by Cori Lefkowith | Feb 19, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Pain Relief, Stretches
To keep your body healthy and strong, you need to correct the imbalances caused by sitting all day at a desk and performing repetitive movements.
To correct these imbalances and truly help prevent and alleviate injuries, you can’t just simply go and workout. You can’t just simply lift weight and expect to get stronger.
Because even if you have seemingly perfect form, you may not be activating and using the correct muscles to lift the weight – and this could lead to injury instead of you getting stronger and fitter.
In order to make sure you are using the correct muscles when you lift, you must implement all four training elements – foam rolling, stretching, activation and strength training – in your workout routine.
You can’t simply skip to strength training and expect your body to work correctly and remain injury-free.
Before you start your workout and your strength training routine, you must first start to work on restoring your flexibility and joint mobility by foam rolling tight areas. When you foam roll, you help release knots so that muscles can become loose and ready to work.
By starting your workout program with foam rolling, you can start restoring muscles to their proper length-tension relationships. When muscles are at their proper length tension relationship, they can contract properly allowing us to lift more weight and engage the correct muscles to do the work.
Also, by loosening up knots, you can help improve your joint mobility. When a muscle is tight and shortened, it can change how your joint operates. It can limit your range of motion around a joint, leading to improper movement patterns and compensations
But foam rolling alone won’t restore your flexibility and joint mobility.
Once you’ve foam rolled to start getting the tight, overactive muscles loose, you then need to stretch to help elongate shortened muscles.
Below are 35 Stretches that stretch everything from your feet to your neck and wrists. These moves will help you improve your flexibility and mobility so that you can move better and feel better.
And then once you’ve stretched out using a few of these moves, make sure to get those underactive muscles working with some activation exercises before you move onto your strength training!
(more…)
by Cori Lefkowith | Feb 13, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Core, Exercises, featured, Foam Rolling, Pain Relief
Low back and hip pain are common problems especially for anyone with a desk job. However, some foam rolling (or a back massage) and stretching of your low back won’t be enough to really relieve your pain.
Because sometimes where you feel the pain, isn’t the place causing the problem, especially when it comes to low back pain.
Often to relieve your low back and hip pain, you need to focus on foam rolling, stretching, activating and strengthening your entire core.
Because overly tight muscles in your core (such as your hips and lats) and underactive muscles in your core (such as your glutes and deep intrinsic core stabilizers) can all be contributing to your hip and back pain.
Follow our 4 Step Program below to Relieve Your Low Back and Hip Pain.
(more…)
by Cori Lefkowith | Feb 11, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Core, Exercises
Crawling – it seems like such an easy movement, but not only does it take more coordination than we realize but it is also a great full-body workout.
Crawling exercises are important to include in your workout routine because they are functional bodyweight exercises that can improve your core strength, coordination, and even your mobility.
Plus crawling is an amazing cardio workout that you can do anywhere.
Here are 21 Crawling Exercises to strengthen your entire body while getting your heart rate up. These crawling exercises are great for everyone from the beginner to the advanced exerciser and can be regressed and progressed as necessary. Using a combination of these moves in your workouts, will help you get in a great cardio workout while working your body in every plane of motion.
Even though babies can do it, crawling is far from easy and is sure to challenge your entire core!
(more…)
by Cori Lefkowith | Feb 7, 2015 | Battling Ropes, Blog, Exercises, Workouts
Battling Ropes are popping up at gyms everywhere now. However, many people have never used one or even seen one before.
And while Battling Ropes are an easy-to-learn piece of equipment great for exercisers of all levels, there is still some form required and key movements to learn to get the most out of your Battling Ropes workout.
Battling Ropes can be used to work your entire body and improve your cardiovascular conditioning. You can use the ropes to build an aerobic base, improve your lactic threshold or even increase your power.
And while you improve your cardiovascular conditioning, you can also develop functional full body strength doing the Battling Ropes Exercises.
There are two basic movements we do in our Battling Ropes Training – Waves and Pulls. In this post, we’ve focused on only Wave exercises.
Including the Battling Ropes Wave Exercises in your workouts is important because they not only help you develop greater power, but they also help you become stronger so that you can maintain that power and intensity for a longer period of time.
These Battling Ropes Exercises are a great way to get in a full body workout. And if you get your own Battling Rope, you can do these exercises anywhere you can find something to wrap your rope around!
Learn how to use the Battling Rope today with these 22 Exercises and 5 Battling Ropes Workouts.
Battling Ropes Exercises – The 22 Moves
Below are all the 22 Moves demonstrated in the video.
The first 8 moves are what we consider the Essential Movements. Master these moves before moving on. With just these first eight you can get in a great workout.
1. Alternating Single Arm Waves
2. Stage Coach
3. Rainbows
4. Sidewinders
5. Rope Slams
6. Outward Circles
7. Snakes
8.Tsunamis
Moves 9-12 are great unilateral moves. Each of these moves forces you to work one side at a time, which allows you to correct imbalances because your dominate arm can’t take over.
9.Unilateral Waves
10. Unilateral Outward Circles
11.Unilateral Cross Body Waves
12. Rope Hook
Moves 13-22 are great full-body movements that require more coordination and incorporate a few of the Essential Movements. These are more advanced moves that are sure to get your heart rate up!
13. Switch Stance Stage Coach
14. Alternating Arms with Side Shuffle
15. Stage Coach with Reverse Lunge
16. Alternating Arms with Side to Side Lunge
17. Alternating Waves with Get-Up Lunge
18. Sidewinders with Forwards and Backwards Walk
19. Rainbow With Lunge
20. Rope Russian Twists
21. One Arm Plank Waves
22. Jumping Jacks
The 5 Battling Ropes Workouts:
These 5 Workouts are a great way to use the 22 Battling Ropes Moves above to improve your conditioning and even strengthen your entire body.
Workout #1:
Battling Ropes Interval Workout
Perform 3-6 rounds of each exercise. Rest for 1-2:30 minutes between rounds (1 minute advanced, 2:30 beginner). Rest 2-3 minutes between circuits.
CIRCUIT #1:
1 minute Stage Coach
CIRCUIT #2:
1 minute Alternating Arm Waves
CIRCUIT #3:
1 minute Sidewinders
CIRCUIT #4:
1 minute Rainbows
Workout #2:
Battling Ropes Tabata Workout
Complete 8 rounds of each exercise, working for 20 seconds then resting for 10. After completing 8 rounds of the exercise, rest for up to 2 minutes then move on to the next exercise.
Exercise #1:
20 seconds Alternating Arms with Side Shuffle
10 seconds Rest
Exercise #2:
20 seconds Rainbows with Lunge
10 seconds Rest
Exercise #3:
20 seconds Alternating Waves with Get Up Lunge
10 seconds Rest
Exercise #4:
20 seconds Sidewinders with Forward, Backward Walk
10 seconds Rest
Exercise #5:
20 seconds Alternating Waves with Side to Side Lunge
10 seconds Rest
Workout #3:
Battling Ropes Upper Body Workout
Set a timer for 15 minutes for each circuit. Complete as many rounds of each circuit in that 15 minutes as you can. After 15 minutes is up, rest 2-3 minutes and move on to the next circuit. Record how many rounds you complete and try to beat it next time!
Circuit #1:
10 reps Push Ups
20 reps Snakes
10 reps per side Rope Russian Twists
Circuit #2:
10 reps Pull Ups/Inverted Rows
20 reps Outward Circles
15 reps per side Plank with Single Arm Waves
Workout #4:
Battling Ropes 30/15 Workout
Set a timer for 30 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest. Go from one exercise to the next, resting 15 seconds between moves. Once a round of the circuit is complete, rest 1 minute. Beginners may need to rest longer between rounds. Complete 6-8 rounds.
Circuit #1:
30 seconds Jumping Jacks
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds Switch Stance Stage Coach
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds Rope Slams
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds Stage Coach with Reverse Lunge
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds Sidewinders
Rest 1 minute
Workout #5:
Battling Ropes Unilateral 20/20/20 Workout
Work for 20 seconds on each side then rest for 20 seconds before repeating. Complete 5 rounds of each exercise. Rest up to 2 minutes before moving on to the next exercise.
Exercise #1:
20 seconds Unilateral Waves Right Hand
20 seconds Unilateral Waves Left Hand
20 seconds Rest
Exercise #2:
20 seconds Unilateral Outward Circles Right Hand
20 seconds Unilateral Outward Circles Left Hand
20 seconds Rest
Exercise #3:
20 seconds Unilateral Cross Body Waves Right Hand
20 seconds Unilateral Cross Body Waves Left Hand
20 seconds Rest
Exercise #4:
20 seconds Rope Hook Right Hand
20 seconds Rope Hook Left Hand
20 seconds Rest
Using these 22 Battling Ropes Exercises and 5 Workouts, you can get in a great functional strength and cardio workout no matter your fitness level.
What’s your favorite Battling Ropes Wave Exercise?
by Cori Lefkowith | Feb 2, 2015 | Blog, Diet, Recipes
Often when we want to lose weight and improve our body composition, we focus on changing our caloric intake.
But, especially if we want to change our body composition and not just lose weight on the scale, we can’t just focus on cutting calories.
If you want to create body composition changes, you need to focus on not only how many calories you consume, but on the type of calories you consume.
Not all calories are created equal.
If you are concerned with building and retaining lean muscle mass (which you should be) while you lose body fat, you need to make sure that you focus on consuming enough protein.
One great way to add in more protein to your diet, especially to support muscle growth from your workouts is by consuming Whey Protein Powder.
Don’t like the taste of protein powder in a protein shake?
Then here is a Homemade Protein Bar recipe that not only hides the taste of the Whey Protein but is also a great pre-workout snack because of the macro balance (and the little bit of caffeine from the coffee). These Vanilla Almond Coffee Oatmeal Protein Bars will give you energy to power through your workout so you can build lean muscle mass!
(more…)
