There are a few tools that I love, love, love having on hand for my at-home workouts.  (You can read about my favorite home gym essentials here.)  Well, #3 on that list of essentials is my suspension trainer.    (The most common suspension trainer out there is definitely the TRX, but I believe there a few other brands out there now, too.)

I love my suspension trainer for a few reasons…

1.  It’s a simple piece of equipment.  It has just two adjustable straps that hang from a single loop.  That’s it.

2.  You can use it virtually anywhere.  You can mount it to the ceiling with ceiling mounts, attach it to a swing set with the clips at the top (been there done that while my son plays in the sandbox!), or you can use the door anchor to hang it from the top of any door (this is how I’m using it in the GIFs you’ll see below). [Read more…]

 

I created this workout when I was back home in Colorado just after Christmas.  Is it “back home” or “on vacation?”  Kinda’ both.  I didn’t grow up in Colorado, but I call it “my home that took me 23 years to find.”  Colorado just fits me…the sunshine, lack of bugs and humidity, ease of access to crunchy-person food, mountains, being outside all year round…I loved it.  But now, we’re “home” in Michigan.  It’s not me at all, but I am so sure this is where we need to be right now, that this too feels like home.  More importantly, “home” is where my people are, namely, my husband and my son, and they are in Michigan, so Michigan is home.

So…all that to say…I was “back” in Colorado when I wrote this workout.  I needed something that would get me sweating and raise my heart rate, plus fatigue my muscles.  Oh, and I didn’t have much time.  We had lots of visiting to do!  This workout?  It did all those things.  Fast.

So, here are a few things to know about this workout… [Read more…]

It’s that time of year again!  Time when many people start thinking about goals.  Goals for health and fitness have got to be some of the most common goals.

So you want to start working out?  Great!  But what do you do if joining a gym just isn’t a feasible option for you?  Either the cost is not in the budget, or the time spent driving to and from the gym just ends up making fitness take up way too big of a space in your day, or you have children that you can’t exactly bring to the gym with you.  What’s a person to do?

My advice?  Invest in some home gym equipment!  Now, personally, I do have a gym membership, and I really, really love it, but there are still plenty of times when it is not feasible in the schedule of my day to get there.  So, I love having some home gym equipment at home that I use to bust out a quick 20-30 minute workout.

New to working out?  Feeling dazed and confused about which exercises to do let alone which equipment to purchase?  Not to worry!  See my list below! [Read more…]

I’m excited to bring you another at-home, little to no equipment workout today…complete with fancy little GIFs that will help you see how to do each exercise!  So, there are a few things that I love to incorporate into many of my workouts:

1. Multi-joint exercises.  No wasting time working one muscle at a time.  Get more bang for your buck with each exercise by performing multi-joint exercises.
2. Plyometrics.  Because I love adding a cardio component to my strength workouts without a single step onto those dreaded “cardio machines.”  Boring and not the most effective of exercise.  Enter plyometrics!   These jumpy sort of exercises provide high intensity interval training within your strength workout, boosting metabolism and balancing hormones.  Winning!
3. Little to no rest between sets.  I hate standing around waiting on my muscles to get their act together and recover already.  That’s why we alternate between upper and lower body focused exercises in this workout and use giant sets.  Giant sets are groups of three exercises completed in a row and then repeated for additional rounds.  If you’re just getting started, 1-2 rounds of each giant set will probably be sufficient to bring your muscles to fatigue.  If you’re more advanced, you may need to complete 2-4 more rounds.  I usually do 4 rounds per giant set.  I only rest minimally (maybe get a sip of water after each round), but rest as needed to bring your heart rate back down just a bit before continuing with each round.  If you’re still a little short of breath, that’s okay.  If you can’t talk or feel dizzy, rest a bit longer.
4. Short workouts.  Because, honestly, I don’t love strength training.  I mean, I’ve come to love it a lot more than I used to, but it’s still not my absolute favorite thing.  And also, I have a life.  I can’t spend all day working out, nor is that the best idea for my thyroid.  But you really don’t need to spend all day in the gym to get the results you want.  I’ll go to my grave saying that.  You can get a fantastic workout in thirty minutes or less, especially if you’re incorporating numbers one and two above.

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You guys!!  I finally have a workout ready to go for you!  I know, I know.  It’s not exactly brain surgery to take some pictures and post them on here, but I struggle with this thing called perfectionism.  Every heard of that?

Yeah, I’ve been plagued with it my whole life…  Perfect grades in school?  Winning every race?  Perfect “looks?”  The leading soprano in every opera?  Yep, I’ve always wanted it all…perfectly.  And now I want the perfect blog.  Oh golly…time to chill out.

So, it doesn’t look quite as snazzy as I envisioned in my head, but, hey, it’s still a great workout, and it’s still one that I would recommend as a great, short, at-home workout.  The workouts that I post, unless otherwise noted, are ones that I write myself either for myself or for a client (or both).  So this is my basement.  This is my simple home gym equipment, and these pictures were graciously taken by my hubby even though he’s sick and just wanted to go to bed.  (Bless you, Hubsters!)

Ever struggle with perfectionism?  Ever find that it holds you back from your goals and dreams because you don’t want to start something unless you can finish it completely and perfectly?  Here’s my advice: just start.  Whatever it is.  Just start with a small, easy step.  Want to start working out but afraid you’ll look ridiculous?  Workout in your basement when everyone’s asleep.  Want to try a new recipe but afraid you’ll mess it up?  Just make it, and give it a different name if it comes out looking/tasting like something else.  Seriously.  Just start!

And now, to our workout… [Read more…]

I have a secret.  I’m an old, washed up personal trainer.  Really.  As in, I quit before I got fired.  Now, before we get all judge-y here, and you start thinking, “What the heck am I doing wasting my time on anything this girl’s got to say,” allow me to explain.

I think I started falling in love with health and fitness around middle school.  I started competing as a runner.  I poured over Runner’s World magazine.  I started developing a normal workout routine.  So, after I graduated college, got married, and all my plans for a graduate degree in music fell through, I decided to pursue a career in fitness.  So, I researched the best personal training certification companies, ordered some books, took a test, and got certified as a personal trainer.  Ever so conveniently, we lived across the street from a major chain gym that was hiring trainers at the time, and I got hired!  I was so happy to be working in a field that I was so passionate about.  I couldn’t wait to help people!  I loved setting my own hours!  Heck, I REALLY loved my 2 minute commute on foot…

Until I found out how hard it was to actually make a living at this.  It opened my eyes to a few things that I wish people knew about personal trainers.  So many people think, “If I could just afford to hire a trainer, I’d have the body I’ve always wanted.”  Not necessarily true.  Here are a few things I learned during my year on the inside (of the gym, that is).

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