Strickland Fitness

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Now, it’s time to get back to work. Today will be a workout to knockout the weekend! Emphasis will be on legs and abs…topped off with a little cardio. Workout A is for beginners and workout B is for the more advanced. Here are the exercises and at the bottom you will find the workouts. After you have done it, put a check in the box for Oct. 5^th. Great Job!!!!

1 Leg Squat

This exercise is great for targeting the gluts and quads while working on strength and balance. Raise your left leg out in front of you so your left hip and knee are bent at 90 degrees. Standing only on the right leg, slowly lower yourself bringing your hips behind you. Only go down about a quarter of the way. Press through your heel to raise yourself to the starting position. Concentrate on not letting your right knee collapse in towards your left leg. Your knee should stay directly in line with your foot.

Jump Squats

Starting in a standing position, lower yourself into a squat position with your knees bent no more than 90 degrees. Once you reach your squat depth, immediately explode up jumping up as high as you can. Land softly and immediately lower yourself into the next.

Isolated abdominal crunches

Lying on your back with your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent at 45 degrees, place your hands flat on your thighs. Concentrating on contracting your abdominals, use your abs to pull your upper body off the floor while sliding your hands up your thighs towards the top of your knees. Your upper body should only go high enough that your shoulder blades clear the ground. Lower back to the starting position.

Pelvic Lifts

This exercise works the gluts, hamstrings, and the lower back. Lying on your back with both feet on the ground and your legs bent at 45 degrees, press through your feet on the floor raising your pelvis off the ground. You should raise it until you have a straight line from your head to the tip of your bent knees. Lower your pelvis to the ground and then raise again. Concentrate on activating the gluts while going through the motion. You can add intensity to this by extending 1 leg out to straight while holding your pelvis up. The next step would be to raise and lower your pelvis with 1 leg while the other leg is in full extension.

Plank

Start by lying face down on the ground or use an exercise mat . Place your elbows and forearms underneath your chest. Prop yourself up to form a bridge using your toes and forearms. Maintain a flat back and do not allow your hips to sag towards the ground. Concentrate on holding yourself up with your abs and not your arms. Always lower yourself to the ground if you feel any pain in your back.

Cardio

20 minute run

 

Workout A

12-15 one leg squats

Rest for 15 seconds

10-12 jump squats

Rest for 15 seconds

20-25 isolated abdominal crunches

Rest for 15 seconds

12-15 pelvic lifts (both legs on the ground)

Rest for 15 seconds

30 second plank

Rest for 1-2 minutes and return to start of series. Do the entire series 3-5 times depending on exhaustion level.

At the end of all the series, do 20 minutes of cardio on your apparatus of choice with your heart rate between 50%-65%.

 

Workout B

Try not to rest between exercises

15 one leg squats

12 jump squats

25 isolated abdominal crunches

15 pelvic lifts (try doing it with one leg)

Plank for as long as you can up to 1 minute

Rest for 1-2 minutes and return to start of series. Do the entire series 4-5 times depending on exhaustion level.

At the end of all the series, do 20 minutes of cardio on your apparatus of choice with your heart rate between 65%-80%.

 

 

Use of any knowledge from this website is voluntary. By reading this post, you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the disclaimer in the about section of this website. Thanks for participating!

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did the first cardio session go? I hope everyone was able to put a check mark in the first box on your calendar? Remember, even if the first challenge was easy, this program is based on progression so it will get harder. If the first challenge was tough, don’t worry, keep at it and you will succeed! On that note, you will only get results if you put the work in. Work out as if I was standing there with you. When I train my clients, they work hard; not only for me, but for themselves. So give this Challenge everything you have and you will get results!! You will feel stronger, fitter, and most importantly, better!

Today’s challenge is doing exercises that only require your body weight. Beginners do work out A, and non-beginners do workout B. Total workout time: 35-45 minutes.

Before starting the workout, be sure to warm up and do some active stretching (http://stricklandfitness.com/2009/07/05/pre-workout/). 10 minutes.

These are the exercises you will need….

Squats: with your feet shoulder width apart, lower yourself until your knees are bent to 90 degrees and return to the standing position. Keep your back straight and pretend you are going to sit in a chair. You can put your arms out in front of you to help you from falling back.

Push-ups/knee push-ups: In a push up position, make sure your body is in a straight line from head to toe. Keeping your stomach tight, lower yourself to the ground and then push up to the starting position. Make sure your head does not fall lower than your body and your mid-section stays in line with the rest of your body. Knee push- ups are exactly the same except you will have your knees on the ground with the straight body line being from head to knees.

Walking lunges: You should have about 20-30 feet of space to do this. Take a big step forward, stop, and then drop your butt straight down. Your front leg and back leg should both be bent 90 degrees at the knee. Keep your back straight and stop lowering yourself when the back knee is a few inches off the ground. Rise up and bring the back leg even with the front and step that leg forward and repeat the lowering and raising. This sequence should be even paced and controlled.

Plank: Start by lying face down on the ground or use an exercise mat . Place your elbows and forearms underneath your chest. Prop yourself up to form a bridge using your toes and forearms. Maintain a flat back and do not allow your hips to sag towards the ground. Concentrate on holding yourself up with your abs and not your arms. Always lower yourself to the ground if you feel any pain in your back. This means your abs have given up and your back has taken over.

Workout A:

10-15 repetitions of squats

Rest for 10 seconds

10-12 repetitions of push-ups (try doing regular push-ups first, lower to your knees to finish the set if needed).

Rest for 10 seconds

10-12 repetitions each leg of walking lunges

Rest for 10 seconds

2-3 times plank holding each one for 10 seconds.

Rest for 1-2 minutes and return to start of series. Do the entire series 3-5 times depending on exhaustion level.

Cool down with stretching.

 

Workout B:

In the order of Squats, push-ups, walking lunges, and plank, do each exercise for 45-60 seconds without stopping. Challenge yourself to a pace that will raise your heart rate and still be able to complete the time. Do not rest between the exercises. Once you have completed all 4 exercises rest for 2 minutes and then repeat. Do 4-5 rounds. Finish with stretching.

 

Put a check mark in your calendar for October 2^nd when completed. Great job!!

 

Use of any knowledge from this website is voluntary. By reading this post, you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the disclaimer in the about section of this website. Thanks for participating!

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s prep tool for the Strictly Fit October Challenge is a bit of some fitness education. We have challengers from all over the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, the United States and beyond. However, for the purpose of this challenge, I will be using pounds and inches (and it’s what I know best). If you need help with the conversions, here is a good place http://www.lenntech.com/calculators/mass-weight/mass-weight.htm.

Ok, so the fact for today is that you have to burn 3500 calories in order to burn 1 pound of fat. If your goal is to lose weight, you will have to burn 3500 calories more than your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) in order to lose 1 pound. Your BMR is the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day. What does this mean exactly? If your BMR is 2000 calories (kcal), you burn 2000 kcal just doing nothing. So if you ate 2000 kcal and your BMR is 2000 and you did nothing all day, your weight would stay the same. If your BMR is 2000 kcal and you consume 2500 kcal and do nothing all day, you would slowly gain weight. If you did this everyday for 1 week, you would gain 1 pound. That’s 500 kcal over your BMR for 7 days. 500 x 7 =3500. So far so good? Great! If your goal is to lose weight, you want to make sure you burn more calories than your BMR. You can do this by lowering your daily caloric intake, exercise, and cardio. If your goal is to gain weight and/or muscle, then you have to burn less than your BMR.

How do you find out what your BMR is? There are a couple things that have to be factored into the equation. Your height, age, weight, activity level, and gender are the major factors. You can go this website and it will compute it for you automatically. http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php. Just click the BMR and RMR calculator button. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s pretty accurate. Once it’s calculated, write it down. I also want you to email it to me so I can send you specific instructions throughout the challenge based on your BMR. Now that you have it, you have a great starting point towards your goal.

Now is the time to go to your food journal that you have been keeping. Remember Prep Tool #1. Have you counted the calories that you take in every day? Compare your daily caloric intake with your BMR. How do they compare? I will go over with you what to do with this information just before the challenge starts.

Once you have calculated your BMI, compared it to how many calories you have been taking in, and emailed it to me, put a check in the box for Sept. 23^rd. GREAT JOB!!!!

 Ok, here is the first tool you will need for the October Challenge. For any fitness program, the biggest element is nutrition. Whether you want to gain, lose, or maintain weight, this will have to be looked at. Create a food journal that you can keep track of what you eat and drink, when you consume it, and how much specifically you consume. I will not be looking at anyone’s journal so be honest with yourself. Now starting at the beginning of the next day of reading this, start journaling. It shouldn’t take long and you should create an easy way to do it to be sure that you do it every day. Write down everything!! There are many websites and iphone apps out there that can track your intake for you for free. If you don’t know how to count calories, this might be the way to go because later you will need to know the specific amount of calories you are taking in. Again, just figure out the system that works best for you to be sure you do it every day!

Next, print a generic calendar from your computer for the second half of September and the whole month of October. Keep this calendar next to your computer. Once you have found your food journal entry procedure, put a big check mark in the box for the 16^th! Great Job!

Use of any knowledge from this website is voluntary. By reading this post, you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the disclaimer in the about section of this website. Thanks for participating!

Believe it or not, you have a 6-pack. You may not see it, but it’s there. When you see someone with ripped abs, you are seeing what fat normally hides. Crunches, sit ups, leg raises, and all the ab machines you see advertised on TV strengthen and shape your abs, but it’s the eating right and fat burning that makes them appear. If you look carefully, anyone with rock hard abs has a low fat body to go with it.

Eating right and doing intense cardio (preferably intervals) are crucial partners to all the exercises you do to get ripped abs. All three help in the fat burning process necessary for your abs to come through. You could do thousands of crunches a day, but without the first two elements, you will have strong ripped abs underneath any fat you have over them.

Now let’s look at our “abs.” This term is short for Rectus Abdominus. This muscle is responsible for flexing the lumbar spine and the muscle you see on fit people. So you shouldn’t only train your abs for looks, but for postural support as well. A common misconception is doing exercises to train your lower and upper abs. The Rectus Abdominus is one muscle with no dividing line between upper and lower. There are other muscles that make up the complete abdominal area. These are the Transverse Abdominals, the Internal Obliques and the External Obliques. Different exercises train these different areas. You should be sure to train these other muscles as much as you train your Rectus Abdominus. This will keep your posture strong and help to give you a slim waist to match your new 10-pack!