FHP S2:E8 – Help! My Gym Is Closed What Do I Do?!

FHP S2:E8 – Help! My Gym Is Closed What Do I Do?!

In this episode I discuss how to stay on track when you can’t hit the gym! Because even when we get thrown out of our usual routine, there are still things we can do to make the MOST out of the change and continue creating healthy habits that will lead to results.

SUMMARY:

  • Even a quick workout can make a difference. Something is better than nothing. Even 5 minutes can add up!
  • Diet is key even when you can’t workout in the usual way! Use unscheduled time away from the gym to dial in your diet.
  • Focus on staying active. Do extra mobility work. Stretch throughout the day. Focus on simply moving MORE.
  • Don’t stress! When things happen out of our control, focus on controlling the one thing you CAN – your reaction to the events!

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  1. Do SOMETHING! Even a quick workout is better than nothing!
  2. Focus on your nutrition.
  3. Stay active.
  4. Don’t stress more about the change! Just focus on moving forward!

RS PROGRAMS:

At-Home Bodyweight Workout: The 20s Chest And Legs Trisets

At-Home Bodyweight Workout: The 20s Chest And Legs Trisets

Just because you can’t make it to the gym doesn’t mean you have an excuse to skip your workout!

When you don’t have access to equipment, you can still get amazing results using just your own bodyweight.

By shortening rest, increasing volume slightly and by using different tempos and hybrid movements, you can challenge yourself without any tools in a very small space.

So if you can’t hit the gym, you can stay on track with this 20s Triset Blast to torch your chest, shoulders, triceps, abs and legs!

The 20s Chest And Legs Trisets

QUICK WARM UP OPTION:
Complete 1 round through the quick stretching flow below as well as 1-2 rounds of the activation.
STRETCHING:
5-10 reps per side Inchworm Flow
ACTIVATION:
10-15 reps Tabletop Bridge
10-15 reps Downward Dog Scapular Presses
8-12 reps per side Bulldog Shoulder Taps

WORKOUT:
Complete 3 rounds of each triset, resting only as needed. After you complete all 3 rounds on a triset, quickly move to the next series. Time how long it takes you to complete everything and try to beat that time next week! For any unilateral or one-sided move like the Lunges or Tricep Push Ups, you can complete 10 reps per side if you’re a beginner to intermediate exerciser. If you’re more advanced and have been working out consistently, you can work up to 20 per side!

TRISET #1:
20 reps Squat with Pulse
20 reps Forward to Backward Lunge
20 reps Bulldog Ins and Outs
TRISET #2:
20 reps Wide Grip Push Ups
20 reps Tricep Push Ups
20 reps Plank Hip Dips
TRISET #3:
20 reps Sumo Squat to Calf Raise
20 reps Push Up Toe Touch
20 reps Tabletop Dip Toe Touch

EXERCISE DESCRIPTIONS:

Squat with Pulse:

squat with pulse

To do the Squat with Pulse, start standing tall with your feet between hip-width and shoulder-width apart. Sit your butt back and down, squatting through a full range of motion. Keep your chest up and don’t round over.

Sink down to about parallel while keeping your heels down. You may go slightly below parallel but don’t make this the deepest squat you’ve ever done. From the bottom of your squat, pulse up a few inches then sink quickly back down.

While you don’t want to bounce, this is a very quickly little pulse a few inches up and then back down.

 Then drive back up to standing, squeezing your glutes at the top before repeating the squat with a pulse at the bottom.

Forward to Backward Lunge:

front to back lunge

To do the Forward to Backward Lunge, start standing tall with your feet together. Then lunge forward on one side. Bend your knees as you sink down as if lowering to half kneel on the ground. Try to get your front knee bent to about 90 degrees, sitting back in your heel. Drop your back knee down toward the ground as you keep your chest up.

Then drive back through your front heel to come back up to standing. You can tap your toe down center if needed or move right into the backward lunge.

Step back with the same leg you lunged forward with and sink into a backward lunge. Keep your chest up as you sit back in your front heel and drop your back knee down toward the ground. Then drive back up to standing, driving through your front heel.

Repeat, moving right back into the forward lunge on the same side.

Bulldog Ins and Outs:

bulldog bodyweight core move

To do Bulldog Ins and Outs, set up on your hands and knees with your knees under your hips and hands under your shoulders. Flex your feet and lift up onto your hands and the balls of your feet. 

Holding this bulldog position, jump your feet out wider so that your legs move open while your knees still stay about under your hips. Don’t let your legs straighten out as you jump out wide.

Then jump your feet back in and even closer together than where you started. You can jump them all the way together even and then jump back out.

Keep jumping your feet in and out as you keep your butt down and stay in that bulldog position.

To modify the move, step one foot out wide and then the other before stepping both back in and together.

Wide Grip Push Ups:

To do the Wide Grip Push Up, set up in the high plank position with your hands out wider at chest height. A great way to figure out a width to start with is to make your hands into fists and place your knuckles together. Lean forward and lay your arms on the ground with your knuckles together. Your elbows will be pointing out and, right at the end of each elbow, you will place your hands. Make sure your hands are at chest height and not way up by your head.

Then in the high plank position with your feet close together and your body in a nice straight line from your head to your heels, lower your chest down to the ground. Do not let your hips sag or your butt go up in the air. Make sure your entire body moves as one unit.

Lower all the way down then press back up with your body moving as one unit. Full straighten your arms out at the top and repeat, lowering back down. Try to keep your entire palm firmly on the ground as you press and lower.

Beginners can do the Wide Grip Push Up from their knees or off an incline.

Tricep Push Ups:

To do Tricep Push Ups, lie on your side with your legs out straight or bottom knee bent. If you bend both legs it will make it harder. Wrap your bottom arm up and place your hand on your opposite shoulder or around your ribs. Place your top hand down on the ground at about shoulder height or right below. The more you place the hand down toward your belly button, the harder the move will be.

Then press the ground away with that hand on the ground, feeling your tricep work to push your upper body up. Press up until your arm is extended and lower back down to the ground. Keep yourself on your side as you press and lower. Your chest may slightly rotate toward the ground as you press, but make sure you really focus on the back of your arm working.

Repeat, pressing up again until your arm is fully extended. Adjust your hand placement or your legs so you can press and stay under control. Also, engage your abs so your legs aren’t flopping around as you lift. You want to keep your legs down or regress the move to make sure that you can.

Plank Hip Dips:

To do the Plank Hip Dips, set up on your forearms and either your knees (beginner) or toes (advanced). Your elbows should be under your shoulders and your body should be in a nice straight line from your head to your heels or knees. Squeeze your glutes and keep your core tight with your belly button drawn in toward your spine. Do not let your hips sag or your butt go up toward the ceiling.

Then rotate, dropping your hips toward one side. Try to touch the ground as you rotate without your hips sagging or butt going up in the air. Also, do not let your elbows come up off the ground.

Come back center then drop your hip to the other side. Alternate hip touches until all reps are complete.

You will feel everything twisting even down to your feet or knees. Do not let yourself go all the way over. Make sure to control the twists and just touch the hip down before twisting to the other side.

Sumo Squat to Calf Raise:

To do the Sumo Squat to Calf Raise, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Turn your toes out slightly. Keeping your chest up, sink down in a squat. Sit your butt back and keep your chest up. Make sure your knees stay in line with your hips and ankles. Do not let your knees cave in.

If your knees cave in, adjust your stance, bringing your feet closer together. Then drive back up to standing and squeeze your butt.

As you fully stand, push off the balls of your feet to raise your heels off the ground and perform the calf raise. Keep your toes slightly pointed out and make sure to push off the entire ball of your foot.

Lower your heels back down to the ground and repeat the sumo squat.

Push Up Toe Touch:

To do the Push Up Toe Touch, set up in the plank position on your feet and hands with your hands under your shoulders and your feet about shoulder-width apart. Putting your feet closer together can make it harder to balance and force your core to work harder. Your body should be in a nice straight line.

Then from this plank position, reach one hand back toward the opposite ankle. As you reach back, push your butt up in the air. Reach back toward the opposite ankle and then move back into the plank position, placing your hand back down on the ground.

Perform a push up, dropping your chest toward the ground with your body moving as one unit. Press back up and then reach the other hand back toward the opposite ankle.

Push your butt up into the air every time you reach back, but make sure to come back forward into the plank position before performing the push up.

Tabletop Dip Toe Touch:

To do the Tabletop Dip to Toe Touch, start with your butt on the ground and then place your hands behind you as you bend your knees and place your feet flat on the ground.

Then lift your butt up off the ground. Perform a little dip, bending your elbows as you touch your butt back down to the ground.

Then lift up, bridging your hips up a bit, as you kick your leg up and reach your opposite hand to touch your toe. Place your hand and foot back down, then repeat the dip and then kick the other leg up and reach your other hand to touch your toe.

Move quickly without rushing so much that you don’t stay balanced. Also, make sure to perform a little dip after each toe touch, bending your elbows slightly to touch your butt down.

FHP S2:E7 – Can You Gain Muscle As You Get Older? If So, How!?

FHP S2:E7 – Can You Gain Muscle As You Get Older? If So, How!?

In this episode I discuss why AGE IS JUST A NUMBER and how we can gain lean muscle mass at ANY age!

SUMMARY:

  • Age is just a number. Fitness is about ABILITY!
  • Key #1 To Gaining Muscle: Use it or lose it! Keep doing the things that made you strong and “young” in the first place!
  • Key #2 To Gaining Muscle: Lift heavy! Challenge yourself. You are not too old to push hard in the gym. We need to work around our needs and goals and injuries but age should not dictate what we do! While we need to recognize how our “lifestyle” has added up, our AGE shouldn’t be a deciding factor of how we train.
  • Key #3 To Gaining Muscle: Dial in your diet! Eat enough and focus on PROTEIN!

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  1. Use it or lose it!
  2. Challenge yourself with your workouts!
  3. Don’t fall for fad diets and focus on protein!

RS PROGRAMS:

  • The Macro Hacks Program – The best results happen when our diet and workouts work together. And my Macro Hacks goes over how to dial in your diet at EVERY AGE!

STUDIES:

  • Resistance training is medicine: effects of strength training on health. “Benefits of resistance training include improved physical performance, movement control, walking speed, functional independence, cognitive abilities, and self-esteem. Resistance training may assist prevention and management of type 2 diabetes by decreasing visceral fat, reducing HbA1c, increasing the density of glucose transporter type 4, and improving insulin sensitivity. Resistance training may enhance cardiovascular health, by reducing resting blood pressure, decreasing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, and increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Resistance training may promote bone development, with studies showing 1% to 3% increase in bone mineral density. Resistance training may be effective for reducing low back pain and easing discomfort associated with arthritis and fibromyalgia and has been shown to reverse specific aging factors in skeletal muscle.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22777332

  • Physical activity and all-cause mortality across levels of overall and abdominal adiposity in European men and women: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Study (EPIC). “One European study enlisted 334,161 individuals and followed up with them over 12.4 years. Among the vast amount of data they discovered, they found that those doing as little as 20 minutes of light exercise daily could reduce a person’s risk of early death by as much as 30%.”   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2573364 

  • Muscle mass and strength gains following 6 months of resistance type exercise training are only partly preserved within one year with autonomous exercise continuation in older adults. “Though prolonged RT can effectively increase muscle mass and strength in the older population, muscle mass gains are lost and muscle strength gains are only partly preserved within one year if the supervised exercise program is not continued.”
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0531556518306673 
  • The effects of resistance training volume on osteosarcopenic obesity in older women. “By doing 1 set of exercises three times a week were enough to provide increases in strength, skeletal muscle mass, and decreased body fat over 12 weeks. Increasing that to 3 sets of exercises three times a week resulted in a dramatic boost in results.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29125017 
  • Skeletal muscle protein metabolism in the elderly: Interventions to counteract the ‘anabolic resistance’ of ageing. “Resistance exercise combined with amino acid ingestion elicits the greatest anabolic response and may assist elderly in producing a ‘youthful’ muscle protein synthetic response provided sufficient protein is ingested following exercise.”
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21975196?dopt=Abstract 
  • When we do more extreme diets and end up losing more lean muscle mass, we put ourselves at greater risk for rebounding! Minimizing the loss of fat-free mass may help dieters prevent weight regain after the diet. Best practices for fat-free mass retention include an effective resistance training program, a conservative rate of weight loss, an emphasis on sufficient protein intake, adequate sleep, and appropriate management of cardiovascular training variables. Associations between the proportion of fat-free mass loss during weight loss, changes in appetite, and subsequent weight change: results from a randomized 2-stage dietary intervention trial. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31950141 
  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26883880?dopt=Abstract
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-019-01234-2
  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28871849
  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8030593 
  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117172/
  • https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-019-01155-0

FHP S2:E6 – The Most Important Question You Should Be Asking…

FHP S2:E6 – The Most Important Question You Should Be Asking…

In this episode I discuss why you need to ask yourself “Where do I feel working?” during your workouts. Being present and intentional with our workouts is key!

SUMMARY:

  • Proper form and proper recruitment patterns are not one in the same. We can mimic a proper movement but end up compensating and overusing muscles that shouldn’t be carry as much of the load.
  • By asking ourselves what we feel working we can make sure to get the most out of movements. If your lower back is taking over during ab work, guess what isn’t going to benefit the way you want it to…YOUR ABS! 
  • Getting the correct muscles working will help us get better results from our workouts while avoiding injury.
  • Three tips to help you get the correct muscles working – use activation moves, regress movements and use intervals!

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  1. Use activation exercise to make sure the correct muscles are working.
  2. Don’t be afraid to regress to progress if you don’t feel the correct muscles working.
  3. Utilize interval training.

RS PROGRAMS:

4 Full-Body HIIT Workouts – No Equipment Needed!

4 Full-Body HIIT Workouts – No Equipment Needed!

Looking for a calorie-torching HIIT workout you can do anywhere, no equipment needed? Then you’ll love these 4 Full-Body HIIT Workouts using just your own bodyweight!

Whether you have 5 minutes or 30 minutes, these high intensity interval workouts have you covered!

So whether you need a quick option to do at home on a busy day, or a way to burn fat while you travel, you have 4 killer workout options below!

4 Bodyweight HIIT Workouts 

You’ll find each workout in the videos at the times below. And for quick reference, I’ve written out the workouts below as well! 

1. The 30 Minute 30s Blast! (0:10)
2. The 5-Minute Full-Body Cardio Burner (3:34)
3. The 10-Minute Cardio Pyramid (4:32)
4. The 30/15 Full-Body Blast (6:54) 

The 30 Minute 30s Blast! 

Complete 4 rounds through each circuit, moving from exercise to exercise without resting. Bring your heart rate down between rounds with the active rest movement. If needed, fully rest during that time instead of performing the exercise. Or perform a modified variation that allows you to recover. Rest 1-2 minutes after completing all rounds of a circuit before moving on to the next one. 

CIRCUIT #1:
30 seconds Double Lunge Burpee
30 seconds Push Up Scorpions
30 seconds Squat Cross Jacks
30 seconds Elbow Bicycles
30 seconds Rotational Skiers Hops “Active Rest” 

CIRCUIT #2:
30 seconds Sumo Squat Jumps
30 seconds Criss Cross Push Up Hop
30 seconds Low Side To Side Lunges
30 seconds Lateral Crawl Shoulder Tap
30 seconds Two-Way March “Active Rest” 

CIRCUIT #3:
30 seconds Double Hop Burpee
30 seconds Climber Push Up Rolls
30 seconds Lateral Hops
30 seconds C-Sit Rotational Knees
30 seconds Fighter Practice “Active Rest” 

The 5-Minute Full-Body Cardio Burner 

Set a timer for 20 second intervals of work and move from exercise to exercise without resting. Complete 3 rounds through. 

CIRCUIT:
20 seconds per side Curtsy To Skip
20 seconds Downward Dog To Knee Tuck Push Up
20 seconds In and Out Squats
20 seconds Rotational Row Sit Up 

The 10-Minute Cardio Pyramid 

Set a timer for 30 second intervals of work and move from exercise to exercise without resting. You will go through the exercises to the “active rest” then go backward through the moves. If needed, fully rest during the 30 seconds of active rest. 

PYRAMID:
30 seconds Double Hop Burpee
30 seconds Criss Cross Push Up Hop
30 seconds Squat Cross Jacks
30 seconds Lateral Crawl Shoulder Tap
30 seconds C-Sit Rotational Knees
30 seconds Lateral Hops
30 seconds Climber Push Up Rolls
30 seconds Rotational Row Sit Up
30 seconds Sumo Squat Jumps
30 seconds Two-Way March “Active Rest”
30 seconds Sumo Squat Jumps
30 seconds Rotational Row Sit Up
30 seconds Climber Push Up Rolls
30 seconds Lateral Hops
30 seconds C-Sit Rotational Knees
30 seconds Lateral Crawl Shoulder Tap
30 seconds Squat Cross Jacks
30 seconds Criss Cross Push Up Hop
30 seconds Double Hop Burpee 

The 30/15 Full-Body Blast 

Set a timer for 30 second intervals of work with 15 seconds to transition between moves. Complete 4-6 rounds through. Rest an additional 45 seconds between rounds if needed otherwise only rest the 15 seconds between moves!

CIRCUIT:
30 seconds Double Lunge Burpee
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds Push Up Scorpions
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds In and Out Squats
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds Lateral Crawl Shoulder Tap
15 seconds Rest
30 seconds Elbow Bicycles
15 seconds Rest