Tagged: Motivation
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.
Zucchini Bread Recipe
Good afternoon, this has been a childhood favorite of mine for years. Smelling this bread cooking takes me right back to the kitchen I grew up in. I remember coming in out of the fields and sitting down on my bar stool at the island waiting for my mom to take this bread out of the oven.
Below you can find the original recipe and if you want to make it healthier I will give suggestions next to the ingredients. I always make this bread in small mini loaf pans because my husband and kids like to eat it for breakfast, snacks, it makes it easier to grab and go. It may not be the healthiest recipe but when I bake I always use the everything in moderation rule. I’ll only eat one mini-loaf at breakfast in place of my Ezekiel bread.
Zucchini Bread:
1 1/2 cup flour (wheat flour)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sugar (brown sugar)
1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
1 egg
1/4 cup oil (applesauce)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or almonds
*(healthy substitutes)
- Mix first 6 ingredients together
- In a mixing bowl beat sugar, zucchini, egg and add oil
- Stir flour mixture into zucchini mixture and fold in nuts
- Bake at 350 for 1 hr (mini-loaf pans, require less time and you will need to check every 10-15 minutes, they don’t take a full hr to cook)
- grease pan and cook until a tooth pick comes out clean
Enjoy and Blessings,
Michelle
The Day You Stop Letting the Scale Determine How You Feel About Yourself
You prep, food log, you are simply killing it at the gym, and pack enough water for a cross country hike in your book bag. Then there is that day you get on that scale. Thinking this has all paid off right? If I follow this plan I’m going to have these results, exactly when I want…
A feeling in your stomach makes you feel like your stomach is dropping to the bottom. Leaving you feel defeated, unloveable, not good enough, and you allow yourself to jump back in the cycle of feeling like you have failed yourself once again.
You order dessert, you give up, and the cycle begins again. I’ll start again Monday and then it is I’ll start again the following Monday.
Have you been there? I have. Let me tell you loosing weight it’s not easy. It’s downright frustrating and if you are like me when you don’t see the results right away you think to yourself why even bother?
I’m here to tell you today that the cycle in your mind, in order for you to reach your goals and be successful in forming a positive body image, you need a big old pair of courage pliers to cut some hefty chains. You have to break chains in order to have a positive body image.
Working with women as a personal trainer over the last several years has opened my eyes to what we as women face. A viscous cycle of trying to love on our bodies and not let a number on a scale or pants size determine our value.
Women who have been through eating disorders, heart ache, faced awful circumstances who know they somehow just want to feel better about themselves.
Feeling better about yourself doesn’t start with a number on a scale and today I simply want to share with you a few ways you can begin to break this cycle and how I am constantly working with my clients to value the uniqueness in how they have been intricately created.
- Throw out your scale. Yep. You heard me. Throw it out. Don’t weight yourself anymore. Identify with how your clothes fit. If you are working out consistently and hitting the weights you will start to notice your pants feeling looser and areas that are becoming more defined and that is more important than the number reflected on a scale.
- Learn to eat in moderation. A cookie isn’t going to completely throw off your health game. However 4-10 cookies might. Learn to a live a fit life. Eating healthy most of the time and allowing yourself to enjoy the simple pleasures of life once in a while.
- Find an accountability partner that builds you up and tells you that you’re worth it. That the hours at the gym, time spent meal prepping and grocery shopping will improve your lifestyle. Leaving you feeling like you have more energy, which leads to building confidence, taking ownership of your health journey, which in turn will help you begin to form a positive body image.
- Be ok with knowing this process is one that takes a long time. Change is overwhelming and it’s ok to hit road blocks. If you fail and learn from your mistakes you will come out stronger in the end.
- If you get a bit off track, don’t make yourself feel guilty. You aren’t going to lose your gains in the blink of an eye. Jump right back on the workout wagon and don’t beat yourself up.
- Workout to feel good not to punish yourself for what you ate. We all need carbs to fuel our bodies and movement to help set off endorphins that make us feel good!
- Love where you are at. Know that forming a healthy lifestyle like anything else in life takes time, effort and enjoy the process.
- When a negative thought comes to mind, replace it with a positive thought. You are beautiful, you are worthy, and you can overcome!
Learn to love the process and know that results take time and a lot of beauty comes out of being content with right where you are at. Let’s break the cycle, let’s toss the scales and commit to loving the process and move toward a fit body, mind and soul.
Blessings, Michelle
Half Marathon Training
Greetings Friends, These first four weeks of training have flown by so quick and I am coming up on my 6 mile long run this week. I am excited as I have forgotten how much of an outlet running is for me and how it gives me time to unplug and process. If you are behind on reading you can catch up on my first 3 weeks of Half marathon training here:https://livefitwomensfitness.com/2015/02/21/half-marathon-training-2/ I have been trying to perfect my head stand which is one of my 2015 goals. I have just really been amazed at with time, consistency and a weight lifting plan how strong I have become. I love weights and the many benefits of weight lifting. I have written about it before which you can read here: https://livefitwomensfitness.com/2013/08/13/why-weights-part-1/
Practicing my head stand
Over the years I have really realized that health isn’t being bone thin. I ran throughout high school and college and my goals mainly focused on being fast and very skinny. After the birth of my children I really came to a cross roads. I couldn’t run 4-6 miles a day and losing weight seemed hard. When I became a personal trainer I realized that my idea of healthy body composition had been completely off. I needed to find workouts that fit into life with kids. I started incorporating weights and have been amazed at how much better and stronger I feel. I feel so much stronger while running and have realized that strength is not only power but the new healthy. Making slow progress on that head stand. My hubby bought me these lululemon spandex for Christmas and I may be in love. I am wearing them in the picture. I have a workout clothes addiction and these may be the most comfortable spandex I have ever worn! They don’t slide around, are made of such high quality fabric, and are so comfortable! You can find them here:http://shop.lululemon.com/home.jsp?k_clickid=cd3cc474-737f-422c-98c2-8fb10af55ee5&k_trackingid=11×20422&cid=Google&gclid=CjwKEAjwxKSoBRCZ5oyy87DimEcSJADiWsvgz_K2O_xFDpMMxSoC69GGDwSihWjjEhov3ScyIjcVuRoC2MTw_wcB The first few weeks of my training I have been extremely sore and week four I finally was finding some relief. My body has started to readjust to running more and I was able to get outside for a run last Sunday and hit my four mile mark in around 30 minutes. I love using the treadmill in the winter as a training tool. It helps me learn my pace and I often try to power through long runs at my desired mile pace on the treadmill. My goals are an 8:30-8:45 mile pace for the race. Here is weeks 4-5 training plans:
Training Weeks 4-5
After my long run on Sunday I have been experiencing a lot of pain in my hip flexor and IT band. Which led me to do a lot of reading and I have spent a lot of time on my foam roller. I think I have really neglected a huge component in my routine which is stretching. Maybe be on the look out for a foam roller post in the near future!! I have listed 5 reasons why stretching is so important:
Don’t forget to stretch! This photo is vintage. My oldest was helping me touch my toe!
1. Reduces risk of injury 2. Enhances muscle performance (allowing you to get a better workout in the next time you workout because your muscles aren’t tight) 3. improves your posture and prevents back pain 4. Helps keep joints healthy 5. Provides physical and mental relaxation I took it easy today and plan to stretch more tonight. Circuiting through my stretches 3-4x holding each stretch for 15-20 seconds. I always listen to my body and rearrange my running schedule to allow my body more rest if I feel it needs it. I often tell my clients this. I swapped days and will be doing my repeat day tomorrow. Hopefully fingers crossed my hips and IT band will feel better after being more intentional and consistent with my stretches! Here are weeks 6-7 training plans: 
Are you training for any race this spring? Comment below on how training is going!? I really need to register for my race!! Blessings, Happy Running If you are looking for accountability, help with your fitness goals or a weight training program tailored to your needs lets connect!
Four Ways to Stay Motivated All Year Long
Greetings Live Fit!
It’s February and I’m sure you have seen countless buzz words floating around the internet since the first of the year highlighting “new years resolutions.” I feel like everywhere I turn from my inbox to the television that I hear the New Year, New You push.
I love the buzz, the energy, the gym being packed and people are aiming to live a more fit and healthy lifestyle.
As I work with personal training clients, teach group fitness classes and motivate myself to stick to my own personal workout plan I continually ask myself how can I encourage and motivate people all year long?
Personal Trainer Michelle shares about Four Ways to Stay Motivated All year long
Below are four tips that I came up with to help you Stay motivated all year long:
1. Believe in yourself. Have confidence that you can do anything you put your mind to. That confidence brings a positive energy that will keep you from negative feelings about your workout that may un-motivate you to stick to the new excitement you first felt when you were beginning to feel good about consistency and striving to live a fit and healthy lifestyle.
2. Love what you do. This is going to look different for every single person. In this day and age there are so many options when it comes to working out. Maybe you just want a personal trainer to do the work for you and prepare your workouts, maybe you like doing dvd’s in the comfort of your home, or holding poses longer in Yoga. Try a little bit of everything(for some people variety is what they like!) and narrow down the one thing that absolutely makes you feel like you want to keep coming back for that endorphin rush.
3. Find the accountability of a partner. That person who meets you at the gym at 5am is pretty special. You aren’t going to want to let your partner down and this is a way to motivate you to get to your workout and have someone to share in the journey right alongside you. You can text and encourage each other every step of the way.
4. Set realistic short-term goals. Think of one extremely big long-term goal. (write it down on a notecard RIGHT THIS SECOND and put it up on your computer screen or a place you will see it often). Now each month of the year set two very realistic short-term goals that will help you move closer to you long term goal. By Making small changes each month of the year you will begin to see improvements and this will give you the confidence to keep that healthy energy and motivation all year long.
What motivates you? How can you keep that motivation all year long?
Make 2015 the year you said “I Did.” instead of “I should”
Blessings, Michelle
If you are in need of an accountability partner or unsure where to start on your health and wellness journey please don’t hesitate to contact me below:
Cook With Michelle Thursday: Homemade Wedding Soup
Good MORNING!
It is blustering cold here. My oldest has a snow day and I want to stay wrapped up in my bathrobe and drink coffee all day. I have wedding soup cooking on the stove and the house smells immaculate as the wind gusts bang against our windows and the girls clang around in pretend high heels and frozen dresses.
As a new season of resolutions and goals begins, my husband and I have really made a commitment to cut out snacking and eating out in the New Year.
Evening snacks are our nemesis. We used to be in a very good grove when it came to preparing a meal plan, eating clean, not snacking past 8pm and limiting our eating out as a family to one time per month.
But, life happens. Right. It throws you for a loop and some of our good eating habits sustained through a difficult season while some of the negative ones returned.
You learn from setbacks and mistakes and use them as knowledge to become better.
Soups are great to freeze for future lunches
One thing I love to do is prepare meals for lunches and freeze them. Easy and quick to grab when you are in a rush and this also prevents my husband from buying his lunch. I feel the winter can be a hard time to fit your daily serving of vegetables and soups are a great way to get those servings of vegetables in.
Here is my homemade wedding soup recipe:
Ingredients:
1 bag of celery
1 bag of carrotts
1 full chicken
1 3lb can of chicken broth
meatballs (you can make your own or buy tiny meatballs) I cheat sometimes and buy a frozen pre-made bag at a little mom and pop Italian Store in town
escarole (we buy it frozen at the Italian Foods store)
Romano cheese (I also buy this at the local Italian store, can you see the trend that we love Dioguardi’s)
salt
pepper
Acini De Pepe 1lb
Cooking Directions:
I created some of my own chicken broth by boiling the entire chicken in water; enough to cover it a few inches. I cooked on medium to low for 2-3 hours. I removed the chicken (carefully) and let it cool. I bought a Ninja last year at target and am in love with how it dices the vegetables for soups and salads and it is a huge time saver. I placed the carrots and celery in the ninja one at a time and diced them up. I ladled out any remaining chicken and made sure the broth was ready for cooking. I added the 3lb can of broth and diced veggies. Once the chicken was cool I shredded it and added it back to the pot of soup. Add meatballs, Romano cheese, salt, pepper (to taste), and escarole.
Cook the carrots and celery until soft. Boil the pound of pasta separately and strain. Add to soup once cooked and ready.
Enjoy, What’s your favorite winter soup? Hope you will enjoy this Wedding Soup recipe and that it keeps you warm on this cold winters day!
Fitness Tip: 1 cup of escarole is rich in fiber, vitamins K, A, and C. It can help aid in prevention of osteoporosis and hypertension. Dark leafy green vegetables like escarole may produce healthy eye health and prevent development of cancers.
Blessings, Michelle
Homemade Wedding Soup
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
Benefits of Fitness
Here are me and my oldest before I was heading out to speak to a group of women about the benefits of fitness
This past weekend I was able to speak to a group of moms about the benefits of fitness. I have a passion for spreading awareness about the many benefits of fitness and how they can have such a positive impact on your health. I also have a passion for sharing my core beliefs as a personal trainer: “making fitness a habit of daily living.” I told these ladies: “you have to find what you love and go with it”. Schedule thirty minutes to yourself each day to fit fitness in your daily routine. I am notorious for disappearing to my treadmill during the day even if I only have a quick thirty minutes. I grab my headphones, running shoes, and disconnect with the craziness of life and connect to a world that allows me to process my thoughts, connect with God and reap the benefits of fitness. When I am able to take care of myself, I am able to take better care of my family and those around me.
For many women it’s hard to find your niche in the fitness world. I suggest when you are searching for a type of workout you enjoy to try many different forms of working out before you decide what you love the most. Try it a handful of times before you make a decision. When you enjoy something you are going to go right back to it and repeat it again. Making it a daily habit. If you have had a negative experience you are going to hesitate to allow yourself to go back to it again. This is when you may need the help of a personal trainer or friend to get you started in the right direction and encourage you to keep searching until you find what feel most comfortable to you while exercising. Personal trainers help clients understand the benefits of fitness and create training programs that will help them stay consistent to their workouts and goals.
When I asked the women: “How Can you Make Fitness Fun?”
I received answers like: “meet up with a friend to workout, group exercise, workout with your spouse and compete for a cause”
Here are some benefits of fitness that I briefly touched on when speaking to these women:
-helps with stress relief
-helps manage health problems
-helps boost the health of your heart, helping improve your ability to burn calories managing your weight
-strength training helps our muscles work more efficiently and keeps our bones strong
-flexibility (stretching) helps prevent injuries and provides mobility of joints and muscles
-our body is better able to perform the tasks of daily living
Once you figure out what you enjoy while working out, schedule a time to workout each day, and if finding what you enjoy or understanding how to build a workout program is overwhelming to you and you understand how important the benefits of fitness are I would love to help you create a fitness regimen that is tailored to fit the needs of your specific lifestyle.
Blessings and Live Fit, Michelle
Live Fit Women's Fitness 