Top Four Body Weight Drills

There are four exercises that you can do anytime, anywhere so keep them handy for when you are on the road or stuck in your house for any reason. Here are the drills with variations to keep it interesting.



Push Ups

#1. Decline push ups - put your feet on a chair or table to perform the movement.
#2. Renegade push ups - perform a push up and as you come up out of the push up extend the opposite arm and leg. There are a couple variations on this drill. The most popular one is push up and row (pull one elbow to the ceiling at the top of the push up) but it isn't nearly as effective without weights and the drills I have listed are specifically designed to be challenging without using any equipment.
#3. Tricep push ups - keep elbows close to your body throughout the exercise.
#4. Plyometric push ups - as you come up push off explosively so that your hands (and/or feet) leave the floor.

Squats

Here are just a few squat variations. There are many, many more.
#1. Change the tempo of the squat by pulsing at the bottom for 10-20 reps before you come all the way up.
#2. Take your feet really wide with toes turned out, place your hands on your head and sink down at least to a 90 degree angle at your knee.
#3. Drop into a squat with your hands on your head and walk around the room for 10-20 steps.
#4. Bring your feet together and touch the floor with both hands on either side of your feet. Explode up into a jump while reaching for the ceiling.




Squat Thrusts/Burpees

#1. Just to clarify - a squat thrust is nothing fancy, just down/back/in/up. A burpee has a push up thrown in.
#2. Add a jack with the legs once your in plank and a jack as you hop up.
#3. After you kick your legs back lay all the way down on the floor so legs, belly and chest are all touching then push yourself up and hop in and up.
#4. After you kick your feet back bring your knees into your chest and kick back again before you hop in and up.




Sit Ups

#1. Traditional gym-class sit ups - hands behind the head, knees bent and curl all the way up to touch your elbows to your knees.
#2. Straighten your knee with arms straight over head. Curl up and touch your toes.
#3. Start with legs straight and hands behind your head. Curl up all the way, bringing one knee into your chest, touch it with your opposite elbow (you should twist across).
#4. Put your hands behind your head and tuck elbows and knee together so they touch. Extend legs out parallel to the floor. Bring them up some if your lower back bothers you.

Mix up sets and reps for the above exercises to create even more variation.

Low Carb Dieting

I highly suggest that you get a copy of 'Living Low Carb' by Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS. Especially Chapter 6, The Biggest Myths about Low-Carb Diets. If you have been resistant to low calorie diets you may just see yourself in his text. Especially the quote "...there is no physiological need for carbohydrates in the human diet." There is a lot of research backing this up. Just think about it. It would be easy to study protein vs. carbs. Put one person on an all carb diet and one person on an all protein diet. The research shows that the person on the all carb diet would die within the year and the all protein person would be thriving. In chapter 7 he compares 38 diets and why they work and don't work for some people. He talks about how hard a diet is to follow and how effective he thinks it is. He doesn't just talk about low carb diets, he talks about the most popular diets over the past few decades. He shows why they may or may not work. Obviously he thinks low carb is the way to go but is not preachy about it.

I have seen many clients finally lose weight after embracing the low carb (or even just a lower carb life). Most of them tell me they don't miss bread or pasta once they have practiced the new way to eat for a week or so.

Go forth and live low carb!

W.O.W. July 13th, 2011

Workout of the week:

This is a basic strength workout for the weight room.

Warm up well before beginning the workout because you will be lifting heavy. Choose a weight that you struggle with by the 6th repetition. If you really want to go for it you should find a spotter or lift with someone else.

Bench press 4X6-8

10 squat thrusts
(no push up)

10 burpee
(same as to the right)

Pull ups 4 sets to failure

25 donkey kicks

Squats 4 sets of 6-8 reps

20 frog hops

20 tuck jumps

1 minute of sit ups, rest and repeat for 1 min, rest and repeat one more time.

Stretch.

W.O.W. June 27, 2011

Work Out Of The Week

This is a complicated pyramid work out. It's complicated to figure out, not to do. You will perform 5 drills in order but the times will vary.

Here's the formula:

Drill #1-50 seconds
Drill #2-50 seconds, Drill #1-40 seconds
Drill #3-50 seconds, Drill #2-40 seconds, Drill #1-30 seconds
Drill #4-50 seconds, Drill #3-40 seconds, Drill #2-30 seconds, Drill #1-20 seconds
Drill #5-50 seconds, Drill #4-40 seconds, Drill #3-30 seconds, Drill #2-20 seconds, Drill#1-10 seconds

You can do the above with any five drills. The sequence is about 9 minutes long. Go through it in order, Drills #1-5, and then rest. Repeat everything but start with Drill #5 and go backwards.

Here are today's drills:



#1 Jacks

#2 Push Ups

#3 Jump squats

#4 Sit ups

#5 Burpees

Go through the above drills, rest, and then repeat in reverse order.




Yes, it's hard to keep your own time but there are ways to do it. There are interval apps for smart phones and there are watches with which you can program any interval length.

Great Summer Salad

Very simple and very good PLUS you don't need any dressing.

1/4 head of romaine lettuce
1 small tomato. chopped
1/2 sweet red pepper cut in slices
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
1 skinless chicken breast, chopped and mixed with one tablespoon of low fat mayo

Toss everything together. The salad is very satisfying and the protein means you won't get hungry as quickly.

Total calories: 300
Protein: 26
Carbs: 34
Fat: 8

W.O.W. June 18, 2011

Workout of the Week

Warm up for about 5 minutes any way you like.

Set up a barbell with enough weight on it that you can curl 8X. Perform the following in order.


25 jacks
Bicep curl 8X

20 burpees

Shoulder press 8X

10 8 ct bodybuilders*
Tricep french press with barbell 8X

25 crouch squat hops

Bent over row 12X

20 squat thrusts
Floor bench press 12X

10 jack and tuck**

25 sit ups

You can repeat everything or just stick to the one run through. You must make sure the barbell is loaded with enough weight that the one set is a struggle. Sometimes it's hard to figure it out so play around with it until you get it.

Stretch.

*8 ct bodybuilder: starts like a burpee (hands down, kick back, 1 push up) then add on 2 jacks with the legs on the floor, hop in and hop up.

**Jack and tuck: 1 jack, 1 tuck jump. Simple.

Get Outside!

We stay inside way too much. Now that the weather is better it is time to get outside! I know it's really hot in some places but you do have options. Even in the desert the temperatures are tolerable in the morning hours.

It is also super easy to do. Find a park and you have a plethora of readily available 'equipment' to use. Use a wall or bench to perform step-ups, sit squats, bi-level squats, incline push ups and dips. Open fields can be used to run sprints and provide a cushy surface for push ups, burpees and ab work. Often there are stairs near by as well. Stairs are a fantastic work out. If you don't know what to do besides just run up and down them I have included a stair work out below.

And one of the most important benefits of exercising outdoors has to do with your brain. The Peninsula College of Medicine writes "......compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. Participants also reported a greater enjoyment in their exercise activity and stated that they were more likely to repeat it at a later date".

So there you go. Great benefits and a better chance that you will stick with your exercise program. Can't beat that.


Stair Work Out

Start with an easy jog to warm up. It's a great idea to park a few blocks away from the stairs and then jog to and from your work out. All the drills are simple and intense.

Run up singles 5X
Run up doubles (every other stair) 5X
Run up triples 5X - I have had clients that are 5 feet tall. If they can take every third stair so can you.

Hop up singles 1X
Hop up doubles (again, every other stair) 1X
Hop up sideways, leading with right shoulder into the stair 1X
Hop up sideways leading with left shoulder 1X
Repeat all four drills three more times (total of four sets).

Obviously the length of the workout depends on how long the staircase is but you can do all the drills one time through or repeat everything. Mix it up.

Make sure to stretch the crap out of your calves, quads and hamstrings....but especially your calves.