVDs can show you exercises that require nothing but your own body and not much space. But know that with just a small investment, you can get yourself portable and lightweight equipment such as exercise balls, resistance bands, and jump ropes. So you see, you can get into shape without spending a lot of money.
Be inspired by the power of fitness program visualization. Visualize what your appearance will be after a few years in your exercise routine. Try to see yourself at your ideal weight, or with the physique you've always wanted. You also need to keep reminding yourself how you'll benefit from working out on a regularly basis. Writing these down and having them in a place where you can easily see them is very useful. Here's another suggestion: every couple of weeks take a picture of yourself and then tape it on your bathroom mirror or fridge. Let that be your motivation to keep exercising because every couple of weeks, you can actually see yourself looking more and more fit.


Hopefully, the tips we shared in this article will help you to stay motivated. Motivation plays a key role when it comes to achieving your fitness goals. Start off slowly and try to find a type of exercise that you enjoy.

Fitness Tips and Recommendations Worth Following

A healthy and fit body is something that many people want. If this is something you want for yourself, this is possible. You need to place more importance on your diet and ensure that you lead a fairly active lifestyle. Beyond these fundamentals, though, you can choose the type of fitness program you want to pursue. Keep reading to learn several fitness tips you can implement so you can get started on the path to health and fitness.

As long as you exercise consistently, it doesn't really matter what time of day you work out. It will primarily depend on the kind of schedule you have, as well as your personal preference. But if it's difficult for you to find the motivation to exercise, it may be a good idea to exercise in the morning. Try getting up half an hour earlier than you normally do so you can exercise. A lot of people have discovered that starting their day with exercise leaves them feeling energized. Even if you don't do anything else the rest of the day, you would already have exercised and made sure your body has had some physical activity.

You probably already know that it's important that you warm up right before you exercise, but did you know that it's important to cool down after you're done exercising as well? Cooling down means doing some light exercises after a strenuous work out, as you wouldn't want to stop all of a sudden. Let's say your workout session involves you running for 15 minutes.

is an intense cardiovascular activity and you shouldn't simply stop running after 15 minutes. You can end your workout session by doing a cool down on a treadmill or exercise bike. If you happen to be outdoors, walking is a good cool down exercise. Stretching is also good to do after as well as before a workout. When you do stretching exercises after strenuously working out, your muscles are less likely to become stiff since it won't have lactic acid forming in them to cause the stiffness. Ten minutes of cooling down should be enough to help your body recover after vigorously working out.

During the holidays, or when you go on a vacation, your diet and exercise program tends to be cast to the side. Therefore, the best type of holiday that you should be on his one that is a fitness vacation. You'll focus on your health and fitness while relaxing.

For instance, you might want to go to a spa or do some exercise. Either will work. It is just a pleasant setting to be in. You can vacation, yet stay in shape, every single day. You will avoid getting extra weight, plus you will feel rejuvenated and healthier than you have in years. You may also pick up new positive habits that you can practice all year round. You can look forward to a better life if you make fitness one of your top priorities. You've read some of the fitness tips you can try to see if any one of them best fits you. However, you shouldn't expect overnight results. What you need to do instead is make fitness a daily part of your life. Moreover, work toward your fitness goals in steady and consistent manner. Living a much healthier lifestyle will soon become enjoyable, although you're sure to find it difficult at first.

Monday 31 March 2014: 30/30 CALS CIRCUIT

30/30 CALISTHENICS CIRCUIT

Complete 5 rounds of the following circuit in twenty minutes.

30/30 = 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest

Advanced:

• 30/30 Pull-ups
• 30/30 Sit-ups
• 30/30 Push-ups
• 30/30 Squats

Intermediate:

• 30/30 Partial, Assisted, or Jumping Pull-ups
• 30/30 Sit-ups or Crunches
• 30/30 Push-ups (go to your knees if necessary)
• 30/30 Squats

Basic:

• 30/30 Body Rows
• 30/30 Crunches
• 30/30 Knee Push-ups
• 30/30 Half- Squats

Tuesday 1 April 2014: J-SQ + BW-SQ #1

JUMP SQUATS, BODYWEIGHT SQUATS #1

Today's workout uses the 30/30 interval pattern (30seconds work, 30seconds rest, repeat).

Advanced - Intermediate:

• 10 minutes - 30/30 Squat Jumps
  (e.g. half, full, jump-overs, etc.)
• 10 minutes - 30/30 Bodyweight Squats
  (e.g. Hindu, Sumo, Deep Knee Bend, etc.)

Basic:

• 5 minutes - 30/30 Jumping Jacks
• 5 minutes - 30/30 Half-Squats
• 5 minutes - 30/30 Jumping Jacks
• 5 minutes - 30/30 Half-Squats

Wednesday 26 March 2014: POWER CALS

Physical Culture Classics

THREE POWERFUL CALISTHENICS

Repeat the following circuit for twenty minutes.

Advanced - Intermediate:

• Dive Bomber or Hindu Push-ups
• Reverse or Hindu Squats
• Atlas Push-ups
  Atlas Push-ups: Place your hands in the seats of two chairs. With your body held straight, dip yourself between the chairs. This exercise is similar to a countertop push-up, but it stretches and utilizes more of the chest muscles.

Basic:

• Yoga Push-upsYoga Push-ups: Transition between Upward Facing Dog and Downward Facing Dog continously while keeping your arms straight (but not locked).
• Reverse or Hindu Squats
• Countertop or Atlas Push-ups

Today's exercises can be found in many manuals on physical training. The above arrangement, however, was adapted from Pushing Yourself to Power by John E. Peterson. PYTP is a comprehensive collection of Dynamic Visualized Resistance and Dynamic Self Resistance exercises and includes many Isometric and Power Calisthenic exercises.

Thursday 27 March 2014: SPRINT + JUMP

SPRINT + JUMP

Complete ten circuits of the following in twenty minutes.

Advanced:

• Sprint: 15 seconds
• Tuck Jumps: 5 seconds
  (Perform a squat jump but in midair bring your knees to your chest.)
• Rest: 100 seconds

Intermediate:

• Sprint: 15 seconds
• Squat Jumps: 5 seconds
  (Squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground, then jump into the air. Land softly.)
• Rest: 100 seconds

Basic:

• Sprint: 10-15 seconds
• Half-Squat: 10 seconds
  (Squat until your thighs are almost parallel to the ground.)
• Rest: 95-100 seconds

Cyclebilitation: Part 1: On the Bike!

Good Wednesday to you Internets!

*Note: I am going to add pictures to this blog post once I get my husband Scott to help me take them.

So today I’m going to write part 1 of a 2 part blog post about how to keep your joints healthy if you do a lot of cycling. I’ve been a spin instructor for a little over 7 years now and along the way I have learned that we can do things both on (part 1) and off (part 2) the bike to ensure our joints and muscles stay healthy (slowly becoming a physiotherapist is also helping of course!).

Now, one premise I do have regarding this post is that doing cardio will not destroy your joints if you are smart about your training and are doing the exercises correctly! I just don’t want to deter anyone from being active!

These suggestions are for those that do a lot of indoor cycling or are thinking of starting to do indoor cycling as a means of exercise.

I highly recommend spin classes, as they are extremely awesome! You just go to the class, sit on the bike, and listen to someone yell (happily and encouragingly) at you for an hour – simple right! However, I have also gone to a lot of spin instructors’ classes that don’t check their clients’ form or even show/talk about how they should set up their bikes!!! Eeech!

If anyone that reads this has other suggestions and/or outdoor/racing experience I would love to hear your take on this blog post (That’s how we (I) all get better).

(1) Setting up your bike: I already have written a blog post on how to set up your spin bike before class, so you can get that information here.

(2) During Cycling: while cycling there are 7 or 8 things that you should be constantly aware of to ensure proper form. Now, if the instructor is not cuing you every so often or you are cycling alone you should be keep these things in the back of your mind.

1.  No knees over toes! While standing (and sometimes sitting) some people will lean on the handlebars and allow their knees to go past their toes. Just like in squatting you need to ensure your knees stay behind the toes (ideally inline with your ankles) so unequal forces do not travel through the knee.

2.  Alignment: A simple misalignment of the knee and foot relative to each other can also compromise the biomechanics of your joints. Therefore, follow these principles when biking:

(a) Your toes should be pointed directly forward with NO rotation

(b) Your kneecap should be aligned with your second and third toes (some people will either turn their kneecaps in/out or let their knees collapse in/out).

(c) If you do not have clips you should push down on the center of the pedal with the ball (front 1/4) of your foot not the center.

(d) Make sure both of your shoulders are level and your hipbones are level.

3. Active your Muscles! This is something a lot of people will overlook, especially if they have no/little biking experience. First, it is very easy to forget about your hamstrings when you pull the pedal backwards (i.e., after 6 o-clock).

The cue I use for this is “imagine there is mud on the bottom of your shoes and you want to scrape it off”. As you increase your resistance during climbing the amount you will pull back when cycling should increase!

*This is also a very good indication that you’re not using enough resistance!

4. Keep your Core Engaged Properly: When cycling you should always be protecting your spine to ensure proper alignment (this will be discusses in further detail in point 4).

A common problem that I see is that we tend to or are told to pull our stomachs/belly buttons inwards rather than “engaging” our deep supporting trunk musculature. However, there are problems with this logic. For example:

(a) Simply pulling your belly button towards your spine will primarily activate your upper abdominals (which are –usually- pretty strong) but not your deep/supporting trunk musculature, which are either directly attached to your spine or attached to your spine via a crazy cool tissue network called the thoracolumbar facia (if you want to get your nerd on and learn more about that click here or here). 

Engage that corset to support your spine!

(b) Pulling in your belly button is counterintuitive to correct diaphragmatic breathing (there isn’t enough room in this blog post to go through this so you’ll have to trust me on this one).

(c) Due to the primary action of the superficial abdominals (those are the ones everyone wants to get strong so they can have a 6 pack), simply pulling your belly button in can facilitate lumbar flexion. Although having a shredded 6 pack is awesome and all, when cycling your trunk will naturally want to go into flexion/the fetal position (see point 4). Why we want to avoid doing this is because of your intervertebral discs.

Without going into an extensive anatomy lecture, when you bend forward you put pressure on the shock absorbers (discs) in your spine, which can cause wear and tear. Therefore, we want to maintain proper spinal alignment as much as possible by engaging the deep spinal stabilizers.

Ok that’s a lot of rambling… so now you know why you need to engage your deep musculature but how the fudge are you suppose to do it?! Well without me physically being there to show you this (you could always invite me over for tea and we’ll have a core party), I will try my best to explain this via text.

Cue 1: think of your abdominals as a corset. Try and contract the corset around your entire trunk. This should feel more like “stabilizing” than pulling your core in.

Cue 2: If that didn’t work, try imagining that there is an elevator at the bottom of your pelvis and you want the elevator to go to the second floor (with the top floor being your belly button). So engaging your muscles to try and bring the elevator up.

Cue 3: Imagine there is a string attached to your tail-bone (or you have a tail) and it is going through your legs. Imagine pulling on the string gently to tilt your bum under slightly to activate your deep muscles.

Now the important thing to remember is you don’t want an all out 100% crazy contraction. You’re just trying to maintain proper alignment so the movement is very slight.

In other words: With 100% being a full contraction (think about bicep curling something at your max weight), you want roughly 25% of that force. I know it seems counterintuitive to exercise, but these are endurance muscles that just need a little bit of love, not all of the love.

5. Spinal alignment: I’ve given spinal alignment it’s own section because it can be a relatively complicated subject depending on your natural posture.

As we get tired the most often thing I see and experience myself is what I call the “spinning fetal position”. That’s when we start to close in, hunch our backs, round our shoulders. As much as we would like the bike to go away, going into the fetal position will not help, it’s still going to be there and the instructor will continue to make you climb that hill…

I’m being silly, but this is very important and a lot of the times we don’t even realize we are doing it.

So what is proper spinal alignment? Well I’ll try my best to explain it without physically being there to show you myself (as mentioned above I’ll get some pictures up once I wrangle my husband into helping me take pictures).

Cue 1: Keep your breastbone/sternum lifted (I find this one is more effective than simply “keep your shoulders back, because people tend to overdo it with the scapular/shoulder blade retraction/closing).

Cue 2: You should be able to see the instructor or in front of you at all times. If you can’t your either looking at the floor (i.e., going into the fetal position) or you have left the class.

Cue 3: Do not hyperextend your lower back. This is a tricky one because I find that sometimes when people (especially bendy people) correct their cycling form they will overdo it and hyper extend their lower back. There should be a slight curve in your lower spine, but nothing super crazy.. see the picture below

No one has time for crazy spine!

Cue 4: Do not round your shoulders/upper back. This goes along with 1 and 2. However, some people will be able to see the instructor and think their breastbone is lifted but their upper back is still hyperflexed. I find an easy way to correct this is to think there is a string attached to the top of your head pulling you upwards and/or think about both lifting your breastbone and pushing your breastbone towards the handlebars.

So I think I’ll leave it there… if you’re all like “holy crow Robyn, there’s no way I’m gonna remember this ENTIRE blog post the next time I jump on a spin bike!” Here’s a summary for you to print out (just copy and paste it)…

Spinning Form:

1.     Knees stay behind toes (over ankles)

2.     Toes and kneecap should stay pointed forward at all times

3.     Knee cap inline with 2^nd/3^rdtoe (don’t collapse knees in or out)

4.     Push threw the pedal with the ball/first ¼ of your foot

5.     Make sure your hip bones and shoulders are even

6.     Activate your legs correctly (remember to scrape the mud off your shoe)

7.     Activate your core correctly (think corset/elevator not belly button in)

8.     Don’t go into the fetal position (think breast bone up, head up).

So I hope this was informative for some of you! Also, if you know someone who may benefit from this blog post please share it, my goal is to de-mistify the whole working out thing…

Also if you want to see specific content let me know or I will not know what you want internets!

Stay tuned for some accompanying pictures and part 2 of this post which will deal with strengthen and stretching to help those who bike.

Stay Strong

~Byn

2.) Off the bike

Tuesday 25 March 2014: CONDITIONING INTERVALS

CONDITIONING INTERVALS

Today's workout uses 30/30 intervals (30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest, repeat for time allotted).

Advanced:

• 5 x 30/30 Jumping Jacks or Jump Rope
• 5 x 30/30 Burpees
• 5 x 30/30 Mountain Climbers
• 5 x 30/30 Squats

Intermediate:

• 5 x 30/30 Jumping Jacks or Jump Rope
• 5 x 30/30 Squat Thrusts (add push-up if possible)
• 5 x 30/30 Mountain Climbers
• 5 x 30/30 Squats

Basic:

• 5 x 30/30 Jumping Jacks or Jump Rope
• 5 x 30/30 Half-Squats or Squat Thrusts
• 5 x 30/30 Mountain Climbers
• 5 x 30/30 Half Squats

Monday 24 March 2014: FIFTEEN MINUTES

FIFTEEN MINUTES

The following circuit takes fifteen minutes to complete. Intermediate and Basic trainees should take short rests between exercises as necessary. Advanced trainees should move between exercises as quickly as possible.

You may want to spend a couple of minutes warming the body before the workout by performing jumping jacks and/or basic mobility exercises.

Advanced:

• 1 minute: Max Pull-ups
• 1 minute: Max Sit-ups
• 1 minute: Max Push-ups
• 2 minutes: Max Squats
• 10 minutes: High Intensity Cardio
  (E.g. Skip rope fast, Sprints, Running, Burpees, etc.)

Intermediate:

• 1 minute: Max Partial Pull-ups or Body Rows
• 1 minute: Max Sit-ups or Crunches
• 1 minute: Max Push-ups (go to your knees if necessary)
• 2 minutes: Max Squats or Half-Squats
• 10 minutes: Intense Cardio
  (E.g. Skip rope, Sprints, Jumping Jacks, Squat Thrusts, etc.)

Basic:

• 1 minute: Max Body Rows
• 1 minute: Max Crunches
• 1 minute: Max Knee Push-ups
• 2 minutes: Max Half-Squats
• 10 minutes: Cardio
  (E.g. Skip rope, Sprints, Jumping Jacks, etc.)

Monday 17 March 2014: SPARTAN RUN #2

SPARTAN RUN #2

30/30 = 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest

Advanced:

• Run 5 minutes
• Repeat twice:
  30/30 Pull-ups
  30/30 Sit-ups
  30/30 Burpees
  30/30 Squats
  30/30 Bear Crawls (substitute Crab Crawls on second circuit)
• Run 5 minutes

Intermediate:

• Run-walk 5 minutes
• Repeat twice:
  30/30 Partial, Assisted or Jumping Pull-ups
  30/30 Sit-ups or Crunches
  30/30 Squat Thrusts
  30/30 Squats
  30/30 Bear Crawl (substitute Crab Crawls on second circuit)
• Run-walk 5 minutes

Basic:

• Powerwalk 5 minutes
• Repeat twice:
  30/30 Body Rows
  30/30 Crunches
  30/30 Jumping Jacks
  30/30 Half-Squats
  30/30 Bear Crawl (substitute Crab Crawls on second circuit)
• Powerwalk 5 minutes

Saturday 15 March 2014: RUN FOR DISTANCE

RUN FOR DISTANCE

Advanced:
Run for twenty minutes.

Intermediate:
Run-walk for twenty minutes.

Basic:
Powerwalk for twenty minutes.

Friday 14 March 2014: PULL, PU, CRAWL

PULLING, PUSHING, & CRAWLING

Complete as many rounds as possible in twenty minutes.

Advanced:

• A set of Pull-ups
• 30 seconds - Bear Crawl
• A set of Push-ups
• 30 seconds - Crab Crawl

Intermediate:

• A set of Partial, Assisted, or Jumping Pull-ups
• 20-30 seconds - Bear Crawl
• A set of Push-ups (go to your knees if necessary)
• 20-30 seconds - Crab Crawl

Basic:

• A set of Body Rows
• 15-20 seconds - Bear Crawl
• A set of Knee Push-ups
• 15-20 seconds - Crab Crawl

Thursday 13 March 2014: SPRINT PYRAMID

SPRINT PYRAMID

Today's workout may look complicated, but it really isn't. Run sprints of 10, 15, 20, 30, 20, 15, and 10 seconds with 1 minutes recovery in between (90 seconds on each side of the 30 second sprint).

• 5 minutes - Run or Run-walk
• 10 seconds – Sprint
• 1 minute – Recovery
• 15 seconds – Sprint
• 1 minute – Recovery
• 20 seconds – Sprint
• 90 seconds – Recovery
• 30 seconds – Sprint
• 90 seconds – Recovery
• 20 seconds – Sprint
• 1 minute – Recovery
• 15 seconds – Sprint
• 1 minute – Recovery
• 10 seconds – Sprint
• 1 minute – Recovery
• 5 minutes - Run or Run-walk

Wednesday 12 March 2014: MAX SETS - PULL-UPS

MAX SETS: PULL-UPS

Complete five max sets of pull-ups at five minute intervals. Perform sets at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes.

 

These are max sets but not to muscle failure. Perform the maximum number of repetitions possible while maintaining good form, but stop short of actual muscle failure (you may go to failure on the last set if you prefer).

 

Advanced: Pull-ups and/or Chin-ups

 

Intermediate: Partial or Assisted Pull-ups or Body Rows

 

Basic: Body Rows

Tuesday 11 March 2014: CONDITIONING CIRCUITS

CONDITIONING CIRCUITS

Complete as many circuits as possible in twenty minutes.

Advanced:

• 30 seconds - Walking Lunges
• A set of Burpees
• Bear Crawl back to start
  (Or 30 sec. crawl)

Intermediate - Basic:

• 20-30 seconds - Walking Lunges
• A set of Squat Thrusts
• Bear Crawl back to start
  (Or 20-30 sec. crawl)

Monday 10 March 2014: 30/30 CALS CIRCUIT

30/30 CALISTHENICS CIRCUIT

Complete 5 rounds of the following circuit in twenty minutes.

30/30 = 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest

Advanced:

• 30/30 Pull-ups
• 30/30 Sit-ups
• 30/30 Push-ups
• 30/30 Squats

Intermediate:

• 30/30 Partial, Assisted, or Jumping Pull-ups
• 30/30 Sit-ups or Crunches
• 30/30 Push-ups (go to your knees if necessary)
• 30/30 Squats

Basic:

• 30/30 Body Rows
• 30/30 Crunches
• 30/30 Knee Push-ups
• 30/30 Half- Squats