The 12 Days of Fitmas day 4!

 The 12 Days of Fitmas day 4!

Yoga, Yoga, Yoga. 

Why should you be doing yoga?

How Yoga Saved My Life

Yoga is what started me on my health and fitness journey. 

I will never forget the night I decided I should try yoga. 

I was living with my bf and his brother and going to college. It was the Sunday before midterms. It was also our neighbor's birthday. I couldn't find the book, or the materials, or whatever that I needed to finish a take home test that was due the next morning. The boys were watching a movie for the neighbor's birthday. I think it was Green Lantern. I don't remember. All I know is that it was a superhero movie and there lots of guns and fighting. This is when I had my first, and only true, panic attack. Heart racing, felt like I was being held under water, couldn't breath, crying. It was horrible. The next day I signed up for a yoga class and fell in love. I did it on and off for the next year until I got pregnant. 

After I had my son, I developed restless leg syndrome. It was horrible. I was surviving on three hours of sleep a night. It wasn't healthy. I cried to my doctors. The only way to give me the real medicine for restless leg syndrome, I had to do a 3 day sleep study. Meaning, I had to go to the hospital and sit in a room for three days. I was a working mother and student. Nobody has time for that shit! They gave me sleeping pills, which worked sometimes, but I hated them. I wouldn't wake up if my son cried, I was a monster in the mornings, it didn't work for me. I was at my wits end when I found Tara Stiles on youtube. Her night time yoga was absolutely amazing. Three years later, I have no trouble sleeping. 

My yoga schedule

I do yoga at least 14 times a week; a morning routine to wake me up & a bed time routine so I fall asleep quickly, every day. I will never give those up. I also do one cardio yoga workout a week, as well as a half hour stretch session weekly. Here are some links to the Tara Stiles workouts that I can not live without. There are also a lot of other ideas for a good yoga workout on there. 

Click here for all sorts of ideas on how you can get your sweat on today with a good stretch session. 

Yoga that I love

The 12 Days of Fitmas Day 2!

The 12 Days of Fitmas Day 2!

Today's focus: cardio & nutrition 

Let’s talk cardio.  

What defines a "cardio workout"?

Why is cardio an important part of the health and fitness equation?

Types of cardio:

low intensity, intervals, circuits, etc., running outdoors, running on a track, playing a sport, etc. 

My theories on cardio

Given that there are so many options for cardio workouts, I don’t like dictating what my clients do.  I do give guidelines, suggestions, and assistance, but I don't usually plan it out for my clients. I did put together a circuit workout (above), as well as a few other I found on Popsugar Fitness. 

1. I try to structure my strength training workouts so that they do get, and keep, the heart rate up. 

2. Two people might find they prefer a typical style. I don’t care if you choose to run outside, intervals on the treadmill, HIIT, or whatever. As long as you get it done. I also encourage clients to try all different kinds of cardio workouts. This is how you find what you like. 

3. Cardiovascular fitness is a major key to reaching any health and fitness goals. I take all of my clients goals personally, and I am always there for support, but at the end of the day, these goals belong to them only. I can not put it in the work for them. Giving guidelines and choices, puts the responsibility of getting it done on the individual.  

Let's talk nutrition

My top 3 beliefs/principals when it comes to healthy eating 

1. Balance is key: 

I do not believe in removing any of the food groups from your diet. I think everything in moderation. I follow the guidelines set forth by the USDA @ www.myplate.org In a later blog, I will discuss how I apply these to my whole family

2. Breakfast is golden: I get it. Mornings are busy. There is no need for your health to suffer though. A good breakfast will help keep you focused all day and help you make healthy food choices all day long.  One of my favorites is overnight oats. It's so versatile, filling, and you can knock out your fruit dietary needs for the day. 

3. Family dinners: make it a habit

This may be old fashioned, but I believe having dinners together as a family make eating healthy much easier. 

Not only will this show your entire family that healthy eating is important, but you'll start thinking about what you're putting on your plate. 

The 12 Days of Fitmas! Day 1

Welcome to The 12 Days of Fitmas! Day 1. I have shared today's workout above. In addition to the workout, I wanted to talk about two other things that I think are important for anyone training with me to know. First, I'll talk about finding your motivation. Second, I'll discuss some of the theories behind the workouts I have put together. Enjoy!

Staying Motivated

I get asked a lot, "how do you stay motivated to work out every day?" The truth is, I am not motivated every day. Some days, this gets the best of me and I skip a workout, but most days I am motivated by myself. I am motivated by my "whys". These are the reasons I work out. These are the reason I continually work to better myself. 

 A "why" can, and will, change. You can have more than one reason to continue on a healthy journey, at any certain point in time. Even if your reason changes, or is one of many, that does not make it any the less important. These reasons are what will keep you motivated. You can look at every inspirational blog post, instagram photo, or whatever, but until you find YOUR "why", is when exercise becomes fun and when true growth occurs. This is when you become your own motivation. 

My "whys":

1. To be strong

2. To be a good role model for my family

3. To have the energy to keep up with my son

4. To maintain my health as I age

5. It relieves stress

6. To prove the person who once told me, "It's a waste to exercise after having kids. You'll never get your body back. You're foolish for trying." WRONG!

7. Seeing my hard work pay off

8. My self confidence

9. For those kick-ass progress photos

My Training Philosophy

As part of any exercise program I put together for clients, there is some type of resistance training that focuses on functional movement. These workouts are each structured around one of the 3 planes of movement. 

Planes of Movement

Because we are three demensional, human movement is broken down into planes of movement. I am going to try to explain this as simply as I can. I apologize in advance if it's too technical.

Sagittal plane : Imagine a sheet of glass dividing your body in half, right in the middle of your chest. All sagittal plane movements happen parallel to this line. In other words, these movements move you forward or backwards.

Frontal plane: This plane comes from the side & perfectly divides your body into two halves, your front side, and your back side. Frontal plane movements are side to side.

Transverse plane: Transverse movements allow your body to twist and rotate. 

Functional Movement 

As a personal trainer, I follow the functional movement and resistance training protocol set forth by the American Council on Exercise (ACE). This means, when any client comes to me, they are in one of three phases.  

1. Stability and mobility training: the goal in this phase is to develop stable and balanced joints and muscles throughout the body. 

2. Movement training: building upon phase 1, this phase is meant to develop stable, balanced, and fluid movement patterns. 

3. Load training: again, building upon the the previous two phases, load training adds external weights to the movements to develop muscular strength and control. 

Why does this matter?

I build upon the above ideas, as well as others, when developing any workout plan. I believe that when focusing on functional movement exercises, it is a natural progression to training planes of movement. At the very least, exercise should give you the strength and ability to perform activities of daily living without strain, and I thinking training planes of movement is an efficient way to do that.  Training this way promotes muscular balance, strong movements, and prevents injury. 

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The 12 Days of Fitmas!

Hey Internet universe, I’ve posted on my social media accounts about celebrating something I’m calling, “The 12 Days of Fitmas”.  

Last week, I had a horrible stomach ache. Thought it was the worst menstrual cramps ever and that it would pass. Long story short, it didn’t. I had an emergency appendectomy. The surgery wasn’t too bad, and I am recovering well. While I’m enjoying a little rest, I am not happy that I still have another 12 DAYS UNTIL I CAN PICK UP ANY WEIGHTS. I am going a little stir crazy about it, so I thought I’d share workouts I would want to be doing.  

The 12 Days of Fitmas is like a sneak peak into what the programs I plan for my clients are like. 

I do most of my workouts at home. I have a full set of dumbells that I use, but they can be adapted for the gym as well. 

Plan organization  

3 days cardio 

2 days of yoga 

3 workouts/week that are a mixture of full body, weighted and body weight exercises. 

They are done in circuits. 

I don’t focus on arms, abs, or legs, like most people do. Instead, I focus each of these workouts on one of the three planes of movement; transverse, sagittal, and frontal.  I’ll go into detail about why I do it this way in a later blog post. 

The schedule will look like this:

These workouts for The 12 Days of Fitmas are general. For myself and clients, the workouts are more tailored to meet specific goals. 

There will be a blog post to accompany each picture containing insights on to how exercise affects the body, explaining the workout, and maybe including some recipes. 

My fitness journey, so far. 

A little information before you start:  

If you are a beginner exerciser, have any health precautions/worries, or are just unsure, PLEASE CONTACT ME. Exercise is good for your health, but like all activity, there is a potential of injury. Without assessments and medical history, I will not take responsibility for any injuries that occur while doing these workouts.