Category: Workouts
Goal Setting
Goal Setting: How will you plan for success?
Good Afternoon, If you are looking to set some goals this spring I want to share with you a few things about goal setting. Last week I talked about five tips to creating healthy habits. You can read more here: Developing Healthy Habits
When it comes to goal setting putting a plan of action into place will help with long-term success. If you are just starting out on this fitness journey you could just set some small achievable goals.
Examples:
Small achievable goals: drink more water, walk three times a week, lift weights twice a week, a food journal, two days of cardio and don’t eat after 8pm.
Maybe measuring your progress sounds like a place you would want to start. Does competition motivate you? You might be more interested in goals that can be measured.
Examples:
Measurable goals: sign-up for a race, increase the weights slowly, start to work on core strength and then work on holding plank for a longer period of time, take progress photos and circumference measurements.
Having a fitness professional guide you through this process is helpful and they can safely plan and provide effective workouts and feedback.
Short-term goals happen within 4-6 weeks. They help keep us motivated and on track with our exercise program. Short-term goals lead us to our long-term goal. They should be challenging and use specific steps to propel us to our long-term goal. Long-term goals reflect what truly is important to us about our exercise journey. They guide the direction our fitness journey is going to take and show what we want to achieve during the process.
Think about a few short-term goals that you could aim for each week over the next six weeks. Think of one main long-term goal that you are aiming to achieve over time. Find a piece of paper and write it down. Hang it up somewhere in which you are going to see it often.
I’m excited to kick-off an online boot camp this coming Monday. You can workout in the comfort of your home for thirty minutes a day and no equipment is required. I have only a few more spots available. If you would like more information about this bootcamp and how you can join please fill out the information below and I will be in contact with you in 24-48 hours.
I will be joining my bootcamp participants and we will be talking about goal setting. Over the next four to six weeks my short-term goals are: I plan on drinking more water, cutting out eating after 8pm, and eating to fuel my body not out of emotion. Long-Term: I want to get back into healthier eating patterns and not yo-yo back and forth. While it’s alright to celebrate and have days where I am off track I’d like to stay back on track with my eating during the week.
I think one of my other goals is training for a 5k. Maybe I’ll share my training with you soon! Happy Sweating ❤
Photo Credit: Easterday Creative
Five Steps to Developing Healthy Habits
Good Morning,
Last weekend was so much fun celebrating the new baby that is due soon in our family. Below are a few pictures from the shower. I was able to order the favor boxes off https://www.amazon.com.
I always have spare mason jars around from home canning I grabbed a few and made up these vases. I just bought some ribbon and a few fancy flowers and hot glued them on. A great way to dress up a mason jar for mother’s day or a special occasion. 
We ordered these beautiful flower arrangements from http://www.seifertsflowers.com . I hope your weekend is off to a good start and today I am going to list my five steps to developing healthy habits. 
When it comes to developing healthy habits we all cringe in our seats. It’s a process to say the least. It isn’t going to happen over night and I’m sharing these five steps to developing healthy habits as a guide. It won’t go exactly as planned or look perfect but each person has a unique and personal journey as they aspire to wellness.
- Change is scary. The first step to creating healthier habits is to leave the fear of failing on the wayside. This will hinder you from reaching your full potential. Sure you will mess up along the way but use the setbacks and failures as stepping-stones to the future success of creating, maintaining and carrying out life-long healthy habits.
- It takes time to create and form new healthy habits. It’s not going to happen in four days or a week. We first have to target the unhealthy habits in our lives and get to the root of why we first started them. Understanding the cycle will help us have victory of laying down these life sucking habits and replacing new life-giving habits in their place.
- Find an accountability partner to help you. Call up your best friend and ask them if they want to join you. Or, ask them to hold you accountable by a phone call at the beginning and end of each week. When you have to be accountable to someone it makes the things you are trying to accomplish become more meaningful and real. Having an accountability partner there to build you back up when you fall and celebrate when you meet milestones on your journey makes this fitness ride that much more beautiful.
- Log you journey. Buy a journal and track your progress and how your feeling. You can go back along the way and see how far you have come.
- Set one long-term goal and a short-term goal each week over the next six weeks. The smaller steps will help to propel toward your long-term goal.
When you start doubting yourself or getting anxiety about starting a healthier lifestyle don’t be afraid to make your request known to God. Let him know the desires of your heart and seek him first for help. It’s so easy to try and do these things in our own control but God wants to sustain us and walk right alongside us on this journey.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
– Philippians 4:6
When I work with clients it’s such a beautiful process as they start to transform their life to living a more fit lifestyle. This discipline from the gym then carries over into faith, family, relationships and career goals. I would love to help you live a healthier life and put these tips into practice.
On March 19th I am gearing up to kick-off an online body weight bootcamp. You can workout in the comfort of your home for thirty minutes a day and no equipment is required. I have only seven spots available. If you would like more information about this bootcamp and how you can join please fill out the information below and I will be in contact with you in 24-48 hours.
Have a great week, Next week I will be talking about short-term and long-term goals. I am going to share with you my spring short-term and summer long-term goals.
Bodyweight Bootcamp
TGIF! I hope your week treated you well and you are gearing up for a fun weekend. This week I taught my classes and celebrated with my clients. I love watching them make the small steps to live a fit lifestyle. I made this smoothie yesterday after my last training session and it was so refreshing on such a hot day! You can find two other posts and a little more about bodyweight workouts here: Bodyweight Bootcamp Week 1 & Bodyweight Bootcamp Week 2
You can find the recipe on the Live Fit Women’s Fitness page: Live Fit Women’s Fitness Page
Stretching after our workout
This week was the second week that I offered a free fitness class at our local church. If you are interested in coming the next two weeks please contact or send me a quick message. We would love to have you join. You can find the details about that class here: Free Workout Class
I met with my massage therapist on Tuesday. Let me tell you she is not only awesome but highly educated in her field. I was reminded how much we all need to take the time to care for our bodies not only in the gym but after we workout. I meet with her a few times a year. Michele specializes in Neuromuscular therapy, Active Isolated Stretching, Mattes Method, and Neurokinetic Therapy. If your looking for a massage therapist or interested in learning more about the areas Michele specializes in you can find more out on her Facebook page: Michele L. Sanders, LMT 
I am going to share three quick and effective bodyweight exercises with you today. You can do this circuit anywhere and repeat it 4-8x’s. The first video is a modified level one bodyweight bootcamp and the video below it is a level 3 advanced video.
You can perform the exercise video below after a solid warm-up.
Perform each exercise all out for 20 seconds/rest 20 seconds repeat 4-8x
modified jacks (video 1) or jumping jacks (take out the hop to decrease intensity)
Wall sits(video 1) or squats (make sure that when your doing your wall sit your knee is in line with your hip and your quads are pararell to the floor) (When squating keep your chest tall, core tight and weight in heels)
wall push-aways (video 1) or push-ups (line up the shoulders and hands, keep your core tight and don’t let the hips sag) When you are at the wall for push-aways the closer you are to the wall the easier this exercise will be. The further away you are the harder this exercise will be. The same goes for the distance between your feet. The more narrow will make wall push-aways more intense.
Stretch 5-7 minutes
Look for a zucchini bread recipe on Tuesday. I have been picking fresh zucchini from my garden and want to share one of my favorite summer recipes with you. 
I’ll be posting these every Friday! Happy bootcamping! A special thanks to my oldest daughter who was my videographer today.
Bodyweight Bootcamp
Good Morning,
This summer is sure flying by, isn’t it. It’s Fri-YAY. You know what that means? The day that I give you three body weight workouts that you can do from the comfort of your yard, home and maybe while you’re laying by the pool.
I hope your holiday treated you well. Here I am running in a July 4th race and we celebrated afterward with some pool time, ribs, and fireworks.
July 4th Race 2017
I also had so much fun meeting up with the ladies that I workout with at a local gym and we got together and made homemade freezer jam. Strawberries are about out of season but you could still make some jelly with other types of fruit that are coming into season. I made both freezer jam (no cook) and regular strawberry jam. I serve so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in this house that having the homemade jam is worth the effort and tastes pretty incredible. It’s a summer tradition and I was excited to share that tradition and help some ladies learn how easy and quick making (no cook) freezer jam is. The difference between cooked jam is that you have to boil it with the pectin on the stove.With cooked jam you use the Ball canning jars and lids. (No cook) jam requires stirring in the pectin, freezer safe containers, and can be done in much less time. The Freezer jam can be stored for up to a year in the freezer. Canned jelly can be stored for a much longer duration.
We had lots of laughs and the kitchen was pretty gooey but it was well worth the mess afterwards! I use my homemade freezer jam and cooked jam in a lot of different ways. Below is a quick list of how I add a little flavor to different breakfast and dessert options.
Homemade Freezer Jam
- I put the jam in plain chobani yogurt
- In oatmeal
- I substitute on pancakes instead of syrup
- In Cottage cheese
- On cheesecake
- Peanut butter and jelly
- On Ezekiel toast
I have also been on an oatmeal bowl kick lately. I add just about everything to my oatmeal. Below is a photo of homemade jam, coconut flakes, and chia seeds.
Oatmeal Bowl
Enough talk of food. I’m getting hungry. I hope these options help you come up with some new idea’s for breakfast to add into your morning meal rotation. Last week I talked about body weight exercises and you can read more information on them here: Bodyweight bootcamp
The video below is an advanced bodyweight bootcamp. You should be able to perform a side plank first in a modified position fifteen-thirty seconds before you begin bringing your arm under your body. You can start with wall push-aways or on your knee’s to bring down the intensity of the push-up and maintain good postural alignment through the exercises.
You can perform the exercise video below after a solid warm-up.
Side plank (hold 15 seconds, 3 reps of bringing your arm under with control)
3 push-up’s (wall push-aways or modified push-ups on your knee’s)
Side Plank (hold 15 seconds, 3 reps of bringing your arm under with control)
Return to plank and repeat 3-4x
Take a 1-2 minute break between each circuit
Stretch 5-7 minutes when you have completed this workout.
I’ll be posting these every Friday! Happy bootcamping! A special thanks to my hubby who is my videographer. Look for a post on Tuesday about an awsome success story I’ll be sharing about one of my clients.
If you are local check out my About Me tab and scroll down to Live Fit Ministry and Local Meeting Times. I’m offering a free workout class July 12, 19, 26 and August 2nd. If you want to get more information about this class please leave your information and I will contact you.
Bodyweight Bootcamp
Good morning!
I hope your summer is going spectacular. Isn’t it semi-crazy trying to fit workouts in during the summer months? Work, picnics, the pool and extra-curricular events make it challenging to fit in your workouts.
I have been wanting to post a series for a while about bodyweight exercises. This bootcamp requires no equipment and can be done anywhere. Each week this summer I will post a short video. The bodyweight bootcamp will have three exercises that make up the workout.
You can take this bodyweight bootcamp to the beach, baseball games and at the park.
What are bodyweight exercises? Bodyweight exercises can be done with your own bodyweight and no equipment is needed! Bodyweight exercises help develop strength, power, and stamina. These exercises improve your body’s ability to move with skill and efficiency. These exercises are beneficial when paired with interval training. Below are a few tips for mastering bodyweight exercises.
- Start with foundational exercises first. Basic jumping jacks,planks, squats, mountain climbers, push up’s, and dips. I don’t suggest jumping in the jump squat in the video if you haven’t exercised recently. You could simply step each foot up and squat three times. Gain strength and form before you start adding high-impact to your body weight bootcamp.
- Focus on your form. I can’t stress this enough. Know your body and your limits. When in high plank, spread your fingers wide to protect the wrists, keep your core tight, don’t let your hips sag and line your shoulders and hands. Gradually increase the intensity and time your performing bodyweight exercises. You could start in a modified wall plank and progress to the ground, and perform plank on your knees. when you feel ready perform a full plank you can then add in the taps and oblique exercises.
- Consistency is the key in making progress. If you want to see results and progress in your workouts you have to remain consistent and gradually increase your workload over time. If you look back a month or even a few weeks you will start to see small progress in how long you can hold plank and your stamina increasing while performing squats and jumping jacks.
- Check with a doctor before beginning any exercise program. Warm-up 5-7 minutes and cool-down stretch when you have completed the workout.
- Maximum Interval Training- By: John Cissik and Jay Dawes was referenced and used when writing this post.
The video below is an advanced bodyweight bootcamp. You should be able to perform a plank fifteen-thirty seconds before you begin tapping and twisting. In order to perform the bodyweight frog hop you should be able to perform a minimum of twenty bodyweight squats and maintain good postural alignment through the exercises.
You can perform the exercise video below after a solid warm-up.
- 8 plank taps
- 8 oblique twists
- 3 frog hops
- Return to plank and repeat 3-4x
- Take a 1-2 minute break between each circuit
Stretch 5-7 minutes when you have completed this workout.
I’ll be posting these every Friday! Happy bootcamping! A special thanks to my hubby who is my videographer. I was gardening and decided to get a quick bodyweight bootcamp in!
Adding Variety To Your Workout
This is part 1 of a five part series. You can read more here to find out more about this series: Introduction
Today we will focus on Aerobic exercise or otherwise known as Cardio.
I am sharing a brief memory of how my love for running started before I get to the nuts and bolts of why aerobic exercise is so important for our health.
I can remember being a kid. My father owned a tree farming business and still does and we lined our back fields with rows upon rows of tree’s. I loved nature and the great outdoors. I especially loved riding my bike to the highest hill and taking my feet off the pedals and coasting all the way down to the bottom. My mom told me after I flew down the hill I would ride around the house anther fifteen times before doing it all over again.
Seifert’s Tree Farm October 2013
It was in grade school that I remember my best friend who was a year older then me asking me to try to go on a run with her. While I chuckled and thought basketball is the only sport for me. I decided to join her. She assured me running to the stop sign and back was easy and that I could do it.
I remember in that moment a little seventh grader thinking, sheesh… this girls nuts. Huffing and puffing along I made it to the stop sign and back. I’m pretty sure my best friend ran five miles before I finished my two. I ended up running track that year and have been hooked ever since. I went on to run in college and coach 400 and 800 runners shortly after I graduated college.
My best friend and I still run when we can get together and I can’t explain to you how thankful I am that she encouraged me that day. There are special people in our lives that have the ability to encourage us and help you feel empowered. She is defiantly one of those people.She believed in me and in turn it helped me believe in myself. Running has been an outlet for me as I have gone through the grief of loosing my daughter and battled through depression over the last two and a half years.
My dad used to tell me growing up to train and surround myself with people who were better. It pushed me and continues to grow me. What a wonderful training slogan for life.
It has allowed me to understand that with change comes growth. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and learning new ways to add variety to your workout help you from becoming stagnant in your workout routine. Aerobic exercise is one of the five ways to add variety to your workout.
The information below on aerobic exercise has been taken from an article from Everydayhealth.com . There are many benefits of aerobic exercise. Mental benefits include an increase in confidence, emotional stability, memory and brain function. 19 million Americans experience depression every year and is is believed that aerobic exercise helps improve the symptoms of depression. Health benefits include strengthening your heart and lungs, lowers your cholesterol, reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, improve your immune function and lower blood pressure. Physical benefits include burning calories, which helps shed excess weight. Aerobic exercise tones the muscles and improves posture. It helps you look and feel better while increasing your stamina. Providing more energy for work and play. You will sleep and handle stress better.
My clients say this often: “I just all around feel better”.
Now that you see the benefits of adding aerobic activity to your workouts. You might be wondering how much and how often?
The most recent guidelines published from the American Heart Association and the American College of sports medicine recommend 30 minutes of moderately intense aerobic exercise five days a week or 20 minutes of high intensity aerobic exercise 3 days a week to maintain good health and reduce your risk of chronic disease.
If you are just starting out slowly increase your intensity with the help of a trainer. Maybe start with first deciding what type of aerobic activity you enjoy most. Options are and not limited to: biking, running, hiking, dancing, and swimming.
Photo Credit: Easterday Creative
Below is a quick and effective running circuit I do if I am short on time. If you are new to exercise check with your doctor before beginning any new training program. Use the FITT principe to slowly increase in Time, Intensity, Type, and Frequency.
Warm-up 5-7 minutes by jogging. Perform 4-6 short bursts sprints between 30-60 seconds at a time. Take a 1-2 minute break or until you feel recovered enough to perform your next short burst sprint. Cool-down 5-7 minutes
You can use this same workout on a bike, swimming, on an elliptical and while walking.
Next week we will talk about why adding variety with strength training is such an important component to your workout regimen.
Adding Variety To Your Workout
What should I do for my workout? It’s a question that used to haunt me and circle in my thoughts each morning as I climbed out of bed.
It usually ended in a 4-6 mile run and maybe a few crunches. It wasn’t until I became a personal trainer that I began lifting heavier and incorporating a variety of different types of training into my workouts.
If you asked me if I would ever attempted power yoga or swinging around a kettle bell I would have told you, your crazy. I felt the biggest burn from pounding the pavement. There really is noting more euphoric than a runners high.
However after the birth of my first daughter the weight seemed hard to drop and just running wasn’t cutting it anymore. What should I do for my workout?
I was at this question yet again and I slowly started to incorporate lifting. I wasn’t really consistent and did it sporadically but slowly I started to feel a little bit stronger and the weight started to budge on the scale.
The more I started to read the more I learned that incorporating variety into your workout helps prevent plateaus and with building strength. When we re-challenge the body and overload it in different ways our body has to work harder, which breaks plateaus. Changing up your routine is important to do every 6-8 weeks.
Over the next five weeks I am going to expand on these five ways you can add variety to your workout. With each element you will find a free workout incorporated in its post.
The five ways to add variety to your workout are: strength training, core exercises, balance training, stretching, and aerobic exercise.
Next week I’ll be talking about the importance of aerobic exercise and will be posting a cardio workout.
If you are at a place where you think you reached a plateau,maybe you are unsure or how to add variety, or need the support of a certified trainer to take your workout routine to the next level, please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions.
I am kicking off an online boot camp on November 21, 2016 and this might be the perfect opportunity for you to try something new and add variety to your workout. I like to work closely with my clients and only have a few spots left open.
I have ran this boot-camp in the past and women have said, “…what they enjoyed most is the sense of community and knowing that other people are doing the same workouts as them. They love the accountability of checking in and not having to worry about what to do for a workout. It’s simply laid out for them”.
Monday Morning workout Circuit with Michelle:Full Body strength and Cardio
Monday Morning workout Circuit With Michelle : Full Body strength and cardio workout
Welcome to the Live Fit Community! I’m Michelle the creator and owner of Live Fit Fitness Personal training.
For those who don’t know me I am reintroducing myself to the fitness industry. I have been away from Live Fit’s site for awhile. I am firstly a woman chasing after God’s heart, a wife to a wonderful man, a mother to three beautiful girls two on earth and to one beautiful Angel who is shining down on us from heaven. In high school I ran Cross country, played basketball, and ran track. In college I ran cross country and track. I eventually went on to coach 400 and 800 runners. I have a bachelor’s in communications and worked in college admissions after graduating from college. Six years ago after the birth of my first baby I became extremely passionate about my health journey. I gained a lot of extra weight and was having trouble losing it. I never had trouble in the past being a avid runner and was feeling extremely discouraged. My clothes didn’t fit, at the time in our lives we had a treadmill and a few free weights, and I was at a cross roads. I made a decision to lose the extra weight I had gained. I didn’t buy a gym membership, or buy expensive equipment, I just researched workout plans and changed up my eating habits. Experiencing this low point made me feel such compassion for women who are struggling on their health journeys and motivated me to want to be able to help them. I started a fitness group at our local church, became a certified trainer and teach group aerobics. Over the last six years I have talked and encouraged countless women on their health journeys and am passionate about helping them meet their health and wellness goals. As a trainer I am extremely passionate about meeting women where they are at in life with whatever equipment I or they have to utilize. I always say all it takes is short and long term goals, small steps, setting your mind to start (because that is the hardest part), a solid 6-8 week workout plan created that changes to meet your fitness needs, someone to hold you accountable, and to help you be consistent.
Join me on the Monday Morning Workout circuit with Michelle for a full body strength and cardio workout. Abs are included! If you are looking for fit tips, daily encouragement, motivation, clean eating idea’s, and new exercise idea’s join the Live Fit Community. You can find us here on the blog by subscribing to get the latest post (entering your e-mail in the upper right hand corner), on instagram: @livefitfitness and on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LiveFitWomensFitnessGroup
This Workout Circuit will include a full body strength routine, cardio drills , and abs to do in between each weight lifting circuit. Circuits are a great way to get cardio and strength training completed together to save time.
equipment needed: free weights, elastic band, timer.
If you don’t have weights, get creative. Use canned goods or water bottles. If you don’t have an elastic band you could use a scarf for resistance. Use the timer on your stove, iPhone, use music, or count to yourself.
Warm-up ( jog in place 3-5 minutes, or whatever you do to get your muscles nice and warm)
Once you are warm Perform the Bicep/triceps exercise. 8-15 reps depending on fitness level 3-4 sets. Give yourself 30-60 seconds to recover if you are training for endurance or 1:30-2:00 minutes recovery if you are looking to build lean muscle mass. Performing each exercise back to back in this circuit. Make sure you are exhaling on the up phase of the bicep curl to get oxygen to those working muscles and inhale as you relax. The same goes for the triceps kickbacks featured under the bicep curls. Exhale as you extend the weights back and inhale as you release the weights back to starting position. (During the tricep kickback make sure your back is flat and core tight. You don’t want to be all the way standing up or all the way bent over.To engage your core muscles focus on pulling your belly button toward your spine).
Bicep/Tricep
Perform these three drills for 30 seconds: Butt Kicks, Jumping Jack, High knee’s
Followed by abs (abs exercises are featured below): Start in Plank 30-60 seconds (all the way at the bottom of the page) Plank Tips-lift those abdominal to prevent low back from sagging, keep head, neck, and spine aligned, anchor shoulder blades to avoid from hunching , Mountain Climb 30-60 seconds and Twist your opposite elbow to your opposite knee while in plank position 30-60 seconds. Keep your core tight, your shoulders over your hands, and go at your own pace. You can go all out with the mountain climbers or step and tap. Focus on form and technique if you are a novice exerciser. When twisting the knee to opposite elbow keep your shoulders over your hands and really focus on your obliques (sides of your abdominal muscles twisting across) Make sure to breathe and not hold your breath during abs.
Abs
Grab water, Give yourself 30-60 seconds to recover while sitting in extended child and move to the next weight lifting circuit.
Lat row working the back muscles 8-15 reps of 3-4 sets. make sure your back is flat and core tight. You don’t want to be all the way standing up or all the way bent over.To engage your core muscles focus on pulling your belly button toward your spine. Squeezing the shoulder blades together exhaling as you come up and inhaling as you release the arms back down in front of your body. Push-up’s you can modify on you knee’s and over time work yourself up to a full body push-up. Listen to your body and push yourself as you get stronger. Make sure to engage your belly button keeping the core tight, not allowing the hips to sag and keeping a straight line from the head to the toes.
Back/Chest
Perform these three drills for 30 seconds: Butt Kicks, Jumping Jack, High knee’s Followed by abs (abs exercises are featured below): Start in Plank 30-60 seconds (don’t let those hips sag and keep a nice straight line from head to toe. You can also modify here on your knee’s and build yourself up, Mountain Climb 30-60 seconds and Twist your opposite elbow to your opposite knee while in plank position 30-60 seconds.
Grab water, Give yourself 30-60 seconds to recover while sitting in extended child and move to the next weight lifting circuit.
Shoulders. Perform this with most likely a lighter weight then the back/Bicep/and legs. 8-12 reps of 3-4 sets. Performing a lateral raise. Keep in mind to keep those hands in line with your shoulders and keep the neck in neutral (not squeezing your upper back when you raise up your weights here and staying nice and controlled when raising the weights). Shoulder fly You don’t want to be all the way standing up or all the way bent over.To engage your core muscles focus on pulling your belly button toward your spine. Slight bend in the arm squeezing your shoulder blades as you raise the weights up exhaling and inhaling as the weights come back down in front of you palms facing each other. Shoulder press. Keep your arms in a nice and controlled motion as you press up.
Shoulders
Perform these three drills for 30 seconds: Butt Kicks, Jumping Jack, High knee’s Followed by abs (abs exercises are featured below): Start in Plank 30-60 seconds (don’t let those hips sag and keep a nice straight line from head to toe. You can also modify here on your knee’s and build yourself up, Mountain Climb 30-60 seconds and Twist your opposite elbow to your opposite knee while in plank position 30-60 seconds.
Grab water, Give yourself 30-60 seconds to recover while sitting in extended child and move to the next weight lifting circuit.
Legs. Perform each exercise 8-15 reps/3-4 times total. Weights are optional here. They bring up the intensity of the exercise. Squat, belly button is pulled in, driving the hips back, weight is in the heels and slowly come up slight bend in the supporting knee and perform a leg lift. Pile squat. Toes at a 45 degree angle pointing out and not forward. You can also perform bridges here. Working the glute muscle. Keep your hips square as you raise up to the ceiling, using a scarf, elastic band or resistance band is optional. It will bring up the intensity of the exercise
legs
glutes/abs
Perform these three drills for 30 seconds: Butt Kicks, Jumping Jack, High knee’s Followed by abs (abs exercises are featured below): Start in Plank 30-60 seconds, Mountain Climb 30-60 seconds and Twist your opposite elbow to your opposite knee while in plank position 30-60 seconds.
Grab water, Give yourself 30-60 seconds to recover while sitting in extended child and Stretch 3-5 minutes. Make sure to hit all the large muscles that we utilized during this workout. Chest, Back, Tricep, Bicep,core, Hamstrings, quads, Inner and outer thigh and shoulders! Way To Go You just finished your workout and are one step closer to your health and wellness goals.
What are your favorite exercises to circuit? Thank you for joining me on the Monday Morning workout Circuit with Michelle:Full body Strength and cardio Workout!
Blessings, Michelle
(Remember it’s always crucial to warm-up your body prior to working out and cool down the body, stretch once you have completed your workout. I am not liable to any injuries/health issues that result from exercises from this site. Consult with your healthcare provider before beginning any workout regimen. If you feel pain or any discomfort while exercising stop immediately. )
If you are looking for workout plans to specifically meet your goals and hectic lifestyle. Please fill out the form below and we can connect during a free 30 minute consultation. I train both Locally and online.
30 Minute treadmill workout – four ways to spice up your running routine
Here I am getting ready to hit the mill
Once the middle of March hits the excitement that my treadmill brought me at the beginning of January usually begins to slowly loose it’s luster. At first it’s exciting to start back into a new training plan and over time things start to get a little mundane. This is when I like to spice things up in my running routine. It depends exactly what my goals are during the specific season of life I am in, but over the years these four ways to spice up your running routine listed below have always left me continuing to love my treadmill instead of dreading it after my 30 minute treadmill workout is completed.
I love to use the treadmill to help train for competing in local road races, to loose baby weight from pregnancy, to stay in shape, and to fit in my summer bikini. I have often used the 30 minute treadmill workout as a way to get a quick burst of cardio in to accompany my lifting and flexibility routine. I try to have a lot of balance when it comes to my training program incorporating cardio, weight and flexibility training spread through out the week. 30 minute treadmill workouts help me get my cardio in when I can’t get to the gym to participate and teach group exercise classes or outside to run at local trails. Our cardiovascular health is important and here are a few reasons why:
The 2011 American college of Sports Medicine guidelines recommend either doing 30 minutes moderate-to-intense cardio workout at a pace that works up a light sweat, fives days a week or a 20 minute vigorously intense cardio workout three days a week. If you are looking to loose weight and improve your fitness level 30-60 minutes of moderate-to-physical activity five times a week is necessary. Benefits of a 30 minute treadmill workout is boosting the health of your heart, increasing your all around cardio fitness, burns calories and fat (helping you loose or manage your weight), increases energy levels, and helps with stress.
This past winter I have been trying to ease back into my workout plan and shed around 25 pounds I gained from the birth of my third child. I have slowly worked my way back into running and started walking 15 minutes and jogging for a few minutes and gradually have worked myself back up to 30 minutes. You can adjust your speed to where you feel comfortable using each of the four ways to spice up your running routine listed below (listen to your body and start gradually).
Over time make sure that these four ways to spice up your running routine seem challenging. What happens as we begin to get stronger and more fit our bodies begin to adapt to our training program. This often leaves us not seeing the results that we are hoping and decreases our perseverance in our training plan. This is when you can adjust that speed dial to a faster and more challenging speed (I look at is as graduating to the next level, which is a huge deal showing consistency and hard work!).
It’s important to apply the overload principle and change up your workouts every 6-8 weeks. When exposing our body to the overload it makes it work harder then it normally would have to work, improving our fitness level and helping to prevent our bodies from plateau. Plateau happens when we constantly do the exact same workout for weeks at a time. Over time our bodies start to adapt to our workouts and we won’t see the results we once saw in the beginning. Changing up your workouts help you challenge your body in different ways, reduces chance of over-use, and injury.
30 Minute Treadmill Workout – Four ways to Spice up your Running Routine:
1.15 Minutes- moderately hard in which you could have conversation if you were running with someone and the last 15 minutes pick up the pace to were you are unable to hold that conversation. I do this often on Monday morning after the weekend when I feel tired and unmotivated. I give my body about 15 minutes of getting back into the groove for the week and then the last 15 minutes I hit it hard. This is also a great way to train your body to become stronger at the end of the race or workout, really burn some calories fast, and to help change over foot speed and pace if your training for road races .
2. Circuit your running. I use this midweek when a 30 minute treadmill workout just seems like to long to be on my treadmill. I’ll do 5 minutes on the treadmill, 1 minute explosive plyo-metric drill (jumping jacks, box jumps, high knee’s) followed by a set of lifting (depending on the day back and biceps, chest and tricep or legs and shoulders), followed by 2-3 minutes of lifting. I will circuit this until I have completed 30 minutes on my treadmill.
3. Interval using a 3:1 ratio. I will run three minutes hard and run comfortably hard for a minute to allow some recovery time. Repeat until you’ve reached 30 minutes.
4. Hill repeats. I will use the incline and run a pretend hill every 5 minutes for a minute or instead of hills just run quick bursts of sprints throughout the duration of the workout. doing this for 30 seconds at a time.
Each of these 30 minute treadmill workouts have really helped me beat boredom and make those thirty minutes of cardio conditioning fly by!
What’s your favorite thirty minute treadmill workout?
Blessings, Michelle
Tone it Tuesday
Hey live fit,
This is anther one of my go to moves. A cutesy squat with a lat row. Working the Glute muscles and lat muscles In the back. It’s great to alternate sides and get that heart rate pumping.
If you want to modify here: quarter squat or just take out the lat row.
If you are looking to tone 12-15 reps, 3-4 sets, if your weight seems light the last 3 reps of your last set then maybe it’s time to grab a set of heavier weights (3-5lbs).
Fit tip:machines in the weight room are great. Free weights give us the opportunity to use weights more functionally as we would doing our daily activities. They also are a great way to increase your heart rate.
Live Fit Women's Fitness 