Plank Your Way to a Stronger Core

The Plank is an effective exercise you can do to stabilize the entire core region and strengthen the obliques, abdominals and lower back, along with muscles in the torso and legs, but it is important that you learn to do it and its variations properly, both to keep your lower back safe, and to get the most out of the exercise. For form tips on how to get it right, and for plenty of advanced options to add to your repertoire, watch me demonstrate 10 plank variations.

Get Fit While You Sit

Try these simple exercises to use at the office, home, or while traveling. They are designed to build cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness and flexibility-3 key components of balanced exercise program. Conveniently, this workout does not require exercise clothes or any large pieces of equipment. A resistance band is the only piece of equipment. Resistance bands are lightweight and portable, take up very little space and are safe and easy to use. Contact me and I will incorporate these as well as other seated exercises as part of your complete health and fitness program!

Stability Balls 101

Here's why you should get ballin': A stability ball works your abs way more than regular crunches do. Plus, use it in place of a bench for strength moves and your core gets a workout - you'll engage your deep obliques and lower-back muscles to stay in place.

It's adaptable to every fitness level. For beginners, the ball provides support to make moves like push-ups easier. More advanced exercisers can add challenging balance positions to basic strength moves like bridges and lunges.

It helps banish back pain. Physical therapists love the ball because it strengthens the deep muscles of the spine. One recent study found that subjects who used the ball regularly improved muscular endurance (the number of consecutive reps you can do) by 57 percent in 10 weeks. Read more here.

Speedy 4-Minute HIIT Cardio Blast

HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a fitness training technique in which  you give all-out, one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active recovery periods.  This type of training gets and keeps heart rate up and burns more fat in less time.  A high-intensity workout increases the body’s need for oxygen during the effort and creates an oxygen shortage, causing your body to ask for more oxygen during recovery.  This afterburn effect is referred to as Excess Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) and is the reason why short, intense exercise will help burn more fat and calories than  longer, steady state workouts.  Not convinced? There are other benefits from HIIT. Read more here.

Roll With It

Myofascial Release (MFR) is a therapy that focuses on releasing muscular shortness and tightness. Foam rolling is an easy and effective method of MFR that benefits your entire body. Check out these easy ways to start working a foam roller into your routine; watch this video of me using the equipment here.

Try These 5 Best Moves for Flatter Abs

Looking to sculpt your abs, what the stomach muscles are commonly called, fast? Watch this demonstration of me doing a high-powered workout. Learn the flat-belly moves that will tighten your tummy, strengthen your core, and cinch your waist without doing boring, monotonous crunches.

Toughen Up Your Workout By Getting A Little Off Balance

Make your strength training or body-weight exercises more challenging by adding a balance element. Turn bilateral exercises unilateral. Instead of a regular deadlift, try a single leg deadlift. Instead of doing standing bicep curls, balance on one leg instead of two. You can essentially make any exercise more difficult by standing on an uneven surface such as a BOSU or on top of a thick, squishy mat, "which will encourage similar muscles around the ankles and up the leg to fire while they work harder to maintain stability. Watch this video demonstration of myself performing a single leg deadlift as well as single leg bicep curls. Contact me for a complimentary fitness consultation. We can begin on a personal training program for yourself, during which you will be taught many challenging and effective exercises.

Bodyweight Training: Bear Crawl

Bodyweight exercises are exercises that do not require free weights; your own weight provides the resistance for the movement. Regardless of age, strength, or experience level, everyone can do it-and everyone can benefit from this type of fitness programming. Movements such as the push-up, the pull-up, and the sit-up are some of the most common bodyweight exercises. Bodyweight exercises are not only simple and convenient, but they’re also a great way to improve strength, balance and flexibility in one shot. Not to mention, you won’t even need to leave the house to get in a solid workout. One effective exercise is the bear crawl. In order to do the bear crawl, begin on the hands and knees, rise up onto the toes, tighten the core, and slowly reach forward with the right arm and right knee, followed by the left side. Continue the crawl for 8-10 reps.

Try This All-In-One Toning Exercise!

A side-step squat with wood chop works your arms, torso, abs, back, legs, inner thighs and butt. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart holding a three- to four-pound medicine ball or dumbbell as resistance equipment in your hands. Bend your arms up so that the resistance is at eye level over your right shoulder. As you bring the piece of equipment toward your left knee, step out with your left leg and bend it no further than 90 degrees, keeping your right leg straight. Return to the starting position. Do 10 to 15 reps and repeat on the other leg.

Bring Up Your Rear

Two effective exercises for the butt and rear upper leg muscles, or glutes and hamstrings, are dead lifts and hip-thrusters. In order to perform a dead lift, stand with feet hip-width apart, with knees slightly bent. Contract (shorten) the upper back muscles and hinge forward from the hips, bending only as far as possible so that the hamstrings begin to stretch. Contract glutes, and return to standing. In order to perform a hip-thruster, lie face up on the floor, knees bent and flat, arms at sides. Lift hips off floor to hip height. The position can be held statically for a period of time such as 30 seconds, or can be done in reps, without holding for the period of time. Below is a video of myself performing dead lifts and hip-thrusters. I invite you to view the video and become familiar with the exercises. Contact me about personal training and I will help get you a firm and lifted backside-just in time for summer!

Stay True To Form

Form is a specific way of performing a movement, often a strength training exercise, to avoid injury, prevent “cheating” and increase strength. It doesn’t matter how many pushups or any other exercise you can do in a minute if you’re not doing a single one correctly, with correct form. A useful way to approach exercise is in terms of progression: Perfect your technique, then later add weight and/or speed. This is especially important if your workout calls for performing “as many reps as possible” during a set amount of time. Choose quality over quantity, and you can stay injury-free. During personal training sessions, correct form is taught, providing education on exercise technique.

Motivation

Motivation is critical in terms of reaching fitness goals. Most effective when performing reps, or the number of times you lift and lower a weight, is counting down and looking at your dominant hand while you’re pushing up. By utilizing this technique, a positive reinforcement is automatically included because the dominant hand more easily and quickly moves the weight. For post-workout motivation, instead of a sauna, which impairs performance and strength two days later, take a cold shower or even an ice bath to help replenish muscles. Contact me for personal training services and I will help provide you with motivation in reaching your health and fitness goals.

Flexibility Training

Flexibility is a key component of fitness. It is defined as the range of motion possible around a joint (such as the shoulder) or around a series of joints (such as the spine). Pregnancy, injury, and age influence peoples’ flexibility. Flexibility training is very important and the many benefits include decreased risk of injury, decreased chronic muscle tension, decreased low-back pain, and increased functional ability. Stretching is a very effective way to increase flexibility even as age increases. When performing stretching, the focus should be on muscle groups (joints) that have a reduced range of motion. Stretching should be performed a minimum of 2-3 days a week. Each stretch should be held, at the end of the range of motion, for 15-60 seconds, without inducing discomfort. Flexibility training and stretching is very effective without any equipment or props. Items that are effective in order to enhance flexibility training and are available at low cost at many retailers as well as at personal training sessions with myself include the following: stability balls, straps and bands, and foam rollers. To learn more about these devices, and and get some assistance regarding flexibility training, I encourage you to contact me about personal training.